[2000-05-13-IWA-MS] Ian Rotten vs Blaze (Barbed Wire Death)

[soup23]

Your typical stay in the ring and dig the barbed wire into each other match that is not the best of Ian by a longshot. Blaze is really limited as a worker as well. IWA still has a ways to go to become the promotion I love in the 2000’s as they are pretty firmly still a death match style promotion first with matches like these. Some moments here and there but really slow overall. Add to that an asinine finish with two ref bumps and Pondo running out with a ref shirt and doing a quick count and you have a disappointing end to a disappointing show. **1/4

[Tim Evans]

I love that Blaze and Ian do all this talking for like 10 minutes and the first move they do is a lockup.Then they focus on lightubes before they go to the barb wire. Ian's lay down and get stabbed is very Dusty Rhodes like without the charisma. The finish was awful and made no sense. Not feeling IWA in 2000 so far.

[GSR]

Barbed Wire match for control of 50% of the IWA. Jim Fannin is at it again with his ring introductions and making wise cracks at the heel’s expense. Someone from the crowd hands Ian a baking tray with ‘Bitch Tits’ on, leading to the audience starting a ‘bitch tits’ chant at Blaze. Not happy with those chants, he tells everyone that he’s going home (he’s a sensitive sort if that’s all I takes for him to give up a shot at 50% ownership of the IWA!), before changing his mind and “not giving all these f*cks the pleasure!” A member of the audience throws a bra at him, which he hurls back at them, and the bell rings to finally get this underway. Ian backs Blaze into the corner, gives him a punch to the guts and Blaze spits out his chewing gum, which Ian picks up off that gross canvas and puts back in his mouth! Kick to the stomach and he drags him over to the barbed wire. Blaze with an eye rake and he digs the prongs of the barbed wire into Rotten’s forehead cutting him open. Low blow by Ian, and someone passes him a bunch of light tubes which he breaks over Blaze’s back before then slicing him with a shard of the broken glass. Another eye rake stops Ian in his tracks and he returns the light tube favour. He’s back running the barbed wire across Rotten’s forehead until a testicular claw puts a stop to that. Barbed wire board across the back. Legdrop off the top by Blaze for two. He places a chair in the corner, but Ian fights back and launches him head first into it, followed by more shenanigans with the barbed wire being dug into various parts of the body. Blaze goes for a clothesline, but Rotten ducks out the way and he takes out the official instead. Stiff clubbing lariat across the face by Ian, when out comes Corporal Robinson who hits him with ‘the boot camp’. He rolls Blaze on top, a second referee rushes to the ring but Ian is able to get the shoulder up at two. Belly to back suplex, and now this ref is taken out when Blaze avoids a Rotten clothesline and he accidentally hits the official. With both referees down, Pondo is out, strips the jersey off one of them and puts it on himself. Blaze with a small package, he counts the two and then pushes the wrestlers over so Ian is on top. Still only gets a two though. Backslide and Pondo’s taking no chances of a kick out this time, as a lightning fast three count gives Ian the win.

 

I bet these shows were long old affairs! The three matches we’ve watched, from start to finish, have gone about an hour and a half total. Add in the other bouts on the show, intermissions, setting up and clearing the ring after the gimmick matches and you’ll be struggling to stay awake by the end of it! Another poor match I’m afraid and the worse of the three. A lot of this was plain boring, with them just sat on the canvas digging the barbed wire into their opponent’s forehead/arm or cutting them with fragments of broken light tube. I may not have liked Pondo/Corp, but at least they incorporated some stuff like the spinning cutter, top rope rana etc. into their match. They bought more to the table than these two by a long way. The low blows and eye rakes as a way to change the tide of the match were overkill, while the finish was hideous with Pondo putting on the ref’s shirt and fast counting Blaze’s shoulders to the mat. The lone positive I’ve got was that near fall with Ian kicking out of the ‘boot camp’, but that’s it.

[Moonsault Marvin]

This match was boring. They bled plenty from the barbed wire and the light bulb pieces, but it lacked any sense of drama. The multiple ref bumps were silly, and Blaze's small package on Rotten was awkward. A long match to sit through for a fast count finish.