CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 150

Episode 150

John Skyler/Mace Li vs. Aaron Biggs/Keith Mac

ER: This started out rough, with none of the stuff featuring Mac looking good. He threw a bunch of bad hiptosses, the kind that looked like a local high school PE teacher got in the ring to pop the crowd while the wrestlers bumped around for him, and then Mac capped it off with an ugly dropkick. Bad start. But Skyler willed this thing from the grave with a fast sprawling bump to the floor, and once Skyler/Li take over on Mac I get into it. Mac takes a great bump to the floor thanks to Skyler holding the ropes open, and Skyler/Li don't do anything spectacular to pick apart Mac, but they keep things engaging, keep Biggs away, Skyler is good at things like that. I especially liked how he occupied himself to allow Mac draw out the hot tag to Biggs: Skyler had eaten a facebuster and wandered around the ring holding his jaw, in total disarray, going to the wrong corner to tag in Li, all good stuff to let Mac build to that tag. And Biggs is a super fun hot tag, obviously, smooshing the other two and ending things once Li gets whipped into his rib crushing Thesz Press. This recovered quite nicely after

PAS: This is a good example of how a classic southern tag structure has a really high floor. Mac wrestles like a veteran in his 70s still working nostalgia shows (does Thunderbolt Patterson work Georgia indies, imagine that), good shtick, but utter inability to execute offense or take bumps, he is the Ricky Morton in this. Despite that, some good bumping and shtick by Li and Skyler and an awesome looking hot tag by Biggs make this a plus match. Get the crowd behind someone, and delay the gratification for a bit and it is going to be entertaining.

Otto Schwanz vs. Chet Sterling

ER: Is Otto the best (only?) guy to pull off a "tough guy/goofball" persona? He comes out in his velour Fila track suit and comically large chain, jump scares little kids, gets in the ring and does some combination of amateur rolling and warm-up break dancing, looking kind of ridiculous and yet kind of dangerous. "Kind of Ridiculous and Kind of Dangerous: The Otto Schwanz Story". I really liked this match, and loved Otto tossing Sterling around. Sterling would fire back with punches and I thought Otto did a good job picking and choosing which ones to take seriously, and which ones to storm through and ignore. Sterling rushes in with some body shots, Otto chuckles and doesn't slow down a bit; Sterling pops him in the jaw, Otto gets rattled, eyes widen, he cracks Sterling back harder. Otto has this one punch that I really love - and a few big guys use punches like this - where he throws one big shot horizontally across the jaw. It's a cool angle, stands apart from normal stand and trade punches, reminds me of the visual of when Andre would punch across his opponents face and body. I thought Sterling was good firing back with hard overhand chops, loved Otto sinking in bearhugs and elbow drops, thought Sterling bumped around great for Otto (and love that Otto charging shoulder in the corner, that sent Sterling through the ropes to the floor), and the nice high cradle is a believable way to get a pin on a bigger dude.

PAS: This was pretty good, Sterling has some dodgy offense, but is a good bumper and good at getting the crowd behind him, so having him eaten up by Schwanz is a good match structure. Otto is great at making simple things look devastating, nasty bodyslam, really great ragdolling bearhug, nice straight punches, nasty backbreaker. He reminds me a lot of Mark Lewin, who would be the answer to Eric's question for tough guy/goofball combo. Great match for the crowd, who really got into Otto's shtick and Sterling's comeback.

Dave & Zane Dawson vs. Dirty Daddy/Kool Jay

ER: At this point, every Dawsons tag feels longer to me than it actually is. I thought this match went 20, was shocked to see it was just 14. I don't know why, but it feels like there are rarely any changes in pace throughout their matches, they just kind of continuously operate at one level, and the Dawsons are just a bit too dry. They've shown flashes, they've had decent matches, but there's zero nuance to their performance. They sell for opponents in minute one of a match the same as they sell in minute 13, so there's never the impression that a babyface time is making headway or falling behind in a match. They're essentially always equally about to win or about to lose, and that makes things drag. Teams never gain or lose ground against them, they just do stuff to them until the match ends. They're not great at setting up offense for their opponents, but I still enjoyed Jay and Daddy here, thought both had nice punch combos. Daddy had some nice moments showing his really excellent attention to detail, and it's a shame he's been kind of lost at sea for the last few months. He'd be a far more interesting guy with a tag belt than these two. A great detail moment I loved from Daddy was him getting caught by the Dawsons in a crossbody, leading Jay to missile dropkick him, sending him into a pinfall on the Dawsons. But Daddy comes up selling his back, which is huge, as it rarely happens with that spot. Somehow in wrestling physics, if you get hit with friendly fire you don't have to sell it. But Daddy is a smart worker and it really lends credibility to his matches. Dawsons on the other hand make taking a headscissors look about as plausible as Kenny Omega bumping for a blow up doll. I liked Jay taking big bumps and getting planted by the Dawsons, Zane threw a great punch in the corner at one point, but overall the match dragged for me.

PAS: Kool Jay is a great pinball and takes some big time bumps by the Dawsons, and I actually think this would have been a pretty good match, except for Dirty Daddy's lethargic hot tag. He is usually so good as both the hot tag and the face in peril, here it felt like he mailed in the big comeback a bit, which took some steam out of the crowd. Dawsons title reign has taken a bunch of steam out of the tag titles, not sure I have really liked any of their title defenses, this had some moments, but was too long and never hit third gear.

Donnie Dollars vs. Trevor Lee

ER: I've never seen Dollars come out in his button up and 1994 gaudy tie, and I like it. He looks like an IRS/Big Bubba cross, and the IRS look makes sense with his name. If he's supposed to have been some kind of equity trader then I have totally missed that. I dig Lee dismantling big guys, and I've been waiting for a longer Donnie Dollars match, so I was excited for this one and thought it delivered, although less than other Lee main events. Dollars was fun using some shortcuts that a huge dude shouldn't need to use, but I love seeing a heel cheat just to cheat, so Dollars pulling the ref in between he and Lee so he can blast Lee with an elbow, or Dollars kicking the ropes while Lee steps through them. Lee never really felt in danger in this one, which lands this lower than other title matches. Lee was mostly one step ahead of Dollars, with Dollars being the one to get occasional hope offense (like a big running boot), which is kinda backwards. But Lee is fun working ahead on a big guy, stomping early on Dollars' elbow, which Dollars never really recovers from. Dollars was really good at keeping that elbow stomp present, even though we never went back to it. His selling was good enough (without being constant) that it played as a rough move that set him back early in the match, that gave Lee the advantage the rest of the match. Lee would be kicking at Dollars' body, and he would be holding his elbow and leaving himself mostly defenseless against kicks, and it really made it seem like his elbow was messed up if he was willing to take these kicks to protect his arm. Lee amusingly baited him a couple times, like hitting a running elbow in the corner and duping Dollars into following him so he could hit him again. The end was never in doubt, and I wish Dollars had a bit more of a showing, but it was fun.

