CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 151

Episode 151

Aric Andrews vs. Matt Houston

ER: I'm all for Houston getting some TV singles matches, just as I'm all for Andrews now that he has facial hair again. Houston is a 0.4 on the "Dick Murdoch abilities" scale, but a 0.8 on the "Dick Murdoch physical likeness" scale. And that's a pretty decent combo. He gets a lot of room to work opposite Andrews, Andrews is a little like Stevie Richards, tall and lanky and without a lot of offense. So Houston gets to show off his surprising agility spots, hits a gorgeous heavy dropkick, drops both atomic drop varieties (atomic drops are missing from wrestling today, and that's a shame as it also robs us of atomic drop selling), and misses a guillotine legdrop with conviction. I liked Andrews going after the leg, whipping it into the mat, yanking on it, hyperextending it with some stump puller type moves, working a long compelling figure 4 with a nice simple reversal moment that fans universally get behind. Houston has these great skinny white legs, looking like a million dads at a million summer cookouts, and Andrews hits a whale of a mule kick low to end this cookout. I'd love to see more Houston in the Sportatorium, and Andrews has purpose again.

PAS: Glad to see Andrews back looking like a total sleaze, he is really good, doesn't have a lot of fancy offense, but everything he does looks good. This is the most I have enjoyed Houston, tubby guy with a good right hand is right up my alley and I loved his pair of atomic drops. Andrews is really good at using his length as an attack, everything is thrown from distance, and his figure four looks great with such long legs. Short match, but very entertaining, CWF really knows how to run undercards.

John Skyler vs. Trevor Lee

ER: I've been a big fan of the Trevor Lee title run. Eight of his title matches landed on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List, three of them in the top 20. And this match had me hooked, as I actually thought there was a chance that Skyler could win the belt. I'm not sure the last time I actually thought there was a chance Lee would lose the belt. Maybe the 2017 CWF Rumble? If not that, probably the Nick Richards match from June 2017. I've loved a lot of matches that weren't those matches, but I never thought Lee was losing the title. And after this match I don't see him losing the title. It seems more likely now that they retire this specific title if he ever opts to sign elsewhere, and rename it the Trevor Lee Title, or that he loses it in an Ogawa/Akiyama way to someone like Cain Justice. They've now built up this potential moment for so long, that I think my interest peaked and has since been dipping. I'm sure the right contender would get me interested in a big title fight, but this was the first match where I got Hulk Hogan vibes out of Lee, where you can do all the damage you want, but at some point he's just going to get up, superkick, finger break, and STF you.

I really loved the first 2/3 of this, with Skyler stalling, being the first to strike (and then amusingly rolling to the floor) but building to a strong, focused attack on Lee's ribs. Skyler had a bunch of great stuff focused right at Lee's midsection, and I love a heel with a nice focused body part specific attack, with also a couple of moves that can be established and reversed later. He hits a couple of his big spears, dropped these cool falling headbutts into Lee's side, great kitchen sink knee to the guts, kneedrops to the ribs, heavy senton, a couple of brutal Finlay rolls, and a Boston crab that made my back sore. Just a nonstop centered attack that gave Lee a couple openings (catching a spear, shifting position to catch an armbar on a senton attempt), but Skyler would go right back on the attack. But at a certain point I think my core hurt more from watching Skyler's attack than it actually hurt Lee. I don't think Lee did a great job of putting over the damage that was being done. Once we were through the targeted body attack portion and moved into the "big moments" (ref Charles eating a punt, big belt shot from Sklyer) portion of the match, there was just no service of any kind paid to it. As I was enjoying all the body work done by Skyler, not only was I thinking a Lee loss was possible, but I was excited for all the neat stuff they could do with Lee winning with an injured core. I was excited for Lee locking on the STF, or an armbar, but not being able to hold it because his core couldn't stay flexed long enough to get Skyler to tap. I always love a match where someone with established moves and killshots, suddenly has to find new ways to win when those are taken away from him. But those tools never really felt like they were taken away, we just hit a point where it was in homestretch Lee mode. There were still engaging moments down the stretch, and finish was clever and well executed, with Skyler aiming for a belt shot, eating a drop toehold, hitting his face on the belt, allowing Lee to lock on a painful as hell Regal stretch. But the danger of the opening 2/3 was gone, the match that was looking potentially special was turned into something more expected. For a 42 minute investment, I was hoping for special, and it looked like we were really getting special.

PAS: I liked this a lot more then Eric, I thought all of the early work was interesting and they did some very cool reversals. Loved Lee countering the Senton with an armbar, countering the second spear with a brutal knee, and kicking out the back of Skyler's knees and locking on a sleeper hold. I think Eric is booking a match in his head that wasn't on the screen, Skyler worked the body over to tire out Lee, take his wind from him, just like a fighter will bank body shots for later. Lee sold fatigue fine, but there was never any cracked rib selling he ignored later. This was more a traditional long heavyweight title match, then a match built around body part selling (outside of the vicious late match arm attack which Skyler sold great.) The elbow stomp and finger break is so nasty, it seems so unnecessary when Lee does it against Donnie Dollars or Ethan Sharpe, I like him breaking it out in a desperation flurry during a match he is losing. I thought the couple of near falls on Lee were really good, he will lose this belt eventually, and the ref bump, belt shot STF KO seemed like a plausible way, and I thought Lee's desperation roll through was really cool. I didn't love Skyler going back to the belt in front of the ref like that, but that final Regal stretch was epically painful looking, Lee is one of the better stretchers around. I think they could have easily shaved 10 minutes or so from this, but I thought overall this was very good.

PAS: We are going to throw the Lee vs. Skyler match on our 2018 MOTY List, and we are back on our CWF grind.