CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 143

Episode 143

Aric Andrews vs. Cam Carter

PAS: Yes! Andrews is growing back his facial hair! These guys have really good chemistry with each other, with Carter being really great at being elusive and kind of climbing Andrews like a tree fort. Andrews is great, I loved how he sets pace, the violence of all of his moves and how well he uses height. I loved Carter's missed superkick that he spun right into another one, it felt like how a boxer would throw combos with only the last shot being meant to land. One thing that is weird, is they kept talking about Andrews and Carter having a TV title match, and how close Carter came, and then they made a huge deal about his upset win, "That might be the biggest win of Carter's young career" but they already did this match. Carter already had his big non-title upset win over Andrews a couple of months ago. It almost felt like when WCW would have Terry Taylor turn on Dustin Rhodes on Worldwide, The Pro and Main Event. For a fed that normally pays such attention to its history, this felt weirdly off.

ER: I've liked the other two Carter/Andrews matches quite a bit, love how they match up, but Phil nailed it here. Carter has had his big moment against Andrews, and they really rubbed it in because they easily just could have had Carter have his big moment by actually taking the TV title off him. This felt more like Andrews' status getting lowered than it felt like Carter's status getting higher. But the match in a vacuum was a good one, maybe their best, and if not their best then definitely their most straight ahead match. Their other matches had Lee Valiant running distractions, this was just the two of them. This also might be the most Andrews offense we've seen in a match, and I dug that. The stuff I like most from him is his close game, twisting a guy's neck and jaw, dropping a heavy elbow, planting a knee in Carter's back, and he's always good at stumbling into Carter's offense. Carter, for his part, has nice offense, snaps off a 450 from the middle rope, lands a couple nice kicks, this was a great WorldWide match. Andrews needs that facial hair back. It is his Samson hair feature.

Dirty Daddy vs. Donnie Dollars

PAS: Doesn't really get started, as Ray Kandrack comes out and basically squashes both guys. Kind of a bummer as I like both dudes, and it is especially weird that Daddy has been turned into a member of the Bad Breed for 911 to chokeslam. He was a real highlight of last year, but with Snooty Foxx seemingly set up to team with Aaron Biggs, and him getting punked like this, I am not sure where he has to go.

ER; Yeah Daddy really feels like he's getting shuttled down the card, which I don't understand. He was always reliable last year, then suddenly lost the RGL title in 2 minutes (that he spent the year building towards winning), and now he looks like that level of jobber who doesn't even get to look pissed after his match is interrupted and he's attacked; he's one of those guys who just lies there while the cool guy hits his spots and cracks jokes while leaving. Kandrack throws a great headbutt and is a guy who can still actually make a Frye/Takayama stand and trade look compelling in 2018, but I wanted to see Dollars/Daddy. I don't think I've seen a Dollars match on CWF TV in 6 months, and this looked like a compelling match-up for both guys. The little we got was more compelling than the Kandrack run-in.

Jesse Adler vs. Cain Justice

PAS: This was clearly an attempt to do a big young lions, future of the company showdown, and it was a truly tremendous performance by Cain Justice, in basically a broomstick match. Cain was just great, unhinged, vicious, crafty and violent. I loved how he got the advantage on the floor and just hurled Adlers arm into the ring post a half a dozen times. Just brutal looking, it really looked like he might have broke Adler's wrists. Justice screaming at the announcers when they were talking about how he felt overlooked was a great character moment, as was spitting and flipping off Adler to lure him into a dive, which Justice met with a kick. Adler just wasn't close to holding up his end of the bargain. Not a single bit of his offense looked passable, he threw the worst shoulder blocks I have ever seen, none of his high flying moves looked like they landed with force, I am blaming him for that embarrassing hockey fight spot too. Cain was up for it, he wanted a classic, I just wished he got a more game opponent.

ER: I liked this more than Phil, but thought it wasn't as good as it could have been, and overstayed it's welcome a bit. Adler was the same as he has been, although I think he's looked worse in other matches. He's at his strongest when he's selling damage, which was most of this match. His offense rarely looks good, and that was consistent here. Both of them are to blame for the hockey fight spot, it's okay to call Cain out on stuff that was a bad idea, and really that spot just came off silly within the context of the match (and before the hockey fight, I thought Adler's slaps looked better than Cain's). But the meat of the match is all about Cain taking apart Adler's arm. Adler isn't a very interesting salesman to be sure, and I don't think his selling ever matched the savagery of Cain's attacks, but watching Cain find different ways of killing an arm was awesome. Everything centered around that ringpost was killer, thought Adler took a great shoulder first bump into it from the apron (nudged by Cain's foot), and ye gods Cain wrapping that arm around the post was just beyond painful. It looked violent enough that it almost tanked the rest of the match, as someone really shouldn't be able to last that long with their wing being put through the ringer like it was. All of Cain's twisting looked tough, and then he's kicking it, dropping knees on it, and expertly (and cruelly) bending it before quickly dropping an elbow on it. But I don't love the direction the last quarter of the match went, with Adler still attempting flippy offense. Now it could have been worse and he could have fought back against all odds and won, so I like the end result, but getting there could have been smoother in spots. Still, an excellent Cain Justice performance, and an overall good match.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 140

Episode 140

Arik Royal vs. Jesse Adler

PAS: We have Royal putting together about the best possible match you can have with Jesse Adler. Royal is so good at getting a crowd roiled up, and Adler is pretty good at selling, so having Royal dominate and talk shit, while Adler sells is a good match layup. There were a couple of fancy spots which Adler didn't fully pull off (with the reverse rana in the Ultra J match, Splash mountain semi botch in the Attitude match, and Dragon Rana here, maybe they should stop trying to jack 1993 Rey Mysterio spots without 1993 Rey Mysterio). That final cut block looked great with Adler flying and a big impact

