DIW 2024: Waging War Weekly

[619]

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The story so far: DIW 2022: Lori's Law | DIW 2023: The Secret Millionaire

The mod: @lavelleuk's gloriously immersive Alternative CornellVerse 2022 Mod

2024 show index

January
To The Extreme #1
To The Extreme #2
To The Extreme #3
To The Extreme #4

February
To The Extreme #5
To The Extreme #6
To The Extreme #7
To The Extreme #8
Hardcore Heatwave 2024

March
To The Extreme #9
To The Extreme #10
To The Extreme #11
To The Extreme #12

April
To The Extreme #13
To The Extreme #14
To The Extreme #15
To The Extreme #16
Havoc 2024

May
To The Extreme #17
To The Extreme #18
To The Extreme #19
To The Extreme #20

June
To The Extreme #21
To The Extreme #22
To The Extreme #23
To The Extreme #24
Massacre 2024

July
To The Extreme #25
To The Extreme #26
To The Extreme #27 (Carnage In Canberra)
To The Extreme #28 (Carnage In Canberra)

August
To The Extreme #29
To The Extreme #30
To The Extreme #31
To The Extreme #32
Hardcore Hallelujah 2024

September
To The Extreme #33
To The Extreme #34
To The Extreme #35
To The Extreme #36

October
To The Extreme #37
To The Extreme #38
To The Extreme #39 (15-Year Anniversary Celebration)
To The Extreme #40 (15-Year Anniversary Celebration)
Damage Control 2024

November
To The Extreme #41
To The Extreme #42
To The Extreme #43
To The Extreme #44

December
To The Extreme #45
To The Extreme #46
To The Extreme #47
To The Extreme #48 (Christmas Day Edition)
War Machine 2024

Part 1: The SQ view on DIW

I’m Sean Quartermainne – SQ to my friends – and I’m probably best known by modern Aussie wrestling fans for being APW’s booker in the first 13-and-a-half years of their existence, or golden era as I preferred to think of it. I’ve done a bit of everything: booking, managing, colour commentating. The latter role brought me to DIW in September 2023, putting my voice to their new WrestleWorld Australia shows.

I think with my age and experience (I was 58 and had spent over three decades in the business), I was supposed to feel bitter about performing a role rather than running a show, with younger talent like David Peterson (APW) and Lori Cooper (DIW) getting the opportunities.

On the contrary, I relished that status. I got to focus on doing one job perfectly rather than trying to balance everything. I enjoyed seeing how younger bookers tackled challenges I’d confronted in the past and even some new ones, and being trusted to share my opinions and experiences without being required to provide every solution. All the excitement, none of the stress.

You might think that’s just me putting a positive spin on my reduced stature, but it really was true. It was after all my suggestion that APW replace me as booker with my protégé Debonair David Peterson in 2020, and I agreed to join DIW fully understanding that I was only required to provide colour commentary alongside my old Aussie Rules Wrestling colleague The Comedian.

However, I did find myself starting 2024 with unexpected additional responsibilities.

Edited December 15, 2023 by 619

[AboardTheArk]

I did not expect to log in to such great news

[lavelleuk]

How did I not know you had done a 2023 version? I thought you just stopped writing the Lori diary!

 

I really need to catch up with these, I'm curranty working my way through London's Starlet diary too as I missed all the updates, I'm so bad at forums lol

[619]

Thanks for the continued support @DinoKea @John Lions @AboardTheArk @lavelleuk. I really appreciate it. @lavelleuk Part 3 is an overview of the main DIW storylines at the start of 2024 and Part 4 is a roster overview, so that may save you needing to check out the 2023 thread.

Part 2: Diarist

As I was saying, I’m not closed-minded: I liked seeing what younger bookers did differently, and one thing Lori Cooper did that I wished I’d done in my time at APW was keep a diary. She didn’t just log the shows she booked but what was going on in between them informing the direction. From what she told me, it was primarily for her own record keeping. It would be great if her booking career was such a success that people wanted to read about it in future but, even if it wasn’t, she liked the idea of being able to look back and learn from what she’d done.

I felt she had a decent grasp of the basics, for a beginner. Her booking was largely logical, she built around the company’s obvious stars and she tried to maintain continuity and long-term direction, at least as much as you could with a company this size.

I’d say her two main weaknesses were that she was quite cautious – she played things fairly safe and rarely shocked her audience with a surprise winner or an unexpected debut – which risked making her booking predictable and repetitive, and she wasn’t the most forceful presence. Dexter Mattell for instance hadn’t performed as well as I knew he was capable of so far in DIW, whether due to a styles clash or coasting, and most bookers would call him out on that, but I sensed she was more concerned with being liked than commanding respect.

But back to her diary, the reason I knew about it was because she told me, even showing me a few extracts. She didn’t want to hand over everything as she felt it would be unprofessional to share her private conversations with The Comedian with me. She showed me because she knew she wouldn’t have enough time to write it at the start of 2024 due to the decision to launch a two-month trial run of a weekly show, To The Extreme, on WrestleWorld Australia.

She’d decided I was the perfect person to log the period instead due to my booking experience and the knowledge that I’d be at every show, and she was willing to pay me a little (her money, not the company’s) for as long as I did it, topping up my commentary income nicely.

I negotiated three things: 1) the freedom and understanding that I would write honestly, not just say what she wanted to read, 2) the assurance that her disagreement with anything I provided wouldn’t compromise my DIW employment (so she couldn’t fire me if I wrote that what she’d booked sucked) and 3) an additional payment and share of the profits if what I wrote was ever published.

She agreed, and I was happy to take on the project, just as I was to have a front-row seat for what was about to unfold. It was quite a punchy move for DIW to try to launch a weekly programme – we’d never done it at APW, even when we were bigger than DIW were now.

Whether it backfired spectacularly or proved to be an inspired decision, it had the potential to be an interesting story, one that might even get published or turned into a WrestleWorld Australia documentary, so I was pleased to have been positioned as the primary commentator for the saga off-screen as well as on-screen.

[Satyr24]

Yay it's back

[619]

Part 3: How DIW started 2024

I think there are five main DIW story threads to catch you up on at the start of 2024.

Rob Edwards aligned with Ares Death Cult at the end of 2022, fed up with being collateral damage in their war with The Barracudas, and he’d been DIW Champion ever since. However, sensing that both groups had been weakened by the departures of Blitz Simpson (Barracudas) and Gyula Lakatos (Ares Death Cult) to CEW, The Human Weapon made his move, abandoning the Cult by attacking Cesar Sionis, Lloyd Banks and Death Ref after his latest title defence against Kobra Khan.

