Matches from Beyond Wrestling Project Dolphin 6/3/21

Matt Makowski vs. Logan Easton LaRoux

PAS: LaRoux is a guy I saw live a couple of times in DC back in the day, and is really good at being hateable but is also a slick wrestler. He does the 2021 version of Mocking Karate by dickishly dropping into guard, only to have Makowski do a somersault into mount and reverse monkey flip him into an armbar. LaRoux was able to attack the knee with some low dropkicks and a knee bar, and the match became LaRoux attempting to tear the knee up before Makowski could catch him in a crazy submission. Great selling by Makowski and really nasty limb work by LaRoux, until Makowski catches him in a Razor's Edge throw into an armbar for a tap. Great little match, and Makowski keeps coming up with holy shit spots.

ER: This was a really cool style clash, with Makowski getting his knee worked over while still finding cool ways to roll LaRoux into submissions. The beginning action was a real trip, with Makowski hitting a standing moonsault into guard and then monkey flipping him straight into the air while catching an armbar on the way down. Makowski has really fast strikes, maybe the quickest and most impactful leg kicks in pro wrestling, and LaRoux had the exact right amount of leaning into some of the kicks and narrowly leaning out of a couple deadly high kicks. I liked his work on Makowski's knee (I think I'll always love anyone who does a single leg DDT) and Makowski had some really impressive selling. He was good at subtly paying service to the leg work, shaking out his leg and not putting weight on it during exchanges, realistic stuff that he kept up through the finish, wobbling out of the corner while carrying LaRoux in a Razor's Edge. There were several cool sequences (loved a Makowski O'Connor roll that LaRoux reversed by kicking out Makowski's knee) and the finishing leglock (thrown into it by the Razor's Edge) was disgusting. 

Slade vs. Max Caster

ER: Here's a really odd Submission Match that really caught my attention and mostly kept it. Slade is a very new guy who is already very over with the live crowd, and of course I was going to watch him because they are billing him as a Riker's Island convict who is not trained to wrestle. He looks like a cross between 70s Sid Haig and Paul Ellering and wrestles like a guy who is not very trained. And that stands out as pretty interesting right now. He doesn't seem to know how to bump but he has a crazy eyed charisma that obviously connects with people. Caster is an AEW TV regular who is basically Xavier (not early 2000s Xavier, but NEW Xavier when he worked much slower and didn't take crazy bumps), and he is tasked with working a submission match against a guy who is either not very trained or is very good at playing into the Not Trained part of his gimmick (I like it either way). It's a great premise, and their only misstep is that they insanely work a 15 minute match. SHANK isn't going out there working 15 minute matches man. You get an untrained convict from Riker's, who has an incredible farmer's tan and a good presence, you do NOT need to be the 2nd longest match on the show. 

This could have been great with 1/3 of the time cut, this could have been great with *2/3* of the time cut, but I'm still way down with Slade. He wrestles like early Taz, complete with walking around in between throws to effectively cover when he's not sure what move to do next. Slade has nasty body shots and made his worked strikes look really good. They brawl on the floor and Slade takes forever setting up a door spot but the payoff is great, with Slade getting shoved off by Caster's boy (who we could have done without the rest of the match but get a lot more interference) and taking a bump off the stage through a table like someone who has no idea how to bump through a table. He goes through knee, wrist, and shoulder first and it looked sick. That actually leads to the few submissions of the match as Caster goes after Slade's knee and Slade keeps fighting him off like a threatened cobra. Slade comes off like a real threat and I loved him fighting back. Still, inexplicable to go 15 minutes in this situation, and even with that padded time this was a cool match. 

PAS: I agree with this going a bit long and I don't think a submission match really works into Slade's strengths, but man he has some strengths. He has these incredibly sharp elbows that really look like he is taking someones head off, like I am not sure if that first back elbow was a work or he just loosened Caster's teeth for real, but my goodness. He hit a totally gross elbow to the back of the head as well.  Caster was OK, he did a nice job of looking terrified of Slade which is what you need in this match. Not a MOTY list match, but I have a new guy, and it is always fun to have a new guy.

Chris Dickinson vs. Brogan Finlay

PAS: Finlay is the 18 year old son of Fit Finlay and this was his 8th match. He was clearly still getting his sea legs, but had some nice moments. I especially liked him splaying Dickinson's fingers and jamming them into the top rope, and he also hit a nice Finlay roll. Dickinson is a guy who is great, but I don't really think he figured out this match. You really should work it like Tenryu, but he seemed to go back and forth between killing the kid and pulling his stuff. There was an especially long and bad New Japan elbow section which really took me out of it all. The finish seemed completely blown, with Dickinson hitting a Death Valley driver and the ref signaling that Finlay kicked out when he clearly didn't. Dickinson then DVD's the ref and counts his own pin on Finlay who is still lying there. I am not sure if he was supposed to kick out and got knocked silly or they ran an angle which didn't make sense, but it went over like a burp in a synagogue. If they ran this back in six months, with some more seasoning for Brogan, I imagine it will be good. 

Read more!

ACTION Wrestling Boogie Nights 5/14/21

Wes Barkley vs. Bobby Flaco

ER: Happy to see Maserati Wes in ACTION, but the match itself was a bit of an under-delivery. It really felt like they kept cycling through the same kind of moments, with the match resetting every couple of minutes so Flaco could slowly climb to the top while Barkley killed time, before Flaco was either knocked off the top of missed his flying spot, to then be hit with a nice Barkley driver or something. It built to Flaco hitting a nice crossbody but the build felt a bit stilted. I like both guys, so it's natural that there were things I did like, but it's odd that Barkley came off like the faster guy here. I was expecting Flaco to out quick him, but it felt like Barkley had to keep waiting around for Flaco, and Flaco's offense didn't always look like it would move Barkley the way Barkley moved. Still, I liked Barkley's driver and rolling clothesline, liked Flaco's corner elbows and loved Flaco hitting a double Fuerza dropkick on Barkley and Bishop (with Bishop taking a wonderful bump into the front row fans), and I can see them matching up better next time. 

Robert Martyr vs. Ashton Starr

ER: Super fun match, one that really felt like the match that should open a wrestling show. I think there were a couple too many kickouts, but I liked a lot of their ideas and came away impressed with both (in different ways). Starr is one of the only guys in wrestling to wear a Pimpi/Cassandro singlet, and that will always make me like a guy more. I don't love all of Starr's offense, think his strikes are weak, doesn't really have the strength to pull off some of his more complicated spots (like his pop up German, which, if it can't look good against a 140 lb. guy then maybe you should trim your moveset a bit), but he's great at taking offense and takes steps that a lot of guys don't. Starr is really good at whipping his face into the mat on moves, showing the damaged a move could cause. I loved how he made it look like he took Martyr's drop toehold right on his chin, how he snapped himself over the ropes on a neckbreaker, and it makes sense that his quebradora would look good (as he has the magic of the Pimpi singlet). Martyr has been a standout on Paradigm's UWFI shows, and he carried that over easily on pro style shows. He does little things like plant his knee on Starr's forehead during a pin, was great at taking all of Starr's runs of offense, throws a surprise kick at Starr's chest while Starr was getting to his feet, takes a nice Starr springboard dropkick right under the chin, and breaks out an awesome Tiger Driver that I thought should have ended the match. A bit of editing wouldn't have been a bad thing, but overall we got a good thing. 

