1/13/01: Saturday Night Explosion - Chicago, IL

[Round 1]:
Barry Horowitz pinned Sebastian P. Sterling with the Horowitz Roll-Up in
           0:07:27.
Rating: 1/2*

[Round 1]:
Juventud Guerrera pinned Air Paris with the Juvy Driver in 0:08:22.
Rating: ** 3/4

[Round 1]:
Brian Adias pinned Colorado Kid with the Oriental Spike in 0:06:29.
Rating: * 3/4
(Mark Schrader no-showed.)

[Round 1]:
Indiana Kidd Jr. pinned K.C. McCulloch with the Indiana Bomb in 0:10:35.
Rating: ** 3/4

[Semi-Finals]:
Juventud Guerrera pinned Barry Horowitz with the Juvy Driver in 0:10:34.
Rating: *

[Semi-Finals]:
Indiana Kidd Jr. pinned Brian Adias after a flying forearm in 0:15:53.
Rating: * 1/2

[Finals]: Match for the vacant GLW Television Title:
Indiana Kidd Jr. pinned Juventud Guerrera with the Indiana Bomb in 0:13:45.
Rating: *** 3/4
(Indiana Kidd Jr. won the GLW Television Title.)

Non-Title-Match:
The Headhunters defeated Skank and Steve Boz when Headhunter B pinned Skank
 with the Moonsault in 0:15:07.
Rating: * 1/2
(Gutterboy no-showed.)

No-Countout-No-DQ-10-Man Battle Royal for the vacant GLW Midwestern Title:
Doc Dean won a 10-man Battle Royal:
         x Shamrock threw out S. Boz after a Yakuza kick in 0:00:18
         x B. Armstrong threw out P. Creation in 0:03:00
         x Shamrock threw out Rhino after a triangle choke in 0:07:58
         x D. Dean threw out L. Storm after a jack-knife power bomb in 0:09:07
         x B. Armstrong threw out Hamada in 0:14:28
         x B. Armstrong threw out Shamrock in 0:14:54
         x B. Armstrong threw out Titan in 0:15:16
         x B. Armstrong threw out M. Tanaka after a slingshot in 0:18:42
         x D. Dean threw out B. Armstrong in 0:20:04
Rating: * 3/4
(Doc Dean won the GLW Midwestern Title.)



Match observations: 

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Night Explosion!  Two champions would be crowned tonight, so let's jump right into the action!

The Television Title Tournament would be the first thing on tonight's agenda.  Eight men were bidding for their chance to be the first TV champ, and if they wanted to do it, they'd have to win 3 matches in a single night.  It wasn't going
to be easy, but these guys were up to it.  The first match was very interesting as it would be "The Good Lord" Sebastian P. Sterling taking on the man who upset him last week, Barry Horowitz!  Sterling wasn't in his prim and proper setup
tonight; he was looking to prove himself after what he feels was a fluke last week.  Well, I think Horowitz proved it was no fluke as he once again "upset" Sterling once again, desite Mike White's several attempts to help Sterling to
victory.  Horowitz did manage to escape without a beating this time, however.

Next up we had the first GLW appearance of Juventud Guerrera, who affectionately refers to himself as "The Juice," going up against Air Paris.  These two flew so much in this match that they should be awarded frequent flyer miles.  The
fact that they were both able to walk away from this match alive is impressive enough, but only one would walk on to the semi-finals.  After lots of high-flying action, Guerrera would get the duke with his Juvy Driver.  An impressive way
to open this tourney up for Juventud.

The following contest was also in the Television Title Tournament, and we expected to see Mark "The Shark" Schrader taking on newly signed Brian Adias.  However, Scharder apparantly had some transportation problems and couldn't be here
tonight.  Tough break for him, but recently signed Colorado Kid was more than happy to step in and go for the Television Title.  Adias was none too happy as he thought that he was going to have a bye into the semis, but C-Kid had some
other plans.  C-Kid had Adias reeling throughout this match, but Adias used some craftiness to pull this one out.  C-Kid was about to put Adias away, but Adias pulled the ref in between himself and Colorado Kid.  C-Kid tried to get to
Adias, but Adias nailed him with a sucker punch.  C-Kid was staggered which allowed Adias to hit the Oriental Spike and move onto the Semi-Finals.  C-Kid (and the Chicago crowd for that matter) were none too happy.

The final first round matchup would pit Indiana Kidd Jr. against K.C. McCulloch.  This was a very good match between these two stars.  Not a whole lot of story behind this match; just a lot of back and forth action.  Eventually, Indiana
Kidd Jr. would pick up the win after the Indiana Bomb.

