After a two month gap that felt like a lifetime, Resistance Pro Wrestling returned with their latest event titled, Alive! This time it was a fundraiser for the St. Laurence High School in Burbank, IL which is where the event was held. They drew a sizable crowd which included many first time fans and the talented roster put together a very fun show.
Before the action got started they had a pair of dark matches to get the crowd warmed up and to give some new blood a shot at a future spot on the roster. Jacob Black one a three-way dance in the first match and the highly entertaining and flamboyant Team I.O.U. won a tag team match against Team U.K. (who the fans referred to as “One Direction”) in the second. Both were short and sweet with Team I.O.U. being the standouts among the people involved.
Colonel Jesse Corgan and his therapist, Miss Prig escorted their client, Barry Ryte to the ring for him to face James Alexander in the opening bout. James is a newcomer to RPro and this was his debut match. James had the unfortunate luck of having this be his first match as he wasn’t just facing one person in that ring, he had the outside interference of Jesse and Prig to contend with. Barry took a pretty good pounding for a while and used some sneaky hit and run tactics to try to gain the advantage. It worked for a while but James regained control despite Jesse and Miss Prig interfering in the match. When it looked like James was going to get a win by suplexing Barry over the ropes, Jesse grabbed James’ ankles which caused him to trip and Barry to land on top of him. As the referee counted, Jesse continued to hold onto James’ feet so he couldn’t kick out and the match was awarded to Barry. Jesse took the mic and started insulting the crowd until his brother, creative director (and Smashing Pumpkin) Billy Corgan came out to the ring and reversed the decision. He then called out their father who gave a verbal lashing to Jesse. Jesse rebutted by insulting both his father and brother before storming out of the ring in disgust.
Da Soul Touchaz came to the ring next with manager C-Red to do battle with Pondo and Brady Pierce in a “Burbank Brawl”. It was a no DQ match which is right up Mad Man Pondo’s alley (or in this case, gymnasium). The action in the ring didn’t last long before the two teams split up and beat each other from pillar to post, to bleachers to floor, to garbage. They beat the living crap out of each other and while Pondo was out in the crowd fighting with Marshe, Acid Jaz spit some sort of powder into Brady’s eyes which blinded him and got the win. After the smoke (or powder) cleared and Pondo made his way back to the ring, Brady gave him an earful, blaming him for another loss. Pondo had enough and pushed Brady down and said he was the one who got pinned and that he’s had enough of this. Their relationship was on rocky ground before this match and has only deteriorated further with another mark in the loss column.
Jake O’Neill had a rematch against Scotty Young in what was a wrestling clinic. These guys were very equal in their skills and had a really strong match with a lot of technical action and great pacing. They turned up the heat a bit from their last bout and this time Jake got the win which has the two tied at a win each between each other. Clearly these two won’t be satisfied until they can settle who is the better man so it is inevitable that a third and final bout will be in the cards for these two which will be a treat for wrestling fans based on the strong match they had this evening. If they continue to bring it like they did this evening then this feud could have even longer legs than a simple tiebreaker match.
Viking and Badger coach Joe Phelan came to the ring to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to support the fundraiser and brought a few of the kids he coaches into the ring with him. After a few minutes of this, Body Magic (Ashton Vuitton and Eric St. Vaughn) came to the ring and started bullying the coach. The coach is no slouch but he was outnumbered and after Ashton gave him a low blow, Eric started dropping elbows on him between verses of the Body Magic rap. The Two Star Heroes (Matt Knicks/Chris Castro) came to make the save and then Remi Wilkins and Trevor Court came to the ring too and seemed to side with Body Magic. The coach and Two Star Heroes were outnumbered by one so former WWE/WCW superstar, X-Pac, came out wielding a chair to even the odds. Billy Corgan came out and declared they all have an eight man tag match and the bell rang and the action got started. This was a fast and fun match with a lot of action. X-Pac got the action started early and then tagged in his teammates and let them in on the fun for a while until the heels started cheating. People were flying everywhere, including over the ropes and when the action returned to the ring, X-Pac batted clean-up and did the bronco buster to Eric St. Vaughn and then nailed Ashton with an X-Factor which knocked him out cold. He tagged in the coach and let him get the pinfall and the crowd went nuts. This match put a smile on a lot of people’s faces, especially the kids in the crowd that got to see their coach get the best of some bad guys which probably made the guy even more of a hero to them than he already is. It was the feel good moment of the night for sure.
