Proving Ground 6 – February 25th, 2017
Shannock Valley Youth Center – Rural Valley, PA
Complete results from Nick Lendl
Photos from Damian Lynch
- Team Storm (Jack Pollock, Jaxon Argos, & RC Dupree) def. Santana Diamonds, Remy Lavey, & Keith Haught
- Jinx def. Samantha Heights
- Corey Futuristic & Billy Ruxpin def. The Sexy Talented Dudes (Chest Flexor & Lee Ryans)
- Andrew Palace def. Calvin Couture
- IWC Tag Team Champions The Fraternity (Channing Decker & Trent Gibson) def. John McChesney & Daniel Hooven
- IWC World Heavyweight Champion Wardlow def. Plato Meramec, Noctus, and Jami Jameson in an open challenge
- Marshall the Bull & Bronco McBride def. Bulk Nasty & Officer Dan Murphy
- IWC Women’s Champion Britt Baker def. Katie Arquette
- IWC Super Indy Champion Chris LeRusso def. Shane InYaFace
In the past, Proving Ground has been the setting for some of the most memorable IWC debuts. Britt Baker, Jimmy Nutts and Shane InYaFace are just a few names that have made their in-ring debut at this very event! Proving Ground 6 would be centered around one of those very individuals as Shane InYaFace would challenge Chris LeRusso for the IWC Super Indy Championship in the main event.
What an impressive few months it’s been for Shane! At Winner Takes All he won a 20-Man Battle Royal and at Reloaded he choked out one of the biggest and baddest men in the IWC locker room, Bulk Nasty. Thanks to these victories, Shane would earn his first Championship opportunity since debuting one year earlier at the same event. The Super Indy Championship has a legacy of names attached to it that is unmatched across all of Indy Wrestling. The current champion, Chris LeRusso, will tell you that himself, because he believes his name is the biggest of them all! There’s no question LeRusso has been more than impressive over the course of the last year. He consistently climbed the ladder of success in IWC in 2016 and even wrestled for Ring of Honor on two separate occasions. None of his opponents were former undefeated MMA fighters, though. LeRusso may have had the experience advantage, but Shane could more than make up for it by punching “The Heir Apparent” in his face!
As it usually goes when BC Steele is at ringside, shenanigans ensued on the outside, leading to an altercation between Steele and Daniel Hooven, who came to the ring to even the sides. When the focus was back on the in-ring action LeRusso had Shane right where he wanted him, and was able to pick up the victory and escape Rural Valley with his Championship! Chris wouldn’t be able to rest easy, however. Before he could leave ringside, familiar music played and John McChesney appeared at the curtain! “Big League” announced that at IWC Sixteen on March 11th, he would challenge LeRusso for his title! LeRusso and BC stood frozen in shock and for the first time that I can remember, “The Heir Apparent” was speechless!
Last month at Reloaded, Wardlow destroyed a T-Rex and pinned the 400 pound Shane Taylor in the same night. Needless to say, “The Man with War in his Name” isn’t too worried about who will come calling for an opportunity at his IWC World Heavyweight Championship. This became even more apparent when the monster from Cleveland issued an open challenge for his Title at Proving Ground!
After much speculation, the challenge was answered by the debuting Plato Meramec, who Wardlow made short work of. The champion never even took his Title off from around his waist, pinning Plato in mere seconds! Though Meramec wasn’t near the caliber of challenger Shane Taylor or T-Rex was, it wouldn’t be such an easy night for Wardlow as another challenger emerged… the masked Noctus! Noctus rushed the ring, trying to take the champion off his game, but to no avail. Wardlow was able to fight off the masked superstar’s flurry off offense and pin him for the three count still without even breaking a sweat!
At this point it had become a joke to the champion. Wardlow sarcastically called to the back, asking if anyone else wanted to step to the plate and get in the ring with him! Surprisingly, one more challenger emerged: The debuting “Country Hammer” Jami Jamison! Jamison made his way to the ring with a purpose, giving Wardlow perhaps his toughest Title defense yet. “The Country Hammer” connected with a huge Spear and even hoisted the big man up for a Jackhammer! The Rural Valley crowd got behind Jamison, but it wasn’t his night. Wardlow gained back the upper hand, connecting with a huge Swanton Bomb from the top rope, pinning Jamison for his third victory in a row!
Wardlow looked to the back, but nobody came out. There wasn’t anyone else who wanted to take on the huge World Heavyweight Champion. Next month Wardlow faces the man who never lost the Championship, DJZ. Unfortunately an injury forced DJZ into surrendering the Title at Winner Takes All in December, the same night Wardlow became Champion! What will happen when these two collide on March 11th at IWC Sixteen?
Nobody was more surprised to see Daniel Hooven’s name selected by the Reset Button last month than Hooven himself. It put the photographer in quite the vulnerable position: Alone in the ring with the IWC Tag Team Champions, The Fraternity! The obnoxious Frat boys bullied Hooven, shoving him around, stepping on his glasses and even breaking one of his expensive cameras before John McChesney made the rescue, evening the odds! Hooven, embarrassed at what he had just been put through, wanted a chance to get even with the Tag Champs and a match was signed for Rural Valley pitting Hooven and McChesney against Channing Decker and Trent Gibson with the IWC Tag Team Titles on the line!
Hooven didn’t take this opportunity lightly, and McChesney wouldn’t allow him to either, as the two began training together daily in preparation for Hooven’s big debut. The amount of work Hooven had put in was evident as he showed quite a surprising bit of skill in the ring. “Big League” even taught Hooven how to drop an elbow, a move they were able to use together during the match! The clock had struck midnight for the Cinderella story, however. Unfortunately for Hooven, even training with a legend like McChesney wasn’t enough to outsmart or outwrestle The Fraternity and he was pinned for the three count. Though we may not agree with their antics, there’s a reason Decker and Gibson have been Tag Team Champions for nearly a year!
