Shoot Out Report

Elijah Burke Vs Chris Benoit ( * * * )
Burke has obviously been picked out as “future superstar” (witness the hype surrounding his arrival in the IWF and compare it to the welcome the likes of Steve Lewington, Deuce Shade and Austin Aries have been given) but even so, this was a stiff test in only his second PPV appearance. Benoit’s best days may be behind him, from a title point of view anyway, but a wrestler going up against him is still chasing a good feather in his cap and needs to keep up with the Rabid Wolverine. Burke succeeded on both accounts. It wasn’t an all-time classic, but it was a good, held-together, encounter, which made Burke look like a star (and credit to Benoit for helping with that). Burke won it clean and riled up the crowd something rotten in the process, which actually is more of a sign that Burke could be a somebody in the IWF. The push continues.

Finlay Vs Samoa Joe ( * * * ¾ )
If you like your action stiff, then this was the bout for you. Admittedly the style would not be to everybody’s liking, but there can be no doubting the hell these two put each other through here. Unlike their PPV match from last summer, this match was designed to push Finlay (rather than Joe) but the two went about it by assembling a barnstorming brawl that even had those in the cheap seats wincing. The red marks were evident on both men’s chests from the stiff chops they exchanged and there were enough high-impact suplexes on show to please anyone. In the end it was Finlay who hit the Emerald Fusion to get the 1-2-3. Where Joe goes from here is open to question, and he may well have a lean spell in front of him; Finlay on the other hand seems likely to be very busy by the time MuscleMania comes around, but we’ll say no more for now.

Umaga Vs Dave Proud ( * * )
How they were supposed to follow the previous match is beyond me. They might have got away with it if it hadn’t been for the fact that Umaga’s pounding of Proud didn’t match the brutality that Finlay and Joe had served up just minutes earlier. That said, on it’s own merits it was an effective match which put Umaga over as a bulldozer and got Proud some respect for his plucky underdog attempt to fight the monster. As you might have guessed, Umaga won this fairly easily (although Proud fought to the end), finally finishing Proud off with the Samoan Spike. If the object of this match was to attempt to start a “monster” (as in Umaga is a monster rather than in the sense of a “huge” push) push for Umaga and to give Proud another pay-off then you can argue it worked. That we can neither see Umaga ever being a genuine headlining threat nor Proud making any better a fist of the “respected UK veteran” push than Peter Turner did last year though does make this whole thing seem slightly pointless.

Barabus Lashley Vs Kane ( * * )
Someone has to say it so might as well be me. Lashley has lost a fair deal of momentum in 2007 and he still hasn’t improved his microphone skills to anywhere near the required level for a superstar wrestler in the IWF. That said, Kane is hardly your ldeal after dinner speaker either but he lifted the IWF world title once (for a three days at least) so maybe there is hope for Lashley yet. This was pretty much your normal, run of the mill big man match, but they did us the service of ramping up the excitement towards the end of the match and that almost made up for the dull tests of strength that dominated the opening third of this encounter. In the end Kane got the mild upset victory (which proves someone in the “office” might have recognised Lashley’s loss of momentum as well) by finishing off Lashley with a Tombstone and lifting the European Title for the first ever time.

Abyss Vs Xavier ( * * * * )
This is a war that has waged since Xavier made his return to the IWF at last year’s Neon Blue and having been promised that this was the final encounter between the two the fans were hot at the start of this one. Not that they particularly wanted to see the back of what has been an excellent feud, but more because this has been so expertly set up that there was a real buzz to see exactly how it would all go down. And the fans were not disappointed one bit. The two went at it with a fury that underlined the fact that this war has been waged over the long haul and even in its final hour this proved that a great feud can still exist today that gets both men more over than they were when they started. Abyss has shown that he can truly hang with the best (a suggestion that fewer and fewer critics were agreeing with before this feud) and Xavier showed that he has come back to the IWF with a vengeance and that further glory is on its way.. In the end this was a seesaw battle which finally went toe way of the “good guy” as Xavier was finally able to finish off Abyss with his second Xav-Attack. The crowd gave both men a rousing ovation, one that was fully deserved.

Tag Team Turmoil ( * * ¼ )
The problem with these kind of matches is always that having to have five teams eliminated in such a short period of time means that there isn’t much time to build something up in each segment. This was no exception, although the crowd were hot for the majority of it and all the wrestlers put forward a good effort. The match and elimination order was as follows;
1) Eric Young & Bobby Roode defeated Shelton Benjamin & Paul Wardle
2) Eric Young & Bobby Roode defeated Loco Delgado & Flavio Love
3) Brian Kendrick & Lance Hoyt defeated Eric Young & Bobby Roode
4) Paul London & Rick Shaw defeated Brian Kendrick & Lance Hoyt
5) Paul London & Rick Shaw defeated Shinya Makaybe & William Regal
Having the underdog team of London & Shaw prevail in the final match against the rock-hard combo of Makaybe & Regal ensured that the fans were well behind them and they can now look forward to a shot at AMW’s World Tag Team Titles.

