#IHWE

Wrestlemania 32 Week Part 1: IHWE & NWA Parade of Champions

Wrestlemania had finally come to Dallas. The 32nd installment of the annual spectacle, that has become a week-long celebration that includes community outreach events, a Fan Fest, a Hall of Fame induction ceremony & much more.
Orbiting that is the entire wrestling community – having the global wrestling audience literally all in one place, it’s the perfect destination for anyone currently or ever associated with wrestling to book appearances or their own events, creating a packed schedule that hemmorages the host city for fans to gorge on for almost an entire week.

NWA/IHWE Parade of Champions – March 31st – Ridglea Theatre – Fort Worth, TX

Starting things off was a local promotion IHWE – Partnering with the NWA in it’s current incarnation to put on the first (& one of the best) events all weekend long.
Designed as a continuation of a tradition in tribute to (pre-Wrestlemania 32) the largest & most notorious wrestling event in Texas history – the Parade of Champions in 1984 to honor the late David Von Erich who had just passed earlier that year to honor the eldest brother of the Von Erichs, the most famous wrestling family in Texas wrestling history.
This would be my third IHWE event as I found something of a kindred spirit in promoter David Fuller as we share the same grassroots upbringing & passion for 80’s style wrestling & nostalgia. Listeners of our TrickyKid Radio Podcast will tell you that we’ve been hyping/supporting this event for weeks leading up to it.

What got me to my first IHWE event a few years ago was an appearance from the legendary Jim Cornette – One of the most unforgettable characters & outspoken managers ever to do it. Leading the Midnight Express during their classic feud with my favorite tag-team of all time the Rock N Roll Express, perfectly frames my favorite time in pre-Wrestlemania wrestling history & the time of my childhood I’m most nostalgic for.
So I was very excited to learn that Cornette was returning to start the program with a 2-hr No-Holds-Barred Q&A.

Jim Cornette

Fearless in his opinion and notorious for his full disclosure, Cornette wove irresistable tales filled with insider information the older fans crave.
It was laced with too much profanity for my taste as I will always equate Cornette with my 9 yr old self and like to keep it that way haha.
At times it devolved into more complaining and he seemed bitter and came off the rails a bit of “Adults arguing over a “fake” sport” but it was consistently entertaining & at times downright fascninating.

Making it all the more special was that the Q&A was moderated by legendary journalist & wrestling historian Bill Apter, who also conducted some of the backstage promos and was honored himself later in the show as he was (rightfully & deservedly) inducted into the Southern Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Bill Apter (left w/ Bobby Fulton)
& (right w/ Steve Anthony)

Apter’s contributions to Professional Wrestling can’t be overstated and I couldn’t even begin to exagerate the influence Inside Wrestling, The Wrestler & the flagship Pro Wrestling Illustrated had on me as a young person. I used to pour over them memorizing entire issues. Since the local paper didn’t recognize wrestling as a legitimate sport they didn’t report on it and this being pre-internet, the ONLY WAY to follow along was through the magazines. This was during the territory days of the 1980s and if you lived outside the territory it was the only way to know what was happening in other parts of the country. They were essential to the wrestling experience and hunting down new issues and agonizing over them for hours are some of my favorite memories ever as a child.
Apter just released a book Is Wrestling Fixed? – I didn’t know it was Broken detailing his unparalleled career documenting pro wrestling.
I was gifted a copy last month by my mother for my birthday that Bill took great care to personalize for me and wish me a Happy Birthday.
One of the secrets to Apter’s success is he is as kind as he is generous with his time. We hope to soon have Mr. Apter as a guest on TrickyKid Radio – stay tuned.

Ok,so on to the matches – this card was stacked and easily the best produced event this promotion as undertook to date.
Held in the perfect choice of venue the historic Ridglea Theatre where I’ve seen literally dozens of concerts.
It was perfect fit for the action that just had magic in the air from start to finish.

Americos challenging Ashton Jacobs for the IHWE Championship

Battle Royal to determine No. 1 Contender for NWA National Title

NWA Women’s Champion Amber O’Neal defending her title vs. Jessica James (w/ Special Guest referee Veda Scott)

The Woman’s Title event mirrored Wrestlemania as it was one of, if not THE best match of the night. Both competitors put on an amazing bout and added with the star power of Ring of Honor & Shimmer sensation Veda Scott put it totally over the top.

INTERMISSION

One of the things I love most about these local independent shows is that they take an intermission like when I was a kid.
During that time they have a mini-fanfest with tables setup in the back for the performers to sell their merch and for the fans to meet the wrestlers.

Jim Cornette

He may be outspoken and ornery as hell but it would be difficult to find a nicer and more welcoming personality than Cornette especially with the fans.
Gracious with his time and always grateful for the support and the attention.

Current IHWE Ring Announcer Travis Baxter w/ the voice of World Class Championship Wrestling Mark Lowrance (left)
& me fanboying out with Bill Apter blessing my mother’s birthday gift with a personalized note (right)

Women’s Wrestling – 

As I mentioned above, Women’s Wrestling was proudly represented at this event with some great talent. As any reader of this site knows that for the most part Women’s Wrestling thanks to the unbelievable talent uprising of the last 5 years has become my favorite aspect of the sport. If I were to list who I believe are the best wrestlers in the world currently, regardless of gender, more than half would be women.

Veda Scott (left)
& April Hunter (right)

Merica Strong (left)
& Hannah Michelle (right)

Merica Strong made quite the impact and was one of the most talked about performers of the event.
In the very first bout of the evening she turned heads & dropped jaws with a powerful presence casting a tall imposing shadow reminisecnt of Chyna (RIP).

Getting some advice from Ricky Morton (one half of the aforementioned Rock N Roll Express, my all-time fave tag team – left)
& Though she was only accompanying a tag-team to the ring, all eyes were on her (right)
She has all the tools & the perfect look for longevity in this industry, we hope to have her as guest on TrickyKid Radio soon – stay tuned.

The Main Event – NWA World Heavyweight Title Bout

Jax Dane (w/ Black Bart) defends against Charlie Haas (w/ Jim Cornette)

A great match loaded with star power to cap off an already incredible card filled with immense talent that kept that special vibe that it was all coming together.
Jim Cornette returned with NWA Champion Jax Dane to defend his title against former WWE Superstar Charlie Haas.

Dane had wrestling legend Black Bart in his corner that gave the match & show that great traditional feel it was going for.
Even Rick “The Sign Guy” Achberger was in the house (in the front row as per usual).

Only in wrestling could a fan get over as big as the performers. Opposite Achberger was another fan, Masanori Horie, who readers of Mick Foley’s books might remember. I didn’t know who he was till I saw him backstage later and got him & his girl a cab back to their hotel. I saw them come in & get ushered to ringside seats like royalty & I’m thinking this some Japanese wrestling legend only to find out that he’s more infamous than famous.
No disrespect but only in wrestling would that happen and that’s part of it’s charms.

Haas playing a great heel was once one half of “The World’s Greatest Tag Team” under the tutelage of Kurt Angle in the WWE.
He is often taunted that the other half of the team, Shelton Benjamin was much better as an on going gag.
Fed up with these taunts, Haas decides to bail on the match…..

….when as he is now being forced to walk back through the curtain (backwards) we see that’s it’s unthinkably Shelton Benjamin that’s forcing him back to the ring in that amazing old school 80’s wrestling that gave the fan the notion that literally anything could happen.
It sent shock waves through the entire building who responded with the preferred wrestling exclamation chant – “HOLY SHIT!”
Freaking glorious and just put the event that much over the top.
Congratulations to David Fuller & IHWE along with the NWA for putting on such a great event to start Wrestlemania weekend.

Epilogue:

After the show I went backstage to thank David Fuller and got sidetracked getting a cab for Horrie (see above) you could hear Cornette a mile away going off on one of his notorious rants. I turned the corner to see literally the contents of the entire locker room cramming in to get an earful.
I had no idea what or whom he was going on about but it was such a great moment, thinking like a photographer I wanted to capture it.

Shelton Benjamin (left)
& when Jim Cornette speaks – EVERYONE listens (right)

With my SLR camera’s battery long dead from shooting for over 10 hrs I just simply took out my cell phone that was almost just as dead & snapped off a couple of quick shots, determined not to ruin, compromise of interrupt this great moment. When Benjamin sees my cell phone & as I’m putting it back in my pocket, he begins to demand I delete it. Confused, I stalled to get clarity when he starts yelling at me to delete it.
Again, being naive I had no idea that he thought I was one of those parasites that records celebrity conversations when they find themselves dining next to them or some shit. Ironically, Cornette grabs me and shouts “Nooo, don’t delete it, I want the whole world to know what I just said!”.

I explained to them both that:
A) I didn’t record anything as that would be freaking creepy.
B) I had no idea about literally ANYTHING they were talking about

Shelton was cool after that but it was a tense moment. Good times.

Don’t miss IHWE’s next big event on May 29th in Crowley, TX

Photos –

Roy Turner
Andy Landauno

​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 –

Ultimately the victor was our girl Miss Diss Lexia who was crowned at Queen of the Ring –

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.

_____

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.

Cornette was out there to equalize the threat of Boyd Bradford. I was waiting for the Empire’s manager to interfere so I could watch Cornette get involved.

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