IWTV, who has brought loads of great content to the table over the course of the year, has brought an awesome idea to the table. In comes The Masked Wrestler: an 8 wrestler tournament to determine the next contender for the IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship. While this concept sounds like business as per usual, the twist is that the combatants are masked to obscure their identities. While the wrestlers’ faces are obscured, the star studded panel of Billy Dixon, Mr. Brickster and IWTV’s Breakout Star of 2019: Kris Statlander have to figure out who they are as the match progresses.
Week 1 saw the random drawing of the pink mask wearing Genki taking on Barf, wearing the appropriately colored green mask. Pre-match we got promos from both wrestlers, which featured a game of “Two Truths and a Lie” to give viewers at home an idea of who each person is. Barf’s factoids were that their father was neighbors with Sweedish director Ingmar Bergman, they’ve been locked up in jail twice, and they had celebrated their honeymoon in Singapore. Genki on the other hand, has a background in Taekwondo, a 4-1 MMA record prior to their wrestling training, and ownership of a Mike Tyson figure.
The match itself was a largely mat-based affair; with lots of cravats, headlocks, and other transitional holds to boot. Both wrestlers did begin to flesh out their move-sets, by taking things to a very lucha libre-esque level. This is where I truly have to give the wrestling portion of the show the credit that it deserves. Both wrestlers managed to absolutely hide who they were by the moves they pulled; giving no dead giveaways with their respective signature moves. Genki would bring this match to a close; defeating Barf with a lifting DDT in an entertaining 12:06.
Then came time for the reveal and subsequent elimination of Barf. Before the mask came off, each judge of the panel got to give their respective guesses as to who was under the mask. Up first was Kris Statlander, who goofily guessed that Barf was former American Idol judge Simon Cowell, because in her own words green was mean. Billy Dixon was next, saying that Barf had a bad attitude, which he equated to “Bad Boy” Joey Janela. Last and certainly not least, Mr. Brickster, who was under the assumption that Barf was from the Chattanooga area, and thus guessed Barf’s identity as Southern Underground Pro’s own Jaden Newman.
With all panel guesses being wrong, it was time for the moment of truth. The masked Barf turned out to be none other than Logan Easton Laroux. In a scathing post match promo, Laroux equated his masking to “…[putting] a sheet over the Mona Lisa.” as well as “…[trying] to mask greatness.” He finished with a simple proclamation: “I will win the Independent Wrestling Championship.”
With that being it for last week’s edition, I give IWTV tremendous credit with the show’s format. The pre match segment for each wrestler was a great way to get the mind thinking of who lines up with the facts of each individual. I’ll even admit I’m still thinking Genki could be a number of people (Wheeler YUTA, Chuck O’Neil, etc.) and the fun thing is we won’t know until they win the whole thing or they lose. I’m positive we’ll be scratching our heads, in curiosity and grasping the sides of our faces in awe, and I can’t help but contain my excitement for tonight’s edition of The Masked Wrestler.