PAS: I tend to really like lesser Lee title matches, he is more interesting when he works around a formula worker, then just having an indy classic. The structure of this was kind of unique with Dollars playing a heel underdog big man, not a combination I can remember seeing before. Lee almost comes off heelish here, do you really need to break Donnie Dollar's elbow to beat him? I agree that Dollar's elbow selling was great and I thought the built a couple of nice near falls for Donnie. I think this match would have been better if Donnie went on a bit of winning streak before it, so the crowd might buy him a bit more, or if it had just been a sprint. Going this long without Dollars having any chance of winning was kind of odd.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 147

Episode 147

Dos Hombres vs. Michael McAllister/Nick Richards

ER: Dos Hombres are Kamakazi Kid and Matt Smith. Kazi is a guy with a belly who seemingly works the greater NC area under assorted masked gimmicks (we dug his match against Cain Justice as "Number Dad") and Matt Smith is a younger former CWF guy who dropped out of wrestling for awhile. And I dug them both here. McAllister rocks a beard nicely, and Richards has clearly been busting butt to get into shape, he looks 20 pounds lighter than the last time I saw him. I really had no expectations for this tag and came away thinking it was a real blast. Hombres felt like a last minute gimmick but now I'd love to see them in the Kernodle Cup. They both did really cool things, Kazi snaps off a nice rana and hits a nasty headlock takeover, Smith has impressive energy and tosses in some things you don't see enough of, like his running jumping knee to McAllister's back and a weird (and awesome) flipping fistdrop. McAllister and Richards are really gelling as a team, and I love how stoked they seem to be teaming with each other. McAllister hits a big palm strike at one point that turns Kazi inside out (and I'm pretty sure it was just a great worked palm strike, don't think it actually made any contact) and Richards spikes his cutter (I think Kazi made it look more dangerous than anyone so far), just a ton of fun simple tag match. And looking back at what I wrote, it's pretty clear I came away most impressed with Kamakazi Kid (Hombre #1?). He does so many great little things, really talented guy.

PAS: Eric breaking kayfabe by outing masked guys, for shame. I really liked this too, McAllister and Richards are a really fun team, and the Hombres started out as a comedy team, but ended up being really fun.  I loved Rojo River Jack trying for a step up rana and ending up eating a stomach breaker, and Negro Bart's fat guy snap rana was dope. I loved the wheelbarrow cutter finish that Redemption was using, and thought the Hombres were a fun Conquistadores style masked team, I want to see them against everyone now.

Chet Sterling vs. Brad Attitude

ER: What a slaughter! Attitude cuts one of his great Las Vegas poolside interviews about how he's not there and he's in paradise instead, has the Hombres jump Sterling (with Kamakazi taking the big half nelson suplex bump as Sterling comes back), and then Attitude himself comes out in slacks and a dress shirt and just wastes Sterling with his hard rolling travel suitcase. I don't think I've ever seen one of those used as a weapon before, and as I fly down to Phoenix later this week I'll have to keep that in mind. Attitude chucks it - hard - at Sterling's face, really beats him with it. I mean if you're going to debut a non-canon weapon into a pro wrestling ring, you gotta show why it's a weapon. If that was the worst thing that happened to Sterling in this match, he'd be bad off. Sadly, Attitude catches a plancha and rams him painfully into the ringpost, and then hits probably the nastiest apron powerbomb I've seen. There's no great way to land one of those, but this definitely isn't the way you want to land, head whipping hard and body going right into the edge. I've really gotten into Sterling's comebacks, he makes good use of his great right hand, but the second the ref disposes of a chair Attitude boots him low. This has to be setting up a big time No DQ match, and if it even approaches this 4 minute teaser, that match will SLAY.

PAS: Man is Brad Attitudes entire shtick just gold. The whole promo in the pool with Dolph talking about seeing Vince Neil and drinking beers, what a masterful cock that dude is (Brad Attitude video cameos are BY FAR the best things Dolph Ziggler has ever done in his career). The roller bag hurled at Sterlings face was super nasty, as was that apron powerbomb. Hell he did a Kudo Driver as a set up move. Despite my long established Sterling skepticism, the blow off for this feud is going to be awesome.

Donnie Dollars/Otto Schwanz vs. Aaron Biggs/Kool Jay

ER: Oh man I really like the Dollars/Schwanz team! I don't think we've gotten that pairing before and I love it. Otto is fun in this, rolling around and acting like a kook, and Dollars is probably my favorite underutilized CWF guy. But what sets this match apart is THAT moment. I already thought this episode HAD that moment, maybe a couple of those moments, from Attitude destroying Sterling. You know, one of those moments that makes you exclaim out loud while watching something by yourself. This match is going along fine and then then Jay gets whipped across the ring...straight into an Aaron Biggs avalanche. Jay runs into Biggs like an Eagles fan trying to catch a train, just totally takes the wind out of the room. Awesome moment that was totally unexpected within the match. The reactions from Dollars and Otto are classic, both laughing in stunned amusement at the flattener and the flattened. And we get a nice and long and active control segment from my new immediately favorite tag team, with Dollars dropping some big heavy legs and his patented Kool Jay-destroying bodyslam, Otto snapping off quick elbow drops and squishing Jay with a bearhug, and Kool Jay - you heard it here - is a guy who will absorb a beating. He fights back with what he can, throwing nice body blows at Otto (that get mostly ignored) and really running face first into Otto's boot, propped up in the corner. Dollars and Otto are fun to watch deliver a long beating, Jay makes a long beating go quick. I do wish there was more of a match after the Biggs hot tag though. Jay hits a big stunner on Dollars and gets the tag, Biggs flattens Dollars with the Thesz press, and Jay takes a bit too long hitting the winning frog splash. The ending was a little too neat of a bow, and while it was pushed as a big deal that Jay pinned Dollars, it felt a bit like Cornette tagging in to get the pin after Eaton hits the Alabama Jam.

PAS: Really fun tag team, every time Dollars is in the ring with Kool Jay it is tinged by the horror of that powerslam chokeslam thing he did to him last year. The announcers never mention it, but for me it hovers over the entire match, Kool Jay then eats the accidental Thesz press and it comes off nearly as insane and violent, it felt like surprise car accident in a PSA about wearing seatbelts. A lot of the recent Kool Jay stuff has been based around his offense, which is fine, but his insane bumping is what makes him special. I liked the beatdown by Dollars and Otto and the finish was fine, but I am not sure how many more defining moments Kool Jay needs, is pinning Donnie Dollars in a tag  a bigger deal then beating Mike Mars for a title (a match that has been blackholed), it isn't like Dollars has been kept strong.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Ric Converse


ER: Fun unique match-up, with Cain being a great equalizer on the floor for Sharpe. Converse is a really great heavyweight, throwing big hands, great big boot, muscled Sharpe through a powerslam, all his stuff looking real good. I love Sharpe going for his big KO uppercut the second Converse is distracted by Cain, and Sharpe brings a nice attack to Converse, especially liked the draping elbow over the ropes, ending with Sharpe casually resting and posing over the middle rope/Converse. There appeared to be some shenanigans as I noticed a cut in the match - and I usually don't notice subtle clips - but Cain was helping Converse back in the ring, and we get a camera cut and Converse is draped over the bottom rope. The finish is a fun bit or horse business, with the ref KO'd Cain pump kicks Converse in the chest and Sharpe gets the roll up. I really loved how Ric sold the pump kick, like he had been poisoned and was just now realizing his heart beat was changing.

