IWA Mid-South Crowning of a Champion 1997

War Machine #1 vs Tower of Doom

Tower of Doom is a big lad, but he’s managed to dress in a way that makes him look totally unthreatening, with a big baggy black t-shirt and shorts. Everything feels like it’s at 2/3 speed, with strikes being thrown slowly. War Machine barely gets ToD up on a back suplex before hitting the worst side Russian legsweep I’ve ever seen. ToD at least has a nice elbow drop, full weight. ToD gets the win after War Machine helpfully jumps into a sky high powerbomb.

Kip Morris vs Mike Simpleton

Simpleton is a fat guy in a black t-shirt and a generic mask. Morris amusingly has “Winner” and “I’m Winning” emblazoned on his tights. This is utterly shit though. Morris controls with some plodding generic offence, apart from the amusing moment he suplexes Simpleton, who lands on top of him. Simpleton is really bad, he can’t even get thrown from the ring without getting embarrassingly caught up in the ropes. A side slam looks terrible as Simpleton basically slips from Morris’s grasp. In the end, Simpleton misses a corner splash, gets tripped and Morris gets the win. So bad.

War Machine #2 vs Chris Kidd

This was better. Not perfect, as War Machine really struggled to get Kidd over for a suplex, but some of Kidd’s offence looked decent. Nice leaping clothesline, good spinebuster, perfectly decent execution. War Machine BARELY gets Kidd up for a powerbomb that looked really dangerous, but gets distracted by #1 at ringside, and Kidd rolls him up for three.

Mad Man Pondo vs Ox Harley

Hark at young Pondo coming out with long hair and a Superman shirt, looks very different to the man he’d later become. There’s lots of mic work to start this, and the sound quality isn’t great. Pondo kicks us off with some really shitty armdrags. Harley looks better, nice kicks to the face and a decent clothesline. Pondo does some token legwork but eats a DDT on the floor and a Harley moonsault wins it. Nothing much to this.

Ian Rotten vs Tarek the Great

This is a big step up in match quality. They both look super comfortable working the mat, with the strange image of a fat scarred-up hillbilly and a skinny, balding man going through really neat exchanges on a tatty piece of shit mat. They up the tempo, with Rotten hitting a neat Full Nelson suplex and a really nice top rope rana by Tarek. Tarek does a few moves you really wouldn’t expect, a top rope twisting corkscrew and a nice moonsault press both get two. However, he ducks his head and Rotten hits a huge implant DDT for the win. This was really neat.

Bull Pain vs Justin St John

This was also fun, though Pain never really looked like losing. Pain just beats St John down, but St John does look capable, getting a few nice takedowns. Pain hits a DDT that looks great and, after St John hits a shitty leaping elbow into the corner, Pain swiftly puts him away with a neckbreaker and a top rope splash. Short but effective.

Kip Morris vs Tower of Doom

Into the second round now. ToD looks better in this match, hitting a nice running clothesline and a big legdrop. However, he’s got really lazy covers, barely leaning on top of Morris. Morris takes control on the floor, ramming Doom into the ringpost, hitting his head on the floor and nailing a nice short elbow to the head. ToD is soon bleeding, but hits a killer piledriver that really should have been the finish. ToD sells being too exhausted to cover, so at least there was no kickout. Like in the opener, ToD gets the win after his opponent helpfully leaps into a sit out powerbomb.

Ox Harley vs Chris Kidd

Another very short match, Harley mainly hits punches to control, with a chop to the face looking hilariously nasty. Kidd’s offence is pretty generic, but he too throws some nice punches, so this is at least watchable. Kidd hits a powerslam but misses a moonsault, allowing Harley to hit a reverse DDT and hit a moonsault for the win.

Ian Rotten vs Bull Pain

This starts off awesomely, as Pain throws Rotten to the floor and hits an insane suicide dive for the win. He follows this with a pedigree on the concrete, and I’m totally into this already. But then, we get disaster. The ringside camera seemingly stops working, leaving us with just the hard-cam, and at one point a member of production crew stands in front of it for at least a minute. They’re brawling in the crowd, and it’s impossible to see what’s going on. Ian hits a cannonball from the apron which looks great. We miss more floor brawling, before Pain gets him back in and hits a top rope splash for two. Ian hits his DDT, but is unable to cover and eats an RKO for the Pain victory. I really wish we’d been able to see all this, was hard to really enjoy.

Tower of Doom vs Bull Pain vs Ox Harley

Triple threat elimination for the title here. I liked how there was a constantly switching series of allegiances, with one person getting double teamed at all times. There’s a lovely big double chokeslam on ToD early doors, and we get a few nice spots. Really like Pain and ToD teaming to hit a Hart Attack into a sitout powerbomb, which eliminates Harley. It gets a bit dull from that point, felt like just two guys exchanging moves having used up their inspiration in the previous bouts. ToD hits two powerbombs without going for covers, and some Ian Rotten interference allows him to hit a big legdrop on Pain for the win. Really felt like everyone going through the motion.

