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NUTS & BOLTS: LOOKING AT THE IWA-MIKE LEVY INCIDENT, PORTUGAL, LOTS OF NWA UPDATES, VAN HAMMER, INDIANA FUNDRAIDER & MORE

MORE ON THE MIKE LEVY INCIDENT

I had a chance to finally see the tape of the IWA Queen of the Death Matches tournament incident where North Carolina indy wrestler Mike Levy was pretty much beaten to a pulp by several IWA Mid-South personalities, including Ian Rotten, Tank, Devon Moore and even Rotten's son following Levy's loss to Mickie Knuckles in the tournament.  I expect as the tape makes the rounds, it's going to be ammunition for those who don't like Rotten and honestly, he gave them that ammunition. 

It's a brutal, brutal scene and it appears to have been done for two reasons.  One, because Levy (booked into the female Death Match tournament as a substitute) had an exchange of stiff shots with Knuckles during thier bout that ended up leaving her a goose egg on her forehead, which obviously enraged the locker room since Knuckles had just gotten her shot at being on national TV from TNA.  The other, secondary reason was that Levy, who had tried to use YouTube.com promos to make a name for himself going into the show, was absolutely terrible (Moore and Rotten at different times yell at Levy to "Learn to sell" and "Stay down") so he was being taught a "school of hard knocks" lesson. 

Now, whether that lesson went too far is probably going to differ depending on your point of view.  I can see and understand why some fans have been tearing apart Rotten over the incident.  Levy basically took a beating with barbed wire, sticks and some sickening stomps into a ladder, without protecting himself from a bunch of wrestlers that obviously couldn't have cared less about his well being in the moment because they were so mad. 

There have been a few wrestlers that work the indy scene on varying levels that absolutely buried the incident to me.  There was talk about some talents canceling their IWA bookings, but my gut feeling is that probably won't happen, at least long term. 

One veteran who's been around and has worked for WWF told me the incident, minus the barbed wire weaponry, wasn't any worse than dozens of similar incidents done to "protect the business" that used to take place in the territory days over the years when a rookie or outsider made the business look bad.  The only difference was, those usually took place behind the protective veil of the locker room door.  This one took place before the fans to watch and pop for seeing the jabroni get his head handed to him.  It was probably safer for Levy that it took place inside the ring before the video cameras that were rolling, and that was including the shots Levy took that he never saw coming.

Personally, my feeling is you had a bunch of pissed off wrestlers who were mad one of their own could have  her chance at the big time blown by someone who was never going to be able to get to that level and at the same time was trying to make a name for himself at her expense.  The caveat there is the stiffing was going on from both sides and it's not like Knuckles was a punching bag for the guy.  

Still, while chances are most of those involved at least privately regretted it afterwards, but I'm sure their belief was they were getting him back for Knuckles while protecting the business.  I don't know that I agree with their point of view, but I can understand it and honestly, if this was a story about Dick Murdoch beating the living piss out of some rookie in Texas in 1978 for exposing the business, I think a lot of the fans who are upset would instead be loving the story.

Shortly after the incident last month, IWA promoter Ian Rotten responded to initial reports of the incident, writing, "If you want the real story, buy the DVD. The kid got an ass whipping for what I, and many others, feel was all the right reasons. He did not go to the hospital. As a matter of fact, he came back after getting cleaned up to watch the rest of the show. He was told he would be brought back and was grateful for that so I guess he could not be too bad off.  I promise, he's face does not look anywhere near as bad as Mickie's does these morning. The kid was not beat up as people are putting it. If he was beat up by the wrestlers who were out there, he be lying in a hospital bed right now. End of story!"

I was told by one reader that Rotten has since responded to the criticisms levied towards his company on the www.czwfans.com board, but I was unable to find his comments.

Should the incident have ever happened?  No.  Did it make IWA look bad?  In my opinion, yes.  Do I at least understand the mindset behind it?  Yes.   Does that make it right?  Of course not.

BOLTS

The National Wrestling Alliance "Showcase TV" series is expected to start taping again in late August or early September.  The NWA is trying to put some deals in place to bring greater awareness to the series and the brand overall, which is one of the reasons they are working currently with Ring of Honor.

The NWA events promoted by Dave Marquez have a house show announced for 8/26 in Houston, TX at the Arena Theater.  There is a 25% off Ticketmaster code that you can use - the code being NWA26.