Post by cavedweller73 on Feb 12, 2012 10:11:41 GMT -5
This was another awesome show put on by IWAU last night. Here's what happened:
Pre show match:
Randy Ray vs. Perry Winkle
I've never seen either of these guys before. Ray was the heel came out to "Get Rhythm", which was pretty cool. He sorta looked like a not-in-perfect-shape Christopher Daniels. Winkle came out wearing green ring attire (get it? "Perry Winkle"....). He kind of looked like a younger Oliver Cain. Both guys were actually impressive, especially for a pre-show match. Both guys got in some really stiff strikes and pulled off some decent moves. In the end, Winkle got the win when he hooked Ray into a submission hold in which he had him in an armbar but then wrapped his leg around his face, pulling his head back. Ray tapped out.
Next, they did a silly little promo thing where the commissioner called out Ax Alwardt and some large woman gave him a can of dog food and squeaky toys. Sure, it was stupid, but the fans got a kick out of it.
The main show started with them turning off the lights and doing a big countdown. Wow.....someones been to an ROH show, I see. On to the main show:
Tony G vs. Jason V
This was my first time seeing Tony in person. He kinda looks like cross between Rory Mondo from CZW and Dasher Hatfield from Chikara. Jason V is always entertaining to watch and was doing all of his usual, somewhat disgusting comedy spots. I'd still like to see him and Juicy Jimmy either have a match or form a tag team. After the comedy spots, the match was really good. The end of the match came when Jason grabbed a pink plastic bat that he brought to the ring and went to hit Tony. Tony got it away from him and went to hit him, but the ref stopped him and Jason then rolled him up for a quick pin. After the match, Tony and the ref argued and Tony pretended to kick dirt on him and the ref then pretended to eject him.
Reed Bentley vs. Arik Cannon
They were billing this as a "hard hitter vs. hard hitter" match. It was a little weird to see Cannon as a face, since he makes for such a good heel. One thing I knew about this match was that Bentley can certainly take a heck of a beating and I knew Cannon would give it to him.....and he did. Oh man, did he!!! Cannon literally beat the stuffing out of Bentley. Bentley did get in a few shots here and there, and while they were stiff, once Cannon would hit him back, his shots were downright cringe-worthy. They brawled around on the floor some. In the end, Cannon did his awesome sequence of very quick, snappy moves that ended with a brain buster and he got the pin.
Generation Kill (Matt Maverick & Blake Reed) vs. A.T. Brooks & The Intimidator
The stipulation here was that if they didn't win, Generation Kill would have to break up as a tag team. I believe this was my first time seeing The Intimidator actually work a match. The guy is kind of a cross between 1980's era Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and Black Flag era Henry Rollins. He's surprisingly agile for his size too. Blake Reed is also surprisingly mobile for his large size as well. As for Maverick....well, he was his usual, slow and sloppy self. Nothing much really happened during the match. Most of the match was the two larger Gen Kill guys beating the crap out of the much smaller Brooks. Once Brooks got the hot tag to The Intimidator, he was all over both guys and took them both out. Somewhere in all of this, Maverick pulled out brass knuckles. The Intmidator then hit both guys with Stone Cold stunners but Maverick fell on Brooks and pinned him. The ref then saw the brass knuckles and reversed the call, DQ'ing Gen Kill. They were then forced to break up and stripped of the tag team titles Then, some large guy in a mask (who I think they call "Doomsday") ran into the ring with a manager that sorta looked like a cross between Jackie Fargo and Ian Rotten ran in and attacked The Intimidator. Brandon Walker ran in with a chair for the save, for some reason. The commissioner then came out and set up a match between this Doomsday fellow and The Intimidator. The whole thing was kind of a jumbled mess, but it was also kind of fun to watch, for what it was.
