Black and Brave grads make mark at CSW Bad Friday
By Mike Pankow
April 30, 2022
Chicago Style Wrestling’s “Bad Friday” had the potential to be a star-making event, but a band of renegade young wrestlers with a common background closed the show with their heads held high with carnage strewn around the ring.
Black and Brave Wrestling Academy graduates Conan Lycan, Solomon Tupu, Jay Marston and Shain Boucher took a page out of Nexus’ playbook from 12 years ago and decimated the main event, disrupting a CSW Tag Team Championship match between defending champions, The Dope Kings, and The Soul Touchaz on Friday night, April 22 at the American Legion in Franklin Park.
Conan Lycan defeated Iniestra before joing his fellow Black and Brave Wrestling Academy graduates to disrupt the main event at Chicago Style Wrestling’s “Bad Friday” at the American Legion in Franklin Park on Friday, April 22, 2022. (Photo by Mike Pankow/Windy City Slam)
Filth King Brubaker and CJ Esparza had hoped to retain the titles in a normal manner until Tupu, Marston and Boucher, perhaps frustrated by their in-ring losses earlier in the evening, stormed the ring to attack all of the combatants, including veteran Marshe Rockett, who was left high and dry by his partner Acid Jaz. The match was ruled a no-contest due to the outside interference.
Lycan, who opened the main card with a strong victory over the dazzling Iniestra, charged down with a steel chair to clear the ring and apparently save Rockett, who was the primary victim of the beatdown in the ring. Moments later, the balance of power shifted as Lycan attacked Rockett with the chair and Tupu, Marston and Boucher slid back into the ring to join in on the fun.
The foursome posed in the ring over the fallen Rockett as The Dope Kings writhed on the floor following ambush, signaling a new powerful faction in CSW to close the aptly named “Bad Friday.”
There are several Black and Brave graduates who work around the Chicago area and in the Midwest, including the new four-man faction, plus CSW Women’s Champion Heather Reckless, Rocket Pro Wrestling Outer Limits Champion Gunner Brave and Great Lakes Championship Wrestling regular Perfection. The school, based in the Quad Cities, is run by WWE Superstar Seth Rollins (fka Tyler Black) and Marek Brave.
CSW Champion Joey “Jet” Avalon is heading toward six months with the title, and the Green Bay native won a three-match gauntlet over emerging stars Casey Nova, Adam Stallion and Axel Rico. After dispatching of Nova and Stallion with relative ease, the charismatic Rico proved to be a bigger challenge to the bruising Avalon.
Avalon’s girlfriend, Sierra, provided some help outside the ring as she attacked Rico while Avalon had the official distracted. The finish came when Sierra occupied the official and Avalon struck Rico in his nether regions with his trusty shovel, then he hot Rico with the package piledriver to score the pin. After Avalon and Sierra continued their ambush on Rico, “Ice Pick” Vic Capri came out a kendo stick to chase away the champion and his girlfriend.
Avalon moves on to CSW’s May event, “Turn It Up,” when he defends the CSW Championship against former WWE Tag Team Champion Scott Garland (aka Scotty 2 Hotty), who recently left his position as WWE Performance Center coach and has returned to working some independent shows.
Josh Woods, right, took on Jax Johnson in a pure rules match, which was Johnson won by nefarious means. (Photo by Mike Pankow/Windy City Slam)
The semi-main event featured a pure-rules match between former Ring of Honor Pure Champion Josh Woods and young and rising Jax Johnson. There were special rules such as closed-fist punches to the face were not allowed and each competitor gets only three rope breaks for the duration of the bout.
In a twist of irony, Johnson won the match in a dishonorable manner, pinning Woods with his feet on the ropes for leverage. The referee didn’t detect the infraction, so the decision stood as one of the biggest victories of Johnson’s burgeoning career. The body of the match saw some great technical mastery between the men, so the finish came as bit of a surprise.
Veteran “Superstar” Steve Boz looked great in his CSW Metra Division Championship defense against Tupu, who has the body type of a young Umaga. It was a hard-hitting match between the two pros. Tupu used his sheer power and brute force while Boz countered with some high-flying moves, including the flying elbow drop to secure the 3-count. A frustrated Tupu took out his loss on referee Devin Anderson, delivering a vicious headbutt to floor the official.
In a grudge bout, “Dad Bod Demigod” Joey Mayberry defeated “Fat, Fem Asian Sensation” Mateo Valentine in the second-ever beauty supply match. Valentine was victorious in the first rendition of this match type by defeating Ryan Matthews last year.
Mateo Valentine, right, prepares to use wax strips on Joey Mayberry during their Beauty Supply Match. (Photo by Mike Pankow/Windy City Slam)
The match was filled with different implements such old-school hair dryers, curling irons, hand-held hair dryers, makeup kits and wax strips. At one point, Mayberry dropped Valentine face first onto a mini table, but couldn’t get the pin. Mayberry’s partner-in-crime, Jillian, lent a helping hand by disassembling a clothing cart and handing Mayberry a metal pole, which he used to attack Valentine.
Valentine’s partner Jack Moody even tried to offset Jillian’s interference to no avail. Mayberry hit his finisher on Valentine to score the victory. Even with the havoc created in this match, it may not be a conclusion to this rivalry between two former friends and tag team partners.
TJ Steel defeated the cocky and brash Matthews by countout as Matthews couldn’t overcome his preoccupation with whom had the biggest biceps. Matthews came out with a measuring tape and directed referee Kevin Woods to measure his arm. It was a theme throughout the match as Matthews kept trying to use the measuring tape on Steel as a weapon and to compare bicep size.
Reckless, who did not defend her championship on this night, outlasted four other competitors to win a five-way scramble match. Reckless used the assistance of her personal monster, Cypher, to gain the victory in the match that also included Capri, Sierra and Moody. Cypher did some damage to Moody, opening the door for Reckless to hit a senton bomb and score the pinfall.
In a three-way tag team match, Marco Anthony and “Irish Car Bomb” Sean Mulligan defeated the teams of Marston and Boucher and Counselor Erich Schultz and Mario Pardua. Marston and Boucher came out first and complained that they weren’t advertised for a match or featured on the event poster. Then Schultz and Pardua walked out to join the discussion. Finally, Anthony and Mulligan walked out of the bar at the American Legion and said they’ve heard enough and wanted to make the quarrel into a triple-threat match.
After Anthony and Mulligan secured the victory, the sore losers attacked the drinking buddies before the 6-foot-4, 280-pound Cody James stormed the ring to neutralize the 4-on-2 beatdown and cleaned house. Then Anthony, Mulligan and James shared a drink in the ring.
In the opener of the main card, Lycan continued his impressive run in CSW, which has included a win over former CSW Champion Capri, with the victory over Iniestra.
On the pre-show, Moondog Murray defeated Doom Montgomery in a singles match and Chris Miller won the Futures battle royal, entering midway through the match and last eliminating Mike Gonzalez of Alpha Zeta Zeta and AJ Flyer.
It was another entertaining night from the folks at CSW, who hits home runs every month with some of Chicago wrestling’s best episodic storylines and great in-ring action. With the new Black and Brave faction and challengers beginning to lineup to dethrone Avalon, there should be plenty more hot shows on the horizon.
For a gallery of over 250 photos, check out our gallery: https://www.windycityslam.com/csw-bad-friday.
Listen to Ep. 116 of Windy City Slam Podcast with a recap of “Bad Friday” and special guest Mateo Valentine: https://bit.ly/3vhPBWj.
Catch Windy City Slam editor Mike Pankow talking local and national pro wrestling every week with Chicago-area wrestling guests on Windy City Slam Podcast, part of the Broadcast Basement On-Demand Radio Network. Episodes drop early Tuesday morning wherever you download podcasts or at https://windycityslam.podbean.com/.
We are looking for guests to appear on future episodes of the Windy City Slam Podcast! Please contact Mike at mikepankow@windycityslam.com, message him on Facebook or DM him on Twitter.
