Nice read about the small 12/10 IWA-MS show

[JoeDirt 0]

Doc's Indy Journal - IWA Mid-South

 

 

The owner of voiceofwrestling.com, Chris Cash, had been on my BUTT lately. He had been saying for a long time that I needed to do something new and exciting for the website.

 

Well, Chris should've known that if I was full of new and exciting ideas, I'd have been in marketing, coming up with the next McDonalds jingle, and not in radio broadcasting.

 

But alas, I came up with an idea, lame as it may be.

 

You see, Being a wrestling fan myself, I figured I would only have to come up with something that was interesting to me.

 

'Hmmm, What is interesting to Doc Young?', I thought.

 

Then the idea came to me.....ME! I am no more interested in any other person than myself! I fascinate myself, and that's HARD to do.

 

The realization hit me soon after, that Chris may not think that's good enough. Who wants to read about me watching TV all friggin day? So I needed to combine the first hook...ME...with something about wrestling, since that's what our site and show happens to be about. 'How about you get off your BUTT and out from behind your keyboard and actually GO to a wrestling event?', I told myself. Then I answered to myself, "Ok!"

 

So here I was, A man with a plan. Something deep and in-depth that indy fans may actually WANNA READ!

 

I just now needed somewhere to go.....

 

 

IWA MID-SOUTH WRESTLING- 12/10/04

 

 

PRE-SHOW:

 

I emailed back and forth with Dave Prazak of IWA Mid-South, and made plans to attend their December 10th show. Dave explained to me that I would NOT get free tickets, and I would NOT be allowed backstage. He said Mid-South was a 'southern style' dressing room where only the staff and workers were allowed.

 

'Not cool', I thought. 'But, oh well." It wouldn't be the first time I wasn't allowed backstage at a show. (apologies again to Britney and her security staff for that little misunderstanding.)

 

Dave assured me I could have any interviews I wanted, though.

 

To brush up on my subject, I spent a little time on their official website, www.iwamidsouthwrestling.com. What do I find, but that they were having a live chat right at that time! I pointed my browser to their chat room, and was immediately in the midst of a heated argument.

 

Live, in chat, The IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion CM Punk was verbally ripping a wrestling fan a new rectum. You have to remember that this is the guy who once wrote in his official website's commentary: "Dear New Jersey.....F$%k off. Tenderly, I remain, XpunkX".

 

CM Punk, who is mostly famous as the guy who decked Bret Hart's nephew Teddy in the mouth at a TNA show this past spring, was in the midst of an argument because the fan in question said that other fans should not yell rude things at the wrestlers during IWA shows.

 

"When a fan pays his money, he has the right to say anything he wants! I don't care what people say to me at all. I've heard it all, and I don't care. It's part of the job." was the nicest part of what Punk said. I can't print the rest.

 

In the midst of the nearly two hour argument between Punk and the fan, I managed to get some basic information from Prazak who was watching the chargument (that's a "Doc'ism" that means "chat argument") with amusement. Prazak again assured me of interviews before I turned in for the night, with visions of interviews dancing in my head.

 

After emailing my interview requests for Ian Rotten, Chris Candido, and Zach Gowen a few days before the show, those visions of interviews dancing in my head soon started to seem as real as Santa himself. In other words, I had heard NOTHING from Mid-South confirming my interviews.

 

Not good news. so I attended the next Mid-South live chat on the internet.....LATE,of course.....Prazak had been long gone by the time I got there, and Ian "I'm Sorry, am I bleeding on you?" Rotten left a few minutes after I got there, giving me no chance to speak with any head honchos. The personnel that WAS still left was the tough-cookie female wrestler, Mickie Knuckles (trained by Ian himself and wrestler Chris Hero), and her life-long, hetero-partner Misty, who I have since affectionately named "Gimmick Table Misty", since.....DUHHHH...she works the gimmick table at IWA Mid-South shows.

 

Within a couple hours of having chat fun with the Mid-South fans, I managed to make nice with Mickie, as she is a cool cat. Even though she couldn't understand my fondness for old school rap music. We set a time for an interview with her before the show, and again it was off to beddy-bye-time for the Doc. I didn't hear from anyone in IWA Mid-South except Mickie, and ONLY Mickie, and ONLY on the day of the show.

 

THE VENUE:

 

I showed up at the National Guard Armory at 6:25pm EST. There didn't seem to be a lot of cars there, and I was afraid it would be bomb scare attendance. I parked into my comfy handicapped parking space, got out and smoked a last cigarette. "Dorals". I would always tell the cashier. "Full flavor, in a box" (they are cheaper, and not so strong). The cashier would always have to ask, "longs or shorts?"....I never heard the phrases 'long or shorts' where I grew up in the Chicago area. If you wanted 'longs' you would say '100's'....if you DIDN'T say '100's', then it was assumed that you wanted regular sized ciagrettes, or 'shorts', as they call them here in Vincennes, Indiana. But hey...."When in Rome, right?"

 

6:35pm: I walk into the lobby and there's about 18 people already waiting. I'm assuming that 18 people in the lobby, a little less than an hour before the show starts, is not TOO bad for an indy show. Half the people in the lobby, though, are kids around 10 years old. Some of the people waiting in line are talking about the ultimate wrestling pastime. WWE. The others were standing around looking bored. It was easy to look at each other and say "Hi". After all, we were in the same boat; waiting in a sauna of a lobby for the doors to open. The friendliness of the few early-birds of the evening was a complete juxtapostion of the reputation of IWA, a violent-natured show.

 

6:48pm: The doors were supposed to open at 6:45. Wrestler Corporal Robinson and another wrestler I didn't recognize show up in the lobby, wheeling one of those new-fangled suitcaes in. The come straight through the lobby and into the venue. 'Hmmm, they are kinda late, aren't they?', I think. About 15 more people have showed up since I did, and the line to get in is starting to head out the front door. It's apparant, at least to me, that something is wrong, the show is running late, and people are restless.

 

6:51pm: A short, pretty, young, red-haired lady comes from the main doors into the lobby to make an announcement. She says her name is Mickie, and she tells us that the woman who was to sell the tickets is stuck in traffic behind an accident. "She will be here in at least the next 10 minutes!", says Mickie.

 

I recoginzed the name and make my move to escape from the hot, crowded, WWE-talking lobby.

 

"I'm Doc Young from voiceofwrestling.com", I tell her, trying to be as quiet about it as I can.

 

"Oh, ok...come on in." Mickie motions me toward the doors. I start to feel weird as I enter the venue, because everyone is staring at me as if Mickie Knuckles was a Goddess who had just granted me Heaven privileges....getting into the venue early. I felt queasy at the attention, which is why i'm on radio and not TV in the first place.

 

Mickie led me to a few places, trying to find a quiet place for the interview. We passed the ringside area, where many IWA wrestlers where sitting around. One of them came up to me and wanted to see my flyer. I assume he was looking to see if the card may have been printed on it, or maybe their names had been printed on it.

 

Well, whoever it was, he was destined to be disappointed, I knew...because the only name on the flyer was Zach Gowen's. Mickie told him I needed the flyer back to get my discount (Hey, Doc counts his dollars, too!), and after retrieving my flyer, we headed for the back.

 

As it was my first time in the venue, I kind of lost track of where we were going. I knew Mickie Knuckles as the woman who took on her trainer, Ian Rotten himself, at the famous 2-day Ted Petty Invitational Tournament in 2003. I also knew her as the 20-year-old (19 at the time) who took quite a beating at the hands of the man she called her trainer. He was reluctant at first to fight her, but when she told him she lost respect for him for not facing her, he beat some respect into her in the middle of the ring. Mickie suprisingly got some good offense in, including a nice suplex, and a couple of pin-counts on the much-larger beast that is Ian Rotten.

 

Mickie has been regulated to fighting girls for the most part lately, mainly because of her

affliction for low-blows on the men to gain the upper-hand. I was hoping I wouldn't ask her the wrong questions and end up singing soprano like so many other men before me.

 

We ended up in the 'locker room', which looked basically like a very, very small school cafeteria. There were only about three wrestlers lounging around in there, and when they saw me pull out a tape recorder, they respectfully left to give Mickie her time in the spotlight with out background noise.

 

Chris Candido was in this particular room, who my boss Chris Cash really wanted me to get an interview with.

 

I had never seen Candido in person, so I was kinda trying to soak in first impressions on the guy while I was back there. Chris was dressed to the 'T' in an oufit that the new WWE dress code would find quite pleasing. To be quite frank, Candido looked PIMP in a nice suit, in the middle of Indiana! "I'll get some words from him for Sunday's show, yet!" I promised myself.

 

The other thing I noticed was that he looked VERY tan. We are talking Regis Philbin tan. "I KNOW this guy hasn't been wrestling on the west or south coasts THAT long!", I thought to myself. The reason for his tan would turn out to be another new thing I learned that night.

 

The other thing I noticed was, he didn't look to be in a very good mood at all.

 

Now, I guess I can understand that a man who was once a WWE Tag Team champion, who strutted his stuff in front of tens of thousands of fans, would now be performing in front of less than 100 fans. He would be bitter, obviously. And me being a rookie in the reporting biz, I assuredly didn't need more enemies, especially one who would no doubt be back in the big time soon enough. (laugh if you want, smarks, but reality IS reality.) I decided to back away from asking for an interview for now, and hoped I would be able to wrangle one later off my wits.

 

But back to Mickie for now. We both sat down in the 'dressing' room and did a short interview, the highlights of which you'll see in my new semi-regular feature "VOW Indy Spotlight" (original, huh?) Mickie's Spotlight will be printed on Thursday.

 

Mickie Knuckles covered all the basics in our interview, as far as getting into the business, being scared s$&tless about taking on Ian at the Ted Petty Invitational, and plans for the future. I turned off the tape and we started to talk non-chalantly about what kind of market Vincennes, Indiana was. Chris Candido was back in the room at the time, and Mickie mentioned that she had heard the last time a federation came to Vincennes, the attendance was 25. I had told her, from my sources, the last time a fed came here, the attendance was 300, and that it was at Vincennes University. We both agreed there was a nice line outside the venue right now, though, and Chris Candido perked up when he heard that.

 

"Really?" Said Candido.

 

"Yeah", said Mickie. "There's a line out the door."

 

Candido's face brightened, and so did my chance at the interview my boss wanted.

 

Then, I was walked back to the lobby by Mickie, where I would have to pay my line-waiting-dues (as CM Punk would call it), and wait for the doors to open, along with everyone else.

 

And yes, I was looked upon by everyone else in line as a fallen angel....someone that got backstage and somehow screwed it up and got put back in line.

 

Woe is the mid-sized reporter.

 

Check back for part 2 of Doc's Indy Journal!

 

-Read details of the entire card!

 

-Will Doc get ANY of his requested interviews?

 

-When the hell did the show finally start?

 

-Who gets Doc's thumbs up and thumbs down from the card?

 

-Why should the wrestler's READ THE RULEBOOK before getting into the ring?

 

-What do you do when audio disaster strikes your show?

 

-Which body part is Chris Candido most proud of?

 

PART 2

 

7:20 pm: Over half an hour after the doors at Friday's IWA Mid-South show were supposed to open, THEY OPENED! I had managed to keep my place in line even after my little "trip into the beyond" to interview female IWA star Mickie Knuckles. Fans quickly grabbed their seats as we entered. I took a seat in the corner of the front row just in case someone got thrown into our side of the audience. This way I could make a quick getaway, and not get crippled again, this time by a wayward, flying wrestler. "Gimmick Table Misty" and Ian Rotten's wife Patti went to work as the tapes, DVD's, and shirts were laid out neatly for fans to peruse.

 

 

7:49 pm: I could hear a couple of staff members telling some fans that a lot of IWA guys didn't know there was a time-zone change, and that some wrestlers were showing up late, thinking they were on time. Things were starting to not look good. Tracey Russell, of prowrestling.com, and his girlfriend showed up. Tracey was a lot smarter than me in showing up late and not having to endure the 'lobby of heat.' Tracey didn't have to wait in line, and STILL secured a front row seat right next to mine. That punk.

 

Chris Candido came out to the gimmick table and started to set up little 8x10 photos to sign and sell to fans. Being the 'mark with a pen' that I am, I treated myself to an old WWF black and white photo of the Bodydonnas.

 

"The good ole' days", I commented to Candido as he autographed the photo. He nodded in agreement. To Doc Young. voiceofwrestling.com. Chris Candido., it said.

 

"Thanks, buddy." said Chris.

 

Here's my chance.

