CWF Mid-Altlantic Worldwide Episode 105

Episode 105

1. SIS vs. Priscilla Kelly

PAS: SIS slings potatoes when she wrestles men, putting her against another woman almost feels like watching an uncomfortably violent intergender match. Kelly, the valet for the Carnies, puts in a game effort, she unloads some nasty kicks and forearms, but SIS just brings the heat. Southern Indy Aja Kong is a really cool thing to have in 2017

ER: Yeah this is actually the first time I've seen SIS against a female, I'd just gotten used to her against men that I've stopped thinking of her as a female. Priscilla Kelly is a name I've seen popping up a lot on FloSlam but didn't realize she was the gal appearing with the Carnies. I also did not realize that she was on (still is on?) some reality show called My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding, she is very young (probably just 19 or 20) and has a dad who is basically Jamie Dundee. Her kicks need a lot of work but the ideas are good. I liked all the kicks specifically targeting SIS' legs, especially the running low kick to the patella. The punt on the apron with the leg landing on the top rope, followed by a gyrate, is a pretty great heel gloat (wait she's a heel right? Does that mean SIS is a face!?). The kicks just need to be tightened up. But she leaned in to all of SIS' nasty stuff, the great headbutt, the body press in the ropes, the low german, so I imagine she'll keep getting better.

2. AJ Gray vs. Xsiris

ER: I thought this was really damn good. CWF pulls from a pretty ridiculously deep talent pool, they can bring in a debuting guy like AJ Gray and the guy seems like he's been at it for years, a debuting guy who already has tons of polish. I assumed it would just be an Xsiris squash and what we got was much better than that. Xsiris doesn't really take Gray too seriously, asking someone in the crowd what Gray's name was so he can taunt him. Xsiris looked really good, and should really be on TV more (if Stutts is to be believed on commentary, apparently he has a day job that prevents him from wrestling more often?), he's almost a clone of Brad Attitude, and I would love more Brad Attitudes in wrestling. A great right hand goes a long way with me, and he has that and more. We build nicely to a huge comeback lariat from Gray, and for something I expected to go 90 seconds I was pleased as punch we got a good match out of it.

PAS: CWF does has a really deep talent pool, although in some way that can be a detriment. We can go months with out seeing guys like Xsiris or Lee Valiant, and the shows are often filled with rookies of varying quality. Gray was pretty good, and I liked the story of Xsiris not taking him seriously and paying for it.

ER: (Agree wholeheartedly with Phil's point about a deep talent pool being a blessing and a curse)

3. Aric Andrews/Dave Dawson/Dirty Blondes (Mike Patrick/Leo Brien) vs. Nick Richards/Mitch Connor/Slade Porter/Ace Perry

ER: An okay enough CWF/WAR 8 man, though they don't really do a whole lot with the 10 minutes given. Mitch Connor has a nice Jake Milliman look and babyface charisma, but most of the match is spent with him getting his knee worked, and it's weird to work the middle 6 minutes like that and then just rush through a multiple tag finish. I'd be fine with Perry and Porter not appearing again for a long while, and in turn I want WAY more of the Dirty Blondes. I really liked them in the Kernodle Cup and want to see more of what they can do (and I love Brien's downward angle right hand). I loved Connor's dedication to selling the knee when he finally tagged out, but this wasn't much.

PAS: I enjoyed Connor's selling, and all of the heels were good (it was nice to see Andrews get some offense for once), I thought Perry and Porter's offense wasn't great but they took some big bumps. Porter absolutley died on a back suplex and Perry spiked himself on the Andrews choke bomb.

4. Battle Bowl 10 Man Battle Royal

ER: I think I'm a bigger battle royal fan than most, but this probably got too much time. There were some good things, like Andrews quietly stooging around for Mecha, Wilkins getting sandwiched by the Sandwich Squad, a sick elimination bump from Biggs, Royal getting uppercutted and elbowed around by several guys ("Planet of the Ace is off its axis," said Cecil Scott amusingly), but this didn't have enough for me. And it doesn't always take much for me to get behind a Battle Royal.

