HATEBREED: THE ROAD TO SUPER INDY
FEBRUARY 28th, 2004
CCAC SOUTH CAMPUS – WEST MIFFLIN, PA
Complete results from Joe Dombrowski
- Jimmy Jacobs def. Fabulous
- Devil Bhudakahn def. Mickey Gambino
- IWC Tag Team Champions Matt Cross & Josh Prohibition def. Dirk Ciglar & Super Hentai
- Michael Shane def. Dennis Gregory
- Bubba the Bulldog & Jimmy Vegas def. Shane Douglas & Chris Candido
- Glenn Spectre def. Troy Lords
- IWC Heavyweight Champion Sterling James Keenan def. Dean Radford
- Sebastian Dark def. Shirley Doe in fans bring the weapons match
POWER STRUGGLE DEVELOPS:
IWC VS THE COMMISSION
IWC’s return to CCAC South Campus on February 28, 2004 was one of the more chaotic unpredictable live events we’ve ever had. However, all the chaos was watched over very closely by a very interested eye: the eye of Commission representative Chris Wood, who has seemingly gone out of his way to bring misery and hard times to his former employer, IWC promoter Norm Connors. Wood would closely observe all the events of the evening, and as you’ll read momentarily, there were some things that Wood just could not stand for.
But before we explore the unfair practices of Mr. Wood, we have to mention the IWC Championship rematch between champion Sterling James Keenan and challenger Dean Radford. Ever since being cheated out of the championship by Sterling partner-in-crime CM Punk, Radford has been dead-set on finally gaining the top prize in the IWC. With a sea of fans in Dean Radford t-shirts looking on, Dean pulled out all stops and held nothing back in his quest. A tactical error came when he attempted to dive off the top rope onto Sterling who was on the arena floor. Sterling slid out of the way and Dean had a lost a large amount of his momentum. Predictably, Sterling attempted that one little underhanded tactic to put the icing on the cake, which he tried in the form of putting his feet on the ropes. However Mickey Gambino, who Sterling had attacked for no reason earlier in the night, came out to thwart his efforts. Despite that, Sterling had another trick up his sleeve as he rolled up Dean and used a hand full of trunks to assist him to victory. After the match, a frustrated Radford threatened to Radicate referee Christopher Kalikapela but instead just settled for punching him in the head. Dean Radford has been cheated out of the IWC Title twice now, however Sterling’s unstoppable uprising is only getting stronger.
The other half of our double main event saw “The Franchise” Shane Douglas reunite with his old ECW tag team partner, “No Gimmicks Needed” Chris Candido, to battle The Franchise’s top enemies, Bubba the Bulldog and Jimmy Vega$. Considering Jimmy Vega$’ recent appearance on “WWE Velocity,” the two men’s arrogance was at an all-time high. However, they seemed to have the perfect strategy: isolate the man who has wrestled the least as of late, in hopes of exploiting possible ring rust. They did just that but Candido came out fighting with a fire we hadn’t seen in him in years. It was clear Candido was elated to be back with the man he dominated ECW with as part of “The Triple Threat” and he wouldn’t let him down. After several minutes of punishment, “The Franchise” was tagged in and he started cleaning house. It looked like Douglas was well on his way to victory, until the most unlikely of culprits came to stop his momentum. None other than Dennis Gregory appeared and started assisting long-time rival Vega$! This advantage led to Vega$ hitting a “Cha-Ching Slam” and scoring the pinfall victory over Candido, as Bubba and Vega$ get one up big time over The Franchise and friends. The 3-on-2 assault continued after the match until Michael Shane (Douglas’ protégé from NWA TNA) evened the odds and helped clear the ring as the fans chanted “New Triple Threat” After the altercation, Douglas demanded a six-man tag team first blood match with any stipulations added to it, he didn’t even care! Promoter Norm Connors agreed to the demands. With Douglas’ former group, The Triple Threat from ECW, and his current group, The New Franchise from NWA TNA, this threesome
may be unstoppable!
