IWA-MS Anything Goes 2K5: January 15, 2005, Highland, Indiana:
-This show had IWA-MS's biggest crowd since the TPI, so either it was off chance or people really love New Jack.
1) Thomasellis d. Eric Priest and Silas Young: The Thomasellis are from NWA Wildside, and are sort of goofy looking. Priest and Young are both midwest guys. Slightly above average tag team opener. Priest has some talent, size, and a lot of charisma, he just REALLY needs to lose the "Underwear Model" nickname. He hugely botched a lionsault attempt, though, landing on his head. Aside from that, a decent match with some nice moves here and there. The end comes when Priest misses something and goes to the floor, and the Thomasellis hit their SICK finisher on Young for the pin. Basically they put him in a Pendulum swing submission and then hit a huge double stomp off the top to the back of the head. Solid match, cool finish, and all four of these guys will see more action in IWA soon. Good way to start the show, as the crowd really loved that finish. Didn't really catch the time, but I think it went 10-12 minutes.
-Prazak announces how Ian is doing in a deathmatch tournament in Southern California and that the women's champ Mercedes Martinez is defending the title in New England. He gets interrupted by Eddie Kingston. Kingston's tag team champ partner Blackjack Marciano is hurt, and will be out for a while. Kingston wants to set up a Freebirds type thing where he can substitute a third guy into the tag team title situation. Prazak says that's cool if Bradley and Boz can do the same. Kingston introduces his partner, Steve Stone, accompanied by the evil heel manager of the year himself, Jim Fannin. Fannin runs down the rans, and introduces Kingston as the newest member of the Fannin Family.
2) Chandler McClure d. Dysfunction and Brad "Freakin'" Martin: Sloppy match. They hit a few big spots with the third guy breaking the pinfall up. McClure wins it very quickly with his finisher, the "Touchdown" on Dysfunction in about three minutes. McClure continues to be recruited to the Fannin Family, and comes up with another win.
3) Petey Williams d. Chad Collyer: Collyer works Petey's left shoulder to start out. Slowish match for the first five minutes, as you might expect. They both end up going for their respective submission finishers, but fight them off. Petey ends up hooking a figure four. Cool spot where Collyer hits a knee lift but hurts his knee doing it. Good hot end of the match as Collyer counters the Canadian Destroyer into the Cloverleaf, but Petey gets out of it, only for Collyer to get a sunset flip for 2. Collyer goes after the leg, but Petey hits an Enzuigiri. Collyer gets out of the Canadian Destroyer again into a rollup for 2, but Petey gets out of it and into a sharpshooter for the submission at about eleven minutes. The final two minutes of that match were just fantastic, and the crowd was hot for the false finishes.
4) Golden Vampire #13 AKA Tracey Smothers d. "Sweet and Sour" Larry Sweeney: This was Sweeney's "open challenge". Total comedy match that should give you a few laughs. I don't even want to get into explaining things here, but how can you go wrong with a guy in purple and pink tights fighting a guy dressed in an all gold skin tight outfit who wrestles like a robot? I'll let someone else explain further, but this was funny.
After the match, Tracey says he ate too much over the holidays, but he's glad to be back in IWA.
5) Trik Davis d. Chris Hero: Hero's losing streak in Highland continues. It's gotten to the point where the losing streak needs to end, because nobody gets "put over" for beating Hero because everyone expects Hero to lose now anyways. Good stuff to start, lots of holds, counter-holds, usual Hero stuff. Trik then gets a school boy into a folding press like how Hallowicked beat him last month for a good nearfall, Smart stuff. Hero gets pissed off and forearms and chops Trik. Hero slams Trik and hits a really nice back senton for 2. There's a slightly botched spot where Trik gets pulled out from the ropes and dropped on his head for 2, but it looked good and Hero was smart and immediately went for a cover off it. Interesting spot as Trik fights up and Hero basically no sells all his punches and shots and them BLASTS him with a giant forearm. Hero hooks a cravat and then goes into a GIANT SWING and then into a FACEPLANT for 2! God damn that was a cool move. The crowd is really behind Davis now as Hero has slowly heeled it up during the match. Hero does a horsecollar but Trik counters to a flying head scissors and then a head scissors into a guillotine submission. Hero escapes and blasts Trik with more forearms and chops. Trik fights back with forearms, timing his comeback perfectly. Hero cuts him off with a suplex and big lariat for 2. Hero can't believe it, as the curse continues. Hero goes for a hanging suplex, and Trik counters with an inside cradle for the pin at 16:00. Great, great match that told a good story and the fans were jacked for. Really well put together and really underrated in the live reports I read. I don't know where they're going with the Hero curse, but this was a really fun match and WAY better than Hero's December match against Hallowicked. Really cool stuff.
6) Trik Davis/Ryan Boz/Brad Bradley d. Eddie Kingston and Steve Stone in a steel cage match to win the tag titles: Bradley gets taken out of the match after his arm gets slammed in the cage a few times, and Trik replaces him, so that's what that whole angle was leading to. Solid brawl for seven minutes or so as Bradley's arm is worked over. Kingston blades about a minute in. Bradley is then hurt and then had to be taken away, so Boz fights handicapped for a minute or two before Trik Davis runs out and hits a crossbody off the top of the cage onto both heels! Boz and Trik hit their electric chair/double stomp move on Stone for the pin and the titles at about ten minutes. Great stuff as the hot crowd really getting into Trik Davis last match helped this out, and all the guys worked hard. The booking was good, as the fans are starting to really get into Ryan Boz, too. This wasn't a four star match, but it just shows you that "stars" aren't the same as fun. This was fun.
Arguments about whether the tag titles should change hands ensue, but Boz/Bradley/Trik are declared the new champs.
7) MsChif d. Mickie Knuckles in a submission match: Mickie shows off her new t-shirt on her way to the ring. Solid women's action, as MsChif wins at about 7:00 with a sick variation DDT into a weird submission that's kind of hard to explain, but where she basically hooks a reverse boston crab along with a fish hook, if that makes any sense.
8) Brandon Thomaselli d. Josh Abercrombie: They wrestle until they get the usual indy applause stance to start. Solid back and forth stuff, until Thomaselli knocks Abercrombie to the floor with a big forearm and then hits a cool twisting body press to the floor. Tracey Smothers gets on commentary, which makes the match that much cooler. Thomaselli does a powerslam into a standing shooting star press combo which is pretty cool. Brandon misses a 450 splash and Abercrombie makes his comeback. No real psychology here, they just each hit some moves and stuff. Abercrombie hits a nice lionsault/quebrada for 2. Thomaselli comes back with a handspring back leg lariat. Thomaselli hits a SICK head dropping half nelson suplex and then hits a 450 splash...for 2? Well that probably shouldn't have happened. Abercrombie counters the Air Raid Crash to a crucifix pin for 2. They go for a springboard off the top lung blower spot which would have been cool, but can't quite connect with it. Thomaselli then wins it with a SUPER Air Raid Crash.
Well, let me see. These kids can do so many cool moves and are so athletic in the ring, but the match wasn't that well put together. Kicking out of a head drop suplex and 450 splash? Come on now. No real psychology, just a lot of moves, and even though there were quite a few cool moves, I'd like to see these guys go at it again sometime down the road and try and tell a little bit more of a story in the ring. This was a very "indy" feeling match, but these guys are both very young and will get better. Those complaints aside, they both busted their ass to put on a fun match, and pulled off some cool spots.
After the match, the Iron Saints turn on their brother Brandon and give him a double brainbuster and then their sick finishing move. They say their pissed about Brandon choosing IWA-MS over NWA Wildside. We end up with a challenge for a tag match at February's Highland show, and Brandon needs to find a partner. I can see Thomaselli and Abercrombie teaming up, but we'll see.
9) Jimmy Jacobs d. "Double C" Claudio Castagnoli: This is a rematch from IWA's Noblesville show in December. This match is much better, and having a live crowd helps a lot too. Claudio really steals the show here, busting out so many cool funky maneuvers. His flapjack into a European uppercut is very cool. Jacobs counters out of Castagnoli's cobra clutch finisher with some headbutts and then the Contra Code for the win at about 12:00. Fun match, though I was disappointed Jacobs didn't heel things up at all after his big heel turn in Rensselaer back in December after his GREAT match with Brandon Thomaselli.
10) Chris Candido d. Danny Daniels via DQ in an NWA Midwest title match: They actually tease the "sunset flip and Candido gets his trunks pulled down" spot early...and then Daniels does a top rope sunset flip and Candido's trunks are pulled down. He continues to wrestle the rest of the match, for like seven minutes, with his BARE ASS hanging out...except he takes a towel and sticks it in his ass for some reason. I have no idea how to explain this. Lots of heel chicanery here by the Fannin Family, and the match ends in a DQ after Daniels steals a chain from Candido and accidentally hits the ref with it, then piledrives Candido for the win...but the first ref overrules it and Candido wins by DQ at 13:00.
11) Corporal Robinson and New Jack d. JC Bailey and 2 Tuff Tony in an anything goes match: New Jack staples dollar bills on each guy to start. Lots of stabbing. Everyone bleeds. Bailey carves up Corp with something sharp. Corp tosses Bailey through two chairs on the floor. Finally, an actual bump in the match. Corp hits a cradle piledriver on the floor. Tony ends up hitting a sweet corkscrew leg drop on Corp in the ring for 2. Bailey and New Jack brawl on the floor. New Jack jumps off the bleachers with a chair into Bailey. More stabbing and carving. Reverse piledriver by Tony to Corp for 2 as New Jack breaks it up. New Jack hits a top rope chair shot on Tony for the pin at about 15:00. This was crap, though I've seen much worse deathmatches.
Final thoughts: I can see why people said this show was the most fun they've had at IWA in a long time. While there weren't any four star matches, the show was booked and laid out well, and the fans were really into things. You had some really good matches, like Petey vs. Collyer, Jimmy vs. Double C and Trik vs. Hero, a comedy match with Sweeney and Smothers, a spotfest with Thomaselli/Abercrombie, some blood and guts in the main event, and the good angle with the Iron Saints turning heel on their brother. If you don't like deathmatches, just turn the show off before the main event. This show is a must for any IWA fan, and reccommended to anyone else interested in seeing some fun indy wrestling and getting into a great promotion like IWA. It's not really for the people who just get indy shows to see the big names like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, CM Punk, etc. Pick it up at www.smartmarkvideo.com if interested!