After an intermission it was time for a three-way dance with Jocephus (with his cave woman, Eve), Da Cobra, and Lock Up’s Suge D. Suge and Cobra took turns trying and failing to take down Jocephus and argued about who did better at failing to get him down which was very entertaining. Jocephus took charge quickly and it was non-stop action from that point forward. Cobra eventually got eliminated and that left Suge D on his own to try to somehow overpower the big man. He put up an amazing fight and showed how tough prison made him as he never gave up the fight no matter how hard the beating was he received at the hands of Jocephus. In the end it was an impressive missile drop kick off the second rope that hit so hard it almost knocked Suge across the building that ended the match with Jocephus as the victor.
It was finally time for the ladies to get their time in the spotlight in a women’s tag match featuring the Women’s champion, D’Arcy Dixon and her partner for the evening, fan-favorite Thunderkitty vs. Nikki St. John and Mickie Knuckles. There is a lot of unsettled business between Mickie and D’Arcy after the brutal beating that Mickie gave D’Arcy last show that wasn’t enough to get the title off of her. Mickie is now consumed with getting that belt and ending D’Arcy’s career. The two heels spent a good portion of the match beating the crap out of Thunderkitty and taunting D’Arcy which really infuriated her as she was helpless to do anything until Thunderkitty could tag her in. Thunderkitty is one tough lady in her own right and despite being on the receiving end of a lot of punishment, she was able to finally make a tag to D’Arcy and then the action heated up about 200 more degrees. When Mickie and D’Arcy were in the ring together they beat each other senseless. It was very intense and stiff. They hit each other with chops so loud that everyone in the crowd winced and the intensity was off the hook. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at D’Arcy and she kicked out of all of it and gave it back to the her opponents just as hard. In the end the combination was too much for D’Arcy to take but it took two of Mickie’s finishing moves (a very violent looking pump handle slam) to keep her down long enough for Mickie to get the win. It wasn’t enough for Mickie though as she wants that title so bad she can taste it (and taste it she will as she licks everything that comes near her)!
Colonel Jesse Corgan figures that the best way he can take down his brother is to have the world title in his camp which is why he recruited the mysterious masked man known as Los Angle to do try to take out the Ego Robert Anthony. Los Angle already had it in for Ego so the pairing of these guys made sense. Jesse and Miss Prig accompanied Angle to the ring and they took the intensity bar that was set high by the match before theirs and raised it to amazing heights. Angle attacked Ego before he even got into the ring and the two brawled around the crowd until Ego planted Angle on a chair and then ran around the ring before diving over a person sitting on another chair to hit Angle who was in the chair behind him! The crowd went nuts and they continued to as these two guys beat the living crap out of each other in a great and intense battle that was high on the action and high on the emotion. Ego was nearly down and out when he started to mount a strong comeback which pissed off Jesse so much he tried to interfere in the match, as did Miss Prig. Jesse’s dad came to stop him and Billy Corgan came out and ordered Miss Prig to be taken away by security and he told his dad to stay out of it too. Then Jesse tried to interfere again so Ego grabbed him and gave him a death valley driver! The crowd exploded and some more back and forth action commenced until Ego was able to turn the tables once and for all and hit his taco pizza finish on Los Angle and get a well deserved win. The crowd was exhausted but elated and this ended up being a match that RPro fans will be talking about for some time. Ego tried to unmask Los Angle to find out his true identity but he was able to squirm away to safety. It is likely these two will be facing each other again somewhere down the road and this was an amazing end to a strong night of action.
Once again RPro proved that they are a force to be reckoned with and delivered on all fronts. They have some of the best talent around and some exciting things happening that will only get better as the stories unfold. It was a good night to be a wrestling fan in Burbank, IL on Saturday night.
To see additional photos from this event, click here!
