IHW Special Comment

Fine show from IHW...attendance was solid though not at the levels of some of their earliest shows in the Red Bud venue.

Most of the card was unknown as the only two matches announced ahead of time were Cage-McNeil and Money-Hawkins...and Money-Hawkins obviously wasn't happening due to Money's injury. The original talent list had some names that didn't appear on the show like K.C. Karrington, Jordan McEntyre, and A.J. Smooth...don't know what happened with them.

In the large pool of talent in this area, it seems like Steven Kennedy has been lost in the shuffle to a certain extent. Solid opener with a familiar opponent...first time I saw Shorty vs. SSK was in GCW in late 2004.

Chaotic six-man tag...the referee lost control of the action on a few occasions and I have no idea who was legal at the end. The referee made a count for Mephisto's pin cover on Neil Cutter, then counted for Osborne as well when he made the cover seconds later. Ah well, nitpicky smarkity smart mark or whatever.

Not much they could have done with the Illinois Title...either a) do what they did and have Hawkins get it via forfeit or b) vacate the title and have Hawkins fight someone to win it. Same end result...not the most honorable way for Hawkins to get a championship(as Espy noted), but he's a heel so there you have it.

Nice suprise to see Rebecca Raze back in action...speaking of GCW, hadn't seen her in the ring since that organization shut down. I think she had a few matches here and there since that time, but this was my first time seeing her in the ring since the Gateway days.

It was Espinosa vs. Hawkins so it was going to be good...notable that the former partners Espinosa and Aarons were back on the same page. In fact, all three members of Babewatch/Glamour Inc.(Espy/Aarons/Sydal) were not only in the house but were all faces.

Malaki's shorter haircut doesn't really fit the gimmick...I think I described him as looking like a mirror-universe Miz. Oddness early as Malaki's boots came unlaced and he kept demanding that the referee re-tie them...so the ref finally tied the laces together. Ha ha.

Another nice surprise to see SBC and Rebelucha in the house. Ace Roberts nearly faceplanted badly on a double hiptoss by Charles and Rebelucha. Correctly predicted the finish of Ace stealing a pin on one or the other. Rebelucha grabbed a microphone after the match and said that Ace is the one who should be deported...heh.

The main event was a lengthy beatdown on McNeil as Late-Nite and Hawkins interfered early and often...at some point, they should have the referee eject people from ringside in that kind of situation. The finish seemed to come out of nowhere as the interference finally backfired and Billy hit a killer Codebreaker variant to get the win for the belt. Late-Nite's stable won one belt only to lose the other...oh well, them's the breaks.

The aftermath seemed to be the big story...well, you wouldn't expect a guy named Mephisto to be a nice person, when you think about it... :)

Busy weekend ahead with Dynamo on Friday, MMWA on Saturday, and SLA on Sunday. Might be skipping SICW the following weekend for a family outing and I don't think anyone's running on the weekend of the 22nd. As for the 29th, it's between MECW and MMWA in Lemay with Madison Rayne...hmm.