Iron Ring Wrestling
Kingsport, Tenn.
Report by Dot Net reader David Greene

A very good card and much better than that TNA Wrestling I suffered through last week. On the card "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair was heavily advertised as being there managing his two sons David and Reid Flair. It would make perfect sense since David Flair is part owner of this promotion with Jeff Tankersley, who was one of David and Reid Flair's opponents in the main event.

1. Dillon Eaton (Bobby's son) and Charlie Dreamer defeated Jake "The Scout" Manning and Caleb Konley. Eaton and Dreamer held an advantage most of this match and came away with a win in 10 minutes. Eaton has some his father's excellent skills and was the shining star in this match.

Then came an introduction of Mr. Biggs as the nights commissioner. He was introduced as being Iron Ring Wrestling's Television Champion, an interesting fake title as IRW isn't on TV and this guy is a manager.

The ring announcer introduce Ric Flair, who came out to a huge pop while being interviewed Eddie Golden (Jimmy Golden's nephew) and Jeff Tankersley come out and start mouthing at Flair. They attacked Flair until David and Reid Flair ran in and saved the day. A nice build-up to the Main Event.

2. Bobby Roberts beat Spoiler No. 2. The match that just lasted 5 minutes Bobby Roberts pinned the heel Spoiler No. 2.

3. Iron Cross defeated "Pretty Boy" Stan Lee to retain the AWA Title. Yes that's the AWA which has been reborn and Larry Zybzko had as recently as last year until he lost the belt and the current champion is Iron Cross (a masked wrestler). In 1989 he appeared in the WWF for a while. His real name is Mike Samson a gym owner from Virginia who is now married to former GLOW wrestler "The Farmer's Daughter."

Anyway, this match had Iron Cross going against "Pretty Boy" Stan Lee. Iron Cross, who resembled Mil Mascaras physically, was just too much for Stan Lee and won with a clean pinfall in 17 minutes. After the match, Lee told the ref he had a clause in his contract that in order for him to lose by pinfall he was to receive a five count but the ref had nothing to do with it and declared Iron Cross the winner and still AWA champion.

4. The Patriot and C.C. Rocket defeated Oleg Rominoff and Sergei Malenko. The losing duo were billed as Russians. This match had a stipulation that if Rocket or The Patriot got the pin, Oleg Rominoff, who is Iron Ring's Intercontinental Champion, would have to defend his title against whoever of those two got the pin. The Patriot and Rocket got the win when the Patriot pinned Malenko in 12 minutes in a match that was announced to have a 10 minute time Limit.

5. The Patriot defeated Oleg Rominoff to win the IRW intercontinental Title. The Patriot pinned Rominoff to win the belt in just five minutes.

Next Mr. Biggs came out to the ring again and announced he had a big surprise for Bobby Eaton, who was to wrestle Ricky Morton later on. Mr. Biggs who was a small young punk and sounded like Larry the Cable Guy, called Eaton out to the ring and announced his big surprise - former WWF/AWA/WCW world women's champion Madusa, who was to manage Beautiful Bobby when he squared off against Morton in the never ending battle of the Express' teams. In this case, it was a one-on-one match-up.

6. K.C. Thunder defeated Jay Batista. Jay Batista who is a smaller clone of the WWE's Dave Batista in looks but nowhere near in skill. He did last 17 minutes by doing the "Lex Luger taunt" walking around flexing his muscles and also flexing his chest muscles but K.C. Thunder got the victory via pinfall in 17 minutes. I guess he wore himself out flexing is all I can figure.

7. Ricky Morton defeated "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Madusa). This match had charisma and despite being too old to do what they used too (both over 50 now). Madusa also added excitement to the match by kicking Morton repeatedly when he was down. Both wrestlers must have wanted to get ready for the Flair party after the event because it seemed like they were all struggling. I saw Ricky pull Madusa's hair then it was like Bobby just tripped and Morton fell on top of him for the three count in a match that also only took 5 minutes.

8. David and Reid Flair (w/Ric Flair) defeated Eddie Golden and Jeff Tankersley to win the IRW Tag Team Titles. After a few minutes into the match, Ric Flair, who had been built up as a face, returned to form as "The dirtiest player in the game" (one of his many phrases to fame). Ric attacked Tankerley and Golden every time one of them were outside the ring. I heard a little boy ask, "Why is Ric Flair doing those things?" (playing dirty) and then his Daddy replied, "Well, son that's just Ric being Ric!" and I just horse laughed. The match went back and forth as Tankersley (who has a lot of skill on the mic and in the ring) and Golden (who has skills also) battled the Flair brothers for everything they were worth. The Flair brother's won the titles in a time of 15 minutes.

Notes: This was a entertaining evening as I would go again, but not to last week's TNA event. This card had a wholesome fun atmosphere and the wrestler's know how to treat the fans. Ric Flair never came out but I guess that was for security reasons. This event had an "old school" feeling about it and even though a lot of the guys were "past their prime" or just didn't have the skills, there was something unique about everyone that participated in the matches in one capacity or another.

Reid is very Athletic and fundamentally sound and I think we'll hear a lot from this kid in this sport. On the other hand, David is lacking. I would love to see Steamboat, Flair and some of the old wrestlers start a promotion with their kids and new talent. Ricky Steamboat Jr, Reid Flair, Dillon Eaton, Eddie Golden could be a fine young core

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