Post by cavedweller73 on Feb 17, 2011 4:51:28 GMT -5
I can't sleep a wink, so I thought I'd go ahead and write out a report on the show.
I got to the show a little before the doors opened. The sign out in front said that the show was indeed free. I don't exactly know how they are able to pull that off, but I figured that no matter how good or bad this show was going to be, I was going to get my money's worth. As I sat there waiting for the show to start, I saw Johnny Gargano milling around. Just then, I see a group of other wrestlers arrive. It was Gary Jay, Pierre Abernathy, Evan Gilestico and DINGO!!!! Other than Dingo, it's not that the other three are the greatest wrestlers around, but at least they are guys I know and have seen before, so I started thinking that this was actually going to be a pretty good show.
The show started with the "general manager" (a large, muscular guy who apparently calls himself "Intimidater") came out and thanked everyone for coming and started hyping the matches for the show. He talked about how at the last show, Kentucky Buffet and The Top Guns had 60 minute iron man match in which The Top Guns won the tag belts. They then came out to a big ovation. Next, Johnny Gargano came out and cut a Tracy Smothers-esque heel promo and said that he was friends with Kentucky Buffet who came out next. He then challenged The Top Guns to a 6-man tag match and they brought out a guy named Gunner Franks to be their partner...and the main event was set. The crowd (which was at least 100 people in that fairly small room) was red hot for this entire segment. It was a nice way to set up the main event and establish Gargano as a heel, since most of the people there didn't seem to have a clue about who he was.
Gary Jay vs. Dingo
This was a shock! I certainly didn't expect a match like this for the opener. While Jay isn't the greatest worker around, he's not the worst either and it seems as though every time I see him, he gets a little better. And then there's Dingo! He's always a solid worker who can pull a decent match out of just about anyone he's facing. It's still surreal to see him though, considering how bad he was injured a year and a half ago. The match was really good with the action going back and forth. Both guys worked hard, using stiff strikes and submission moves. The chops they exchanged were brutal. At one point, Jay had Dingo set up on the top rope and called for an El Generico-style "Brain busta!" but Dingo knocked him off the rope and then hit a brain busta of his own in the center of the ring for the pin. What a way to start a show that I honestly didn't expect to be all that great!
The Real Ninja vs. Jay Spade
I have no clue who The Real Ninja was. I'm guessing there's a fake Ninja out there somewhere too. He was a masked guy who was actually in really good shape and could move well. I was expecting him to be some Dr. Blue-ish kind of guy. Spade is apparently the top heel in IWAU. He looked like he was about 16 years old and that he had bought his tights at a Jimmy Jacobs yard sale, but man, did he draw heel heat from the crowd! The match itself was decent, but nothing overly special. Ninja did a small dive to the outside at one point. In the end, Spade got the win with a quick roll-up.
Submission Squad (Pierre Abernathy and Evan Gilestico) vs. Boy Spider & J. Bullock
I had seen The Submission Squad before. Gilestico is actually a pretty decent worker and Abernathy is alright, I suppose. Together, they make a decent tag team. Spider and Bullock, on the other hand were bad....I mean CJ Popp and Dr. Blue-level bad. That's who they reminded me of actually. Nothing much happened during this match. Gilestico and Abernathy were in control for pretty much the whole thing until Gilestico hooked Spider into a submission move and he tapped out. After the match, two VERY large guys in masks came out with a loud-mouth manager and beat the living crap out of Spider and Bullock. The masked guys reminded me of a cross between The Assassins and The Headhunters and their manager kinda reminded me of Dave Prazak back when he was a manager in IWA:MS.
IWAU Club title match
Scott Parker (c) vs. Bobby Beverly
I have no idea what the "Club title" is. Parker was said to be from Carmi, IL (I think) so he got a "hometown boy" kind of face pop. Beverly is apparently, a guy who works in Ohio in the same promotions as Gargano. Beverly kind of looked a little like Alex Shelley. Parker wasn't very impressive at all. He was trying to pull off a lot of old school, Memphis-style spots and looked to be rather green. Nothing much of note happened, but Parker got the win.
The Homeless Handicap Connection (Gregory Iron & Hobo Joe) vs. Marcus Crane & Tony Flood
Except for his tattoos, I would have never recognized Crane. He looks to have this sort of "gay, Satanic, emo kid" gimmick going on these days. Flood was billed as being from Canada and came out in a hockey jersey. He sort of looked like a younger Bobby Dempsey. Iron and Hobo Joe are also guys from Ohio. Joe looks like a cross between Mick Foley and Homeless Jimmy. Iron is an interesting worker. I have heard his name before as he apparently was in the last Chikara "Young Lion's Cup" and is suppose to be working another Chikara show this weekend. The interesting thing about him is that he has a mild form of cerable palsy and his right hand doesn't work. Still, he is in great shape and can work rather well. I don't remember too much of real note happening in the match, but that was mostly because I was interested to see what Iron could actually do in the ring. He was impressive and pulled off some moves better then guys who can use both of their hands. Other than Iron, no one else in the match really did anything too impressive. In the end, Crane and Flood hit a 3D move on Iron and got the pin.
Shank Barzini vs. Joey O'Riley
This was for a #1 contendership for the IWAU title. Before the match, the IWAU champ, Oliver Cain came out and cut a heel promo with Intimidater, who banned him from ringside. Shank came out to a rather huge pop, considering that he was suppose to be the heel. O'Riley came out with his ribs taped up. Throughout the match, Shank worked his ribs and locked him in lots of submission holds and hit several back-breakers. For the most part, O'Riley sold the moves well, but once he was in control, he was pulling off moves that a guy with injured ribs could never pull off. Still, they were impressive moves though. Both guys worked hard and the match was good, until Jay Spade did a run-in and kicked Shank between the legs. He then kicked O'Riley too. Oliver Cain ran out as well. The Intimidater (that's so funny to type! HA HA!!) then came out and said that since Spade kicked Shank first, Shank was the winner and now the #1 contender. He then set up a tag match for the next show, Spade and Cain vs. Shank and O'Riley.
Main Event
Kentucky Buffet (Matt Cage & Alex Castle) & Johnny Gargano vs. The Top Guns (Danny Cannon & Christen Rose) & Gunner Franks
I really would have licked it better if Gargano had been in a singles match, but oh well. Everyone in the match was actually pretty good...some better than others. Cage is always a fairly decent worker. Castle was good, but nothing really special. Franks kind of reminded me of a cross between Nick Dinsmore and Tim Donst. Rose is a tall, thin guy who seemed to be a decent worker. The real star of the match though (other than Gargano) was Danny Cannon. GOOD GOD was that kid impressive!!!! He looks like a smaller version of Davey Richards and has the skills to back it up. He was pulling off all kinds of smooth, impressive moves! The match was non-stop action with everyone working hard. Gargano was amazing! His moves were so smooth and he made all of them look so effort-less. This guy's the future of the wrestling business, that's for sure...and considering how high he's getting on the Dragon Gate USA cards, his time is getting near! He looked to hardly even break a sweat! There was so much action...lots of quick tags and high flying moves. At one point, they each did a dive to the outside. The biggest spot of the match though was when The Guns and Franks pulled off a triple-suplex move, which got a "That was awesome!" chant. So much happened, but in the end, Franks pulled off a dead-lift German suplex on Gargano for the pin. AWESOME match!!!
At least now if Gargano faces Diasuke Sekimoto in CZW's "Best of the Best" tournament, he'll know what a dead-lift German suplex feels like....although I think Sekimoto's would hurt a lot more....HA HA!!! Guess I'll find out on April 9th!
Anyway, going into this show, I didn't have high expectations of it being all that great, but I can honestly say that it exceeded then by more than a MILE!!!! I mean, I can't say that it was better than the last few shows I've attended, but still, for a small-town Illinois show this was a D**M good show!!! And all of this was for FREE!!!! I can't say that I'll go to every IWAU show, but I will be watching what goes on with this company from now on and if they have anything even close to this show, then I'll be there!