ER: The reign of terror is over! The match was the best match involving Adler that I've seen, although you had to buy into Adler being at minimum on an even level or higher than Royal, which I just could not do. I kept getting worried that I jinxed he result, as I stated when the match was set up that I just couldn't see any way that Adler beats Royal. And I was so adamant about it that it felt like I was giving the universe prime opportunity to show me why I specifically don't deserve nice things. But even with way too many shenanigans (far more than it should have taken for Royal to leave with the belt), I was not let down by the result. Some of the equivalency spots were cringe, like Adler somehow German suplexing Royal (i.e. Royal just leaping backwards on his own) or really any of Adler's big shots being treated as equal. Royal was great and Adler took a nice beating, and sold the leg admirably (after Royal catches a plancha and just whips him leg first into the ringpost). The leg injury made a couple things problematic, as really Adler shouldn't be able to suplex Royal with two good legs, let alone with a bad wheel. I weirdly thought the dragon rana spot worked, even if it was ugly. The ugliness kind of worked to its advantage, as this was no liquid smooth Rey flip into a faster Eddy flip, this was an ugly flip caught by Royal, and then forcing his body to roll through it as Adler's weight hung around Royal's neck. We get the visual pin from the standing shooting star press that I assume is supposed to connect, and it's silly we need Coach interference to get Royal a win over Adler, but this whole reign has come off kind of silly. That said, I thought the structure of the match worked, you just had to buy Adler as equal to or better than Royal, which....well there I go again.

Trevor Lee vs. Roy Wilkins

PAS: There was a bunch of individual stuff I really liked in this match (it would be hard not to have some cool stuff with guys this good), but as a match it never really came together for me. It is hard for me to be that engaged in a 3 on 1 match, especially because it made no sense that no one would ever come out to help Trevor. All Stars have run wild on the fed for years, and no one feels like evening the odds? Lots of triple and quadruple teams with Lee fighting out. When it was down to Lee v. Wilkins it was good stuff, but then the interference would come again. I really didn't like the finish either, having the main event of your biggest show determined on the Coach missing and hitting his own guy is pretty lame. I did like Lee's intensity, coming out with "No Matter What it's Still Going to Hurt" painted on his body was pretty badass, I also really dug all the hand work, it made a bunch of sense to stomp and crack someone's fingers if they are going to be using brass knucks. Still I thought this was pretty disappointing, the overbooked main event worked last year, but here it really hurt the flow of the match.

ER: CWF does overstuffed and overblown main events better than anyone else, but this never worked for me. First Blood matches are just about my least favorite stip match (out of stips that are used regularly), so I'm really eager to know if there are actual good ones out there. They seem so backwards. They really should do WarGames rules, where once one of the participants is bleeding, THEN the match officially begins. All the best brawls happen after the guys are already bleeding, so a First Blood match is essentially a "Match Immediately Stops Once Something Cool Happens". Additionally, they don't allow guys to make much sense psychologically, as 90% of things done in a First Blood match wouldn't draw blood. A First Blood match should pretty much be a 90 second long Frye/Takayama punchfest, with guys trying to bust open a nose or brow. That wouldn't be very interesting, so you have to work a mostly normal match, that just ends with no actual build to blood, just "Oh he's bleeding, match over!" So it already had things working against it, and the interference just made no sense to me. Sometimes they would wait until Redd Jones' back was turn, other times they would just all run in at once. It's why southern heel cheating rarely made sense in ECW. You have Coach setting up a cool timed spot where Jones gets distracted with Trevor on the top rope, Coach clips him in nasty fashion and Lee takes a nasty spill...but a few minutes later they're all just in anyway. If you have three guys interfering for you and that's fine, then why weren't they all four just brandishing chairs and gunning for Lee's head? Why didn't Wilkins/Royal/Li hold Trevor down while Coach takes a boxcutter to his forehead? If you're going to give a tainted title reign to someone, don't blue the lines. Now, I don't know if this actually will be a title reign or if it's just a "Wilkins stole the belt but Lee is the champ" situation, and if it is, who wants that? If they had pulled the trigger, had the All-Stars cheat like hell to get that belt, you could have Lee seeking sick sadistic vengeance on every one of them as he fights back to the title. Instead we might just get promos where someone is claiming to be champ but isn't. Everybody involved is good, and the match had several "main event of big show" moments. The final stretch battles of all the brass knux, with knux getting kicked out of hands, knux getting scrambled for, Lee baiting Wilkins into crawling for knux only to catch him in a powerbomb, and Brad Stutts leaving CWF on a high note with a great call of "Just how many pairs of knux we got in this place!?" The Cincinnati Destroyer spot was insane, and would have been a huge moment in a normal title match...but since this is First Blood, again, wouldn't it have made sense to just beat the holy hell out of your opponent's face with one of those chairs, instead of setting them up for a big spot? Why didn't Wilkins come out wearing a crazy Otto Schwanz face mask to protect his head? There were just too many things that didn't add up, and because of that I could never connect with any of it.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Episode 136

Episode 136

Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Kool Jay/Mike Mars vs. Dirty Daddy/Snooty Foxx/Keith Mac

PAS: Fun six man which does a nice job advancing a bunch of different stories. We have more of Mike Mars bullying Cool J, Mars and Daddy ready to rumble at BattleCade and Sharpe tired of being a joke. Loved the spot where Mac wants to do a comedy spot and Sharpe flips out and stars beating his ass. Would love to see Sharpe go to Chikara as the guy who refuses to play along with the horseshit.

