Author: sportwatcherpro

Wrestling Is For Everyone: Saint Louis Anarchy Ladies Night Wrap-up

Women’s professional wrestling is going through what some would call a “revolution”. Wrestling promotions of all shapes, sizes and locales are a crucial part of this revolution. These promotions are showcasing women wrestlers and women’s wrestling in the same light that men had been shown for years prior.

On April 26, Saint Louis Anarchy hosted St. Louis’s first ever woman-centric wrestling event, Ladies Night. The evening was filled with top-caliber talent, from wrestlers that have been in televised wrestling promotions like WWE and Impact (formerly TNA), to wrestlers that are fan favorites across independent promotions in St. Louis and all across the country.

The evening at Spaulding Hall lived up to the hype. St. Louis area favorites Tootie Lynn Ramsey and Savanna Stone squared off in what could become one of St. Louis’s great wrestling rivalries. These two women are more than used to each other, and this match wasn’t their first encounter. Their match set the bar for the rest of the evening.

In other Ladies Night action, Shotzi Blackheart, who’s wrestled all across the independent circuit and on tv with Impact Wrestling, faced the “too turnt party unicorn” Laynie Luck, who won over those who didn’t know her with her fun attitude and serious skill in the ring. Their match was a true battle, with Laynie taking to Twitter afterwards to say the match was one of her best all year.

The match of the evening for many fans was between Kylie Rae, one of pro wrestling’s most popular and relentlessly positive stars, and Gary Jay, a local and Anarchy favorite who found himself thrown into the all-women’s card when Hudson Envy had to be pulled due to an injury she suffered earlier in the week. Their match was special, and even a little emotional.

“I have knocked out some of the best in the world in this building,” said Gary Jay, still in the ring after the match against Kylie, “I’ve beaten some of the best, and some of the best have beat me, but goddamn, you’re one of the best [expletive] wrestlers in the world. Smiley Kylie, you’re the greatest athlete I’ve ever been in the ring with. Man, woman, gender doesn’t matter. You’re the real deal. Thank you.”

Kylie joined him in the ring and gave him a big hug and both received a long standing ovation,. They were played off to Kylie’s music (the Pokemon theme song) as fans chanted “Please come back!” to Kylie Rae. A true Anarchy moment that those in attendance will remember for a long time.

The main event of Ladies Night then had a lot to live up to. The final match of the evening saw former WWE and independent star Kimber Lee face Allie Kat, who’s fast becoming a favorite across not just the country but the world.

Kimber Lee is one of the hardest workers on the wrestling circuit of any gender, and her work paid off when she made it to WWE’s 2017 Mae Young Classic, the promotion’s now-yearly women’s tournament. She’s also wrestled for World Wonder Ring Stardom, a Japanese women’s wrestling promotion seen by many as among the world’s best promotions for women’s wrestling. She competed in their Five Star Grand Prix tournament just last year.

Allie Kat, who is half-woman-half-cat-half-wrestler, walks around the ring for pets from fans and asks other wrestlers to scratch her belly. But don’t let the feline appearance fool you, Allie Kat is one of the hardest hitting women on the planet, and shows it in the ring.

Their match was a dramatic brawl that had a little bit of everything. Technical grappling, fierce striking offense, big moves outside of the ring, and even beer pong. The Spaulding Hall crowd went wild for each devastating blow or kick, and really got riled up when both Allie Kat and Kimber Lee chugged cups off the beer pong table. After the match both competitors hugged it out in the ring and left to another large ovation from the Anarchy crowd.

Anarchy’s Ladies Night was a big hit. Those in attendance witnessed St. Louis wrestling history. Local favorites, international stars, and most of all, great wrestling, something Saint Louis Anarchy has become known for both in the area and across the wrestling landscape. 

Ladies Night was proof positive that wrestling is for everyone.
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Ladies Night & Talking Anarchy with Matt Jackson, Owner of Saint Louis Anarchy

The main event of Ladies Night, the area’s first all women’s wrestling show. Photo credit: Saint Louis Anarchy

For years in the sport that is professional wrestling, women were often a sideshow. Their matches were not serious nor treated as such, but the industry has seen great change over the past generation. This Friday Saint Louis Anarchy is putting on the St. Louis area’s first ever all-women’s wrestling event, Ladies Night, in Alton’s own home of wrestling, Spaulding Hall.

“This event features women from all over the United States as well as St. Louis favorites.” said Matt Jackson, Owner of Saint Louis Anarchy. The main event match of the evening sees independent wrestling stars Kimber Lee and Allie Kat going toe-to-toe under the bright lights in Alton’s Spaulding Hall.

Asked about the significance of an all-women’s event, Jackson didn’t pull any punches. “It’s very important. For years women were looked at in a certain way in pro wrestling. That has drastically changed in recent years and I want to show that change to those in St. Louis. These women are some of the best athletes in the world.”

