DIW's last $2,000: Mr FU has a nephew

[HiPlus]

Blitz Simpson v Jake Thornton - Strong win
Shogo v Angus McMiller - Shogo easy
Rival’s Choice: Boo Smithson v Demarcus Lee - Streak continues
Rival’s Choice: ? v Con McReady - I think Con gets a decent challenger, but still wins.
Australian Devil v Gyula Lakatos
Blood Brother v Mace Mueller

[Satyr24]

Blitz Simpson v Jake Thornton
Shogo v Angus McMiller
Rival’s Choice: Boo Smithson v Demarcus Lee
Rival’s Choice: ? v Con McReady
Australian Devil v Gyula Lakatos
Blood Brother v Mace Mueller

[christmas_ape]

Blitz Simpson v Jake Thornton
Shogo v Angus McMiller
Rival’s Choice: Boo Smithson v Demarcus Lee
Rival’s Choice: ? v Con McReady
Australian Devil v Gyula Lakatos
Blood Brother v Mace Mueller

[John Lions]

Great show. You seem to have really nailed Vaughan as a character and I love him getting involved with DIW on-screen. Him being in a mentor role for The Dog Pound is a great way to legitimize them (like Milton with The Wild Hunt) and it gives that group a mouthpiece which is something it was really lacking.

Cesar leaving is pretty brutal. He's one of your best in-ring vets with a ton of tenure and a ton of flexibility. He was always able to be a credible main eventer in singles work in a pinch or when you had a bridge show and he could be relied upon to put on a good match (which is tough for most of the starting DIW roster). His tag team with Gyula was better than the sum of its parts and them not putting anyone over big time on their way out leaves you with no real "top" teams to give a rub to your up and coming ones.

Carnage In Canberra 2022
Blitz Simpson v Jake Thornton
Big brain nephew is going to 5d-chess this by getting his ass beat, earning him the respect from the vets backstage so when he books himself to Bob Holly everyone they are more willing to buy into it.
Shogo v Angus McMiller
I can't see this going any way other than McMiller getting the absolute piss beat out of him.
Rival’s Choice: Boo Smithson v Demarcus Lee
Con McReady is definitely not ready for the main event if his hand-picked opponent for his rival is Demarcus Lee.
Rival’s Choice: ? v Con McReady
Feels like Dingo Devine is the perfect surprise pick for McReady's opponent. He 1) doesn't like James McMinister which is a big W for DIW 2) is a direct upgrade from Sionis and fills the same role on the roster (talented veteran with tag team flexibility who can put on a good match with anyone) but he's more popular, arguably more talented, and has a much more solid pedigree. 3) He's Boo's former tag partner, which gives Boo something new to achieve in the company and gives you a strong tag team with a pedigree to work with your younger teams and eventually put them over.
Australian Devil v Gyula Lakatos
In return for being so giving in the main event, Jake was able to slip in a "yeah Gyula needs to get over as a singles competitor, how about we have him kill Australian Devil? No this has nothing to do with the argument we got into last show..."
Blood Brother v Mace Mueller
There's going to be more blood than brother left in him after this match...

[alpha2117]

Funnily enough in my LLL game things went sort of nuts in Sept 22 for DIW - Blitz beat Shugo, Milty beat Tim and Ares Death Cult won the Tag.

[619]

21: Carnage In Canberra 2022
Friday 15th July 2022

Mace Mueller defeated Blood Brother
Last month’s main event loser was first out in Canberra, the setback seeming to play on his mind early on, so he reached for some weapons to cheer himself up about five minutes in. The finish saw Mueller whack Blood Brother in the head with some wood and follow up with his Punt Kick, scrambling to make sure his opponent didn’t roll out of the ring before covering.

The winner was greeted by former associate Lillian O’Donahue, who noted all three unsuccessful title challengers at Havoc were once Pinn Enterprises colleagues. They didn’t deliver apart, but perhaps if they worked together they’d have all the gold right now, questioning if it was time to launch a Mace Mueller Mob. The New Zealander was surprisingly dismissive, saying maybe being part of a group helped her progress but, as far as he was concerned, it had held him back, before walking out on her.

Gyula Lakatos defeated Australian Devil
This was the classic Jim Teasdale booking: Lakatos had just gone after the Australian Champion but never held a singles title before, so he got a win over a former holder to strengthen his candidacy. A Choke Bomb in the tenth minute, in case you were wondering.