ER: Fun low stakes trios, with Daddy wearing his slick Christmas gear, Keith Mac decked out as a kind of Black Santa/Jimmy Valiant hybrid, and Kool Jay wising up and just teaming with Mike Mars instead of going opposite him (well Jay, the idea was better in theory, buddy). I love Sharpe no selling the comedy spots, refusing to play along with fake physics and yeah Phil's idea of a serious Chikara run for him would be fun. He already has the mustache to make it in Chikara. I laughed when Mars was in against Mac, and to "save" his partner Mars just roared in and clotheslined both of them. Later he'd throw Jay to the floor onto everyone. Daddy had an awesome hot tag, really running wild on Mars, leaping into him with hard elbow strikes. I was a little disappointed with the Mars/Foxx shoulderblock exchange as I usually love shoulderblocks, but Mars held back. So I was stoked to see Daddy punch a bunch on him. Finish was sudden and cool, with Sharpe unleashing the uppercut on Mac, and I continue loving what's happening with Sharpe.

ER: I liked the Christmas gift exchange, with a couple of the presents containing title shots. I liked everyone's banter, though I thought Biggs undersold his jelly of the month gift. Those monthly clubs are expensive, and you'll get tons of jelly you would have never otherwise tried! There's a No Way Jose action figure, Aric Andrews gets Back to the Future II on VHS ("this looks new!"), bunch of fun riffing. If this would have been taped a bit later, they could have done the TNA Feast or Fired stip with one of the gifts containing a pink slip, then Stutts could have participated in the gift opening instead of just emceeing it.

Jesse Adler vs. Cam Carter

PAS: I am starting to feel bad, because it seems like every week it is us just shitting on Adler matches (maybe don't put him on every show? Let us miss him a bit), but I got to keep shitting. This kind of a juniors man in the mirror match really exposes him, they are doing these identical twin spots and every spot Carter looks so much better, his drop kick is better, his armdrags are crisper, his springboard 450 shits all over the Adler shooting star. It is impossible to not come away from this thinking Carter would be a way better TV champ, yet we keep moving on.

ER: Yeah this is a bummer. It just shouldn't be happening. We want to bring positive reviews to the people! Look at how many CWF matches wind up on our MOTY list! And I think we're more than fair as reviewers/critics; we'll be right here talking about the great Adler match/performance when it happens, bet on it. But it certainly hasn't happened yet and it sure seems like he gets more TV time than most guys these days. Phil's points are all accurate, there's just no way someone can watch this and come away thinking Adler looks better than Carter. Mirror match is a good way of describing it, and all of Carter's stuff just smoked Adler's. I liked a middle rope dropkick Adler dished out, but moments later Carter hits the move of the match with a gorgeous dropkick. Le sigh. And the standing shooting star is an absolute disaster, with this one being one of the worst performed. It just should not be a finish, and really shouldn't be done at all. We got gypped.

PAS: Goldie the Mack interviews William Cross to set up LaRoux v. Andrew Everett at BattleCade. I really enjoy Cross as an Eddie Marlin tough guy commissioner, it isn't a role you see much in wrestling anymore and he is good at it.

Zane & Dave Dawson vs. Michael McAllister/Nick Richards

PAS: Nice meaty slugfest. The Dawsons had some really nice double teams here, I loved the big kick into side slam. McAllister throws some blows and Richards is nice hot tag. Dawson's work towards the back row, and some of their stuff has more windup then impact. I did love asshole Cain Justice coming out and wasting Richards with a kick, he has such a hateable smirk. I still am hoping the Dawsons drop the belts, I think McAllister and Richards would be better against some of the others teams in this fed.

ER: This was good, although I'd say the first half was great and the second half was okay, so overall good. First half was some of the best work I've seen from the Dawsons who often look like they should deliver more than they actually do. But they didn't skimp on things they sometimes skimp on. Phil says more windup than impact, which is true, they'll often ramp up for something big and then wimp on out impact and follow through. Here their stomps looked good, Dave threw an awesome yakuza kick into a team backbreaker, and they had a couple nice double teams. McAllister looked really great, a compact powder keg crashing fist first into beardy faces, all his punches and elbows looked super violent, and I dug moments like him flinging Richards off the apron into the Dawsons. Ending gets a little convoluted: We get a couple moments of the Dawsons having to stay standing and pressed together waiting to take a move, and we get kind of a silly "make your opponent DDT your opponent" spot (which was actually somewhat plausibly pulled off in last week's 4 way), but Richards sure flew wildly into that match ending backdrop driver, woof. No arm grazing shooting star press, THIS looked like a move that should win a match.

ER: I loved all the old Christmas commercials during this episode, but I've always loved the aesthetics of Christmas commercials. They always made me feel good growing up. We would always have a fire going inside, the anticipation of Christmas would build all month, and every commercial would be Christmas-y. I still have Christmas commercial jingles from TJ Maxx and Thrifty stuck in my head to this day, so I love seeing the old ads (need a couple Bea Arthur for Shoppers Drug Mart ads), and a modern classic with the genuinely touching (unless you're a monster) Folgers ad. I really enjoyed the episode.

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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.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 133

Episode 133

1. Jesse Adler vs. Ivan Ali

PAS: Ali is a really big guy, maybe 6'6 or 6'7, and used his size nicely although is clearly really green. I write this every week, but the Adler push continues to befuddle me. He had a nice baseball slide counter to getting whipped into the ropes, but outside of that, it is all bad looking highflying offense which barely connects. That 450 splash gets no height at all, and it looks like he is going to crack his patella one day. There are five or six guys in this RGL tourney, who I would rather see with this belt.

ER: This is my first time seeing Ali and it's pretty clear from just this match that if he wants to make it in  wrestling, he'll make it in wrestling. As Phil noted he's a big guy, tall with some size, and already has a good build. He's already got good offense, with nice long arm chops and tight forearms, delayed spinebuster, great falling clothesline, big fallaway slam, a good base of offense. Adler remains a true mystery. He did a couple things I liked, I thought his inside legs kicks were a smart strategy, and his flip over mule kick after sliding into the corner was timed great and looked smooth. Everything else looked landed somewhere on a sliding scale of "light and soft at best" to "looked terrible" at worst. His strikes all look bad, but there was a particular bad spinning backfist to Ali's stomach that just....wow. The 450 was sloppy, landed short, looked bad, the crossbodies looked like they wouldn't break the run through paper at a pep rally. We do write this stuff about him every week, but we reviewing these shows and he's always on, always earning these criticisms. We aren't really given much of a choice.

2. "The Pitbull" Steven Idol vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: I really liked this, I have never seen Idol before, but he has a nasty hard hitting style, reminded me a lot of a smaller Rodney Mack. Didn't do anything super fancy, but every blow he landed had force behind it. Daddy is great at these short forceful sprints, and these guys really slugged it out. I loved Idol's sell of the brainbuster, really looked like he broke his neck.

ER: This was really great. I'd not seen Pitbull before and came away impressed, and I always come away impressed by Daddy. Pitbull threw nice shots including a great left hand in the corner, and I loved his elbow drop off the middle rope, just a heavy falling elbow that landed precise. Rodney Mack is a good comparison, this guy is like Rodnito Mack. Daddy always shows up and I always come away amazed by the force he gets with his shots. That standing lariat packed an incredible wallop and his running elbows are always well placed. I like the fireman's carry airplane spin into a brainbuster, disorient your opponent and then dump him on his head, mean.

3. Mace Li vs. Metallico

PAS: Good chance to see Li get a showcase match. He has been mostly been used as the comedy jobber of the All-Stars, but he had some fun offense here. There was a point where Metalico went for a tope and Li just wasted him with a jumping kick to the head. I also liked some of his joint manipulation. Metalico had some highspots which he barely pulled off, he might be better off as a tackling dummy for now.

ER: This is the annoying part of the review where Phil watched the show first, and everything that I want to point out about matches he has already pointed out. There's a benefit to being the first to watch something and I am being punished for my feet dragging. All that to just say that I also really liked Li's awesome pop up apron kick to block a Metallico dive. "Block a dive with a strike" is a thing we see in indy wrestling a lot now and it's tough to make it look good. Usually we see a guy noticeably slow down and poke his head through to get hit. The timing has to be precise, so you aren't expecting the spot to happen. You have to believe the dive is going to happen, and it's tough to turn off all your body tells knowing you're going to get kicked in the face. But this looked great. Li popped up and winged a kick at Metallico's head and Metallico did and awesome recoil. I liked Metallico's smooth lucha headscissors and Li's cool work around the elbow, and it was nice seeing Li presented as something other than "weakest member of his team". Satisfying stuff.

4. Mike Mars vs. Kool Jay

PAS: They are building more and more to a Cool J win, as he had his moments in this match, using his speed to squirm away from Mars multiple times. Of course he could only avoid him so long, and ends up getting smushed. Cool J lands so awkwardly on his bumps, it always looks like a car crash.

ER: Awwww yeah, real body Khal Drogo versus my favorite crash test dummy. I now get really excited when I see Kool Jay on the lineup, and I love how we've seen him 4 or 5 times now and each time he lasts a little longer, has gone from getting zero offense to at least throwing some kicks and evading, and continues to die for our pleasure. CL Party even mentions that people on twitter post about him dying and I hope that she was referring to me saying RIP Kool Jay with that gif of Donnie Dollars introducing him to his maker. Jay throws a nice dropkick even though Mars brushes it off, and we knew were this would inevitably end up, but I liked that Mars had to appear a bit frustrated when putting him away. Jay takes some wild bumps, even on something simple like getting swatted away he kind of tumbles onto the side of his head. He makes slams look incredible and yeah this was fun. I am going to cheer so hard when he gets a win. Not many people have successfully pulled off the Mikey Whipwreck storyline but I can see it happening here.

5. Movie Myk vs. Big Time Yah

PAS: This was a match up between two guys who have trained with each other, and that familiarity allowed them to pull off some fun stuff. First real look at Yah, and I really dug him, he worked almost like Chico Che, big tubby guy with shocking agility. he had a great rana and cool flip dive along with some athletic roll ups. Mykk worked over the arm nicely and has a nice gimmick with his entourage running interference. I would have liked to see Yah advance and face Mars rather then have this end in a draw, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of both.

ER: I thought this was awesome, took a cool angle for a 10 minute draw, and I think could be qualified as a breakout performance for both guys. Yah appeared way earlier this year on CWF - and looked good - in a short match, and we've seen Myk a few times but always in a tag or trios. Yah is a big powerful dude, and I thought Myk had no shot, until Yah awesomely lariats a ringpost and we get the real story of the match, Yah mostly unable to do any of his throws or power offense, even though he would attempt. Yah was really great selling his arm (hopefully this doesn't continue our trend of praising Negro Casas for his rib selling and Brian Kendrick for his broken face sell of the G2S. If I find out Yah tore his bicep here I swear...), and has some of the coolest big man offense around. Early in the match he hits an amazing huricanrana, and he's great about coming up with offense around an injury: His flying clothesline was practically finisher worthy. I liked Myk's boys running interference, and his manager (I keep forgetting his name...) is really good. Myk actually worked in a couple good filmmaking puns (a heel telling the audience "Quiet on the set!" as he locks in a chinlock is wonderful), and thought his work looked good. I would have preferred an actual finish as both of these two vs. Mars would be really fun (and I have to think CWF will eventually run Yah/Mars), but this was a great 10 minutes of wrestling.

