CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 127

Episode 127

1. Dirty Daddy vs. Cain Justice

ER: Cain comes out with Young Boys! Really, just make Cain the punk leader of a dojo and watch them lay waste to CWF. Gi entrance with Young Boys, match was already 7 stars before the bell. These two obviously always match up well, and this is their final match over the RGL title. These two are always on top of each other, never letting up, and know each other's next move. There's a lot of that in wrestling, but these two actually know how to keep it tight and not spiral into a self-conscious epic. The matches are always 10 minutes or under, and they know how to craft cool little sagas in that time. There has never been one whisper of overkill with these two. Here they break out some things that are tired indy tropes at this point, and make them actually work, like that running back and forth buckle to buckle routine: Dirty was dishing it to Cain in the corner, landed a few shots, went to get a running start and as he turned around Cain was running it to blast him. Usually that spot just looks like guys running back and forth because that was the plan and it looks kewl. Daddy went for the twist ending submission, failed quick, and never went back to it. That's smart, and a cool touch to these matches where guys constantly go for their opponent's finisher. Daddy's elbow shots all looked good, and I love how he mixed up their landing spot, working the jaw and the back. Cecil Scott was great on commentary bringing up a Cain back injury, nothing overblown, but mentioning that he's definitely dealing with an injury; Daddy goes after the back and Cain sells it like a guy who slept wrong and has been dealing with picking things up off the floor differently the last couple weeks. It's enough to make me buy that Cain's reaction time was slowed just enough to have lesser reaction time, and lent credence to Daddy's two vertical suplex/brainbusters as the finish. My only (minor) complaint was that this was a blowoff, and didn't really feel like a blowoff. It just felt like another one of their very good matches. I'm okay with that, but it would have been elevated anymore if it felt like something major was at stake.

PAS: It is amazing how these guys can do stuff I would normally hate, and I enjoy here. There is nothing more tired in indy wrestling then an elbow exchange, here they vary the speed and force nicely and end with Daddy landing body shots and Cain cleaning his clock with a front kick, took a cliche and mixed it up just enough. These guy know how to add just a little spice to a basic match.

I loved their work on the flood with Cain trying to smash Dirty's arm into the ring post (even kissing the post before the slam which is a beautiful bit of wrestling assholeness), Dirty blocks it once, Cain yells "Gimmie that arm" Dirty blocks it again, and smashes Cain spine first into the ringpost, setting the bad back story for the rest of the match. I slept weird on my back last week, so I feel Cain's suffering as he tries to work through a tender back. I loved how he hit the TBD (which should be a kill move in any fed, but especially here) and how the back wouldn't let him pin him quick, spamming that move was my only complaint in their Battlecade match and I liked how they dealt with it here. I agree that the finish felt a little weak for the end of a feud. I thought Cain did an awesome job selling fatigue, but the two brainbusters weren't brutal enough to close out the feud. Still a hell of match, and if they keep these guys apart for a while, I can imagine their match over the Mid-Atlantic title is going to be awesome.

2. Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Frankie Flynn vs. Ian Maxwell/KL3/Bobby Ballentyne

PAS: Kind of a messy trios match. A lot of the RGL stuff I have really liked, and AIW's kids 10 man is one of my favorite matches of the year, but the flip side with young wrestlers is that sometimes things won't click. Everyone seemed off here Maxwell slipped off the top rope, Dr. Dan nearly killed him with a botched finisher, some of the rope running was hinky. I continue to like Flynn as he might have been the smoothest guy in the match.

ER: That's funny, as outside of Maxwell's slip on the ropes I thought this was really good, especially for a quick trios. I thought it was one of the better Sharpe performances, and it feels like we've been saying that a lot over the last couple months. He had a bunch of big strikes that all landed great: his standing clothesline had tons of power for something that's basically all upper body, his sliding lariat looked good, real nice shotei, and bumped big for Ballentyne. Ballentyne didn't look good in his other CWF appearance, and looked much better here. His flying back elbow reminded me of Corey Edsel (but Ballentyne will need another 100 lb. before it looks that good). Flynn is good at working fast ropes exchanges, a good guy to be opposite someone like Maxwell. I didn't like a lot of Maxwell's stuff in here (seemed too focused on the dance rather than the contact) but I get the sense that it wouldn't have looked even as good as it did without Flynn opposite him. Rockingham's finish was probably supposed to be a backbreaker, but he straightened his leg so it just looked like a weird Dr. Bomb. And the man is a fucking doctor, why isn't he just using a Dr. Bomb? The move that looked like it should have put Maxwell in traction was the lawn dart he gave him to the middle rope, the angle and landing looked gross. Really, outside of the springboard slip (which was passed by easier than normal since it came at a point where everybody was gonna fill the ring anyway) and the Classic Indy Match Finisher ("I don't know what it was, but it may have been botched, and both men may have gotten hurt") I really liked this.

