Blog Archives
First Look: The NEW IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship pays tribute to Promotions that host Defenses
Photo courtesy of IWTV.
*The Following Press Release Was Issued By IWTV*
In a relatively brief amount of time, the IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship has emerged as a unifying force on the indie wrestling scene. Though the championship has only been around for a year and a half, in that time it has been defended 37 times in 15 promotions, in 13 different states, against dozens of different opponents.
Three wrestlers have held the IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship:
- Jonathan Gresham: 126 Days, 7 Defenses
- Tracy Williams: 309 Days, 17 Defenses
- Orange Cassidy: Current Champion, 13 Defenses
All of them have been excellent representatives of independent wrestling and their combined efforts have served to make the IWTV Championship what it is today.
Recently IWTV debuted a new title design for the Independent Wrestling Championship. This new design honors and reflects the history of the championship, as promotions that have hosted championship defenses are featured on plates affixed to the title. New plates will continue to be added as defenses are made in new places, making the championship an evolving monument to its own history.
Here’s What’s Streaming LIVE during WrestleMania week on IWTV
Photo courtesy of IWTV.
*The Following Was Sent To Us Courtesy Of IWTV*
UPDATED IWTV WRESTLEMANIA WEEK SCHEDULE FROM THE COLLECTIVE
Plus, for the first time ever a Game Changer Wrestling event will be streaming live here on IWTV as GCW presents Orange Cassidy Is Doing Something Or Whatever, Who Knows??? on Saturday, April 6 at 12pm EDT from The Collective in Jersey City, New Jersey.
New Subscribers: Use promo code MANIAWEEK and you’ll get your first 20-days for free!
Wendesday 4/3:
Beyond Wrestling, Uncharted Territory, Episode One (8pm EST)
- Masato Tanaka vs David Starr
- So Cal Uncensored vs Chris Dickinson and LAX (Ortiz & Santana)
- Orange Cassidy & ??? vs Jordynne Grace & ???
- Plus: Maxwell Jacob Friedman and more TBA
Thursday, 4/4:
IWTV, Family Reunion (12pm EST)
- European Rounds for the IWTV Independent Championship:
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Jonathan Gresham - PWA Black Label presents
Jack Bonza & Mick Moretti & Unsocial Jordan vs Robbie Eagles & Caveman Ugg & Bel Pierce - St Louis Anarchy presents “Last Man Standing”
Gary Jay vs Jake Parnell - Women’s Wrestling Revolution presents
Shazza McKenzie & Jessica Troy vs Kimber Lee & Kris Statlander - Alpha-1 Wrestling presents
Space Monkey & Shane Sabre & BMD vs Justin Sane & Kody Lane & Kobe Durst - ACTION Wrestling presents for the ACTION Championship
AC Mack (c) vs Fred Yehi - Southern Underground Pro presents
O’Shay Edwards & Mr Brickster & Cabana Man Dan vs Kevin Ku & Dom Garrini & Brett Ison - Plus more TBA featuring CTW Portugal’s Red Eagle, F1RST Wrestling’s Arik Cannon and more!
Inter Species Wrestling, Boner Jam IV: Balls Out (7:30pm EST)
- Fans Bring the REDACTED Death Match for the King of Crazy Championship:
Addy Starr (c) vs Matt Tremont vs Jeff Cannonball vs Nick Gage
REDACTED = you know, the brightly colored toy blocks that we can’t legally mention - Sexxxy Eddy vs Swoggle
- Team Tremendous vs Gym Nasty Boys
- Chris Dickinson vs Chris Brookes
- Tony Deppen vs Jigsaw vs Werewolf of Wallstreet vs Sanchez
- Kickin N Stompin vs The Butcher & The Blade
- Jae Rukin vs Daniel Makabe
- Fluffy vs LSG
- Bastian Snow International Food Fight Invitational
Friday, 4/5:
CHIKARA, Once Upon A Beginning (12pm EST)
- Ladder Match for the CHIKARA Grand Championship:
Mr Touchdown vs Dasher Hatfield - Golden Dream Atomicos Match:
Thunderfrog & Jigsaw & Razerhawk & Chuck Taylor vs Arik Cannon & Hermit Crab & Cam Zagami & Hallowicked - Trios Action:
The Colony vs FIST - For the Young Lions Cup:
Still Life with Apricots and Pears (c) vs Carlos Romo - CCK vs Crummels & Defarge
- A-Kid vs Air Wolf
Black Label Pro, Adventures In Wrestling (3:30pm EST)
- Street Fight for the BLP Championship:
Ethan Page (c) vs Kobe Durst - Nick Gage vs Swoggle
- Yoshino vs Jonathan Gresham
- Orange Cassidy vs Bryan Alvarez
- For the BLP Tag Team Championship:
Space Pirates (c) vs Team Whitewolf vs Tre Lamar & Jake Lander vs Sammy Guevara & Robbie Eagles - Team International vs Team USA:
