MECW 1-15 Double-booked Lawler replaced by Dundee

[chadmatthews]

After speaking with representatives for Jerry Lawler yesterday evening MECW management has learned that Mr. Lawler has a conflict with his scheduled appearance for the MECW Experience next Saturday evening in Monroe City, Indiana. MECW shockingly found that Mr. Lawler had a standing prior commitment on 1/15 with Northeast Wrestling (NEW - northeastwrestling.com), an independent wrestling promotion out of Cornwall on Hudson, New York. NEW owner Michael O'Brien also serves as a booking agent for Mr. Lawler, as well as several other WWE superstars. Unfortunately, MECW will now NOT be featuring The King next Saturday as previously scheduled in Monroe City, Indiana. Main Event Championship Wrestling sincerely apologizes yet again to all of our wrestling fans for this inconvenience and to all area Jerry "The King" Lawler fans that were looking forward to finally seeing The King LIVE, up-close-and-personal. MECW is working vigorously to reschedule Mr. Lawler for the 2/4/11 MECW Experience - Location TBD.

Not for nothing, though. After hanging up the phone MECW officials quickly dialed the number for the King's logical replacement in this situation: long-time Lawler adversary, turned confidant and former tag-team partner "Superstar" Bill Dundee. After learning of Lawler's scheduling conflict and realizing the importance of this grudge match against "Sellout" Tracy Smothers, the Superstar cordially agreed to take the match in Lawler's place. Dundee vowed to thoroughly school The Sellout on the art of RESPECT. The Superstar and The King have a storied history that has seen the two legends face each other over 400 times throughout their illustrious careers. They also partnered to capture the AWA World Tag Team Championship in the late 1980s for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. If there is anyone that can replace The King in this big match, it's The Superstar!

The 1/15 MECW revised Main Event now features:

"Superstar" Bill Dundee vs. "Sellout" Tracy Smothers w/ Smothers Family

Other Exciting Matches include:

"Grandmaster Sexay" Brian Christopher vs. "The #1 Superstar" JD Maverick

"The Ladies Man" Just John and "Fireball" Roberts vs. The Bad Boys (Chris Thomas and Jason Briley)

The Canadian Cougar vs. Shank Barzini

Plus: "Marvelous" Mitch Ryder, "Malibu" Matt Boyce, Christopher "Honey" Love, and more!

Doors: 6:00pm EST
Bell: 7:30pm EST

This event is a My 44 MECW-TV Taping.

*card subject to change without notice*

Tickets for next Saturday's event are available for purchase at mecwpro.com by clicking the Events tab and/or the night of show at the door.

Please come out and join Main Event Championship Wrestling next Saturday night January 15th in Monroe City at the Blue Jean Center - 1242 Main Street - and be a part of this amazing Experience!

Sincerely,

CM

_________________
Chad Matthews
Executive Vice President
Main Event Championship Wrestling
e. [e-mail]
w. www.mecwpro.com

[iketurner]

Id suggest MECW to start looking harder at some of the young up and coming talent to fill some of the undercard. Shank v Cougar is the only match that half interests me on this card. Maverick v Christopher should be decent and the main will be ok with an old school feel. Guys like Pothead John simply dont belong in MECW. There are tons of buding superstars in this area that wouldnt break the bank that i feel, could put MECW over the top as the premier midwest indy promotion. I think a good mix of young talent and old school talent is the way to go. Guys like Zero G, Drago, O'Riley, Chuck Taylor, and just about anyone on that new years IPW show.

[cavedweller73]

I couldn't agree more with Ike. I do have to say that I give props to MECW for explaining the situation with Lawler and for posting their card, but I also have to say that with all due respect, I'm passing on this show. The only match that looks even remotely interesting to me is the Cougar/Shank match as well...and even with that, I'd be happier if it was Kozina vs. Shank. I know what everyone who reads this is probably thinking, but personally, I think putting the mask on him just makes him look kind of goofy and hard to take seriously.

What I really don't understand is with all the small promotions that are running shows in this area and focusing on younger talent, why are the companies in Evansville still so dead-set on using so many "old school" guys? Like Ike said, it would be so much better if there was more of a mixture. Guys like Smothers and Mitch Ryder should still be used because both of those guys have proved that they are willing to work with younger talent and not just squash them to make themselves look good.