Seth Wish had become the latest in a long line of men to screw Milton Hittlespitz out of the DIW Title five months ago at Hardcore Hallelujah. It was initially assumed he was acting under Ares Death Cult orders to try to keep them onside, but he later revealed that all his motivation was internal, frustrated at constantly being compared to Crazy Blue and wanting to prove that he was better. He had a chance to do just that a few weeks ago at War Machine, but was beaten by the two-time DIW Champion.

After over 13 years of DIW dominance, the brotherhood of The Barracudas was fractured last June when Vaughan intervened to stop Blitz Simpson becoming DIW Champion. He appeared to realign with Chopper Rourke three months later when they conspired to take Blitz out before his move to CEW, but they’ve continued to clash since, something Dexter Mattell exploited to score victories over both. Vaughan ended 2023 by warning Chopper that they faced a simple choice: unite or die.

2022’s dominant tag team Two Badass MFers struggled in 2023 as Ares Death Cult and The Barracudas returned to the division, before finally defeating Cesar Sionis and Lakatos at the third attempt in November and reclaiming the gold. A difficult challenge still awaited them though in Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills, The Benchmark. DIW’s first ever direct signings from APW had made an immediate impact, celebrating victories in six of their seven matches so far.

DIW’s other title holder was Australian Champion Wrecker, who often found himself outnumbered against Ares Death Cult in 2023 but never gave up the fight, defeating The Barbed Wire Messiah Lloyd Banks for the gold at Hardcore Hallelujah and most recently defending it against his former tag team partner Mr. Pink. Who would step up to challenge him next?

[619]

Part 4: DIW Class of 2024

Here’s how the roster looked heading into 2024:

DIW Champion Rob Edwards
The Human Weapon was a well-rounded talent who had held the title for over a year, with his defences against Blitz Simpson and Milton Hittlespitz highlights. He was closing in on becoming DIW’s longest-reigning champion ever, but could he do it without Ares Death Cult at his side?

DIW Tag Team Champions Two Badass MFers (Hendrix Hughes and Seb Shaw)
As one of DIW’s most entertaining acts both inside and out of the ring, they were surely being scouted closely by competitors. After dethroning Gyula Lakatos and Cesar Sionis to start their second reign, they appeared to be on a collision course with tag team greats The Benchmark.

DIW Australian Champion Wrecker
The former barroom brawler first climbed the card in a tag team with Mr. Pink, but continued to rise even after being abandoned by his partner last year, becoming the first person to dethrone a member of the then-dominant Ares Death Cult by beating Lloyd Banks at Hardcore Hallelujah.

The Benchmark (Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills)
The six-time APW tag champions arrived last February hyped as the first ever wrestlers to move directly from APW to DIW, and were instantly accepted in their new hardcore home. They lost their first title shot against Ares Death Cult, but had won all six of their matches besides that.

Ares Death Cult (Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks)
This group held all three DIW titles for most of 2023 and hoarded the top title for 20 of the last 24 months, but it was unclear where they stood following the departure of Sionis’ partner Lakatos to CEW and DIW Champion Edwards abandoning the group at War Machine last month.

Milton Hittlespitz
Crazy Blue’s popularity peaked in 2021 and 2022 when a surge of support led to two DIW Title reigns, but he remained a dependable fan favourite. Lori perhaps relied on that too much, using screwing him out of the gold to establish Edwards, Dexter Mattell and now Seth Wish as villains.

Dexter Mattell
I personally didn’t think Raw Sex had performed as well in DIW yet as he had for me in APW, but he’d been booked strong in his first year, defeating three former DIW Champions in Hittlespitz, Vaughan and Chopper Rourke and being the last to lay hands on Blitz Simpson before he left.

The Barracudas (Chopper Rourke and Vaughan)
Like Ares Death Cult, The Barracudas carried much of the storyline load in Lori’s first two years in charge, only to suddenly find themselves diminished when CEW snatched Blitz. Chopper and Vaughan have struggled to coexist since, a situation which risks leaving them lost in the shuffle.

The Wild Things (Seth Wish and Con McReady)
This year-old team were doing Ares Death Cult’s bidding for them early in 2023, but established themselves more as an independent unit as the year went on, getting the better of Hittlespitz on multiple occasions and both enjoying the spotlight of one-on-one matches against Crazy Blue.

Kobra Khan
To me, Kobra was DIW’s “cut him and he bleeds midcarder” bloke: a record three-time Australian Champion with a near 50-50 win-loss record. They teased elevating him further with DIW Title main events at Extreme Life 2022 and War Machine 2023, but didn’t pull the trigger.

Crime Wave (D.O.A. and Switchblade)
The veteran tag team were transparently brought in to replace The Warriors and add depth to the division. However, they did something Mr. Green and Mr. Orange had never done by having the match of the night on their debut against The Benchmark at Chaos Engine two months ago.

Mr. Pink
The clown-mask-wearing bank robber had spent most of his DIW career in units: firstly The Warriors and then the Wrecking Crew with Wrecker after they abandoned him. He was a capable enough wrestler, but I feared him getting lost in the shuffle now he was on his own.

Saracens (Cueball and Tank)
This duo were approaching the two-year anniversary of their last DIW win. In their 30s and with little going for them besides quite menacing looks, it was hard to see their fortunes changing.

Pat Rigsby
Lori had landed on something simple but pretty effective here: a dislikeable bloke who, apparently oblivious to his own limitations, gleefully trolled opponents for their shortcomings, resulting in both bloodthirsty rivals and fans always being ready to see him take a beating.

Carl Paris
The 20-year-old Invictus Australia graduate had decent basics but wasn’t yet of a standard where he could be featured more prominently and, the more the crowd became accustomed to seeing him lose, the harder it would be to transition him into such a role if he got good enough.

Demarcus Lee
The hardcore fighter made his DIW debut last month, losing to Lloyd Banks after taking a Piledriver to the floor. I assumed he’d be sticking around, but hadn’t received confirmation.

And outside the ring:

The Comedian and me, Sean Quartermainne (announcers)
DIW’s owner The Comedian had been used sparingly as an authority figure in recent years, but had been brought into the booth since DIW started streaming on WrestleWorld Australia in September. Lori picked me, the former APW head booker, to provide colour alongside him.

Death Ref and Lori (managers)
The married couple were figureheads of Ares Death Cult, the group who had dominated DIW in 2023, though their future prospects were less certain after losing Lakatos (CEW) and Edwards (turned on the Cult). Lori had also just won DIW’s first women’s wrestling feud, defeating rugby international Momoe Hamuera in a cage: a head-scratching payoff to a 14-month programme.

