Future Stars Of Wrestling Invade Las Vegas ToyCon 2024
by Brendan M. Allen
Las Vegas ToyCon ‘24 took place last weekend at World Market Center. Along with the features you’d expect from a standard toy convention, ToyCon also offered a car show, celebrity signings and photo ops, and two Future Stars of Wrestling shows.
Independent pro wrestling is a whole different animal than what you see on TV. Bigger organizations like WWE, TNA, and AEW have the ability to use long term storytelling across weeks, months, and years. One of the biggest challenges wrestlers face on the indie circuit is telling a story fans can get behind, with a much shorter timeline. They have to make fans care, in minutes, with very little exposition. Without that buy-in from the fans, nothing else that happens in the ring matters. The best technical wrestlers in the world are completely useless if they can’t connect with fans.
In addition to physical skills and training, FSW is clearly putting a lot of stock into ring psychology, character development, and cutting promos, making for a well-rounded roster from top to bottom.
Friday night opened up with a Fatal 4 Way, which ended with Damian Drake pinning RBJ. The next bout was a singles match where Matt Vandagriff defeated Zane Jay. In an FSW Tag Team Championship match, Sky High retained their titles with a victory over Makeshift Chemistry. Next, Shogun defended the FSW Heavyweight Championship against Jeaux Braxton. In the main event, Chris Bey defeated Danny Limelight to retain the Mecca Grand Championship.
On the Saturday card, Bret the Threat won a Battle Royal to determine the challenger for Bodhi Young Prodigy’s No Limits Title in the main event. Watson defeated AJ Aven in singles competition. Sky High edged out a win over Mariachi Montana to retain the FSW Tag Team Championship. Danny Limelight defeated Fox Valentine in a singles match. Then Rachelle Riveter defeated Jordan Blu to retain the FSW Women’s Championship. Capping off two days of indie pro wrestling, Bodhi Young Prodigy defeated Bret the Threat to retain his FSW No Limits Championship.
Everything went pretty smoothly, and in the rare instances where a spot didn’t work quite as planned, quick thinking and adaptation kept the action rolling. You really can’t ask for more than that on a live show. On a solid couple of cards, a few things really stood out for me. Danny Limelight’s crowd work is fantastic. He’s a born heel, whose timing and quick wit can turn a crowd within seconds. Rachelle Riveter’s young son was a highlight in the front row at Saturday’s show. It was pretty stinking adorable listening to him cheer on his mom and drop the dime on other fans who weren’t saying such nice things about her.
Lastly, I want to say a couple things about the FSW No Limits Champion, Bhodi Young Prodigy. When Bhodi first hit the ramp on the way to the ring for Saturday’s main event, I was confused. He is literally a kid. Sixteen years old, but putting in the work, and holding his own against grown ass men and women. This young man hit a near-perfect 450 splash on Bret the Threat to retain. For those of you who aren’t familiar, that’s when one competitor climbs up to the top rope and executes a 450° forward aerial somersault to land across the torso of their supine opponent. Timing and precision are essential to pull off this impressive looking maneuver without injuring either competitor, and Bhodi makes it look effortless.
I cannot get enough of events like this. Every last one of us nerds out over something. Cars, shoes, sports, toys, comics, wrestling… It’s a beautiful thing when an event like Las Vegas ToyCon finds that intersection in the middle of the Venn diagram of nerdy fandoms and sets up camp.
