The legend of Mance Warner sometimes precedes itself. But make no mistake, last night the legend of Mancer was cemented in the hearts, minds and kidney's of a boisterous AAW crowd.
Warner defeated Josh Alexander for the AAW Title at the Windy City Classic XV - highlighting an amazing, if not controversial weekend of independent pro wrestling.
Fatu was scheduled to take on Alexander for the belt, but was not able to make his commitment, so Warner graciously stepped in after being reinstated by the AAW board of directors after Good Brother #3 was victorious earlier in the night.
Killer Kross and Matt Justice had themselves a fucking donnybrook earlier in the night. While Curt Stallion and Jake Something defeated David Starr & Eddie Kingston in a bourbon street fight. Kingston had a pretty good spill in the match and at one point I thought he wasn't going to be able to finish the match. But, as i'm an idiot and forget that Kingston is a man among men, he finished the match.
Honestly, there was too much going on to be able to fully cover everything that happened this weekend. I think it's the weekend. I've been off of work for a week now. I hope the holidays have found you well. No doubt you've been able to find some great wrestling to watch over the holidays.
The train pulled out the day after Christmas, with GCW running "Jimmy All The Way," Tiffany wrote a review for the show - but over the past few days one match has caught the fancy of a few in the business who've been not so nice about what they saw.
At the center of the "controversy" is a sequence involving Jordan Oliver and Blake Christian. Jim Cornette, grabbing at whatever relevancy he may have left on current pro wrestling, was quick to point out how ridiculous the sequence was, and as he's a Vince McMahon taught size queen, cut down the two men for being so small.
As you can imagine, twitter was a hellspace for most of the next two days with Cornette's cult throwing barbs at those who actually watch wrestling with an open mind.
Oliver himself went back and forth with Cornette, pointlessly. See, Cornette doesn't even believe half of what he says. He's just angling for podcast listens.
For me however, the Matt Justice v. Allie Kat match stole the whole fucking show. I have a new found respect for the distance Allie Kat will go in a match, being thrown off the balcony as Justice secured the victory. With the succession of female talent moving up to the "big" leagues, Allie is positioning herself into the face of women's wrestling on the independent scene.
Somehow she was back the next night at AIW's "Baby its 2 cold outside," show. She did some commentary, then ended up in a match on the team of Colt Cabana and Swoggle - with ICP coming out to help the team to victory.
Warner's victory wasn't the only feel good moment of the weekend, Kris Statlander defeated Jessicka Havok to pick up the AAW women's title as well. Just an amazing weekend of wrestling. If you haven't seen any of the shows, i'll link them at the bottom of this column for your viewing pleasure.
GCW: Jimmy All The Way
AIW: Baby It's 2 Cold Outside
AAW: Windy City Classic XV
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