Phoenix Fury Legdrop

First off, in the anal retentive moment of the review, when you watch, notice Nigel McGuinness during the IWA team's entrance. All the other guys are joking around with each other (and in Nate & Jacobs' case, slam-dancing to Marilyn Manson on the floor), but Nigel, while not acting all cock-like, doesn't really spend a lot of time socializing with his teammates. This'll all make sense come the end of the match. The match opened with about fifteen minutes of both teams feeling each other out a bit, though not necessarily in that slow-paced, methodical way for you dislikers of that style. You could tell both teams were searching for the weak link on the other side to keep in the ring and keep in-peril. There's a hilarious part at the beginning where Ian's in with Sal and does a BUTT bump to get out of a waistlock. Ian puts Sal in the same move and Sal tries to escape, but he's obviously got a much smaller bottom than Ian, so it doesn't work. Sal then complains about it, saying his ass is a lot cuter with Ian's, and wouldn't wrestle until everyone on his team and referee Tommy Thompson agreed with him. They establish from the beginning that Todd Sexton's trouble for anyone on the IWA team but Nigel, as whenever Todd would get tagged in, Nigel would be tagged in right after and out-wrestle Sexton like in their singles match earlier in the night. Both teams go through each other's smaller combatants (Wildside's Rinauro, IWA's Jacobs & Webb), as well as IWA going after Shaun Tempers, the rookie ofthe Wildside crew, to search for someone to hold in the ring and work over. Right before going into phase two of the match, there's a really funny interaction between Sal Rinauro and Nate Webb where Nate takes advantage of Sal being held in a hold when he gets tagged in...by hugging Sal, who immediately freaks out at the thought of hugging another man. They run the ropes a bit, and Nate reverses a hiptoss...by hugging Sal again. Sal then flips out in a homophobic rage and tags out. The second part of the match is a very basic face-in-peril struggle, as the Wildside crew is the first to execute the traditional American tag strategy of getting one man in the ring and working him over, as they trap Jimmy Jacobs in the ring (who had some really funny exchanges with Tank throughout the match). The entire team follow Sal's lead by working over his back, which was worked over by Delirious during their TPI Night One ladder match, and was continued to be worked over by Rinauro himself at Night Two of the TPI. Plus, Shaun Tempers almost scored the upset of the night by working over JC Bailey's back during their bout, so the backwork more than served a purpose. The Wildside crew even went all out with the stereotypical Southern-style heel spots (rope pulling, eye gouging, assisting partners in submission holds illegally) to establish that IWA's good and Wildside, at least for that night, was a bit evil (or at least desperate to get the win.) In this case, it made a lot of sense for Team Wildside to be able to pull it together and become the first team to be able to use the traditional face-in-peril attack, as all four guys on the team have either been Wildside tag champions (Tank and Sexton) or are well-known in Wildside circles for being tag wrestlers (Tempers in Pomp & Circumstance, Rinauro in G-Rated and Three Guys That Totally Rule). Jacobs ends up slipping away from Team Wildside since he's a wirey young fellow, and after a slightly calmer-than-usual hot tag spot, Team IWA's able to exact a little bit of revenge on Wildside by trapping their smallest guy, Rinauro, in their corner and work over his back a bit. But, it's not to last as Nate Webb makes a slight slip-up and ends up falling pawn to Team Wildside, as they trap him in their corner and worked him over with a series of second-rope Veg-O-Matics, ending with Tank crashing down on Nate from the second rope and nearly snapping him in half. I believe they ended up working over Nate's back too, but I'm probably mistaken since it was 3 AM and I'm just a worthless teenager (tm the Spidertwist boards). At the forty-one minute mark, with just four minutes left in the time limit, shit really starts to break down, when Nate Webb gets the hot tag to Ian and Tank gets tagged in, as, kind of like in baseball, you got the heavy hitters batting clean-up. They go at it in the center of the ring, as craziness ensues with the other six (and Ace Rockwell, acting as heel second for the Wildside team) start brawling all throughout the building, pairing off and covering ground in just about every inch of the Armory. Tank and Ian head outside and continue what they started in their match, only it's more back and forth (notice that Ian doesn't throw a single headbutt during the entire exchange with Tank, learning from his mistake from their singles match). At one point, Jimmy Jacobs gets Sexton in a Figure-Four Leglock right by Jim Fannin at the commentary table, as the other guys are still brawling uncontrollably throughout the building. The two legal men, Tank and Ian, get back into the ring before the twenty-count expires, as does Nigel McGuinness, armed with a chain. He teases hitting Tank with it, even going as far as avoiding Ian with it at all costs when Ian gets thrown into Nigel. But, at the last second, Nigel cements his heel turn by hitting Ian in the back of the head with the chain and knocking him out cold. Tank comes off of the ropes and hits a big splash, taking advantage of Nigel's dastardly deed while getting an unclean win for Team Wildside. After the match, Ian dazily cuts a promo where he rips on Nigel for being a butthole and turning on IWA (something even Fannin, the top heel manager in the company and Ian's worst nemesis, was vocally upset about on commentary). Ian then turns his attention to Tank, who he says he respects for being a big guy who can brawl and wrestle, but says he's very disappointed that he had to stoop to cheating in order to win the series, which Ian kind of buries by saying the obvious: neither side had their best guys in tow. Ian then challenges Tank to a second IWA/Wildside Challenge, saying it won't be on a Thursday and that he'll get the seven very best IWA guys, and told Tank to get the seven very best Wildside guys, and that he "definately won't win". The night ends with Ian letting out some frustration by hitting Tommy Thompson over the head with a chair for being kind of incompetent throughout the night. As good of a match as this was, I loved the ending more than anything else. Why? I'm a fan of old-school IWA at heart, and it was quite the old school IWA ending to a show: great, long multi-man match ends with some great brawling throughout the building, with all twenty-something people there hot as hell for all the action, big angle in the ring, Ian lays down the challenges for next week, and we got something to look forward to for next time. Hell, the entire show was totally old-school IWA without the gallons of blood or murder. I have to say, as awesome as IWA's been this year in terms of great wrestling, old-school IWA's something that's been missing, and I was damn glad to see it back in full-force, at least for one night. I think that about does it. I don't really have a huge wrap-up for this, other than that Nigel/Sexton, Tank/Ian, and the eight-man make the tape worth your $15. If you're a fan of the core IWA roster or a Wildside mark, chances are you'll pick it up and enjoy it if you got the money to go to www.smartmarkvideo.com and buy it. If you're one of those who just caught on to IWA when Ian started bringing in the Samoa Joe's and the Bryan Danielson's of the world and don't really feel comfortable jumping head-first into some older IWA, the tape's kind of like the shallow end of the pool: the same feel as an older IWA show, but with some newer, more recognizable talent for the newer IWA fans. Again, a recommendation from me (and I'm sure some other people'll back me up once they get their copies ::coughMcGoverncough:.

Yeah, don't expect Smith vs. Bryant tonight...I kinda forgot about it.

So, I recently acquired the Wildside/IWA Challenge tape via the fine IWA merchandise table at the most recent Highland show, but have really been unable to watch it until now. So, I popped it in the other night and started watching it a bit, looking forward to, at least to me as a mark for both companies, a really cool concept show. I watched through the first five matches or so, and outside of Nigel McGuinness vs. Todd Sexton, which was a really fun mat-based match that's another reason to get the tape, nothing was that special (or in the case of Seth DeLay/Jimmy Jacobs, completely and totally disappointing). Then, the sixth match in the series came on: Ian Rotten vs. Tank. Ian vs. Tank was admittedly one of the first matches that popped into my head when I first heard about Ian wanting to work with Wildside via the 2003 TPI Q&A (with Sal Rinauro/Nate Webb still being the one dream match yet unfulfilled). I was a bit disappointed when I heard that it wasn't happening on this show, but Ian/Danielson and Corp./Tank (two other bizarro dream matches of mine) would more than make up for it. So, when I read that they replaced those two with this match, I was psyched to see the match. The match lived up to the very high expectations I had for it. For anyone who's followed Tank's career, the biggest comparision you could probably draw to him would be as a Deep South alternate universe Ian Rotten, as they're both guys who look like they'd be great brawlers (and are), but they start busting out all of this great matwork and it kind of freaks you out as a viewer the first few times, until you realize that this isn't just a novelty: they can actually go on the mat and not have it be just some random attachment before they go back to the brawling. Plus, they both hit very, very, very hard. From the opening bell, you can immediately tell that this is going to be quite the struggle between two men who, outside of Tank being a much larger man than Ian, are quite equal to one another. They immediately go down to the mat, as both guys go back-and-forth in terms of trying to get on a hold on the mat, but the other man being able to slide or power their way out of it before reversing into another hold. Ian noticeably goes after the head and neck, looking to wear down the much larger Tank so that he can gas him out before any momentum can be had. Just like with either man's character or appearance, there's absolutely nothing fancy about the matwork here: it's straight-forward and to the point. It does get a little rough-looking at times, but would it honestly look realistic if someone as huge as Tank or with as many injuries as Ian's suffered over the years moved around the mat like they were Nigel McGuinness or Bryan Danielson? The struggle on the mat goes on for about five-six minutes before Ian brings the chain struggle to their feet, realizing that he can't just ground Tank and gas him out like he thought he could. But, Tank shows off that he can still put something together on his feet, using a reversal to go into a reverse hammerlock/Dragon sleeper combination hold. Ian escapes, but you can see frustration building on his face. He comes off of the ropes and attempts to send Tank down with a shouldertackle...but as evident by how gigantic Tank is, that didn't work. Ian goes down to the mat himself, and is now pissed to the point where he goes to the floor and invites Tank to throw down with him. Tank and Ian then throw down with some pretty good brawling, where Ian seems to be dominating at first with his infamous stiff forearms to the face, the third of which takes Tank off-guard and knocks him down on the concrete floor. But, Tank comes to and fights back enough that he's able to score a snapmare on the floor into a series of Goddamn Unnecessary Kicks (tm Mitch Ryder) to the spine. The fight spills back into the ring, as Tank's proven that he's got Ian matched at every bizarre quirk that Ian can usually get past tough opponents with. Ian's not completely out, as he's obviously been through way worse than some dragon kicks to the spine, so he's able to out-think Tank and bring him down with a drop toe hold. Ian tries going to a katahajime. But, Tank's obviously a big tape watcher of IWA, as anyone who's watched enough of Ian's past mat-based matches knows that he's great at being able to effectively use that choke, even gaining victory over Tarek The Great with it in the past. Using his obvious size and power, Tank's able to turn Ian over onto his stomach and even apply a grounded cravate to escape while Ian's shoulders are pinned to the mat. Ian gets a shoulder up at two, but gets a page out of his own playbook thrown at him with some headbutts. The headbutts end up busting Ian open, in which he notices after he takes advantage of a huge mistake of Tank's. Tank let go of the cravate hold and ran the ropes, looking for some sort of splash. But, he made a huge mistake taking advantage of speed that just isn't there, as Ian's able to get the boot up and kick Tank in the gut to give himself some rest time. But, Ian makes a big mistake himself right after, as he starts throwing his signature headbutts at Tank's huge chrome dome. He ends up knocking himself loopy since not only does Tank seem to have a huge, hard head, but he's headbutting him right on the point of his forehead where he's busted open, opening it up even more and letting more blood escape from his head. Tank's affected by the headbutts enough that both guys come to their feet at the same time and start throwing hard strikes at each other, a trademark of both guys. Right about here is where Tank notices the cut, as he seems to aim his forearm shivers right at Ian's busted-open forehead. Neither man goes down, so Ian actually gets to use a rare advantage he has over Tank, that being his speed, to come off of the ropes and knock one out of the parks with a huge lariat that sends Tank down. Tank ends up being able to take advantage quickly of the same mistake Ian made before, as, thinking on his feet with his brain quickly losing oxygen, he goes back to the headbutts that he could have been thinking would send Tank down since they usually work on everyone else. But, he again falls prey to the fact that he's hurting himself more than Tank by crashing his skull into another person's skull, and knocks himself loopy yet again. Tank and Ian come up to their feet, and Ian's quick to get Tank back down with a HARD knife-edge chop (which Tank does a brilliant selling job for, patting his Pantera shirt back and forth like he was trying to put a fire out on his chest). Ian jumps on Tank's back as he's trying to get back up and goes for the katahajime again. But, Tank again knows that being locked in that hold by Ian Rotten is imminate doom, so he locks himself in place and makes sure that Ian isn't able to turn him over, again relying on his one obvious difference from Ian (the size difference). Tank reverses that with an STF, clinching it in like he thinks it's the kill. But, Ian's wrestled enough guys who use that hold regularly to know to get out as soon as possible, which he does. Around this point is when Ian finally is able to send Tank down with a very effective headbutt to the face, as he's worked over Tank's head enough for it to be effective without knocking himself out with it. Ian then makes an uncharacteristic change of strategy, going for a short armscissors. He applies it to the point where Tank can't find a way out. So, out of desperation, Tank goes back to his undisciplined brawling roots and bites into Ian's shin until the pain becomes unbearable and Ian has to let go. At this point, Tank sees that Ian's completely open and decides to go in on that cut again with several punches to it. But, Ian comes up from under, first by winning a palm thrust/slap fight while on his knees, then delivering a stiff series of E. Honda strikes which, much like his Facelift is a tribute to B-Boy, is obviously a tribute to Samoa Joe. By this point, the strikes have finally really gotten to Tank, as he's still fighting but is worn down heavily and can't seem to think straight, as is illustrated by him getting out of a series of strikes in the corner by giving Ian an STJoe, but being unable to do anything afterwards to take advantage. Ian's even able to get ahold of Tank before Tank's out of his daze, applying a neck crank variation while getting revenge for the bite earlier by knawing on Tank's ear. Here comes the finish, a very smart one in my opinion. Ian forces Tank into the corner in which they had just worked out of with some strikes, then goes across to the other side, obviously setting up for a charging move. When he runs across the ring, he heavily shows that he has really bad knees, which could tip the "not-all-there" Tank off, as he's able to take advantage at the lack of speed behind the charge and move, causing Ian to go knee-first into the middle-turnbuckle. Ian goes down holding his knee as Tank immediately hooks the leg and turns Ian over. He then goes down and hooks in an STF, which takes advantage of both Ian's knee and applies more pressure to Ian's head and cut, which obviously is losing more blood since Tank's cutting off any other exit vein for it by hooking the neck. Ian has no choice but to tap out, tying everything together and ending a tremendous bout. Looking at all of the stuff that I've just written, I think I could have possibly gone too anal retentive on this bout. But, there is THIS MUCH depth to this match, something that a first-time viewer of either man could possibly expect. That is one thing that I love about Ian Rotten matches: they may not look the prettiest, but if you pay attention, you'll get a very good story told with a usually-satisfying finish. Another thing that I love about Ian Rotten's wrestling that was heavily illustrated here is that he seems to be able to take advantage of some of his physical faults and use them as strong points in the story of the match. For instance, everyone knows that, just by looking at Ian, you can see that he has enough scar tissue on his forehead to be able to open a cut just by being outside with it bare on a windy day. Ian uses that to be able to tell a story about how Tank's opened him up and ends up leaving one of his strongest weapons, the headbutt, somewhat ineffective in comparison to his usual headbutts while wearing him out gradually just from the blood loss. Plus, Ian obviously has bad knees from all of his years of wrestling, and uses that to his advantage by illustrating it a bit with a long running charge that shows that they don't exactly work right, which makes the fact that one big blow to his knee was enough to take it out of commission long enough to make it accessible for the finish. Another part of this that I liked is how Tank was immediately established as an equal, and not just some cheap impostor from Wildside. He passed Ian's "test", so to speak, by being able to hang with him on the mat and even slightly outwrestling him at points. But, neither man really had a clear-cut advantage until Tank found that one weakness on Ian, that being the cut, and used it to go after instead of trying to find a difference, outside of his size, which only worked for him in small doses, from Ian. In the end, it's not exactly this amazingly visceral piece of modern art that everyone's going to be amazed by and praise as if it's the second coming. What it happens to be is an incredibly smart, hard-hitting, realistic wrestling match that I happened to enjoy for the fact that, while there was obviously a lot of thought put into this match, they didn't put too much in and it still looked gritty and realistic. Very, Very High Recommendation To Go Out Of Your Way To See. I'm going to go and watch the eight-man tag team main event from this show (Tank, Sal Rinauro, Todd Sexton, and Shaun Tempers vs. Ian Rotten, Nate Webb, Nigel McGuinness, and Jimmy Jacobs) later tonight. If it's really good, chances are I'll come back sometime soon with something to pimp that match Yeah.

