CWF Mid Atlantic Worldwide Episode 89

PAS: After really enjoying BattleCade we decided to dump 205 live and make CWF-MA our weekly TV show of choice

ER: Yeah 205 Live hadn't been scratching any sort of itch with me. I think I'll still go back and pick up what I missed, but if we're going to be documenting a weekly hour of pro wrestling TV before the end of the free world, this seems to be the current right choice. I've been meaning to get into this fed more than 50 episodes ago and I just needed a boost. So thank Phil for the boost.

Episode 89

1. Mance Warner vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: This was a ton of fun, Warner cuts a promo about how he has been chasing Daddy from territory to territory for 30 years. Dirty Daddy as a Rufus R. Jones transplanted to the 21st century is a piece of comedy I can appreciate. Warner was pretty great every one of his punches, kicks and clotheslines looked great, and I loved his running kick. Daddy makes his babyface comeback with a flip flop and fly and a Buddy Landel elbow. Another example of how well CWF does short TV matches, I want to see more of both guys.

ER: Well one match in and this already feels like the correct decision. Never heard of either guy, ended up 5 minutes later wanting to see more of each guy. Warner looks like Foxy Brown/Spider Baby era Sid Haig, but with the beard of Devil's Rejects era Sid Haig. He did a whole lot of simple stuff, all of it really well. Stiff forearms, great front kick, big time lariat with nice follow through, all with these great crazy eyes. Dirty Daddy threw these really weird punches and elbows, mind you I said really weird, not really bad, because I dug them. It's like his point of release was different than you see most guys throwing, like these late release short jabs, as if he was sneaking his fist towards Warner's face before punching him. Threw a nice elbow drop too. Match ends and I go "Hey it just started! They didn't even do much!" and then see that 6 minutes has gone by and I was merely absorbed in their wonderful display of fake fighting. Nice start to the show.

2. Otto Schwanz vs. Joey Rogers

PAS: I always enjoyed Otto back in the day as an OMEGA bruiser during the Hardy era. He seems to be reinvented here as a shoot wrestling stretcher. He tosses Rogers around and twists his limbs in weird contorted ways. Rogers has a brief comback, but some distraction by Schwanz's seconds ends the match quick. Schwanz as meathead Fuchi is pretty great

ER: I thought this was pretty awesome, and for a quick match it still gets over 7 minutes. Rogers felt like a cool big bumping Darby Allin type, and Schwanz hasn't missed a beat since the last time I watched him (maybe a decade ago?). Dude looks exactly the same, huge props for keeping himself in ring shape. And I love the way he tears apart Rogers. The way he initially approaches him is as a no-style steamroller, not doing any fancy mat takedowns to get to him, just cornering him so he could get his mitts on him. Rogers has a cool moment of tossing out a low kick at Otto's face, warning him to keep away as he crawls in, but it's a painful mauling once Schwanz grabs him. Otto locks in all these really nasty leg locks, hyperextending the knee and doing all sorts of tripped out figure 4 combos with Rogers' legs tied up and bent in sick ways. At one point Schwanz almost loses his balance locking one of them in and it looked like he would have snapped Rogers' knee if he actually fell. Rogers' comeback is nice, selling that knee damage all the way through, and it builds to him going up top, but one of Schwanz' boys gets on the apron, and in a killer spot Rogers does a one legged dropkick to the guy, who then takes a painful out of control bump to the floor. But, that also allows Otto to grab him and get the win. Great little match. If there's something like this every week then I will never stop watching.

3. Aric Andrews vs. Snooty Foxx

PAS: Snootie is a rookie who kind of looks like a more jacked 2 Cold Scorpio, Andrews is the TV champion and looks like a 26 year who deals dirt weed in the parking lot of a rural Maryland high school, somewhere a father of a 16 year old girl hates his fucking guts.  The execution in this match wasn't great, Fox is really green and it showed at points. Andrews looked pretty good though, he worked a really simple story around taking apart Fox's knee. Lots of nice looking chop blocks and rope assisted figure fours. I haven't loved either Andrews match I have seen so far, but I want to see more.

ER: Yeah, the execution was lacking a bunch in this one, but the framework of a quality TV time limit match was there. Arik Andrews is clearly an illegitimate Chris Robinson child. I mean think how often the Black Crowes must have played North Carolina in the late 80s early 90s. You got the sense Andrews had to slow a lot of things down for Snooty, which is fine, but I can see him being much better with a better opponent. Andrews took apart the knee which we did kind of see done much better the match before, but Andrews is less a crowbar and more a sneaky "hold the ropes behind the ref's back" limb worker, so it was different enough. His short kicks kicking out the knee were among his best stuff. Snooty for his part missed an elbow drop off the top in especially nasty style, and hit a cool spear right at Andrews' chest, which I think is a slight but cool twist on the traditional spear/gore. Maybe I had the volume down too much but it also didn't seem like they were overly telegraphing the time limit draw. Until a camera angle slyly showed the tron counting down from about 1:30 I hadn't even thought of a draw as a possibility. Also really liked Brad Stutts as the voice of authority. He had a real conversational approach to his decrees and it was clear the crowd treated him with respect. I liked how he casually built to the ruling we were all expecting, but I liked the journey.

