IWA Deep South Rasslepalooza DVD Review by Gene Jackson

So despite the whole big blow up on Cheap Heat Radio a few months ago that apparently has gotten me some heat with the owner of IWA Deep South, Kevin Brennan. I still consider myself a fan of the promotion and I think the current booker is trying really hard to fix what some consider to be issues with their product.


Their first show back since the controversial Carnage Cup death match tournament was Rasslepalooza in Sylacauga, Alabama.  The show took place on July 30 and featured only one death match which was scheduled to be the Main Event, IWA Deep South Heavyweight title with Death Match Rules, the champion Freak Show against the breakout star of Carnage Cup, via his box cutter stabbing of Spider Boodrow, "The Angel of Death" John Rare.  The rest of the card sounded very promising with the IPW Mid America Champion Chrisjen Hayme on the card defending his title, a 5 way #1 Contenders Match, and much more.  I would have liked to have seen the show live but had to work so I couldn't make it.  I've been looking forward to the DVD release to see the show because I heard a lot about it and I have all the IWA Deep South DVDs in my collection so I figured I needed this one as well even if the boss doesn't like me.

The first thing I've gotta mention is how awesome my last two transactions with Smart Mark Video was....despite always having great dealing with Highspots, I've been a little turned off about ordering wrestling DVDs after it took me three months to get my Doug Gilbert shoot interview from RF Video....(I would recommend you stay FAR, FAR away from RF...most of his stuff ends up on Highspots.com...it's worth the wait!)  Anyway....I placed my order for Rasslepalooza around 10:30am on a Friday and by 3pm that SAME DAY, I got an email saying my order had shipped and by that Monday night We were at home watching it....that's awesome service and it was the exact same way when I ordered Carnage Cup so I highly recommend using Smart Mark Video for your indy wrestling DVD needs because the service is awesome!


So....onto the DVD.  For starters, most every IWA DS release has had Smooth Plezing and a revolving door of random color commentors (and some matches no one at all) doing the commentary.  While I like Smooth Plezing and when he's on his game, he's awesome (his commentary with Larry Sweeney on some of the older DVDs is priceless)....but most of the DVDs with so many people coming and going from the announce table just seemed to be either just random conversation that didn't pertain to the match or just cracking jokes on what was going on in the ring almost to a "Beavis and Butthead"-esqe level.  This DVD offers the debut of former IWA DS Heavyweight Champion Cabana Man Dan who is joined in the first half of the show by the current IWA DS Champion Freak Show, and in the second half by Chrisjen Hayme (subbing for Jeremy Flynt...we'll get to that later).   I thought these guys did a very good job calling the matches....it wasn't all straight forward and serious...there was still some jokes made but much more subtle than in the past and it didn't take away from the action in the ring.  CMD also did some backstage interviews for the DVD that helped explain some of the card changes and what not that happened due to some last minute cancellations and such.


MATCH #1- Brandon Collum vs. "Do or Die" Chip Day


A nice opener here from two guys I've gotten to be familiar with in the past year or so.  Chip Day seemed to be the babyface here which I haven't seen him do much, I've become accustomed to seeing him as part of the "Jimmy Rave Approved" stable on various shows with Jimmy Rave, Corey Hollis, and Mike Posey.  Chip is a very talented guy and seems to do well working as both a face and a heel but the heel work seems more natural.  Brandon has been the long reigning ProSouth Champion in Piedmont for many months until recently dropping the title to Brian Alexander there.  First time seeing Collum work heel....actually only the second time seeing him work as "Brandon Collum", the first time being in a triangle match for the NWA World Title against Colt Cabana and Bobby Moore.  Prior to that I'd only seen him with his "Collumbine" gimmick which I'm glad he dropped.   Again, good opening match here, back and forth action with both guys getting their spots in with Day eventually going over to a nice pop from the crowd.


MATCH #2- Chris Lightning vs. Chris  Ganzer

The back of the DVD had Chris Ganset, but everything I've ever seen this guy was billed as Chris Ganzer.  These guys are usually a tag team throughout the Southeast but due to some of those cancellations I mentioned, they wound up opponents.  Good match from these two....a few awkward moments here and there but nothing unforgivable.....Ganzer's tights look like he just stepped out of the 80's...very old school "Rockers" type attire.  Several impressive spots in this match including the finish which was like a variation of the 'Code Breaker' off the top rope...exciting finish to a good little match that served it's purpose.


