CWF Mid Atlantic Battle Cade 12/30/16

PAS: CWF-MA has been hyped a bunch by people I semi-trust, so I thought I would check out their big Supercard show, and I am sold.

Cain Justice v. Dirty Daddy

PAS: Cain Justice is doing a strip mall black belt gimmick, and comes out with his Judo sensei and sparring partners like a meth lab Aoyagi. Dirty Daddy is a guy doing a Human Tornado style funky black dude deal. Really fun rookie match which delivers some big moves and nice bumping by both guys. I did think that Justice probably should have avoided the Pentagon bomb if that wasn't going to be the finish, especially in a fed which bans piledrivers, I did really like Justice's arm submission though, really nasty looking and something which would differentiate him from most guys in this fed.

Zane and Dave Dawson v. Devin Dalton/Walter Eaton

PAS: The Dawsons have a great wrestling look, big, fat long greasy beards, wrestling never has enough fat biker tag teams. Dalton and Eaton were guys who had held tag team titles with different partners and came out to respond to an open challenge. Stiff energetic tag match which doesn't wear out it's welcome. Four guys smacked each other for five minutes or so and then one fat guy hits a big clothesline and gets a pin. Really like how these undercard matches tell a story, have some nice work and keep it rolling.

Smith Garrett v. Aric Andrews

PAS: This is for the TV title, Garrett gets jumped by Xsiris coming to the ring and gets dropped on his head, he gets helped to the back and Andrews calls for a count. Garrett crawls back just beating the count and we get a nice bit of classic wrestling business. Garrett gets a couple of kick outs, a bit of hope and then gets beat. We leave this wanting Garrett to get his hands on Xsiris, and  get a rematch against Andrews. Again I really like the simplicity of the storytelling.

Aaron Biggs/Mecha Mercenary v. The Storm of Entrails

PAS: I really love how CWF-MA have embraced the giant fat dude in wrestling. EVOLVE could really use some more big fat guys. Biggs and Mercenary are the Sandwich squad and are probably 380 each. The Storm of Entrails are CZW trainees and have the stage crew at a metal fest look that CZW cultivates, Shlak especially is built like a brick shithouse and covered head to toe in creepy tattoos, if a guy will do that to his face, what will he do to yours. This was another fun tag match, with all four guys landing meat hooks, I really like the CZW teams double top rope elbow, and the Sandwich squad has a lot of cool double teams which take advantage of their flab. Another compact entertaining match.

Lee Valiant v. Chet Sterling

PAS: This is for the Ultra J title and is no-DQ piledrivers legal match. This is worked as a juniors sprint with both guys throwing out some pretty big moves quickly. Sterling looked a little off in some of his stuff, but I really liked Valiant, nasty punches and his offense looked really crisp. Sterling has been injured by a piledriver earlier in the year, so he gets his revenge with an avalanche tombstone, which gets the three count and I assume a vacation for Valiant. I do like how in this fed a death move mean death.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Him/Sis/Kabuki Ni/Otto Schwanz/The Number Boy v. Donnie Dollars/Matty De Nero/Mitch Conner/Snooty Fox/Rob McBride/Qefka the Quiet

PAS: This was kind of a fill out the card 12 man tag with a bunch of wacky gimmicks. I liked parts of this, Otto Schwanz is a old OMEGA dude and it was fun to see him wreck fools, and I have always enjoyed Boogie Woogie Man Rob McBride and there was a nifty spot where he blocked Kabuki's mist with a pair of workmans googles. Still I really hate Qefka the Quiet and Sharpe working invisible lasso spots in the beginning of the match. One of the cool things about CWF Mid-Atlantic is its sincerity, so stupid winky Chikara shit like that is really out of place.

CW Anderson v. Ric Converse

PAS: I really enjoyed this, Anderson and Converse are a pair of old school dudes who have been wrestling since the 90s and wrestle like they are from the 70s. Lots of big right hands and nice clotheslines. Anderson looks and wrestles like he has been frozen in amber since 2002. Still has that great right hand, and nasty spinebuster. I really liked the finish of this with Anderson hitting a superkick to the back of the head and slapping on the crossface causing Converse to pass out. Loved the idea of a kick to the back of the head be a KO, especially one as nasty looking as Anderson's superkick

Nick Richards v. Roy Wilkins

PAS: Roy Wilkins is working sort of a Zybyzko style technical heel. Lots of counter wrestling along with cheap shotting and stalling (although having a cheapshotting Black heel named after the head of the NAACP during the civil rights movement is a weird bit of retrograde booking by a Southern fed). The story the announcers were putting out was that Wilkins was a technician while Richards was a brawler. The match was worked well around that story including Richards getting the upset by beating the wrestler with a wrestling move. Unfortunately I thought Richards look pretty bad here, and didn't have the execution to pull off the story being told, his brawling looked off and there were moments where he didn't seem to be on the same page with his opponent. I left this wanting to see more Wilkins, but not particularly happy that Richards seems to be getting a big push.

Arik Royal v. Andrew Everett

PAS: First I have seen Arik Royal and he is pretty great, works really stiff, has cool power moves and is an awesome dickish shit talker. There is a point near the end of the match where he has Everett tied up in the ropes and he yells at Everett's niece in the audiance "Andrew isn't coming home tonight" before nuking him with a running uppercut. I have seen Everett work in super indies, but this was by far my favorite match of his, he is comes into the match with an awesome blitz, flying recklessly into Royal, including hitting three crazy dives in a row, I really liked the story of coming out 100 miles an hour and trying to catch Royal off guard, he is also a really reckless in ring bumper, landing super fast and super awkward into the turnbuckles and ring ropes. Match might have gone a bit too long, but they did build to a pretty cracking finish.

Brad Attitude v. Trevor Lee

PAS: This was the apex of a months long feud between the two that started with Attitude turning on Lee and braining him with a beer bottle, and then taunting him at shows that Lee wasn't booked at. Finally to get his hands on Attitude, Lee agreed to a match with a 30 minute time limit, where if he didn't beat Attitude he would lose the belt, also if he got DQed he would lose the belt, but Attitude could wrestle the match no DQ. It is a nifty piece of wrestling bullshit which feels like something The Bullet would have to do to get his hands on Jimmy Golden.

Attitude is awesome in the build up to this and in the match. He is working a failed prospect gimmick, a guy who had his shot at the big leagues (he was on a bunch of early EVOLVE shows and was a WWE developmental guy) but washed out and is now bitter. Now this kid he helped train is the new hot shit indy star working PWG and TNA and he can't take it, this was like if David Carr broke a beer bottle over Derek's head.

Early in the match Attitude dickishly taunts Lee, stalling and killing time, trying to get Lee intentionally DQ'ed, however by the end of the match, all of that is out of the window and he is clearly trying to prove he is better and pin the champ. You don't usually see that kind of character arc in a wrestling match. Lee is fine in this, although it really feels like Attitudes match, I did his firery die on the sword attitude, and he did a nice job of conveying his fury at Brad, but stopping short of losing his cool and his belt. He also took a nasty side of the head chair shot, which either busted him open legit or was a nice excuse for a blade job.

Finish is something I am a little torn on, during Attitude's rampage he had cut the ponytail of one of the refs. After a couple of other refs are laid out  that ref come out slow counts for Attitude and looks the other way as Lee smashes Brad in the head with the bottle. I get that it makes narrative sense, but it feels like a cop out, the better story was either the valiant babyface overcoming impossible odds and prevailing anyway, or the dastardly heel stacking the deck too high. Having Lee win by out cheating Attitude is kind of weak sauce.