And he knows athletes in wrestling. Jackson is as seasoned as they come. “I’ve been in the business for seventeen years” he says, “Saint Louis Anarchy has been around since 2011. Before that it was Lethal Wrestling Alliance which began in 2001. Anarchy did not run shows between December 2016 and July 2018, due to me taking a job with National Wrasslin League.”

“I feel St. Louis has been one of the most important territories in wrestling, dating back to the ‘Wrestling At The Chase’ days.” adds Jackson. Wrestling At The Chase was a historically significant wrestling show in St. Louis, airing weekly on KPLR from 1959 to 1983. Legends like Ric Flair and Harley Race made a name for themselves in the Khorassan Ballroom at Chase Park Plaza, for which the show was named.

“I don’t enjoy most of the current St. Louis wrestling scene which is why I started Anarchy. Anarchy is more than a wrestling show, it’s a brand. Our fanbase here is the most passionate in wrestling.” Jackson emphasizes. “Adults with families cried when Anarchy came back. People have met their wives and husbands at our events. For some it’s the only place they feel they belong.”

“It’s way more important than just a show.”

Matt Jackson, Owner, Saint Louis Anarchy

Jackson isn’t just hyping his promotion when he says that either. Speaking as a wrestling fan writing this, you can feel that energy and passion when you’re packed into Spaulding Hall. Fans are enthusiastic for everything, from ferocious slams in and out of the ring, to a server from the bar bringing someone in the crowd a buffalo chicken pizza.

To experience the unique atmosphere of Anarchy and witness St. Louis’s very first all-women’s wrestling event, head to Spaulding Hall (405 East 4th Street) in Alton this Friday night.

Doors open at 7 pm, and the event begins at 7:30 pm.

Tickets are available online here, and also at the door of the event.

Follow @stlanarchy on Twitter for more information.

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Fear And Loathing Of The NHL Playoffs

Enthusiastic Tampa fan. Wonder how they’re feeling now. (credit: WFLA)

All season, regardless of sport, passionate fans of sports teams across North America have one goal: Playoffs. Anything short of that goal is seen as failure, and oftentimes just making the playoffs is not adequate for a franchise deemed “competitive” by its fans and onlookers. Despite this, all parties involved know just how chaotic and precarious the playoffs can be.

For whatever reason, the NHL playoffs possess a volatility not seen in other sports.

Take the latest, and potentially greatest, example of this volatility, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning were the best team in hockey by an incredible margin, having one of hockey’s best-ever regular seasons. But the mighty Lightning were stymied by the fairly upstart Columbus Blue Jackets, and were swept out of the playoffs in four straight games.

“For six days in April, Columbus was the better team.” said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper.

Nobody knows how or why this happens. Why did a team that dominated the National Hockey League for 7 months all of the sudden find it impossible to win? Asked after the end of the series, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said “If we had the answers, we would have found a way to win the game. It sucks.”

In not understanding why his team dropped out of the playoffs in four straight games, Stamkos found that the only way to understand the NHL playoffs. You can’t understand it.

All preconceived notions of what should or shouldn’t happen fly out the window. Matchups that yielded standard, run-of-the-mill games in January are now suddenly hectic encounters, both teams scrambling for every inch on the ice. To try to decipher a rhyme or reason to it beyond “both teams are really trying hard out there” is a fool’s errand.

Almost harder to understand is how the Blues, largely considered to be dead and buried in December, are not just in the playoffs, but are now two wins over Winnipeg away from the second round. The Blues have survived trials and tribulations to reach this point, including firing former head coach Mike Yeo and teammates getting into fights during practices.

That all happened *after* team general manager Doug Armstrong had made a case that the Blues were a playoff team and Stanley Cup contender. Luckily for the organization and its fans, somewhere in January the Blues found their rhythm, and most importantly, a goaltender.

Blues fans are incredibly familiar with April. In 51 seasons of existence in the National Hockey League, the Blues have only missed the playoffs 9 times. Unfortunately, and it pains me as a Blues fan to write this, despite making the playoffs in over 80% of the seasons they’ve played in,

the Blues have never won a Stanley Cup. Ever.

While sure, fans can hope and dream for the Stanley Cup trophy to parade down Market Street in downtown St. Louis, perhaps that in itself is a bit too optimistic, given the odds and precedent set in previous seasons. But it’s the NHL playoffs! The ridiculously impossible is possible.

If Tampa Bay can lose, why can’t St. Louis win?

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Blazer Beat #1: Spring!

