[2000-01-15-IPW] Mike Quackenbush & Johnny Graham vs Rob Noxious & George Anthony

[soup23]

Quack and a bunch of other guys I don't know here. Harvey Whippleman is out before hand and demands a pushup contest. The gear of the referee is the most indy shit I have ever seen. It took me looking them up on wikipedia to tell Noxious and Anthony apart. After the pushup contest, we get a sit up competition. This is some classic stall techniques but I will say the crowd is still with them a good bit heat wise and really heckling the heels. Noxious and Anthony start out attacking when Quack and Graham leave themselves vulnerable. The heel tandem is perfectly functional here and getting heat, cutting the ring off and constructing the basics of a match. Johnny Graham was pretty weak overall and didn't bring much to the proceedings from a selling standpoint. Quack does a real good tope con hilo to enter the match into the final stages. Quack will be a real interesting worker to follow through the 2000's. One of those guys that probably would have been given a cleaner look and repackaged with the 205 crew if he came along today. Finish is contrived with Quack getting a visual pin but the referee being distracted. Graham and Obnoxious then have a rough sequence where they clearly don't have anything pegged. Quack gets a tag and does a nice diving headbutt. Finish comes with Quack hitting a powerbomb on Obnoxious. The match went a little long but this was essentially a way to look at early Quackenbush. Not an awful look. **1/2

[Loss]

This is such a contrast from the Ballard Brothers-Westside Playaz match. This has more heat and is worked in a far more traditional way. I cracked up at the little girls screaming for Quackenbush like he's Ricky Morton or something. Starting with some quality stalling to grab the crowd and then marrying themselves to the tag formula without ever thinking of divorce produced a solid, heated match at the very least -- nothing to change your world, but definitely a better match than I expected with good structure and heat. Matches like this were a dying breed by 2000, which makes the few we get appreciated, even when they are unremarkable. ***

[Tim Evans]

I thought this was pretty bad. Loss said this type of match was a dying breed in 2000. Thank god for that. When the ref looks like one of the wrestlers, you know it's going to be a long night. The push-up thing would have been better if it didn't go almost 10 minutes.Once the "wrestling" started, it looked like a backyard match. Was Graham an actual wrestler or was he one of those guys like a coach at a local high school or something? The heels were ok and Quack looked the best of the bunch. The ref was atrocious. I'm not sure if he was doing a rudo ref gimmick or if he was just incompetent. Bad match.

[Moonsault Marvin]

This started off with push ups and sit ups. The heels should have attacked on the push ups. There were lots of little kids in the small crowd. The match was unremarkable as the heels looked increasingly lost as the match went on. Quackenbush performed the best in this match. He did a good job playing to the crowd, which is something we haven't seen from the indy up and comers so far.

[GSR]

The last person I expected to see on a random IPW match was Downtown Bruno/Harvey Whippleman! I can’t quite make out what Bruno’s saying, but we start with some kind of push up contest which doesn’t end well for the larger Noxious and Anthony when one sits on the back of the other and he collapses under his partner’s weight! Sit up contest next, but this is just a ploy for Anthony and Noxious to attack their opponents when their guards are dropped. I should point out I have no idea who is George Anthony and who is Rob Noxious, and there is no commentary to help me either. Quack and Graham reverse the Irish whips, double backdrop and Anthony and Noxious take to the floor. Aah, Bruno is round to talk to them so he’s their manager. Graham with a stunner and a cool looking power throw on the fatter of their opponents. Fatty bullies Graham back into the corner, a couple of clubbing overhands and a raggedy looking suplex. Ponytail (as I shall refer to the other member of the heel team) with a legdrop for a one. He whips Graham into the corner, but as he comes rushing in Graham gets his foot up and nails him with a big clothesline. Fatty with a double axe handle off the top to Graham and some really weak looking overhand rights. A miscommunication-come-botch on an Irish whip and Graham tags out. Quack with a deep armdrag and an armbar, but you can clearly see him telling fatty what to do next and calling spots. Side suplex by ponytail for two. Quack ducks a clothesline and a headscissors which he doesn’t quite get all of. Cover, fatty is in to break up the pin, he drops the elbow but Quack moves and he hits his own partner. Quack covers them both and Bruno is in, he goes for a splash, but again Quack moves and he lands on his own team. Powerslam on Graham for two. Ponytail holds Graham, fatty with a running lariat, but Graham frees himself and a Cactus clothesline on his own partner sends them both over the top rope to the floor. Flip dive from Quack out onto them. Bruno hooks Quack’s leg for the distraction and the heels put the boots to him, followed by a middle rope legdrop from ponytail for two. As he argues the count, Quack schoolboys him for a two of his own. Roll up and bridge, but the referee is flapping about and not there to count the pin. The heels blow a double clothesline, talk to each other about what to do next and opt for a double STO. The match has broken down with the ref seemingly clueless about what he should be doing in there. The heels stand a groggy Quack up in the middle of the ring, run at him from either direction, but he moves and they clothesline each other. Hot tag to Graham and another miscommunication off an Irish whip. He blocks a hiptoss and a backslide for a near fall. Ponytail with a DDT and Quack is in to break up the pin. Suplex, diving headbutt and this time its fatty breaking up the pin. Fatty sits Quack on the top turnbuckle for a belly to back suplex, Quack starts to fire back and flips over and down the back of him, turning it into a sunset flip. Fatty’s holding on to the ropes, some upwards strikes force him to release his grasp and a running powerbomb from Quack for the win.

 

I thought this started off well and was enjoying it, the problem was that the match broke down several times with fatty and Graham both looking lost in there and seemed to get worse the longer it went on. Someone mentioned that maybe Graham is a local high school coach or something, and I’m wondering if fatty is the same? It would account for him looking lost on occasion, for those terribly weak looking strikes and also for Quack having to tell him what to do next. Quack is clearly the standout of the four and you can already see plenty of his trademark stuff even back in 2000 (the high hip toss, graceful dives, the kicks to the back of his opponent), but I thought ponytail showed some potential too. Great vocal crowd who made plenty of noise in what was a pretty smallish venue. Lose five minutes and with some more seasoning and polish and you’ve got a good match here (I especially liked the Cactus clothesline to his own man and the double lariat to each other after Quack moves out the way). Note for the referee who got lost towards the end of this and had a look of Quack about him that I wondered if he is maybe his brother?

[Edwin]

Yikes... I agree with Tim, This wasn't good. The earliest footage of Quack I remember seeing was from the first CHIKARA show where he tagged with Reckless Youth and Don Montoya against CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris Hero which was some years after this. The other guys in this match I'm not familiar with and that maybe a good thing as they all look pretty bad.

 

Harvey Whippleman coming out to manage a green heel tag team at a small indy show in front of 250 people in possibly a high school gym on the east coast in January 2000 is not something you would expect to happen.

 

Aside from Quack who tries his best to keep this together, everyone else seems out of place and lost in the ring.