Tatum Richards (referee)
The official for all DIW matches (yes, though Death Ref was still called Death Ref, he didn’t ref). In 2023, she was ambushed into competing in DIW’s first women’s bout, a short squash to put over the now-departed Hamuera at Blood And Guts. Outside the ring, she was close with Lori.

Markus Rush (erm…)
Another victim of the sudden decision to stop using Hamuera, Rush was first brought to DIW as a road agent and, when that didn’t work out, became a mouthpiece for Hamuera. Lori was now considering using him as an interviewer, but I wasn’t sure how that would be explained to fans.

Classy Paul Massey (road agent)
I’m sure The Comedian and Lori never imagined they’d be putting together shows without DIW lifer Lou Brookmyre, but he left the company last June. The Comedian and Rusty Mills had been sharing the road agent workload after Rush didn’t work out in the role, with New Zealander Massey added to the team at the end of the year after leaving long-term employers ZEN.

[HiPlus]

Haven't read it but super excited to follow along. Loved the Lori diary. Not super knowledgeable on the guys from the mod but eager to follow the DIW diary from SQ

Edited July 26, 2023 by HiPlus

[619]

Thanks a lot @HiPlus and everyone else following.

Part 5: Waging war weekly

One thing Lori had done that I quite liked conceptually but perhaps not as much in execution was make DIW a closed shop. There were no guest appearances or one-off jobbers, you were either DIW or you weren’t. It fit the “us v them” mentality the company had fostered nicely, but it wasn’t so effective for giving fans variety.

I sensed that start to change at the end of 2023, perhaps forced by Blitz Simpson and Gyula Lakatos walking out, as Crime Wave and Demarcus Lee were brought in with no build-up or big story, more like they were being tried out to see if they fitted in.

If this weekly show outlasted its initial two-month run, surely that policy would have to be extended to avoid running out of matches.

When I caught up with Lori to get an idea of her vision for the show, using this diary as an excuse when in reality I’d have been curious even without it, she told me that her main objective was to use the extra hours to establish DIW’s stars more. It wasn’t about having huge matches every week, but giving fans more access to their favourite fighters and hyping up their next big fights.

However, that hadn’t stopped her promoting all three titles being defended on the debut To The Extreme episode on the first Wednesday of 2024, with Lloyd Banks, Pat Rigsby and Saracens apparently fastest to take the open contracts offered to fight DIW Champion Rob Edwards, Australian Champion Wrecker and new Tag Team Champions Two Badass MFers on the show.

I was torn on this approach. It was a good hook for the first show to be able to say “tune in and you’ll get to see all our champions defend their titles”, and the open contract angle covered why they weren’t facing top contenders, but I think even if just one of them was facing a more established challenger, it would’ve been far more effective.

Lori would later tell me that her original idea for the first episode of To The Extreme if Blitz Simpson hadn’t left was for him to be crowned champion at War Machine, then have Rob Edwards take his rematch on this show, being violently kicked out of Ares Death Cult when he lost (in reality, he was still DIW Champion and had turned on Ares Death Cult first). Plan A definitely seemed stronger than Plan B in this instance.

[619]

Part 6: Business and booking

I think there are two topics to touch on before DIW’s Wednesday night debut: one more business-related and one more booking-specific.

It was notable that in the four months during which Blitz Simpson and Gyula Lakatos, two former DIW Champions, had left, the company seemingly hadn’t tried to bring in anyone on that level, though perhaps that would change now there was weekly programming to fill.

My perception from conversations with Lori and my own experience in her role was that she’d made a calculation that nobody of a similar stature outside the company would move the needle enough to justify the kind of money they would demand. I suspect she’d decided that this money was better invested in production improvements to put as professional a product as possible on WrestleWorld Australia, and on wrestlers already in the company.

I wondered if there was a third option that she was overlooking though, that of hiring a few blokes who might not be instant main eventers, but had the potential to quickly ascend to such a level, in the same way that Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills had proven such a hit in 2023.

But back to the idea of her prioritising DIW originals over new recruits, it was less than two weeks since perhaps Lori’s most controversial move yet as booker: putting herself over Momoe Hamuera, the rugby star she had spent over a year building up, inside a cage.

I’m linking the two because I believe there may have been a similar motivation. That the loss of Simpson and Lakatos had left her uncertain of who she could rely on to be there from month to month. She knew that she was the one established act she could count on to always be available, and she second-guessed whether she should weaken herself for an outside star.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the decision, I’m just trying to rationalise it based on my own experiences, as I’ve put myself in a central role in the past for similar reasons, but never quite as drastically as this.

Her group Ares Death Cult had been on top for the majority of her time as booker, and I don’t have much of a problem with that. As I say, I’ve done similar. But there were three reasons to believe this particular call was a step too far.

The first was that the blokes in the locker room might interpret it the same way I did: a sign of insecurity, and a lack of trust in the rest of the roster’s staying power, which was bad for morale.

Secondly, she hadn’t just beaten Hamuera, she fired her immediately afterwards, with rumours circulating that she did so because of how the New Zealander reacted to being told she was losing in the cage. I’m not sure how much truth there was to the speculation – the match stipulation would have made it difficult to continue using Hamuera – but perception and reality were hard to distinguish in Aussie wrestling.

At a time when there were a lot of places for wrestlers to work, she risked sending a message that DIW job security might not be as strong as people first thought and, even worse, that her first reaction to criticism of her booking was to fire someone. I’m not saying a mutiny was imminent as she’d built up some goodwill, I’m simply explaining why it was an unwise move.

Finally, she’d not given the fans a satisfactory payoff to one of her longest running stories. She got them invested in a particular outcome for over a year and then went the other way, and there was no clear way to correct course with no other female wrestlers in the company and her stipulation that men can’t touch her unprovoked. Having not been able to properly finish the Barracuda implosion story due to Simpson leaving, it was unfortunate for this to happen so soon after. And she’d moved a show hours before it was due to start in between those two incidents.

All of which was to say, she really needed this whole weekly show thing to work out.

[619]

Part 7: To The Extreme #1

The Comedian and I introduced WrestleWorld Australia viewers to the first of eight weekly episodes of To The Extreme on the road to Hardcore Heatwave 2024, live from the new DIW House. It was sparsely populated with around 150 fans. The Comedian noted that every title would be on the line in this premiere episode, and that title action was starting straight away.

