IWL on Roku Review: Wreck The Halls 4
After having a mostly decent show with New Era X, the IWL returned with Wreck The Halls 4 featuring a rematch between IWL Champion Peter Avalon defending his title against Ray Rosas again in a 30 Minute Ironman Match. Plus B-Boy teams with Tyler Bateman to challenge the Mixtape Kings for the IWL Tag Team Championship, and the Suburban Commandos are in action. Let’s see how IWL follows up a decent show.
There’s no PA , so you can’t hear Tony Graziano do ring introductions. This is completely unprofessional and bush league. No, it’s not even bush league. To quote former PWG and Revolution Pro champion and star, Chris Bosh, this is SWAMP LEAGUE! At the same time, it means I don’t have to hear Tony Graziano’s voice and shitty comedy. Still, not a good look for your company not having a PA for your show.
Pre-show Match: #1 Contender’s Match for the IWL Breakout Championship: Big B vs. D’Marco Wilson vs. Biagio Crescenzo
This was a basic triple threat match. Big B tries to play an intimidating monster character, but he just seems like an average guy in flamboyant gear with tassels. He isn’t very impressive while he’s in control of the match. His forearms looked so terrible and does awful SPINNING SHIT too. The other guys in this match look like they’re still in high school. This match is full of sloppy and stupid looking spots. This match was planned out or called terribly. Meh, not an interesting way to start the show.
Post match shenanigans: After the match, Johnny Saovi and Biagio Crescenzo cut a lame promo.
Show starts with Tony Graziano having to yell out an introduction for IWL owner Vic Luna who has to yell at the crowd for the opening promo. Even without a microphone, Tony Graziano still tries to do comedy or something. It’s hard to hear him thankfully.
Pinky vs. Douglas James vs. Suede Thompson
There’s no music for this match since there’s no PA, so each guy just comes out. The commentators (This time without The Hole) make a bunch of stupid comments, so they still suck it seems. One the unfunny dickheads compared this to watching “two midgets trying to fight a normal sized person.” Not only was that unfunny, but it buries the guys in the match. On top of the shitty commentary, the booking for this was dumb. Why are there two triple threat matches booked in a row? Not only that, why are they two triple threat matches with the same formula involving a big wrestler and two smaller wrestlers? Pinky was the dominant big man. Beat up on Douglas James and Suede Thompson for most of the match and won. There’s really nothing much else to write about here.
Johnny Ssoavi (w/ Biagio Crescenzo) vs. Kahmora
Before the match, there’s more shitty, unfunny jokes from the commentators. Johnny Saovi stalls, cuts a lame promo, and wasted time at the commentary table. His unfunny promo is stopped by Kahmora when she slaps him. During a chain wrestling sequence, one of the commentators (the guy wearing the ugly purple shirt, I think it was Jeff Maverick, who I heard is a big fan of my reviews) made a stupid joke about Saovi letting Kahmora put him in a leg-scissor choke, saying “heh, dude, c’mon, look where it’s at” implying that it’s a good thing having your throat crushed between a women’s legs. Maybe he and Saovi don’t get good pussy, and that’s why Maverick is acting like a fucking dork on commentary. Either way, these fucks aren’t funny.
Kahmora was decent and looked like a legitimate athlete here. She just needs to be booked in matches with better opponents that can showcase her skills and help her grow. The only real problem I had with her in this match was her DDT into a Kimura lock on Saovi, but that’s just a minor technique thing. Saovi on the other hand comes off as a backyarder who went to enough wrestling classes not to be considered untrained anymore, and also looks as if he does zero cardio. No joke, he looks like he’s probably never seen the inside of a gym before. This match was terrible when he was on offense, borderline unwatchable. He was sloppy and his heel work was shitty. Biagio got involved for a stupid finish.
Post match shenanigans: Biagio and Saovi attack Kahmora, and is saved by Steven Andrews, who were having problems during recent shows. No real reason given as to why he made the save and why they’re on good terms now. No real fucks given either. Graziano talks, and we can’t hear what he’s saying thankfully.
IWL Breakout Championship Match: The American Oni (c) vs. Ruben Iglesias
Speaking of guys who look like they’ve never been inside a gym, it’s the American Oni in another shitty match! This match was slow, sloppy, and the spots were poorly executed. Oni is officially worse than Mr. California now and is the textbook definition of your stereotypical shitty indy wrestler. Honestly, at least Marvin gives SoCal and indy wrestling unintentional comedy, but Oni brings nothing to the table. And we already knew Oni was going to win as Johnny Saovi and Biagio Crescenzo already called him out earlier in the show, making it obvious he was going to win.
Post match shenanigans: Oni cuts a shitty promo, so he’s just as bad on the mic as he is in the ring. Calls out Biagio Crescenzo and calls him “Charmin Ultra” while doing so. He’s really not funny. Biagio and Johnny Saovi come out. They have an embarrassing segment to hype up a match at the next show. This sucked. More Graziano yelling without a mic.
The Suburban Commandos (D-Unit & T-Rent) vs. Tag Game Strong (Cedric The Hitman & Leo Blaze)
Lots of tag spots and double team moves in this one. Tag Game Strong controlled the match, but their offense wasn’t very impressive, and they weren’t very captivating inside the ring. Cedric The Hitman looks like a guy who just tries to hit moves that sound cool on paper but he can’t really execute without looking goofy. Leo Blaze was decent, I feel like he’s brought down by being paired with Cedric. He can do impressive things in the ring and take some cool looking bumps. The Suburban Commandos were pretty entertaining in this, and I wish they could’ve showcased more of their offense. This match was decent, but would’ve been better if it was just Tag Game Strong getting killed by the Commandos.
At this point in the show there’s almost three hours left, and the show has been an hour and a half long with five more matches to go. One of those is a 30 minute Ironman Match. Fucking hell. This booking is not only bad, but the pacing of these shows are terrible.
IWL Anarchy Championship Match: Justin Ryke (c) vs. Simon Lotto
These guys have a shitty brawl around the building to start the match. They botched a spot when they got back in the ring when Justin Ryke sold for an enziguri that didn’t even connect. Simon Lotto also does SPINNING SHIT here. Everyone needs to stop doing SPINNING SHIT now because they all look stupid. This match sucked. Justin Ryke is really terrible.
Post match shenanigans: Ryke gets a beer from a fan, Lotto starts talking shit about how Ryke got lucky, and he left as Ryke finishes his beer heading into intermission. On a side note, I heard Justin Ryke wants to fight me because of my reviews. Real talk, he should really rethink that because if he tried to fight me it wouldn’t go well for him.
Eric Cross vs. Andy Brown
The PA finally showed up and we have entrance music, Unfortunately that means we have to listen to Tony Graziano. Whoever is producing the event fucked up the name graphic for Andy Brown’s entrance.There’s a bunch of antics in this. Eric Cross continues to be the most unfunny, annoying, boring, and unwatchable wrestler on these shows. Andy Brown was solid in this when he wasn’t doing goofy dancing antics.. Andy Brown used a Package Piledriver during the match, which one of the dumbass commentators called a Cradle Piledriver. This match wasn’t really interesting. Andy Brown could’ve had a better showing against a better wrestler, but instead he had to the J.O.B. to one of the boss’ friends.
Post match shenanigans: Eric Cross gets on the mic and asks for a rematch with Brown, even though he won. Graziano still sucks at comedy. The idiot in the video below is way better at comedy and has way better material than Graziano.
IWL Tag Team Championship Match: The Mixtape Kings (Jacob Diez & LTP) vs. B-Boy & Tyler Bateman
At the last event, Tyler Bateman and B-Boy were opponents in a Three Way Dance. Now, for some reason, they’re the #1 contenders for the tag titles. This booking makes no sense. The match itself was good. B-Boy and Tyler Bateman beat down their opponents while the champs made comebacks. I’m really not a fan of Jacob Markus Riot Diez as he just looks goofy inside the ring and doesn’t have convincing offense. LTP was pretty solid here, so overall this wasn’t bad. B-Boy continues to have the best matches on these cards. Bateman has me interested in seeing what he can do in singles matches with bigger name indy guys. Bateman vs. Chris Hero would be a great match for someone to book it if it hasn’t happened by now.
Ethan Page vs. Erik Watts
During Ethan Page’s entrance we got more unfunny comments from the commentary guys. Erik Watts comes out in some Star Wars shit. The commentators act like unfunny dorks on commentary. Nearly everyone in this promotions tries way too hard to be funny when they have no comedic skills at all. Ethan Page showed his ass in this match. This was on a show full of little kids in the crowd. I’m pretty sure that can be considered a sex crime. It’s also really fucking stupid. This match sucked. It was just all bad comedy in a boring, slow paced match. Nothing worth talking about or reviewing. Fuck Star Wars too.
30 Minute Ironman Match for the IWL Championship: Peter Avalon (c) vs. Ray Rosas
Finally, after three and a half hours of show, we get to the main event. A main event that doesn’t really make sense from a booking stand point. Peter Avalon beat Ray Rosas cleanly and they had no beef after their match at New Era X, so I don’t get why this match is taking place. It was a really good match with a clean finish, not the kind that needs a followup to on the next show. Justin Ruke is on commentary. Ugh. Peter Avalon had Ray Rosas in a jiu-jitsu full guard, and the dumbass commentators didn’t know what to call it. Fuck these guys. Seriously.
Moving on now. Rosas and Avalon did some nice chain wrestling to start. Ray Rosas tried an armbar, but he made it look bad by not having his right foot over Avalon’s face, and instead had it under his head. Avalon could’ve easily countered out of it by getting up to his left side. After the chain wrestling they start to go around the building and things got more heated. Rosas hit Avalon with a chair that resulted in a DQ to give Avalon a fall, which leads to Avalon being counted out for Rosas to gain a fall to even things up in the Ironman match at 1-1. After Avalon got back in the ring, Rosas hit him with a knee and got the pin to go up 2-1. The match goes on, and in the middle of the match Vic Luna comes out to stop the match and add a no count out and no disqualification stipulation to fuck up Rosas’ game plan. They start using a chair and a giant hammer on each other as weapons during the match. Avalon used a chair assisted Boston Crab to even up the match at 2-2. The commentators start teasing a possible draw, which makes it obvious now that there’s gonna be a fucking draw. It eventually becomes 3-3, and of course it ends in a draw.
After this, Vic Russo comes out and does a typical 5 minute overtime thing because “we must have a winner.” They do a quick overtime sequence, with Avalon hitting Rosas with the same Tiger Driver ’98 he used at the last event to pin him. Dumbass Graziano announces there’s still time left in the match even though it was Sudden Death. What a massive fuck up by him to kill the finish of this match.
Post match shenanigans: Avalon helps Rosas up and they embrace. Ray Rosas cuts a promo thanking the fans for coming out. Justin Ryke attacked him. He does some shitty looking Kimura lock on Rosas before some security guards, including some guy who looks like a crackhead Beavis, pulled him off. He gets on the mic and cuts a promo bitching about Rosas being pushed. He calls out Rosas to a match instead of calling out Peter Avalon to a title match, which would’ve made more sense since Ryke had been talking about wanting a shot at the IWL title. Ryke attacks Rosas some until Avalon tries to make the save, but Ryke gets the upper-hand. Ryke gets back on the mic again and has words for Vic Russo. Ray Rosas yelled at a kid and the show ends like that. Ugh. Ray and Peter deserve better than this shit.
Thoughts on the show: This shit was over 4 hours long. IWL’s shows are so hard to watch. The bad matches, shitty booking, unfunny comedy, and bad wrestlers make it hard to enjoy these events. There are good workers on these shows, but their hard work gets overshadowed by all the bullshit on these shows. Whoever is booking these shows needs to realize that booking your friends as stars when they aren’t good enough to be booked in other promotions isn’t going to bring the fans out, especially when you run against PWG and on the night of the biggest UFC event of the year. Oh yeah, the commentary is still atrocious and listening to Tony Graziano is about as funny as watching a little kid die of cancer. Fuck these guys and their shitty open-mic material.
Thoughts on the Roku presentation: Again, the audio mixing sucks. The picture quality for this show was really bad. There were a bunch of technical fuck ups too. Vic should just forget about this broadcasting shit until the amateur in charge of this shit figures out how to stream and direct properly. Vic is better off just editing the shows in post and uploading them after.
Final Thoughts: Out of the four IWL shows I’ve seen, this was the 2nd worst behind Sicko Sircus. The booking in IWL is terrible, makes no sense, doesn’t do anything to make the wrestlers look good, pretty much everyone isn’t funny and the shows run way too long. This wouldn’t be a problem if they were good shows, but these shows aren’t entertaining. B-Boy, Tyler Bateman, and the Suburban Commandos were all fun to watch, and there are workers like Douglas James, Andy Brown and Kahmora putting on better performances than wrestlers who get put over and pushed like Johnny Saovi, American Oni, Justin Ryke, and Eric Cross who are all downsides on these shows. Ray Rosas and Peter Avalon had a match that should’ve been great had it not been for the stupid and contrived booking. Those guys can put on good shit without the need of Vic Russo booking tactics thrown into matches.
After watching four shows, I notice far more negatives in IWL’s product that overshadow the positives. I know their supporters (aka friends and employees) will be pissed that I’m saying this, but I’m being real when I say that the IWL as a wrestling promotion is really fucking terrible. A lot of these guys don’t even look like they work hard to better themselves as wrestlers and performers, and that in turn hurts the good workers who do work hard. These shows are bad, and will continue to be bad unless the direction of the company drastically changes.
And if you find yourself offended by this review or any of my previous IWL reviews, I have this message for you, especially those who want to try and fight me because of my opinions:
