CWF Mid-Atlantic Episode 131

Episode 131

1. Sandwich Squad vs. Otto Schwanz/Mike Mars

PAS: This is what we wanted the Schwanz/Cutshall v. Squad match from Chapel Hill to be. Four big dudes throwing meaty hands.I really liked Otto in this, he is really great at playing both a crazy person and a talented wrestler. Mars is Green (which actually sounds like the title of a bad 70s sci-fi novel), but a big guy who looks like a homeless murderer and hits hard is going to be enough for me. Liked the finish, and I would much rather see Schwanz and Mars as the tag champs.

ER: When Mike Mars comes into a tag match as the smallest man in the match, there's a good chance I'm going to dig the match. And shock, I did! I could see 8-10 minutes of this every single week. I really love Otto. "Crazy" is one of the hardest wrestling gimmicks to pull off properly. Think of how many indy shows you've been to over the years, with some fresh out of wrestling school rookie working a crazy gimmick, making wacky faces and clawing at their face or hair. It's almost always uncomfortable, because you feel bad for them. Otto works like an unfrozen caveman Berzerker, just storming and clubbing and shouting his way through matches. I don't recall if there was ever a reason given for Otto wearing the face mask, but I love loaded mask gimmicks a ton so I don't really care. For all I know Otto just showed up wearing a giant mask one week and nobody said a word about it. Mecha is really good, a super big man who can sell. He doesn't overbump, all his bumps are earned, but his body part selling is always impressive. We watched him sell his neck for 3 episodes after a chairshot, here I loved him wiggling his fingers on the mat after being blasted with a loaded headbutt. This was good. 

2. Jesse Adler vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: This was fine I guess. Dirty Daddy is great and is always going to bring cool shit to a match, I loved his forearms and the diving big boot was totally crazy (I loved the Sid name drop from the announcers). Adler is still a mystery to me, he is getting this big push, and he has yet to do one memorable thing in any of the matches I have seen. I also think Aric Andrews new gimmick is kind of cornball, if you are going to do Bob Backlund you have to at least cut off your ponytail.

ER: Another great Daddy performance, but these 10 minute time limit TV title matches work so much better with a heel champ, it leads to more desperation and a more frantic defense from the champ, and makes every move down the stretch from the babyface seem bigger. This was a match with a short time limit that wasn't worked as if there was any time limit. You could argue that the opening pinfall trading sequence was about them trying to finish, but nobody watching this match thought any of those pins were going to finish the match. I second the "Adler as mystery" that Phil is feeling, I just get nothing out of him. And if we're being petty about it, I hate the Van Halen theme music and the EVH taped up tights. I kind of assumed people stopped liking Van Halen after high school, and who can enjoy Eddie in this post-Eddie Van Halen Shreds world? But Daddy was the man. This guy appears to never get crossed up in the ring, always has a response and a surprising move or two. I love his twist during rope running where he slingshots himself around his opponent's waist, just using them to break momentum and change his footwork by hooking their midsection with his arm. His strikes always land surprisingly hard; here he had a diving clothesline that absolutely knocked my socks off. He also planted Adler chest first on the ring apron with a hotshot (Adler took it really well) and that Sid boot was scary but landed hard. Guys. Stop trying to land on one leg like that. It just makes me think of Sid or Gronda every damn time. I still don't love the "blackballed for 30 years" gimmick. It's a cute gimmick, but would be better served on a worse wrestler. Daddy's really good, and his quality more than speaks for itself. He doesn't need a winky cute backstory. 

3. Trevor Lee vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe

PAS: I was a little hesitant about this match when I heard about it, but man did these two guys totally sell me on this by the end. The gimmick here is that if Sharpe survives 20 minutes with Lee he would become the CWF Mid-Atlantic champion. It ended up being like a Tenryu v. Ogawa match and by the end I was sold on a Sharpe, Ogawa style title run. Lee just tortures Sharpe for the first half or so of this match, stretching his body in sick ways, ripping his fingers, kicking him square in the thigh, one of the better Fuchi mauling I have seen. Sharpe is able to take over by tricking Lee outside and posting him, and then it is a pretty competitive match, with Sharpe using cheap shots to stay on advantage. Lee at one point fires back and busts a pimple on Sharpe's chin with a slap, which was super nasty looking (Sharpe has Jim Powers level acne for a guy clearly not on roids), finish is pretty exciting, in the last minute Sharpe throws the ref into the Lee on the top rope and crotching him. Instead of running away and winning the belt Sharpe goes for the kill shot and gets caught in a nasty STF for the tap. Really fun storyline match which works great with both guys character progression. Lee's arrogance almost cost him the match, first by offering the challenge and then toying with Sharpe instead of putting him away. Sharpe is trying to be taken seriously and instead of running away and trying to get the cheap win, he wants to pin him clean and it costs him the title. I was a little lukewarm on Lee earlier in the year when he was on his workrate indy run with the Day, Daniels and Elgin matches, but he has been on a killer run in the last six months.

ER: This was really good, and I like the different tones we get from Trevor Lee. We get a fighting champion, we get confidence that crosses into hubris, we get sinister, a really complete multidimensional champ. I, too, was down on Lee during the workrate part of 2017. I even wrote something saying that we were consistently the low vote on all the Lee matches everyone was praising. Then right as I wrote that within weeks we were among the high votes on Lee/Andrews, Lee/Mecha, Lee/Schwanz, and at this point when I see an episode with a Lee main event I'm excited to see him against anybody. This was no different. Sharpe has turned a major corner during the time we've watched him, and we've turned a corner on him. I don't think I saw any of the E# of this very moment even 6 months ago, but that's one of the great things about CWF: They're faithful to all their guys, and all their guys can surprise you with something great. I wasn't expecting a mean Michael McAllister brawl this year, or a great Cecil Scott comeback match, but those kind of role players deliver. Here we get a simple and tempting premise: If Sharpe can last 20 minutes, he gets the CWF title. Lee is a (deservedly) cocky asshole for offering the stip when he didn't need to, and Sharpe makes the most of it. Sharpe never ran the whole match (even when it made the most sense in the last 20 seconds), didn't try to get a sneaky Masao Inoue title win (even though I wouldn't have totally minded that...), and his stock continues to rise.

Early on I thought this was going to be an extended Lee torture chamber, and it's easy to think that after about 10 more minutes of Sharpe getting stretched. Lee had so much nasty stuff, like that Indian deathlock surfboard where he kept bouncing his knees into Sharpe's back while bending him at the jaw, or that vicious as hell tapatia (sold perfectly by Sharpe, as if he was being drawn and quartered), stomps to the knee and inner thigh, wrist bent, nothing good. Sharpe hits the deck before getting hit with the punt and wisely flings Lee by the tights into the ringpost. That felt like something that heel Lawler would do. And Sharpe then looked really good in control. He was throwing these short left hooks at one point that I've not seen from him, and the extended crucifix submission was an awesome moment for both men. Sharpe was putting all his weight on Lee and Lee kept trying to fight through it. The end was convincing enough that I thought Sharpe could actually come away with the title (even telling myself I would have surely heard that news by now, I was still thinking "but what if...") and I love how he valiantly died on his own running elbow smash instead of just taking the win by running around the ring for 20 seconds. Lee's STF has been an established killshot and getting stuck in that is like getting your tie stuck in an elevator door. Great showing from both men.

ER: And then it truly must be Christmas, as I find out we get CW vs. Trevor. God bless us, every one. Sharpe/Lee is an easy inclusion on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. Now what CWF regulars have yet to show up on our List...