The others sound right, but it seems like Kane will either be gone for a little while or become a part of The Wyatt Family the way that angle is going. Something I'd like to see is Shawn Michaels getting involved; considering that his kayfabe and real best friend HHH and his student are involved, it wouldn't be much of a stretch. I just hope that Orton's heel turn sticks this time, because that's one of the few positive things to come out of this so far, since he does his best work as a heel.

I guess that rules out my "joining the Wyatt Family" theory.

edited 20th Aug '13 8:46:55 PM by KesagakeBoy

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

I was partial to the previous two articles.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

Then, there's this one.

Aw man... once more, IWC has their female wrestling matches in the Mountain State Madness match, which I can't attend. The one match I've seen so far, from the DVD of MSM 4, had some very solid wrestling with both wrestlers obviously being trained to execute the moves correctly and convincingly rather than how to jiggle over the top rope. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to settle for the DVD again.

This.

Especially this.

Oh, and let's not forget this.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

IWC Caged Fury 2013 lineup

My thoughts on it

Preshow: "Ask Mark Anything!" Mark Madden former WCW commentator and current radio personality of 105.9 WXDX will host a a NO-HOLDS-BARRED fan Q&A prior to the IWC show at 6:00 PM Eh, I like learning the backstory behind things, but I feel like most of this will go over my head since I was never really that deep into the various wrestling promotions when he was commentating.

Steel Cage: "Big League" John McChesney defends the IWC Championship against "The Party Peacock" Dalton Castle Both very entertaining wrestlers. Castle plays an excellent insane character. There's plenty of build-up that's been going on between these two. John McChesney is the kind of talented heel you love to hate who manages to make his wins look credible while also selling his opponents moves excellently.

Steel Cage: "The Neon Ninja" Facade defends the IWC Super Indy Championship against "The premiere Athlete" Tony Nese Facade is always excellent. Tony Nese is pretty alright, although I sometimes feel he falls more toward the "look imposing" part of the wrestling rather than the actual wrestling or promos.

Loser leaves IWC: Justin Idol vs. Super Hentai Eh... I'm not a big fan at all of retirement matches. The So You Want To Be A Booker entry captures it well in that either the outcome is meaningless or you need a wrestler who really plans on retiring from your promotion and all the nearby territories. I suspect that the match will either end inconclusively or Idol will lose. The latter is possible because a) Idol doesn't have a contract with IWC and b) Idol runs the Steel City Wrestling Academy that most IWC wrestlers come out of, so he can still readily interfere as a manager/valet (which is really what he's been doing for some time now).

Tag Team Title Match: Haught & Delaney vs. Nutts & Brooks vs. W.A.R. I love Haught and Delaney in almost wholly platonic manners. Nutts & Brooks make excellent heels and they're both good at making their opponents look good. W.A.R.... I hope they prove themselves in this one. They have not impressed me of late. The last match I saw them in, they seemed to be going through the motions and weren't even bothering to sell the moves as hurting, smiling in the middle of headlocks and all. I think this is also the third event in a row involving three tag-teams and I'm getting a bit tired of the format.

Bobby Fish vs. Raymond Rowe Fish is a tremendously entertaining character. Rowe I know nothing about, but apparently he and Fish has a match in Texas which is feeding into the hype. I'm also kind of wondering if the Profane Grandma spectator is showing up. Last few matches Fish has had, there's been this older lady who sits in the front row and just yells a stream of profanity at him, leading to Fish, as a vicious heel, complaining about what effect this is having on the kids who are always around her. I don't know whether she's an actual spectator or if it's a work, but it's entertaining.

Shane "Swerve" Strickland vs. Logan "Heavy Metal Jesus" Shulo Face vs. Face. Strickland is entertainingly acrobatic. Shulo does alright, but he's got a more limited moveset although he's got tons of charisma. This could be a really fun match if they work it out together beforehand properly. I'm just hoping that we don't get a boring squash match as when Shulo took on Gory.