3. Sandwich Squad vs. Zane & Dave Dawson

ER: A match that I think worked a bit better as a concept than it did in execution. The Squad wait by the lobby curtain to jump the Dawsons, but the Dawsons sneak in from behind and just waste Mecha with a chairshot. Biggs has to go it alone, and I like how seriously they treated the chairshot. It appeared to be safely delivered to Mecha's (very broad) back, but it was treated like a huge deal. Cecil and Stutts turned in another good show talking about how Biggs has noticeably lost weight over the last several months, and how he might not have the strength to go it alone for very long against the Dawsons. Biggs is good in this, especially liked his big full arm shots to the gut. Dawsons (specifically Dave) can be lazy on strikes and missed clotheslines, and there is that, but the match progressed nicely thanks to Biggs' selling. Mecha coming back was the big moment of course, and I thought his selling was great throughout, hitting some big moves and swinging his clubbing arms, and always showing how his neck was affecting him. I was into it. But I thought the ending was a total flop, manufacturing what felt like phony drama wrapped around a rarely enforced rule. Zane and Biggs are down, ref is counting them both down, Biggs is crawling towards Zane to pin him...but the ref counts to 10 and that's the match. It felt pretty damn stupid to count a guy down who was actively crawling towards his opponent to pin him. I've never seen that in a match before, and it immediately became apparent why. It felt cheap, and this fed is way better than cheap.

PAS: That chair shot at the beginning of the match was super nasty, I loved how the back of the chair flew off when it landed. ECW et al have desensitized me a bit to chair shots, but that one felt like it should have felled a giant man like that for the entire match. I thought the match was really made with Biggs and Mecha's selling, as both guys really felt like they were gutting their way through a war. I loved the huge superplex as a double knock out spot. I agree the crawling count out seemed weird. Still that is the rule, if you aren't on your feet by 10 you get counted out, I certainly didn't hate it as much as Eric, and thought it was a semi-clever BS finish. I am still waiting for a Dawsons v. Sandwich Squad match to blow me away, it is always slightly worse then it feels on paper.

4. Aric Andrews vs. Jesse Adler

ER: Whoa, this was not what I was expecting. I am mostly unfamiliar with Adler, only knowing what the announcers tell me and what I saw from him in his return a couple weeks ago (which I didn't care for). So my gut reaction is that I really don't like this move. I guess I'm always more of a fan of a heel champ with a strong babyface chasing him, and in one episode we just shifted to the three singles titles all being held by babyfaces. I'm really bummed, just because I really liked both Justice and Andrews lording those belts over people. Obviously you can't keep everyone champ forever, but I really liked the dynamic we had. Based on the match I've seen, there are a few guys in this fed (and tons more throughout the rest of indy wrestling) who do Adler's style better than Adler, and I'm not exactly going out of my way to seek out more of that style match. These title changes really feel like they could completely change the tone of the program going forward, in a way I'm not as excited for. Obviously it opens up more challengers, but I'm knocked down a peg at the end of the episode. My favorite moment was Cecil Scott calling Lee Valiant a bag of piss.

PAS: Yeah I am out on this, Andrews and Valiant are a great act with the belt, and Adler doesn't show me much. Both of his big highflying moves didn't look that great and highflying babyface is a completely over done act.  I mean this fed still books Andrew Everett, and Adler's stuff doesn't even come close to what Everett can do. Maybe if I see more Adler, I'll learn to like him, but this fell completely flat for me.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 123

Episode 123

1. Joshua Cutshall vs. Aric Andrews

PAS: This was very fun. It is basically a battle between a pair of Justified villains, with Cutshall being the crazy cousin that keeps taunting Raylan and imperiling their gun running operation. This is a pair of long lanky hard hitting dudes pounding on each other. I really like Cutshalls jump kick and his slappy right hands, while Andrews has more of downward fist punch, both are really effective looking shots. Nifty finish too with the despicable Lee Valiant loading Andrews elbow pad and Andrews KO's the KO master with Cutshalls own elbow smash

ER: Phil crushed it with his new Justified villains storyline, and really there are probably more people than not in this fed who come off like tertiary Justified characters. And that's obviously a great thing. Really we could probably do a post titled Justifying CWF Mid-Atlantic and flesh out the entire eastern Kentucky area with the whole roster. Logan Easton Laroux would be a local Todd Chrisley real estate metrosexual, Michael McCallister feels like someone who would work at the police station bagging evidence and making people sign the check out sheet,  Slade Porter can be a guy who gets robbed  while trying to buy weed for friends. It's a post that can happen. And there's a reason we've written up 37 episodes of TV and have no intentions to stop, because we dig this show. Shoot we've even talked about going back and cherry picking earlier episodes.

