In 2001, my wrestling fandom transitioned from a casual interest to a passionate obsession. It’s where I went from “I like wrestling,” to “I should watch all the wrestling ever.” It’s when I became an indie wrestling fan. Ring of Honor was starting, ECWA was hot, CZW was terrifying and awesome to me. In the next few years my favorite companies were easily ROH, Chikara, and IWA Mid South. I was obsessed with them. Sending out money orders to get all the loaded VHS tapes I could afford. 

I told the other guys behind Violent People, I wanted to figure out a semi regular column I could do for the site. I decided a rewatch article was a fun, easy approach. Ring of Honor has the most visibility and has received the most coverage. It already has multiple retrospective podcasts going event by event. Listen to ThROH the Years if you don’t already. Not to mention, Ring of Honor is still alive and kicking.

So, I set my sights on rewatching and writing about every Chikara event. I told Sam and Tanner about my idea and they supported it. Then I, of course, didn’t mention it again for months…

I tried. I love Chikara and I know there’s lots of stuff that holds up, but despite my best efforts, the first few shows are so ROUGH. Not in a particularly fun way either. At the same time half the roster are wrestling their first handful of matches. It felt like punching down to say Dragonfly looks like shit in his second match ever. Nothing really interesting to write about there. 

Then there was IWA: Mid South, the brainchild of Ian Rotten. I needed to find interesting angles to write about each show and I didn’t immediately assume IWA Mid South would provide that. Crazy! It was so obvious. There’s also the added benefit that there’s a ton of the back catalog I never saw. Hell this show I’m reviewing here happened when I was 8. Can’t imagine my mom’s face if she walked in on little 8 year old Danny watching this carnage. 

So the plan is every couple of weeks or so I’ll review IWA Mid South shows in chronological order. Now I’m not watching them all. I’m taking the easy way out and watching just the shows available on IWTV. To be fair that’s 594 events so if I do one every two weeks, I should be wrapping this up in 2047!

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IWA Mid-South: It’s A Kentucky Thing

October 24th, 1996

Derby Sports Arena – Louisville, Kentucky

What a great title for the first edition of this column, while I’m sitting in my house in Ashland, Kentucky.

We open with the pledge of allegiance and it’s straight into the first match.

Tornado Taz vs Gator McAllister with Billy the P

Tornado Taz is the future Rollin Hard who is sadly no longer with us. Billy the P is a Pimp and was a manager on and off in IWA Mid South until even a couple years ago. I wasn’t familiar with Gator McAllister, but thanks to RESEARCH, I know he provided the ring and audio/visual equipment for the eart IWA MS shows. By research I of course mean reading Billy the P’s old Geocities page on the Wayback Machine, like a true sicko.

Rollin Hard is dressed exactly like me going to play basketball at the Y. This is not a compliment, a comically large t-shirt and ball shorts. I don’t want to go back to comparing it to the first two Chikara shows, but right away this is worlds better. Nothing out of this world but great punches, right locals and a super engaged crowd. Speaking of crowds we’re not yet at the days of an IWA MS crowd being less than 30 fans, this is a packed house. 

Like I said though, super tightly worked face vs heel match. Lots of heel manager shenanigans from Billy the P. They do a great job of hiding all the cheating from the referee, except in the middle of the match there is one single chair shot to Rollin Hard’s back, right in front of the referee. The ref just lightly admonishes Gator and the match carries on. There are two men in the front row who DESPERATELY want their chairs used as weapons. They do not care who. Just someone please take their chairs. Finish was the classic babyface intercept the chain from the manager who’s distracting the referee. Rollin Hard kills Gator with a chain wrapped punch and gets the win. 

After the match Gator and Billy the P beat down Rollin Hard with a belt!

Oh I should mention I’m not doing star ratings. They’re mostly dumb, but I do have a very technical ratings scale. Matches are going to be graded on if you were watching this show should you SKIP or WATCH.

This is solidly a WATCH

The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) vs The Rough Ryders (Rough Ryder Cody & Rough Ryder Coy)

Mosh and Thrasher actually got the call that they were being signed by the WWF in the locker room of this show. That story is courtesy of Ian Rotten though, so it easily could be carny bullshit. I will admit I have zero clue who the Rough Ryders are.

This is a Headbangers squash. One of the Rough Ryders doesn’t even get in the ring. He kind of just walks off. The video quality makes it tough for me to differentiate the Headbangers from each other, but they both looked good here. A surprising amount of spots and double team moves, including the WWF finisher, the stage dive. The actual finish here is cool. One of the Headbangers hits a super gourdbuster on the other causing them to splash the Rough Ryder. 

OHHHH the Rough Ryder B may have turned on Rough Ryder A, by walking away. Someone comes out and makes it a three on one beat down after the match. Billy the P comes out too. I’m working with not great 1996 video quality here guys. I’m trying my best.

