Indy Wrap: Cobb/Dutra 5, Kincaid Wins Smoky Mountain Cup, Tough Enough Winner Slams Indys
- "Mr. Athletic" Jeff Cobb and "Double D" Dave Dutra fought it out for heavyweight gold at the Lucha Xtreme event in Elk Grove, California on April 19. At was the fifth in-ring meeting for the men, both of whom are mainstays in the West Coast indy scene. After a contest that was largely hailed as the best match between the two men to date, Hawaiian-born Cobb pinned Dutra with a rewind power slam he calls " Tour of the Islands," earning the LX heavyweight title. Cobb reflected favorably on the meeting and the two men left the squared circle on even better terms than before, even hamming it up for a picture that Dutra later posted via Instagram. "It's funny because our relationship has gotten pretty close, as I've been residing in Folsom, California for a little over a year, just two miles down the road from Dutra, so I've become pretty close with not just him but his whole family as well," Cobb told WrestlingINC.com. "I think we may end up crossing paths again, and I hope we do because our next match will be even better than this one was," he added.
- WWE Tough Enough 2011 winner Andy Leavine appeared on the April 22 episode of In the Room with Brady Hicks and candidly shared his rather blunt and decidedly acrimonious assessment of the state of independent wrestling in the U.S. During some discussion regarding his former Tough Enough associate Ivelisse Vélez and her relative success as an indy wresler, Leavine rhetorically asked, "What the (expletive) is the 'independent scene'?" Noting that he had respect for Ivelisse and her work in the ring, he added: "The independent scene is a bunch of?scumbag promoters that are making, y'know, a little bit of money and they're screwing over what little talent is out there?Independent to me is like the (expletive) eight year-old kid who says, 'That looks cool' and then they (expletive) train him and then he's out there, y'know, working in the ring when he's (expletive) twelve. " The entire show is posted at vocnation.com.
- NWA Smoky Mountain and Southern Heavyweight champion Jason Kincaid continues to build a reputation as one of the fastest rising stars in independent wrestling. Kincaid won the 2014 Smoky Mountain Cup In Kingsport, Tennessee on April 19, earning a shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Kincaid also won top honors in the Indy Power Rankings online poll for the week of April 21.
- Philadelphia-based grappler Monster AHTU (a.k.a. Arkim) ? who currently competes through Pro Wrestling Syndicate, The Monster Factory and Premier Wrestling Federation ? has set up his own YouTube channel that includes some of his matches as well as his series of "party blogs." At the moment, his YouTube channel does not include clips from his hilarious appearance on VH1's "Why Am I Still Single?"
Mike Bessler is a contributing Writer for Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
Photo courtesy of Dave Dutra.
Mike Bessler contributed to this article.