Tag Titles: Two Badass MFers (Hendrix Hughes and Seb Shaw) (c) v Saracens (Cueball and Tank)
I thought it was significant that Lori opted to start her first weekly show with Two Badass MFers rather than an established main event act: a way of signalling who she saw as the future of DIW. Paired with limited opponents like Saracens, they were always likely to make a better impression on new viewers on the mic than in the ring, so I wasn’t surprised that the match was kept short and simple, with Shaw pinning Cueball after a Spinning Brainbuster.

Two Badass MFers got some mic time after the bell, with Hughes inviting everyone in the arena (apparently anti-smoking laws were applied as laxly in this new venue as at Marv’s) and all their new fans at home to put their ciggies in the air for the greatest tag team in DIW. Shaw interrupted, sarcastically asking his partner if he’d cleared that line with The Benchmark. Hughes said he hadn’t cleared it, but one thing that was clear was that Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills needed putting in their place, so to consider this as an official invitation to name your date. It certainly seemed like we wouldn’t be waiting long to watch DIW’s most anticipated tag match.

Milton Hittlespitz was in the ring next, celebrating victory over Seth Wish at War Machine and being able to move on to new challenges. If you know your wrestling tropes, you’ll know that this brought out Wish and his partner Con McReady, with Wish shocking nobody by noting that Hittlespitz would in fact not be moving past him. He’d pinned Crazy Blue first so, by his count, that made the score even, and he’d take back his lead next week when The Wild Things take on the team of Hittlespitz and Kobra Khan. Crazy Blue didn’t seem too thrilled by the reveal.

Australian Title: Wrecker (c) v Pat Rigsby
DIW tried a rare bit of comedy here, playing off the fact that troll Rigsby was in the unusual situation of facing an in-form opponent with nothing obvious to mock. He eventually tried to goad Wrecker for having no friends, which backfired with the Australian Champion observing that Rigsby wasn’t too popular himself. The result was the troll being more agitated than his opponent, swinging and missing quite a bit before being put down by Wrecker’s Mighty Bulldog.

The Comedian said Markus Rush called him over Christmas saying he caught the DIW bug while working with Momoe Hamuera and asking if he could stay on. So he was our new broadcast coordinator: any time there was a gap to fill between matches and we fancied giving our voices a rest, we’d throw to him for interviews and updates. The Comedian said it was time to see if the idea worked or if Rush needed to look for a new job. The shot switched to Rush somewhere in the back of the building with Chopper Rourke and Vaughan, asking if they could find a way back to the top of DIW. Chopper looked like he wanted nothing to do with the interview, but Vaughan was more receptive, saying people had forgotten what they were capable of as a unit. They’d dominated DIW for 14 years with six DIW Title reigns and five Tag Title reigns between them to prove it. Next week, he’d be in Chopper’s corner as he put the rest of the DIW roster on notice with a preview of how 2024 would look for anyone taking on The Barracudas.

DIW Champion Rob Edwards entered ahead of the main event to a mixed reception, but a few more cheers than boos. The Human Weapon said he never needed a group, he just needed Ares Death Cult to believe he did. He picked a side in the Barracudas-Ares Death Cult war, worked with them to destroy the other one, while tearing them apart from the inside. Telling Death Ref and Cesar Sionis that they didn’t need Gyula Lakatos, all the while telling Lakatos they were holding him back. And the result wasn’t just a win for him, it was a win for every DIW wrestler and fan as those groups were no longer strong enough to hold DIW hostage. He put over Lloyd Banks as someone who legitimately impressed him during their time together in Ares Death Cult but, if he wasn’t smart enough to see the writing on the wall for the Cult, it was his funeral.

DIW Title: Rob Edwards (c) v Lloyd Banks
This match got given 15 minutes, which was longer than the average DIW big show main event, and justified it too, with this probably just below the Wrecker ladder match as the best Edwards match since I’d joined in September. The story told was of Banks trying to beat Edwards at his own game without using weapons, only to have doubts deeper into the fight and abandon that strategy in favour of a block of wood wrapped in barbed wire. Edwards used his quick feet to boot it out of Banks’ hands when he swung it at him, but the contact injured his foot, allowing The Barbed Wire Messiah to set him up for a Piledriver. The champion resisted at the point of contact, flipping the challenger over onto the weapon he’d introduced. A Roundhouse Kick later, he'd completed another successful title defence.

Death Ref marched down the ramp as soon as the match was over, with the distraction meaning that Edwards missed Cesar Sionis entering the ring from his blind side, taking him down from behind with a chair and wailing on him several more times once he was grounded. Death Ref introduced cuffs, tying the DIW Champion to the middle rope, where a recovered Banks rubbed the barbed wire into his face until he was bloody. Sionis directed Banks to leave him alone, but it wasn’t an act of mercy, he just wanted a clear path to finish the beating with a Running Knee Side-Swipe.

I got the final line of the broadcast, observing that Edwards may have won the first battle, but what just happened showed he was a fool if he thought he could win a war with Ares Death Cult.

[AboardTheArk]

As far as a first TV show goes, with a theoretically very thin roster, this accomplished everything you'd want- set up half the main players in the company and closed on a really hot angle. Edwards turning de facto face is interesting too.

[619]

Thanks a lot @AboardTheArk. Without spoiling anything, the thin roster is about to become more problematic, so it may soon be time to wipe the dust off of Lori's shortlist.

Part 8: First impressions

I’ll provide a more detailed analysis after watching the second show back when it airs (Lori had kindly funded a WrestleWorld Australia subscription for me for the duration of this diary).

However, the thing I found most striking about the weekly show’s debut was that the live house was down significantly (from 500 to 142) and yet the WrestleWorld Australia audience was up (from 11,856 to 12,816). So it was a DIW record in terms of total viewers, and an early indication that the new show was likely to be a bigger draw online than in person.

Lori hadn’t made a major statement in that first episode – all three champions retained, existing stories continued and there were no big shocks, debuts or shake-ups – but it was a solid show, the best all round in my estimation since the first I worked on last September. The highlight, unsurprisingly, was Rob Edwards and Lloyd Banks generating the momentum the Edwards-Ares Death Cult feud needed to carry things in the absence of Blitz Simpson and Gyula Lakatos.

The second episode, which I’ll write in more detail on next once I’ve watched the WrestleWorld premiere, didn’t hit the same heights, and was never likely to without Edwards in action, but did a decent job of encouraging people to tune into episode three. The main event saw Milton Hittlespitz and Kobra Khan face The Wild Things of Seth Wish and Con McReady, while The Benchmark named the date for their Tag Title challenge and there was a show-long thread hyping up the main event of episode three.

