The Furious Flashbacks – IWA-MS Ted Petty Invitational 2005 Night one

The Furious Flashbacks – IWA-MS Ted Petty Invitational 2005

September 23rd 2005. We’re in Hammond, Indiana. Hosts are Ben Jordan & Kevin Harvey.

This is the 6th Sweet Science tournament and the 4th annual Ted Petty Invitational. Sorry about the gap between 2004 and this show. It’s been a little hectic at Casa de Furious of late. I’m trying to keep churning out the reviews but time isn’t really on my side. The last TPI (2004) is one of the great Indy wrestling shows. Awesome stuff from top to bottom.

We open with Ian Rotten welcoming us to the show. He says it means more to him than anything else that IWA does and puts over Ted Petty. He says he’s upset that Robbie Brookside couldn’t make this tournament. Homicide also pulled out because he had legal trouble (not sure about what went down there). And AJ Styles has strep throat and can’t defend his title. The tournament immediately seems ‘troubled’ like a 1PW show. He relays a funny story about Ted Petty and Johnny Grunge took 45 takes to cut a straightforward promo in ECW. “I’m Johnny Grunge…SHIT!” – Ted Petty. The promo goes on and on as it always does but Ian seems to be enjoying himself. He references his shoot interview, which has got to be 50 hours long based on how long he can talk about nothing for. And that’s only answering the “how ya doing?” opening question. Sometimes he comes off like Grandpa Simpson.

We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere. Like the time I took the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. Give me five bees for a quarter you’d say. Now where were we, oh ya. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…

On from that we get the opening ceremony where all the wrestlers are brought out. Delirious crawls out on his knees. Castagnoli has the ugliest jacket I’ve ever seen on this evening. Arik Cannon has gained a Mohawk making him look like even more of a douche. The withdrawals have given us some unusual competitors for sure with Tank being the one that stands out the most but Marek Brave is a guy I know next to nothing about. Ian forgets about Rainman and gets accused of being a racist. Danielson is the only guy badass enough to wear a yellow polo shirt.

Nate Webb v Kevin Steen

23 minutes in before the entrance music even kicks in. That’s even longer than last year. Ropes are really loose. Steen is the PWG champion and has been to Zero-One already. Ben Jordan and Chris Hero on commentary. Webb’s entrance takes forever. Steen even whinges about it while eating a bag of crisps. Hahaha. I see Webb can now nail that moonsault entrance. He must have been working on it. He challenges Steen to do one as well, which he does. HIGH FIVE! Webb continues to goof around by throwing his water bottle around. Steen drops it and kicks it out of the ring. Webb gets inside Steen’s head by messing up his hair after a drop toehold. Steen has a big strength advantage but without focus that can lead to trouble. Webb starts utilising his flipping but he makes the mistake of turning his back on Steen who jumps him from behind and gives a beatdown “Big Bossman style”. Webb catches him with a jawbreaker then a Codebreaker. Steen is so big and solid he doesn’t shift but Webb clocks him with the Arachnid Kick for 2. Steen has had enough and just boots Webb in the face. He’s been keeping it simple. Back suplex scores and Steen flips into a legdrop as if to show off a little. Pumphandle half nelson driver over the knee! Holy shit! Webb KICKS OUT! Moonsault misses. Webb comes back and looks to finish off the top and he hits his moonsault…for 2. Not enough weight as Hero suggests. Webb escapes the Steenalizer but gets killed with the Package Piledriver. **. Decent but unfocused. Webb wasn’t given much to do there and that didn’t really fit his gimmick of ‘improved’ as a wrestler.

Josh Abercrombie v James Gibson

Gibson is just finishing up his independent dates before going back to the WWE. Josh is the IWA light heavyweight champion. Gibson corrects the announcer when he says he’s representing ROH making the announcer announce him as Jamie Noble and a WWE Superstar. Gee, heel antics eh? Josh looks a little out of his league. Gibson takes the match at a really slow pace. Perhaps adjusting back to the WWE style. He’s a far superior wrestler as well though and makes a point of out wrestling Josh on his feet and on the mat. But because he’s working heel he’s happy to give Josh some reversals and make him look decent. Gibson also has a huge experience advantage over Josh and uses Josh’s inexperience against him. They botch something in the corner and Josh goes to basics with armdrags. Good recovery from Josh there. Noble catches him with a spinebuster and the vibe for this match got murdered by that corner botch. Gibson feels it too and tries to slow the pace again. The crowd digs Josh because he’s an underdog who can’t compete with Gibson on a level playing field. Which should tell you exactly where this is going booking wise. Well, it wouldn’t if it was in a federation where someone sensible was booking. Gibson continues to control but he’s really not forcing the issue. Just putting the match in the cooler, which makes no sense because he can’t progress with a draw. Even submission attempts like the Gory Special don’t feel like near finishes. Josh seems to hurt his right knee, which continues to bother him. Gibson goes to another rest hold. Methodical doesn’t even begin to describe the pacing on this one. Gibson’s disrespectful approach is clear cut now though as he tries a one foot pin, which gets booed. Now the story becomes clearer. Gibson’s overconfidence is his weakness. YOUR FAITH IN YOUR FRIENDS IS YOURS! They run a sleeper reversal spot, which finishes with Gibson hitting a sweet back suplex. His class is showing through in spurts here but Josh isn’t the guy to do this match with. Cobra clutch follows and the crowd feels uninspired by the action. Gibson hasn’t done any of his trademark stuff or even prepped for any of his finishing holds. Josh’s offence is too predictable and telegraphed. The result isn’t pretty. His dodges are the same. It all looks too contrived. Josh fucks up a reverse Play of the Day into a fucked up version of the Stretch Muffler. Far too loose. This match just isn’t clicking at all. Gibson finally looks for the Tiger Driver but that’s countered. TALIBAN BACKPACK! Phoenix splash…misses. Gibson should have this in hand now but the Tiger Driver is countered into a rana for the upset win. *1/2. Bad match with sloppy high spots. Gibson logically should have lost to someone who’d earned it instead of to a fluke. Because you can’t do a follow up to this. So where’s the pay off? That was it. 3 seconds worth. And the crowd don’t hate Gibson even if he did act like a jerk.

POST MATCH crowd chants “thank you” at Gibson who’s finished with IWA now. Ian tells him he hopes the WWE have something for him because he’s a hell of a talent. They didn’t, of course. It seems only Gibson didn’t realise that. But hey, security is important. He’ll always have a spot at the top of the Indy circuit even if the WWE never use him.

Brad Bradley v Tank

Battle of the big men. Tank is a huge guy but he’s heavy rather than muscular. Bradley is a big guy too. But he looks like a linebacker. Bradley is in WWE developmental because he has the look but not quite the skills. He kinda looks like JBL. Bradley starts throwing knees like we’re in MMA and Tank can’t do shit but cover up. Bulldog scores and then Bradley weighs in with more strikes. He then makes his first mistake and fails to get Tank up for a suplex. Tank fires back with an STO and we go strongstyle again but Tank’s strikes just don’t look as good. Worrying thing is they probably hurt more. Bradley has decided knees to the head is the way forward and gets two more. Tank starts no selling and Bradley again goes after the suplex and can’t get it. They start trading slaps, which is great fun. They were right to make this about beating each other up rather than wrestling. Bradley with more knees. Someone is going to hospital with a concussion this evening! Tank bails to recover and Bradley hits the SUICIDE DIVE! Not quite as good as the Undertaker or Mike Awesome but similar. Bradley is wailing on Tank and it takes three lariats but he eventually gets him over for the pin. **. Surprisingly good fun. More like a fight than anything else.

