[1997-03-13-Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show] Tarek the Great vs American Kickboxer

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Childs]

This was like the seedy, meth-head version of Owen-Bulldog. I felt like I could get hepatitis just from looking at that mat. They tried to do a classic build, from matwork to highspots, but they didn't pull me in, aside from a few nifty moves. Ian was annoying on commentary.

[Loss]

That is indeed quite the disgusting mat. This is the kind of match that I feel needs to be on the yearbook as a time capsule because it's a good representation of the indy scene. I liked this a little more than Childs, but it's not something I'd go to bat for. I tuned out the commentary altogether, which is difficult for me to do since I place so much value in announcing. They worked hard though. I'd compare it to Freight Train Fulton vs Bill Wilcox from the '92 Yearbook, but slightly better because they showed a little more restraint.

[soup23]

IWA-MS doesn't get any less seedy, I will say that.

 

I don't know whether Ian's commentary is the original or during his Taco Bell phase when they released the DVD of this show, but damn was it dreadful. I'm guessing it was original since he was inoffensive in his 2001-2005 stuff he was on commentary for. I have no idea who the other commentator is.

 

Tarek the Great has a few great matches in his tank and a lot of nothing stuff. Kickboxer was someone that I only caught the tail end of when I first started watching IWA-MS but I was never a fan as they tried to present him as their high flying legend and he got outclassed and blew spots vs. Punk, Cabana, etc. This match showed a lot more restraint than I figured it would and built up fairly well. I certainly wouldn't call it a classic but it was a good match which I didn't expect coming in and it served as a good intro to IWA-MS.

[Kevin Ridge]

Muscle Buster! That mat is very scuzzy looking. So are the wrestlers. Referee should have wore gloves as precaution for counting down on mat. Was alright but haven’t seen anything I like much from US Indies so far.

[PeteF3]

James Mitchell vs. Sami Zayn! Right? No? Anyway, so that was Ian Rotten announcing? At times the commentary felt more like a debate over minutiae between Bix and Zellner than the announcing of a wrestling match, particularly that segue about Kickboxer putting his mask back on. And dammit, I had that EXACT same hepatitis line that Childs used, looking at the mat and the atmosphere in general. This match isn't bad, but very conventional. Convention can be good, but it was pretty easy in retrospect to call out every spot before it happened (as even some in the crowd do). The muscle buster was an unexpected highlight. We're approaching the birth of the heyday of scuzzball indy wrestling sleaze, both here and in Japan, so I'm not sorry I watched this little slice of history.