Post by ipwgreg on Sept 5, 2010 16:41:42 GMT -5
When we started running shows in Martinsville , if you are a longtime fan of IPW you would have noticed a change in the direction of the company.
We had slowly been moving away from doing “ Hardcore “ matches for the sake of doing them. More thought went into the booking of the show . Yes we still did “ Hardcore” but only if it served a purpose.
Take the match between J.C. Bailey and Hillbilly Jedd as an example. Jedd and I had a longstanding feud, I honestly can’t remember who I was managing at the time, I believe it was Dave Davidson, and I think Jedd may have been the Heavyweight champion at the time. Jedd had attacked me, broken a Keyboard over my head and I had brought in J.C. to end his career. I was transferring my heat with Jedd on to J.C. and giving the match a purpose other than just to do Hardcore. The match itself was good, very stiff and a lot of action, the broke tables, and on the outside J.C. blew the biggest fireball at Jedd that I have ever seen, actually catching him on fire. Which caused J.C. to momentarily break Kayfabe and help put Jedd out before he was seriously hurt. So yes we were keeping the Insanity alive, but only if there was a reason.
Many promotions will do this. Have a Hardcore match because yes they know it will draw the fans of the ultraviolent style. I don’t disagree with that in some cases. CZW is a wonderful group that made it’s name in that type of setting and you go into it knowing that is what kind of company they were. I believe that now they are more focused on wrestling than they were in the past. We did it ourselves . Without any build up , without any feud, or any backstory we would have a barbwire match just to have it. Now we save that sort of thing for the blow off of a feud or angle. I believe that’s how it should be, and that started in Martinsville.
We had started to put more of an emphasis on the wrestling aspect of it. The idea that this is an athletic event. Guys like Jedd and Dave Davidson had worked their way into the top spots in the company. I say work because they deserved it . At that time, I believe that Dave Davidson was the best wrestler in the company. Yet we were also bringing in more excellent talent. “Indiana Kidd “ Joey Owens had finally made his way into the company. Working a wonderful feud with Rick Ravage who I managed at the time. Rick on a good day was a great performer, unfortunately he had more bad days than good. Carlton Kaz had finally made his way into the company fulltime and was having some excellent matches. He wasn’t there yet, but you could really see something happening with this kid. Scotty Vortekz and Cliffton Crunk, Wasted Youth had a couple really good matches with Simply Marvelous. Drake Younger had finally made his way back into wrestling after a brief hiatus. I believe that his time off was in part due to the car accident that gave him those “ Wolverine” scars on his right arm. Irish Airborne were in the company now, and we had the best high flyers in the Midwest. Hell, even Don Basher made an appearance once in awhile.
We had all the tools, but for whatever reason we just couldn’t make Martinsville work. We tried, man we tried. To say that ten grand had been lost in Martinsville would be a close guess. I don’t have the books in front of me. We were wrestling in front of all time low crowds, and it was actually the only time I got my own family to come to shows. Be a Heel in front of your mother and see how that goes over when people boo you.
People wonder what happened at this time, why we took a break ? IPW shut down for 11 months after Martinsville.
It was never really in question if we would run again, just when. The War overseas was making it harder and Harder to reserve the armory where we ran and something else happened. I got married and bought a house. Mikes relationship with his future wife was also very serious. I think he and I just needed to concentrate for a short time on our personal lives. We kept the Heavyweight title alive and defended in New Era Wrestling while we were taking time off.
It was time again to return to Indianapolis. Our old stomping grounds were closed to us. So it was time to look for a new building once again.
More to come.
We had slowly been moving away from doing “ Hardcore “ matches for the sake of doing them. More thought went into the booking of the show . Yes we still did “ Hardcore” but only if it served a purpose.
Take the match between J.C. Bailey and Hillbilly Jedd as an example. Jedd and I had a longstanding feud, I honestly can’t remember who I was managing at the time, I believe it was Dave Davidson, and I think Jedd may have been the Heavyweight champion at the time. Jedd had attacked me, broken a Keyboard over my head and I had brought in J.C. to end his career. I was transferring my heat with Jedd on to J.C. and giving the match a purpose other than just to do Hardcore. The match itself was good, very stiff and a lot of action, the broke tables, and on the outside J.C. blew the biggest fireball at Jedd that I have ever seen, actually catching him on fire. Which caused J.C. to momentarily break Kayfabe and help put Jedd out before he was seriously hurt. So yes we were keeping the Insanity alive, but only if there was a reason.
Many promotions will do this. Have a Hardcore match because yes they know it will draw the fans of the ultraviolent style. I don’t disagree with that in some cases. CZW is a wonderful group that made it’s name in that type of setting and you go into it knowing that is what kind of company they were. I believe that now they are more focused on wrestling than they were in the past. We did it ourselves . Without any build up , without any feud, or any backstory we would have a barbwire match just to have it. Now we save that sort of thing for the blow off of a feud or angle. I believe that’s how it should be, and that started in Martinsville.
We had started to put more of an emphasis on the wrestling aspect of it. The idea that this is an athletic event. Guys like Jedd and Dave Davidson had worked their way into the top spots in the company. I say work because they deserved it . At that time, I believe that Dave Davidson was the best wrestler in the company. Yet we were also bringing in more excellent talent. “Indiana Kidd “ Joey Owens had finally made his way into the company. Working a wonderful feud with Rick Ravage who I managed at the time. Rick on a good day was a great performer, unfortunately he had more bad days than good. Carlton Kaz had finally made his way into the company fulltime and was having some excellent matches. He wasn’t there yet, but you could really see something happening with this kid. Scotty Vortekz and Cliffton Crunk, Wasted Youth had a couple really good matches with Simply Marvelous. Drake Younger had finally made his way back into wrestling after a brief hiatus. I believe that his time off was in part due to the car accident that gave him those “ Wolverine” scars on his right arm. Irish Airborne were in the company now, and we had the best high flyers in the Midwest. Hell, even Don Basher made an appearance once in awhile.
We had all the tools, but for whatever reason we just couldn’t make Martinsville work. We tried, man we tried. To say that ten grand had been lost in Martinsville would be a close guess. I don’t have the books in front of me. We were wrestling in front of all time low crowds, and it was actually the only time I got my own family to come to shows. Be a Heel in front of your mother and see how that goes over when people boo you.
People wonder what happened at this time, why we took a break ? IPW shut down for 11 months after Martinsville.
It was never really in question if we would run again, just when. The War overseas was making it harder and Harder to reserve the armory where we ran and something else happened. I got married and bought a house. Mikes relationship with his future wife was also very serious. I think he and I just needed to concentrate for a short time on our personal lives. We kept the Heavyweight title alive and defended in New Era Wrestling while we were taking time off.
It was time again to return to Indianapolis. Our old stomping grounds were closed to us. So it was time to look for a new building once again.
More to come.