We open with a message that says they have had experienced unforeseen technical difficulties so there will be no new episode this week. Instead, they will bring us two classic unaired matches from IWW. Works for me! Hopefully they get it fixed though. Internet TV is such a godsend and an amazing way to get your product out there. How else would I be watching Irish wrestling? The two matches are AJ Styles versus Christopher Daniels and Chris Sabin versus Darren Burridge. Sweet! I've never heard of Burridge, but I love Sabin and Daniels-Styles just jumps off the screen and grabs me before it even airs! This should be a great show. The IWW video then shows and we go right into forty-eight minutes of pure action. If you want to watch this show, simply right click here and select "Save Target As."
Chris Sabin Vs. Darren Burridge
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wowwy wow! This was a great match and easily the best Chris Sabin match I have seen in my life. I had never seen anything from Burrdige before, but this guy can definitely hang with the best of them. Twenty minutes of solid competitive action which saw some amazing mat work that just escalated to power wrestler and more and more till an exciting finish that may have started off botched, but had probably the best recovery of a botched move I've ever seen. They called this one an IWW classic and they did not lie, folks. Kayfabed or not, they gave you the god's honest truth: this is a holy hell of a classic match. If you like Sabin in TNA, it is your duty as a fan of his to watch this match. Trust me, the quality you're used to from Sabin will be pissed upon and then some. At this point, I'm scrambling around on the net looking for more from Burridge as the guy was just impressive. It was basically a pure competitive match coupled with a psychological game they played tonight. Things started off like normal and escalated to more and more and more until it was a clear-cut game of technical ability versus pure agility with power moves thrown in here and there. This was just amazing and I have few words left in my vocabulary to describe it. Even the ending was great; with a talent like Sabin, you would assume he would win in rare appearances, but Burridge finished off the technical versus agility game by winning with some counters and a quick roll-up proving to all that technical ability will always win out. Fantastic match and one of the best I've seen all year.
Winner: Darren Burridge
Star Wrestler: Both
As I've said before, in a truly great match, neither one man is better than the other. If I nitpicked horribly I could find one or two instances of no-selling or sloppy wrestling by the two, but with the workrate prowess in this match, it would be like nitpicking a chip in Michelangelo's David. This was a sure classic and I only wish they would sell their DVDs in Region 1 format because I would buy the DVD with this match on it in a heart-beat. Way to go, IWW! You have just sold me on being a fan of your promotion.
The quick IWW logo transition video is then shown. They should have put something else in there because I need a breather after that great match. As it is though, we are going right into the next IWW classic which will hopefully be as good, if not better:
AJ Styles Vs. Christopher Daniels
I know this is going to sound sacrilegious to a lot of readers, but I've never seen a Styles-Daniels match before this. I've seen highlights of their match in TNA earlier this year as well as clips from a lot of their PWG work, but never a full-blown match. After seeing one, I'm not that impressed. It was a good match, but to the point of TNA fans pissing their pants over? Nah-uh. Not even close. I'm going to take a wild stab and say that their original match at Against All Odds was miles better purely for the fact that that was the first, so that cushions the blow to that insult a bit. As it was, this match just had some problems in its basic fundamentals, mainly because of one guy. Now, I don't like to name names, but then again, I love to burst people's bubbles. AJ Styles stunk up the ring in comparison to Daniels tonight. I'll give you a perfect example. They start off with some back and forth chain/mat wrestling that leads in to Daniels working the arm over a bit. AJ makes a comeback and starts using the arm like nothing happened. Ok, I can buy that sort of as not a lot was done and it's early in the match. However, Daniels eventually regains control and goes right back for that arm. Styles then makes a comeback and again completely no-sells the whole offense Daniels just tried to mount. It was a great effort by Daniels that was just pissed on by the supposed "workrate genius" AJ Styles. Yeah, right; and Tyson Tomko is the best big man I've ever seen. Now, why did AJ Styles no-sell this? The first answer that comes to mind would be ignorance, but that's just harsh. In all honesty, it is probably because AJ Styles is so limited as a worker, that he couldn't mount a limited offense with an "injured" arm, so they had to botch that plan early on. That to me makes total sense as after the second time, Daniels never touched the arm again which tells me Styles relayed the message somehow for him to stop.
