IWA Mid-South "A Phenomenal Invasion II" 5/12/07
By: Magnus Donaldson
 

Remember to send me feedback to donaldson_magnus@yahoo.co.uk.
Also feel free to e-mail me with requests for shows you would like me to review.

IWA returned with this event on May 12th 2007, featuring some big names such as AJ Styles, Joey Mercury, Hernandez,
Tiger Mask IV and Human Tornado. So this should be a good event.

Your commentators are Ben Jordan and Jimmy Jacobs (recovering from his knee injury).

Match 1: Joker w/Eddie Kingston vs. Gran Akuma
A meeting of two hard hitters in this one, and a first time meeting. A really enjoyable opener here, with some strong mat wrestling and fast paced action,
 as well as the hard hitting kick and chop exchanges that you would expect these two to have. I am impressed by Joker, and he is someone I want to
see more of, and Akuma impresses me more and more every time I see him (he really need to be in ROH full time). Joker got a rollup out of nowhere
when he had Akuma in an Armbar to get the three count. Great match, topping my expectations- ***1/4

After the match, the two wrestlers shake hands.

Before the next match, Joey Eastman decides to do the introductions for his team
(he used to be the IWA Mid South ring announcer, but turned into a heel manager recently)

Match 2: Pretty Unreal (Michael Elgin and Ash) w/Joey Eastman vs. Naptown Dragons (OMG and 'Diehard' Dustin Lee)
I've only heard good things about Ash and Elgin, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do. I thought this was a decent tag match,
with some good wrestling, but you can tell these guys are inexperienced and they messed up a few moves. Ash and Elgin have some way to go
but I see potential in them and they will do well on the indy scene in the next year or two. After a good final few minutes, Elgin and Ash won
when Elgin pinned OMG after a Razors Edge-Neckbreaker combo double team move- **1/4

Z-Barr cuts a promo saying he's tired of people not cheering for him (I wonder why people don't cheer for him? Maybe because he's an awful wrestler).
 He then tells Jimmy Shalwin that he won't cheat tonight, but subsequently cheats.

Match 3: 'The Hype' Jimmy Shalwin vs. 'The Most Hated Man In IWA History' Z-Barr
If I remember correctly, the whole point of Z-Barr being on the roster is because he makes people go to the concession stand to buy stuff.
That tell you how good this match was: not very good at all. Press the skip button on your DVD, there's nothing to see here.
One interesting note though: Jimmy Shalwin was apparently the person who told Jimmy Jacobs to wear the furry boots for his Huss gimmick.
 Jimmy Shalwin pinned Z-Barr with the Moonsault- 1/4*

Again, Joey Eastman does the ring announcing for his wrestler CJ Otis.

Match 4: 7 Man Lightweight Rumble- CJ Otis w/Joey Eastman vs. Jack Thriller vs. Ricochet vs. Zach McGuire vs. Human Tornado
vs. Josh Abercrombie vs. Billy Roc
This sort of match is always a lot of fun, and this was no different as this proved to be a great high flying bout. The entrants didn't seem to know
when to come out since the ring announcer wasn't very thorough in his explanation, plus the match suffered from the usual indy spotfest syndrome
 of everyone getting eliminated within a minute of each other to take the match down to the final participants. Tornado was hugely over with the crowd,
 the most of anyone in the match. Once Abercrombie came in the match turned insane and got really good, although as I said earlier this was an indy
 spotfest plain and simple, although a damn good one. The eliminations were as follows-

                                                            Elimination #1: Jack Thriller by Human Tornado
                                                            Elimination #2: Zach McGuire by CJ Otis
                                                            Elimination #3: Ricochet by Billy Roc
                                                            Elimination #4: Billy Roc by CJ Otis (w/an Burning Hammer-Double Stomp combo alongside Human Tornado)
                                                            Elimination #5: CJ Otis by Josh Abercrombie

Josh Abercrombie and Human Tornado were the final two, and had some great wrestling exchanges, before Josh Abercrombie won a title shot
 with the Taliban Backpack. That may have been a spotfest, but I loved it and it was done very well-
***1/2 (I know I shouldn't rate it that high, but I loved it that much)

Before the next match, AJ Styles takes his turn to cut a promo, saying that he doesn't care who Tiger mask is and doesn't care about the fans
 cheering or clapping him.

