IWA-MS Revolution strong style tournament, 10/22/04, Lafayette, Indiana:
1) Daizee Haze and Mickie Knuckles d. Mercedez Martinez and Angel Williams. Angel gets pinned after a double team suplex. Pretty solid women's match, didn't catch the time. **
2) Roderick Strong d. BJ Whitmer to advance in the strong style tournament with a kick to the face. Wow, this was a LOT better than I thought it'd be. Really crisp action here, maybe the best I've seen Whitmer in quite some time. They worked together really well. Good near fall as Strong rallies and hits two sick backbreakers (one of them an AWESOME cradle backbreaker) for the two count. The end comes as Strong catches Whitmer in midair, dumps him with his fireman's carry into a gutbuster, and then hits a running kick to the face for the win at about 9:00. ***1/4
3) Samoa Joe d. Austin Aries with a lariat to advance to the second round of the tournament. This was a great match. I didn't know Joe and Aries would work this well together. The shots these two dish out here and just SICK. Aries at one point just winds up and kicks Joe straight in the face and gets a gasp out of the crowd. Fantastic action all the way through, too much great stuff to mention here, but some of it is Joe hitting a Samoan drop and then a senton, Aries using his fish hook submission, Joe doing the bootscrapes, Aries hitting a lariat like he did to break Arik Cannon's collarbone the night before and Joe holding his collarbone after it, Joe getting a great near fall with a DVD into a pin, Aries hitting a SICK crucifix driver for a near fall, and Joe putting away Aries with a SICK lariat. Great action all the way through, went about 12:00. ***3/4
4) Anthony Franco and Evan Starsmore d. Davey Andrews and Matt Turner when Starsmore tapped Turner with a camel clutch type submission. Went about 5:00, not much to mention. Nothing good, nothing offensive. 3/4*
5) Super Dragon d. Eddie Kingston with a double stomp to the head off the top rope to advance in the strong style tournament. Some VICIOUS shots in this contest. Kingston slaps Super Dragon twice SO fucking hard it's ridiculous. They trade nasty elbows, forearms, the usual. Dragon gets a near fall with a double stomp to the chest. Kingston catches him with a rolling belly to belly. Nasty kicks to the back by Kingston. Dragon rallies with a butterfly superplex for 2. Dragon kicks out of the YA MUTHA~! More chops and slaps. Dragon then just unleashes a bunch of shots and headbutts on Kingston, breaking out the Violence Party. Double stomp to the head ends it at 8:30. Hard hitting match, damn. **1/2
6) B-Boy d. Homicide with a rollup at advance in the strong style tournament. Slow start as they work the mat and stretch each other out. B-Boy hits a swinging neckbreaker and a big headbutt. His big kick in the corner on Cide gets 2. B-Boy stretches Cide out some more as Prazak and Webb wonder who the "Old Age Punisher" was. Homicide takes control and gets several near falls. He stretches B-Boy, but he gets the ropes. Cide dumps him to the floor with a knee to the back and hits a SICK tope con hilo. I love that move every damn time. Cide rolls him in and as he follows B-Boy gets up and hits a shining wizard for 2! Exploder with a bridge gets 2 for Homicide. Flying headbutt misses. Brainbuster gets 2 for B-Boy. Butterfly superplex for 2 by Cide. Ace Crusher by Cide, into a lariat, countered into a rollup for 3 at about 14:00. Solid match. Homicide is pissed and refuses to shake his tag team partner's hand. ***
7) Chad Collyer d. Blackjack Marciano and JC Bailey in a three way dance, making Marciano tap to the Texas Cloverleaf. Not much of note early. Cool spot as Collyer blocks Bailey's monkey flips and hits an awesome suplex on him. Double Russian leg sweep onto Collyer. They fight about the pinfall and start to trade shots. They do the cool powerbomb/superplex combo spot. Collyer puts Marciano in a bow and arrow and Bailey hits a double stomp! Collyer hits a hanging vertical suplex on Bailey. Finish comes as Collyer dragon screws Marciano and gets him to tap to the Cloverleaf at about 6:30. Nothing too much here, but they did put a few fun spots in there. *3/4
8) Jimmy Jacobs d. Shane Hagadorn in a non-title match with a senton off the top rope. Hagadorn is another of the ROH students. Work the match to start. Suplex and a nice dropkick by Hagadorn for 2. Jacobs starts to Huss up but Hagadorn rakes the eyes. Jimmy hits a neckbreaker. Hagadorn gets a Flair pin in the corner for 2. Jacobs hits a funky DDT and the big senton for the pin at about 5:00. Not much here, but decent. *1/4
