IWA Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational, Highland, IN
More from round two of the 2004 TPI! Samoa Joe beat Roderick Strong in an absolute fuckin’ barnburner in round one, while Nigel got past “Double C” Claudio Castagnoli, and now finds himself in with The Man on the indies at the time.
Eddie Kingston replaces CM Punk on color commentary alongside Dave Prazak. Kingston is picking Nigel to get the upset here. McGuinness has an unusual amount of fans here, because Joe was seen by some IWA fans as sort an invading outsider still, a big chief from Ring of Honor, and the fact that he was believed to be unable to lose here while still ROH champion was something some resented, too.
Joe is willing to meet Nigel on the mat for all that British-y shit, but when Nigel kicks him in the back twice while being held on the mat, Joe gets pissed off, gets up, and kicks Nigel twice in the chest. So McGuinness smartly goes back to the scientific stuff. Joe throws some chops and Nigel comes back with a forearm to the chest, and Joe drops him with a return shot.
Nigel has the corner uranage scouted, takes Joe over in mid-slam, and then drills him with a superkick when they both get up. Nigel’s general 2004 is kind of a knife at a gun fight against 2004 Joe, in all honesty, but he’s doing his best to hang here. He’s matched on the match and probably outmatched striking, but he’s doing what he can with both.
Joe unleashes a wicked strike combo in the corner, but goddamn it, McGuinness just won’t quit. But foolishly, he goes back to cutesy British shit, trying the headstand in the corner. Joe immediately sprints in and boots him in the fuckin mush. He saw Nigel start the bit in the corner and started going in. Nigel goes for the hammerlock divorce court maneuver, and that’s finally just too many attempts to Do British for Joe, as he takes Nigel down, knees him in the skull a few times, and chokes him out for the win.
This is a really good match, much different from Joe’s first round war with Roddy Strong. In that one Strong hung around and pushed Joe to the limit by proving to be capable of hanging in on a slugfest with the big man. Here, Nigel is trying every single thing possible — his clever wrestling, slugging it out, standing and going to the mat in equal amounts. But Joe is just better than him at this stage of their careers, and Nigel can hang around, but he can’t win.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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