IWA-MS Bloomington 10/20/04 gradual review

[JAYD]

IWA-MS 10/20/04 "Battleground in Bloomington":

1) Ace Steel vs. Austin Aries: Dave Prazak and Eddie Kingston are on commentary, and Kingston acts like he's not afraid of B-Boy and Homicide, who they face at the annivesary show. Both guys pick Steel to win this match, so you know he's going to lose. Pretty typical stuff to start. Crowd looks to be quite small, though I believe this is IWA's first time in Bloomington in at least a long time if not ever. They do some cool leg work with Steel getting a reversal into a leg lock, and Aries gets the ropes. This is a one camera show, by the way, as SMV didn't film it. Steel delivers a headbutt to the groin of Aries. Aries comes back and puts a funky submission on Steel and he kicks him in the head as he does it. Steel comes back with a nice bow and arrow stretch but Aries flips out to a pin for 2. Aries hits an enzuigiri and chokes Steel in the ropes. They trade forearms and kind of blow a spot. They fight over a suplex and Steel ends up dropkicking Aries in the corner. Whip to the other side, but Aries reverses and hits two corner dropkicks of his own. Steel comes back with one more of his own. Steel hits a driving knee down on Aries for 2. More reversals and stuff, and an STO gets 2 for Aries. He springboards into a suplex by Steel for 2. Steel tries the Gory Special neckbreaker but Aries avoids it twice and hits a brainbuster and 450 for the pin at about 12:00. Slow at first, picked up at the end with some nice back and forth stuff. They worked hard. **1/2

2) Shane Hagadorn vs. Matt Turner: These guys are from the ROH wrestling school. Hagadorn plays the heel, Turner the face. They work the mat to start and do a good job. Hagadorn gets the ropes. You can tell Punk teaches them because they use a lot of headlocks. Prazak and Kingston call Hagadorn "that Hag guy". Hagadorn dishes out some elbows in the corner but catches a boot to the face. Hagadorn ducks a clothesline and hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Nice dropkick by Hagadorn. They do a rollup reversal spot at Hagadorn hooks the tights and gets the win at 4:00. Short match and these guys are obviously still learning, but what they did they did fine. *

More to come...

[JAYD]

3) Mercedes Martinez vs. Tracy Brooks: Martinez won the IWA women's title at the TPI. They work the mat to start and do a nice job. Not really much to say, though, but they're doing solid work. Knucklelock suplex by Mercedes for 2. Nice. Mercedes hooks a nice guillotine choke and hits some nice shots. Tracy comes back with a lariat for 2. A few more near falls for Tracy. Mercedes hits a fisherman's buster for the pin at 6:00. Solid women's match, nice job ladies. Kingston gives them praise. **

4) Chad Collyer vs. Danny Daniels: I've been liking Collyer more lately, especially after his match with Rocky Romero in ROH that I just LOVED. Hopefully this is good. Kingston is still praising the women's match. Not surprisingly, they work the mat to start. Arm drags and such. Dueling pinning combinations and a standoff. Collyer does some really great stuff here, and he does it so fast I can't type to keep up. He's such a solid worker, though. Daniels hits his tilt-a-whirl gutbuster. Chops and a senton by Daniels. Fireman's carry into a gutbuster for 2. Collyer comes back with a dropkick and chops. Powerslam for 2. Suplex for 2. Elbows. Collyer heads up top and tries a cross body but Daniels drives the knee into his chest for 2. Daniels hits a uranage type suplex for 2. Daniels heads up top but Collyer hits a super dragon screw leg whip! He hooks the Texas Cloverleaf...and Daniels TAPS! Collyer beats Daniels clean at 8:00! Collyer looked good here, Daniels wasn't really feeling it. Decent match. **1/4

More to come...

[JAYD]

5) Double C vs. Brandon Thomaselli: They trade arm wringers and stuff to start. CC works Thomaselli's left shoulder over. I LOVE CC's entrance music, by the way. Lots of shoulder/arm work, like a hammerlock hip toss and some Euro-style stuff. Monkey flip for Thomaselli, but CC hits a Euro uppercut and goes back to work. He hits a STIFF shot and then hits a shoulderbreaker. Thomaselli hits a jawbreaker to turn the tide, as he's had no offense here yet. Dropkicks and a stepup enzuigui, then a standing shooting star press get 2 for Thomaselli. CC goes back to work on the arm and then hits a cool swinging neckbreaker for 2. CC tries to get the ref to call him the winner. Back to the shoulder, but Thomaselli counters out of nowhere into an Air Raid Crash for the pin at 7:00! That was out of nowhere. I loved CC's arm work here, but Thomaselli didn't get in much offense and the match was really hurried as a whole. I'm starting to really like CC, though. **1/4

More to come...feel free to post comments, thoughts, etc.