Ricochet vs. Danny Cannon
This match was being billed as a "high flyer vs. high flyer" match and this was the whole reason why I even came to this show. And oh man, did this match deliver!! From start to finish, this match was awesome with both guys looking absolutely perfect. It's almost amazing how great Rico looked. The guy is becoming a machine. And Cannon more than kept up with him and looked amazing as well. To be honest, there wasn't all THAT much high flying in the match. There were a few dives to the outside but that was about it. In a way though, it was kind of cool because it showed that Rico is getting better and better as a well-rounded wrestler and not just a "spot monkey" as some have called him in the past. I don't even think Rico broke a sweat in the match! In the end, Cannon got the win when Rico was going to give him and DDT and Cannon flipped up onto Rico's shoulders and hit him with a crucifix and pinned him. Rico was shocked but then got up and shook Cannon's hand and put him over. Awesome match!!!!
Next was intermission. At the end of the intermission, Scott Parker came out and cut some promo about how Shank Barzini had injured him and he was putting a $5000 bounty on his head. Shank was actually over at the merch table signing autographs and taking pictures....it still amazes me how over that guy is in Olney. Anyway, Parker said he was going to bring out someone to take Shank out and Cole James came out with the Jackie Fargo/Ian Rotten manager guy and said he wanted the match to be a handicap match, so he brought out Ax Alwardt. So...
Cole James & Ax Alwardt vs. Shank Barzini
Nothing of real note happened in the match, but it wasn't exactly a horrible match. Probably the biggest spot was when Scott Parker went to hit Shank with his metal briefcase and then Shank got it away from him and SLAMMED it onto his head, breaking the case in half. Most of the match was Shank and Ax working together with James hiding in the corner. Once James got in, Shank beat the crap out of him and hit him with a nasty-looking DVD and pinned him. Shank then left, but the commissioner guy came back out and got into James' face. Ax then kicked him between the legs and hit him with a wicked piledriver. Everyone from the back ran in to check on him. It was a nice touch to make Danny Cannon be the one checking on the commissioner's neck since Cannon is a legit E.M.T. They brought out a stretcher but he got up and Cannon and some of the others helped him walk to the back. Another jumbled mess of a match, but once again, still a rather fun mess to watch.
Gunner Franks w/ Angelus Layne vs. Darin Corbin
They were billing this one as a "Man vs. Man" match. Needless to say, Corbin was having fun with THAT. That guy is another one who's so much fun to watch. I've seen Franks before and wasn't overly impressed by him. However, he seems to have improved a LOT since the last time I saw him. There were some comedy spots to start off but once things got going, Franks hit Corbin with enough quick arm drags that Mike Quackenbush himself would be saying, "Man, that's a lot of quick arm drags!" Corbin rolled out of the ring, got on the mic and said, "Enough of this! We're going to work this match at MY speed!" He got back into the ring, summoned the power of....well, whatever he summons the power of and then the match was ON....IN SLOW MOTION!! I've seen Corbin several times now, but this was the first time I've seen him do this spot in person....and it was AWESOME!!!! Or, should I say it......was.......awe......some....... HA HA!! The only downside was that the some in the crowd didn't seem to know what to make of it, but hey....that's Olney for ya! Franks and Layne also worked the spot perfectly and it was great! later in the match (once it went back to full speed...ha ha) Franks was on the top rope and Corbin pulled him off and threw him to the floor. He hit with a NASTY *thud* and the crowd literally went silent. The crowd reaction alone make that spot amazing! Corbin then grabbed Layne and pulled her into the ring and threatened to either hit or kiss her, but she slapped him and got away from him. Franks got back into the ring and tried to roll up Corbin but he kicked out and then hit Franks with a full nelson slam type move and pined him. The crowd was angry by the finish, but this was another really fun match to watch....especially the slow motion stuff!!!
IWAU Title match
Cash Bordin vs. Joey O'Riley (c) vs. Matt Cage
This was suppose to be just Joey vs. Cash but I guess Cage had stole joey's belt and got himself added to the match. In this match, Joey looked awesome, as usual. Cage was really "on" for this one as well. It's almost amazing how good that guy's gotten over the last few years. The only real draw-back in this one seemed to be Cash. He's really over with the fans, but honestly, he's not that good. I mean, he's certainly not the worst wrestler I've ever seen, but he is really sloppy. Whenever Joey and Cage were working together, they were stringing together all kinds of smooth moves, but then Cash would jump in the and break their flow and it was just horrible. Most of the opening moments of the match involved Joey and Cage teaming up on Cash. I wish the match would have been elimination rules and they would have gotten rid of him quickly. Despite that though, this match had a bit of everything....SUPER stiff strikes, fast action and even dives to the outside. O'Riley took a heck of a beating in the match. So much was happening so fast that I couldn't keep up with it all. In the end, Cage had Cash in a crossface submission and the ref was dropping his hand. As this was happening, O'Riley climbed to the top rope and just as the ref was about to drop Cash's hand the third time, O'Riley did a 450 splash onto both guys and pinned them both. D*MN that was an awesome spot!!!!
Main Event
I Quit Match
Alex Castle vs. Christian Rose
All I can say about this match is GOOD GOD!!!! First of all, I take back any negative things I've ever said about Castle. That dude's REALLY stepped up his game and has gotten so much better. Rose was playing the insane heel gimmick and doing it perfectly. It's also pretty amazing how awesome he's gotten over the last year or so. Castle attacked Rose before the bell rang and the fight was ON!!! They were fighting all around the ring. Chairs were used and even a trash can came from somewhere and was used. At one point, Castle went to the back and pulled out another trash can full of New Jack "plunda" and threw it into the ring. The match then turned into more of an old school, hardcore ECW brawl then I saw Tommy Dreamer himself have with Sami Callihan last week in Indianapolis!! Cookie sheets, a mop, a plunger, an electrical cord and other stuff were all used in the match. Castle even pulled out two much larger pieces of sheet metal (or "sh*t metal....yes, I just made an XPW reference!!) from under the ring. At one point in the match, Jason V ran in and tried to throw in the towel for Rose. I guess him and Rose are suppose to be buddies now. Castle took him out. Rose ran to the back and came back to the ring with electrical tape and yelled, "I'm going to go all Casey Anthony on your ass!!" WOW!!! Castle fought back and got the tape himself and taped Rose to the corner. Reed Bentley then ran in and him and Jason V attacked Castle. Bentley got Rose away from the corner and all three of then went after Castle. Arik Cannon then ran in and took out Bentley and Castle got a chair and waffled Jason V with it. Castle then grabbed a Crown Royal bag from under the ring, opened it and dumped thumbtacks in the corner. They teased one of them getting dropped into the tacks but neither one did. The fight continued until Matt Cage ran into the ring and got a chair and teased that he was going to hit Castle. Instead, he handed Castle the chair and said, "Kill him!" Castle then hit him with the chair and then got him into a full nelson and did a full nelson slam ONTO THE THUMBTACKS!!!! He then pulled Rose up and threatened to do a Super Dragon-inspired curb stomp with Rose's face over the tacks. Rose screamed "I QUIT!!!!" and Castle won. MAN, OH MAN, WHAT A MATCH!!!!!!!
All I can say about this show was that it delivered on EVERY level and was absolutely AWESOME!!!!! Even the way in which the flow of the matches happen worked really, really well. They mixed in the advertised "big ticket" matches with the lower-level matches, instead of having all the local guys put the crowd to sleep first and THEN bring out guys like Arik Cannon and Ricochet. It's amazing how IWAU is growing and their shows just seem to be getting better and better. And the crowds they're drawing are really off-the-charts. Granted, they are your typical, "cheer the faces, boo the heels" small town wrestling fans but they were molten hot for the entire show and in same cases, made some of the spots in the matches seem that much more important.
