IWTV Worth Watching: Jimmy Jacobs! Jeremy Wyatt! Shotzi Blackheart! Journey Pro!

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jeremy Wyatt Journey Pro 5/9/19

ER: This was a pure title match, and I liked a lot of what they did, but thought it also went on too long and the Pure stip felt like it took away from things at times. Now, the payoff was because of the Pure rules, and it was really cool, but we took awhile getting there. These are two vets who know how to work an interesting match, and this was all about Jacobs having to hold back on his punches. We have always been big fans of brawling Jacobs, but this really shouldn't have had that much of an effect on his style. He couldn't punch, but can still elbow the hell out of Wyatt, and apparently even grab him by the balls. That doesn't seem super pure. Jacobs punches early and loses one of his 3 allotted rope breaks, and later we go through a long melodramatic portion where Wyatt is daring Jacobs to punch him, and Jacobs ponders his fist and whether or not it's worth losing another rope break. It was a little bit much in a match that had already had two stand and trade sections with both guys throwing elbows to the jaw. And Jacobs *does* throw that punch and it is very much not worth it, as he loses a rope break and the announcers aren't even sure if it was a closed fist or not. If you're going to work something like that into the match, you gotta deck the guy. It paid off when Wyatt got Jacobs into a nasty crossface with his neck bent back over the bottom rope, and Jacobs couldn't break the ropes because he wasted it on that punch. So the finish was cool, but it took a lot of time going through things to establish that. But when we weren't getting wrapped up in plot we got to see Jacobs throw a fantastic snap suplex, Wyatt throw a couple nice vertical suplexes of his own, Jacobs running quick into Wyatt's boots, and some cool sharp left-right elbows from Jacobs. I was expecting a little more from this, but overall liked what we got.


Shotzi Blackheart vs. Kenny Alfonso Journey Pro 9/26/19

ER: This gets a little long, but has a lot to love. I'll always root hard for Shotzi; she was one of the background babes on a local Bay Area TV station's Saturday night horror movie show, and from the time she started in Bay Area indies she always showed a no fear attitude and full confidence, two things that will keep her floor high. And this match had some of her best stuff that I've seen. The opening mat exchanges impressed me, like she's started integrated World of Sport stuff without needing Alfonso to sit there waiting for his arm to be taken. She worked a kind of hybrid Quackenbush WoS style and while it wasn't perfect it's something that I think suits her. She kept going after Alfonso's arm, and it lead to a nice moment where he went for a handspring and fell because his arm buckled. I don't love the rehearsed strike exchange stuff, and there was some stuff that looked a little too dance-y, but Shotzi also broke out a couple big suplexes, including dropping Alfonso with a dragon suplex and then locking in a cattle mutilation, and a fun battle over a vertical suplex. Less dance-y strikes, more cool mat stuff, this is an evolving Shotzi and I'm into it.