Combat in Clearfield 4 on November 10th, 2012. Your host is Joe Dombrowski.
Opening Match: 30-Man Battle Royal
The winner will receive a shot at the IWC World Heavyweight Title in the main event. Logan Shulo is on commentary. Everyone on the card plus a few extra students are involved in this match. Team Big League waits until everyone else enters in order to get a special entrance. John McChesney makes fun of the students to take a dig at Justin Idol. Sera Feeny requests to enter at the last minute in response to McChesney. She eliminates Corey Futuristic to start the match. Manslaughter, in a Hannibal Lector mask, is eliminated early on. That’s a relief. The camera gets a great shot of McChesney just holding onto the bottom rope for no reason. Marshall Gambino traps Feeny in the corner and just squashes her. McChesney levels Feeny with a superkick and shoves her to the floor. Referees come out to check on her. Super Hentai and Marshall work together to eliminate someone. There’s an interesting alliance. Hentai throws Dimera over the top rope and he absolutely splats on the floor. Hentai eliminates Colin Delaney, who may earn a shot at the IWC Tag Team Titles later. The match comes down to John McChesney, Bobby Fish, and Dalton Castle. Team Big League double team Castle. Castle causes McChesney to inadvertently DDT Fish. McChesney catches Castle with a dropkick. Justin Idol runs out and tries to eliminate McChesney. The referee rules that Idol can’t eliminate him. Castle knocks McChesney to the floor, eliminating him. Fish immediately eliminates Castle to earn a title shot at 11:28. I don’t like rating battle royals, but this one had some fun interactions, as a lot of the members of the IWC roster have rich history together. Although the anticipated Fish/Castle match won’t happen now, I’m curious to see how Shulo/Fish plays out.
Match #2: Will Calrissian vs. Sebastian
Sebastian showcases his power advantage to start. He makes Calrissian look foolish by out-smarting him on the mat. Sebastian connects with a dropkick. Calrissian finds success with a chop block, sending Sebastian from the middle rope to the canvas. Calrissian takes control, working over the left leg. Sebastian comes back with a spin kick and hip tosses Calrissian into a neckbreaker. His bad knee prevents him from hitting a TKO. Calrissian hits a gory slam and grabs his fanny pack. The referee takes it away from him. Sebastian connects with a gamengiri for the win at 8:24. The Clearfield crowds love Sebastian and Calrissian was a fine foil for him. The leg work meant something and Sebastian made sure to use his good leg with his various kicks. I wouldn’t mind seeing him on more Elizabeth shows. **½
Match #3: John McChesney vs. HD Cannon
Cannon out-wrestles McChesney, so he rips up a fan’s sign at ringside. That sounds about right. Cannon irish whips McChesney hard into the turnbuckles and hits a powerslam. He follows with a delayed vertical suplex and connects with corner punches. McChesney dropkicks Cannon off the apron and he collides with the guardrail. McChesney misses a chop and slams his hand into the ringpost. In the ring, he recovers with a missile dropkick and takes control with a northern lights suplex. Cannon fights back with a spinebuster but falls victim to a DDT. Cannon blocks a missile dropkick and applies a boston crab. McChesney is able to reach the bottom rope. He tries a quick rollup for a nearfall. McChesney connects with a superkick for the victory at 8:42. After failing in a couple of previous attempts, McChesney finally bests Cannon. I like that McChesney won clean, as he does have quite the experience edge over Cannon. Speaking of Cannon, this was the best performance I’ve seen from him thus far. **¾
Match #4: Dalton Castle, Matt Segaris, Bronco McBride, and Keith Haught vs. Super Hentai, Marshall Gambino, Chest Flexor, and Corey Futuristic
Chuck Roberts put Futuristic on Hentai’s team because he hates them. Haught starts dancing again and powerslams Flexor. Hentai catches Segaris with a back elbow and lays in a headbutt. Futuristic enters the match for his team and screws everything up. Castle hits a delayed vertical suplex while performing squats. Marshall stares down Castle, who takes him over with some armdrags and body slams him. Haught runs into a knee strike and the heels isolate him. He rolls through a clothesline from Hentai and makes the tag. Castle hits a gourdbuster on Flexor and the Blue Collar Slaughterhouse follow with a tandem DDT. Flexor sneaks in a low blow behind the referee’s back. Hentai and Haught start brawling around ringside. Marshall bails on Flexor. Castle hits a dead-lift german suplex on Flexor for the win at 10:08. With Flexor and Futuristic on the same team, the result was never in doubt. The action was moving along nicely until Haught’s hot tag (no pun intended). The focus shifted to the heels’ distrust and there wasn’t much of a finishing stretch to pay off the action that came before it. **
Match #5: Gregory Iron vs. Andrew Palace
Palace flirts with Iron’s valet before the opening bell. Iron connects with a series of strikes and low-bridges Palace to the floor. Iron dives off the apron but Palace catches him and rams him into the ringpost. Back in, Palace takes control with a back suplex. Iron avoids a top-rope splash and lands a flying crossbody. He hits Handicapped Parking for a nearfall. Palace recovers with a german suplex but pulls Iron’s shoulders off the mat during the pin attempt. Iron’s valet slaps Palace and Iron sneaks in a rollup for the victory at 5:35. The crowd seemed unfamiliar with Iron and unlike his encounter last month against Zema Ion, this match didn’t do Palace any favors. The action wasn’t bad or anything, but everything felt too rushed to mean anything. **
Match #6: Dennis Gregory vs. Colin Delaney
