Pure Talent on January 27th, 2012
Your hosts are Joe Dombrowski and J. Worthington Farnsworth.
Opening Match: Bobby Shields vs. Logan Shulo
The winner will receive a spot in Super Indy XI. Shulo connects with a lariat and a dropkick. He clotheslines Shields to the outside. Shields lures Shulo to the floor as well. He attempts a plancha but Shulo counters with a powerslam on the floor. Shields hits a chinbreaker and sends Shulo into the ringpost. In the ring, Shields takes control until he gets taken down by a series of strikes. Shulo hits a fireman’s carry backbreaker. Shields responds with a hurricanrana and connects with a corner yakuza kick. He follows with a missile dropkick. They battle up top and Shields finds himself in the tree of woe. Shulo connects with a flying double stomp and hits a sit-out powerbomb for the win at 7:31. Shulo has been gradually improving for quite some time and it seems as though he is now starting to break out. Shields remained in control for a good portion of the match and I was surprised to hear how vocal the crowd was during Shulo’s comeback. In a very unpredictable year for the Super Indy tournament, it’ll be interesting to see where Shulo goes from here. **½
Justin Plummer is with John McChesney backstage. McChesney says that Jimmy DeMarco stole his IWC World Heavyweight Title last month. McChesney held the title for thirteen months and was the definition of class in IWC. Super Hentai and Jimmy Vegas enter the scene to pump him up. McChesney tells them not to interfere in his cage match tonight. Vegas is left looking a bit puzzled.
Match #2: Gory vs. Aiden Veil
The winner will receive a spot in Super Indy XI. Gory has a new look and got rid of his first name. I don’t like Veil’s chances here. Gory attacks before the opening bell. He connects with a corner lariat and rams Veil’s head into the guardrail. Gory connects with a slingshot elbow drop and takes over. Veil attempts to mount a comeback with a standing moonsault but finds knees. Gory hits a chinbreaker and boots him in the face. They battle over a suplex and Veil is able to take Gory down. Veil connects with a leg lariat and lands a dive from the top rope to the floor. In the ring, Veil hits a nice twisting neckbreaker but gets crotched on the top rope. Gory locks in Pestilence and hits Trepidation for the victory at 7:10. Although Gory has played the demented heel in other promotions, his attitude change proved to be extremely effective in IWC. He successfully changed up his offense and added new mannerisms to showcase his darker side. Veil looked better in the ring than usual, making this a fine exhibition to debut the new Gory. **¼
Match #3: IWC Tag Team Titles: Bobby Beverly and Nicki Valentino © vs. Tyler Stone and David R. Dimera
Stone invites Joe Rosa to ringside to watch this match. Stone and Dimera argue over who should start the match for their team. Beverly eventually attacks Stone from behind and the One Nighters follow with some double teaming. Dimera enters the match and cleans house. Stone tries to one-up him with a double missile dropkick. Beverly chop blocks Dimera and the One Nighters isolate him. He catches Valentino with a powerslam and makes the tag. Stone hits a gutwrench suplex on Beverly and a belly to belly suplex on Valentino. Stone stops Dimera from attempting a plancha but then misses a plancha of his own. Beverly superkicks Stone on the outside. In the ring, the One Nighters hit an enzuigiri-german suplex combination on Dimera. The One Nighters flapjack Dimera and connect with stereo superkicks to retain their titles at 9:02. While this match was more about escalating the dissention between Stone and Dimera, the One Nighters looked good when they were on offense. I don’t think anyone believed that the titles were changing hands, but both teams tried to make the most out of their nine minutes. **½
Rosa lays out Dimera with the Last Call after the match. Stone follows with a butterfly piledriver. Stone and Rosa stand tall in the ring and it appears as though a new tag team has formed.
A video is shown of Dalton Castle in his office in Albany. He admits that he’s similar to a lot of the IWC fans. He has goals and aspirations too. Castle tells a story about his dream of petting a monkey when he was young. Last year, he finally accomplished that goal. He didn’t ask the monkey owner if he could pet it – he just reached out and took advantage of the opportunity. Castle says that there’s one thing in this world that he wants more than anything and he makes it clear to IWC that he’s going to reach out and take it.
