Wrestling Review // IWTV 100 [8/8/21] @ H2O Wrestling Center, Williamstown, NJ

https://independentwrestling.tv/

 

There are two main problems that I had with the IWTV 100 show before it even started, which both had nothing to do with the show itself because these are things which could be said without actually having watched the show.   Firstly, we were about to go into our second show in the 140 degree H2O Center and I just wish that there was either an intermission or some way to not sweat so much in there.   Alas, it's more of a teaching moment for us (as fans) because I will still go to the H2O Center but we won't be doing any more doubleheaders there.  

My second problem with this show was that out of the 27 competitors featured on it only two were women.   When the first match was announced- Warhorse vs John Wayne Murdoch- I purchased tickets.   Then they announced the tag team match which featured the only two women on the show: Trish Adora and Kris Statlander.   And, let's be fair, Kris Statlander can be found all over IWTV if you do a search but she is more recently in AEW and so in a ~currently on IWTV~ sense the only woman who can really be featured is Trish Adora?

I'm not going to name any names because I don't know what the availability was like but if you have thousands upon thousands of hours of content on your streaming service but can only come up with two women to put on your show- to span the entire service and multiple promotions-then I don't know how to feel about that.   I love IWTV but maybe I've been watching it wrong since I see a show and think "I want to watch this because Jody Threat is on it!" or any number of other talented women who were just not here.   For me, the worst part is not that IWTV isn't representing more women but that for this particular show they weren't represented well and I know that's not what IWTV is about.

In between shows we were ushered out and it felt good to be outside in the not-so-hot weather.  We also had about two hours in between shows, so Jess, Quentin and I left to get food and came back.   What struck me as funny is that we got into line at around 4:30pm and they didn't start letting fans in until almost 4:45 with a 5:00 start time.   Once we got in we noticed ladders surrounding the ring.   This was my way of finding out that the H2O match was going to be for a briefcase which would allow the holder of it to get a future Indepedent Wrestling Title shot at a time and place of their choosing.

Look, I don't really watch H2O.  I watched one of their more recent shows where Kennedi Copeland defeated Jody Threat, but outside of that and the one show with Casanova Valentine on it going for a title shot I just haven't seen a lot of H2O.   I understand they have a lot of promising talent.   But I don't understand why someone like GG Everson- who I couldn't pick out of a line up- would potentially be in line for a title shot.  I know H2O loves these boys, but I'm talking about in the grand scale of things and how well known they are throughout all of independent wrestling.

I didn't know that Eric Martin and Kevin Blackwood were going to have a match and I really am still not sure as to who Eric Martin is.   But it is also worth noting at this time that there were little breaks in between the matches where they showed commercials for the viewers at home.  I'm not someone who has ever booked a wrestling show much less one for television, but wouldn't it have made more sense to save all of those advertisements for one spot to air and give us an intermission as opposed to this just minute or so of waiting around?   Aside from the heat I just get tired of sitting sometimes and need to stretch.

I enjoyed the six man tag team match if only because I got to see Jigsaw live and Hallowicked and UltraMantis Black again.   Richard Holliday, Alexander James and Logan Easton LaRoux have a good heel thing going and they quite possibly got the most heat of the entire night.  Kevin Ku vs Matt Makowski is a match I might have known was happening and forgot about but it was a good, hard-hitting match and one day I'd like to even see Matt Makowski find someone to tag with to take on Violence Is Forever.

Sometimes I feel like I'm nitpicking and I want someone to tell me "Oh, you're complaining just to complain" but when I saw Jonathan Gresham come out and he wasn't wearing the octopus gimmick as a mask I was disappointed.   I've been trying to think of a way to compare it but all I can think of is if we saw Bobby Orlando without Bobby Jr but that's way more offensive and Bobby Jr is more of a draw than the octopus mask so I don't know.   Would it be like seeing Jake Roberts without a snake?  Is that a fair comparison?

I was debating what would be the main event and I figured it had to be the title match but then I thought that the tag team match would come right before it.   We got the tag team match third from the end though and all four competitors were hugely over.  Though it has been said it needs to be emphasized that in this match the only person not to hold the Independent Wrestling Championship is Trish Adora and I feel like that is simply because she has not been given a shot.  Also it was funny to me that Orange Cassidy came out holding his jacket because of how hot it was.

Before this match started it was announced that it would not be intergender in the sense that when Trish Adora was in the ring she had to fight Kris Statlander and the same with the guys.  This was met with an overwhelming amount of boos and I, for one, wanted to see the men and women mix it up.   At the start of the match they seemed to follow the rules of one wrestler leaving because the other came in- pairing up guys with guys and gals with gals- but it eventually broke down to where it didn't matter and Orange Cassidy was kicking Trish Adora.  This was frustrating because why make the rule in the first place if you're not going to enforce it?  It just seemed like unnecessary heat. 

John Wayne Murdoch and WARHORSE had a great no DQ match which I felt like was the match of the night.   They had doors and thumbtacks, but still managed to make the match enjoyable and no DQ without going too far and making it feel like a death match.  It was also just good to see WARHORSE again because I hadn't seen him wrestle live since before the pandemic.  Same thing with JWM.

The main event was an interesting match because about halfway through it I realized it was going to the time limit draw.  I had told Jess that since they kept talking about the time, it was going to go the full 60 minutes.  I just thought that maybe afterwards Daniel Garcia would go for a handshake only to be attacked by Richard Holliday and company.   That didn't happen though.  I also thought Daniel Garcia might have gotten a three count but it was after time ran out so we'd get the "New champ! Haha jk" swerve, which I think is the Dusty Finish, right?

As the match went on I just became more and more convinced that it was going to end at the time limit draw and so every time there was a near fall or submission it took away that idea for me that it might end right there.   But, I have to respect both Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia for doing what they did not only for an hour but also for an hour in the 140 degree heat of the H2O Center.   Wrestling for 60 minutes is straining enough, I can't imagine doing it in what basically felt like if a sauna was stuck inside of a well heated room.

After the match, Marcus Mathers comes out to cash in the briefcase and is instead laid out by A Very Good Professional Wrestler.   I'm not sure if he lost his cash in opportunity since there was technically no pinfall (someone should have dragged Yuta onto the kid and had a ref count the three) but this just basically made something which just happened in the beginning of the show feel like a cruel joke by the end of it.  I'm not saying Marcus Mathers doesn't deserve a title shot, I'm just agreeing with AVGPW that he is at the end of a rather long line.

Along with AVGPW, Matt Makowski and Trish Adora were out there waiting for their shot.  This is, again, one of the reasons why I didn't understand the first match because it meant that someone like Ryan Redfield or Reid Walker was closer to getting a title shot than Trish Adora or Matt Makowski.   John Wayne Murdoch even came out and wanted his shot.   I could even argue that a number of other wrestlers who weren't on this show would be more deserving of a title shot than those in the opening match- a name like Bryan Keith comes to mind.

If I watched this IWTV 100 show on its own at home I would have enjoyed it a lot more.   But being there, in the heat, after the awesomeness of the Camp Leapfrog show, it just felt like something was missing from it.  The matches themselves and the wrestling wasn't bad it just didn't have the same vibe as the show before it or that I get from going to any other number of wrestling shows.   It might have been just me but it's how I felt.