2017 Ongoing MOTY LIst: Modern Vintage WARGAMES!!

71. C.W. Anderson/Zane Dawson/Dave Dawson/Arik Royal v. Chet Sterling/Mecha Mercenary/Aaron Biggs/Ric Converse Modern Vintage Wrestling 9/16

PAS: Good to see a real War Games as opposed to an Adam Cole stained NXT spotfest. This had fat dudes and balding dudes and some blood just like War Games are supposed to . Great CW Anderson performance, as he was the first man in and last man out. I liked the opening one on one section with Sterling, and Anderson is especially great at working a cut. Keeping Mecha Mercenary on the floor as the heels triple teamed Sterling was a clever way to work around the middle section of War Games which is usually the weakest. The Squad getting into the ring to clean house was a nice moment. I am not a huge Sterling fan, so a match based around him was always going to be a bit of a letdown for me, I also loved the little bit of Royal, but he felt a bit sidelined. Finish was cool and a nice turnaround from earlier, although we could have used a near fall or two on the faces, it felt like as soon as Converse came in, the heels were done. Still this match, if done correctly, has a pretty high floor and I enjoyed it.

ER: You know when an Anderson starts a WarGames it's going to be a great one. And, sure enough, CW is a total king throughout this whole match. He and Sterling start and he just wrecks Chet, busts him open and jams his face into the cage, takes some nice punches from Sterling and gives back far more brutal ones. CW throws a freaking metal briefcase at the worst angle at Sterling's face, just a super violent shot you'd expect from a Black Terry flea market brawl or a Rush/Park beer bottle brawl. Things really ramp up when Mecha Mercenary comes out to even things up, as Sterling has just taken a beating from CW and Zane Dawson at this point. The camera cuts to the door of the cage as Mecha is entering, and from off camera a CW superkick greets Mecha, then another for good measure to knock him to the floor. I love Mecha, but I love matches constructed to keep him out. He's great at selling longterm damage and he's great at hot tags and comebacks, so him suddenly bursting back into a match is always the best. Royal makes a great entrance by just running in with a chair and blasting the Squad with huge chairshots and leveling Sterling with a great one. Chairshots were something we got so numb to seeing, and now that they aren't all over a wrestling card a real good chairshot finally carries some weight again. Royal is a really great weapons worker as he throws relatively safe shots that always look like KO blows. I've written a few times before he's always great at safely working crowd brawls, and with safe/brutal weapon shots just give him another underappreciated skill and show how great he really is. Plus, his WarGames attire is flawless (really all the heels had great WarGames attire). I loved the Squad going on a tear, with fun stuff like Royal getting avalanched by Biggs into the cage/apron. I didn't love Sterling going off the top of the cage, just because WarGames matches aren't supposed to be about cage flying stunts (I understand it's not easy to make a closed roof cage, but don't call attention to it), but Sterling needed a big moment to make up for that beating he took up front. The finish was a terrific bit of pro wrestling, with a perfectly used celebrity cameo: JJ Dillon (introduced before the match) slams the cage door onto CW's head when he's trying to leave instead of facedown all four babyfaces alone, just a perfect way to use someone like that. CW gets tangled into a submission by Sterling and quits, and in taking his excellent match-long performance beyond the match itself, continues after the match by complaining that he never actually quit. We've spent a year hearing a bald heel deny saying things that everybody heard him say, so it was a great topical heel move. Awesome match.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST
COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WEDNESDAY MORNING WARGAMES