Post by cavedweller73 on Aug 22, 2010 10:22:01 GMT -5
Last night was IPW's 9th anniversary show and all I can is they sure pulled out ALL the stops and put on one hell of a good show. As I usually do when I go to IPW shows, I made my way up to Indy after work. I had heard they were going to start the pre-show matches at 6:15, so I knew I was going to have to haul butt to make it there in time. When I got to the place, they were just starting to let people in and the line was all the way around to the front of the building. It was, by far, the best turnout I've seen yet for an IPW show. Obviously, this was because of Bryan Danielson being on the show. When I got to the front of the line, they had already started the pre-show matches. This was my first IPW show in about a year and the set up was a bit different. They have a really fancy entrance area now and the chairs were set up a bit more "professional" looking then I remember. The building was still as hot as ever though, but the crowd was VERY strong. Best guess, I'd say they at least had over 250 in there. I might have the order of the matches wrong, but here's what happened.
Pre show:
vs. Tony X (?)
This is the match that was happening when I got to the front of the line. The most interesting thing about it was that the ref was Jimbo from IWA:Deep South. I didn't get the names of the guys in the match. The one guy had on a mask. At one, point, the masked guy did a flippy move off the ropes and the other guy moved. When the masked guy hit the ring, his mask went flying off of his head. Turned out he was the guy that was working the concession stand at the last IPW show I attended. Anyway, the Tony X guy got the win and post match, the now un-masked guy kept beating him down.
Marcus Crane, Matt Cage and Austin Matrix (?) vs. Bucky Collins, and (some guy with a "Dodgeball" gimmick)
I recognized Cage, Crane and Collins from IWA:Mid South, but I wasn't sure who the other guys were. Cage and Crane "heeled it up" with the crowd pretty well and the crowd was really into the match, especially considering it was a pre-show match. Nothing much happened in the match, but Collins and the guy who had the "Dodgeball" gimmick worked pretty well. In the end, the heel team got the win.
Jeremy Hadley vs. Jack Verville vs.
Don't ask me why, but Hadley is growing on me. I had seen him at a couple of the IPW shows last year and then again in a pre-show match at the CZW show in Lafayette. The dude's a goofball. He comes out in his Roman gladiator get-up, screaming his head off...not just screaming, but screaming to the point that it looks as though he's going to pop a blood vessel in his head. Granted, the guy's not that great a wrestler, but his goofiness is fun to watch. Anyway, the guy who's name I missed was large and in great shape. Him and Hadley double-teamed Verville most of the match. If I remember right, in the end, Hadley pulled a "double-cross" on the big guy and rolled him up for the win.
Main show:
Scotty Vortekz vs. Dave Davidson
IPW is always high on Davidson. Personally, I've never been all that impressed with the guy. I mean, he's decent, but not as great as they make him out to be. He did look to have dropped a bunch of weight since I saw him last and was in pretty decent shape. They were billing this match as a match between former IPW champions. So, before the match started, they paraded out a bunch of former champions from IPW's past. First is was Joey "Kidd" Owens, then James "Carlton Kaz" Avery, then PT Hussla, and then one other guy. I wasn't totally sure who he was, but I think it was Clifton Crunk...I'm not sure though. The match was then a six-way, which was basically just a big brawl. It was fun to watch, even though there was so much going on that it was hard to keep up. In the end, Scotty and Crunk pulled off a Blue Thunder Driver onto Owens and Crunk looked to legit hurt his knee. PT Hussla then locked a leg hold onto him and he tapped out. Kind of a lame ending really. It would have been better if it had been an elimination match, even if the eliminations happened quickly.
IPW Mid-American title match
Sean Tyler vs. Joseph Schwartz
I guess the back story on this match is that both guys used to be the tag team, The Kosher Klub, which is a team I always enjoyed. Apparently, when Schwartz was getting booked for CZW (he's only worked two shows for them!), Tyler felt like he was getting left out and turned on him. Tyler came out in full "heel" mode, which basically means that he was serious and didn't have any charisma he showed back when he was one of the "silly Jewish guys". Last time I had seen Schwartz was when he faced Greg Excellent at the CZW show in Lafayette in one of the silliest matches I've ever seen. He looked to be serious this time too. He now wrestles barefoot and came out wearing clothes that made him look like an extra from "The Life of Brian" (yeah, I'm a Monty Python fanatic!). Once the match started, both guys worked hard and stiff, chopping and punching each other into the ground. In the end, Tyler grabbed the title belt and hit Schwartz with it and was DQ'ed. Another fairly lame ending, if you ask me.
