With just seconds left on the clock, a battered and bruised Kingi delivered a brutal clothesline to the back of Liger’s head, snatching the decisive pinfall and securing a surprise victory to retain his IPW New Zealand Heavyweight Championship at last night’s IPW Fallout event.
It was a result that no one had predicted, after Kingi had earlier been assaulted by the man who been named the “Gold Rush Joker” by IPW Commissioner Dion McCracken – none other than “The Deal” Dal Knox.
Knox jumped Kingi with a steel chair, savaging the champion and severely injuring his elbow, leaving his place in the main event in doubt.
Under the rules of the Gold Rush, the defending champion has to start the match with a new man entering every five minutes thereafter, and so it seemed that the odds were well and truly stacked against Kingi.
But the champ refused to back down, making his way to the ring with a heavily bandaged left arm. It was Liger who drew the number two position, and the “Strong Style Supervillain” quickly got to work targeting that injured elbow and beating down on the champion.
Kingi found little assistance from the man who drew number three either, as “Te Tahi” Vinny Dunn formed a makeshift alliance with Liger, both men uniting with the common cause of inflicting pain on the champion.
With Alfred Valentine watching on from the crowd, Dunn and Liger worked over Kingi with double-team moves and vicious strikes. The partnership broke down however when Dal Knox cashed in his joker position to enter the match and steal the pin on Kingi to become interim champion!
Knox refused to let up on the champ, even attempting to bring a steel chair into the match, however a saviour was found in entrant number four: Liam Fury.
Fury flew into the match with a top rope dropkick on Knox, showing terrific speed and agility to take control of the ring. He tossed Knox to the outside, and stunned fans in attendance with a huge running swanton over the top rope onto Knox and Liger outside.
Back in the ring, Fury was able to position Knox for the Shooting Star Press, connecting and claiming the three count in a flurry of action to be crowned interim champion.
That immediately painted a target on his back, but Fury was able to resist an onslaught from first Liger and then Vinny Dunn, as everyone awaited the arrival of the final entrant in the match.
All eyes turned to the 6’10”, 140kg Reuben de Jong, who quickly made his presence felt by wiping out Liger. He then turned his attention to Liam Fury and a David vs. Goliath battle took place, with Fury desperately trying to hold out for the remaining five minutes.
Vinny Dunn, realising that time was short, slid into the ring with a steel chair in hand and took down de Jong, with the referee seemingly powerless to stop him. Dunn turned his attention to Fury, but before he could strike the interim champion Alfred Valentine entered the ring and tore the chair from his hands.
Valentine lined up and blasted Dunn with a chair shot that sent a piece of padding flying over the crowd and into the far corner of the Manurewa Rec Centre, before sliding out of the ring.
In the chaos that followed, Liger snatched the opportunity by clotheslining Fury in the back of the head and grabbing the pin.
A new champion seemed certain as the crowed counted down the last ten seconds of the match, but a desperate Kingi arrived just in time to blast Liger with an all-or-nothing clothesline that was enough to get the three count.
Knox dove on top of an exhausted Kingi and covered him, but time had expired, and the defending champion retained his title after a brutal and dramatic match that left all six men bruised and battered.
Kingi was not the only champion able to defend his title last night either, as Evie pulled out a hard-fought victory against Britenay in her first official title defence – but at a cost.
Evie had a clear speed advantage early on, outpacing her opponent with fast kicks and technical moves. Britenay even resorted to taking a “time out” and sliding to the outside, where “Handsome” Danny Jacobs offered her some advice.
The champion eventually got tired of waiting and followed Britenay to the outside, but her impatience cost her as it allowed the challenger to get the jump and take the upper hand.
The crowd was firmly behind Evie, directing numerous chants towards Britenay, who seemed distracted by the reaction. That allowed Evie to get back into the match with a big clothesline and a tilt-a-whirl headscissors that sent her opponent flying.
A desperate Britenay resorted to her get-out-of-jail move: the Extreme Makeover, but this was Evie’s night and the dual IPW New Zealand Women’s Champion and PWWA Interim Champion quickly reversed it into a DDT. She followed that with an explosive TTYL, which was enough to secure the three count and send the packed crowd into a frenzy.
