CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 108

Episode 108

1. Dirty Daddy vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe

ER: I swear Sharpe is the most featured guy on these episodes. But this was pretty easily my favorite actual match involving him. He viciously choked Daddy in the ropes, dropped an elbow right on Daddy's face, finished the match with a pretty great powerbomb out of the corner (with tights grab), looked overall like a great conniving heel. Phil has pointed out before that Daddy is a great throwback babyface, and that was on display here. He's good at keeping people interested in chinlocks, great at little comebacks, sold his jaw great throughout, nice corner punches, etc. Match was short but accomplished a good amount in that time. Fun match.

PAS: Sharpe's gimmick is that he is a money mark, and it makes sense a money mark would be on most shows. This was by far the best EAS match, I though he actually looked really good here, I loved his diving cut block to take control, and he was really vicious here, mule kick to the jaw, elbow to the face, arm trap neckbreaker. I liked the idea of Dirty Daddy selling his jaw, he does a nice job, and the commentary team does a nifty job explaining it, Cecil Scott talks about how a broken jaw can lead to a build up of saliva is a nice bit of Gorilla Moonsoon style fake medical bullshit.

2. KL3 vs. "The Filmmaker" Movie Myk

ER: KL3 is another guy I'm seeing for the first time, and another guy I came away impressed by. I liked several of his strikes, one of the few guys with a nice superman punch that I've seen. I don't totally get the "Filmmaker" gimmick, if it's a Damien Sandow acting out roles in mid-match kind of thing, or what. If that's the case it feels slightly underbaked and Myk seems talented enough to not need it. But that said, I do like the manager using a clapperboard and yelling ACTION when Myk rolls back in the ring. It also kind of broke my heart that there was seemingly no reaction for KL3 chopping the ring post. Even though it's been done a lot on the indies it's still a spot that makes my arm hairs stand up, ever since the first time I saw it happen to Stan Hansen of all people. Are people that over it?

PAS: I thought KL3 looked pretty bad, outside of that nice superman punch, his other strikes were either too pulled, or super leg slappy and he looked a little awkward running the ropes and getting into position for stuff. I guess Myk putting on a Batman mask was a taunt, as the announcers said KL3 was inspired by the Dark Knight (not sure what that means), but I can't imagine anyone knowing that unless they deep dive students of the angles of the George South wrestling school. This was two rookies, which forgives a lot, still not sure why you would put basically a training match on your TV show.

3. Cain Justice vs. Ric Converse

ER: Goddamn Ric Converse is good. He's an alternate timeline Tommy Dreamer, if Dreamer had been a dad bod everyman steeped in contractor work and well meaning evangelical Protestantism instead of a dad bod sad sack steeped in wrestling fandom and NE Catholic shame. He's a big guy who isn't going to skimp on satisfying little things like stomach kicks. His little things look exactly as they intend: A stomach kick will bend you at the waist, a chop will fire up every nerve ending, his lariats cut low, and an elbow will send you sideways. Cain is a real bump freak and seeing him go down like a shot from an elbow, get knocked sideways on a lariat or bump a DDT off the side of his head is a real treat. I loved the reversals out of Converse's spinning slam finisher, Cain grabbing ropes on one of them and grabbing an arm on the other; one of the reversals lead to Converse hitting possibly the greatest rydeen bomb ever performed. Cain doesn't get his head whipped into the canvas, he lands flat as a pancake, and it looked like a guy doing a swan dive off a hotel roof. Cain has something real organic and unique about him, and Converse is an incredibly welcome throwback. Both are gems.

PAS: I also really enjoyed this match, but thought Cain was the real standout. Converse is fun, but some of his stuff looks a little dated, that spinning slam finisher is a throwback NOVA invention. Cain was awesome in his approach to it though, he found a bunch of different ways to avoid it and counter it before finally getting caught, if you treat something like a death move and it doesn't really matter what the move is. I also really liked all of Justice's stooging, he is like John Tatum if Tatum was a killer on the mat. We didn't really see any shoot matwork from Cain here, but I did love him grounding Converse with knee work, those nasty punches to the patella are things you don't see most wrestlers do.

4. Roy Wilkins vs. Snooty Foxx

ER: I...LOVED this. This was amazing. When I saw the file was at the 31 minute mark and it was the last match on a 53 minute show I immediately thought "How are these two going to fill 22 minutes??" Well, they did it. This is a double or nothing match, where Snooty put up $1,000 and Coach Gemini put up $1,000, and it's winner take all. We start with 7 minutes of minimalist work, stretching things out, both men being careful with a 1K gain or loss staring at them, working headlocks, working go behinds, getting the feel for things. My brain loves minimalism. I own Tony Conrad albums. I've watched Chantal Akerman films. I've seen Rhys Chatham live. Shoot I was actually at the Danielson/Castagnoli headlock match live! Now I'm not saying that a loose Snooty Fox headlock is tantamount to Jeanne Dielman washing dishes or peeling potatoes, but their opening work had me hypnotized. They spill to the floor and Wilkins slams Fox back first into the apron a couple times, and Snooty sells it like a guy who twisted wrong while loading luggage at his airport job. At the 7 minute mark Snooty hits an all time great flying back elbow, just leveling Wilkins. And from there, these two proceed to craft a perfectly paced, perfectly built, simple classic.

