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IWA-MS TPI 2005 is this weekend!

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Here are the tournament pairings for this year's TPI. The shows will feature other matches as well, including a Super Dragon match on night two, Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana for the IWA title on night one, and Jacobs vs. Mickie Knuckles on night two. I'd imagine that the Iron Saints, the IWA tag champs, will be there as well.

 

Anyways, here are the matchups, with quick comments from me:

 

1.) A.J STLYES VS TYLER BLACK: Should be a great match. Black is a young rookie who is going to be REALLY good, so Ian Rotten gave him a match with AJ on night one to show what he can do. AJ obviously goes over, but it'll be great.

 

2.) CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI VS AMERICAN DRAGON: One of the best first round matches. If you like funky European-style stuff, awesome submissions, mat work, etc, then you'll LOVE this.

 

3.) PUMA VS SKAYDE: In case you haven't heard of these guys, Puma is a young masked guy from California with great kicks. Skayde is a lucha guy who currently teaches at the Chikara school in PA. Should be really fast paced lucha-style action.

 

4.) ALEX SHELLEY VS MIKE QUACKENBUSH: Probably my favorite first round matchup. Shelley is awesome and for those who have never seen Quack you're missing out. More lucha action from Quack, crazy submissions and counter moves, etc. Shelley knows so many holds on the mat it's crazy. I can't wait for this one.

 

5.) CHRIS HERO VS RAINMAN: Hero should go over here. Rainman is decent in the ring but could be better. Should be a solid match.

 

6.) ARIK CANNON VS JOEY RYAN: Two guys with really similar mat-based, technical styles. Ryan is nicknamed "The Technical Wizard" and is a PWG regular in California. He is replacing Super Dragon in the tournament, who couldn't make it to night one. With their similar styles this should be good, and a match we might not see again very soon, since they're from different parts of the country. (Cannon is a midwest guy formerly from MN)

 

7.) MATT SYDAL VS EL GENERICO: Should be fun high flying stuff. Generico has been on fire lately and is just a joy to watch in the ring with his comedy and his actual work. Sydal is steadily improving, and likely wins here.

 

8.) CHRIS SABIN VS MAREK BRAVE: Brave, like Tyler Black, is another much heralded IWA rookie who has looked solid so far. Sabin probably goes over here though in what should be a solid one.

 

9.) JOSH ABERCROMBIE VS JAMIE NOBLE: Interesting match. Abercrombie likely wins, since Noble is booked for ROH the next night. Josh is an interesting guy in that he's an amateur guy who's great on the mat but for some reason tries to be this crazy high flyer when he really shouldn't be. The fans definitely aren't sold on him. We'll see how he does with Noble in there to hopefully ground him.

 

10.) TRACY SMOTHERS VS BRAD BRADLEY: Odd matchup of two guys replacing guys who pulled out (Homicide, Chris Harris). I'd say Bradley wins.

 

11.) BRANDON THOMASELLI VS DELIRIOUS: Thomaselli is very good but is doing a weird Ultimate Warrior gimmick now. Delirious is fantastic, one of the most underrated guys on the indy scene. His series of matches with CM Punk this year are must see. I'd say Delirious wins, as he definitely deserves it.

 

12.) NATE WEBB VS KEVIN STEEN: Webb is a lanky, goofy guy with a very long entrance in which he dances a lot. He's really funny. Steen is a champ in PWG and is from Canada. Others like him more than I do. He does a lot of head dropping moves. I'd say Steen wins here.

 

Should be a great tourney...hopefully we can get results posted in here soon after the matches go down.

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I'll be shocked if they don't pair up Skayde and Quack at some point during the final. Maybe second round, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Quack actually go to the finals.

 

If I had money, I'd be sticking it on Delirious.

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I'm blessed enough to be going to the tournament this weekend. My thought process:

 

Styles/Black: This should be good. Could be Black's breakout match, if all goes well.

 

Claudio/Danielson: If God were a wrestling match, he'd be this one. No way this won't be one of the best matches IWA's had all year.

 

Puma/Skayde: The sleeper match of the first round. I have a feeling these two are going to mesh well, and the lucha should work well with the Hammond crowd being so close to Chicago, which holds lucha events just about every weekend.

