Tape Review
IWA Mid-South
A Matter of Pride
01/16/04 - Oolitic, IN
by Scott Christ

First IWA show of 2004 and this is the first time I've seen the Oolitic gym. It has its charms to be sure. Highland is such a classy-looking venue as compared to the other places, and that's neither good nor bad, just fact.

January 16, 2004 from the Community Center Gym in Oolitic, IN

TRIK DAVIS v. EMIL SITOCI

Sitoci using "Hey Ya" isn't less awesome after the first time. This is the first Sitoci singles I've seen. Tiny crowd. The sound here is great and I forgot how good Smart Mark and IWA's sound are after watching ROH shows. Referee Bryce Remsburg is the man. Both of these guys look more green than usual against each other. Sitoci's selling is somewhat questionable early on. Chris Hero joins Prazak on commentary. The hard cam is sooo high up. Sitoci misses a tumbleweed, Davis gets a la magistral and it's over at about four minutes. Nothing to see but nothing bad either, and someone's gotta warm the crowd up.

Mickie Knuckles joins Prazak in the ring to cut a promo. Mickie can't work tonight, she's hurt. Oh man Ian so taught her promos too, she's just lazy with her body language and talking like she's just talking to you on the street, putting her hand in her pocket, shrugging her shoulders now and then. She apologizes for not being able to face Allison Danger tonight, but here comes Allison. She drove three hours and flew all over for nothing. Promos in front of 40 people that don't care don't work so well, really. They go nose-to-nose, but Daizee Haze interrupts. Daizee calls Allison a BITCH. This is dragging. Make the match, ladies. CATFIIIIIIGHT CATFIIIIIIGHT run away Prazak. Prazak, three referees and Chris Hero finally manage to separate them, but then HERE COMES THE ENTIRE LOCKER ROOM for fun. They're doing the Bad News/Savage pull-apart to hilarious results. Mad Man Pondo just cheers them on. They'll wrestle. Daizee and Allison, not those two and Mad Man Pondo.

RYAN BOZ (w/Jim Fannin) v. STEVE STONE

This is an interesting matchup. I like Stone for reasons I can't really figure out and I like Boz because he's awesome and throws chairs at fans. Stone starts it off with hot tag offense, armdrag, hiptoss, scoop aaand a slam and Boz bails. Real old school match without a ton of big offense, Stone selling his ass off for Boz and making his 80s heel offense look good in the process. What works with that is when Boz breaks out a back suplex it looks huge. Fannin just palm struck Steve Stone in the ass. Stone gets feigned rallies in but Boz rakes the eyes or chokes him or whatever. Double clothesline puts them down. Stone gets a sky-hi for two. Boz calls for the thunder fire bomb, but Stone slides down and hits the whiteout (flatliner). Stonesault misses, Boz rolls him up with a handful of tights and wins at just under eight. This was fun.

HALLOWICKED & THE WILDCARDS v. MIKE QUACKENBUSH, GRAN AKUMA & JIGSAW

This is a CHIKARA special attraction under lucha rules. Wildcards have Free Mitch Ryder shirts. Quack and Hallowicked are the captains. Eventually they get a five-way side headlock which breaks down into whips and hiptosses and stuff, and Quackenbush chasing Eddie Kingston through the bleachers and back into the ring. This is more or less just a CHIKARA exhibition and while it's fun to see these guys work together, it's not particularly any good. Another big everyone has a submission hold on spot. Jigsaw ends up being face-in-peril after a pretty long segment of everyone showing what they can do. Holla at ya boyz double elbow is the Free Mitch Ryder double elbow tonight. They do a good job getting the crowd into this match and I bet this is something that's a lot better live than on tape because I'm just not into this at all. Marciano takes a horrific bump on a reverse flying 'rana from Quack and then walks into a springboard DDT from Jigsaw for the finish.

ALLISON DANGER v. DAIZEE HAZE

Stoner Daizee hadn't gone to the Long Beach Dub All-Stars music yet. Danger wins a short match after an STO and putting her feet on the ropes.

MATT SYDAL v. NATE WEBB

Sydal was using "Dope Nose" by Weezer here which kicks the fuck out of that god awful Alkaline Trio song he uses now. Nate Webb is awesome and one of the great reasons to love indy wrestling. It's not that Nate Webb is an awesome worker, but he kills himself and gives the impression that he's loving every minute of it. He just wants to entertain, but he can't afford steroids, or maybe he just doesn't want the after-effects of them, and he wasn't born a very handsome guy. And this crowd doesn't even care that much about him, which he uses to his advantage and makes fun of. Sydal unfortunately does not dance with Nate. Kondo clutch from Sydal, which is one of Kingston's signature moves so he starts talking a lot of shit about thuggin' n' buggin'. Entertaining match. Especially nice arachnid kick from Webb. Webb goes for the fang (moonsault Van Terminator) but JC Bailey runs in to chair and brainbuster him, allowing Sydal to hit a shooting star for the upset pin. Bailey puts Sydal down after the match too building to their match the next night in Highland for Bailey's LHW title, which Sydal won.

IWA MS HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
JERRY LYNN v. DANNY DANIELS (champion, w/Jim Fannin)

Daniels doesn't wear the white singlet enough, it's a good look. Totally solid match between two real pros that avoids being Jerry Lynn's Usual Match. I thank God when it ends before I've had to suffer through any pin reversal sequences or I-counter-your-move-you-counter-mine, now let's stare at each other junk. Daniels works Lynn's back to try and prevent him from getting the cradle piledriver and they do a bunch of teasing. Another thing I liked about this match was that both of them use piledrivers and I love that move more than any other. Lynn seemed motivated to put on a strong match. It wasn't great but I'll cut him some slack for being 300 since at least he felt like he was trying. I did get pretty annoyed when they ran through about 600 finishing spots with lots of counters involved over the last five minutes, but that seems more traditionally a Daniels fault than a Lynn fault. Either way, fine match and Lynn wins the title after 15 minutes finally hitting the cradle piledriver. All the babyfaces come out to celebrate.

I QUIT MATCH
JC BAILEY v. IAN ROTTEN

Bailey blades real quick after a ton of headbutts, then takes two wicked unprotected chairshots. The story here is Ian considers JC one of his students, but Bailey's started to become a real asshole. Bailey has also never quit in an IWA ring. Neat nipple-biel on Bailey. Rotten blades early too, and they trade submissions on the floor with Rotten throwing in more headbutts. Barbed-wire baseball bat gets involved with JC's back and Ian brings out a ladder and a weird table. Jesus Christ, Bailey gets the ladder wrapped around his head and German suplexed. That is fucking insane. That is horrific. That is STUPID. Camel clutch, he won't quit. Double-arm implant DDT, back to the camel clutch and he still won't quit. Bailey takes a horrible angle on a splash mountain onto the poker table. His neck should be broken after some of this shit but he just keeps going. Rotten is just destroying him, ruining his neck. Crippler crossface, he won't quit. 13 minutes in and Bailey starts making his comeback, trying to break Ian's leg. This goes from being a hell of a fun and brutal fight to getting stupid with the staple guns and scissors, which I can just plain live without, especially when it's not necessary at all, which it wasn't here. Surrounding that stuff was a damn good brawl and lots of cool submission stuff and body part work from these guys. The finish plays into history with them, as Bailey makes Rotten submit to a ringpost figure-four for the second time. Bailey gets on the stick after and shit talks everybody. He leaves and Rotten concedes that he's old and beaten up, and warns Bailey that his future is the same as Ian's present.

DELIRIOUS v. CHRIS HERO

Well this should be interesting. YES Allison Danger joins for color. Thankfully this has a 30-minute time-limit, I don't think I could deal with 40 minutes of Delirious. Hero wants to shake hands, which confuses Delirious, so Hero exhibits with the referee what his intentions are. So Delirious shakes the referee's hand. First twelve minutes are good wrestling that seems to be building to something. Allison says Hero needs a sidekick, Dave says he's friends with Daizee Haze. "She's part of the Xplosion Clique." "She's not qualified--" "KABOOM!" "I'll kaboom you right now, goddamn it." The match never quite gets where I thought it was going, but it's a strong match nonetheless. Delirious makes a nice failed comeback in the final part of the match before falling victim to the Hero's Welcome and a crippler crossface in 20 minutes.

THUMBTACK DEATH MATCH
NECRO BUTCHER (w/Jim Fannin) v. CORPORAL ROBINSON v. MAD MAN PONDO

Nate Webb joins commentary - to lend death match insight? - and brings the funny. Silly ass Necro gets slammed like a son of a bitch to the floor. Everyone does stupid things, such as removing Corp's shirt, and then Fannin MANS UP and gets suplexed into the tacks. Commentary here is weird, with Nate Webb leaving to get popcorn and Chris Hero joining and then Nate coming back. "Hey Danger, I have butter on my sack." The commentary actually makes this entertaining to watch instead of just watchable one time and then I forget I ever spent time watching it. Pondo sentons Corp's face for the win in a little under 12. That was nasty looking and Pondo checks on Robinson.

If you're already a fan of the promotion, you'll probably like Hero/Delirious, Rotten/Bailey and a couple other matches depending on your personal likes and dislikes. Like, I liked Boz v. Stone, but I like Boz and Stone. I think the thumbtack match suffers from being after the infinitely better and more brutal I quit match, but if you like dudes falling on things and getting hit with things, there's nothing wrong with that match.

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