RESULTS
IWS Praise The Violence 2004
Bar Unison, January 17, 2004

Pierre Carl Ouellet defeats Arsenal to become IWS Heavyweight Champion

Recap by
Llakor

A Total Triumph to Start 2004

Pierre Carl Ouellet won the IWS title Saturday night during Praise the Violence overcoming adversity, superior numbers and a vicious premeditated attempt to cripple his left knee. The Arsenal, in a crazed defence of his title, used chairs, tables and his own body to attack PCO’s knee with almost surgical precision. When violence failed, the Arsenal tried larceny, but PCO survived both to become IWS champion.

It was a night of firsts: the first IWS show of 2004, the first IWS show at Unison. It was a night which saw the IWS broom boys set up the usual number of chairs for an IWS crowd... and then set up another hundred chairs for the larger crowd... and then finally run out of chairs. It was a night which saw two Montreal policemen walking the beat wander into the Unison to see why the parking lot was so full, and which saw them leave an hour later, voices shot from shouting for their new IWS favourites. It was a night when men who could barely walk wrestled as though possessed by Lou Thesz. In short, it was a magical night that some are already calling the greatest IWS show ever.

The wrestling began with a showdown two of the best bumpers in all of Canada: the human rubber ball, Sexxxy Eddy and the head of le Syndicat de Lutte Internet Fred le Merveille. Eddy had his valet D-Vyn in his corner while Fred had both Elsa Bangz and Marc le Grizzly backing him up. It didn’t take long for the outside participants to get involved inside the ring with D-Vyn getting the better of Fred, while Sexxxy Eddy was trying to put the moves on Elsa. In the end, Eddy’s refusal to take Elsa seriously cost him, as Marc le Grizzly caught Eddy from behind, setting up Eddy for Fred le Merveille’s “101” pedigree variant which gave Fred the victory at 8:25.

The Flying Hurricanes and the Hardcore Ninjaz have been butting heads for months. At Praise the Violence, the two teams finally got a chance to settle their differences in a straight up tag match. Of course, the cowardly back-stabbing Hardcore Ninjaz, always looking for an unfair advantage, tried to tip things in their favour by bringing out the IWS champion, the Arsenal to be in their corner. The Flying Hurricanes responded by bringing out the Motivator of Madness to even the odds. The Motivator, affectionately known as Skeletor by the IWS fans, had been absent from the fed since being fired by the Arsenal exactly a year ago.

Allergic to a fair fight, the Hardcore Ninjaz got back their edge by handcuffing Takao to the ring post and isolating Kenny the Bastard for a three on one attack. Kenny bravely fought off his attackers while waiting for reinforcements. Eventually, the Motivator was able to get Takao’s handcuffs off and the two teams were able to confront one another at even strength three vs. three. Sadly, Motivator’s presence in the match was merely a clever ruse by the so-called “Fan Favourites” as Skeletor attacked Kenny and Takao from behind stunning both men with simultaneous low blows. The beat down that ensued was complete and devastating with the Ninjaz burying the Flying Hurricanes under chairs and then assaulting them with their top rope chair assisted leg drop for the pin at 8:24. After the match was over, Skeletor held Kenny in a camel clutch so that both Ninjaz and the Arsenal could deliver a three way flying chair shot to his face. They then took Kenny’s limp body and used him as a missile from the top rope to put Takao through a table. After the Fan Favourites exited in triumph, Kenny and Takao were carried to the back.

The Green Phantom came to Praise the Violence looking for revenge against Dru Onyx after the Bajan Bomber engineered Tankush on Green Phantom during Season’s Beatings. But with Onyx out of town, the Green Phantom had to settle for Onyx’ cousin Giovanni declaring, “If I can’t spill your blood Onyx, then I will spill the blood of your flesh and blood!” Giovanni, who describes himself as Onyx’ younger, better looking and more athletic cousin, gave a good account of himself, but after two Phantom Menace cradle drivers and a Phantasm, the Green Phantom stood poised for victory when at the very last second, a rushing Tank interrupted the count. Tank rocked the Green Phantom with two Rikishi Drivers, rolled Giovanni on top of the Phantom and then intimidated the referee into counting while he kept one foot on Giovanni’s back to keep the Phantom’s shoulders down for the pin at 9:17. To add insult to injury, Tank mocked the Phantom by imitating his most familiar poses and mannerisms.

Before Extreme Revolution’s scheduled tag team title defence, Fred le Merveille came back out, with the entire Syndicat de Lutte Internet, to decree that now that the IWS was in Saint-Laurent, it was legally required to have a French tag team compete for the tag belt. Since neither the champions, Crazy Crusher and Nightmare Manson, nor the challengers, Kid Kamikaze and Kurt Lauderdale were French, according to Fred, he announced that it was now a three way elimination match, and Damian Dumont and Viking Vimont were the third team.