If Delaney wins, he will receive an IWC Tag Team Title shot at Winner Takes All with a partner of his choosing. Delaney blocks a cheap shot and snaps off an armdrag. Super Hentai keeps trying to provide a distraction, so Delaney dives onto him. Gregory hits a neckbreaker in the ropes and takes over. Delaney blocks a charge and comes off the middle rope with a missile dropkick. Gregory responds with another neckbreaker and hits a pumphandle slam. Delaney slides to the floor and reenters the ring with a rollup for the win at 8:37. Hopefully Delaney can make somewhat regular appearances for IWC. He worked well with Gregory, which bodes well for their title match next month. **½
Match #7: Bobby Beverly and Nicki Valentino vs. Aiden Veil and Jordan Lennox
Veil sweeps Valentino’s legs and connects with double knees. Lennox and Beverly trade armdrags. Lennox snaps off a hurricanrana and connects with a dropkick. He lands a plancha to the floor onto the One Nighters. In the ring, Veil and Lennox hip toss Valentino into a neckbreaker. They follow with a tandem suplex. Beverly punts Lennox from the apron and the One Nighters isolate him. Veil eventually tags into the match and connects with a leg lariat on Valentino. Beverly cuts him off with an enzuigiri and a knockout kick. Valentino hits a butterfly suplex on Lennox. Veil hits a rolling neckbreaker on Beverly and Lennox adds a top-rope splash for the victory at 8:12. I haven’t seen much of Lennox, but he looked great in this match. Along with Veil, they provide a fresh entry into IWC’s tag team division. As with the past couple of matches on this card, I feel like these two teams could do better with more time. **½
Match #8: IWC World Heavyweight Title: Logan Shulo © vs. Bobby Fish
Fish teases a test of strength and kicks away at Shulo’s leg. They trade control on the mat. Shulo takes down Fish with a couple of shoulder tackles. Fish sneaks in a rollup after a distraction from John McChesney for a two count. Shulo ducks a knockout kick and Fish retreats to the outside. After McChesney interferes again, the referee ejects him from ringside. That sends Team Big League into a blind rage. Dalton Castle comes out and says that McChesney can stay at ringside. Chuck Roberts announces that both Castle and McChesney can stay at ringside, causing a long lull in the action. Shulo hits a back suplex and connects with a double stomp. Fish takes a breather and recovers with a dragon screw leg whip. He starts working over the left leg. Shulo finds himself in a heel hook but he’s able to reach the bottom rope. Fish misses a diving headbutt. McChesney jumps onto the apron but Castle chases him to the back. Shulo connects with a yakuza kick and hits a sit-out powerbomb to retain his title at 15:50. This match had stretches of solid wrestling but too much of the focus was on McChesney and Castle. Fish did a good job of working over Shulo’s leg and they could’ve told a great story of Shulo persevering through his injury to retain the title. Instead, they let the ringside shenanigans take over and the leg work ended up meaning very little. However, for the second month in a row, Fish played his role perfectly and has been a joy to watch in IWC. **¾
As always, check out the latest edition of IWC Aftershock:
At Combat in Clearfield 2, Logan Shulo and Facade wrestled to a twenty-minute draw. Their second match against each other went nineteen minutes before being ruled a no contest due to various interference. When these two men enter the ring together, they are not easily defeated. After over a year’s worth of buildup, their friendly rivalry will culminate in a thirty-minute Iron Man Match with the IWC World Heavyweight Title AND the Super Indy Title on the line. Given the history already in place, this stipulation makes perfect sense and isn’t being used just to play into the name of the show. I trust that they’ll have a quality match, as they seemingly have great chemistry together. Picking a winner is extremely difficult, but I’m going with Shulo winning and perhaps someone cashing in on their newly-won Super Indy title shot after this match.
Bobby Fish, Tony Nese, Sami Callihan, and Johnny Gargano in the same match. Do I really need to hype this? Everyone is well aware of how good Callihan and Gargano are in the ring while Fish and Nese are severely underrated. Callihan should be on a rampage to regain the Super Indy Title and I can’t see this being anything but match of the night.
Before seeing him appear in IWC, I had absolutely no idea who Dalton Castle was. In one appearance, he instantly made me a fan. This is a guy who has been the most consistently entertaining part of IWC shows for the past year. At last year’s Winner Takes All, he stole the show with Sami Callihan. This year, he has the chance to do the same with Chuck Taylor. The personality clash here should be excellent and this should be a highly enjoyable encounter.
I traveled to Easton, PA for King of Trios this year. Over the course of the weekend, it would have been almost impossible not to respect Tommy Dreamer. Every moment he spent in the ring, it seemed as though he had one goal in mind: put over CHIKARA. Dreamer is a class act. The current storyline involves Norm Connors (the previous owner of IWC) helping Chuck Roberts deal with John McChesney by calling in old contacts. Dreamer makes perfect sense as someone that Connors would know. The IWC crowd hates McChesney and will love Dreamer, so I can see this match being effective.
Winner Takes All is shaping up to be the most exciting card of the year for the promotion. Usually, Super Indy fits that bill. However, with the likes of Gargano, Callihan, Nese, Taylor, and Fish on the card, it’s hard not to get excited about Winner Takes All. Check it out if you’re in the area.
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