DIW 2024: Waging War Weekly

[HiPlus]

Really enjoying the storylines and particular the Rob Edwards build, love this style where there is reasoning for him getting the countless cold shoulders to to build some empathy

 

Also keen to see the Rigsby development. 

 

Some predictions for the next show:

 

Ares Death Cult - Easy choice

Carl Paris and Demarcue Lee - JUST PUSH CARL!! But also see shenanigans happening. 

Con McReady - More shenanigans and I don't see Mr. Blitz not getting punished 

 

Seth Wish - Seems like the push is his

[619]

Thanks @HiPlus, I really enjoyed your thoughts and analysis. Also, an apology as I mixed the tag matches in the previous post, so I reckon you scored 3/4 really. Carl Paris is an interesting one: his psychology is ridiculous for a 20-year-old, but the fans don't accept him yet as the rest of his game hasn't caught up, so he's an asset but it feels like there's a limit to how much he can do right now.

Part 17: To The Extreme #5

Australian Title Contender Tournament Semi-Final: Mr. Blitz v Con McReady
The former Mr. Pink’s gloating over his forfeit victory over Vaughan and rather random rebrand to reference the departed Blitz Simpson had proven surprisingly effective at riling the crowd. The masked man was getting his loudest boos since betraying Wrecker a year ago, so much so that even the usually unpopular McReady was being favoured over him. They got the outcome they wanted when McReady gripped his trusty cane before Mr. Blitz lifted him up for an, erm, Black Thunder Bomb, turning to strike him in the forehead and following up with his Iron Fist for a three count. I pointed out that McReady was now two wins away from his first title in DIW.

We then handed over to Markus Rush, who explained that he wasn’t in DIW House as Dexter Mattell asked him to witness the meeting he’d arranged with Death Ref to negotiate who would get their hands on Rob Edwards first. However, Rush had received a video message from the DIW Champion earlier in the day that he cut to, with The Human Weapon saying he’d heard all the speculation about the condition of his tailbone, but if anyone in DIW was stupid enough to want to test it, he’d be in the ring waiting for them next week.

Saracens (Cueball and Tank) v Crime Wave (D.O.A. and Switchblade)
I thought Crime Wave had been brought in just to eat some losses on the undercard – and perhaps that was the plan before showing out so well in their debut against The Benchmark. However, they’d main evented the previous episode of To The Extreme and celebrated their second successive two-on-two triumph here, laying out Cueball with the Wave Goodbye.

Switchblade grabbed a microphone after Crime Wave’s win and said there was a misunderstanding about what happened last month. They didn’t push Vaughan down any stairs, they found him like that, speculating that Chopper Rourke must have got to him before they did. Chopper arrived to either respond or throw fists, but wasn’t able to do either as they were gone before he reached the ring, presenting me with an opportunity to cause mischief on commentary by claiming he let them get away, and maybe they were working together.

The Benchmark entered next. I explained that they had been allocated time to address their Hardcore Heatwave match, with Two Badass MFers granted the same opportunity next week. Donovan Boon said he and Rusty Mills liked Two Badass MFers, with Rusty adding “what’s not to like: they’re fun blokes”. But, Boon continued, they’re not on The Benchmark’s level. Hopefully one day, with a lot of hard work and luck, they might be, and he and Rusty would do everything in their power to drag them up to it for the good of DIW. Mills added that the MFers might have the gold right now, but The Benchmark had been tag champions six times, beating far better teams than the MFers did in their reigns. This irritated the crowd, but Boon doubled down. He said they weren’t knocking DIW. The division was good now, but that’s because they raised the standard like they promised they would. The MFers’ first run with the belts was long, but how many of the teams they beat were still around? Now the standard was higher and, unfortunately for the MFers, that meant following the longest ever tag title reign with the shortest. Mills said that if the MFers treat what happens to them at Hardcore Heatwave as a learning experience and come back stronger, it could be the best thing to ever happen to them.

Carl Paris and Demarcus Lee v Ares Death Cult (Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks)
Ares Death Cult’s last surviving fighters went into battle without Death Ref or Lori, but they didn’t need them to dominate the combination of DIW’s youngest and newest wrestlers. If the objective was to show that the unit remain a threat, it was mission accomplished, and they combined to take out Carl Paris with a Blood Sacrifice, Sionis inviting Banks to do the tag move he used to execute with Gyula Lakatos.

Markus Rush said it had been made clear to him not to disclose where Dexter Mattell and Death Ref were meeting if he wanted to make it out of there, but the aesthetic was more abandoned warehouse than boutique bar. Mattell told Death Ref the solution was simple. Ares Death Cult’s priority was taking out Rob Edwards. His was winning the DIW Title, regardless of who he beat for it. Therefore, of course Cesar Sionis should get the first crack at The Human Weapon at Hardcore Heatwave. Death Ref was ready to agree, surprised at how easy the negotiation had proven, only for Raw Sex to add that this was on the condition that he faced the winner later that night. Before Death Ref could respond, Mattell cut him off, saying no, that wouldn’t be fair. If Edwards or Sionis were fighting twice at Hardcore Heatwave, he should fight someone of championship calibre that same week on To The Extreme, so that he wasn’t at a disadvantage in terms of ring rust. Death Ref told Mattell he was a fraud but it didn’t matter. He agreed to this meeting with one objective – to ensure that Sionis got Edwards one-on-one – and he would have accepted any terms to make that happen. The chance to make a Blood Sacrifice of Mattell that same night was an unexpected bonus. Despite getting the exact deal he came searching for, Raw Sex’s smug smile dropped at Death Ref’s refusal to sell it. Rush sheepishly interrupted the posturing to tell Mattell and Death Ref that he’d just received a text from Edwards: “it’s on”.

Australian Title Contender Tournament Semi-Final: Kobra Khan v Seth Wish
I crunched the numbers before this clash of the long-term Australian Title rivals to work out this was their fifth one-on-one showdown since Lori took the book 25 months earlier, the first in a main event, and that they’d each won two of the previous four. One difference this time was the presence of Con McReady at ringside, and it was swaying the contest, with the confirmed finalist twice distracting Kobra Khan when he was on top. His third intervention was the most memorable though. He jumped on the apron and swung at Kobra with his cane, only to be cracked in the back by a Milton Hittlespitz chair shot before he could make contact. Wish’s fury at the sudden appearance of his rivalry saw him lose focus and turn straight into a Ripcord Knee. Kobra followed up with a Small Package Driver to make sure of the win, which was applauded by Hittlespitz as he made his way up the ramp. I accused Kobra of celebrating like he’d already won the tournament, reminding viewers that he still had to face McReady in the final, and he’d be even more fired up after this injustice.

Edited August 7, 2023 by 619

[619]

Part 18: Cheap seats

I made a point of congratulating Lori for drawing a bigger crowd for the third To The Extreme taping, and was surprised when she told me it had been achieved by a reduction in ticket prices.

She was right that it was a financially sound decision, with the 222 fans paying $6 bringing in $1,332, a fraction above the $1,330 generated a fortnight earlier when 133 people paid $10. Added to that, she was convinced that the more people who saw the shows, the more a buzz would develop around DIW House, the better it would look on WrestleWorld Australia and the faster the company would grow.

But my concern was rather about perception. This weekly format had been pitched as an eight-week trial, so to cut ticket prices halfway through that run would be pounced upon by rivals as a desperation move and a sign the experiment was failing, regardless of whether that was the reality. Was it also telling attendees of the first four episodes that they’d overpaid? That the product wasn’t worth quite as much as we’d initially thought?

