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.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 152

Episode 152

Tag Team Battle Royal

ER: A lot of good teams in this, teams I really would not mind seeing in actual regular action. I love the idea of an Otto/Dollars team, like Daddy/Kool, Justice/Sharpe, Biggs/Foxx, just a good mess of teams. I love battle royals a lot, and this really had the makings of a great one. We eventually hit that annoying moment where three teams get eliminated at basically the same time, immediately cutting our participants in half, which takes a lot of the wind out of the sails. But even with that, this battle royal is fun as hell. Aaron Epic hasn't been seen in CWF for half a year, and makes a nice return here, really throwing big shots, stooging when needed, and going after Biggs. Biggs also turns in a great performance as the biggest guy in the match, lumbering around chopping people and squishing them into corners, walking Kool Jay to a press slam elimination (so many press slams in battle royals weirdly don't end in eliminations, it's good to see one actually come to its logical conclusion). I loved one moment where Biggs was slumped in the ropes and just reached out and chopped someone who wandered near him. It felt like King Kong swatting away a compy who had come to investigate if he was dead or sleeping. Cain understood proper battle royal behavior, wearing a shirt to the ring specifically so he could choke people with it. Dirty Daddy also made the most of his time, throwing some of the nastiest strikes of the match during his camera time (he had a downward strike elbow to the back of the neck that was absolutely brutal). I even laughed at Schwanz' elimination, as Schwanz keeps barking and saying words that aren't, while Donnie Dollars keeps asking "Are you kidding me!?" I wish it didn't wrap up so suddenly, this was shaping up to be a barnburner.

PAS: Battle Royals are mostly punches and kicks, so you want a match full of good punchers and kickers and CWF is loaded with them. Lots of wandering around and throwing forearms and guys like Otto and Dirty Daddy have awesome forearms. I loved Biggs in this too, and the Biggs vs. McAllister showdown was great with both guys just laying into each other with chops and headbutts, McAllister is really fun and perfect for Battle Royals. Unsurprisingly Kool J takes the sickest bump of the match, getting press slammed to the floor by Biggs (which seems like kind of a dick move for a face to do, no need to kill the kid.)

Aaron Biggs/Snooty Foxx vs. Aaron Epic/Abel

ER: I much prefer this kind of finish to a battle royal, where the two survivors then have an actual match. The match is short, but good, with Abel and Epic keeping Snooty away from Biggs with simple stuff, I liked a basement dropkick from Epic, and I think Foxx is just a super strong babyface. His selling during the beatdown was really good, he's a guy with size who can garner sympathy, and Biggs is great on the apron wanting the tag. I wish we could have gotten more once Foxx tagged out, as we fairly quickly go to the finish with the Biggs press. I'd like to see an actual tag match between these two, not one coming at the end of a battle royal, but a good 12-15 minute tag. I think all would match up really well.

Arik Royal/Mace Li/Rick Roland vs. Chet Sterling/Lucas Calhoun/Proletariat Boar of Muldova

ER: Roland is a big guy who's been around for awhile but I don't believe I've ever seen him, and he's filling in for Roy Wilkins in "the clean up spot". This match gets a lot of time, 17 minutes, and I think it was strong but could have been much stronger. Sterling put in a good babyface performance getting beat down by the All Stars, but I think his babyface work was kind of negated by Calhoun getting the hot tag and immediately working all of his comedy karate spots. It's kind of amazing to me that guys go along with those spots, but it's just not my bag. We do get a real nice second life to the match, as Mace Li of all people comes in to put a stop to Calhoun's five finger death punch nonsense, and Li puts in some of his finest work that I've seen from him. So we get a second nice All Stars control segment, a bunch of silly abdominal stretch heel work, with Li getting leverage from Royal on the apron who gets leverage from Coach who gets...and we get a nice Sterling run where he absolutely dumps Royal with a half nelson German, fun match overall with nice peaks and valleys. I was also really impressed with Rick Roland. I had never seen him before although I'd seen his name and I know he's been around awhile, but never heard much about him. He's big, looks almost the exact same as Parrow, and wrestles like a way better version of Parrow. His power offense lands heavy and he has a couple awesome tricks, like this slingshot rolling senton from the apron that absolutely splats onto Sterling. I'd love to see more of Roland and think he would fit in awesomely at CWF, hope he's not one of those guys who just shows up once a year on CWF shows.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Hurricane Helms

ER: Cecil Scott goes around ringside and gets a fan to pull Helms' title challenger out of the fishbowl, and the fan sees Sharpe's name and doesn't even want to say it in the mic, just tosses it back at Scott and walks off while rolling his eyes. Awesome. CL Party looks down at Cecil and says "No good?" Funny moment once Sharpe comes out and you realize who the kid was eye rolling about. Helms pins Sharpe quickly, and we go right into a tag match with Helms' mystery partner.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Cain Justice vs. Hurricane Helms/Ric Converse

