Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Jul 10, 2014 5:47:37 GMT -6
www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/37898-joe-babinsack-talks-southern-illinois-championship-wrestling
Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of wrestling, watched a lot of wrestling, and have noticed a lot of old school wrestling on YouTube. But over the years it has been hard for me to get involved with watching YouTube, especially after hours of staring at computer screens all day.
Sometimes I get links, references and email invitations about something good, and usually I forget after a week, and then the days go by and I eventually realize that missed the opportunity.
That definitely happened a year ago or so, when Larry Matysik let me know to check out SICW – Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling. It’s a show on the local cable TV in that area – just across the Mississippi River from St Louis – not so strangely coincidentally that place where Larry made his mark on the business as a colorful TV announcer and the guy touted as the right-hand-man of Sam Muchnick for several decades.
But I shouldn’t talk about Larry only making his mark in that golden age of wrestling.
Larry’s books with ECW Press are impressive and should be influential to anyone with half a mind to figuring out this business. Drawing Heat the Hard Way is a manifesto of how things should be done, and his Wrestling at the Chase: The Inside Story of Sam Muchnick and the Legends of Professional Wrestling very much shows us how he learned from one of the best minds, most influential power brokers and all-around great men in the business.
Even more, Larry and good buddy Herb Simmons are running a promotion in the modern era, using mostly Old School mentality, even if there are some anomalies and some caving in to modern sensibilities. Well, maybe not so many, and nothing so outlandish, but it is amazing that in an era where second rate promotions ape the 800 lb gorilla, we see a wrestler on SICW touting a “Superman Punch”, a guy who trained closely with Bruiser Brody, and another guy who is a spitting image of the same.
For those not in the know, Larry and Brody were quite close (somehow I imagine Matysik as the only promoter/booker that Brody didn’t push around), and in a recent conversation there’s still a sense that the guy born as Frank Goodish was light years ahead of his time in terms of wrestling understanding.
That sense of Old School framework with modern twists is one that definitely has my attention.
While there are many SICW Explosion episodes to watch, I’ll stick with the latest, since I got a sneak preview of it, and there’s no excuse not to be a few days current on a review of a promotion run by guys Jim Cornette calls “two men with more experience in the grappling game in any promotion on earth”.
Watch this episode at
What amazes me is that we have a ½ hour TV show, but it is full of action: featuring one tag team match, a couple of interviews, and a historic piece from the early 1980’s (obviously announced by Larry and with Mickey Garagiola doing the in-ring announcing of the finish). There’s also an interesting theme music at the opening, with a ton of clips from St. Louis wrestling history.
SICW is the heir to that history, and steady guided by the voice of that city’s heritage.
Coming from the East Carondelet Community Center, with the Mayor in the audience (Herb Simmons!) who doubles as the promoter, this is a product that I never feared would put me to sleep, as Larry himself warned, but the sense of nostalgia does warrant Cornette’s gushing, historical observations in the Fighting Spirit piece I’ve already quoted.
Sure, the ring seems small, and the action a little methodical (but there is an interesting comparison to the Spike Huber/Gil Guerrero flashback), but the talent is in there learning from masters, and putting on a show that a few hundred fans are rabid enough about that they stay to the end of the card. Larry calls it a different audience. I call it an Old School one, and there’s another comparison between the SICW in the modern day and that St. Louis Classic, in that the audience is sitting quietly, taking it all in, and enjoying the action.
The current feature is a tag match with Classic Champion Ken Kasa & Ricky Cruz vs. Heath Hatton & Daniel Eads.
The Champ is on the heel side, and Ricky Cruz is awesome as the grizzled, angry vet. Hatton is the up-and-coming talent (somewhat reminiscent of the older era’s Spike Huber) and Eads has an interesting look and gear (a stylized Superman symbol, which nicely sets up his Superman Punch as less a steal from Roman Reigns (ok, from MMA) but it is a cool visual nonetheless.
Storytelling is the key, and as Mr. Matysik informs us up front, this is a match that sets up the next big card, and presents a number of directions with the talent involved.
And that, to me, is the key to great wresting.
I find it amusing that with all the reality of professional wrestling as filler for TV shows, the tag team matches that can take 20 minutes and put multiple guys in the ring are no longer a staple of the sport. That’s obviously not the case here.
With a more focused approach and a distinct lack of insanity, the match is not just easy to follow, but the high spots and the important spots are there for the watching. Larry himself enhances the action and spins the tales of villains and babyfaces, Champion and challengers, rising star and the bad guy standing in his way.
After it’s all said and done, we have two important singles matches from the outcome.
One of those matches is further enhanced by a couple of sit-down interviews with the participants, guided by Larry (sadly sitting in a wheelchair... I wish the best for Larry and his decisions on his back surgery), with a big poster in the background.
There are those who can’t see product past the pyrotechnics (or lack thereof), but I scowl at those modern day foolish fans who don’t appreciate the nuance, the emotion, the passion and the effort of the wrestlers in their actions, attitude and promos.
Daniel Eads shows something as the babyface, talking about storylines, establishing his character, and looking towards the future, and the villain that is his next big obstacle.
Ricky Cruz is awesome here, channeling as a heel from another age, where you know from listening that he’s dangerous, angry (we’re told repeatedly!) and he has that underlying threat to Matysik that makes you a little nervous, as well as the slightly comical but dastardly discussion about moving to East Carondelet to make a run at Mayor, because he’s not happy with Herb.
I guess the town really should welcome citizen number 500.
By the way, one of the big sells for the upcoming card is an appearance by Ox Baker.
Yeah, that Ox Baker!
SICW features one title, with wins and losses that “mean something”, as Larry told me, and has a lot of interesting talent. What I love is that the product is what it is, different than the modern stuff, more honest, more believable, more credible. What I love is that a ½ TV show is focused on stories and establishing that connection to the past (that 8 minute match may not scream classic to all, but I enjoyed it).
And yet, there’s much more to the promotion and the stories. There’s Ron Powers, who lost a Loser Leaves Town match recently. There’s Flash Flanagan, who got involved in things. There’s Jake Brody, who I’m told could be good enough for bigger things, who has passion, and who does capture the look and attitude of the aforementioned Bruiser Brody. (And if anyone can make that comparison, it’s Larry Matysik). There’s also Travis Cook, who gets high praise from Larry and Jim Cornette, and is someone I need to check out in previous episodes.
Which I will.
I know I’m writing long, but this is one of those places where I can’t help but sing the praises of the product and the people involved. Speaking of admiration, let me end with a quote from the Jim Cornette piece, because I can’t come up with much better than this:
“It's a tribute to the respect that everyone on the card have for Herb Simmons and Larry Matysik that they came with their working boots on, ready to perform, just as the biggest stars in the game did for Sam Muchnick across the river for five decades. Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling keeps that tradition alive, and for a disgruntled old veteran like me, there wasn't anywhere I'd rather be on that night than the quiet little village on the banks of the Mississippi where the ghosts of greatness still live.”
Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of wrestling, watched a lot of wrestling, and have noticed a lot of old school wrestling on YouTube. But over the years it has been hard for me to get involved with watching YouTube, especially after hours of staring at computer screens all day.
Sometimes I get links, references and email invitations about something good, and usually I forget after a week, and then the days go by and I eventually realize that missed the opportunity.
That definitely happened a year ago or so, when Larry Matysik let me know to check out SICW – Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling. It’s a show on the local cable TV in that area – just across the Mississippi River from St Louis – not so strangely coincidentally that place where Larry made his mark on the business as a colorful TV announcer and the guy touted as the right-hand-man of Sam Muchnick for several decades.
But I shouldn’t talk about Larry only making his mark in that golden age of wrestling.
Larry’s books with ECW Press are impressive and should be influential to anyone with half a mind to figuring out this business. Drawing Heat the Hard Way is a manifesto of how things should be done, and his Wrestling at the Chase: The Inside Story of Sam Muchnick and the Legends of Professional Wrestling very much shows us how he learned from one of the best minds, most influential power brokers and all-around great men in the business.
Even more, Larry and good buddy Herb Simmons are running a promotion in the modern era, using mostly Old School mentality, even if there are some anomalies and some caving in to modern sensibilities. Well, maybe not so many, and nothing so outlandish, but it is amazing that in an era where second rate promotions ape the 800 lb gorilla, we see a wrestler on SICW touting a “Superman Punch”, a guy who trained closely with Bruiser Brody, and another guy who is a spitting image of the same.
For those not in the know, Larry and Brody were quite close (somehow I imagine Matysik as the only promoter/booker that Brody didn’t push around), and in a recent conversation there’s still a sense that the guy born as Frank Goodish was light years ahead of his time in terms of wrestling understanding.
That sense of Old School framework with modern twists is one that definitely has my attention.
While there are many SICW Explosion episodes to watch, I’ll stick with the latest, since I got a sneak preview of it, and there’s no excuse not to be a few days current on a review of a promotion run by guys Jim Cornette calls “two men with more experience in the grappling game in any promotion on earth”.