R.J. City vs. Sam Cassidy R.J. is debuting in wrestling, apparently as an arrogant character who wants everyone to treat him as a big star (he played Gildar on the Canadian Splatalot). I haven't seen him wrestle yet. Cassidy debuted last match as a recent graduate of the ICWA. He was a bit awkward in the ring, but pulled off his moves competently and sold those of his opponent's, so this could be good.

Blue Collar Slaughterhouse vs. Chest Flexor & Brian Mc Dowell Both entertaining heel teams with Team Flexor (more recently calling themselves "Super Terrible Dudes" or The STDs) being the more insane of the two. BCS will probably be out to get Flexor for how he had the entire team come in to beat up BCS during a no-DQ match. Ginger will probably be there in yet another nice new outfit.

Chair Shot Reality featuring Zema Ion I really have no strong opinion on Justin Labar, but he plays a good loudmouth who frequently gets drowned out by the audience, who wants more wrestling or at least the native Justin Plummer to do the highlights. Zema Ion (formerly Xiima Ion, Shiima Zion, and probably a ton of other names I'm forgetting) has been out for a few months due to a nasty case of appendicitis, highlighting the plight of uninsured wrestlers who frequently wrestle through injury and illness because they can't afford to get treated and they can't afford to not work or work out. Frankly, if Labar actually talks about that, I might get behind him a bit.

Overall, it's a good card. Good promotion in my opinion. I'm going to try to remember to bring a pad of paper and scrawl down better notes on the match for my recap this time.

Believe it or not there was a time where this was more or less taken for granted everywhere. I think North America's problems can be traced back to the retirement of the Women's title when Rockin Robin had it and the ECW valets, CATFIGHT!

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Yeah, I wish I had even been into wrestling when there were strong wrestling women like Lita, Madusa, etc., but at least we've still got Natalya and Mickie James. Does anyone know where Awesome Kong and Beth Phoenix are? I miss them.

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

Amazing Kong Kharma is either in Shimmer or some other indy company. I believe Beth retired because she pretty much accomplished everything she set out to do and did not want to end up like Edge. I could be wrong though.

And its not to say Madusa or Lita were bad, but they were actually wrestling during "revival periods" as I see it. Madusa was the first champion to be crowned after Vince/whoever decided it was worth bringing back the women's title and the division did not last long before it went back into retirement. While when it has never quite disappeared again from Jacqueline's reign onwards we have seen some periods that were less than ideal. Jacqueline there was only one real wrestler in the WWF besides Luna at the time, WCW, for whatever reason, could not get a women's division and ECW was doing the exact opposite.

It think it had a sort of ripple effect across the continent, leading to stuff like AAA having dark angel lose her mask and then not use her for anything except dancing and valeting. Then, during that 2005-2009 "diva search" period (Lita was not part of the problem but not all her days were glorious) we saw TNA try and build up a strong knockouts division but fall into the same silliness fairly quickly.

Its is not something you see to quite the same level as tag teams, which have had it just as rough in WWE. Even TNA's harshest critics still think it manages to have nice contrast in its tag matches themselves even as they otherwise tear apart the booking around them.

edited 22nd Sep '13 7:35:25 AM by Cider

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I honestly just plain don't like most of the matches in TNA, and I don't know what it is. Even when it involves people I like, such as Aries, Chavo, and Roode; it just seems to fall flat for me, and the same applies to their tag teams. I'm not saying that WWE's tag division is all that great, but it is improving, although I will say that someone need to take the belts off The Shield, or at least give them a serious feud, and I don't mean Show and Henry.

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

TNA should rename themselves TNP (Total Nonstop Promos). Then there's the fact that their matches, and even their goddamn main events, last at 10 minutes if you're lucky. They also overdo the gimmick matches (I'm looking at you, King of the Mountain). The gratuitous shots they take at WWE also makes them painfully arrogant, to the point that it's like a four year old shrieking for candy, jumping up and down while waving their arms and screaming, "HEY! LOOK AT ME!!"