PAS: This was fun stuff, Sharpe has really developed into an effective offensive wrestler, and I actually buy his offense hurting Converse. Cain is nearly as great on the floor as he is in the ring, and the pump kick interference was pretty awesome looking. I am looking forward to seeing more of this tag team, although it does seem like a bit of a side draining of Cain who really should be feuding with Trevor Lee over the title at this point.

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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 141

Episode 141

Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Chet Sterling

PAS: Sharpe continues to impress, as he really lays it into Sterling with hard shots, including a great diving clothesline to the back of Sterling's head while Sterling was tied up in the ropes, and a big time lariat which flipped Sterling around. I liked Sterling getting pissed and yelling at Sharpe to keep talking, but honestly Sharpe is the much fresher act at this point, and probably should have gone over. I feel like I have seen everything Sterling is going to show me, he is like CWF Randy Orton at this point.

ER: I thought both guys looked really good here, and loved how it devolved. We start out kind of expectedly fun, with Sharpe showing off his new merch and Sterling blowing his nose with it, but Cecil Scott was strong at pointing out the strides that Sharpe has made (and I also liked him bringing up the cold NC winters, which have been known to affect breathing the longer a match goes). Sharpe keeps adding cool offense to his repertoire. I kinda liked him as a Stevie Richards heel type with maybe two simple moves that look bigger within context of his matches, like his great jawbreaker. Here he just blows through Sterling with a great diving lariat, and later hits a crossbody/lariat while Sterling is draped over the middle rope. Those things added to simple vertical elbows can fill a match nicely. Sterling takes a super nasty bump through the ropes to the floor, like a trained version of Vince always almost hanging himself when he would get tossed, and I liked how Sterling goaded Sharpe into getting overly aggressive, clearly a trap, and a good enough one that I bought the roll-up nearfall. I get Phil's point about Sterling being the CWF Randy Orton, but I think Sterling continues making strides as well: The last half of the year Sterling matches appealed to me far more than the first half, he's been utilizing his genuinely good right hand at the right moments of matches, and it's working. Real good, satisfying match.

Mike Mars vs. Aaron Biggs

PAS: Fun slugfest to intro Biggs back into the singles realm. Very simple match which delivered what was promised. I thought Mars's somersault escape was a fun big man agility spot which was more like a Kamala leapfrog then a Donovan Dijak juniors spot.  I really liked the finish with Mars hitting the headbutt which staggers Biggs only for Biggs to bounce back with a huge Thesz Press for the KO

ER: This was good, I believe it was my first semi-extended look at Mars against a larger opponent. Since it was only going a few minutes I wish we had more of a big meaty slugfest (it was grounded for a bit in the middle) but I liked what I saw. It was basic, it was good. The finish was what made this super memorable though, as Mars surprises Biggs with his great thrust headbutt, and Biggs counters that surprise with one of his own, just flattening him with a Thesz Press as "out of nowhere" as a 375+ pound man can be. I was expecting Biggs to stagger, was not expecting him to come flying flush with a massive press. The win was a given. Truly one of the greatest Thesz Presses of our days.

PAS: Not sure what is going on with Mars, he has this big undefeated run, including just crushing Dirty Daddy in 120 seconds at BattleCade. Then they have Mars immediately lose the RGL title to Kool Jay, which is a win that they have been building too, but having that big win not get shown on their show really stinks. I get that there was a bunch of turmoil, and maybe there are reasons the footage got black holed, but it really screws up Mars and it stinks that Kool Jay's big moment is disappeared. At least show highlights with re-dubbed commentary if they don't want Bishop Magic Don Juan on their shows anymore. Now Mars goes from sqaushing everyone to losing his title in a dark match to losing to Biggs clean in a shortish match, the booking around this makes no one look good.

ER: Man I was so confused by this, and thinking about it doesn't make it any less confusing. Mars was a beast, running through everyone, including Daddy which was super shocking. I was really looking forward to a longer RGL title from Daddy, so the 2 minutes and change Mars victory was a shock. But to have Kool Jay turn around and beat Mars for the belt....and we don't even get to see it!? That is just stupid. Kool Jay has hardly even snapped off a single piece of offense during his CWF run, so for him to show up with a title suddenly feels like we jumped ahead 4 months in booking. I was really enjoying the slow burn, and CWF is a fed who knows how to do a slow burn. I thought Jay would start getting more and more offense, get a banana peel win, slowly move him to being more than just a bumping death machine, maybe have him cut a promo about how he had died so many times in the ring that he was on his last life and needed to start winning. But instead he shows up with a title that - last we saw - was Mike Mars' title, that Jay apparently won the week before. There was turmoil, it was the holidays, but that just highlights more reasons to NOT do a title change. I wanted to see Jay's journey, and I wanted to see Mars dominate for awhile. This is a bummer.

Roy Wilkins vs. Kool Jay

PAS: I really enjoyed this. The shtick here is that Wilkins has stolen the Mid-Atlantic belt and is now defending it against other champions. Since Kool Jay has the RGL title, he is the joke opponent. Big star treating a youngster like a joke and getting his comeuppance is a great match structure. Wilkins is really great as a contemptuous prick, and Jay is a really great underdog. I thought the opening section of Wilkins dominating went a bit long, this match type is better at 13 minutes rather then 22, but once Jay made his flurries of offense it was pretty great. Jay has a great dropkick and Wilkins really flies out of the ring, both tope's were big moves, and the sliced bread was a great near fall. They tried to make Kool Jay in this match, and mostly succeeded, although he already got his big career defining win and it isn't being shown for some reason.