Watch this episode at
What amazes me is that we have a ½ hour TV show, but it is full of action: featuring one tag team match, a couple of interviews, and a historic piece from the early 1980’s (obviously announced by Larry and with Mickey Garagiola doing the in-ring announcing of the finish). There’s also an interesting theme music at the opening, with a ton of clips from St. Louis wrestling history.
SICW is the heir to that history, and steady guided by the voice of that city’s heritage.
Coming from the East Carondelet Community Center, with the Mayor in the audience (Herb Simmons!) who doubles as the promoter, this is a product that I never feared would put me to sleep, as Larry himself warned, but the sense of nostalgia does warrant Cornette’s gushing, historical observations in the Fighting Spirit piece I’ve already quoted.
Sure, the ring seems small, and the action a little methodical (but there is an interesting comparison to the Spike Huber/Gil Guerrero flashback), but the talent is in there learning from masters, and putting on a show that a few hundred fans are rabid enough about that they stay to the end of the card. Larry calls it a different audience. I call it an Old School one, and there’s another comparison between the SICW in the modern day and that St. Louis Classic, in that the audience is sitting quietly, taking it all in, and enjoying the action.
The current feature is a tag match with Classic Champion Ken Kasa & Ricky Cruz vs. Heath Hatton & Daniel Eads.
The Champ is on the heel side, and Ricky Cruz is awesome as the grizzled, angry vet. Hatton is the up-and-coming talent (somewhat reminiscent of the older era’s Spike Huber) and Eads has an interesting look and gear (a stylized Superman symbol, which nicely sets up his Superman Punch as less a steal from Roman Reigns (ok, from MMA) but it is a cool visual nonetheless.
Storytelling is the key, and as Mr. Matysik informs us up front, this is a match that sets up the next big card, and presents a number of directions with the talent involved.
And that, to me, is the key to great wresting.
I find it amusing that with all the reality of professional wrestling as filler for TV shows, the tag team matches that can take 20 minutes and put multiple guys in the ring are no longer a staple of the sport. That’s obviously not the case here.
With a more focused approach and a distinct lack of insanity, the match is not just easy to follow, but the high spots and the important spots are there for the watching. Larry himself enhances the action and spins the tales of villains and babyfaces, Champion and challengers, rising star and the bad guy standing in his way.
After it’s all said and done, we have two important singles matches from the outcome.
One of those matches is further enhanced by a couple of sit-down interviews with the participants, guided by Larry (sadly sitting in a wheelchair... I wish the best for Larry and his decisions on his back surgery), with a big poster in the background.
There are those who can’t see product past the pyrotechnics (or lack thereof), but I scowl at those modern day foolish fans who don’t appreciate the nuance, the emotion, the passion and the effort of the wrestlers in their actions, attitude and promos.
Daniel Eads shows something as the babyface, talking about storylines, establishing his character, and looking towards the future, and the villain that is his next big obstacle.
Ricky Cruz is awesome here, channeling as a heel from another age, where you know from listening that he’s dangerous, angry (we’re told repeatedly!) and he has that underlying threat to Matysik that makes you a little nervous, as well as the slightly comical but dastardly discussion about moving to East Carondelet to make a run at Mayor, because he’s not happy with Herb.
I guess the town really should welcome citizen number 500.
By the way, one of the big sells for the upcoming card is an appearance by Ox Baker.
Yeah, that Ox Baker!
SICW features one title, with wins and losses that “mean something”, as Larry told me, and has a lot of interesting talent. What I love is that the product is what it is, different than the modern stuff, more honest, more believable, more credible. What I love is that a ½ TV show is focused on stories and establishing that connection to the past (that 8 minute match may not scream classic to all, but I enjoyed it).
And yet, there’s much more to the promotion and the stories. There’s Ron Powers, who lost a Loser Leaves Town match recently. There’s Flash Flanagan, who got involved in things. There’s Jake Brody, who I’m told could be good enough for bigger things, who has passion, and who does capture the look and attitude of the aforementioned Bruiser Brody. (And if anyone can make that comparison, it’s Larry Matysik). There’s also Travis Cook, who gets high praise from Larry and Jim Cornette, and is someone I need to check out in previous episodes.
Which I will.
I know I’m writing long, but this is one of those places where I can’t help but sing the praises of the product and the people involved. Speaking of admiration, let me end with a quote from the Jim Cornette piece, because I can’t come up with much better than this:
“It's a tribute to the respect that everyone on the card have for Herb Simmons and Larry Matysik that they came with their working boots on, ready to perform, just as the biggest stars in the game did for Sam Muchnick across the river for five decades. Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling keeps that tradition alive, and for a disgruntled old veteran like me, there wasn't anywhere I'd rather be on that night than the quiet little village on the banks of the Mississippi where the ghosts of greatness still live.”