However there was more drama to follow, as Evie’s long-time BFF Megan-Kate slid into the ring with a purple baseball bat to chase away the challenger. Evie and Megan-Kate embraced, with Megan-Kate seemingly congratulating her friend on the victory… before striking her with the bat!
While Megan-Kate hasn’t yet made it clear what her reasoning was for attacking her presumably ex-friend, the move sent a strong message to the champion and has left the New Zealand wrestling community stunned.
The other major talking point of the night was the explosive Zero1 showcase six-man tag team match up that gave fans in attendance a taste of the inter-promotional action to come at Rival Turf.
Australian stars Hartley Jackson and Damian Slater quickly made it clear that they were not here to make friends, with Slater snatching the microphone during the introductions as he claimed he was sick of announcer Lance Knight’s “stupid accent”.
Jackson on the other hand did his talking in the ring, using his power advantage to beat down TJ Rocket early on. Rocket fought back with a top rope moonsault for a long two-count, but Slater interfered to put his team back on top.
The Australians showed the sort of team-work that can only come from a combined two decades of experience, double-teaming Rocket as they taunted the crowd with chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!”
Rocket used the moment of inattention to fight back with a springboard rana, which gave him the opening to tag in Travis Banks, who cleaned house as the crowd was whipped into a frenzy.
The IPW representatives used that energy to send all three of their opponents to the outside, as Banks climbed to the top turnbuckle and delivered a huge swanton to all three men!
The resulting chaos allowed Slater to isolate Taylor Adams in the ring however, dropping him with a huge Slaterade and picking up the win for the visitors.
Earlier in the evening, “Handsome” Danny Jacobs was able to dodge his scheduled match with Elias by claiming that his wrist was “broken in 17 places”. Elias instead took on Antonio, defeating him with ease before introducing a replacement opponent for Jacobs – Joel Clemenston.
Clementson made light work of Jacobs, albeit after some assistance from Elias, who struck Jacobs over the head with his own steel pipe. Jacobs didn’t take kindly to the loss, and the two rivals brawled afterwards as referees poured from the back to break it up.
That brought out Commissioner Dion McCracken, who declared that this long-running feud would be decided once and for all at Rival Turf next month or “there will be consequences”.
That was not the only necessitated change to the previously released card. A scheduled match between TnT and Project Mayhem was nearly called off after Brother T declared Lil T was not able to attend due to “Police 10/7 action”.
But the fans in attendance wanted a match, and so Antonio pulled double duty and filled in for Lil T in his second match of the night.
However Antonio and Brother T clearly did not have the same familiarity as TnT and bickered throughout the match. That incoherence allowed Project Mayhem to take the victory, setting themselves up nicely to take a run at the IPW Tag Team Champions NEO Justice in the future.
Speaking of NEO Justice, Link was also in action in a singles match against Pat Schisk. The high-flying Link was impressive, even without his usual partner by his side, and was able to reverse an attempted Gingernut Crunch into a Lightning Spiral Clutch for the win.
The next Impact Pro Wrestling event is Rival Turf on October 27 at the Lynfield Rec Centre in Auckland, where fans in attendance will be treated to the always impressive double-ring match.
IPW Fallout Results:
- Elias def. Antonio
- Joel Clementson def. “Handsome” Danny Jacobs w/ Britenay
- Project Mayhem w/ Olivia Shaw def. Antonio & Brother T
- Link def. Pat Schisk
- Damian Slater, Dave O’Connor & Hartley Jackson def. Taylor Adams, TJ Rocket & Travis Banks
- IPW New Zealand Women’s Championship:
Evie (c) w/ Megan-Kate def. Britenay w/ “Handsome” Danny Jacobs - IPW New Zealand Heavyweight Championship, Gold Rush Match:
Kingi (c) def. Liger, “The Deal” Dal Knox, Liam Fury, “Te Tahi” Vinny Dunn, and Reuben de Jong