JCW Slam TV #6

Regular readers might have noticed at the start of the year, I reviewed several episodes of JCW's Slam TV, but stopped abruptly. The reason for this is simple...I lost the second disc of the 4-disc set. Anyway, with 6 months passed, I'm just going to plough on with disc 3. Thankfully, we only lose 2 episodes from the second disc, so we're back on the JCW reviews all the way to the climactic Westside Wars.

2 Tuff Tony vs Mad Man Pondo

There’s elements of this which I like and elements I hate. It featured too many “disfiguring” spots, moments where Pondo is jamming a blade into Tony’s forehead, or holding the blade of some scissors over his head. Moves that are never going to lead to a pin and just come off a bit ghoulish. But when these two leave that shit behind, it was quite fun. Both guys looked good just slugging out with punches on the other, and I loved Pondo’s tumbling leg lariat from the top to a seated Tony. Just a fat man falling on top of you, sending you through a chair. Liked Tony’s top rope rana which sent Pondo onto a barbed wire bat. The end was weak, as Tony ducks a clothesline and hits a Tony Driver onto a chair. Rather than pin Pondo, Tony instead lights his fist and hits the Meteorite, but again doesn’t cover. Instead, he poses on the ropes, allowing Tracy Smothers in to demolish him for the DQ. Makes no logical sense for Tony not to try a pin after two certain finishers. That said, the Smothers beatdown is a lot of fun.

NOSAWA vs Necro Butcher

Necro is escorted to the ring by Pondo, so wisely throws NOSAWA outside at the earliest opportunity, allowing Pondo to attack on the outside. Necro just looks like a guy who knows exactly how to hurt someone, clawing at NOSAWA’s face like an angry bear. Loved Necro stopping a comeback by jamming his shoulder into NOSAWA’s junk as he attempted a shining wizard. Necro retains control, but NOSAWA blocks an attempted suplex onto a chair and gets a small package for the win. Short, but decent thanks to Necro’s control

JCW Slam TV Episode 3

Trent Acid vs NOSAWA

Acid does a great job riling up the crowd, taking his sweet time getting to the ring, blessing the crowd with holy water from the apron (a crowd who must have loved that ICP song where they sang about how their entire was for God), stalls some more, has a pray in the corner…then tells the crowd that God has told him not to wrestle. Amazing work by Acid, who walks to the back, leaving ICP to find a replacement…

NOSAWA vs CJ O’Doyle

I remember the name of O’Doyle from the early 00’s, but I never saw him wrestle. He’s got an amazingly generic look, with a shit orange mask on and some black shorts with the Irish flag on. The ICP clearly think he’s hilarious as they talk about his ludicrous mask and massive feet all match. He hits a lovely overhead belly-to-belly following a sneak attack, but the rest of his performance is him selling for NOSAWA, and his selling is endearingly goofy. NOSAWA blitzes him with kicks, nails a standing Shining Wizard followed by a Michinoku Driver for 3

Man Man Pondo vs Corporal Robinson

This is for Robinson’s JCW title, and has Pondo accompanied by Necro Butcher. Robinson has brought a barbed-wire baseball bat, which gets used throughout. Robinson nails a superkick, which is the last non-weapons move in the match. The rest of the bout is quite entertaining, in a hardcore nonsense way. Robinson hitting a running knee in the corner to drive the bat into Pondo’s face looked good, as did his bulldog of Necro onto the barbed-wire bat. Pondo’s offensive run isn’t quite so good, as Corp basically lands on him during a piledriver through the table, though I loved Pondo just hurling a bin right at Robinson. Corp hits a 2^nd rope powerbomb and Boot Camp, both onto Pondo’s trademark stopsign, for 3. Not going to blow away anyone who’s seen these guys before, but as a “greatest hits” for the two of them, it was fun.

JCW Slam TV Episode 2

Going through these Juggalo Championshit Wrestling shows (which is a lot of fun, just nice 45 min episodes with some dumb, enjoyable action), I can't help but think they're like a better version of Wrestling Society X. It's got better commentary (with one exception, which I refer to later) and better matches (probably the result of using IWA-MS and PWU mainstays, rather than XPW). This episode is weaker than the first, but was still easy viewing.

Jimmy Jacobs & Josh Abercrombie vs Necro Butcher & Mad Man Pondo

Little bit of negativity first, unconnected to the match itself, and that’s based around the commentary. On the whole, I find the commentary on these shows by the ICP very amusing, but I was disappointed with this match. Considering how often they sing about hating bigotry, there was a lot of talk about how gay the Jacobs/Abercrombie team were, and a load of time talking about sucking dick. It’s a shame because I expect better from the ICP.