We then moved on to the Semi-Finals, first with Barry Horowitz taking on Juventud Guerrera.  Horowitz continues to impress in the GLW despite everyone's past impressions of him, as he gave Juvy all that he could handle, and if it wasn't
for Sebastian P. Sterling, he may have been moving on to the Finals.  However, Sterling is still quite bitter over not just being beaten once, but twice by Horowitz, so he took matters into his own hands.  As Horowitz hit the ropes, "The
Good Lord" whipped him in the back with a leather strap!  You would think this would merit a disqualification, but the ref didn't see it because Sterling's manager Mike White had him distracted!  Juventud Guerrera followed with the Juvy
Driver and the now undistracted ref made the 3 count.  Juvy is in the finals as Sterling left ringside laughing.

But who would Juventud Guerrera be facing?  Well, we would find out in our next match between Brian Adias and Indiana Kidd Jr.  Adias tried the same sucker punch move that he used successfully on Colorado Kid, but Indiana Kidd Jr. saw it
coming, ducked, and then wrapped around and hit a German suplex.  Adias got up stunned, and he was put down and out with a flying forearm.  Indiana Kidd Jr. moves on to face Juventud Guerrera in the finals.

After a short intermission (mainly to allow Indiana Kidd Jr. a breather) we had the finals, and what a fantastic match it was!  These two were both fatigued after wrestling two matches a piece earlier, but they still went all out for a
chance to become the first Television champion.  These guys went move for move with each other.  Near the end of the contest after a fantastic series of moves, the Juice went for the Juvy Driver, but Indiana Kidd Jr. was able to slip out
of it and hit the Indiana Bomb and become the first Television champion to a huge response from the crowd.

Next we would see the World Tag Team champions, the Headhunters, wrestling in non-title action against the Grungers, or at least so we thought.  Gutterboy of the Grungers was unable to compete tonight because someone had attacked him in
the locker room area and left him in pretty bad shape.  Who would have attacked Gutterboy though?  Gutterboy was taken out of the GLW Arena in an ambulance.  Hometown boy Steve Boz would take Gutterboy's place, and the impromptu team of
Skank and Steve Boz gave the Headhunters everything they could handle and then some.  Eventually the Headhunters would take this one with their powerslam/Moonsault finisher, but Skank & Steve Boz impressed GLW brass so much that they have
been awarded a World Tag Team Title shot at the first GLW supercard, Deadly Draw 2001 on January 26th, live from Chicago, Illinois!

With that, it was time for our main event, and it would see the crowning of the first Midwestern champion!  Ten men stepped into the ring for this battle royal, but only one would stand tall as the Midwestern champion.  The first man to
hit the floor was Steve Boz, but you can't fault him for that as he had just finished wrestling the World Tag Team champions.  It only took 18 seconds for Ken Shamrock to send Boz to the floor.  A couple minutes later, Brad Armstrong would
send The Perfect Creation out of the ring.  Shamrock would notch another victim as he basically choked out Rhino and tossed him from the ring.  Rhino hasn't been having much luck with the World's Most Dangerous Man.  The cocky Doc Dean had
spent much of this match trying to avoid contact with anyone unless he saw an opportunity to strike as he grabbed Lance Storm from behind and planted him with a jack-knife power bomb and tossed him from the ring.  Storm surprisingly didn't
seem all that upset, which was very unsettling.  After about 5 more minutes of action with no eliminations, something snapped within Brad Armstrong as he just went crazy, eliminating Gran Hamada, Ken Shamrock, and Big Titan in under a
minute!  A couple minutes later, Masato Tanaka was slingshot over the top by Armstrong, leaving just Armstrong and a none too happy Doc Dean.  Dean was begging and pleading with a fired up Armstrong to calm down and spare him, but Mr.
Armstrong started pummeling on Dean with a flurry of lefts and rights.  Armstrong motioned to the crowd that he was going to toss Dean to the floor, but then Lance Storm walked down to ringside!  Storm taunted Armstrong who turned his
attention to the leader of the Extremists.  This was a vital mistake, as it allowed Dean to come from behind and dump Armstrong to the floor.  Doc Dean is your first GLW Midwestern champion.  Lance Storm started laughing uncontrollably at
what just happened, but he soon stopped laughing as Brad Armstrong chased him to the back.  Whether we like it or not, Doc Dean is the Midwestern champion.

After the show went off the air, a press release gave us the first matches signed for the first GLW supercard, Deadly Draw 2001, live from the GLW Arena in Chicago, Illinois.  The main event will be a 30-man Deadly Draw match with the
winner walking away with the distinction of being the first Great Lakes Wrestling World champion.  In edition, as was announced earlier on the show, the World Tag Team Titles will be on the line as the Headhunters defend against the make
shift team of Skank and Steve Boz.  Also, the Television Title will be on the line as Indiana Kidd Jr. will defend against the man he beat in the finals of the tournament, Juventud Guerrera, in a 2 out of 3 falls match.  One more match to
announce tonight as we have a 6-man tag team match pitting the Extremists against the Armstrong Family.  This will certainly be a high charged contest, especially after what went down tonight between Lance Storm and Brad Armstrong.
january 26th is a day you'll want to keep open!