There were some iPPV issues when the show started. The stream came back so please join us on twitter for thoughts and analysis. A review and podcast will be up after the show.
-Taped from Cleveland, Ohio
As the video pops up, the crowd is actually making noise!
The Sex Bo-Bombs (Mat Fitchett and Davey Vega) vs. The Jollyville Fuck-Its (Russ Myers and T-Money)
Didn’t see the match so can’t report on it. Fuck-Its won.
Louis Lyndon vs. Flip Kendrick
ACH had a concussion, so we get this as a replacement. Could not be more sad. About as good a match as you would think between these two. Obvious chemistry given their past tag team work. Tons of flips and crazy moves. Lyndon gets the win by submission with a dragon sleeper. Very enjoyable match.
Ethan Page vs. Johnny Gargano
Gargano starts out quickly and almost wins with the Garga-No Escape. Page catches Gargano with a cutter. Exchange of attempted finishers. Gargano eventually hits Uniquely You. Spinning Dwayne by Page. Uniquely You again gets two. Into Garga-No Escape. Page taps in a very good match. Given Page won the JLIT, I’m not sure why he didn’t go over. Still a fine effort from both men. They set the pace right away and lived up to it the rest of the way.
AIW Tag Team Championship: Hope and Change (Gregory Iron and Veda Scott) (Champions) vs. The Batiri (Obaryion and Kodama w/Veronica)
This is belts versus AIW careers. Brawl starts out on the floor. Veda Scott rammed into the steel barricade. Iron down for a three count. Kodama actually stayed with the pinfall this time. Iron said he’ll get naked if they retain again. Oh brother. Some mischief with the titles. Iron hits Kodama with the title and gets the win for his team. Iron calls Veronica a tranny. Iron begins stripping as Matt Wadsworth comes from behind on Veda Scott. He picks up the chain. The match is restarted. Kodama tosses Scott into Obaryion’s knee. Veronica sends Iron into the ring. Double team as they drop toe hold him and knee him in the face. Slingshot leads to a knee in the chest. Pinfall and the Batiri win the belts. I’m more glad Hope and Change don’t have the titles anymore than anything else. Congrats to the Batiri and I hope they can put together a beter second title reign than their first.
Batiri throw a kiddie pool into the ring. The pool has cheese burgers in them. Curb stomp into the burgers. That was certainly something.
Michael Elgin vs. Josh Alexander
Josh Alexander is wearing head gear because of his injured ear, which occurred on the first night of the 2013 JT Lightning Invitational. Headbutts. Alexander counters out of the stalling suplex at first. Elgin eventually grabs it. 70 seconds later, Elgin drops Alexander. Belly-to-belly suplex by Elgin on Alexander. Yoshi tonic gets a long two for Alexander. Alexander takes Elgin down and is bleeding from the left shoulder. Elgin misses the big corkscrew splash. Alexander no sells a bucklebomb and hits back-to-back forearms. Half nelson suplex gets two. Alexander with a spinning tombstone piledriver. 1-2-NO! Backfist NAILS Alexander. Bucklebomb. Series of counters. Elgin hits a ridiculous short clothesline. Bucklebomb. Spinning powerbomb. 1-2-NO! Backfist to the Future. Tombstone by Elgin. 1-2-NO! Forearm and backfist to the future. Alexander comes back. Alexander with a powerbomb. 1-2-NO! Elgin with a boot. Barricade bomb. Spinning powerbomb on the floor. Elgin goes in the ring. Alexander climbs in at 19. Elgin takes off the head gear. Backfist to the ear. 1-2-NO! Forearm to the ear. Backfist. 1-2-NO! Crossface. Alexander counters. Half crab. Alexander kicks Elgin in the back of the head. Elgin kicks away. Time limit draw. One of the best matches of the year. Elgin says five minutes won’t make a difference. He lays down a challenge for November 29.
So we’ve already got one match booked for Black Friday as Elgin is wrestling Alexander in a no time limit match.
-BJ Whitmer (champion) vs. Bobby Beverly vs. Ricky Shane Page vs. Matt Cross
Chris Dickinson no-showed. John Thorne tweeted, “You can add another one to the list.” Seriously, Dickinson got what so many people in wrestling don’t get, a second chance. And he royally fucked that up. Congratulations to him for burning bridges after getting a push and being slotted into a main event position. I’m not sure what happened to Josh Prohibition (Apparently, he gave up his spot to be in the match). But alas two matches have now been combined into one. I missed most of the match because of streaming issues but Whitmer retained his title after suplexing Page through it.
Submission Squad (Evan Gelistico, Hot Young Briley and Gary Jay) vs. Jock Sampson, Tracy Smothers, and Marion Fontaine
Pierre Abernathy had family problems, so he is unable to compete. Hope everything is alright with him. Submission Squad pass on a dance-off and instead just attack the Old School Express. Starts out as a wrestling match for whatever reason. Isabella Smothers attacks Pierce so Tracy can get the cover. SAMPSON EXECUTES A SUICIDE DIVE! Let the brawl begin as Pedro De Luca gets inadvertently involved. Absolute chaos. Fontaine seated senton on Gelistco while holding onto a basketball hoop. Table set up on the outside. Squad light a table on the fire. Sompson with a tombstone off the stage through the table. Gary Jay rolls Smothers up for three… literally out of nowhere. This was a fun brawl and I don’t think a star rating could reflect the chaos involved.
Tim Donst vs. Michael Hutter
Hutter gets saluted with beach balls instead of streamers. Crowd is split and very into this match. Basic exchange. Some of the fans chanted “You got fired” at Hutter. Great job fans. No one put a gun and told him to come to AIW. Also, he did HOW MANY PODCASTS THIS WEEK? AND PLEDGED TO FOLLOW PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THIS SHOW? The crowd has probably been better than they’ve ever been, both in numbers and in noise, but that chant was uncalled for. Solid back and forth action but the way the crowd is behaving elevates this into a borderline AIW classic (the dumb chant early on aside). This felt like two men taking out their frustrations, two guys who indeed had something to prove. Top rope Donstitution and a swinging neckbreaker. Only two. Chikara Special. Bucklebomb by Hutter. Deviant Bomb. 1-2-NO! Hutter applies a Stock Lock. Donst passes out from the pain. One of the few times an AIW crowd made a match BETTER because the way they reacted. These guys worked really hard to earn their praise (or in response.
Hutter puts over the crowd and Tim Donst. Donst gained his respect. Some of the crowd doesn’t buy that. Hutter wants Donst to shake his hand. Donst says he was looking forward to Hutter. Shake of the hand and hug. Donst kicks him low of course. I’d describe more but I of course had streaming problems.
AIW Championship: Eric Ryan (champion) vs. Colin Delaney (w/Selezyia Sparx)
Stream is freezing and all over the place and even dies at one point. Ryan nails Delaney with a plastic baseball bat wrapped in barb wire. Ryan controls for a bit, but Delaney comes back. Chairs set up on the outside of the ring. Ryan counters out of a powerbomb. Delaney goes underneath and hits a powerbomb on Ryan through the chairs. Duke goes in the ring. Sparx follows her and hits a low blow. Duke kicks her. Chest Flexor lights a fire ball in Duke’s face. Brainbuster. Stunner. Tornado springboard DDT. Ryan goes for the package piledriver but gets countered. Exchange of pins. Delaney locks the knuckles and hits a lungblower. That was awesome. Sparx hands Delaney a purse loaded with thumbtacks. Battle in the corner over the tacks. Double stomp sends the champion into the thumbtacks. Ryan catches Delaney with a dropkick. Delaney back drops Ryan off the top rope. Side kick and into the lungblower. Big splash and we have a new champion! Very solid wrestling match that had a lot to live up to given some of the other matches that took place on this card.
Ethan Page comes out with his trophy. Sparx low blows Delaney. Spinning Dwayne and this is an AIW title match. Superkick on Sparx. Delaney with a forearm. Lungblower. Spinning Dwayne off the top rope and Page wins. Ethan Page wins the AIW title.
Overall Thoughts: What I did see was a lot of good wrestling and dudes busting their butts on what was one of AIW’s biggest nights. I have no idea what the future of iPPV is after tonight, but I look forward to watching this event back on MP4 in the very near future. On that platform or DVD, this is well worth your money.
