IHWE Old School Hustle 2014
Earlier this year I attended Wrestlemania 30 in New Orleans – & while there we ended up attending alot of the indie-promotion events that surround Wrestlemania making it a week-long event. The first one was the reunion of the old Mid-South territory that was my life as a kid and I love that Jess can say that her first wrestling show ever was a Mid-South event just like mine. I hadn’t been to an indie wrestling event like that since the 1980’s when I was a kid. As much as we enjoyed the grandeur & spectacle of Wrestlemania that little indie show a few days before really bit us hard so when we returned to the DFW area we were hungry to be on the look-out for a local wrestling show we could enjoy and regaruly.
It took us a few months but then we heard about a local promotion called IHWE Wrestling who were going to put on a big show of their own at the end of the summer and the advertisements showed that two of my all-time favorites were being featured. Stan “The Lariat” Hansen & Jim Cornette, one of my ultimate faves from the old Mid-South territory!
IHWE Wrestling’s Old School Hustle – September 28th – Cendera Center – Fort Worth, TX
Thank goodness for the new HOV lanes on I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth or otherwise we would have missed the whole thing.
Hauling serious ass from the State Fair of Texas after a crazy weekend of activity (see last entry).
Sadly we did miss the pre-show Q&A with Jim Cornette and a few of the first matches, however what I didn’t know until I got there was that they were doing a marathon taping of over 8 hrs of footage to be spread out until next February and culminating with a DVD release so we still had a lot left to enjoy and I’ll look forward to seeing the DVD to capture what we missed.
1st match:
Joey Garcia vs. “Too Much Metal” Gregory James
Winner: Gregory James
2nd match:
Old School Assassins (“Bad” Brad Michaels & Striker) w/Ken Kelly vs. Ruben Rivera & Tex As Red
Winner: Rivera & Red
3rd match:
Submission Squad (Pierre Abernathy, Evan Gelistico & Gary Jay) vs. Team Texas (Thomas Shire, “The Unholy” Gregory James & Ashton Jacobs)
Winner: Team Texas
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4th match:
Seth Shai vs. Jiggle-O James Johnson
This is when we arrived and took our seats as the wrestlers were being introduced. For only $10 we were practically ringside and I had carte blanche to take photos right on the entrance ramp and on the ring apron during the action, something I didn’t take too much advantage of as I didn’t want to appear to abuse this priveledge.
Plus I wanted to enjoy the action as a fan and this was a great match.
Rick Manning from the old World Class Wrestling days was the referee so that was very satisfying to see. I wasn’t familiar with either wrestler but they both were great workers. The crowd kept chanting for Johnson but I thought they were saying “Gigolo” and then I understood they were saying “Jiggle” due to him being somewhat out of shape. I believe it’s meant as a term of endearment, not a taunt as we was clearly over with this crowd, whom I was already loving as they were actually BOOING the bad guys, and CHEERING the good guys like your supposed to do.
Winner: Johnson by dq
Next we were introduced to Karen Merritt who would present the award to the winner as the Queen of the Ring
5th match:
Delilah Doom & Peyton Gates vs. Miss Diss Lexia & Jessica James
Speaking of Mid-South when CWF had their Mid-South tribute show in New Orleans this year the women’s match was originally supposed to be (I believe)
Mickie James vs. Barbi Hayden that somehow through a weird devolvement of dysfunction became Angelina Love vs. Miss Diss Lexia
I was even happier with this result as Angelina is one of my all-time faves and since Disslexia was from Texas (and we hadn’t previously heard of her) it was fun to cheer on the underdog from our hometown. The two put on one of the better matches at the event, and I have been looking forward to seeing Diss Lexia wrestle again.
The stipulations were that the winner of the tag match would face their opponent. Lexia did most of the work & showing alot of confidence. Delilah Doom was great & did a lot of the bumping here. Finally Jessica tagged in while Lexia wasn’t looking. She came in and got the roll-up pin. It was now Miss Diss Lexia vs. Jessica James. And this is where the match got really good. Both of these ladies wrestled a match that was as good as anything you’d see on any card anywhere.
These two ladies tore the house down. I really likes Peyton Gates too –
6th match:
Tim Storm w/ Miss Tiffany vs. JT LaMotta
I really had no idea who either wrestler was but the crowd was really into it & JT LaMotta was super-over, lots of “Mind of Wrestling” chants. The highlight for me actually was that Tim Storm came to the ring with this super babe Miss Tiffany that ultimately helped his get the victory (& the morale one).
Next was the Hall of Fame Ceremony for “The Grappler” Len Denton (wearing his mask of course) that I was greatly anticipating. I love this sort of thing when their wrestlers are out of charachter and they are being truly honored in a non-worked environment. The ring was a who’s who of Texas wrestling history: James Beard, Rick Manning, Barbara Goodish (the widow of the late Bruiser Brody), Stan Hansen, Black Bart, & members of the Cauliflower Alley Club.
The CAC announced that Brody would be inducted into their next reunion in Las Vegas in 2015. Previous to a few months ago, somehow I had never heard of the CAC and all of the wonderful events and reunions they have organized over the years. It was through an amazing documentary on the legendary Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion they made me aware of what they do as it was through them that the girls got to have their own reunion. If you don’t know what CAC is, check them out (as well as that fantastic doc) as we are really looking forward to attending our first CAC event in Las Vegas next year.
