Found Footage Friday: IWA MID-SOUTH IN THE YEAR 2000~!

IWA Mid-South A King Is Crowned 7/15/00 

Jayden Draigo vs. BJ Whitmer

MD: Draigo was billed from being from the Michaels academy (and I think he actually was but that would have been a great heel indy gimmick back in 2000). Whitmer is Whitmer, and was billed as being trained by Thatcher. He had pleather pants. Draigo was all but falling out of his. And this was a pretty ok opening match for this sort of thing honestly. Technical to start. Whitmer got the advantage. Draigo took over by kicking the rope after he ran around the ring and got chanted at and chased. A lot of his offense was approprtiate to his size and he didn't overreach. They didn't let a Whitmer hope spot (German out of the corner, bridging) sink in enough, but the comeback was just blocked punches and firing up. Whitmer missed a top rope splash and Draigo got him with the Superkick (see, it would have worked if it didn't piss off actual people in the industry) for maybe the surprising win. 

ER: Draigo is from the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy. A girl in the crowd tells him He Sucks Shawn Michaels dick and that He Goes to Shawn Michaels Dick Sucking Academy. By the midway point of the match she convinces the entire crowd that he definitely learned to suck dick at Shawn Michaels' Academy. She knew she was right and convinced an entire small town. BJ Whitmer had okay punches when he had sideburns. Nice backbreaker too, fast snap suplex, and I liked his big missed diving headbutt. 

Nathan Future vs. Prophet Daniel Quinn

MD: We've moved on to the cargo pants portion of the show. This was kind of effective for what they were trying to do and I'm not sure I've ever exactly seen this done like this? Future came out first and Quinn just rushed in out of nowhere and hit a spin wheel kick and kept on him like it was a sprint. He hit a dive, then triple suplexes (last one a Fisherman) and went up top. Harry Palmer, who would have a 2/3 falls match later in the night ran out to get the match thrown out. He powerbombed Quinn and they looked a bit too hard for a chair, finding one and shattering the arm with it before people came out to run them off. It theoretically got some more heat on Palmer for later in the show while having Quinn look like a worldbeater in the span of a minute or so.  

ER: Daniel Quinn looks like a malnourished kid in Gummo with knee pads too big for his 135 pound frame and has clearly watched a lot of Benoit footage. I'd say half a dozen people on this card want to be Benoit and that is the most 2000 thing about indy wrestling (outside of the entrance music). Quinn looked straight out the Yard and that's how these openers should be, and I was genuinely impressed by the local following he had attained. People were really getting behind him like a small regional babyface despite (because?) being a teenager who came straight from school and wore someone else's kneepads. Future took a nice bumped getting shoved into the ringpost and Harry Palmer came off very unlikeable in his interference. 

IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Title: The Suicide Kid (c) vs. Paul E. Smooth w/ Dave Prazak 

MD: Smooth and Prazak did some pre-match talking. Smooth was doing the timely Britney's boyfriend gimmick with a bathrobe and her on his shirt. It's not as fun as the contemporaneous Aron Stevens gimmick in New England where he'd come out with a stand up of Britney, but it drew the sort of chants they were looking for. Kid slapped hands on the way in, big smile on his face, and he was over.

I would have really enjoyed this in 2000 but I was 15 years younger. Kid was confident in what he was doing, had a pretty measured way of doing things. They wore their influences on their sleeves (like a Stan Lane Crane Kick shove over). Smooth got an early advantage but Kid came back with the back handspring elbow. He controlled (with the triple suplexes, last one a fisherman's so no agenting here of course!) until Prazak got involved. Smooth controlled for a bit. Kid came back with so, so many moves, some ridiculous, some sublime (someone should steal his bit where he runs at a seated opponent in the corner, presses off with his feet on their chest and hits a headbutt to the groin). Prazak got involved again as some other guys ran out, Kid finally got him but got killed by the interference and lost the belt (Smooth made sure to lay his head on the groin for the pin for maximum homophobic 2000 heat). Anyway, Kid was very good at what he did even if what he did only made sense in a specific time and place.