4. Chet Sterling v. Cain Justice

PAS: Really impressive performance by Justice who is a very nifty grappler, especially for a rookie. Just great looking tearing at the arm with a combo of mat locks and old fashioned Mid-Atlantic Anderson's style mauling. Justice seems like kind of a generic Cross-Fit junior, but he did a nice job selling the injury, including a really realistic scream of pain when he attempted a german suplex. Finish was cool too, as Sterling uses his momentum to counter the arm submission into a flash pin. He never felt the need to get his offense in, just grabbed an opportunity to escape

ER: This was really good, simple and fun. Justice comes off like Jamie Dundee with MMA training, which, yeah that's a guy you're going to want to watch. I liked Sterling more than Phil, didn't get a cross-fit junior vibe at all. He came off like a guy with a nice command of the basics which is something usually really lacking in cross-fit go go style. His headlock takeovers were really great, and he moved expertly in and out of hammerlocks and headlocks. You don't see quality headlocks from cross-fit guys, they're too excited to get to their next rope running exchange. Justice had some great comedy moments in taking the headlock takeovers, walking up to Sterling starting some shit and getting caught looking, and again with a drop toe hold! Once he starts grabbing that arm it's an awesome contest to see what will make him let go. I loved the awkward struggles from it, all really satisfying stuff.

PAS: Brad Attitude interrupts the year end highlight package with an awesome asshole promo where he shows pictures doing shots in Vegas with Dolph Ziggler on his smartphone. Attitude is amazing, what a hateable asshole, his whole shtick has a real big league feel to it, which works great with his washed up ex-star gimmick.

ER: Well that first ep couldn't have gone much better than this one. We will be repeat customers for sure. This was like King of the WorldWide Points. They should title their next show "CWF Mid-Atlantic: We Invented the WorldWide Point". Free idea, boys, right there.

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DVDVR Puerto Rico 80s Set: Invader I vs. Eric Embry (June 1986)

Disc 2, Match 15: Invader I vs. Eric Embry (June 1986)

At this juncture you might be asking yourself "Why is Matt so unfamiliar with Eric Embry?" It's what I'm asking myself, because I've enjoyed him a lot on the set so far. I think if you took someone from our circle from ten years ago or so, they'd be more familiar with Embry than Ron Starr, by far. That's not the case with me. I've got my gaps. Some are more obvious than others. I'd seen Starr in Portland and Grand Prix and vs Fujinami and even a match here or there in Alabama or Georgia. Embry I had mainly seen as a ~20 year old babyface in Portland where he felt kind of interchangeable with Brian Addias or someone. My Dallas watching has generally been limited because the cult of Von Erich always bugged me when I was younger. Obviously, by the time Embry showed up it was less of a deal but the end result is that I've seen way more Global than later era World Class or USWA Texas. I'll rectify that later, but for now, I've got Puerto Rico to watch.

This was so very good, one of my favorite matches on the set so far. I've seen people underwhelmed by it which surprises me a bit. I think a lot of that has to do with the double countout finish. It felt like a war though, far better than, for instance, a lot of the best of the ten minute early 80s AJPW brawls that end in a similar manner. This told a hell of a story buoyed by Invader's fire, Embry's antics, and the brilliant selling by both of them.

PR expert Boricua helped me with the backstory. Sasha, Embry's former valet is with Invader. He's also lacking his hair. All of this stems from a feud between Embry and Super Medico that ended with a hair match that we have but was far too clipped for the set. Apparently Sasha got fed up with Embry's abuse, Medico came to her rescue, and during the subsequent hair match, Invader got involved.

This match itself was straightforward in the best ways. Invader kills him for the first part of the match. Embry yanks him out of the ring and takes over, destroying Invader on the outside and then pulling him for bombs and pin attempts. Invader fights back, survives a cut off, gets some well-deserved revenge on the outside, and then they both sell the exhaustion by brawling on their knees in the ring and then to the outside for the countout.

So it's a story as old as time, but the execution is just great. Embry manages to stay in it during the shine, always seeming like a threat, if not to Invader than at least to Sasha, but that just makes Invader's mauling of him all the more impactful. Then, when they make it out to the floor, Embry's absolutely brutal, clobbering him with a chair (and following it with an exasperated but triumphant scream to rile the crowd), slamming him into the post or the rail, taking him to the wall and slamming him into that, biting him, and finally pile driving him on a table. He has a 1986 Randy Savage element to his offense in the ring, bounding in from the outside with a single axe handle and launching headbutts both grounded and off the top. At every kick out, he portrays frustration, selling the stakes and doing his part in keeping the crowd invested.

That's more than he needs to do, really, since Invader's so good at it from the point of peril. When Invader finally reverses a suplex and they crash into one another, he's able to get the crowd going just by slapping his own chest a few times. It's ritual and they know their role. They come when called and despite one last pile driver cut off by Embry, Invader rewards them for their devotion. He gets the advantage after Embry goes to the well once too often with the falling headbutt. Invader drags him out, hits him with a chair and sends him back to the far wall, getting full revenge for the previous brutality. They finish it off back in the ring, both of them bloody, exhausted messes, just throwing bombs (punches, headbutts, low blows) at one another while struggling to even kneel, let alone stand. Invader has the advantage here, with Embry bumping through the ropes out to the floor, giving him the moral victory even as the two brawl to the back to bring this to a close.

Yes, sure, a cleaner finish might have been nice, but this still felt like a satisfying moral victory for Invader while keeping Embry strong. Invader was able to return upon Embry almost the exact beating on the outside that he himself received and then was able to knock him out of the ring to finsih the match. Embry, due to his pluckiness, the brutality of his attack on the outside, and the fact that he never quite gave up, even as Invader was taking his pound of flesh, looked strong despite it all, but it was obvious that Invader won the day, even without a clean finish. It just meant that they could go back, and give this to another crowd on another day. Great stuff.

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