Brandon Williams vs. Damyan Tangra

ER: I was excited for this on paper and they gave me exactly what I wanted. It's really easy to picture both of these guys being very good in a year, as both are fairly new but already do so many things that keep their floor very high. Williams had some really sticky grappling and Tangra had no problem being glued to him and waiting for submission openings. Dylan Hales did a really great job of point out small details in both of their games, talking up Tangra's "true double wristlock", explaining different grips and talking about the advantages of those grips. The first few minutes felt like a cool gym exhibition that kept getting a bit more heated, both guys getting nice subs that got quickly broken, getting in each others' head. Williams moves past the grappling with a tornado chop that should have been silly but hit like a firecracker, and when we move into a few throws and suplexes I dug how both stayed glued to their opponent. Williams hit an awesome fisherman's buster and held onto the arm, rolling it into a nice Fujiwara. Tangra had a strike combo that could have been tighter, and he took a bit too long getting Tangra into a rear naked with body vice, but the finish was fun as hell. I loved Tangra fighting for his STF while Williams wanted his ankle lock, and Williams might have the best looking ankle lock since who knows when. That's a move that's been about as dead and buried as you can get - once Angle was letting every referee he locked it on do the exact same forward roll reversal - but Williams' looked like one that should finish a match. Tangra getting him in the STF and then grabbing Williams' arm reaching for the ropes, and using that arm to strangle him, was a great way to finish. Very cool match. 

PAS: This felt a bit like a early version of those Thatcher/Gulak/Busick matches at the beginning of the 2010s, a pair of indy guys who were going to go out there and show what they could do with pure grappling. Williams is a guy I hadn't seen before, but I was impressed with how tight all of his holds looked. I am a guy with a high standard for Fujiwara armbars, and that was a great Fujiwara armbar. I also loved the finish, that was a nice looking STF, and I always love when someone shifts the application of a hold to stave off a rope break. We are in the middle of a grappling renaissance on the indies and I want to see these guys in there with the Makowski's, Garrini's and Makabe's of the world.

Liam Gray vs. King Garuda

ER: One of ACTION's strengths is how their cards are laid out, rarely giving us back to back version of the same kind of match. Two hour shows with good flow? That's why I watch full ACTION shows instead of cherry picking the stuff that sounds good on paper. Garuda is really new, this is his first singles match, and having a fun "rookie keeps a cocky heel off balance" match was a nice change of pace after our grappling and submission based match right before it. Skulk are a great tag act, and I loved Adrian Alanis at ringside interfering and getting into it with fans (like when Gray took his shirt off and threw it at a fan, and Alanis went over and played tug o war with the fan to get it back), and their entrance heat is fantastic. Gimme a heel tag team who can dance while cutting up kids' signs and I'm a happy man. Garuda hits Skulk with a plancha while they're getting into it with fans, and I immediately become a huge Liam Gray fan as he keeps flopping and slipping on the floor when Garuda tries to throw him into the ring. I like the match type where a rookie starts a match getting a near 3 count and then gets punished for it. Garuda didn't really get punished, as the story of the match wound up being "he would have won if not for Alanis at ringside!" but it's still a fun way to start a match. I wasn't expecting Garuda to take so much of the short match, but I liked his pescado, liked his wrist clutch suplex, thought it was great when Gray kicked him low from behind (thanks to Alanis distraction) to hit his cobra clutch backbreaker. 

Merrik Donovan vs. Jack Cujo

ER: I enjoy ACTION's honest approach to getting rookies onto shows. These guys impressed on a tryout show, weren't supposed to be on this show, ACTION realized they had time, so we get a bonus match. There's no phony hype around it, just an honest explanation explaining why these two were here. I'm always down to see rookies get 3:30 to show what they can show. They almost always show a bit too much, but hey, shoot your shot. Cujo has good charisma and a ton of confidence, and that will carry him a long way if he keeps at it. Do we have many indy guys working Second Line Dancer gimmicks? Donovan misses way high on all his missed strikes, but he gets a TON of power behind the strikes that are supposed to hit. He lands an elbow and standing lariat in the corner that looked like it shook Cujo to his core, and he had some ground and pound that he was intentionally throwing high to graze off Cujo's head, but he threw those grounded elbows with impressive force. Some guys have body language on strikes, others do not, and Donovan's body language looked like he was murdering a guy even when he wasn't connecting. I also liked how Donovan sold on his feet, leaving Cujo a lot of openings to hit his flash, staggering and leaning on the ropes. Cujo's missile dropkick landed flush, though some of his offense doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should work against larger opponents. His air raid crash over his own knee finisher feels a bit too 2006 indy wrestling, but I loved how Donovan sold it (even doing a bit of a kickout several seconds after losing).  

Orion Bishop vs. Alex Kane

ER: This was the match I was excited for when I looked at the card, and while it didn't live up to my own expectations it still gave me plenty of moments that got me excited for it in the first place. Kane has been a real standout on the Paradigm UWFI shows, and Bishop looked like a cross between Dr. Death and Donald Gibb and obviously I'm going to be into a guy like that. The match was all about Kane being unable to use his strength on Bishop, with Bishop staying on his feet and refusing to be thrown around. Bishop blocks a belly to belly and hiptoss, then catches a Kane avalanche and tosses him with a fallaway slam. Bishop is good at shutting down Kane, and he hits him with a spear hard enough that I would have bought it as a surprise early finish. Kane has a really cool transition as he grabs an ankle pick while on the ground and it was a cool reminder that Bishop could be caught at any time, even while in control. But Bishop is too much of a wrecking ball and escapes, then hits an exploder and Vader bomb. 

I can't decide how I feel about Kane's big opening in the match, as Gibson runs him across the ring with a buckle bomb, but when he charges back in that's when Kane hits him with a nasty overhead belly to belly into the corner. The suplex looked mean as hell, and Bishop's body got all hung in the ropes in a cool way, and I get that Kane was finally able to suplex him by using Bishop's momentum against him...but it doesn't quite sit right. Bishop was delivering too much of a beating, and Kane was acting too out of it. Kane is a much more compelling offense guy than a selling guy, and that corner suplex basically turned the rest of the match into a Big Moves Exchange. It doesn't go long after that suplex, an F5 from Bishop, Angle Slams from Kane, but it felt weak to have Bishop go down so quickly after all the damage he did. It didn't feel like the finish, build felt off, but the pairing itself was an absolute blast so it's kind of a wash. 

PAS: I liked both guys, liked their performance in the match, but agree that the pacing was a bit off. Kane gets steamrolled for 90% of this match, and two suplexes seem like an insufficient price to pay to win the match. I think we needed a couple of more moments for Kane, maybe a hot start, or one more big hope spot, instead it is all Bishop until he loses. I do love the way Kane pops his hips on suplexes though, really makes every throw look awesome.

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Kevin Ku

ER: This kept building into something I was more and more interested in, peaking with the best combo of their styles and both men crossing each other up and taking sequences in unexpected directions...and then shot past the peak for a few minutes and turned into something I did not like. At minimum, you knew this was going to feature a lot of Ku hitting Laroux in ways that Laroux wasn't going to like, so we had a nice burn with Ku throwing his hard chops, bruising up Laroux's chest, following him out to the floor any time he'd try to get away. We get our compelling Laroux opening when he's able to kick out Ku's legs, and I got really into what they were doing. They started doing some trading, but it was great because they kept switching things up, finishing an exchange with tricks to fake each other out. Ku starts throwing kicks and then fakes a chop, locking in a standing guillotine when Laroux flinches. Laroux lands some kicks and when he sees that Ku is inviting him to kick him in the chest, Laroux fakes the kick and then dives in with an eye rake instead. Laroux baits Ku into lobbing a kick at his chest and snaps off a dragon screw, and I am into this kind of back and forth! They even turn a Laroux trip into a more interesting spot, as Laroux stumbles while locking in a crab, commentary deftly covers by saying Ku scrambled to reverse, Laroux recovers nicely by making it look like a Ku reversal, throws some hammer fists at Ku's leg, and locks on a different submission. 