ER: This was a good match that I think was really tanked by the fact we never saw Jay's title win. And I couldn't help but think the entire, long match, just how much different I would be reacting to this match had Jay been merely building off of the last time we saw him. He hadn't won a match at that point, he had barely been seen on offense, and because of that Wilkins was treating him like a total joke. How big would this match have looked? Instead, we went in knowing that he beat Mike Freaking Mars, a man who before this same episode we had barely seen look weak. Somehow, Kool Jay beat Mike Mars cleanly to win a title. Kool Jay beat a man who had been treating him like a complete punching bag for months. Kool Jay went from not being able to compete at all against Mars, to beating him for a title. And knowing that, makes Wilkins' entire attitude towards him not make any sense whatsoever. Cockiness is cockiness, I get that, but this mystery title change really sucked a lot of the drama and interest out of this match for me. It being overly long didn't help things. Kool Jay beat Mike Mars in less time than it took Wilkins to actually get actively involved in this match. And the final half was really good, really exciting. I don't think the latter half was made any more exciting because of the extended first half, but again the last half was really good. Even when he's on offense Jay tries his best to die (luckily Wilkins reeled him in before he destroyed a few rows of chairs) and I love the multiple tope spot. The interference from Caray and Coach was great, timing was always on point, and I especially loved when Caray grabbed his leg before the first tope, Jay backed him away with a 619 before hitting the second tope. We get a couple nice nearfalls (which again, would have been incredibly exciting without the knowledge that Jay had beat Mars for a title), but the strange programming decision really made this a misfire.

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BCW Pro Wrestling North Carolina 10/8/17

ER: This is the kind of show I would be attending if I lived in the southern United States, the kind of show where the ring is set up outside in the backyard of a bar, nice balmy October day, a bunch of kids sitting on chairs in gravel, cars parked everywhere, just great aesthetics for a southern wrestling show.

1. Kool Jay/Labron Kozone/James Ryan vs. Chris "TNT" Taylor/"Big Bite" Martinez/Semi Mutina

ER: I'm mostly unfamiliar with half the guys in the match, and this isn't a very essential trios match, but it's good for making mental notes on guys you haven't seen much, filling in blanks on guys, forming opinions and giving you a history when you see them in other matches. Semi Mutina looked like Big E, only a foot shorter and instead of a powerlifter build he had more of a "fat guy who has really been working out" build, and a cool Afrika singlet. Sadly he seemed really lost whenever he was in there, so I'll have to let his actual ability catch up to his cool fat guy charms. Big Bite was tall and lanky and pulled out some smooth exchanges, nice high vertical leap enziguiri, and hit a huge splash off the top. Him I'd like to see more from. I finally got to see Kool Jay in a longer match, although once he was in with Mutina who ended up out of place and kind of hung Jay out to dry on a flying something-or-other off the top. But Jay had an awesome full leg extension superkick and the flat out greatest chop block I've ever seen, just flying across the ring. It was cool seeing Jay as more of an offense guy than as a big bumping guy, though even with that chop block he's still probably best as a big bumping guy.

2. Snooty Foxx vs. Tre G

ER: First time seeing Tre G and I am definitely down for more. He's a great guy to have on an indy card, with some good shtick and nice basics. He jumps Snooty before the bell, throws nice punches (including some blistering lefts down the stretch), mule kicks Snooty down low, throws a decent spinebuster, drew heat with a somewhat scattered quiet crowd (including from one woman who absolutely would not let up on him the entire match) and bumped great for Foxx. Snooty looked good and had a very impressive rookie year. I like that all the things he can do, he can do against guys his size. That's important. It's easy to look good squashing little guys, Foxx gets regularly put opposite big guys, and it works. He doesn't wimp out on lariats or shoulderblocks (and G leans way into a mean shoulderblock here), has that great back elbow, and plants G with a powerslam. Good match, would love to see more of G.

3. Cain Justice vs. Number Dad

ER: Number Dad is Kamakazi Kid in full "work furlough Call of Duty marathon" gear, gym shorts, too tight shirt stretched over ample belly, Nike cross trainers, white socks. He's certainly in dad mode. But his work is good! He's a guy with great basics, and that's a guy Cain can play off nicely. Dad cuts low on clotheslines, hits some meaty clubs to the back, takes a nasty flip bump on a Cain lariat, throws a nice back elbow, good old school stuff like raking Cain's eyes across the top rope, good banter. He's a local guy you'd look forward to seeing on shows like this. Cain is as fun as you would expect, and it's great seeing him work armbars and throwing mean kicks on an outdoor daytime show, getting beaten into the crowd, rolling in gravel, all fun stuff. The match noticeably kicks up a notch halfway through: Dad does a comically bad Fargo strut and misses a really high standing legdrop, then Cain wastes him with a punt, and hits a brutal flying knee off the top, just right to the chin. Dad is great at leaning into all of Cain's strikes, and Cain throws a couple of KO kicks down the stretch. Dad gets a cool reversal by rolling through one and hitting a fireman's carry slam. Cain finds a nice way to get to the Twist Ending, throwing Dad off the top turnbuckle by the arm and locking it in for the insta-tap. I thought this would be a kind of goof around fun match, and it got a lot meaner than I was expecting, to all of our benefit.

PAS: Pretty strange to see Cain working as full babyface, he is pretty good at it and I imagine when he turns in the CWF Sportatorium it will be like babyface Buddy Rose levels of awesome. Number Dad has a really nasty eye poke, he really looks like he puts his whole wrist into it, I liked how they set that up as a big move which Cain reversed at the end to lead to the twist ending. This isn't as good as the Mitch Connor or Cecil Scott match but you can tell how great Cain is at working veterans, I want to see Cain work Michael McAllister, Ric Converse and Boogie Woogie Rob McBride.

4. Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Mitch Connor

ER: Sharpe has some real good crowd work to start, telling the crowd about his $12,000 robe and personally walking it to the back because he doesn't trust the people to not steal it. Match was goofy fun although it got way too silly at the end with Sharpe challenging Connor to a rock/paper/scissors contest that went on too long before an abrupt finish. But we got fun moments, like Connor battering Sharpe in the ropes like a teeter totter, clubbing him every time he would spring up. We got some Dusty moments from both, with Sharpe floating like a butterfly and nailing punches, and Connor hitting big elbows. I like Sharpe's over the shoulder jawbreaker, liked Connor taking him down with a choke and Sharpe yelling while trapped, but the silliness was a flat note to end on.

5. Cam Carter vs. Jesse Adler

ER: This wasn't bad, and probably better than all the Adler matches I disliked in CWF. That's probably because Adler didn't have a belt here, and his offense wasn't treated like somehow better than his opponent's because of that belt. Adler feels like a good indy worker from 1998, a guy that you'd see on tape and think he had potential to be a Kidman type, and then it never happens. His style feels dated, but he's okay at some things. Carter bumped around big for his Superman punch comeback, and Adler seems athletic for a guy who can come off sorta unathletic. But I'm glad Carter got more of a shine here, liked his Angle slam and some low key flying, but I also can't deny that the crowd was far more into Adler. Sometimes guys connect with crowds for reasons I can't understand, but connection is connection, and it's important.

6. Lee Valiant vs. Nick Richards

ER: I like Richards' goofball charm, slapping fives with practically every person in attendance, not even waiting for people to want the fives, just walking all around the lot fiving and fist bumping. Valiant is good at getting under people's skin, and this was good until it suddenly ended. It was really short, maybe three minutes. Everything in the three minutes was good, but we could have at least extended it out to a decent Worldwide length. Valiant always does little things I like, chokes guys in the ropes, yanks them by the waistband into the buckles, a good stooge. Richards is a good babyface and Valiant flew into the cutter, but this needed more time.

7. Arik Royal vs. Chet Sterling

ER: I love Royal entrances on shows like these, he's a good "trash talker in passing", teasing older ladies, selectively slapping fives, knows how to appropriately trash talk kids, it's always a treat. We also sadly only get part of a conversation between two women in the crowd who say "No he's the daddy but he takes care of him." That's a wrestling show conversation snippet right there, baby! This match was a blast, perfect kind of match for this audience. They brawl all through the crowd and Royal is GREAT at safely brawling through crowds. He's so good at it. He falls all over everyone, gets punched into ladies, gets hit by kids, chopped by women, and Sterling awesome tightens things up for the close proximity fans. They brawl under every canopy, Royal slams his head into every table in the backyard, they brawl up to the patio and hit each other amongst all the t-shirts stretched over beer bellies. Sterling throws some nice short right hands all throughout, and Royal takes shots into a table better than most. Sterling throws great right hands during the crowd brawl, at one point shaking out his fist for a good 8 steps after punching. I'll always love that. We do get some silliness for the finish, with Sterling hitting the People's Elbow (like 18 years after its peak), but does amusingly undo his wrist tape (since he wasn't wearing elbow pads). I liked their struggle over finishers back in the ring, usually those reversal struggles can seem too dance-y but here they somehow made fighting over an Overdrive look like they were getting arms bent in nasty ways. I will always go out of my way to watch Royal in a situation like this, but Sterling delivered too.

8. Trevor Lee vs. Lance Lude

ER: I really dug this. Trevor came out in gym shorts and wrestling shoes mode, and Lude worked as a tiny ragged heel. Lude's physical transformation is one of the better ones in wrestling. He used to be a kind of tinier Matt Sydal, now he's hairy and scruffy and has drunken sailor eyes. They brawl around the yard just like Royal and Sterling before them, a risky move since it literally had just happened, but they add some new twists and make it feel a little more reckless, sending a mother scrambling to shield her youngsters. Trevor gets the crowd to count a long on the outside while he holds Lude in a vertical suplex, but it takes so long that Lude is able to knee his way out of it. Main event Trevor Lee is a good formula at this point, and Lude might be the smallest guy we've seen work the formula so far, and it still works. Lude attacks with quick dropkicks and a big double kneedrop off the top for a good nearfall, and I liked him working heel (just as I also like his babyface Ducks work). Lee is always good at comebacks against heels, not hesitating to match jerk moves. Here he's good at running into Lude's boots, but also has no problem doing a finger break, does an awesome press slam (ending it by flexing one bicep while holding Lude up with one arm) and absolutely crushes him with a match ending double stomp. Fun main event to cap off a fun no frills show.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE CAIN JUSTICE

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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 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 132

Episode 132

1. Stokely Hathaway/Cain Justice/Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Brian Carson/Joshua Cutshall/Frankie Flynn/Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia vs. Dirty Daddy/Jesse Adler/Cam Carter/Michael McAllister/Nick Richards/Mitch Connor/Darius Lockhart/Caprice Coleman

PAS: Nifty Cibernetico match which had fun showcase performances from a bunch of different guys. I loved how they had callbacks to a bunch of feuds over the year. Cutshall and Richards flashback to January and beat the shit out of each other, Cain gets his revenge on Mitch Connor by making him tap to the twist ending, McAllister and Richards have a contest to see who can hit Carson harder playing off their mini-feud from last week. The also do a nice job of setting up future stuff, I want to see the Philly/Marino experience face off with the Vanguard after their interactions. They nicely set the table for the Justice v. Richards match coming up, plus I loved the couple of minutes of crazy guy potato fest between McAllister and Cutshall which would be a fun 8 minute TV match. Loved how they continued the serious Sharpe run, by having him beat both Adler and Daddy relatively clean. Would like to see him be the guy to beat Adler and make the TV title interesting again.


ER: This is a really nice lineup for a cibernetico and it's given tons of time, really allowing it to stretch out like some of those early Survivor Series match-ups. It seems bold to do a 16 man elimination match on the same episode as the Party/Caray elimination match, but I can't complain about 30+ minutes of quality pro wrestling. Far more guys looked really good in this than looked missable, with some standout performances from Cutshall, Coleman, Sharpe, and almost everybody got great little moments. Flynn was in briefly but really shined in his minute, making some offense look deadly (this match was filled with guys taking nasty DDT drops, but Flynn and Carter probably took them the nastiest). Cutshall is a huge guy who - just like I said about Otto last week - does "crazy" exceptionally well. I don't always want crazy from a wrestler, but where he excels over most wrestlers who have done crazy, is he'll crack you right in the mouth. The stuff with Coleman probably went too long but had some great payoffs, especially loved him teasing the over the top elimination with all his teammates holding him up. Sharpe matched up a lot with Daddy and those interactions were all good, Sharpe breaking out some surprises from little things (quickly spreading Daddy's feet with his own to bring him in closers for an elbow) to bigger things like a big lariat and huge shotei. Fully on board with Phil's desire to see him take the TV title away from Adler. I cannot get into Adler even one iota. He was easily my least favorite guy in this match. He's fluid and recovers athletically from doing offense, but I don't think any of his offense actually looks good. Stokely is coming along as a wrestler, I really liked his flying back elbow he broke out a couple times (shades of Cory Edsel!); Carter and Lockhart look like potential stars, they carry themselves confidently and look good doing and taking offense. Justice getting revenge on Connor from months back was vicious, and there's always an extra level of vulnerability when Connor is taking a beating. Connor gets these vacant stares and Cain is just blasting him in the back of the head, then when it looks like he's just about to get a stoppage he yanks Connor into a brutal Twist Ending. Then I love Cain's hubris getting the best of him as he spits on Daddy at ringside and turns around right into a Nick Richards cutter. This whole thing was a heckuva lot of fun, loved the concept, the participants were quality and gelled great, really this match could have easily held up a stand alone episode.

2. Kool Jay/Metallico/Number Boy vs. Mike Mars

PAS: CWF has some great big bumping jobbers, and this was as fun a slaughter as one would expect. All three guys take really painful falls, the point where Mars picks up both Metallico and Kool J in a firemans carry and throws them both hard on the mat looked like it would puncture a lung. It feels like they are building up to a big Kool J win and it is going to be awesome when he picks it up.

ER: Mike Mars is real body Khal Drogo and up against three big bumpers you know it's gonna be fun. The drop on that double stack fireman's carry wasn't high, but it looked dangerous as hell. I thought all three guys did a great job grouping their attacks and getting scattered, and Stutts made an apt Gulliver's Travels (while Cecil showed some deep cut knowledge on the Friday the 13th series). Each finish was pretty gross, with a planted chokeslam on Metallico and throwing Number Boy up and headbutting him in the chest on the way to the mat. I liked Kool Jay's little flashes, his spinkick and general spunk. I'm really rooting for that guy.

3. Donnie Dollars vs. Ray Kandrack

PAS: I am all in for a Donny Dollars open challenge series. This was a big meaty punch out, I wish it had been six minutes instead of 2, but I liked the whole two minutes. Kandrack is coming back from injury and it is unclear whether he can take a bump, but he can forearm someone in the mouth.

ER: I'm mostly unfamiliar with Kandrack, as my CWF history only began with last year's Battlecade. I liked his Rumble return, and he's big enough to CWF's history to still have him in the opening episode credits (or was that a new addition...), but damn am I sick and tired of seeing my boy Dollars pick up the L. FIRST, I hardly get to see him wrestle, he hardly ever shows up on the shows, and THEN his match is under 2 minutes? You guys. For a short match this was really fun, but I need to feel more Dollars love.

PAS: Love the Brad Attitude updates, friends with Dolph Ziggler is a such a great 2017 heel move, and a love his name drops. I am not sure why Attitude isn't at least main eventing TNA shows, shit he would make a great traveling NWA champ, talk about a guy who could cut a promo and make you want to see your local guy kick his ass.

ER: Not much to add, other that fully agree with all Phil wrote. Attitude is a superstar.

4. Mace Li/Roy Wilkins/Arik Royal/Otto Schwanz/Jarry Caray vs. Faye Jackson/Snooty Foxx/Sandwich Squad/CL Party

PAS: Fun elimination match, which focuses a lot on the All Stars cutting the ring off and working over people. Royal and Wilkins are a great southern heel tag team, their cuts offs are well timed, their offense looks good and Royal especially has all time great shtick. Really great to watch them stooge for Jackson, work over Foxx and bump for the big Sandwich Squad comeback. Finish was satisfying with Carey getting his comeuppance getting choked out by Party's leg lock.

ER: Yeah this was a fun crowd pleasing elimination match, with a great Royal/Wilkins performance contained within. Royal was great in this, totally classic apron guy (always engaging fans and interacting in non-showoff ways into the match), interacting great with crazy Otto, and then crushing it in the ring when needed. His corner attack on Biggs was maybe my favorite thing in the match, just picking him apart with note perfect jabs, slamming him in the chest with awesome palm strikes, and knowing just how to feed the Sandwich Squad (pun intended). Mecha had an awesome performance in this too, just a killer hot tag down the stretch with big chops, big clotheslines, big crossbody, big everything. Cecil Scott cracked me up early in the match when Faye tagged in and slammed her ample backside into Wilkins' ribs, and you hear Scott just quietly say "Jealous". Can't really blame him. I loved how the stretch played out with the Squad eliminating the All-Stars at the same time, leaving Caray alone with the Squad and Party (Sandwich Party?). Caray and the Coach are totally cool taking the count out loss ("Count faster!" Coach yells to ref Redd Jones as they're walking away) but we get the great late match moment of Faye and Snooty coming back from the curtain to block their way. Caray gets tossed back in and CL Party blasts him with a forearm, then locks on a tight head vice between her knees, aiming to pop his head like a zit. CWF does crowd pleasers really well, and this was plenty pleasing.

5. Trevor Lee/Chet Sterling/Ric Converse vs. C.W. Anderson/Zane Dawson/Brad Attitude

PAS: This was a Triathlon match starting with a singles match, going to a tag, and finishing with a trios. Anderson and Lee face off to start and Attitude comes from the back as a surprise to jump Lee and we open with a fun Lee v. Attitude sprint. I liked Anderson on the floor here, constantly cheap shotting and trash talking. Anderson jumps in and superkicks Lee for the DQ but then we have CW and Dawson take on Converse and a weakened Lee, after Sterling gets jumped in the entrance way. They finish up with a trios match that included the dramatic Sterling return. Finish has Wilkins come out and bust Lee open with knucks, leading to a big assisted pop up powerbomb on Sterling for the heel victory. I liked the Anderson team cutting off the ring and working over the faces, but I was a little dissapointed I didn't get to see Anderson and Lee face off much, I guess they still have that match up on deck for 2018

ER: Based on the prior week's show closing promo I thought we were getting a CW/Lee singles match, so was disappointed at first, but should not be shocked that what I got instead was a pretty great match. I'd never heard of the Triathlon Survivor gimmick (I assume it's a CWF special) where we start with a singles match between any one guy from each team (we get Attitude vs. Lee), then a tag match with any two guys from each team (we get CW/Zane vs. Converse/Lee) and then finish with a trios. It's a pretty cool concept and one that just seems way cooler with the guys involved. Attitude and Lee have a legendary CWF feud, but Lee has no chance in the singles as CW keeps interfering whenever he could. CW was great on the floor and awesome whenever he would hop up to the apron. Attitude and Lee match up so well, and Lee made some great headway even with the interference, loved when he caught Attitude's leg and and snap hyperextended it, then stomped his elbow. Stutts and Cecil were great at putting over Attitude's rehabbed leg, how he opted to rehab instead of get a surgery, how things often don't heal fully or properly. But CW was always there with a shot or distraction, and the superkick for the DQ is a great spot. One of my (and probably a zillion other peoples') favorite spots in wrestling was Rick Rude coming off the top with a kneedrop on Steamboat at Beach Blast 92, getting him a DQ, but allowing him to immediately pin him for his own fall. So CW's team loses the fall but his superkick is always so great that it immediately gives them a leg up for the tag match. Lee is a total nut so he hangs in for the tag as well, and Converse gets to show off his great babyface work fighting against two men. Dawson takes a couple big bumps over the top to the floor, CW picks apart Lee, throws his big left hook, and Converse is just really damn good. I really think he's one of the best Tommy Dreamers ever (and better than Tommy Dreamer). The trios is chaotic as hell, with Sterling coming back from getting jumped and hitting a big flip dive, Lee gets busted open bad by a Roy Wilkins knux shot, CW looks like one of the best workers in the world (seriously this guy has not aged a bit since ECW), just a bunch of great stuff.

ER: Super fun double sized episode, really liked all the big multimans, and the squashy stuff were a couple short big bumping slugfests. Nothing but quality here. The triathlon match landed on our Ongoing 2017 MOTY List.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 128: The CWF Rumble

Episode 128

PAS: Incredible ride of a match, my favorite battle royal ever. Just a testament to the booking prowess of the CWF, and pair of all time performances by Trevor Lee and Cain Justice. It is hard to keep the momentum of a 1 hour plus battle royal going, but they had a bunch of nifty mini stories weaving through out. Opening the match with Trevor and Ric Converse was a nice battle of the past champ vs. future champ, and it felt like a big deal when they went nose to nose and slugged it out. I thought Dr. Dan landing on the hoverboard to avoid elimination was a fun bit of battle royal comedy. Loved Otto coming in with fast takedowns on both Trevor and Converse and cracking ribs with nasty bear hugs.