Demarcus Lee failed to pop me behind the curtain by singing, “it’s going down, I’m yelling Tim Burr” as the Australian Champion rushed to the ring, only for Gyula Lakatos to exit with a smile, gesturing that if Burr wanted to get hold of him, he’d need to put his title on the line. The champ responded with “Hardcore Hallelujah”.

Rival’s Choice: Boo Smithson defeated Demarcus Lee
Lee started with a chair in his hand to try to avoid repeating his defeat to Smithson at Hardcore Heatwave, but the veteran put on a masterclass in evading and dispossessing without ever showing an appetite for using the weapon himself. Once he caught Lee in the Crossface Chickenwing, he ceased to be dangerous.

Entering for his match, Con McReady no-sold Boo Smithson’s success, saying he actually wanted him to win and deliberately picked someone he’d defeated before because, with the Misfit Wrestling Machine going over a year unbeaten, he needed the glory of being the one to make him malfunction. Smithson didn’t appear to have applied the same logic to selecting McReady’s opponent, greeting his former APW tag team partner Dingo Devine with a handshake.

Rival’s Choice: Con McReady defeated Dingo Devine
McReady did a solid job selling both the shock of finding himself up against a former APW Grand Slam Champion and the spin he got taken through in the first few minutes by the Suplex Master. Devine tried to work over McReady’s arms and legs with a series of submissions, so The Wild One returned the favour with a series of cane strikes. The finish saw him fight out of a Southern Lights Suplex and catch the 42-year-old off guard with his Iron Fist for one of his biggest wins yet.

We heard from Lillian O’Donahue for the second time as she and Wez Dobberly accompanied Angus McMiller for a match with Shogo. She said she’d spoken to The Comedian about the fact Dobberly held victories over both the Australian Champion and the Tag Team Champions this year and was hungry to complete the set, and he’d agreed that he could challenge Shogo at Hardcore Hallelujah.

Shogo defeated Angus McMiller
Wez Dobberly was given a taste of what awaits him next month as his tag partner hung in for a commendable amount of time but ultimately fell victim like many others to the Inverted Piledriver. Shogo held the DIW Championship high afterwards as Lillian O’Donahue reminded him from the outside that Dobberly hadn’t been pinned or submitted this year either.

Nightshade led The Wild Hunt to the ring and apologised for taking an opportunity off The Bat Men last month, making it up to them with a better one: a Tag Team Championship match against Forever Evil at Hardcore Hallelujah. He knew Milton Hittlespitz was uncomfortable that his chair to the throat had driven East Coast Panther out of DIW and about the beating they put on Mayhem Mulhoney at Havoc and that was okay because he was uncomfortable too. He told Crazy Blue that they never called themselves The Wild Hunt, DIW management gaslit them with that name when in reality they were The Wild Hunted, only fighting back when one of them was in danger. They didn’t do what they did to Mulhoney out of bloodlust, because they never attacked Hittlespitz like that when he turned them down initially, they did it out of love for Crazy Blue to show that nobody could disrespect him like that, just like The Bat Men gave up a match to him and Bloodsport last month. They were true family. After pausing to tease uncertainty, Hittlespitz said he was glad to finally be part of a family, but he hoped his new family respected that he wanted to beat Mulhoney on his own at Hardcore Hallelujah to prove his worth to them and himself, which Nightshade played off as a wonderful idea.

Blitz Simpson defeated Jake Thornton
Simpson gave me a decent amount of offence early on but, when he started to build some momentum, Vaughan sent down Bully XL and Tevita Takulua, signalling that his former Barracuda brother wasn’t getting a clean one-on-one match this time. Simpson was ready for Bully, catching him with an elbow that sent him from the apron to the ringside barrier, but not Takulua, who took him off his feet with a Clothesline. He clearly had a plan though as someone came through the crowd and whacked me in the head with a pipe before charging at Takulua to send them both through the ropes. Simpson followed up with a Lifting DDT on me for the pinfall.

Blitz Simpson and his former tag team partner Chopper Rourke held the ring after the bell. Bully XL and Tevita Takulua took the fight to them with neither side landing a decisive blow before Vaughan called us out of the ring. He grabbed a microphone and said this wasn’t happening. The Barracudas stopped being a thing before he returned and Blitz and Chopper didn’t get to run it back now at his expense. He challenged them to a tag match at Hardcore Hallelujah: if The Dog Pound won, Rourke had to fade back into obscurity but, if Simpson and Rourke won, Vaughan would leave DIW for good.

