The Independent Mid-Card 09.25.07: Castagnoli vs. Steen (Part I)

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kevin Steen
Tournament – First Round Match
IWA Mid-South – 2006 Ted Petty Invitational, Night 1 – Midlothian, IL – September 29, 2006

The Wrestlers:
Claudio Castagnoli – Teaming throughout the Independent circuit with Chris Hero as the Kings of Wrestling, Claudio Castagnoli was a regular performer for both Ring of Honor and CHIKARA, but had made only sporadic appearances for IWA Mid-South. Castagnoli, who had competed primarily as a tag team performer throughout 2006, was regardless viewed as a major threat to win the Ted Petty Invitational, thanks mostly to his notable size and strength advantage over a primarily light-heavyweight field. 2006 marked Claudio’s third TPI appearance, having previously competed in 2004 and 2005, losing in the first round each time (to Nigel McGuinness and “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson respectively).

Kevin Steen – Known in the United States primarily for his work in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, “Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen had actually debuted for IWA Mid-South at the 2005 edition of the Ted Petty Invitational. That year, he navigated a difficult field, making it all the way to the tournament finals before falling to tournament winner Matt Sydal. On his way to the final match, Steen was able to defeat Mid-South regular “Spyder” Nate Webb as well as Brad Bradley and highly-regarded CHIKARA talent “Lighting” Mike Quackenbush. After his success in that first appearance, Steen was hoping to win the entire tournament in 2006, but drew a difficult first round match up in his second TPI.

The Match:
Kevin Steen enters the room first, getting more than his share of heel heat from the crowd and even taking the time to snarl at the DVD selection at the merchandise table on his way to the ring. I know that ROH fans have just started to warm up to Steen over the last six months or so, but he’s been great at those little heel mannerisms for a long time now. A small “Mr. Wrestling” chant breaks out after Steen enters the ring, so he does some pushups and situps to appease the crowd (and show off, of course). He nips up off of the mat and offers one of his critics the opportunity to enter the ring (“You can’t do half that shit, faggot!”). As Claudio Castagnoli’s music begins to play, it’s made clear that “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush is on commentary, which is fantastic because Quack is one of the most eloquent and analytical guys in the business and always adds to a match when he’s doing commentary. Quackenbush notes that Claudio is tournament tested after winning the last two CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix events. Claudio has a veritable bevy of title belts with him at this point, as he’s both one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions as well as the CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas. He is also the IWA Switzerland Heavyweight Champion and has that absurdly large belt secured around his waist. Joey Eastman does the ring announcements (20-minute time limit on this and all first round matches) and introduces Bryce Remsburg as the referee. Steen is announced first (no weights are listed) and he mockingly bows to the crowd from the second rope. Claudio gets each of his championships announced separately, which is a nice touch of the tournament introductions (in contrast to a lot of other companies who ignore outside titles). The bell rings in short order to start things off.

The two men circle and lockup. Steen grabs a waistlock and works Claudio down to the mat, but Castagnoli transitions into a wristlock and works back up to his feet. Steen leverages Claudio back down to the mat to break the hold and grabs onto an arm himself. Claudio works his way into a waistlock and tries to get Steen back up to his feet. Claudio tries to lift Steen into the air, but can’t and settles for grounding him and moving into a front facelock. Steen works his way back to a standing position and elbows out of the hold before reapplying the wristlock. Steen snapmares Claudio to the mat and then takes him over with a crucifix pin for two. Steen grabs a headlock on the roll through, but Claudio counters with a single-leg takedown and segues first to an Indian Deathlock and then quickly into a side headlock on the mat.

As Steen makes his way to his feet, dueling chants start up for both guys. Steen sends Claudio off the ropes to break, but we get a stalemate on a shoulderblock. Steen comes off the ropes to the same result, so he just slaps Claudio in the face, prompting an exchange of strikes in the middle of the ring that only ends when Steen is foolish enough to try a European Uppercut. Claudio obviously responds in kind and just levels Steen, sending him down to the mat. Claudio follows up with a back elbow and then comes off the rope with a jumping European Uppercut to the back of a seated Steen’s head. Claudio scurries over and covers for a one count. Steen reverses and Irish whip, but ducks down and gets kicked in the chest for his trouble. Claudio goes for another European Uppercut, but Steen avoids it and wraps Castagnoli up into a Gory Bomb (Gory Special into a reverse faceplant). Steen gets in an elbowdrop and then elbows Claudio in the head again for good measure. Steen continues the assault with a stomp and a kneedrop, but a cover only gets a one count. Steen gets in a kick to the back and then rakes away at Claudio’s face (being sure to wipe his hands on Remsburg’s shirt after breaking). Steen gets another elbow strike and then drops Claudio to the mat with a backdrop suplex before coming off the ropes with a beautiful front-flip legdrop. Steen makes sure to prompt the crowd to applaud his impressive agility before leaning over and covering for two.

