Pro Wrestling Chronicle

5.29.04 Samoa Joe vs Chris Hero (IWA-MS)

Super fan Rob Naylor has extolled the virtues of this match and it’s fun, and after much thought and due process, who am I to doubt El Dandy (or Rob Naylor).

I don’t even know how to get into this. This is going to be a poorly written rant most likely (because I don’t care to edit it). I watched the match. I liked it as a moment. I don’t know that I liked it as a match. Furthmore, nothing totally sticks out about, and yet nothing was really bad about it. Let me try to explain.

First off, the announcers are Dave Prazak and Allison Danger. Prazak is real hit or miss with me as far as his IWA-MS tenure, but a lot of times I find him to be a snarky D&D type fan boy who’s just trying to be cool for his guest commentators. Now his ROH run (pre-Pearce regime) I dig. But this is him stepping back to much to give room for his color commentator, Allison Danger. Now, I’m sure she is a good person. She probably does good things for people in and out of wrestling. But I find her to be a mean spirited loud mouth who is always trying to mask insecurity or a lack of attention with her tough girl loud mouth shtick. She spent a lot of time downing people and yelling at audience members I can’t see on camera. She added little to nothing for the match and affected Prazak in a negative manner. I’ve seen her do this at live shows to trying to hawk merch and it’s just annoying and off putting. I’ve met and spoke to her brother (Steve Corino) several times and find him to be a really great guy. Not sure what’s up with Allison, but hopefully she’s mellowed with marriage (this was half a decade ago).

As far as the match itself I think both guys had good to great moments. I see a bit of sloppiness to any good wrestler who gets in an IWA-MS ring, and I’m not sure why. It’s not that they don’t care, so maybe it’s the way the stuff is shot that doesn’t cover as much. They had stand out presence for a hot crowd that was split 50-50, but even the audience didn’t really care about the moves or story. They cared about shouting down the “other side” with either “let’s go Hero” or “let’s go Joe”. The guys tried to play it all stoic and epic, and at times it worked, but it never progressed from there. Just a strike-fest to outgun the other guy, and I thought they worked a lot better together as they matured during the CZW/ROH Feud. The ending was cool with Joe hulking up and choking out Hero, but the match didn’t do for me what it did for others. I do recommend seeing this one and judging for yourself. It’s a tough one for me to get a handle on. I’m sorry, I couldn’t even write this up to sound articulate.