Shazza McKenzie & Charli Evans & Jessica Troy & Indi Hartwell & Zoe Lucas vs Jordynne Grace & Kylie Rae & Nicole Savoy & Shotzi Blackheart & Samantha Heights - Jake Parnell & Chris Dickinson & Rory Gulak vs Gary Jay & AJ Gray & Curt Stallion
- Manny Fernandez & Tank vs Sadkampf (Kevin Ku & Dom Garrini)
- Wrestling with Wregret presents Brian Zane’s Million Dollar Battle Royal
Saturday, 4/6:
Game Changer Wrestling, Orange Cassidy Is Doing Something Or Whatever, Who Knows??? (12pm EST)
- Shinjiro Otani vs Jonathan Gresham
- One Minute Time Limit:
Chuck Taylor vs Trent? - Yuletide Death Match
Nick Gage vs Ultramantis Black - Five O’Clock Somewhere – Last Person Standing Match:
Nate Webb vs Session Moth - Teddy Hart’s Reading Rainbow
- … and more to be announced, maybe?
IWS, Unstoppable (4pm EST)
- Matt Tremont vs Nick Gage vs The Green Phantom
- Alcobrawl Match:
Sexxxy Eddy vs Arik Cannon - For the IWS Womens Championship:
Addy Starr vs Solo Darling vs Veda Scott - Ophidian vs Kevin Blanchard
- Benjamin Tull vs Rory Gulak
- More TBA soon!
Wednesday, 4/10
Beyond Wrestling, Uncharted Territory, Episode Two (8pm EST)
- Already Announced: Aussie Open and former WWE Superstar Gangrel!
New Subscribers: Use promo code MANIAWEEK and you’ll get your first 20-days for free!
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 2/8/17: Taking Umbrage To The Umbrella
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/8/17)
Taking Umbrage To The Umbrella
– The Punishment Damien Martinez/BJ Whitmer-War Machine match carried off past quarrels where a match went to the wayside for the purpose of pointless brawling. At least it gives the four something to do, as Martinez’s future’s the most to gain here. It also helped this episode that Colt Cabana was on commentary in classic boastful heel mode. We also liked the little touch that WM wore face paint. It adds to their look, albeit in a “Braveheart” way. Whitmer seems to get “go away heat” and that continued here as not much action occurred. There was a moment where Hanson performed a spot where he repetitively ran his opponents in the corner, to the point the fans did the rally cries with him. It lasted about a minute, legitimately. There were some consistent double-teams on both ends, including an impressive pop-up powerslam by WM. The finish is where things get silly again, because the four men are so into the brawl, the damn 20-count passes them right by. Countouts in ROH are just ridiculous. The only solace taken here was that Martinez/Hanson could make an intriguing singles match one day. Let’s hope they go that route.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 2/1/17: Battle Of The Jays
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/1/17)
Battle Of The Jays
– With Wrestle Kingdom 11 on the back burner (though it aired on Jan. 4 and they’re just giving us the Ring Of Honor followup now), we had a new ROH World Champion and his name was Adam Cole… bay bay. The opening video looked back at Cole’s match with Kyle O’Reilly at WK11 and had him cut a promo over match footage about how “he” effectively concluded the story. Finally, some updated stuff. We were spinning our wheels there.
Powerbomb.TV Break The Barrier 2017 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Powerbomb.TV.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
May 15, 1999 was a historical day for independent wrestling as the former ECW Arena hosted an event called “Break The Barrier.”
BTB I was put together by Al Isaacs, Remy Arteaga and Barbi Bistrowitz of “Scoopswrestling.com,” as a way to showcase the best independent wrestlers as the card represented 12 different promotions.
Talent like “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush, Lou Marconi, Joey Matthews, Christian York and Nick Gage appeared and made names for themselves.
History repeated itself this year on Jun. 11 in Old Forge, PA., as Powerbomb.TV – a streaming service that provides 267 hours of content from 41 promotions as of press time – hosted “Break The Barrier 2017” in a similar supercard that included the likes of Colt Cabana, John Silver, Dasher Hatfield, Ophidian and Desean Pratt.
With Bryce Remsburg back and forth between commentary, pre-show duties and officiating, the broadcast had a CHIKARA-esque feel with a logical edginess.
Without much further ado, we’ll assess just how “Broken” this “Barrier” was nowadays.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 11/30/16: Final Words
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 11/30/16)
Final Words
– The Lio Rush-Jonathan Gresham match was random, but could’ve been used as Final Battle hype anyway, since Rush would be on one of the teams in the Finals of the Six-Man Championship Tournament to take place there. Sadly, that was never mentioned on commentary (with even Alex Shelley on the call) as instead, they let the two guys simply wrestle a great match and follow it up with an angle where The Motor City Machine Guns looked to “form the brigade” as a way to combat Bullet Club’s ruthless ways. Gresham and Rush exchanged exceptional chain wrestling, with collar-and-elbow tie-ups and headscissor takedowns galore. Admittedly, some of it came off more choreographed than organic, but we appreciated the effort. Gresham also hit a memorable second rope moonsault to the floor, albeit Rush barely covered him on the fall. Some good near-falls down the stretch, as Rush went on to hit a total of three Rush Hours and a Rushing Elbow to get the win. It was enough for us to be interested if they were to fight again. Shelley was also pretty good on commentary, though nothing overly memorable. Certainly no Austin Aries. The post-match promo segment saw MCMG put over Rush/Gresham as the future. Obviously, this must mean that Rush/Gresham could be potential recruits for this “Honor Brigade.”
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 10/26/16: (Un)Broken Spirits
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 10/26/16)
(Un)Broken Spirits
– With the team of Colt Cabana/Dalton Castle still fresh on the tag scene, they needed wins to score some credibility. With a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Championships at a Baltimore live event soon to come, this was a golden chance to keep the babyface team hot and they shelled out some new talent from New Japan Pro Wrestling in The Tempura Boys to do the process. While it felt like commentary spoke too much about TB and how they wanted to be known by only their first names, the actions of Cabana/Castle were enough to tell the right story. A smart mix of comedy, fast-action and great double-team moves, Cabana/Castle easily got past TB when Castle hit the Bangarang to score the pin.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 3/9/16: Rush Hour
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/9/16)
Rush Hour
– With his flashy tropical personality, ROH has a star in the making with Dalton Castle. It’s easy to fall for his charm and as much of a spectacle he makes with all the colors and his two “Boys,” you want to see more. He has that effect. This episode focused a lot on Castle and while it was TV filler essentially, there was a golden opportunity to advance Castle’s never-ending feud with Silas Young. Castle’s opening backstage promo chatted up tropical sweets and desire for victories while saying Christopher Daniels would have his heart broken. In a very “Dalton” way, did we actually hype the main event?
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 2/24/16: Patience Wears Thin
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/24/16)
Patience Wears Thin
– Another week, another match where ROH World Television Champion Roderick Strong takes on “the world.” This time, it was Jonathan Gresham. We had a brief promo before the bell from Veda Scott, who tried to buy Cedric Alexander that TV Title shot, tying back to when Gresham upset Alexander, as Gresham valiantly turned down a check offer. Good explanation from commentary in questioning the legitimacy of Scott’s promise, saying that she couldn’t have had that much money from the lawsuit settlement and having a possible clause that’d get her out of dishing out that cash. As for the match, it had the makings of a Strong squash, as he boasted beaming confidence en route to his match against Bobby Fish that’d take place at ROH’s 14th Anniversary. Gresham put on an impressive showing, perhaps his best to date, moving around with ease, switching from submission to submission, even scoring a close near-fall on Roddy before a knee strike did him in. The post-match interaction with Fish and Strong fit their feud, as Fish attacked Strong coming out of the crowd and taunted him to fight, only for the heel Strong to raise his belt and back away.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 1/27/16: Menage A Trois
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 1//27/16)
Menage A Trois
– With an eye to the future, we always applaud ROH for spotlighting new talent with the Top Prospect Tournament, since it gives them an early chance to impress fans and officials alike for the ultimate prize of an early career accolade. Even better, some tourney matches would play out on TV, like the one that opened up the show between Brian Fury (17-year veteran who trained Sasha Banks and Donovan Dijak) and Shaheem Ali. Fury had a look about him that looked like a blend of Damien Sandow and The Ascension while Ali reminded us of Shelton Benjamin in his early days. The two did some flashy suplexes, but the big story of the fight was Fury using his “veteran heel status” to use the Referee’s leg to block Ali from hitting a top-rope maneuver, turning the distraction into a moment where he could pull out his Pop-Up Sit-Down Powerbomb finisher to advance.
Pro Wrestling Opinion 