CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 134

Episode 134

ER: We get Pop-Up Video running throughout the episode, bringing me back to some Chikara tape I bought 15 years ago.

Mace Li vs. Jesse Adler

PAS: This match happened before Adler won the TV title, on the same show as Arik Royal v. Snooty Fox. These guys train together and clearly have some stuff worked out, but it is still the same Adler match which has been boring me for a couple of months now. He does some good bodypart selling, and if he could develop some decent offense he could do something with that, but as of now his TV title reign is dragging down the show each week.

ER: Yeah I'm beyond over this. Every freaking week with these Adler matches. That standing shooting star is easily one of the worst looking finishers in wrestling. There are plenty of guys doing the same kind of stuff, only gracefully executing it and landing it without looking like they're dragging themselves out of a creek. And that spinning back elbow/fist to the mid section has to go. I am so in the weeds on Adler.

Trevor Lee/Ric Converse vs. Lee Valiant/Aric Andrews

PAS This is an impromptu tag after Andrews interrupts a Lee promo. This is before the Andrew gimmick change, and I loved the sleazy Andrews and Valiant tag team. There is some fun crowd brawling to open including Lee dumping Valiant head first into a garbage can. Converse and Valiant have had a long history (one of the cool things about the pop up video gimmick is all of the history stuff, Valiant and Converse worked a one hour iron man!) and worked well with each other. Fun energetic tag with plenty of shtick.

ER: Man I miss bearded Andrews. It's cruel showing us this older match, with skeezy bearded Andrews, in his great team with Valiant. Man I'd love to see these two with the tag belts. But as cruel as it was, they could give me a hot 7 minute tag like this every week and I'd keep coming back for more. Valiant was awesome here, and he's a guy who needs to be featured more (and was clearly a bigger name in the "pre-TV" era of CWF). He knew just how to work to every age level of this hot Chapel Hill crowd, knew to comically kick his legs a bunch when Lee dumps him in a trash can as kids squeal with delight, but knows how to throw hard shots and bump big to get the adults into everything. Valiant takes a huge spill to the gym floor from the ring, and then gets awesome height on a big time Sky High from Converse, and really sticks himself on a DDT. Trevor Lee is in full gym shorts and tiny boots and I always like that Lee, and teaming with Converse is a natural fit. I second Phil with enjoying all the pop up history, really helps me fill in blanks and backstory. And finding out Lee was only 15 in 2009 made me feel old. as. hell.

Nick Iggy vs. Chet Sterling

PAS: This was fine, both guys are solid wrestlers, it was a bit hammy though. Iggy is a really expressive heel and Sterling is really expressive babyface and having two guys on 10 like that, got a little theatre kidish, I need one guy to play it a bit cool. I did enjoy the Pop Up Video run down of all of Iggy's terrible pun nicknames, Grin Balor? CM Hunk? Oof.

ER: I liked the running gag of half the match being taken up by Iggy's nicknames. And I really want to see Dandy Orton now. Just a foppish powder wig upper crust dandy, but with sinister date rape eyes. It would be difficult to pull off. Not many people have Orton's naturally rape-y brand of charisma, and of those people I'm sure even fewer of them would be caught dead in powder makeup, a trim blouson, or knickers. But it's right there for the taking. The Pop-Ups take a darker turn as they reveal that Iggy has an obsession with Jeffrey Dahmer, which is probably something to keep off your Tinder profile. You don't see Uber drivers listing Ted Bundy as someone they admire. The match itself I thought was good, really fun, and I didn't really notice a lot of the hammy aspects. Iggy takes a great DDT on a show where I thought Valiant was guaranteed to have taken the nastiest DDT, his fishhook camel clutch was nasty, and I thought Iggy especially was really lacing in shots down the stretch. I thought he looked great during the strike exchange, throwing a few different great strikes (nice big punch, sharp elbow, big slashing overhand chop), although Sterling has a habit of pulling away from his own strikes, whiffing on a couple of elbows that were meant to be cut-off spots, and holding back on a yakuza kick. Iggy was great at getting into people's faces, a gal who no sells him and a little kid that jumps, and we build to a great dive from Sterling that levels Iggy (after he had just bumped big to the floor) and threatens to crash into the front row, but damn if every person in CWF is great about keeping their fans safe. Fun match, fun concept show.