Baker is the reigning world champion but definitely an underdog in a thumbtack deathmatch. Doom was the first IWA-MS champion and is fine with the tacks.

Thug avoids a lockup but agrees to a second. Doom forces him into the corner but Baker avoids an overhand strike. Backer avoids a big boot, a clothesline, and a bodyslam but he finally gets dropped with a headbutt. Doom clubs Baker’s chest but misses an avalanche. Doom locks on a full nelson and tries climbing the ropes to escape but just gets thrown down. Doom misses an elbow drop and falls in the tacks.

Baker takes over with some forearms. Jim Fannin grabs Doom’s leg and Baker DDTs him onto the tacks. Both guys go outside and Baker hits Doom across the back with a chair. Baker tries forcing Doom into the tacks but Doom uses his power to get up. He sends Baker into the ropes and gives him a fallaway slam which gets a two count.

Doom lays tacks across the chest of Baker and stands on them. Baker bails to the floor again. Baker grabs handfuls of tacks and just starts individually pushing them into Baker’s head in an unusual but kind of cool moment. Baker is draped across the bottom rope and Doom drops the leg on the apron. Doom uses a chair to get some extra elevation for a leg drop but he can’t make the pin.

Doom chokes Baker over the top rope and adds another tack to Baker’s head. Baker tries a sunset flip and gets squashed by Tower of Doom. Doom sets up a powerbomb and Fannin gets into the ring and hits Doom with a strap. It doesn’t have any effect but Thug hits him with a chair and calls Fannin back in to choke Doom with a belt.  Thug loads a hat with Thumbtacks, puts it on Doom’s head and then knocks him out with a chair shot to the head.

Final Thoughts: This was actually a pretty decent match where Baker was overmatched and took a beating but cheated his way to victory. The ending with Fannin choking Doom for a prolonged period of time wasn’t great but everything leading up to it was fun and Doom looked pretty good. The use of individual thumbtacks by Doom was a cool piece of business that probably hasn’t been done since 2001 but it stood out as a good display of the brutality of thumbtacks since both guys had full length pants and shirts so there wasn’t any visual damage when they fell into the tacks. **1/2- With a better finish this is probably even higher, but it was a good match and it set up for a fun rematch if IWA decided to go that way.

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