Thoughts on Insanity Pro Wrestling: The Renascence

(Yes I know that's not how you spell "renaissance". I'm just copying what IPW wrote! Also this won't be an in detail "review", it will run like my blogs on CHIKARA and AIW did.)


On September 30th, Insanity Pro Wrestling held its first show since November of 2011. This was their come back show and they had a fantastic card that grabbed many people's attention, including mine. I had not heard of them before to be honest. Probably the only reason it caught my attention was when someone had re-tweeted a tweet about a wrestling show in Indianapolis, which is only about two hours from me. I did some investigating and discovered the show would have a female match featuring two women I've become a fan of in the past year (Thunderkitty vs Heidi Lovelace), which is the first way to draw me. Have two women who are trained wrestlers in an actual match, not something that flaunts their T&A. The card also featured a few names that I knew, such as Sugar Dunkerton, Davey Richards, AR Fox and Kyle O'Reilly. The Crists were familiar although I had only seen them in Combat Zone Wrestling before. So what the heck, it was worth a shot. So I went.

As most cards do, the line up changed from the time I'd seen the first advertisements to the day of the show. AR Fox couldn't make it for some reason or another and was stripped of the IPW Junior Heavyweight Championship. I was highly disappointed that I wouldn't be seeing him in person...until they announced his replacement.

Attitude. Charisma. Honor. The one and only ACH was taking AR Fox's place. Was I excited? HELLS. YES. He was a fantastic choice and I was thrilled to see him again. He'd won me over after his match against Mr. Touchdown at CHIKARA.

Unfortunately I got there late and missed the first and second matches. That will teach me to leave late. But I did make it there to see Thunderkitty wrestle Heidi Lovelace, who is the current OVW Women's Champion. As I said in my AIW blog, TK is a wrestler with an old fashioned gimmick. This time she came to the ring with music that sounded like it was from the 20's or 30's but without a personal ring announcer. Heidi was hugely over as she was from Lafayette and had trained at the School of Roc Wrestling Academy there. As a result she was known to local fans. This match was ten times better than the one Thunderkitty had at AIW against Trash Cassidy. They worked well together, TK heeling it up at times. Heidi won with a 619 and they shook hands after the match. Barring one minor slip up, this was a good bout and I was pleasantly surprised to see the crowd react in a respectful manner. No catcalls, no chants for puppies, none of that. Very cool.

To be honest, I didn't know any of the participants in the next match, which was a tag match, so I busied myself finding another seat (as the people behind me were whistling and hollaring right in my ear) and trying to get cell phone reception to tweet results. From what I did see, it was a decent match and I feel bad now that I didn't give these athletes my full attention. Next time I will correct this. HyZaya versus Christian Rose  was really good, both caught my attention from the start and held it all the way through. I marked them down as ones to research in the future. However, the next match had one person I'd driven up to see.

New champs! (Photo: Sugar D)

The KOA Sugar Dunkerton and Aaron Epic wrestled the Kentucky Buffet Alex Castle and Matt Cage in a two out of three falls match to determine the interim tag team champions. I'm not sure who were the other champions, but whoever they are they will have a helluva time beating the KOA. This match was worth the drive alone and is one of the best I've seen all year. Angelus Layne accompanied the KY Buffet and did her best to help her team but the KOA had something even better...

THE POWER PUFFIN. No, seriously, Sugar carried a large stuffed Puffin to the ring and the crowd LOVED it. There were so many shenanigans, it was amazing. Factor in the fact it was a fantastic match and I got my money's worth. If the rest of the show had stopped right there, it would have been worth it. The reaction the KOA got when they won the belts was off the charts. Both men were so emotional, going out into the crowd, slapping hands (Sugar about smacked the feeling out of my hand!) - it was amazing and a heartfelt moment. Just incredible. Considering going in I hadn't seen Aaron Epic, Alex Castle or Matt Cage before, all of them won me over as a new fan.

(Also puffins are different from penguins in several ways. They had a PUFFIN. Not a PENGUIN. Just clearing it up.)

The match afterwards was essentially a squash between Chris Castle and Dustin Rayz. Rayz dominated until he struck the ref, letting Chris win by DQ. It was good but I was still buzzing from the tag match. A match that wasn't on the card, Aaron Solo v Darren Dean took place and it was really good. Both men have a lot of talent and should be kept an eye on. (I say that without knowing if they are one year rookies or ten year veterans but I mean no disrespect, I liked the match a lot.)

Then......MORE AWESOMENESS. ACH v O'Reilly v Dave Crist v Aaron McCormick for the IPW Junior Heavyweight title was insane. Amazing. There were a few shenanigans from ACH and Dave Crist as they played to the crowd. Kyle O'Reilly is awesome, so was ACH (but when is he not?), and I became a fan of Crist and McCormick. Aaron winning the title was another feel-good moment being that he was the smallest out of the bunch but he took it to them with a fierceness. It was wonderful. Words really cannot describe this match. Rather, I can't describe it, couldn't do it justice.

Davey Richards challenged Jake Crist for the IPW World Championship. I joke on Davey on Twitter sometimes but I respect his skills. The American Wolves wrestled the Briscoe Brothers at the first ROH show I went to in 2010 and I became a fan of the Wolves. Davey is a great wrestler and these two had a hell of a fight. At one point they went into the crowd, up one aisle and down the other near me. They wrestled the shit out of each other, trading stiff kicks and stiffer chops. Crist retained and both men got a standing ovation. Well deserved. The two shook hands and Davey got on the mic to praise Crist and IPW. I became a fan of Jake as well.

All in all, this was a freaking amazing come back show. The next was tentatively announced for November, and I sincerely hope they can continue to run. This promotion gives me what I want - guys and gals with passion busting their asses for us and (hopefully) a place that women can have good matches with plenty of time and given respect for their skill. Very much hoping that TK v Heidi wasn't a one-off, as there's plenty of women that could be brought in. I'd welcome both having a permanent place on the roster.

I loved it. I will definitely be back in November and I would encourage anyone that has an interest in any of the people that were on the card to pick this up. I strongly recommend it on the basis of the women's match, the tag match, the four way and the main event alone. You will not be disappointed and if you are, I will eat my hat.

After the show, I missed the chance to meet Angelus in person as we correspond on Twitter, but I told her how impressed I was with the KY Buffet which she passed on to the guys. I headed towards my car, which was behind the building in which the show took place. Wasn't long before I heard someone yelling about winning the Tournament for Tomorrow. Turns out some of the wrestlers were filming promos outside and two of them were ACH and Sugar D. I stayed across the parking lot, watching what I could see - I wanted to say hi to Sugar but wasn't about to interrupt. I'm a fan and not about to disrupt anything that was going on. Before too long though he spotted me and waved, walking over to give me a hug. Which I wasn't expecting (after all, we've mainly chatted through Twitter and FB) but was certainly welcome.

He asked me how I liked the show and we chatted for abit. It's crazy how far these guys travel and it really makes me respect them all the more. Pro-wrestling is a hard life, it takes a lot of passion and dedication to drive or fly to different states to wrestle for different promotions. He was heading up to start the travel home so we didn't chat long. However, I did get THE BEST DAMN PICTURE with Sugar, ACH and the POWER PUFFIN~! I got to compliment ACH on his match and the one with Touchdown where I'd seen him live for the first time. Before I left, Sugar gave me another hug and thanked me for being a strong supporter. I thanked him for being so positive and a great role model, which he is for kids and adults alike.

Plus he gives great hugs. True story.

ACH, Me, Sugar D and the Power Puffin~!

Driving home I had a huge grin on my face. There's nothing like live wrestling but when it features people that are so passionate, so driven and so positive, that makes it even better. I've had folks tell me that wrestling is filled with jerks, sleazeballs and assholes but it isn't. Not completely. I can point to women and men like LuFisto, Courtney Rush, Sugar Dunkerton and ACH (among others) and say, "These are people that take wrestling seriously, have remained positive and are great role models for anyone. They are the bright spots and are worth going out of your way to support."

Promotions that give athletes a platform, treats them with respect and remains open and honest with the fans are worth supporting. It looks like Insanity Pro will more than meet those qualifications. If they are still with SmartMarkVideo.com, buy the new DVD when it comes out and buy some of the older shows as well. I'm eagerly looking forward to the November show.

This is also a prime example of going in virtually blind to a show/promotion and leaving not only becoming a fan of the promotion but also a fan of the various talent on the roster. There were so many people that stood out, it made me determined to do research and start supporting them. The lesson? Give independent wrestling a chance. You never know what gems you'll find.

Welcome back Insanity Pro Wrestling!