Crazy Crusher quickly built on his reputation as the cruiser who hits like a heavyweight, at one point nonchalantly lifting the monstrous Kurt Lauderdale for a Death Valley Driver. Nonetheless, it seemed like Kurt Lauderdale’s size and strength gave his team a definite advantage, until Kevin Steen intervened. Seeking revenge for Kurt’s ambush during Season’s Beatings, Steen attacked and stunned the big man, giving Steen enough time to flatten Kid Kamikaze with a package pile driver and roll a dazed Nightmare Manson on top of the Westmount Playboy for the pin after 13:02.

After Kid Kamikaze and Kurt Lauderdale’s elimination, Extreme Revolution fell victim to a classic SLI referee diversion. Fred snuck into the ring to hit Nightmare Manson with his “101” pedigree, allowing Viking and Damian to cover for the win at 14:32. Afterwards, le Syndicat de Lutte Internet celebrated their victory in the ring with Pepsis to the cheers of their French fans and the jeers of everyone else.

After the tag title match, IWS co-owner PCP Crazy F’N Manny came to the ring to salute Crazy Crusher. Manny told the shocked crowd that Crusher had wrestled with a broken ankle, postponing surgery to appear at Praise the Violence. Crazy Crusher was well-liked before Praise the Violence, but after his gutsy performance Saturday night, he is truly an IWS hardcore soldier.

A backstage altercation between Kevin Steen and Dan Paysan led to a match between the two men to settle which of them would get to face Kurt Lauderdale during Violent Valentines. At first, it appeared that Dan Paysan was a shoo-in to win as Kevin Steen was mugged by Kurt Lauderdale and Kid Kamikaze before the match even started. But Kevin Steen survived Dan Paysan’s initial onslaught and Tomassino’s interference to make it a competitive match. Dan Paysan had his chances to win, but in the end the technique of the IWS Mr. Wrestling was too much for the Good Fella. Steen finished off Dan Paysan with his trademark Package Pile-Driver after 10:20.

Before the three-way dance pitting reluctant roommates El Generico and Beef Wellington against IWS Comissioner’s contract super-star, the crowd was treated to one of the IWS famed comedy skits. In a pre-taped segment, Beef Wellington tried to teach El Generico how to pick up women only for both men to be shown up by EXcesS69.

The ensuing match was a showcase for brilliant technical wrestling, death-defying high-flying and innovative comedy. The performance by all three men was especially impressive since Beef Wellington was nursing an eye infection, EXcesS69 was limping from a leg injury and as Beef put it, “El Generico hasn’t been right since he got dropped on the head last month.” Of course, El Generico always gets dropped on his head, so Beef may have been exaggerating slightly. Not to mention that at the climax of the match, Beef stunned both El Generico and the crowd by dropping his roommate on his head with an E. Coli driver from the apron through a table on the outside. Unfortunately for Beef, EXcesS69 used that window of opportunity to pull a flash cover on Beef Wellington. Beef got his shoulder up, but EXcesS69 used that momentum to roll Beef into The First Impression, EXcesS69’s stretch muffler submission variant. Trapped in the middle of the ring, with his back twisted like a Mobius strip and with El Generico unconscious on the outside, Beef had no choice but to tap at 13:00.

To help ensure fairness, President Seska ejected the Hardcore Ninjaz from the building prior to the main event. Stripped of his goons, the Arsenal was in trouble early in the match as Pierre Carl Ouellet tossed him around the ring like a rag doll, until the Motivator of Madness made his presence felt, pulling down the ropes and spilling PCO to the outside. When PCO came up limping, the Arsenal, like a shark, smelled blood and moved in for the kill. PCO’s injury gave the Arsenal the opening that he needed and as the two men battled back and forth, the Arsenal did everything in his power to hyper-extend PCO’s left knee, culminating in a vicious moment where the Arsenal dropped a leg from the top turn buckle through PCO’s leg through the timekeeper’s table on the outside.

The Arsenal dragged a limping PCO back to the ring and, using a chair, bent PCO’s knee in a torturous half Boston Crab. With PCO screaming in agony, it seemed like the Arsenal was within reach of victory. In fact, when the ring bell went off at 18:00, and the Arsenal grabbed his belt in triumph and ran to the back, it seemed, for a moment, that the Arsenal had succeeded. But PCO never tapped, and the ring bell was rung by the sneaky Motivator of Madness who had cunningly stolen it from the wreckage left after the Arsenal and PCO broke the time keeper’s table. IWS President Seska ordered the Arsenal back to the ring and declared that the match must continue. Given this second chance, PCO took full advantage, hitting the Arsenal with a devastating power bomb and finishing off the One Man War with a top rope cannonball for the win.

After PCO’s victory, the IWS locker room emptied out to congratulate him on his victory and an emotional PCO declared that the spirit of the IWS and of the IWS fans was unlike any fed in the world, and that the IWS was on the road to being as well known as ECW.