Mina Libra vs. Nevaeh
It had been a while since I had seen Nevaeh. Though I've never been overly impressed by her, she looked pretty good. Libra was a short, stocky kind of gal. Not so much in a Lufisto kind of way, but more in a not-in-the-best-of-shape kind of way. Nothing much of note really happened in the match. In the end, Libra got the win after dropping Nevaeh on her head with a really sick, piledriver-ish maneuver. Nevaeh looked to have legit hurt her neck by the move.
The Noble Bloods vs. The H3rd
I really had no clue who any of these guys were. Apparently, The Noble Bloods are the HWA tag champs. The H3rd were two guys who were so different that I'm not even sure why they were a team. One of them looked like Greg Excellent's smaller brother and was wearing a lab coat and doing a "science teacher" gimmick. The other guy was just a typical indy wrestler who had a decent look. The match was nothing special. The Noble Bloods pulled off a few not-so-pretty double team moves. The non-science guy from The H3rd looked good and pulled off some cool moves. I can't remember how, but in the end, I believe The Noble Bloods got the win.
Billy Roc vs. Kevin Thorn
Thorn is of course, the vampire guy from WWECW. This was the first time I'd ever seen him in person (other then the time I saw him in the crowd at an ROH show last year). He looked to be an great shape. He's a really tall guy. By contrast, Roc is a really small guy. The match started off very slow, with lots of stalling and comedy spots. The crowd was chanting back and forth for both guys and Roc started doing the Tracy Smothers' "back and forth" dance, which Thorn joined in on. A small "Tracy! Tracy!" chant then broke out. Once they started to wrestle, Roc started pulling off a series of moves on Thorn. Thorn then called for the mic and said, "I'm not really a vampire, so things like crosses can't really kill. However, the one thing that CAN kill me is chain wrestling. There's a guy in the back who can do that much better then I can, but that's not my style." Well...you gotta appreciate his honesty. After that, Thorn pretty much just beat the crap out of Roc and then pinned him. After the match, he got back on the mic and put over Roc, the younger talent in the back and IPW, which was actually a pretty classy move. Some people on one side of the ring were chanting, "ECW!" and he said, "Vince already killed that!" His willing-ness to put over the younger talent and the company was admirable, but still the match was pretty lame.
Last Man Standing
Jessie Emerson (w/ Greg Carey) vs. Chrisjen Hayme
So far, this show had not lived up to my expectations, but I was hoping this match would change things since I've seen these guys beat the crap out of each other several times now and they always pull off good matches against each other. My hopes were fulfilled! Emerson came out first and was looking in even better shape then he was the last time I had seen him (in a non-tournament match at the IWA:Deep South Carnage Cup....against Hayme, ironically enough). When Hayme came out, he hit the ring hard and the fight was ON! They fought out into the crowd and were literally chopping the HELL out of each other. Those were chops that would have made Roderick Strong hold his chest and say, "D*MN!!!!"Both guy's upper bodies were bright red. When they got back to the ring, Emerson hit Hayme with a totally unprotected chairshot that was just plain brutal. Hayme was then bleeding. Hayme then got under the ring and pulled out a wooden door and set it up in the corner and then powerbombed Emerson through it. There were more stiff chairshots and Emerson was bleeding as well. Hayme then pulled out another door but he ended up getting thrown through it this time. When Hayme got up, he crawled under the ring and pulled out a box of thumbtacks. I sure didn't expect all of this from these guys, but my inner bloodmark was going apesh*t....as was the rest of the crowd! They did a few suplexes into the tacks and both guys had them stuck in their bodies. In the end, yet another door was pulled out (must have been a "buy in bulk" sale on them at Home Depot or something) and Emerson super-plexed Hayme through it as it was laid across two chairs. The ten count was on and Emerson got up at the last second for the win. Awesome, AWESOME match!!!!!! As I've said before, MECW needs to book a match between these two, especially since Hayme recently worked that benefit show for them. Even without the "hardcore" elements, these two always seem to pull a great match out of each other.
Intermission
After that great match, the crowd really needed a break and I needed to go outside to cool off. That building was an oven! When I came back in, Danielson was at the merch table. I kind of wanted to talk to him, but the line was all the way around the room and plus, I believe he was charging money for autographs. So, I just got something eat and went back to my seat. It was cool that he hung out and talked to everyone that waited in line though. He's a true class-act, that's for sure.
