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Indy Wrestling from the late 90s early 2000s


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To add some more to cm punk being funny/Dick at the end of the joe vs necro match he is asked if he is sticking around for the czw show. The answer Fuck No

 

I agree with the people who said that Punk on commentary (indies & WWE) sometimes was detrimental to what was happening in the ring, but the way he said that was hilarious.

 

The irony being that the CZW show actually turned out miles better than the IWA:MS show which was basically a one match show with everything else being shite.

 

Was the CZW show 'Violent By Design'? If so, then absolutely, what a kick arse show that was. Everything just clicked (except for the disappointing main event). Hell, even the pre-show interviews from Franky The Mobster, Beef Wellington and The H8 Club were worth the price of the DVD alone.

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Yes! That's where my familiarity with so many of these names came from as well. The Backseat Boys, Fleisch and Storm were always top-value buys in EWR. Shelton Benjamin was always a guaranteed success for a main event push, too. The balancing of that game was horrendous, looking back. I wonder if the newer ones are the same way.

 

They're a bit better balanced now to be fair. You have different promtions rated on different things for a start, promotions rated more on popularity and angles and workrate promotions where the fans don't want angles and so on and so forth. The stats depend on who's done the mods though, and some of them can be just downright strange. I have a few niggles about the way lucha runs in the games though so I imagine there's other niggles in other styles.

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  • 3 months later...

bumping on the ramble

 

I'm about three quarters through the first day of IWA-MS Ted Petty 2004. Early 00's indy is a complete blind spot for me (never heard of ROH till Punk showed up in the WWE) and I'm gonna have fun going back to this stuff. Could I have found a better way to start? I was grinning like a loon during the introduction of all the contenders. They're all there - Punk, Danielson, Joe, Styles, Hero, Evan Bourne, Aries . . I was even happy to see Chris Sabin - all bundled together in the ring underneath a basketball hoop, fresh faced and hungry. The matches have been hit and miss so far which I was expecting really. I'm not keen on the endless back and fourth SPOT SPOT SPOT style but there has been several good'ens. .

 

Mercedes Martinez vs Lacy was a decent opener with a good "oh you're working my leg? I'll fuck up your arm" story to it. The highlight of it though was a stiff as hell forearm, which surprisingly didn't come from the usually brutal Martinez.

 

Punk vs Aries is the match I was most excited about and the two grouchy bastards beat the shit out of each other. Did Aries have a personality transplant in 2012? Everything I've seen of him before that he's been bland as fuck. Punk, the mental, kicked the ring post full force when Aries dodged him. You might regret that in a few years. Was shaping up to be a cracker until the end where Punk decided to sell a top rope brainbuster for all off five seconds before finishing of Aries with the Pepsi Plunge.

 

The Jimmy Jacobs vs Delirious ladder match was the kind of nuts spotfest I don't mind. Psychology, blood and Jimmy Jacobs nearly killing himself are all good things. Liked Jimmy using Delirious's spike against him to stab his mask up and also to set himself free after D had taped him to the ropes. The Delirious 'promo' where he's just staring right at you, making weird noises and dribbling was quite unsettling.

 

The crowd standing and clapping to Nate Webb's 'Teenage Dirtbag' gave me a giddy smile. I wanted to like Nate, he looked quite fun and charismatic while he was dancing along to his theme. And then the bell rang and . . not so much.

 

I like me some good chain wrestling but the stuff at the beginning of the Hero/Quack match was terrible. Just way too casual, no force or sense of struggle to it, just two blokes trying to be pretty and clever. They're having a fucking dance. And they cut it out when someone in the crowd starts throwing out some "la de la la!"s as their soundtrack. I dread to think how indulgent them three day long Hero/Punk matches are. It's starts getting pretty good when they get on the mat though. Ends a bit premature with a Quackenbush win and has some nice respect stuff post match.

 

Punk on commentary was the best thing about the Joe/Roderick Strong and Styles/Jimmy Rave matches (Joe tried but Strong is a boring shite and the Styles match was disjointed and sloppy). Not only funny but decent at being straight and calling the wrestling too. He talks over Prazak and seems keen to be the play by play man, but he was good. I read in this great thread that he likes to bury stuff but he hasn't so far (it wouldn't bother me if he did) One highlight was when a crotched Rave received a flying AJ Styles kick; "The doctor called, I asked him what a good remedy for getting nutshot on the ropes is and he said the best thing to do is get kicked square between the eyes. Right now I don't think Jimmy Rave is thinking about he's nuts too much. . . . as a matter of fact I don't think anyone's thinking about Jimmy Rave's nuts. Especially any girls."

