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TANKMAN VS. MAFF, NEW JACK, CARNAGE CREW & MORE:4/8 ICW NO HOLDS BARRED THEN & NOW REPORT FROM TAMPA

CORY STRODE REPORTING:

ICW presented No Holds Barred 11 on 4/8/2021 in Tampa Florida

The sales pitch is that there are no DQ, no rules and no holds barred.  To emphasize this the ropes are chains.  

Your announcers really want you to know they are calling a no holds barred event by letting loose with a ton of swearing as they introduce themselves.  They also seem to be in a contest the entire night to see who can swear more. 

Tony Deppen vs Daniel “Red Death”  Garcia

The start with mat wrestlers and the announcers set it up that Deppen is the Gatekeeper, you need to be him in order to be taken seriously. Deppen wins with a kick to Garcia's head and a cover for a three count.  Mostly a 50/50 match.

Winner: Tony Deppen

Scoot Andrews comes out and introduces himself as the Black Nature Boy and goes over his past championships and he may be old but he heard that Lee Moriarty may be able to raise the bar and watch the match.   

Steve Madison vs Lee Moriarty (IWTV champion) Non title match

The story of the match was that Madison was in charge most of the match with Moriarty fighting from underneath trying to overcome Madison's size and strength. Moriarty wins with a insigiri, followed by a DDT and a three count. They shake hands after the match.

Winner: Lee Moriarty

Scoot Andrews comes in the ring and raises the hand of Moriarty. They chat for a bit and then Scoot hits him with the Force of Nature (holding Lee on his shoulder and dropping him to the mat).

Next up is Superfight III, and we get a video package of the first two superfights.

Bruce Santee vs Justin Kyle 

This match was set up as if it were more of a fight that a wrestling match, with punches and kicks constantly. Just two big guys throwing fists, but when Kyle did a leap out of the ring, it was impressive that a guy that big could leap that high and far. Kyle wins with a kick to the head, knocking out Santee.

Your winner: Justin Kyle

After the match, Santee says they had a good fight, and now they should go out and party together. 

This was just a figtht with fists, forearms and kicks.  Looked brutal on each guy, and I wouldn't be shocked if they were just told “beat the crap out of each other for five minutes.”

Jon Davis vs Dominic (The Bone Collector) Garrini (w/ Kevin Ku) 

This match started with each trading fists, chops and kicks in the center of the ring for a while.  It then became a trading long series of offense, with Garrini getting longer sequences.  Davis wins with a pile driver. The show is moving from more traditional indy wrestling to more brawling with little to no wrestling moves applied since the Superbrawl match. 

Your winner: Jon Davis

Brandon Kirk (w/ Kasey Kirk) vs Danny Demanto (w/ Mittens)

Before the match, weapons were being placed in the ring, so it looks like this will be our first match filled with plunder.  Kasey Kirk tries to cut a promo in the ring, but the sound system was terrible and the crowd shouted her down, so no idea what she said, but it caused the ring announcer to tell her to shut up. 

We had tables, chairs, thumb tacks, a bottle of hot sauce, salt into wounds, lemons into wounds, and more. Danny got all of the offense to start, then Brandon got his turn to use weapons. A LONG sequence where Danny feigned injury after a table spot to sucker Brandon, following it up by putting Kasey through a table onto Brandon. The finish was that Danny was attempting to toss Brandon out of the ring and Kacey hits Danny, allowing Brandon to fall onto him and cover for the three count

Your Winner: Brandon Kirk

After the match, Danny grabs a mic and says his company was taken away from him. He learned you can turn everything around and start over. He leads everyone who has ever been screwed over to chant with him. He will take revenge over the rest of the weekend.

Dan Maff vs Calvin Tankman

This match was two huge men throwing bombs at each other. We get a bunch of chair shots outside the ring, for the middle of the match and then back in the ring for more big man moves.  A door gets brought into the ring and gets used. Chairs are called for and the announcer quickly said just to HAND the chairs to the people in the ring. They make a pile of chairs and use it a few times, but the winner is Dan Maff who wins via an Burning Hammer

Your winner: Dan Maff

They trade chops and then shake hands after the match.  Bruce Santee from earlier in the night comes in after the match and they jack jaws at each other because they are fighting the next day.

Probably the closest to a mainstream style match on the card with the spectacle of two huge guys beating on each other for fifteen minutes.

Nolan Edward vs Jake Crist

We have boards with barbed wire and doors in the ring before the match. Chairs get piled in after the match starts. These guys wrestled, which seems odd, but on a night that had been mostly brawling, we get some submission holds in with the kick and plunder.  LOTS of two counts. The match started fast, but slowed quickly as they took bumps through doors, being suplexed off the top, and other moves.  Each implement of destruction was set up, used, and then carted off. In the end, Nolan Edwards wins with a suplex onto a barbed wire board set up on chairs and a three count.

Your winner: Nolan Edwards

After the match, they set up chairs to sit on and then shake hands. Nolan then takes a chair and a mic and says he has beaten three people he used to film. He then calls for Sami Callahan to show up in the chained ring. 

New Jack & The Carnage Crew (Tony DeVito & HC Loc) vs The Rejects (John Wayne Murdoch & Reed Bentley) & Neil Diamond Cutter

The ring is filled with doors, barbed wire boards, chairs and who knows what else.  The fight starts as the Carnage Crew is on their way to the ring and it's just a brawl outside the ring. They ring the bell before New Jack makes his way to the ring. They just used weapons constantly, and there were far too many shots to the head to be comfortable. Eventually, they all got in the ring, and each team hit a big move and then would get a two count.  

Then New Jack and his garbage can showed up.  He nailed each member of the Rejects, hit Neil Diamond Cutter with a guitar and the Carnage Crew cover for the three count.

Your winners:  The Carnage Grew and New Jack. 

The Rejects grab the mic and say it's about fighting the Rejects meeting for the first time and they challege them to a match without New Jack and Cutter.  New Jack grabs a mic and swears at them saying he didn't fly there to be insulted.  The Rejected grab the mic and accept the challenge, then they ask for New Jack's music to play so they can party. 

My overall feeling is that this show had a small audience and started with slower paced, less violence matches, but each match upped the violence through the night.  This isn't my style of indy action, and, for the most part, there was no storytelling, just people beating the crap out of each other.  The Superfight looked like a real pitfight and I can see why they have had those two just beat the tar out of each other.  By the time we got to the hardcore stuff, they didn't bother to give a reason why anyone wanted to do such violence to each other.

The main event was short, and New Jack was in the ring for less than two minutes, but the head shot people were taking just made me concerned about everyone involved.  I get that it's hard core wrestling, but head shots are a stupid idea. They don't look any more violent than a shot to the shoudler or back, and we know way too much about concussions now.  

The audio from the ring was poor and I had trouble understanding anything being said over the sound system.  The video was put together well and looked professional and well shot.  The announcers with the constant swearing actually lowered the production to my mind, since it seemed like they were swearing to emphasize anything, just because they could. They also did little to explain why people were fighting, or who the wrestlers were other than Hardcore Guys who like violence.

My final verdict?  I am sure the people who like the indy violence fans liked it, but it did not win me over.

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