ER: Pretty simple tag that I think needed Sharpe Justice to work a little more stiff to make up the size difference. Without that it felt like Helms and Converse taking 80% of the match while Sharpe and Justice just kind of clubbed away during their control. Helms even dominated the submission parts of the match, locking in his really cool figure 6 submission a couple times, and then reversing a Cain armbar attempt into a cool triangle, hooking his long leg around Cain's jaw. So Hurricane got the big submission moments, Converse got to come in throwing big punches and a big sitout powerbomb, Hurricane got to hit a big trapped arm facebuster on Sharpe, Cain took a big bump off a clothesline, really felt like my boys got a little steamrolled here. Sharpe hit his nice jawbreaker but I needed more out of my guys, and definitely didn't need them easily tapping to a dual submission (Hurricane's figure 6 + Converse's figure 4 = takes us to a figure 10, as called by Smith Garrett). CWF has a ton of guys they use, really think we can do better than just having Cain tap to a figure 4 after not being in the match a ton.

PAS: I thought this was a fun send the crowd home happy big star tag. Helms looked really good, all of his offense popped and the figure 6 is a great looking submission, I also loved the countering of the armbar, I am a big Helms fan from way back, and I never thought of him as a mat guy. I get Eric's beef with the heels getting dominated, and it does seem like they are shifting Cain to more of a stooging tag worker, but he is pretty great as a stooging tag worker, and the Cain/Sharpe team make a fun pair of John Tatums to get bumped around a ring.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CAIN JUSTICE

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 118

Episode 118

1. Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Lucas Calhoun

ER: I liked this, I really like serious EAS. He's a guy who is obviously funny, who I think overuses his comedy, but when he gets serious I really like his work. Calhoun works in the Elvis spots in a couple nice ways, I especially liked him dropping to a knee with the arms out pose to duck a clothesline. As much as I like serious Sharpe, I don't know if that uppercut should be a death move. I was really surprised that was all it took to keep Calhoun down. Also I think Stutts keeps calling Sharpe a "bracket buster" too often. He hit on it a couple times last match and a few times here. If he ends up winning you don't want to be the guy wondering aloud all match long if 123 Kid can beat Razor Ramon.

PAS: I liked the story of this, with Sharpe as a comedy guy who is here to fight and unwilling to go along with Calhoun's Chikarism. He really presses the action, never giving Calhoun a chance to breathe, much less a chance to get his shtick in. I do like Calhoun's backbreaker and senton combo and I would like to see more of him, especially if someone is forcing him out of his routine. I have no problem with the uppercut as a KO move, if you sell something as a killer move it's a killer move and Sharpe's uppercut is pretty great looking

2. Aaron Epic vs. Chet Sterling

ER: This was a much better showing for Epic, as I didn't really like his first round match. Here I really liked his work, liked how he worked in and out of headlocks and cravats, liked his knee to the gut. I liked how he sold for Sterling, like how he took that dropkick on the apron as more of a brush off to set up the big dive. Sterling was there with him, I thought his part of the grappling and mat stuff was good. At one point he rolled through with a wristlock that I wasn't expecting. Unexpected Wristlock feels like an unfinished song from John Darnielle's wrestling album. Both guys traded some painful looking moves, with Sterling throwing a really cool low angle german, and Epic doing an insane running death valley driver into the bottom turnbuckle. That spot feels like something we'll see until it dislocates someone's spinal column. Finish worked as Rose gets up on the apron to distract with a big spike, and Epic goes to hit the piledriver. A flipping cradle reversal works logically, although by the end of the match I was wanting Epic to advance (and assumed he wouldn't).

PAS: I am on a mini roll of enjoying Sterling matches, I still thing he is kind of generic, but in there with a guy providing the sizzle, he can go along. Epic is clearly a polished pro, and I like how he focused the attack on the neck to set up his illegal piledriver. I really dug the diving uppercut to the back of a seated Sterling, really looked like the kind of thing which could slip a disc. That running Death Valley Driver is so much nastier looking then a piledriver that it doesn't make sense as a set up move for a dangerous illegal blow.  What rule set would allow that hideous thing and not allow a piledriver?

3. Alex Daniels vs. Smith Garrett

ER: I liked this use of the killshot elbow much more in this match than in the Cam Carter match. Real Life Joel Edgerton was going through the t-shirt routine and Garrett just blasts him with a perfectly timed elbow as Daniels is removing his final tank top. It seems like they're setting up Sharpe's uppercut vs. Garrett's elbow, and I can get behind that.

PAS: I am holding off on commenting on this until the payoff, and then I will have things to say.

ER: I love the mid 80s powder blue Expos uniforms, so props to Coach for sporting it. But wearing a Pete Rose Expos jersey? Truly a memorable time of his career. I eagerly await his Rickey Henderson Mariners jersey.