PAS: I liked the finish run between Royal and Richards, most times battle royals are going be made on final runs and I thought they were great. Nasty shots, and the battle on the apron was cool with Richards trying to german Royal off the apron and slipping and falling off. Gets the full Worldwide point from me.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 96

Episode 96

1. Otto Schwanz vs. PB Smooth

PAS: This was a fine big guy battle, Smooth is tall which will get you pretty far, it is unclear whether he has much else at this point. I really like Schwanz as a big boy veteran, although this had less stretching then the last time I saw him, really want to see Schwanz versus either Justice or Garrini, at some point I will review a WarGames with PB Smooth in it for WarGames Wednesday morning, hope it is better then this.

ER: This was what it was, which was basically Schwanz muscling around a limited guy his own size and setting up some decent spots for him. I really like Schwanz, he has a really timeless style and I think his look is even better now than when he was an actual mainstream guy. He's a little too nice to Smooth here though, as you get the sense before the match that he's going to make an example of this other tall dude coming into his turf. I don't really understand the point of billing Smooth at 7 feet tall. Schwanz is a really big guy, probably 6'3" to 6'5", and we can all see with our eyes that Smooth has maybe an inch on him. It's weird to be billing one guy as 7', while not in the same breath billing the other guy as 6'11". Is Redd Jones now the 6 feet tall referee? Is Statmark the 6'6" camera man? We all have eyeballs, and 6'6" is huge! No shame in calling a man 6 1/2 feet tall. So, I don't see the point, but I liked Schwanz, and Smooth at least cuts low on lariats and falls properly on slams. That might seem like low praise, but it's a good start for him.

2. Dominic Garrini vs. Cain Justice

PAS: Holy hell, what is this match? I have loved Justice before, but this felt like him taking the next leap, and fuck is Garrini fun to watch. For two rookies, this was off the charts, it felt like watching Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki in their first UWF and Pro-Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi matches. Justice has Judo training and Garrini is a ranked Brazilian Ju-Jitsu competitor and they do an awesome job of showcasing those skills in a prowrestling context. The early mat rolling was really cool, I loved the kneebar countering and how smoothly Garrinin shifted from a rear naked choke into a twister. This was still a prowrestling match, and they both did cool things where they would be rolling for submissions, and one guy would catch his opponent in a cradle for quick pin attempt, getting small packaged isn't something Garrini has to worry about in Abu Dhabi grappling tourneys, and I liked how Justice threw in some pro-wrestling flavors. Justice nearly gets finished by a bunch of submissions and decides to get a little dirty, by banging Garini's arm off the ring post, and then we get a thrilling end run with Justice baring down on the arm while Dominic tries to catch him in chokes.

ER: During Garrini's hype vid last week I was getting really excited for this match, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I wasn't expecting this. This was awesome. I was excited for the match, but didn't want to hype it up in my head too much, but it delivered far more than I could have expected. Both men try to roll the other's ankle, plant knees in calf muscles, hyperextend knees, a bunch of nice looking rolling that looked like it would be far too easy to end in an accidental achilles injury. Both guys twist in and out of danger, and we get some surprises. I loved Garrini pushing Cain off him with both feet and grabbing him in an armbar on the way down. But I really loved Cain being the one to start integrating pro wrestling elements into things, turning the probably more skilled Garrini into a fish out of water. Cain swinging Garrini's arm into the post was a great turning point, and we still got some great arm work from both guys after, with both forcing the other's arm behind their back. Everything looked extremely painful here, and outside of a sorta hinky running corner charge by Garrini, this was some unexpectedly high end stuff. These guys need to form a stable and call it UWF Mid-Atlantic.