IPW Jr. Heavyweight title match
Ricochet vs. Dustin Rayz vs.
I had high hopes for the match to be good. I thought Ricochet was using his real name now, but I guess not in IPW. Rayz is a really good young talent who is going to be in the Chikara "Young Lion's Cup" next weekend. I wasn't sure who the third guy was. He had this really terrible "Las Vegas" gimmick and honestly, he pretty much got in the way of what could have been a great singles match. Ricochet spent most of the match "heeling it up" with the fans and didn't do very many high-flying moves. Rayz took most of the offense as Rico and the Vegas guy double-teamed him. In the end, Rico pulled off a quick roll-up pin on the Vegas guy...much like what happened the Jeremy Hadley pre-show match. After the match, Rayz pulled out a ladder from under the ring. He then challenged Rico to fight him and Rico ended up throwing him into it. Brandon Prophet (who is almost "skinny" these days, compared to how big he used to be) then came out and said that at the next IPW show in Oct., Rico and Rayz would face off in a ladder match.
IPW Tag Team title match
The Irish Airborne (w/Greg Carey) vs. DNA
I had no idea who DNA were. Basically, they were two high-flying guys. The one was kind of tall and skinny and the other guy was tiny....really tiny. He sort of reminded me of Brett Gakiya of Zero Gravity. Irish Airborne were their usual, awesome selves. Dave Cris is such a thingyy f*cker, but man, that guy has the skills to back it up, that's for sure. The small guy from DNA took most of the offense in the match and man, did he ever take a beating. It was pretty sick actually. Dave and Jake Cris pulled off loads of awesome double-team, tandem maneuvers. At one point, Dave was legit hurt. He was holding his ribs and started spitting up blood. I overheard him tell Greg Carey that he didn't know where it was coming from. The smaller guy got the hot tag to the taller guy, but in the, The Airborne still got the win. I've seen Irish Airborne work better matches, but this was still a really good one.
IPW World title match
Jon Moxley vs. Jimmy Jacobs
NOW we're talkin'!!! I knew this match was going to be awesome, even though sometimes Jacobs tends to "phone it in". This wasn't one of those nights AT ALL!!!! And he was in there working against Moxley, one of my absolute favorites on the whole indy scene. Moxley came out first (to "The Immigrant Song" no less....how awesome is THAT!?!?!) Jacobs then jumped him from behind and the fight was ON!!!! Jacobs threw Moxley over the rail and Moxley stumbled his way towards the door. When they went outside, I was following right behind. When I made my way through the sea of people, I saw Moxley and Jacobs both trading punches in the middle of the small parking lot. Jacobs then threw Moxley's head into a trailer. They continued to fight in the parking lot and started moving towards Shelby St. There was even a car trying to pull into the parking lot and a pickup truck that was stopped on the street, seeing what was going on. Jacobs then threw Moxley right out into the middle of the street. They made their way across the street and were fighting on the sidewalk. The security was trying to keep everyone on the one side of the street, but I got passed all that and was right there as they were beating the crap out of each other. They then started back towards the building, but first stopped right in the middle of Shelby St. and were punching each other and stopping traffic. They made their way back to the building and went inside. By this point, Moxley was bleeding buckets! They brawled a bit more in the crowd and Moxley bled all over the place. When they got back into the ring, Jacobs beat the crap out of Moxley and Mox sold like a million bucks, like he always does....that's why I enjoy watching that guy so much! The match ended quickly though. Jacobs crawled under the ring and pulled out a pair of scissors and went to stab Moxley, Moxley moved and the scissors ended up stuck in the turnbuckle. Moxley then rolled up Jacobs for the pin, which was sort of a lame finish. Jacobs then pulled out the scissors again and acted as though he was going to try to cut off one of Moxley's fingers (Obviously The Messiah had nothing to do with booking this match). The locker room then emptied out with everyone trying to stop Jacobs. Kind of a lame ending, but still that was one of the best, most fun brawls I've ever seen!
