June 9th, 2018
Opening Match: Quarterfinal Round: Jaxon Argos vs. Jonathan Gresham
Team Storm is barred from ringside. Gresham charges at the opening bell with a yakuza kick and adds a hesitation dropkick in the corner. He takes Argos to the floor and lays in facewash kicks against the guardrail. Back in, Gresham starts working over the left arm. Argos traps him in the ring skirt and connects with a flurry of strikes. They brawl around ringside and Gresham destroys a table with Argos’s rookie of the year trophies on it. An enraged Argos hits a suplex onto the floor. Gresham barely beats the count. He hits a suplex of his own and both men are down. They trade strikes. Argos applies a half crab but Gresham is able to reach the bottom rope. They exchange forearms. Gresham connects with an enzuigiri and hits a german suplex. Argos quickly responds with the Brainstorm and both men are down. The crowd is really into this opener. Gresham goes up top but Argos gamengiris him to the floor. Gresham once again barely beats the ten count. Argos hits another Brainstorm for a nearfall. Gresham fights back with a saito suplex to create some space. Gresham stomps on the left arm and synchs in an octopus hold for the win at 16:28. This feud has done wonders for Argos and this match in particular could be considered somewhat of a breakout for him. Argos became vicious and almost defeated Gresham by himself. I hope IWC is able to capitalize. The crowd was extremely invested in the action and these two delivered an engaging opener. You couldn’t ask for much more. ***½
Match #2: Quarterfinal Round: Joey Janela vs. Ethan Page
Page attacks before the opening bell. Janela lands a dive to the floor. They brawl at ringside and Page hits a suplex onto the apron. In the ring, Page takes control until Janela comes back with a snap german suplex into the turnbuckles. Janela connects with a facewash knee strike and lands a dive from the top rope to the floor. Back in, Janela lands a swantan for a nearfall. They battle on the apron and Page hits a powerslam. He follows with a slingshot ace crusher for a two count. Page adds a powerbomb but Janela won’t stay down. Janela connects with a superkick out of nowhere for the victory at 8:07. These two showed good chemistry together and I’d imagine they could put together a high quality match under different circumstances. They made the most of their eight minutes and although the finish felt abrupt, pacing a one-night tournament is no easy task. **½
Match #3: Quarterfinal Round: Gory vs. Anthony Henry
They trade control on the mat and find themselves at a stalemate. Gory snaps off a headscissors and clotheslines Henry to the floor. Back in, Henry anticipates the QAS and military presses Gory to the canvas. Henry hits a powerslam and takes over. He plants Gory with a uranagi onto the apron, throws him into the crowd, and awaits a countout. Gory is able to beat the ten count. Gory hits a leg-trap DDT and both men are down. Gory connects with a springboard dropkick for a nearfall. They trade quick pin attempts to no avail. Gory connects with a superkick and hits a springboard lungblower for a two count. Henry answers with a german suplex and connects with a knockout kick. Gory bites his forehead but eats a dropkick. Henry hits a powerbomb for a nearfall and transitions into an STF. Gory manages to reach the bottom rope, biting it. Gory counters a powerbomb attempt into the QAS for the win at 15:32. They worked hard and the crowd stuck with them, but fifteen minutes without any real discernible story made it hard for me to stay invested. Henry didn’t commit to the heel role enough to make the crowd hate him and the action felt like a collection of moves, albeit a fluid collection of moves. **½
Match #4: Quarterfinal Round: David Starr vs. Jeff Cobb
Despite Starr’s willingness to keep the action on the mat, Cobb gets the better of a few opening mat exchanges. Cobb hits a huge gutwrench suplex and the crowd goes wild. He follows with an overhead suplex. Starr slows him down by snapping the ring rope into his eyes. Cobb hits a fallaway slam and biels Starr across the ring. He lands a standing moonsault and this match has been all Cobb. Starr tries a quick rollup to no avail and hits a gourdbuster. He walks into a swinging side slam. Cobb hits a running powerslam for a two count. Starr counters Tour of the Islands into a crucifix bomb. Cobb catches him on a dive attempt and military presses him back into the ring. Starr lures Cobb into a DDT on the apron and hits Product Placement for the victory at 10:09. These two had the right idea in terms of a shorter tournament match. Cobb ran through his offense to the delight of the crowd. Starr had no illusions that he would wear Cobb down, so he just looked to land a quick, devastating move and it worked. This was a charming performance from Cobb all things considered. ***
Match #5: Semifinal Round: Jonathan Gresham vs. Joey Janela
Gresham out-wrestles Janela to start. Janela doesn’t seem to be trying to adjust his strategy and just becomes more frustrated. Janela irish whips Gresham hard into the turnbuckles and takes control. He begins to target Gresham’s left arm. Gresham fights back with a springboard moonsault. He connects with a hesitation dropkick and hits a suplex. Janela fires back with an uppercut and hits a superplex. Janela hits a few scoop slams to punish Gresham’s back. He follows with a michinoku driver for a nearfall. Janela locks in a boston crab but Gresham counters into a small package for a two count. Janela brings a chair into the ring but the referee takes it away. Gresham traps him in a bridging prawn hold for the win at 17:27. In the context of a one-night tournament, this felt egregiously long. The opening minutes were essentially wasted with Janela playing into Gresham’s chain wrestling game without anything interesting happening. Once Janela formulated a strategy, the action became better, but the chair antics towards the finish took me out of it. **
