July 2001

It's our show, so we're calling OVW the "Indies" - gives us an excuse to cover Brock Lesnar vs Batista anyway!

July's Indy show brings us the biggest Indies 20 Years Ago Podcast to date with *eight* matches - including some very familiar names and the first, but certainly not the last, ECW throwback show. 

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Billy's First Match: Keiji Mutoh Vs Dr Death Steve Williams - AJPW 

These two had meet any times before in new japan in a number of different matches but never a singles match. This was Mutoh first defence of his newly won AJPW triple crown title on the final day of a gruelling 14 day tour. Dr death who had a dismal run in the fed and wcw was back to his best here and both showed glimpses of there former selfs even if it was for one night only.
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Dan's First Match: Kurrgan vs Buddy Lane

My first choice is closer to the Atlas vs Barbarian end of the spectrum, albeit with not as stellar cast. Going from stars of the 80s last month to one of the biggest (well, tallest) "stars" of the Attitude Era with this match from Real Action Wrestling. That's right it's the one and only Kurrgan vs Buddy Lane (he was trained by Verne Gagne, so that's gotta mean something right?)

Adam's First Match: Doug Williams vs Scott Parker from FWA Frontier Wrestling Episode 6

The last two episodes I've mentioned the FWA title tournament that ran over the first few episodes of FWA tv so I though it was only fitting that I included the final. It features a classic story of a heel receiving a bye up against a face who has sustained an injury. The match itself is a great showing from Doug Williams who as the FWA would grow to national status would be one of the major faces of the promotion. For those who remember this time will also find the ending of the match an interesting precursor to times to come.

​Special: ECW Reuunion Show (focussing on Tommy Dreamer vs CW Anderson)

Link: Highspots Network

Following the closure of ECW the whole scene changed, one of those changes was RF video had no new ECW fan cam footage to hawk online. For one day this summer a group of the remaining ECW alumni put together this, one more show as a goodbye to the fans. While the card is not the most stand out we bust out the main event here as it is an interesting look at where the company was when they slid into bankruptcy and we discuss Dreamer 24 hours before he shocks the wrestling world.
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Dan's Second Match: My second match for the month is a return to the NWA World's Title after no joy last month. This month's match is reigning champion Steve Corino defending the title as part of the ECCW (two C's) Summer of Insanity Tour vs fellow ECW (one C) alum Sabu. As mentioned in show one, I'm hoping to track the NWA title through 2001 into 2002, so i'm glad this popped up online.  
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So now it’s over and it’s no longer coming home let’s do the listeners poll match with a heavy heart. Please Vote and RT

— Indy Wrestling 20Yrs Ago Podcast (@indywres20yrs) July 11, 2021

Listener Match

​Once again we put you in charge of one of the matches for the month (Billy posted this in the aftermath of England losing to Italy in the Euros!) - and once again there was an obvious candidate!

Brock Lesnar vs Leviathan (Batista) - OVW

This is a match that has only happened one other time (a house show in early 2003) and there is no known footage available of that. All we have is this match between 2 greenhorns as a sign of what could maybe have been had the stars aligned differently.


Billy's Second Match: War Games - NWA Wildside

Link: IndependentWrestling.tv

My second match selection for the month is from NWA Wildside as the team of AJ Styles, Air Paris, Onyx and Stone Mountain take on Adam Jacobs, Jon Phoenix, Jason Cross and Prince Justice (the future Abyss). I’ve selected this match due to it being one of Bob's favourites a war games match and also it features a number of guys who would be big names in TNA and Wildside was  essentially the x division before the x division was a thing.
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Adam's Second Match: Bryan Danielson vs Low Ki w/ Special Guest Referee Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat - ECWA

In all honesty I as soon as I found this match I took it sight unseen that I would be covering it. Bryan Danielson and Ricky Steamboat are arguably the best of their respective generations and this is the closest they got to being in the same ring together. Throw in Low Ki and I thought regardless of what went down it would be worth covering.