 

Quack/Shelley: The one match that might end up being better than Claudio/Danielson. This will be to crazy-wacky mat wrestling what Ben & Fred Savage were to squeaky-clean pre-teens on ABC throughout the years.

 

Hero/Rainman: If they end up brawling, it should be good. If they stick with the chain wrestling, it might be a little awkward.

 

Cannon/Ryan: Thank God Cannon got booked in another match, because he would have lost first round if he were in with Delirious, who's getting really annoying and just about not worthy of even advancing to Round Two of this tournament, whereas Cannon could go to the finals and I'd really dig it. Ryan'll probably do something with Supa D on Saturday.

 

Sydal/Generico: This should be weird. They're both the same type of babyface, unless IWA wants to go with the IWS heel turn (which would be EXTREMELY dumb to do). If Sydal doesn't win the entire tournament, a lot of people will be sad.

 

Marek/Sabin: If Skayde/Puma doesn't sneak in and blow away the crowd on Night One, this match will. I'm sure the whole place will be down for a crazy, mindless spotfest, and unless Sabin decides to break out his alter-ego ("The Can-Am Maximo"), this'll get the crowd going.

 

Smothers/Bradley: Tracy really, really should go over here. Then, there's an entire world of possibilities for second round matches that'd be completely original. Think about it like this: Tracy vs. Shelley? Tracy vs. Danielson? Tracy vs. Claudio? Tracy vs. SKAYDE? The list goes on and on.

 

Brandon/Delirious: If both bring their working boots, this could be good. But, neither probably will, and it'll be totally retarded. The match I'm least-looking forward to all weekend.

 

Webb/Steen: Nate likes to die. Steen likes to murder. Perfect mesh.

 

I'm not gonna predict an entire bracket and winners for all three other rounds, but I will say that I really, really, really want the finish of the tournament to be Sydal finally getting his win back from AJ Styles.

 

Non-Tournament stuff: Jimmy's gonna go 2-0 this weekend. With all the (unwarranted) backlash against the Mickie title shot, I'm sure Ian's shyed away from putting the belt on her, and Cabana's never around.

 

I could see the Saints defending on Night Two in some sort of scramble tag. I'd RATHER see an eight-man tag with all of the first round eliminated wrestlers, but either way, I'll probably dig it (unless it's rushed like last year's seven-way).

 

Night One's gonna be good, but the real potential lies in Night Two, in my opinion.

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My money's on Hero at least going to the finals. I think that scrapped Chris Harris match was meant to put him over for a strong run, and he'll get a big name opponent in the 2nd rd (Sabin?) to make up for it. I'd expect AJ to be in the finals too, 50/50 on Quackenbush. I can't see Danielson losing first rd, but Castagnoli seems like a guy you might want to push into the 2nd rd. I like that matchup, don't like that it's taking place first rd.

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Would be nice if they put an IWA regular over this year. Last year's final with Joe, AJ, and Dragon seemed lame. None of those guys could have gained anything from winning.

 

It was done to sell tapes no doubt. That's why, as far as outsiders go, at the very least AJ will be back in the finals. I agree they should put a regular over, but they'll also run the risk of said regular doing less shows if his name blows up. The biggest thing is to put on a shitload of awesome matches to sell tapes, because it can't be cheap to bring all these guys in.

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Last year's was a great event...probably the best weekend of wrestling period. ROH included. But they didn't get a whole lot out of it in the long run. Giving AJ the win wasn't bad at the time, because IWA was in a hot period when they could (and did) bring in AJ, Joe, Danielson etc etc in on a pretty regular basis. Now though, they can't.

 

Looking at the list, if they're hoping to put an IWA regular over, the best bets are either Delirious or Abercrombie. Winning this could put Delirious over the top as a 'serious' worker, or it could flop. Abercrombie winning won't go over well at all. Not to say he's not a good wrestler, but he's got BJ Whitmer syndrome...Ian likes him more than the fans seem to. Cannon and Castagnoli are outside bets for homegrowners. Maybe Sydal too, if he counts as an IWA regular.

