Great matches, outstanding storylines at SPW's Elk Grove event

 It was a great time for all wrestling fans Sunday at Elk Grove's Soccer World Indoor Arena. The now-monthly Supreme Pro Wrestling event "Haters Gonna Hate" was a fun time for all.

Here were the results of the matches (thanks to the SPW Facebook site):

Haters Gonna Hate

February 19, 2023

In the opening contest Scoot Robertson defeated Drake Frost

(my comment - Scoot entered the ring from the opposite side of the arena and surprised Frost. It was a quick match because of how Robertson surprised Frost. Later in the night, the two returned to the ring and beat on each other. Great rivalry between these two)

Scoot Robertson sneaks up on Drake Frost at 
Sunday's SPW opening match

Patrick Fitzpatrick defeated Boyce LeGrande. Following the match Boyce attacked the ref. Mike Miller brought out Rock n Rodeo Express to get rid of Jack the ref. Bobby Callahan tried to protect Jack and got beat up as well.

(my comment - great storyline building between LeGrande and Jack the Ref. At the March event the two will wrestle each other. Jack is a skinny guy and LeGrande is a pretty big guy so this may be one-sided. I predict Jack will get re-inforcements, probably in the person of Callahan while LeGrande may end up with the Rock n Rodeo Express in his corner. Could be a great match next month)

Bobby Callahan won a shot at the Extreme Title match by winning a gauntlet match that included Ezra, Just Zack, Truex, and Rock n Rodeo Express.

(my comment - excellent, unique format which is sort of a mini-Royal Rumble. I like Callahan as a wrestler. Just Zack has some real ability, too)

The Honor Society defeated Big Ugly and Bambi Hall via DQ when Ugly hit Samurai with a chair

Eliza Hammer, left, and Sir Samurai enter

(my comment - for those of you that think pro wrestling is fake needed to watch Ugly and Bambi use a chair on Samurai. He was getting belted with it. I like the male/female tag team arrangement. Eliza Hammer has some real talent as does Bambi Hall. Would like to see these two face off one-on-one. The technical exchange between Samurai and Ugly brought me back to the days of Billy Robinson and Verne Gagne)

Big Ugly faces off with Sir Samurai

Olumide defeated Danté Daring

Brick and Jayson Xavier defeated Midas Kreed and Harman Cheema to retain the tag titles

(my comment - Brick and Jayson are a talented tag team. Don't be surprised if you see them in one of the national wrestling groups one day. SPW is fortunate to have good talent)

El Guapo Lupe retained the Extreme Title pinning Daniel Torch in a match that included AEW’s Fuego Del Sol

Jeckles retained the SPW Title against Impact’s Bobby Fish via DQ after Drake Frost attacked Jeckles. Scoot then attacked Frost.

(my comment - great storyline to end the night. Jeckles is a character.)

Finally, get to Soccer World early at SPW's next match, scheduled in March, because it was a packed house Sunday. If the crowds continue to grow, they'll have to move into the big arena nextdoor and let the soccer players dink around in the south arena.

This week at the Citizen

 

Valley High School's soccer team defeated Del Campo,
2-0, in the opening round of the Sac-Joaquin Section's
Division III playoffs on Feb. 14. The coach is Luis
Leon, whose team was 20-3-5 in the regular season.

Elk Grove's Loretta Lopez is the top-ranked 126-pounder
headed into this weekend's Sac-Joaquin Section Masters wrestling 
championships at the Stockton Arena.

Thoughts on "The Sodbuster"

 Elk Grove sports fans: Great game last night at Laguna Creek between the Cardinals and Monterey Trail. Read about it HERE

In all the years of watching "All-Star Wrestling" on TV I became aware and expectant that the guy introduced first was going to lose the pro wrestling match. The star was the second guy (or gal) introduced to the TV and, in most instances, the studio audience. If they were "heels" you boo'd them. If there were the good guys (known as "Baby Faces") you cheer'd them.

Kenny Jay was always the "Face" introduced first who took on the "heel" in television matches. It was Jay, though, who was supposed to lose. But, "The Sodbuster" always gave his opponent a really good match. He had all the right moves and holds, but gee, in the end he did something that got him pinned. DARN! we would say, but Kenny Jay made the "Heel" sweat a bit.

He died this week in his home state of Minnesota at the age of 85. His real name was Kenneth John Benkowski. Almost none of the pro wrestlers used their real names. 

In a recent podcast "AWA Unleashed" one of the hosts, Mick Karch, talked about a time when two of the stars, Verne Gagne and The Crusher, took on Kenny as a tag team partner in a six-man tag match at one of the big arena matches in St. Paul, Minn., and Jay was the guy who applied the pin to one of their opponents to win the match. That likely made his career.

Marty O'Neill, the long-time ring announcer of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), introduced Jay as "the very capable Kenny Jay" prior to all his matches. For years I would use that same announcement as a joke for people who walk into meeting rooms. Wrestling fans within ear shot laughed, knowing from whence it came.

You'd have to be a fan of pro wrestling from the 70's and 80's to remember Jay, but to those of us who were fans of AWA wrestling this is a sad day.

Kenny Jay and George "Scrap Iron" Gadaski take on "The East/West Connection", Adrian Adonis and Jesse "the Body" Ventura, who went on to become governor of Minnesota.