Mike Quackenbush v Alex Shelley

Believe it or not its been THREE MONTHS since I last sat down to do anything to this review, which has to be a record even for me. June 25th to September 13th if anyone was counting. No knock on either Mike or Alex btw. Time has been pressing. Shelley jabs at Quack by having himself introduced as “The Reckless Youth” Alex Shelley playing on Quack’s real life friendship with Chikara co-founder Tom Carter. Crowd starts riding him by shouting “baby bear” at him. As you’d expect these guys take it to the mat. Beautiful chaining. Hard to say who’s smoother or more creative but they’re both great at this shit. Quack won Best of the Best in 2005 so he’s no stranger to tournament success. He also seems to have more a plan coming into this by going after Shelley’s legs. He also rocks the PENDULUM OF PAIN! Gotta love that. Shelley starts getting creative with his submission attempts but getting a tap out of Quack is going to be really hard because of his counter wrestling skills. When in trouble Quack has the legs to go to. Shelley gets a receipt for the Pendulum but can’t get a good swing on it. His focus has been more the back region. Quack has a great escape where he covers Shelley’s eyes so he can’t see where he’s moving. This leads to the lucha-style that Quack is so famed for. Oh, armdrag! DRINK! While Quack is flipping Shelley just waits for the opening though and plants him with a Downward Spiral, which isn’t a million miles away from a Shellshock. Same area of impact. Short piledrivers! Crowd has been turned into Shelley fans by his moveset. Now he’s aiming entirely at the head in an attempt to knock Quack out. After all the submission attempts aren’t getting him anywhere because of Mike’s mat ability. It also works the neck area, which sets up the Border City Stretch. Stranglehold neckbreaker from Shelley, which sets up a Goku Raku version of the Arms Across America. This time Quack doesn’t fight out but rather Shelley doesn’t have the strength to maintain the bridge. Interesting psychology. He opts for a more straightforward version of the same hold where he just sits on Quack. Quack wrestles his way out and starts with the PALM STRIKES. SHOTEEEEEEEEEIIIIII! Super rana! Swanton bomb gets 2. Shelley wrestles out of the pin into the BORDER CITY STRETCH! Now we’re cooking on gas. Quack’s excellent ring awareness gets him into the ropes. Quack goes for a La Mahistral but Shelley blocks RIGHT INTO THE BORDER CITY STRETCH! Shelley tries to roll with it but ends up under the ropes and has to hook the legs as well. Quack WRESTLES HIS WAY OUT again and COUNTERS THE MOTHERFUCKER! Quack grabs Shelley as they both get back up and connects with a DDT. Shelley kicks out the knee though and hits a Shining Wizard. Superkick into the IT CAME FROM JAPAN…for 2. Shelley means business because OFF COMES THE SHIRT! SHOTEEEEEIIIIII! QUACKENDRIVAAAAAAA! Quack pulls the big win out of his ass at the finish there. ***1/2. A game of attrition and great chain wrestling. Took them a while to up the pace but the final stretch was cool. Shame Shelley did a bit too much overkill with his stuff. Too much reliance on one hold and then a series of strikes that went nowhere. I’d expect better from a wrestler of Shelley’s calibre. Still, I enjoyed the match and that counts for a lot.

Arik Cannon v Joey Ryan

Jedi Joey this evening. Imperial March brings him out here. Apparently he was Super Dragon’s hand picked replacement. Some of the crowd have been on the PWG Kool Aid. “Joey-o-e-o-e-o”. Ryan starts out like his nickname suggests and administers a technical masterclass. But then Cannon isn’t much of a mat wrestling guy. He’s looking a touch out of shape though. Little flabby around the midsection compared to usual. Maybe he was trying to bulk up a bit. Ryan considers a dive, which if he’d made it would have been the slowest tope ever, but gets caught with a forearm. Cannon then neckbreakers him off the apron, which is pretty badass. Cannon tends to rely on huge impact moves to turn the tide in his matches. To be fair to Joey, Cannon is far worse shape than him. Cannon demonstrates some very able selling after Ryan put an early smackdown on his arm. Crowd seems a little nonplussed at all the mat work after seeing the masterful chaining from Quack & Shelley in the last match. This feels like filler by comparison. They needed a different tack. Ryan considers something more upbeat but gets caught in a neckbreaker at half speed. Cannon really needs to get more snap into his moves or he’ll always look bush league compared to better wrestlers and Joey Ryan ain’t the guy to cover for that. Ryan decides to make this about psychology instead and goes back to the arm. Cannon falls outside and Ryan follows with a tope that Cannon is relatively unprepared for. When we go back to strikes Joey has far better looking forearms before going to a cross armbreaker. TAAAAAPPP! Cannon rolls into the ropes. Cannon demonstrates his infinite slowness by taking forever to set up his Enzuigiri before hitting the Saito suplex for 2. German suplex gets 2. Ryan again gets ahead with strikes, which he’s far better at. That’d come from wrestling Super Dragon all the time. Cannon tries for the neckbreaker off the apron again but Ryan learned and grabs the rope. They take forever to set something up on top before Ryan gets the Moustache Ride off the top…for 2. He was calling it the Alba Toss back in 2005. Either way it’s a neckbreaker off the top. And it should be a finish, really. Cannon hits the t-bone into the buckles and nearly drops Ryan on his head. Second time is equally dangerous looking. Glimmering Warlock misses once but connects the second time for the pin. *1/2. Sloppy. Cannon desperately needs to learn his limitations. Most of which relates to how painfully slow he is putting together a match and going from one move to another with no transitions. Ryan came out of this looking like the better wrestler but this wasn’t a great scientific showing by any stretch of the imagination.