Match #4: Rickey Shane Page vs. Aaron Draven
The winner will receive a spot in Super Indy XI. Draven snaps off a hurricanrana and connects with a gamengiri. Page responds with a knockout kick and back drops Draven into a another kick. Page hits a back suplex but gets caught by a springboard gamengiri. He recovers by dead-lifting Draven into a suplex. Page connects with a facewash knee strike and takes control. Draven comes back with a superkick followed by an enzuigiri. He hits a cannonball and a backcracker. Draven lands a swantan but falls victim to a powerslam. Page hits a powerbomb and connects with a roaring elbow for the win at 5:34. I’ve really enjoyed Draven’s work in his two appearances thus far in IWC but part of me wishes he was made to look more competitive here. With that said, I’m happy to see that Page is making an immediate impact and he already appears to be a major player in IWC despite just recently returning to the promotion. I think we could have been onto something with this match had it been given more time. **¼
Page grabs a microphone and says that he wishes that he could apologize to Shiima Xion in person tonight. He admits that he has trouble controlling his emotions and brutally attacks Draven with repeated knee strikes.
Match #5: IWC Super Indy Title: Facade © vs. Matt Justice
They begin with some chain wrestling and both men try some quick pin attempts to no avail. Facade matrixes to avoid a clothesline and connects with a spin kick. Justice blocks a dive attempt and jumps off the middle rope with a back elbow. He catches Facade with a powerslam and hits a bucklebomb. Justice takes over until he misses a top rope leg drop. Facade connects with a series of kicks followed by a springboard dropkick. He walks across the top rope but Justice pulls him down to the canvas. Justice lays in a yakuza kick. They retreat to opposite ends of the ring. Facade walks across the top rope and dropkicks Justice off the apron. Facade lands a springboard plancha to the floor. He attempts a split-legged moonsault in the ring but finds knees. Justice hits a death valley driver but gets caught by a springboard gamengiri. Facade applies the Dreadlock to retain his title at 13:56. Facade attempts some pretty intricate offensive maneuvers. While that led to a few moments of miscommunication early on, it also gave way to a series of entertaining exchanges down the stretch. Justice complemented Facade’s agility with a nice power game and these two delivered a solid first title defense for Facade. I’m also curious to see what happens with Facade’s new finishing maneuver, as no one has been able to escape it yet. I wonder if Gory would know anything about that. ***
Justin Plummer is backstage with Jimmy DeMarco. Plummer asks him how he feels and DeMarco looks pretty spaced out, giving short answers to Plummer’s questions. Chuck Roberts interrupts and asks DeMarco why he hasn’t been returning his phone calls. DeMarco says that he hopes his match tonight meets the fans’ expectations.
Match #6: Relaxed Rules: Jimmy Vegas and Super Hentai vs. Mickey and Marshall Gambino
The Founding Fathers still have the old IWC Tag Team Titles with them. Vegas asserts his power advantage over Mickey. Marshall does the same against Hentai. The Gambinos take down Hentai with stereo shoulder tackles. Vegas attacks them from behind and hits a fallaway slam on Mickey. The action goes to the floor and into the crowd. Marshall DDTs Hentai onto the bleachers. Hentai attempts a dive off the bleachers but Marshall catches him and throws him into a merchandise table. The Gambinos whip Vegas into the wall of the venue. The action moves back to ringside where Vegas throws Marshall into the guardrail, breaking it in the process. Vegas back suplexes Mickey onto the ring steps. Hentai repeatedly headbutts Marshall and the Founding Fathers suplex him onto the entrance ramp. In the ring, the Founding Fathers work over Mickey until Marshall low bridges them to the floor. Vegas reenters the ring and stares down Marshall as Hentai and Mickey brawl on the outside. A masked man suddenly runs into the ring and hits Vegas with a nightstick. The Gambinos hit the Curse of the Gambino on Hentai for the victory at 13:32. These two teams are better suited in a brawling environment and the relaxed rules added to the match. Despite the action in the crowd, this contest still had structure and both teams did a good job of putting over their hatred for each other. The issue between them is clearly not over, as the finish implies that there is another element of this feud still left to be revealed. While not visible on the DVD, the mystery attacker was wearing a Mullen’s hoodie and Bubba the Bulldog returning to IWC would certainly be something to witness. ***
Match #7: IWC World Heavyweight Title: Cage Match: Jimmy DeMarco © vs. John McChesney