But before long it turns into one of those "I kick your knee and that makes you spin around and kick me and that makes me walk backwards into the ropes and then spring forward with a clothesline but you ignore that clothesline and then I superplex you but that superplex just makes you roll through and hit a fisherman buster" and I just can't focus on that shit. Nothing takes me out of a match faster. Once they started with all of that, I guaranteed that Ku was going to do some big move on his worked over knee, so when the finish of the match was a backcracker (with Ku shaking his leg out after) they completed my own personal modern indy bingo. 

17. Dominic Garrini vs. Arik Royal 

PAS: Big time main event title match which had some really special moments. Adored all of the early matwork, with Garrini sucking Royal into his world and finding really nifty ways to attack, shifting from kimuras to triangle chokes to some sort of leg stretch. Royal was able to use his size and power to counter out of a lot of it, and had some cool flurries of his own. Royal has such cool unique offense, like a nasty top wrist lock leg sweep, diving tackle to the ribs and some punches to the thighs. He also really unloaded with some cool combos of uppercuts and body shots. I also really liked how nasty he landed on throws. Instead of doing the big man thing of jumping into suplexes, Royal made Garrini lift him, and the landing went poorly in a very cool way. There was a section where they were trading snapmare back kicks which I didn't care for, and I am not sure if the finish really felt like a finish. Still I was really digging the chemistry between these two, and I would love to see Dom get another shot. 

ER: Royal and Garrini are both guys who know how to up the atmosphere for a main event, and that's what they did here. They had a ton of ideas and built to them well, maybe with a few distractions along the way, but a great build nevertheless. I had no idea what direction this was going to go and thought each guy could have taken this at any point of the 15 minute runtime. I wonder wondering if it would mostly stay on the mat, and they were so damn good at the mat grappling that I think it just made me *want* to see them work a full grappling match. Royal is careful but still goes into the lion's den, showing that he isn't a sitting duck on the mat and using his size to force a couple of cool counters. This starts to feel a lot like the incredible match Garrini had with Eddie Kingston a couple weeks prior. 

It doesn't quite reach that point that there were detours with slap exchanges and the snapmare kicks that Phil mentioned (and while I didn't love them I did unexpectedly find myself enjoying how nice both of their snapmares were), but these two were knocking the crap out of each other and that was the primary focus. Royal has some super impact on shoulderblocks, a flying tackle, and an even nastier tackle into the front of Dom's knee. Dom is great at absorbing punches and brutal uppercuts and throwing his own right back (his corner chops/punches looked and sounded devastating) and it was great seeing if he'd be able to catch and tap the Ace. Instead, though, he straight up crunches Royal with a muscle buster, and I loved the callback of Royal using his size to force counters when he dropped back onto Garrini during a rear naked and forced him to break or be pinned. Garrini wanted this on the mat, but Royal was too good there for Dom to stay the whole time, forcing this thing into a strike battle, and the combo of both was awesome. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST 

Read more!

IWTV Worth Watching: Quackenbush Atomicos

Mike Quackenbush/Razerhawk/Thief Ant/Green Ant vs. Cornelius Crummels/Sonny Defarge/Hermit Crab/Cajun Crawdad Beyond 7/3/19

ER: I really do like Chikara Atomicos matches, but the best ones tend to include Quack, because he's clearly the guy running the show. And I'm not sure even with practically two decades of training guys that he's even come close to getting one guy up to his level of Atomicos match director. Quack looks like the best of the 8 here, and is treated as such. He also mostly pairs off with Cajun Crawdad, which is smart because that guy is probably the least of the people in this. I've never seen Crummels or Defarge, but they are obviously Chikara through and through, wearing suspenders and bowlers and shockingly not riding a bicycle with one large wheel to the ring. Seeing this kind of person in Chikara is just expected, in the same way that unicycler casually rolled past a group of friends and I as we were leaving a Portland restaurant, and nobody had to say anything. Razerhawk has breakout potential. He's super small but really flies around that ring, his ranas and headscissors and big ringpost bump already look ready for actual lucha, and his flying around was easily a highlight here. Hermit Crab seems like the best of the rudos, bringing some professional basing and hitting heavier than the others, but he and Crawdad - outside of both being dressed somewhat like crustaceans - don't have a ton of team chemistry; they are similarly sized but don't really gel, and that's possibly due to Crawdad's lack of experience. Crummels had some nice running strikes, both Ants hit pretty spectacular dives, and the big move chaining ramped up more impressively than I was expecting. Quack is that maestro, like Bruce Lee directing traffic during fight scenes, and he's smart about giving guys chances while not letting them get too far over their heads. His segments were great, I dig his short palm thrusts to make space, loved him trying to make Crummels' shoulderblades touch, really hope this guy isn't actually going to hang it up after this year.


Mike Quackenbush/Mick Moretti/Cabana Man Dan/Lucas Calhoun vs. Logan Easton LaRoux/Eel O'Neal/Killian McMurphy/Alan Clayball Flying V 9/14/19

ER: I am a sucker for vets vs. young guys, and this is mostly that. LaRoux is certainly a vet, but the rest of his team is made up of two very new rookies and a guy with under 100 matches, so he's the guy leading some lamb to slaughter. And this was overall another fun Quack atomicos, but one that was shaping up to be something special before hitting the backloaded comedy and then rushing to the finish. You traditionally start something like this was the good feelings and comedy, and if it's going to be there I'd much prefer it to start than as a late match breather. Here our beginning sections were so intriguing that I had no interest in seeing any comedy, just wanted them to keep building and see how they could peak it. Well, we never really got that peak. But I loved the beginning. Quackenbush works 4 layered minutes opposite Eel O'Neal, a wrestler so new that he somehow has less Twitter followers than we do. He's a tentative rookie and they work a rookie acceptable headlock takeover/headscissors sequence, with Eel eventually handspringing out of the headscissors. But then Eel gets to show some personality, gyrates oddly into Quack, unzips his wetsuit gear while making eyes at him, and then Quack gets to pay him back for his insolence by rushing him with a tight single leg, muscling him into a pendulum and smacking his head against the bottom buckle, and the work a cool sequence where Quack is pushing off Eel's ankle with both feet while Eel tries to pull him to his feet. Their exchange started out as a basic student/teacher exchange and built to something more interesting over 4 minutes. And the match finished with them squared off again, and Quack absolutely shaking him with a superkick before eating a LaRoux cutter. I like Moretti as he always does a couple impressive acrobatic flourishes and lands heavy on crossbodies, and CMD is a certified pro who is good at working fast exchanges that make these things go. I like the bites everyone is taking, like how the pairings are ramping up, but then we gotta hit comedy. Silly strike exchanges, group headlock, tandem overplayed axe handles off the apron, stacking 4 people in the corner at once, that kind of stuff. It isn't terrible and they kind of cut right to the finishing stretch after, but it easily could have just been left out. That kind of thing robs us of time that could be spent on pairings we didn't get, but it's also expected.

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 153

Episode 153


Aspyn Rose vs. Willow Nightingale

PAS: This was pretty competent, and a better Rose performance then we have seen before. Rose still tries somethings she can't pull off, but less of it, and some of her strikes looked pretty good. I liked Willow Nightingale, she looks like Jill Scott and uses her thickness well, stuff landed solidly and her finishing Death Valley Driver was really nasty looking. Would dig seeing her again, and I imagine a match against SIS would be really good.

Zane Dawson/ Dave Dawson vs. Ray Kandrack/Mike Mars

PAS: I enjoy big boy tag matches, and one of the great things about CWF is the number of big boys available. This is four of their lower tier hosses, but it still going to be pretty thudding. They get most of the heat on Mike Mars, and he is still a little green in the ring (certainly at playing Ricky Morton) and the finish was a bit wonky, but we got some big shots and I dug the Mars/Kandrak double headbutt.