[619]

I guess I wrote this around February so there's a random nod to your CGC booking in the first match @AboardTheArk that probably made more sense at the time 😅

Part 9: To The Extreme #2

I started the show by throwing to a video from Death Ref. He explained that Ares Death Cult were on a retreat to renew their commitment to their cause, so Rob Edwards was safe for now. However, he dared The Human Weapon to try to find himself a partner to face Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks next week. He concluded by saying it was time for Edwards to suffer the consequences of his decision to isolate himself from the forces of both good and evil.

Carl Paris and Demarcus Lee v Crime Wave (D.O.A. and Switchblade)
On Lori’s direction, The Comedian put over the gutsiness of Lee getting back in the ring a few weeks after eating a Piledriver onto the floor from Lloyd Banks, while I responded by highlighting how impressive Crime Wave had been on their debut against The Benchmark. Lori adopted a principle advocated by great bookers above as well as below the equator and had the established team get the win, with D.O.A. covering Paris after a Wave Goodbye.

The Comedian said The Barracudas would soon be entering through the crowd so Markus Rush had been dispatched there for a flavour of how the fans were reacting to the veteran DIW duo. However, mid-introduction, Rush noticed Vaughan and Chopper Rourke in conversation so got his cameraman to switch focus. Rob Edwards was pitching them working together to take out a common enemy, and their response was just to laugh off his audacious reconciliation attempt.

The gap between the matches was filled by The Benchmark hitting the ring. Donovan Boon said Two Badass MFers asking them for a date got them thinking about Valentine’s Day. There is an episode of To The Extreme on the 14th next month, but he’s got better offers that night. Rusty Mills said if it was romance the MFers wanted, there was an anniversary next month. Hardcore Heatwave was the show they made their DIW debut at, and what better way to celebrate a year as the company’s outstanding team than by confirming their status by taking the titles there?

Chopper Rourke v Mr. Pink
Perhaps it was the nostalgia of them making their traditional entrance and facing an ex-Warrior, but the fans gave a good reception to Chopper Rourke and Vaughan as they came through the crowd. It was helpful that they did too as it hopefully distracted some attention away from the fact the crowd focus probably wasn’t the wisest idea with so many empty seats. Mr. Pink used his speed advantage to ground his larger opponent three times in the first few minutes, but only scored a pair of one counts and a two for his troubles. Once Chopper took charge with a lethal Lariat, he seized control, only hesitating when lining up a Spinebuster to eyeball Vaughan outside, seemingly not yet over the memory of him betraying Blitz Simpson. Vaughan responded with a simple nod and shout of “finish him”, to which Chopper obliged for a decisive victory.

We pitched to Markus Rush for an update on the Australian Title, but he responded quietly, listening in on a nearby conversation between Edwards and Milton Hittlespitz. Crazy Blue reminded the DIW Champion what happened the last time he agreed to partner him. He did what Edwards needed and got stabbed in the back for his troubles. He said Edwards had his chance to have him as a partner and blew it.

After that heated conversation ended, Rush announced that an eight-man tournament to crown Australian Champion Wrecker’s next challenger would begin next week. One half of the draw would feature former champions Lloyd Banks, Kobra Khan, Seth Wish and Tank. The other featured four randomly drawn contenders: Con McReady, Demarcus Lee, Mr. Pink and Vaughan. Rush started putting over the inclusion of Vaughan and how he could become only the second man to have held both DIW singles titles, but stopped to advise his cameraman to divert his attention to another discussion underway in the next corridor.

Dexter Mattell told Rob Edwards to be afraid no longer as his saviour was here. He made it clear this wasn’t a selfless act: he was helping Edwards to help himself. Defeating Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks would take the number of former title holders in DIW he’d beaten to six and make The Human Weapon indebted to him, so nobody would be able to deny him the DIW Title shot he deserved. Mattell walked off before even giving the DIW Champion a chance to respond.

Milton Hittlespitz and Kobra Khan v The Wild Things (Seth Wish and Con McReady)
The Comedian tried to counter my reminder that The Wild Things held a previous win over Hittlespitz and Khan by noting that I’d conveniently overlooked the fact they also had Mr. Pink on their side on that occasion. However, I pointed out that Kobra had hinted since then that he held some bitterness towards Crazy Blue for not always having his back, so they might be at a self-imposed handicap this time. Wish riled Hittlespitz with a stiff cane shot outside the ring. When Crazy Blue recovered, he entered the ring to swing his chair at Wish, who ducked, causing Crazy Blue to hit Kobra. Wish and McReady dumped Hittlespitz out of the ring with a double powerbomb over the ropes, and Wish finished off Kobra with Dust In The Wind. As The Wild Things celebrated their big win, I gloated that I’d told The Comedian they were the better team.

[AboardTheArk]

Ha, you're too kind, but booking the established team to go over is always more relevant than you'd think!

A more lowkey show but it set up a ton of things. A tight hour of wrestling.

[Tiberious]

Just got caught up with this diary and I think you're doing a fantastic job with this. Losing top guys hurts, but it might be a blessing in disguise since it opens the door for new guys to step up and create some fresh matchups.

With your new TV deal I'm guessing you might end up wanting to bolster your undercard a bit since frankly there are probably only so many Saracens matches that fans will really want to tune in for. I'm sure you don't need my advice for suggestions, and I don't even know if these guys are still unemployed two years in, but if you're looking for fresh blood Rick Horn seems like a guy made for DIW, and while Brown Snake isn't a deathmatch guy he seems like someone who could follow the Rob Edwards path of winning over the fans through toughness, in ring talent, and charisma. Okay I mainly picked him because he has Snake in his name and Kobra Khan is on your roster, it just writes itself.

[619]

@AboardTheArk At least we're 2-0 up now on established teams beating thrown-together ones so, if I break the rule in future, it will be a minority occurrence 😅 Thanks as always for the feedback.

Thanks a lot @Tiberious for the kind words and the advice. I regret to report that the Saracens overexposure continues for a while yet, but I eventually reached the same conclusion as you and am indeed trying to add a bit more variety to the undercard. I wasn't familiar with those names but I checked them out and both are interesting, with Rick Horn in particular looking a great fit as you said. Recruitment is tricky on this save even with the fan donation as there are 9 other companies in Australia, we're in unnegotiable wars with the good ones and The Comedian is stingier than ever but, as you say, it makes for a fun challenge to try to build from within when main eventers get poached rather than being able to hire ready-made replacements.