[JAYD]

6) CM Punk vs. Super Dragon: Dragon is wearing the blue getup tonight. Nice stuff to start as they trade hammerlocks and stuff. Dragon hooks a leglock and Punk uses his other leg to kick Dragon in the back as they're on the mat. Ian Rotten, now on commentary, puts over the Joe/Punk match from Ring of Honor. They also mention the Dragon/Ryan ironman match from PWG. Dragon works a headlock, and Punk suplexes out of it for 2. Dropkick to the back of the head for 2. Punk hits some chops, but Dragon goes to the eyes. Dragon uses a leglock sleeper, but Punk fights out and reverses. Punk gets an inside cradle for 2. Ugly sunset flip by Punk for 2. Double arm backbreaker for 2. Dragon comes back with the CURB STOMP~! Dragon hits a tornado DDT for 2. He goes for the Psycho Driver but Punk counters and hits his hammerlock DDT and hooks the Anaconda Vice for the tap out at 7:30?? You have two of the best indy workers and they get SEVEN MINUTES? Fine for what it was, but MAN that's disappointing they didn't get 15-20. **1/4

[JAYD]

7) Ian Rotten vs. Davey Andrews: Andrews is the "top student" from the ROH wrestling school. He looks to be in pretty damn good shape. "Ian's gonna kill you" chant to start. Punk is on color commentary now. Punk really puts over Andrews on commentary. They wrestle for a few minutes. Ian hits big headbutt and they trade strikes. and Andrews goes to the ropes. Fireman's carry by Andrews, but Ian hits some palm strikes to rally. They go back to the mat and Ian stretches him and Andrews gets the ropes. They stay on the mat doing some nice stuff as Andrews stays aggressive. Ian headbutts some more but Andrews hits a dropkick for 2. Andrews goes to a chinlock. They trade headbutts and Ian hits a cradle suplex for 2. Double knee lift. Ian hits a SICK Dragon suplex and then calls for the end. Steve Stone, Jim Fannin, and Chris Candido run out and Candido hits Rotten with a chain and then a top rope headbutt. Punk: "That referee must be deaf..." Andrews hooks the leg and gets the win at 10:30. Slow match, reminded me of Ian vs. Ray Gordy a little. If you liked that, you'll like this. I liked it, though it wasn't anything flashy at all, but it seemed realistic, which is worth a lot in my book. **1/2

Candido cuts a promo about how he's going to beat AJ Styles tonight. Ian gets up and chases Candido off. Ian runs down Candido on the mic, ripping on Sunny and about how Candido's the only guy she's NOT sucking off. Punk and Webb are on commentary, so they talk about how Tammy is church going and about clean living.

8) The Wild Cards vs. Evan Starsmore and Anthony Franco: Starsmore and Franco are the last two ROH students at the show. Starsmore is really skinny and really white. I love the Wild Cards, by the way. We get plenty of arm drags to start, and some Kingston posing. Punk rips on the Wildcards big bellies. Not much of note here, but everything is done well. Simple stuff, as you'd expect with the ROH students in there. Wild Cards win with their Gory Bomb/Bulldog combo at about 7:00. Fairly decent tag match, actually. **

[JAYD]

9) Petey Williams vs. Alex Shelley (TNA X-Division title): Shelley has his hair half-dreadlocked or braided or something here, so Punk rips on him right away and calls him a mongaloid. Of course with the title on the line we already know who's going to win here. Punk and Steel are on commentary now and rip on TNA for not giving their workers time in their matches. Steel says it's good to see this match here "because they wouldn't give these guys fuckin' six minutes in that sh*tty promotion." Sweet leg work on the mat by Shelley. Steel now rips on Super Dragon, saying he looks like a black Jason Vorhees and then says he's going to go pee on the X-division title. Shelley's work here is just incredible, he's so damn smooth and good in the ring. TNA REALLY needs to give this guy a push. He takes Petey down with a front face DDT into the Border City Stretch but Petey's foot is under the ropes. Petey gets dumped to the apron and hits an X-Factor type move on Shelley across the middle rope. Cool. Back in, covers for 2. Petey puts Shelley in a tree of woe and stands on his groin. Ouch! They trade shots and reversals and Shelley hits the Shellshock but can't make the cover. Dragon screw leg whip by Shelley and a kick. Shelley hits a Saito suplex and superkick for 2. Petey rallies with a nice enzuigiri and swinging neckbreaker for 2. They go up top and Shelley hits a super inverted atomic drop and then an inverted DDT for 2. Petey hits a great tornado DDT for 2. Petey gets caught up top and Shelley hits a leaping cravate cutter type move off the top and then a frog splash for 2! Man, they're busting out all sorts of sh*t here. Petey ends up catching Shelley with a Styles Clash for the pin at about 10:30. Easily the best match so far, and a nice change of pace, ESPECIALLY from their REALLY slow and methodical 2/3 falls match for the title back in July. No great psychology or anything, but they worked a match much different than "just the usual" so that's pretty cool. Good stuff. ***1/4

