August 10th, 2019
I like to check in on IWC from time to time. Caged Fury is an annual big show for the promotion and IWC recently began a streaming service, so now seemed like a good time to review a show.
Opening Match: The Mane Event (Duke Davis and Ganon Jones Jr.) vs. The Regulators (Officer Dan Murphy and David Lawless)
Murphy and Lawless essentially cost the Mane Event their tag team titles last month. The Regulators are an odd heel faction. Jock Samson, the leader, tried to get heat by coming out as a Trump supporter before the match. Murphy and Lawless have gained no credibility in the promotion thus far, so the fact that this match was something other than the Mane Event just running through them was perplexing. The Mane Event are an extremely talented team waiting to breakout, but they had absolutely nothing to work with in this opener. The Mane Event won in 7:35 with a dropkick-spinebuster combination. *
Match #2: IWC High Stakes Title: RC Dupree © vs. Andrew Palace
The High Stakes Title is essentially an undercard title where the champion gets to pick the stipulation for each defense. In this instance, Dupree announced the match would be contested under “Canadian Rules,” which were never defined. Then, once Dupree noticed that Palace violated the rules, the match was ruled a no contest. This was nonsensical in the worst way. IWC actually has a babyface authority figure and the promotion itself comes off as stupid for not stopping Dupree’s antics immediately. For his next defense, Dupree should make it so that breathing is a disqualification and retain his title. What was this? The match was ruled a no contest at 10:04. DUD
Match #3: IWC Women’s Title: Katie Arquette © vs. Ray Lyn
This match ended abruptly when Arquette’s entourage (Justin LaBar and Calvin Couture) turned on her and put their support behind Lyn. The action itself never had any time to develop. However, I’ll commend them for keeping the proceedings short. If LaBar’s master plan was to turn on Arquette, he might as well do it at the earliest opportunity. They didn’t make the viewer sit through an elongated match for a cheap finish. This card has been all angle advancement thus far and could use a good match, though. Lyn won in 4:07 to become the new IWC Women’s Champion. *¼
Match #4: Bulk Nasty and Zander Gabriel vs. Zach Nystrom and Spencer Slade
IWC is beginning to explore a dynamic between Nasty and Gabriel where Nasty wants nothing to do with his partner and Gabriel just wants to be friends. As a result, Nasty tried to keep Gabriel out of the ring as much as possible. It was actually a fun dynamic and there’s an open question as to just how much Gabriel contributed to this victory. It might just be the case that Nasty is dominant enough to defeat tag teams by himself. This contest was on the right track for sure, although Nystrom and Slade felt like afterthoughts. Nasty and Gabriel won in 9:39 after Nasty hit a powerbomb on Nystrom. **
Match #5: Elijah Dean vs. Shawn Spears
Dean calls himself the “Man Dime” whereas Spears has a history with the number ten. I’m not saying it’s the most airtight reason for a match to happen, but it’s the backstory here. Unfortunately, the match didn’t deliver much more substance. Dean is one of the better students to come out of the IWC school and Spears was certainly motivated, but there wasn’t much more to the action than Dean being egotistical and Spears giving him a reality check. The crowd easily got behind Spears as a babyface, which made the match a breeze to watch. I just don’t think it had as big of an impact on Dean’s stock as it could have. Spears won in 12:50 with a sharpshooter. **½
Match #6: IWC Super Indy Title: Cage Match: Wardlow © vs. Josh Alexander
They spent the first ten minutes simply trading power offense. While that wouldn’t be compelling if done by many wrestlers, it was done here with enough intensity to be pretty engaging. After largely reaching a stalemate, Wardlow busted out a moonsault out of nowhere to the loudest pop of the night. Alexander then went into escape mode, but that put him in position to fall victim to a huge superplex. He then settled for busting Wardlow open and making him pass out via submission. This was the best thing on the card thus far by a mile. The action was appropriately violent given their feud, the crowd was captivated, and there were a few genuine moments of tension down the stretch. Wardlow may be gearing up to head to AEW and Alexander now has the opportunity to have the Super Indy Title reign that was prematurely taken away from him years ago. Great stuff. Alexander won in 23:17 with an ankle lock to become the new IWC Super Indy Champion. ***¾
Match #7: Cage Match: The Culmination (Remy Lavey and Atticus Cogar) vs. Gory and Johnny Patch
This was rough. A majority of the match consisted of some rather lifeless brawling. The action picked up with Gory’s dive off the top of the cage but the match soon ended with a lame finish. Patch was trying to escape the cage. Gory tried throwing a fireball at the Culmination but missed and hit Patch, causing him to drop to the floor and win the match. I think everyone was genuinely confused about either the randomness or intended effect of the spot. I genuinely thought that this one could have been a banger given the talent involved, but things never really came together and the finish did not help matters. Gory and Patch won in 10:19 when Patch escaped the cage. *½
Match #8: IWC World Heavyweight Title: Cage Match: Jaxon Argos © vs. John McChesney
These two had a spirited weapons-based brawl that ended up being a decent main event. It helped that neither of the previous two cage matches utilized any weapons besides the cage walls. My worry with Argos’s title reign is that the matches are inevitably going to involve interference by Dupree leading to the finish. That was the case here, but the work was good enough before the antics that the interference didn’t hold the action back too much. McChesney is undoubtedly the most consistent performer in IWC history. Argos retained his title in 15:28 with the Brainstorm. ***
Overall: There are five different championships in IWC. Right now, all five are held by heels, four of which go to an egregious extent to cheat in their matches. That fact alone does not make me enthused about the IWC product right now. The good news is that there is some genuinely exciting talent on the roster: Alexander, Wardlow, Patch, Palace, Mane Event, and Argos to name a few. If you have a subscription, check out the Super Indy Title match.