Part 10: Early conclusions

It looked like Lori’s initial approach to the challenge of producing weekly programming two episodes at a time would be to treat each pair of episodes like a full DIW event. The 90-minute monthly DIW broadcasts tended to have six matches, and here she’d put three matches on each hour-long episode, with a different group of wrestlers in the ring on each.

This was an effective solution in terms of managing stamina – in general, DIW wrestlers weren’t the fittest – and ensuring there was enough time to feature everyone, but would likely make it harder to achieve a consistent in-ring standard. The episode headlined by Rob Edwards v Lloyd Banks was much better between the ropes than the one led by Milton Hittlespitz and Kobra Khan v The Wild Things, even if the out-of-ring stuff had been more compelling on the latter as Edwards interacted with Hittlespitz, The Barracudas and Dexter Mattell in search of his partner.

But perhaps Lori wasn’t overly concerned by that. After all, she had told me before that for her the weekly show was more about building up stars than giving away great matches, and the second episode did a lot to elevate Seth Wish in particular, winning his main event debut. Still, given the fairly slim roster, I was pretty shocked that Cesar Sionis and The Benchmark – three of the company’s four most popular wrestlers at this time – didn’t fight on either of the opening two shows.

Outside the ring, was it a bit too convenient for Markus Rush to find himself perfectly placed to overhear private conversations three times in under an hour? Probably, but it was arguably still preferable to wrestlers inexplicably discussing personal stuff in plain view of a camera as happened in other promotions.

I guess this was the idea behind positioning Rush in this role of “broadcast coordinator” rather than using an established broadcaster: his own locker room experience gave him an insight into the best places to be to catch an exclusive and, as “one of the blokes”, even the deeply cynical DIW wrestlers might be more open to feeding him information on or off camera than they would a random interviewer.

His involvement played out fairly well in those initial episodes, with the exception perhaps of the few minutes he did on his own going over the Australian Title Contender Tournament, an indication that he was perhaps better bouncing off others than carrying a segment.

There were six episodes to go before Hardcore Heatwave, but the card seemed to be shaping up. A Tag Title match between Two Badass MFers and The Benchmark was confirmed, Sionis and Mattell appeared the likeliest DIW Title challengers for Edwards (perhaps a triple threat, or maybe one would challenge on a weekly show in the build-up) and Wrecker would face the Australian Title Contender Tournament winner, possibly Vaughan. It also looked like we were on course for another Hittlespitz v Wish showdown.

Whereas DIW monthly shows were usually a mix of attractions and enhancement matches, the weekly shows gave Lori a chance to treat Hardcore Heatwave like a supercard, in the way overseas companies and CEW balanced TV and PPV. However, it would also create a problem if the weekly show was discontinued next month and future cards never measured up to that one.

[619]

Part 11: Where’s Lori?

DIW had 30 employees and, besides road agent Classy Paul Massey, only one of them didn’t appear in front of the fans on the first two episodes of To The Extreme: Lori.

There had been no on-air explanation for why she hadn’t been at Ares Death Cult’s side. The reason she gave me when I asked* was that she wanted her full attention on what was going out on WrestleWorld Australia on these new weekly shows, and she couldn’t do that from ringside.

However, I suspected there might be a bit more to it. Usually, you’d want a heel out in front of the fans as much as possible in the aftermath of a big win like the one she had over Momoe Hamuera in a steel cage a few weeks earlier. But I think she was aware how contentious a decision it was, and that the negative reaction directed her way if she put a spotlight on herself so soon after that would be go-away heat rather than can’t-wait-to-see-you-get-beat heat.

Was not appearing the right call? On the one hand, it wasn’t beneficial to maintaining Ares Death Cult’s status as the company’s top heel act. With Gyula Lakatos leaving and Rob Edwards deserting, it meant their numbers had suddenly dropped from six to three, though this was possibly intentional to play into that by presenting them as a diminished group losing their grip.

The previews put out on our site and social pages for the third episode of To The Extreme didn’t make it clear whether she would appear in Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks’ corner for their tag team main event against DIW Champion Rob Edwards and his unlikely partner Dexter Mattell.

Also announced for the show were the Australian Title Contender Tournament quarter-finals in the non-champions half of the draw as Demarcus Lee faced Con McReady and Vaughan took on Mr. Pink, plus The Benchmark getting an opportunity to one-up Two Badass MFers in their own match against Saracens.

*When I spoke to her she also told me The Comedian had warned her that he didn’t want any more wrestlers with a strike-based style on the roster. She wanted to make sure I included it in the diary in case she forgot because, as she noted, DIW currently had three strikers – Edwards, Rusty Mills and Donovan Boon – and they were the three most over blokes in the company.

Edited August 1, 2023 by 619

[619]

Part 12: To The Extreme #3

The Benchmark (Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills) v Saracens (Cueball and Tank)
Lori got me to tell the story that Two Badass MFers had beaten Saracens in seven minutes earlier this month, so this was the Tag Title contenders’ opportunity to one-up their rivals. As you probably predicted, they did precisely that, with The Benchmark laying Cueball out with a Double Down and then me stopping a stopwatch at the commentary desk to reveal that their victory had been achieved in 25 seconds less, and speculate that this might give them a psychological edge heading into Hardcore Heatwave next month.

Australian Title Contender Tournament Quarter-Final: Vaughan v Mr. Pink
It appeared as though Mr. Pink was being kept waiting by Vaughan when The Barracudas music played with no sign of the five-time DIW Champion, until our cameras followed commotion in the crowd where Vaughan was at the bottom of a staircase being wailed on by D.O.A. and Switchblade, with The Comedian observing that they appeared to have knocked him down them. Chopper Rourke was in pursuit, and Crime Wave eventually disappeared back into the crowd while he checked on his partner. Referee Tatum Richards ruled that Vaughan wouldn’t be fit to compete – The Comedian explained that in his in-ring days, some referees demanded a competitor was in the ring within three minutes of their entrance call to avoid a forfeit – and raised Mr. Pink’s hand. Both the victor and the ref dived out of the ring as Chopper charged in, declaring that if Vaughan wasn’t going to get to take someone out then he would. I think this helped calm down any crowd revolt over the scheduled match not taking place as planned, but the crowd shots were asking a lot of the camera crew not to draw attention to the empty areas.

Chopper Rourke v Carl Paris
You either had to be desperate for an opportunity or young and naïve to want to face Chopper in this mood and luckily, or unluckily as it would ultimate prove, Paris ticked all those boxes. Lori asked us to put over on commentary how the youngster had broken Blitz Simpson’s nose and fractured his cheekbone in the past, which I liked as it presented him as a threat to newer viewers, discredited someone now working for a competitor and created more of a story around this thrown-together match. Things didn’t get as stiff as in Paris’ last clash with Simpson, but he had no chemistry with Chopper, so it was good that it was kept fairly short, and the crowd were happy to see the Barracuda secure the win with his Spinebuster.