---

Prediction-wise, things are closer at the top of the table after 6s for @christmas_ape, @DinoKea, @G.B, @HiPlus and @Satyr24, 5s for @AboardTheArk, @alpha2117, @John Lions and @KyTeran and 4 for @Tiberious. Overall scores are out of 42 unless stated: shoutout @Satyr24 on hitting a 96% strike rate:

39: @Tiberious
37: @DinoKea and @KyTeran
36: @christmas_ape and @HiPlus
35: @John Lions
34: @AboardTheArk and @alpha2117
27 (out of 31): @Wrestling Machine
22 (out of 23): @Satyr24
18 (out of 23): @G.B

@DinoKea I loved the Carl Paris callback. If he'd regenerated, this would've been the ideal opportunity to take his DIW record to 0-38.

@alpha2117 I liked the Botch Boy nickname. Jake probably wouldn't have minded too much if BB had caused another injury here.

Sorry @Tiberious and @John Lions, It felt so harsh taking a point off you both for the Con McReady match when you both called Dingo Devine and made a strong case for why he should've gone over. For now this was a one-night hire and his ring rust is heavy, but you've pointed out lots of good reasons to bring him back given his relatively low cost, getting one over on APW, the potential to help the tag division and the fact he fits the recent main event style, so perhaps I'll have to factor him in again in future.

@Tiberious Even though this was a rare non-6/6 show for you, the analysis was a great as ever, between calling there being a post-match angle to try to justify the main event pick, Devine's intervention and making an interesting case for treating AusDev as the stand-in Milton.

@AboardTheArk I thought someone might pick Jake, but perhaps it being the main event made it harder to see him going over. It seems despite being more openly self-serving, Jake isn't yet perceived to be as selfish with the book as Lori, or perhaps he just hasn't assumed enough power yet.

@John Lions I think you're right that Cesar Sionis is a bigger loss than he seems: his January match with Shogo still hasn't been bettered and there's only been two Shogo-less matches better than Smithson v Sionis from April too. Not to mention the hit to the tag division as you say. Some really funny lines in your match analysis too with Jake wanting to Bob Holly everyone and his transparent eagerness to see AusDev be punished.

[alpha2117]

I knew I was sacrificing a win but picking Gyula is like picking a scab. 

[619]

22: Noise
Saturday 16th July 2022

My main event debut had gone alright, nothing remarkable, but the occasion was ruined by some of the noise earlier in the night.

Not long after arriving, I had Australian Devil in my face again, this time trying to goad me about my uncle giving me a pity main event. Before I had a chance to tell him the only pity main event anyone got this year was his at Devil May Care, Jim Teasdale was there ordering us apart and warning the masked moron about his behaviour. I wished he’d stayed out of it.

Then I had Tevita Takulua telling me that he was touring with BCG, the third DIW wrestler to get a call from Japan this year, which made me wary that we might soon lose a key part of our act. But what made it worse was returning to the locker room to find Angus McMiller and Teasdale huddled in the corner laughing. The two of them getting on better together than I did with either of them was a risk to me, so I’d need to find a way to change that.

It wasn’t only the DIW locker room that appeared to be operating at a higher temperature in 2022 though, as Dingo Devine enjoyed sharing the gossip he’d heard of Blaze Maximum clashing with booker Sean Quartermainne in APW. I was more interested in the other hot Australian wrestling news of the month though: Maurice Jackson heading to New England to join the SWF.

It was good to know that, if DIW didn’t have a long-term future, there were American and Japanese eyes on what was happening Down Under. And while I wouldn’t want Takulua to leave any time soon, him making contacts in Japan wasn’t necessarily bad news for me.

[619]

Going with two posts today just as I skipped a day recently, and also thinking this might be the way to go posting the shorter parts closer together with slightly longer either side of the show posts to allow for predictions and longer reads. I'm happy to adapt to any feedback on if things should be spaced out more or less as I go though.

---

23: Big
Friday 12th August 2022

As mentioned, I wasn’t really able to enjoy Carnage In Canberra in the moment because of all the other nonsense going on. However, checking out some fan response afterwards, I became aware that Con McReady’s pre-match promo and victory over Dingo Devine went a long way to establishing him as not only our third most over wrestler after Boo Smithson and Shogo, but someone practically on their level. I was confident I could capitalise on this development too, but more on that later.

