2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Royal v. Everett

41. Arik Royal v. Andrew Everett CWF Mid-Atlantic 12/30

PAS: CWF-MA has been hyped a bunch by people I semi-trust, so I thought I would check this match out, and I am sold. 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 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. Consider me sold on CWF-MA!

ER: Just like Phil I've seen Everett a lot, on super indies and TNA, and he's been fine; but I've never enjoyed him more than I enjoyed him here. Starting the match with the dives was awesome, and those dives were loony as hell. The ringside chairs were close to the ring, the floor didn't look like there were mats, the chairs weren't folding chairs, just a crazy guy doing crazy moonsaults and flips dives, sending Royal and himself farther back into the rows of people. Everett also threw these really nice overhand punch/chops to Royal's neck, really liked the look of those. But all of his bumping is what made me swoon. Royal was tossing him into the turnbuckles and ropes, and he would fly into them upside down, sideways, crooked, any way that made it look like he wasn't controlling his landing. It was awesome. I had never seen Royal and he came off like a pre-goofy Big E, just as athletic but using his moveset differently. The springboard lariat was a killer, dug his low angle shoulderblocks to a seated or lying down opponent, and his power offense and bumping in general was really nice. I appreciated the way he took a rana onto the side of his head instead of voluntarily leaping up to take a flipping back bump. Finish is absolutely gonzo, with Everett doing a springboard and grabbing onto a I-beam, then immediately realizing he messed up. Royal snatches him out of the ceiling and just plants him, then hits one of his big shoulder tackles that turns Everett inside out. Yeah I think I'm gonna be watching some more CWF.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST