Post by cavedweller73 on May 19, 2011 0:50:16 GMT -5
After taking a bit of a break from going to indy wrestling shows (for a couple of reasons....the cost of driving around (i.e. gas prices) and being a bit burnt out mostly), tonight, I went to my first show since my last trip to Philly. Given what I've heard about IWAU recently and seeing the results from some of their latest shows, I didn't know what to expect. But, being so that Akira Tozawa was booked, I knew seeing him alone would be worth the trip....and it was!
First of all, in response to what Ike said in the other thread about IWAU being in a mess. I hadn't heard that, but it completely makes sense. I have no clue either why Cage and Castle would have big egos, but now that it has been mentioned, I've never seen either of them work against Oliver Cain. Also, Cage and Castle had their little You Tube show (which is mildly entertaining at best) and they do talk a LOT of sh*t about other people in the company. The thing that I think scared me the most about going to this show tonight was that I had noticed Cody Strong's name popping up in the results. Why they would be using him is WAY beyond me! But, on the good side, Strong was nowhere to be found tonight! The show only featured five matches, but all of them were at the very least decent. Even the matches that featured workers of less-than-great talent were watchable. Here's what happened:
The show started off with Shank Barzini coming to the ring with his newly-won IWAU title. He got a HUGE ovation from the crowd. I swear, the dude's over like RVD in Philly circa 1998. He got on the mic and thanked everyone for supporting him (a face Shank is interesting, but I like it). He then cut a promo about how he beat Oliver Cain for the title. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but even back when Shank was doing promos in MECW, every time I see him lately, he is acting more and more like Sami Callihan. In fact, a match between Shank and Sami would be something that I'd love to see! But anyway, he cut a promo about how he beat Oliver Cain. Cain then came out with Scott Parker to also cut a promo. The Intimidator then came out and announced that Cain would be getting a rematch for the title on June 18th and that between now and then, Shank and Cain weren't allowed to touch each other. Shank then laid the belt down and Cain snuck in and grabbed it and ran off. The Intimidater then made a match between Shank and Parker for later. Shank then jumped out of the ring and attacked Parker, who then ran off with Cain. It was also announced that Cain would have a match later too, but his opponent was a mystery.
The Submission Squad (Pierre Abernathy and Evan Gilestico) vs. Gary Jay and ACH
This match was a qualifying match for a tournament IWAU is having to crown new tag champs. ACH was a total surprise! I didn't expect to see him. He's a guy from Texas who mostly works for Anarchy Championship Wrestling. I've seen him at the two shows in O'Fallon, IL ACW has run and the guy is AWESOME!!!! Jay is actually a member of The Submission Squad, but I guess outside of me, no one else in Olney would have known that. Gilestico looked good. He can really work a crowd and draw some huge heel heat. He's fairly decent in the ring too. Abernathy on the other hand....well, he can pull off some interesting submission holds, but other than that, he's pretty sloppy in the ring. Jay is always decent, not great but solid. The real star of the match was ACH. He was super-over with the fans, despite the fact they didn't seem to have a clue who he was. The highlight of the whole match was when Gilestico had his back turned in the corner, between the top and second rope. ACH ran at him, jumped and him with a bicycle kick....I'm talking total Mortal Kombat, Lui Kang "jump in the air and kick him several times" kind of move. In almost 30 years of watching wrestling, I've NEVER seen that one and it was AWESOME!!!! Someone NEEDS to book ACH vs. AR Fox or Rich Swann or even Ricochet. Any of those matches would be off-the-charts good! Anyway, the match was kind of short, but it was good. In the end, Gilestico rolled up ACH for the pin and the win.
Shank Barzini vs. Scott Parker
Man, Parker is horrible! But what made this match enjoyable was the fact that Shank pretty much all but squashed him. During the first spot of the match, Parker had Shank in a waist-lock behind him. Shank started throwing wild elbows behind his back and the last one NAILED Parker right in the eye because he moved his head the wrong way. That was pretty nasty. Parker got a little offense, but in the end, Shank beat the crap out of him. He threw him all over the ring (despite the fact that watching Shank lift him was like watching someone move a sandbag) and then hit a Death Valley Driver for the win.
Jason V w/Serenity vs. The Intimidator
This was a pretty solid match. Granted, Jason V is no Adrian Street, but for a guy playing a gay character, he's enjoyable to watch. He's not the smoothest wrestler out there, but he's not terrible either. This was my first time seeing The Intimidator work a match and for a big, jacked-up dude, he's not too bad either. The match started off with The Intimidator flexing his muscles and V getting scared and "tagging in" Serenity. She jumped on The Intimidator's back and V then hit him from behind. After that, The Intimidator pretty much mauled V. D.A. Morrison then ran in and hit The Intimidator with a strap which caused V to be DQ'ed. The Intimidator then got the strap away from him and he ran off.
Next was intermission. During the intermission, Christian Rose got in the ring and cut a promo about Akira Tozawa. He said that when he got into wrestling, his dream was to one day work in Japan and so tonight he was going to a step closer to that dream by teaming with Tozawa to face the KY Buffet. I would have liked it a bit better if Rose and Tozawa were facing each other, but this could be interesting.
Christian Rose and Akira Tozawa vs. The Kentucky Buffet
Rose and Alex Castle started off the match. Castle looked decent, but still isn't too much to write home about. After working a few spots, Rose tagged in Tozawa. Castle then tagged in Matt Cage. Right off the bat, Tozawa hit Cage with some wicked-fast kicks and super-stiff punches. Tozawa's strikes are downright vicious! I was actually marking out for Tozawa's stiffness WITH Rose. Rose looked down at me and said, "Man, he hits hard." I said, "Oh, I know. I wouldn't want to be in there with him." and Rose said, "Why do you think I'm teaming with him?" The action was fast and furious with both teams going back and forth. Tozawa looked awesome and was even taking quite a bit of the Buffet's offense. Once everything broke down and all four guys were in the ring, things really went insane. Both teams were hitting awesome moves and getting near pins that were being broken up by the other member of each team. In the end, Cage hit Tozawa with a jumping powerbomb and got the pin. After the match, they all shook hands, but Tozawa did look a bit p*ssed-off. Still, the match was absolutely awesome! Great stuff from all four guys.
Main Event
Oliver Cain vs. Jay Spade
For whatever reason, they didn't film this match. Anyway, Cain came out and Shank wasn't far behind. He said Cain was going to have to face someone he knew well. He then brought out Spade, who I guess is a face now. He got a HUGE reaction from the crowd. I gotta admit that even though Spade looks as though he's about 12 years old, all of about a buck-fifty soaking wet and still looks as though he got his tights at a Jimmy Jacobs' yard sale, the kid is a solid worker. Cain still has that kind of MMA-fighter look to him and he has the toughness to back it up. The match was solid. There wasn't any spots that really stood out but after a while, Scott Parker came out to ringside and got involved in the match by grabbing Spade's foot several times. Once Spade got Cain down for a true pin, Parker pulled the ref out of the ring and Cain was DQ'ed. Parker and Cain then beat down Spade until Shank ran out and beat the living H*LL out of Parker. He grabbed a chair from next to me and pounded Parker with it right at my feet. Parker even ended up with a small cut on his head from it. During all of this, Joey O'Reilly came out on crutches (apparently, he has a broken ankle, I think) and he joined in on the beatdown of Cain with one of his crutches while Shank continued beating on Parker with the other one. O'Reilly then said that once he healed, he is wanting to make the Cain vs. Shank match a three-way for the IWAU title. Shank then got in the ring and gave one of the crutches to Spade who also hit Cain with it. Shank, O'Reilly and Spade then left while Cain and Parker had to be helped back by security.
In the end, tonight's show was really good. Granted, it wasn't the greatest show I'd ever seen, but for a small show in Illinois with only five matches that I saw for free, there's very little I can complain about. Some the endings kind of sucked, but they did serve to further fueds and storylines, so again, there's little to complain about since the matches themselves were good. The real stars of the show were Shank, Tozawa and ACH!! I know I had seen ACH before, but after tonight, if he had a fan club, I'd be ready to nominate myself to be the president! Ha ha!!!!
First of all, in response to what Ike said in the other thread about IWAU being in a mess. I hadn't heard that, but it completely makes sense. I have no clue either why Cage and Castle would have big egos, but now that it has been mentioned, I've never seen either of them work against Oliver Cain. Also, Cage and Castle had their little You Tube show (which is mildly entertaining at best) and they do talk a LOT of sh*t about other people in the company. The thing that I think scared me the most about going to this show tonight was that I had noticed Cody Strong's name popping up in the results. Why they would be using him is WAY beyond me! But, on the good side, Strong was nowhere to be found tonight! The show only featured five matches, but all of them were at the very least decent. Even the matches that featured workers of less-than-great talent were watchable. Here's what happened:
The show started off with Shank Barzini coming to the ring with his newly-won IWAU title. He got a HUGE ovation from the crowd. I swear, the dude's over like RVD in Philly circa 1998. He got on the mic and thanked everyone for supporting him (a face Shank is interesting, but I like it). He then cut a promo about how he beat Oliver Cain for the title. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but even back when Shank was doing promos in MECW, every time I see him lately, he is acting more and more like Sami Callihan. In fact, a match between Shank and Sami would be something that I'd love to see! But anyway, he cut a promo about how he beat Oliver Cain. Cain then came out with Scott Parker to also cut a promo. The Intimidator then came out and announced that Cain would be getting a rematch for the title on June 18th and that between now and then, Shank and Cain weren't allowed to touch each other. Shank then laid the belt down and Cain snuck in and grabbed it and ran off. The Intimidater then made a match between Shank and Parker for later. Shank then jumped out of the ring and attacked Parker, who then ran off with Cain. It was also announced that Cain would have a match later too, but his opponent was a mystery.
The Submission Squad (Pierre Abernathy and Evan Gilestico) vs. Gary Jay and ACH
This match was a qualifying match for a tournament IWAU is having to crown new tag champs. ACH was a total surprise! I didn't expect to see him. He's a guy from Texas who mostly works for Anarchy Championship Wrestling. I've seen him at the two shows in O'Fallon, IL ACW has run and the guy is AWESOME!!!! Jay is actually a member of The Submission Squad, but I guess outside of me, no one else in Olney would have known that. Gilestico looked good. He can really work a crowd and draw some huge heel heat. He's fairly decent in the ring too. Abernathy on the other hand....well, he can pull off some interesting submission holds, but other than that, he's pretty sloppy in the ring. Jay is always decent, not great but solid. The real star of the match was ACH. He was super-over with the fans, despite the fact they didn't seem to have a clue who he was. The highlight of the whole match was when Gilestico had his back turned in the corner, between the top and second rope. ACH ran at him, jumped and him with a bicycle kick....I'm talking total Mortal Kombat, Lui Kang "jump in the air and kick him several times" kind of move. In almost 30 years of watching wrestling, I've NEVER seen that one and it was AWESOME!!!! Someone NEEDS to book ACH vs. AR Fox or Rich Swann or even Ricochet. Any of those matches would be off-the-charts good! Anyway, the match was kind of short, but it was good. In the end, Gilestico rolled up ACH for the pin and the win.
Shank Barzini vs. Scott Parker
Man, Parker is horrible! But what made this match enjoyable was the fact that Shank pretty much all but squashed him. During the first spot of the match, Parker had Shank in a waist-lock behind him. Shank started throwing wild elbows behind his back and the last one NAILED Parker right in the eye because he moved his head the wrong way. That was pretty nasty. Parker got a little offense, but in the end, Shank beat the crap out of him. He threw him all over the ring (despite the fact that watching Shank lift him was like watching someone move a sandbag) and then hit a Death Valley Driver for the win.