When I joined DIW, all I knew was we held shows every month. I didn’t have much sense of if some were more important than others. Since joining the booking team, I had a basic understanding that the events they seemed most invested in were Hardcore Heatwave and Hardcore Hallelujah – I guess it was having hardcore in the title plus the alliteration – as well as War Machine for closing the year.

This year, my uncle and Jim Teasdale were marketing Hardcore Hallelujah as DIW’s biggest ever card, with eight matches. Besides meal times and deciding who to push, I wasn’t convinced that bigger was always better, but the part that pleased me as a booking team member was that seven of the matches had a degree of build-up, with six already known to fans by the end of the Canberra show.

Smithson v McReady, Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz and The Barracudas v The Dog Pound had all been building since April or earlier. Shogo v Wez Dobberly for the DIW Championship, Tim Burr v Gyula Lakatos for the Australian Championship and Forever Evil v The Bat Men for the Tag Team Championships were all confirmed in Canberra, and Rad Masteroff had challenged Mace Mueller in response to the New Zealander’s dismissal of working together at that show.

Australian Devil’s match with Blood Brother was the only one that didn’t have any hype behind it, and I’d have preferred it if he wasn’t on the card anyway.

The main debate ahead of the show was what should close it. Teasdale was insistent the DIW Championship should always go on last. At the expense of his long-term tag partner, Angus McMiller felt Smithson v McReady was our hottest feud, Smithson was our top draw and that it was built on the premise that McReady felt a win over Smithson held even more significance than a title win.

What did I think? Simply that there was an opportunity to strengthen my position if I played it right.

Hardcore Hallelujah 2022: DIW’s biggest ever card
Boo Smithson v Con McReady
DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Australian Devil v Blood Brother

[DinoKea]

Hardcore Hallelujah 2022 Predictions

Con McReady def. Boo Smithson

DIW Championship: Shogo (c) def. Wez Dobberly

The? Dog? Pound? (Bully? XL? & Jake? Thornton?) def. The Barracudas

Milton Hittlespitz def. Mayhem Mulhoney

Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) def. Gyula Lakatos

Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (c) def. The Bat Men

Mace Mueller def. Rad Masteroff

Australian Devil def. Blood Brother

[Tiberious]

Boo Smithson v Con McReady

This is a really tough call, but I think Boo gets the win here. Con has plenty of time ahead of him, but realistically Boo's time on top is limited and so I think he can win this one, maybe get a bit of a program with Shogo for those rare DIW workrate purists, and run the feud with Con back later and put him over then.

DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly

Shogo is just a step above. I feel like Shogo may feel a bit annoyed to not be in the main two shows in a row when his last one was MOTN. We'll see if he can go two for two in upstagging the main event in the semi-main.

The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)

I like you bringing back Chopper for this angle, but idk if he really has that much to offer as a long term member of your roster and I feel like our boy Jake's got enough clout to ensure his crew goes over strong here.

Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz

Mayhems best years are behind him and Milton should keep his momentum here.

Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos

I'm going to have to admit I forgot Gyula Lakatos had setup a feud with the Australian Champion prior to his match with AusDev or I probably would have picked him, whoops. Anyway I feel like Gyula Lakatos should probably be involved with the Dog Pound/Vaughan, and I don't think he needs to be a champion for that story to work so Tim Burr can fell another redwood here.

Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)

I'm not against the Bat Men getting a push and winning the belts, but they have been periphary players in the saga of Milton and Nightshade so them winning here would feel a bit anticlimactic for a title change. I think them losing would also further Miltons image as Nightshade's sort of "favored child" of his "family" as the other members fail to get the job done.

Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff

I wonder if Rad's down with Lillian's attempts to reform Pinn Industries. His default gimmick is Anarchist so him wanting to align himself with hired guns and a tax man is odd, but perhaps opposites can unite if they have a mutually beneficial goal. Either way he ain't beating Mace, thought this should be a good chance for Rad to show what he can do while in there with a top level guy.

Australian Devil v Blood Brother

I may have miscalculated when I picked Australian Devil last time, but he has a bit of an easier time here.