Speaking of blood spilled, something quite unexpected occurred while Alex Shelley was trying to conduct an interview, and the events that unfolded here would have to be considered the shocker of the year so far. It started with former ECW wrestler The Equalizer storming the ring unannounced and issuing an open challenge to anyone in the back that thinks they’re as hardcore as he is. You want to talk about famous last words? It didn’t take long for the infamous opening chords of “Natural Born Killaz” to play, sending the crowd into a state of excited anticipation. None other than “The Original Gangsta” New Jack came through the curtain, the crowd erupted into a frenzy. New Jack wasted little time destroying The Equalizer with a trash can lid, computer keyboard, and a chain with a fork on the end of it, which he used to slice into The Equalizer’s forehead until the blood started flowing.
Promoter Norm Connors entered the ring, and stated that signing New Jack to an IWC contract was his answer to Commission representative Chris Wood and his edict that IWC tone down its violent content. Connors made it be known that he would not go down without a fight in his quest to keep IWC’s First Amendment rights in tact. A frustrated Wood left the building with cell phone in hand, but unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last time we saw this power-abusing tyrant on this night.
Wood was nowhere to be seen during the start of the Shirley Doe vs. Sebastian Dark “Eye of the Hurricane Match” as he was allegedly taking part in a conference regarding the New Jack incident. This gave Doe and Dark free will to do any sort of heinous, violent, and downright hardcore act they desired. However, before he could get to the ring, Doe was assaulted by Sterling James Keenan. The champion delivered a dragon suplex onto Doe, causing Doe to land on the hard floor directly on the back of his head. Doe had saved Mickey Gambino from Sterling’s assault earlier in the night and this was Sterling’s sick idea of retribution. Needless to say, Dark had the early advantage, but his quest for brutality led to a Doe comeback. Everything from hockey sticks, to pool cues, to frying pans, to trash cans, to computer scanners, and even a Halloween-themed pumpkin decoration came into play during this wild encounter. Sadly, before it could end, Commission representative Chris Wood returned, obviously offended by what he was watching.
He and promoter Norm Connors engaged in another heated argument, with Wood claiming “This isn’t wrestling! Where are the armlocks?” As Doe scaled the ropes with a baseball bat in hand, Wood commandeered the microphone and threatened to shut IWC down if Doe attacked Dark with the bat. Dark used the distraction to hit a fisherman suplex off the top for the win. However, no one, not even Dark himself, were happy about the way things went down. Wood even went as far as to slap Norm Connors in the face as our show concluded.
Ladies and gentlemen, I usually try to remain as objective and impartial as possible whenever I bring you these website reports, but I can’t keep quiet in a situation likes this. Mr. Wood has gone far beyond the boundaries of any official. He’s obviously drunk with power and is using his undeserved authority in order to single out the IWC and settle some years-old vendetta he has with his former boss Norm Connors. Mr. Wood has crossed the line several times already. Not only did he ruin one of our main events, he also publicly humiliated Norm Connors with a slap to the face. Not only that, but he is single-handedly responsible for all of our jobs being in jeopardy. Wood knows he has the power to shut this company down without any repercussion and he’s abusing that power to the fullest extent. He is, in effect, holding the futures of IWC’s wrestlers, referees, announcers, cameramen, trainees, and everyone else associated with this company in his hands and he has to be stopped no matter what.
On a more positive note, the first confirmed entrants for Super Indy 3 were settled in the form of two qualifying matches. The winners were automatically given a spot in the tournament which will now officially be held on April 17, 2004.
The first of the matches pitted “The Barbaric Berzerker” Jimmy Jacobs against Fabulous, who was making his return to IWC. Both men had a very competitive contest and both had to recover from some majorly dehabilitating moves in order to come out on top. Not long into the match, Fabulous was kicked off the ring apron and landed face first onto two ringside chairs. Amazingly, Fab continued the fight, even able to hit his Cliff Hanger finisher on Jacobs, but Jacobs somehow kicked out right at the last second. Jacobs hussed up and hit “The Contra Code” to win a very even match-up and continue his undefeated streak in one-on-one competition in IWC. But can he continue his undefeated ways in Super Indy 3?