Steen hoists Claudio up into a fireman’s carry and then drops him over his knee with a gutbuster. A lateral press gets a two count. Steen uses Castagnoli’s own neck tie to choke him a bit before releasing to yell at Remsburg. Steen hits Claudio with a headbutt, but Claudio floats over on a body slam attempt and kicks Steen in the midsection. Claudio lifts Steen up for a delayed vertical suplex, but Steen counters back down to his feet and lifts Claudio up for the very same maneuver. Claudio is able to counter back to an attempt of his own, but this time Steen floats over and pushes Claudio off the ropes. Claudio catches Steen’s superkick attempt on the rebound and finally gets the elusive suplex, holding Steen aloft for an impressive twelve-count before dropping him to the mat for a double knockout.

Both men make their way to their feet as Remsburg’s count reaches three and Claudio comes charging. A Steen back body drop sends Claudio over the top to ringside and Steen comes running with a baseball slide dropkick. Claudio avoids it by sliding back into the ring and comes running with a tope suicida that sends Steen crashing backwards through the first five rows of chairs. Claudio quickly gets Steen back in the ring and makes an immediate cover for two. Claudio picks Steen up and whips him cross-corner, but Steen gets a back elbow up on the blind charge and hops up to the second rope before planting Claudio with a Tornado DDT for two. Steen goes for the fireman’s carry into the gutbuster again, but Claudio lands on his feet and dumps Steen on his head with the Alpamare Waterslide (inverted torture rack into a Death Valley Driver) for two.

Claudio comes running with a European Uppercut, but Steen sidesteps it and lands a superkick and a step-up enziguiri. Steen impressively lands a standing hurricanrana, but it only gets two. Steen runs at Claudio in the corner, but Claudio gets a boot up and goes for another uppercut, only to have Steen counter to an inverted lungblower and head to the top. Steen comes down with an absolutely picture-perfect Swanton Bomb for two. Steen then irritates me by calling for his Package Piledriver, but Claudio counters the attempt into a Ricola Bomb (cross-arm sitout powerbomb) for two. Steen staggers up to his feet and turns around right into a Roaring European Uppercut that gets the pinfall for Claudio at 8:57. Most of the crowd seems pretty happy with the decision, and Claudio rolls out to make his way to the back, being sure to grab his many title belts before leaving. Steen rolls to ringside and complains about the loss, even pushing one of the cameramen and blowing snot on a fan before leaving. A funny moment right before the video fades out sees IWA Mid-South owner Ian Rotten (standing by the entrance) giving the cameramen the “let’s keep things moving” sign.

The Analysis:
A solid first round affair, the one true knock on this match is its brevity. Given that the card on Night 1 had to include all twelve first round contests, it’s understandable why two such talented performers were given less than ten minutes to put on their match, but the observation remains a valid one that this match most certainly had legs for another few minutes at the least. Until Claudio hit the Alpamare Waterslide, neither he nor Steen seemed to be pulling out their big maneuvers, and not because they hadn’t thought of them, but because not enough damage seemed to have been done to put either combatant away.

In all honesty, as good as Claudio is and as strong as he is portrayed to be throughout Independent wrestling, Steen’s reputation as a tough-as-nails badass took a bit of a hit here, with him only able to last nine minutes with Claudio before falling to a powerbomb and an uppercut. When the first few minutes of an already short match were spent trading simple mat holds, it seems silly to have a wrestler of Steen’s size and ability fall so quickly to a pair of relatively simple finishing moves.

To be fair, a lot of action and diversity got packed into this abbreviated contest, a testament to the abilities of both participants. Claudio and Steen were able to get over a short, mid-card, ostensibly heel vs. heel match with a smart crowd, a combination of factors that might spell doom for lesser talents. Hopefully fans will be able to eventually get an extended rematch of this contest, perhaps as an upper mid-card feud in Ring of Honor or elsewhere.

