David Foster Wallace, who wrote the sprawling, postmodern magnum opus Infinite Jest, is also responsible for some of the most deeply entertaining, and genuinely insightful pieces of journalism I’ve ever come across—writing that manages to be both profoundly enlightening and wholly human in a way that sticks with you long after you’ve finished reading. He is without a doubt one of the best and most important writers of his generation. I am without a doubt one of the writers for ViolentPeople.co In honor of DFW this edition of Rotten Rewatch will feature 100% more footnotes than usual. 

As you can tell I’m a fan of David Foster Wallace. I wrote a parody? Tribute? Weak facsimile of Infinite Jest about Bret Hart, Infinite Best. Sam would’ve preferred if it came out this week,¹ rather than randomly on a Friday evening. So, that really put the pressure on me to write another edition of Rotten Rewatch² and here we are!

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IWA Mid-South Extreme Heaven³

03/04/2000

Charlestown, Indiana

IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Title Match

Hy-Zya⁴ vs Mike Sensation 

During this match there’s a sequence where Sensation whips Hy-Zya to the corner. Hey-Zya attempts to leapfrog so Sensation would crash into the turnbuckle, but instead Mike catches him. He then, and I apologize, holds Hy-Zya’s ass against his face like he’s eating his last meal. This leads to a roll up sequence that ends in a human centipede position.

Hy-Zya eventually wins with an admittedly sick looking, swanton bomb. There really isn’t much to this match. It’s an easy SKIP

Big Dick Dudley⁵ vs Paul E. Smooth with Dave Prazak

Paul E. and Dave make their way to the ring to the sounds of Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle. Dave talks a great deal about Paul E.’s girlfriend, Brittany Spears. He’s afraid Smooth is cheating on Brittany with Christina. When Big Dick Dudley*6* appears, Paul E. panics. He gets on his hands and knees and begs Dudley to call off the match. He’s not sure if Brittany Spears is behind the whole ordeal, but he offers to write Dudley a check to just walk away. Before Dudley can respond, Sensation attempts to jump him, only to be caught and sent flying with a gorilla press slams him to the outside. After that its a short squash. This segment was entertaining. Only really held back by the poor audio. Sensation bumped big and all of Dudley’s offense looked good. This is on the WATCH side of things for sure.

Submission Match

Cash Flo vs American Kickboxer

When you think about submissions, your mind inevitably goes to CASH FLO. This match starts off with a crowd brawl. Which I am far from opposed to, however, our single-camera setup can’t capture the chaos outside the ring, which is a bummer.. To be fair, when they return to the ring American Kickboxer does immediately put Cash FLo in a Steiner Recliner. Cash Flo is a big crowd favorite. I was correct in being dubious of his submission prowess. He spends most of his time on offense punching Kickboxer in the head and using a steel chair, to amongst other things hit Kickboxer with an x-factor onto the chair.

MORE OFF CAMERA CROWD BRAWLING

Back in the ring there are some ref shenanigans leading to Cash Flo’s kata ha jime and the tap out. This might have been a watch if you could see the crowd work, but there’s just too much time spent staring at an empty ring SKIP

J. Prodigy & Rollin’ Hard vs Hardcore Craig & Skull Crusher

Carmine DeSpirito⁶ brings out Skull Crusher⁷ and Hardcore Craig to represent his Mid American Wrestling against the IWA Mid South regulars.

After complaining about the single camera in the last match, they’ve strangely moved the camera to shoot the ring from an angle instead of straight on. It’s weird. 

The camera angle takes me out of this and it’s a borderline squash. Very strange to me , Carmine would agree to bring his MAW guys in for this kind of match. 

I think it’s an easy SKIP

IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Title Match

American Kickboxer vs Hy-Zya 

Despite his earlier loss, American Kickboxer struts out to claim he’s the best light heavyweight. Hy-Zya isn’t having it and challenges him to a title match right then and there. Hy-Zya feels Kickboxer needs to pass the torch. Despite Kickboxer having lost a match the same night Hy-Zya won this very title…

American Kickboxer jumps him and whips him with the belt. I didn’t mention it earlier but Hy-Zya is dressed like a Hardy Boy and I hate it. THE CAMERA IS NOW FOLLOWING THE ACTION DURING CROWD BRAWLS. This is an important aspect since almost every match features a crowd brawl in IWA Mid South.

Hy-Zya slams American Kickboxers head repeatedly into the big garage doors. Then they head back to the ring and nothing Hy-Zya does works or looks at all impactful. As I type that he does kill himself on a dive to the outside which is cool. Hy-Zya piles up 20 chairs on the floor and back body drops Kickboxer onto them.

The fans share my sentiments on Hy-Zya because American Kickboxer was a heel against Cash Flo earlier and is presented as one here, but the fans are still chanting and cheering for him.

Kickboxer returns the favor by bringing a bunch of chairs into the ring and hitting a ddt onto them followed by a NASTY brainbuster.

They trade hitting big moves into the pile of chairs. After missing a swanton bomb onto the chairs and eating shit. American Kickboxer locks on an armband for the win. 