The second match saw old rivals reunite as Glenn Spectre battled “Balls Hot” Troy Lords. Lords has been responsible for Spectre’s two most embarrassing moments in his career: having to remove his mask, and having to eat dog food. However Spectre pinned Lords twice in singles action during two of our untelevised events last year, so both men had sufficient motivation. Much like the previous qualifying match, both men went all-out to try to ensure victory. Lords, however, was confident, but just a bit too confident. After bragging about being the eventual Super Indy 3 winner to anyone that would listen to him, his ego caught up with him, and Spectre surprised him with a quick pin and a three count. A stunned Lords took out his frustrations on referee Bruce Gray and left very distraught .
Congratulations to “Barbaric Berzerker” Jimmy Jacobs and Glenn Spectre on qualifying for Super Indy 3, which all takes place on April 17!
Earlier I mentioned the six man altercation, but that wasn’t the first time that night we saw Michael Shane or Dennis Gregory. When Shane’s scheduled opponent Chris Sabin suffered an injury earlier in the week, Gregory was called in as a last-minute substitution but Gregory had had enough. Before the match Gregory said he was sick of being the nice guy because all it’s gotten him is overlooked and it was back to being the @$$hole we all remembered him as. Sure enough Gregory pulled out the same attitude and style that led him up the IWC ranks to his first heavyweight title back in late 2002, but the debuting Shane had too much on the line, especially with a whole new crowd to prove himself to and his mentor Shane Douglas watching in the back. Shane hit his variation of his cousin Shawn Michaels’ move, the superkick, sometimes called the “Sweet Shane Music,” to score the win.
Despite all this insanity, we can’t forget about two of the most skilled, most well known, and perhaps most underrated in the IWC: tag team champions “M-Dogg 20” Matt Cross and Josh Prohibition, as they defended the titles against another pair of long-time friends, Super Hentai and Dirk Ciglar. Ciglar had returned and lobbied for this match in order to try to help Hentai regain some positive momentum but in addition to the champs, they had to be thinking about Alex Shelley, who was sitting in on commentary for that match. Ciglar and Hentai wrestled very impressively, considering they had never teamed before and were already thrust into a match with one of the best teams in existence today. Ciglar and Hentai seemed they may even be on their way to victory, but Shelley abandoned the announce position to push Hentai off the top rope, causing him to land with a sickening splat. The resourceful champions capitalized, Josh hit the Drunken Driver and Matt landed the shooting star press for another visually amazing and impressive tag team victory.
After this match the announcement was made official: On March 20, Matt and Josh will defend their titles against one of their top rivals in the now-defunct Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) promotion: Tracy Smothers and Chris Hamrick, collectively known as Southern Comfort. At XPW’s last ever show, Southern Comfort attacked Matt and Josh after a match, and Hamrick piledrove Matt off the ring apron through a table sitting on the arena floor. You have to know Matt and Josh haven’t forgotten about that and they’ll be looking to get their hands around the necks of Southern Comfort on Saturday night, March 20.
Also on the card, the youngster Mickey Gambino continued his impressive ways. Even though he was once again on the losing end of things, he controlled quite an impressive amount of the match, especially considering he was in there against one of IWC’s best, Devil Bhudakahn. Gambino continues to impress people with his heart, courage, and toughness, but tonight it was Devil who gets back on the winning track.
With all of the chaos we’ve seen, the challenges that have been issued, plus the inclusion of the likes of New Jack, it’s pretty clear that the era of “Extreme IWC” promised by Shane Douglas several months ago seems to finally be taking shape. The question is: Will Chris Wood and the Commission let these developments continue or will he continue his path of power-obsessed tyranny until IWC is damaged beyond repair? I shudder to think at what that answer might be and what it could mean to all of us here in the IWC.