Bryan Danielson vs. Drake Younger
Drake came out first to a HUGE reaction from his hometown crowd. Then, "The Final Countdown" started blasting through the speakers (how can you NOT mark-out for THAT!?!?!) and out came Danielson to an even bigger reaction! That place went INSANE!!! Both guys got huge introductions, streamers were thrown and someone even threw a neck-tie at Danielson, which he tried to put on. I honestly don't care about Danielson being in WWE. It's not going to make me watch that crap, because I would only get mad about how much they are wasting his talents, but the fact still remains that he is one of (if not THE) best wrestler in the business and this match was a dream match for me. The thing about Danileson too is that when he does matches against guys who work deathmatchs (such as Drake or Necro Butcher), he has his best matches because he can work as stiff as he wants and you know the other guy can take it. Anyway, the match started slow with Drake giving Danielson a LOT of respect. After a few handshakes, you could Danielson was getting ready to kick some butt. At one point, Danielson jumped out of the ring. Drake opened the ropes to let him back in. When he got back in, he offered Drake his hard but then punched him in the face. The fight was ON!!!! The match was stiff as HELL too!!! Both guys were chopping, punching, throwing, suplexing and kicking the hell out of each other. Danielson put Drake in stretching/submission holds that didn't even seem possible. The match went back and forth with both men working each other to perfection. Drake literally looked as though he was about to pass out when Danielson hooked him into the "cattle mutilation". GOOD GOD, that is a nasty-looking hold when you see it up-close. OUCH!!!!! Just as Drake looked to be tapping out, the bell rang. The time limit had expired (at least they didn't do the lame "countdown" gimmick....I HATE that!). Drake then got on the mic and said that he had come to face the best wrestler in the world and he was going to have to kill him to beat him. The match was re-started. Both guys hit each other with wicked forearms and Danielson then rolled up Drake for the pin, but it turned out that Jimbo only counted two. Danielson got on the mic and started saying things like, "I was the clear winner!", but Drake cut him off, speared him and started punching him into the mat. The match went on for another good 5 minutes or so with more submission moves and wicked-stiff elbow shots to Drake. Drake fought back and finally got Danielson down and covered him for the pin. Drake looked like he was in a state of shock. Danielson then got on the mic and put Drake over HUGE, saying he's one of the absolute best in the entire wrestling world. Drake didn't just start crying, he broke down and was literally sobbing. Just an amazing, emotional moment. Danielson then said that he didn't want anyone to chant for him, he wanted everyone to chant for Drake and then hopped out of the ring, left and let Drake have his moment. It was such a great moment! Drake then thanked everyone he could think of and left the ring to a HUGE reaction from the crowd. Such a great way to end the night.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed the show, despite there being some endings to some of the matches that I didn't enjoy. But just having the Emerson/Hayme, Moxley/Jacobs and Drake/Danielson matches made me feel as though I got my money's worth and made for an AWESOME show.
Pre show:
vs. Tony X (?)This is the match that was happening when I got to the front of the line. The most interesting thing about it was that the ref was Jimbo from IWA:Deep South. I didn't get the names of the guys in the match. The one guy had on a mask. At one, point, the masked guy did a flippy move off the ropes and the other guy moved. When the masked guy hit the ring, his mask went flying off of his head. Turned out he was the guy that was working the concession stand at the last IPW show I attended. Anyway, the Tony X guy got the win and post match, the now un-masked guy kept beating him down.
Marcus Crane, Matt Cage and Austin Matrix (?) vs. Bucky Collins,
and (some guy with a "Dodgeball" gimmick)I recognized Cage, Crane and Collins from IWA:Mid South, but I wasn't sure who the other guys were. Cage and Crane "heeled it up" with the crowd pretty well and the crowd was really into the match, especially considering it was a pre-show match. Nothing much happened in the match, but Collins and the guy who had the "Dodgeball" gimmick worked pretty well. In the end, the heel team got the win.
Jeremy Hadley vs. Jack Verville vs.
Don't ask me why, but Hadley is growing on me. I had seen him at a couple of the IPW shows last year and then again in a pre-show match at the CZW show in Lafayette. The dude's a goofball. He comes out in his Roman gladiator get-up, screaming his head off...not just screaming, but screaming to the point that it looks as though he's going to pop a blood vessel in his head. Granted, the guy's not that great a wrestler, but his goofiness is fun to watch. Anyway, the guy who's name I missed was large and in great shape. Him and Hadley double-teamed Verville most of the match. If I remember right, in the end, Hadley pulled a "double-cross" on the big guy and rolled him up for the win.