Jason V w/Serenity vs. The Intimidator
This was a pretty solid match. Granted, Jason V is no Adrian Street, but for a guy playing a gay character, he's enjoyable to watch. He's not the smoothest wrestler out there, but he's not terrible either. This was my first time seeing The Intimidator work a match and for a big, jacked-up dude, he's not too bad either. The match started off with The Intimidator flexing his muscles and V getting scared and "tagging in" Serenity. She jumped on The Intimidator's back and V then hit him from behind. After that, The Intimidator pretty much mauled V. D.A. Morrison then ran in and hit The Intimidator with a strap which caused V to be DQ'ed. The Intimidator then got the strap away from him and he ran off.
Next was intermission. During the intermission, Christian Rose got in the ring and cut a promo about Akira Tozawa. He said that when he got into wrestling, his dream was to one day work in Japan and so tonight he was going to a step closer to that dream by teaming with Tozawa to face the KY Buffet. I would have liked it a bit better if Rose and Tozawa were facing each other, but this could be interesting.
Christian Rose and Akira Tozawa vs. The Kentucky Buffet
Rose and Alex Castle started off the match. Castle looked decent, but still isn't too much to write home about. After working a few spots, Rose tagged in Tozawa. Castle then tagged in Matt Cage. Right off the bat, Tozawa hit Cage with some wicked-fast kicks and super-stiff punches. Tozawa's strikes are downright vicious! I was actually marking out for Tozawa's stiffness WITH Rose. Rose looked down at me and said, "Man, he hits hard." I said, "Oh, I know. I wouldn't want to be in there with him." and Rose said, "Why do you think I'm teaming with him?" The action was fast and furious with both teams going back and forth. Tozawa looked awesome and was even taking quite a bit of the Buffet's offense. Once everything broke down and all four guys were in the ring, things really went insane. Both teams were hitting awesome moves and getting near pins that were being broken up by the other member of each team. In the end, Cage hit Tozawa with a jumping powerbomb and got the pin. After the match, they all shook hands, but Tozawa did look a bit p*ssed-off. Still, the match was absolutely awesome! Great stuff from all four guys.
Main Event
Oliver Cain vs. Jay Spade
For whatever reason, they didn't film this match. Anyway, Cain came out and Shank wasn't far behind. He said Cain was going to have to face someone he knew well. He then brought out Spade, who I guess is a face now. He got a HUGE reaction from the crowd. I gotta admit that even though Spade looks as though he's about 12 years old, all of about a buck-fifty soaking wet and still looks as though he got his tights at a Jimmy Jacobs' yard sale, the kid is a solid worker. Cain still has that kind of MMA-fighter look to him and he has the toughness to back it up. The match was solid. There wasn't any spots that really stood out but after a while, Scott Parker came out to ringside and got involved in the match by grabbing Spade's foot several times. Once Spade got Cain down for a true pin, Parker pulled the ref out of the ring and Cain was DQ'ed. Parker and Cain then beat down Spade until Shank ran out and beat the living H*LL out of Parker. He grabbed a chair from next to me and pounded Parker with it right at my feet. Parker even ended up with a small cut on his head from it. During all of this, Joey O'Reilly came out on crutches (apparently, he has a broken ankle, I think) and he joined in on the beatdown of Cain with one of his crutches while Shank continued beating on Parker with the other one. O'Reilly then said that once he healed, he is wanting to make the Cain vs. Shank match a three-way for the IWAU title. Shank then got in the ring and gave one of the crutches to Spade who also hit Cain with it. Shank, O'Reilly and Spade then left while Cain and Parker had to be helped back by security.
In the end, tonight's show was really good. Granted, it wasn't the greatest show I'd ever seen, but for a small show in Illinois with only five matches that I saw for free, there's very little I can complain about. Some the endings kind of sucked, but they did serve to further fueds and storylines, so again, there's little to complain about since the matches themselves were good. The real stars of the show were Shank, Tozawa and ACH!! I know I had seen ACH before, but after tonight, if he had a fan club, I'd be ready to nominate myself to be the president! Ha ha!!!!