At this point it was time for the Dean Roberts/Edge contract signing, for the first match to be officially announced for MuscleMania XVI. As suspected Annalise Anderson took the opportunity to rub salt into the Dean’s wounds by accompanying Edge to ringside. Both men looked all business as George Minister produced the contracts. Of course this wasn’t going to just be about putting a signature on a piece of paper, both men had a little something to say before starting to sign the contract. Edge started off with his usual spiel about spending his career being held back by has-beens like Dean and that he was finally going to get to do something about it. Dean was a little more understated but carried a passion in his words, which, if we’re being honest here, screamed out “BUY-RATE INCREASE”. Dean stated that as this was a “non-sanctioned” match, he had no fat contract to lean back on if he got injured, unlike Edge, but he said he didn’t care about that. He said it wasn’t about Edge sleeping with Annalise or the break up of his marriage that made him want this match it was that Edge had tried to make a fool of him and that even at this stage of his career, Dean Robert’s doesn’t stand for that. After implying that this would be his last ever ring appearance at MM XVI (yeah, right) he said that he’d known Edge for a long time (which in storyline terms is true – credit to all involved from remembering the time when Edge –alongside Luke Todd Wood- was portrayed as Dean’s on screen buddy) but that it was only recently that he’d realised just what an “asshole” Edge really was. Dean then signed the document but Edge flew off the handle and as he spoke Dean turned his back to walk away but Edge attacked him and subjected him to a bloody and brutal beating. He then mockingly dipped his pen in the pool of blood from Dean’s injuries and signed the contract. Edge has his critics but this was an awesome angle. It’s difficult to believe that anyone who saw it wouldn’t want to place their order for MuscleMania right now!

Jay Reso Vs CM Punk ( * * * ¼ )
Ok so it wasn’t on in the main event spot (come on though, did you ever expect it to be?) but this was still a big night for both men. For Punk it was his first chance to really impress in a top-of-the-card position and whilst an indifferent showing here wouldn’t have killed off his long-term hopes for success it may have had short-term implications and have been a setback. Reso on the other hand needed to show that he’s more than just a transition champion and is actually someone that can drive feuds at this level. For the most part then, both men will be more than happy with what they delivered. It wasn’t a five-star classic, but it was a good, exciting match, which the crowd were in to in a big way. Of course it would have come to no surprise to anyone that Reso won, but the two still made the crowd feel for the false finishes, which proves what a good job both men did. In the end Reso won with the Unprettier, but this is a day, which, in the future, both men may look back upon with a rare fondness.

Big Gee & MNM Vs Randy Orton & AMW ( * * * )
The main storyline leading up to this 6 man match was that Randy Orton had tried it on with both Melina (manager of MNM) and Riley Mason (The Gee’s latest girlfriend), Still at least it gave a reason for the Gee & MNM to gang up on old Randy meaning that this thrown together attraction at least had some point over it. AMW & MNM have a certain chemistry after their long war (which, lest we remind you, was declared over last year) and Gee & Orton seemed to be on a similar wavelength as well (so I suspect that Gee Vs Orton can be pencilled in for MuscleMania). This was a little rushed but was still an entertaining encounter, not least when Melina and Riley Mason had a little falling out. Well it was almost a not-so-little falling out if you catch my drift. In the end it was this distraction that cost Gee the match; as he attended to Riley, Orton sneaked up behind him and hit the RKO to get the pinfall victory for his team. Still I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Orton/Gee (although conversely, as well as they match up, we do hope we’ve seen the last of AMW/MNM). As an aside, Johnny Nitro looked in a bit of trouble towards the end of the match, and it didn’t look to be of a “storyline” nature. We do hope it’s nothing serious for Nitro.

Matt Morgan Vs Matthew Mercy ( * * * ¾ )
So it was main event time, with a spot opposite Jay Reso (presumably) in the MuscleMania main event on the line. Mercy won the Robo Rumble, but only after the referee missed him being eliminated by Morgan. IWF Commissioner Eric Bischoff decreed that this was to be a Winner Takes All match, with no countout or disqualifications but the cynics needn’t have worried that this was an excuse for outside interference – no, it was just an excuse for the two men to let it all hang out. The crowd were psyched for this one and were firmly behind Morgan over the Hollywood superstar Mercy, but the two weren’t here for plaudits, they were here to put on a great match. The two brawled all the way across the arena as the crowd ran for cover and plenty of claret flowed from both men in this intense war. Both men kicked out of each other’s finishers, in fact both men survived two of their opponent’s finishers, but in the end a 3rd Morgasm finished off Mercy and the crowd went wild as Morgan cemented his place in the MuscleMania main event. A killer main event, which included a clean j-o-b from Mercy! Maybe time mellows the soul after all.

On the whole this was a great card, which really did set the wheels in motion for MuscleMania. But it was a more than watchable stand-alone event as well. New stars were given a chance to progress, even in defeat, and old stars did their best to help in that. It’s unclear exactly what transformation has come over the IWF since the turn of the year but on current evidence it’s been a good thing. The shows are tighter than they’ve been in quite some time and genuine consideration seems to be being shown to creating new stars. This pay-per-view also had the strongest and most exciting line up on paper that we’ve seen in quite some time as well and early indications are that it translated into a very impressive buy-rate indeed. The IWF is back on track!