This will be their final match against each other, meaning that neither DeMarco nor McChesney can receive another shot at the IWC World Heavyweight Title as long as the other one is champion. There’s a great video package shown before the match that puts everything into perspective. They have an aggressive lockup and slap each other. DeMarco lays in a series of punches but gets taken down by a few armdrags. McChesney connects with a dropkick and DeMarco looks a bit shocked at McChesney’s spunk. DeMarco finds success with corner punches followed by a clothesline. McChesney blocks a testicular claw but DeMarco stomps him down low. DeMarco tries to climb the cage but McChesney crotches him on the top rope. McChesney hits a back suplex. DeMarco dropkicks a chair into his face and then throws it at him. McChesney relentlessly hurls DeMarco into the cage and hits a northern lights suplex. DeMarco fights back with a flapjack onto a propped chair. McChesney prevents him from escaping and snaps off a headscissors. I haven’t seen that in years. McChesney side slams DeMarco onto the edge of two propped chairs. They battle on the top rope and DeMarco chokeslams McChesney to the canvas. McChesney did the same to DeMarco at their last cage match in Clearfield (thanks, Joe!). They battle at the top of the cage and McChesney back suplexes DeMarco from the top rope. DeMarco stops McChesney from escaping by applying the testicular claw. DeMarco hits the C4 from the top rope. He starts climbing the cage but McChesney gives chase. They both drop to the floor but DeMarco’s feet touch first and he retains his title at 17:52. This is an incredibly difficult match to rate. These two have been feuding for over two years and considering that this was their final encounter, I expected more out of them. However, something huge storyline-wise was about to take place and this match did an effective job of hinting at that. McChesney was a new wrestler in this contest, bringing back some old offense and out-wrestling DeMarco at times. While the focus wasn’t entirely on their hatred for each other, there were a couple of violent spots involving chairs and quite a few moves were performed from the top rope. All of those spots made sense and came off pretty well. I would put this match on par with their previous cage match in Clearfield. While not the feud-ender that I was expecting, there was still a lot more to come after the match. ***½
Chest Flexor comes out to celebrate with DeMarco. They enter the ring and Flexor asks for DeMarco’s thoughts. He calls McChesney into the ring and says that he respects him. The crowd starts cheering for McChesney and he walks away in disgust. DeMarco says that he agrees with McChesney – the crowd doesn’t care about them. DeMarco asserts that IWC has become garbage and that Norm Connors left the promotion because of the fans. Chuck Roberts comes into the ring to calm DeMarco down. DeMarco continues to run down the crowd and talks about how Roberts mistreated Flexor. DeMarco and Flexor attack Roberts and hit him with a chair. DeMarco says that he’s not starting a new faction; he’s just going to show everyone how nasty he can be. DeMarco and Flexor head to the back, leaving Roberts laid out in the ring.
In a bonus segment, the Founding Fathers are in the locker room recovering from their match tonight. Chuck Roberts comes in and says that he doesn’t know the identity of the masked man. Super Hentai claims that the Gambinos had something to do with it. Roberts says that Jimmy Vegas is concussion-prone right now and he won’t be wrestling at Combat in Clearfield 3. Roberts then finds the Gambinos in another part of the building. He questions them about the masked man and they take offense to the allegations. Roberts informs Mickey that he’s not booked for Clearfield and tells Marshall that he’ll be wrestling Hentai at the show. The Gambinos are not happy as they walk away.
Overall: Pure Talent was a show that was heavy on storyline advancement but still managed to showcase some quality wrestling. Logan Shulo, Gory, and Rickey Shane Page are three men to watch out for in IWC in 2012 and they kicked off the year with impressive wins in the first half of the show to qualify for Super Indy XI. Facade retained his title against Matt Justice in a solid match and new advancements came about during an entertaining brawl between the Founding Fathers and the Gambinos. The main event was an interesting conclusion to a two-year long feud between Jimmy DeMarco and John McChesney, as the match itself was about on par with what they’ve done in the past but the post-match angle really started off 2012 with a shocker. While the in-ring quality wasn’t particularly high, this is a pretty essential DVD for any IWC fan due to DeMarco’s heel turn and I can give this show a slight recommendation.
To read reviews of past IWC shows, check out my blog at iwcwrestling.wordpress.com