The match itself was a glorified squash, but was still fun. Watching Necro blast away at Jacobs in the corner of the ring with chops and nasty punches is always going to be enjoyable, and I liked Pondo bealing Jacobs across the ring by his pierced nipples. Pondo then takes out Jacobs with a top rope senton through the chair Jacobs was sat in. Jacobs & Abercrombie are both clad in partially pink gear and are certainly playing up to the homophobics in the crowd, but more importantly, both are able to showcase their talents in the brief chances they get. Abercrombie blows a springboard move, but is smart enough to follow it up with a huge tope through Butcher & Pondo to divert focus away from the error. I also dug the spot where Abercrombie was about to dive from the top rope onto Pondo, who was laid out on the ramp, but spotted Jacobs was in trouble with Butcher and instead dived onto Necro. Something that makes sense, but you rarely see. It’s not enough to keep the advantage, and Butcher hits a tope rope slam on Jacobs through a table to win. Enjoyable, but better watched on mute.

Trent Acid vs 2 Tuff Tony

Both guys won on the last show, so it stands to reason that this was a pretty close match. Acid sneak attacks Tony pre-bell, but Tony soon gains the advantage and uses a Cactus clothesline to send Acid out. Tony backdrops Acid into the crowd, but Trent is able to use his wits to take over on Tony. He hides under the ring and re-emerges with a chair, which he uses to level Tony. A top rope splash get 2 for Acid. Tony is able to fire back in style, suplexing Trent into an open chair. Acid superkicks a chair into Tony’s face, which doesn’t look great. Tony hits the flipping top rope legdrop to Acid, who is too close to the ropes to pin, and hits a top rope rana, which sends Acid onto what is left of the chair. Tony Driver should be enough to finish, but Tony decides to light his fist for the Meteorite, which prompts Acid to run off for the count-out. An entertaining, if sloppy, spotfest.

Necro Butcher - Choose Death

After that fucking terrible XPW tape I reviewed last time, it was nice to receive this Necro Butcher comp from Lovefilm. My XPW negativity may give them impression that I hate hardcore or deathmatch wrestling, but done well it's a type of wrestling I do really enjoy. Thankfully, Necro is better at it than most, and this is a largely fun set of matches.

Necro Butcher vs "Mean" Mitch Page
I've never seen Page before, despite watching a good few IWA-Mid South tapes in the early 2000's, so he was new to me. It was a good first impression, as I really dug this. Within a minute, Necro hurls himself without abandon from the top rope into Page and two rows of chairs. What I enjoyed is that this felt like a real fight, with the exception of Page hitting a Rocker Dropper onto a pile of lightbulbs. The bulk of the match was the two guys leathering each other with weapons or hurling the other into things, and there were no cutesy or over-complicated weapon set ups. I loved a big suplex by Necro into another row of chairs and the spectacular image of fans having to runs to avoid getting nailed with a ladder than Page hurled towards the Butcher. The end spots were goofy, but fun. First Necro set fire to his fucking leg before hitting a second rope legdrop. He only got two, probably because he had to put his leg out before going for the pin. Page ended up winning, after setting fire to a towel around his head and hitting a top rope flaming headbutt to win. Good stuff.

Necro Butcher vs Ian Rotten
I enjoyed this far less. I find I enjoy Ian more in his straight-up wrestling matches than his hardcore stuff. Ian is bleeding before the match even starts. To start off, they just exchange blows and strikes, which is pretty fun, before Ian waffles Necro with a tack-covered bat. This leaves an impressive looking sheen of silver tacks embedded in Butcher's head. Despite there being more weapons used than the Page match, this felt less violent, less like they were hurting each other to win a fight and more like they were moving on to the next weapon spot. They also included the hardcore spots I hate most, where guys mutilate their opponent rather than try and hurt them to win, like wrapping them in barb wire or trying to carve them with broken glass. Eventually, they just move onto the finish with no build-up, as Rotten clumsily powerbombs Necro neck first onto the edge of a flaming table. Not good.

Necro Butcher vs 2 Tuff Tony
This doesn't take long to heat up, with Necro getting slammed from the apron onto lightbulbs within two minutes. They recklessly exchange bulb shots in front of the crowd, before heading back in to allow Necro to pretend to staplegun Tony's penis. Butcher uses a nice tigerbomb (wrestling move!), before Tony hits an MK Ultra on some bulbs, which is somehow only a 2. We get a lovely shot in the crowd of a father carrying a small child, whilst in front of them 2 Tuff Tony powerslams Necro onto the ring steps. In the ring, Tony totally takes over and keeps hammering Necro with bulbs, including smashing a bulb in Necro's mouth. So nasty. This gives Tony time to set up a board with more bulbs and barbed wire outside the ring, but Butcher is able to reverse a suplex attempt. Butcher goes for his own suplex from the apron, pretty much misses the board but still picks up the win.