[KyTeran]

Boo Smithson v Con McReady
DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Australian Devil v Blood Brother

[alpha2117]

Hardcore Hallelujah 2022: DIW’s biggest ever card
Boo Smithson v Con McReady

I maintain that Shogo v Boo is the only true money feud DIW has and having Boo go down before putting Shogo over would be a mistake.  Con meanwhile is young enough to take a loss here to the most popular guy and not be too negatively effected.  He can get that win back post the Shogo v Boo program.

DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly

Again Shogo needs to win

The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)

Does Nightshade ever wrestle ... when if ever?  The Barracudas get the win so Nightshade can then take out Chopper next event before moving on to take on Blitz

Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz

Milty can reach the Main event level if pushed so time to pull the trigger

Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos

Gyula can take a long walk off a very short pier, hopefully he cant swim

Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)

Forever Evil are potentially great and already solid and the Bat Men aren't really.  

Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff

Rad has flaws but he's the closest thing you have to a young potential Main Eventer on this roster right now.  Mace is beaten up for his age.  People will disagree with me but strapping a rocket onto Rad feels right.  DIW's roster has holes and recent departures have shown it's not going to get better and you need to build up what you have and Rad is probably a Main Event guy in a year or twos time if handled right. 

Australian Devil v Blood Brother

Annoying to you he may be but BB is fodder and AD goes over.

[AboardTheArk]

Boo Smithson v Con McReady
DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Australian Devil v Blood Brother

 

very status quo prediction for a biggest card ever situation but that just puts an even bigger spotlight to the Dog Pound angle! I think Con McReady is about to have a slow and desperate rise to the top.

[John Lions]

It makes way more sense to have Con go over Dingo considering it doesn't seem like you had brought him in for a major role in the company (at least at the time). I figured there was a chance that Dingo was here more permanently considering he fits so well, but if the build was for Con/Boo immediately then him going over is more important. It seems like you've strapped the rocket to McReady which I think is smart, the main event of DIW is pretty thin and he's pretty much right about to hit his prime.

Hardcore Hallelujah 2022: DIW’s biggest ever card
Boo Smithson v Con McReady
This match main deserves the main event and I think this is Con's real passing of the torch moment. Like I said above, he brings some youth to your main event, is a DIW mainstay, and he has history for great matches in the past with the current champ. (I actually thought this happened with Shogo and Mace, but I was completely wrong - that happened in my TEW2020 game in DIW and I just assumed it had happened in the actual data...)
DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
Feels like this match serves 2 purposes - to see if Wez has a future in DIW once Angus starts to slow down, and to move forward the storyline going on with the former Pinn Enterprise guys.
The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
I know you love the Barracudas and I do too, but I don't think Chopper can go anymore (and he was never anything to write home about before tbh). Great way to get The Dog Pound over without hurting Blitz and plays into the Barracudas drama perfectly. I could see you giving the win to Blitz and Chopper with Sionis gone to give your tag division a bit of a boost though.
Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
I could see this one going either way, but I think Milton winning is more likely. He's a guy that was a top star but needs a bit of rebuilding, and the storyline with The Wild Hunted is a great way to do that. Mulhoney's another guy who, at this point in his career, should be on his back for the guys you are building around unless it's for a real big final run before retirement.
Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Call me crazy, but Gyula's main value in DIW has always been as a tag guy. In a decade he never won singles gold. He's in his 30s so he's pretty much in his prime, but he has risk associated to him with his in-ring safety so he's a bit of a risk long-term. If he wins here it establishes him as a threat in your midcard immediately. You can have him drop it pretty quickly, and if you want to move him back down the card, anyone beating him means A LOT more when he's a "former Australian champion".
Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
I don't think Forever Evil drop the tag titles until they are pulled into any storylines directly. It feels like they haven't any meaningful storylines thrown their way, but I think that's likely to change soon...
Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Now crazy take is I COULD see Rad taking this match, especially if it's not clean, to forward this storyline you started with the ex-Pinn guys, but I think it's more likely that feud has a more meaningful match between Mace and Wez in the future.
Australian Devil v Blood Brother
Have to agree with Jake in that this match doesn't seem to fit the rest of the card at all... unless Blood Brother actually wins it somehow.

