Big Time Wrestling 7/15/16 TV

Looks like more matches from their recent student show they did at their training facility.

1. "Zen Master" Zach Muir vs. Chico Navarro

Boy Navarro is really not good. He's easily the weakest guy that shows up on TV, really has some of the most non-committal offense I've ever seen. He stops short on everything, as if he had super strength and didn't want to risk hurting his opponent. Everything that requires him to run through a move sees him just stopping at the point of impact. Stops on shoulderblocks, makes clotheslines look awful, whiffs on stomach kicks, threw an elbow drop where he straightened his arm past his opponent, just stopping short on every one of his moves. Muir has an amusing Zen Master gimmick which is present when he locks on holds. His stand up wrestling doesn't seem any different, but when he locks on holds while doing yoga poses, that's an amusing heel gimmick. Doing a sun salutation while doing an abdominal stretch? I laughed. Still, Chico Navarro, man. Not only is he the worst guy in the fed, but naturally he's a guy who seems to be pushed in his matches. It's a problem.

2. Shotzi Blackheart & El Guerrero vs. Beatrice Domino & Shane Kody

Shortish, formula match with Guerrero and Shotzi cutting the ring off by picking on Domino, while announcers Hank Renner Jr. and Dragon Dave just act incessantly shocked that the heel Guerrero is choking Domino in a pro wrestling match. It was terrible. "I've never seen anything like this!" A wrestler being choked in a pro wrestling match very much seems like something you would see in a pro wrestling match. Domino seems tough. It did not seem shocking to see her fighting Guerrero, especially now that we're at the point where practically every indy in the country runs an intergender match on many of their cards. This was okay for what it was, though I wish that Shotzi and Guerrero had done more with Domino while they were keeping her from tagging in Kody. Kody at least for his part threw nice chops. But then couldn't have been more awkward taking a bump on a roll up that ended the match. Really the best part of the match was before it started, with Guerrero talking trash to the crowd and doing a big build up to removing his shirt. Shotzi and Guerrero had funny mannerisms while removing their respective shirt and jacket. Shotzi may be green (har har) but her heel mannerisms are developing nicely and she brings great energy.

3. Dylan Bostic vs. Kenny K

Fun 4 minute WorldWide match between a couple of guys who I don't believe are BTW regulars. Bostic does nice heel things that need to be done more, like palming faces during pins. Love stuff like that. Both guys did a lot of modern indy stuff. We got our share of backcrackers and face washes. But the pace was hot as they worked a short match so wanted to fit stuff in, and the early match face wash did lead to a fun spot down the stretch where Bostic kept luring K into missing running kicks into turnbuckles to gain an advantage. So yeah, Bostic did some nice heeling, big dropkick, nice kick to the back, K threw a nice corner dropkick, and this was short and to the point.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 6/17/16

1. Beatrice Domino vs. Lisa Lace (12/4/15)

Love Domino wearing a "Black Friday" shirt. Her gimmick is tough to pull off, as being a black crusader is a noble thing, but she acts like a heel, meaning it comes off like people are booing black lives matter, which is sticky. But this was a decent enough match, though the crack announce team was muddying the waters over who was the heel and who was the face, making things come off flat. Domino is kind of a complicated character to call anyway, and they always flop by having one of the commentators call her like comedy, which is just really annoying. But Lisa Lace was billed as being from another promotion, so part of the time they were treating her like an outsider, other times they were treating her like an underdog. They can be real bad. Lace is still inexperienced but working a lot, and her stiff disjointed nature kinda adds to matches. She has a good intensity and brings a little something extra than some other girls. Domino has some cool stuff, I liked her blocking a Lace roll up by stomping on her chest, and I'd really like to see more from both.

2. Zach Muir & Pitbull Wellman vs. Andre LeVeaux & Chico Navarro (5/13/16)

This is LeVeaux's first match, and kind of a tough call teaming him with Navarro, who has worked for years and often comes off untrained. Muir has an amusing heel gimmick as a zen master, so he has a bunch of fun holier than though ways to get out of moves, like an ultra cocky yoga teacher who specializes in hands-on guiding women students into tough poses. LeVeaux seemed fine, and Navarro looked better than normal at points, but I also don't think I've seen any wrestler throw worse stomps than Chico. They are impossibly embarrassing. Pitbull didn't do a whole lot and it was up to Muir to hold this short match together and he gamely tried, even taking a headscissors from a female valet. Short, not that good, but mostly inoffensive. They should really pick a different guy to feature every week than Chico Navarro, though, especially if they want to constantly talk about how they have the #1 training academy in the country.

3. Will Cuevas vs. Will Roberts (12/4/15)

Seeing guys like Navarro really makes you appreciate the polish that somebody like Will Cuevas brings to Bay Area wrestling. He feels like a guy who can get gigs around the country, has a good look and a nice moveset. Roberts is pretty new but looks good, although they looked best here when they weren't doing obviously planned sequences. All of the reversal stuff looked overly rehearsed and it was better when they kept things simple. Cuevas at one point hits a neat knee to the face, but it hardly gets sold by Roberts because it came in the middle of a planned reversal sequence. I hate that kind of stuff. But Cuevas hits simple things well, like nice forearms, a real good vertical suplex, nie headlocks, nice basics. But that temptation to do more complicated stuff is always there...