I gotta say, after last night's show, IWAU proved that they are one of the absolute best local wrestling shows running....and they just keep getting better.
Pre show match:
Randy Ray vs. Perry Winkle
I've never seen either of these guys before. Ray was the heel came out to "Get Rhythm", which was pretty cool. He sorta looked like a not-in-perfect-shape Christopher Daniels. Winkle came out wearing green ring attire (get it? "Perry Winkle"....). He kind of looked like a younger Oliver Cain. Both guys were actually impressive, especially for a pre-show match. Both guys got in some really stiff strikes and pulled off some decent moves. In the end, Winkle got the win when he hooked Ray into a submission hold in which he had him in an armbar but then wrapped his leg around his face, pulling his head back. Ray tapped out.
Next, they did a silly little promo thing where the commissioner called out Ax Alwardt and some large woman gave him a can of dog food and squeaky toys. Sure, it was stupid, but the fans got a kick out of it.
The main show started with them turning off the lights and doing a big countdown. Wow.....someones been to an ROH show, I see. On to the main show:
Tony G vs. Jason V
This was my first time seeing Tony in person. He kinda looks like cross between Rory Mondo from CZW and Dasher Hatfield from Chikara. Jason V is always entertaining to watch and was doing all of his usual, somewhat disgusting comedy spots. I'd still like to see him and Juicy Jimmy either have a match or form a tag team. After the comedy spots, the match was really good. The end of the match came when Jason grabbed a pink plastic bat that he brought to the ring and went to hit Tony. Tony got it away from him and went to hit him, but the ref stopped him and Jason then rolled him up for a quick pin. After the match, Tony and the ref argued and Tony pretended to kick dirt on him and the ref then pretended to eject him.
Reed Bentley vs. Arik Cannon
They were billing this as a "hard hitter vs. hard hitter" match. It was a little weird to see Cannon as a face, since he makes for such a good heel. One thing I knew about this match was that Bentley can certainly take a heck of a beating and I knew Cannon would give it to him.....and he did. Oh man, did he!!! Cannon literally beat the stuffing out of Bentley. Bentley did get in a few shots here and there, and while they were stiff, once Cannon would hit him back, his shots were downright cringe-worthy. They brawled around on the floor some. In the end, Cannon did his awesome sequence of very quick, snappy moves that ended with a brain buster and he got the pin.
Generation Kill (Matt Maverick & Blake Reed) vs. A.T. Brooks & The Intimidator
The stipulation here was that if they didn't win, Generation Kill would have to break up as a tag team. I believe this was my first time seeing The Intimidator actually work a match. The guy is kind of a cross between 1980's era Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and Black Flag era Henry Rollins. He's surprisingly agile for his size too. Blake Reed is also surprisingly mobile for his large size as well. As for Maverick....well, he was his usual, slow and sloppy self. Nothing much really happened during the match. Most of the match was the two larger Gen Kill guys beating the crap out of the much smaller Brooks. Once Brooks got the hot tag to The Intimidator, he was all over both guys and took them both out. Somewhere in all of this, Maverick pulled out brass knuckles. The Intmidator then hit both guys with Stone Cold stunners but Maverick fell on Brooks and pinned him. The ref then saw the brass knuckles and reversed the call, DQ'ing Gen Kill. They were then forced to break up and stripped of the tag team titles Then, some large guy in a mask (who I think they call "Doomsday") ran into the ring with a manager that sorta looked like a cross between Jackie Fargo and Ian Rotten ran in and attacked The Intimidator. Brandon Walker ran in with a chair for the save, for some reason. The commissioner then came out and set up a match between this Doomsday fellow and The Intimidator. The whole thing was kind of a jumbled mess, but it was also kind of fun to watch, for what it was.