6. Mace Li vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: This was surprisingly short for a semi final. There was apparently a big feud between Daddy and Mace Maeda, but this wasn't very competitive. Li got in some cheap shots, but Dirty Daddy rolled through this match, and got a relatively easy win. Really liked the staredown between Daddy and Mars, DD can really bring fire to segments like this.

ER: This was fine, but I didn't like how easily Daddy handled Li, one match removed from Li actually looking valuable (granted he was against a tackling dummy, but the Metallico match was a dominant showcase which saw him take hardly any damage). I also didn't think Li looked really good in this one, you'd think he'd want to make a couple shots count if he knew he was being dispatched so easily. Daddy looked predictably good, he really is a legit contender for best clothesline currently in wrestling. His elbows looked good, Li had a nice nearfall moment (with a so-so savate kick), and I thought Daddy's match winning small package looked good. And damn I thought Mars/Daddy was happening on this show. It makes sense to be on BattleCade, but I was geared up. I thought they were giving Mars the quick path to the title, having Yah/Myk take each other out so Mars goes in fresh. Now I'm really pissed we didn't get Mars/Yah on this episode.

7. Trevor Lee vs. Darius Lockhart

PAS: They fade to black and come back with Lee making an open challenge to Lockhart after just watching the action in the audience. This was another really good Lee match, he has been on a roll. This was worked face v. face at the beginning, with a lot of initial stalemated grappling. Like a classic face v. face match tempers flared, and it got pretty nasty by the end. Finish was pretty great with Lockhart screaming at Lee to bring it to him, and they had a pretty great strike exchange, not you forearm me, I forearm you, but both guys throwing and landing at the same time. Lockhart absolutely decimates Lee with clothesline, and gets a close 2.9. When both guys get to their feet Lee offers his hand, when Lockhart takes it, Lee throws him to the ground and cranks an STF for the win. Surprisingly heel move from Lee, I was a little disappointed that Lockhart took the hug and respect arm raise at the end of the match, instead of punishing Lee for his Yakubian trickery. It was a little more Martin then the Malcolm I was expecting.

ER: I thought this was decent, and I always like the "old gym shorts casual Lee challenge" idea. I thought it went a nearfall or two too long, and thought Lockhart moved back to offense pretty quick at the end, but I liked a lot of how they got to that point. The slow build was real good, and I dug the tentative grappling. I like the idea of Lee offering this guy a chance, and then kind of silently regretting doing so and turning up the heat. Him bending around Lockhart's arm and wrist was rough, thought the work from both around a Lockhart headlock was really good, and I love down the stretch when Lee uses the threat of a finger break to open up Lockhart to eat a low superkick. I wonder if Lee has witnessed how willy nilly and awful Marty Scurll's finger break spots are and actually thought of great ways to use them but not go through with them. His use here (and in the Otto Schwanz title match to prevent him breaking the crossface) were perfect. I thought they built to the big spots nicely, though I did think they took kickouts too far. Ending was really fun and tied back into Lee's pre-match promo talking about how he had been watching the Flair 30 for 30 earlier. By hook or by crook, Lee took the opening to betray Lockhart's trust and get the tap. I do wish Lockhart would have told him to fuck off after the match though.

ER: Sorry I've been slacking on these reviews, but we'll get back into the swing of them. This was a fun episode that for whatever reason took me ages to get through. That's on me. And Yah/Myk was really fun and could have finished well up our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List with a decisive finish, as it stands we're still throwing it on there, towards the bottom.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Episode 131

Episode 131

1. Sandwich Squad vs. Otto Schwanz/Mike Mars

PAS: This is what we wanted the Schwanz/Cutshall v. Squad match from Chapel Hill to be. Four big dudes throwing meaty hands.I really liked Otto in this, he is really great at playing both a crazy person and a talented wrestler. Mars is Green (which actually sounds like the title of a bad 70s sci-fi novel), but a big guy who looks like a homeless murderer and hits hard is going to be enough for me. Liked the finish, and I would much rather see Schwanz and Mars as the tag champs.

ER: When Mike Mars comes into a tag match as the smallest man in the match, there's a good chance I'm going to dig the match. And shock, I did! I could see 8-10 minutes of this every single week. I really love Otto. "Crazy" is one of the hardest wrestling gimmicks to pull off properly. Think of how many indy shows you've been to over the years, with some fresh out of wrestling school rookie working a crazy gimmick, making wacky faces and clawing at their face or hair. It's almost always uncomfortable, because you feel bad for them. Otto works like an unfrozen caveman Berzerker, just storming and clubbing and shouting his way through matches. I don't recall if there was ever a reason given for Otto wearing the face mask, but I love loaded mask gimmicks a ton so I don't really care. For all I know Otto just showed up wearing a giant mask one week and nobody said a word about it. Mecha is really good, a super big man who can sell. He doesn't overbump, all his bumps are earned, but his body part selling is always impressive. We watched him sell his neck for 3 episodes after a chairshot, here I loved him wiggling his fingers on the mat after being blasted with a loaded headbutt. This was good. 

2. Jesse Adler vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: This was fine I guess. Dirty Daddy is great and is always going to bring cool shit to a match, I loved his forearms and the diving big boot was totally crazy (I loved the Sid name drop from the announcers). Adler is still a mystery to me, he is getting this big push, and he has yet to do one memorable thing in any of the matches I have seen. I also think Aric Andrews new gimmick is kind of cornball, if you are going to do Bob Backlund you have to at least cut off your ponytail.

