IPW Hardcore presents St. Pete Slaughter
Date: 2/18/2000
From: St. Petersburg, FL
MATCH #1: IPW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION FRANKIE CAPONE VS. JEREMY LOPEZ
FINISH: Capone wins following a spinning modified jawbreaker. After the match, Lopez powerbombs Capone off the middle rope and takes the championship.
Bob’s Take: Capone worked a few matches in TNA, but they were squashes so I haven’t seen him in a competitive match before. Lopez is actually getting shots on WCW Saturday Night at around this time. Lopez dove off the side of the ring onto Capone, and apparently that was a huge spot, but would be considerably tame for 2026 standards. They brawled onto a stage where Capone delivered a leg drop and slam. Also, this is falls count anywhere, which must be an IPW gimmick? Capone doesn’t seem to do much for me, but Lopez has good presence in the ring. Capone gets a couple of near falls including after a sit down powerbomb. Lopez got a near fall following a top rope leg drop. The closing sequence was fine. The crowd is quite rowdy and I like that.
Match Rating: **
MATCH #2: IPW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS ANARCHY SUICIDE SQUAD (AL BINO & HAVOC) VS. INNER AGGRESSION (BILL PAYNE & BUTCH LONG VS. THE FREAK FOUNDATION (OG SCARFACE & SHANK DEVLIN) — STREET FIGHT
FINISH: Al Bino pins Bill Payne to retain the tag titles
Bob’s Take: Hardcore vibes right from the jump with chairs and cooking sheets being introduced right at the start before the tag champs were even introduced. The match is a bit hectic with a lot of weapon strikes and in general there’s no order or structure to the match. The crowd has thrown toilet paper into the ring and thus there’s a bunch of toilet paper and various weapons in the ring. For the most part, it’s mindless hardcore brawling. There was a big top rope dive to the floor that popped the crowd. The match flew by because of the brawling, but there’s not much to it aside from weapon strikes.
Match Rating: *1/2
MATCH #3: BARRY HOROWITZ VS. DON MONTOYA
FINISH: Late in the match, Horowitz gets a chain out of his tights and hits Montoya. Montoya doesn’t appear overly impacted by the strike, though. Horowitz ends up loading up his knee pad with the chain and hits a knee lift for the win.
Bob’s Take: I was not expecting to see a guy like Barry Horowitz in this environment, but I especially was not expecting to see Horowitz it potentially the best career of his life. Horowitz is quite entertaining and patting himself on the back is over with the audience. Horowitz controls a good portion of the bout and keeps the crowd engaged with his antics. It’s a slower pace match than the previous two bouts, but I felt entertained and honestly really impressed with Horowitz at this point in his career. Horowitz was still appearing on WCW Saturday Night at this point, and I didn’t even think of that. Montoya did nothing of entertaining value here. However, Horowitz proved why he’s a vet and was entertaining throughout.
Match Rating: *
MATCH #4: HAYSTACKS CALHOUN JR. VS. RICK THAMES — FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE
NOTE: This is also a number one contenders match for the IPW Hardcore Championship.
FINISH: Calhoun Jr. pins Thames following a splash in the crowd.
Bob’s Take: Considering the footage quality, there’s a portion on the floor where we can’t see what’s going on because the lighting is not great, but from the sounds of the footage there was plenty of weapon strikes. In fact, the majority of the match is not shown to the at-home audience because they brawl in the crowd for most of it. I literally saw almost nothing of the match so I can’t even rate this, at all.
Match Rating: NR
MATCH #5: IPW HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION MIKE SULLIVAN VS. MARTY JANNETTY
FINISH: Jannetty leaps off the top of a wooden light fixture to hit a crossbody, but Sullivan rolls through and pins Jannetty with a rollup for the win.
Bob’s Take: Sullivan is a guy that I’d read all the time in PWI. Jannetty looks motivated to compete and put effort in. Similar to the previous match, they brawl outside the venue and of course I can’t see anything again. I think the venue is outside or has a covering as you can see traffic when the camera pans over. I feel like this was the kind of match that I didn’t want to see crowd brawling and would have preferred a competitive in-ring focus. For some reason, the crowd doesn’t seem to care much for Jannetty. I feel like Jannetty is still a valuable name, but it comes across as mostly disinterested. Similar to Horowitz, Jannetty looks to be in great shape. I’d consider this an underwhelming bout as I was hopeful for a bit more with Jannetty’s in-ring ability.
Match Rating: **
MATCH #6: MIKE ENOS & HACK MYERS VS. PHI DE KAPPA U (SHANE TWINS)
FINISH: Shane Twins hit an over the shoulder slam/cutter combo on Enos for the win.
Bob’s Take: Seeing Enos in a hardcore environment bring a ladder to the ring is something I wasn’t necessarily expecting. Shane Twins were another team that got a lot of hype in the PWI’s and probably didn’t get a fair shot on a national TV stage. It’s another match where they brawl into the crowd delivering chair shots. This seems to be a redundant aspect of the matches. It’s not helpful that the lighting is horrendous and can’t see much of anything. The action in-ring where I can actually see what’s going on is good. Shane Twins in IPW is probably going to change my opinion on them since I had only ever seen their brief TNA and WWE runs. Enos is fairly fresh off of WCW TV, and looks good. I’d say this is a big win for the Shane Twins to get a clean win over Enos. The brawling on the floor was limited, and I was able to see most of the action in that regard, so this was a enjoyable tag match with a strong finish.
Match Rating: **1/2
MATCH #7: JET JAGUAR & SCOOT ANDREWS VS. CHAD COLLYER & JEFF PETERSON
NOTE: The referee for the match is apparently associated with 911 Inc.
FINISH: Late in the match, Andrews is hit with a chair over the back by someone on the floor. Peterson hits a top rope splash onto Andrews to pickup the win.
Bob’s Take: I feel like these are four of the best workers in IPW Hardcore in all one match. Scoot got a big ovation upon his entrance into the match. Early on it’s more of a technical focus and is a traditional tag structure. Andrews looked good working over Peterson with a backbreaker and overhead suplex at one point. The action is consistent with pacing and pretty good throughout. The whole segment goes over twenty-minutes and they made good use of the extended time. Andrews hit a ridiculous sit down driver on Peterson at one point. Collyer gets the hot tag, but there’s not much heat to his segment. They do a few dives to the floor towards the end of the match, but I’m thinking the crowd is dealing with burnout. I’d say this was a good tag match with a burnt out crowd.
Match Rating: ***
MAIN EVENT: IPW HARDCORE CHAMPION CHAOS VS. ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER
FINISH: The match ends in a no contest as the referee throws it out due to several people getting involved.
Bob’s Take: Abdullah is an ideal fit for this promotion, but I’ve never been a big Abdullah fan. There isn’t much in terms of wrestling and it’s mostly just Butcher using his fork on Chaos. They do some other antics with a flaming table as three guys enter the ring to set it up. Someone associated with Chaos gets put through the flaming table. Abdullah has a great gig of doing basically nothing and getting a paycheck.
Match Rating: DUD
Final Thoughts:
So, I’m probably most interested in IPW circa 2002/2003, but I found their shows on YouTube and figured I’d check out what catches my eye. This is a unique show featuring Horowitz, Jannetty and Enos. I don’t think I would have guessed that trio on an indie hardcore style event in 2000. The Enos tag match and the tag match featuring Scoot, Jaguar, Collyer & Peterson were good matches. The crowd energy was good early on, but the energy dipped as the show went on. I think some repetitive crowd brawling kind of killed the crowd a bit. I’m going to consider this an average show, but I’m pumped to finally see IPW Hardcore full shows.
Thanks for reading.