 

"If you have time after the show...I don't know if you'll be taking off right away - but we'd really love to get a short interview with you." I half-said/half-asked.

 

"Sure. No problem." He replied.

 

Jackpot! Who needed Dave Prazak to set up interviews for me, anyway? Certainly not 'Doc Young, Ace Reporter'! Ha!

 

I did find out later that Prazak did not make it to the event for a reason unknown to me, and I assume this is the reason he never emailed me back. So I forgive you anyway, Dave!

 

8:08pm (38 minutes after the show was to start): Music plays, and 'it's on', baby! After purchasing a tape and a shirt from Gimmick Table Misty, I was ready for some wrestling action. Better late than never, I always say!

 

Jim Fannin grabbed the mic and thanks us for coming out before announcing the first match. A battle royal! The battle royal would determine the matches for the evening, meaning that the first two wrestlers thrown out would fight each other one on one, then next two, and so on.

 

The wrestlers all stormed out from the back at the same time, which surprised me. The mass of humanity in the ring was all set when the bell rang, and it was showtime!

 

IWA Lightweight Champion Jimmy Jacobs and Breyer Wellington were the first two thrown out, which gave Wellington a shot at the title. If it had been me, and I saw Jacobs get thrown out, I would've just plunged myself over the ropes to get a a title shot and saved myself a beating.

 

The action was fast, and people were being tossed over as fast I could write down their names. 'God, I hope no one gets tossed on top of me', I thought, furiously scribbling names down as I kept up the body-flight count. I don't think this is what the Weather Girls had in mind in the 70's when they recorded 'It's Raining Men'.

 

People were surprised, myself included, when Candido and Ian Rotten were tossed out. Being one of the headliners, I figured the former Bodydonna would win. That left only one headliner left, and sure enough, he was there at the end.

 

Zach Gowen, famous as the one legged-wrestler who took on Vince McMahon on PPV, had been holding his own throughout the match. Oddly, he was wrestling with his prosthetic leg on. He was left at the end of the match with only one foe to defeat. The mean, intense Corporal Robinson. Afer some nice wrestling and painful moves, Robinson picked up Zach, and in the process, Gowen's prosthetic leg fell off and plunked on the mat. The crowd gasped, including me. How embarrassing for Zach, I thought. Robinson didn't care and tossed Gowen onto the floor.

 

A lot of the crowd was cheering as Robinson held up his hands and was posing for the crowd. I noticed Zach on the floor motioning for the ref to be quiet. Be quiet about what? His leg falling off? How can we not notice!?

 

Gowen climbed back in the ring, hopped over on one leg behind Robinson, and shoved him over the top rope to the floor. The bell rang, and Zach's music played.

 

"What the hell?!", Screamed Robinson after taking a mic. "I beat Zach fair! I tossed him over the top rope!"

 

"The rules state", Fannin started, in the funniest ending I'd ever seen, "that BOTH feet must touch the floor...."

 

The crowd heard enough. They were ROLLING in the aisles laughing before Jim even finished the sentence. It was then that we had all realized that both of Gowen's feet never touched the floor, because his prosthetic one was still laying in the ring.

 

Classic.

 

Robinson, not amused, challenged the cocky Gowen to a match right then and there. He didn't want to. "I'm a headliner! I'm a main-eventer!" Said Gowen smugly.

 

No matter. The bell rang and the match was on.

 

The match between the two was entertaining, as Gowen amazed the crowd with his balance and agility on one leg, and Corporal Robinson dished out solid technical skill and realistic brawling. Brawling realistically was easy for Robinson. He would just simply hit Gowen. Hard.

 

I had taken to yelling things at Gowen like, "Do it for the handicapped!", and offering him my cane to use as a weapon. After all, we had a bond. We both get to park in handicapped spaces.

 

My colleague Tracey Russell was just looking at me, and shaking his head, probably ashamed to know me.

 

Robinson was punishing Gowen, and then got out of the ring and walked over to our part of the seats. He waved his hands in a sweeping motion at us and demanded only one thing.

 

"MOVE!"

 

'Rut roo', as Scooby-Doo would say.

 

We got up and ducked for cover as Robinson grabbed Gowen, yanked him out of the ring, and sailed him straight into the 3rd row.

 

Now, don't misunderstand me here.

