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Post by faulknasty on Mar 8, 2024 19:52:29 GMT
Your Local Wrestling Association was a small local wrestling promotion located in south central Indiana, so somewhere below Indianapolis. This set of YLWA tapes comes from time that is known as the Circle of Friendship Era, which is when the YLWA had its highest concentration of future stars. The name came from a group of four friends who started wrestling together and joined the YLWA together. The biggest stories at the time often revolved around one or more members of this group. The Titles
YLWA Championship
Canary
YLWA Tag Championship
Showtime
YLWA Junior Championship
(Vacant)
The Officials Earl Willard Head YLWA Official  Dawn Senior Official Tag Specialist  Ref Jr Junior Official
The Talent
The Circle of Friendship Cody Cody was one of the 2009 class of the South Central Indiana Wrestling Institute’s (SCIWI) graduates known as the Circle of Friendship. Around 7, Cody first became a wrestling fan as wrestling was hitting its biggest point in popular culture but fell after about a year. As a teenager, Cody fell in love with wrestling again as he liked character creators in video games and enjoyed making original wrestlers and telling stories with them. This led to Cody to pursue professional wrestling in real life convincing his three closest friends to join SCIWI, with the group being given the name the Circle of Friendship. While Cody was in SCIWI, he formed a tag team with Bryan called C.H. Bwam. Cody was training in a more traditional american professional wrestling style.  Bryan Bryan was another one of the Circle of Friendship. The younger brother of Michael was convinced by Cody and Brandon to join SCIWI. Along with Cody, Bryan is part of the tag team C.H. Bwam. Bryan grew up a casual fan of professional wrestling being a fan of a brother tag team mostly known for jumping off of ladders. Bryan was trying to model his wrestling style around the brother tag team.  Brandon Brandon was Cody’s best friend. Brandon wasn’t a big fan of professional wrestling but was always up for hanging out with Cody so he joined SCIWI as part of the Circle of Friendship graduates. Brandon’s working late at his day job would cause him to have to wrestle in his mascot costumes. Though Brandon wasn’t big on professional wrestling, he loved to watch the short luchadors as it showed him that size didn’t matter to achieve your dreams. Brandon tried to mimic the high flying luchadors he loved.  Michael Michael was a few years older than the other Circle of Friendship graduates. The older brother of Bryan, the other three graduates convinced him to join SCIWI with them. Michael had a casual relationship with professional wrestling. He saw his distance from the sport as an opportunity to try to create his own unique style with a mysterious persona.  Hank Walker Hank Walker was a long term veteran of the YLWA mid card. He had held minor and tag titles in YLWA but has never been able to get over the hump to get the YLWA championship. By the time of the Circle of Friendship’s arrival, Walker was passed his peak and lost much of his ring stamina. Due to his low stamina, Walker tried to finish matches with his sharpshooter.  Tank Towers Tank Towers used the YLWA’s biggest and longest running antagonist. Towers was a major rival of Steve Faulkner during his time in YLWA. Towers had held the YLWA championship several times over years. When the Circle of Friendship arrived, Towers was back to being the top heel in YLWA, proving to be a major obstacle to the YLWA championship. Towers used his background in amateur wrestling to influence his wrestling style.  Skully Johnson Skully Johnson was one half of the Skull Players, an antagonist tag team. The Skull Players were the bottom of the tag team division for a long time. By the time the Circle of Friendship arrived, the Skull Players had established themselves as top contenders for the YLWA Tag Championship. Skully was an undead skeleton baseball pitcher which shaped his wrestling style.  Grave Keeper Grave Keeper (legally not to be confused with the long time star of the CWC, The Gravekeeper) was one half of the Skull Players, an antagonist tag team. The Skull Players were the bottom of the tag team division for a long time. By the time the Circle of Friendship arrived, the Skull Players had established themselves as top contenders for the YLWA Tag Championship. Skully was an undead skeleton soccer goalie which shaped his wrestling style.  Canary Canary was a SCIWI student before the Circle of Friendship started. She was brought in by YLWA before graduating due her having had advanced wrestling skills. Her strong kicks and high flying style got her over with the crowd quickly and was on an undefeated winning streak by the time the Circle of Friendship arrived.  Madelyn Madelyn was a SCIWI student before the Circle of Friendship started. She was brought in by YLWA before graduating due to her large ring presence. She quickly became an antagonist to Canary as she started undefeated in her YLWA career. Her wrestling style was built around her large attitude. United States Indies  Showtime Showtime was made up of “Big Time” Billy Higgins, and Raven Baker, “the Show Off.” The large sized duo used their power to dominate the tag team divisions all across the United States. The power house tag team had held the tag titles for the YLWA prior to the Circle of Friendship and only vacated them due to scheduling conflict. The team came back to YLWA to dominate again with their powerful moves.  Ronnie Reed Ronnie “Hangtime” Reed was a wrestler known around the indy wrestling scene. Reed toured the United States and made regular visits to YLWA throughout its exists. Reed is known for his high flying aerial moves. Quebec City Wrestling Academy Jean Defaut Jean Defaut was an antagonistic French Canadian wrestler and the star pupil of the Quebec City Wrestling Academy. Defaut used to use a generic TV French accent as a way to antagonize the crowd before turning that bad accent into a way of taunting the crowd. Defaut brings a standard wrestling style featuring Canadian named moves.  Florian Cadeau Florian Cadeau is the up and comer from QCWA. Cadeau has shown natural talent for professional wrestling earning him the nickname the Golden Gift. He started his career working along with Jean Defaut who would eventually bring him to YLWA. Cadeau works a similar style to his Mentor with a different Canadian finisher. Iglesia de Lucha Libre Sexy Rameriz Sexy Rameriz was a student from Iglesias de Lucha Libre, a wrestling academy founded by Mexican wrestler Antonio Garcia. Rameriz toured US wrestling promotions to become the best Luchadora. YLWA became a major promotion for Garcia’s students as he had a connection with Fitzwater and the promotion, and Rameriz popularity in the promotion only strengthened that connection between the two men. Rameriz lucha style of wrestling won the crowd over quickly and led to constant requests for her return during YLWA’s lifetime.  THUNDER A long time veteran and part time teacher at Iglesias de Lucha Libre, THUNDER brought an older style of Lucha Libre to YLWA. THUNDER had decades of experience wrestling in the US, going back to his early days wrestling in Ultimate Great Lakes Wrestling at the same time as Steve Faulkner’s father Jedidiah and Uncle Eddie. Eddie and Jed invited THUNDER to YLWA after moving to the area to challenge SCIWI students with a different style of wrestling than they were used to. THUNDER was an antagonist to Steve Faulkner during his time in YLWA, and he was never able to get the crowd back on his side. Thank you Fuee for the YLWA Logo and ring design. |
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Post by faulknasty on Mar 8, 2024 19:57:08 GMT
Saved for future idea
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Post by faulknasty on Mar 8, 2024 19:57:22 GMT
This recap is to set the background for the start of the previous thread and the next post will recap and reboot the previous thread. This thread is based on a small indie fed in south central Indiana call Your Local Wrestling Association, where several CWC wrestlers found their start. With their big names gone, the YLWA was trying to establish new faces of the company with new talent and YLWA REGENESIS was the launchpad show, a reboot of sorts.
Before the Circle, Faulkner Ruled
Before the Circle of Friendship, the face of YLWA in the 2000’s was Steve Faulkner. The youngest son of Jedidiah Faulkner, a well known wrestler in the Great Lakes area for his tag team with his brother Edmund, Steve grew up loving wrestling. When Steve was in his early teens, Jed and Eddie retired from full time wrestling and settled south of Indianapolis where they trained Steve to be a wrestler. Steve quickly made a splash on the indie scene, and though he wrestled all over the country, he became the biggest name in the YLWA. The original CWC saw Steve Faulkner’s talents and signed him to a deal and by the start of the 2009, Steve wrestled his farewell show with YLWA and moved on to TV. (The Steve Faulkner era may get covered by a new thread after I finish the Circle of Friendship era.)
Fresh Faces
After Steve’s departure, the YLWA found themselves without a face of the company and a lack of big names in their regular talent. Like many Indies at the time, companies only contracted a couple local regular big names while the rest were role players who rarely traveled, and the rest of the card would be filled with traveling talent. YLWA in need of fresh talent to create a new face of the company turned once again to a Faulkner. Uncle Eddie Faulkner and the South Central Indiana Wrestling Institute. Eddie created his wrestling school after training his nephew Steve. YLWA immediately signed two experienced talents from SCIWI, wrestling under the names Madelyn and Canary, to start in February of 2009. YLWA also saw four other students with great potential, referred to as the Circle of Friendship. This group joined SCIWI together and was made up of high school friends, three; Brandon, Bryan, and Cody, were freshman at the time and one was a senior, Michael. Cody and Brandon were best friends who wanted to become wrestlers and convinced brothers Bryan and Michael to join them. Bryan and Cody worked on forming a tag team at SCIWI called C.H. Bwam. Brandon worked on a high flying luchador style and Michael worked on making his own unique style.
With the younger members of the Circle of Friendship graduating high school in May 2009, the YLWA decided that was the time for the Circle of Friendship to make their YLWA wrestling debut challenging a group of YLWA heel veterans. The May 30th show became YLWA’s big show for the quarter and, with it being a collision of past and hopefully the future, was titled Collide.
The Build to a New Era
To set up YLWA Collide, the Circle of Friendship began showing up at shows in April. They began working the crowd getting cheap pops. First, top heel Tank Towers came out and confronted them. Towers said he was tired of all these young hotshots showing up, acting like this was their ring disrespecting the veterans. He told them that they be may great in the future, right now it was his ring and those of the other veterans. Cody replied, “We may be new but our time is now.” The next show the Circle of Friendship came out again for some cheap pops and trashing the hated Tank Towers. This time when Tank Towers came out, he was followed by other angry veterans, Hank Andrew and the Skull Players tag team. After the veterans talked about no longer being disrespected that they formed a League of Veterans, to keep young hot shots from ruining the YLWA. The groups trash talked each other some more before a brawl broke out until security and other wrestlers separated the two groups.
Two shows before Collide, the collision of the future and the past was finally set up. Three matches between the the League of Veterans and the Circle of Friendship to decide if the CIrcle of Friendship belonged. The main event was a singles match between a representative from each group and the winner to be given a match on the next show for the YLWA Championship, vacated since Faulkner’s departure. Tank, being the leader of the League of Veterans and former two time champion, accepted the opportunity. The Circle of Friendship being a group of friends and not a true stable decided to hold a vote for who should represent the group. Bryan supported his older brother Michael to get the chance. Cody thought he deserved the chance for being the one who pushed the Circle into becoming professional wrestlers. Michael chose himself as Cody had been working on a tag team with Bryan. Brandon agreed that Cody should work the tag team match with Bryan to make sure they had their best chances to win two of the three matches and earn permanent spots in YLWA. The other matches were quickly decided with Brandon wrestling Hank Andrews in the opener, and Cody and Bryan, as C.H. Bwam, wrestling the Skull Players in a tag match. The next show saw the Circle of friendship get jumped by the veterans in the ring before they could even start their last promo and the League of Veterans standing tall going into Collide.
Beyond the Circle
During the build up of feud between the Circle of Friendship and the League of veterans, the other experienced SCIWI recruits had already started wrestling in YLWA. Madelyn and Canary wrestled visiting outside talent and racked up impressive win streaks that set them up for a collision of unbeatens at Collide. With their YLWA undefeated records, Madelyn and Canary were the remaining match at Collide and a co-main event. The winner earning the other spot in the YLWA championship match.
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Post by faulknasty on Mar 13, 2024 16:01:36 GMT
Collide (May 30th 2009)
Collide Started off with a banger of a match in the Circle of Friendship v League of Veterans series between Hank Andrews and Brandon. Both wrestlers had punishing offenses. Brandon’s strategy for the match is to keep Andrews from locking in his signature sharpshooter. After a few close calls, Brandon was able to do just that and was able to land his mascot suit assisted Frog Splash and get the win after a 3 count.
The Second match in the Circle of Friendship v League of Veterans series was the tag team Match between C.H. Bwam (Cody and Brandon) and the Skull Players (Skully Johnson and Grave Keeper). The match was brutal as both teams were giving out as much damage as they received. Halfway through the match Bryan appeared to have won the match with a shotgun stunner on Grave Keeper but Skully was able to break up the pin to save his team. Grave keeper was again in danger and saved by Skully after a leg drop from the top rope from Bryan. It was beginning to look like the inexperience of C.H. Bwam was going to fall to the veteran Skull Players. In his teams corner this time, Bryan, with Cody able to take out Skully this time, was able to finish Grave Keeper uninterrupted with another signature shotgun stunner to get the three count. After the match, Cody told the crowd “We have shown the veterans that we belong here, after only two matches! We are here to fight and you can not stop us! Michael, you’re up next to show these veterans..” and the Skull players had gotten back up and took cheap shots at Bryan and Cody knocking them out, showing that though the rookies had won they still had a lot to learn..
The co-main event, and the only match not in the Circle v League series, featured Canary and Madelyn battling it out for an opportunity for the vacant YLWA championship. This tough match started with a punch that busted open Canary and the two wrestlers didn’t let up from there. Canary’s strategy revolved around a leg based offense while Madelyn’s strategy consisted of endless taunts and a submissions and butt strikes based offense. Madelyn showed her toughness kicking out of a double leg stomp off the top ropes followed by a superkick. Canary immediately set up a second superkick and was able to get the 3 count and the prized opportunity at the YLWA championship.
The main event began with the future having already secured a victory over the past. To complete the sweep for the circle, Michael threw all he had at Tank Towers. Michael controlled most of the match but Towers took every hit and kept going. Three times Michael hit Towers with his signature stunner and Towers kicked out each time proving the veteran's near limitless toughness. Towers, powering through all his opponents moves, locked in his Rising Tower camel clutch, and forced Michael to tap. After the match, Towers disparaged the rest of the League of Veterans for losing to the newcomers, leaving the league to fall apart, as only Canary stood in his way of reclaiming the YLWA Championship, he lost to Steve Faulkner long ago.
Collide Fallout and The Road to Regenesis
The Out of Towners
YLWA had many out of town but recurring talent. The first out of towners to return where the tag team Showtime, Raven Baker, the Show Off, and Big Time Billy Higgins. Showtime traveled the country dominating tag matches with their large size and power. They brought news about the tag titles which will be covered in another section. During the same show, a Canadian Menace named Jean Defaut returned to YLWA. Defaut comes from the Quebec City Wrestling Academy, another wrestling school that YLWA had connections with and brought in talent from. He came out after Madelyn handled Brandon in a match to antagonize Michael into a match, with comically generic TV French accent, calling the circle a circle of losers. Michael came out to accept Defaut’s Challenge and won with a roll up, leaving Defaut sitting in disbelief in the middle of the ring.
The next show saw Neeman Fitzwater bringing in two more out of towners for number one contender matches for the YLWA championship. First was Ronnie Reed, an independent wrestler from Georgia. Reed trained in Atlanta and has traveled North America without having his own home company. Reed is fan favorite of the YLWA audience because of his fast high flying style. The other out of towner returning was Sexy Ramirez, a graduate of Antonio Garcia’s Iglesia de Lucha Libre, the other wrestling academy YLWA had connections with. Ramirez got over with the YLWA Audience with her exciting lucha style.
The Return of the Tag Titles
The return of Showtime brought an announcement about the vacant tag team titles. Showtime, with the news from YLWA owner Neeman Fitzwater, announced the return of the YLWA Tag Championship and the new champions would be decided in unique style. Two triple threat matches featuring members from C.H. Bwam, Skull players, and Showtime. If a member from different teams won from each match then the two teams would have a tag match later to determine the winner, or if both matches were won by members of the same team, then that team would be made the champions by default. The first match, between Raven Baker, Bryan, and the Grave Keeper, Baker’s Show Off Slam on the Grave Keeper led to a three count. The second match had Billy Higgins, Cody, and Skully Johnson facing off and Higgins forced Cody to submit with the Big Time Squeeze for the win. Showtime reclaimed the YLWA Tag Championship with victory over a member of both tag teams and reclaimed the tag team titles they lost long ago.