Ricochet vs. Danny Cannon
This match was being billed as a "high flyer vs. high flyer" match and this was the whole reason why I even came to this show. And oh man, did this match deliver!! From start to finish, this match was awesome with both guys looking absolutely perfect. It's almost amazing how great Rico looked. The guy is becoming a machine. And Cannon more than kept up with him and looked amazing as well. To be honest, there wasn't all THAT much high flying in the match. There were a few dives to the outside but that was about it. In a way though, it was kind of cool because it showed that Rico is getting better and better as a well-rounded wrestler and not just a "spot monkey" as some have called him in the past. I don't even think Rico broke a sweat in the match! In the end, Cannon got the win when Rico was going to give him and DDT and Cannon flipped up onto Rico's shoulders and hit him with a crucifix and pinned him. Rico was shocked but then got up and shook Cannon's hand and put him over. Awesome match!!!!
Next was intermission. At the end of the intermission, Scott Parker came out and cut some promo about how Shank Barzini had injured him and he was putting a $5000 bounty on his head. Shank was actually over at the merch table signing autographs and taking pictures....it still amazes me how over that guy is in Olney. Anyway, Parker said he was going to bring out someone to take Shank out and Cole James came out with the Jackie Fargo/Ian Rotten manager guy and said he wanted the match to be a handicap match, so he brought out Ax Alwardt. So...
Cole James & Ax Alwardt vs. Shank Barzini
Nothing of real note happened in the match, but it wasn't exactly a horrible match. Probably the biggest spot was when Scott Parker went to hit Shank with his metal briefcase and then Shank got it away from him and SLAMMED it onto his head, breaking the case in half. Most of the match was Shank and Ax working together with James hiding in the corner. Once James got in, Shank beat the crap out of him and hit him with a nasty-looking DVD and pinned him. Shank then left, but the commissioner guy came back out and got into James' face. Ax then kicked him between the legs and hit him with a wicked piledriver. Everyone from the back ran in to check on him. It was a nice touch to make Danny Cannon be the one checking on the commissioner's neck since Cannon is a legit E.M.T. They brought out a stretcher but he got up and Cannon and some of the others helped him walk to the back. Another jumbled mess of a match, but once again, still a rather fun mess to watch.
Gunner Franks w/ Angelus Layne vs. Darin Corbin
They were billing this one as a "Man vs. Man" match. Needless to say, Corbin was having fun with THAT. That guy is another one who's so much fun to watch. I've seen Franks before and wasn't overly impressed by him. However, he seems to have improved a LOT since the last time I saw him. There were some comedy spots to start off but once things got going, Franks hit Corbin with enough quick arm drags that Mike Quackenbush himself would be saying, "Man, that's a lot of quick arm drags!" Corbin rolled out of the ring, got on the mic and said, "Enough of this! We're going to work this match at MY speed!" He got back into the ring, summoned the power of....well, whatever he summons the power of and then the match was ON....IN SLOW MOTION!! I've seen Corbin several times now, but this was the first time I've seen him do this spot in person....and it was AWESOME!!!! Or, should I say it......was.......awe......some....... HA HA!! The only downside was that the some in the crowd didn't seem to know what to make of it, but hey....that's Olney for ya! Franks and Layne also worked the spot perfectly and it was great! later in the match (once it went back to full speed...ha ha) Franks was on the top rope and Corbin pulled him off and threw him to the floor. He hit with a NASTY *thud* and the crowd literally went silent. The crowd reaction alone make that spot amazing! Corbin then grabbed Layne and pulled her into the ring and threatened to either hit or kiss her, but she slapped him and got away from him. Franks got back into the ring and tried to roll up Corbin but he kicked out and then hit Franks with a full nelson slam type move and pined him. The crowd was angry by the finish, but this was another really fun match to watch....especially the slow motion stuff!!!