We already know that John McChesney will challenge Chris LeRusso for the Super Indy Championship next month at IWC Sixteen, but what’s next for Hooven? Will he return to his photography duties? Was this one match satisfying enough for him to say he lived his dream? Or will he use his friendship with IWC Owner Justin Plummer as a way to politic for another shot between the ropes? Time will tell!
Britt Baker continues her winning ways, successfully defending her IWC Women’s Championship against the debuting Katie Arquette. “The Queen of the Silver Screen” has gone through life always coming in second place and as her career progresses, she may in fact be able to overcome that constant disappointment. However, as far as this night goes she’d once again be in that all too familiar spot, tapping out to the Women’s Champion! With the Sixteenth anniversary show quickly approaching, who will be the next challenger attempting to dethrone the Mayor of Brittsburgh?
Remy LaVey and Keith Haught had a career year in 2016, gaining victory after victory and even becoming the IWC Tag Team Champions! For whatever reason however, in the early months of 2017 they’ve been unable to find that same magic they had one year earlier. At Proving Ground they teamed with Santana Diamonds to face off against Team Storm in a Six Man Tag Team Match. LaVey and Haught seemed to have great chemistry with Diamonds, having the momentum of the match in their favor early on. There is no substitute for experience, however. Jack Pollock has taken RC Dupree and Jaxon Argos under his wing and teaches them more and more each week. It was this leadership from Pollock, combined with distractions from “The Eccentric Artist” Dupree and the ever-running mouth of Argos that eventually was able to get Team Storm back on the offensive for the duration of the contest.
An eventual miscommunication between LaVey and Haught would lead to a rollup from Argos and a victory for Team Storm! After the match Remy voiced his frustration over the miscue, but Haught and Diamonds were able to calm him down and cooler heads prevailed. In a backstage interview after the match we saw that all was well between the former Tag Team Champions, but will they ever be able to reach the success they once had?
We first saw Calvin Couture last month at Reloaded in a backstage interview, which was interrupted thanks to an impromptu altercation between Andrew Palace and Team Storm. Couture took the delaying of his interview personally and demanded a match with Palace at Proving Ground! Challenging Palace might not have been the best idea for Couture in his debut match as the former two time Super Indy Champion quickly showed the rookie why he’s been the IWC Superstar of the year twice! It was clear whatever plan Couture had going into the match wasn’t working. He led Palace in a game of cat and mouse around the outside of the ring, but was eventually caught and nailed with a Hernia Driver for the pinfall! Now that Palace has put Couture behind him, will the much talked about rematch between he and Jack Pollock finally be made?
Chest Flexor and Lee Ryans were positive that Corey Futuristic’s new friend didn’t exist. In fact they were so sure they bet $4 on it! A friendly wager was agreed upon between The STD’s that stated if Cory could make his friend appear at Proving Ground and beat Flexor and Ryans, Corey would not only win the $4, but his friend could join The STD’s! With his reputation at stake, Corey showed up to Rural Valley and didn’t disappoint. To the surprise of the other STD’s, Corey’s friend did exist, and he was here!
Flexor and Ryans didn’t know what to make of Corey’s friend, Billy Ruxpen. He certainly was a huge man, but something seemed a little off… Sticking to the wager, Flexor and Ryans agreed to wrestle the match against the smallest STD and his bigger STD! Billy may not be the most technically sound wrestler, but he’s certainly big enough to make an impact. Ruxpen tossed Flexor and Ryans around the ring like they were children, all while Corey stood on the outside with a look of “I told ya so” on his face!
Overcome with excitement, Billy got lost in the moment, playing to the crowd long enough for Ryans to pin him from behind and get the three count. Corey looked disappointed, but Chest Flexor showed the ultimate sign of friendship between fellow STD’s and gave Corey the $4 anyway! Not only that, Flexor and Ryans also agreed to let Ruxpen join the group! A new STD has been discovered, and it’s the biggest, most unpredictable one yet.
Bulk Nasty isn’t an easy man to make friends with. The debuting Officer Dan Murphy realized this about five minutes into their Tag Team match when Bulk walked out on him and left ringside with manager BC Steele! If being left alone wasn’t bad enough for the debuting Ex-Policeman, his opponents across the ring were Bronco McBride and Marshall Gambino!
The veterans took pleasure in welcoming Murphy to the business in their own special way, picking up the win after beating the tar out of the Officer the way his perps wished they could have years ago! But if you’re Officer Dan what do you do now? Do you actually pursue the 300 pound “Human Crime Scene” and insert yourself in the business of BC Steele’s camp? Or do you count your losses, shake it off and move on? I know what I’d do…
In other action, Jinx was successful in her IWC debut, defeating “The Lost Girl” Samantha Heights. Though some may not place Jinx on the same level as Katie Arquette due to “The Queen of the Silver Screen” being placed in the Women’s Title Match over her, the ball may be in Jinx’s court. After all, she was the only new face to pick up a win in their debut at Proving Ground!
Next up on the IWC calendar is the Sixteenth Anniversary Show when we return to the Court Time Sports Center on March 11th. Already announced is Wardlow vs. DJZ for the IWC World Heavyweight Championship, as well as John McChesney challenging Chris LeRusso for the IWC Super Indy Championship! Keep visiting IWCwrestling.com as more matches and announcements will be made in the coming weeks!