The next show, The Canadian menace Jean Defaut returned again with his generic TV french accent to insult and challenge Showtime to a tag title match. He brought along a newcomer to YLWA, a fellow Quebec City Wrestling Academy wrestler, the Golden Gift, Florian Cadeau to be his tag partner. Showtime answered the challenge always looking for a good fight. Team Quebec put up a good fight but Showtime never lost control of the match and Higgins once again put the match away with the Big Time Squeeze, This time on Florian Cadeau.
To find the challengers for Regenesis, a #1 Contenders Tag match was held between, Skull Players and the two brothers of the Circle of Friendship. While Cody was wrestling for a shot at the YLWA Championship, Bryan and Michael decided to work together for a shot at the tag titles.. Bryan and Michael were proving to be a capable tag team hanging with the Skull Players. Twice Grave Keeper had to break up Micheal putting a submission or pin on Skully Johnson. After Johnson avoided a back elbow drop from the top rope, Michael landed awkward and seemed to have issues his back or shoulder. Keeper went for a signature chokeslam on Michael after being tagged in by Johnson, and Michael was obviously in a lot of pain after. Referee Dawn stepped in and called the match a victory for Skull Players. Michael was still being checked on before being helped to the back, appearing to be somewhat seriously injured. Moments later it was officially announced that Skull Players would be taking on Showtime for YLWA Tag Championship at Regenesis.
The YLWA Champion
In the main event of the first show after Collide matched up Canary and Tank Towers for the YLWA championship. The match saw both wrestlers dish out punishing offense, Towers through throws and slams and Canary through high speed attacks. Canary barely kicked out of a Tank Slam and avoided being locked into the Rising Tower. Canary needed two Double Talon Stomps to put away Towers and become the new YLWA champion.
A new Champion needs a challenger, Neeman Fitzwater announced two fatal four ways with the winners facing each other for the chance to challenge Canary at Regenesis. The first match had the return of Sexy Ramirez taking on, Hank Andrews, Cody, and Grave Keeper. Cody was able to roll up Hank Andrew, while Ramirez and Grave Keeper were tied up. A second return was featured in the second match as Ronnie Reed took on Bryan, Skully Johnson, and Brandon. Brandon was also able to lock in a roll up for a win.
The #1 Contender Match was the first match between the best friends from the Circle of Friendship. Brandon was the first one Cody convinced to become a wrestler and became his biggest obstacle to challenging for his first singles title. They were able to set their friendship aside and gave each other their best match. The match was back and forth as neither wrestler was able to keep control of the match. Brandon was able to land a hurricanrana from the top rope for a 2.9 count. The finish came when Cody countered with his signature DDT to get the pinfall and the right to challenge for the YLWA championship at Regenesis.
Other Feuds
Leading into Regenesis, other small feuds were building to fill out the special event. After Collide, Madelyn defeated Brandon in a match and was challenged by Michael to a match to stick up for his comrade. Michael came close on getting Madelyn with a surprise roll up but Madelyn was able to kick out just before 3. After a twist of fate, Madelyn set Michael to get hit by a flying hip attack and secure the pinfall. At the show before Regenesis, Madelyn had announced after taking down two members of the circle it was time to take them all down, laying down a challenge for Bryan at Regenesis since his “partner was currently busy.” Bryan came out and accepted Madelyn’s challenge, recognizing she was very talented but claiming he would come out the winner at Regenesis.
After the fatal four way loss, Sexy Ramirez was being taunted by Hank Andrews for being a failure upon returning to the YLWA. Ramirez challenged Andrews to a match and handled him easily. Tank Towers came out after to challenge Ramirez saying his old partner isn’t what he used to be and that she should face him to have a real challenge. Later the Match was made official for Regenesis.
For the last Match for Regenesis, special guests from PEWA, the Bingo Hall Mutants, were invited to an anything goes tag match against Team Quebec.
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