Proving Ground 2 on July 20th, 2013
Opening Match: Ashton Amherst vs. Remy Lavey
Amherst attacks before the opening bell. Lavey connects with a few clotheslines and snaps off a hip toss. Amherst blocks a dive and hits a suplex. He takes control until Lavey fights back with a roaring elbow. Amherst responds with a running knee strike and hits a bulldog. He follows with a fisherman suplex for a nearfall. Lavey misses a lariat and Amherst hits the Ashton Experience for the win at 5:15. This was Lavey’s first professional wrestling match. As a result, they kept things basic and this contest was used to put over the debuting Amherst, who has been prominently featured in other promotions in the area. *½
Match #2: Gory vs. Logan Shulo
Gory cost Shulo the Super Indy Title back at Payback. Shulo shoves him into the corner. Gory responds by biting Shulo’s hand. They battle over a knucklelock. Gory stands on Shulo’s shoulders and then connects with a double stomp. Gory slingshots himself to the floor and applies a choke at ringside. Shulo rams him into the ringpost to escape. In the ring, Shulo giant swings Gory and hits a suplex. He adds a belly to belly suplex. Gory goes back to the choke and transitions into a satellite headscissors. He connects with a corner lariat along with a springboard dropkick for a nearfall. Gory sneaks in a low blow behind the referee’s back. Shulo fires back with a mafia kick and connects with a huge discus lariat. Shulo follows with a sit-out powerbomb for the victory at 8:13. These two had a very solid back and forth match that could have been even better with more time. I still don’t like Gory resorting to cheating during his matches when he’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a demon in wrestling. However, they showcased their hatred for each other and had great chemistry together. **¾
Match #3: Low Rider and Erik Ortiz vs. Andrew Palace and Brian McDowell vs. Aiden Veil and Jordan Lennox
Ortiz and Palace trade control on the mat to start. Low Rider hits an ace crusher on McDowell and has a fast-paced exchange with Veil. Veil snaps off a nice springboard hurricanrana on Ortiz. Lennox connects with a dropkick on Palace, who responds by snapping his neck across the top rope. Lennox is isolated until he connects with an enzuigiri on Ortiz and makes the tag. WAR clean house with some tandem offense. Lennox lands a plancha onto Low Rider and Ortiz. Palace puts on his goggles and follows out with a top-rope dive. McDowell prevents Veil from diving and hits a side slam for a nearfall. Veil hits a rolling neckbreaker on McDowell and Lennox adds a top-rope splash for the win at 11:39. Every team brought something different to the table here and everyone stood out as a result. Low Rider and Ortiz don’t appear often in IWC but they looked solid along with WAR, who could realistically challenge for the IWC Tag Team Titles in the near future. They kept a nice pace to the action and this was a really enjoyable tag team match that came out of nowhere. ***
Match #4: Facade vs. Sammy Guevara
They find themselves at a stalemate after a fast-paced exchange. Guevara becomes too cocky and pays for it when Facade catches him with a spin kick. Facade snaps off a satellite headscissors. Guevara blocks a springboard maneuver with an inverted atomic drop and takes over. Facade blocks an arabian moonsault with knees and connects with a springboard dropkick. Both men are down. Facade lays in a series of kicks along with a springboard gamengiri. He lands an arabian moonsault of his own for a nearfall. Guevara blocks the Dreadlock and hits a twisting brainbuster. He follows with a standing shooting star leg drop for a two count. How is the crowd not freaking out? Guevara misses a 450 and Facade connects with a knockout kick. Guevara goes to the eyes and spikes Facade on his head. He goes up top. Facade gives chase and completely botches a top-rope spanish fly. I think “he almost broke his neck” gets thrown around too much but Facade almost broke his neck. That’s enough to give Facade the victory at 12:12. Guevara was extremely impressive for only being nineteen and it’s a shame that the crowd didn’t react more strongly to his character. Facade continues to be frustrating in the ring but the crowd didn’t seem to mind at all. **½
Match #5: Street Fight: Matt Segaris and Bronco McBride vs. Marshall Gambino and Chest Flexor