Sorry about the rant.

Now, for my Team Bryan and Team Orton theory line-up:

Team Bryan:

• Daniel Bryan
• CM Punk
• Dolph Ziggler
• Big Show
• Mark Henry
• Cody Rhodes

Team Orton:

• Randy Orton
• Triple H
• The Shield
• Damien Sandow

edited 21st Aug '13 7:07:29 PM by SciFiSlasher

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

I would say to add Wade Barrett to Team Orton, but he'd probably just get buried be the mid card flunky, which is as bad if not worse than his current situation. He really needs a good push. Also, I would say to add Justin Gabriel to Team Bryan, but then he'd just be their mid card flunky. Maybe they should put those two in a program together. I'd watch that. To be honest though, I mark out pretty hard any time either of them win at all, so I'm a little biased.

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

It's a six-on-six tag team match. Bryan looks like he's about to win for his team through pinfall, only for the rest of Team Orton to rush into the ring at once and they all beat down Bryan hard. Vince then comes in to gloat, saying that Stephanie was wrong and Bryan is not even a B-plus. He is about to pin Bryan, when out of nowhere, a voice calmly says:

"Miss me, dad?"

And Shane Mc Mahon saves the day, urging the rest of Team Bryan to follow him into the ring.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

That could work, but I really don't want McMahon vs. McMahon again.

edited 23rd Aug '13 4:07:18 PM by KesagakeBoy

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

You gotta admit, though, it would be pretty damn awesome.

Watched Smackdown earlier tonight. Glad that Bryan kicked Orton out of the ring, not so happy about about how Orton RKO'd Bryan after he won in that Steel Cage match against Wade Barrett. However, I can tell that this feud will truly be one to watch.

On a side-note, I know it isn't professional, but is there anywhere to talk about Backyard Wrestling?

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

I don't think anybody would mind if you talked about it here. I don't, although my only knowledge of it comes from The Backyard, which is a pretty good documentary, and Backyard Wrestling, that so-so ICP game that made me kinda hate ICP.

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

Found this backyard promotion called KBW (Kids Backyard Wrestling). Their matches are alright, though the promo videos are...awkward, and their current Renegades storyline is obviously ripped-off from the nWo. Nonetheless, they are quite interesting to watch.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

I think backyard should get its own thread. Anyway, I have "backyard wrestled" in the sense I practiced professional wrestling moves, in a backyard, with a professional wrestler but he is a guy who works real shows, we were not pretending to have a match.

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Just out of curiosity, who was this guy?

Well in 1941 a happy father had a son . . .

I too am kind of curious.

I will create a backyard wrestling thread eventually, when I have some more time on my hands.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

Jun Hado. He was still in training back then and I was just lucky enough to work at some places that had wrestling events. Still, I know 3 professional wrestlers and referees. No TNA or WWE mainstays but they have worked with some. Another is this Puerto Ricano with a gangster gimmick called Afro Man. I am not sure if he is on youtube or not, the videos tend to be kind of fuzzy and there have been a few afromen but you might know of him indirectly, he used to post online as Dragon 2002 before joining the business for real.

It is not a knock, just not sure backyard wrestling and professional wrestling are really the same topic. But if everyone else is cool with it I will not complain if you talk about it here.

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Even though I am starting to get into KBW, the problem with backyard wrestling (as much as I do really want to delve into it) is that it is just not noteworthy enough. However, in regards to backyard's matches being "pretend"...well, it's obviously not professional even slightly, so I can forgive the Kayfabe being taken to an extreme.

I myself want to start a backyard wrestling promotion, so if I do bring that idea to life, I will tell you.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

Right. Just got back from Caged Fury 2013 by the International Wrestling Cartel in Elizabeth, PA. It was a good night. I took notes this time, to try to keep the details straight, but I was foiled for the last two cage matches by virtue of Keith Haught accidentally stealing my pen. So, without further ado:

Sam Cassidy vs. RJ City

First off, nice singing voice, RJ! He entered singing, nice voice, and gave an excellent bit of trash talk to Cassidy on how Cassidy was outclassed to which Cassidy basically sputtered on the mike and answered, "Well... um... same to you, buddy." RJ dominated the match in the first bit. Cassidy rallied once or twice, but the match finally ended with RJ getting Cassidy into a (really, really sloppy) sleeper hold and ostensibly knocking him out for the win. Cassidy is alright wrestler, but bad on the mike. RJ is awesome on the mike, and has a voice which carries even without the mike, but has some fairly sloppy wrestling skills.

Team STD (Brian McDowell and Chest Flexor) vs. Blue Collar Slaughterhouse

Yeah... Chest Flexor and his gang have titled themselves Team Sexy Talented Dudes, or Team STDs. I can't make this up, folks. The whole contingent came out, including ginger in a blue dress with entirely too much crinoline. It was a good match with a lot of back and forth and a good mix of intelligent tag team tactics and people struggling to make it across the ring to make the tag. The match ended with BCS taking a page from Flexor's tactics and piling both of them on to make the pin. Afterwards, Marshall Gambino came in with a steel chair and Team STD bushwhacked BCS. One of BCS got handcuffed to the ring ropes and hit repeatedly with a chair while the other got laid in the corner and took a rolled bowling ball to the crotch. So, BCS won, but got beat up, building up heat for their Steel Cage match versus Marshall and McDowell tomorrow at Mountain State Madness V.

Shane Strickland vs Logan Shulo

It was a good solid match. The first part was sort of dance-like as Strickland and Logan reversed arm holds on each other. Eventually, the match moved on to an exchange of blows, then an exchange of body-blocks where Strickland was obviously having trouble due to lower mass. After Shulo indicated that he'd get another shot, Strickland bounced off of the ropes and went into a spin kick instead, giving him a bit of an advantage, which he carried through the rest of the match. There were some very solid moves, some very nice entry and exit of the ring by Strickland. Ultimately, Shulo won. Much like the match with Gory last month, Strickland made the mistake of doing a counter which resulted in him sitting on Shulo's shoulders. Cue Shulo spinning him around and slamming him for the end of match. They ended with a handshake, as is pretty standard for Face-Face matches.

Chairshot Reality

Not much to say. Justin LaBar had Zema Ion on as a guest. Zema explained that his case of a ruptured appendix was complicated by them finding a 5 inch tumor in his colon. Fortunately, the tumor was removed without issue, but he's out from TNA and other wrestling promotions for at least 6 weeks while recovering, and he admitted that he had already lost a lot of muscle due to his forced infirmity. RJ City interrupted the match and explained just how much he admired Zema for his work, then moved on to say that he was so inspired that he was going to do a Kickstarter just like Zema for plastic surgery because, after all, he was the next big thing. Harsh words went to a stand-off. RJ City accused Zema of begging for money whereupon LaBar pulled several coins out of his pocket and began pelting Zema (and the audience behind him) with them. Zema shoved RJ City and LaBar down. RJ kicked Zema in the stomach and left. Medical personnel helped Zema out.

Bobby Fish vs Raymond Rowe

It was a good match. Fish had trouble building any sort of momentum. Rowe literally slapped him around the ring for a while before Fish jumped out of the ring and proclaimed that he wasn't coming back until the ref declared "No more slapping". What followed was a series of Fish jumping in and out of the ring to avoid Rowe until finally they got back into a clinch. The pattern for a while was that Rowe would land several moves. Fish would eventually get one in to counter him, but would fail to capitalize on them. Suddenly, Fish upped his game and started landing a steady series of hits and throws. While Rowe had been trying to pin Fish, Fish seemed to be going for submissions, performing at least 3-4 over the course of the match to little avail. There was one moment which was really kind of cool where Fish missed a high jumping roundhouse kick, which Row ducked. Fish is a legit MMA competitor and you could see it with the force of the kick whistling over Rowe's head, makes you understand why so many of the legit strikers look so lame, since using their actual striking ability would result in injury. The end of the match involved Fish going for a flying knee and getting scooped up and slammed. Upon rising, Fish was scooped up again for a slam, but a series of reversals in mid-slam resulted in him rolling Rowe up for a pin. And then Fish offers Rowe a handshake and raises his arm to indicate a worthy opponent. Fish leaves the ring to thunderous applause, goes up to the entrance platform and proclaims how amazing the match was and how glad he was that he was the marvelous specimen he is, and how much the members of the audience sucked compared to him. It was a classic case of a heel going over and struggling mightily to get the audience to keep hating him. Later in the night, Rowe arranged for tomorrow's match at MSM 5 to be a one-on-one rematch with Fish.

Kevin Haught & Colin Delaney vs. Jimmy Nutts and Joseph Brooks vs. W.A.R.

I really wanted to like this match. Haught and Delaney are an entertaining pair. Nutts and Brooks make excellent heels with Nutts being a very credible challenge in the ring with his crazy determination. W.A.R.... well, they're throwbacks to The Rockers. Anyhow, Nutts and Brooks entered in a shower of rainbow glitter, a feat I doubt will ever be allowed again because, glitter being the herpes of the craft world, Brooks and Nutts spent the match bedazzled with glitter all over their skin and every wrestler for the rest of the night sported at least some trace of glitter over their skin. The actual match had more slapstick in it than solid fighting and the tag team rules regularly went right out the window with 4 to 6 people brawling it out in the center of the ring without the referee saying anything. Brooks and Nutts wisely hung back for the majority of the match, conserving their energy while Haught, Delaney, and W.A.R. wore themselves out in the ring. Ultimately, both Veil and Haught were pinned by Delaney and Nutts respectively and the referee ruled that Nutts had started his pin a fraction of a second earlier. So Nutts and Brooks walked off with the Tag titles and Haught, Delaney, Veil, and Lennox had... a Dance Party Ending? Yeah, they proceeded to have music played and dance for several minutes. It was entertaining but kind of out there. Also a bit odd since one of the things that happened during the match were respective members of those tag teams making fun of the other's dance ritual to enter the ring.

Super-Hentai versus Justin Idol

It was a match with many ups and downs. Super-Hentai entered accompanied with Jimmy Vega$ and Dennis Gregory, the other two Founding Fathers. Jimmy and Dennis were wearing military helmets in desert garb and were swilling beer. Idol entered, for once not in his usual white unitard but rather in a set of purple tights, with HD Cannon in a suit. Early in the match, Hentai dominated the offensive. There were some really unconvincing punches that lacked sound or contact, but they get better. The highlight of the match involved Hentai getting slammed by Idol onto the metal ring ramp. Idol returned to the ring and, after the out-of-ring count reached 9, the referee announced that a match like this would only end in a pinfall and refused to count the last number. Idol dragged Hentai back into the ring and the match resumed. There were a lot of good moves executed, but both wrestlers struggled to properly set up their opponents with multiple bits where you could tell that a wrestler was trying to slow down getting up so that he'd been in position for the other guy. Ultimately, Idol landed a bizarre twisted piledriver and pinned Hentai. The Founding Fathers entered and at first it looked like they were going to reject him (previously, they'd stated that he was "dead weight" on their team) but they indicated that, even if he were to never wrestle with them in the IWC (turns out, Hentai also wrestles for PWX in McKeesport and this watch was specifically "Loser leaves IWC"), he was still part of the team. Chuck shook Hentai's hand. Norm hugged him. Idol feigned a punch, then shook his hand. All the while, the arena gave Super-Htentai a standing ovation.

Intermission

During intermission, they build up the steel cage and Chuck Roberts established himself as a Cool Uncle by point out his five-year-old nephew, whose birthday it was, and asking the stadium to wish him a happy birthday (seriously, how many kids have an uncle who owns a wrestling promotion?).