IWAU Title match
Cash Bordin vs. Joey O'Riley (c) vs. Matt Cage
This was suppose to be just Joey vs. Cash but I guess Cage had stole joey's belt and got himself added to the match. In this match, Joey looked awesome, as usual. Cage was really "on" for this one as well. It's almost amazing how good that guy's gotten over the last few years. The only real draw-back in this one seemed to be Cash. He's really over with the fans, but honestly, he's not that good. I mean, he's certainly not the worst wrestler I've ever seen, but he is really sloppy. Whenever Joey and Cage were working together, they were stringing together all kinds of smooth moves, but then Cash would jump in the and break their flow and it was just horrible. Most of the opening moments of the match involved Joey and Cage teaming up on Cash. I wish the match would have been elimination rules and they would have gotten rid of him quickly. Despite that though, this match had a bit of everything....SUPER stiff strikes, fast action and even dives to the outside. O'Riley took a heck of a beating in the match. So much was happening so fast that I couldn't keep up with it all. In the end, Cage had Cash in a crossface submission and the ref was dropping his hand. As this was happening, O'Riley climbed to the top rope and just as the ref was about to drop Cash's hand the third time, O'Riley did a 450 splash onto both guys and pinned them both. D*MN that was an awesome spot!!!!
Main Event
I Quit Match
Alex Castle vs. Christian Rose
All I can say about this match is GOOD GOD!!!! First of all, I take back any negative things I've ever said about Castle. That dude's REALLY stepped up his game and has gotten so much better. Rose was playing the insane heel gimmick and doing it perfectly. It's also pretty amazing how awesome he's gotten over the last year or so. Castle attacked Rose before the bell rang and the fight was ON!!! They were fighting all around the ring. Chairs were used and even a trash can came from somewhere and was used. At one point, Castle went to the back and pulled out another trash can full of New Jack "plunda" and threw it into the ring. The match then turned into more of an old school, hardcore ECW brawl then I saw Tommy Dreamer himself have with Sami Callihan last week in Indianapolis!! Cookie sheets, a mop, a plunger, an electrical cord and other stuff were all used in the match. Castle even pulled out two much larger pieces of sheet metal (or "sh*t metal....yes, I just made an XPW reference!!) from under the ring. At one point in the match, Jason V ran in and tried to throw in the towel for Rose. I guess him and Rose are suppose to be buddies now. Castle took him out. Rose ran to the back and came back to the ring with electrical tape and yelled, "I'm going to go all Casey Anthony on your ass!!" WOW!!! Castle fought back and got the tape himself and taped Rose to the corner. Reed Bentley then ran in and him and Jason V attacked Castle. Bentley got Rose away from the corner and all three of then went after Castle. Arik Cannon then ran in and took out Bentley and Castle got a chair and waffled Jason V with it. Castle then grabbed a Crown Royal bag from under the ring, opened it and dumped thumbtacks in the corner. They teased one of them getting dropped into the tacks but neither one did. The fight continued until Matt Cage ran into the ring and got a chair and teased that he was going to hit Castle. Instead, he handed Castle the chair and said, "Kill him!" Castle then hit him with the chair and then got him into a full nelson and did a full nelson slam ONTO THE THUMBTACKS!!!! He then pulled Rose up and threatened to do a Super Dragon-inspired curb stomp with Rose's face over the tacks. Rose screamed "I QUIT!!!!" and Castle won. MAN, OH MAN, WHAT A MATCH!!!!!!!
All I can say about this show was that it delivered on EVERY level and was absolutely AWESOME!!!!! Even the way in which the flow of the matches happen worked really, really well. They mixed in the advertised "big ticket" matches with the lower-level matches, instead of having all the local guys put the crowd to sleep first and THEN bring out guys like Arik Cannon and Ricochet. It's amazing how IWAU is growing and their shows just seem to be getting better and better. And the crowds they're drawing are really off-the-charts. Granted, they are your typical, "cheer the faces, boo the heels" small town wrestling fans but they were molten hot for the entire show and in same cases, made some of the spots in the matches seem that much more important.
I gotta say, after last night's show, IWAU proved that they are one of the absolute best local wrestling shows running....and they just keep getting better.