AJ Styles attacks Petey after the match. Petey attacked AJ after he won the TPI, in case you forgot. AJ walks off with the X-Division title.

10) Christopher Daniels vs. Chris Sabin: This is Daniels' return to IWA-MS and he gets a nice reaction from the small crowd. Steel on commentary mentions that Daniels is a 12-year veteran. (Steel has been around 13 years) Nice wrestling sequences to start. Sabin works the left shoulder, but Daniels hits a nasty back drop suplex. Daniels works the neck of Sabin. Sabin comes back with a cross body for 2, and Daniels takes him back down with a high knee and then a knee drop. Another nice back drop suplex by Daniels for 2. Vertical suplex and then a quebrada across the back of Sabin's neck! Crossface applied by Daniels! Sabin just barely gets the ropes. Sabin comes back and they trade chops and forearms. GREAT leaping enzuigiri by Sabin for two. That's been a popular move tonight. Double knock down, back up and Sabin hits a leaping neckbreaker and a springboard tornado DDT for 2. Straightjacket suplex for 2. Uranage by Daniels and the BEST MOONSAULT EVER...for 2! Daniels calls for the end but Sabin counters the last Rites and then hits a sitdown powerbomb for 2. Daniels ends up hitting the Angel's Wings for the pin at 11:30. Nice psychology here and a very solid, if unspectacular match. **1/2

11) Samoa Joe vs. Ryan Boz: Well, this should be hard hitting. Boz goes after the legs to start and takes Joe to the mat. They do some nice mat wrestling, especially for two bigger guys. Boz rakes the eyes and takes Joe into a facelock. They start to trade shots already, DAMN. Joe nails a HARD kick to the chest. Boz gets a leg sweep for 2. Joe hits some chops and then catches Boz with his corner uranage move. Joe hits some STIFF kicks. Ouch. Boz dumps Joe to the floor and goes for a tope but Joe just slaps him in the face as he comes to the ropes. Palm strikes and kicks by Joe and then a sweet powerslam for 2. Ryan Boz doesn't usually get beaten around like this. Boz ducks a lariat and hits a nice yakuza kick for 2. Boz tries to slam him, but Joe blocks and knees Boz in the head a bunch. Joe chokes out Boz, who taps at about 7:30. Nice hard hitting match. **1/2

Austin Aries comes out and talks about his match with Joe at the strong style tournament in Lafayette in two nights. Aries says Joe is the biggest stepping stone in wrestling today, and that he's going to beat him on Friday.

[JAYD]

12) Chris Candido vs. AJ Styles: I'm interested to see how Candido does here against a great talent like Styles. They get the crowd in it to start. They tie up and go to the corner and Candido slaps AJ, who slaps him back. SWEET dropkick by Styles and Candido bails. He throws a hissy fit on the floor and takes his time getting back in, as he stops and talks to Jim Fannin. Back in and Candido gets a hip toss but AJ comes back with a headlock takeover using the corner and flipping it over and to the mat. Nice back body drop by Styles and back to the headlock. Styles tries the corner headlock thing again but Candido catches him with a suplex. Big chops in the corner but Candido goes to the eyes but AJ back drops him to the floor. Ouch. Styles hits a great pescado to the floor. Candido hits a nice powerslam before dumping Styles to the floor so Steve Stone can beat up Styles on the outside as Candido distracts the referee. Back in, and Candido gets a chinlock. AJ fights back and they do a bridge up and a backslide for 2 for AJ. Enzuigiri (ANOTHER!) by Candido to take out Styles. He hits a nice HANGING vertical suplex. More chops in the corner. AJ tries his quebrada into a DDT but Candido catches him and just tosses him off the top with a waistlock takeover where AJ lands on his face. Candido heads up top but misses a flying headbutt. Styles comes back with a nice lariat and a big spinning kick for 2, as Candido gets a foot on the bottom rope. AJ hits his moonsault DDT for 2. They fight over a suplex, but AJ gets his "over the shoulder swung into a DDT/faceplant" move for 2. AJ heads up top but Candido shoves the ref into the ropes and AJ takes a NASTY bump to the floor! Candido rolls him back in for 2. Candido tries a rana off the top but AJ catches him for the Styles Clash...but Candido blocks and Petey Williams runs out and clocks AJ with his X-Division title belt that he takes back. Candido hits a northern lights bomb for the three count at 14:30! Really nice match, I'm sold on Candido's return here, he worked a really smart, fun match here. ***1/4

After the match AJ gets beat down, but Ian Rotten comes out to make the save. Ian and Candido brawl all over the building.

