Although the steel cage may have been absent, the rage between Shirley Doe’s Unholy Alliance and Dennis Gregory’s Coalition of the Willing were still very much present at the Court Time Sports Center on July 7. The main event was kicked off with an unexpected appearance by local and national legend “The Franchise” Shane Douglas who, as always, spoke from the heart and held nothing back when it came to his views on IWC, TNA, ECW, and professional wrestling in general. However, The Franchise closed his speech focusing on our 8 man main event, by officially making it “Extreme Rules”.

The battle was also under “War Games” rules; 2 men start the match and every 2 minutes a new man enters from alternating teams. By virtue of their “Best of Three Series” victory this past May at “Hell Hath No Fury”, The Unholy Alliance had the privilege of having one of their men start the alternating process, thus giving them a one-man advantage through the majority. The encounter was predictably wild, bloody, and violent with Doe, Sebastian Dark, HENTAI, and Abyss locked in relentless battle with Gregory, Bolen, and “M-Dogg 20” Matt Cross (substituting for Dean Radford who had allegedly been injured by the Alliance earlier in the night). The scenario came down to whether or not Team IWC had a fourth man.

Likely choices such as “Balls Hot” Troy Lords and recently suspended referee and frequent Alliance opposition CJ Sensation were all injured earlier in the night. When all were questioning, if there was anyone left fit to step up and fight that had an ax to grind with the Alliance, an all-too familiar piece of music played -- and we witnessed the shocking return of Sterling James Keenan!

Sterling immediately began unloading on all members of the opposing team, but suffered an unfortunate freak injury in the heat of battle. Radford emerged from the back, seemingly ready to save his team, yet instead blasted Gregory with a chair shot, thus joining the Unholy Alliance. With Sterling stretchered away, Bolen tied to a corner, and M-Dogg neutralized, Doe began relentlessly choking IWC Champion Gregory until promoter Norm Connors had no choice but to throw in the towel. On what was supposed to be IWC’s shining moment of revenge, turned into another sickening display by another IWC locker room traitor.

However, Connors guaranteed Gregory a chance for revenge, as August 5th, IWC Wrestling presents “No Excuses 2” featuring the ultimate cage match, in true classic “War Games” fashion, as the largest cage in IWC history will be constructed around TWO rings, giving both sides the ultimate battleground. More information on this and so much more in the coming weeks on IWCwrestling.com

The other half of our double main event featured “Fabulous” John McChesney’s on-going quest to prove to himself and the world that he was and is on Low-ki’s level. The two met in their third meeting, with each man scoring victory once prior. Much like in the past, it was a contest full of explosive strikes and sickening impact. McChesney also continued to establish himself as one of the few men who can hang with Low-ki chop-for-chop. With Low-ki perhaps seconds away from winning the match, the bell sounded signaling the end of the match’s time limit. Although Low-ki controlled the match at that specific point, obviously no clear-cut winner was established, and you have to believe these men will cross paths once again in the very near future.

“Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels, a veteran of Super Indy tournaments & title matches, squared off with current champion, the bizarre Delirious, who of course had his manager and interpreter Daizee Haze at ringside. Daniels attempted to out-psych the champion and finally capture the title he has been competing for for four years, yet never won, however it was the involvement of Haze that allowed Delirious to pin the “Fallen Angel” in a match-up of much more dubious circumstances than we had seen from Delirious in the past.

Jimmy DeMarco continues to be one of the most difficult to figure out personalities on the IWC roster. DeMarco once again interjected himself and a steel chair in his cousins’ Mickey & Marshall Gambino’s challenge of IWC Tag Champions J-Rocc & Ray Rowe, the Cleveland Mafia. Although DeMarco’s involvement resulted in a sickening chairshot to Rowe’s cranium (with didn’t even phase the Suplex Machine), that same chair ended up leading to a Gambino loss, as Rowe quickly recovered to use the weapon against them. As the Mafia celebrated victory, dissention in the Gambino clan continued. DeMarco continued to stress his opinion that Mickey & Marshall would still be tag champions if they had listened to DeMarco, while The Gambinos still claim to not need DeMarco’s interference.

A steel chair also figured prominently into DeMarco’s match with “Hot Property” Jason Cage, as Cage picked up the victory via disqualification due to a DeMarco chairshot. Although the Gambinos came out to attempt to talk sense to their cousin, it again seemed to fall on deaf ears. Dissention amongst the Gambino family continues to have an adverse effect on each man’s career.

The newly-formed threesome consisting of “Sweet & Sour” Larry Sweeney, as well as “The Kings of Wrestling” Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli made their allegiance public last month as they did each other a pair of favors when it came to some outside assistance in their matches. The fallout occurred here as Hero & Claudio were challenged by the newly-formed team forged by respect, former rivals Shiima Xion & Jason Gory. However, despite Xion & Gory being on the same page it seems one man has mixed feelings at best over the partnership: Shiima’s personal manager and advisor “Prophet of Profit” Chris Maverick. Maverick’s attempted interference was chastised by Xion, which led a frustrated Maverick to leave ringside altogether and head to the commentary area for the remainder of the match. The Kings of Wrestling managed to score the victory, although Xion & Gory’s chemistry was very apparent, and a future long-term teaming seems to be in the cards, perhaps unless Maverick has his say in things.

Meanwhile, Hero and Claudio’s co-hort Larry Sweeney was forced to battle the Rottweiler, the Havana Pitbull, the always-dangerous Ricky Reyes. Sweeney had no doubt never faced someone quite as intimidating as Reyes before, but was able to sneak away with a win and his livelihood thanks to a pinfall with his feet on the ropes.

“Balls Hot” Troy Lords stepped into battle against the extremely impressive Vendetta, already showing skill beyond his years in just a few short months in active competition. Vendetta’s reputation of constantly watching wrestling tapes and truly becoming a student of the game was very evident here, based on how well he was able to adapt to Lords. However, Balls Hot was determined to continue on an upward swing, and perhaps more motivated and in better shape than he’s ever been, the Hotness was able to muscle the larger Vendetta overhead and put him away with his patented X-Buster. Lords is victorious, as he no doubt hopes to re-focus himself back on both Super Indy gold and the Unholy Alliance.

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