The sometimes infamous and almost always controversial IWA Mid-South continues to run shows in Illinois and Indiana after stopping operations for several months in late 2009. I recently sat down with a few of the shows after their return and will give my thoughts on them right here. All these video are available through Smartmark Video. Today we focus on the May 16th show “A Taste of Hardcore Sweetness”.
The show opens with two young local wrestlers of local note, Matt Cage and Neil “Diamond” Cutter. Matt Cage is a young African American wrestling star with tons of talents and a rather unique gimmick. He pretty much hates any other black wrestler, to the point that one of his nicknames is “Proud Caucasian”. Neil Cutter is the youngest of the Cutter brothers, a.k.a. the Hooligans, a gimmick equal parts traditional Irish and modern skinhead. Neil is the brother that doesn’t quite fit in, which if this show is indication, means he’s got far more technical prowess.
The opening contest proves to be a lively one, if overly filled with highspots from the two still young talents. Both Cage and Cutter shined, with Matt Cage (who picked up the win with a chain) looking especially good at this show. Post match, the Hooligans show up to beat down their brother, which brings out their opponent for the night’s main event, Ian Rotten and the Necro Butcher.
The second match is a five way one fall match-up for the number one contendership to the IWA Light Heavyweight Championship (held by Ryan Phoenix who was not on the show.) It featured several young stars from the Midwest and Canada: Markus Crane, Danny Duggan, Dan the Man, Bucky Collins, and the former xOMGx Kyle Threat.
The five-way was hampered by miscommunication with the announce booth who weren’t even aware whether the match was elimination or one fall. Markus Crane (probably one of the craziest wrestlers in the Midwest) picks up the win after a Cheshire’s Grin (side swinging neckbreaker).
The Soul Touchaz’ Trauma took on Dixieland Destroyer in the third match of the night in a battle of the big men. Both men proved to be quite energetic talents for men their size (both north of 350 lbs.) The match was quite hard fought. Unfortunately, the match ended with a rather bland slam from the second rope by Destroyer.
The former Scotty Goldman of WWE, Colt Cabana made an appearance next against Bloomington based wrestler Nick Brubaker. Brubaker did the typical angry wrestler annoyed by Colt’s antics schtick until the inevitable end of pretty much all of Colt’s IWA matches, a big win.
The core duo of the Soul Touchaz, Marshe Rockett and Acid Jaz, teamed to take on the impromptu team of Egotistico Fantastico and Sal Thomaselli. For a match with flyers like Rockett, Jaz, and Ego, the fight proved to be a rather lackluster one from usually solid independent stars. Thankfully, the long time tag team of the Soul Touchaz did pick up the win.
In the co-main event Buffalo, Iowa native and ROH champion Tyler Black took on rising star Jonathan Gresham in a rematch from earlier that year in IWA. Gresham shined in a strongly technical and hard hitting match. Black showed signs of the character he would come to play in his final few weeks in ROH, as he very much turned heel over the course of the fight. Outside of a Pele kick that came nowhere near landing on Gresham’s skull, the two men put on a wrestling clinic that ended with a God’s Last Gift on Gresham.
The main event is the aforementioned Chicago Street Fight between the Hooligans and the team of Ian Rotten and Necro Butcher. This battle is meant to be a typical hardcore brawl around the bar. Hardcore wrestling has its pluses and minuses, but the worst thing this match did was show exactly how small the crowd in the establishment actually is. The four men wander around the arena and stab and strike each other quite randomly with a variety of objects found in the bar. Little actual wrestling occured with the exception of an oddly out of place school boy attempt by Necro Butcher.
In the end,Ian goes down on the outside and the Hooligans take Necro Butcher to the ring and double team him. The Ian injuries clearly were not intended as they buy a lot of time for Rotten to get back in to the match. Finally Ian gets back in to the ring and starts to take apart the Hooligans. Ian’s long time opponent Dixieland Destroyer tries to interfere, but Necro Butcher cuts him off to give Ian the time to hit the Rotten Rush and the win. Destroyer and the Hooligans seem poised to take out Ian, but the locker room clears out for the save and the end of the show.
It’s unfortunate that the show came to such a lackluster finish as this was one of the best IWA shows in their new smaller, local talent format. It still doesn’t compare to the company's heyday back in 2004-2006, but that can be blamed as much on the changed face of independent wrestling as it can IWA’s workers.
Still, “A Taste of Hardcore Sweetness” was a solid show back for IWA and a good buy. It and hundreds of other great independent wrestling DVDs are available at Smartmark Video.
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