IWA Mid-South

...

IWA Mid-South or something like that? Yeah, it was, like, for Ian Rotten, maybe.

You ever hear about Ian Rotten shows?

Yes, quite a few of them, yeah.

... thumbtacks match.

And classic IWA Mid-South, they put like a big tarp over their [laughs] canvas whenever they wrestle, so they could scoop up all the thumbtacks and not ruin their wrestling canvas.

And, and as you can see, AJ Styles wrestled, which was freaking crazy.

Um, Michael Shane I think is the cousin of Shawn Michaels.

Well, here, I have another note I'm gonna tell you as we're waiting for these entrances to happen, 'cause I know this is gonna be a couple minutes now.

Um, Bill Behrens, in noting that David Taylor got a bounced check from promoter John Williams, that's Ian Rotten by the way, and IWA Mid-South for his participation in the Ted Petty Invitational, said that Rotten and Mickey Knuckles, who was Moose in TNA, bounced two checks totaling $4,100 to TNA last year, and at this point a year later still owes $2,700 and hasn't sent anything in more than four months.

Behrens noted that Rotten tells people after checks bounce that he'll make good when the DVD money comes in, but then doesn't.

Behrens said that when Taylor worked the shows and wanted to get paid, Rotten told him that he'd send a check, which he did, but it bounced, and then Rotten stopped returning, uh, Taylor's calls and emails.

The DVD money.

12,000, eh, they're probably still making decent money on those.

Did you ever buy a IWA Mid-South DVD?

No I feel like I always heard about Mid-South, but I've only seen very, very little from it.

Never signed there, never brought in for enhancement work, nothing.

This is somebody who'd be cracking skulls over the years in notorious hardcore promotions like IWA Mid-South or CCW.

Uh, there was a sprinkle of Ring of Honor in there for a few years, of course, but I mean, the guy is still cracking skulls to this day.

I looked into it and he wrestled as recently as the end of last month, like literally a w- a week ago, uh, for hardcore promotion Primos out of Denver, Colorado.

Uh, just this is an absolutely bonkers story, man, and I'm here for it.

Uh, now this comes on the back as well, of course, of Necro Butcher being featured in the, the most recent season of Dark Side of the Ring.

That was his infamous match with Samoa Joe from IWA Mid-South back in, what, 2005.

Just, uh, I, I cannot do that match justice.

This is gonna be the exact same case, but it, it's, it's bittersweet, and you don't, you don't...

You know, I, I, I liken it to old school Ring of Honor matches or, or, uh, you know, I, I, IWA Mid-South matches where, where these guys who, you know, you have these crazy track records.

I mean, you look at guys like, uh, Chris Hero or CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Tyler Black, Bryan Danielson, who would go out and just have these, you know, amazing steamboat, you know, s- steamboat flare-esque s- you know, Broadways on the independent scene-

Mm-hmm

They, they know [laughs], you know, they, they, may- if they're former athletes or, or whatever.

But, you know, a guy like me, uh, just, you know, trying to make a name for himself on the independent scene, you, you have to, uh, 'cause it'll, it'll make you stand out for sure.

I mean, you're drawing names like Bockwinkel and Hennig, and you drop IWA Mid-South and early school ROH, and you just mentioned territory days.

Obviously, you, you're pretty damn smart.

We saw, like-

I, I literally saw one of the Insane Clown Posse wrestle at an IWA Mid-South show.

You were never more than 15 feet away from a Juggalo at an IWA Mid-South show generally.

But yes, we did see those hardcore Juggalos-

Yes

Um, lots of cool stuff on, uh, PWTorch.

We just put up a 20 years ago IWA Mid-South, Mid-South Show, uh, report one or two days ago.

It's one of our latest flashbacks.

And it had so many, uh, cool names on that show.

... that second wave golden era of the indies, you know? Where you got, like, the early 2000s where it was, it was almost like a white trash golden era, which was fun.

You know, you had CZW and IWA Mid-South, and then ROH was kinda coming up, and then it got ruined because, uh, Feinstein was a diddler and they had to-

Well

... move a bunch of shit around.