Skayde v Puma

Puma you know from PWG. Skayde is a Mexican competitor who’s wrestled for CHIKARA. He’s trainer of the Toryumon group in Mexico. At this point he’s 41 but that doesn’t stop him wrestling a lucha-libre style. It seems a lot of Mexican wrestlers don’t age as badly as their American counterparts. Puma channels Sayama in the early going and we’re in for a quick paced lucha style match, which is a nice switch on the rest of the show. We get some sloppy armdrags unfortunately. Puma isn’t a great worker but he’s fast and fun and usually a good wrestler can get a good performance out of him. Skayde is better known as a trainer. Hence the old adage; if you can’t ‘do’, teach. The problem with lucha is that if you’re not great at it, it sucks. I can watch great lucha wrestlers all day long but there are far too many mediocre practitioners of that particular art form. Skayde is sadly among their group. Some of what he does is kinda fun but he’s carrying too much weight, or he’s too old, to execute the moves with the crispness they deserve. Skayde completely blows a spot on the apron and Puma makes amends with a corkscrew plancha. Puma goes HARDCORE with the striking and kicks the shit out of Skayde before taking his leg. Skayde appears to be playing for sympathy. Yeah, GOOD FUCKIN’ LUCK WITH THAT IN IWA! Skayde comes back with his own striking but that’s pretty weak and he runs the standard lucha stuff at half speed into some improvised pinning combinations. Creative it may be but that doesn’t mean it looks good. A problem Chris Kanyon frequently had. Hey, no one has done this before! Yeah, there’s a reason for that. The counters get better as not even an armdrag works. Skayde is just too slow for any of this to look good though, which is a pity. They do a load of fakes before Skayde hits a tope and NAILS Puma between the eyes! Clash of heads! We need a doctor out here, stat! Nah, that only happens in wussy sports. Like, erm, all of them. This match has now totally outstayed its welcome and yet the crowd seems to enjoy the slow paced counters. Skayde blows the finish, which is a roll up (basically), with Puma being in the ropes AND his shoulder wasn’t down. Sheesh. How hard is it to book a fucking finish? Or execute one? ½*. Skayde looked badly out of his depth here. However excellent he may be as a trainer his best ring days are behind him. I dread to think what happens in round two.

Rainman v Chris Hero

Rainman has dropped the gimmick now and wrestles as Kory Chavis. I’m not sure which name I hate more. Rainman did well at the 2004 TPI (defeating Chris Sabin & Danny Daniels) before being destroyed by Samoa Joe. He’s outmatched here although he knows basics work against everyone and just grabs an arm. Hero is competing in his 6th TPI and is the only man to have never missed a tournament. Hero soon takes over and controls with, what else, a cravat. For some reason the pacing on this match is very pedestrian. Hero brings the emotion while Rainman debates palm strikes vs punches with the referee. SHOTEI! Rainman gets a little too cocky though and is countered into the Alabama Slam. I like how Hero will use practically any move if he’s aware of it. Which he almost certainly is. Hero brings the strikes and he can trade like a motherfucker. YAKUZAAAAA KIIICK! Rainman falls outside and Hero goes for the tope but Rainman counters it into a fucking POWERSLAM INTO THE FRONT ROW! Fuck yeah! That was a cool move. Hero sadly doesn’t sell it. That’s a bit of an issue. CRAVAT BUSTER! That gets 2. Hero with more striking but he runs into the SPINE SPLITTER! Double down. Duelling chants now. Rainman kicks Hero RIGHT IN THE FUCKING FACE. YUS! They do some countering in the corner and Rainman comes out with a counter for the Hero’s Welcome into a Sliced Bread #2…for 2. He goes for the Hillside Strangler but Hero counters that and gets a standing HANGMAN’S CLUTCH! This match is just getting better and better. Hero’s Welcome is countered again into the Hillside Strangler! Crowd wants a tap from Hero! He gets the ropes so Rainman goes for the Dark City Street Cutter but Hero counters out into what looked like a Cravat Countdown from my angle. Hero looks for the double stomp and connects off the top. One isn’t enough though and he hits another one for the pin. ***1/4. They came good after a sluggish start and the strongstyle elements were really well done. Both guys connected with the crowd and delivered. They both get props as a result. Compare that to the reaction to the last match.

Sal Thomaselli v Tyler Black

Sal is subbing for the injured AJ Styles. Tyler Black is an unknown coming into this show and this is his TPI debut. Sal makes the unusual choice of selecting a corner man, his brother Vito, which isn’t really in the spirit of the tournament. Tyler is an instant superstar. There are some guys who are just stars right from the get go and Tyler Black is one of those. If he hadn’t already made a massive splash in ROH I’d be pointing him out as ‘one to watch’. At this point he’s 19 years old and only made his pro debut in 2005. Tyler Black is also one of those guys who looks huge because of the smaller size of Indy guys these days. He’s only 6’ 1”, which is the same height as me and I consider myself normal height. But he looks huge here. Vito interjects himself so Tyler beats up both of the Iron Saints. Black is rough in the ring but he already has his own style, which is pretty nifty. Sal clocks him with a great swinging neckbreaker though. Vito starts laying in some interference again, thus fucking with the spirit of the tournament again. Sal goes for the Styles Clash to fuck with the crowd but Tyler wrestles out and hits a huge GAMENGIRI! Unlike Arik Cannon he hit that move with the speed to make it look realistic. PAROXYSM! That’s like a spinning reverse DDT. Geez, why not just call the move epilepsy and have done with it? Tyler brings some striking albeit looking somewhat blown up in the process but Sal catches his leg and brainbusters him…for 2. Vito jumps in there again allowing Sal to crotch Black into the butterfly DDT off the ropes…for 2. Now, that’s overkill for a nothing match. Vito jumps in again with the belt but Tyler ducks. Vito ends up getting belted and Sal takes GODS LAST GIFT on the belt. Tyler Black advances! *3/4. I could have lived without all the interference. I mean, who do the Iron Saints think they are? Cheating in the TPI? Fucks. Tyler Black was green as hell but had so much charisma and raw talent that you wish well upon him.

POST MATCH Ian Rotten comes out here to complain about the Iron Saints teaming. He books them against Tank & Rainman for the tag titles. Ian then books the next show and selects Justin Credible and possibly New Jack to wrestle them. Yeah, those guys are REAL reliable.

Chris Sabin v Marek Brave

HAIL SABIN! Brave is Black’s tag partner. The crowd don’t relate quite so well to him. He looks like a 12 year old girl. He’s really nowhere near Sabin in terms of skill. Sabin is freaky good sometimes. He jumps off the floor to dropkick Marek off the apron. That’s pretty impressive. Marek hits a moonsault off the apron in an attempt to show off too. Marek with an inexperienced looking Gamengiri. He was too close when he took off. Considering the way both these guys wrestle this match is alarmingly dull. Even with Marek dumping Sabin on his face. I guess its just the lack of anything connecting the spots. I blame Marek’s inexperience and Sabin’s inability to compensate for it. At least his stuff is beautiful and smooth. Marek does a nice counter into a Blue Thunder although it looked as if Sabin did all the work. Saito suplex lands Marek on his head and Sabin gets a receipt for the gamengiri into a running powerbomb…for 2. That should have finished. He’s just a boy! Marek has one tasty move though where he hits a spear into a bridge. But he’s so light! Good idea, not heavy enough to execute it. SSP misses. Sabin then unloads with about 30 or so forearms. POWERBOMB INTO THE BUCKLES. FUTURESHOCK! That’s the end for Marek. **. Surprisingly uninteresting. Sabin is amazing at times but this wasn’t one of them. However his offence towards the end was a thing of beauty. It showed how Marek was just out of his league.

