RESCHEDULED: Glory Pro: A SLAMTASMIC Start to 2026
UPDATE: Looks like it’s going to get a little chilly this weekend, so to keep everyone safe from ‘Ice Planet Hell, ’ our friends at Glory Pro have changed the date, venue, and name. The event is now Friday, Jan. 30th at the Pageant, and called simply ‘Live At The Pageant IV’. Seems like the right place to use that name!
All previously sold tickets for Jan. 24th are being honored with the same layout as Delmar Hall, including stage seating. Since it’s a bigger venue, more GA tickets have opened up and are available at https://www.ticketmaster.com/. Have tickets but can’t make the rescheduled date? That sucks, but refunds are available at your point of purchase. We know changing the entire show at the last minute is challenging, so we appreciate the folks at Glory Pro for making the effort to keep the people in STL safe!
This Saturday, Jan 24th, the STL area’s premier pro wrestling promotion Glory Pro Wrestling makes its triumphant return to Delmar Hall (6161 Delmar Blvd) for their ‘SLAMTASMIC’ show featuring all your favorite performers. To get you ready, here’s a recap of their last show, ‘Lost In The Lou’ from the South Broadway Athletic Club (2301 South 7th St) on Dec 21st.
As a home for boxing and wrestling for over 100 years, the unassuming Soulard brick facade exterior of the SBAC opens up to reveal an inviting interior that features both food and a full-service bar. If you’re in STL city, like to drink while watching people punch each other in the head, and want it to all be legal, it’s the place to be.
As the crowd settled into their seats, the voice of St. Louis wrestling Ben Simon welcomed those in attendance and the audience at home on Highspots.TV to the show. Even though it was four days before the holiday, Glory Pro had already run a Christmas-themed show back in July, so the decorations were mostly limited to a tree next to the entrance curtain and a few other scattered appearances of the Xmas spirit.
First out of the curtain, the multi-time former United Glory Tag Team Champions, The Philly & Marino Experience, let fans know just how they felt, and the shower of boos that met PME said that the feelings were mutual. The tag ranks at Glory Pro have been thinned by injuries, but current champs Bang & Matthews, “the team that can’t be Googled”, showed why they’re now the standard-bearers when they hit the ring. While PME tried to grind them down with chicanery and blue-collar brawling, Davey Bang got the pin in a unique way with a dual rolling somersault spear off August Matthews’ shoulders into Philly C’s midsection. It’s a thing of beauty, but maybe don’t try to look it up on the internet.
Sierra may have driven all the way from Milwaukee, but she might as well kept on going because she wasn’t ready for the firestorm of fury that Tootie Lynn, the “Dragon Spirit of St Louis”, brought to the ring. The normally jovial “Little Blue Dragon” was stern-faced and focused on revenge against Sierra, who had taken advantage of Lynn’s good nature in a previous encounter. The situation almost repeated, but STL’s favorite black belt decided mercy was for the weak and finished Sierra with a stiff kick to the skull.
So who doesn’t love a grown man wrestling in short shorts and a rubber shark head? Well, Moses sure didn’t, and since nautical nonsense was not something he wished, “The Deliverer” proceeded to deliver a vicious beatdown on Phil Fish, “The Underwater Wet Body”. After Fish was stripped of his headgear, he kept on swimming through the match and won the crowd over with his impressive aerial athletics, eventually regaining his full shark garb for an offensive frenzy. Shark power wasn’t enough, though, as Moses once again unmasked Fish before planting him teeth-first into the mat for the win, then paraded around the ring with his trophy to the jeers of an upset crowd.
They kept it going for the return of “The North Star” Shimbashi, who reveled in antagonizing the audience until the arrival of fur coat charisma machine “The Whole Thang” Rahim De La Suede. Not wanting to be out-shined, Shimbashi stole Suede’s coat from the referee and pranced around the ring in it, kicking off a series of exchanges that included both men trying to make sure the other wouldn’t ever have kids. Using his quickness and wits, Rahim got the win with his Suede Shoes chest stomp.
Suede was joined in the ring by Ben Simon with a live microphone and told the crowd that no matter who wins the Crown of Glory Championship tonight, he’s got next at Delmar Hall. The crowd cheered and kept cheering as the previously injured Mike Outlaw made his return to the ring after being gone for most of the year. A hush fell over the crowd as Outlaw grabbed the mic and told Suede that he hasn’t forgotten their personal beef and there’s no way that Suede will be champion as long as Outlaw is still around. If Suede is in the match, Outlaw will be at Delmar Hall too!