It's a spoof of a bit that CZW announcer Eric Gargiulo does on their commentary, saying that Sonjay Dutt's a huge movie star back in Bollywood, India.

There's not a shitload of GREAT stuff to choose from Wildside, as he really seems to get misused a lot there in terms of not being able to show off any in-ring skill. There's a great eight-man tag from Wildside TV in March 2002 with him, Scottie Wrenn, David Young, and Dustin Timberlake (Lazz's alter-ego) against Jason Cross, Adam Jacobs, Rick Michaels, and Bart Sawyer. His match against Iceberg from Hardcore Hell 2002 is the first really good match I ever saw either guy have (that and Mondo/Messiah from EPIC are my two favorite deathmatches from that year). The first time he really got to show off wrestling skill down there was a TV match against Adam Jacobs from the spring of 2002. The entire Holy Wars cage gauntlet that he was in at Freedom Fight 2002 was excellent. From then on...I'd check any card where he's booked against recognizable names who you know are good (Lost Boys, Rainman, etc.), as usually him against any good worker seems to be pretty good. However, Bill loves booking him against shitty guys, so keep away from him against guys who you don't know of.

Three question marks.

Dude, that's SO where I got the name for the character. Stupid mind-reader... Anyway... The Elimination Chamber OAOAST Heavyweight Championship Sly Sommers vs. Crystal vs. Axel vs. Drek Stone vs. Ragdoll vs. Chris Stevens Larry Zbyszko. Zack Malibu/??? vs. The Global Party XChange I don't get why Zack gets to have three partners, but since it's four-on-two, I say Zack's crew wins. No-Disqualification OAOAST X-Division Championship Leon Rodez© vs. The Mad Cappa Rodez, because his name's better than "Mad Cappa". "Invitation to Anarchy!" Glory By Anarchy vs. The Skulls vs. The Fanboys vs. The Love Doctors vs. The Tethers vs. The Full Blooded Aussies vs. South Central Militia vs. The Illuminators vs. The Frankensteiners vs. Chris and James The Warlord and Skinner Grudge Match Panther vs. Brock Ausstin Animals usually destroy human beings, even gimongous ones, so Panter's winning this one. Hell's Hitmen vs. The New New Midnight Express NNME, because Jingus is a peiner-head. Black T vs. The Love Doctors The LD's are doctors and therefore have healing powers that enable them to reverse any effects from hot, blackened tea...but, as their initials state, they're also "LD". So, BT for me. Alex Bryant vs. Jonas Smith Brutus Beefcake. The Phenom vs. Pheonix Going out on a limb and saying the misspelt home of the Suns pulls it out.

I was watching one of those ROH Straight Shootin' With... tapes today, and I had this weird brainstorm (unlike those actual weather difficulties with the snow and stuff today...). A thought popped into my head about a possible series of OAOAST shoot interviews. The more I thought about it, the more I actually thought it'd be kind of a cool idea, to let all of us kind of get more in-depth with our own characters by adding a backstory to them while letting creative juices flow with the writing of it involved, and plus it'd give us more content for entertainment. If you're not familiar with the shoot interview format, it's simple: a wrestler sits down in front of a camera and gets asked questions about his career for a long period of time, and he answers them honestly. Doesn't sound like much, but it's actually pretty entertaining and informative. I'm gonna post one sometime soon for Sly Sommers, if anyone's interested in seeing what one would possibly be like (though no, I don't think I'll write them all).

You can use the Tetherses (no time to write their stuff for this week; kay-5 explanation coming on HD...but it is still happening soon).

I just skimmed through...Hoff, I think you left a Douglas/Tethers segment out that I sent you.

I was at the show... Petey & Shelley were HILARIOUS in their mimicking of Arik Cannon. Petey having to be ginger climbing into the ring to "protect the baby" cracked everyone up, as did the series of moves that Shelley & Petey did to Bradley's leg that mimicked other wrestlers (Goldberg's spear followed by his exploding pose thingy, the KneeDT followed by Shelley doing the crucifix pose and sitting down in the corner ala Raven, Petey doing The Stroke to Bradley's knee and then strutting around the ring like Jarrett...and about five others). Davey Andrews is going to be the shit once he gets some more experience. He's already becoming kind of good at heeling it up, and the dude's got his basics down really well. He was also hitting Abercrombie (who didn't look NEARLY as bad as that guy from the IWA boards made him out to be) and Turner like they were dating his mother. Just brutal. Sydal/B-Boy/Webb was awesome as a spotfest. I don't think there was really a lot of substance there, but they hit so many great-looking, original three-way spots. The crowd ate it up and gave them their due with a standing ovation after the match, which led to B-Boy busting out some of that pop-and-lock stuff that they used to show off in those really bad Britney Spears' dance instructor's videos. Punk/Thomaselli was probably the most fun I've had watching a CM Punk match in forever. Punk was VERY Flair-esque here, totally making everyone in the building believe that the hometown boy with less than five IWA matches, all of which were meaningless undercard bouts, not only had a chance, but was going to win the IWA Title. Hopefully, Brandon'll get a lot of pub from this match. Overall, I personally thought it was a lot better than the 8th Anniversary Show, and this is with a "scaled-down roster".

First-Ever Thanksgiving Triple Jeopardy Match: Three randomly drawn tag teams, with the six men being in the selection process as: - Sly Sommers - Drek Stone - Crystal - Axel - Chris Stevens - Ragdoll The rules of the match: The match starts as a three-way tag team bout between the three teams. However, once one team is eliminated, the remaining two teams split up, and the match becomes a Fatal Four-Way. The first man to score a fall is the winner. The rules are very vital here, as the order of elimination determine certain positions in the Elimination Chamber. The first team eliminated will be #1 and #2 in the bout, and the winner gets the coveted #6 spot. Plus: The Tethers Bros. in action.

"SOMEBODY CALL NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE ONE ONNNNNNNNNNNNE!!!" It's actually kind of funny listening to John House on the Possession videotape (August 2004 show), as his voice starts going out about halfway through the show...but he still tries to find a way to be loud and shrill. By the end of the tape, he does a "SOMEONE CALL 911!" that's basically a loud whisper.

They have a single on mainstream radio called "One Thing".