Even with all of that, you don't have to bring in top-dollar ROH talent. Granted, ROH talent is always a good thing, but there's plenty of other awesome guys who are working smaller shows in the area that could be brought in. As Ike also said, look at most of the guys who worked that IPW show from last week....and I'm not even talking about guys like The American Wolves or Colt Cabana. Again, they would be nice to see, but there's also guys like AR Fox who's from Atlanta. And for that matter, even Jonathon Gresham is from Atlanta too and I'm sure those guys travel together. Then there's Rich Swann who's from the east coast. He told me himself that he's going to be working up in Indianapolis for IPW in the coming months. Granted, no one around here is going to know who they are, but once they see what they can do in the ring, they'd want to see more. Throw any combination of those guys in the ring against a team like Zero G or Chuckie T and Ricochet and you've got yourself a "dream match" in my eyes. Then there's a guy like Jesse Emerson, who like I said in my report on the show, I don't understand why he's not used in more companies. That guy's an awesome talent! There's even guys like Jeremy Hadley and Simon Sezz who granted, aren't the most talented guys in the ring, but are still kind of entertaining to watch. Plus, both guys can work the crowd pretty well...they're certainly more interesting to watch than Pothead John, which goes without saying really.

Then there's this new company that's running a show this weekend over in O'Fallon, Illinois called St. Louis Anarchy Wrestling. Apparently, they were a company called Lethal Wrestling Alliance who's now in some sort of working agreement with Anarchy Championship Wrestling out of Texas. They're bringing in people like Arik Cannon, Rachel Summerlyn and even Akira Tozawa from Dragon Gate USA and mixing them up with "local" people from the St. Louis area, such as Davey Richards, Kozina, Kyle O'Rilley and even Dingo, who is making his big comeback from having his neck broken over a year ago.

Even just yesterday, I read a report about some company running a show in Bloomington, IN later this month and they've booked Austin Aries for the main event.

It just blows my mind that so much talent is all around us and yet, all we get is Smothers vs. Dundee...which, actually won't be a completely horrible match for people who enjoy the "old school" stuff. However, while it would have been a fun match in 1988 in 2011, it's not real high on my "must see" list.

[iketurner]

Very well said Dweller. I saw that LWA or Anarchy Wrestling show and its pretty loaded as well. With the way that MECW wants to do things, i think they could really take the midwest by storm, but they arent going to do it continually pushing guys like Chris Michaels on the undercard. There is nothing wrong with having a nice core of vets like Chase Stevens, Mitch Ryder, Tracy Smothers, Bill Dundee, hell even Brian Christopher(hes over like Hogan or Cena in this area). There is NOTHING wrong with staying somewhat true to your USWA roots. However, i dont see why you cant use those guys to get the old school fans in the door and then blow their minds with these kids who can flat out just go. Im having a hard time understanding why there is such a lack of focus on tag team wrestling in the industry today. IMO, there are a million teams out there who can redefine the art of tag team wrestling. Teams like the Kings of Wrestling, American Wolves, Motor City Machine Guns, Briscoes, Beer Money and the Young Bucks are already putting their stamp on things. I see tons of young up and coming teams that could really use MECW as a platform to show the world that tag team wrestling is not dead. Irish Airborne, the Hybrids, Full Throttle, Zero G just to name a few. Im not trying to bash the MECW product here at all. I see a ton of potential! A TV show, awesome website and fan friendly management are already in place. The pieces are in place to make this company a top notch promotion. Hell, using a guy like Jerry Lawler right now is HUGE. He is main eventing RAW's and half fueding with WWE's champion. Its just the undercard that i would like to see changed.

[Perfect Storm]

I am a huge fan of old school wrestling,but I can understand why others may not be. I can not explain it but seeing a guy keep doing flippy moves and trying too out do one another with what should be a finishing move can get as boring as a guy doing a twenty minute arm bar.I wanted to put that out there so you all know where I come from when I say this.

I agree with what Ike and Cavedweller are saying. Understand I am a huge fan of Tracy Smothers and have nothing against Dundee except he can not move as good as Lawler does at his age,other than that I have no problems with this being the main event and it is good to see these guy that I grew up watching, but I would like to see some of the newer guys too.

