Man Of Steel Preview

Sunday 9th September 2007
Whitley Bay Ice Rink

UNIFIED WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
Triple H Vs Matthew Mercy
Vs
The two top superstars in the IWF clash in a one-on-one bout for the first time in over five years with the biggest prize in the game on the line. What is clear from the last month or so is that these two do not like each other, but the whole industry is looking on with anticpation as each man attempts to prove that he is the best. HHH says he is "The Game" and that he's on the form of his life; Mercy says that it's been too long since he held gold and that he's determined to put that right at Man Of Steel.

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MAN OF STEEL TOURNAMENT;

SEMI-FINALS:

CM Punk Vs Umaga
Vs

Elijah Burke Vs Mistico
Vs

PLUS THE FINAL;

Punk/Umaga Vs Burke/Mistico

Man Of Steel is traditionally the biggest tournament in the IWF's calendar, and this year has thrown up the usual mixture of excitement and surprise. The field has been whittled down to four superstars, but who will prevail? CM Punk has been on the roll of his life in 2007 but faces a unique and tough challenge in the form of the Samoan monster Umaga. Elijah Burke is looking to cement his reputation and one of the hottest young superstars in professional wrestling, but the high-flying wizzard Mistico offers up a unique challenge of his own.

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WORLD CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE:

Milano Collection AT Vs Matt Sydal
Vs

Milano Collection AT has been a very impressive Cruiserweight Champion over the past couple of months but he faces a tough challenge at MoS in the form of Matt Sydal. Ok, so the cynical amongst you may suggest he's only been named Number One Contender thanks to Lizzy Valentine's, ahem, alleged trists with Commissioner Roberts, but no matter what the reasoning behind the making of this match it offers Sydal a big chance at gold.

#1 CONTENDERS TAG TEAM MATCH:

America's Most Wanted Vs MNM
Vs

America's Most Wanted had some spirited exchanges at Super Series, and MNM have been in-fighting ever since Johnny Nitro returned at the same event. But both have the opportunity to put aside their differences with each other as they meet in a match to decide which team will challenge Elijah Burke & Chris Jericho for the titles at Neon Blue. America's Most Wanted are former three time World Tag Team Champions but would dearly love to become the first team to ever hold the belts 4 times. MNM had a record breaking European Tag Team title reign, but have never managed to lift the big one. For both teams this could be the first step on the path to ultimate glory.


Finlay & Jazz Hands Gee Vs Randy Orton & Jay Reso
Vs

Has their ever been an odder couple than Finlay & Jazz Hands Gee? Perhaps not, but if only for the sake of their companions Hornswoggle and Lil' Louis, the two are getting along...to a certain extent. Orton & Reso aren't exactly bosom buddies either, but their mutual hatred for their opponents, who have had the better of them in recent weeks, has brought them together. Who knows what to expect from this match, but we will guarantee that there will be chaos!


Mohammed Fakjir Vs Matt Morgan
Vs

Fakjir's cocky attitude is well known, but this time it may have got him into more trouble than he bargained for because annoying Matt Morgan isn't a good idea at the best of times...and given Morgan's current apparent mental state, Fakjir certainly picked the worst time!

WORLD WOMEN'S TITLE:

Alexis Laree Vs Jenny Taylor
Vs

Laree may have finally won her hard fought war with Rebecca Knox at Super Series, but the challenges just keep on coming. Can Laree turn back this new challenge or will Taylor lift the gold?

PRIME TIME

PRIME TIME: The Choice Is Yours

Warrington Parr Hall

Sunday 20th August 2007

PICK AN OPPONENT DOUBLE MAIN EVENT:

Triple H Vs Samoa Joe

Matthew Mercy Vs Umaga

PLUS:

Finlay Vs Jay Reso

European Tag Team Titles;

Loco Delgado & Flavio Love Vs Sherlock Burchill & Dr Lewington

#1 Contender to Women's Title;

Melina Vs Jenny Taylor Vs Rebecca Knox

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1) Triple H Vs Samoa Joe ( * * * ) - Non-title, which was a clever touch actually; think about it, if you were choosing an opponent for the man YOU were going to fight for the world title, would you give him a tough opponent if he could lose the title in a match beforehand? No, of course not. Still that's just your humble reviewer waffling. This was a decent match and you could almost have thought at some point that Joe would win. But he didn't. Strong effort though and the victory took a lot out of HHH.

2) Delgado & Love Vs Burchil & Lewington ( * 3/4 ) - A nothing match really, but a fun one. The Bang Gang defeated our intrepid private detectives; that's about all you need to know.