Match 5: AJ Styles vs. Tiger Mask IV
I wonder why this was so low on the card, as I would have had this as the main event. A good match, but not an excellent, standout match that you
 would expect these two to have. It just seemed a bit too slow, and AJ seemed to calling in his performance rather than giving his 100% best.
 Not to mention Tiger Mask was not a spectacular opponent, and was sloppy in his offense at times. But there was some good mat wrestling
 and high flying at points in this match that helped make this match a decent contest overall. Tiger Mask rolled up AJ to get the three count- **1/2

Match 6: Joey Mercury vs. Tyler Black
I always thought Joey was underrated when wrestling the indy's the first time around, simply because he didn't do hundreds of flips, but the indy scene
 has changed and people now appreciate him a lot more after his exploits in WWE. Tyler has also evolved as a performer considerably since
 I saw him last in the 2006 TPI. This was a good match, and Joey can go despite having some ring rust, and for me looked a few levels above
 Tyler in terms of ring skill (which is a big compliment considering how good Tyler is). A quick paced match, with lots of high flying, high impact offense,
 but also some very good mat work, and some close nearfalls towards the end. Unfortunately my DVD messed up and I missed the finish, but - ***1/4

Match 7 : 'The Impact Bully' Brandon Thomaselli vs. Jigsaw
A good lightweight bout, although nothing spectacular. Jigsaw wrestled his usual fast paced, high flying lucha style, and was very much the underdog
 to Thomaselli who cheated at every turn and also used a slower, more power based style. Jigsaw at one point held Thomaselli back so that a fan could
 chop him. It could maybe have been shortened a little, since it could have been a more effective match for me that way, but besides that I have no real|
 complaints since there were no botches of any kind, and the match flowed well. Brandon Thomaselli retained his title with a move I believe he called the McGuillicutter (it was an Implant DDT of some kind, I am probably wrong wit the name, so e-mail me so I can correct it).
Good bout that I actually enjoyed more than Styles/Tiger Mask- ***1/4

Match 8: Chuck Taylor vs. Devon Moore
I've only seen Moore compete once before, in PWU where he had a great match with Azrieal. Another good match, which was very fast paced,
 as Moore wrestles a high flying, spotty style while Taylor wrestles quick but uses more heelish tactics and uses everything he can to get the advantage
 and get the crowd booing him, as well as putting some submission holds to use. Moore is a good wrestler but he still needs some seasoning as he
 made a few botches here, but was a good opponent for Chuck. Despite some near falls, Taylor was able to retain the belt over Moore when he pinned
 him with the Omega Driver- **3/4

Match 9: Falls Count Anywhere- Axl Rotten vs. Tank
As I stated in my previous IWA review, I am not a fan of this sort of match, so I feel I cant' give a good account of it, so you'll need to watch this
 if your a death match fan to see what you think- no rating

Match 10: Hotstuff Hernandez vs. Eddie Kingston
Great, hard hitting main event. Kingston looks to have lost a good deal of weight, he's almost slim now. Both of these men threw hard forearms, chops,
 knees and just about everything else, hitting each other very hard and holding nothing back. Both men also used a variety of submissions and
power moves, with Hernandez throwing Kingston around like he was a light-heavyweight. And that was much of the story of this match: Hernandez
overpowering Kingston, while Kingston tried to fight back with hard hitting strikes and some power moves of his own. Hernandez and Kingston both
came close to winning this near the end, but it was Hernandez who would win this in the end with the Border Toss.
Best match of the show for me.- ***1/2

This was a very solid show overall. There were no MOTY candidates or excellent, outstanding, must see matches, but the show
features 2 ***1/2 and 3 ***1/4 matches, with the rest of the undercard solid barring the Z-Barr match. So this is an easy recommendation.


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