Seth Wish entered with Con McReady for the latter’s Australian Title Contender Tournament quarter-final, and decided to address the fans, finding it funny that Milton Hittlespitz was talking about moving on from them a few weeks ago and now here they were, fresh from another victory over Crazy Blue last week and both moving on to a tournament where they were looking forward to facing one another in the final.

Australian Title Contender Tournament Quarter-Final: Demarcus Lee v Con McReady
Both blokes came tooled up for this fight – Lee bringing a snooker cue knowing that McReady was armed with a cane – and both had opportunities to use them, with the violence helping to compensate for the lack of polish in the performances. The nasty-looking finish saw McReady prop Lee up in the corner, asking Wish to hold a cane in front of his face from behind the turnbuckle as The Wild One struck him with an extra vicious Iron Fist.

It was time for us to throw to Markus Rush for an update on next week’s main event. He explained that as Wrecker and Two Badass MFers’ next scheduled title defences were at Hardcore Heatwave, they’d combine in a warm-up match next week against a trio who seemed to get on tonight: Mr. Pink, D.O.A. and Switchblade. Rush mentioned how Two Badass MFers generally don’t play nicely with others and prefer straight-up tag matches, but that they had come to regard Wrecker as a borderline third Badass MFer, so likely wouldn’t grumble this time.

Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks entered first for the main event, giving Death Ref the chance to address their opponents, claiming that Rob Edwards and Dexter Mattell were perfectly matched to be partners as they were both selfish scumbags who stood for nothing.

Rob Edwards and Dexter Mattell v Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks
The story told was of Mattell (who insisted on starting) and Edwards’ singles strength as they shined early on, before Sionis and Banks’ unity helped them take charge. They exchanged quick tags to stay on top of Edwards and build anticipation for the hot tag. The Human Weapon was down for so long after a rough landing from a Backbreaker that Sionis might have been able to cover for three, but Sionis wanted to inflict more damage and, after stalling, went to lift the DIW Champion up, only be taken down by a kick to the chin in desperation. This was Edwards’ chance to tag but, as he approached Mattell, Raw Sex instead used the outstretched arm to pull him into the turnbuckle, locking in an Armbar that he transitioned into an STF. I suspected he might abandon his partner, but he’d gone one step further and actually taken him out. As Mattell left, a confused Sionis, who gave the impression Ares Death Cult weren’t in on this setup, quickly capitalised with his Running Knee Side-Swipe to get the three count. I went big on commentary about this being Edwards’ first defeat in 15 months, and how betraying Ares Death Cult was going to be the mistake that cost him the DIW Title.

[AboardTheArk]

Lovely main event, the shows are coming together well considering the circumstances. Especially in a hardcore company where you can't kill your main draws weekly.

[619]

Thanks @AboardTheArk. And your comment on hardcore companies killing main draws sets this part up nicely...

Part 13: A discomforting comfort break

As soon as I stepped behind the entrance curtain for a quick comfort break before we started taping the next show, I walked into an ongoing argument.

“Don’t you see what I just did for you? I gave you my first defeat in over a year. Now they see you as my equal, a worthy challenger for one of our biggest shows, a potential DIW Champion. And you repay that by screwing with my back?”

“You think I meant to do that? Believe me, if I meant it, you’d be hurting a lot more right now.”

Shawn Berringer (Death Ref) tried to calm tensions between his current stablemate Cesar Sionis and former acquaintance Rob Edwards, but both men were far too angry for any breakthrough to be made on this night. I tried to make all parties aware of that, advising that they reconvene once they’d taken time to cool off, and that Edwards was better off getting his injury looked at.

As I made my way back to the announce position, I saw Lori in discussion with The Comedian behind the entrance. I planned to let the conversation conclude before walking over, but she called me over to share what they’d agreed: we wouldn’t reference any injury to Edwards on commentary on the next episode. The format would remain as laid out on our briefing sheets and hopefully the injury wasn’t a severe one. If it was, we might add something post-production.

I was impressed with her composure in a situation she’d never confronted before. Indeed, I’d never faced it and very few bookers in Australia would have done given TV and streaming deals were still quite rare here: your champion and golden goose getting injured at the end of one show and having to go out and produce another one minutes later.

I sympathised too as this had the potential to be a disastrous situation for her. Not just the risk of Edwards being ruled out so soon after Blitz Simpson and Gyula Lakatos had left, but because she had taken two heavy hits to her personal reputation with the rescheduling of Chaos Engine and the Momoe Hamuera mess. And now here was the wrestler she was closest to on the roster potentially injuring the company’s top draw at the very moment she’d chosen him as the one to score the first victory over the champion in 15 months.

She more than anyone would be praying it wasn’t a serious injury. But before we got any confirmation of that, the show had to go on. The fourth episode of To The Extreme would see Two Badass MFers and Wrecker take on Crime Wave and Mr. Pink, and the Australian Title Contender Tournament quarter-finals on the former champions’ side of the draw: Tank v Seth Wish and Kobra Khan v Lloyd Banks, who had just fought a 12-minute main event.

[619]

Part 14: To The Extreme #4

Australian Title Contender Tournament Quarter-Final: Tank v Seth Wish
The fifth and third ever Australian Champions got the show off to a fairly lukewarm start, though Wish looked good at least, as I imagine was Lori’s priority. He took no chances making sure his much larger opponent was down for the count, following up a cane strike between the eyes with Dust In The Wind and a Suicide Senton to continue an unbeaten start to 2024.

Things heated up after the match, with Wish and Con McReady, who had accompanied him at ringside, still making their way to the entrance as Milton Hittlespitz entered for his match. Wish and Hittlespitz got in one another’s faces but it didn’t escalate, at least not until Crazy Blue continued his path to the ring, at which point Wish jumped him from behind. At the point where Hittlespitz started to take charge, McReady intervened with a Clothesline, before helping Wish to retreat with their enemy grounded.

Milton Hittlespitz v Pat Rigsby
Rigsby appeared to be resisting his usual temptation to troll at the start of the match, instead pointing at his finger. I explained on commentary that he was in a good mood as he was celebrating a recent engagement. Any pretence at pleasantness didn’t last though as Rigsby followed up by showing Hittlespitz a different finger, and he responded by throwing fists. Crazy Blue let Rigsby have a few openings before securing an inevitable victory with his Flying Knee Drop.