MATCH #3- Joe Hogan vs. Phil Macchio


Ok, I understand that Hogan is the hometown guy thus needing to be the babyface, I'm not disputing that....but having seen these guys work as many times as I have, I prefer it better with Hogan as the heel and Phil doing the Karate Kid gimmick as a babyface....none the less we are still treated to the standard 10 minute Joe Hogan mic spiel that you get whether he's heel or face...or whether he's Joe...or the heel masked JAPANESE Ultimate Dragon....that's right he'll come out to the Japanese music with his dragon mask get up then procede to talk for 15 minutes in his Alabama accent til Mike Jackson comes out and does his standard mic spiel....anyway....I digress.  So Ralph..I mean Phil comes out and says he didn't sign to wrestle JOE Hogan, he thought he was wrestling HULK Hogan..and hilarity ensues.....well not really but it does bring a Hulk impression outta Joe Hogan and what seems like an hour later we ring the bell.... Old school match here, not a bad match but there were several spots that seemed to not exactly flow for lack of a better term......Hogan avoids the "Crane Kick" and reverses it into a John Cena like finish to get the win.




MATCH #4- Curry Kidd vs. Dustin Hanson vs. Jeremy Flynt vs. Lamar Phillips vs. Ace Haven


Ok....not at all trying to be racist here but I have to say when I read the name LAMAR PHILLIPS...I wasn't expecting a white guy....anyway, he's "the Best" apparently as that's what it says on the back of his panties....Curry Kidd while he does well at the gimmick and has a good look with it, is another guy like I talked about in my recent column that needs to get his own gimmick...IMHO.....but he works the gimmick very well.....Dustin Hanson is NOT trying to be the son of Stan Hansen....but rather has more of a Jeff Jameson coming out to the ring to 'Umm Bop' thing going on....Jeremy Flynt kept up the tradition of finding the most shitty ring music to come out to (Wheel in the Sky at Carnage Cup was brutal), however he redeemed himself by rocking a cowbell that would have made Christopher Walken stand up and cheer.....(he came out to 'Don't fear the Reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult).....and Ace Haven was doing his "heel rock star" gimmick rather than his Simon Dean gimmick or the "Last Hero" he portrays in ProSouth..... Some comedy spots to open up with that I won't spoil by describing, you really need to seem them to get it.  Really good match here that at one point seen fighting on the outside that featured various guys swinging from the gym rope that hung from the ceiling and landing on people......it also saw a five way tower SUPERPLEX that has to be seen to be believed.....after that things really went downhill for the Hanson kid.....He hit Jeremy Flynt with a series of kicks that only seemed to awake his "fighting spirit" that resulted in Dustin Hanson getting clotheslined out of his boots nearly, Bradshaw style, I'm quite sure Ron Simmons would have said, "Damn" had he been there on commentary......Flynt then hit his twisting powerbomb finisher but instead of landing on his back like most....this kid turned a whole other revolution and landed face first!! The announcers' pop was priceless.  It would seem this would be the finish but Ace Haven dove in for the save....not sure if that was supposed to happen but anyway the ref broke the count forcing Flynt to give the guy a reverse DDT (that I've never seen before) that put the kid on his head for a THIRD time and mercifully that was it.....Jeremy Flynt wins the five way.


Flynt then calls out Freak Show who attacked him at Carnage Cup and they end up in an impromptu brawl (that would unknowingly change the course of the whole show)  Flynt and Show are brawling on the floor when Show's challenger later in the show John Rare jumps in the ring with a chair.....he goes to springboard off the chair onto the ropes like Sabu to jump off on Flynt and Show but something goes wrong and he wipes out on the floor about a foot from them.....you can tell instantly that something is wrong as he landed hard on the concrete on his leg...and he wouldn't leave that spot until paramedics managed to brace his leg and take him out on a gurney to the emergency room a short while later......So, an unfortunate accident has led to one half of the main event leaving in an ambulance before the match even starts....and IWA DS fans expect to see a death match, so this was quite the dilemma....meanwhile during all this Dustin Hanson recovers from his near death experiences from Jeremy Flynt and gives announcer Cabana Man Dan some attitude after striking CMD, the Islander grabs his flip flops and beats the s*** out of Hanson for good measure to the delight of the Sylacauga crowd.


MATCH #5- IPW MID AMERICA TITLE: Chrisjen Hayme vs Shane Smalls


Now keep in my mind for my Mississippi friends, this isn't Intense Pro Wrestling outta Tupelo, MS...this IPW is Insanity Pro Wrestling out of Indianapolis, IN.  This is one of the first times I've seen Smalls wrestle......He and Chrisjen match up pretty well and had a really good match here.  I especially like the spot where they were trading the stiff shots in the center of the ring.....but also some highspots, out of the ring dives and such, Hayme the former Deep South Champion having dropped the belt to Freakshow in Cullman shows in the this match they could easily shift him back into the title picture with a nice win over Smalls here who was a replacement in fact for Hayme's original scheduled opponent Dustin Rayz...honestly I don't think many people in the crowd knew the difference and they got a good match up none the less.


MATCH #6- Jarek Tyler vs. Charade


Now..I'm familiar with Tyler from past Deep South DVDs and the Ultimate NWA shows in Scottsboro but this was the first I've seen or heard from Charade.  Charade is a trainee of Curtis Hughes in Atlanta and does a lot of wild high flying stuff.  This was the sleeper match of the night for anyone who is a fan of highspots....there were a few awkward moments but they covered them well and delivered some amazing high flying moves which I'm sure was nerve racking after what everyone had seen happen to John Rare just a little while earlier.   The finish was a really unique one that I've never seen and won't try to explain, just take a look at the highlight video at the bottom and you'll see what I'm talking about....as Jarek Tyler gets the win but I'm sure Charade came away from this one with some new fans and possibly some new bookings with the release of this DVD.


Now comes the main event, the most anticipated part of the show for many IWA fans...the DEATH MATCH....


MATCH #7- IWA DEEP SOUTH TITLE: Freak Show vs. Jeremy Flynt


I can't tell you how shocked I was when I heard about this.....now don't get me wrong....Jeremy does some hard hitting spots in the ring and can be intense when he wants to be.....but he's also the guy who came to the ring an hour ago banging a cowbell to Blue Oyster Cult....not your typical Death Match guy.....but big props to Flynt for stepping up to the plate for the promotion and the fans and delivering their Death Match in the wake of the accident earlier in the show.....Now having seen the Carnage Cup stabbing and such.....I can only imagine what kind of insanity John Rare and Freak Show had in store for the fans but I was glad to see that while they did enough to send everyone home happy...(Show bled buckets, Flynt got thrown through chairs, and they both got rolled in barbed wire and thumbtacks)....no one got hung from the gym rope, no stab wounds, no discharging of firearms, no one was set on fire, or stabbed in the eye with a spike....the match went off without a hitch and Freak Show is still your champion.....Who knows maybe Chrisjen Hayme will get his rematch for the IWA Deep South title with Death Match Rules.....or maybe Cabana Man Dan will return to the ring for a Flip Flop of Nails match or something.


All around a good show, and it's very unfortunate what happened to John Rare, the injury was quite severe and he had to have a plate and screws put into his leg to have it fixed.  It's very doubtful he will return to the ring....well let's set it would be best if he didn't....but guys have been told they couldn't come back before and they have...so I guess it remains to be seen.  Speaking of injuries, it was reported here this weekend that Chrisjen Hayme suffered some serious injuries in a match with Jesse Emerson in Indianapolis for Dragon Gate USA, he broke his clavicle and suffered a severe concussion and had to have staples in his head.  It's unclear when Chrisjen will be back in the ring as the shoulder will require several weeks but the real issue is the concussion count for Hayme is getting kinda high so he may need to stay away for a while but like I said about Rare.....it remains to be seen.


In summary (I know this turned out long as hell) I recommend everyone go to www.smartmarkvideo.com and ordering IWA Deep South Rasslepalooza as well as their older DVDs....and while your their pick you up some Chikara Pro and some of the other great DVDs they have to offer.  




If you're still not sure about it, check out this highlight video!
***WARNING: MUSIC IN THE VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE***