CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 144

Episode 144

Cain Justice vs. Ian Maxwell

PAS: Cain is really great at working with greenish guys and working around their limitations, it is the thing that is most impressive about him being a rookie himself. Maxwell has some fun highspots, and Justice is great at filling in the middle parts of the match around them. I loved his fake knee injury, and how it played off of the Battle Royal. I also liked how he used the ref to distract Maxwell a couple of times, including the awesome finish were he maneuvered the ref in between him and Maxwell who was perched on the top rope. When Maxwell finally dove, Justice snatched him out of the air with a cross armbreaker.

ER: This was a cool twist on the modern indy workrate match, with Cain constantly - awesomely - throwing a wrench into typical modern workrate moments. Every time it would threaten to devolve into This Is Awesome, Cain would just wash to the floor, jaw with fans, sip hilariously from a water bottle, stall, and generally just upset the rhythm. That style works great when you have a great worker upsetting rhythm. Modern indy workrate comes off too much like swing dancing big band, and you need an upsetter to introduce people to the irregular phrases and angular melodies found in bop. Cain as Thelonious Monk? I thought they hit the first armbar spot too long, as I never like when somebody is just able to casually survive in a Cain Justice submission, it does them a big disservice. This one was even weirder as Cain had a fully extended armbar and was looking to KO Maxwell with heel kicks, and with the armbar still extended they do a raise/drop the arm spot. That's weird. Maxwell doesn't pay attention to the arm again even though he was locked in the armbar for 30 seconds. But I liked the rest of this, always like how active Cain is during simple lockups and go behinds, reaching back between his legs for something, looking for hammerlock openings, grabbing for headlocks, punching Maxwell in the hamstring, etc. His elbows land so damn hard, short staccato bursts, and I like the offbeat timing he brings to the standing exchange. Nobody should get excited for back and forth match for match exchanges anymore. They're dull. So once this one starts, I appreciate them mixing it up and not robotically trading elbows. They brought kicks, elbows, a superman punch, and more, a nice variety that was offbeat and welcome. Maxwell has some smooth stuff, really liked his leaping rana, and he has nice timing on his enziguiris. I agree with Phil on how cool the finish was. There were a lot of moving parts, and it was still able to come off naturally, the somersault leap into the armbar was precise and looked great, really fun match.

Mace Li vs. Kool Jay

ER: I liked this one too, although I don't love an overuse of "I kick you and it causes you to stumble, and you sell on your feet until I get up, then you kick me" in a match, I thought they handled a lot of things nicely. I still can't really get a good read on Mace Li, even though he's popped up regularly over the last 4 months. Within a match he'll do some things I really like, here he throws a really great shoulderblock and an awesome missed elbowdrop, really sticking the point of his elbow, and late in the match he planted himself on a DDT; but then he'll do some annoying or lazy things, like a slo mo missed clothesline to get into position for the next bit of offense. But overall I liked him here more than I've liked him in other matches. I am still not over how they handled the Kool Jay RGL title win. It makes no sense to me. Kool Jay now acts like an established fighting champion, and I didn't even get to see him fight for his title win. It is not sitting well with me. It feels like we missed 70% of his story. I think CWF has been mostly really good about working people up and down the card, but Kool Jay already getting a title feels like I just skipped 4 months of TV. And I'm still adjusting to him getting a lot of offense, and I do still think he's a more interesting wrestling working from behind than working even. But I liked his body shot combo in the ropes, and his DDTs go down with a nice snap, so he's still going to be a guy I get interested in seeing. I just feel a little robbed.

PAS: I agree with the silliness of not showing Jay win the title, I do enjoy him as champ though. He has a nice arsenal of little guy spinning offense. I really liked his jumping complete shot and his DDT. Mace has some fun shtick although he definitely still looks a little tentative when he applies moves. The All Stars are a great act and you can pretty much slot in anyone around Jerry Carrey and the Coach and have it be entertaining. 

Faye Jackson/Aaron Biggs vs. Zane & Dave Dawson

ER: This was so-so, but I thought the Dawsons did well to put the whole thing over. Faye Jackson is fun and I like her vibe, like the big butt attacks and her rolling cannonball, but I don't think it really works with these guys. It doesn't help that she appears to gas out pretty hard at the end, taking a long time to leap into a sunset flip and then taking even longer to ready a chairshot after the match. Obviously I miss the Sandwich Squad, and Mecha was my favorite part of that team, but Biggs still brings value on his own. I won't ever get tired of a huge guy doing splashes and avalanches. But the Dawsons held this together, Dave especially was really mean to Faye, hitting a big dropkick under her chin (I liked her sell of it) and pulling on her hair while taunting her in a chinlock. I like the Dawsons cheating to win because basically why not, but they should also work a little harder to make their tag champs look like they deserve to be tag champs. It seems like every single makeshift team takes them to the limit.

PAS: Faye does have really fun offense, although she might be best used as a face manager who comes into hit some spots, kind of like Que Monito. I do love her rolling cannonballs. Biggs is fine, but I am not sure if he is ready to be the A1 in a tag team, he is a little like a good secondary scorer who has to take the majority of the shots when the star player leaves. He may get there, but I am not sure he is there yet. Dawsons were fun in this as dick heads, I loved the taunting of Biggs with the EAT chants, and Dave blocking the low bridge attempt by punching Faye in the face was great.

Chet Sterling vs. John Skyler

ER: I was skeptical when I saw the episode still had 25 minutes left, and didn't think these two could stretch things out that long without me getting restless and wanting the match to end. But I really liked this and came away impressed with how they used the 25 minutes. It was simple stuff but paced well and paid off nicely, with Skyler stalling to start, eventually attacking Sterling's ribs, removing a turnbuckle pad early, and that pad and the early rib work leading to the finish. It's all very satisfying, linear stuff. But what put it over for me is how much the fans in the Sportatorium love Chet Sterling. I was a slow convert on Sterling. We've probably seen 20 Sterling matches now, and it's been a slow burn. I did not like him on first watch, slowly accepted that he was decent in trios, slowly accepted he was good as the Ricky Morton in a tag, finally became a singles match convert after the Royal match, and now I enjoy Chet Sterling. Hearing the fans (and especially all the screaming kids) cheering for him when Skyler was beating him down really made the match. We have so many 25 minute matches where the guys are going to do their match no matter the reaction, and while this didn't feel like the crowd was dictating the pace of the match, it did feel like these two knew exactly what kind of match to give them. The rib work was set up nicely, with simple things like Skyler smashing Sterling ribs first into the apron, or hitting a fat senton, on up to bigger things like Sterling going for a crossbody but landing on Skyler's knee. Sterling's comebacks are good in tag matches, and it was good here. He throws his hot comeback punches from the same arm slot as Lawler's comeback punches. They aren't as good as Lawler's, but that's not a very fair expectation, because Sterling has great babyface punches. They do several moments that are hard to naturally pull off, where Skyler keeps missing offense while Sterling keeps moving out of the way, too tired to counter with anything of his own. The misses usually look hokey but Skyler did them well, especially crashing into the buckles chest first. The end pays off the early work nicely, with Attitude knocking Sterling off the top rope, making him fall on the exposed buckle, leading to Skyler planting him with the Finlay Roll off the middle rope. I got similar vibes during this match as I got during the Foxx/Royal Chapel Hill match, just a hot crowd rooting for their babyface as fans of the hero, not fans of "This is awesome".

PAS: I thought this was a heck of Skyler performance. I loved all of his shtick early in the match, stalling, demanding time outs, begging off, and then flipping the switch when he got an advantage. I loved him catching Sterlings dive with a stomach buster and then just pounding on him with head and body shots. Skyler was really focused on the ribs and small of the back in an entertaining way and they timed Sterlings comebacks really well to keep the crowd engaged. Timing comebacks is a really important part of a traditional face vs. heel match, wait too long and the match just drags and feels too one sided (This was the fatal flaw in the Wrestlemania main event), go too early and it is just a your turn, my turn match with no selling and it doesn't allow the crowd to pop at the comebacks. I don't love Sterling's 1997 ECWA offense, but it was timed great. Finish was awesome too, with Chekov's exposed bolt coming into play perfectly, we get some classic dickhead Brad Attitude and a great second rope Finlay roll for the pin.

PAS: Pretty good show, with everything getting a thumbs up and Skyler vs. Sterling making our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. 

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 126

Episode 126

1. Cain Justice/Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Dirty Daddy/Faye Jackson

PAS: Faye Jackson is a thick African American lady who works the thickness into her style. Early in she is kind of toying with Sharpe until he loses it and slaps her, I really like how Sharpe has been slowly getting meaner every week, and loved how Dirty Daddy went ballistic and started kicking his ass. This was primarily another showcase for the great Daddy v. Cain feud, and although they didn't have a ton of interactions, they were all great. I imagine the next week is their final singles for quite a while, and when they pick the feud back up in a year or two (maybe over the CWF title?) it will be epic stuff. Two intergender matches is two weeks is a little much, although I liked Jackson more then Alley Cat

ER: I like how Phil still hasn't noticed that Allie Cat is a pun name. Really Cat just needs to find a partner like Faye Jackson who can go by the name Junkyard Dawn and I'd happily seek out their tag matches. This match was a real good time, with comedy used the right amount and nicely balanced out by fast, heavy work. A few months ago Sharpe the whole match would have just been based around Sharpe going googly eyed every time his face would up in either sets of Faye's cleavage. This was a much more satisfying version of what could have been. With her assets you KNOW Faye is going to bring some butt offense, and it looks good, dropping that bombs away and really snapping that running hip attack in the corner. And I chuckled at Cecil Scott's "down with the thiccness" line. That's a t-shirt right there. I love the build to Sharpe snapping and just belting Faye with a huge chop, leading to a righteously pissed Daddy tagging his way in. Sharpe/Cain's interactions with Daddy were all good, with Cain dropping stomps and knees on Daddy's limbs, and Sharpe doing a nice necktie neckbreaker, a simple, cool move that looks like it could hurt the neck and the shoulder. Daddy's fiery comebacks are some of the best, and I love him flying into Sharpe with a headlock takeover that cared more about doing damage than looking pretty. His elbows down the stretch were suitably hard, you can buy each guy getting stunned by them. Real fun tag, obviously cannot wait for the singles blowoff.

2. Joshua Cutshall/Otto Schwanz vs. Sandwich Squad 

PAS: Really disappointing match. On paper this should be a blast, four big dudes smacking the crap out of each other is smack dab in the Segunda Caida wheelhouse. This however was mostly booking with Cutshall attacking his own partner, it seemed like he was working almost a Missing Link "doesn't understand wrestling" gimmick, which is sort of silly and something he doesn't need. I think Schwanz v. Cutshall could be great, but we could have gotten a good match and a post match angle to set that up, instead we got this waste of potential.

ER: Yeah this was a downer, and Phil is right that we could have at least gotten a good match that deteriorated at the end and blew up post match, instead of what we got. This on paper looks like a match that Segunda Caida would book, and those hurt the most when they end up wildly undershooting their mark. Cutshall as a guy who doesn't comprehend tag team wrestling is a bit much since we've seen him in plenty of actual matches where he clearly understands the rules. I'll give them some leeway, as they've earned it, and maybe it will eventually break down that he doesn't understand the concept of trusting another man and therefore thinks every tag match is just a 4 way. But I'm sure there are also tons of tags that he's performed normally in that I haven't seen. But they could go deep with this, explore his history of abuse that lead to his personality and his distrust, opening the doors for a face turn when someone actually reaches out and gets to the heart of his problems, allowing him to trust society again. That's probably a bit too heady for a pro wrestling show, but I'd have confidence in them pulling it off. I felt sorry for Biggs in this one, as he had the tough task of having to sell for an extended length of time while all the partner fighting unfolded, despite him not having taken much of a beating. I was hoping for a lot more from this, but we'll see where it winds up.

3. High Profile (Shea Shea McGrady/Will Demented) vs. The Gymnasty Boys (White Mike Jordan /Timmy Lou Retton) vs. The Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy)

PAS: I totally loved this, it was just a balls to the wall crazy guy sprint, nobody outstayed their welcome, the big spots were big ass spots and everything was hit cleanly. First time I have seen the Gymnasty Boys and they are fun as shit. White Mike is great of course, and surprisingly at home in this kind of high difficulty spotfest, Retton is a big dude and insanely agile, he looks like a smaller Big E, but can flip like Red. I had never even heard of High Profile, but I dug them too, they look like Harmony Korine characters, and take crazy bumps. White Mike hits the best can opener I have ever seen on Shea Shea, who is 130 at most and thus really gets spun . Ducks are of course bumping like lunatics, and hitting nutty spots, I loved them hitting duel poison ranas on Retton and just spiking him on his head. I could watch a version of this match over and over again.