This felt like a lost Brad Armstrong/Arn Anderson match from Saturday Night. No, Wilkins ain't Arn, and Snooty ain't Brad, and sometimes their execution is lacking (Wilkins whiffing on some punches, Fox leaning away from a shining wizard), but all the pieces were there and they both knew when to hit for maximum reaction. Coach's interference was great, Snooty had some great nearfalls, Wilkins takes a bulldog as nasty as possible...but before long Wilkins wins with Gemini holding down Snooty's legs...and the fans flip the hell out. You know earlier when I mention how great a babyface Dirty Daddy is? He turns in maybe his finest performance yet, charging in from the back to get the fans even more riled up, motherfucker came out and RESISTED and the fans saw that there was ACTUALLY a chance to get this decision overturned. The people have the power and more and more of the fans rise up to demand justice, and Redd Jones rings for that damn bell! At that point it was like the 2004 Red Sox coming back from 3 games to 0. Once they beat the Yankees, there was no way they were losing another game that postseason. Fox has the people behind him, and his eventual win is academic. He gets that clear plastic case filled with money (a perfect prop, hats off to whoever found that), and he and Dirty celebrate holding that money, and all I can think is "Motherfucker OPEN THAT CASE"....and then they open that fucking case.

It's amazing. You've all been bored to tears when a wrestler plays the "loudest side gets a local radio station t-shirt thrown at them" game. It's terrible. Well watching Snooty grab a handful of bills out of that case and walk slowly around the ring, those same people that cheered passionately for the restart, cheered twice as wildly for free money! They throw some actual money, people lose it like they were on Oprah's Greatest Things, Arik Royal runs out to steal the case, and then....and then....Royal stops near the entrance curtain, with the money...and he does the Heisman pose. End scene. This felt like a match Lawler would have worked in a high school in 1989, if Lawler was allowed to step foot on any high school's property. Snooty got over how important that $1,000 was to him, Wilkins and crew were great slimes, and Snooty is a tremendous babyface. They hit all the right moves, and while it wasn't always pretty, it was effective as hell.

PAS: I thought Eric had to be overselling this match to me when he described it over the phone, but man alive did this live up to his hype. This match is a testament to the value of a crowd which is wholly invested in the outcome of a match rather then the performance. This wasn't a crowd who was ready to see a pair of dudes have a classic match, they wanted to see their hometown guy take out some dastardly cheating jerks. This was a sports crowd not an entertainment crowd, and it really made the match. The NBA finals wouldn't nearly be as fun if the Golden State fans chanted "This is Awesome" during a Kyrie Irving crossover.

Snooty execution isn't all the way there, but he has great babyface timing and charisma, he is a star in Chapel Hill and he conducted himself like a star with all of his big moves feeling like big moves. That tope rope axehandle to the floor taking out the All Stars felt like a bigger deal then any crazy dive I have seen this year. Wilkins is a tremendous short cut wrestler, he is really sold big on commentary as a technical master, but he works differently then a guy like Dean Malenko. Wilkins is less about complex holds and counters, and more about mastering timing and ring placement. He is great at luring Foxx into making a mistake and capitalizing on it. Wilkins starts his long section on top, by reversing an Irish whip into a hot shot, and has multiple other cool counters. Cecil Scott calls him the Floyd Mayweather of wrestling and it is a great analogy, because just like Floyd he is primarily a counter puncher, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake and then punishing him (also I totally believe that if Floyd could get away with it he would have Leonard Ellerbe on the outside of the ring tripping his opponents and cheap shotting them). False finish here was great with Snooty ready to make his big move, the grab of the foot and the killer shining wizard kill shot. Totally perfect heel win for this match, only made better by the restart.

All of the BS in this match is tremendous too, Dirty Daddy coming out and imploring the crowd to right the wrong, throwing the money to the crowd, the look on Royal's smug face as he heisman poses with the stolen clear box of cash, A+ wrestling horseshit.

ER: I thought for sure I oversold that Snooty/Wilkins match to Phil. I was flipping out while watching it, and as I was talking to him I was thinking "Pump the brakes, easssssy, slow it down" but I couldn't help it, I loved the match too much.

PAS: We went ahead and added Foxx v. Wilkins super high on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List.