IWA Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational, Highland, IN
Here it is. Here we are. The finals of the 2004 Ted Petty Invitational. Danielson got here with wins over Alex Shelley, CM Punk, and Mike Quackenbush. Joe got here with wins over Roderick Strong, Nigel McGuinness, and Rainman. Styles got here with wins over Jimmy Rave, Matt Sydal, and Arik Cannon.
I cannot stress how visibly tired these guys were coming into this match. As I mentioned before, it’s not just the two TPI shows, this was a four-shot weekend with a lot of driving, too. And it was past Midnight local when this started. Before the bell, the crowd tried to give them a little more fuel.
This is elimination rules. Three-way mat grappling can be awkward, but these guys are all talented enough to pull it off, they keep trading who has the advantage. That ends when Danielson dropkicks Joe in the face. I dunno why, really, if Joe chokes out Styles that doesn’t hurt Danielson. Then again maybe Danielson would rather go one-on-one with AJ. Makes sense!
Joe dives onto Danielson, then Styles onto both. Joe kicks the shit out of styles, then drills him with the ole kick. Danielson comes in to take it to Joe, hitting an ole dropkick, basically. And then Styles gets Danielson with an ole forearm.
They get back inside and do some clever three-man spots, then Danielson cranks on Joe’s leg while Styles keeps dropkicking Danielson down and making it worse. Then Danielson hits a Northern Lights on Styles while still has Joe’s legs tied up. Joe screaming in pure agony, but the count only gets two.
AJ’s making these horrible pained grunting noises every time he has to run or really do much of anything, but gutting through this. Danielson hits a big ass superplex on Joe.
Danielson hits a dragon suplex on Styles for two, gets Cattle Mutilation on, but AJ fights out of that, hits a Pele style kick, and that knocks Danielson right into a choke from Joe. Exhausted and done, Danielson knows he’s got no shot here, and taps out quickly for the first elimination.
Immediately, Joe and AJ are trading HEAVY shots. Joe gets the better of it, as he’s simply the bigger man, which is not anything against Styles’ vicious strikes. And then Styles just LIGHTS JOE UP, until JOE FIRES BACK! AJ ends that with a kick to the side of the head and both guys are down. This is empty gas tank stuff. They’re throwing EVERYTHING, and it rules.
Styles is up first, and he’s going up top. But Joe was playing possum, and cuts Styles off. Joe goes for the muscle buster, Styles slides down and blocks a kick, then goes for the Styles Clash. AJ can’t get it, Joe’s just too heavy and he doesn’t have the power.
Joe goes for a muscle buster from the corner, AJ blocks and tries the Styles Clash again, but just can’t muscle Joe up. His back is about gone here.
Finally, on a third attempt, Styles, while letting lose an almost chilling scream of pain and determination, gets Joe up, hits the Styles Clash, and wins the tournament.
Everyone close enough hustles ringside to bang on the apron in appreciation. Danielson comes back. Punk comes into the ring. Several others from the tournament and non-tournament matches come in to show their respect.
There’s a post-match angle with Petey Williams that played into some NWA-TNA mess they had going on at the time but nobody wanted that then and I don’t want it now.
This is a great match. I’m biased because I was there and it was, as I’ve said a hundred times, the overall greatest live wrestling experience of my life. I’ve been to WrestleMania. The 2004 TPI won’t be topped.
It’s maybe not quite a great match in terms of the action, though the action is fast, hard-hitting, and furious. They cram a lot into a limited amount of time and leave nothing in reserve. Everything these three have gets left in the ring here. But for atmosphere, for history, this is amazing stuff. And I really do mean history; these three guys were three of the best in the world at this time, all of them on the indies (Styles was in TNA, to be fair). All of them today, 16 years later, are in WWE. Two of them have been WWE champions, and if Joe had gotten there before his body was starting to go, I am 100 percent sure he would have been, too.
Take my rating with the grain of salt, but I still fully encourage people to watch this tournament. You don’t have to watch the non-tournament matches (that’ll help shorten the experience), but this really still might be the greatest tournament in indie wrestling history, and it’s not just down to match quality. These shows truly represented a time and place where a lot of guys who were going to become real stars came together in a perfect storm to leave a mark in time.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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