Patrick Laprade wrote an article for SLAM! Wrestling about the IWS Xth Anniversary.
Ouelett makes Nash tap out in grudge matchI may actually have to come up with something non-wrestling related to talk about tomorrow.
By PATRIC LAPRADE - For SLAM! Wrestling
MONTREAL - In what was billed as the second biggest grudge match in the history of Quebec wrestling, trailing only behind the 1985 match between the Rougeaus and the Garvins, Pierre-Carl Ouellet and Kevin Nash fought once again on Saturday at the IWS 10th anniversary show.
And fighting is a good word to use since prior to the show, both PCO and Kevin Nash talked about it as if it could easily turn into a shoot fight.
After Nash made his entrance at the Medley to his old NWO theme, he took the microphone and told the fans that he was indeed a professional wrestler and if the match turns into a shoot, he would just leave and go back to Florida.
Then Ouellet made his entrance, looking great, tanned, with a new hairstyle that gives him a mean and tough look. Surprisingly though, the crowd was 50-50 on who they cheered -- even though Montreal is Ouellet's home town, a lot of people came to see Nash for his first indy presence in the city. Back in the days when the nWo was really over, WCW never ran a show here. (The Jacques Rougeau versus Hulk Hogan show at the Montreal Forum was promoted by Rougeau himself.)
Even if it was announced as a grudge match, Nash and Ouellet started things off with a lock up and a test of strength. Twice in the match, Ouellet struck Nash with a series of punches and after each of them, Nash took a powder to the outside. Even with half of the crowd behind him, Nash played a great heel. After he did the famous cross chop popularized by his good friends from D-Generation X, Nash removed a top turnbuckle. Ouellet’s forehead hit the corner and he started bleeding. Nash then did his big boot/jackknife powerbomb combo to the great pleasure of his fans. After taking some time to cover Ouellet, he finally did -- but shockingly Ouellet kicked out at one.
To make it look as much as a shoot as possible, Nash ground and pounded PCO, trying to connect a few punches which the former Quebecer turned into a juji-gatame armbar. Applying the hold on the arm Nash got infected a few weeks ago made Nash tap out right away. Even if it wasn’t the best finish they could have pulled off, it was a strong finish for the kind of a work-shoot match they were having.
Ouellet had the same intensity after the bell than he had coming into the match. He looked like he just won a big championship. But for Ouellet the win closes a chapter of his career and perhaps is even more important than any championships he has won.
"I certainly didn’t want to look like a chicken again," said Ouellet the day after his match, referring to the match in Quebec City he had against Nash in 1995 for WWE where he got pinned by Nash. That match was the day after he refused to job to Nash, working at the time as Diesel, in Montreal. (The match ended by a double countout.) To make things worse, in Quebec City, while doing his leg drop for the top rope, Ouellet landed on Nash’s face by mistake. "It wasn’t the right time to give Nash a potato," admitted Ouellet, reinforcing the fact that it really was a mistake and he had no bad intentions.
Saturday, after he was done celebrating, Ouellet flipped Nash off before going to the locker room, buried under the applause of the 679 fans in attendance. Nash then stood up, selling his arm, and as the guitar of Voodoo Child started to play, he pleased the crowd with the "wolfpack" sign and left the ring.
This was probably the most talked about eight-minute match in the recent years of Quebec wrestling. The biggest newspaper in the province, Le Journal de Montréal, picked up the story from the Ottawa Sun. Translating the story written by the Ottawa Sun's Tim Baines, Le Journal gave them a lot of exposure, with a full color page in the sports section the day of the show. This is definitely the best coverage pro wrestling had in that newspaper for the last 10 years, alongside Jacques Rougeau’s shows and Abdullah the Butcher’s retirement show. As well, both Ouellet and Nash did interviews with Martin Lemay on CKAC, the most listened to French sports radio station in Montreal.
It was really a smart thing for the IWS to give Ouellet, their best known champion ever, a chance to get his long-awaited revenge on the biggest stage of the company’s history, celebrating their 10th anniversary.
This show was supposed to be held the week before, but because TNA changed their PPV date and it is not allowing talent to work indies the Saturday of a PPV, IWS had to change their plans and do the show one week later. Due to that switch, the two best known IWS stars, Kevin Steen and El Generico, couldn’t work the show as they were doing TV tapings for Ring of Honor in Philadelphia. Despite that, the other matches went well and the crowd was really pleased with the overall performance they witnessed.
RESULTS
* The IWS tag team champions The Untouchables (Don Paysan & James Stone) beat 2.0 (Shane Matthews & Jagged). As a result, 2.0 won’t be allowed to team anymore.
* Former IWS star Damian won a 28-men battle royal that included wrestlers from all of the 10 years, like Tomassino, Manuel Vegas, TNT, Evilicious, Kid Kamikaze, Firestorm, the Hardcore Ninjaz and former IWS champion, Arsenal.
* The IWS Canadian champion Shayne Hawke held to his title by defeating long-time friend Twiggy.
* Max Fury beat Exess in a Hardcore MMA Rules match, meaning there were no rules, no rounds and no weight classes.
* The IWS Heavyweight champion Beef Wellington defeated two former champions, Franky the Mobster and Sexxxy Eddy, in a three-way match.
* The main-event of this special night was an IWS Death match between two guys who were there at the very beginning of the company, The Green Phantom and the owner of the IWS, PCP Crazy Manny. The Green Phantom won the battle after a crazy spot where he did a tornado DDT to Manny from the balcony into six tables on fire.
RELATED LINKS
May 30, 2009: Nash promises a 'fight' for Ouellet An edited version of the PCO vs Nash match www.iwswrestling.com
Patric Laprade has been involved in the Quebec wrestling indy scene for nine years and he is at work on a book about Quebec wrestling history. He can be reached at patric_laprade@videotron.ca or on his website at http://www.quebechof.com.
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