 

I've got:

Styles over Black

Claudio over Danielson

Skayde over Puma

Quack over Shelley

Hero over Rainman

Cannon over Ryan

Sydal over Generico

Sabin over Marek

Abercrombie over Noble/Gibson

Smothers over Bradley

Delirious over Brandon

Steen over Nate

 

I fully expect Skayde to face either Quack in Round 2. Then, they'll probably go Hero/Steen and Hero/Quack in the semis. Styles/Sydal will probably happen somewhere, finals or not. Delirious seems the best opponent for Tracy if he advances. That way they can stall without it being too blatant.

Edited by King Cucaracha

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Partial results for night 1, taken from DVDVR which took them from somewhere:

 

 

AJ Styles (strep throat) and Tracey Smothers (no reason given) are no-shows, replaced by Sal Thomaselli and Tank.

 

Kevin Steen over Nate Webb

Josh Abercrombie over James Gibson (played a pro-WWE heel and damanded to be called Jamie Noble)

Brad Bradley over Tank

Mike Quackenbush over Alex Shelley

Skayde over Puma

Arik Cannon over Joey Ryan

Chris Hero over Rainman

Tyler Black over Sal Thomaselli

Chris Sabin over Mark Brave

Matt Sydal over El Generico

Delirious over Brandon Thomaselli (brawled post-match)

 

Claudio/Daneilson and Jacobs/Cabana still to happen, and Tank/Rainman vs Iron Saints was announced for Night Two.

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Didn't find further results buy you can assume Danielson and Jacobs won their matches, the matches for round 2 of the TPI:

 

Chris Hero vs. Bryan Danielson

Chris Sabin vs. Josh Abercrombie

Matt Sydal vs. Tyler Black

Kevin Steen vs. Brad Bradley

Arik Cannon vs. Delirious

Skayde vs. Mike Quackenbush

 

to go along with Jacobs/Mickie Knuckles, Tank/Rainman vs Iron Saints, a Super Dragon match and an 8 Man tag made up of eliminated wrestlers from Night One.

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Marek Brave def. Trik Davis when he hit a spear and held on and flipped over into a northern lights position for the pin.

 

Kevin Steen def. Brad Bradley in a second round match when he ducked the lariat and hopped up onto Brad's shoulders and executed a crucifix bomb for the pin. Good hard hitting matchup.

 

Mike Quackenbush def. Skayde in a second round match with a crazy rollup but people were standing in front of me so I didn't see it completely. Very good lucha match.

 

Chris Sabin def. Josh Abercrombie in a second round match with the Future Shock. Good action throughout as both men had several near falls.

 

Matt Sydal def. Tyler Black in a second round match. Tyler and Matt were fighting on the floor and Tyler ran at the No Limits music man and used Regal's midsection as trampoline and flipped backwards onto Sydal. Sydal gets the pin with the Standing shooting star press after all kinds of crazy high flying maneuvers including Sydal jumping from the apron and hitting an enziguiri (Sp?) on Tyler who was on the top rope.

 

Arik Cannon def. Delirious in 20+ minutes with the glimmering warlock. Comedy at first. Delirious did the spit assisted escape from the go behind but Cannon just reapplied it and Delirious did it again and Cannon turned it into a bearhug. Delirious then licked Cannon's face to get out of the hold. Delirious got Cannon into the corner and hit him with 49 clotheslines and Cannon reversed him into the corner and then hit 18 chops in a row. Cannon then did the delayed suplex but the crowd didn't count so I don't know if it beat Claudio's 43 second suplex last night. After the match, Delirious had a bloody nose and a huge gash on his hand and Cannon gave him a hug and a handshake and then gave him some ice for his nose.

 

Chris Hero def. American Dragon in the second round. The finish came as Hero did the airplane spin to Dragon but it had no effect. Dragon took down Hero and went for the cattle mutilation but Hero blocked it. Dragon went into a crossface chickenwing but Hero made it to the ropes. Dragon yelled for an airplane spin of his own but Hero countered into a rollup for the pin. A key point in the match came as Hero had worked over Dragon's knee including a figure four with a backbridge to add extra pressure. Hero went to give Dragon an irish whip but Dragon just fell to the ground. Hero, not usually aggressive, immediately applied a spinning toe hold on the injured Dragon. During the Highland losing streak, Hero probably would have checked on Dragon and then went away from the knee.

 

Jimmy Jacobs def. Mickie Knuckles to retain the IWA heavyweight title. Jimmy dominated Mickie for the majority of the match and repeatedly would get up from his pinfall covers and act like Mickie had kicked out. He did a Hogan routine and a Stone Cold routine and pulled her up both times. Mickie finally started fighting back and Jimmy went to get a chair. The ref took it away and while he was removing the chair from the ring, Jimmy tried to hit Mickie with the belt. Mickie ducked and Jimmy ended up hitting the ref with the belt. Bryce came out to contiue reffing. Jimmy again goes for the chair but Bryce grabs it and won't let him use it. Jimmy shoves Bryce with the chair out of the ring. Mickie hits the kick of doom and Ian in a ref shirt runs from the gimmick table to the ring but can only get a two count. Iron Saints come out to attack Ian but Rainman and Tank cut them off. Ian follows them to the back and Jimmy hits Mickie with powder to the face, the belt to the face and a centon and gets the pinfall to retain the title. Ian returns to the ring and tells Jimmy that his title reign will end in Morris as it will be Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana in a lumberjack strap match so there will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide for the champ.

 

Kevin Steen def. Mike Quackenbush in a semifinal match. Steen attacks Quack when Quack was coming to the ring. He injures Quack's arm and works it over the entire match. Steen gets the pinfall with his package piledriver.

 

Matt Sydal def. Chris Sabin in a semifinal match when he counters the Future Shock into a rollup for the pinfall. Sydal jumped from the apron and executed a rana on Sabin who was sitting on the top rope. Great high flying action from Sydal and great power wrestling from Sabin throughout.

 

Arik Cannon finally defeats Chris Hero in a semifinal matchup that was the match of the night. The first five minutes was a respectful display of wrestling and counterwrestling. Cannon then slapped Hero and the fight was on. It was a contest of who could chop who harder. Who could headbutt who harder. Then an awesome display of suplex after suplex on each other. Cannon got the victory with a backslide out of nowhere and you could tell that Hero was pissed but Hero was offering to shake Cannon's hand and everyone thought we might finally get the show of respect between these two after the series of matches in Midlothian. Cannon knocked Hero's hand away and put his hand out so that he was the one to offer the handshake. Hero shook Cannon's hand and they hugged each other. Hero then raised Cannon's arm but then delivered a clothesline and just totally snapped. Mickie and Trik and Bryce finally get Hero off of Cannon and are yelling at him. Hero is apologizing to everyone and asking what he has done and keeps trying to walk over to Cannon and check on him. Hero then throws Bryce through some chairs and drills Trik and Mickie and then tears into Cannon again. The crowd was going crazy and 200 people were standing in front of me so I couldn't see everything.

 

Iron Saints def. Tank/Rainman to retain IWA tag titles. Saints use double teams to control early but then Tank's size takes over. He picks up Sal for a Samoan Drop and then Rainman presses Vito up and throws him on top of Sal and Tank is then holding both Thomasellis across his shoulders. Double Samoan Drop and the crowd loves it. Later in the match Saints take back over and hit Driveby and then go back up top but Tank cuts off Vito and Vito knocks Tank to the floor. Vito then goes to jump onto Tank but Tank catches him and throws him through the chairs. Sal runs and dives at Tank but gets caught and thrown through the chairs. Saints regain control and go for the pendulum on Tank but Rainman breaks it up but Saints then work over Rainman and get the pin.

 

8 Man Tag Elimination I didn't get to see a lot of. Nate, Puma, Generico and Brandon all wear masks to the ring and get an 8 year old kid into the ring to dance with them to Nate's music. Kid goes dance move for dance move with them and then even breaks out a breakdance after Puma did one. Joey Ryan, Claudio, Alex Shelley all come out dressed as Super Dragon along with Super Dragon. They hailed from Dragon Quest, Dragon Ball Z etc. Lots of curbstomps and crazy action. Super Dragon eliminates El Generico to win the match as the sole survivor on either team. Claudio blocked a tornado DDT and threw Puma up into the air and drilled him with an impressive European Uppercut.

 

Ian announces that Cannon can't compete in the final due to injuries from the attack by Hero. Steen vs. Sydal one on one for the tournament final. Steen is in control and beating up Sydal. Cannon comes out with his shoulder wrapped and gets into the ring. Ian tried to stop him but threw his arms up in disgust and walked away when Cannon jumped into the ring. Steen immediately drills him in the shoulder and then does the package piledriver to eliminate Cannon. He then goes to the gimmick table and takes a Sydal tshirt and comes back to the ring and chokes Matt with one of his own shirts. Sydal hits a twisting flipping dive off the top to the floor and then the match gets real competitive. Steen goes for the package piledriver but Sydal counters with a rana. Steen hits a beautiful 450 but Sydal kicks out. They go to the top rope and exchange punches for control and Sydal gets the advantage and knocks Steen to the ground. Sydal hits the shooting star press for the victory to win TPI 2005.

 

Cannon comes out to shake Sydal's hand. Ian calls Daizee and Delirious into the ring and he puts over all four of them and tells TNA that they need to sign Delirious and Sydal. Cannon asks Ian for a title shot. Ian tells him anytime he is fully healthy he can have one. Ian then tells Cannon that he has something for Hero after what Chris did to Cannon...On Thursday night, October 13th in Morris, Illinois it will be the long awaited rematch...Chris Hero vs. Samoa Joe.

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Reading through the results, it's encouraging to see they're going somewhere. They're giving a homegrown guy in Sydal the TPI, they've already got Hero/Joe and Jacobs/Cabana already booked, they're building Hero/Cannon. Hopefully, fingers crossed, it'll give IWA a boost now. I was worried reading about all the cancellations since they announced the original line-up (hell, since they announced the first names really), but it looks like it turned out okay. Not real keen on Steen in the finals though.

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Night One was pretty good, and could maybe beat out Night One from last year by a little, with Shelley/Quack and Sydal/Generico being the stand-out matches across the board. But Night Two...my lord. Started slow, but was blowing everyone's minds by midway through and just kept on rockin' throughout the night.

 

Mickie/Jacobs was an awesome use of a clusterfuck ending on a weekend where there weren't any. Perfect example of really good booking enhancing an admittedly average match.

 

After getting somewhat of a backlash for going so far in his first time in IWA (or anywhere big outside of Georgia), Rainman definately came out with all guns a'blazin'. His match with Chris Hero was probably the best he's had in IWA, and his tag with Tank against the Thomasellis last night was really cool. It was nice to see Blackout's (Murder One & Rainman) old Violator 4.20 broken out one more time, and the double-stacked Samoan drop and the Ole Kick-style Cannonball flip by Tank were insane too.

 

Hero/Cannon was so, so, so, so fuckin' awesome. A lot of people said and thought that the feud was over with the I Quit/Respect match in Midlothian, but last night pumped more life right back into it. The post-match angle was incredibly well-done. Usually, you can see the "I shake your hand, then clothesline you" turn a mile away. Not here. The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is how good the acting by everyone involved was. Hell, I swear I saw Trik Davis actually crying because his mentor did such a thing to him and everyone there.

 

The eight-man elimination tag match had Super Dragon's fingerprints all over it, and that's a good thing. It built a lot like the a lot of SD's SoCal multi-man tags that get a lot of pub here, with a little bit of Chikara-style wackiness at the beginning tied in. The final three guys in the match all being non-regulars was kind of weird, but they made it work. Plus, it wasn't rushed at all like last year's first round losers match (it went about 40-45 minutes).

 

The finals on a technical, "workrate" standpoint might not have been as pleasing as something like Danielson/Joe/AJ, but I enjoyed it a lot more. For one, there was actually a clear-cut face and heel, as everyone in the place knew that the TPI was Matt Sydal's to lose, but Kevin Steen, especially on the second night, built himself gradually as this evil outsider who was there to turn IWA on its ear and take the TPI victory in one fell swoop. It was such a great atmosphere...hell, anything that took place after the first hour was in a great atmosphere.

 

Great weekend, good times. Try and see the shows sometime. That'd be cool.

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