CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 133

Episode 133

1. Jesse Adler vs. Ivan Ali

PAS: Ali is a really big guy, maybe 6'6 or 6'7, and used his size nicely although is clearly really green. I write this every week, but the Adler push continues to befuddle me. He had a nice baseball slide counter to getting whipped into the ropes, but outside of that, it is all bad looking highflying offense which barely connects. That 450 splash gets no height at all, and it looks like he is going to crack his patella one day. There are five or six guys in this RGL tourney, who I would rather see with this belt.

ER: This is my first time seeing Ali and it's pretty clear from just this match that if he wants to make it in  wrestling, he'll make it in wrestling. As Phil noted he's a big guy, tall with some size, and already has a good build. He's already got good offense, with nice long arm chops and tight forearms, delayed spinebuster, great falling clothesline, big fallaway slam, a good base of offense. Adler remains a true mystery. He did a couple things I liked, I thought his inside legs kicks were a smart strategy, and his flip over mule kick after sliding into the corner was timed great and looked smooth. Everything else looked landed somewhere on a sliding scale of "light and soft at best" to "looked terrible" at worst. His strikes all look bad, but there was a particular bad spinning backfist to Ali's stomach that just....wow. The 450 was sloppy, landed short, looked bad, the crossbodies looked like they wouldn't break the run through paper at a pep rally. We do write this stuff about him every week, but we reviewing these shows and he's always on, always earning these criticisms. We aren't really given much of a choice.

2. "The Pitbull" Steven Idol vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: I really liked this, I have never seen Idol before, but he has a nasty hard hitting style, reminded me a lot of a smaller Rodney Mack. Didn't do anything super fancy, but every blow he landed had force behind it. Daddy is great at these short forceful sprints, and these guys really slugged it out. I loved Idol's sell of the brainbuster, really looked like he broke his neck.

ER: This was really great. I'd not seen Pitbull before and came away impressed, and I always come away impressed by Daddy. Pitbull threw nice shots including a great left hand in the corner, and I loved his elbow drop off the middle rope, just a heavy falling elbow that landed precise. Rodney Mack is a good comparison, this guy is like Rodnito Mack. Daddy always shows up and I always come away amazed by the force he gets with his shots. That standing lariat packed an incredible wallop and his running elbows are always well placed. I like the fireman's carry airplane spin into a brainbuster, disorient your opponent and then dump him on his head, mean.

3. Mace Li vs. Metallico

PAS: Good chance to see Li get a showcase match. He has been mostly been used as the comedy jobber of the All-Stars, but he had some fun offense here. There was a point where Metalico went for a tope and Li just wasted him with a jumping kick to the head. I also liked some of his joint manipulation. Metalico had some highspots which he barely pulled off, he might be better off as a tackling dummy for now.

ER: This is the annoying part of the review where Phil watched the show first, and everything that I want to point out about matches he has already pointed out. There's a benefit to being the first to watch something and I am being punished for my feet dragging. All that to just say that I also really liked Li's awesome pop up apron kick to block a Metallico dive. "Block a dive with a strike" is a thing we see in indy wrestling a lot now and it's tough to make it look good. Usually we see a guy noticeably slow down and poke his head through to get hit. The timing has to be precise, so you aren't expecting the spot to happen. You have to believe the dive is going to happen, and it's tough to turn off all your body tells knowing you're going to get kicked in the face. But this looked great. Li popped up and winged a kick at Metallico's head and Metallico did and awesome recoil. I liked Metallico's smooth lucha headscissors and Li's cool work around the elbow, and it was nice seeing Li presented as something other than "weakest member of his team". Satisfying stuff.

4. Mike Mars vs. Kool Jay

PAS: They are building more and more to a Cool J win, as he had his moments in this match, using his speed to squirm away from Mars multiple times. Of course he could only avoid him so long, and ends up getting smushed. Cool J lands so awkwardly on his bumps, it always looks like a car crash.

ER: Awwww yeah, real body Khal Drogo versus my favorite crash test dummy. I now get really excited when I see Kool Jay on the lineup, and I love how we've seen him 4 or 5 times now and each time he lasts a little longer, has gone from getting zero offense to at least throwing some kicks and evading, and continues to die for our pleasure. CL Party even mentions that people on twitter post about him dying and I hope that she was referring to me saying RIP Kool Jay with that gif of Donnie Dollars introducing him to his maker. Jay throws a nice dropkick even though Mars brushes it off, and we knew were this would inevitably end up, but I liked that Mars had to appear a bit frustrated when putting him away. Jay takes some wild bumps, even on something simple like getting swatted away he kind of tumbles onto the side of his head. He makes slams look incredible and yeah this was fun. I am going to cheer so hard when he gets a win. Not many people have successfully pulled off the Mikey Whipwreck storyline but I can see it happening here.