ER: This ruled. Smooth talks about Britney Spears' titties and says someone here has an even better pair, calling out some poor kid who was nowhere near the fattest kid there but had no doubt called him a Hard F a couple dozen times. Smooth says he doesn't suck dick but would suck on that kid's big titties because this was 2000 Indiana and there are entire other worlds out there north of Kentucky. Suicide Kid comes out to Bawitaba which brings us to the edge of midwest indy nirvana after already hearing Closer and Dragula. When we inevitably get Last Resort we will have reached nirvana. 

Richard X and Hy-Zaya w/ Uncle Honkey vs. Kid Trailer Park and Colt Cabana

MD: What to say about this one. Well, hopefully Eric is in with me on this because he can write about Uncle Honkey better than I can. There was probably money in that gimmick in some place at some time even if it wasn't necessarily this place and time. I'll leave it at that. There were a lot of big ideas on offense, especially from Hy-Zaya and Richard X. I wouldn't say a single one of them hit clean but that was a quarter of the charm.

The flip side of that was that Colt looked great. Just poised and professional in contrast. He was obviously watching a bunch of tape and did a number of things but they were just a little more grounded than everyone else and even the chain wrestling looked very good. He looked like a real ringer in the midst of all of this, even if he lost it due to Honkey distracting the ref and interference dragging him down. 

Adam Gooch vs. American Kickboxer

MD: Hey, it's DVDVR favorite American Kickboxer. This had a fun little quirk where Hy-Zaya and Richard ran out after the first or second exchange, only to get run off. Then they came back when both guys were in bad shape and took out Kickboxer while Gooch was on the outside. That led Gooch to winning. Post match they made up only for Uncle Honkey to smash Kickboxer for a stretcher job. All of this set up future shows. 

The match itself was best when they were doing the stand up striking and Kickboxer was driving things. Gooch had some perfectly fine offense of the time but it felt novel and different and stood out on the card when they were throwing shots and they did a decent enough job at it. It was the same with some of the wrestling and precision stuff Colt had been doing, just in how it stood out. At one point Kickboxer did a flippy groin kick in the corner that didn't fit the match and wasn't really sold well but it was over. They did a good job clapping the crowd up and keeping them engaged too. I did think the heels running back out a second time was a clever bit, done once at least. 

Best 2-Out-Of-3 Falls: Harry Palmer w/ Nathan Future vs. Cash Flo

MD: I got a kick out of this. Cash Flo is on Tulsa King now. Good for him. This was pretty minimalist, not necessarily in what they did but in how much they did and while I have no idea why it had to be 2/3 falls, as the first two were short and the last one ended in bullshit before long, it was still fun. Palmer stalled to start, and then stalled some more, and then got beat on and ran off, so this was all working for me. He came back with sunflower seeds or something and did a bit of spitting them into Flo's face, incensing him and leading to him getting caught and hit with a blockbuster. That was the first fall.

Flo came right back and brought a couple of chairs in. Palmer ambushed him and took over and set them up and I swear he was going to do a standing 'rana onto them which is such a ridiculous notion, but obviously Flo power bombed him onto the chairs. That was the second fall. Then the third fall had the ref knocked out and Palmer use a weapon and really there's been a lot of BS in this show but it's a sign of the times. Anyway Quinn from earlier in the night ran out (at least I think it was him) and they presumably they set up a tag for the future or something. 

IWA-MS Heavyweight Title: Fans Bring The Weapons Death Match: Rollin' Hard (c) vs. Corporal Robinson 

MD: The biggest takeaway I had from this was how organic and alive it felt just because it was unpredictable. Some of that was how both wrestlers weren't supposed to wrestle each other but other people but it worked out this way, but it's mostly the gimmick. You can't prepare for whatever people in the crowd bring so you have to think on the fly and it's incredibly refreshing in a world of carefully planned spots. 

 

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XCW Midwest Rollin Hard Memorial Show 2/3/09

Suicide Kid v. Drake Younger v. American Kickboxer

PAS: Fine little five minute three way, a couple of awkward spots, but Kid and Kickboxer looked pretty good for a pair of guys who don’t really wrestle regularly. Kickboxer had an especially pretty flipping asai.

TKG: About two years ago Suicide Kid was doing commentary for a couple IWA-MS matches and mentioned that he was thinking about a come back no longer as Suicide Kid but now as a more seasoned Suicide Man. He comes out to a big pop and has nice baby charisma but he is no longer a baby, he is a man and eats the pin from the new generation in Drake Younger.

J Boy Allister Fear, Guido Andretti v Ian Rotten, Chris Champion, Mickie Knuckles

TKG: About a year ago Chris Champion had a stroke. Chris Champion is currently working some sort of almost AAA style middle aged Marilyn Manson gimmick. He comes out wearing white face paint and a fascist military uniform with an iron cross insignia, waving the old Wildside Skull and Crossbones flag while carrying a Misfits lunchbox. Inside the Misfits lunchbox are chemicals which he mixes up to blow fireballs. Before Champion had his stroke the joke I used to tell was that for a drugged up tatted charismatic guy with martial arts offense and goth gimmick, Vampiro was a poor man’s Chris Champion. Post stroke for a charismatic tatted up ex druggie with martial arts offense and a AAA type gimmick Chris Champion essentially is Vampiro. This was a fun lil match. I haven’t seen Fear in ages, Ardetti is a XCW regular and I’ve never seen J Boy before but he really did the bulk of stuff for his team. Post match Ian with heartfelt speech about Roland.

PAS: This was a showcase for the faces, and they all looked great. Ian has an awesome Buddy Landell elbow drop here, and Mickie throws some nasty headbutts. I enjoyed all of the heels bumping and talking shit. Ian is really great at emotional speechmaking.

Sexy Shawn Cook v “Mean” Mitch Page

TKG: Mean Mitch Page is a guy who I think is retired but doesn’t look the least bit rusty in the last two matches I’ve seen with him (Mean and Hard v Vulgar Display of Power and this one). His stuff looks really great and he eats Cook’s stuff really well with his legs going al wobbly in neat ways. Mitch Ryder should try to get him out of retirement and run Mitch Page v Freezer Thompson series. Page/Thompson v Hawk/Cook would also rule. Page and a young babyface partner. I want Mean Mitch Page as a regular.

PAS: This was pretty short but Page did look good. His strengths are clearly the kind of brawls which you wouldn’t do on a tribute show. I was pleasantly surprised how good he was in this kind of undercard face v. heel match.

Mitch Ryder v Tracy Smothers

PAS: This is a show with no great match, but where everything was totally satisfying. Tracey Smothers does his classic shtick, and does it well. Ryder looks good, has the crowd behind him and works well around Tracey being Tracey. I imagine they have a great match in them, this wasn’t it but it was a blast

TKG: Smothers comes out and announces that he loves Roland but hates these fans and we’re off. Smothers with a bunch of nasty combinations in the corner and a match that just puts a smile on your face.

Flash Flanagan v. Chris Michaels

PAS: This was for the title and was worked like a title match. Both guys have been in very good matches on previous XCW shows, but always as the solid hand against a guy with some flash. This was technically good, but a little dry. Flanagan really looked facially like Curt Henning which isn't something I noticed before. Good match with a fun finish, but not a top ten XCW match

TKG: Flanagan eats everything in this really really well. This starts really great and is a fine showcase match. The superplex into roll up finish was executed better than usual.

Bull Pain v. Todd Morton

PAS: These are my two favorite guys in this promotion, and two of the best wrestlers in the world. I imagine that this feud will produce one of my top matches of 2009, and I am going to want to see them all. This wasn't that kind of match, but man was it a total blast. Morton comes out with Sexy Shawn Cook so Bull calls to the back and brings out Little Roland and Crackbaby to even the score. Whole match was Morton and Cook with really nasty cheap shots leading to a Crackbaby low blow and a little Roland shot with the Kill Whitey sign for the pin. Really great moment and so much more heartfelt and classy then your WWE tribute show shtick.

TKG: This was being reffed by Mitch Page with Roland’s kids as Bull’s seconds, and so I was expecting more fun than “classics”. Still the wrestling was really good with lots of neat uses for Brother Pain. Bull is shockingly effective face. But this was a match about the kids. That’s what the whole show was about. On some level I’m used to wrestling memorial/tribute shows as being classless and really exploitative. This show wasn’t that. It really felt like a bunch of guys getting together to entertain two kids whose dad had just passed. Those kids coming out for the main event to take out Todd Morton was really sweet. There was something ridiculously gentle and sweet about the whole show.

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