Facade vs. Anthony Nese

The steel cage was constructed of a series of chain-link fence panels lashed together with tie-downs and hooked into the corner-posts of the ring. Much to my surprise, being unaware of how cage matches work here, early on, Anthony Nese opened the unlocked door of the cage and walked out. After luring Facade out to pursue him, he worked Facade over on various sides of the ring, playing to the fans, who were cheering Facade on. Eventually, he brought Facade back in and tried to pin him. The rest of the match played out largely like a standard wrestling match, except occasionally one wrestler would slam the other into the chain-link before attempting a pin. Ultimately, Facade jumped off of the top of the cage (narrowly missing the light rig) to hit Nese and pin him. One minor botch (I think) involved Facade trying to do his trademark tight-rope walk and instead falling between the ropes and the cage midway through the match. Oh, and at the end of the match, the lights went out and Ashton Amherst, who debuted the month before, attacked Facade in an effort to gain attention.

Dalton Castle versus John McChesney

This was the main event of the night and it did not disappoint. Unlike the prior match, the door was locked shut and the stipulation was that the winner had to escape the cage. Castle came out swinging and soundly pummeled McChesney before McChesney got in a lucky hit and (rather sensibly) immediately tried to light out of the cage. The rest of the match was essentially one person landing a move and trying to exit the cage followed by the other guy taking him down (pretty standard cage match fare). Castle's undoing was a combination of his ego keeping him from making his escape in favor of a top rope attack on McChesney and the interference of McChesney's teammates. In Team Big League's defense, Norm Conners had proclaimed that Team Big League would not be interfering with each other's matches that night. Unfortunately for Castle, Joseph Brooks decided to disobey. The first time he interfered with Castle leaving the ring, Norm and Nutts dragged him down. The second time, he successfully delayed Castle long enough to let McChesney climb out first. One of the neat bits about the match, as I commented to my wife and our friend, is that the two wrestlers did very little fancy — most of the moves were suplexes or slams — and instead enthralled the audience through personality and building a narrative.

Overall, a great night. Thanks be to the wrestlers who provided such entertainment. I'm truly sorry to miss the matches tomorrow, but I plan to pick up the DVDs to learn what went on.

edited 24th Aug '13 10:01:15 PM by FuzzyBoots

Looks like Christian is getting himself involved in the Bryan v. Orton feud as well.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

That reminds me of an ROH show where Colt Cabana's mother was present, the nephew thing.

Dammit, that was two weeks in a row. I think watching Raw might be becoming a habit again. The booking is still not the show's strong point in my opinion. The Prime Time players as baby faces just does not work for me. Everything about them, from their dance, to the entrance music, to Titus's whistle to Darin's "Mr. No Days Off" red baron and his afro pick just screams villain or at least asshole to me. Now they were more of the Actually Pretty Funny type villains, like 3 MB or R-Truth, than the hate sinks like Cody Rhodes or Alberto Del Rio but I still think they were better off bad guys.

Ryback, by contrast, I liked better as a good guy. The crowd reactions he got were a novel and his crybaby phase really does not work for him. Also, I am really curious as to why Kofi Kingston did not go after him when he returned, okay I am not that curious, but it would have been more interesting than seeing him torment these nameless guys with impunity.

I guess it is nice Divas are getting actual promo time but I could not take AJ's speech seriously. She talks about how everything was handed to the other divas when she was not even NXT season three's runner up but got to debut before Naomi and become general manager just because Vince Mcmahon wanted to mess with Daniel Bryan...or something. Then she talks about how great she is and all I can ask is why nobody is pointing out the fact she tapped out to Natalya, twice. Not the commentators, not the wrestlers, not the crowd (though they might not actually be regular watchers so it should not be expected) and Total Divas why exactly is she mentioning events on a show that is not in kayfabe at all?

But here I am, guilty of still tuning in, if only to see the latest adventures of Daniel Bryan. I would not mind more Punk vs Lesnar either but apparently WWE thinks Curtis Axel is just as appealing, which he isn't.

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