[G.B]

Hardcore Hallelujah 2022: DIW’s biggest ever card
Boo Smithson v Con McReady
DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Australian Devil v Blood Brother

[Satyr24]

Time to lose that 96% Strike rate

 

Hardcore Hallelujah 2022: DIW’s biggest ever card
Boo Smithson v Con McReady
This was a tough one and I kept changing my mind but I feel like Boo wins now to keep the angle going and Con wins later

DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
Not happening

The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
Poor Blitz he should be a DIW pillar with Mace, Shogo, and Con. Chopper left for a reason and is here to take the pin

Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
Mayhem is here to help Milton get his momentum back

Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Someone else who starts with a T takes Tim's belt

Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
No real build so I don't see them losing yet

Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Australian Devil v Blood Brother
if AD was losing for recent attitude it wouldn't be to Blood

 

[christmas_ape]

Boo Smithson v Con McReady
DIW Championship: Shogo (c) v Wez Dobberly
The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)
Mayhem Mulhoney v Milton Hittlespitz
Australian Championship: Tim Burr (c) v Gyula Lakatos
Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) v The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
Mace Mueller v Rad Masteroff
Australian Devil v Blood Brother

[Satyr24]

On 9/17/2024 at 11:09 AM, alpha2117 said:

The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke) v The Dog Pound (Bully XL and Jake Thornton?)

Does Nightshade ever wrestle ... when if ever?  The Barracudas get the win so Nightshade can then take out Chopper next event before moving on to take on Blitz.

Wrong Stable 😆

[alpha2117]

25 minutes ago, Satyr24 said:

Wrong Stable 😆

Oh dear ... I'm a dingbat ... actually you can just interchange the two though because again the young guy with the upside doesn't seem to wrestle much 

[619]

24: Hardcore Hallelujah 2022
Friday 19th August 2022

Our biggest ever card drew our biggest ever crowd of 248, though any newcomers’ enjoyment of their first trip to see us was undermined by the sound system going missing before the show.

Mace Mueller defeated Rad Masteroff
There was no friendly rivalry between the former Pinn Enterprises associates: they both grabbed weapons from the first minute. The finish saw Masteroff line up his undefeated Radicalizer only for Mueller to reach for a steel sheet before his arm had been hooked, swinging at the 22-year-old with it and following up by launching him into the turnbuckle. A Punt Kick later and he had his fifth win of the year.

There was no time for Mace Mueller to celebrate as another one-time Pinn Enterprises ally Angus McMiller bashed him with a briefcase. The Tax Man’s message was simple: time to pay your debts.

Australian Devil defeated Blood Brother
I still didn’t get what DIW fans and the rest of the booking team saw in this facepainted fool, who again flew around recklessly before finishing his opponent with the Tumbleweed Legdrop. Sadly, the crowd reaction was anything but tumbleweed, so we’d probably be stuck with him for a while yet.

Australian Championship: Gyula Lakatos defeated Tim Burr (c)
The first title change of the year was a short-notice plan, with Ares Death Cult due to win the Tag Team Championships until Cesar Sionis walked. Jim Teasdale wanted to lend Lakatos instant credibility as a singles competitor and reassure him of his value as Vaughan’s return apparently fuelled some insecurity, so he clumsily shuffled out of the Tree Slam and hit a Choke Bomb. Between poor chemistry and a weak performance generally by the Hungarian, he wasn’t off to a great start.

Lillian O’Donahue appeared on the entranceway between undercard title matches to criticise any fans who doubted Wez Dobberly’s chances against Shogo tonight, insisting that he’d prove he belonged in main events. Because nothing said we believed in this man as a main eventer like having his valet plead for him to be taken seriously. The positioning worked better, placing this after a title change to highlight the possibility for more to follow. On which note…

Tag Team Championships: Forever Evil (Creeper and Writhe) (c) defeated The Bat Men (Slugger and Syrus)
This was the night Ares Death Cult were originally pencilled in to dethrone Forever Evil, but the replacement opponents didn’t get that honour despite support from the rest of The Wild Hunt and some near falls. Instead, Australian Devil stealthily sped down the entranceway, claimed possession of one of their bats, took shots at an unprepared Bloodsport, Milton Hittlespitz and Nightshade and then used it to trip Syrus off the apron. He sped off before they could get revenge as Slugger found himself Battered and Broken by the champions’ finisher.