3) Finlay Vs Jay Reso ( * * 3/4 ) - Gosh there has been some tomfoolery between Finlay, Jazz Hands Gee, Reso & Randy Orton recently, and it continued here as, yes, Gee and Orton got involved. Lil' Louis and Hornswoggle got involved to but in all the melee, Reso managed to pin Finlay after Orton clocked him with a chair. This war is not over!

4) Melina Vs Taylor Vs Knox ( * * ) - The winner would get a title shot at Alexis Laree at Man Of Steel. This was a spirited tussle, which Jenny Taylor won. Alexis Laree, on commentary at ringside, seemed impressed with Taylor's win and the two shook hands after the match.

5) Matthew Mercy Vs Umaga ( * * * 1/4) - So could Umaga succeed where Samoa Joe failed? No. But this was a great little TV match which proved that Mercy really is in top form these days. He won, but only just. Triple H returned to ringside after the match for a stare-down with his MoS opponent as the show went off the air.

Whilst not comparing to the last Prime Time special this was still an entertaining night of action, which should have left no-one disappointed. Good work indeed.

Super Series Report

Ladies and gentlemen, this was a strange one indeed. You look at the list of 32 names for the tournament and you had a list that looked very lob sided towards mid-card talent, but those fears dissipated with what was, for the most part, an entertaining evening of action, even if it was rarely out of this world in terms of in ring action. As a point, the first four matches were drawn out at the start of the show, the second four matches were drawn out just before the European Tag Team Title match. Which was an interesting way of doing things in its own right.

Mohammed Fakjir & Randy Orton Vs Rick Shaw & Brian Kendrick ( * * )
Whilst, like the majority of the Invitational Matches, this never really got going, it was an exciting enough 7 minute match, only harmed by the fact that few believed that Shaw & Kendrick had any real chance of winning and advancing to the Battle Bowl final. Fakjir’s head of security Justice Porter outlined to Orton prior to the match that he better not try any funny stuff and that was more than enough to keep him on the straight and narrow and it was his RKO on Shaw that won his team the match.
CM Punk & Chris Harris Vs Edge & Chris Jericho ( * * * )
This was actually a very good match. Punk was the lone good guy in the match and as befits his newfound superstar status (yes, we consider him a genuine headliner in waiting now) he was mega over with the crowd. The highlights of the match were the clashes between him and Jericho, although it must be said that Harris and Edge brought their game with them as well. In the end Punk finished off Edge with the Go2Sleep for the well received win.
Umaga & Barabus Lashley Vs Matt Morgan & Mistico ( * * ¼ )
When this match was drawn out we would imagine the look on Mistico’s face (if we could have seen it under his face) would not have been one of joy and there was a funny moment when backstage interviewer Leticia Cline tried to grab a word with the non-English speaking Mistico before the match. He jabbered on in Mexican and then Cline told us she’d took a Spanish course at college and that Mistico had basically said “In case I don’t make it out of this match alive, Mom I love you. And I’d like to tell my brother that my porn is stashed under my bed.” We think she made that up. In the ring, Mistico put on a spirited display and at first it did look like Morgan was very protective of his Cruiserweight partner, but as is Morgan’s want these days, he seemed to lose interest in that and by the end of the match was content to see Umaga destroy Mistico on the way to his team winning. Morgan did pause momentarily before leaving, but decided not to show any sympathy to his fallen comrade.
Triple H & Matthew Mercy Vs Joey Mercury & MYSTERY #1 ( * * * ¼ )
This was the match of the night in terms of the Invitational tag team encounters, and a lot of that was down to the first mystery partner of the evening. Mercury looked crestfallen when the match was drawn out at the beginning of the evening and even though he held out hopes that Mercy & HHH might not be able to co-exist, he was looking at a long night. Especially when he seemingly didn’t know whom his partner was. But he was thrown a lifeline when his partner was revealed to be…his former MNM partner, Johnny Nitro! So what transpired was a great little match, and one with which you could almost imagine MNM causing a huge upset. It wasn’t to be, but the match did elevate them to a great extent. The end came when it looked as if Triple H was considering attacking Mercy, who was setting up the Mercy-Bomb on Mercury, but Nitro got involved, tasted The Pedigree for his troubles as Mercy pinned Mercury. After the match though, HHH went to shake hands with Mercy but then booted him in the midsection and hit a Pedigree, much to the disgust of the crowd.
Flavio Love & Loco Delgado Vs Harry Smith & Teddy Hart (Bang Gang/Hart Foundation Handcuffed, * * ¾ )
Basically, the Gang Bang and the Hart Foundation have been banging heads ever since the Hart’s joined the IWF back in May. And it shows no signs of abating after this entertaining, but slightly sloppy, tag match. You also knew that the old chestnut of the “handcuffing the protagonists together at ringside to stop them interfering” malarkey would end up being exactly the opposite. Suffice to say, there was a melee, and in amongst it all, Flavio Love pinned Teddy Hart to retain the European titles for his team.
Elijah Burke & James Storm Vs Trevor Murdoch & Dr Lewington ( * ¾ )
This was preceded by a humorous skit involving the teams of Murdoch & Cade and Lewington & Burchill, where Murdoch & Cade were trying to convince the other two that as the two had been drawn together in two separate matches (talk about luck of the draw huh?) they should work together. Of course Lewington & Burchill were wary to say the least but it seemed as if Murdoch and Cade (who, it should be pointed out are already losing the “hired kidnappers” part of their gimmick) were telling the truth and wanted to work for the greater good. It didn’t do them much good as Lewington was finished off here with the Elijah Express. After the result however, Murdoch went over to Lewington…and helped him up and commiserated him on his losing effort. Strange.
Milano Collection AT & Lance Hoyt Vs Paul Wardle & John Cena ( * ½ )
Way to profile your Cruiserweight Champion huh? What he was doing in this match we don’t know. At least he didn’t get pinned as that “honour” went to Lance Hoyt who was pinned by John “I’m Still Getting A Push” Cena following an F-U. Which admittedly, was impressive.
Finlay & MYSTERY #2 Vs Rhino & Shelton Benjamin ( * * )
Who was going to be the second mystery man of the evening? Well Finlay said he didn’t care, and Rhino and Shelton Benjamin were too concerned with arguing with each other to care either. The fans cared though. At least they did when it was revealed to be…JAZZ HANDS GEE! Yes, it seems as if the Coma that Gee has recently been in has turned him into a Jazz man, and we have to say that the new theme music, Christina Aguilera’s Candyman reworked to be “Jazz Hands Gee” (sample lyric “He's a one stop shop, makes my cherry pop, He's a sweet talkin' sugar coated Jazz Hands Gee”) is absolutely amazing. Finlay didn’t know quite what to make of it, but Hornswoggle seemed to enjoy it and the odd couple totally overwhlemed their opponents and Gee finished off Rhino with the, wait for it, Jazz Hands Knee. Don’t ask.
Jay Reso & Matt Sydal Vs Sherlock Burchill & Lance Cade ( * * ¼ )
They tried to keep some interest in this match with the Burchill/Cade (Lewington/Murdoch) storyline but it pretty much failed. That said it was a decent enough match and even though you could see the ending (Cade costing Burchill the match) coming a mile off, it was still an entertaining diversion, and gave most fans what they wanted to see (Reso may have be a heel, but the fans wanted him to win this one given the competition).
Alexis Laree Vs Rebecca Knox (Steel Cage, * * * ¼ )
They’ve had a long and winding feud, which has actually kept the fans entertained throughout, and this match, refereed by Shantelle Taylor, was promoted as the feud ender. The two women put on one hell of a display and this qualifies as one of the most brutal women’s matches we’ve seen in the IWF’s history. It was pinfall wins, rather than climbing out of the cage, and after numerous
Battle Bowl Finale ( * * * ¾ )
PARTICIPANTS: Mohammed Fakjir, Randy Orton, CM Punk, Chris Harris, Umaga, Barabus Lashley, Triple H, Matthew Mercy, Elijah Burke, James Storm, Paul Wardle, John Cena, Finlay, Jazz Hands Gee, Jay Reso, Matt Sydal
Order of Elimination
I) Barabus Lashley (Matthew Mercy)
II) Matt Sydal (Jazz Hands Gee)
III) Umaga (James Storm & Chris Harris)
IV) Paul Wardle (Jay Reso)
V) Jazz Hands Gee (Finlay)
VI) Chris Harris (James Storm)
VII) James Storm (Chris Harris)
VIII) John Cena (CM Punk)
IX) Jay Reso (Randy Orton)
X) Mohammed Fakjir (Triple H)
XI) Randy Orton (Matthew Mercy)
XII) Finlay (Matthew Mercy)
XIII) Elijah Burke (CM Punk)
XIV) Matthew Mercy (Triple H)
XV) Triple H (CM Punk)
WINNER = CM PUNK
The best moments of the match where the tussle between America’s Most Wanted (they shook hands after eliminating each other mind you), the hilarious exchanges between Finlay and Gee, and the piping hot closing section involving the last 4, Burke, Mercy, HHH and Punk. The fans went wild when Punk won and at the end of the show, Burke & HHH attempted to bosh Punk but Mercy made the save. The fans went absolutely mental, although Punk and Mercy didn’t exactly seem to trust each other.