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Cam Carter

PAS: This was really good juniors wrestling. Carter is really athletic and has some impressive flips and feints, really great body control. Laroux is really good at using shortcuts and tricks to keep himself about water. This was a flashy technico against a solid rudo, a tale as old as wrestling itself and one told well. I really liked some of the little beats here. Laroux threw an intentionally weak chop and Carter responded with an open hand heart stopper, I also dug how Laroux tried to force down Carters arm when he was hulking up in a sleeper. I also really like Carters weird mule kick to the face. I did think the finish was a bit abrupt although Carters second rope 450 is cool.  If this had a better finish run I could have easily seen it make a 2018 MOTY list.

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 139

Episode 139

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Andrew Everett

ER: Good match, my favorite Laroux performance in CWF, and a damn impressive Everett performance. Everett is like a classic luchador: He started wrestling when he was practically too young to drive, has been doing it for ages even though he's in his mid 20s, has a soft body but pulls off incredibly graceful flying. Here they craft a super fun match around Everett flying around, wrecking his arm and shoulder on a risk, and then commits to selling that damn arm to the bitter end. Everett hits a huge Asai moonsault into the crowd, laying out both of them into chairs, but back in they do an expertly timed springboard spot that sees Laroux knock Everett off balance and crashing shoulder first into the turnbuckle. Laroux is really great condescendingly going after the arm, the best being simple push kicks to a downed Everett, hard enough to really rub it in. Everett straight commits  to letting everyone know his arm is killing him, and I love all that great theatrical wrestling, it's got an  awesome early 2000s indy charm. I remember seeing Mike Modest getting his arm worked over during a match and when he won and the ref raised his bad arm, Modest cringed and made him lift the other arm instead. Love it. Everett does all that great stuff like start to grab the ropes to climb them, then opts to pull himself up with one arm. It felt like Laroux should have really gone after the arm more viciously, but I still really liked what they went for here.

PAS: This was a more vicious Laroux performance away from being a really great match. Loved the bump on the turnbuckles which Everett took to set up the arm work, and Laroux's chicken wing using the ringpost was really nasty looking. Outside of that though, the punches, kicks and stomps by Logan needed more mustard on them to work with Everett's great selling performance. I need him to be more of a mauler, but I never felt the violence. Everett is a hell of a highflyer, he has tremendous explosion on all of his moves, that pele kick was as good as Meiko Satamura, which is high praise, and his SSP is really pretty. I hope him winning the belt means that he shows up more in CWF, I think an Everett v. Cain match could be really special.

Brad Attitude vs. Chet Sterling

ER: Another good one, although with an uncomfortable botch that's tough to ignore, and felt unnecessarily dangerous. Overall the match was a blast, with Sterling stepping up his brawling game and Attitude being the star that he is. All of Attitude's shots look great, and he does little dickish things during a beating like carefully re-smoothing his hair tuft. Sterling has a nice short right hand, good snap, and shakes the fist out nicely after the best ones. Fist shaking after a punch is something that will bump you up a hundred points on the SC500. The crowd brawl was fun, with Brad Attitude falling all over Dylan Hales in the VIP Suite, and Dylan being a good soldier by holding one of Attitude's arms back to make it easier for Sterling to get some chops in. Sterling pays him back by hanging him out to dry on a brutally long high five offering. Match threatens to derail when Attitude goes for an ill-advised splash mountain off the top, and it was supposed to be a Sterling reversal, but somehow both guys get dumped on their heads. It wasn't pretty, but it could have ended up a lot uglier than it really was. Still, Sterling has to sell like he reversed the bomb and didn't also get dumped on his head in nasty fashion, and it's hard to look past not selling what looked like the most insane (accidental) move of the match. But these two match up really well and I thought everything else in the match looked good. Attitude has great follow through on all his stuff, nice low superkick, spine shifting buckle bomb, and we had several convincing nearfalls. Finish was fun Attitude bullshit, with him distracting the ref to mule kick Sterling low, and Sterling catching the kick, leading Attitude to continue grabbing and shaking the ref to get his leg loose and kick Sterling low anyway. Sterling moves up the 500 even more by selling his balls while getting pinned after the match finishing shotgun kick.

PAS: I really liked this, and Sterling continues to have matches I enjoy, it is like he is going to force me to like him, I RESIST! Attitude is such a treat to watch. Honestly he is one of my single favorite guys in wrestling right now. I can't think of a better heel performer, he is such a naturally detestable guy, and is so great at both the little and the big things. He has an awesome spring board senton and flying kick, and a great forearm to the back of the head and flabbergasted sell. I love how he uses the ring apron powerbomb as a momentum changer, and how it sets up all of his future attacks. I didn't mind the botch that much, as it did look like Attitude took the worst of it. Finish was classic horse shit and the perfect finish for Attitudes character.

Cain Justice vs. Nick Richards

ER: I was wondering if Cain would kind of steamroll Richards, to show he was more than ready to step up, but I wasn't sure. We already saw a super quick Mike Mars win over Dirty, didn't think they'd go with another short match. But they did and I think they handled it great. Just like Daddy/Mars it was high energy bell to bell, with neither man holding back for any kind of stretch. They came in throwing, with Richards getting an early advantage and dumping Cain with a nice throw, but Cain catching him with a Crop Cop like high kick, just the heel of Cain's foot to Nick's neck. Cain hits his awesome pump kick, and in a flat out killer reversal Richards goes for the cutter but Cain catches him in a disgusting armbar. Richards' arm really looked hyperextended and I'm surprised he hung on as long as he did. Post match is great with Cain celebrating and Richards pissed, getting helped up.

PAS: This was great, I loved how intense both guys were, they figured if they were going to go three minutes, they were going to press down the pedal. I loved how Richards sold that big high kick, it totally scrambled his brains and he never was able to recover. Finish was my favorite finish of 2018, just a beautiful mid air reversal and Justice just wrenching the armbar, such a cool idea perfectly executed. I love both of these guys and hope we get a longer match down the road, but this was a hell of a three minutes.

C.W. Anderson vs. Ric Converse

ER: Two weeks ago we got the excellent show closing segment with CW cuffing Converse to the ropes but Converse holding the ace of an I Quit threat over CW. This week we get another set of excellent promos where CW talks about how saying "I Quit" 18 years ago has haunted him ever since (goddamn I need to go back and watch that Dreamer/CW I Quit, I haven't seen it since it originally aired) and CW is just SO so great in this promo, really a perfect wrestling promo. If his motivations were different, it could even be read as a babyface promo, confronting demons from his past. CW is the total complete package, one of the best in the world. Converse cut a great promo too, running down his history in wrestling and all of his memories and accomplishments. And you know he's torqued for this fight because he's sporting trunks!!

PAS: That promo was great, I love the idea of I Quit being the ghost that haunts Anderson. CWF does history better then any other fed in the world, and this is such a great setup of a hell of a match.

ER: And this match is awesome. They don't waste any time building to the violence, and within a minute CW is wearing a chair around his neck and getting beat with another chair. The match went quick and the violence ramped nicely. But CW had some nice tricks, including a bucket he brought with some weapons (a chain, barbed wire, a bottle) that would all get involved. CW was awesome as a Finlay type punisher, really feels like he's as good as any wrestler in the world these days. When he was in control he wouldn't let Converse rest for a second, kicking him hard while he was down on his way to get more weapons. CW integrates his wrestling well into a nasty match like this, firing off some perfect left and right hands (arguably best punches in wrestling today), wrenching Converse's arm in awful ways (beating it with a chair, bending and twisting it behind his back), sharp back elbows, his world class spinebuster, all paced perfectly. As often happens, the weapons one brings to a fight can be used against, and CW eats a huge rydeen bomb through a table, gets choked with a chain, Converse really gives as good as he gets. Cecil Scott on commentary was good at pointing out that they were far better off going for pain that a KO blow, how hitting a KO shot could work to your disadvantage in an I Quit match, how causing pain is better. And the finish couldn't have looked more painful, with Converse jamming a roll of barbed wire into Anderson's eye, getting a quick and fully understandable I Quit out of him. I loved this, just a great throwback brawl from a couple Carolina legends.