Marshall plasters McBride with a chair shot at the opening bell. McBride responds with a few garbage can lid shots. Segaris puts Flexor onto an office chair at ringside and rolls him into a clothesline from McBride. The Blue Collar Slaughterhouse suplex Marshall onto the floor. Flexor gets crotched on a plunger. In the ring, Segaris hits both Flexor and Marshall with a piece of the guardrail. He unfortunately hits McBride with it as well. Marshall hits a DDT on Segaris and sends McBride through the guardrail. Segaris misses a corner cannonball and collides with a chair. McBride is placed on a stack of chairs at ringside and Marshall splashes onto him from the middle rope. In the ring, Segaris hits a michinoku driver on Flexor for a nearfall. Andrew Palace, Brian McDowell, and Corey Futuristic come out to attack Segaris and help Flexor. Marshall covers Segaris for the win at 10:23. This street fight had its moments, but I can’t help but think some of the spots were designed to get a response from the crowd rather than show the hatred between the Gambinos and the BCS. It also didn’t help that Mickey couldn’t make it to the show. Hopefully the blow-off cage match next month delivers. **
Match #6: GQ Hayden Ferra vs. Keith Haught
Haught hip tosses Ferra and connects with a clothesline. Ferra rakes his eyes. Haught steals Ferra’s glasses and starts dancing. He hits a series of powerslams and gives Ferra a motorboat. This leads to a sequence where Ferra can’t see and the referee hip tosses him. Ferra eventually takes control until Haught hits a top-rope splash for the victory at 7:23. Ferra immediately gets to his feet and walks to the back like nothing happened. This was a bit of a mess (no pun intended) and Haught’s antics didn’t seem to be working well with the crowd. *
Justin LaBar comes out for a segment of his show. The crowd absolutely hates him after his performance at Super Indy last month. He eventually receives a telegram from RJ City, who declares that he will not wrestle Kevin Bennett tonight. Joseph Brooks comes out as the replacement, leading to…
Match #7: Joseph Brooks vs. Kevin Bennett
Bennett hits a series of shoulder tackles and Brooks takes a breather. Bennett catches him with a double axe handle and a springboard dropkick. Brooks blocks another springboard maneuver and takes over. Bennett comes back with an inverted neckbreaker and lands a standing moonsault. Brooks dodges a discus mafia kick and hits a flatliner for the win at 5:41. This was too short to develop into anything worthwhile, but Bennett was the most impressive of the new students thus far tonight and I look forward to seeing more of him in IWC. *½
Match #8: Dennis Gregory, Jimmy Vegas, and Super Hentai vs. Justin Idol, HD Cannon, and Sam Cassidy
Cassidy gets the better of some chain wrestling so Hentai just headbutts him. They battle over a hip toss and Cassidy wins. Vegas beats Cannon in a test of strength by stepping onto his foot and hits an overhead suplex. Cannon responds with a spinebuster. Vegas low blows him behind the referee’s back. Idol is able to blind tag into the match and clean house. Cassidy hits a neckbreaker on Gregory but finds himself in the wrong corner. The Founding Fathers isolate him until he snaps off a hurricanrana on Vegas and makes the tag. Cannon connects with a series of dropkicks. Gregory superkicks Cassidy. Idol hits a german suplex on Hentai and lands a top-rope dive to the floor onto the Founding Fathers. Idol prevents the Founding Fathers from reentering the ring, giving him the victory via countout at 11:00. Though I don’t know why Idol would want to win via countout, the finish was at least effective at furthering the tension between Hentai and the rest of the Founding Fathers. Cassidy also gave Bennett a run for his money as the most impressive new student debuting on this show. **½
Hentai calls out Idol after the match. Hentai proposes a match next month at Caged Fury – loser leaves IWC! Idol accepts the challenge by attacking Hentai. Multiple staff members and wrestlers come out to separate them.
Match #9: IWC World Heavyweight Title: John McChesney © vs. Jimmy Nutts
The story here is that while Nutts is a member of Team Big League, Chuck Roberts wanted to cause dissension by putting him into a title match. McChesney thinks that Nutts will just lay down for him, but of course that’s not the case. Nutts tries a quick rollup for a close two count. They battle around ringside. McChesney misses a chop and his hand brutally collides with the ringpost. In the ring, McChesney hits a northern lights suplex and takes control. Nutts takes advantage of some cockiness from the champion and fights back with a series of strikes. He hits a rydeen bomb for a nearfall. Nutts connects with a roaring elbow and becomes the new…WAIT! A second referee rules that both men’s shoulders were down. However, Chuck Roberts restarts the match. McChesney hits a TKO for a nearfall. A rollup while holding the tights only gets a two count. McChesney connects with a desperation superkick to retain his title at 11:02. The story revolving around Nutts fighting for himself was engaging and should really help Nutts moving forward. The restart also worked well as it led to some believable nearfalls and it’s not something that IWC does very often. This wasn’t a must-see match or anything, but they accomplished what they set out to do. ***
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