The Aftermath:
Kevin Steen would go on to take part in a tag team gauntlet battle royal the next night, losing in part due to partner “Classic” Colt Cabana’s over exuberance and misunderstanding of rules of the match. Steen would continue to appear for PWG on a regular basis, but really began to break through on the national stage in February of 2007 when he and fellow PWG-regular El Generico re-debuted for Ring of Honor, losing a close affair to ROH-mainstays Jay & Mark Briscoe. That contest set off a feud between the two teams that would lead to epic Street Fights and Cage Matches as Steen & Generico attempted to wrest the ROH World Tag Team Titles from the brothers from Southern Delaware. In a match taped for ROH’s third Pay-Per-View event, the Briscoes were successful in retaining their titles one last time, defeating Steen & Generico in Ring of Honor’s first-ever Ladder Match, a contest being hailed by many (including myself) as a leading Match of the Year Candidate. It remains unclear where Steen will go from here, but his profile looks to do nothing but grow, as he has an upcoming shot at ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima.

As for Claudio Castagnoli, as the TPI brackets are kept secret until the end of the first round, it was not immediately clear who he would be facing to start off his second night of action. At the end of Night 1, it was announced that he would take on “Lighting” Mike Quackenbush, a man whom he had faced a number of times before in CHIKARA. It was immediately clear that the matchup could steal the entire tournament, given the quality of the pair’s previous encounters.

The Final Word:
If it seems as if that last section was left hanging, then please use the context clues available to figure out what match is going to be featured in next week’s IMC. That’s right, kids, it’s the IMC debut of “The Master of a Thousand Holds”.

To see this week’s contest, the 2006 Ted Petty Invitational is available at smartmarkvideo.com. The two shows contain over 8 hours of action and are well worth your viewing dollars, containing great matches featuring “Lighting” Mike Quackenbush, Low Ki, Chris Hero, El Generico, Delirious, Davey Richards, Arik Cannon, and Roderick Strong amongst others. The second night also includes Chuck Taylor’s IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title win as well as Jimmy Jacobs’ shocking return. These shows are must-haves for all Independent wrestling fans.

Before I jump into the plugs for our other great 411 columns and reviews, here are my picks for this year’s TPI first round matches:
Hero over Scorpio, Quackenbush over Roc, Castagnoli over McGuinness, Taylor over Jacobs (Taylor retains IWAMS Heavyweight Title), Richards over Whitmer, Joker over Otis, Albright over Tank, Dysfunction over Moore, Abercrombie over Rave, Younger over Webb, Kingston over Tornado and Ryan over Thomaselli.
Heading into things, my overall pick is for Chuck Taylor to run the gauntlet and retain his title throughout the tournament, but as always, they could just put Hero over instead. Also, a big part of me hopes they’ll give Abercrombie the win here, but it probably won’t happen. Maybe I just feel bad for almost getting him killed with my mediocre driving abilities.

Anyway, while you’re here at 411, here’s some more great stuff for you to check out. Ari’s got Part 1 and Part 2 of Column of Honor and Bayani has a great Truth B Told looking at all of the factions in ROH. Garoon and Adamson have NOAH and ROH discussion in Buy or Sell, and while you’re at it, read Brad & Jake’s reviews of ROH Respect is Earned and A Fight at the Roxbury. Oh, and Brad’s solo on PWG’s Bicentennial Birthday Extravaganza, Night 1. There’s also Short’s Navigation Log and Alex Barcham’s Hitting Below the Beltway, which is my personal favorite of all the new columns here on 411. Oh, and be sure to check out J.D. Dunn’s review of ROH’s most recent Pay-Per-View, Driven.

There will also be a new Buy or Sell up later this week featuring me and Bayani going head-to-head on a variety of topics.

Again, next week is part two of our look at the TPI, so please to swing on back for that. I’ll also probably do a bit of post-game on the tournament in general, an event I’m hoping to make it to in person this weekend.

I’m out of important stuff, so I’m clocking out, but remember that it’s TV premiere week, so set your DVR appropriately. If you’re curious, mine looks like this for the week: Weeds, Californication, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, Big Shots, Tell Me You Love Me. Scrubs and Notes from the Underbelly will be in that mix once they return to action later in the year, which should coincide reasonably well with the ends of Weeds, Californication, and Tell Me You Love Me for those scoring at home. That’s enough of that. Go watch some TV.