PAS: Totally great stuff, they come right out wailing, and they do some really violent work with chairs, including CW getting chair shotted while wearing another chair as a neckless. CW does some really painful looking arm work, including an armbar that looked nearly as nasty as Cain's the match before.  This was just two rawbone old pro's throwing bombs, no elaborate prop set ups, just a fist fight with occasional hurled chair or chain shot. I loved the finish with CW violently choking Converse with a chain, only for Converse to pull out a beer bottle from a mail bin like a close up magician and smash CW in the head. The barbed wire to the eye socket is a perfectly reasonable finish to an I Quit match, even one where Anderson vowed never to give up.

ER: Hard to get a better episode of wrestling TV than this. Three of these matches landed on our ongoing 2017 Match of the Year list, pretty neat from one hour of episodic wrestling and not just some "Greatest Hits" show.

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 123

Episode 123

1. Joshua Cutshall vs. Aric Andrews

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

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

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

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

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

3. Mike Mars vs. Number Boy

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

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

4. Logan Easton Laroux vs. Tracer X

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

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

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 120

Episode 120

1. Smith Garrett vs. Logan Easton Laroux

ER: I had no idea where the Garrett KO angle was going, and I actually thought this was a pretty good payoff for it. Laroux obtaining Garrett's medical records that show a fractured C6, therefore getting him on a medical suspension, is a pretty great rich guy dickhead play. Using your wealth to obtain blackmail instead of to buy off opponents is an interesting twist to the rich jerk gimmick. Some of the logic doesn't totally add up ("Garrett has been beating opponents in 10 seconds because he can't wrestle for more than 10 seconds!" Wait, so Garrett could just choose to win quickly whenever he wanted to and wasn't!?), and I didn't love the use of shoot name, but I thought the realism was handled well. Garrett tearing up was legit and I bought wanting to compete, saying he'd sign any waiver, and I love the care showed for him by the staff, saying they don't want him paralyzed in this ring, "It's just not worth it", and Garrett getting into Laroux's face and telling him he's coming after him the second he's healthy. I thought this was all effective as hell, and much better than a guy announcing he'd be leaving due to an injury, or the fed just announcing he was injured. But this made me far more interested in an eventual Garrett/Laroux showdown. This angle could have been done terribly, and I thought they knocked it out of the park.

PAS: I will give credit to them for execution, I thought Laroux was a really smarmy prick, he totally came off like a right wing twitter troll who just posted the perfect gas chamber gif.  Garrett looked appropriately distraught, and I thought William Cross was great in the role of promoter who cares too much, but has to do what is right, it had a very Eddie Marlin feel to it and that is a huge compliment. Still the underlying logic of the angle is straight Vince Russo worked shoot orangoutang shit . The idea of Garrett being too hurt to wrestle longer then 10 seconds implies that either "the office" booked the matches to only go 10 seconds, or Garrett decided to "shoot" on his first two opponents because he couldn't go longer, either way BOOOOOO!!!. CWF is really great at keeping its internal logic straight, which makes stuff like this (or dumb Chikara shit like the Mime) stand out even more.

2. Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Chet Sterling

ER: I was rooting for EAS as I'm a fan of his more serious persona, bought into all of Stutts' bracket buster hype, but assumed with no shenanigans that Sterling was probably going to be advancing (and probably deserved to be the one advancing). Sharpe got crossed up a couple times during this one, but I still liked both guys. Sterling snapped my eyes open with an early back elbow, and I'm a big fan of nice back elbows. This one really looked jaw dislocatingly hard. I'm surprised Sharpe didn't make a bigger deal out of trying to hit the uppercut, which was his killshot in his prior two matches, but I don't think he went for it once, which is odd. Still I really like his over the shoulder jawbreaker, and thought he leaned into Sterling's stuff nicely. Sterling hit a nice dive into the crowd, took a mean ring post shot, and effectively worked boots and elbows into the match, unloaded a flurry of strikes on Sharpe that I liked, did the little things like get a high cradle on the finish roll-up. A satisfying match.

PAS: This was a perfectly entertaining bit of television wrestling, which is more then I would have guessed from this matchup on paper. There were a couple of weak spots (Sterling really has some hit or miss punches) but most of this was pretty solid. Really liked Sharpe countering the dive with his jawbreaker, and I loved the roll-up finish.

3. Aric Andrews vs. Isaiah Santero

ER: We saw Santero briefly before in that messy Hardy Boyz tag scramble episode many months ago, and I really didn't like how much of the match he took here. Andrews just went toe to toe with Trevor Lee, now he barely edges out this clown with a bunch of Lee Valiant interference? Santero is okay, though I prefer more stiffness from my exoticos (phrasing?) or big bumps. He doesn't seem to have either, getting up awkwardly for moves and not really landing anything with a thud. My favorite parts were Andrews' stomps to the head, but I think this needed a lot more Andrews control.

PAS: I liked Innocent Isaiah in NOVA pro, but this was mostly shtick, and the actually wrestling in it wasn't great.  This did feel a little like Andrews prison girlfriend showing up to his favorite bar after they both get released. "Why didn't you call me Aric we were supposed to be together"

4. Lee Valiant vs. Rob McBride

ER: Oh my gosh I forgot about McBride! I love McBride! No bumps, meaty strikes with no wind up, minimal body selling but great sympathetic facial selling. He's gotta be a tough opponent to work, and also an easy opponent to work. You're not going to get any of your stuff in, you're going to take a full weight elbow drop, but you know the match won't go too long and the crowd will be into it. McBride would be a fun #500 candidate if Phil and I had enough free time to do an SC500. Valiant is good eating heavy chops and flying into McBride (even leaping off the top to essentially powerbomb himself), McBride splats him with a great elbow and finishes with a big one off the middle rope, and McBride is the kind of guy who feels like he's featured just the right amount of time. There are some guys I want to see more, some I want to see less, but I always like McBride showing up every 3 months.

PAS: Yeah this was totally fun. The commentary went over both guys history and I really want to see Lee Valiant as fake Jimmy Valiant relative. Lee Valiant as a beloved babyface totally doesn't compute. McBride has some really great open hand chops and for a guy who doesn't take bumps (Boogie Woogie taught him well) it is pretty crazy for him to do a second rope elbow, that is a lot of weight landing on a well seasoned hip bone.

5. Logan Easton Laroux vs. Chet Sterling

ER: I really disliked their prior match, but I enjoyed this whole presentation. I thought the match itself was good, disliked the DQ as it happened...but the old school angle that unfolded sucked me in and got me even more hyped for the restart. Both guys were bringing it, Laroux especially just blasted Sterling with a few elbows right to the chin, real nasty shots. I also loved Sterling shoving some kid out of the way so he could stand on his chair and pose. I noticed Laroux telling the ref that he was using an elbow and not a closed fist, and I assumed it was just heel behavior. When the finish happened I kind of eye rolled, but quickly noticed how Cecil and Stutts were reacting. They were just as upset, annoyed and incredulous as I was. The two of them are great vessels for the viewer, not telling us how we should be reacting, but reacting with us. Once I began hearing that they thought the decision was bullshit, I got excited for what was unfolding. A referee ringer? "But if I didn't hire him, and YOU didn't hire him..." I loved how the restart unfolded, Michael McCallister taking out and beating the phony ref, and loved Sterling chasing Laroux down and stiffing him up in the lobby of the Sportatorium. I loved the little twist they threw in once Sterling had dragged him back to the ring, with Laroux immediately hitting his cutter. I really wanted that to be it, just because it would have been a crushing sudden end to the rollercoaster. Once Sterling kicked out of the cutter at one you kinda knew he was taking this all the way, and sure enough Laroux is finished in short order. I thought the overall package of this was a really fun 15 minutes, with little storyline twists that CWF is very successful at. I don't really trust any other modern feds with these kind of angles, but CWF understands the intricacies of them. They easily could have just had these two work a 10 minute match ending with Sterling getting the title shot. But they added extra character, extra motivation, shifting consequences, things that make someone like me care far more about this result than I otherwise would have. Although, my 1999 wrestling brain can't be completely turned off, as Trevor Lee was being so friendly with Sterling during the congratulations that I kept waiting for a cheapshot. But, something tells me they knew someone like me would be thinking that.

PAS: Yeah this was a really fun bit of pro-wrestling shtick. I loved how they didn't have the ref work Tirantes heel stuff, just call it straight right up until the DQ, that is the way Tim Donaghy would do it. I also loved the cutter near fall after Sterling dragged him back, that would have been an amazing way for Laroux to steal a win. Work itself was solid stuff, I liked their first match more then Eric did, and both guys clearly have worked each other a ton and have their timing down pat. I do think the whole angle made the promotion look a little bush league, they don't know a guy has a broken neck, and they have ref's just showing up and reffing matches? They need an office manager.

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 119

Episode 119

1. Aspyn Rose vs. Kaci Lennox

ER: I really like Aspyn Rose's look, but she probably works best as a second at this point. This was just about the most not ready for prime time performance I recall seeing. She's new to this, things will get better. But this was rougher than rough. She threw a nice running knee in the corner. That's not nothing. But literally every other moment just shouldn't have been on TV. That kick combo didn't help either gal, as Rose threw bad kicks and Lennox didn't help much on her end, and from there it just looked like Rose had no clue what to do next. We got bad bumps, stumbling moves, and a finisher sub that looked like she wasn't sure how to lock on. For her part, Lennox hit some nice shoulderblocks in the corner, but couldn't do a whole lot with Rose. I like seeing new talent, but I don't think we need to see talent that's THIS new.

PAS: This was the worst match they have put on the show by far. You don't need to air everything you tape. Rose looked first day of wrestling camp bad, that kick combo was cringe comedy. After that the whole thing fell apart badly, I imagine Rose and Lennox drove up with Aaron Epic and there is nothing wrong with giving them a chance, but this should have been left on the cutting room floor

2. Frankie Flynn/Brian Carson/Evan Adams vs. Cain Justice/Dirty Daddy/Movie Myk

ER: I was hoping for more from this one, as I love the inter-promotion feuding dojo grads angle. But it wasn't given a lot of time, and it never got much momentum. Flynn's section with Daddy looked good, really liked Flynn surprising him with fast strikes. Justice looked good the one time he was in, exactly the kind of cocky badass you want in an inter-promotion feud, the kind of guy who just reacts without thinking of consequences. He goes after Flynn's eye a couple times, even reaching in for an eyepoke to break up a pin. "Weird Body" Evan Adams ("built like Angus Young"~Cecil Scott) doesn't seem very good, but with his super tiny build and Toki Wartooth appearance I couldn't help but enjoy him. Carson's over the shoulder backbreaker looked good, Myk had a really nice pinfall save, Cain takes a big (barefoot!) bump to the floor, but I wanted more of a match.

PAS: I enjoyed this, it wasn't at the level of WAR v. New Japan or anything, but I did enjoy Cain bringing out the nastiness with the eye gouges. Most of the match was built around heating up Daddy v. Justice again, and I am excited for another round of that feud. Flynn is a guy I have seen a couple times before and was underwhelmed by, he was nasty here, sharp shots, which were sold especially well by Dirty Daddy, he has gotten so good, and I can't think of a better sympathetic babyface tag worker in wrestling right now.

3. AC Hawkes/Carlos Gabriel vs. Sandwich Squad

ER: Oh man, once these two came out with an open challenge I KNEW we were getting the always hungry Sandwich Squad. Biggs hits a big Samoan drop and then a stiff arm right clothesline on Gabriel that bounces him vertically on his head. Let's get a GIF of that, someone! Ever generous, Biggs and Mecha both gift Hawkes with lariats later, so he can understand what Gabriel went through. We get a big Mecha assisted elbow drop, and I like how Hawkes and Gabriel are at least bringing action to the Squad, not just setting up their offense. I really love the Sandwich Squad.

PAS: Sandwich Squad squashes are one of the most fun things in wrestling. Got to give the pair of rookies credit for really taking the appropriate amount of beating necessary to get over. Gabriel trying the clothesline bump that killed Oro seemed a little much for a internet TV show, but do you. That assisted elbow drop was grimey. They should have either a Squad or Donnie Dollars squash on every show.

ER: I don't know much about Michael McCallister pre-HIM, so I'm not sure what to think of his redemption, as I'm not sure what he needs redemption from, what lead him to put on a mask, I don't even have much of an opinion on him as a worker as his team with SIS always felt like more of a SIS show. So we'll see where this goes.

4. Aric Andrews vs. Cam Carter

ER: I really liked how this was handled. liked Cam Carter in it, and liked the use of interference. I was bummed Carter didn't get more of a showing in the Weaver Cup, and he's a guy who shakes his fist out after punches so I'm automatically on Team Carter. The opening nearfall was really well done, with Andrews' second Lee Valiant hitting a great accidental spear on Andrews (aiming for Carter) and I totally would have bought a title change off it. I like Andrews needing his bacon saved throughout this, the guy came off a tough match with Lee a couple weeks back, needs his boy out there so he can defend his title at 70%. Carter gets run into the post nicely and even with the loss in a 4 minute match I thought he had a nice showing.

PAS: This was one of the more exciting Andrews TV title matches, Carter really brought the energy and we had some really close nearfalls with Andrews doing a good job of stumbling into two counts. Andrews and Valient are a great sleazeball duo, they look like a couple of guys who ended up in county jail for siphoning gas.

5. Logan Easton Laroux vs. Alex Daniels

ER: Daniels cuts the shit and comes out with no Affleck shtick and just jumps Laroux. THAT is a pleasant surprise. This whole thing was a nice hot 6 minute sprint that went some nice directions. I loved Laroux getting surprised and playing catch up, and Daniels was good as an aggressive punk. Once Laroux attacked the knee I liked that direction, his stomp to Daniels' inner knee was especially nasty, and he had several great mocking and condescending attacks to a hurt Daniels. Daniels had some nice nearfalls and kept that aggression up the whole match, really illustrating how much better aggressive Daniels is than chuckle hut Daniels. The misdirection ending worked well, loved Laroux hitting the surprise cutter. This was a real quality Velocity match.

PAS: Daniels is best at these kind of sprints, he has good execution and ideas for a spotfest, and is too busy to try to shoehorn in his hack jokes. The kick to the knee by Laroux was really nasty looking and I liked how focused his attack was. Finish was really great with Daniels going for his finisher, almost getting thrown into the ref and getting caught with a cutter. I liked Laroux as the contemptuous prick who is such a dick that he can even turn the second biggest dick in the fed face.

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 115

Episode 115

1. Mick Moretti vs. Lucas Calhoun

ER: This got pretty decent once they got through all of Calhoun's brand of comedy, but the comedy took up as much time as the actual wrestling. I'd never seen Moretti before and at minimum, I gotta give him credit for specifically getting a bad haircut to be more convincing in his gimmick. That's a level of commitment a lot of wrestlers wouldn't have. They still have to go to restaurants and the post office and a day job, so having Bozo hair gets him an extra commitment point for sure. AND, if he dyes it white he has a pretty great Rick costume (especially if he finds a semi-decent Morty). Beyond his hair I really really liked all his nasty nose twist offense (and appreciate that Calhoun was still selling his nose after the match). Calhoun would bring silly karate, but I'd much rather see a guy locking onto a nose and yanking. I was even amused by the flip bump Calhoun took after a particularly violent nose yank.

