Originally Posted by indywrestlingnews.com
In mid June there was a thread on the CZWFans message board promoting IWA Deep South's upcoming death match tournament in October. One of the wrestlers announced for the show was "The White Lion" Mike Levy. Once a picture of Levy, as well as a couple matches, were posted on the board, many fans were sarcastically praising Levy as an amazing wrestler.
Levy is a North Carolina based wrestler who has very little actual training and works primarily for very small independent groups doing a hardcore style. In the matches posted on the internet he appears to have little regard for his own safety, let alone the safety of his opponents. Mike Burns suggested they use Levy as a funny little nod to the mock popularity he had received of late, which was a poor show of judgment on his part.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon's show. Mike Levy was booked as a replacement in a woman's tournament with the angle being he wanted to prove himself in death matches and wanted in the death match tournament, with Ian Rotten agreeing to his request but saying he'd have to do it in the woman's tournament. He faced Mickie Knuckles (Total Nonstop Action's Moose) in a fans bring the weapons match.
During the match Knuckles and Levy began to exchange shots that increasingly became stiffer. Levy eventually gave Knuckles a head butt between the eyes that gave her what was described to me as a bruise/bump the size of a golfball and the situation quickly deteriorated from there. Eventually the match ended with Knuckles winning, however that was not the end of the incident. After the match several members of the IWA Mid-South roster entered the ring and began assaulting Levy in what was described to me as a "gang style beating" that included weapons that were in the ring for the match. Even Ian Rotten's pre-teen son got involved in the melee. The beating was described to me by someone as "the worst beating they've ever seen" which covers a lot of ground considering some of the things they've seen.
There was some speculation among fans on the internet that this was in fact an angle, however that is not the case. Initially the reaction on CZWFans was excitement, however as the details of the brutality began to surface, thanks in part to posts made by IWA Mid-South commentator Ben Jordan, the response turned extremely negative.
Behind the scenes there were those who felt that he deserved what he got and they thought it was "great", while others used words such as "embarrassing" to describe the assault. For what it's worth Levy went to the locker room and was apparently marking out over it all, not realizing what exactly had gone on or simply didn't care. In my opinion that doesn't excuse what happened, though there are those who seem to be using that to do so.
The bottom line is that Mike Levy should never have appeared on the show, and no one should have been surprised when he ended up being unsafe. Someone who is barely trained, and thus does not know any better, certainly does not deserve to be beaten in such a manner, and any incident that did occur should not have taken place in front of the crowd. Regrettably this situation has overshadowed the rest of the weekend's festivities, which are annually among the IWA's biggest shows of the year.
It appears that the incident is going to be turned into an angle, as Levy has been told they'll be bringing him back. Whether or not that happens is uncertain. Levy attended the evening's event as a fan, and is reportedly excited about the possibility of coming back.
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