5. Movie Myk vs. Big Time Yah

PAS: This was a match up between two guys who have trained with each other, and that familiarity allowed them to pull off some fun stuff. First real look at Yah, and I really dug him, he worked almost like Chico Che, big tubby guy with shocking agility. he had a great rana and cool flip dive along with some athletic roll ups. Mykk worked over the arm nicely and has a nice gimmick with his entourage running interference. I would have liked to see Yah advance and face Mars rather then have this end in a draw, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of both.

ER: I thought this was awesome, took a cool angle for a 10 minute draw, and I think could be qualified as a breakout performance for both guys. Yah appeared way earlier this year on CWF - and looked good - in a short match, and we've seen Myk a few times but always in a tag or trios. Yah is a big powerful dude, and I thought Myk had no shot, until Yah awesomely lariats a ringpost and we get the real story of the match, Yah mostly unable to do any of his throws or power offense, even though he would attempt. Yah was really great selling his arm (hopefully this doesn't continue our trend of praising Negro Casas for his rib selling and Brian Kendrick for his broken face sell of the G2S. If I find out Yah tore his bicep here I swear...), and has some of the coolest big man offense around. Early in the match he hits an amazing huricanrana, and he's great about coming up with offense around an injury: His flying clothesline was practically finisher worthy. I liked Myk's boys running interference, and his manager (I keep forgetting his name...) is really good. Myk actually worked in a couple good filmmaking puns (a heel telling the audience "Quiet on the set!" as he locks in a chinlock is wonderful), and thought his work looked good. I would have preferred an actual finish as both of these two vs. Mars would be really fun (and I have to think CWF will eventually run Yah/Mars), but this was a great 10 minutes of wrestling.

6. Mace Li vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: This was surprisingly short for a semi final. There was apparently a big feud between Daddy and Mace Maeda, but this wasn't very competitive. Li got in some cheap shots, but Dirty Daddy rolled through this match, and got a relatively easy win. Really liked the staredown between Daddy and Mars, DD can really bring fire to segments like this.

ER: This was fine, but I didn't like how easily Daddy handled Li, one match removed from Li actually looking valuable (granted he was against a tackling dummy, but the Metallico match was a dominant showcase which saw him take hardly any damage). I also didn't think Li looked really good in this one, you'd think he'd want to make a couple shots count if he knew he was being dispatched so easily. Daddy looked predictably good, he really is a legit contender for best clothesline currently in wrestling. His elbows looked good, Li had a nice nearfall moment (with a so-so savate kick), and I thought Daddy's match winning small package looked good. And damn I thought Mars/Daddy was happening on this show. It makes sense to be on BattleCade, but I was geared up. I thought they were giving Mars the quick path to the title, having Yah/Myk take each other out so Mars goes in fresh. Now I'm really pissed we didn't get Mars/Yah on this episode.

7. Trevor Lee vs. Darius Lockhart

PAS: They fade to black and come back with Lee making an open challenge to Lockhart after just watching the action in the audience. This was another really good Lee match, he has been on a roll. This was worked face v. face at the beginning, with a lot of initial stalemated grappling. Like a classic face v. face match tempers flared, and it got pretty nasty by the end. Finish was pretty great with Lockhart screaming at Lee to bring it to him, and they had a pretty great strike exchange, not you forearm me, I forearm you, but both guys throwing and landing at the same time. Lockhart absolutely decimates Lee with clothesline, and gets a close 2.9. When both guys get to their feet Lee offers his hand, when Lockhart takes it, Lee throws him to the ground and cranks an STF for the win. Surprisingly heel move from Lee, I was a little disappointed that Lockhart took the hug and respect arm raise at the end of the match, instead of punishing Lee for his Yakubian trickery. It was a little more Martin then the Malcolm I was expecting.

ER: I thought this was decent, and I always like the "old gym shorts casual Lee challenge" idea. I thought it went a nearfall or two too long, and thought Lockhart moved back to offense pretty quick at the end, but I liked a lot of how they got to that point. The slow build was real good, and I dug the tentative grappling. I like the idea of Lee offering this guy a chance, and then kind of silently regretting doing so and turning up the heat. Him bending around Lockhart's arm and wrist was rough, thought the work from both around a Lockhart headlock was really good, and I love down the stretch when Lee uses the threat of a finger break to open up Lockhart to eat a low superkick. I wonder if Lee has witnessed how willy nilly and awful Marty Scurll's finger break spots are and actually thought of great ways to use them but not go through with them. His use here (and in the Otto Schwanz title match to prevent him breaking the crossface) were perfect. I thought they built to the big spots nicely, though I did think they took kickouts too far. Ending was really fun and tied back into Lee's pre-match promo talking about how he had been watching the Flair 30 for 30 earlier. By hook or by crook, Lee took the opening to betray Lockhart's trust and get the tap. I do wish Lockhart would have told him to fuck off after the match though.

ER: Sorry I've been slacking on these reviews, but we'll get back into the swing of them. This was a fun episode that for whatever reason took me ages to get through. That's on me. And Yah/Myk was really fun and could have finished well up our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List with a decisive finish, as it stands we're still throwing it on there, towards the bottom.