This is super short and fun. A definite WATCH

Ivory Nichalls vs. Sean Casey

Ivory Nichalls is a guy without a cagematch that I’ve never heard of or seen. Sean Casey has been around forever. He’s been a jobber through the generations WWF, TNA, and even ROH. He still pops on Bobby Fulton’s shows in Ohio. 

This starts out as your basic mid nineties junior heavyweight match. There’s a lot of arm drags and drop kicks. The two men on the front row are still begging for someone, anyone to take their chairs. Sean Casey stands on the top top and instead of diving on Ivory he sort of jumps off to the apron and falls over. Despite that he’s still on offense! 

Third match in a row we get a Billy the P appearance. He gets on the microphone. I can make out 0% of what he says. The match sort of just stops. SEAN CASEY GRABS A CHAIR FROM THE FRONT ROW BOYS. Then he just sets it down. The camera pans to the entrance way for a couple minutes while Billy continues to say something. Who knows what. There’s a brawl but the hardcsm(the only camera) can see through the people who it is. Maybe the Headbangers? Match is ruled a no contest, I guess. I’m fast forwarding.

The match before the chaos was not great and none of this post match stuff is watchable at all. SKIP

The Outlaw vs Adam Flash

Third match in a row where I only know half the participants. Adam Flash was a northeast indie guy, probably best known for his CZW run. Adam Flash appears to be wearing a hockey jersey.

The outlaw attacks flash at the bell. This starts off SLOPPY. Flash kinda tosses him around a couple times. Fun for me, I’m guessing less so for The Outlaw. After another awkward fall, The Outlaw gets up and kicks the Flash in the ass. The Outlaw picks him and submits Flash. And it’s over that quick. After the match The Outlaw grabs a chair from the front row boys and hits Flash with it. Star making decision with this crowd.

A sloppy squash. SKIP

Chi Chi Cruz vs Tracy Smothers

Hey! I know both of these guys! Chi Chi Cruz is a Canadian indie guy and Tracy Smothers, the wild eyed southern boy, is a fucking legend. I’ve seen Tracy Smothers live so many times and every single time was great. Just consistently entertaining, no matter the circumstances. One of my favorite love show experiences is seeing Tracy in a random six man tag in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot, in the middle of nowhere West Virginia. He spent 90% of the match, making his entrance and arguing with various members of the crowd. I’m looking forward to watching a lot more Tracy Smothers in this IWA Mid South rewatch . 

Immediately after I type that story Smothers comes out and almost starts a riot. I love it. He gets on the mic and says a bunch of cancelable words. The crowd is on their feet incensed. He calls out The Public Enemy, WCW, and ECW. He puts over Canadians like the Harts, Jericho etc, but Chi Chi is “a rough Ryder, a ham and egger, a journeyman.” Tracy rules so hard on the mic. Not to mention he’s the only person who can properly use the microphone. You can actually make out what he says!

Tracy gets off the mic and immediately rolls out of the ring. Like I said I’m a sucker for Tracy’s schtick. He refuses to tie up with Chi Chi and the crowd is furious. Once it gets started Tracy is moving! I always forget about the speed of young Tracy. He’s jumping in and out of the ring. They’re brawling in the crowd. It’s great. Everytime Chi Chi is down Tracy dances and pisses the crowd off all over again. 

 After Smothers having control of the entire match. Someone jumps on the apron and holds a chair for Tracy to smash Chi Chi’s head into. Chi Chi reverses it and then rolls Tracy up for the victory.

I have to imagine every Tracy Smothers match is a WATCH

Ian Rotten vs Mad Man Pondo

The main event! The owner of IWA Mid South, Ian Rotten, vs a deathmatch legend Mad Man Pondo. Always been a big fan of both of these guys in the ring. According to cagematch, this is their ninth singles match and they’d have dozens more after this one.

This is a thumbtack deathmatch! The ring starts covered in thumbtacks. THE FIRST MOVE OF THE MATCH IS IAN POWERBOMBING PONDO INTO THE TACKS. The first few minutes of this match are nothing but thumbtack bumps. It’s great. Unfortunately it’s followed up with some crowd brawling that you can’t see super well. They get back in the ring and start reading shots with a thumbtack bat. Sadly this followed again by the disappearing crowd walk and brawl. 

The finish was a Rotten double arm DDT into the racks. Which is cool, but maybe the fourth most impactful spot into the tacks in the match.

This feels like just a taste of what these two can do. Between the short length and the amount of the match you literally can’t see it’s tough to rate this too highly. Having said that, what you see is fun as hell. WATCH

The show as a whole exceeded my expectations. You have the bad sound system, the terrible camera work, but a lot of this is what you get with a 1996 indie promotion. Not to kick Chikara once again, but this was such an easy watch in comparison. Overall I’m excited to revisit the highs and lows of IWA Mid South’s history, hopefully providing a little bit of insight or entertainment.