TPI Day 1

I apologize for bad spelling and general bad writing. Tired, and in a hurry to get in sleep soon, since I’ll have no time tomorrow. At some point, I may go back and add details and actual non-match talking to people stuff, but not now.

As you came in, there was a sign saying AJ Styles was off the show; Ian says he has a strep throat, bad enough he scrapped plans for AJ to call in and apologize. He did display AJ’s unused unrefundable $300 plane ticket, as proof that he was supposed to be here. Tank was his replacement.

Tracy Smothers also did not show; Ian said Tracy claimed “personal problems” and explained personal problems could mean the obvious, or it could mean Tracy didn’t feel like making that long of a drive with gas prices this high. Smothers was a replacement for a replacement, and I couldn’t tell you who replaced him without looking at a chart. Too tired for a chart.

1) Kevin Steen [painful looking package piledriver] Nate Webb [TPI 1ST]
Steen got his character over pretty well.

2) Josh Abercrombie b James Gibson Jamie Noble [TPI 1ST]
Noble was wearing the John Deer James Gibson tights, but turned heel with the old name and being announced as from WWE; normal heel Josh was a face by relation. Abercrombie reversed a second attempt at a Tiger Bomb into a ‘rana for the win. Post match, we got the standard “thanks for supporting me, I hope you keep supporting me and these great indy groups as I go back to WWE” speech. Gets old the second time in a month from the same guy, but what can you do?

3) Brad Bradley b Tank
Multiple hard clotheslines for the win. Punishing match.

4) Mike Quackenbush b Reckless Youth Alex Shelly
Alex Shelly wore a Reckless Youth shirt, and – from what I’m told, I didn’t see Youth – came out to Youth’s music, and wore the same basic gear as Youth did. Pretty good match, with Mike doing lucha and Alex responding; both pulled out Rocking Horses at various times. I wrote down “Iron” and I don’t know that’s the finish or I wanted to remind myself to pick up my dry cleaning or what. Crowd was very into this match.

5) Arik Cannon b Joey Ryan
Cannon won with two exploders into the corner (the first one didn’t go right or look impressive, so they changed corners again) and maybe his finisher? I can’t remember now. Crowd had the least interest in this match – suffered for being after the last one and lacking a storyline besides “Cannon drops Ryan on his head a bunch.” Both were presented as heels and neither did anything to clarify the situation.

6) Skayde b Puma
LUCHA! This was great. The crowd wasn’t with it early, but got into it the last half. Crummy finish for a fun match, though – pinning predicament is similar to a German Suplex with both people’s shoulders pinned. Puma’s right shoulder doesn’t stay down, I’m not sure about Skayde, the ref counts three – and awards the match to Skayde, making a lame finish lamer. Puma’s shoulder was very obviously up (I’ve got the photo) and the crowd and the wrestlers tried to get a restart, but nope.

7) Chris Hero b Rainman
To start the show, Ian introduced all the people in the tournament, and when 23 were out there, he went to his big finish – having forgotten about Rainman until someone told him. Ain’t gonna forget him now – he had a great match with Hero, with quite a few near falls where people genuinely believed Rainman could beat Hero. Hero won with two top rope moves – stomps? knees? I didn’t get a good look.

Intermission. I’d been nursing the dying batteries in my camera thru the first half of the show, but they finally died out here. So when I finally post them, that’s why it’s like that. I got more batteries on the way home, so we’ll see if I can work it tomorrow.

8) Tyler Black b Vito Thomaseli (ah, that’s the other replacement)
Lots of Sal interference. Horrible ref bump (telegraphed, bad position, bad sell, oversell of something minor – all the bases covered), but Black won anyway with a fisherman’s buster. Post match, Ian set up a tag title match for tomorrow, and said, for the Midlo show, the Iron Saints would be facing Justin Credible and a ECW partner to be signed (implied to be New Jack.)

9) Chris Sabin b Marek Brave
Good match. Sabin powerbombed Brave into the corner in a cringe spot, and gave him the future shock for the win in about 15 minutes.

10) Matt Sydal b El Generico
Probably match of the night. Outstanding match from start to the finish, with some incredible near falls for the last five minutes. I guess it don’t pay well to be El Generico because that boy is Kate Moss thin; just waiting for one of Sydal’s chops (and there was a great chop battle here – even if I’m convinced Generico is doing something Tajiri-like to amplify them) to break a rib, because they’re so easy to see. After about a half dozen “crowd counts along because they’re sure that’s gotta be three” near falls, Generico teases his super brainbuster all the way to the floor, but Sydal blocks and, while both are standing on the top rope, gives him a belly superplex to win.

11) Delirious b Brandon Thomaseli
Delirious won with the split legged powerbomb dealio, but the story of the match was Delirious biting Brandon’s leg to break a hold, and not play biting – he drew blood. Brandon had a big looking red bruise on the inside of his leg from the bite. Delirious spit (Brandon’s blood?) onto Brandon post match, Brandon spit back at him, and that set off the only post match brawl of the night. Brandon either did a good impression of someone legitimately pissed about the wound in his leg, or, well, you know.

12) Brian Danielson b Claudio
Claudio managed a 42 second vertical suplex, and American Dragon countered with a 21 rotation airplane spin. Match played out like Brian was out of Claudio’s leg and was kinda screwing around with him – Claudio got in shots when he could, but Brian still could end the match when and how he wanted. Plenty of people were comparing Brian to Bob Backlund (and not always in positive fashions), so it’s no wonder he used the cross face chicken wing for the win.

13) Jimmy Jacobs b Colt Cabana [IWA MS HEAVY]
Extended comedy match, which worked well until the finish. Jacobs brought a chair in, the ref threw it out, repeat till Jacobs throws a lot of chairs in the ring, and the referee is so busy cleaning it out, he misses Jacobs using the belt.

Matches for Saturday’s show (announced as starting at 6PM as to get people home before 1AM)
1) Kevin Steen vs Brad Bradley [TPI QTR]
2) Skayde vs Mike Quackenbush [TPI QTR] [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
3) Tyler Black vs Matt Sydal [TPI QTR]
4) Josh Abercrombie vs Chris Sabin [TPI QTR]
5) Arik Cannon vs Delirious [TPI QTR]
6) Chris Hero vs American Dragon [TPI QTR] [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
7) TPI SEMI 1
8) TPI SEMI 2
9) TPI SEMI 3
10) TPI FINAL
11) Iron Saints vs Rainman & Tank [IWA MS TAG]
12) Joey Ryan, Claudio, Alex Shelly and Super Dragon vs Puma, Brandon Thomaseli, El Generico and Marek Brave
13) Jimmy Jacobs vs Mickie Knuckles [IWA MS HEAVY]