ER: Another great Daddy performance, but these 10 minute time limit TV title matches work so much better with a heel champ, it leads to more desperation and a more frantic defense from the champ, and makes every move down the stretch from the babyface seem bigger. This was a match with a short time limit that wasn't worked as if there was any time limit. You could argue that the opening pinfall trading sequence was about them trying to finish, but nobody watching this match thought any of those pins were going to finish the match. I second the "Adler as mystery" that Phil is feeling, I just get nothing out of him. And if we're being petty about it, I hate the Van Halen theme music and the EVH taped up tights. I kind of assumed people stopped liking Van Halen after high school, and who can enjoy Eddie in this post-Eddie Van Halen Shreds world? But Daddy was the man. This guy appears to never get crossed up in the ring, always has a response and a surprising move or two. I love his twist during rope running where he slingshots himself around his opponent's waist, just using them to break momentum and change his footwork by hooking their midsection with his arm. His strikes always land surprisingly hard; here he had a diving clothesline that absolutely knocked my socks off. He also planted Adler chest first on the ring apron with a hotshot (Adler took it really well) and that Sid boot was scary but landed hard. Guys. Stop trying to land on one leg like that. It just makes me think of Sid or Gronda every damn time. I still don't love the "blackballed for 30 years" gimmick. It's a cute gimmick, but would be better served on a worse wrestler. Daddy's really good, and his quality more than speaks for itself. He doesn't need a winky cute backstory. 

3. Trevor Lee vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe

PAS: I was a little hesitant about this match when I heard about it, but man did these two guys totally sell me on this by the end. The gimmick here is that if Sharpe survives 20 minutes with Lee he would become the CWF Mid-Atlantic champion. It ended up being like a Tenryu v. Ogawa match and by the end I was sold on a Sharpe, Ogawa style title run. Lee just tortures Sharpe for the first half or so of this match, stretching his body in sick ways, ripping his fingers, kicking him square in the thigh, one of the better Fuchi mauling I have seen. Sharpe is able to take over by tricking Lee outside and posting him, and then it is a pretty competitive match, with Sharpe using cheap shots to stay on advantage. Lee at one point fires back and busts a pimple on Sharpe's chin with a slap, which was super nasty looking (Sharpe has Jim Powers level acne for a guy clearly not on roids), finish is pretty exciting, in the last minute Sharpe throws the ref into the Lee on the top rope and crotching him. Instead of running away and winning the belt Sharpe goes for the kill shot and gets caught in a nasty STF for the tap. Really fun storyline match which works great with both guys character progression. Lee's arrogance almost cost him the match, first by offering the challenge and then toying with Sharpe instead of putting him away. Sharpe is trying to be taken seriously and instead of running away and trying to get the cheap win, he wants to pin him clean and it costs him the title. I was a little lukewarm on Lee earlier in the year when he was on his workrate indy run with the Day, Daniels and Elgin matches, but he has been on a killer run in the last six months.

ER: This was really good, and I like the different tones we get from Trevor Lee. We get a fighting champion, we get confidence that crosses into hubris, we get sinister, a really complete multidimensional champ. I, too, was down on Lee during the workrate part of 2017. I even wrote something saying that we were consistently the low vote on all the Lee matches everyone was praising. Then right as I wrote that within weeks we were among the high votes on Lee/Andrews, Lee/Mecha, Lee/Schwanz, and at this point when I see an episode with a Lee main event I'm excited to see him against anybody. This was no different. Sharpe has turned a major corner during the time we've watched him, and we've turned a corner on him. I don't think I saw any of the E# of this very moment even 6 months ago, but that's one of the great things about CWF: They're faithful to all their guys, and all their guys can surprise you with something great. I wasn't expecting a mean Michael McAllister brawl this year, or a great Cecil Scott comeback match, but those kind of role players deliver. Here we get a simple and tempting premise: If Sharpe can last 20 minutes, he gets the CWF title. Lee is a (deservedly) cocky asshole for offering the stip when he didn't need to, and Sharpe makes the most of it. Sharpe never ran the whole match (even when it made the most sense in the last 20 seconds), didn't try to get a sneaky Masao Inoue title win (even though I wouldn't have totally minded that...), and his stock continues to rise.

Early on I thought this was going to be an extended Lee torture chamber, and it's easy to think that after about 10 more minutes of Sharpe getting stretched. Lee had so much nasty stuff, like that Indian deathlock surfboard where he kept bouncing his knees into Sharpe's back while bending him at the jaw, or that vicious as hell tapatia (sold perfectly by Sharpe, as if he was being drawn and quartered), stomps to the knee and inner thigh, wrist bent, nothing good. Sharpe hits the deck before getting hit with the punt and wisely flings Lee by the tights into the ringpost. That felt like something that heel Lawler would do. And Sharpe then looked really good in control. He was throwing these short left hooks at one point that I've not seen from him, and the extended crucifix submission was an awesome moment for both men. Sharpe was putting all his weight on Lee and Lee kept trying to fight through it. The end was convincing enough that I thought Sharpe could actually come away with the title (even telling myself I would have surely heard that news by now, I was still thinking "but what if...") and I love how he valiantly died on his own running elbow smash instead of just taking the win by running around the ring for 20 seconds. Lee's STF has been an established killshot and getting stuck in that is like getting your tie stuck in an elevator door. Great showing from both men.

ER: And then it truly must be Christmas, as I find out we get CW vs. Trevor. God bless us, every one. Sharpe/Lee is an easy inclusion on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. Now what CWF regulars have yet to show up on our List...

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 129

Episode 129

1. Mike Mars vs. Metallicon

ER: Ugh Metallico? I hated his pants (with belt!), hated his stupid soft flipping bumps. He should have left in a body bag. I think Mars was too kind. But I like Mars' look and presence and really look forward to him having a hoss war with someone. Mars vs. Mecha or a match-up with Justice sound really good right now.