PAS: I would have enjoyed this if they had dispensed with the Chikara horseshit at the beginning, nothing I hate more in wrestling then forcing an opponent to sell a a make believe comedy move (invisible grenade, slow motion, ect.), Calhoun's six inch punch was dangerously close to Chuck Taylorville. Once they get into wrestling it was pretty fun, I liked Moretti's bottom rope trip, and all of Calhoun's fatboy sentons. Calhoun is almost a guy I want to see more of.

2. Aaron Epic vs. Matt Knicks

ER: Unfamiliar with Knicks and only have seen Epic once or twice, and the early sexy dance fighting sequences didn't get me excited to see much more. Knicks had some nice armdrags, but every time he had to "miss" a move, he would suddenly throw in slow motion. If a kick was supposed to miss, or a strike was supposed to be duck, suddenly he was throwing through cement. It was really distracting. Epic seemed better but he probably should be as he's been around for awhile. Knicks looked good when doing lucha type stuff, looked bad when doing striking. He should run with that. But there was one punch exchange that looked pretty decent, so maybe I'm just a grump. Finish was at least good, as Knicks misses a moonsault and Epic spikes him with a really great piledriver. A really great piledriver will go a long way with me.

PAS: Epic had some stiff shots, I liked his Tenryu jab and open handed chop. I also loved that the piledriver is illegal in CWF so Epic had to distract the ref to hit it. Maybe Knicks would have been better with a guy he was familiar with, but he was breaking out all this elaborate stuff and always seemed a beat off. This whole show is all about bringing in another big batch of new guys to CWF and it is one of the few things that frustrate me about this fed. They have a big roster of guys I like, but seem to bring in vans of new guys every couple of shows, a lot of times those guys will never be seen again or disappear for months. Epic was fine, but he is basically doing the exact same fake Raven shtick as Tripp Cassidy, right down to the skinny goth valet. Is Cassidy still in CWF? Are you going to run Cassidy v. Epic like Nature Boy v. Nature Boy?

3. Logan Easton Laroux vs. UTAMARO

ER: This match is notable for featuring maybe the flattest comedy spot I have ever witnessed. I honestly don't think I've ever witnessed a comedy spot in wrestling that took longer to set up, and got a quieter reaction. It was absolutely brutal. It was David Brent trying to think of a joke on the spot level of awkward. The spot in question is: UTAMARO (an actual, honest full time wrestler for Wrestle-1) applying the Nieblina/Paradise Lock, pausing over Logan for a photo opportunity, and then kicking Logan while he struggled to get out of the move. And UTAMARO fails at every single step of the joke. First, he doesn't seem to know how to lock on the submission. It's easily the worst I have ever seen that move applied. So essentially, right out of the gates he starts his routine by saying, "What's on First? Oh Wait..." So he already lost the crowd with his execution. Then the language barrier and general unfamiliarity with the wrestler kick in. He crouches over Logan and just shrugs. And that crowd is fucking SILENT. I mean it sounded like UTAMARO called for a 10 bell salute to all the wrestlers we've lost in 2017. I mean Ernest Miller could watch this match and exclaim that his 2004 Royal Rumble entrance officially got a louder reaction than something. I mean the room got so quiet that every single person in that room was suddenly left entirely alone with their own horrible thoughts for the entire duration of that spot. And UTAMARO is just frozen there, shrugging, paralyzed, and the crowd is motionless, treating UTAMARO as if he were a fucking T-Rex and if they hold still and stay quiet enough then none of them will get ripped in half. Then he started doing photo taking pantomime, but he wasn't even good at doing "I'm using a camera!" charades and for several long seconds it just looked like he was voguing.

My dad used to tape all of the Saturday Night's Main Events for me, as I was too young to stay up that late. I would be too excited to sleep the night of, then eventually wake up when it was barely getting light outside to watch them. I watched those tapes so many times, that after a few viewings I would know what happened, so to mix it up I would occasionally put a match on in slow motion. So I'd watch Hulk Hogan doing the legdrop in slow motion and you'd see occasional frames filled with camera flash.

There was no camera flash for UTAMARO.

We've all dealt with language barriers in our lives. It's disarming, no matter how expected they might be. And no matter how vast the language barrier, there will almost always be familiar body language. And if you pause at the right moment, you can see the exact moment where UTAMARO recognizes the crowd's body language. He knows he's bombing. He knows he's the Best Man, and he's telling stories about the groom fucking other chicks in college during his Best Man's speech. So UTAMARO stands up - and Logan has been selling this hold for an eternity at this point - and in a stunning moment of obliviousness, UTAMARO continues the bit. He does. not. bail. on. the. bit. We all know he's going to kick Logan in the butt. And he thinks he needs to build to the kick to that butt. And he builds it. And nobody wants it. And the spot does...or does not, happen.

Here's the funny thing...nobody actually knows if the spot happened or not. Nobody actually knows if the match ever finished. In that moment, the eyeballs of the room were collectively shut. Those eyeballs were shut TIGHT, because nobody in the Mid-Atlantic Sportatorium could take seeing another second. Indiana Jones' eyes weren't shut this tight when the Ark of the Covenant was opened. The crowd's scarred faces looked like the kids in the nightmarish final scene of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" video: They all knew they had just witnessed the worst moment of their collective lives, and they all simultaneously knew that the only chance they had of moving on in life was to try their best to forget this one, horrible moment that one, hot July evening.

PAS: It is too bad that comedy spot was such a turd in the punch bowl, because the rest of this was pretty OK. UTAMARO has a really nice dropkick, and I enjoyed his comedy spot where he made Logan run the ropes until he blew up. Still that Nieblina was rough, and I am not sure I buy Logan winning with a single cutter. I am still holding on to some Logan stock from the NOVA pro show, he did put his hands on me in a really dickish way before the show and I appreciate that kind of dedication to being a heel, still he is 0 for 2 so far in CWF and I am hoping he justifies his push.

4. Alex Daniels vs. Stevie Fierce

ER: I really do not get the "Real Life Ben Affleck" gimmick. Alex Daniels looks nothing like Ben Affleck. Is it really just a social commentary that all white males look alike, so we all are real life Ben Affleck? Is "Real Life Joel Edgerton" just not marketable enough? Did he want to do a "Real Life Joel Edgerton" gimmick but somebody was already using it? Is Ben Affleck even a funny reference? There was a funny "All white dudes look like Ben Affleck" joke in the movie "Role Models", but that was NINE YEARS AGO. "Real Life Channing Tatum" would at least match the hair color, and while Affleck movies maybe gross more on average than Tatum's, Tatum is probably a much better current "hunk" example. Affleck moved past hunk status years ago. At this point he has a marriage that ended in scandal and is over a decade removed from hair plugs. Referencing Affleck as a hunk in 2017 is almost as topical as a "Real Life Bobby Sherman" gimmick. Would Daniels have the charisma to pull off a "Real Life Bobby Sherman" gimmick? Because a sweeth-toothed safe grinning popstar would be a really great gimmick that could work for a face or heel (like 3 Count, but way, way more dated).