Main show:
Scotty Vortekz vs. Dave Davidson
IPW is always high on Davidson. Personally, I've never been all that impressed with the guy. I mean, he's decent, but not as great as they make him out to be. He did look to have dropped a bunch of weight since I saw him last and was in pretty decent shape. They were billing this match as a match between former IPW champions. So, before the match started, they paraded out a bunch of former champions from IPW's past. First is was Joey "Kidd" Owens, then James "Carlton Kaz" Avery, then PT Hussla, and then one other guy. I wasn't totally sure who he was, but I think it was Clifton Crunk...I'm not sure though. The match was then a six-way, which was basically just a big brawl. It was fun to watch, even though there was so much going on that it was hard to keep up. In the end, Scotty and Crunk pulled off a Blue Thunder Driver onto Owens and Crunk looked to legit hurt his knee. PT Hussla then locked a leg hold onto him and he tapped out. Kind of a lame ending really. It would have been better if it had been an elimination match, even if the eliminations happened quickly.
IPW Mid-American title match
Sean Tyler vs. Joseph Schwartz
I guess the back story on this match is that both guys used to be the tag team, The Kosher Klub, which is a team I always enjoyed. Apparently, when Schwartz was getting booked for CZW (he's only worked two shows for them!), Tyler felt like he was getting left out and turned on him. Tyler came out in full "heel" mode, which basically means that he was serious and didn't have any charisma he showed back when he was one of the "silly Jewish guys". Last time I had seen Schwartz was when he faced Greg Excellent at the CZW show in Lafayette in one of the silliest matches I've ever seen. He looked to be serious this time too. He now wrestles barefoot and came out wearing clothes that made him look like an extra from "The Life of Brian" (yeah, I'm a Monty Python fanatic!). Once the match started, both guys worked hard and stiff, chopping and punching each other into the ground. In the end, Tyler grabbed the title belt and hit Schwartz with it and was DQ'ed. Another fairly lame ending, if you ask me.
Mina Libra vs. Nevaeh
It had been a while since I had seen Nevaeh. Though I've never been overly impressed by her, she looked pretty good. Libra was a short, stocky kind of gal. Not so much in a Lufisto kind of way, but more in a not-in-the-best-of-shape kind of way. Nothing much of note really happened in the match. In the end, Libra got the win after dropping Nevaeh on her head with a really sick, piledriver-ish maneuver. Nevaeh looked to have legit hurt her neck by the move.
The Noble Bloods vs. The H3rd
I really had no clue who any of these guys were. Apparently, The Noble Bloods are the HWA tag champs. The H3rd were two guys who were so different that I'm not even sure why they were a team. One of them looked like Greg Excellent's smaller brother and was wearing a lab coat and doing a "science teacher" gimmick. The other guy was just a typical indy wrestler who had a decent look. The match was nothing special. The Noble Bloods pulled off a few not-so-pretty double team moves. The non-science guy from The H3rd looked good and pulled off some cool moves. I can't remember how, but in the end, I believe The Noble Bloods got the win.
Billy Roc vs. Kevin Thorn
Thorn is of course, the vampire guy from WWECW. This was the first time I'd ever seen him in person (other then the time I saw him in the crowd at an ROH show last year). He looked to be an great shape. He's a really tall guy. By contrast, Roc is a really small guy. The match started off very slow, with lots of stalling and comedy spots. The crowd was chanting back and forth for both guys and Roc started doing the Tracy Smothers' "back and forth" dance, which Thorn joined in on. A small "Tracy! Tracy!" chant then broke out. Once they started to wrestle, Roc started pulling off a series of moves on Thorn. Thorn then called for the mic and said, "I'm not really a vampire, so things like crosses can't really kill. However, the one thing that CAN kill me is chain wrestling. There's a guy in the back who can do that much better then I can, but that's not my style." Well...you gotta appreciate his honesty. After that, Thorn pretty much just beat the crap out of Roc and then pinned him. After the match, he got back on the mic and put over Roc, the younger talent in the back and IPW, which was actually a pretty classy move. Some people on one side of the ring were chanting, "ECW!" and he said, "Vince already killed that!" His willing-ness to put over the younger talent and the company was admirable, but still the match was pretty lame.
Last Man Standing
Jessie Emerson (w/ Greg Carey) vs. Chrisjen Hayme
So far, this show had not lived up to my expectations, but I was hoping this match would change things since I've seen these guys beat the crap out of each other several times now and they always pull off good matches against each other. My hopes were fulfilled! Emerson came out first and was looking in even better shape then he was the last time I had seen him (in a non-tournament match at the IWA:Deep South Carnage Cup....against Hayme, ironically enough). When Hayme came out, he hit the ring hard and the fight was ON! They fought out into the crowd and were literally chopping the HELL out of each other. Those were chops that would have made Roderick Strong hold his chest and say, "D*MN!!!!"Both guy's upper bodies were bright red. When they got back to the ring, Emerson hit Hayme with a totally unprotected chairshot that was just plain brutal. Hayme was then bleeding. Hayme then got under the ring and pulled out a wooden door and set it up in the corner and then powerbombed Emerson through it. There were more stiff chairshots and Emerson was bleeding as well. Hayme then pulled out another door but he ended up getting thrown through it this time. When Hayme got up, he crawled under the ring and pulled out a box of thumbtacks. I sure didn't expect all of this from these guys, but my inner bloodmark was going apesh*t....as was the rest of the crowd! They did a few suplexes into the tacks and both guys had them stuck in their bodies. In the end, yet another door was pulled out (must have been a "buy in bulk" sale on them at Home Depot or something) and Emerson super-plexed Hayme through it as it was laid across two chairs. The ten count was on and Emerson got up at the last second for the win. Awesome, AWESOME match!!!!!! As I've said before, MECW needs to book a match between these two, especially since Hayme recently worked that benefit show for them. Even without the "hardcore" elements, these two always seem to pull a great match out of each other.
Intermission
After that great match, the crowd really needed a break and I needed to go outside to cool off. That building was an oven! When I came back in, Danielson was at the merch table. I kind of wanted to talk to him, but the line was all the way around the room and plus, I believe he was charging money for autographs. So, I just got something eat and went back to my seat. It was cool that he hung out and talked to everyone that waited in line though. He's a true class-act, that's for sure.
IPW Jr. Heavyweight title match
Ricochet vs. Dustin Rayz vs.
I had high hopes for the match to be good. I thought Ricochet was using his real name now, but I guess not in IPW. Rayz is a really good young talent who is going to be in the Chikara "Young Lion's Cup" next weekend. I wasn't sure who the third guy was. He had this really terrible "Las Vegas" gimmick and honestly, he pretty much got in the way of what could have been a great singles match. Ricochet spent most of the match "heeling it up" with the fans and didn't do very many high-flying moves. Rayz took most of the offense as Rico and the Vegas guy double-teamed him. In the end, Rico pulled off a quick roll-up pin on the Vegas guy...much like what happened the Jeremy Hadley pre-show match. After the match, Rayz pulled out a ladder from under the ring. He then challenged Rico to fight him and Rico ended up throwing him into it. Brandon Prophet (who is almost "skinny" these days, compared to how big he used to be) then came out and said that at the next IPW show in Oct., Rico and Rayz would face off in a ladder match.
IPW Tag Team title match
The Irish Airborne (w/Greg Carey) vs. DNA
I had no idea who DNA were. Basically, they were two high-flying guys. The one was kind of tall and skinny and the other guy was tiny....really tiny. He sort of reminded me of Brett Gakiya of Zero Gravity. Irish Airborne were their usual, awesome selves. Dave Cris is such a thingyy f*cker, but man, that guy has the skills to back it up, that's for sure. The small guy from DNA took most of the offense in the match and man, did he ever take a beating. It was pretty sick actually. Dave and Jake Cris pulled off loads of awesome double-team, tandem maneuvers. At one point, Dave was legit hurt. He was holding his ribs and started spitting up blood. I overheard him tell Greg Carey that he didn't know where it was coming from. The smaller guy got the hot tag to the taller guy, but in the, The Airborne still got the win. I've seen Irish Airborne work better matches, but this was still a really good one.