PAS: I had no problem with Metallico (or is it Metallicon? Youtube has it one way, Stuttsy said it another), he took a horrid bump on the big boot and landed unfortunately on that spinebuster, he is no Cool J, but I love that CWF-MA has a stable of jobbers willing to die.

2. Otto Schwanz vs. Chris "TNT" Taylor

ER: I had never seen Taylor before, and he seemed to tire out pretty early into this match. It's fine, as the match wasn't very long, but it didn't do much to make me want to see more of him. He did an ugly famouser and looked like he was breathing heavy getting up on the second turnbuckle. The headlock sequences were fun and I love the facials Otto makes while giving and receiving headlocks. Him administering a headlock is the best as he'll throw in rabbit shots to the back of the head and look crazed, and then while Taylor turns the tables Otto gets this funny distant look in his eyes like "this guy is trying this on ME?" We build to Otto catching an axe handle with a bearhug, and he plants him with a nice spinebuster to finish (Stuck him!).

PAS: I will pretty much enjoy Otto in anything, but this tested the limits. Taylor is in the bottom tenth of guy on CWF, those second rope axehandles looked terrible, and his cardio was pretty bad. Schwanz was fun, and he cracked him with that spinebuster. Nothing to see here, keep moving.

ER: Andrews and Valiant come out to try and bully Stutts and a kid dressed as Randy Savage into giving him his title shot rematch. Stutts says that it was actually Andrews who said that Stutts shouldn't decide who gets TV title matches, and I don't think I realized that the "name out of the hat" defense was because of Andrews. We get some fun back and forth with Valiant and Andrews jawing about how their names probably aren't even in the bucket, and the best part was easily Andrews silently mean mugging the kid when he didn't draw his name. I need to learn how to make GIFs just to get Andrews stoic reaction while staring at the kid. Though this just further illustrates how much more I'd rather see regular Andrews/Valiant appearances instead of what they got replaced with.

3. Jesse Adler vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe

ER: This was another in a continuing trend of awesome Sharpe performances, and in the first actual full match I've seen from Adler I was still left underwhelmed. Adler has a lot of  that offense that requires his opponent to run at him in just a certain way. Sometimes the stuff looks good (I liked his little sliding kick in the corner), other times it looks phony. But luckily, Sharpe is a real son of a bitch here, and it makes the match mostly work. Once Sharpe starts attacking the leg we get gold, starting with him grabbing those knees and slamming them patella first into the apron. Man that looked painful. Sharpe was really great with the knee work, I especially loved this low dropkick he did off the ropes: It was so fast and low and precise and violent, genuinely looked like it upended Adler. The longer this went the more I wanted a Sharpe victory. I mean, I wanted a Sharpe victory the moment his name was pulled and he told Andrews to "take his tall ass to the back". But man the brief Adler comeback was really awful, with Sharpe missing a telegraphed elbow and Adler hitting one of those standing shooting star presses that barely make any contact, and look more like Adler slipped on icy steps and landed on his face. This TV title reign is a huge mistake so far.

PAS: I actually thought most of Adler's performance in this was fine. The match mainly called for him to sell a bad knee and he did a nice job. A lot of the cool offense by Sharpe depended on Adler taking creative bumps on the knee, I loved how he dropped knee first on Sharpe's low dropkick. Unfortunately Adler's dated highflyer offense kills matches dead, if you are going to work as an indy highflyer in 2017 you need more then Queenan Creeds move set and execution, that kick/shooting star press combo is rough. Adler should really watch some Kyle Matthews matches, focus on simple stuff and selling and execute it well, he would be much better off with a second rope splash and a dropkick then that goofus kick and no height shooting star. Sharpe has really turned a corner, he is such a fervent asskicker now, he honestly should shave the look at me moustache and dump the "I'm a rich guy" gimmick and just be an asskicker, he has moved past the bush league stuff.

4. Arik Andrews vs. Cam Carter

ER: Fun match with some nice moving parts. You had Lee Valiant cheating on the floor while avoiding Adler. Carter is a good babyface and would have been a more interesting choices as TV champ. We could make a pretty substantial list of CWF guys who would have been more interesting. Carter hits a big flip dive on Andrews and Valiant, later Valiant sweeps his legs on the apron. Andrews isn't a guy with a lot of offense,being capitalizing on guys missing moves or grabbing them by the tights to throw them through the ropes or into a turnbuckle, things like that. I seem to always like those guys. Though I really wish if they were fine with Andrews getting beat, that they would have just actually let the person winning the title beat him in a competitive match. I always hate the surprise flash pin title change. Anyway, we get more great "Are you fucking kidding me?" Andrews face after the match, which almost makes up for this.

PAS: It was a mistake to have a Cam Carter match right after pushing Adler as a highflyer. Everything Carter does has so much more explosion and height then anything Adler does. These guys match up really well, I liked the pace shifts with Carter wanting to go fast and Andrews slowing it down, it is like watching a fast break team like the Warriors play the Memphis Grizzlies. Really liked the way Carter kept escaping the asphalt spike and the finish was really well executed.

5. Mace Li/Arik Royal vs. Sandwich Squad

ER: Quality main, with the Squad chopping and squishing Mace Li. At one point Mecha goes to chop him and you can hear Mace go "Not again!" before his chest gets caved in. Mecha is really great, arguably the best big fat guy we get to see on a regular basis (as sadly the big fat guy appears to be dying off in pro wrestling, which is beyond stupid), he throws big meaty shots and gets good speed on avalanches, and when he bumps you really see his body settle and the ring shake. Arik Royal plays this match with a great detached cockiness, so it totally works when he makes bugged out faces taking a backdrop, drops a smirking elbow on Biggs' side, or he's coldly uppercutting Biggs with a brass knux shot to the back of the head. I've never seen Mace Maeda so I didn't get any of the clear inside jokes about Li/Maeda, but I liked Li's bat shots on the floor as a way to get Mecha out of the match. Finish was good, involving everyone, with Biggs hitting an awesome crossbody to get what probably could have been a 30 count, Gemini distracts the ref and the knux get thrown in, CLvira gets the knux, but Royal gets them (or another pair?) and clocks Biggs. The Squad hasn't really had any classic tags yet, but I don't think there's a match they've had that I haven't fully enjoyed.