And man I really don't like Alex Daniels' shtick. Maybe it would play better if it weren't so prevalent?  But he really does seem to be always "on". There was a lot of stuff I liked in this: I thought the opening roll-up/sunset flip spots were really well executed and actually looked like plausible pinfalls, not just brainless Malenko/Guerrero pin flash; I think some of the kicks both guys used were creative and looked good; I liked Fierce's overhand right>kick to the knee>DDT combination; and overall I liked how it built. This read like a good match. But I couldn't help being annoyed by the constant attempts at jokes and yuks the whole damn match. Daniels feels the need to come up with his own David Caruso CSI opening punchline before hitting most moves. He can't just hit a knee, he has to point out to every one that Ben Affleck's face is on his kneepad! Class clowns rarely know when to pick their spots. They want as much attention on them as possible, so they feel the need to constantly show people just how funny they can be. I don't like ham on pizza, but I don't always mind it in my wrestling. I think Metalico is a really great ham. Hector Garza was a REALLY great ham. Alex Daniels just wants to tell jokes. I came away impressed by Fierce, someone who I don't believe I've seen before, as he came off closer to an early 2000s JAPW guy than a modern Kyle O'Reilly type. Also, I did chuckle when Stutts no sold Cecil Scott's "Alex Daniels is smart, like an Accountant" joke, and Cecil Scott knows that's what it deserved.

PAS: I agree that the puns felt really forced here, his previous two matches in CWF were a workrate sprint and a main event epic, here in a first round tourney match he felt he had time to land all of his hack punchlines. Stevie Fierce had some cool moments, and the finishing reverse rana into a corner brainbuster combo by Daniels was super nasty. Still I wasn't impressed by any of the 8 guys in this side of the tourney bracket, and would have rather they just use CWF regulars.

5. 7 Team Gauntlet: Ethan Alexander Sharpe & Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham vs. Percy Davis & Frankie Flynn vs. AC Hawkes & Zicky Dice vs. Colby Redd & PB Smooth vs. Donnie Dollars & Mike Mars vs. Arik Royal & Cool J vs. Darius Lockhart & Caprice Coleman

ER: This was a tag scramble for a shot at the Dawsons belts, but the format of the match made it pretty difficult to have an actual good match. It was a weird set-up, as it was basically Royal Rumble rules, but with pinfalls allowed as well. So within a few minutes you had 8 guys in there and it was kind of a mess. No teams were in the match for very long, so nobody really stood out as an actual contender. I actually liked Sharpe and Rockingham in the opening minute or two, they were showing a mean side that should come out more. The whole thing was meant to build up a win for Royal and his thrown together partner Cool J (man is J tiny!). Royal makes a killer entrance by doing this huge leaping face palm to Dollars (I think Stutts called it Face Jam) and then upending Mars with a low shoulderblock like a killer whale ramming a boat. We get a surprise team of Lockhart and the long absent Caprice Coleman, and these two teams going at it were fun. Coleman and Lockhart complement each other nicely, especially liked their drop toehold/legdrop combo. Coleman is a guy who can throw a nice legdrop. Royal does "flustered" really well and I loved him bumping to the floor and crashing through some front row regulars. It was a good way to keep him out of the finish, which saw Cool J bump huge for the surprise team. This Cool J has a death wish and I'll enjoy him while I can see him.

PAS: I am upset that they teased a Cool J v. Donnie Dollars rematch and we didn't get any interaction between the two. I kind of want a best of 5 series of Dollars murdering Cool J. Loved Lockhart's awesome Rustin & Newton & Shakur & Carmichael & Hampton & Lockhart T-Shirt, shows that the historical context for this gimmick runs deeper then your normal indy gimmick. I have been a Coleman fan back since the Ice days in OMEGA, and I am really amped for the Lockhart and Coleman tag team. The final 5 minutes were pretty great and the eventual All-Stars v. Militants tag feud is going to be epic.

Read more!

CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 111

Episode 111

1. Sandwich Squad vs. Cam Carter/James Ryan

ER: Yeahhhhh this was a real meaty Sandwich Squash, a real Dagwood. The whole episode starts with a flat brutal Mecha clothesline and things don't really slow down from there. Both guys were working overly stiff the whole time, big splashes, crushing avalanches, thundering chops, just squishing these two into the mat. Carter and Ryan stood up to it and gamely took the worst of what the squash dished out.

PAS: The Culture is a really great tag team name, and they did there job here, hit a move or two, but get mauled by a pissed off Sandwich Squad. Holy moly did they get mauled too, not at Cool J v. Donnie Dollars level, but fans of fun violent squash matches will dig this a bunch. I am excited to see mad Sandwhich Squad go on a rampage.

2. Zane & Dave Dawson vs. Lucas Calhoun/Proletariat Boar of Moldova

ER: Calhoun and Boar are down from Chikara. Calhoun's fat Elvis get-up and gags don't do a lot for me, but at least his strikes land with a nice thud. I actually like Boar's look, and he's got some size, but his punches and boots land light and he ends up working like a not very good Berzerker. The match felt like it wandered a bit too much. Calhoun acted like a heel, and the Dawsons are heels, so the fans weren't really that interested in showing sympathy for Calhoun's knee getting worked over, and the leg work didn't really go anywhere compelling anyway (though I did like the kneebreaker on the apron to start it). Again, at least Calhoun had some hard shots (which makes sense as he teamed with Kingston and Jacobs for awhile), because most of this didn't move the needle. I hate how Zane is billed as a guy with "the best" lariat, when he doesn't even know how to throw a halfway decent missed lariat, and his actual lariat looked nowhere near as devastating as Mecha Mercenary's just 20 minutes prior.

PAS: I didn't love this either, I was on board for Calhoun, I liked his rockabilly sleaze look and his Elvis Karate landed well, Boar didn't do much for me and the Dawsons kind of sucked. I do think the Chikara kids were working face, but I am not sure their brand of goofy shit works with the audience, it sure doesn't work with me.

ER: Phil and I were just talking on the phone earlier this week about Cain Justice, how high he'd go on a 500, with Phil comparing him to some of those U-Style guys who came in and immediately understood wrestling, and we talked about other guys who just came in and were already this good. I don't even think Cain has wrestled 25 matches, which is just nuts.

PAS: Very cool promo package. Is Cain working outside of CWF-MA? Is there tiny NC indies I need to track down so we can do a C+A Cain Justice?  I am totally in the bag for the kid, he is so much fun to watch.

3. Logan Easton Laroux vs. Chet Sterling

ER: Are they cross-promoting a Chikara show or something? That's not a direction I was hoping for. And I did not like this match. It felt like apartment wrestling where the guys were afraid to touch, or if Matt Sydal cloned himself into two lesser wrestlers who proceeded to have a lesser Matt Sydal match. The 1% gimmick just doesn't work for me, especially in indy wrestling, because you can tell when someone doesn't actually have money. So here's a guy who is in the 1%, with the same gear as every other indy wrestler, who wrestles like every indy wrestler I already avoid watching. Laroux seems kind of afraid to bump, there was always a delay before taking a clunky, tentative bump. Maybe that's the 1% in him coming through? Afraid to get his hands dirty? It's possible that he's just not that good. I think there was a good forearm in here.

PAS: Laroux isn't a Chikara guy, he is one of the top guys in NOVA pro, and I saw this matchup live earlier in the year and thought it was awesome. That match was built around Laroux faking an injury and being a total smarmy dick, this was much more their touring athletic exhibition match and was less effective. I still liked this a fair amount more then Eric did, I thought the Sterling bump into the ringpost was really nasty as was his bump into the turnbuckle. I also liked when Laroux let his inner asshole shine, the viscous eye rake, the shoving of the ref into the turnbuckle. It did feel a little dancey at times, and there was some questionable punches, but I thought it was slightly above average, and am optimistic about Logan in CWF going forward.

ER: I had not seen Logan before, but he has worked a LOT of Chikara. I'll try to keep an open mind. He *did* put his hands on Phil in a threatening way, that counts for something.

Read more!