Ike and Cavedweller I agree with you guys that a combination of old school guys and modern wrestlers is the best way to go here in Evansville.You use your old school matches to get the people in the seats then you wow them with some of the younger talent and for what it takes to bring in the king it would be allot cheaper to bring in some of the names you guys mentioned. The only argument I have ever heard for not doing this is stupid and that is you want to build from the first match on up so if the guys in the opening match are tearing down the house then the rest of the card is going to half to step it up and to that I say so.Bottom line how much more money do you bring in with your show being solid from opening to main event.

Maybe instead of a Legends show all the time some body could run a modern wrestling show here.

[cavedweller73]

I'm an old school guy too actually. Between the years of about 1984 to 1989, I literally grew up on Wed. nights in the Coliseum. I remember literally running home from school just so I could get my butt downtown every single Wed. night so I could see Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Bam Bam Bigelow, The Jarretts (Jeff AND Jerry), Randy Savage, Rick Rude, The Fabulous Ones, Adrian Street, The Midnight Rockers (yes, Shawn Michaels when he was about 19 years old)....all those guys. Those are memories I hold near and dear to my heart because those were some darn good times. So, I have no disrespect towards the "old school". But like I said before, what was fun to see in 1988 isn't exactly high on my "must see" list in 2011. I totally agree with having some of that stuff to draw fans in, but there's just got to be something that'll make them want to come back and seeing guys like Lawler and Christopher (who I could never stand to watch....even back in the old days) doing the same spots month after month isn't going to do it.

I think the thing is, as Ike said, there's just so much frustration for us "smart mark" fans (or whatever you want to call us) who see how much potential there could be in a company like MECW but then see the cards they book and see names like Pothead John on the list. They might as well just go ahead and book CJ Popp and Dr. Blue too. I'm sure those guys aren't doing much on the 15th. I've even talked to fans in Philly when I'm up there and told them the kinds of things that go on at shows down here and they literally can't believe it.

As for high flying matches with guys trying to out-do each other with moves that should be finishers, I guess I can understand how someone would find that somewhat boring. But I'll tell ya what, a couple of hundred fans in Indianapolis last weekend certainly didn't find the match between AR Fox and Ricochet boring when we were giving them a standing ovation and a "That was awesome!" chant afterwards. I doubt any matches on the 15th will get that kind of reaction from the fans... (as the hip kids say these days), just sayin'!

As for that LWA/St. Louis/ACW/whatever show in O'Fallon, I'll be posting my report on that one on Sunday! From what it says over on the ACW message board, apparently, ACW themselves is going to run a show over there in March and they've already announced people such as Masada, Rachel Summerlyn and Portia Perez for that show. Hopefully, I'll get some more info on that on Sat.

[Perfect Storm]

Cavedweller, please do not get me wrong because I agree with you and Ike, but I believe I come at it from a different angle than you guys.

I hope I did not offend you about old school, but I was trying to help you all make the point that something is wrong with the shows in our area and that every one from old school to new school can see it. .What I should have done was give my back ground of not only being a wrestling fan from the early 70's but being a student of wrestling,by that I love watching people before my time like Gorgeous George, Buddy Rodgers,Pat O'Connor and others just as much as I do some of the guys you mentioned on the IPW show. I can remember seeing Randy Savage and Lanny long before their Evansville days. I just wish I still had some of my stuff from back then.

I guess the reason I like the Legend shows is because we could not afford to come and watch wrestling but man I wanted too. I only got to attend 4 wrestling shows growing up and 2 of those where Poffo's ICW shows which I consider the best promotion ever. Having said that seeing the same legends every time gets old and becomes boring so throwing some up and comers from Indy or St.Louis plus different legends would be great.I agree with you I do not like Christopher neither, nor do I understand why people do especially the stuff he did at one of the legends show.

I agree with you about Pot head , Doctor Blue ,CJ Popp and Jason Briley They have had their chances and it is time to bring in guys who can work and bring people back week after week. I have no problem with giving people a chance but you got to know when to move on from them.I am so with you guys on wanting wrestling companies around here to wake up and think they see the light only to be frustrated again.You guys are not in this fight alone

About the IPW show do not get me wrong I was not saying it was boring in fact I can not wait for the DVD to come out so I can stop being jealous of you and being mad at myself for not going.
I know you talked about how they brought people in on a bus to see the show up in Philly,wish we could do that from Evansville to Indy for the bigger IPW shows. Like I said I can not explain it but when I watch a more modern day wrestling DVD I enjoy it but after a while the matches sometimes seem to run together. I would probably change my mind after going to a live show.

Have a safe trip this weekend