It was time for intermission, a chance for the crowd to get rid of their previous drinks and get some new ones. It’s also the time for the performers to line up behind tables at the back of the venue and sell their merch/photos, so the audience migrated that way. Remember, folks, just like in regular life, don’t touch anything without explicit permission, and people will like you more if you bathe. All the cool kids are doing it.
Returning hot from intermission, the ever-popular and holiday-themed “Heartbreakcore” Shazza McKenzie made her way to the ring wearing a tinsel garland boa to meet the looming Blair Onyx and her invisible Source for their match. In an effort to make sure McKenzie got a nightmare before Christmas, Onyx produced a gift bag from under the ring for her. Cautiously, McKenzie reached in to find a disembodied toy head that matched her blond hairstyle, and in the confusion caught a kick in the face from Onyx. Pleased with herself, Onyx eventually defeated the valiant McKenzie with a Neutralizer before reclaiming the “gift” and traipsing to the back with it.
No word on if the rubber shark mask and the blond toy got together backstage. Like any good journalists, we’ll try to stay ahead of the story.
The trio of Dan the Dad, “Big Strong Boy” Ethan Price, and Myung-Jae Lee came out to excite the crowd, but almost immediately ran into the human brick wall that was their opponents. The O’Neal Brothers (who apparently “rule”; the O’Doyle family must’ve ceded the job) and the even bigger, even stronger, “Gentleman Barbarian” Bruss Hamilton quickly made their giant menace felt on the fan favorite team by taking turns crushing Dan’s back, leading The Dad to make an early exit. Now a handicap match, the skill and speed of Lee’s feet, followed by some feats of strength from Price, eventually overcame the monstrous villains after being motivated by the loss of their father figure.
We’ve said a lot about the Women’s World Crown Champion Laynie Luck, who is now also the WWE ID Women’s Champion. All of it is still true; she’s been champ here for over a year for a reason, and if you want to see some of the best in the world face off before they’re on the biggest stages in the world, you should be at Glory Pro events. Here, Luck’s World Crown was on the line against Vert Vixen, another accomplished world traveler and regular combatant on national TV. After a fierce back-and-forth, the “Lucha Unicorn” got the pin to retain the championship and end the match, much to the chagrin of that one guy next to the ring who spent the whole thing screaming both their names.
Through the sheer power of being awesome, STL original “Warhorse” Jake Parnell found his way back to the form fans love him for, and in the main event was coming to reclaim the title he’d lost a year ago to “The Southern Flamingo” Kody “KoKo” Lane. Gone were the trappings of nihilism and believing in nothing; Parnell was once again the face-painted, rompin’, stompin’, rock n’ roll viking weighing in at 4000lbs of heavy metal and ready to rule ass. These two opponents have battled all over the continent for various titles, taking each other to the limit every time. This contest to see who would be the Crown of Glory Champion was no different, with both men delivering hard-hitting aerial assaults and standing firm against the stiffest shots until…
Fate is a fickle mistress, and this day it came for the Warhorse. As Lane landed a flying back senton from the top of the turnbuckle, Parnell’s body went one way as it appeared his leg went the other, leading to Lane getting a quick pin on his incapacitated nemesis and suddenly ending an epic encounter. As he was being helped to the back, the crowd cheered and thanked the wounded Warhorse for his efforts. We’re sure the spirit of Warhorse, the character is running wild with the hot headbanging Valkyries and ruling ass all over heavy metal Valhalla, but it seems it may be a while before Jake Parnell, the human, gets to physically do it. We wish Mr. Parnell a speedy recovery.
Will the long-simmering feud between Rahim De La Suede and former champion Mike Outlaw distract them long enough for Kody Lane to keep his Crown of Glory? Can the skills of “Too Turnt” Laynie Luck turn away three challengers for the Women’s World Crown title? Will there be more headgear-based shenanigans? Find out the answers to all this and more this Sat, Jan 24th at Delmar Hall when Glory Pro gets ‘SLAMTASMIC’!
Get info on all things Glory Pro by going to their website (https://www.gloryprowrestling.com)
Photos courtesy of Mike Schoen Photography. See more of his excellent work @mschoen67 on Instagram or https://michaelschoenphotography.smugmug.com/. Thanks Mike, we appreciate you!