Kind of a nothing show this week with three short matches. Three 6 minute matches isn't very satisfying as nobody in the fed has the skills to work a real expert 6 minute WorldWide match, so you're just kind of left with short unsatisfying work. Plus Hank Ranner Jr. is just really bad. His announce schtick appears to be a guy in his 30s working as if he were a 65 year old sports pro. The pork pie hat, plaid sports coats and faux exasperation just scream hack.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 5/6/16

Local Bay Area fed Big Time Wrestling started popping up on local TV a couple weeks ago, and I've been meaning to check out their show. Finally remembered to set my DVR (5 AM on Friday mornings!) so let's see what they have to offer.

1. Classic Connection (Levi Shapiro & Buddy Royal) vs. Chaos Inc. (Tony Vargas & Synn) (12/4/15)

This was really good, and a great way to dive into their TV. Vargas was the only guy I was unfamiliar with. Synn looks like a taller, fatter B-Boy. Shapiro and Royal have been working as the Classic Connection for many years, but really seem to be peaking as a team. Chaos worked over Shapiro to start and Shapiro was good bumping around for them, with the best part being Shapiro getting tied in the ropes and getting blasted by a Synn lariat. Shapiro took it great, with his arms tied behind him, and ended up falling back into the ring in a great Terry Funk-like way. But things got really good when the Classic isolated Vargas and began working over his knee. It started simply enough with Shapiro tagging out and holding onto Vargas' leg while Royal dropped a knee on it, but then there were all sorts of low kicks, shoulder tackles, and a brutal spot where Royal gets bodyslammed onto Vargas' prone knee. Vargas was good selling the leg, doing a great fall down on a rope running spot, and him fighting back against the Classics was good. One spot I had to rewind as Royal is setting up a figure 4 near the ropes, and Vargas pushes him off with his good leg, and Royal gets launched over the top to the floor. Great looking spot. Royal gets more bonus points as back in he puts the figure 4 on the proper leg. We build to the hot tag and Shapiro tosses powder in Synn's eyes and hits a superkick. Classics set up a superplex spot with Shapiro aiming to suplex Royal onto Synn, but Synn moves and hits a splash for the win. This was a really good tag with Synn being the only weak point. He looked fine in the first couple minutes, but looked tentative and off on his hot tag, then hit a real weak standing splash for the pinfall. I really liked this tag, really want to see more Classic Connection. This was easily my favorite match of theirs.

2. Shane Kody, Mike Matthews & Chico Navarro vs. Ballard Bros. & El Guerrero (1/22/16)

Oof this one was bad. Ballards looked fine and I liked a couple of Matthews' exchanges, but everybody else looked bad. Chico Navarro has been working in BTW for a decade and looks completely untrained. I mean, right down there with the worst worker you've ever seen on any wrestling show. He's only in for a minute or so, but it's not too hard to imagine any fan from the crowd stepping into the ring and doing at least as well. He has no clue how to position himself, no clue what to do between "moves" other than stand there going "come on, come on", and nothing he does resembles something a pro wrestler might do. Just brutal. Kody is in his early 50s and can't do  much more than throw bad punches and slaps. He is the spitting image of current Jim Duggan, though I'd much rather see current Duggan in the ring.  Guerrero wears athletic shoes and basketball shorts, and does nothing athletic in the ring. He and Kody had a "throwdown" at one point where they I believe were attempting to exchange punches or...something. Looked like two guys leaning against each other waving their arms towards the others' face. Luckily Shannon Ballard works most of this. The commentary crew kept acting as if it were impossible to tell the Ballards apart, even though Shane is a good 30 lb. more than Shannon at this point. But the Ballards did the best with what was available, but man was there nothing at all available. I cannot understand a fed putting someone like Chico Navarro on TV.

This is the third episode, and what a mixed bag it was! A tag I really really liked, and a really bad 6 man tag. However, I did like how they made use of their TV time. A year or two ago when Pro Wrestling Revolution ran TV, it was the most poorly managed wrestling show possible. They would show full ring entrances, really long, bad promo segments that are at best amusing to the crowd there live, and just stretch 10 minutes matches out to fill 30 minutes. It was a mostly embarrassing wrestling presentation. This was a show that was at least clearly edited for max TV exposure. They fit two long matches into the airtime by cutting right to the opening bell and cutting away right after a match would finish. No wasted time. Ring entrances are completely pointless on a show like this, ad BTW gets it. Let the commentary crew explain who is in the match. They also wisely ran upcoming show announcements in a runner at the bottom of the screen. That's way more efficient and doesn't cut away from any ring time. The audio commentary is poorly recorded, but that's the case with most indy wrestling so judging it as bad as it seems. The main commentator was not good, but at least sounded like a professional.

Overall it's an easily digestible half hour of local wrestling television, and I'll definitely come back for more.

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