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[2000-02-18-IPW-St. Pete Slaughter] Barry Horowitz vs Don Montoya


soup23

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Charles knows my opinion of Don Montoya and apologized to me ahead of time that this was coming up. There is a healthy crowd for this show. Horowitz is playing heel here shaking off the handshake from Don. I appreciated the way this one took its time to develop. Horowitz gets showed up on the early arm work and the crowd harasses him for it. Don even cuts a promo on him halfway through to rile up the crowd more. Barry gains the advantage and I was extremely impressed with his work on top. I am so conditioned to Barry either being a JTTS or working 4-5 WWF tv matches that it was really excellent seeing him fill out the time here in a compelling manner. He has double stomps, gut wrench suplexes, some hand focused work and a cobra clutch again putting pressure on the hand. Don for his part does a mostly good job selling the damage even though he does get too cartoony at points for me such as when he is in the cobra clutch. Don’s comeback doesn’t look that great with a weak spinning kick and a flipping legdrop for a nearfall. Barry goes into the tights but is unable to hit the knucks shot. Headbutt from Montoya right to the dick which should be DQ but isn’t. Barry then puts the knuckles into his kneepad and is able to hit a big knee knocking Don out and stealing the win. Another great piece of character work as he quickly puts those back into his tights as he gloats walking away. A great Horowitz performance and Don was fine here. A big surprise at how much I liked this. ***1/4

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So I really loved this match. Just great. I love Don Montoya. He doesn't look like what people often think of as a great worker, but he can go and this match is really well done. My absolute favorite thing about this is that fans are cheering Horowitz early on, probably because he was the one they knew. The match was being laid out with him as the heel and it just wasn't working. So he just rolls outside, cuts a scathing promo on the fans and immediately, the heat flips and they start getting the reaction they were going for. In some cases, maybe just going with it would be appropriate, but I thought it was pretty cool that they took the wheel and said, "No, *we* are the workers" and insisted on getting the reaction they wanted. Almost a lost art. Horowitz was an excellent heel and had some terrific offense. He works on Montoya's hands for a while, and also gets him with some nasty looking double stomps and a nice gutwrench suplex. I really liked how they built the finish for a good two minutes or so as well. We first saw Horowitz reach for the brass knuckles a couple of minutes before he had the opportune moment to strike, and Montoya continued to get some offense in at first, so they created additional suspense over the finish. I really like that approach, because they can tease the brass knucks as a red herring when they really aren't. And in this case, they weren't, as Horowitz simply moves them to his kneepad and catches Montoya with a kneelift coming off the ropes. Just a tremendous, slow building match that I can't say enough good things about. Any match that so expertly commands its audience and even makes them reverse their initial instincts has my love. ****

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  • 4 weeks later...

Black T Shirt squad represent. I have a soft spot for Don Montoya after reading about him for years in PWI. Barry Horowitz was a Florida indie legend at the time working every indie in the area and getting on TV. There is a charm to this match. Really old school without being totally out of touch like OVW. No commentary helps as you can hear the workers and the crowd. Crowd was really smarky with every 2000 indie chant being shouted. Barry did a good job holding this together and Montoya looks ok but really indie. He worked a couple dates in Memphis around this time for MCW.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

‘Bad Barry’ coming out to AC/DC and a good reaction. Don offers the hand and Horowitz goes to shake it, only to draw away and pat himself on the back. Horowitz with a deep arm drag and another pat on the bat. When Montoya responds with one of his own, he too mimics his opponent with the back patting. Hammerlock and Horowitz grabs the ropes to force the break. Nice bit of work on the arm from ‘Bad Barry’. He’s doing a great job here of getting the crowd to turn on him; shouting at individuals in the crowd, stooging and taking a ‘timeout’ on the outside before grabbing the mic and cutting a promo on everyone. Montoya with some arm work of his own and Horowitz goes into his bag of tricks to escape, complaining of his hair being pulled and then dragging Montoya by the trunks backs to the ropes with the official distracted. No clean break as ‘Bad Barry’ lives up to his nickname. A series of forearms and uppercuts with Horowitz shaking out his own arm after delivering the blows. Reverse DDT and an extended pat on the back for that one! The crowd have completely turned on him now and he cups his ear to them as they boo him. Legdrop to the back of the head followed by a jawbreaker. ‘Rude Awakening’ neckbreaker, however Montoya is able to kick out at two. A legdrop springing off the bottom rope and some clown in the crowd chants ‘you fucked up’ at Horowitz. I’m not sure what he supposedly ‘fucked up’, but Horowitz like a total pro tells him to “shut your face pal!” and then invites him into the ring. This fan is not so cocky now and surprisingly doesn’t accept the offer. Figure four chinlock, Montoya is able to power his way out of it only to miss the elbow drop. Gut wrench suplex on Don for another two. Double foot stomp and a three quarter nelson pin attempt that still doesn’t get the job done. Horowitz gives up on a full nelson when he realizes Don is too big and sweetly transitions into a ‘cobra clutch’. As Montoya fights the hold and looks like he might escape, Horowitz kicks him in the knee bringing him back down, and then stands on his leg to prevent him from getting up. That’s so freaking good! The hand drops twice but not the third time as Montoya gets a second wind from somewhere. He manages to escape and a spinning heel kick. Twisting legdrop for two and now Horowitz is backing off. He reaches into this trunks and pulls out some brass knux, but Montoya avoids the shot and drops him with a shoulder tackle. Horowitz slides the knux into his knee pad, and when Montoya telegraphs a backdrop off an Irish whip that gives him the opportunity, one knee lift later it’s all over and Horowitz comes out the winner.

 

This was the Barry Horowitz show and what a job he did, just a masterful all around display from him. He controlled the match completely working on top for the majority of it. One thing I really appreciate is the wrestlers who do the small things, the shaking out of your own arm after delivering a forearm, the standing on the back of the leg top stop your opponent from getting back to his feet and that’s Barry Horowitz. The way he got the crowd to turn on him was a treat. I didn’t think Montoya looked as good here as he does in the Low Ki shootfight, while the camera work was slightly annoying zooming in and out and quickly darting from left to right, but those are minor gripes. If you have only ever seen Horowitz jobbing in WWF give yourself twenty minutes and see what a cracking wrestler he really is.

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  • 5 months later...

As the majority of people, Im used to seeing Barry Horowitz get steamrolled on Saturday mornings on WWF TV, not in an indy setting where he gets to actually work on top.

 

Don Montoya Ive seen a handful of times through the years, but have never been sold on him. His shoot match with Low Ki from JAWP from January was good, but that was mostly due to the other party.

 

This was pretty decent. Horowitz cutting a promo on the crowd early on in the match when they were cheering him and he was the heel was awesome. His hand work was pretty neat, but for some reason I didnt really care for Montoyas brief comeback.

 

The finish was awesome with Horowitz placing brass knucks in his kneepad and hitting a knee lift with it.

 

I didnt like this as much as you guys, but I still thought it was decent at best.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2000-02-18-IPW-St. Pete Slaughter] Barry Horowitz vs Don Montoya

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