9) Abyss d. Ryan Boz via DQ when Boz hit the referee. Okayish brawl, better than Abyss vs. Samoa Joe the night before, though I'd have to watch that tape to decide. Both are big guys, if you needed to be told that. They brawl around on the floor but make sure not to get counted out like Abyss vs. Joe the night before. For some reason Boz ends up punching the referee, and Abyss hits the Black Hole Slam but the ref calls for a DQ. Abyss dishes out a torture rack backbreaker to the referee after the match. It went about 7:00 I think. *1/2
10) Samoa Joe d. Roderick Strong with a grounded submission to advance to the finals of the strong style tournament. I loved their first round match at the TPI, but after watching it again it wasn't that great, though still plenty of fun. This match was definitely better, as they played off the things in that match, which is always cool. For instance, Joe countered Strong's running kick to the face with a lariat, and Strong countered Joe's uranage in the corner thing into a rolling arm drag right into his big running kick to the face for a great near fall. Joe goes for a DVD, but Strong slips out and hits a great lung blower. Lots of kicks and strikes, obviously. Joe hits a sick German suplex and wins with a submission hold that was kind of like a Rings of Saturn but with Strong on his back if that makes any sense. Joe wins at about 9:00. ***1/4
11) B-Boy d. Super Dragon via KO at 13:30 to advance to the finals. This was a great sprint and it was clear that they had worked together before as all their counters were very smooth and well done. They get off to a hot start with Dragon dodging a Shining Wizard, kicking B-Boy to the floor, and hitting a GREAT dive. Dragon busts out the CURB STOMP~! The crowd demands another and he complies. B-Boy ties up Dragon with some submissions, and Dragon comes back with his usual hard hitting offense, including several double stomps. Dragon hits a German suplex that B-Boy lands funny on and then a dragon suplex for 2. B-Boy obviously has a fucked up elbow now from that suplex, but he keeps on fighting. They throw psychology out the window and just go for big fucking spots on each other. Cool counter by Dragon as he catches B-Boy in midair and turns his shining wizard into an STF. B-Boy hits a cool exploder suplex into the turnbuckles. Dragon then busts out a SUPER BLUE THUNDER BOMB...but B-Boy kicks out. Double stomp to the head...B-Boy kicks out. B-Boy slips out of the Psycho Driver and hits a shining wizard for 2. Finally B-Boy hits three SICK backdrop drivers on Dragon, dropping him right on his head. The ref checks and Dragon is out, and B-Boy advances at about 13:30. Like I said, if psychology and a slow build are your thing, this match isn't for you. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. ***1/2
12) Chris Sabin d. Nate Webb with his fireman's carry slam. They work the mat a bit to start and then each hits a rana. Sabin dumps Webb to the floor and hits a nice tope. Back in, and Sabin hits a leg sweep into an arm/neck submission. Webb hits a spinning splash for 2. Webb hooks a weird half stump puller submission with a knee to the back and then goes to a VULCAN NERVE GRIP~! To the corner, Webb hits his tumbleweed but then misses and Sabin gives him a wheelbarrow suplex into the turnbuckles. Sabin works Webb over for a while, hitting a springboard swanton and some other stuff. Webb rallies with his cool hammerlock faceplant move for 2. They do some cool counters near the end, with Webb doing an awesome counter into the Soylent Green is People, but Sabin counters that with an arm drag. Webb spikes him with a SICK rana that almost looked like a Canadian Destroyer. Sabin finally wins it with the Future Shock at about 13:00. Solid match. Very "indyish" I guess you could say, but these guys work well together and this was pretty fun. **3/4
