The Dexcon Wrestle Storm Experience

03/30/2024 10:34:29 PM

Sometime last year, there was a collective effort made by some of my friends form the local wrestling circle – an event called Dexcon, I won't bore you with the details as I may tell a few words about them later on.

This year, Dexcon has transformed into a collective organization of people from the likes of Channel Fourteen, Fight Sport Manila, and Kayfabe Cafe, to name a few. But more than that, Dexcon has drove away from their usual wrestling event watching parties at CardBros Hobby Shop and some meet and trade for cards. Their event has evolved into an exciting weekend of wrestling.

This edition of Dexcon kicked off with the Wrestle Bazaar held Saturday (23 March 2024). The metropolis's top shopping district was the focal point of the story as fans flocked the Unbox Greenhills inside Promenade Hall in Greenhills, San Juan for the meet and greet involving participating wrestlers for Sunday's event. Aside from having interactions with them, merchandise items were up for grabs in bazaar.

That was just the primer. Sunday pictures the entire thing as the series shifts to Quezon City. Sunday evening came along, and people dropped by Brawl Pit Bulusan for the Wrestle Storm itself. 

Kicking things off is the Kappa World Order attempting to dominate their way in a handicap match against the legendary Pinoy Bulldog. Don't mistake him for his age, the guy knows how to work his way around and indeed he managed to thwart off the eerie visitors.

Next up is the formal opening of the show, as Sonny Go shouted “It's Go Time!” the clash among tag teams was on: Turn Zero Kill (the team of St. John Martin and Ken Cifer) had its first title defense against the re-emerging Gemini Kings (the duo of Main Maxx and ROMEO) for the World Underground Wrestling Tag Team Championship. 

Following this match is the surprise inter-gender affair between Chelsea Marie and the debuting AFAM Steve. While it was a good back-and-forth among the competitors, the friendship proposal is at stake; and sadly, Steve didn't get a nod for his offer after his loss.

Then, there's another match between Razael and Zera. But apart from their previous encounter in the same venue before, this contest spelled a difference: the unmasking of latter at the end. That happened after having Razael controlled the most part of this high-octane affair.

Over 65 minutes have passed into the event (yup, including those four matches) and we go into an intermission. But here's the catch: those who stick around were in for a treat as Titan Arms Taguig made their presence felt for a trifecta of arm-wrestling matches. It's about time other sports emerged into the spotlight aside from our own professional wrestling, too.

Clock ticks at 7:30 and we're back to the main program. Silent D clashes with The Machine in what has been a squash match; the latter sending a message to St. John Martin afterwards.

Then came the second international bout of the night: The Daredevil himself, Robin Sane crossed paths with Shivam,a member of Setup Thailand Pro Wrestling who just wrestled another world-class talent in Zack Sabre Jr in his home country the night prior. Talk about being the busy guy in the region for that weekend. They kicked in the high gear as the action finally spilled on the outside.

The match of the night candidate ended with the “Philippines' favorite son” beating the one-time MWF Champion. Interesting, though, to see what the next fate of this would be for the internationally driven Pinoy wrestler.

Then, there's another tag team championship match to cap this 'stormy' evening as Oro Plata Mata (the team of Godkiller Dabid Ravena and the current MWF Pinoy Wrestling Champion Jake de Leon) clashes with the Calamari Drunken Kings (Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi of DDT Pro Wrestling) for the Setup Thailand-sanctioned IWA Japan Setup World Tag Team Championship.

It was a spectacular main event for a reason as these four guys put on a show; thus, proving that GK himself could tag along with their international counterparts, thanks to his alliance with JDL and OPM.

It was probably the fastest two and a half hours as most of the seven matches went by in a breeze. It's like a house show that went by without the dragging style of booking. Entertainment at its finest, if you want to see a primer of what the Philippine wrestling can do aside from the staple promotions here like MWF, FPW, and even WUW.

It was an honor not to just witness how the action unfolding right before my very eyes, but to also capture moments as the event's official photographer – something I haven't done since the now-defunct PWR show back in April 2018. With all the needs to run from one side to the other and squatting in between just to get decent shots in any of the three cameras I handled during the evening? Man, I'm glad I can still do this thing despite the physically intense activities I have to undergo in the process. 

The SlickMaster's Files would like to thank Martin (MARTIN!) of Channel Fourteen for having me as one of the media partners of Dexcon as well as to the brothers at Fight Sport Manila for providing me help in documenting the show through the photos.

Author: slickmaster | © 2024 The SlickMaster's Files