13) Arik Cannon vs. Roderick Strong (IWA title): Cannon won the title from Petey Williams at the TPI, and this is his first title defense. These guys had a match back in September in IWA that was fine but only went seven minutes or so, so we'll see what they can do with more time (hopefully) here. They trade arm wringers and Strong even does a cartwheel. On commentary, Punk praises Candido and says he's real proud of him for getting clean. Back to the match, and they fight around on the mat. Stiff chops. Punk to Cannon: "Yeah, it hurts even with your t-shirt, bitch." Strong hits a great diving forearm off the apron and to the floor. Cannon rakes the eyes. Cannon plays asshole for the crowd. Cannon slowly works Strong over. Forearms by Cannon. Strong hits a great lung blower on Cannon for 2. Cannon hits his slingshot swinging neckbreaker for 2. Punk: "Arik and Roderick, it sounds like a homosexual movie." Cannon hits a Hennig-esque rolling neck snap. Cannon stretches out Strong on the mat with a cool submission but Strong gets the ropes. Suplex by Cannon. Strong comes back with chsops and forearms and hits a dropkick. Double arm suplex and a big elbow drop off the top for 2. Strong dumps Cannon on his head for 2. Exploder suplex by Cannon for 2. Cannon avoids a yakuza kick and hits a head drop suplex for 2. Brainbuster by Cannon as he keeps dropping Strong on his head. Punk rips on Cannon for not going to the gym. He likes to do that a lot. Strong hits his half nelson backbreaker for 2. Cannon avoids the fireman's carry gutbuster and hits the Glimmering Warlock for the three at about 16:00. Basically a longer version of their September match, but not bad. **1/2 - **3/4 Punk: "For Nate Webb, this is CM Punk, we're signing off...go fuck yourself." Thanks Punk.

Final thoughts: Lots of fun stuff here, though nothing is must see. The biggest disappointment by far was Punk and Dragon only getting SEVEN MINUTES! I mean what the hell is that? Lots of solid matches here, most everything is over two stars and lots of **1/2 matches here. The small and rather quiet crowd didn't help the matches a lot either, but the guys worked hard and there's plenty of good stuff here.

[Voltage XX]

JAYD said:

Punk and Steel are on commentary now and rip on TNA for not giving their workers time in their matches. Steel says it's good to see this match here "because they wouldn't give these guys f**kin' six minutes in that sh*tty promotion." Sweet leg work on the mat by Shelley. Steel now rips on Super Dragon, saying he looks like a black Jason Vorhees and then says he's going to go pee on the X-division title.

Must learn your commentators! It was Punk and Webb and commentary for this match and it was Punk who was saying all the anti-TNA things.

[NewFnShow]

JAYD said:

6) CM Punk vs. Super Dragon: Dragon is wearing the blue getup tonight. Nice stuff to start as they trade hammerlocks and stuff. Dragon hooks a leglock and Punk uses his other leg to kick Dragon in the back as they're on the mat. Ian Rotten, now on commentary, puts over the Joe/Punk match from Ring of Honor. They also mention the Dragon/Ryan ironman match from PWG. Dragon works a headlock, and Punk suplexes out of it for 2. Dropkick to the back of the head for 2. Punk hits some chops, but Dragon goes to the eyes. Dragon uses a leglock sleeper, but Punk fights out and reverses. Punk gets an inside cradle for 2. Ugly sunset flip by Punk for 2. Double arm backbreaker for 2. Dragon comes back with the CURB STOMP~! Dragon hits a tornado DDT for 2. He goes for the Psycho Driver but Punk counters and hits his hammerlock DDT and hooks the Anaconda Vice for the tap out at 7:30?? You have two of the best indy workers and they get SEVEN MINUTES? Fine for what it was, but MAN that's disappointing they didn't get 15-20. **1/4

That's too bad. They had a 25 minute(I think) match on PWG's 'Reason for the Season' that was awesome. Really good match.

[Agent Kev]

I pee on the X-division title.