This whole thing made Hy-Zya look like an idiot. They even stretcher him out after the match. 

This is a tale of two matches. Everything outside the ring and on the pile of chairs inside the ring looks cool and stiff. Inside the ring early in it’s as boring as the first Light Heavyweight Title match. There’s just enough action to make this a WATCH.

Texas Tornado Thumbtack Death Match

Bad Breed (Axl Rotten & Ian Rotten) & Suicide Kid vs Blaze, Corporal Robinson & Terry Bull

This really feels like the meat of the show now. The ring starts out a minefield of thumbtacks in this match. This match also wins the entrance music battle with Kid Rock’s ‘Bawitdaba,’ Hank Williams Jr’s ‘A Country Boy Can Survive,’ and Nas’ ‘Hate Me Now’ just a couple of bops⁸.

It can not be overstated how over Bad Breed is to the hundred people at this show. They’re stars. 

This is chaos. No one even attempts to enter the ring. They just just start brawling through the crowd. They’re grabbing weapons from fans and pinching each other in the face. There’s multiple people busted open before the announcer can even finish listing the names of the wrestlers.

The bad camera works to the matches benefit here. You just get glimpses of the different matchups as fans run away in terror. 

Just when your mind starts to wander and threaten being bored. Someone gets killed with a chair to the head.

There also appear to be a couple camera cuts but it’s honestly hard to tell. It’s like watching a horror movie mixed with a WorldStar⁹ clip.

Ian and Terry Bull are the first to enter the ring. They’re both already busted open and they take huge bumps into the tacks. Without missing a beat when they roll out Suicide Kid and Blaze are in the ring. Suicide Kid hit a giant powerbomb onto the tacks. 

The whole time the action is in the ring you’re still seeing bits and pieces of action outside. Bad Breed setup up a table, moments later Suicide Kid is diving through it. 

This match does not give you a chance to breathe. There’s no world where I could right up everything that is happening in a single watch. The baby faces isolate Blaze in the ring and they set up a board between two chairs and light it on fire. Ian hits Blaze with a powerbomb from the top rope through the flaming table for the win. The crowd is losing their mind. This is a MUST WATCH.¹⁰ Holy shit this was fun.

IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title / IWA Mid-South Hardcore Title Two On One 

2 Tuff Tony vs Delilah Starr & Mad Man Pondo 

It cuts to this match and the ring is clean and the crowd has been calmed down. That is honestly impressive and I wish they kept that process on the tape. 2 Tuff Tony, for those unfamiliar, is a JCW legend. 

This is a fans bring the weapons match, like a lot of IWA Mid South matches. There’s a Bull Pain quote via Chris Hero where he asks Ian why he doesn’t stop booking fans bring the weapons match and start booking some fans bring some more fans matches. 

This is listed as a handicap match, but it’s actually a triple threat to unify the titles. 

Ian Rotten truly on the cutting edge of wrestling trends with the intergender booking. Early on Tony and Pondo lock up and don’t want to involve Starr, because she’s a woman. 

I don’t love most intergender matches and I don’t love most triple threat matches. This has a lot going against it, especially after the high of the last match.

The finish is exciting, but very strange. Pondo incapacitates Tony with a powerbomb through a table. Delilah Starr is down in the ring. Pondo hops outside and calls for fans to throw their chairs into the ring. The announcer encourages it as well. As seems to happen a lot with this spot, they immediately regret it and ask the fans to stop. Starr is buried under dozens and dozens of chairs. Pondo goes to the top rope and hits a senton onto the sea of chairs. THIS IS NOT THE FINISH. Pondo rolls out of the ring. The camera is focused on staff and other wrestlers digging Delilah Starr free. Then out of the corner of the camera you see Tony put Pondo on a table. He climbs to the top rope, hits a twisting plancha, gets the pin and the video immediately cuts off. 

This was a let down and limited, b while it has its limitations, the last five minutes are worth a WATCH. 

You should only really WATCH the semi main event, but it’s good enough id sit though the whole show to get to it if I had to. 

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Footnotes: 

1. Sam may have preferred it didn’t come out at all.  ↩︎
2. Hopefully no one remembers there was a point where I thought I could put out one Rotten Rewatch a week. ↩︎
3. The actual next show in the IWTV archives is the 1998 edition of Extreme Heaven, then it skips to years and this show is the next available. I didn’t realize I was watching the wrong show until two matches in, can’t stop at that point, folks. ↩︎
4. Hy-Zya was an IWA Mid South regular for years and years. He might be better known in recent years for shoot pulling a knife on Cole Radrick in the middle of the ring. This incident had very little effect on the amount of bookings he receives. ↩︎
5. Former XPW Champion and Porn director for Rob Black ↩︎
6. Carmine is friend of Violent People whether he knows it or not. Two MAW were covered on episodes of Talking Tourneys ↩︎
7. Better known as Rasche Brown ↩︎
8. Do people still say “bops?” ↩︎
9. WORLD STARRRRRRR ↩︎
10. Easily the best match I’ve watched as part of Rotten Rewatch so far ↩︎