IWC Mountain State Madness 07/14/11

1. Logan Shulo v. Mike Sydal - 3
Our show opens with a bigman v. little man match and the crowd pops conservatively. Before I get too far into this show, I need to point out the platform in the corner of the arena, which is obviously a tribute to American iconography with the Flag, a Statue of Liberty, Christmas trees and a 13' RCA TV. Sydal looks like a smaller Kenny Omega with a star system tatted across his back; Shulo looks like Test's lazy dark haired brother. For the most part, everything is smooth, Sydal blew a plancha outside and a hurricanrana later, but everything else looked direct from a 6 minute Superstars match.

2. Blue Collar Slaughter v. The One Nighters-4
There's something comforting about these teams and formula,like microwaved chocolate donuts and slippers in the morning. One Nighters are young, thrusting guys and Blue Collar are chunky and doltish. Both teams know exactly who they are, never rush the pace and hit everything on the nose.

3. Dalton Castle v. Tyler Stone- 4
So credibility leaves us at this point, when one announcer proclaims "at the grocery store,gas station, barber shops, Stone is all they're talkin about." Last thing I heard that hot was the "Milkshake" video by Kelis. He also has on his resume a historic track record in the undergroud fight clubs around there; keep in mind they're in West Virginia. Dalton I like; he actually takes Stone down MMA style and lays a beatdown. He was a nice mix of fine punches, innovative moves and heel posturing.

4. The Founding Fathers v. Necro Butcher/ Marshall Gambino/ Justin Idol- 3

The Fathers is the main heel faction here, led by a guy called Billion Dollar Man wearing a Ted Dibiase jacket from the 80's with a cents sign on it? Necro literally looked like he walked out of the crowd to wrestle. Big night off for him. A guy in a stupid mask with hair named Hentai is really bad. Match is moving along well until the breakdown and insipid finish where Jimmy Vegas (complete with mountain man beard) bumps off a missed superkick like he slipped in a puddle of milk wearing ice skates.

5. Veda Scott v. Sera Feeney- 1

Quite scary, even scarier is the fact the announcer proclaimed Daizee Haze as one of the greatest female performers of all time. Honestly, both women looked only 3 weeks $1500 deep into training school. Some of the weakest clotheslines this side of Greg Gagne, and a tornado DDT that would probably look better if a cow attempted it. Rhett on commentary mentioned a pretty girl with no teeth was a fun time, how prophetic.

6. JT LaMotta & Andy Dalton v. Flippin' Aint' Easy- 2
Flippin look like members of the Warriors if they underwent a makeover from Lady Gaga. If Jake LaMotta ever saw JT LaMotta, he'd spit in his face and hit him with a right hook. Two guys tried a tornado DDT over the top rope and it looked like the suicide scene in Battle Royale with the young couple holding hands as they sailed down a cliff to the jagged rocks below. One of the guys took 10 seconds longer than believable to do a crowd dive which the announcer called "seamless." Oh snap, one guy moonsaulted from the platform with the Statue of Liberty. Haha, it's almost funny it's sad. Can't believe the old Bugs Bunny gag of "Look Up!" played into the finish, but double Lionsault was new.

7. Val Venis v. John McChesney- 3

The goofy Cents manager was all over this one, so we only got a half dozen or so minutes of real work. Val was in some heinous apparel, as if he was going to Urban Active for some Stairmaster work. Val was using some of his little touches though, such as using palm strikes instead of punches to stay in the rules and shaking his wrist out after a significant strike. McChesney was fairly mundane, but did like the DDT they hit. Ridiculous DQ finish, worst on the show.

8. Rhett Titus v. Shiima Xion- 4
Thought this was cool this ended up in main event slot and had plenty of time left on the DVD to entertain. But didn't live up to expectations. My main issue with this match is the structure it used, didn't really need as strong of a heel as Rhett to pull it off. I saw a similar issue with him main eventing a JAPW show earlier in the year, a 5 min. basically squash for DJ Hyde, who doesn't deserve them. Here Shiima only needed a heel to do a couple cheap heat tactics and that's it. None of Titus' gifts were shown and just felt like a wasted opportunity. Seeing Xion's 450 splash in perfect synchronicity with Christmas twinkle lights behind him was a neat image though.