13) CM Punk, Matt Sydal, Danny Daniels, and Ace Steel d. Chris Candido, Nigel McGuinness, Double C, and Steve Stone when Punk pinned Nigel with an inside cradle. FUNNIEST DAMN MATCH EVER~! Seriously, you have to see this shit. I'll try and talk about all the comedy spots they did, but I'm sure I'll forget stuff. First you have the ref checking everyone and all the heels are caught with foreign objects. Candido has about five forks and other metal objects in his boots. Steve Stone has a JUMP ROPE (I think) for some reason. Double C gets caught with a weight in his pocket. Candido of course can't lift the weight, and then the referee lifts it right up and Candido flips out, Flair-style. Then Nigel has some metal thing in his trunks that the heels dig out so the ref misses. Anyways, the match starts and Candido gets his trunks pulled down thirty seconds in when Steel tries a sunset flip. Candido goes around the ring bareassed for a full minute and all the babyfaces slam him, and then the referee joins in and slams him too! Jim Fannin comes in and flips out at the referee and asks him if he wants to fight. Fannin takes off his shirt but forgets he is wearing a man-bra to hold his fat bosoms in, and Punk points and laughs at him, and Fannin scrambles to recover his shirt. We then get a little wrestling. Double C then gets in with Matt Sydal and wants a test of strength. The joke is that Double C is much taller and puts his hand up so high that Sydal can't reach it. So CM Punk sneaks in and puts Sydal on his shoulders and Sydal locks up with Double C. So Candido runs in and puts Double C on HIS shoulders and we have Sydal and Double C grappling while on another guys shoulders! They bounce off the ropes and collide and this is HILARIOUS. Candido ends up dumping Double C on his head. We get more comedy, with Candido flipping out and grabbing the ring steps but dropping them on his foot, and then kicking the ring post out of anger and hurting his foot even more. The end comes with the faces getting the heels in a row boat submission in the middle of the ring as Punk rolls up Nigel for the win at about 16:00. Total comedy (with a little wrestling mixed in there too), but it was the perfect change of pace. Comedy wise it's four stars, wrestling probably two, so we'll split the difference and go *** here just so I can rate it something. But DAMN this was fun to watch. Check this out if you can.
14) Samoa Joe d. B-Boy with a cross armbreaker to win the strong style tournament. Ian Rotten comes out and announces that B-Boy is hurt, so the winner of the strong style tournament is...but B-Boy runs out and we have a fight. They do a quick sprint, hitting all their big moves in three minutes. B-Boy hits his corner dropkick, and a sick backdrop driver. Joe hits a muscle buster for 2. They keep trading big moves until Joe hooks B-Boy's injured shoulder in an armbreaker for the tap out and about 3:30. This was a total sprint due to B-Boy's injury, so it's hard to know what to rate it. But it was energetic, so that's a good thing, and you have to give B-Boy props for gutting it out here. **
-After the match B-Boy gets helped off. Ian gets in the ring and puts over Joe as a great talent and a rare talent in the business today. He praises Joe vs. Punk in Chicago as one of the best matches ever. Joe thanks the fans and that's it.
Final thoughts: Damn, this was my favorite IWA-MS show this year aside from the TPI. The whole tournament is a ton of fun, though it's too bad B-Boy got hurt going into the finals. Plus you have one of the funniest damn matches I've ever seen and you have a tape that's DEFINITELY worth picking up at www.smartmarkvideo.com ASAP. Trust me, it's worth it.
BONUS REVIEW!
Chris Candido vs. Danny Daniels from 10/21/04 in Evansville, Indiana:
I posted this on the IWA boards, so I'll post it here too.
God damn this was a funny match. At the start you have Daniels raking Candido's eyes, and Candido sells it like death and flops to the outside. Steve Stone goes to check on him, and then "blind" Candido punches him and then headbutts Jim Fannin. Back in the ring, Candido busts out a Flair flop for the hell of it.
Later in the match Candido goes for a sunset flip but Daniels pulls down his trunks so his whole ass is showing. Candido goes around the ring for a full minute with his ass hanging out, even going up to the top rope without pulling them up. Everyone in the crowd is cringing.
Then they start busting out WWF finishers. Daniels starts tuning up the band and hits his version of sweet chin music, and then a pedigree for 2. Suddenly Candido starts hulking up. Big boot! Leg drop! One count! So Candido hits a Rock Bottom and goes for the people's elbow! He bounces back and forth about six times before getting winded. He takes a break, catches his breath, and drops the elbow for 2. Back up, and Daniels flips out of a suplex, gives Candido the double bird, and hits a stone cold stunner!
Candido finally wins the match with his sitdown piledriver. Really fun, entertaining match. I have to give it up to Chris Candido for stealing the show so far in the matches I've seen since he's returned to IWA. It's great to see him back and doing great.