Mayhem Mulhoney defeated Milton Hittlespitz
Before the start, the end of the previous match made Nightshade hesitate over letting Hittlespitz go it alone, but he ultimately respected Crazy Blue’s wishes and led the rest of The Wild Hunt to the back. As two of the most hardcore wrestlers in DIW history, these men didn’t need interference spots to construct a chaotic contest. Having failed to keep Mulhoney down after both a standard chair shot and a Dropkick chair shot, Hittlespitz decided to call on the Flying Knee Drop for the first time in a while, but it backfired as Mulhoney threw the chair at him mid-flight, capitalising as quickly as his 44-year-old body allowed to deliver a Cradle Powerslam onto the same chair and score a three count.

Nightshade returned to ringside looking disappointed in his star recruit Milton Hittlespitz. They went face to face and Crazy Blue started to apologise but Nightshade drew back his right arm and… hugged Hittlespitz. I think this got him more heat than if he’d dropped him with his Wolf’s Bite DDT.

Con McReady defeated Boo Smithson
Having been built for four months and promoted like a main event, Smithson v McReady went on third-last. McReady started at a fast pace and Smithson struggled to keep up, but The Wild One made errors each time he was in the ascendancy that the veteran technician knew how to exploit. However, the costliest mistake came from the two-time DIW Champion, who didn’t notice his opponent slipping his brass knuckles on as he was applying the Crossface Chickenwing. McReady was able to use his loose right hand to connect with an Iron Fist to the temple and hand the Misfit Wrestling Machine his first loss in over a year.

Next up was the showdown between us and The Barracudas, who entered first through the crowd. This gave Vaughan the opportunity to address them from the entranceway, noting that as he said last month, Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke would be fighting The Dog Pound, not The Dogs Of War. He’d identified this as an assignment for Tevita Takulua, so he would partner me rather than Bully XL.

The Dog Pound (Jake Thornton and Tevita Takulua) defeated The Barracudas (Blitz Simpson and Chopper Rourke)
The early stages of this match were about paying tribute to the joint-most decorated team in DIW history, with the four-time Tag Team Champions going through their most memorable double team spots, the majority at my expense. However, with Vaughan sledging and Bully XL imposing himself more physically at ringside, we fought our way into the match. This was a finish of two halves. Simpson fought Bully XL up the entranceway to try to stop him interfering, hitting a Lifting DDT onto the ramp. This left him under attack from Takulua but he gouged the Tongan’s eye while lifted up for the Choke Breaker, evading the fall and exploiting his opponent being unsighted to Spear him off the side of the entranceway, sending them both crashing into the debris underneath. In the ring, Vaughan handed me a dog lead to drain the life out of Rourke, halting as he was fading to get all 281lb of him up for a Crucifix Powerbomb and a huge win for our team.

We made ourselves scarce soon after the finish so Blitz Simpson could return to the ring and help Chopper Rourke to his feet. The 37-year-old may have been a total villain for his entire DIW run besides this short comeback but, realising this was likely to be the last time they’d see someone who gave over a decade of service for the promotion, the crowd gave him an untypically warm ovation.

DIW Championship: Shogo (c) defeated Wez Dobberly
Whether Dobberly was seen as belonging in the main event, he was one half of a match as good as any other we’d put on in the last six months. I don’t think there was any point the crowd thought he was going over though, or any surprise when Shogo put him down with the Inverted Piledriver.

Con McReady, clearly considering himself next in line for a DIW Championship shot after his victory over Boo Smithson earlier in the evening, headed to the ring after the main event, snatching the DIW Championship from ringside. Having pointed at it to indicate it would soon be his, The Wild One teased handing it to the current holder only to switch up at the last second and strike him in the face with it, lifting the gold high to express his confidence that it would soon be his.

---

We had a few more unpredictable outcomes than usual with only 3/9 picks for Con McReady, 1/9 for Gyula Lakatos (shoutout @John Lions) and 0/9 for Mayhem Mulhoney. The fact this is such a dramatic shift from the norm leads me to believe this was probably mostly bad booking 😅

@John Lions was near-perfect amidst the chaos to score 7/8, with a strong 6 for @DinoKea, 5s for @AboardTheArk, @G.B, @KyTeran, @Satyr24 and @Tiberious, a 4 for @christmas_ape and a 3 for @alpha2117. That moves things closer on the overall standings:

Points (out of 50 unless stated):
44: @Tiberious
43: @DinoKea
42: @John Lions and @KyTeran
40: @christmas_ape
39: @AboardTheArk
37: @alpha2117
36 (out of 42): @HiPlus
27 (out of 31): @Satyr24 and @Wrestling Machine
23 (out of 31): @G.B

Percentages
88%: @Tiberious
87.1%: @Satyr24and @Wrestling Machine
86%: @DinoKea
85.7%: @HiPlus
84%: @John Lions and @KyTeran
80%: @christmas_ape
78%: @AboardTheArk
74.2%: @G.B
74%: @alpha2117

@Tiberious I definitely haven't done enough to define Rad Masteroff's character so far (along with bigger names like Boo and Shogo) but that should change soon in his case (for better or worse). Hopefully at 22, he has enough time ahead of him to push past his stop-start booking to date. As always, I really enjoyed reading your other analysis too.