I didn’t get into that with her, as I’m sure she was already having a robust enough dialogue with The Comedian but, without having as intimate a knowledge of the company’s finances as either of them, I took it as a sign that I might not be working Wednesdays from March onwards.

Episode six was definitely going ahead though as I’d seen that being taped, so I’ll write about that in the next part once I’ve watched it back on WrestleWorld Australia. I can confirm that every DIW titleholder was in action though to help them prepare for Hardcore Heatwave, with the main event seeing Rob Edwards fight for the first time since suffering his first defeat in 15 months and a cracked tailbone against Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks three shows back.

I checked the DIW website and social pages and noticed they didn’t announce his opponent, so the promo recorded at the taping revealing that had presumably been saved for the broadcast.

[619]

Part 19: To The Extreme #6

At the start of the show, The Comedian immediately threw to Markus Rush, who was with The Barracudas in the back. Vaughan said tonight was the second time he’d received an invitation to get in the ring with Rob Edwards. He wasn’t interested in the offer to team with him recently, but being his opponent, that was something he could get behind. Rush asked about Crime Wave’s claim that Chopper Rourke pushed Vaughan down the stairs last month. Chopper leaned in on Rush, but Vaughan calmed him, reasoning that if Chopper wanted to put a beating on him, he wouldn’t do it from behind. His focus was on settling an old score with Edwards tonight, but Crime Wave were next, and at Hardcore Heatwave, they’d pay for what they’d done.

Demarcus Lee v Mr. Blitz
After fluking his way to the Australian Title Contender Tournament semi-finals without winning a match, Mr. Blitz kept the good times going with some more legitimate success here, unusually deploying a surfboard to take Lee off his feet and then dropping him on top of it with a Black Thunder Bomb for the pin.

We went back to Markus Rush, who had spotted Kobra Khan and Milton Hittlespitz talking and approached them to congratulate Kobra on reaching next week’s Australian Title Contender Tournament final against Con McReady. Hittlespitz said Seth Wish would be there next week as The Wild Things can’t do anything on their own so, like last week, he’d be there to even the numbers for Kobra. He predicted that they’d both get what they wanted at Hardcore Heatwave: Kobra challenging Wrecker for the Australian Title, and Crazy Blue finally getting Wish out of his business.

Incidentally, I believe that’s the full Hardcore Heatwave card outlined now. Rob Edwards v Cesar Sionis for the DIW Title, with the winner defending against Dexter Mattell later that night. Two Badass MFers facing The Benchmark for the Tag Titles. Wrecker defending the Australian Title against next week’s Kobra Khan v Con McReady winner. The Milton Hittlespitz v Seth Wish rematch. And The Barracudas taking on Crime Wave.

Wrecker v Tank
The Comedian told us that Wrecker wasn’t enjoying the waiting game that the Australian Title Contender Tournament had forced him into, preferring when he defended the title more regularly. So he’d issued a challenge to someone who had missed out on the opportunity to face him for the title in the tournament that was answered by Tank. The heavyweight used his size advantage to push Wrecker around for a few minutes but once he made a mistake, the Australian Champion was able to take control, completing the comeback with a Mighty Bulldog.

As The Comedian prepared to send us back to the increasingly omnipresent Markus Rush, I feigned jealousy that he was getting more airtime than me. Rush was with Dexter Mattell, who wanted to wish a happy Valentine’s Day to all the female fans who had flocked to DIW to watch Raw Sex uncensored. He claimed it wouldn’t be a happy Valentine’s Day for Death Ref though because, while he was on retreat with Cesar Sionis and Lloyd Banks listening to sad songs and playing with barbed wire, his wife Lori was on a date with another man. Rush asked him to clarify that, but Mattell disingenuously said he shouldn’t have said anything and it wasn’t his place to speculate on colleagues’ marital difficulties.

Two Badass MFers (Hendrix Hughes and Seb Shaw) v Pat Rigsby and Head Goon
Pat Rigsby had been having success in his personal life, getting married a few days after his match following a very brief engagement. However, he remained as luckless as ever in a DIW ring, even with someone new in his corner in the shape of Head Goon, who I’m reliably informed was a former Shocking Hardcore Action employee brought in on a one-night-deal. It wasn’t the outsider who took the fall though, with Rigsby instead falling foul of Hendrix Hughes’ Fireman’s Carry Bulldog.

Hendrix Hughes said The Benchmark sure did talk a lot of bulldust about DIW’s tag division for a team who had been here a year without holding the titles. He knew they’d been tag champions six times elsewhere, and he was sure they came up against opponents who knew some good wristlock reversals in that time. But Two Badass MFers had taken on prisoners, bank robbers, biker gangs and death cults. Seb Shaw interrupted to tell Hughes not to mention death cults, as The Benchmark boys won’t want to be reminded that the MFers beat a team they couldn’t. Hughes finished by saying he was sure The Benchmark were told the same thing as them: WrestleWorld Australia don’t want them throwing punches before Hardcore Heatwave, saving that first contact for the big match. So if The Benchmark want to keep the partners happy, they better keep their distance until then. No cigarettes were lit: they threw down their mics and left without any catchphrases.

Rob Edwards v Vaughan
The pace wasn’t quite up there with their DIW Title match last February at Hardcore Heatwave, which I’d watched recently as it was aired on WrestleWorld Australia to generate excitement for this year’s event. Yet this was a fun main event with the crowd taking turns to rally behind both men and Vaughan putting Edwards’ troublesome tailbone to the test with a series of power moves. Crime Wave showed up midway through the match to put some boots in on Vaughan but, in a moment Lori clearly hoped would prove poignant and the fans went along with, Edwards refused to capitalise on the situation, instead helping his opponent remove D.O.A. and Switchblade from the ring, with Chopper Rourke getting involved in the battle from there. Vaughan didn’t relent when one-on-one combat resumed, and was the first to connect with his finisher when locking in his Choke Sleeper. In an impressive show of strength, Edwards was able to fight out and then lift the heavyweight over his head, slamming him to the mat. The strain took The Human Weapon down too, but he was back on his feet a second sooner, using what little energy he had left to connect with a Roundhouse Kick and fall on top for the three.

Dexter Mattell snuck in the ring and took Edwards down from behind as he was having his arm raised, before locking in a Boston Crab for over a minute to really exploit the DIW Champion’s tailbone injury while boos rained down. The challenger stopped, saying he could have finished him there and then, but would wait until the main event of Hardcore Heatwave to take the title. He invited referee Tatum Richards to raise his hand, blowing a kiss and gesturing for her to call him when she refused.

[619]

Part 20: Roster mismanagement

Six episodes in, it was fairly clear what the biggest weakness of Lori’s weekly show booking was: the least valuable roster members were getting far too much airtime.

Sure, she’d told me that her priority for the show was establishing stars and building stories more than presenting marquee matches. But did Tank, a tag team wrestler who hadn’t won a match in over two years, being the most frequent fighter across the first six episodes with five bouts really align with the mission of establishing stars?

The latest taping saw three undercard blokes do double duty – Tank, Demarcus Lee and Mr. Blitz – whereas five of the company’s most popular performers right now didn’t wrestle at all: Donovan Boon, Rusty Mills, Milton Hittlespitz, Chopper Rourke and Dexter Mattell.

The Benchmark only had one match in the entire six-show run to date. I found it curious that DIW Title number one contender Cesar Sionis hadn’t fought a singles match on it yet, so imagine my shock at being told by a friend that his last DIW singles match was almost 14 months ago.

