Jetlag

Here are some of the biggest drawing indy shows of the 2010s and 2000s according to genickbruch. WWNlive in China Day 4 (China) 11/16/2014 - 10,500 - main event: Johnny Gargano vs. Ricochet FMLL @ Los Angeles 1/26/2013 - 7,000 - main event: trios match feat. La Par-K, Hijo del Santo, Dr. Wagner Jr Clash of the Legends 4/27/2007 - 6,000 - main event: Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Wight NWA New Jersey / NWA Pro 6/27/2009 - 5,500 main event: Apolo vs. Dimitrious Papadon Memphis Wrestling Throwback Night 2 2004 - 5,000 - main event: tag featuring Terry Funk, Jimmy Hart, Jerry Lawler and some non-wrestler Clash of the Legends @ Midsouth Coliseum 6/15/2001 - 4,700 - main event: Jerry Lawler vs. Lord Hugh Mungus WrestleCade 2016 11/26/2016 - 4,000 - main event: Matt Hardy vs. Ryback Show @ Chicago 2/17/2013 - 3,500 - main event: trios match feat. La Par-K, Hijo del Santo, Blue Demon Jr. RoH Supercard of Honor XI - 3,500 - main event: Young Bucks vs. Hardy Boyz NEW Wrestling under the Stars - 3,341 - main event: Young Bucks vs. Alberto El Patron & Rey Mysterio Show @ Chicago 1/23/2011 - 3,000 - main event: Hijo del Santo & Hijo del Rey Mysterio vs. Piloto Suicida & Imagen Nocturno APW Cow Palace Royal 2017 - 3,000 - main event: Cody Rhodes vs. Joey Ryan NEW Wrestling under the Stars 2016 - 2,800 - main event: Cody Rhodes vs. Kurt Angle The site also lists a show headlined by Scott Steiner in Aruba drawing 11,000, altough not sure how much truth there can be to that Verdict: they can do it if they manage to get El Hijo del Santo, La Par-K, Scott Steiner, Jerry Lawler, Matt Hardy, Hulk Hogan and Apolo or some comparable Puerto Rican star and run the show in a city where many puerto ricans and latinos live aswell as get a shitload of legends to do autograph signings. Or maybe just stop running these stupid supercards in an oversaturated market and find a new country to do business in.

Needs more hideous color formating for authenticy. Good job otherwise

IBA Infoletter #1 The IBA has taken up business operations. Sponsors have been found and a TV deal with one of the many emerging private TV broadcasters has been made. IBA will be taping a weekly studio show ("Total Catch") for a 50 minute late night time slot in front of a small audience, aswell as run several houseshows in the surrounding towns of Hamburg, building up to a monthly big show in Hamburg. Houseshows will be taped using 1-2 cameras and production of commercial tapes is considered. Regional newspapers and a few national news outlets have run stories on the new wrestling organisation and conducted interviews with Sven Hansen and Peter William. Both emphasize the legitimacy of the sport. When asked why a legit sports organization would air on a private channel along with raunchy gameshows ( ), the reply was that only the new private broadcasters are adventurous enough to showcase the "brutal and entertaining sport", while the traditional governmental TV stations are too "fruity" to risk upsetting their audience. When asked who the potential new breakout wrestling stars would be, Peter William mentions Steve Regal, 2 Cold Scorpio and Tom Magee. A local TV station ran a short documentary on the belgian born and residing in germany former champ Franz van Buyten, who is currently training for the initial IBA events. Van Buyten acknowledges that he is aging but will give his all in order to make both his countries proud. He also mentions that middle european generally stick together, and middle european audiences generally cheer any wrestler regardless of their nationality as long as he fights fair and brave. Also mentioned in the documentary are Terry Rudge, Greg Valentine and Klaus Wallas, which Van Buyten calls some of the fiercest competitors in the game. Clips of Greg Valentine breaking someone's leg in a US match are shown. A Hamburg newspaper ran a brief interview with a local Hotel owner, who was tasked by IBA organizers with housing their international superstars. The Hotel owner describes the difficulty of this, as some wrestlers come from countries with "very strange customs", and many wrestler are eccentrics, not to mention the hostilities between them. He explains he had to run background checks on each wrestler and split them into two groups which he placed in different hotels each, hoping everyone will get along this way.

It says a lot about me that this was one of the few 2017 wrestling matches that I could stomach or care to watch. Yes, this sluggish in parts and largely consists of appealing to the crowd. Super Muneco looks really bad, but then, that dude always sucked, and Raton and Pinocho are still absolute workrate machines. Something that is often misunderstood: Formulas don't have to be boring. Yes, you know roughly what's gonna happen, that there will be lots of technico shine and fooling the rudos here, but these guys all have so much stuff they can do and mix up you never know what's exactly gonna happen. So any unexpected turn and twist of events ends up adding to the enjoyment and contributing to the structural whole. Mr. Condor is hilarious in this match, bumping himself and pinching Pinocho in the nose as a dick move. Gallego has a really nice slap and headbutts. Raton is fat as fuck but can still spin around into armdrags and Pinocho is a damn maniac, has always been. Rocky Santana is still referred to as the Mexican Onita in 2017. Yes they're all fat and OLD~! but still able to engross their audience with the same tricks as 27 years ago. I rate this 6,26 stars.

Roland Bock was a former olympic-level amateur who quit the real fighting after he had a nervous breakdown and blundering his chance at the olympics. He got into pro wrestling for a quick buck and "not wanting to be there" pretty much sums him up. He used to run his own wrestling shows where he main evented against a bear and all that crap. Of course the japanese loved him for his uncooperative bullshit.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, the IBA (Internationale Berufsringkampf Agentur) vows to bridge old school european wrestling between the 80s and 90s. Having signed top tier wrestling talent from more than 12 nations, the goal is to run a series of events across the surroundings of Hamburg and Lower Saxony. A variety of prizes lure the aspiring wrestlers to make their mark in top notch wrestling contests and tournaments for the entertainment of the highly educated and critical local german audience. Ruleset IBA have introduced a unique ruleset which functions as a hybrid between european and international wrestling styles. Matches are 2/3 falls (with the exception of some preliminary and special contests), KO may end the match immediately. Wrestlers may receive yellow or red cards for lesser or greater fouls. Special stipulation matches may be granted upon request to the matchmaker. Official Roster Heavyweights Steven Regal (England) Tarzan Goto (Japan) Headhunter A (Dom. Republic) Headhunter B (Dom. Republic) Greg Valentine (USA) Franz van Buyten (Belgium/Germany) Kim Duk (S. Korea) Tom Magee (Canada) Klaus Wallas (Austria) Indio Guajaro (Colombia) Canek (Mexico) *Per special agreement, Headhunters will both represent Dominican Republic and F. Van Buyten will represent both Belgium and Germany, Middleweights Masayoshi Motegi (Japan) Emilio Charles Jr. (Mexiko) Mile Zrno (Croatia) Franz Schumann (Austria) Blue Panther (??????) Lightning Kid (USA) Marty Jones (England) Dave Morgan (Wales) Jörg Chenok (Germany) 2 Cold Scorpio (USA) Terry Rudge (England) *per special agreement, Middleweights may move up to heavyweight division upon request Trainee: Markus Buchholz (Germany) Staff Ring Announcer: Manfred Koch Head Referee: Mick McMichael Matchmaker / Spokesperson: Peter William Promoter / Spokesperson: Sven Hansen Business will pick up soon.

Wrestle Dream Factory or Yume Factory, a micro-indy that split off from SPWF (which split off from SWS, which split off from AJPW). Masakazu Fukuda, Fugofugo Yumeji, Onryo and others came from there. They had some pretty good cards for a shitty indy led by drunkard Shinichi Nakano and Masayoshi Motegi.

JIP into a wristlock and they move right into trading impact moves. Some nifty spots before Jumbo wins the 1st fall with a series of high knees leading to big one off the top. 2nd fall Jumbo immediately continues working over Billy's neck with knees and elbows and also chopping the hell out of him. Jumbo controls for more than 10 minutes including lots of chinlocks and headlocks and Billy sells that he's DEAD. Billy eventually gets out of the headlock and repays Jumbo good, crashing him into the corner and then finishing with a bunch of neck-snapping moves leading to the tombstone piledriver. 3rd fall is all action right before the time limit runs out, Jumbo goes for the figure 4 and Billy is hitting impact moves but can't follow up because of his leg. This was good solid pro wrestling and I didn't hate the long headlock in the second but I still thought it was a little grating especially with how lukewarm Billy's comeback was and the neck work could've been payed off better and they could've done more to build on each fall, for example, by continueing the neck work from the 2nd instead of moving straight to a legwork story, teasing the big knee attack again etc. Just stick to their 70s matches instead.

