Hamilton’s Beyond Wrestling & Pro Wrestling Illustrated Presents The Iron Match 02.14.2021 Review

Quick Result
Trish Adora defeats Tony Deppen [2:1] in 60:00 (***¾)

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Hot on the heels of Tony Deppen’s double-Iron man match loss to Jordan Oliver at GCW’s Fight Forever weekender, a challenge was thrown out to do what was billed as the first ever intergender Iron match. It’s 2021 mind you so “intergender” really doesn’t need to be thrown out there.

Commentary from an empty H2O Wrestling Center in Williamstown, NJ comes from Denver Colorado. The man, not the place… and no, I’m not going to cover every section of this!

Iron Match: Tony Deppen vs. Trish Adora
Adora gave Deppen an early scare, but was quickly taken down as Deppen took her down into a STF-like hold, only to stretch back both arms instead. An attempted roll-up’s stopped as Deppen just steps away from Adora, keeping her down as he looked to wear her down with a tied-up butterfly lock, perhaps looking to rack up submissions early on.

Adora tries the same trick, looking for a cross armbar on Deppen, but he rolls her up for a two-count as the momentum began to shift. A bow-and-arrow hold begins another run of submission attempts, but Adora holds firm and struck back… then looked to to go for a crossface, only for Deppen to tie up her legs by the ropes… but he lets go so he could mess around some more, rather than go for a submission.

Some 23-minutes in, Deppen began to target the legs with splashes and a grounded Dragon screw, but Adora wasn’t anywhere near done yet as she began exchanging strikes, softening up for more mat work… but then Deppen shows off his nonchalance by tying up Adora in a Trailer Hitch – and doing some sit-ups while doing so. Adora gets to the ropes as we approached the halfway mark, before some spitting from Deppen makes Adora unleash with strikes from above, forcing Deppen to turtle up and roll outside.

Adora throws Deppen towards the ring, but Deppen recovers with a strait-jacket choke from a STF position… but Adora’s got an arm free and gets herself free, taking Deppen down for some headscissors. A guillotine from Adora ends in the ropes as they continued down the path of submissions – again making Deppen head outside to complain about being booked in this match.

Back inside, Deppen stands on Adora’s ankles… but she knocks him down into a leg spreader by the corner, which quickly ends via the ropes. A scissored armbar from Adora’s rolled out of, but she rolls with Deppen’s attempts to escape a hammerlock before hitting the ropes as another exchange culminated in Deppen taking Adora into the corner for some elbows.

A pump kick from Adora drops Deppen for a two-count, but Deppen recovered with a side Russian legsweep into a Stretch Muffler. It doesn’t lead to a submission, so Deppen then stomps Adora’s knees into the mat. A leg lock followed as Deppen keeps going for the submission, exacerbating things with a knee drop to the shoulder as he tried going for pins.

An enziguiri from Adora goes for the arm of Deppen, with a back suplex following before she rolled Deppen into a leg full nelson on the mat. Rolling towards the ropes gets a break for Deppen, before she embarked on some roll-ups as a crossface ends with Deppen backing up into the ropes. Using the ropes to her advantage, Adora wraps Deppen’s arm in it for the full five-count, then kicked away at Deppen’s arm some more as an arm whip led to a two-count after Adora rolled Deppen out.

A desperation headbutt from Deppen lands, as he then whipped Adora onto the ropes… but she ducks under and locks in a sleeperhold, but Deppen manages to break it with a backpack stunner. They trade right hands as they tried to get back to their feet, leading to an increased temp before a pump kick from Deppen looked to put him ahead. The pair trade lariats, but an elbow from Adora before Lariat Tubman gets her the first fall at 51:10.

Having to recover the fall, Deppen quickly ties up Adora in a Muta lock, before he clocked Adora with a knee out of the corner. A backslide takes Adora in for a superkick, before a brainbuster dumped Adora for another near-fall. Deppen eventually forces the equaliser at 55:54 after driving Adora’s knee into the mat – which means we’ve got the best part of six minutes to get a winner.

Adora’s on jelly legs, falling to the mat as Deppen tried to throw her into the corner, but she recovers with an arm whip and a German suplex before an Air Raid Crash almost made it 2-1. A second Lariat Tubman sees Deppen land too close to the rope as he’s able to get a foot there to break up the pin as we hit the final three minutes. The pair make their way onto the apron, where a pair of big boots sent them both to the floor, but they make it back to the ring to resume striking… only for a Ki Krusher from Deppen to nearly snatch the win.

A knee to the back of Adora in the ropes nearly sent Deppen flying outside, but he recovers and heads up top for a stomp, which gets a two-count. Deppen charges at Adora, but she catches him with a Bossman Backbreaker before a crossface was rolled out of… but Adora keeps on rolling and snatches the pin on Deppen with literally a second remaining. This match will live or die on your affinity for Iron (wo)man matches – going 50 minutes before the first fall may be a turn-off as well. Still, the story told during the match – the war of attrition rather than throwing bombs – worked when it reached the climax of Deppen’s desperation to go 1-1… and then the big Hail Mary at the end that paid off for Adora as time ran out. ***¾

After the match, Deppen shook Adora’s hand and told her she was just as good as anyone else he’d wrestled, while Adora stayed back to celebrate – Beyond and IWTV had been running a gimmick where they were selling a shirt to commemorate the match, with money going to charities nominated by both Deppen and Adora.

7.2

The final score: review Good

The 411

Timed “iron” person matches like this have their obvious challenges, starting with the performers having to go to a duration, no matter what. Regardless of the promotion or performers, the story for such matches has to be solid, otherwise you’re fighting a losing battle - here, the hook of “we’re making history” is just about enough to interest those with only a passing knowledge of Deppen (be it from ROH or elsewhere on the indies) or Adora, most readers I’d wager may never have heard of her. It’s a free stream so check it out - even if the type of match isn't your liking, there's a lot to be said for the simple story of just going the distance and overcoming a braggart.