Death Ref grabbed a mic before Lloyd Banks’ Australian Title Contender Tournament match and said that, just like last week, Cesar Sionis would pin Rob Edwards again at Hardcore Heatwave and bring the DIW Title back to Ares Death Cult.

Australian Title Contender Tournament Quarter-Final: Kobra Khan v Lloyd Banks
This match was kept to eight minutes, with Lori probably looking to protect Banks half an hour after he fought in the main event of the previous episode, but that was enough time for us to tell the story of their history with the Australian Title and one another as the last two champions. Death Ref leapt on the apron to ensure there wouldn’t be a three count when Kobra Khan hit Banks with a Small Package Driver, which brought out a limping Rob Edwards, who pulled him down. In the ring, Banks threatened to take control, poking Kobra in the eye when he tried to lift him off the mat, but Edwards intervened further, delivering a Roundhouse Kick to Banks, which a recovering Kobra followed up with a Ripcord Knee for the win.

Rob Edwards grabbed Death Ref by the throat and told him to pass on a message to Cesar Sionis: a tailbone for a tailbone.

The Comedian and I pitched to Markus Rush for a rundown of the Australian Title Contender Tournament semi-finals, but he was on his mobile as we joined him, telling the person who had called him that he was on air so were they sure they wanted to be put on loudspeaker. We then heard Dexter Mattell warn anyone who was listening that while Rob Edwards and Cesar Sionis seemed to have set their sights set on one another, he’s got a better idea for the future of the DIW Title, insisting that he won’t be seen in a DIW ring again until he’s been granted a shot.

Mr. Pink stopped to hand me a note on his way out for the main event, explaining his new look. I say new look, he was still hiding his identity behind a clown mask, but now his nose and hair were black instead of pink. His note revealed that he hated being stuck with his Warriors name, given all those traitors were known for was losing. So now he’d done what they never could and actually beaten The Barracudas – The Comedian chipped in at this point that he’d been awarded a victory over Vaughan without doing any work, but I persevered – now he’d beaten The Barracudas, he was commemorating the occasion by adopting the new name Mr. Blitz.

Wrecker and Two Badass MFers (Hendrix Hughes and Seb Shaw) v Mr. Blitz and Crime Wave (D.O.A. and Switchblade)
The match was just as chaotic as that skit that came before it. The Benchmark watched their Hardcore Heatwave opponents Two Badass MFers at ringside, the non-champions used a series of dubious tactics to threaten an unexpected victory and The Barracudas came through the crowd making a beeline for Crime Wave and the so-called Mr. Blitz towards the end of the match. A Barracuda Sting to D.O.A. on the outside left Switchblade friendless inside the ring, where Wrecker celebrated another win with his Mighty Bulldog.

Mr. Blitz got a few shots in on Wrecker after the bell before backing off as a somewhat weary Hughes and Shaw entered the ring. While that was happening, The Benchmark had slid under the ropes with the Tag Titles and teased jumping the champions, only to ultimately hand them their gold. As the episode ended, I speculated that both teams wanted the other at full strength for next month’s showdown, with The Comedian musing that they should just fight already.

[AboardTheArk]

This Benchmark/Badass MFers will they won't they is probably different to literally any feud in company history, except maybe when Comedian retired. It's probably really refreshing to the fans unless they would really want to boo the APW outsiders. Also, I really enjoy Pat Rigsby switching things up lately.

[619]

Thanks @AboardTheArk. Your thoughts on the Tag Title feud are really interesting and timely as that's the subject of tomorrow's post: whether such a build fits DIW and how that match should be built.

Part 15: Weapon intact

I called Lori the week between the shows for an update on Rob Edwards’ injury – this diary was proving to be a great justification for getting all the latest gossip. Luckily, his tailbone was cracked rather than anything more severe, so the expectation was that he would recover before Hardcore Heatwave, leaving Lori the dilemma of whether to have him wrestle before then or not, which she admitted was a much lesser problem than she might otherwise have been facing.

I told her about witnessing a heated argument between Edwards and Cesar Sionis after the tag match, but it was noticeable that she didn’t want to get drawn into discussing it. She mentioned that she might try to get them together before the next show: the kind of meddling that I never engaged in as a booker, but that I’d heard she had prior experience of.

She was more open to talking about her booking of Edwards in January, explaining that she felt the fans had to see him suffer the consequences of his actions before they’d fully embrace him. That’s why she had Ares Death Cult inflict a violent beating on him on the first show, then forced him to confront his lack of allies on the second one, with Milton Hittlespitz and The Barracudas not ready to move on.

She knew The Comedian would criticise her for the tag main event on the third show as he finds drama around whether tag partners will coexist too soap-opera-like – citing a previous occasion where Edwards and Hittlespitz had aligned to face The Wrecking Crew in 2022. However, she judged it to be worth doing despite the grief she would get as it firmly positioned Edwards as alone with lots of enemies. Not even past nemeses of Ares Death Cult wanted to help him, so any crowd or locker room support would be hard earned.

That gave me an opportunity to ask if the next step of his redemption arc would be defending the DIW Title in a triple threat against Cesar Sionis and Dexter Mattell at Hardcore Heatwave, but she just teased that I’d find out soon enough.

[619]

Part 16: How to build a money match

As far as tag team wrestling in DIW went, Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark was the money match. It was arguably even the biggest first time match the DIW roster had to offer at this time.

The conundrum Lori faced was how to build to it. It was wise to announce it almost two months in advance to signal how momentous an occasion it was – no other Hardcore Heatwave matches had been confirmed yet. However, both teams were so popular that she seemed to be going down the mutual respect route, which would probably work in any other promotion with any other two teams, but was tricky to pull off with two brash duos and a bloodthirsty fanbase.

Despite the high interest in the match, recent crowd reactions for the Rob Edwards, Milton Hittlespitz and Barracudas action had been a little louder, no doubt because more of it was taking place in the ring, either in matches or angles where fists or weapons were being thrown.

So that was my worry: a big build-up made sense but, with four more weeks to fill, would the fans would be cooler rather than hotter by the time the date arrived if the hostility wasn’t there?

That hostility didn’t seem likely to arrive on episode five of To The Extreme, with four matches announced on the DIW website, none of which involved the two teams. Instead, the line-up was Carl Paris and Demarcus Lee v Ares Death Cult, Saracens v Crime Wave and the semi-finals of the Australian Title Contender Tournament: Mr. Blitz v Con McReady and the match that had defined the title more than any other across its six-year existence: Kobra Khan v Seth Wish.

Edited August 7, 2023 by 619
Tag matches were the wrong way round