SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES IWA MID-SOUTH!! A Shot of Southern Comfort 5/29/04, Part 1

ER: IWA Mid-South is probably my favorite indy ever, and I have spindles filled with dvds of it. It seems crazy to not occasionally indulge in this product, which once ran so improbably frequently that there are tons of gaps in my viewing. Let's watch some of the best of the carniest. AND, I think - as always - the best way to watch, is by closing my eyes and pulling a dvd randomly out of the stack. That brings us to this show, which had some deliciously classic early-mid 2000s indy bloat: 13 matches over the course of the night, utilizing  32 DIFFERENT WRESTLERS!! 32!!! WWE barely uses more than 32 guys during the Royal Rumble PPV, but here's IWA bringing 32 different guys to some random Saturday night card in a smallish Indiana town. It's the best.

1. Danny Daniels vs. Eddie Edwards

ER: Oh jeez, Edwards has giant silver pants and his hair done in short braids, looking like the worst ever version of Roger from Sister, Sister. Go home, Eddie. But really this wasn't a bad opener. It was kept to 5 minutes and Edwards wasn't having 2.9 kickout wars at this point in his career. He hit a nice spinkick and took a nasty cross arm German suplex, Daniels stuck him with a nice piledriver that did not get kicked out of, surprising me. We did get a standing elbow exchange, how far we've come in 13 years.

2. Rain vs. Sumie Sakai

ER: This built to a pretty nice finish. Rain wasn't really that good here, but Sakai was a pro and kept the floor somewhat higher than it would have been. Rain was really poor at obviously getting into position for the next move, really making everything looked rehearsed, running into position early and just standing there motionless waiting to be attacked. Sakai takes a big sprawling bump through all the chairs, packs a huge wallop with two missile dropkicks, drops Rain with a nice hotshot,  hits one of those fast low-arcing moonsaults, throws fast suplexes, all nice stuff. It's awesome that she's still working the states.

3. Southern Comfort (Chris Hamrick/Tracy Smothers) vs. The Wild Cards (Eddie Kingston/Jack Marciano)

ER: Kingston and Marciano look like they're in a weird religious cult, their heads are shaved bald and they're wearing matching big baggy white pants, white boots and white sleeveless shirts. They look like the Yonkers chapter of the Guilty Remnant. The match was a pretty quick sprint, just 7 minutes, and really a showcase for Southern Comfort. Kingston wasn't really an established guy and was really young at this point,  and Marciano never really got established before getting retired. So we get a showcase for SC's offense, and that's a fun thing. Smothers is a great bully, and he breaks out all his leaping kicks, big chops and overhand rights, gets fired up and does a couple spears, makes great faces when Kingston spits in his face, stuff you'd expect from Smothers. Hamrick is a huge favorite of mine, I love his style, love his dangerous bumps and offense, love that he looks like the most violent Johnny Winter ever. Hamrick gets crazy height on offense and on bumps. At one point he does a missile dropkick that seems like he dropped in from the ceiling, and the end of the match is him hitting a Carolina jam onto Marciano...OFF of Kingston's shoulders (who was seated on the top rope). It was a gorgeous legdrop, dropping insanely in from 10 feet. In between all that he hits a couple big kicks, and takes a flying bump through the ropes to the floor FAR more dangerously/painfully than most people would have taken it. I would have liked current Kingston in there against 2004 Southern Comfort, but this was fun.

4. Nigel McGuiness/Chad Collyer vs. The Second City Saints (CM Punk/Colt Cabana)

ER: A good enough match, though nothing much of note happened. We get a lot of comedy matwork from Nigel and Colt, but it's not bad. I am not completely stone, so I can laugh at Colt rolling through back and forth to try to shake a wristlock. Nigel's Johnny Saint spots come off pretty clunky, but the stuff with them working a wristlock was engaging. Collyer had some fun stuff, had a nice combo with a knee drop followed by a quick elbow drop followed by a quick somersault senton. Late in the match he hits a cool dragon screw on Cabana. Best part of the match was Nigel rushing across the ring and just leveling Punk with an elbow to break up interference, and Punk went flying through the ropes to the floor (taking an even better floor bump than Hamrick the match before!). Punk whiffs on a shining wizard to end the match.

5. Havana Pitbulls (TJ Perkins/Ricky Reyes) vs. Brad Bradley/Ryan Boz

ER: This was pretty easily the best match of the card so far, to my surprise. Both Pitbulls looked good here, especially TJ (and has anyone dropped their 2017 stock more than Perkins? Still, 2004 Perkins is a welcome Rocky Romero replacement). I really liked the Boz/Perkins segments as Boz was kind of blocking Perkins' mat stuff which made all of it look more painful. Perkins grabbed him in a cravate and tried a snapmare, but Boz went straight down on his face. Perkins kept it locked on, eventually got the snapmare, all of it looked nasty. I also thought Perkins was throwing nice strikes against Bradley, but soon we move into Boz and Bradley cutting off the ring to work over TJ. It's all really satisfying, Boz comes off as a god sleaze and Bradley was kind of a green lummox at this point, a good combo. Reyes gets a quick pin as TJ planchas to the floor, and this certainly exceeded any expectations.

6. M-Dogg 20/Josh Prohibition vs. Homicide/B-Boy

ER: Hey, this was mostly really good, because Homicide and B-Boy were really great in 2004. And most of the match is an awesome mugging of M-Dogg who played an admirable FIP. We start with some flash from Prohibition and M-Dogg, including a pretty crazy springboard somersault senton from 20 that he almost lawndarts himself on (yet the late rotation seemed planned). The spot portion was fine but once we settled into the FIP portion it got real good. Homicide and B-Boy were lean and mean in 2004, no signs of those bellies that would pop up later, and they laced into 20. At one point the two of them were taking turns just running and striking him, Homicide would run in with an elbow, get out of the way, B-Boy would run in with a knee, get out of the way, Homicide runs in with a yakuza kick, etc. He gets facewashed, he gets beaten down, it's awesome. When Prohibition tags in we get a crazy train crash run with everyone hitting increasingly bigger spots (the move escalation was handled really nicely). We also learn that Prohibition was flat out terrible at getting into position for moves. He would stand there swaying and jerking around like Johnny Cage waiting to get his spine ripped out by Sub-Zero. He would rush into place early...and then stand there and sway while waiting for the move. We get a couple nasty headdrops at the very end, finishing on Prohibition getting planted vertically with the Cop Killa. Absolutely gross landing. I think he got legit knocked out, as even B-Boy was in the ring checking on him after, and his selling was...well, it was too good to be actual selling by Josh Prohibition. Homicide briefly checks on him, laughs and says "You're fine" and makes gang signs to the back.

7. Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Petey Williams vs. Delirious vs. Nate Webb vs. Jimmy Jacobs

ER: This is an elimination match, and if you look at that list of 7 names and picked the guy you would want to see least...you know that was the guy who advanced the whole way through. Yep, we get alllll of the Petey Williams and he clearly looked like the worst guy in the match. I had completely blocked out just how much IWA Mid-South used Petey Williams in 2004, and how strongly pushed he was. It's like they used him before he was in TNA, so once he was on TNA they just pushed him as the top guy in the company. It looks completely absurd now, even moreso than it probably looked then. Because it sure doesn't look great now. And the thing is, everybody else in this match looked decent-to-great, with Petey looking outright bad. So let's not even waste time on Petey's stomach kicks that don't even attempt to look like a man kicking a stomach, or him needing to be lifted up two different times by the guy who was supposed to be taking a move from him, or his really bad athletic bumping that just makes it look like bumps don't hurt at all. No, no need to waste time on THAT. Let's focus on the good, because there was plenty of good here, namely Roderick Strong. This was a big time spotfest that Petey Williams occasionally slowed down, but there was way too much good for him to ruin all of it. Delirious takes the nastiest facebuster ever to get eliminated, we get a wild divetrain that peaks with Strong press slamming Jacobs from the ring and throwing him into everybody like Bigelow throwing Spike. Strong looks is all babyface and babyfat, but he's the most vicious guy in the match and looks great. Jacobs was super tiny and wasn't quite the crazy brawler he'd become, still doing some of the Brody shtick, and doing more indy goofus "I DDT this guy while bulldogging that guy!" stuff. But he bumps big and leans into stuff, and we all know how good he got not long after this. Aries flew into everything and came across like a big deal, and goth goofball Nate Webb works like Aerostar, if Aerostar had just taken a couple of mystery pills he found in his old vinyl pants. That's a good thing. This whole thing was mostly fun, would have made a great 6 way.


8. Petey Williams vs. BJ Whitmer


ER: There must be someone special out there, lookin' out for me. The winner of that 7 way got an immediate title shot against BJ Whitmer, and my dvd stuttered and labored and sputtered and skipped and sadly, right before Petey won the prior match, it just couldn't take any more, and jumped back to the menu screen. I tried - actually tried! - to get back to where I left off, but the dvd wouldn't even make it past the intros to the 7 way. It just wouldn't let me. I actually went back to see a Petey Williams match, and my dvd was all "Look man, just gimme your keys, alright? Look, I know, you're fine, just gimme your keys. Buddy, I know. No, I know. *wrests keys away, dvd forcibly rejects itself* I was going to watch Petey Williams win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight title, but fate intervened. A regret understood by no one.

Read more!

Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 19: Gods Among Men

ER: Dragon Azteca is fully invested in reality sports competition mindset, because HE'S NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS. But it's weird to do a "death match" without even advertising it ahead of time.

TL: Who’s on the other line with Dario on the red phone? Is it RobRod? Also, Metalachi playing literally the most played mariachi song of all time 100 episodes into this dang thing make me think they’re running out of songs. If they play “El Cucaracha” next week, they should just stop having house bands on the show.

1. Texano vs. Joey Ryan

ER: Boy, Texano sure is a guy who will come out and have a match on TV every couple of weeks. There were some nice things, Texano's elbow drop, Texano taking longer to flip over the ropes to the apron than 60 year old Flair, big slingshot senton, etc. But this was definitely a 2017 match featuring Texano and Joey Ryan. I did like the giant horseshoe punch finish. We're going to have big horseshoe finishers and power glove heart punches. I'm pretty okay with that.

TL: Joey goes right to the lollipop in the crotch and then does his best (more like worst) Toru Yano impression, and I keep wondering why Texano, who literally was one of the biggest stars in Mexico a couple years ago, is curtain jerking here. Texano with a big delay on the hilo, and then we get a very basic Joey Ryan control segment. Famous B makes his way down to ringside and he might be the best worker in the match now. He starts doing a dance that reminds me of the dance the cheerleaders did in BASEketball when the Beers traveled to San Antonio. Then Striker makes a “Blazing Saddles” reference and doesn’t even say the best line in the movie. Then a horseshoe gets involved. Sure. Best bump in the match was from Famous B when Texano shoved him to the mat post-match.

TL: Mundo says the words “upstart fight league” and I can’t stop giggling because it sounds like someone put in “phrase for opposite of ‘new sports entertainment company’” in a Google search and that’s what popped up first. I know they wanted WWE-type talent at the top for LU, but bringing along the way-too-long promo by Mundo only to have Mack come out and start stomping a mudhole, throwing out stunners, and beating up security guards is even too derivative for this company. One of the things that drew me in to LU in the first place was them doing angles just a little bit differently, and this was, well, not that.

2. Cage vs. Veneno

ER: Wow, what a let down. I hear Melissa Santos announce Veneno and I got really excited. I don't read any LU spoilers, and the actual Veneno is one of my very favorite indy lucha guys. I watched a 2017 Veneno match just a few days ago that was great! So Veneno gets announced...and we get Ricky Reyes under a mask. This is like when WCW had a jobber named Manny Fernandez. Not thee Manny Fernandez. You'd see a match list with Eddy Guerrero vs. Manny Fernandez and then it turned out to be just some tubby white guy. But this match was a fine competitive squash. Reyes snapped off a decent rana and some nice kicks, Cage obliterated him with shoulderblocks and the absurd screwdriver. Sexy Star runs in after to hopefully start a feud with Reyes. If they have to have her on TV (which, does anyone actually know WHY they have to have her on TV? Because it can't actually be their choice, right? They are being forced to, by someone, for some reason?), I'd be happy if she was feuding with someone I don't care about, away from the main events.

TL: Cage has the Power Glove and the only thing I want now is to see is him use it to play Excitebike. Ricky Reyes was definitely the least of the Havana Pitbulls to me, and while he does a few neat things in the match, Cage gets in the usual and finishes with a screwdriver that hits flush. It’s fall in my world, which means squash is welcome. Needed more glove work, though. Sexy Star run-in to boot down Veneno does nothing for me, as it shouldn’t.

TL: Catrina and Puma have talks about visions and I envision this not going anywhere constructive. Glad to see the absurd martial arts back on my television, though.

3. Death Match: Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Matanza

ER: This was a blast, even though it went much shorter than I expected it to. I don't fully understand the reason to make it a "death match", and it wasn't really different than any other match where guys brawled around the Temple, but it was good. The Temple has plenty of areas that are ripe for creative crowd brawling, and they did some cool things with it. Azteca hit a mammoth flip dive that easily could have seen him smack a step, and Matanza lugged him up the Temple steps like he was carrying a dead body! Great visual. The brawling at the top was fun, with Matanza eating a rana that threw him into the railing, Azteca getting tossed onto a support beam and dropping down with a flip dive, and then Azteca getting backdropped through the bleachers in an abrupt but violent finish. Rey comes out wearing tight jeans, which is weird as my eyes have gotten so used to him with baggy kneebrace-covering pants the last 15 years, and we get more nice brawling. Matanza takes a huge backdrop through some storage building and Dario's flip out was great. "Everybody out of the Temple!" I kind of wanted 10 minutes of him ushering people out, like parents coming home early and unannounced to their kid's out of control party. Just Dario muttering to himself and checking every corner of the Temple for stragglers.

TL: Azteca has grown on me and my love for Matanza knows no bounds whatsoever so to say I was pumped for this one coming in is an understatement. That whipping back suplex Matanza has is such a sick move. The body control for all his stuff is absurd. That flip dive Eric mentioned was absolutely insane, like 1995 Sabu-level crazy. Then after the dead body carry, Azteca does the Spiderman flip dive near the balcony and this might as well be taking place at your favorite ECW venue. Then the chokeslam to finish through the bleachers by Matanza. If 2017 is indeed the Year of the Sprint, this is one of the best street fights you’ll see this year. The post-match stuff with Rey was great, as Rey, even three decades into his career, is still going to take the most ludicrous bumps ever to get something over. That powerbomb into the balcony was ridiculous. Then Rey backdrops Matanza through the roof of the storage shed in a transfer of ludicrous bumping powers and Dario CLOSES THE TEMPLE DOWN. I wanted some fans looking at their phones trying to get an Uber or a Lyft only for Dario to take the phone and chuck it to the floor defiantly. “Dario, I paid for this show AND the next, though! Here’s my ticket!” And then Dario takes it from the guy and rips it up in front of him. That’s how you get payback. More Rey and Matanza is fine by me.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO LUCHA UNDERGROUND

Read more!