ER: Yes Yes Yes! A total burner that doesn't overstay its welcome, every guy playing to their strengths, all killer, yadda yadda yadda. This was everything it could have and should have been. I've loved the Ducks since first seeing them in CWF, and this was the showcase match for them, Lude especially. Lude keeps looking grimier and grimier and keeps wrestling crazier and crazier. Within the first minute he had hit a wild dive out to the floor past the turnbuckles, later he hit a big flip dive, got launched on Launchpad McQuack (that monkey flip into an insanely fast cannonball in the corner was my favorite spot of the match) and late in the match gets shoved far off the top rope into Coach Mikey on the floor (also, it's nice to see Coach Mikey back, I love that guy's look). Never seen High Profile before but would happily see more: big bumps, nice headscissors, cool combos (Demented went on a quick 15 second run ending with a whipping spinkick that all looked good). McGrady is lean and takes some big shots, and I might need to see him teaming with or matched up against "Weird Body" Evan Adams, Team Heroin Chic. Looking at them I wouldn't guess that White Mike and Retton would work so well in this kind of match, and if they did you'd think they'd be the bases for assorted craziness, but they work just as quick as anyone.\ and know how to integrate their big spots. Retton gets dropped by consecutive reverse ranas, Mike hits a huge sitout powerbomb, and Mike's can opener seems to defy physics as he spins McGrady around 10 times before snapping it. This whole thing was a bank full of money.  

4. Brass Knuckles on a Pole: Arik Royal vs. Snooty Foxx

PAS: Snooty Foxx main events in Chapel Hill are my favorite thing in 2017 wrestling. It is just a testament to the value of an engaged crowd with a rooting interest. Snooty is a home town hero, born and raised a block away from the community center where they run the shows. The crowd is clearly filled with friends and family who aren't looking for five star matches, but instead are looking for their cousin to whoop this guys ass. Royal is a master in this atmosphere, he has the cultural rhythms of a southern black crowd in his veins, and knows exactly how to roil them up. It is like watching Bernie Mac work his first Def Comedy Jam show. The work in the match was pretty basic, but the timing on the big spots was perfect, and I loved the brawling on the hoops court. The basketball right to Royal's head was awesome. They did some great teases of the brass knuckles, and a nifty BS finish with Royal using a second illegal pair of brass knuckles to KO Foxx, and then does a slight of hand switch out of the bad knucks for the good knucks. Standing ovation to whomever came up with burying Foxx under the Duke flag, just an incredible bit of troll theatre.

ER: This didn't hit me as hard as the Foxx/Wilkins Chapel Hill match did, but these Chapel Hill shows are total gravy. Royal knows how to play the crowd like a conductor, and Foxx doesn't need to play at all, just soak up all the love. Not much in wrestling beats a hot crowd, and while I liked the stuff in the ring (and you can see a lot of Foxx's improvements, things are getting a lot tighter, here he really cracks Royal with a flying back elbow), I was dying for them to take it to the floor. Sure enough, on the floor Royal knows exactly where to direct the action, knows exactly who to taunt. He tosses Snooty into a woman who doesn't break her absolutely furious staredown with him the entire time. Purse clutched to her lap, I probably would have lobbied Phil for this to be #1 on our MOTY list if that woman had stood up and cracked Royal with that purse. Royal is clearly directing traffic out there and you can see him tell Snooty just where to toss him into the crowd, and Royal is awesome at stumbling through chairs and falling into people, threatening to throw Snooty into a little girl who runs off hiding, just great stuff. The outside brawl is tons of fun, walking around the gymnasium and building to a great spot where someone throws Snooty a basketball and he banks it off Royal's head with a perfect chest pass (wish I hadn't seen a gif of that ahead of time as I would have lost it). Royal takes a nice bump into the fence around the basketball court, and there's a hundred fans crowded around them all losing it. Carey looked legit concerned that the crowd outside was going to start throwing stomps to Royal. Back inside and we start going after the knux, with both guys taking big knocks off the top (loved that big Snooty powerslam) and the final sneaky knux shot was finish worthy, both men played it huge. The fans get loud as hell and Royal starts chomping on a bag of sweet tarts as Foxx gets buried in the Duke flag. That's some cold business. Royal struts on our of there and still talks trash on his way out, heel through and through. This one didn't land with me like the Wilkins match, and I thought it had a few lesser moments (Royal was feeding Foxx and directing traffic a little too blatantly, and the Carey/Li attack to Snooty on the floor was some of the absolute weakest looking interference I've ever seen) and it didn't have that impossible frenzy of the babyface squad throwing actual money to the crowd, but this was a 20 minute smile for sure.

ER: We were told to be excited for the Chapel Hill episode, and I guess people are getting an idea of what we're into. The tag and Foxx/Royal landed on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List, which is now ridiculously weighted towards CWF.

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