Nick Wilke at the dish for the Trailblazers from a game earlier this season. Photo by Pete Hayes of the Alton Telegraph

April 9th might have been the most pristine day of the Lewis and Clark Trailblazer spring sports season yet. Beautiful blue skies, temps in the 70s, spring had officially sprung, just ask my allergies. On this high pollen spring afternoon, both the softball and baseball teams were in action, both in doubleheaders. The baseball team welcomed the Jefferson College Vikings, and softball welcomed the Parkland College Cobras to the cozy confines of Godfrey Ball Park.

Game one over on the softball diamond was (spoiler alert) the lone victory in the four games played April 9th, winning 6-4 over Parkland. A big four-run first inning wasn’t enough for the visiting Cobras, failing to score at any other point. LC starting pitcher Sydney Henrichs recovered and kept composure after the first, at one point retiring twelve straight Parkland batters and throwing a strikeout in for good measure. Cobra starting arm Kate Beckemeyer picked up her fifth loss of the season, which was a “death by many cuts” scenario. Beckemeyer didn’t give up an extra base hit all game, but gave up a litany of singles.

The second encounter wasn’t quite as enjoyable for the Trailblazers, falling 8-1. Parkland got a complete game out of their starter, Kirbie Mendenhall, who gave up three hits and an unearned run in the victory. Lewis and Clark’s lone run came in the first, but the offense couldn’t figure out Mendenhall’s arsenal throughout the day, striking out seven times. A Brie Poehler dinger was the only ball to leave the yard in the doubleheader, her fourth this season.

Strolling the few hundred feet over to game one of the baseball doubleheader, Lewis and Clark really couldn’t get a word in edgewise, and fell 3-0 as a result of Jefferson College’s dominant pitching, led by starter Anthony Green. Green fanned five of twenty batters faced and only allowed a single hit, a masterful performance by the Viking pitcher to improve to 2-0 on the season. Christian Stelling recorded the two-batter save in the 7th to close out the game, his third save of the campaign.

Game two at the baseball diamond wildest game of the four, a 20-9 oddball game in favor of Jefferson College. A wild, seven-run first inning for the Trailblazers assisted by three Jefferson errors was not enough, as Jefferson’s offensive explosion continued throughout the ballgame. By the time the Trailblazers scored their next run, the Vikings had already put sixteen of their own on the board. Homers for Nick Hagedorn and Alex Harbin were nice but unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, with Parkland winning so comfortably. In mop up duty after the big first inning, Jefferson pitcher Adam Parker picked up his fourth win, mostly pitching to contact, only striking out one Trailblazer batter.

Of note but not related to actual baseball happenings: the wood backstop at the baseball diamond is clearly a home to wasps now that it’s warm enough for bugs to, well, bug us. I was chased from my usual post at the backstop by multiple wasps, and I don’t handle bugs or stings from bugs well. We’ll see if this will be a continued theme at baseball games I attend, or if my cowering has shown the wasps who’s boss once and for all.

Trailblazer softball sits at 16-10 after April 9th, and baseball at 13-10. Respectable records at this point in the season for both, but both will be out to prove they’re the real deal in the coming games. The baseball team has a .800+ OPS (on base percentage + slugging percentage), meaning they’re seeing the ball well, but inconsistencies on the mound have cost them games. On the other hand, the softball team is 5th best in NJCAA D2 overall in opponent batting average, and 12th in earned run average, but with offensive numbers more towards league average that keeps them from reaching that “really really good” level.

Softball continues with a doubleheader in St. Louis against St. Louis Community College on April 10th, baseball at the weekend with a two-day, four game trip to Indiana to face Vincennes starting April 12.

#BlazeUp

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An Introduction

Hey folks, welcome to SportWatcher Watches Sports, a blog for, well, me, online user SportWatcherPRO, watching sports. I will write about sports of all stripes, from all over the world and here in the St. Louis area.

As a college paper sports writer, one of my focuses will be Lewis And Clark Trailblazer Athletics, a home to so many great athletes who don’t get the attention they deserve. Currently you can expect some news and notes about Trailblazer baseball and softball, with other sports coming when other seasons get active.

Outside of the college and its teams, I will have a weekly blog talking about St. Louis sports. I know I’m not the first person on the internet to think “how about a blog about St. Louis sports!”, so I will try to differentiate and not just focus on the Cardinals or Blues. For an example of this, my last STL Sports Blog  goes into St. Louis’s hottest team, Saint Louis FC.

Another feature I am planning is a ripoff of Stephen Colbert. No, not a major network late night talk show that attempts political satire, a blog for sports you may not know or follow called “Better Know A Sport”. In this I will profile lesser known sports, from all corners of the world, profiling the sports themselves or the culture that surrounds them.

Sports, they’re everywhere folks

So welcome to this new step in my journey through the world of sport, as I grow and transition from a mere sports watcher to a sports writer. My goal is to provide something slightly different and unique than the typical sports writing fare, and through a mix of hyper local and global coverage I aim to write something for everyone.

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