PAS: Man did I love Royal in this, he is one of the best guys in the world at combining stooging and violence, he really reminds me of a prime Arn Anderson. He is great at furiously complaining about the match and cringing as Li gets smacked, and then he flips the switch and lays into the Sandwich Squad, his running tackle right into Mecha was awesome, it was like a compact car running into a aquarium full of jello. Also the uppercut with the knuckles was as good a knuckle shot as I can remember seeing. Li was their to take a beating, and he was great at wincing at every huge open hand chop, and brutally eats a Mecha clothesline which was almost Hansenesque.

ER: Also, shout out to CLvira Party. This was a pretty big role for her to have throughout the show and I thought it was consistently amusing. The Elvira intro was good, and I liked her during the apple bobbing segment. If this ever builds to some kind of mixed tag with her and Jarray Caray on opposing sides, I'm game.

PAS: That was a really great Elvira impression, which is kind of strange. How old is CL Party? I am 41 and Elvira was really a reference that was a little old for me, seems strange for a girl in her 20s to have such a pitch perfect Elvira impression in her tool box

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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 125

Episode 125

1. Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Bellamy Koga

PAS: Bellamy Koga is a Jimmy Valiant trainee working a kicker/MMA gimmick. I just imagine Boogie Woogie Man going "You got to work towards the triangle out of the rubber guard Daddy!!" Koga has a couple of nice kicks, but looks lost in parts too. Sharpe is a pro, and this was fine, but Koga isn't a guy I necessarily need to see more of.

ER: Boogie training a kickboxer is a pretty amusing premise, and he seemed good enough. He briefly left Sharpe out to dry on a couple of spots and had a quickly executed but dated kick combo, but I think the best thing in his favor was that his missed kicks were really good. He really gunned for Sharpe on a couple missed kicks, one roundhouse and one while Sharpe was on the apron. A lot of indy kickpad strikers go on autopilot when it's their turn to whiff, Koga seemed to miss with purpose. That gives me hope for his future. I also like how he took a big hard splat on a monkey flip. Sharpe looked good, liked his flat foot boot to Koga's chest, he currently has the best jawbreaker in wrestling, and he gave Koga every chance to shine.

2. “Tank Engine” Thomas Munos vs. Cain Justice 

PAS: Tank Engine is a big bulky guy with lots of energy, but his stuff was very hit or miss. Sometimes his shots landed with a thud, sometimes they wiffed. Cain has gotten good enough that he can work a match around a rookie with some energy, and this had some really moments of excitement, including some nasty arm work like Cain throwing a big knee with Munos, arm trapped in the ropes, and the built to Munos big spear nearfall well. Not a great match in the grand scheme of things, but a feather in Cain's cap.

ER: I liked this more than Phil and didn't really see the problems he had with Thomas the Tank Engine. He's not a tall guy, but the undersized hoss is an underrepresented wrestling style, and I thought he pulled it off. Cain is always good at being overwhelmed and I liked Munos' power offense, especially his torpedo shoulderblock (which lead to a nice missed one into the turnbuckles later). But obviously Cain on offense is money, and I loved the way he started dismantling the Tank: stomping on his ankle, kicking his arm while it was tied in the ropes, working like a bully but a bully who is vulnerable to being overpowered. Finish was nice with a simple Cain superkick to the back of Munos' head, another reminder of how respectful CWF is to moves that should be finishers.

3. The All-Stars (Arik Royal/Roy Wilkins/Mace Li) vs. Allie Cat/Snooty Foxx/Jesse Adler

PAS: Alley Cat is a lady wrestler doing kind of a hipster roller derby girl kind of gimmick, she gets picked by the All-Stars to be the representative from the training seminar. She brings out Foxx and Adler who is an ex-RGL champ who has been on the shelf for a year. Sort of a tale of two matches with the Foxx v. Royal and Wilkins parts being really good, that is a great feud and this was a good setup to the Chapel Hill return next week. The parts with Adler and Alley Cat were less successful, Adler is a junior highflyer who's stuff looks way less crisp and impressive then other guys in the same role in this fed (Ian Maxwell, The Ducks, Tracer X), I will give him the benefit of the doubt coming off the long layoff, but he didn't show me much. Cat had some shtick, but her offense looked weak and the All-Stars were really overselling it, I buy SIS throwing german suplexes on men, because they look good and she looks strong and the guys are little, Alley Cat german suplexing a beast like Arik Royal just looks silly.

ER: This one was a bit of a let down. I think the All-Stars are too generous with everyone, and I don't think Mace Li is a very good fit with them (even if this is a one match thing. I think this was the weakest Snooty appearance since we've been reviewing the shows. He seemed off in a few spots. Allie Kat I'd never seen, and I like her committment. She worked well on the apron and hit a really good senton...but yeah she shouldn't ever be suplexing Arik Royal. I am with Phil on Adler's offense (and really don't like that low backfist to the stomach he did a couple times), we already have guys in the fed who do this stuff better. But I thought he excelled at taking offense, and eating a beating in a convincing way is important. So I liked the stretches of him building to comeback, but overall felt the match didn't do enough with the time it was given.

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