Matt Sydal v El Generico

Sydal is now in the WWE; wrestling for ECW under the name Evan Bourne. Of course he’ll never get anywhere there because he’s too small. Even the most jacked up of midgets can’t get a push unless they’re the most charismatic guy on the roster/sell a tonne of merch. Generico has started competing for Dragon Gate. They try for something different here adopting a comedy opening with an OLE off. Then we get some lucha, better than earlier, with comedy mixed in. Generico has a knack of breaking out moves that haven’t been popular in 20 years or more, like a double sledge off the apron, that’d look stupid if anyone else used them. Then he follows up with some vicious chops to show he can go if he needs to. Generico starts upping the ante and clocks Sydal with a nasty looking backbreaker. Sydal is pretty dedicated to his artform and takes some wicked bumps. Generico seems quicker until Sydal catches him with a solid spinning heel kick. That connected, big time! Generico gets a busted lip from that spot. It’s such a momentum changer that Sydal gets a shot off the ropes BUT he gets kicked in the face on the way down. Generico once again takes over and dropkicks Sydal out of the ring to block a backdrop. He’s quite innovative for a guy who claims to be “generic”. They run a great spot where Generico goes for a dive but Sydal vaults in before and follows him on his run across the ring before crossbodying him out of the ring. Generico never even saw it coming. Sydal adds in a moonsault to the floor and this match has been a real ding-dong. Sydal tries to steal a spot from AJ but it leads to a series of counters and Generico comes up top with the Michinoku Driver for 2. They go top and counter until Sydal gets the REVERSE SUPER RANA!! Which ONLY GETS TWO! Fuck off! Ok, NOW, you’ve got to have a hell of a finish planned. Because you have to one up that. Generico gets the Yakuza kick TO THE FACE! RELEASE KOBASHIPLEX! YAKUZAAAAAAAAAAA KIIIIIIIIIICK….FOR TWO!!! Are you fucking with me? That was totally a finish. Three hard hitting high impact moves from Generico. Generico wants the brainbuster on the top to finish but Sydal counters and misses the SSP. They counter some more and Sydal comes up on top with a standing moonsault…for 2. This match has gone LOCO! Both guys are just throwing out some insanity. Generico counters Sydal like a motherfucker into a pumphandle to a double pump into the ORANGE CRUSH…for 2. Another gasp from the crowd as that didn’t finish. Up top and they counter on the ropes again. CYCLORAMA! Sydal finally gets the big move off and gets the pin to advance. ****. Fuck it. That was cool. It was extremely spotty but well executed. Generico always has great matches with high spot guys. And Sydal is all about the high spots.

The match is so cool is gets replays. Including that great spot from Sydal where he followed Generico across the ring and crossbodied him over the ropes.

Brandon Thomaselli v Delirious

Delirious is so awesome. Ever see the promo he cut at an Indy show with Chris Jericho? I love that shit. Delirious starts in fairly sane fashion with a few leg locks. They continue at a slow pace with the odd armdrag in between chaining. Delirious’ mat skills are often overlooked and he does well for himself here working in a crucifix before countering back into a headlock to control. Any wrestler, regardless of gimmick, can always rely on wrestling to fill time in his matches. After all, wrestling fans are fickle and gimmicks get old but wrestling is forever. Delirious gets himself dropkicked in the knee and that allows Thomaselli to take over. Total lack of focus from him though, which is frustrating. Thomaselli hits a slow power elbow and then whiffs on a kneedrop. Delirious takes back over with a chinlock. While I appreciate mat wrestling and the serious nature of the match to show off the seriousness of the TPI there’s no escaping that much of it is just filler. None of this mat wrestling is going anywhere, which is incredibly frustrating. So Delirious gets fed up with it and drops Brandon on his head. I think he’s legit hurt because Delirious is slow following up. Delirious goofs around a little with his selling to kill time and Brandon whiffs on a leaping calf kick. He’s obviously not all there after landing on his head. He bravely hits a standing SSP for 2. He’s a pretty big guy to be doing that shit. Delirious with a sloppy drop toehold and Brandon kicks him in the face for 2. This match has gone to pieces. Crowd is being nice to it but is quiet as well. Brandon wants the Air Raid Crash but Delirious bites his way out and DRAWS BLOOD! Or is it Delirious who’s bled all over him? I think I prefer to believe Delirious broke skin with his biting. Delirious shuns, SHUNS I SAY, Shadows Over Hell and legdrops Brandon instead. Delirious goes for the IVF but gets countered into the AIR RAID CRASH (Kryptonite Krunch) for 2. Delirious is just too close to the ropes. 450 Splash misses but he spends too long celebrating landing on his feet and Delirious murders him with the BIZARRO DRIVER to advance. **. Suffered badly from injuries and, one would suspect, the bad feeling that erupted between the duo because of that.

