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| The Aftermath Of A War Photo by Paul Stratoti |
Hello blog readers. Long time no see. Yes, it has definitely
been a while since I took the time to type some of my heads inner workings onto
here. I wont come up with some elaborate excuse as to why I haven’t posted. My
schedule has been ridiculously crazy and I have been doing a lot of cool
things, so much so that I haven’t shown this blog any love in a while. First of
all, I got to write for an awesome website called “The Mandible Claw”, curated
by the great Danielle Matheson. I also wrote an excerpt for Danielle’s
acclaimed “Best & Worst Of TNA Impact” column for With Leather. So go check
out both of those through the links below, especially “The Mandible Claw”,
which features tons of amazing pieces from awesome people. I am still in shock
that a couple paragraph piece I wrote about the douchebag “Say Something” guy
is on the same website where Chikara’s Ophidian listed his Top 5 bad horror
movies. It’s a weird dream of mine that I never thought existed until now. But,
the point is, I am here now and I cannot wait to keep writing. So let’s jump
right into it.
I have mentioned before on this blog about Absolute Intense
Wrestling out of the Cleveland area, and how great they have become at
releasing a steady stream of content to their audience through Youtube and
other forms of social media. Too many companies fail to embrace their internet
community by dolling out content, whether it is in-ring action, promos, teasers
etc. But AIW has made sure to not shy away from releasing tons of great videos
for their fans, and as of late they have released a couple of full matches from
their past events. I gave them a watch and I thought they would be perfect
discussion topics for another edition of “What Wrestlefan Watched”.
The first match I witnessed was released by AIW to hype
their most recent “Girls Night Out 8” event, which from what I hear was a giant
success with it being AIW’s first iPPV. So as a treat, the company released the
match between American turned Joshi stars Hailey Hatred & Jenny Rose from
“Girls Night Out 6”. I have seen very little of both Hatred and Rose but they
definitely opened my eyes with this encounter. This was the first appearance
for Jenny Rose in AIW, which made it very difficult for the crowd to get behind
her in the early goings, since she would be facing home grown talent in Hatred.
Both ladies are the definition of “hard-hitters”, providing some cringe worthy
moments, including one of the hardest short arm clotheslines from Hatred that I
have seen in a while. Both competitors switched throughout between striking and
technical wrestling, and after a series of near falls, Hatred was able to put
away Rose with a nasty tiger suplex.
I must first note that this was a highly enjoyable match
with both Hatred shining and Rose impressing. Both gave it their all and did
their best of integrating the Joshi style, that the two have mastered in Japan,
into AIW. That being said, as much as I truly enjoyed this matchup, I do think
it was made apparent by the crowd in attendance for this match that it is going
to be extremely difficult for that Joshi style of wrestling to be as respected
in America as it is in Japan. Now, companies like Shimmer, NCW Femme Fatales,
ACW and others have been able to incorporate the more hard-hitting style of
wrestling that is evident in Joshi wrestling and fans have eaten it up. But, I
must note how disheartening it was to hear fans yell “Beat that bitches ass”
and “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry”. And no, they weren’t referring to the former ECW
star that recently retired. As much as I want to hope and believe that more
progressive fans will outweigh these types of fans, I don’t think we will see
it happening. Oh, and whoever was in the crowd making fun of Jenny Rose’s
battle cries during the match, you aren’t helping.
Then, I had the pleasure of witnessing a match that occurred
back at AIW’s “They Live” event in 2011, between AR Fox and Uhaa Nation. It was
around this time that Nation started to become the name that everyone needed to
know if you followed independent wrestling. However, not too long after this,
Nation was sidelined with a knee injury that took him out for over a year, an
injury that many thought would be career threatening. Luckily, Uhaa just returned
this past month to wrestling action and I have to say if this match was a
showing of what Uhaa brings to the table, I have to see more. For those that
don’t know, Uhaa Nation is 240 pounds, in great physical shape and is somehow
able to bust out moonsaults and shooting star presses. His vertical leap is
seriously astonishing and he does a great job of mixing both the agile
maneuvers in with straight power and force. He doesn’t use the fact that he can
do flips as a crutch. He flips when it matters and does the things that make
fans go wild sparingly enough so that they mean something. Also, what more can
a person on the internet say about how awesome AR Fox is. Everything he does is
so crisp and deliberate, and it makes him one of the main reasons why I even
somewhat pay attention to companies like CZW or Dragon Gate USA.
If there is anything that I can critique about this match,
it has to be the commentary. Now, normally AIW’s commentary team doesn’t do
anything to bother me. But there were points within this match where they got
so caught up in the feuding between the announcers that they missed stuff like
Uhaa busting out a standing moonsault, to the point that Gregory Iron had to
steer the talk back on track. Commentary all around in pro wrestling needs a
serious overhaul. I remember hearing Brandon Stroud mention on the Mandible
Claw podcast of how he desires for indie companies to produce their DVD’s with
no commentary, because he would rather watch the match, listen to the crowd and
have the wrestlers tell the story rather than hear the commentators make jokes
and get in the way. I can’t help but agree, especially with the storytelling
aspects. I think people have unrightfully lost a great deal of confidence in
wrestlers to tell the story that is occurring in the ring, that they feel
commentary to be a necessity. The fact is that it really isn’t. Don’t get me
wrong. Good commentary in pro wrestling is a possibility. But more times than
not, two people are brought in to do commentary because a company thinks they
need it, and it takes away more than it gives. I think some indies should
experiment with at least providing an option on their DVD’s where you can watch
without commentary, because I believe there is a market of people out there
like me, who just want to watch the match and let it evoke an emotion without
someone telling me what emotion to have.
Well, overall I encourage anyone to watch both of these
matches, follow all four of these great athletes in all they do in pro
wrestling and check out more of Absolute Intense Wrestling. I have actually
ordered a couple of DVD’s from them and I can’t wait to give them a watch and
see more of what AIW has to offer. After seeing the stuff they provide for
free, it looks promising.
Until then,
Eamon
@TheWrestlefan
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