Match #6: Semifinal Round: Gory vs. David Starr
The crowd absolutely loathes Starr and it’s fun to watch. Gory connects with a superkick before the opening bell and adds a flying double stomp. Gory snaps off a hurricanrana onto the floor and lands a dive. Back in, Starr wins a strike exchange and hits a gourdbuster. Gory responds with a tornado DDT. He lands a 450 splash for a nearfall. Gory connects with a superkick and hits the QAS for a two count. Starr fires back with a lariat and holds Gory’s tights during the pin attempt for the victory at 5:35. This worked quite well. Much like in his quarterfinal round match, Starr withstood everything that Gory threw at him and then lured him into a situation where he could take advantage. From what I’ve seen of his reign, Gory was the most consistent champion IWC has seen in a long time. **½
Match #7: No Disqualification: Shane Taylor vs. Jack Pollock (w/ Jaxon Argos and RC Dupree)
Dupree tries to sneak up on Taylor to no avail. Taylor catches Pollock with a yakuza kick and lands a corner splash. Jeff Cobb appears near the entrance to watch this match. Taylor hits a side slam and a guillotine leg drop. Dupree helps Pollock avoid a charge, causing Taylor to collide with the ringpost. Pollock gets tripped up on the apron and Taylor sends him from the apron to the floor with an exploder. Taylor hits a corner cannonball at ringside. Back in, they trade strikes and Pollock hits a spinebuster. He follows with a fireman’s carry driver for a nearfall. Taylor catches Argos trying to throw powder and punches him. Taylor hits a uranagi on Pollock and lands a splash. Dupree pulls the referee out of the ring. Pollock connects with a mafia kick but runs into a piledriver. Dupree attacks Taylor before he can make the cover. Pollock low blows Taylor and connects with another mafia kick for the win at 13:21. I could foresee these two having a good match together, but it wasn’t going to happen here with all of the interference. Taylor returning to IWC is always nice to see but Justin Plummer not banning Team Storm from ringside when he did so during Argos’s tournament match defies logic. **¼
Match #8: Wardlow and Chris LeRusso (w/ Justin LaBar) vs. Andrew Palace and Dennis Jackson
Palace hits a saito suplex on LeRusso and connects with a shotgun dropkick. Jackson muscles LeRusso around the ring. Palace finds himself in the wrong corner and the heels isolate him. He back drops LeRusso and makes the tag. Wardlow and Jackson stare each other down. Jackson turns on Palace and lays him out with a uranagi. The referee throws out the match at 7:29. I’ve never seen a match ruled a no contest because someone’s partner turned on him. This was solely used for angle advancement, which is fine, but it wasn’t particularly exciting given how green Jackson is in the ring. *
Match #9: Final Round: IWC Super Indy Title: Jonathan Gresham vs. David Starr
Starr wastes no time going after Gresham’s left leg and back. Gresham responds by targeting Starr’s left arm. Starr hangs onto a headscissors and eventually applies a sharpshooter. Gresham is able to reach the ropes but has suffered a lot of damage. Starr out-wrestles Gresham in a quick exchange and he has to retreat to the ropes. Starr is getting cocky. Gresham hits a torbellino and goes back to work on the left arm. Starr fights him off and synchs in an abdominal stretch. He holds the ropes for leverage. Gresham hip tosses Starr to break the hold and kicks away at the bad arm. He follows with a german suplex for a nearfall. Starr fights off an octopus hold and hits two more gourdbusters. Both men are down. Gresham hits a snap german suplex and connects with a forearm smash for a two count. Starr answers with a superplex. Both men fall to the floor after another suplex attempt. Back in, they exchange forearms and Gresham connects with an enzuigiri. Starr shrugs off a dragon suplex and connects with a lariat. Gresham hits a brainbuster for a nearfall but eats a superkick. Gresham fires back with multiple forearm smashes but Starr won’t stay down. Gresham finds knees on a 450 splash attempt. Starr connects with a lariat and hits a brainbuster across his knee for a two count. Starr hits a DDT onto the apron and connects with another lariat. He follows with Product Placement for a nearfall. Gresham ends up in a sleeper hold but refuses to fade. Gresham hits another torbellino and tries a quick pin attempt to no avail. Gresham applies the octopus hold to win Super Indy 17 and become the new Super Indy Champion at 36:45.
Gresham’s struggle to win the Super Indy Title has been a three-year journey that I wish more people could have seen play out. He lost to Josh Alexander and Adam Cole in the finals of the last two Super Indy tournaments. In a sense, this match had to go long to highlight Gresham’s struggle. However, thirty-seven minutes on a show which was already running long was a lot. At the half-way mark, they started to tell a story of Gresham punishing Starr for getting too comfortable in the same way that Starr punished Cobb and Gory, but that never fully materialized. After already wrestling twice, Gresham and Starr put in a near-superhuman effort here and that fact alone made the action work on some level. Longer matches often carry with them a feeling of quality just by virtue of being long. While this main event was certainly solid and the effort was off the charts, the action needed to be more focused to get to the next level. ***¼
-Show Grade: C+
–You Need to See:
–You’d Enjoy Watching: Gresham/Argos, Gresham/Starr, Cobb/Starr
–You Should Avoid: