HWA Heartland Cup Night 1 4/22/11

It’s an Indy tournament! Back in the early part of the century tournament wrestling was the primary form of anticipated Indy wrestling, the Super 8, TPI, Best of the Best were all calendar highlights. There was a certain style which was developed, ripened and rotted. This HWA tourney seems a bit conceptually passé, but I figured I would check in and see what Indy tourney wrestling looks like in 2011.

Rich Swann v. Jake Crist

Swann is a black highflyer who is part of the Gabe crew of black highflyers (ROH was all Puerto Rican highflyers, EVOLVE all black dudes, there feels like there is a Michael Eric Dyson essay in there somewhere,) Crist is one of the Irish Airborne who hung around ROH undercards a couple of years back, he has put on some weight and looks a lot more ground borne now. Good indy tourney opening round match, each guy got in some of his stuff, but not too much and the finish was clean without diminishing the loser. I enjoyed some of Swann’s shit talking and flips as taunts, he did a pretty cool headstand counter out of an Ace crusher which nicely skirted the line between cool and stupid and I dug his flash KO selling. Crist looked solid too, and his spinning superkick finisher is pretty boss looking. If the rest of the tourney is like this, it will go down nice and easy.

Chrisjen Hayme vs. Gerome Phillips

Gerome Phillips is a big black dude who looks exactly like Big Worm from Friday, he seems to be working a Big Worm gimmick too, lots of loud shit talking and ass kicking. Chrisjen is a guy I mainly know from laughing at the stupid spelling of his name when it shows up on match lists. Pretty close to a Phillips squash, and he is really fun kicking someone’s ass. Really nice clubbing forearms and a sick clothesline. Hayme was questionable on offense, but perfectly fine bumping and taking a stomping. Good stuff and it got me excited to see more Phillips.

Jesse Emerson v. Paul Birchill

Haven’t seen Birchill since he got endeavored and he definitely can’t afford the good Deca-Durbolin anymore. Emerson is a guy I remember from SAW, although he is the 17th most interesting guy in SAW. Some nice stuff, Burchill takes a big bump where he is on the apron, gets dropkicked on the knee and ends up hotshotting himself. Definitely something Finlay should steal. By then end both guys looked a little gassed. I didn’t hate this, but it was the least of the matches so far.

Ron Mathis vs. Necro Butcher

I am a sucker for a Necro Butcher formula match. He is a guy you can put in with any game guy willing to take a beating and it is going to be entertaining. I didn’t get much of a sense besides the fact he was game and willing but that was enough. This had the feel of some of the old IWA-MS Ian v. Simon Sezz or Dysfunction matches, where Necro just pummels this kid and Mathis looks good being willing to just hang and fire back. Necro just blasts him with chops and punches and by the end Mathis is bowed, bloodied and beaten.

Tim Donst vs. Jeremy Madrox

Madrox works a old timey 1890’s carnival boxer gimmick, with Hendricks Gin boxing stance and comedy mustache, Donst is one of the more tolerable Chikara students. Donst is a guy well versed in working around comedy guys, and this never delved into the overly cutesy realm which much Chikara lives in. I liked Donsts arm wringer reversals a bunch which felt more like a Bill Dundee comedy spot then a Chuck Taylor comedy spot. Madrox had great dedication to the gimmick although I couldn’t tell how good he was.

Dustin Rayz vs. Zack Sabre Jr

I haven’t been a fan of Sabre Jr. in the past, he felt to me like the Empire outpost for the Davey Richards school of indy wrestling. This was a much less irritating version of what he does, instead of finisher killing backyarder UWFI, he and Rayz worked 10 minutes or so of “watched a Saint tape” World of Sport. Post Taylor camp indy wrestling beat that style to death, but it has been long enough that I didn’t mind watching it again. I fear for later round Sabre, but this was fine.

Sami Callihan vs. Dave Crist

Much like Necro, Callihan also has a formula style which can be really entertaining with pretty much anyone willing to hang in and bang with him. The Crists have gotten more tattoos and are willing to hang in the pocket and throw blows. This came off a bit like Callihan working a lesser Callihan, still Pentagon v. Octagon is usually an entertaining match. Crist didn’t do anything particularly memorable, although everything landed with a thud, Callihan was bumping great, including taking an awesome flip bump on a otherwise mediocre leg lariat. Finish was great too, with Callihan catching a spin kick and locking on the stretch muffler. Fun stuff and another entry on Callihan’s resume.

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs

These guys had a one of the great feuds of the decade a couple of years ago, cool angles, classic matches. Whitmer at his worst is excretible, but his best matches are pretty damn good. This wasn’t at the level of their 2006 stuff, it was more a wrestling match then a brawl, and Jacobs was working heel which isn’t his best role in this matchup. Still I always like watching Jacobs, he had some great looking grounded punches and bumped really well, and they still have some charisma together. I also really dig Whitmers crazy choke finisher. Match ended with Phillips coming in to brawl with Whitmer and I could see myself digging that matchup.

Really well done Night 1. Nothing felt overkilly the matches were different enough, and everything except the main event was kept to around 10 minutes. Worth checking out, and I am excited to watch Night 2.