Ted Petty Invitational 2003 Thoughts

[Guest Joe_G]

I planned to watch this and this year's KOTDM during my week off, only to find that my second tape of the KOTDM was defective. D'oh! Thankfully, a replacement should be here soon. Meanwhile, I'll jump to the Ted Petty Invitational.

 

Jesus, they didn't draw flies for this event. What's wrong with you Midwesterners?

 

Taped from some high school gym. Seeing as how they're running gyms and armories now, is IWA-MS out of the death match business?

 

Dave Prazak and a variety of wrestlers handle commentating duty. Couldn't they get Steve Stone in for this? He's great behind the mic. Anyway...

 

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Salvatore Rinauro: Words can’t describe how awesome Jacob’s white fur boots are. He and Sal have a good back and forth opener. End sees Sal go for a springboard move but get hit with a Bezerker Boot to the face for the win.

 

Nigel McGuinness vs. Brad Bradley: Bad Brad was subbing for Truth Martini here. Fun match as the basic gist is Nigel’s funky chain wrestling vs. Bradley’s size. Nigel wins in short fashion with a funky diving pin. Thank God. No knock on Brad, but he's not really a good fit for the tournament.

 

Ian Rotten vs. Mickie Knuckles: This was supposed to be Ian vs. Tracy Smothers, but Smothers had to cancel due to a family emergency, so Mickie injected herself into the tourney. Ian didn’t want to have any of it, until Mickie insulted him one way or another, so he proceeds to beat the pine tar out of her, but she shows spunk by hanging in there (including kicking out of Ian's finisher once before getting pinned after a second one). If it had been a male rookie in there, this would have been a great storyline, but as it was, I needed a long shower after watching this.

 

AJ Styles vs. Todd Sexton: Man, Sexton has a huge skull. Todd's a Wildside alum, so I would imagine he and AJ have met before, so they hook up in a good but short match that Styles wins with the Styles Clash (no shock there). Sexton had some neat moves and got over well with the crowd, so maybe he and his skull will be back.

 

M-Dogg 20 vs. Johnny Storm: Bleh. They did a spotfest, which I don’t have a huge problem with, but they never clicked in the ring. Storm won with a half-nelson into a Michinoku Driver thingee. Ian comes out and gives an Ian Speech ™ about Storm’s potential retirement and also promises to book M-Dogg more in the future. Ian makes me snort my Pespi One out my nose by calling M-Dogg the next Dynamite Kid (if he meant being a wheelchair, then he’s probably right).

 

Sonjay Dutt vs. “Spyder” Nate Webb: Nate’s entrances are the best. He had some new gear as well (well, it’s new to me anyway). Sonjay had to put up his Light Heavyweight Title per order of Ian. An ok match that I can't remember a lot of details about. Nate did pull out a crazy Orihara moonsault. Sonjay retains with the Phoenix Splash.

 

Chris Hero vs. Arik Cannon: The longest first round match, and one of the best. Very cool matwork section at the beginning of the match, then Cannon works over Hero’s leg like a demon. Hero makes the comeback and wins with the Hero’s Welcome followed by a Hangman’s Clutch. Could have shaven a few minutes off, but this was good stuff. I got a laugh out of Hero’s tombstone, where Cannon’s head didn’t come within six inches of the mat. It made Kane’s tombstone on Linda McMahon look like Owendriver ’97.

 

Alex Shelly vs. Chris Sabin: Match was fine but criminally short at eight minutes. Sabin survives a Shellshock but taps to the Border City Stretch.

 

B-Boy vs. JC Bailey: I really don’t care for Bailey, so B-Boy delights me by beating the crap out of the anorexic youngster. Highlights include a double stomp off the apron to the floor, a dropkick right in JC’s face in the corner, and a brutal looking Shining Wizard for the win. Ian comes out and chews out JC for not hitting back, then gives B-Boy a hug. OK then.

 

Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Rave: Colt remains unafraid to bring the comedy. Jimmy tries to lock in all of his usual submissions but Colt escapes using his size. He goes for the Colt 45 but Rave escapes and hooks on a backslide for the pin. Fine match. Ian asks Colt to come back the next night, and Colt agrees, making a filthy comment and quoting a Honeycombs ad for good measure.

 

Danny Daniels vs. Ken Anderson: This started out as a really solid heavyweight style match, with Daniels working over Anderson’s arm for a good portion of the match. But then they forgot about it and it didn’t play into the finish at all. Oh well. Daniels wins with a wedgie and then a piledriver (honest). Daniels did the CM Punk gimmick of putting his title on the line in the match. I kinda like Daniels as the champ, truth be told.

 

Jerry Lynn vs. Michael Shane: Similar to the last match, as Shane worked over Lynn’s arm, but Jerry sold it like a champ throughout the match. Ref gets bumped and Shane hits a superkick but only gets two. Jerry comes back with the cradle piledriver for the win. Good match and probably the best non-Paul London match I’ve seen from Shane.

 

Good start to the show, with a variety of different match styles. Nothing bad outside of Ian/Mickie and the Storm/M-Dogg match. It likely won't be as good as last year's tourney, but still a very good show. We'll wrap up tomorrow.