We had the classic middle of the rumble monster run with Mike Mars, getting some big eliminations including Mecha Mercenary (it did irritate me a little when Stuttsy and Cecil pretended the Dawsons v. Sandwich Squad match happened a week ago, and then abandoned the fiction later in the match when talking about the night of the RGL, rare bit of inconsistency from the commentary team), only to have his run ended by Ray Kandrack's surprise return. My CWF fandom is post-Kandrack but he seemed like the biggest deal out of the returning guys (Micheal Yamaha felt kind of unnecessary, but I did love Brad Attitude saying "I thought you were dead".) We have a bump freak competition between Kool J and Nick Richards to see who could die worse on eliminations (Richards by a hair, his kidneys hit the ring apron hard, he was pissing blood for sure.) Your final crew of guys was pretty great (although a bit too much Chet Sterling for my taste), Brad Attitude is one of the most purely entertaining wrestlers in the world, and he has awesome in this, full sleazy prick and his post match mauling of Sterling was awesome. Everything about Roy Wilkins was perfect, he and Gemini orchestrate the entire match, he comes in last, places the brass knuckles on his hand, and walks in with all the confidence in the world, only to get tossed instantly.

What really puts this over the top is the final two. What an incredible 10 minute segment Trevor Lee v. Cain Justice was. Cain loses the RGL title earlier in the night after a classic reign, and is totally made as a main eventer the same night. I loved how Lee almost worked heel here, he had been bloodied and beaten for over an hour, but he was still going to punk out this rookie who felt like he belonged. Lee laid in some savage blows, and Cain was firing right back at him. The moment where Cain got him trapped with the in rope armbar and got Trevor to tap out was huge in the history of the fed, I can see that being a huge deal when they match up again. I also loved the tightness of the elimination, Lee hits the double stomp on the apron and they both tumble to the floor with Cain landing seconds before Lee.

ER: A flat out killer, episode long Rumble. I cannot say for sure that this was the best Rumble I've ever seen - I am partial to the 40 man Berzerker Rumble - but I'm a huge fan of battle royals and this was without a doubt one of the best. I thought there were several standout performances: Ric Converse looked insanely fired up and continues to bring an intensity few can, Mike Mars looked like a hirsute bulldozer, Cain Justice turned in another great ride, Lee put on a performance worthy of the champ, Brad Attitude shit talked and knuckle punched his way through. This was a quick and super entertaining hour + of pro wrestling.

A great Rumble is going to be filled with tons of nice individual moments, with a long narrative thread running through, in and around these moments. Converse and Lee run through some nice teases and set a nice violent tone for the Rumble. Rockingham has a great comedy elimination - and believe it or not maybe my favorite use of Lee's punt - as he gets punted off his hoverboard (which he had landed on to avoid touching the floor), his legs go flying up in the air and the board goes skittering off the length of ringside. Otto brings some big boy strength to the proceedings and I love him interjecting himself into the Lee/Converse scrum and just squeezing the life out of them. I would have liked to see more Donnie Dollars but I was impressed with the huge bump he took on his elimination. Eddy Only was a cool little dirtbag who had no chance but at least came in throwing punches and poking eyeballs. Andrews' appearance just made me angry again that he and Valiant don't have the TV title any longer (and I'm still waiting for Adler to throw one of his signature spin kicks well. We've seen maybe 6 since his brief comeback and they've all looked about 0.2 on the Speedball Mike Bailey scale).

Mecha was still selling his neck from the Dawson chairshot, and I like that detail. Mike Mars was an absolute beast, throwing those big headbutts and causing my favorite elimination of the Rumble, when he just literally throws Kool Jay as far as possible. Jay is a lunatic and I loved how he kept challenging guys during his brief appearance, knowing that it would likely end well for him. He didn't even get to grab a rope to slow down his landing, just got launched. Nick Richards eats a brutal elimination when Kamikaze Kid gives him a brutal driver on the apron. He gets his when Snooty comes in. Outside of Kamikaze Kid we also got Ray Kandrack and Mikael Yamaha as legacy entrants, and I am definitely interested in seeing more of Kandrack (his last CWF match was before my CWF jump in), but Yamaha looked like a guy who hadn't wrestled in a couple years (I remember getting a tape of Carolina stuff from Statmark 15 years ago that had a lot of great Yamaha and Edsel stuff, as well as CW Anderson riding in a tractor to a ring that was set up in a corn field). I actually expected Ethan Alexander Sharpe to go to the final 4, but dug his work here, especially when he cut a promo to camera after eliminating McAllister, only to get snap German suplexed mid sentence by Lee. Coach Gemini stacked Royal/Li/Wilkins in the final 3 spots and I love how that blew up. Wilkins gets the knux and runs at Lee (held by Li), ends up getting himself thrown to the floor. Naturally, he comes back in and blasts Lee with a big knux shot, busting him open. Cain Justice was pitch perfect celebrating Lee's demise with other heels. Brad Attitude goes right after Lee's cut with the meanest punches of the match, real laser focused shots right at Lee's temple.

And this all comes down to Cain Justice vs. Trevor Lee. Cain had worked a hard match earlier in the night and lost his title, Lee has spent his night avoiding eliminations left and right and being the target of everyone. And they have an absolute war, immediately making it look like Cain Justice outgrew the RGL label in one evening. Perhaps inspired by Attitude going hard at Lee's cut, Cain throws more mean punches at Lee's temple. These two scrap well and both are great at selling the exhaustion and desperation. Lee gets Cain to tap by wrenching his knee and neck at once in a real sick looking sub, but a tap won't do much for you in a Rumble. We get a great gross moment where Cain acts like he's popping his knee back into place afterwards. Cain getting Lee to tap while tied in the ropes was a huge moment, as I don't think I've seen Lee lose in any way since watching CWF, this was at least giving me a visual of what nobody else has been able to do over the last calendar year. Cain's RGL loss is a distant memory at this point. He's moved on and shown he can tap the champ. The apron work by both men was excellent, with both clinging to the ropes almost afraid to move, knowing they were each one slip away from a loss. But Lee stomps the absolute hell out of Cain, and Cain BARELY lands on the ground a fraction of a second before Lee. Epic showdown. This is going way high on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's Superstars of Worldwide Episode 106

Episode 106

1. Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Dirty Daddy/Rob McBride

ER: We talked about the deep talent roster last week but goddamn EAS has been on half the shows we've reviewed. I need more CW, more Xsiris, more Attitude, less 10 minute EAS matches. McBride is a guy I haven't seen in ages and his is a shtick I can sit back and enjoy: no bumps, meaty chops, an eye rake, full weight elbow drop, yes please. I really dug the few minutes where Sharpe and Doc worked over Daddy's knee, the shots to the hammy were rough and I liked Sharpe's mule kick to it. It didn't really go anywhere, and Daddy's comeback didn't look great, but I liked the hot tag, and Sharpe/Doc were game to stooge around, so this was fine.

PAS: I really think Dirty Daddy is good, just a natural babyface with awesome timing, and I could imagine I would like the team with McBride more against a better squad. I could also live with a break from Sharpe matches, especially if he isn't with White Mike or getting beaten by SIS.

ER: Hadn't thought of that Juicy Fruit commercial in years and it's crazy how I remember all of it. There are so many important things that I don't remember anymore. There are actual friends from school - friends who I have fond memories of - whose names I don't remember. But the second I saw that dude stepping into his skis I remembered every word of a Juicy Fruit jingle.

2. Donnie Dollars vs. Kool Jay

ER: Ummmm...holy shit. Did anybody see the same finish that I saw? Everybody acted totally normal, but Jay got his fucking dome press slammed hard right into the mat. He got whipped into the mat at an insanely dangerous speed, at an insanely dangerous angle, and people acted like it was a pretty normal finish. The match was a really fun squash, thought Jay's step up enziguiri and running elbow looked great, Dollars had some mean offense. But good lord that finisher. When you take something more painfully than the worst Darby Allin bumps, I'm not sure that's a threshold we need to further cross.

PAS: Holy shit that finish needs to be gif'ed right now. Feel like it should be a meme, every time Sean Spicer says something dumb they should show Dollars press chokeslamming Kool Jay. Man Jay is great as a bumper, that kid has a future if he has a future.

ER: I had no clue there was a Muppet Babies Live. I know my folks took me to Sesame Street Live, but Muppet Babies Live seems like something they actively hid from me to save themselves from having to attend. I'm sure if that commercial had come on they would have leapt in front of the TV to distract me, like Peggy Hill not letting Bobby find out that competitive eating is an actual thing. Man I loved Muppet Babies. And the Von Erich Pizza Inn commercial is a stone cold classic.

3. Keith Mac vs. Joshua Cutshall

ER: Cutshall does unhinged nutcase really well, he looks like Reverend Smith from Deadwood and has good size and presence. Mac dances around a bunch and Cutshall starts dancing with him and  just as I was thinking "Man I wish Cutshall would punch him in the face", Cutshall unloads this pin straight right hand right to Mac's chin. Sold. Wrestler of the year. Mac hit a nice pancake slam (which might be the first actual piece of offense I've seen from him), and while I thought the straightjacket set-up was a bit much on the finish, Cutshall really cracked him with that elbow. I like that we've established his elbow as a killshot.

PAS: I enjoyed this when Mac was dancing around and Cutshall was killing him for it, but I think it fell apart a bit when Keith Mac tried to do some wrestling moves. Cutshall is one of my favorite CWA guys to watch, and I would like them find something to do with him.

ER: Very excited for Cecil Scott vs. Cain Justice and I really dug Cecil's promo, guaranteeing Cain that he might not be going into the match at 100%, but Cain wouldn't be leaving at 100%, and the story of challenging above his head while Cain picks low fruit. It was all good stuff.

4. PB Smooth/Colby Redd vs. Dave & Zane Dawson

ER: Dawsons are always going to be guys I like, so I'll focus on the other two. We got more of a look at big man PB Smooth, and I gotta say working as a babyface giant is not an easy spot to be in, and when you're as agile as he clearly is, it's tough to not come off "smaller" on your hot tags. It can be argued that working FIP would actually be easier for a babyface giant, much easier to hit a few big spots and then show vulnerability through a knee injury or something. I had never seen Redd before and he seemed fine, but he also seems like a guy I've seen a dozen of on various indy cards. He threw out a couple cool enziguiri variations, but even "nice enziguiri variation" is something I've complimented another wrestler on during this episode. Smooth has some nice offense that integrates his height and leaping ability, loved the high kick on the apron and the slam dunk rope choke from the floor.

PAS: I didn't like this much, no reason for this to go 10 minutes and I didn't think Smooth and Redd looked very good and the Dawsons are better as quick hit guys then working 60/40 in a long tag match. Smooth is big and has some really agility, but is aways away for being a compelling wrestler to watch. I am interested in what Smooth v. Cain Justice would look like.

5. Snooty Foxx vs. The Blue Devil

ER: They really need to make up their minds on whether it's Fox or Foxx, as it feels like they're playing a prank on my website tags every other week. This was a Foxxx squash, Blue Devil ran into a lariat nicely, Fawqs hit a big spear. Blue Devil could be a big time masked white privilege sexual assault gimmick, just a Duke boy run amok, slipping roofies to opponents to get wins, get him a manager who blames his opponents for what happens to them, never getting suspended because he still has a promising future. But this was just a squash.

PAS: The Blue Devil's Rayo De Jalisco mask got me curious about what a Snooty Foxx vs. Rayo De Jalisco Jr. would be like. Feels like Rayo would fit in really well in CWF, maybe better then any other lucha import, big guy, heavy hitter, nice timing, a couple of big spots. Feels like if CWF brought in a luchadore they would bring in Fenix or someone to work Trevor Lee, but Rayo v. Otto Schwanz would be the more intriguing match.

6. Nick Richards vs. Otto Schwanz

ER: I dug this, though thought the finish was a little bit too sudden, would have liked more. Richards blindsiding Otto and not letting up was a great way to start, with Otto doing an awesome job of scrambling just to try to survive and get some space. Richards keeps on him and Otto shoots for a great desperation single leg, and when the tide finally turned it was great, Otto headbutting him with his mask, Richards throwing thumbs to eye to try to get his own space, Otto finally grabbing a big bear hug and dropping some elbows. I was getting pretty damn into it, but thought the missed splash > ace crusher was a pretty weak quick finish.

PAS: I dug this, aggressive mat wrestling Otto is one of my favorite things in CWF, and his scrambles looked awesome here, loved the grounded bar fight headbutt, the ankle pick and the grinding takedowns looked great. I also loved Richards dirty fighting, jumping him from behind, raking the eye, not letting him off the ropes. When this was intense it was great, it would have been better as a killer 4 minute match, as when it got slowed down, it dragged slightly.

ER: I had a great time with this episode. Nostalgia is a pretty potent drug for me, and the commercials were blended in seamlessly and made for a super fun viewing. They even crushed little details like warped tracking and logo blur during the opening, making it look like when it was windy outside and our TV antennae would get turned a bit. I had a great time watching this, hopefully the first of several throwback specials.

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