 

Even without the curiosity value I've enjoyed this quite a bit so far, certainly more than anything I've seen from the 'big' indies in recent years. Still quite a bit left to go too.

 

Look! Here comes Claudio . . .

 

(What the fuck is he wearing? :laugh: )

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bumping on the ramble

 

 

 

The crowd standing and clapping to Nate Webb's 'Teenage Dirtbag' gave me a giddy smile. I wanted to like Nate, he looked quite fun and charismatic while he was dancing along to his theme. And then the bell rang and . . not so much.

 

Ironically Mr Webb recently found some info on a training seminar over here being taken by Kris Travis and decided because he hadn't heard of Trav he was shit. He must be right, if anyone is an expert in shit it's Nate Webb.

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Quick thoughts on the end of the first day of Ted Petty;

 

Out of all the guys I now recognise from the big leagues it's Cesaro who's shown the most improvement since 2004. He's nothing like the physical marvel he is today. In fact, with his daft trousers and greasy mullet he doesn't look much different from any other local indy chancer. Him and Nigel Mcguinness have a 'British style' match and, apart from the beginning where Nigel plays the cheeky artful dodger babyface, it fell a bit flat. The structure felt all wrong. Just as I thought Nigel would start getting some licks in he does a crap version of the All Star turnbucle headstand spot, gets reversed and eats some more of Claudio's surprisingly rubbish offence. No meat to it.

 

Alex Shelly vs Danielson was an awesome little match. The only other time I've seen Shelly is in his New Japan tag team which I'm not too keen on, but he impressed me here. He's certainly one of more the charismatic guys on the card. It's quite a contrast to the previous match, there's a lovely flow to it, as you'd expect with Danielson. It's the Motor City Stretch verses the Cattle Mutilation and the way they transition into both holds is magic. I like the clean shaven skinhead look for Bryan, it's probably the only way to get past his nerdiness. He should bring it back next time he goes heel. Post match Shelly is still feeling the effects of an aeroplane spin and, like a true pro, has a little puke under the ring.

 

When the glorious snarl of 'Anarchy In The UK' ripped through the speakers I was disappointed to see an indyriffic looking, small girly man step through the curtains. To his credit Arik Cannon looked good in his match with Super Dragon, which was a stupid, brutal thing complete with FOUR curb stomps. Dragon is a mean prick, throwing some nasty slaps and a nice chop-forearm-chop-forearm combo. Cannon ain't afraid to give give it back either and his best bit is when he throws Dragon over his head into the turnbuckle with some suplex variant I don't know the name of. Dumb and fun.

 

The main event of BJ Whitmer vs Petey Williams was a nothing match until they started throwing bombs at the end. I never realised how tiny Petey is, that's never struck me the few times I've seen him in TNA for some reason. He's shit. A boring one move wonder. Whitmer has a decent look and carries himself like a good pompous prick but they never drew me in. Bit of a fart to end the night on.

 

Great stuff overall though. Love the mix of styles, rotation of colour commentators, the future stars in waiting having their shine in the small time. No more "you're a faggot" chants though please.

 

Looking forward to day 2.

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TPI 2004 is easily in my top 5 non-deathmatch wrestling cards (well technically two cards) of all time. I put it on two or three times a year. IWA in 2004 was on fire with show after show of awesome wrestling. Really enjoying reading your review and can't wait for night two! :) I do love Nate Webb though. He has never once failed to make me smile in one of his matches even when he's in a hardcore brawl with Ian Rotten or what have you. There's something about the dude I find so likeable. Interestingly he is apparently now a referee for a midget wrestling promotion.

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Another night of slogging it through this mammoth card, about half way through day two now. Some stuff that stood out;

 

Jimmy Jacobs (still selling the ribs and back from last nights ladder match) against Sal Rinauro was a good little light heavyweight title match. Jacobs annoys me (at one point he shouts "BABYFACE FIRE!" for fucks sake!) but he's a charismatic guy, same with Sal, who's a decent sleaze and gets good heat ("you're a faggot" is good heat I guess?). Sal does a nice job of working over Jacobs back and Jacobs is selling it harder than anyone's sold anything so far. God knows why he decided to kill his back further by doing two back sentons for the win.

 

Lacey and Rain (the brilliantly named Minnesota HOMEWRECKING Crew) are the lasses I see outside Branningans in Romford on a Saturday night. Slurring nonsense in some hostile Harold hill code - probably after a twos on your fag - between gulps of the lambrini. They're cheap and filth and maybe smell of grannies feet. I absolutely love them. The women's six way elimination match (Lacey vs Rain vs MsChif vs Martinez vs Mickie Knuckles vs a surprisingly healthy looking Daizee Haze) was a disappointing rush job though. MsChif wins for some reason, with her awful Desecrater DDT, pinning Martinez who had just won the women's belt, like, yesterday.

 

I enjoyed the Steve Stone vs Ian Rotten power struggle angle. By the sound of it, Stone's manager (didn't catch his name) wants some share of the company and, in a shocker, brings in his old pal Chris Candido to help Stone beat the shit out of Rotten. It's followed by a great interview with Candido in the locker room where he lays down on the floor, pulls the camera towards himself and starts yelling like Ric Flair on one of his coke days, and then, oddly, after we've heard from his buddies, he starts talking like loony Terry Funk! Rotten, the bastard promoter that he is, has apparently burnt some bridges in the locker room and has to reach out to one of his 'connections' for a tag partner. In a promo later on Rotten gets some digs in at Sunny ("What does Shawn Michael's dick taste like Chris?") before revealing his future partner as . . . the American Dream . . . . Dusty Rhodes! How fucking random is that? What's the story there? If the laws of time and geography were a bit less rigid consider that a ticket sold.

 

Quarter finals matches so far;

Rainman beats Danny Davies. Rainman's in the role of the tournaments underdog wildcard. I don't know how he's gonna get through this thing, the bloke looked knackered two minutes into this match.

 

Joe vs Mcguinness was class. It's the clever mat guy who has moves like 'the hammerlock divorce court' verses the king of kicking your fucking head in. I said how silly Nigel's turnbuckle headstand spot was in night one but, man, the pay off was damn bloody sweet. He's got the advantage and goes for it again, but he's barely got his body vertical in the corner when Joe charges in with a boot RIGHT IN THE MUSH. It's full fucking contact alright and they replay it twenty times just in case you haven't squirmed yet. It's horrid really but . . meh. He's got a silly haircut. Joe wins.

 

I'm a soppy bastard who likes selling, pacing and all that old groans stuff but if you're gonna have a spotfest there's few better wrestlers this decade for it than AJ Styles and Matt Sydal. The highlight of this is when Mat reverses a Styles Clash into a hurricanrana bomb thing and AJ lands RIGHT ON HIS HEAD. It's a miracle he didn't break his fucking neck. AJ wins with a Clash from the top.

 

The ending to Petey Williams vs Arik Cannon was awesome. It made babyface champ Petey look like a right tit. Towards the end of this decent match (thanks to Cannon being in control for most of it) Petey tweaks his leg and bails to the floor. Cannon gets the ref to count him out and turns to the crowd all smug and gloats, thinking it's in the bag . With Arik's back turned Petey climbs back into the ring. He was playing possum! He gets the ref to continue the count to keep Cannon unaware and starts dancing and doing star jumps behind his back. He sneaks up on Cannon, sets up for the Canadian Destroyer . . but Cannon spins out of it, lobs Petey into the corner, whacks him the Shining Wizard and rolls him for the 1 . . .2. . . and 3! The crowd goes mental, the slimy (and quality) heel prick is the new champ and a hero while Petey looks like a complete tosser. Cannon's my new favourite guy I'd never heard of before and I can't stand Williams. I marked out folks. Did Petey turn heel after this? Otherwise I'm amazed that they'd have him look like such a plonker.

 

TPI 2004 is easily in my top 5 non-deathmatch wrestling cards (well technically two cards) of all time. I put it on two or three times a year. IWA in 2004 was on fire with show after show of awesome wrestling. Really enjoying reading your review and can't wait for night two! :) I do love Nate Webb though. He has never once failed to make me smile in one of his matches even when he's in a hardcore brawl with Ian Rotten or what have you. There's something about the dude I find so likeable. Interestingly he is apparently now a referee for a midget wrestling promotion.

Him getting the crowd to do the Mexican wave while he was in ring doing backfilps to the glorious 'Teenage Dirtbag' was one of my favourite moments of the entire event. I love song and dance interaction in wrestling. The sight of the the whole ECW crowd waving their arms along with Public Enemy to their 'Hotstepper' theme is one of the best things I've ever seen. It's a shame that WWE have fucked up Fandango. Emma is the only hope. The unfortunate thing about Nate Webb is that his command of the crowd totally dies when the bell rings. He's just any other flippy skinny. He's match with Mike Quackenbush weren't up to much. Joe in the booth neatly sums up my problems with Quack when he calmly asks Prazak, "why all the wackiness just to break a man's leg?". Actually, the best part of this match is when some bloke from the crowd puts on his best wigga voice and yells "I'm Nate Webb Biaatch!" Amazing stuff. Quack wins.

 

 

And it rolls on. Got Punk vs Danielson to come when I'm a bit less asleep.

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I really enjoyed this tournament. I still have it on tape. I was so happy when Whitmer got beat by Williams because I thought he was shit, and I hated when Cannon beat Petey because I thought he was shit too. Not terrible shit, but generic indy CAW Pleather Clad Lad shit. Using the Shining Apprentice, cousin of the Shining Wizard, from the most "indy rasslers think they're cool" family of moves on Earth, is bad enough, but to complete the Indy Wank ( c Ian) checklist, he gives it a terrible name - the Glimmering Warlock. NO. Just no. Petey I never had a problem with, and it upset me that he lost to this turd.

 

Oh, and I also wanted to punch Nate Webb so badly. What a dickhead I thought he was. And he needed a wash. I need to remember which ROH show during the CZW show has him getting battered - I wanna say Cage of Death at DBD IV - and think about watching it... before deciding that even watching Nate Webb getting beaten up is still not a good enough reason to watch Nate Webb.

 

In a promo later on Rotten gets some digs in at Sunny ("What does Shawn Michael's dick taste like Chris?") before revealing his future partner as . . . the American Dream . . . . Dusty Rhodes! How fucking random is that? What's the story there?

 

I have either forgotten or (more likely) never knew the reasoning behind this, but if you want to check out the match in question, it's on the 8th Anniversary show.

 

By the by, my anti-virus goes mental and tells me of a trojan when I try to visit Joshifans right now, so if yours isn't doing that, I'd suggest not visiting there for a bit, unless you want something nasty to fuck your computer up like Shida.

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The Petey Williams Heel Turn! Ha, did enjoy the end of that. I finished watching up TPI a day or two back, real fun stuff. I've got dog rotten memory so won't get into it too much.

 

Punk vs Danielson was slightly disappointing. Still good obviously, cos it's Punk and Bryan but they've had much better. I enjoyed Bryan's subtle heeling throughout the tournament, he seemed to become more of a dick as it progressed. Horrible choice in entrance music though. Crapping Offspring? Unless he was doing the weak link gimmick back then I don't know how the hell 'Self Esteem' fits him in any way. Claudio's theme and entrance gear were excellent though.

 

I enjoyed AJ winning the title after beating Cannon in the semi finals, only for Cannon to grab the mic and inform us he'd never agreed to put the title on the line. Classic heel move. I don't know fuck all obviously but from watching this show it seems like IWA MS was a decently booked promotion at the time.

 

Rainman looked like he was struggling to breath in his earlier matches so him and Joe being the match to get short- ended made sense. It played out perfectly too, with a nervous looking Rainman making the mistake of jumping Joe before the bell in a fit of desperation. His advantage lasts all of about a minute before Joe knocks his head off and advances to the final.

 

ICEBERG and TANK were a wonderful addition to the card. In the land of the twiglets these two fat fucks are heroes and a welcome change in dynamic. Them and the adorable goof Eddie Kingston made the 15 hours of the tag match a more pleasant slog. Also, there's Jay Bradley!

 

The tournament final being an X Division threeway was a bit of a let down although it was fine for what it was. From a selfish point of view a 20 minute Joe vs Danielson match would have been the perfect end to this fine card, but that wasn't the plan and I can't really complain with what we got. Styles has always left me cold though, what a dolt.

 

Yeah, really enjoyable show. Will make an effort to check out all the IWA MS stuff from this era I can find.

 

I really enjoyed this tournament. I still have it on tape. I was so happy when Whitmer got beat by Williams because I thought he was shit, and I hated when Cannon beat Petey because I thought he was shit too. Not terrible shit, but generic indy CAW Pleather Clad Lad shit. Using the Shining Apprentice, cousin of the Shining Wizard, from the most "indy rasslers think they're cool" family of moves on Earth, is bad enough, but to complete the Indy Wank ( c Ian) checklist, he gives it a terrible name - the Glimmering Warlock. NO. Just no. Petey I never had a problem with, and it upset me that he lost to this turd.

 

Cannon was one of the stand outs for me. Good slimy heel prick that built his matches well. His look is absolutely terrible though.

 

My MVPZ Of The Tournamentz! has to be between the boring picks of Danielson or Joe, Danielson edging it as he didn't have to work with Roderick bloody Strong. Punk was good value too if you include his commentary.

 

I have either forgotten or (more likely) never knew the reasoning behind this, but if you want to check out the match in question, it's on the 8th Anniversary show.

 

Awesome. Might have seen that on one of the torrent sites as it goes.

 

By the by, my anti-virus goes mental and tells me of a trojan when I try to visit Joshifans right now, so if yours isn't doing that, I'd suggest not visiting there for a bit, unless you want something nasty to fuck your computer up like Shida.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Last time I tried to go on there the site wasn't loading up at all. Seems on its arse.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a shitload of early ROH on my HD. Just about finished their third show. The first show was some of the worst headroppyflippityfloppy shit I've ever seen. Awful. It's gotten better since. I did laugh at how the first ever action inside the ROH ring was a gay snog. Of course, it only served to set up 'Da Hit Squad' to come out and beat the shit out of the Christopher Street Connection, lest anyone was mistaken and thought the 'ROH' on their flyer stood for 'Ring Of Homos'. Not the best way to draw me in but I will admit it can be a little fun watching Da Squad throw skinnies about. Homicide and Boogaloo are fun for similar reasons. Hope they both clash somewhere down the line.

 

Random dribble;

 

- I don't always mind watching green wrestlers, in fact it can be quite fascinating watching them struggle with the things that you take for granted as a non-wrestler, like moving into offence or landing onto the mat without looking clumsy and stuff. Gives you a new sort of appreciation for it. There is nothing fucking worse, though, than watching green blokes trying to do high risk headroppyflippityfloppy shit. The multi man elimination match from the first show was one of the worst matches I've ever seen. All were Mikey Whipwreck's students and all were complete shite. Except Amazing Red, who was still shite, but could at least pull his shite off. Brian XL in particular is rancid and my mind kept on flicking the swtich between fearing/ hoping that he'd break his neck.

 

But I shouldn't be so harsh on the la' as I've quite enjoyed him and the S.A.T. brothers interacting backstage in the first few shows. I wish all wrestlers weren't such loners. It was a pleasant change in pace watching them hang out, play basketball and generally being mates. Cracks are starting to appear though, as the competitive environment and the MANLINESS is beginning to get to them. A shame really. It's refreshing to see buddies in wrestling who are neither gay nor mental, just having a laugh, shooting the shit.

 

The backstage bits are quite good in general really, whether it's The Natural Born Sinners causing havoc with chainsaws and rubber chickens or Spanky strolling around the place in his headphones with a toothbrush hanging from his mush, oblivious to the world. I like that post-match thing they do where you get to follow the wrestler back through the curtain to where the other guys are hanging out and you see any resulting backstage fallout, and it's all filmed in a single shot.

 

- Scoot Andrew's entrance music (a twist on Flair's theme) is immense. It's annoying that the guy who gets the 'Black Nature Boy' moniker is so fucking dull.

 

- Prince Nana's awesome. Fantastic character and a fun addition to this kind of roster. The ROH fans don't seem so keen on him.

 

- I like Corino quite a lot but him and the other bloke on commentary do my head in. Constantly projecting at the same (high) volume with no sense of scale and few interesting or funny things to say. It's all RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT white noise.

 

- Never seen any of James Maritato in ECW. Seems pretty decent in the ring and on the mic on this.

 

- I've been presently surprised by Christopher Daniels. All his matches have been good and although he's not a riot like he is nowadays he certainly isn't as bland as I thought he was. He's perfect as the arrogant prick that feels he's above the 'code of homos'.

 

- I hate Low Ki and his stupid face and his stupid voice and his stupid walk. Decent wrestler though. Him vs Bryan Danielson from the second show was the best match yet, by a million miles, despite Ken Shamrock being such a shit guest ref.

 

- Daniel Bryan-Danielson was always bloody great.

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