Andrews works such a simple, toned down style, and a guy like Cutshall complements that nicely with crazy. I like Cutshall's strikes, and like how his elbow is portrayed as a big deal, and how Andrews had it scouted. It still leaves openings for him to be surprised (like by that great legdrop lariat, a move I really love). Valiant has been great as Andrews' second, and when was the last time you saw an honest to god loaded elbow pad? I'd love to see the rematch that this clearly sets up, and post match the fans alert the ref that chicanery had gone on (and that woman who blasted the Dawsons with her nachos is yelling the loudest. How long until that woman is brought in as Rob McBride's Sapphire-esque manager, White Gold?), but that elbow pad is empty! It's really hit me the last couple episodes, filled with Andrews and Lee matches, just how big a deal these titles in CWF come off to me. I don't remember the last time I watched a fed and actually cared about the belts (probably not since I was 10 or 11 and would draw the WWF champs in my notebook. I wonder if my notebook with Money Inc. drawings is somewhere at my folks' house). But Phil and I have been watching since late 2016 and only the tag belts have changed hands, and among Lee, Andrews and Justice you have three guys in the middle of awesome title runs. A true testament to this promotion and their talent that they got someone like me to actively care about wins and losses and title shots and title defenses in 2017.

2. Bobby Ballentyne vs. Michael McAllister
PAS: This is McAllister's first redemption match since losing his HIM mask, and was a fine short big guys hit each other scrap. Ballentyne is a guy they brought in from the Charlotte scene, and they might have been better off using a student. Ballentyne kind of wanted to shoehorn some of his shtick in what was basically a short squash.

ER: Yeah I'm not sure what Ballentyne's shtick was even supposed to be. At one point he kind of dropped McCallister on a sloppy bodyslam and then just looked up and shrugged. C-Student Bobby Ballentyne? 75% Bobby Ballentyne? But I liked him getting hit by McCallister. This was easily my favorite stuff from McCallister since we've been watching. He throws nice punches right at his eye level, cracked Ballentyne with a shot to the back of the neck, threw a nice fast elbow drop, and I liked the no-knee atomic drop (just dropping Ballentyne butt first on the mat). CWF treats its veterans properly and uses them properly, so I'm curious to see more of him (minimal pun intended).

3. Mike Mars vs. Number Boy

PAS: This was the right kind of squash. Mars throws Number Boy around and he lands in painful looking ways. Mars pop up headbutt is pretty nasty looking and a fun variation on a really popular wrestling set up. I like that Number Boy's only offense is the punches in the corner, counting gives him power.

ER: I think I actually liked Mars more in that brief 6 man tag a couple weeks back. I think some big guys work better matches against big guys, other impressive squash match workers aren't as compelling against guys their size. Mars looked totally fine in this squash, but I think he looked better against the big dudes that were in that match. Maybe he plays up to the opponent? Tough to tell with just two quick looks at him. I thought Number Boy's standing punches looked good, and not to stomp all over Phil's (funny) joke, but he also had numerous dropkicks. The pop up headbutt from Mars was unexpected, I was just expecting a flapjack or something. A headbutt will always add intrigue. Also, part of me hopes that Number Man became Number Boy, and soon Number Boy will beget Number Child with his choice of Number Partner.

4. Logan Easton Laroux vs. Tracer X

PAS: Ultra J titles is sort of the CWF Worldwide version of the X Division so we get some indy style juniors matches. Not my favorite style of work, but this was a fine version of it. X is a really good athlete and has some fun fancy offense, I liked his diving into the ring version of the stroke, shocking no one every used that in WCW back when every third guys finisher was a facebuster. Finish was clever with Laroux sneaking in an un foul while the ref wasn't looking. I appreciate he is bringing in some dirtbag cheating into the spotfests.

ER: I thought this was an okay match with a great finish, and probably another new peak for the Laroux character. I thought he was great in the culmination of the Smith Garrett angle (which, no matter how much the angle itself might have made your head hurt the longer you thought about it, also featured far and away Garrett's best character work) and here - as Phil said - someone is finally bringing dirtbag cheating to spotfests. And, importantly, it's not in a winky funny "cool heel" way. Laroux isn't out there to be liked by the fans, and that goes a long way for him. The match was what it was: some of the exchanges were cool, the dance-y stuff looked dance-y (getting tired of the "kick a guy to perfectly spin him into position for him to throw an elbow, which spins you into the perfect position to land a spinning heel kick" kind of stuff). X is very quick and moves impressively (his cartwheel out of a wristlock was awesome) but sometimes gets too far ahead of himself with this athleticism, focusing more on his landings than the actual move he's doing; so he'll do a cool wipeout on an elbow, mostly whiff on the elbow, but the wipeout will look cool. BUT, we had that great finish, with Tracer hitting a nice high kick from the apron and Laroux stumbling behind the referee before slyly booting Tracer right in the balls as he was getting back in the ring. The timing and execution were great, and I loved the way Laroux smugly left the ring, took off his wrist tape and tossed the crumpled tape aside without even looking where or who he was throwing it to, and walking off with his belt.

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