A UWC Sampler or: How to Be an Internet Contrarian on Something Nobody Has an Opinion About in the First Place

So beloved internet wrestling stalwart Cox has some kind of loosely-defined affiliation with the UWC, an indy indy based out of the wastelands of New Jersey. He's filmed their last few shows, uploaded them to YouTube, and asked my personal opinion of them to get a fresh set of eyes on the fed. And well, for poverty row indy feds that I've watched in support of friends, I'd place UWC comfortably ahead of Mikey Whipreck's fed, and the NYWC show I went to had goddamn Dave Taylor on it. I don't know that there are any Dave Taylor-level performers here, but there are some surprisingly strong ones, so I thought I'd share them with you, partly to make sure my fresh set of eyes are functioning properly, and partly to let you in on something you probably wouldn't have looked out for otherwise if they are.

First and third matches pit UWC champ Twiggy Ramirez against Biggie Biggs. These are both guys who have been slumming around the indy scene forever and have presumably worked each other a billion times, so not entirely surprised that they come off as the the two best guys in the fed and have the best match-up. Honestly, Twiggy feels like a guy who could sneak onto the tail end of my WKO100 ballot. He's a guy who I typically think of as a late 90's dance partner for Reckless Youth and Surfer Ray Odyssey and whatnot, and all that entails, but in 2010 he is working as back-to-basics local hero champion who throws a hard right hand and sells to the back of the room. Not that it's a terribly big room, but he does it, and he does all this stuff really well. Also is a smallish guy who uses a spear as a finisher against a larger opponent and makes it look totally credible by just launching himself at Biggie like a torpedo. For his own part, Biggie is a capable brawler, which comes through more in the rematch than the first. He's called on to play kind of a tricky role here, as he goes into this as a heel, but prior to the first match, top heel Joe Rules attempts to recruit him for his new stable, Devastation LLC (oh, yes). Rules attempts to win Biggie over by bringing in Reckless Youth - now working as a Bentley-riding jet-setter who forgot his roots - to act as his personal adviser. Biggs balks, wanting to do it on his own, but in both matches, Reckless shows up at ringside anyway to interfere on his behalf, much to Biggie's consternation. It's more present in the first match than the second, but in both cases, Biggie does a really good job of working as a heel in varying stages of a face turn while still being a capable foil for Twiggy. The finishes to both feel kinda off to me, but on the whole, I enjoyed them.

In between those matches, we have The Unholy Alliance vs. The Secret Society. The idea here is that The Secret Society is a stable of masked heels - represented here by Mighty Mo in the red Masked Superstar mask and Fierce Fuego in the Ultimo Guerrero mask - who are trying band together all the masked wrestlers in the company to...well, win more matches I would assume. The Unholy Alliance is made up of The Ripper - who is masked - and Billy Lassiter - who is not. The Society attempted to recruit Ripper at the last show in the middle of a match, but as Ripper was focused on the match, he didn't feel like listening to their pitch, witch led to them costing the Unholy Alliance that match, and, in turn, led to this one. This is apparently a company that does heels in mid-face turn well. The Unholy Alliance are still not totally bayfaced yet. The Ripper kinda looks like a dime store Felino, and the audience is still getting on his case for looking like Barney the Dinosaur. He is really the star here, though. He is a dumpy-looking fat guy who lays in his shots and is really agile for his girth. Being an athletic fat guy who can brawl is one of the easiest ways to punch your ticket to greatness in the Segunda Caida aesthetic, and while The Ripper isn't exactly Chico Che, he is still an unassuming tubby dude who will get crazy distance on a top rope kneedrop. Fuego and Lassiter are also guys who can brawl, and Mighty Mo has some slick looking stuff and a fun heel act. But I am really digging the shit out of The Ripper right now.