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I attended the IWF show here in Mesa, AZ and all I can say to sum it up was it was simply amazing. Although they had some setbacks in just getting the show and the venue finalized and only having about 2 weeks to promote the show, there was about 500 fans or so. If they had more time to promote it, there probably would've been double that. The last IWF show was back in May of last year, and a lot has changed since then. A lot of new, great talent were on the show, and it looks like IWF is finding its identity. I think they should keep doing shows at the AZ Events Center, if they were able to book a date for IWF on such short notice I'd probably give them the courtesy of keep doing shows there. In many ways its similar to the old ECW arena.
As I'm writing most of this from memory I'll just go over highlights and sum up the matches. Some of the matches for the tournament might be out of order, I apologize in advance.
Angelo Trinidad from PWG was the ring announcer, which earned him a nice pop to open the show.
It opened with a bonus dark match between Kevin Kross and Evan Daniels(I believe that's his name). It was a pretty solid match up and got the crowd warmed up pretty well. Kross won with a Katahajime, aka Tazmission.
Then the tournament for the title started off.
Uhaa Nation vs. Matt Sydal
A lot of great action between the two of them. My first time really getting to see Uhaa's work, and he's an amazing talent. He beat Sydal with a great Moonsault into a Shooting Star combo. Uhaa advances.
Chris Hero vs. ACH
This was a very fun match between the two. At one point ACH did a big dive to the outside and ended up taking a seat on my lap for the fun of it, so I had a little fun with him, lol. Maybe he knew I was a big Hero fan. Hero picked up the win to advance to the next round.
Drew Galloway vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Galloway started off on the mic and really did a great job of putting IWF over and giving the company some respect. I couldn't hear everything because the crowd was very loud and into everything that was going on, but he said something along the lines of how he really went out of the way to be here due to all of his commitments overseas, and I'm sure IWF went out of their way to get him as well, considering the tournament was titled 'The Chosen One'. Galloway defeated Ciampa in another really good match. He advances to the next round.
Biff Busick vs. Brian Cage w/Stu Stone
Stu Stone did a lot of amazing work at ringside, really just one of the best, most underrated managers in wrestling today. It was a really good back and forth match up. Cage had a lot of demonstrations of power that really popped the crowd. Cage got the win and advanced. The four way elimination match up will now be between Brian Cage, Drew Galloway, Chris Hero and Uhaa Nation.
Matt Cage vs. Jacob Austin Young.
These two had a really good match up, both of them are from Vegas and representing some of FSW's finest. The crowd loved to pick on Jacob the whole match. Cage got the win over JAY.
They had a segment where they were going to give away some shirts and got a couple kids into the ring with two of the refs, but it was interrupted by Joey Ryan. This was Joey at his sleaziest and finest, much like you would see in PWG. He gave a girl his lollipop and herpes in the process. Shaun Ricker came out and had some fun on the mic as well. They fought and I believe Ricker picked up the win.
The next match for me was the match of the night.
The Young Bucks vs. Trevor Lee and Shane Strickland
I think it was fair to say the Bucks were a little bit over. Those 4 guys tore the roof off the place, and its possible Trevor Lee and Shane Strickland were elevated another level after this match. The Bucks hit their normal spots(minus MBFYB) and hit some spots I've never seen before. The crowd ate this entire match up. The bucks also came out to the Bullet Club theme instead of their old music. The Bucks hit the Meltzer driver for the win. Or as Dave Scherer would proudly yell "Melllttttzeeerrrrrrrr Driverrrrrrr". The crowd surrounded the ring slamming their hands down on the canvas in a pretty cool moment. All of them had a standing ovation and even had a 'That was awesome' chant after they were all in the back.
The main event was next.
Brian Cage (who had the least amount of rest time) vs. Drew Galloway vs. Chris Hero vs. Uhaa Nation.
This match quickly escalated into a wild brawl around the arena with Hero and Nation fighting to the right and Cage and Galloway fighting up the left. Some of the scenes were a bit hard to follow as I ended up following Hero and Nation as they went out the doors near the bar. Hero threw Nation into the women's rest room and shut the door to get a nice pop.
Then as I turned around I saw Galloway hitting Cage with a trash can. Prior to that Cage threw Galloway over the bar and knocked some drinks over. It was very wild brawl that had the entire audience swarming around them across the arena. It eventually went back into the ring. Hero was eliminated first, and Nation was eliminated shortly thereafter. Galloway and Cage squared off for a bit and had a really nice bout with the both of them getting in a lot of great action. Cage ended up picking up the win and becoming the NEW IWF World Champion.
After the match, Galloway was a little frustrated and started throwing chairs toward Brian Cage, which will hopefully set up the card for the next events to come.
Some important notes to come away from the show is that the crowd really loved and respected the great wrestling from all of the guys on the show. Every single match on the show was top notch, and the guys took time to say hi and talk to the fans that stayed afterward. I talked to all of them after and they were all class acts. I bought a Young Bucks shirt and they autographed it for me. They are two of the nicest and most humblest guys I've ever met. Everyone was very accessible, I didn't say a whole lot to the guys, but I had to admire their love for the business and the fans. Hopefully the IWF will continue to run shows and do them on a regular basis. The wrestlers worked extra hard, and considering most of them have some pretty big shows on the east coast throughout the weekend, none of them looked like they were trying to save some energy or not risk any potentially dangerous spots. The hotter the crowd got, the more high risk the guys went and continued to feed off the electricity.
In terms of audience, it was more heavily 18-30 male crowd at this show compared to the previous 2. I hope they continue to run this venue and carve out a niche. Much like the former ECW arena, this venue also does a lot of boxing events.
If there is one suggestion I could make, is I would move the hard cam to the wall where there was hardly any seats and put it on a riser or platform instead of having it on the stage. I'm sure the footage would turn out better being in closer proximity to the ring and lights and put the announce table on stage right. That way when the fan at home watches it, it wouldn't look like there was only people on two sides of the ring and it would look like a more packed house.
Final note: Great event, Great wrestling, Great crowd interaction. The most fun I've had at a wrestling show, with some of the greatest wrestlers on the scene today. Hopefully this write up of the show didn't seem too convoluted and hard to follow. And unless the IWF announces a show between now and March 1st, my next show I'll be going to will be the ROH PPV in Las Vegas where I'll be front row to see some of these amazing guys that I just saw here tonight.
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