POST MATCH to add some fuel to the disagreement fire Delirious acts like a total dick and empties the contents of his bloody nose onto Brandon’s face, followed by a stiff kick. Brandon takes exception and it looks like we might get a shoot but Delirious leaves before things get really heated. As I type that he comes back WITH A CHAIR and they brawl into the seats. I think we may have gone ‘off-script’ there. Delirious throwing an object at the ref’s eye as he leaves suggests all is not well.

Bryan Danielson v Claudio Castagnoli

Danielson comes out to Simon & Garfunkel. The music tonight must be some sort of rib. Some of the wrestlers have come out to some strange stuff. AmDrag is pretty happy tonight! He’s current reigning ROH world champion. The commentators talk about Danielson’s background with William Regal and hype this match. Claudio looks to have a fair size advantage. So Danielson slaps him in the face. Claudio tries to overpower the smaller opponent but you’re dealing with a wrestler in Danielson who wrestles his way out and takes an arm, which is shoot-style as he goes for a cross armbreaker. Can’t get it. Goes for the short arm scissors. Blocked and Claudio gets an anklelock while stepping on the other leg. Danielson freaks Claudio out by turning his head repeatedly and then popping up into an Enzuigiri with Claudio confused. Danielson has so much in his locker. I’d love to see him get a WWE shot so he could work with some big name guys and show his huge range os skills. Claudio gets another anklelock so Danielson puts his other foot across it and shoves it into Claudio’s jaw. It’s almost like he’s letting Claudio get holds on so he can wrestle out of them for fun. Which would be playing to his strengths as a defensive wrestler. Earlier in his career he was certainly guilty of not being aggressive enough and sometimes he lets his opponent dictate the pace. Although not usually in big marquee matches that he’s properly prepared for. Danielson goads Claudio with his foot. “Take it, take it, take it”. When Claudio does Danielson rolls him up for 2. Again defensive wrestling but he was the instigator of it. They reverse on a near falls but Danielson takes it up a gear with a forearm uppercut. Claudio goes after the arm and hip tosses Danielson onto it. He’s perhaps setting for the Jim Breaks Special. He gets far more joy on the arm instead of the leg. He twists Danielson’s arm like a pretzel hoping for the JBS. He can’t get it but instead weakens it further with a dropkick. We head past midnight as yet another TPI runs late. Crowd is tired. Danielson keeps Claudio at distance with some striking and the running forearm leaves Claudio rattled. Earthquake Splash! That gets 2. Danielson is on the goofy side this evening. Superplex! He goes to follow up with the diving headbutt but Claudio rolls out of the way. We get the forearm uppercut trade off. They’re both desperate to prove their uppercut is better. Claudio gets the win by throwing Danielson into the air and hitting a forearm uppercut on the way down…for 2. He calls that “Swiss Death”. ALPAMERE WATERSLIDE! Impact looks a little too soft on that for my liking. I think it’s the flatback landing. Claudio is well in charge anyway. Claudio goes for the stalling vertical suplex and the fans count along as he holds Danielson up there for 42 SECONDS! Danielson TOTALLY NO SELLS IT! OHHHHHH! It’s fuckin’ on! AIRPLANE SPIN! 21 ROTATIONS! Danielson wants to come off the top but he’s a little shaky. DIVING DIZZY HEADBUTT! That gets 2. CATTLE MUTILATION! Remember Danielson has a bad arm from the abuse earlier so he can’t get it on good. Claudio counters out into the JIM BREAKS SPECIAL. Danielson counters out INTO THE CROSSFACE CHICKENWING! Awesome! Claudio gets caught in the middle of the ring and is forced to tap out. ***3/4. The best actual wrestling of the evening albeit outdone in terms of jaw dropping coolness by Generico-Sydal. Danielson made the match interesting with his varied approaches and nutty devotion to his art. He baited Claudio in repeatedly and used the ultimate bait of the Jim Breaks Special to win the match by countering it. As if he KNEW he could counter it so he just let Claudio set for it. Brave strategy.