@alpha2117 You're 100% right that Nightshade and Tevita Takulua haven't seen enough ring time so far in 2022. It's been tough to find time amidst such crowd-pleasing business as a Gyula Lakatos' singles push, haha 😬 But seriously, you will start to see a bit more of them soon.

@AboardTheArk Good point about The Dog Pound. This match would probably have been a more credible main event than Blitz v Thornton for the nostalgia value of all three Barracudas being out there together for the last time.

@John Lions Congrats on calling almost everything right. Though Shogo v Dobberly rated higher, I agree that Smithson v McReady should've main evented given it was establishing a new star and more unpredictable than most of our other high-profile matches this year. I went this way against my instincts just as it felt like it fit the wider narrative of Big Jim's booking patterns. I loved this post. Your thoughts on the Barracudas and Gyula matches pretty much echoed my exact thinking, while it seems like you even considered picking Mulhoney for the perfect score too.

@Satyr24 You were unlucky with the Con McReady match as making him wait for the win was definitely under consideration, while you were spot on about Chopper being there to take the fall.

Thanks again everyone for reading and engaging. I feel incredibly grateful.

Edited 20 hours ago by 619

[AboardTheArk]

Well, getting that card that was very clearly more unpredictable that I thought feels... strangely validating. Feels like a statement of intent show in comparison to what came before. 

 

I think the Nightshade stuff is a real highlight every time, and the "would have gotten less heat if he had gone for a DDT instead of a hug" line was real good. 

 

Should have predicted the Magyar getting the belt!

[christmas_ape]

I'm annoyed at myself, I did pick Gyula and Con but talked myself out of it, chickened out and thought I'd go with the consensus. 

Enjoyed the show, ATA put it perfectly with it feeling like a statement. Con v Shogo should be big for the company.

[Tiberious]

1 hour ago, 619 said:

We had a few more unpredictable outcomes than usual with only 3/9 picks for Con McReady, 1/9 for Gyula Lakatos (shoutout @John Lions) and 0/9 for Mayhem Mulhoney. The fact this is such a dramatic shift from the norm leads me to believe this was probably mostly bad booking 😅

I don't agree with it being bad booking at all. McReady is the future so it makes sense to pull the trigger, and while I like Boo & Shogo a program between them might struggle since neither can cut a promo so it would be up to someone else like the Comedian to try to tell you how cool a match it would be, which could work but would feel very not how DIW does things. Lakatos was another one where I was torn on who to pick, and I proably should have gone with him given how much grief I've given poor Tim Burr over his ring name. Him winning makes a lot of sense since you need to give him singles credibility and he had already lost one title match this year. Mulhoney was a big surprise, but with the storyline you have going on it makes a ton of sense for Milton's loss to allow Nigthshade to further sink his hooks in and I'm happy to be wrong since I was afraid Mulhoney was being cycled out and he wouldn't be winning much, so I'm glad to be wrong and for him to get a big win to show he's still got fight in him.

[alpha2117]

I like unpredictability ... I also hate one of the ones that happened.  Gyula sucks ... he is useless.  He really is.  It's like pushing Shockmaster after he fell through the wall. 😜

I would have had Barracudas go over and then have Chopper go after the next event so I cant complain about you pulling the trigger on his end game one show earlier than I would have.  Side Note: I once met the real Chopper Reid very briefly ... not a misery guts like this Chopper but definitely an odd cat.  He loved attention and told outlandish stories some of which may have had a grain of truth in interviews, he liked my friend and was trying to chat her up which was hilarious because he was inept at it - he felt like a big goofy kid but a scary big goofy kid. 

Love the Nightshade hug ... perfection.

Love that AD frustrates you ... that AD then ran amok during the show getting even more over is hilarious.

It was a fantastic show