3. Alex Daniels vs. Chip Day

PAS: Really fun workrate sprint match. Both guy unloaded with big shots from the start, Chip Day damn near split Daniels nipple with a chop and Daniels hit a great spin kick. Daniels is working a Ben Affleck gimmick where he yells out Affleck film names when he does moves, it is a little try hard, but I enjoyed his work. He hits some insane looking brainbuster into the turnbuckles which landed Day right on the top of his head, match falls apart a bit there, because there is no way that shouldn't be a finish, and Daniels had to take an inordinately long time setting up a top rope follow up just to get rolled up for this pin, it was similar the one problem in the Dirty Daddy/Cain Justice match at Battlecade, especially in a fed like CWF Mid-Atlantic huge head drops like that should be finishes, if you aren't getting the finish, leave it at home. Still I really dug most of this, reminded me of a fun first round Cruiserweight Classic match.

ER: I'm not sure I understand the Ben Affleck gimmick, as Daniels doesn't really look like Affleck other than being a white male. But it probably gets him more laughs than working a "young David Morse" gimmick. Just as Chip Day shouldn't start working as a vinyl shorts Chris Eigeman gimmick. But this was good, until the ending which Phil already covered. And I think it was good because this is typically a style we see worked in 14 minute matches, and it turns into boring overkill, and here we got it for a hot 6 minutes. The 6 minute length worked, and we got some cool stuff that didn't have time to wear itself out. Chip Day gets a little bit hand clappy during certain strikes, but he throws a nice double knees and his strikes at least look good, and I REALLY like Daniels' spin kicks. That headdrop move into the turnbuckle was ridiculous. Stutts says it's one of the craziest moves he's ever seen in a ring (and he's right...which only highlights how stupid it is to not be the finish), and they ably work some fast sequences. Quality match.

4. Arik Andrews v. Cool J

ER: They do a fun "fan draws Andrews opponent out of a fishbowl" gimmick before the match, and I love CL Party announcing "Cool J" to silence and groans, with one man audibly groaning and eyerolling out a "what the christ". Cool J is super tiny and I believe this is his debut. Announce crew does a great job of putting over just how tough it is to even get to a CWF debut, going over actual numbers of just how many people drop out of the dojo, how many people quit the grueling school because it's too hard, and how there are far more people who quit than people who make it to their debut. It's a way more interesting and honest way of putting over someone's debut than saying rote things like "He brings a lot of skills to this and is very talented" while he's getting massacred. This is an Andrews squash though, as it should be, and Cool J takes a nasty slam on his shoulders.

PAS: Cool J takes some big bumps which is what you want out of a rookie getting squashed, and I did really like the commentary, but this was a 3 minutes one sided squash, not much to say about it

5. Xsiris vs. Smith Garrett

PAS: Short heated brawl which nicely moves along this feud. They kept it intense, and I liked how Garrett used Xsiris's aggression against him to get the roll up. I think I may have liked some of the pull aparts better, but I am sure this is leading to a big blow off, which I am excited for.

ER: This was so awesome, Xsiris is one of my favorite current guys and his aggression is off the charts. All his simple stuff looks great and super painful, and I've really enjoyed everything these two have done so far (except Garrett's weird lip licking thing. That really needs to stop), and this was more good stuff. I know it's going to lead to a killer blowoff. Xsiris has been messing with Garrett, jumping him and beating the hell out of him, and then turning around and leaving, and when Garrett got the roll up win here I instantly thought "Xsiris is going to go nuts eventually". CWF has several of these larger bruising bully puncher types, with Attitude and Schwanz and CW Anderson as well as Xsiris, and it's one of my absolute favorite styles, and one of the reasons this fed is so appealing. Great stuff all around.

ER: Well, Cain Justice vs. Dominic Garrini pretty much blew both of us away, easily earning a spot on our 2017 Match of the Year List. And, after talking it over, Phil and I both decided that it's our current #1. People should be on the lookout for these two.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 90

Episode 90

1. Donnie Dollars vs. Percy Davis

PAS: Dollars is coming off a heel turn at BattleCade and goes through this match with kind of an dead eyed stare. Davis talks a lot of smack, but is constantly met by huge shots by Dollars. Davis gets a bit of a run, starting out with a nasty looking discus slap, but mostly gets thrown around the ring. Dollars lands some big shots, so this was a pretty entertaining semi-squash.

