GPA, Laynie Luck retain titles at Freelance Underground in Joliet
By Mike Pankow
February 14, 2020
One of the dastardliest heels in Chicago independent wrestling found yet another way to retain his Freelance Underground Championship at Freelance Underground’s latest stop in Joliet last Saturday.
Freelance Underground Champion GPA lowers his shoulder into Egotistico Fantastico in the corner of their main event match at “We’re Just Getting Started” on Saturday night at the Cantigny VFW in Joliet. (Photo by Mike Pankow)
GPA defeated Egotistico Fantastico when the “Ivy Leaguer” countered the Joliet native’s finishing move, the Death Valley Driver, by ripping off his mask and then rolling him up for the pin in the main event of “We’re Just Getting Started” at the Cantigny VFW Post 367.
It was the second straight time GPA escaped Joliet with the title after he won a four-way match over Fantastico, Isaias Velazquez and Gringo Loco in October when GPA stole a pin on Fantastico while he locked up Velazquez in a surfboard.
Saturday’s match was a classic heel-vs.-babyface affair with the veteran Fantastico feeding off the local crowd and GPA using his cunning to extricate himself from any threatening situation.
It wrapped up a draining double main-event weekend for Fantastico, who is the alter ego of Robert “Ego” Anthony.
Anthony, performing as a heel along with his manager Frank the Clown, put on an epic performance against Freelance World Champion Kylie Rae during Freelance Wrestling’s “Send In the Clowns” on Friday night at Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago. A bloodied Anthony appeared to be on verge of winning the title hitting the Death Valley Driver twice on Kylie, but Kylie surprised Anthony with a roll-up for the pinfall.
All the defending champions successfully retained their titles Saturday night, including Freelance Underground Independent Champion Laynie Luck and FU Tag Team Champions, The Brothers of Funstruction.
Luck staved off the challenge of JJ Garrett and his manager Captain Midnight Guthrie in an intergender match. The “Too Turnt Party Unicorn” showed off some of her traditional moves, including her springboard arm drags.
Freelance Underground Independent Champion Laynie Luck successfully defended the title against JJ Garrett. (Photo by Mike Pankow)
Guthrie frequently tried to interfere in the bout as he even choked Luck in the ropes when the referee was distracted. Luck overcame the nefarious duo, hitting a Unicorn Destroyer (Canadian Destroyer) followed by a flying cutter to subdue Garrett for a three-count.
After Luck’s victory, Jesus Bryce and Elayna Black of The Following came out and tried to get Luck to join their faction. After Luck declined, Bryce attacked Luck, hitting her with his finishing move.
Bryce appeared to be setting up for Luck for a piledriver or a power bomb when Kylie Rae came out with a steel chair to chase away the heels and save Luck. This set up next month’s big tag team match at FU’s next event in Itasca on March 14 with Luck and Kylie Rae facing Bryce and Black.
In the semi-main event, the Brothers of Funstruction (Ruffo and Yabo) retained the FU Tag Team titles over the Coco Buffs (veteran Chicago grapplers Marshe Rockett and Acid Jaz). The Buffs came out wearing party hats to celebrate Jaz’s birthday. Meanwhile, the clowns brought their treasure chest to the ring.
As usual with many of their matches, the Brothers of Funstruction intertwined comedy spots with power wrestling maneuvers.
Late in the match, Yabo introduced a pie, but Jaz stole it away. Jaz looked to smash Yabo with it, but Yabo ducked and Jaz drove the pie right into the face of referee Jeremy Tillema, temporarily blinding him. Ruffo joined Yabo in the ring and hit their finishing move on Jaz and scored the three-count.
In another featured match, Bryce defeated Project M.O.N.I.X. in a solid match. Bryce was accompanied by Black, who interjected herself into the match on numerous occasions. At the end, M.O.N.I.X. was distracted by Black and Bryce drove M.O.N.I.X.’s head into the mat for the pin.
Afterward, Bryce grabbed the microphone and tried to get the young high-flyer to join the Following. M.O.N.I.X. eventually stumbled out of the ring and went to the back.
Upon conclusion of the show, M.O.N.I.X. took to social media and appeared ready to take a sabbatical from wrestling.
“In a spot mentally/physically where I need to step away from Wrestling for the foreseeable future,” M.O.N.I.X. wrote. “Thank you for understanding. Thank you for supporting.”
Elayna Black, right, delivers a kick to Freelance World Champion Kylie Rae in a battle of two local standouts from the Chicago suburbs. (Photo by Mike Pankow)
Kylie Rae defeated Black in a battle of local products by getting Black to tap out to the crossface.
At the beginning of the match, Black took out her tarot cards to try to intimidate Kylie, but Kylie countered with a pack of Pokémon cards in a light-hearted moment. Black clotheslined Kylie to get the match started in earnest. The two women engaged in a back-and-forth affair before Kylie eventually recorded the victory.
Velazquez, Ashtyn Braven and Dean Jacobs defeated the trio of Matt Knicks, Storm Grayson and Danger Mask in a six-man tag team match. In a funny sequence with Danger Mask’s hood impairing his eyesight, he gave inverted atomic drops to everyone involved in the match, including his partners and the referee. Jacobs eventually pinned Danger Mask to record the victory for his team.
In a highly-contested three-way match, “The Iron Demon” Shane Mercer defeated Jason Cade and Tony Deppen. Mercer displayed his massive strength by throwing his opponents all over the ring. All three men got to show off their skills before Mercer hit a slam off the top rope on Cade and scored the fall.
In the opener on the main card, the Bang Bros. (Davey Bang and August Matthews) defeated Akira and Aidan Blackhart in a tag team match. Bang, an up-and-comer at the Freelance Wrestling Academy, hit a 450 splash on Akira to score the pin for his team.
In a pre-show match, Sean Galloway defeated Trevor Outlaw.
Freelance Underground delivered another fun, action-packed show from top to bottom to a packed house in Joliet. The promotion announced June 6 as a return date to the Cantigny VFW.
For a photo gallery of over 100 photos from the event, plus thousands from other events Windy City Slam has covered, go to https://www.windycityslam.com/photos.
Catch Windy City Slam editor Mike Pankow talking local and national pro wrestling every week with Chris Lanuti on The Windy City Slam Podcast, available Tuesday mornings wherever you download podcasts or at https://windycityslam.podbean.com/.
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