One of the Stoner Brothers prepares for a massive slam off the ropes.
The Pumpkin Queen posing with a fan.
A Snapshot of the title event between The Battle King and Mecha Wolf.
The Black Swan lines up an attack on the Pumpkin Queen.
The Ginger Dead Man flips through the air onto an opponent.
The Pumpkin Queen with a young fan.
High-flying, hard-hitting pro wrestling returned to town this past Saturday with the “No Mercy For Merced” tournament at the American Legion Hall on Main Street
Organized by the Best of the West Wrestling tour, the event featured intense one-on-one bouts, epic tag team battles, surprise upsets, and a brand new champion. Local fans even had a chance to meet and greet the many challengers between matches, and participate in a raffle for big prizes.
The first match of the night was an unexpected three-person heavyweight brawl. The challengers were quickly overpowered and defeated by The Superbeast; however, he was attacked out of nowhere by the jealous Battle King (the standing heavyweight champ), in an effort to stop him from challenging the title.
The second match of the night was a solid matchup between M-4 and Sledge. The challengers both demonstrated their great strength and skill in the ring, but the match unfortunately ended with a tragic injury. During a tricky rope maneuver, Sledge happened to slip up and fall hard onto the floor outside of the ring. In spite of what went wrong, everyone was happy that Sledge was able to walk away from the injury, though we don’t know his ultimate condition.
Following was a match between Jesse the Snake Poole and Alex Bernard. The back and forth quickly went in favor of Alex, who nearly pinned Jesse. However, in the last moment before he was nearly pinned, two of Jesse’s friends, Gremlyn and Draxon, interrupted the match to save him. The trio continued to rough up Alex, who was helpless to the onslaught. Luckily, Johnny Butabi, armed with his trusty bat, was able to save him. The unexpected duo then challenged Jesse and his crew to a two-versus-three showdown. In spite of the odds being against them, Jesse and Johnny came out on top.
After that was a Tag Team match between the Stoner Bros. and Prince Gabriel joined by El Nino Vaquero. This fight was particularly important to Prince, because whether or not he lost would determine his ability to challenge for the belt in the near future. The duo put up a great fight, but the raw power of the Stoner Bros. won in the end. In a rage after the match, Prince Gabriel let out his frustrations on Vaquero by mauling him for getting pinned.
Up next was the longest and most evenly matched bout of the evening: Kal Jack versus Wise Guy. The two fought hard and showed off their skills with a wide variety of pins, punches, and slams. After going back and forth again and again, nothing that either of them tried could get the other to stay down for the necessary three seconds. After the 15 minutes of the round ran out, the wrestlers decided to go an extra five minutes so that they wouldn’t be left unsatisfied; however, that still wasn’t enough time and they were left with a draw.
Before the next fight, the crowd was given an intermission to refresh on goodies as well as buy merchandise and take pictures with the performers. Additionally, the Best of the West crew took this time to hold the night’s raffle and give a couple of announcements:
• The tour travels to Fresno this weekend, and will be returning to Merced on Oct. 28. Stay tuned.
Toward the end of the evening was the match that would decide the future Best of the West Women’s Champion. The title match was between the reigning champion Sage Sin Supreme, the Pumpkin Queen, and the rising star, Black Swan. This match was ferocious and high energy, commanding the attention and praise of all the onlookers. After saving herself from being pinned due to a luckily place foot on the rope, Black Swan was able to overpower the Pumpkin Queen and become the new Best of the West Women’s Champion.
“Women’s wrestling is near and dear to my heart, and I will fight for it to the death!” said Sage Sin Supreme, the former Best of the West Women’s Champion, following the match. She continued with the following message to the wrestling community: “Always support women’s wrestling because there is never enough of it. As you saw, there was only one women’s match tonight. And I hope other ladies are encouraged to try the sport.”
The Black Swan had this to say when asked by the Times about how she feels about becoming the new Women’s Champion: “It feels surreal, sensational. I am so happy! I still feel so fresh in this business and It has been nothing but open arms and welcoming people. I have been on such a beautiful journey.”
Following was the match between Mike Hayashi and Bret the Treat. It was a high speed and technical fight with lots of traditional wrestling techniques used between intense rope work. Flip after flip, and takedown after takedown, Bret The Threat wore out Mike and eventually tapped him out.
As the Night’s Main event of the night, and for the Heavyweight Championship Belt, Mecha Wolf fought tooth and nail against The Battle King Dave Dutra. This fight went all over the place, with the two finding themselves outside of the ring nearly as much as inside it. Eventually, after Mecha Wolf was seemingly tipping the match in his favor, the battle king brought out his signature weapon and nearly finished him off. Surprisingly, a surprisingly recovered Superbeast, full of vengeance for the recent disrespect, flew into the ring to defend Mecha Wolf. While this saved Mecha Wolf from a beating, he was unfortunately disqualified for the interruption.
When asked about his match, Mecha Wolf had this to say to the Times, “It is disappointing that I was disqualified after The Superbeast got involved, but I was really happy to wrestle here for the first time, and hope to come back soon. If you are into metal or rock and roll, my band Monster Wolf plays all sorts of Christian music good for the kids.”
For those who have wondered about trying out to be, or training to become, a wrestler, they have a training academy in Fresno for people of all skill levels. Notably, over half of the wrestlers with Best of the West got their start with their training camp. If you would like to learn more about Best of the West Wrestling, you can find them on Facebook or their website: https://botw.tv/.