The title kind of indicates the worst element of United Wrestling Coalition’s return to the Homer Opera House. More than most people, I appreciate Ramstein’s forgotten song from Vin Diesel’s “XXX,“ but a wrestling show is about the grapplers not the music (at least I assume that about Freelance and F1rst, working in hotels over the past four years makes it difficult to keep up on the Indie scene). If you do not hear the names and info about the performer, you can only rely on the local crowd to tell who to cheer and who to boo. When they are putting over the referee more than the competitors, you do not know how seriously you should take this promotion.
But we live in the Internet age, so UWC maybe focusing on their Internet presence. To get the names of the competitors, visit their YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/UWCgeorgetown. Too bad they do not seem to have an effective social media campaign to tell non-subscribers when they update the videos.
It may seem that I am not doing much to put over UWC, but it is a promotion that seems to have a lot of potential in spite of the middle of no where location in Homer. There seems to be a solid booking mind and they are the only kind of show that can effectively use the facility they are in. With all of the support posts holding the building up, I do not know how you can arrange seats for any other show.
For the most part, the promos were weak, but having the show center around Matt Cage’s swan song allowed him to balance out the unnecessary nonviolent storytelling. His mic work set him up to put over two babyfaces in Eye Candy Elliot and an orange-soda obsessed opponent (If only the "All That” theme song was not playing at a volume that overpowered the ring announcer. Hopefully, that song title was at least part of his nickname). Cage’s ring work cemented that his foes are worth paying attention too.
The rest of the shows bell-to-bell action could use work. Joey O'Reilly has got the talent, but he needs to lay into his offense. As for his opponent, Konrad, who was only a name and no gimmick, he seemed to have no conviction to his selling (I can relate to the flaw) or his attacks. A few snug shots from O'Reilly could have lit a fire in his opponent to remedy the latter weakness.
But Konrad’s weaknesses proved to be the strength of the pen. O'Reilly gave an on point promo (which is the most important thing to do with the mic for a company that runs every six weeks) about how Konrad needs to do something drastic to get his career going in the right direction. In the wisely placed semi-main event, Konrad turns heel to align himself with the new champion.
So if you were one of the 40 to attend the show, you have a lot to look forward to on June 10 for the next show at the Homer Opera House (which is really easy to spot, south of I-74 exit 197). Will Elliot get the title shot for beating the top name in Downstate (a possible understatement)? Does Phabian Barbosa give Jimmy Karryt a rematch, or does Karryt nip the Konrad concerns in the butt? I’d probably go with the Teddy Long solution of a “Tag Team” match, something that was lacking to change the pace of matches with wrestlers who decided to make every match look like an opening match.
United Wrestling Coalition could use a little more work on the under-card motivation and roster depth. I would nix the authority figure for the next show, but that can also be something to be improved upon. June 10 is something I am looking forward to. It is great that it is an afternoon show so you can either go back to pampering those who look down on the working class (can’t take the night off if I wanna have money for Muse in St. Louis) or catch a second rassl'n show in Chicago or St. Louis. And I thought the greater liberal sensibilities was the only thing that put East-Central Illinois. Thanks UWC for opening my eyes.
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