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Reese def. Webber To Earn #1 Contendership For WAH Title

Posted: Jul 12th 2023 By: CMBurnham

All younger siblings know what it's like to live in the shadow of their older counterpart.

There is always comparison made. The older is smarter, nicer, better. They achieve more. They set the standard. They have to be measured up to.

When Romeo Reese and Dan Webber tagged together as Most Wanted, they weren't siblings. They never claimed to be that. But they made their impressions as a unit, initially in WAH and then other companies. And after Most Wanted split up, Webber went on to become a 2-time WAH Champion. A 2-time UWE Champion. A spokesperson for WFC.

Not to say Reese didn't have accomplishments of his own. He held the WAH Spotlight Title for four months. He and San La Muerte won the WAH Tag Team Titles as members of Dark Forces and held those for 7 months. And he made his own impressions in many companies including UWE and MajCW.

But promoters and bookers always looked at Reese as the smaller guy. The tag team guy. Never as the guy who should be in the main event.

This past Saturday, Reese proved that whether they wanted him in the main event or not, he was going to be there. He did that by winning a #1 contenders tournament for the WAH Title. And he beat Dan Webber to do so.

Reese's path to the finals started with a highly contested match over Tyler Midas. Midas was less than a month into his wrestling career, having made his debut at the UWE Sooner Stampede match. As a newcomer, Midas understood that you have to take any opportunity you can. And interestingly, Midas had Dan Webber accompany him to the ring. Midas gave it everything he had, but was seriously outclassed and could not make up for the lack of experience going in and Reese moved on to the second round.

That round brought him face-to-face with the WAH Living Hope Champion Eddie LeVaughn. LeVaughn had been one of the members of Team WAH to vanquish Dark Forces two weeks before and while that group was forced to disband, the members were not banned from the company. But Reese was the only former member there and looked to gain some revenge for his former associates. Again, it was a tough match.with Reese taking advantage of a referee distraction to hit a low blow on LeVaughn and move on to the finals.

Not to say Dan Webber didn't have a tough road to the finals as well. His first round match was against WAH newcomer Jean-Claude. The "Fighting Frenchman" came to the ring angry about his placement on the flyer and seemingly more upset about the fans' reaction than to his opponent. But Dan Webber was there to do business. And he took care of business, getting the win with relative ease.

Moving on to the second round, Webber found himself-face-to-face with arguably the only other WAH roster member as popular as Webber: Trench Blythe. Blythe had faced WAH Spotlight Champion Anthony Wild in the first round and pinned the champion in something of a surprise move. This seemed to spark something inside Wild and while it seemed like after the match, he was willing to show sportsmanship and appreciation for what Blythe accomplished, that was soon revealed as a deception when he blindsided Blythe and hit him with a Black Hole Slam, injuring his ribs. Blythe had only minimal time to recover from that and entered the match against Webber at less than one hundred percent. Beyond the physical issues, Blythe is also someone who only recently returned to the ring this year after a multi-year layoff, so Webber's experience level outshone the plucky man from the trenches of Owasso. In the end, Webber gained the victory and moved to the finals.

So it was former partners facing off against each other at the end. And while there was no love lost between the two, there was certainly respect. Facing a former partner is sometimes like facing a mirror image of yourself. Each man knows how the other thinks. They know the moves, the psychology, the weaknesses of their opponent. And this match was very evenly matched, even though both men are very different styles of wrestler. But there was still a surprise to come. Towards the end of the match, both men ended up knocked down on the mat when, from the back, arrived Mike Andrews. Earlier that night, Andrews had made an unannounced appearance after Dan Webber's victory in the round one. He mentioned that he had watched Webber. He enjoyed what he saw and he wanted Webber to join Marvelous, Inc. Webber told Andrews that he would get back to him in about 30 days (Which was a nice way of refusing the offer), but nonetheless Andrews was now at ringside. But it wasn't Webber that Andrews was interested in. It was Reese. And it was Andrews' selfie-stick that Reese ended up smashing over the head of Webber, knocking him down.

But that was only good enough for a two-count. And the shock on both men's faces let on that there was still work to be done. So Reese climbed to the top rope and delivered an elbow drop straight to the sternum. That blow found its mark and Webber was pinned in the ring by Reese.

All the years of frustration, the empty hopes, the unfulfilled promises; those all went away when the tournament was done. With Mike Andrews by his side, Romeo Reese now had a guaranteed opportunity at the WAH Title held by Rush Freeman on August 12th. And Reese now has the chance to cement his name as one of the best in WAH. And one of the best in Oklahoma. Mike Andrews certainly sees dollar signs with this association. But Reese just sees opportunities. And while he may have gotten in the way of his own success in the past, he is not going to let this chance slide by so easily.