So, last night I popped in the videotape of the first night of the Ted Petty Invitational 2004 for the second time, looking to do something I had failed to do the first time I went through the tape: watch the Mike Quackenbush/Chris Hero match from the first round while paying full attention. I also happened to see this bout in person, but trying to in-depthly (not a word, I know) analyze stuff in person happens to be pretty damn nerdy and just sucks the fun out of everything at a live show, in my opinion. I was not planning on typing a review of the match, but a conversation with my fellow Paradise City Ninja,Patrick McGovern, changed my thoughts on that. So, here we go... Right from the point that Smart Mark Video cuts from the Jimmy Jacobs backstage promo after his ladder match with Delirious back to the ring, it's immediately established the match is a friendly exhibition/clinic, as students from the Chikara Wrestle Factory, the school that both competitors in the match teach at, are seen kneeling around the ring, patiently waiting to see their two mentors display wrestling skill out of not only respect to them, but that maybe they'll also pick up something that maybe was lost on them in training. The match opens with a long feeling-out process, something that many "Hero Haters" point out as a bad quality of a Hero match when debating why they dislike Hero. But, like I and other Hero fans feel is a constant, there's a logical explanation behind the long feeling-out process. It's easily explained with two theories: 1) Neither man goes into striking immediately due to their friendship and the fact that both are strict believers in the art of the human chess game, wanting to be able to out-grapple the other man rather than just go out and throw bombs, hoping that one will knock out or daze the other man long enough to score a victory. 2) Both men have been training side-by-side for long enough at the Chikara school that they've taught each other too much about one another's styles, and therefore they know counters for each other's counters for each other's counters. After neither's really put himself out as the fore-runner in that exchange, Hero tries picking up the pace to change his usual gameplan of "Slow but steady always gets the mouse". But, that fails him, as Quackenbush is both more proficient at the lucha style, as well as being phyiscally smaller and quicker. Quack uses that defense mechanism to his advantage, winning that exchange by wearing out the larger Hero by having a better speed game. But, Hero has an ace up his sleeve. He's able to get an advantage on Quackenbush any time he grounds Quack, as he's basically able to hold down Quack and keep him in one spot while punishing the neck and arm, countering Quack's weird lucha/Euro style with a traditional US-style "wear down a body part" gameplan, something Hero is very proficient at. However, Quack has an added advantage that Hero usually doesn't get out of his opponents, who in 2004 has usually used a more heavyweight style and therefore weren't used to being able to easily get away from Hero without some sort of stiff strike or complicated counter. Quackenbush again uses his speed to gain the advantage any time Hero has him on his feet, as he's small and quick enough to slip out of a hold without having to manuever Chris around any before just running around again to wear Hero down in a more unorthodox form During a Quackenbush speed-demon display, I forget exactly how (I basically just sat there and watched without taking a single note), but at one point, Quack downs Hero with a hold and goes right into the Stretch Plum, a move that both Quackenbush and a former Chikara trainer in "Reckless Youth" Tom Carter are well-known for using often. However even holding Hero in it for a long period of time doesn't secure Quack a victory due to him not utilizing a similar gameplan to that of Hero, who knew coming in that he was relying on wearing down the neck and arm for his Hangman's Clutch, working over the neck or shoulder at all during the bout up to that point. Hero escapes the hold after the fans in attendance, who seem more receptive towards Chris than usual, get behind him as he escapes the hold. Chris seems to then drop his usual thinking man's gameplan, going with the flow of the match and picking things up, going into that aggressive side that Samoa Joe, Arik Cannon, and others had mentioned on commentary and in promos that Hero needs in order to survive on a higher competition level. But, picking up the pace feeds right into Quackenbush's speed vs. size game, as he's able to dodge and hit, even scoring a couple of big DDT variations that target Hero's neck, just in case he needs to go back to the Stretch Plum. The match ends up ending on a mistake that a more aggressive, but less thoughtful Hero makes, going into a war of reversals with Quackenbush. In that, both men seem to be quite even, as Quack uses the speed, but Chris uses anything he can conjure up from his many training experiences to out-do Quackenbush. Quack ends up having to pull a huge ace from his sleeve, as he pulls out what is considered to be the trickiest pinning cradle that he's ever mastered, the Alligator Clutch, out of nowhere, leaving Hero with no escape and pinning him for the flash victory. If you noticed, I used the term "ace up his sleeve" many times during this recap. That's not only because I'm completely unoriginal as a writer, but it's also because the match was practically a battle of "aces up people's sleeves". In order to take advantage of something at any point in time, someone had to pull out a trick from out of nowhere that the other couldn't see coming due to Hero and Quack being on the same mental level going in, and knowing one another, like was mentioned before, due to them being co-trainers at the Chikara school. Another interesting ingredient while watching this match on tape is the commentary, as you've got Dave Prazak on play-by-play, who's able to intelligently explain why exactly Chris Hero isn't going out there with the notion to get the win as soon as possible, explaining that Chris is a competitor who enjoys being able to have a grappling bout with the opponent, and trying to out-wrestle the other guy in the simplest form possible. On color, you have "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon, Hero's biggest antagonist, who is able to keep up with Prazak on the debate on Chris Hero's in-ring style, explaining any mistake possible that Chris is making by being stubborn with his ring style, while not overshadowing the action in the ring whatsoever. The match also works on not only a cerebral level, but a visceral level as well, as Hero and Quackenbush have enough knowledge of the European and lucha styles to be able to bust out cool sequences from both similar, yet different styles and have them make sense within the context of a good wrestling match. Even with all of this, I still personally prefer the Samoa Joe/Roderick Strong match from that night to this one, as it has more of that "I hate you and want to do anything in my power to destroy you" feel that I happen to love in a wrestling match. But still, this is a really great match and I could totally see why someone would prefer this over Joe/Strong. While both are wrestling matches, they are completely different styles of wrestling matches and it's diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. With all that being said, thanks for your time and I hope that maybe, just maybe, I didn't waste your time with my spiel.