 

He didn't pick him up and throw him so he LANDED in the 3rd row, because he actually threw him through the FRONT row. It just so happened that by the time he came to a rest, Gowen ended UP in the 3rd row.

 

Needless to say, Corporal Robinson ended up getting his revenge by pinning Gowen. Zach wobbled his way back through the curtain, whining "I'm going to back to WWE, man."

 

Thanks for coming out, Zach.

 

8:21pm: Vito Thomaselli and "Sypder" Nate Webb were next. Webb has a good look and is a little different. Different meaning this: When a wrestler comes out for a match, he usually marches straight from the curtain to the ring and gets ready to fight.

 

When WEBB comes out, it's like a little kid with an A.D.D. problem. The man they call "Spyder" may see something interesting on the way to the ring, and seem to forget he's supposed to wrestle. He'll take someone's chair and play it like a guitar. He may see a man in the audience that looks like Santa, and go sit on his lap. He may go all the way to the highest seat in the venue, and then sit down for a minute up there. Alone.

 

On this occasion, among his many distractions on his way to the squared circle, Webb ran into the concession area, grabbed handfuls of Cheetos, and started tossing them to the fans as he ran a circle around the ring. I hope they were fresh, because I ate the ones he threw at me.

 

Vito Thomaselli is the opposite. He's built like a freakin statue, and doesn't take to foolishness. He and his brother Sal were new to IWA, and he was there to make an impact.

 

They were equally as impressive though, as Webb has developed a "spider stance" in the ring, and Thomaselli hit some very difficult moves, making them look like anyone can do it.

 

Webb won they match, and invited Vito to dance after the match. He motioned to the DJ to hit Vito's music, yet nothing came.

 

The DJ shrugs and says, "The music's broke!"

 

Rut roo. Something tells me this isn't part of the show.

 

Webb improvises, and gets the audience clapping while doing some impressive beat-box noises on the mic. Vito looks like he's about to dance, but changes his mind. He gives some offensive italian hand gestures to the crowd, and leaves. Webb stands there stunned, just staring at the empty curtain Vito left through. Finally, "Spyder" sums it up.

 

"You dick!"

 

8:32pm: There is an intermission, and Jim Fannin announces that Gimmick Table Misty's phone number is available at the gimmick table for a dollar.

 

"You jerk!" yells Misty, laughing.

 

A crowd of workers had gathered at the sound system, and something was obviously wrong. Not wanting to overstep my "non-worker" bounds, I discreetly made my way over and told Jim quietly. "I'm a professional DJ. Maybe I can help?"

 

Ian Rotten, sitting at the table behind the system, looks up at me, frustrated. "You're welcome to come back here and look if you want."

 

After an examination that only a reporter named Doc can do, my professional diagnosis was that the system needed to be cleaned, but no one had a CD head cleaner.

 

"We'll just go without music and get a new player by Sunday." Ian said, and headed backstage.

 

"There's a Wal-Mart five minutes from here", I told the DJ. "If you could have someone run up there, you could get a cleaner before the match after this one."

 

The DJ and Jim Fannin then hatched a plan that would make McGyver go, "Hey. Why didn't I think of that?" More on that later.

 

After the intermission, Drake Younger and Josh Abercrombie came out, music-less. We fans were improvising our own music that had Abercrombie laughing as he circled the ring and slapped high-fives.

 

Drake had a different way of interacting with the fans. He just came out and told people to shut up.

 

It was a good, solid match for a mid-card event. I had never seen either of them wrestle before, and was entertained.

 

Abercrombie won, and I was disappointed that the music wasn't working. I REALLY wanted to hear what the theme music would be for a wrestler named after a clothing line that is supposedly popular with homosexuals. Drake again requested that we fans "shut up!", on his way backstage.

 

Sal Thomaselli and Ian Rotten were next in a brutal-looking match. I had never met Ian before, and had only seen him wrestle on ECW. I somehow expected Ian to be bigger than he actually was, but the power in those hits tell why he never needed to be.

 

His body is riddled with signs of years and years of abuse, all in the name of entertaining the fans. His forehead is one big mass of lesions from blading, and his arms are zig-zagged with straight-edged scars, no doubt from unforgiving barbed wire. I found myself wondering if God would be mad at Ian on judgment day, for purposely marring the gift that was his body. I hope not, because he IS responsible for making people happy, after all.