They surprised Jim Cornette with his own induction and the whole thing was just an extraordinary moment.
Sadly as they were all walking to the back after, Barbara Goodish miss-stepped and tripped and fell off the stage and I had heard that she might have broken her ankle. Hopefully she was okay –
Just like in the old days, their was an intermission where you could take a break and not miss any of the matches along with a Meet ‘n’ Greet – All the wrestlers were great and enthusiastic to be there.
Naturally, being a Mid-South guy I wanted to meet Jim Cornette –
This has to be the most unfortunate pic of me ever taken, My head looks like a weird light bulb with (some) hair on it – I swear I don’t actually look like this.
In spite of that Cornette could not have been cooler and more generous and gracious. I met him briefly on the street in New Orleans after Jim’s Ross’s one-man show and again briefly at the Mid-South event the next night. Jessica was having trouble with the camera so we had to pose like that for close to a minute which is a life-time in terms of awkwardness. Cornette laughed and said “If you and have to stand like this together much longer we’re gonna have to get married” – I laughed so hard and my reply was “Jess, you don’t see what he’s doing with his other hand back here” to which Cornette howled with laughter at. A great moment and wonderful human being he is.
Jessica wanted to meet Delilah Doom who was also super cool –
After the intermission, they brought out Lance Hoyt. Hoyt/Vance Archer has wrestled in Texas for the greater part of 10+ years (give or take a few years). He talked about his long, storied career, some of the places he’s been and talked about what a wonderful night of action we were getting. He said he wanted the champ, didn’t matter who it was.
7th match:
Old School Assassinsw/Ken Kelly vs. Ruben Rivera & Khris Germany w/Kit Carson & Tex As Red
Again I had no idea who any of these participants were – If you wanted technical beauty, this was not your match. This was a crowd brawl, plain and simple. Khris Germany did a huge DDT to walk away with the victory. Winner: Rivera & Germany
David Fuller who I would come to know as the owner of the promotion came out with The Grappler to honor Khris Germany.
The Empire (Matt Riviera & Tim Storm) came out to interrupt them. “Why are you honoring the old people? Why not honor your present?” After a back and forth, the Empire attacked both of them. James Beard came in for the save but was quickly put away. That brought out Black Bart and then Gorgeous Gary Young for the save. After The Empire came out, Hoyt, Shire, Kyle O’Reilly, Charlie Haas all came out for the save.
Here is one of the only criticisms I had about the event is that an opportunity was squandered here as suddenly Fuller announced that champ Matt Riviera would face Thomas Shire that night, seemingly abandoning the Jim Cornette as guest commissioner angle.Cornette the veteran sensed this and interuppted to remind the fans that he was the guest commishioner and that he was going to be in Shire’s corner to counter-balance The Empire’s manager Boyd Bradford. Cornette was given a mic and he delivered in spades.
Ok so here is where we had to call it a night – we had already been here for almost 4 hours and that was after being at the Fair all day, but just so I don’t leave you hanging here are the results from the rest of the show from a very knowledgable young man I found online.
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8th match:
Franco D’Angelo vs. Mike Foxx
For those who have never followed the story of Franco D’Angelo, he suffered a life-threatening car wreck and was never expected to survive, much less walk, run, competitively body-build or wrestle in the ring. He refers to himself as the Bionic Beast. These two guys have faced each other so much it’s old hat. Foxx worked over the shoulder. Franco had him in the Boston Crab and Foxx was one tap away from losing. Then Seth Shai ran in to interfere. Then Jiggle-O came in to even the score.
New 8th match:
Mike Foxx & Seth Shai vs. Franco D’Angelo & Jiggle-O James Johnson
Now referee Rick Manning could have disqualified him, but no. In honor of the great Theodore Long, he made a tag match. Foxx and Franco went to the back. Johnson climbed up the top rope and was about to hit the O-Face on Shai. Shai pushed Rick Manning into the ropes and Johnson lost his balance. Shai did a Northern Lights Suplex off the top rope to get the win – Winner: Foxx & Shai
9th match:
Mat Fitchett vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Winner: O’Reilly
10th match:
Americos (c) vs. Charlie Haas for the DFW Championship
You have an established top name talent going up against a kid who is on his way to being one. There were dueling “Americos” and “Haas” chants.
Haas ended up with the win.
Winner and new DFW champion: Haas
Main event: Matt Riviera (c) w/ The Empire vs. Thomas Shire w/Jim Cornette for the IHWE championship
As the match reached its climax, Riviera gave him every move and Shire kept kicking out.
Shire was able to pull off the upset win and win the belt.
Winner and new champion: Shire
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Now back to my feedback – This is how it should be, and I’m not trying to sound like some old curmudegeon that just wants things to stay the same. I’m greatly entertained by the WWE product and others with big production value, but this is where and what I come from. A southern, regional promotion where you can still see 10 matches for $10 bucks and meet the wrestlers during intermission. Awesome –
Thank you to all the wrestlers and talent who contributed to making this an incredible night. We will be back –
Photos –
Roy Turner