ER: I liked this quite a bit, and as I didn't watch all of BattleCade I thought Stutts did a good job of explaining what had happened. His commentary in general was really good here, I liked him saying Dollars was like "a puppy with large paws", how they thought he would grow into his size and strength and he really hadn't, until possibly now. It's an expression I had never heard before and I really liked it, might steal it some time. Dollars did thousand yard stare nicely, and Davis seems like he has a fun bag of tricks: he mixed up punches nicely, to the body and a big Superman punch off the buckles, nice mule kick, that discus slap that Phil mentioned, and got tossed nicely by Dollars. Dollars played distant well and threw his offense out accordingly. Playing distant and then doing a bunch of reversal sequences would have been terrible, instead he played it like his reaction time was slower than normal, but his moves were more violent than normal. Very satisfying match.

2. Xsiris vs. Smith Garrett

PAS: This is the result of Xsiris jumping Garrett at BattleCade and was pretty much an all out brawl which never gets started. Really liked Xsiris here, he trapped Garrett in the ring skirt and gave him these nasty looking shots to the back of the head, he also threw a brutal looking palm strike to the throat. Garrett showed a lot of intensity and fire, although his offense didn't look as crisp, energetic fight which definitely wanted to make me see the blow off.

ER: This was awesome. You so often hear "I don't want a match, I want a fight", and then they proceed to mostly have a normal wrestling match. Well Garrett follows through on his promise and never makes it into the ring with Xsiris. I'd never seen either before but came away super impressed with Xsiris, dude looked like an absolute killer. He starts with these brutal clubbing shots, ties Garrett up in the apron skirt Finlay style, pops him in the face, chokes him with the skirt, but then when Garrett gets free Xsiris takes a nasty ring post bump. Xsiris also takes a mean back bump on the floor off a lariat, and a guy who works stiff and makes his opponents' stuff look good is always going to be an instant favorite of mine. The match never starts and the angle was effective, as I definitely want to see them go at it again. Garrett looked okay, didn't love his offense (against Xsiris or against officials in the ring) but his energy was believable and off the charts, and that is arguably more important to a match/feud like this.

3. Tripp Cassidy vs. Nick Richards

PAS: This was another story heavy match, which is something this fed does really well in the ring and explains really well in commentary. The idea is that Richards is an ex-death match guy and brawler who is trying to reinvent himself as a wrestler, meanwhile Cassidy is yet another in the endless indy children of Raven who is going to try to bring him back. Cassidy was pretty cornball in this, at one point he yells into the camera "I am counterculture." There were some nice shots and bumps in this, but I thought Richards wrestling looked kind of hinky, and his brawling wasn't great either. Felt like something which worked better on paper then in execution.

ER: Well Trip Cassidy gets the distinction of being the first CWF wrestler that I never want to watch again. He's got a beyond dated gimmick and a dated brawling style. If he didn't look so joyless I would think he was just doing a silly parody of something that even a parody of would be dated. But by god it looks like he means it. Richards was fine though. It's weird, as I thought his punches to the face sucked, but whenever he would go at the body those shots would look awesome! Dude needs to stick to a program of "punches to body, elbows to face".  He bumped around nicely for Cassidy even if I don't think Cassidy's offense earned it. I'd be curious to see Richards against someone else. I am not curious to see Cassidy against anyone else.

ER: Huge hats off to whomever assembled the episode-closing highlight video. It was professional as hell and looked awesome. Even though it focused more on moments than angles, it still made me feel like I had been along for some kind of ride. Tons of ambition, tons of giant fat dudes, tons of danger, the video was killer and made me want to just go back and watch everything the promotion has done. So again, hats off to whomever put this together.

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