Time for the weekend report!
I wrestled on Sunday. After a nearly 11 month absence, I returned to wrestling. First off, let me say this... I can't believe 11 months have passed since I wrestled. It seems like it was only last month that I was booked each and every weekend. It is still very fresh in my memory.
On Sunday, I tested the waters. I have a lot of questions in my own mind as to where or not this is going to work.
• Do I still have the desire?
• Do I still have enough passion?
• Can I still wrestle?
• How rusty am I?
• Can I still entertain fans?
I have a lot of history in the IWA. I wrestled with the IWA for more than a year. In the IWA, The Fraternity was born. In the IWA, "The Omega" picked up a pair of pink tights and some flashy entrance music. As much as anywhere, the IWA is where I carved out my own niche.
In the past year, most of the mid-card / main event wrestlers have moved on to different promotions. Wrestlers, who in the past year, have moved on include: Trevor Lowe, DDK, Tommy & Natasha Chill, Cyrus & Buford Poe, Carlton Kaz, Fabulous Frederick, Al B. Damm, Bruce the ref, and me. For the record, this is not a complete list of wrestlers who left or wrestled only limited dates for the IWA in the past year.
The point is... the IWA lost more than 10 people off of the top half of their roster. The names on the list accounted for half (or more) of the matches on any IWA card.
How different would Raw look if you tuned in next Monday night only find out that the top talent (Steve Austin, HHH, Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, The Dudleys, Goldberg, Kane, Trish, Rob Van Dam, and Earl Hebner) were no longer associated with the product? Would the masses tune in to watch Kevin Nash vs. Christian in the main event?
The IWA lost a lot of people. The touring schedule slowed way down. The roster was depleted. The IWA no longer had a deep or experienced roster. The roster was thin and neon green.
The IWA is just now getting to the point where they are once again running regular cards. New talent is rising up. Some of the talent will blossom. Some of the talent will fall by the wayside. The IWA roster will continue to experience growing pains.
Bull Miller, Chris Cruit, Zach Avery, Homicide, and Elliott Michaels are the established mainstays of the IWA. They have sufficient size and experience to headline IWA cards. The IWA has a small cast of rising mid-carders that includes Devlin Anderson, Freakboy Malloy, and Jabari Akeem Mustafa.
The strength of the IWA is with the youth. The IWA has an assortment of excellent young cruiserweights. The cast is lead by Super Hugo. Hugo is a tremendous talent. Behind him on the depth chart are stars in the making Tony Galloway and Aaron Andrews.
On Sunday, I tested the waters. So far... so good. I don't know if any questions were answered. But, I do know this... I will be testing the waters again this Sunday. I am scheduled for a rematch with Aaron Andrews. I hope Aaron learned from mistakes. Otherwise, this is going to be another short outing.