Besides this glaring mistake, the match was good, but not great. Could it be considered a classic? Sure, but not to me. Daniels was great in control of Styles though and I loved his heel tactics as well as working over Styles back. The big problem in the match was as I said though: AJ Styles. His comebacks in the end defied basic wrestling and made Daniels look insanely weak, which is just not how to do good wrestling. Make your opponent look good and you will look that much better. It's not a required lesson plan in the University of Spot Monkeys though, so can you really blame him? I know I'm being overly critical of AJ Styles, but the match was really kicking off in the early goings and he messed it up and kept messing up to the point where I would be cussing to vent my frustrations if I was Daniels. That reminds me, I finally realized those little IWW spots must be for commercial breaks as they seem to come at a good stretch of TV time; it explains why 90% of the fan's chants during this match were bleeped out which was hilarious. They should have just cut the sound because it was just pure annoyance to have "holy BLEEP! Holy BLEEP!" That's a TV problem though, so who cares? In the end, it was a good match, but had AJ sold a bit more to Daniels and maybe mount an offense that doesn't no-sell twenty minutes of action, the match would have been a lot better and a true classic to me. To their credit, the crowd ate it all up and AJ and Daniels could have read the newspaper in the ring and the crowd still would have pissed their pants. True superstars have that power; whether I like Styles or not, he is a true superstar. In the end, Styles hit the Styles Clash after a hot finish and picked up the win in the non-title match as this match was recorded back in March after Daniels won the TNA X Division title.
Winner: AJ Styles
Star Wrestler: Christopher Daniels
I feel so bad for the Fallen One having to work like this. Daniels picked a part early on and did some good psychology of going right for it instead of taking an opening. It showed intelligence, quick thinking, and an overall great spot in the match. But no; the golden boy can't mount an offense that way without making it very obvious that he doesn't know how to sell in wrestling, so screw that plan. Daniels after that was still good as he stayed on Styles well and worked the back pretty well. He was even able to turn the crowd (which battled AJ and Daniels chants back and forth) against him with cocky heel taunts and good crowd interaction. Man, at one point, Daniels even did an Irish Jig to mock the crowd. Hilarious stuff! It's too bad AJ lacks the workrate that Daniels has. If Styles had sold anything Daniels gave him even 5% more, it would have made the match truly great. For this match not tanking, the entire credit goes to Daniels; though even if it did tank, the crowd still would have eaten it up. I'm overly critical about the match and I apologize, but it is because of the potential it had to be truly great. In reality, it was still a damn good match and the credit all goes to Daniels, but I know deep down in my heart it should have been miles better.
After the match, Styles gets on the ring and cuts a surprisingly good promo on Daniel's being a coward champ and Styles has plans for the world belt next. It was short, effective and great at emphasizing the heel/face correlation in title reigns. Like Styles or not, the guy is not over for his mike abilities. However, this was a good outing by him; too bad he didn't have the workrate previously to make it a great night for him.
This was one hell of a TV episode. One match of the year contender and one damn fine match with an uber-elated crowd to throw in the mix will always equal a great show. Not to be a dick, but IWW needs to have technical difficulties more often so we can get classics like these on our monitors. Sabin-Burridge was clearly miles better and while the main event had problems, it was still a good match. All in all, this show was great and if you are a wrestling fan, you should take the time to watch it. I really wish IWW would make DVDs to play in all regions as I don't have the capabilities to play Region 0. Both these matches were from the IWW Supershow in late March of this year and I so wish I could buy that show. With the crowd being hot and the quality of these two matches, that must have been one hell of a show.
Well, there's another one down, guys. I'm catching up faster and faster! Pretty soon, I won't have guys breathing down my neck over the reviews at all! Up next are some NWA reviews from Main Event and Virginia followed by TNA Impact and Bound For Glory. Thanks again for reading guys. I always appreciate each and every reader I get, whether or not you agree with me. That's going to do it for this time, so ‘till next time, this is "Squared Circle Reviews" signing off and hoping you enjoy what you watch.
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