IWA-MS title – Jimmy Jacobs (c) v Colt Cabana

Jacobs has turned heel and abandoned “The Touch” as his entrance music. Jacobs threatens to put Cabana in a headlock for 20 minutes and “you stupid marks are going to sit on your hands and like it”. Cabana hails from the “non-homosexual part” of Chicago. Cabana chastises Jacobs for using the word “bullcrap” because “there are children here” and forces the ref to caution him for his use of language. Colt goofs around a bit and sits Jacobs on the top buckle to mock his height but Jacobs slaps him. HEADLOCK! 19 minutes to go! Colt shoots him off and Jimmy attempts a few shoulderblocks but doesn’t move Colt an inch. Colt mockingly kiels over selling the shoulder. HAHAHA. Brilliant. Jacobs goes for an inverted atomic drop but his leg isn’t tall enough to hit Colt in the balls. HAHAHA. Colt blocks another low blow and shoves Jacobs over. Colt then claims to have “balls of steel” and wants Jimmy to take a free shot because it can only weigh “three pounds at most”. HEADLOCK! HAHA. Colt threatens a low blow of his own. “Play by the rules right buddy” – Jacobs. Colt stretches out the groin area. “No children for you buddy”. Jacobs brings the ancient art of high-pitched voice selling. This might actually be my favourite Jimmy Jacobs match ever. Colt atomic drops Jacobs out of the ring. Jacobs goes to step back into the ring and Colt kicks the rope into his nuts. Colt goes low again for his amusement. “Big Van Vader” splash. Jacobs whips out the International Object to take over. Which should teach Colt for goofing around in a title match. It’s some kind of chain, which he uses to choke Cabana over the ropes. “Check his tights” suggests a ringside fan. Naturally referee’s were born retarded and therefore don’t think of that. More choking follows, sadly sans headlock. I wanted those 20 minutes of headlocks. When questioned why his chinlock was suddenly so effective Jimmy replies with “I’ve got big guns, HUH”. This IS my favourite Jimmy Jacobs match, ever. Colt kicks him in the face. Colt starts no selling. “YOU”! Colt starts unloading with some very un-Hoganesque chops though. BIONIC ELBOW! Jacobs gets caught in the ropes for the Terry Funk spot. You know the one. Colt goes completely old school with running forearms and a scoop slam. BUTT-BUTT! LARIATOOOOO! Colt does a great lariat. Mainly because all the Indy guys are so small. Jacobs escapes Colt 45. Ref gets winged and Jacobs kicks Colt in the balls…for 2. Ref missed the deliberate ball shot, which wouldn’t have mattered before IWA had rules. Cheating is only fun when it’s illegal. Jacobs keeps throwing chairs into the ring. Eventually one of them makes it past the ref so Colt grabs it. The distraction from the ref nabbing the chair off him allows Jacobs to belt shot Colt for the win. ***. Strong comedy and Jimmy retains via cheating. Nothing to hate on here! Surprising from Jacobs but I FAR, FAR prefer him as a heel. Mainly because he doesn’t do all the bullshit flippy stuff. Plus I’d quite happily watch a match that’s 20 minutes of headlocks.

POST MATCH Colt talks about being a former IWA champion and how much pride former champions took in that belt. He says Jacobs has no pride.

Note: the 411 section below is for BOTH nights. So if you don’t want spoilers ahead of reading night two then skip it. The review *almost* makes it into one column but overshoots by about 500 words or so, which unfortunately is the main event. So it had to be broken in two.

The 411: They had some issues because of losing AJ Styles and others pre-tournament but the booking still became somewhat suspect. The pushing of unknown quantities into the final was to generate a ‘fresh blood’ vibe and if you wanted to push either Sydal or Steen then you can put them in a final match with two other name guys and put them over that way. Winning the TPI by beating another guy who’s not really a main event calibre guy isn’t really going to put the guy over and it’s more likely to hurt the tournament. I personally would have gone with Quack v Hero v Danielson as a final. I don’t see why Hero had to beat Danielson as they knew he was turning against Cannon. Put Cannon in Hero’s spot and his injury gives us Quack v Danielson, which I think the crowd would have very much enjoyed. Or even throw Delirious in there or Sabin. But most of the tournament is good fun and the Hero-Cannon angle was brilliant. The additional Super Dragon stuff on night two was tremendous and very little about the show sucks. The only thing running against the 2005 TPI is the on the fly booking that occurred after all the withdrawals (well, AJ Styles, Brookside & Homicide) resulting in somewhat below par main event matches. But below par compared to the amazing 2004 show, which is the best show IWA has ever done.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]