These issues came from a good place: Lori was trying to keep her biggest names as hot as possible heading into Hardcore Heatwave, which had the potential to be the best card she had put on so far. However, the roster – rather oddly given it had recently lost two former DIW Champions – was almost too top-heavy. There weren’t enough pin eaters around, so blokes like Saracens that the fans truthfully didn’t really care about were being overexposed.

I didn’t think it was my place to pass on all this criticism without being directly asked for feedback, but I did use the example of Tank’s double defeat to ask Lori if roster expansion was on the horizon, figuring it was the most logical solution. She noted that it would likely depend on whether weekly programming continued beyond February.

She did reveal that nobody would be pulling double duty at the latest taping. The matches promoted for episode seven were Kobra Khan v Con McReady in the Australian Title Contender Tournament final, Vaughan v Mr. Blitz, who claimed a forfeit victory over the heavyweight in the aforementioned tournament, Milton Hittlespitz v Lloyd Banks and Carl Paris v Seth Wish.

[619]

Part 21: To The Extreme #7

Australian Title Contender Tournament Final: Kobra Khan v Con McReady
The show started with a match that I thought might main event. Not only would the outcome determine who faced Wrecker at Hardcore Heatwave – would McReady get the first title shot of his DIW career, or would Kobra challenge to become a four-time champion – it was the latest chapter in the Milton Hittlespitz v Seth Wish rivalry set to conclude at Hardcore Heatwave, with both men taking an interest at ringside. The finish saw Wish take a swing at Kobra with his cane, only for Hittlespitz to get in the ring just in time to dispossess him from behind. But when Hittlespitz swung at Wish, he ducked, and it was Kobra who took the shot. Crazy Blue improvised quickly to throw Wish out of the ring and dive on him, but Con McReady had already capitalised, following up with an Iron Fist to win the match and the tournament. I pointed out on commentary that this was the second time Hittlespitz had hit Kobra Khan with a cane when he was supposed to be helping him, arguing the masked man would’ve been better fighting solo.

Seb Shaw told Markus Rush it was no secret that Two Badass MFers wanted to get their hands on The Benchmark, but they’d been told they only had to wait nine more days, and to instead pick an opponent for one of their challengers to face next week. Hendrix Hughes said that if they couldn’t do it themselves, there was only one other MFer in DIW up to the job: Wrecker. They decided he’d face Donovan Boon, as they thought he had the more punchable face. They closed with an invitation to put your ciggies in the air for the greatest Australian Champion of all time.

Carl Paris v Seth Wish
The Wild Things’ celebration of Con McReady’s success continued even after his tournament victory as he stayed at ringside to watch his partner Wish get back on winning form against the rookie Paris. Wish went through his full repertoire here to really show off, sealing the deal with a Dust In The Wind followed by the Suicide Senton, allowing me to highlight on commentary how he’d only just missed out on victory against Milton Hittlespitz at War Machine by the narrowest of margins, but it looked like he was on even better form now.

Markus Rush had found The Benchmark to discover their pick to fight one of Two Badass MFers next week. Donovan Boon said their choice might come as a surprise as it was someone they didn’t even like much. Rusty Mills added that the MFers seemed to find it funny that their past opponents knew their way out of a wristlock, so it was time to see if the MFers did by introducing them to submission specialist Dexter Mattell. Boon wished Seb Shaw good luck executing his Spinning Brainbuster at Hardcore Heatwave once he’d failed to counter an STF.

Vaughan v Mr. Blitz
The Comedian outlined Vaughan’s two motivations for wanting to take out Mr. Blitz: the extent to which he’d gloated about his bogus forfeit victory in the Australian Title Contender Tournament, and his bizarre cosplay as some CEW curtain-jerker. This match was closer than I’m led to believe most Barracudas-Warriors showdowns in years gone by were, in part due to Vaughan selling the effects of his recent staircase assault and main event with Rob Edwards, but he did get a measure of revenge by making Mr. Blitz nap with his Choke Sleeper.

DIW Champion Rob Edwards entered next to his loudest ovation yet. He didn’t have much to say, just that this time he was ready for it so he wanted Dexter Mattell to join him in the ring. Raw Sex inevitably resisted the call, but Cesar Sionis didn’t, with the other Hardcore Heatwave challenger pacing to the ring for a slugfest. The Human Weapon was on top but sold some back pain while measuring Sionis for a Roundhouse Kick. The Greek Punisher capitalised, taking his former stablemate down and quickly following up with the Running Knee Side-Swipe. I pointed out that Edwards appeared fixated on Mattell when, in reality, it was unlikely he’d even get to face him at Hardcore Heatwave as, every time he clashed with Sionis, he ended up on the mat.

Milton Hittlespitz v Lloyd Banks
This was perhaps the first To The Extreme main event that didn’t have a strong story hook to it, which is why I thought the tournament final might headline. The Comedian and I tried to compensate for that by recalling how Ares Death Cult had ended both of Hittlespitz’s DIW Title reigns, and this was his first time getting Banks one-on-one in that time. As in his recent defeats to Rob Edwards and Kobra Khan, Banks was given a decent amount of offence, but he’d arguably been the bloke most affected by Ares Death Cult’s recent loss of stature. I wasn’t a fan of the finish here. Banks had the barbed wire he’d introduced used against him, and Hittlespitz rather stupidly confirmed the win with a Flying Knee Drop onto the barbed wire board, doing as much damage to himself in the process.

That questionable finish did perhaps play into what happened next though. Milton Hittlespitz being jumped was never too surprising, but the identity of his attacker on this occasion was as Kobra Khan slid into the ring on the bell to wipe Crazy Blue out with his own chair, following up with a Small Package Driver onto the weapon. I pointed out that while Hittlespitz’s earlier cane attack may have been a mistake, there was nothing accidental about what Kobra had just done.

Edited August 11, 2023 by 619

[619]

Part 22: Overlapping stories

I was intrigued by the two matches Lori had announced in advance for the Hardcore Heatwave go-home edition of To The Extreme.

To this point, the three title stories – Rob Edwards v Cesar Sionis with the winner facing Dexter Mattell, Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark and Wrecker v Con McReady – had been kept separate.

Yet they were suddenly set to overlap two days before Hardcore Heatwave after Two Badass MFers and The Benchmark were invited to pick an opponent each for one of their adversaries, with Two Badass MFers pairing Donovan Boon with Australian Champion Wrecker and The Benchmark choosing DIW Title contender Dexter Mattell as Seb Shaw’s opponent.

If executed well, it had the potential to increase anticipation for all the Hardcore Heatwave title matches, but it also meant two of the nine participants losing two days before the show, which felt like a change of course given Lori had been quite protective of her stars in earlier episodes.

We’d also get the follow-up to Kobra Khan attacking Milton Hittlespitz, which I presumed would be the latter’s match against Seth Wish being turned into a triple threat, though I’d been wrong when making the same prediction for Edwards, Sionis and Mattell.

Edited August 12, 2023 by 619

[AboardTheArk]

Is this the last episode of the trial run? It would make sense to break from the usual course- let alone the hook for the go-home show

[619]

@AboardTheArk Yes, this is the final show of the initial eight-episode run, with a scheduling update arriving at Hardcore Heatwave. Apologies, I probably haven't done a great job of setting out the timeline.

Part 23: To The Extreme #8

Chopper Rourke v Cueball
The show started with a short, chaotic brawl. Chopper remained popular despite The Barracudas’ diminished status post-Blitz Simpson, and gave the crowd what they wanted: a Spinebuster and a three count.

I used Vaughan’s non-appearance to fuel one of my favourite commentary themes, speculating that all was still not right in The Barracudas’ camp. An alternative explanation became apparent though when Markus Rush found the heavyweight fallen in the corridor, with D.O.A and Switchblade fleeing the scene. For reasons that will become clear in the next entry to this diary, this segment was replaced in the final broadcast of the episode on WrestleWorld Australia.

Wrecker v Donovan Boon
One of the best DIW matches of the weekly To The Extreme era was given a slightly slapstick finish, as Con McReady appeared at ringside with Wrecker in the ascendancy and manoeuvred his cane like a snooker cue, sliding it between the second and third ropes and the unsuspecting Australian Champion’s legs and blasting it into his crotch, with Boon taking advantage with a Donovan Driver for the win. Lori left a really helpful note to put over the result on commentary: this was the first time Wrecker had been pinned since Hardcore Heatwave last year, and I added that this was a terrible omen for his chances of retaining against McReady on Friday.

Markus Rush was with Seth Wish as Con McReady emerged behind the curtain after hitting Wrecker where it hurt. He congratulated his partner and told Rush that The Wild Things wanted to rest of the roster to keep underestimating them as it was working out really well for them, but he predicted that everyone would be taking them seriously after Hardcore Heatwave.

Demarcus Lee v Cesar Sionis
I guess someone else tipped Lori off that it wasn’t ideal that the next DIW Title challenger hadn’t wrestled a singles match in over a year (not that this had stopped him from establishing himself as DIW’s most-over antagonist, I should add). He was given someone tough to throw around for six minutes here to remind everyone how imposing he was. The Running Knee Side-Swipe put Lee away, and I insisted that when he hit that move on Friday, we’d have a new DIW Champion. Was I foreshadowing? Not knowingly, Lori hadn’t clued me in on her Hardcore Heatwave plans.

Kobra Khan took to the ring to say that he was tired of getting caught in the middle of Milton Hittlespitz and Seth Wish’s crap, so he was ready to take control of the situation and give them both a beating at Hardcore Heatwave. Hittlespitz unsurprisingly came out to confront him, but he was jumped from behind by Wish. Wish was too busy whacking Crazy Blue with his cane to notice Kobra approach, with a Ripcord Knee ensuring that he stood tall over both opponents.

Seb Shaw v Dexter Mattell
Regrettably, I think we need to head straight to the finish of our main event. Mattell wrestled out of Shaw’s attempt to hit his Spinning Brainbuster and launched him towards the corner, but the tag champ lost his footing and tripped headfirst into the edge of the middle turnbuckle, crumpling in a heap. On referee Tatum Richards’ subtle instruction, Mattell went straight for a cover, which she counted quickly so Shaw could be attended to as soon as possible.

Within seconds of the bell ringing (double meaning unintended), Rob Edwards was in the ring to take Dexter Mattell off his feet with a Roundhouse Kick. That brought Cesar Sionis to the entranceway, where Edwards met him and they started throwing fists. In the ring, Hendrix Hughes was checking on Seb Shaw when Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills, who had been watching at ringside, entered with the Tag Titles, throwing them down at Hughes’ feet. The original creative was for the teams to finally come to blows after a slow handover, but The Comedian and I helped call an audible to shield Shaw from any further physicality. Instead, attention shifted back to Edwards and Sionis’ wild brawl on the ramp. I remarked on commentary that nobody had claimed a clear advantage, setting up The Comedian for the sign-off line that there would have to be a decisive winner on Friday night.

[619]

Part 24: DIW’s darkest days

This is Lori checking in on what was meant to be the fun week. We’d completed the initial eight-episode run of To The Extreme, everything was set for Hardcore Heatwave, I felt like it was the best card I’d put together yet and I knew everything I was looking to achieve from that show.

We’d delivered 29 matches on To The Extreme with just the one nervy moment when Rob Edwards cracked his tailbone after a rough landing against Cesar Sionis. Then, in the closing moments of the 30th match, Seb Shaw lost his balance taking the kind of bump he would have taken hundreds of times before, flying head-first into the edge of a turnbuckle. Based on initial reports, the concussion he suffered wasn’t just going to postpone Two Badass MFers’ Hardcore Heatwave showdown with The Benchmark, it was going to take at least a year off his career.

I thought I’d just about got my head around what had happened when the news arrived that sent a chill down my spine: Cuthbert Flamebeke, better known to our fans as Switchblade, was dead at 37. He’d only been with us for three months but what an impression he’d made both in and outside the ring. Him and D.O.A.’s first match against The Benchmark was the best debut performance I’d seen in DIW, and I’d been here since the start.

They’d continued to shine since, which is why they were getting a spotlight match against The Barracudas at To The Extreme, with another intended to follow against Two Badass MFers at Havoc. And SQ would doubtless back me up that Switchblade had made even more of an impact outside of the ring, popping everyone with his anecdotes about the Aussie indies, APW and especially his Horrie Fowler horror stories from working for SHA.

I wasn’t convinced Hardcore Heatwave should go ahead six days after Cuthbert’s passing, but The Comedian and I met with his family and tag partner and they were all insistent that he’d want the show to go on. We offered D.O.A. time off, but he wanted to wrestle still to honour his friend, so my focus switched to trying to make it a show that did him justice.

[HiPlus]

Holy hell losing your potentially longest built up match and what is definitely the second to the Main Event with Shaw out for a year is insane. Going to be hard to pivot on the show it is booked for and still have any hype around it. 

 

Then the actual loss of Switchblade is certainly a major loss as he was getting involved in a decent storyline. No way D.O.A doesn't get a win to honour his friend and potential face turn out of it even if it may be early. Sad time for the company and if Lori was feeling the loss of big names before this just days out from Hardcore Heatwave will be a real test of her, and her booking ability.

[Tiberious]

Oof, the concussion would be bad enough news, but having one of your guys die is another thing completely. I've been playing since TEW 2010 and can't remember having that happen to anyone on my roster, so that's certainly some rough luck.

I'm very interested to see what direction you go with things on your next show to salvage the booking you've set up while also giving a proper sendoff to Switchblade.

[AboardTheArk]

What an awful twist of fate

[619]

@HiPlus @Tiberious @AboardTheArk Thanks so much for the comments. I noticed yesterday was a year since the first post of my first DIW thread, and I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have made it this far without the likes and comments of you three and others to reassure me that there is somehow a small audience for this, so I really appreciate it.

@HiPlus Very good insights on what to do with D.O.A. It's quite tricky to navigate death from a dynasty perspective: knowing this would really affect Lori and SQ but that nobody wants to read excessive mourning of a character they weren't too invested in. I tried to balance those considerations but we'll see how it lands.

@Tiberious  I had one roster death on an old TEW (also DIW, Wez Dobberly), but I've never had a major setback one-two punch like that before, let alone right before a major show. It's hopefully good dynasty material if nothing else, and I can't complain about bad luck on a save that gave me a millionaire fan donation 10 months in 😅 Oh, I didn't ignore your previous feedback by the way: there's an angle on one April show you pretty much deserve a writing credit on 😆

Part 25: Card subject to change

It’s Lori again. It felt heartless to talk business at a time of such loss, which is why I broke this last entry into two parts to at least try to let it breathe. However, this is a booking diary and, beyond the anguish caused by Switchblade’s sudden death and Seb Shaw’s career-altering concussion in a DIW ring in the main event of our go-home show, a lot of plans changed too.

A third of the Hardcore Heatwave card had been wiped out: the Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark Tag Title match that was the most anticipated by many of our fans and The Barracudas v Crime Wave. And it wasn’t just a problem for the night: two of our most talented tag teams were now out of action, one permanently and one for over a year, with two wrestlers now having to find a new way forward without their long-term partners.

I wasn’t going to do anything drastic. We still had four unharmed matches that I considered attractive: Rob Edwards v Cesar Sionis for the DIW Title, Dexter Mattell challenging the winner of that match, Wrecker v Con McReady for the Australian Title and Milton Hittlespitz v Kobra Khan v Seth Wish. And I trusted our fans to be understanding given the grief we all shared.

We’d have to find a way of crowning new tag champions, just without delivering on the intended dream match, while I figured I’d have D.O.A. face either an undercard bloke or bring someone in from Crime Wave’s past, rather than risk overshadowing him by going up against a Barracuda.

Now was not the time to get into it, but all of this was going on against a backdrop of CEW making bids for two other wrestlers on the Hardcore Heatwave card. One of them accepted the second offer presented to them by CEW to follow Blitz Simpson and Gyula Lakatos to The Bloke Channel, while the other broke the trend by agreeing to stay in DIW – a pleasant surprise given The Comedian had put quite a strict limit on what we could counter-offer.

Still, with everything that had happened with Switchblade and Shaw, I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate the bloke who decided to stay or resent the latest to walk out on us. I just felt numb.

[HiPlus]

poor Lori not winning anything. Hopefully the show goes hard for her sake as well.

[619]

Part 26: One day to go

The decision had been communicated by The Comedian and Lori that the show must go on and so there was no question of me skipping Hardcore Heatwave, but I can’t pretend I was looking forward to it. Switchblade was someone I’d handpicked for the original APW roster in 2007 and he was always so full of life both in and outside of the ring. He didn’t seem like the kind of person who could die young, as stupid as it sounds.

If I was dreading Friday and all I had to do was provide colour commentary, I could only imagine how difficult Lori was finding both the human and practical side of having to adapt a show around a death and a career-threatening injury.

I checked the article promoting Hardcore Heatwave on the DIW website the day before the show. Four matches remained in place – Rob Edwards v Cesar Sionis for the DIW Title, Edwards or Sionis v Dexter Mattell, Wrecker v Con McReady for the Australian Title and Milton Hittlespitz v Kobra Khan v Seth Wish. However, there were changes indicated to the other two attractions.

The Barracudas v Crime Wave had been replaced on the card with “A Tribute to Switchblade”. In light of this, the segment taped for the most recent episode of To The Extreme in which Crime Wave attacked Vaughan had been cut from the WrestleWorld Australia broadcast in favour of a short video tribute featuring highlights of Switchblade’s brief run with the company.

There was no longer a promise of Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark for the Tag Team Titles. Instead, the sub-header stated “Tag Team Title Match” with a reference to “speculation over whether Seb Shaw is fit enough to defend the titles” and a statement that “The Comedian has confirmed that there will be a Tag Team Title match on the show, even if Shaw isn’t cleared to compete in the initially advertised match”.

So DIW were stopping short of 100% confirming that Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark had been cancelled but, having been there when Shaw went down at the previous taping, I saw almost no possibility of him returning to the ring so soon. Even if DIW were prepared to ignore medical advice, I couldn’t imagine WrestleWorld Australia approving the match for broadcast on their platform if they did given the caution around concussions nowadays.

What remained was still a solid card, but Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark was the match I was most excited for, so it was a huge loss that, along with the sombre mood following Switchblade’s death, took a lot of air out of the event.

From a booking perspective, my biggest concern was that Rob Edwards v Cesar Sionis was easily going to get the most crowd engagement, as they were the two blokes the DIW fans were most invested in at this time, and yet due to the nature of how the card was constructed with Dexter Mattell facing the winner later in the night, it would have to go on fairly early, if not open.

It might not have been as significant an issue if there was Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark still to come but, if I was Lori, I’d be worried about the crowd cooling off as the show progressed. Then again, with everything else going on, it was probably the least of her worries.

[619]

Part 27: Hardcore Heatwave 2024

The show started with The Comedian in the ring. He wanted to get some business out of the way first of all: DIW were going to have another eight weekly shows in the build-up to Havoc in April. But he wasn’t here to celebrate that, he was here to pay tribute to a bloody good wrestler and a bloody good bloke. He brought out D.O.A. to talk about getting to team with Switchblade for almost half of his life, thanking me for being the first to see their potential, and saying not just his life but Aussie wrestling as a whole would be poorer for his death. The Comedian invited the crowd to crack open the tinnies he’d left under their seats to toast Switchblade. He then said that at times like these, sometimes you just needed to punch someone in the face, and he’d identified the perfect face for D.O.A. to punch: Pat Rigsby’s.

D.O.A. v Pat Rigsby
I knew Lori had thought about bringing people in for a Switchblade tribute match as she’d sounded me out given my insight into his APW years. She’d considered SHA tag team Smasher and Mauler, who were probably Crime Wave’s greatest rivals, as well as former APW duo Boo Smithson and Dingo Devine. She even talked about lining up Mayhem Mulhoney or The Comedian to partner D.O.A., before ultimately deciding that too much fanfare might overshadow any celebration of Switchblade. So she went with the simple solution: the crowd wanted to get behind D.O.A. and see him win, so serve him up someone they’d like to see get beaten. Thankfully, DIW’s troll Rigsby didn’t do anything tasteless, getting his heat with more conventional methods like eye raking and back scratching, but the second half of the bout was all D.O.A., with him hitting a few of Switchblade’s moves to please the crowd, concluding with his Death Slice (we just called it as “Switchblade’s finisher” on commentary given the context). He left Switchblade’s beanie in the ring and pointed to the sky as the crowd applauded, and that was pretty much the end of DIW’s awkward attempt to blend sentimentality and violence.

As Cesar Sionis and Death Ref prepared to make their entrance for the evening’s first DIW Title match, they found Lloyd Banks badly beaten, with Death Ref cursing Rob Edwards. Sionis told Death Ref to take the Barbed Wire Messiah to get treated and he’d sort out Edwards.

DIW Title: Rob Edwards (c) v Cesar Sionis
I understood why it had to happen to fit the storyline being presented, but it was still strange to see probably the most attractive match at DIW’s disposal right now – especially with Seb Shaw unavailable to deliver on Two Badass MFers v The Benchmark – so early in the show. If either man was hoping for a quick victory to save energy for the main event against Dexter Mattell, they were out of the luck. On the contrary, it was a physical, heavy-hitting affair to highlight the personal animosity. Sionis seemed a step ahead of the champion for much of the match, even hitting the first finisher, but Edwards was close enough to the apron to force himself out of the ring after feeling the Running Knee Side-Swipe. The Greek Punisher went for another as Edwards crawled back into the ring, but the champion was able to execute a desperation takedown. Sionis swung wildly with a Clothesline once back on his feet, missed and got caught with a Roundhouse Kick, which The Human Weapon followed with a second as he does to opponents he respects to secure a hard-fought win.

Dexter Mattell had crept down the aisle and appeared poised to enter the ring to attack the worn-down champion, but Edwards was on his feet ready by the time he approached, causing Mattell to have second thoughts and back off. The Comedian noted that he wouldn’t be able to back down later.