I got to the show a little before the doors opened. The sign out in front said that the show was indeed free. I don't exactly know how they are able to pull that off, but I figured that no matter how good or bad this show was going to be, I was going to get my money's worth. As I sat there waiting for the show to start, I saw Johnny Gargano milling around. Just then, I see a group of other wrestlers arrive. It was Gary Jay, Pierre Abernathy, Evan Gilestico and DINGO!!!! Other than Dingo, it's not that the other three are the greatest wrestlers around, but at least they are guys I know and have seen before, so I started thinking that this was actually going to be a pretty good show.
The show started with the "general manager" (a large, muscular guy who apparently calls himself "Intimidater") came out and thanked everyone for coming and started hyping the matches for the show. He talked about how at the last show, Kentucky Buffet and The Top Guns had 60 minute iron man match in which The Top Guns won the tag belts. They then came out to a big ovation. Next, Johnny Gargano came out and cut a Tracy Smothers-esque heel promo and said that he was friends with Kentucky Buffet who came out next. He then challenged The Top Guns to a 6-man tag match and they brought out a guy named Gunner Franks to be their partner...and the main event was set. The crowd (which was at least 100 people in that fairly small room) was red hot for this entire segment. It was a nice way to set up the main event and establish Gargano as a heel, since most of the people there didn't seem to have a clue about who he was.
Gary Jay vs. Dingo
This was a shock! I certainly didn't expect a match like this for the opener. While Jay isn't the greatest worker around, he's not the worst either and it seems as though every time I see him, he gets a little better. And then there's Dingo! He's always a solid worker who can pull a decent match out of just about anyone he's facing. It's still surreal to see him though, considering how bad he was injured a year and a half ago. The match was really good with the action going back and forth. Both guys worked hard, using stiff strikes and submission moves. The chops they exchanged were brutal. At one point, Jay had Dingo set up on the top rope and called for an El Generico-style "Brain busta!" but Dingo knocked him off the rope and then hit a brain busta of his own in the center of the ring for the pin. What a way to start a show that I honestly didn't expect to be all that great!
The Real Ninja vs. Jay Spade
I have no clue who The Real Ninja was. I'm guessing there's a fake Ninja out there somewhere too. He was a masked guy who was actually in really good shape and could move well. I was expecting him to be some Dr. Blue-ish kind of guy. Spade is apparently the top heel in IWAU. He looked like he was about 16 years old and that he had bought his tights at a Jimmy Jacobs yard sale, but man, did he draw heel heat from the crowd! The match itself was decent, but nothing overly special. Ninja did a small dive to the outside at one point. In the end, Spade got the win with a quick roll-up.
Submission Squad (Pierre Abernathy and Evan Gilestico) vs. Boy Spider & J. Bullock
I had seen The Submission Squad before. Gilestico is actually a pretty decent worker and Abernathy is alright, I suppose. Together, they make a decent tag team. Spider and Bullock, on the other hand were bad....I mean CJ Popp and Dr. Blue-level bad. That's who they reminded me of actually. Nothing much happened during this match. Gilestico and Abernathy were in control for pretty much the whole thing until Gilestico hooked Spider into a submission move and he tapped out. After the match, two VERY large guys in masks came out with a loud-mouth manager and beat the living crap out of Spider and Bullock. The masked guys reminded me of a cross between The Assassins and The Headhunters and their manager kinda reminded me of Dave Prazak back when he was a manager in IWA:MS.
IWAU Club title match
Scott Parker (c) vs. Bobby Beverly
I have no idea what the "Club title" is. Parker was said to be from Carmi, IL (I think) so he got a "hometown boy" kind of face pop. Beverly is apparently, a guy who works in Ohio in the same promotions as Gargano. Beverly kind of looked a little like Alex Shelley. Parker wasn't very impressive at all. He was trying to pull off a lot of old school, Memphis-style spots and looked to be rather green. Nothing much of note happened, but Parker got the win.
The Homeless Handicap Connection (Gregory Iron & Hobo Joe) vs. Marcus Crane & Tony Flood
Except for his tattoos, I would have never recognized Crane. He looks to have this sort of "gay, Satanic, emo kid" gimmick going on these days. Flood was billed as being from Canada and came out in a hockey jersey. He sort of looked like a younger Bobby Dempsey. Iron and Hobo Joe are also guys from Ohio. Joe looks like a cross between Mick Foley and Homeless Jimmy. Iron is an interesting worker. I have heard his name before as he apparently was in the last Chikara "Young Lion's Cup" and is suppose to be working another Chikara show this weekend. The interesting thing about him is that he has a mild form of cerable palsy and his right hand doesn't work. Still, he is in great shape and can work rather well. I don't remember too much of real note happening in the match, but that was mostly because I was interested to see what Iron could actually do in the ring. He was impressive and pulled off some moves better then guys who can use both of their hands. Other than Iron, no one else in the match really did anything too impressive. In the end, Crane and Flood hit a 3D move on Iron and got the pin.
Shank Barzini vs. Joey O'Riley
This was for a #1 contendership for the IWAU title. Before the match, the IWAU champ, Oliver Cain came out and cut a heel promo with Intimidater, who banned him from ringside. Shank came out to a rather huge pop, considering that he was suppose to be the heel. O'Riley came out with his ribs taped up. Throughout the match, Shank worked his ribs and locked him in lots of submission holds and hit several back-breakers. For the most part, O'Riley sold the moves well, but once he was in control, he was pulling off moves that a guy with injured ribs could never pull off. Still, they were impressive moves though. Both guys worked hard and the match was good, until Jay Spade did a run-in and kicked Shank between the legs. He then kicked O'Riley too. Oliver Cain ran out as well. The Intimidater (that's so funny to type! HA HA!!) then came out and said that since Spade kicked Shank first, Shank was the winner and now the #1 contender. He then set up a tag match for the next show, Spade and Cain vs. Shank and O'Riley.
Main Event
Kentucky Buffet (Matt Cage & Alex Castle) & Johnny Gargano vs. The Top Guns (Danny Cannon & Christen Rose) & Gunner Franks
I really would have licked it better if Gargano had been in a singles match, but oh well. Everyone in the match was actually pretty good...some better than others. Cage is always a fairly decent worker. Castle was good, but nothing really special. Franks kind of reminded me of a cross between Nick Dinsmore and Tim Donst. Rose is a tall, thin guy who seemed to be a decent worker. The real star of the match though (other than Gargano) was Danny Cannon. GOOD GOD was that kid impressive!!!! He looks like a smaller version of Davey Richards and has the skills to back it up. He was pulling off all kinds of smooth, impressive moves! The match was non-stop action with everyone working hard. Gargano was amazing! His moves were so smooth and he made all of them look so effort-less. This guy's the future of the wrestling business, that's for sure...and considering how high he's getting on the Dragon Gate USA cards, his time is getting near! He looked to hardly even break a sweat! There was so much action...lots of quick tags and high flying moves. At one point, they each did a dive to the outside. The biggest spot of the match though was when The Guns and Franks pulled off a triple-suplex move, which got a "That was awesome!" chant. So much happened, but in the end, Franks pulled off a dead-lift German suplex on Gargano for the pin. AWESOME match!!!
At least now if Gargano faces Diasuke Sekimoto in CZW's "Best of the Best" tournament, he'll know what a dead-lift German suplex feels like....although I think Sekimoto's would hurt a lot more....HA HA!!! Guess I'll find out on April 9th!
Anyway, going into this show, I didn't have high expectations of it being all that great, but I can honestly say that it exceeded then by more than a MILE!!!! I mean, I can't say that it was better than the last few shows I've attended, but still, for a small-town Illinois show this was a D**M good show!!! And all of this was for FREE!!!! I can't say that I'll go to every IWAU show, but I will be watching what goes on with this company from now on and if they have anything even close to this show, then I'll be there!
