Wrestling Mayhem Show 1027: The Pittsburgh Tag Match That Hooked Sorg
A four-way tag title match at IWC Boiling Point 2 made Sorg a Pittsburgh indie wrestling fan. Put the show on today and he can tell you where he sat, who came with him, and what Ray Rowe did to Shiima Xion that he still can’t quite describe without using his hands. But when was the last time you saw everyone in a small building stand up for a match halfway through the card?
A night in Brooklyn, according to the loud guy cheering for KO
Mad Mike was there for both Raw and the SmackDown taping. His favorite bit between shows involved Trick Williams, Danhausen, a pile of T-shirts and two chants fighting for control of the building. Mike tells Sorg why Kevin Owens vs. CM Punk is the one to make time for, and what happened when an eight-year-old Punk fan realized whose side he was on.
One title change, two kinds of wrestling fan
Ethan Page looks as surprised as anyone when he beats Chad Gable. Sorg can buy a title reign built on good matches. Mike wants to know why a guy who once ran a lie detector test on Elias didn’t get more time to talk. The live chat catches a detail about the turnbuckle that changes how they read the finish.
Two rings, one badly timed commercial
Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn and Chelsea Green vs. Liv Morgan give the guys something to chew on heading into Crown Jewel. Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton tests Mike’s patience. Over on the AEW side, a simple question about putting Blood & Guts on pay-per-view sends Mike down a WCW rabbit hole. See how many names you can get before Sorg runs out of guesses.
Twenty years at ringside
Sorg goes looking for his younger self on the hard-cam side of Court Time and finds the Cleveland Mafia, the Gambino Brothers, Sexual Harassment and Team Catfish tearing into each other. Mike remembers the chairs. Sorg remembers people getting out of them. The conversation takes them from Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, to DEFY in Detroit and back to the early days in a little New Kensington storefront.
Got a match that made your whole section stand up? Tell us the promotion, the match and where you were sitting. Watch or listen to episode 1027 at https://www.wrestlingmayhemshow.com/.
Programming note: WMS is off Tuesday, November 10. The archive is open.
What We Learned
Mad Mike rediscovered the joy of PG heckling. He backed Kevin Owens in a pro-Punk crowd by heckling Punk’s facial hair. An eight-year-old in front of him threw up the X, another fan two sections over locked eyes with him, and everybody was laughing between chants. Mike’s measure of success is whether his lungs held out. Listen for the Kevin Owens chant when SmackDown airs.
The chat had homework of its own. T-Pop singled out Shiloh Hill’s Halloween Havoc counter. Tina Keys brought up Will Ospreay and Callum Newman. Dave Podnar took Darby’s running as an invitation to talk races, which sent Sorg looking for Dave’s Halloween race outfit.
Sorg recognized the match that started it for him. Dean Radford vs. Jason Cage was the first local match he saw that night. The four-team elimination match was the one that sold him. Rewatching it brings back the standing ovation and the feeling that you had to show up next month. He asks fans to tell people when they see something special and gives DEFY, Enjoy and early 880 Wrestling as places he’s felt it since.
