by Daniel Johnson
Justin Idol vs. Sterling James Keenan
The early to mid 2000s was a renaissance for independent wrestling. Since WCW and ECW had closed there were only so many spots available in the WWE. So promotions like IWC got the overflow. I could easily see this promo done by Sterling James Keenan in this clip from the IWC Video Archive modified to fit around a feud for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship or the ECW World Television Championship. More recently, Keenan has of course enjoyed success as Corey Graves in WWE so perhaps rather than thinking of how Keenan could have fit in WCW and ECW this clip best acts as a preview of things to come from Keenan/Graves.
After running down the IWC and talking about how he still holds the IWC Super Indy Championship, but refuses to compete in IWC Super Indy IV, Keenan is confronted by authority figure Norm Connors. Connors tells Kennan that he will defend his title against local Pittsburgh wrestler, Justin Idol, which gets a pop from the Pennsylvanian crowd. Since the title was being taken away from Kennan anyways for refusing to compete in that night’s tournament, the most Idol could hope for is about a one hour Super Indy Championship reign.
The match itself is brief and has a little too much of the two just feeling each other out for my taste. Also, it has some odd commentating such as the line, “Let’s make no mistake Sterling James Keenan goes through him tonight.” On the other hand I guess even the best commentators are guilty of lines like that. Despite playing somewhat of a cowardly heel. Keenan picks Idol apart for a lot of the match until Idol leaps over Keenan to give him an inverted DDT. However, right after this Keenan hits a backbreaker variation and locks on a camel clutch. Idol comes back with a cross body into a corner and hits an aerial maneuver on Keenan with a knee to the back of Keenan’s skull. The closest Idol comes to winning by pin is with an awkwardly set up sunset flip, but Keenan kicks out before soon exiting the ring and taking a countout loss. Some anti-climatic and just plain odd booking from IWC to be sure but at least this clip allowed for some sweet mic work by Keenan.
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