[2000-04-22-IPW-Crystal River Carnage] Barry Horowitz vs Hack Myers

[GSR]

Florida’s favourite son, ‘Bad’ Barry Horowitz gets his usual favourable response from the crowd on arrival and I wonder if he’ll do what he does best and get them to turn on him by the time this one is over?  A drop toe hold by Myers sends Horowitz crashing head first into the mat and he then takes to the floor to compose himself.  When a lone voice amongst the “Barry, Barry” chants tells him to “get in there” he informs the fan to “shut your stinking mouth” and that he “doesn’t need no Crystal River redneck telling him what to do”.  That’s my boy!  Myers starts working over Horowitz’s arm and when he can’t wrestle his way out of the arm bar, grabs the ‘Extreme Shah’  by the collar and backs him into the corner.  As the ref gets between them for the break, Horowitz with an immediate shoulder to the mid-section followed by an uppercut.  He doesn’t stay in control for long though and Myers is back on that arm bar.  Horowitz avoids a double axe handle off the top and it looks like ‘the Shah’ injured his leg on landing.  A quality Northern Lights suplex by Horowitz for a two count, although I’m surprised he’s not targeting that leg.  Cradle suplex for another near fall, something I can’t recall ever seeing out of him before.  Having no luck in pinning his opponent’s shoulders to the mat he changes tact with an abdominal stretch.  Myers powers his way out of it only to run into a high knee.  Horowitz is back with the abdominal stretch, the official eventually catching him using the ropes for leverage and ordering the break.  Double clothesline sees both men go down.  Myers blocks a Horowitz right hand and responds with some of his own, however this isn’t 1995 ECW and those shots are met with silence.  Horowitz grabs ‘the Shah’ on his attempted tip up and ‘Alabama slams’ him to the mat.  He says “that’s it”, pats himself on the back then locks on Octopus hold for the submission.

Myers work on top wasn’t the most expansive or diverse, using arm wringers, arm bars and nothing else.  Things picked up for Horowitz’s control and, although the abdominal stretch led to the weakening of ‘the Shah’s’ back and him ultimately tapping to the Octopus, there was probably an over reliant on it even if Horowitz was grabbing the ropes, the trunks, jawing with the crowd and turning it into a cradle on one occasion to keep it fresh.  It’ll take a lot for me not to enjoy a Barry Horowitz match but I do think this would have benefited from having five minutes knocked off its duration.