Sorg’s Take: This Year in Wrestling

Why not, it’s the in thing to do. I hope to do maybe a couple more of these, but the easiest thing to start with is the year in wrestling and what stuck out to me. Here’s some things that I’ve seen publicly and personally in the wrestling world…

The year of the injury:
Not that it is anything new, but much of this year was dictated by injuries int he WWE. And lets face it, that’s what we all watch. Just look at the list.

A Degeneration X/Rated RKO feud was stopped bidstream when Triple H blew another quad in January, not to return until SummerSlam in August.

Edge’s reign as rightful champion on Smackdown started thanks to an injury by Undertaker, and ended due to his own injury just a few short months later.

Pittsburgh is wrestling town: Part 1 – How indy took over my life Late last year, I was introduced to IWC officially by heading out to see a show. This year, I hit every show I was physically able to. On one hand, you get to see some classic TNA and indy workers: Sandman, Samoa Joe, Claudio, Chris Hero, AJ Styles, Abyss, etc. But then you find the match of the year candidates come from talent from the local and indy circuits. Delerious, Babyface Fire, the Gambinos, Ray Rowe, Sexual Harassment, Davey Richards, John McChesney, Larry Sweeney. And IWC has kept storylines interesting and compelling as it can be, given its month to month shows. And big shows like the latest A Call to Arms, Night of Legends, Super Indy and Basebrawl just brought some big show feel to the norm.

Pittsburgh is wrestling town: Part 2 – Because it wreaks of awesomenss. Oh yeah, and Edge won the World title in Pittsburgh this year. Twice.

The Mayhem Brought it. This was a landmark year for our little corner of internet podcasting. We had two out of town/country visitors in the form of our fans Vimal (via London), and Mad Mike (via NYC). That we’ve been that enjoyable that people want to pack on the miles to visit us. I just hope they’re not disappointed when they see the “studio”.

And the interviews opened up. We had Marshal Gambino, Jimmy Demarco, and Michael Facade in the studio this year. IWC promoter Norm Conners, Sweet N Sour Larry Sweeney, Eric Young from TNA, Brent Albright (formley WWE’s Gunner Scott), and nationwide columnist, Professor Wrestling himself.

The fans became even more of an integral part of the show. Reacting the the chatroom and to the webcam we’ve setup. Fantastic calls to our voicemail, and some directly to the show, that entertain us as much as our audience. The fans have become characters themselves…

RWF is here. Another year of Sorgstocks, Sauce Storm, and other random appearances by our rag tag band of merry backyard wrestlers are bringing us further along and gaining some respect amongst our underground peers. This year we introduced the Mexican Border Matches, invaded others, put together the first anthology DVD, and pushed the envelope for each one of us this year.

But lets just face it. This shit is just fun to do…

Matches of the year

Gambinos vs BFF: Steel Cage: A Call to Arms Controlled Chaos
It still stole the show on a night where every match made the crowd pop. Fantastic work

Any 4 team scramble in IWC this year
Always entertaining and full of mayhem

Samoa Joe vs Ray Rowe (Summer Sizzler )
Dream match for IWC fans. Two tough guys going at it. (yet to see the rematch)

Money in the Bank (WrestleMania 23)
Always the show steeler, and even better with Punk, Kennedy, Edge, and both Hardys in the fray.
Triple H’s series of three matches against Randy Orton and Umaga (No Mercy)
In the wake of Cena’s injury, we didn’t know what would happen. And we didn’t know who would have the title until the final bell of the night. That’s how you get us interested…

Kaz vs Christian Cage Ladder Match (some PPV)
A great ladder match in a company that overuses its gimmicks. Go figure.

Shawn Michael vs John Cena (on RAW)
The match in England that went almost an hour and proved that you can still have matches like this today and not be named Ric Flair.

Oh, and fuck Taker/Batista named as match of the year in WWE Magazine. That’s bullshit…

I’m sure there’s much I missed. but that’s what stuck out for me this year. Hit me with your best of lists!

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