IPW World title match
Jon Moxley vs. Jimmy Jacobs
NOW we're talkin'!!! I knew this match was going to be awesome, even though sometimes Jacobs tends to "phone it in". This wasn't one of those nights AT ALL!!!! And he was in there working against Moxley, one of my absolute favorites on the whole indy scene. Moxley came out first (to "The Immigrant Song" no less....how awesome is THAT!?!?!) Jacobs then jumped him from behind and the fight was ON!!!! Jacobs threw Moxley over the rail and Moxley stumbled his way towards the door. When they went outside, I was following right behind. When I made my way through the sea of people, I saw Moxley and Jacobs both trading punches in the middle of the small parking lot. Jacobs then threw Moxley's head into a trailer. They continued to fight in the parking lot and started moving towards Shelby St. There was even a car trying to pull into the parking lot and a pickup truck that was stopped on the street, seeing what was going on. Jacobs then threw Moxley right out into the middle of the street. They made their way across the street and were fighting on the sidewalk. The security was trying to keep everyone on the one side of the street, but I got passed all that and was right there as they were beating the crap out of each other. They then started back towards the building, but first stopped right in the middle of Shelby St. and were punching each other and stopping traffic. They made their way back to the building and went inside. By this point, Moxley was bleeding buckets! They brawled a bit more in the crowd and Moxley bled all over the place. When they got back into the ring, Jacobs beat the crap out of Moxley and Mox sold like a million bucks, like he always does....that's why I enjoy watching that guy so much! The match ended quickly though. Jacobs crawled under the ring and pulled out a pair of scissors and went to stab Moxley, Moxley moved and the scissors ended up stuck in the turnbuckle. Moxley then rolled up Jacobs for the pin, which was sort of a lame finish. Jacobs then pulled out the scissors again and acted as though he was going to try to cut off one of Moxley's fingers (Obviously The Messiah had nothing to do with booking this match). The locker room then emptied out with everyone trying to stop Jacobs. Kind of a lame ending, but still that was one of the best, most fun brawls I've ever seen!
Bryan Danielson vs. Drake Younger
Drake came out first to a HUGE reaction from his hometown crowd. Then, "The Final Countdown" started blasting through the speakers (how can you NOT mark-out for THAT!?!?!) and out came Danielson to an even bigger reaction! That place went INSANE!!! Both guys got huge introductions, streamers were thrown and someone even threw a neck-tie at Danielson, which he tried to put on. I honestly don't care about Danielson being in WWE. It's not going to make me watch that crap, because I would only get mad about how much they are wasting his talents, but the fact still remains that he is one of (if not THE) best wrestler in the business and this match was a dream match for me. The thing about Danileson too is that when he does matches against guys who work deathmatchs (such as Drake or Necro Butcher), he has his best matches because he can work as stiff as he wants and you know the other guy can take it. Anyway, the match started slow with Drake giving Danielson a LOT of respect. After a few handshakes, you could Danielson was getting ready to kick some butt. At one point, Danielson jumped out of the ring. Drake opened the ropes to let him back in. When he got back in, he offered Drake his hard but then punched him in the face. The fight was ON!!!! The match was stiff as HELL too!!! Both guys were chopping, punching, throwing, suplexing and kicking the hell out of each other. Danielson put Drake in stretching/submission holds that didn't even seem possible. The match went back and forth with both men working each other to perfection. Drake literally looked as though he was about to pass out when Danielson hooked him into the "cattle mutilation". GOOD GOD, that is a nasty-looking hold when you see it up-close. OUCH!!!!! Just as Drake looked to be tapping out, the bell rang. The time limit had expired (at least they didn't do the lame "countdown" gimmick....I HATE that!). Drake then got on the mic and said that he had come to face the best wrestler in the world and he was going to have to kill him to beat him. The match was re-started. Both guys hit each other with wicked forearms and Danielson then rolled up Drake for the pin, but it turned out that Jimbo only counted two. Danielson got on the mic and started saying things like, "I was the clear winner!", but Drake cut him off, speared him and started punching him into the mat. The match went on for another good 5 minutes or so with more submission moves and wicked-stiff elbow shots to Drake. Drake fought back and finally got Danielson down and covered him for the pin. Drake looked like he was in a state of shock. Danielson then got on the mic and put Drake over HUGE, saying he's one of the absolute best in the entire wrestling world. Drake didn't just start crying, he broke down and was literally sobbing. Just an amazing, emotional moment. Danielson then said that he didn't want anyone to chant for him, he wanted everyone to chant for Drake and then hopped out of the ring, left and let Drake have his moment. It was such a great moment! Drake then thanked everyone he could think of and left the ring to a HUGE reaction from the crowd. Such a great way to end the night.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed the show, despite there being some endings to some of the matches that I didn't enjoy. But just having the Emerson/Hayme, Moxley/Jacobs and Drake/Danielson matches made me feel as though I got my money's worth and made for an AWESOME show.