4. Otto Schwanz vs. Trevor Lee

ER: What a surprise treat this was, a match that wasn't listed in the episode rundown, an impromptu jumping from Schwanz and suddenly we get a near 20 minute classic. I've been clamoring for a Schwanz showcase and boy did I get it. This match was completely breathless, no rest, no space. CWF is really great at presenting these matches where guys are in each other's face the whole time, and both of these guys are up to that challenge. Schwanz jumps him to start and we never really get much of a stretch of either man being in control. That's a tough way to work a match without it ever seeming like they're taking turns, but this never felt your move/my move, this just felt like a competitive fight between two guys who hate to quit. There were many great moments, without there ever being any overkill, a relentless pace without either guy feeling like they were ignoring damage. The comebacks and tide shifts all felt natural within the match. I love how Otto would use his bearhug not to grind down Lee, but to slam the breaks on Lee's momentum. Schwanz never used the bearhug for more than 10 seconds at a time, instead he would grab him, violently shake him a couple times, drop the immobilized body, and pounce. We got reversals without any kind of dance, repeated moves done not just as a way to allow a missed spot, but because the moves are effective. Schwanz goes to his standing splash a couple times, and there's a weird stigma about doing moves more than once in a match, and there shouldn't be. A move that works is a move that works, and I like how he hit a couple splashes clean at totally different parts of the match, and eventually he misses one but it's not predictable when he'd miss. Lee makes a few attempts at the STF, and I loved Schwanz breaking the grip, prying Lee's hands apart, rolling it over, and then blasting him with a lariat. For the ending Lee makes by far the best use of a finger break spot in a pro wrestling match: Already establishing that Schwanz has the strength to break the STF, Lee attacks the fingers, locks in the cross legged STF, Schwanz still fights back instinctively, but Lee's strategy is too much. Awesome, impressive, hard fought match, expertly laid out and executed. This is one of my favorite matches of the year, and it's not even advertised in the episode! What a treat.

PAS: Yeah this was good stuff, Otto is from an older generation of indy workers, his stuff doesn't look nearly as smooth as Chip Day or even Aric Andrews, he is a big believable country strong brute and everything he does looks like it hurt. Otto sets a really impressive pace for a big guy at his age, he is always pressing forward and attacking and Trevor is forced to counter punch for much of the match. I loved Otto's german suplexes, he just grabs and throws his opponent with such force, and his rolling german's looked less like a fancy spot, then a big dog refusing to let go of a dead rabbit. I want to second the love for the finger breaking spot, normally it is one of my least favorite Trevor Lee spots, it is done as more of a highspot with little connection to the match, here it makes perfect sense as Otto keeps breaking Lee's grip, so damaging his fingers leads right to the finish. Really cool match, and Lee is on a big run of great stuff these last couple of weeks.

5. Caprice Coleman/Darius Lockhart vs. Zane & Dave Dawson

ER: Fun tag, and I came away really impressed by Caprice Coleman. Coleman is a guy I've probably been seeing since 2001 or maybe earlier, and I like that some of these guys who kind of got lost in the shuffle of mid 2000s indy wrestling can now come back as productive vets. I like the idea of him in a mentor role of a tag team, and would like to see more of he and Lockhart. I dug Coleman's double dropkick, liked a bunch of his strikes, love that rope flip headscissors to the floor he does so damn smoothly, and his spin around the ringpost dropkick under the bottom rope looks really cool. Dawsons are good at cutting off the ring and Coleman is good on a hot tag. Now we do get a lot of nonsense down the stretch, and we're clearly building for a rematch. Now, I like some of Lockhart's strikes, he throws big chops, but there were other times I thought he was too tentative, kind of throwing off the timing of pinball double teams. Also, I think Zane Dawson is incredibly lazy and uncreative about getting into position for things, or throwing really half-hearted missed lariats. There were several moments like this that were really bad, like when he needed to get to the apron he got punched, turned around and walked to the apron, then just stood there. It was all to set up Coleman sweeping his leg and then hitting the headscissors, but he couldn't have tried less to get into position. Later he had to get to the turnbuckles for a spot and it was the same thing, get punched, turn around and walk all the way around the ref, eventually reaching the buckles. It comes off so unnatural, it looked like something early 2000s HHH would do to try to bury an opponent. "See how long I had to wait for Booker's axe kick?" I'm not expecting everyone to be Finlay when it comes to naturally getting into position to set up someone's offense, but damn this was some of the most sluggish attempts in recent memory. But I liked the match, and it feels lame to complain a bunch about a match I liked. Still, that Dawson stuff felt egregious.

PAS: I love the fact that a BLM tag team are working as faces in North Carolina, especially against a pair of bearded bikers, very woke booking by CWF.  Good classic southern tag with Lockhart getting worked over leading to Coleman as a fun highflying hot tag. I loved his flip headscissors and spin around the ringpost, both cool highflying moves that work well in the context of a tag match. Colemans punches to the Dawson's looked only OK, but he really wasted the ref with the punch he hit him with, looked like it broke his jaw. I had no problem with the booking in the finish, but it only works if we get a rematch pretty soon, I also really want to see Coleman/Lockhart vs. the All Stars they have plenty of fun stuff set up.


ER: We have two straight weeks of arguably my favorite 2017 Trevor Lee title defenses, this Otto match really hit all the right spots. It was an easy add to the top 20 of our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List.


 

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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.

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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.

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