{"id":39924,"date":"2019-03-06T20:58:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T01:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=39924"},"modified":"2019-03-11T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T21:04:08","slug":"preview-aiw-7-year-itch-3-8-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/03\/06\/preview-aiw-7-year-itch-3-8-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: AIW – 7 Year Itch (3\/8\/19)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Absolute Intense Wrestling<\/a> (AIW)<\/strong> returns to Parma, Ohio this Friday for 7 Year Itch, that will feature a special meet and greet appearance from former 3x WCW Cruiserweight Champion and 4x WWE Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman<\/strong>. A cool opportunity for AIW fans, on top of another\u00a0stellar night of wrestling.<\/p>\n

Big Twan Tucker vs. Swoggle<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cleveland’s hometown monster is Big Twan Tucker<\/strong>, who’s been an emerging star in the promotion since 2017. Trained by WWE Superstars Johnny Gargano<\/strong> and Candice LeRae<\/strong>, his stock is only getting higher. He’s in a real David vs Goliath matchup here, and he’s the Goliath. His David is former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Swoggle<\/strong>, who has been having an impressive indie run since departing the WWE in 2015.<\/p>\n

Allie Kat vs. Alex Garcia<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you want to keep your eye out on the next crop of great women’s wrestlers coming up, one to watch in 2019 is Washington’s Allie Kat<\/strong>. She was groomed through the Texas indies and in the past year has seen her presence increase to a national level, with the likes of CHIKARA, SHIMMER, RISE, AIW, All American Wrestling (AAW)<\/strong> and more. Speaking of emerging indie stars from Texas, Alex Garcia<\/strong> is one of the fastest rising stars, only debuting early last year after attending her first wrestling clinic at Sabotage Women<\/strong> in Austin, Texas only six months prior. She’s since worked her way into SHIMMER and has even toured Japan with Stardom<\/strong>, as the new\u00a0gaijin\u00a0<\/em>in Mayu Iwatani<\/strong>‘s STARS<\/strong> faction. Don’t sleep on this match, it could be a main event contender for 2020.<\/p>\n

Zach Thomas vs. Eddie Kingston<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The young Zach Thomas<\/strong> is homegrown and “The Man At War” has a bright future ahead of him, with his aggression and style. But he’s facing a man who wrote the blueprint for “At War” and it’s “The Mad King” Eddie Kingston<\/strong>. Kingston is an indie legend who has an intensity and ferocity unmatched by many. This will be a tough lesson to learn for Thomas, but King won’t be going down without a fight.<\/p>\n

Tim Donst vs. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tim Donst<\/strong> is a graduate of CHIKARA and training from Mike Quackenbush<\/strong> and Kassius Ohno<\/strong> (Chris Hero), he’s been one of the faces of the promotion since 2010. A CHIKARA Young Lions Cup winner and three-time AIW Absolute Champion, arguably no one has defined AIW’s philosophy of grit and determination as Donst. But he’s facing a former UFC fighter who has made a seamless transition to pro\u00a0wrestling, where he’s the current Major League Wrestling (MLW)<\/strong> World Heavyweight\u00a0Champion. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor<\/strong> has been a sponge, learning from a long and varied selection of opponents over the past year, and facing off against a veteran like Donst should be an instant classic.<\/p>\n

AIW Tag Team Championship (Colin Delaney & Cheech) (c) vs. The Young Studs (Eric Ryan & Bobby Beverly)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To Infinity And Beyond<\/strong> has become the standard bearers for AIW Tag Team Champions, as they’re currently in their fourth reign as AIW Tag Team Champions since 2015. But they’re facing a team that hasn’t united in years, who could be looking to set that legacy for themselves. Before To Infinity And Beyond, the Young Studs<\/strong> stable ran AIW’s tag team division, winning the titles three times – once with the duo of Bobby Beverly & TJ Dynamite<\/strong>, and twice with the duo competing on Friday, Beverly and Eric Ryan<\/strong>. The current duo reunited in 2017 and now have a chance to add a fourth reign to their own trophy case, in a match steeped in AIW history.<\/p>\n

AIW Intense Championship: Matthew Justice (c) vs. Dominic Garrini<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another Ohio built talent and protege of JT Lightning<\/strong>, Matthew Justice<\/strong> has been a Midwest staple since 2006. He ventured outside of Ohio in 2009 with the likes of Pennsylvania’s International Wrestling Cartel (IWC)<\/strong>, NYC’s New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC)<\/strong> and others before returning to Ohio and AIW in 2017. He’s since been on a mission and last November defeated Donst for the Intense Championship. He’s defended against KTB, Tre Lemar<\/strong> and Wheeler YUTA<\/strong>, but on Saturday he faces a man with more technical striking game than he’s faced yet. The young star Dominic Garrini<\/strong> is busting out, both as a singles star and in his tag team Sadkampf<\/strong> with Kevin Ku<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

AIW Absolute Championship: PB Smooth vs. MJF<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: AIW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Smooth Era of AIW is only a few weeks old, as PB Smooth<\/strong> just defeated “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams<\/strong> for the title at February’s Hail To The King<\/strong><\/em>. The 7′ gladiator has worked his butt off with AIW the past three and a half years and his hard work has paid off. His first challenger is a man more known for his cunning and shenanigans than his power game, so Smooth will have to use his wits against one of the real tricksters in the game, MJF<\/strong>. He’s already become the thorn in the side of All Elite Wrestling (AEW)<\/strong> and there are no depths to what he’d stoop to take the title off of the new champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) returns to Parma, Ohio this Friday for 7 Year Itch, that will feature a special meet and greet appearance from former 3x WCW Cruiserweight Champion and 4x WWE Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman. A cool opportunity for AIW fans, on top of another\u00a0stellar night of wrestling. Big Twan Tucker vs. Swoggle Cleveland’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":40075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[1055,3235,962,4503,3184,2546,4636,3449,4703,4702,2015],"class_list":["post-39924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-north-america","tag-aiw","tag-allie-kat","tag-eddie-kingston","tag-eric-ryan","tag-matthew-justice","tag-mjf","tag-pb-smooth","tag-swoggle","tag-tim-donst","tag-to-infinity-and-beyond","tag-tom-lawlor"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}