Pretty much a pro wrestling 101 match. They start out with Kozak immediately going for the arm. Some more scientific wrestling ensues where Boyd stays in control cheating on almost every move. Eventually Nick fires up and Boyd bumps really huge for the first punch. Boys tries to smuggle a god damn boomerang into the ring, leading to Kozak bashing him with the chair. Boyd rakes the eye and Kozak is selling that eye rake like a motherfucker. Boyd lands some shots to the back of the neck then applies the NECK CLAW while Boesch goes into the science of the rabit punch. Kozak keeps coming back, but Boys posts him. Some more work on the back before Boyd secures it with a basic neck snap. Pro wrestling can be very enjoyable when it's done with a brain.

This was an extremely basic undercard match where they get good heat. Brooks had some really nice corner bumps and Markus was constantly punching away at him. Punching him in the shoulder, the ribs, the jaw... Markus really seemed like he was punishing the guy. He was selling the whole thing to the backrow too. Gino Hernandez is also at ringside and goes after Markus post match. Fun stuff and even though it's about the same workrate as the previous AJPW match it's much better.

Another not very exciting substandard brawl. Brody again assaults Tiger, this time bloodying him with a chain. There was no subsequent bigger drama following from that though as Tiger tagged out, then tagged in again and Brody just pinned him with his mean old kneedrop.

Interesting looking matchup, but this was pretty much just a throwaway houseshow match. Robinson pretty much carried the whole thing as he was the only one to add anything of note. He was always doing something interesting, and he understands how to sit in a hold while building suspense. Also a guy in the audience bursts out in laughter when Robinson blocks a Baba chop.

Something that does not fall into any of the categories listed above: I really enjoyed the punishing matwork in this contest:

This is a classic pro wrestling job. Breaks is the champion and puts Saint over really strong here to set up their title match a few months later. Saint didn't have his signature crazy reversals at this point (or abstained from doing them here) and is a much more restrained serious babyface, while Breaks is just all over the place with his exaggerated selling and mannerisms. Much of the match was Breaks working over Saint with painful clinical holds and nasty little attacks to set up an explosive comeback from Saint. My favourite thing about Breaks is that he is constantly increasing the pressure, he will get a hold, and then move from there working towards a and elbow popping goal. When Saint gets a pin on him to win the first falls Breaks starts attacking his face in really nasty ways, so Saint comes back furious busting his nose and bloodying Breaks. Walton points out Breaks had his nose broken so many times that there is no bone left but its still really painful. Breaks gets mad and looks to finish the match quickly but Saint one ups him and steals a pin in the blink of an eye. This is classic efficient pro wrestling executed to perfection with some really cool technical prowres on display.

Interesting tag which was fairly luchariffic. These guys clearly had a routine worked out, and they wrestled smooth as butter. I dug Royal alot as he always does nifty technical stuff, Faulkner on the other hand could never get his stupid grin off of his face. The Black Knights - Masambula and Honeyboy Zimba were pretty solid too. Obviously Masambula's charisma was the center, as he has mad presence, but he also did a lot of wrestling. I liked that while it was acknowledged that Masambula was a bit of a comedic, he had no problem going on the mat and piledriving Faulkner out of nowhere. I also loved Walton pointing out Faulkner is too short for the arm lever to work. Zimba saves the biggest highspots until the end when he does his awesome kip ups. Match didn't develop a ton of intensity or high end work but it was a fun look at this kind of entertaining good time british match.

Next on the list is Kim Duk (1991) Joeg El Boricua Grimmas SirEdgar SmartMark15 Lee Casebolt

If I'm not wrong, 6 hours have passed and thus Blehschmidt can make his next pick. This is sure creeping along slowly...

This was a match I was 50/50 on, as it was a pretty damn great Aoyagi performance vs. a really dull Miura performance. Miura sucks and has no clue and he dominated much of this match, wondering what to do, showing more confusion than aggression. He worked over Aoyagi's leg for the match, and there were a total of 3 interesting things he did: a) trying to moonsault the leg headbutting the leg and c) removing Aoyagi's knee pad. Aoyagi's selling and comebacks on the other hand were just awesome. I have no idea how Aoyagi learnt to sell this well, but he understood perfectly how to dish out devastating kicks while also hobbling arround and collapsing looking very anguished on his bad leg. He also brought out the stiff punches for this one. Easily his best performance from WYF, but wasted on a slug. What's with Aoyagi getting shitty opponents in his own fed?

I was thinking of John Nord too, but he kept slipping my memory and never made my proxy list. Ah well, still a lot of big scary looking obscure guys to choose from...