Preview of the Chamber: Chris Stevens & Drek Stone vs. Sly Sommers & Crystal Plus: Mikey Tethers vs. "Devastatin'" Danny Douglas

I can totally understand the argument about some of the stuff looking too wacky and over-choreographed. It's a way different style of wrestling than most American fans are used to, and it takes a lot of getting used to in order to see that they're actually doing something thoughtful most of the time with it instead of using the Euro and lucha spots interchangably like non-flippy spot-fu. The same thing goes with not being able to get into methodical chain wrestling: it's not for everyone. Punk/Aries was good for a 2004 Punk match. I thought it was super-fun live, but I didn't think it translated to tape as well as it could have. I just can't get into CM Punk or most of his matches anymore. It almost seems like he's going for a more physical version of WWE-style in a lot of his stuff, and I watch indies so that I don't have to put up with WWE style. (Saying that, sometime soon, Patrick McGovern and myself are reviewing Joe/Punk from Dayton and Nigel/Collyer from HWA in 2003, and I found myself disliking a lot a stuff with Joe/Punk that wasn't there to dislike in Nigel/Collyer).

OAOAST: The Message Board This Is Better Than Your Mom We Have Bigger Penises Than You OMG~! Buy The Tape We're A Super-Group Tears for Fears Got NOTHING on Us Hey, At Least We're Not Canadian Cool As Ice Boshin' It Up! If We Had A Million Dollars...Well, We Wouldn't Be Entertaining You Dudes... We're Too Punk Rock For You Quesadoras for Everybody! Damn, We're Drunk Larry Sweeney Digs Us; You Should Too! We Ran Out of Ninja Turtles Movies To Spoof OAOAST: The Wrestling Show Pedro For President Our Postal Service is Better Than Yours We DID Have Hogan vs. Austin Booked... Who's Up for Strip Parcheesi? When This Boy Meets World... Study Hall Hysteria Hokey-Pokey Round-Up Cory & Topanga: A OAOAST Love Story The Clip Show Drinks on the House! All We Wanted Was a Pencil...Now Look What We've Done! Our Finger Hurts Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season We Guarentee, It'll Be Better Than Elephant Teddy Hart Was Here Wrestling is Cancelled For Tonight SOMEONE CALL 555-3452! We Left Our House Keys on the Kitchen Table No One Gets Out Alive, Except for the Virgins Who Wants to Call the Cops on New Jack? Wrestling's for Homos Up Next on ABC, A Very Special Episode of OAOAST... Oh, and The Tethers Bros. COLLIDE~! The winner faces Danny Douglas with No DQ's.

Use a jobber.

I'll do the house show if no one else will. The debut of "Devastatin'" Danny Douglas, against Nate Tethers, plus something with Sly since I had no clue what to write for him this week, and Alex Bryant faces a giant boulder (or gets reprimanded for his actions, one of the two)!

Name: Chuck-Steve Rodgers Attire: Brown UPS uniform; red, yellow, and green mask In-ring style: Crappily done imitations of various styles huge on the indies now Persona: Heelish UPS truck driver who throws empty packages at fans and then insults them on being cheap and using the USPS Finishers: Overnight Delivery (reverse wheelbarrow into high-gripped Boston Crab (see: Bryan Danielson/Jack Evans at ROH's Survival of the Fittest), Brown Crown (double stomp off top rope to bent opponent's back) It'd only work in Chikara, but it'd work.

Someone's cocky. Hey, just because I've planned a year's more than you have doesn't mean I'm cocky. It just means I'm smarter. I meant that whole "greatest match in OAOAST History" line.

Someone's cocky.

OVW was an NWA affiliate up until a couple of years ago.

It's an announcement that the HI-YAH Jr. Title change at World Without End was unofficial due to a) it not being sanctioned and b) Alex Bryant being over the weight limit. And as for LPYC...he's been really good in times of need, as far as the OAOAST goes, and a really good guy. Sad to see you go, but real life is way more important than being a nerd.