 

Rotten was very athletic, though, for a stocky man. His headstands and Liger dropkicks alone proved that.

 

I felt Thomaselli's pain as Rotten beared down on him. Bigger and more powerful than his brother Vito, Sal had a good showing against Rotten and I would love to see the Thomaselli's in a tag team match.

 

Rotten got the victory and came on the mic. He shook hands with Sal and told him that the Thomaselli brothers are welcome in IWA anytime. The crowd cheered.

 

Then Rotten gave a speech. "Here in IWA Mid-South, we do our damndest to give you what's advertised, and more!" I had to agree. A lot of times, some independents advertise big names that mysteriously never show up. Candido and Gowen, on this night, at least showed.

 

"I just got off the phone with the IWA World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk", he continued. "And come our return date on January 13th you will see the IWA World Heavyweight Champion here in Vincennes!"

 

Now this was a double-surprise. It was well-known that IWA was unsure about coming to Vincennes because they weren't sure if enough fans would show up to make it worth it. Now they were not only coming back, but bringing the champ with them!

 

There were some loud fans in the front row, a bunch of buddies from the local college radio station, who were making the night fun. They were leading the chants and claps, and really getting into the matches. These guys were now yelling for AJ Styles.

 

"You're gonna have to get some more people in here before you get AJ", said Rotten. The buddies promised to make good on it.

 

Rotten got into the WWE a little bit. "We don't suck on little boys toes", he said, referring to the 1994 WWF sex scandal.

 

The audience laughed. "No i'm serious. What was his name? Mel Phillips?" I was shaking my head in agreement. He pointed at me. "Am I lying?" I shook my head no. "He liked to suck on boys' toes! We don't do that here!"

 

"At IWA, we don't tell our wrestlers they need to put on 10 pounds and stick a needle in their ass."

 

"We're a small, independent, little company, as I said. And our biggest advertisement is you, the people that come here and enjoy yourself. And If you enjoy yourself, tell somebody, we'd appreciate it. I'm gonna shut up now....and we'll go into our next match."

 

Ian left the ring, and passed by me. He stopped, and pointed at my trusty notebook. "And you can put that in your little column, too." he said. I smiled and told him I would.

 

9:33pm: Chris Candido and Matt Sydal came out. Matt is usually a fan favorite wherever he goes, but tonight, because he was facing the NWA Midwest Champion Chris Candido, he was booed relentlessly. Candido came out to a huge pop.

 

Was Candido rusty in the ring? HA!

 

Was he slacking off because he was in the middle of Indiana? HA!

 

Of course not. Chris was as crisp as ever. Very impressive.

 

Sydal showed why we was one of the top IWA workers in the match also. I believe he's only missing that one little unknown ingredient needed to be a break-out star.

 

In the match, Sydal rolled up Chris by his trunks, pulling them half down, and exposing Candido's tanned hind side for all the venue to see. The audience was 'cracking' up, pun intended.

 

"Get a picture, get a picture!" I was elbowing Tracey Russell, who had a camera with him. He just smiled and shook his head no. "Come on, front page of prowrestling.com! Candido's ass!" Alas, Russell just couldn't bring himself to care about his ass enough to point a camera at it and capture it for posterity, pun again intended.

 

The funnier thing was, Candido didn't seem to care that his rump was hanging out in the breeze. He wrestled for a few good minutes like that, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It got funnier and funnier as time went on, until he finally got cold (i assume), and absent-mindedly pulled his trunks back up.

 

"Candido's a really nice guy, and I really like him," Gimmick Table Misty would later tell me. "But i'm getting really tired of seeing his ass."

 

"He does that a lot?" I asked.

 

"That's like, the 4th time he's done that on this tour. I don't wanna see his ass!"

 

"Maybe he's proud of it." I offered, smiling.

 

"He IS!" She exclaimed.

 

Classic.

 

9:44 pm: Candido won his match, and took the mic. "I'm not into this 'shaking hands, I respect you, hugging' crap. To me, pro wrestling is good guys, bad guys, cheating and kicking ass. But Matt Sydal is a fantastic wrestler, and he gave a hell of a match."

 

Ian Rotten took the mic and suggested a match for the return to Vincennes. IWA World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk vs. NWA Midwest Champion Chris Candido, in a title vs. title match. Chris agreed.

 

The final match was for the IWA Lightweight title. Champion Jimmy Jacobs against Breyer Wellington. It was another match of two opposites. Jacobs is flamboyant, a sort-of-cross between Superfly Snuka and a crusierweight. Wellington was mean and ripped with muscles.

 

I had never heard of Wellington before. He was impressive in that he never broke character. Sometimes, you could get the feeling that most heels are just playing their part, but Wellington never relented in the portrayal of his persona.

 

Wellington came out to....MUSIC! Yes, someone had gone to Wal-Mart and purchased one of those table-top CD players, and The DJ played the music while Jim Fannin just held the microphone up to it, for an 'almost-as-good-as-the-system' quick fix.

 

The problem was the music itself. Jimmy Jacobs music was the theme song from 'The Transformers', which I associate more as the song that Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler character tried to sing in the movie Boogie Nights. I think Jacobs was offended after the show as I told him that, too.

 

Wellington picked up the player as Jacob's theme music played. I thought he was gonna smash it, but he didn't.

 

"I HATE that song!" Wellington yelled.

 

Thanks, I thought. Me too.

 

Good stuff in the match as Jacobs did some Snuka-like moves, and he and Wellington did a good job of combining classic wrestling story-telling with amazing high spots.

 

Jimmy is another guy with a great look, and moves that could take him very far. Maybe we'll see him on a cable network show one day, who knows?

 

The odd thing is, Jacobs was not doing the "huss" chants I knew him from. I guess that's an old gimmick. I never did get to learn what "huss" ever meant in the first place, either.

 

Jacobs retained his title, and Jim thanked everyone for coming out.

 

THE AFTERMATH

 

 

I asked Table Gimmick Misty if Candido was still in the back. She said yes. "Could you tell him I'll be out here for the interview?" I asked. She said she would.

 

I said goodbye to Tracey Russell and his girlfriend, and went into the bathroom. While doing my 'business', someone walked in from a door on the opposite side of the lavatory that I didn't know was there. It was Chris Candido, clad only in a towel.

 

We were both shocked to see each other. He, probably shocked that someone was in the bathroom, and me shocked that the wrestlers here had to take showers in the public bathroom.

 

We agreed to do the interview and I headed back to the ring and made small talk with Gimmick Table Misty and Mickie Knuckles.

 

10:16 pm: Candido came out from the back, once again in his 'pimp' suit and a backwards cap reminiscent of the late Crash Holly. We went by the back door of the venue and did our interview. You can hear the interview at VoiceofWrestling.com.

 

I became acutely aware for the first time, as he was talking about maybe getting back into WWE or TNA, that I was actually taller than him by an inch. Of course, he was ripped to the 'T', and I was.....well, not.

 

As I did my final goodbye to the listeners at the end of the interview, I lost my train of thought and stopped short, right after "Doc Young for Voiceofwrestling.com, at the IWA Mid-South...." I just trailed off and got silent.

 

Chris had been drinking from a bottle of water and laughed so hard, he spit it out on the floor.

 

Woe is the mid-sized reporter.

 

10:25 pm: After leaving the venue, I went to Wal-Mart to buy a six-pack of beer, as it is the fuel that runs the typing engine that is myself. And I knew I had a LOT of typing to do after THIS great show. As I was in line paying for my refreshing adult beverages, I saw him:

 

The DJ from the IWA, in line at the return counter, holding a very familiar table-top CD player.

 

Classic.

 

FINAL THOUGHT

 

It's no secret that IWA Mid-South is struggling. Attendance is down, and many people are worried. But what is a FACT, is that the attendance problem IS NOT because of the quality of the show. It is evident that these IWA guys bust their butts everyday, and give 100% no matter HOW many people are there. I mean, after all: They DID give 100% in a one-horse town named Vincennes. And no matter what technical or time-zone problems there where, they kept their cool and acted like total professionals.

 

And they even have a booker who doesn't put himself on the top of every card.

 

Do YOURSELF a favor. Do what I did. Turn off the TV, get out from behind the keyboard, and see some LOCAL wrestling! You'll be glad you did.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Indeed a very good read. Thanks for posting it.

[JoeDirt 0]

It just goes to show you that a lot of the time it's the little things that make wrestling, especially indy wrestling, a lot of fun.