Necro Butcher vs Mad Man Pondo
This match is pretty lightbulb heavy, what with the ropes being covered with them. It gets pretty ridiculous really quickly as the ring is soon covered with broken glass, the match soundtracked by the crunching of glass as they try to move around the ring. Pondo spends a lot of time trying to create structures to throw Butcher through, with every successful move buying him more time to build a fancier structure. Highlights include a horrifically sloppy DDT from the top by Pondo onto a bridge of bulbs over two chairs, a bloodsoaked Butcher hurling Pondo from the top rope like a javellin into a bin full of lightbulbs and a nasty looking senton by Pondo through lightbulbs onto Butcher. The end sees Pondo set up his most ridiculous structure yet, with bulbs wedged between two ladders, barely staying up, before superplexing Necro's near lifeless body into it (not through it, due to lack of elevation) for the win. The camera zooms in on Necro's arm just spewing blood, with a big chunk of flesh hanging off as someone yells for an ambulance. A remarkable spectacle.

Necro Butcher vs JC Bailey
This is a CZW match, but because it's "unsanctioned", it's held in the basement of the arena with no fans present. There is a barbed wire cage set up, with a belt hanging above it, with the winner being the first man to grab the belt. Necro doesn't even wait for Bailey to get to the cage, battering him with some nasty strikes. Bailey is smaller than Necro, so relies on both his speed and some convenient weapons to get an advantage. Bailey ramming Necro with a shopping trolley with lightbulbs taped to the front is pretty choice. In the cage, Necro takes more punishment, until hitting a double powerbomb, first into the side of the cage (smashing some conveniently placed lightbulbs), then into the mat. Like the Mitch Page match, this feels like a real nasty fight, with the bare minimum of setting up of weapons as most are already in place. When Bailey does takes some time to set up a pane of glass over the Butcher, it backfires, as Necro hurls him off the top and smashes the glass. The end sees Bailey set a load of bulbs over Necro, hit a big senton from the top, then climb the cage to take the title. Lots of fun

Necro Butcher vs Toby Klein
This is fantastic. Again, as with the best matches on this disc, there was a minimum of setting up complex spots, and more beating the other man up. I loved the use of strikes here, as both guys were content to exchange blows, with a few brutal looking punch exchanges having a palpable feeling of hate. The weapons shots seemed nastier than usual too, with Klein hurling a bulky old PC monitor at Butcher's head, and later pouring salt all over the wounds of Necro. A powerbomb off the bleachers to the floor by Klein was also tough-looking. Necro pulled a few shocks out of the bag too, first reversing a sunset flip powerpomb attempt with an unlikely flying headscissors to the floor, then barely glancing Klein with an insane flip dive from the top rope. The end sees Necro lock in an Asiatic spike sleeper, but a ref bump means the ref misses the tapout. A schoolboy by Klein nearly wins the match in the most unlikely way possible, but he finally gets the job done for real with a death valley driver onto an open chair.

Necro Butcher vs Corporal Robinson vs Brandon Prophet
This is a triple threat, with the guys who don't get pinned going through to the next round of a tournament. We kick off with Corp beating Prophet with weapons. This does feel like an initiation for Prophet, especially as this is pretty much a handicap match. Corp and Necro never tangle here. We get three chairs set up for a three-way punch-out, with Corp and Necro's punches on Prophet looking more impressive than his attempts. The veterans take it in turn to drop Prophet onto chairs. Necro spits lemon juice into Prophet's wounds, which has to suck. Prophet is made to look super tough, surviving a few nasty shots (including a piledriver onto a VCR) and he gets a two count by hitting a fisherman's suplex on Corp onto the lightbulbs. However, Necro breaks it up, despite not being out of the tournament if Corp gets pinned, so you can tell it's Prophet vs the world. In the end, Necro nails Prophet with a load of punches and Corp hits Boot Camp through a box coated with lightbulbs and barbed wire. This finishes Prophet. Pretty good fun.

Necro Butcher vs Tank
The majority of this match is the two big guys exchanging big punches, which is pretty fun. We get the seated slugfest, before Tank beats up Necro outside the ring. Necro returns the favour by lobbing chairs at a downed Tank, before the two get into another kneeling slugfest. Inside the ring, Tank nails Necro with more light-tubes and keeps up the assault. He hits a 2nd rope stomp through light-tubes for two, but a second attempt gets the win. I loved the punching, but it dragged a bit towards the end.