Australian Title: Wrecker (c) v Con McReady
I’d since found out that Wrecker’s defeat to Donovan Boon on the show aired two days ago was only the second pinfall he’d eaten in over two years being booked by Lori, the other coming when Mr. Blitz abandoned him in a match against Cesar Sionis and Gyula Lakatos. So given how protected he’d been and how often the person who gets the better of the final exchange loses the match, all signs pointed to Wrecker retaining, especially with no Seth Wish at ringside, apparently preparing for his match. And yet when the champion went for his Mighty Bulldog, Wish appeared on the apron. He jumped off as Wrecker charged at him, but was able to thread his cane through to the challenger, who clocked Wrecker in the head with it, followed up with a few body shots and then struck the Iron Fist for what I think would be considered an upset title win. Perhaps it shouldn’t be though: this was his sixth straight success, including four in a row in singles competition.

Hendrix Hughes was out next to a huge initial ovation, which softened when the crowd realised he was alone. He spoke without his usual swagger, explaining that Seb Shaw was hurt and hurt bad. He said DIW had offered him the chance to defend the Tag Titles with another partner, and he really wanted to put a beating on The Benchmark, but it didn’t feel right doing it with anyone other than Shaw, especially right now, so he’d reluctantly agreed to concede. The Benchmark entered for a match to determine new champions, declining to console the former title holder.

Tag Titles: The Benchmark (Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills) v Saracens (Cueball and Tank) v Carl Paris and Demarcus Lee
After Lori had bulked up the tag division in 2023, this match demonstrated how thin it suddenly looked without Crime Wave and Two Badass MFers. Even making this a multi-team match didn’t make it any more unpredictable: The Benchmark were the only credible champions right now and this match showcased their strengths as much as the division’s weaknesses. Cueball was the one chosen to take the pinfall following the Double Down. I called it as Boon and Mills’ seventh career Tag Title reign, with The Comedian interjecting that it was the only one that mattered.

Milton Hittlespitz seemed a bit more short-tempered than usual when Markus Rush caught up with him ahead of his match with Seth Wish and Kobra Khan, stating that it was time to show the children how it was done.

Milton Hittlespitz v Kobra Khan v Seth Wish
This was a fun match that compensated slightly for the matches that had to be cut from the card, with this trio’s blend of speed and charisma a good fit for the triple threat format. Kobra and Wish were sloppy at times, but Hittlespitz was able to cover up a lot of it. It descended into finisher spam at the end as these contests tend to: Wish hit Dust In The Wind on Hittlespitz, but got thumped by Kobra’s Ripcord Knee before he could capitalise. Kobra went after Crazy Blue but got caught and dropped on the turnbuckle (a stupid spot in my opinion, so soon after Shaw’s injury), with Hittlespitz following up with his Flying Knee Drop. Then came the other triple threat staple: Wish blasted Hittlespitz with his cane, threw him out of the ring and profited from the damage his rival had done to Kobra by covering him for a three count.

Markus Rush had found The Barracudas, who were originally due to fight Crime Wave. They didn’t reference that, which I think was the right call as a tribute by The Barracudas would feel out of place, and it wasn’t the time to prolong the issue. Instead, they mentioned setting their sights on the Tag Titles. I suspect this was always Lori’s plan for after Hardcore Heatwave, which was a relief given there weren’t really any other credible teams left with The Wild Things seemingly more focussed on singles action.

DIW Title: Rob Edwards (c) v Dexter Mattell
The twin stories being told here were of the deck being stacked against Edwards, who had already fought once, and whether there was anything that could keep him down after all he’d endured so far. Mattell tried to exploit Edwards’ tailbone issues with stretches and submissions, but The Human Weapon was able to use his power advantage to minimise the impact. The crowd were invested despite the lack of hardcore combat, so it wasn’t the anti-climax I feared it might be after the Sionis match. There were measures taken to ensure that. Sionis resurfaced to again take out Edwards with a Running Knee Side-Swipe. Edwards kicked out just before Tatum Richards’ hand hit the mat for a third time and pursued his former Ares Death Cult ally outside, fighting out of a Powerbomb to launch Sionis into the steps. Mattell caught Edwards in an STF on his return to the ring, but he was able to break the hold and floor Raw Sex, catching him with a Roundhouse Kick as they both returned to their feet. Edwards covered, only for Donovan Boon to drag him off Mattell on two, following up with two Donovan Drivers to the fury of the crowd and the confusion of The Comedian and I on commentary. Rusty Mills was at ringside now reviving Mattell, who locked Edwards in the STF again. Still, the champion refused to give up, but his body did and after about two minutes of resistance, the referee had to call for the bell.

Dexter Mattell, Donovan Boon and Rusty Mills celebrated their triumphs by standing over the fallen Edwards and lifting their newly won titles above their heads. The show appeared to be over as they strutted up the aisle, but there was one more surprise as new Australian Champion Con McReady greeted them by the entrance, taking turns to give each of them a belt high five. “Do you have something to do with this, Quartermainne?” spat out a disgusted Comedian on commentary, a reference to the quartet’s shared history with me in APW. For once I was uncertain how to respond as, for all I knew, that was the next part of Lori’s plan for the story.

[AboardTheArk]

Well, the APW Invasion is always a way to pivot from the bad luck that struck and get the fans and Comedian fired up. 

 

Although, I was shocked to see Rob Edwards drop the belt so soon. But sex Dex can carry you to some solid ratings. Especially since his APW career has left him healthy and ready to destroy his body in the next 8 weeks on TV! Which I'm happy to see return.

 

I think the tribute was solidly done, especially with the Rigsby match being pretty much meta at this point.

[HiPlus]

Writing as I read through the show. I love the opening segment, especially the tinnies under the chairs is an amazingly nice touch. D.O.A's match was the perfect blend of touching tribute for his friend, especially the beanie and hitting the finisher of his former tag-team. I had been missing Rigsby and was hopeful to see more from his gimmick change but that is certainly not the focus for this match, so it was a perfect resolve. 

 

No surprise that Rob Edwards won the first match, sort of writing on the wall with him having storyline reasons to take on Dexter Mattell later in the night. I love the Con McReady look more than Wrecker, so glad he got the win and it being his first title run in the company.

 

The right decision for the tag-team division but will be interesting how the rebuild of the division would work, as it feels now there are only the two teams worthy of the title. I was also surprised to see Raw Sex Dex get the title, but really if he didn't he would look too weak being unable to beat someone who had gone through a match earlier in the night regardless of it being Rob Edwards. It builds a credible team. With a large heel faction holding all the titles is perfect way to build up challengers for 8 weeks with a common enemy, even better for DIW that it is in the form of their real life enemies APW. 

[John Lions]

Your main event made me nostalgic for my 2016 TEW game, so I pulled open my old word doc to check how many times I had those two face off. Dexter Mattell and Rob Edwards ended a 10 year run as my top face and heel (their last match for my top title scoring an 87) and were fantastic foils for each other - DIW is a very different environment, but I can only imagine them doing great things together (provided neither gets poached).

 

The APW invasion was completely unexpected to me, but it makes a ton of sense. A lot of the top "DIW" names have been poached or injured, so creating an invasion of sorts puts the "outsiders" right at the top of the card as "heels", leaving you to sort through the "DIW originals" as they will likely get forced to band together to fight for their home. I was surprised with the tag title match you went with - I was expecting it to be Barracudas vs The Benchmark since both teams lost their opponents, but that was a bit short sighted since that's the only "money" tag match you have left at the moment.

 

Con McReady is one of the few young "hardcore" guys (at least in 2020, not sure how far along he is in 2022) with a solid fundamentals, and if treated right I could see him being the next big "DIW" name. Was shocked to see him win but it made sense with the closing angle. 

[619]

Such interesting and thought-provoking comments. I'm so grateful.

@AboardTheArk You helped inspire this angle around a year earlier in the save when my clumsy writing made it sound like DIW had bought APW, as it got me thinking that these wrestlers might work well together. Though it was a long-planned finish, I (well, SQ) had the same thought as you that the timing might work pretty well to force DIW into a new chapter after the Shaw/Switchblade misery.

@HiPlus It was probably unrealistic to have The Comedian buying drinks for everyone in attendance given how frugal he is when CEW bid for our main eventers 😅 I have to confess that I didn't have a specific plan for evolving Pat Rigsby, it was primarily a way to break the news of his engagement and wedding but, as he's attracted comments from you and @AboardTheArk, I'll have to see if I can develop it further and have married life slowly change him either for better or worse.

@John Lions Wow, that 87 is fantastic. We pulled a 60 here (62 for Edwards-Sionis) and our best so far is 69 (Edwards' 2023 matches with Blitz and Hittlespitz) so have a long way to go to reach your heights. Your tag analysis is spot on: didn't want to give away the best tag match we had left without a build, and thought an underwhelming Benchmark coronation might help with turning the crowd against them. Agree with you on McReady being one of the better younger hardcore blokes and @HiPlus on him having an attention-grabbing look.

[619]

Part 28: New champions

So Hardcore Heatwave 2024 not only saw every title change hands, with Con McReady crowned Australian Champion, The Benchmark winning the Tag Titles and Dexter Mattell claiming the DIW Title, the four new champions appeared to signal a partnership at the end of the show.

Let’s start with my three main criticisms of this development.

Firstly, it wasn’t the first time Lori had made this move where all three titles were won by the same stable on one show with a shock at the end. She had Ares Death Cult take all the gold with the addition of Rob Edwards just 14 months earlier at War Machine 2022.

Secondly, suddenly uniting these ex-APW blokes was a bit odd given they had all been in DIW for a year. Had they decided they couldn’t reach their targets without uniting? I also questioned the wisdom of a main story arc that alluded so heavily to an active rival company, especially presenting their wrestlers as superior to yours, at a time when DIW were outperforming APW.

But, more than anything, I didn’t get the DIW Title change. Why take the title off Edwards when he was two months short of the record reign, especially if weekly shows were to become a permanent thing, making it far less likely anyone would ever get close to Dumfrey Pinn’s 16-month mark in future?

And why put the title on Mattell when he wasn’t performing or getting himself over at a high enough level yet to justify it? It wasn’t for a lack of booking effort. She’d given him the build-up to warrant the gold with feuds and victories over Milton Hittlespitz, The Barracudas and now Edwards. However, whether due to his size, lack of hardcore pedigree or not meshing with the roster and audience, he wasn’t as over or as entertaining as he should have been, so it felt like forcing a title change to fit a storyline rather than in the company’s best interests.

Of course, there were positives too. It established a new group at the top of the card, which was perhaps necessary with Ares Death Cult and The Barracudas no longer as powerful as before. Such a major reset, with a new alliance and three new champions, would also probably make it easier for the company to move past the trauma of Switchblade’s passing and Seb Shaw’s injury by providing a big new talking point.

While their union felt sudden, I could see there had been foreshadowing, albeit fairly recently, with The Benchmark citing their APW record as a source of superiority over Two Badass MFers, then picking Mattell as their proxy to fight Seb Shaw, who Raw Sex then not only beat but eliminated for them. And McReady had helped Boon defeat Wrecker somewhere in between.

Maybe Mattell would rise to the challenge of being the main man. Hardcore Heatwave 2024 had easily been his best DIW showing so far in terms of both performance and crowd reaction, though most people found that when they stood opposite Edwards, so this wasn’t conclusive evidence. Boon and Mills had definitely earned their main storyline spotlight, while McReady felt fresh.

Nobody had been significantly weakened to elevate the quartet – on the contrary, Edwards couldn’t have been presented much stronger in defeat – and it created fresh intrigue over a few wrestlers. I was most curious about what it meant for Seth Wish, fresh off perhaps the biggest win of his career against Milton Hittlespitz and Kobra Khan, given him and McReady had continued to be closely aligned throughout their recent singles success.

I was far from sold on the new direction, but interested in seeing how it played out.

[John Lions]

25 minutes ago, 619 said:

Firstly, it wasn’t the first time Lori had made this move where all three titles were won by the same stable on one show with a shock at the end. She had Ares Death Cult take all the gold with the addition of Rob Edwards just 14 months earlier at War Machine 2022.

I have to disagree with SQ here, unless my memory's wrong. War Machine 2022 wasn't broadcast anywhere - if you ran a hot angle with high return in front of 300 people, why not do it again when you're broadcasting to almost 100x the number of viewers? SQ might remember the ending, but this is the first time DIW is being put in front of a large, newer audience. From that angle it also makes sense to put some of the former APW guys at the forefront, since they're the most likely to be recognized by new fans.

[619]

Very good point @John Lions. You were right: only 300 people saw Ares Death Cult's title sweep compared to 13,814 this time, so thanks for reassuring me that there was a justification for the slightly repetitive booking (and I liked your argument for putting recognisable ex-APW wrestlers at the forefront too).

Part 29: A Lori load of problems

I was expecting my diary payoffs to stop any day at this point. Lori Cooper was a lot younger and, from what I could tell, more sensitive than I was when I had the APW book. A death, a career-threatening injury and the persistent predatory presence of CEW was a lot for someone still fairly new to the job to deal with, especially with the added pressure of putting out a weekly show.

However, she appeared to be persevering and so was the weekly format, for another two months at least. I tried to get more information about how it had been performing, in the name of the diary naturally. Understandably, she didn’t want to go deep into financial detail with me, yet she gave me the impression that the shows were making a loss at present, but that February had been more encouraging than January.

It seemed like her and The Comedian had seen enough to give them belief that it could become profitable, partly because they were convinced the Aussie wrestling industry’s recent decline had finally bottomed out, and crowds, merchandise sales and more would gradually trickle up.

February outperforming January made me question if switching from a headline event every month to every other month was sustainable, or whether the monthly model needed to return but, for the moment at least, the schedule introduced at the start of 2024 was holding firm.

As mentioned, there was a lot for Lori to deal with at this time, and the decision to continue with weekly shows also probably took her to the point of no return in having to address roster depth. Switchblade’s passing and Seb Shaw’s injury had trimmed an already thin roster to 21 blokes. On top of that, D.O.A. had been given a few weeks off to help him come to terms with his tag partner dying, and the rumour was that someone else was off to CEW after the next taping.

I wasn’t sure of her recruitment process: she’d never worked anywhere else to build a network of contacts. Almost everyone brought in so far either came directly from or had previously worked for APW, so perhaps she had connections or familiarity there. But equally, there had only been eight roster additions throughout her booking tenure, meaning there wasn’t much of a sample size to draw conclusions from.

So I had concerns that at a time when they needed to act quickly, DIW lacked a structure to identify who they should be signing and what they should be offering them. Perhaps Classy Paul Massey could contribute. He had 38 years in the business behind him and his road agent workload since arriving probably wasn’t the busiest with Rusty Mills and The Comedian sharing duties with him. Then again, the New Zealander had spent the last 16 years with lucha company ZEN so, for all his experience, he might not have the right contacts for fitting into DIW.

But before any recruitment drive came the next episode of To The Extreme, five days on from the Hardcore Heatwave triple title change. In addition to hearing from new champions Dexter Mattell (DIW), Con McReady (Australian) and The Benchmark (Tag), we were promised an update on former DIW Champion Rob Edwards, Milton Hittlespitz taking on Mr. Blitz and The Barracudas following up their declaration of interest in the Tag Titles by facing Carl Paris and Demarcus Lee.

[619]

Part 30: To The Extreme #9

The show started with Dexter Mattell, Donovan Boon, Rusty Mills, Con McReady and all the DIW gold in the ring. Mattell introduced the group as The Pros, standing apart from DIW’s army of amateurs. He was keen to emphasise that they didn’t need one another. He’d beaten Milton Hittlespitz and every Barracuda on his own. Con McReady won an eight-man tournament on his own (Seth Wish might dispute that). The Benchmark reached the top of the tag division on their own. So why join forces? To ensure fair treatment. They’d been held back, only getting one title shot between them in their first year in DIW. They had all been successful independently but, by pooling resources, they became the most influential group in wrestling history. They held all the gold and, if they were mistreated, DIW’s amateur working agreements made it easy for them to walk out with all of it one day and turn up somewhere like CEW with it the next. However, being Pros, they would use this power to provide others with the opportunities they themselves had been denied. That started tonight with Mattell giving Hendrix Hughes an opportunity. Not at the DIW Title, he wasn’t worthy of that, but at avenging the unfortunate injury that had befallen Seb Shaw. Mattell was willing to present title opportunities too though. Wrecker and Cesar Sionis had both lost title matches at Hardcore Heatwave, but he offered them a shot at redemption, and a shot at him, with a number one contender’s match next week. However, it came with a condition: if they accepted, while the winner got a title shot, the loser had to leave DIW.

The Comedian introduced an update from Rob Edwards filmed after Hardcore Heatwave. He said the only thing that made him more angry than losing the DIW Title was the doctor saying he had to rest up for a few weeks for his injuries to heal. The Human Weapon promised he’d be back as soon as he could get cleared, and that after fighting with The Barracudas and Ares Death Cult, he wasn’t afraid of the bloke with the Napoleon complex or the soldiers he’d assembled.

The Barracudas (Chopper Rourke and Vaughan) v Brains and Brawn (Carl Paris and Demarcus Lee)
The notes Lori had given us for tonight’s show had Paris and Lee listed under the new team name Brains and Brawn, but neither The Comedian or I overindulged given it was a generic name and we hadn’t exactly highlighted their combination of brains and brawn to this point. This match wasn’t about them though, it was about giving the newly streamlined Barracudas their first outing as a duo, after their Hardcore Heatwave match with Crime Wave was cancelled due to Switchblade’s death. They controlled much of the contest, which ended with Vaughan wiping Lee out with his Choke Sleeper.

We handed over to Markus Rush, who had found Wrecker. The former Australian Champion confirmed in response to Dexter Mattell’s offer that he was happy to put his DIW career on the line against Cesar Sionis to win a shot at the DIW Title.

Milton Hittlespitz v Mr. Blitz
These two had been in the ring before in tag and handicap matches, but the chemistry shone even brighter in a one-on-one setting. This was no squash match, lasting almost 10 minutes with Mr. Blitz scoring a few two counts. However, Hittlespitz was clearly seen by Lori as in need of a win after his Hardcore Heatwave defeat and he got it, Hurricarana-ing his way out of the Black Thunder Bomb, throwing a chair at Mr. Blitz as he made his way back to his feet and then securing victory with his usual Flying Knee Drop.

Milton Hittlespitz grabbed a microphone after his match, sarcastically congratulating Seth Wish on another glorious victory over him. He said now he could add triple threat match where he pinned the other opponent to tag match where he pinned his partner and handicap match, closing by asking his rival to tell him when he was ready to try to finally beat him one-on-one. This was a little mean-spirited and dismissive for a babyface promo, but I think Hittlespitz had built enough goodwill with the fans to just about get away with it.

Markus Rush had positioned himself and his cameraman perfectly to overhear a conversation between Con McReady and an angry Seth Wish. Wish asked what the hell was going on: Friday was their best night in DIW, with McReady winning the Australian Title and Wish beating Hittlespitz and Kobra Khan on his own – he really hammered home the last three words – and now he had Crazy Blue discrediting his win, and his partner deserting him. McReady hastily interrupted, asking who said anything about deserting him. He said The Wild Things were going nowhere. Wish asked if he really was a part of this Pros thing, with McReady insisting so.

As we started introducing the main event, The Comedian noted that Markus Rush had found Death Ref, so our cameras cut to them. Death Ref said Cesar Sionis would have no fear putting his job on the line against Wrecker to get his rightful DIW Title rematch. He noted that it would take more than a Bulldog to take out his Bulldozer, and that Ares Death Cult looked forward to punishing Dexter Mattell. The Mattell mention emboldened Rush to ask Death Ref about the DIW Champion’s recent claim that his wife Lori spent Valentine’s Day dining with another bloke. Death Ref scornfully remarked that Rush is like Mattell and the lustful layabouts in the DIW crowd: minds in the gutter, only capable of phallic thinking, rather than considering that his wife might be connecting with someone spiritually, sharing a vision. Rush clearly wasn’t engaging with this vision, instead summarising that Wrecker v Sionis was on for next week, and handing back to us for the main event.

Hendrix Hughes v Dexter Mattell
After being opposite DIW’s most popular and well-rounded wrestler Rob Edwards at Hardcore Heatwave, this was new DIW Champion Mattell’s first chance to show what he could do as the lead attraction in a main event. Could he prove his worthiness as champion and help establish Hughes as a singles competitor now Two Badass MFers were on hiatus? Not entirely. It was the former Tag Title holder who brought more energy to the occasion, though this at least fed into the narrative that he was desperate to avenge Seb Shaw’s injury while Mattell was happy to pounce on errors and slow the pace with submissions. Hughes endured half a minute in the STF before wriggling out and forcing Mattell out of the ring. He threw him back in off the apron with a Suplex over the ropes and gestured for a Fireman’s Carry Bulldog when Con McReady appeared. He swung and missed, but the distraction was enough to cost Hughes focus and present Mattell with a chance to catch him in a crucifix pinning combination for the three count.

Hendrix Hughes had an impressive rally after the bell, halting a second Con McReady ambush and launching him into the victor. This brought out The Benchmark though, who hit the Double Down and then handed McReady his cane to do further damage. Wrecker emerged to defend his loose ally, and he was initially able to defy the numbers. But when he locked Dexter Mattell in position for the Mighty Bulldog, Seth Wish charged down and struck him with a cane. His apparent new teammates appreciated the gesture and cheered him on in continuing the attack before directing him to dump Wrecker outside the ring so they could focus on Hughes. After McReady’s Iron Fist and Wish’s Dust In The Wind, Hughes was locked in the STF by Mattell while The Wild Things took turns lashing him in the legs and back with their canes. Once Hughes was no longer capable of resisting, DIW’s five new Pros stood tall to celebrate. I used what had happened to point to a bleak future for both Wrecker and Cesar Sionis: one would lose their job next week, but the fate of whoever went on to challenge Mattell might be even bleaker.