James: 32 competitors, from 18 countries, all fighting for a chance to be recognized as the best Cruiserweight wrestlers in the world. Last time, we kicked off our coverage of the CWC with episodes 1 and 2. We saw our 8 men move on to the second round and great chances for glory, while another 8 men saw their chances dashed. But, we also learned that many of those 8, they’ve continued to do great things in wrestlers, whether in WWE or elsewhere. Now it’s time to do it all again. Right now, we close out the first round of Cruiserweight action.
Seán: Today we find out which final eight competitors will advance to the Last 16 but we will also find out what happened to eight of those that were defeated at the first hurdle. It’s Season 3, Episode 3 of The Power Hour! JT and Seány Mc’s equivalent to the Pickle Rick episode! CWC: Five Years Later time baby!
—————————————————
Booting Up
JT: Hellooooo again everyone!! We’re booting up the power hour once again, as we head into episodes 3 & 4 of the Cruiserweight Classic, as we’re here with episode 3 of this arc. As always, I’m James aka JT, the most important person in Long Island wrestling aside from Mick Foley, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, MJF, Kris Statlander, and probably like at least 30 other people. I’m real excited to get back to explaining our matches, looking at where these guys have come from, and what they did next.
S: For sure, I’m very intrigued to hear what certain people in this tournament are up to nowadays but as well as that, just dead excited to talk about the Cruiserweight Classic and the matches that are within it. To do what James did, I’m Seán aka Young Seán to some or Seány Mc to others. I’m probably the most important person in Sligonian wrestling for real, we ain’t got no wrestlers or wrestling personalities so I’m number one technically.
JT: Winner by default!! Woohoo!! Default!! The two sweetest words in the English language!! We’ve got some big names to talk about in this here episode, as well as some rather interesting figures and some wonderful matches to get to. Staying on trend, the CWC is just a delight.
S: It really is, just off the back of the first two episodes of action it is already a delightful watch and the perfect platform to elevate independent or unknown wrestlers to a bigger scale. The first two episodes had me rather giddy and I’ve gotta say that these next two episodes we’re about to crack on with have me very excited.
JT: Alright, I say we’ve got a good amount of Hot Dogging and Grand Standing in, shall we get into the meat and potatoes of this episode?
S: Let’s do it man, I’m buzzing to get into this one!
—————————————————
Dux of Hazard
JT: So to open up our show, we get a short highlight reel from episode 1, a recap of what happened the week before, and then a rundown of the matches we have this week. To start off the actual wrasslin on the show, we’ve got a technical battle on the way. It’s Canada’s Tyson Dux facing off against England’s Zack Sabre Jr.
S: It’s a Commonwealth Games showdown in the CWC! James, how familiar were you with either of these men heading into this match when it first took place?
JT: As has become a running tradition in this series, 100% on purpose on WWE’s behalf, I know one guy and don’t know the other. Tyson Dux? I had no clue about him. Not the faintest clue. The only Canadian Tyson’s I know are Tyson Kidd, and Tyson Smith aka Kenny Omega. I feel like an absolute buffoon calling him Tyson for the record. But yeah, I didn’t know Dux. Sabre Jr though, I knew who he was plenty well. I would’ve seen him first at PWG BOLA 2014, and then really gotten familiar with him during his 2015 BOLA run where he won the whole thing. I followed his run in PWG as closely as I could for a kid who didn’t want to buy PWG DVDs and solely watched the YouTube highlights. In fact, he was heading into this tournament as PWG Champion, having ended Roderick Strong’s 449 Day title reign at All Star Weekend Night 2 in March of 2016. Just on the topic of PWG, you’d be crazy if you didn’t think his success there didn’t help him get into this tournament. Just look at the 2015-2016 PWG roster. It’s full of guys who were either highly sought after by WWE like the Young Bucks, got a brief run with WWE like Chris Hero, and a bunch who are still signed to this day like Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Walter, Bronson Reed, etc.
S: Yeah for sure, PWG at this time was a great place for WWE to scout future and potential signings. I mean they’ve signed so many guys because of their PWG run up to this point. Kevin Steen, El Generico, Rich Swann, Cesaro, Hero, Sami Callihan are the ones that spring to mind. I’m pretty sure that William Regal also once went to a PWG show to scout talent for NXT too.
JT: Point is, PWG is to WWE and AEW in my opinion what ECW was to WWE & WCW in the 90s. Go back, look at some old cards, and go “holy shit it’s the best guys in both companies!”. But to bring it back to Zack, I knew him from his faster paced PWG showings, but what about you Seán? I imagine your relationship with his career has got to be a lot more different than mine considering he’s from around your neck of the woods.
S: Funnily enough, I actually found out about who ZSJ was from PWG highlight videos on YouTube in about 2014 when I’d just started my second year of secondary school. I was very impressed by his faster paced technical wrestling in PWG, I think when I saw that he beat Adam Cole in the first round of BOLA in 2014, I knew he must have been a big deal. I’d learned about the UK Indie Scene and how important he was to it a few months after the fact but yeah, PWG was what helped me discover Zack and many others. Dux on the other hand, I didn’t have a blue’s clue who he was but I assumed he was good because he was Canadian.
JT: Yeah fair play to Canada, they’ve got an incredible history of wrestlers, even if you exclude everyone related to the Harts. Also, one last thing about ZSJ that I’ll mention. There’s a funny thing about him, where I feel like he’s almost the American face of English wrestling, rather than actually being the face of English wrestling, y’know? Like he comes out in the big Union Jack gear, he’s got the really obvious English accent, he’s got the sort of name that gives off a heir of history and royalty, but looking at his history, he was never really “the guy”, y’know? Like when you think of the strong independent scene in the UK and Ireland you think of like Progress, RevPro, ICW, IPW, even like FWA from the mid 00s, and he’s never been Champion there. At least, he didn’t become RevPro Champ after his PWG blow up and push. So it seems kind of funny that the face of the British scene in a way, isn’t a guy who topped all the companies in the UK then left for abroad, but rather just did well enough there to eventually make his way over to America and become a true top star.
S: Yeah that is very true actually, he was an English wrestler who was almost a king of the US Independent scene holding loads of top titles yet in the UK, he was always positioned as someone who was almost bigger than the title in a way, you know?
JT: Yeah I see what you’re saying. It’s funny how that works out. Also since I mentioned it before, what do you think of his ring gear, the big flag all over him?
S: The ring gear is very heavily covered in some Union Jacks and SPLX branding, both of which would raise some eyebrows. I mean it’s definitely a cool look to people that aren’t from Ireland, don’t get me wrong, just wish he was wearing that sweet looking SPLX gear which he busted out since he beat Roddy for the PWG Title because that gear is cool and there’s minimal Union Jacks.
JT: I guess they’re leaning into the “Get it, he’s English dammit!” for the tournament.
S: That’s probably the reason for it now that you say it and also WWE probably don’t want him repping gear which is sponsored by wrestling apparel which isn’t Tapout.
JT: So a little tiny bit of pre-match hype up. As per usual, both men get a promo before their match: Tyson Dux gives us some backstory saying he actually wrestled in WWE back in 2004 but got hurt wrestling on Velocity and it’s been a long road coming back. ZSJ, is motivated by his passion for wrestling, he’s got a tactical style, Harry Potter etc. etc. And now we’ve got our match! Two technical wrestlers facing off, ready to get into this?
S: Let’s run it down dude, I’m excited to chat about this one.
JT: Will the touted favorite Zack Sabre Jr be able to move on, or will the 38 year old veteran Tyson Dux pull off the upset with his years of experience and technical knowledge? Let’s find out.Chants for ZSJ from the start as we get a Collar and Elbow tie up. ZSJ takes him down and targets the wrapped knee of Dux, the knee he hurt in WWE back in the day. As they’re grappling, Bryan explains Sabre’s philosophy of “Escapology”. Zack wants to escape the holds not by fighting out of them or grabbing the ropes, but by finding a technical way out of them. This really puts his character and skill over, with this he becomes a student of the game, with an encyclopedic knowledge of holds that he can apply, and that he knows the secrets to escape from. ZSJ with one of his classic sequences as Dux has his leg but Zack takes his right leg and crosses it right across the back of his own, folding his leg and bringing Dux forward close enough for him to lock in a headlock. Something you’ll notice about Sabre when you watch him, is that he’s deceptively tall. He’s not like a 1980-1990s wrestler big, but he’s got long limbs, and his flexibility allows him to do some great things to other people and to himself. The headlock sequence shows how his long limbs help him, then he shows off his flexibility short afterwards, as Dux wraps his legs around Zack’s neck but Sabre Jr bridges up, flips over to his stomach and stands up and out of the hold. Escapology in action.
S: It’s always something which has been put over by commentary about Zack for years, isn’t it? The fact that he’s so limber yet unsuspectingly tall is the reason as to why he is so good at his style of wrestling, that and him being a vegan and yogi too of course. It’s such a good way of adding layers to his style of wrestling and why he’s so good at it.
JT: More submission based wrestling as ZSJ gets a kravate hold on and keeps it on, despite Dux constantly trying to get out. Like he’d be in it, snapmare Sabre down, but Zack would hold on. Still Dux, has skills of his own as he drops a level, gets a fireman carry takeover, and claps for himself to some boos from the crowd. Dux tries his hand at a kravate, but Zack goes down and forms a bridge holding his weight on his neck, and then turns out and escapes. Like Seán said, Sabre is a big yoga practitioner, and only with that or insane and intense Japanese dojo training can you do a bridge like that on your neck. Bryan says these holds don’t make a crowd explode, but wrestlers appreciate it, which brings up the fact that the crowd are honestly kinda quiet for this one.
S: Yeah they’re pretty quiet for this one and this is definitely the common case when technical matches like this would be performed in the states where crazy spotfest matches were becoming more frequent and almost the norm so anything other than that would be almost considered pretty meh but as to paraphrase what ZSJ said after his G1 match against SANADA in Dallas, doing a technical wrestling match in front of an American audience is almost like reading Shakespeare to dog.
JT: Killer zinger, that’s something I’ll just quickly say about ZSJ before we get back to the match. He doesn’t really get a chance to trash talk during this tournament, which is a shame because he’s pretty good at it. He can be pretty funny.
S: His trash talking is very good, like it’s close to Kevin Owens levels of trash talking. I feel like it’s something he added or just started using more when he joined Suzuki-gun and the only reason I’d say it wasn’t being used here is because he is being portrayed as a face.
JT: Yeah I agree, it’s a little too mean spirited for a lot of guys to be able to do it and stay likable. So back to the match as ZSJ has Dux in a Hammerlock on the mat, then uses his legs to snap the arm of Dux!! He looks to go for the Ode to Jim Breaks, but Dux counters his armbar with a scoop slam, then a kick to the back, then multiple chops to the chest. Dux sends him across into the corner, charges in after him but ZSJ gets the boot up and then gets a flying European Uppercut from the middle rope! He follows up with a big Running European Uppercut to the corner. As Dux falls out of the corner, Zack twists the arm and then ducks under to deliver an overhead kick right to the arm!! He follows up with a more standard kick directly to the arm, then goes for another but Dux catches him, only for Zack to slap him across the face!! But Dux is an angry veteran, and he shrugs off the slap as he pulls him in and drives him down with a Fisherman’s Buster!! I will say, Dux does a good job here putting the spotlight on ZSJ by being sort of heelish here. I wouldn’t say he’s an out and out heel here, not to the degree of someone like Ariya Daivari or someone we’ll see later, but he has just enough attitude to get the crowd behind Sabre (if they weren’t already).
S: For real, I think he plays the salty veteran of the game really well. Like he’s just got enough of an edge where he’s not full on heel, he’s a perfect first round foil for any tournament if you ask me, just like when I saw him take on Rust Taylor at wXw’s Ambition 12 during 16 Carat Weekend.
JT: Yeah Dux has just enough of a twinge where you can tell his frustration at his opponent and just his situation in general, but to a degree where you can think “Well if I were in his shoes I’d be mad too”. Plus, in kayfabe Zack is an annoying fucker to fight. Especially if you’re someone like Dux, who has spent a whole career perfecting your submission skills. Like Dux goes for a Fujiwara Armbar, but ZSJ tries to roll through so Dux is forced to dig deep and match him by rolling through with him to keep it applied. Out of the submission, ZSJ gets a Crucifix pin for a 2, only for Dux to get up and hit a Sliding Elbow to the face. Repeated Elbows by Dux, he hits the ropes, but Zack goes to the opposite corner to misdirect, then running back, sliding back under the Canadian’s shot as he gets an Octopus Hold in. Dux gets the ropes, but Zack lets go of the submission quick enough to nail a kick to the outstretched arm of Dux. Sabre then goes for another high kick, but even as Dux ducks it, Sabre keeps rotating and turns to sweep the leg out from under Tyson. Sabre back into the corner, lines him up and scores with a Penalty Kick!! He hooks the legs, 1—2——Kickout!! I gotta say, I remember very specifically being surprised by this kickout, which goes to show my still lack of experience watching Sabre. In PWG, Sabre ended quite a few matches with that Penalty Kick, but that I think says more about PWG than the move itself. After all, it’s a nice big THWACK that really can get a big pop if done at the right time, as opposed to submission, which though brutal, can struggle to bring a crowd to their feet. Especially if you’re like Sabre and you have so many submissions in your arsenal, unless the crowd recognizes that “This is it!!” submissions can sometimes not get the same reaction as the usual finishing moves.
S: I’ve gotta say, his Penalty Kick is vicious as fuck. Obviously it’s not Shibata levels because that’s just next level but what I really love about Zack’s PK is the follow through and the aftermath of it where he just flies about after hitting it. Really cool stuff.
JT: Not to be outdone, Dux has some snappy offense of his own!! Zack charges at him, but Dux reverses with an Inverted Atomic Drop by Dux, followed by a DDT!! 1–2—Kickout!! Dux tries to capitalize by trying for a Texas Cloverleaf, but Zack pulls him in and gets Bridging Pin for 2!! Dux hits a Clothesline as they both get up, lifts him up on his shoulder but ZSJ gets out into a Kimura with a Body Lock!! He then brings Dux down to the mat with a Omoplata, as Dux reaches out for the safety of the ropes, Sabre grabs the fingers of Dux to pull his hand away!! Wrenching back on the arm along with the pain of the Omoplata gives Dux no choice but to submit!! Sabre moves on while Dux’s chance at glory ends in round 1. What did you think of this match?
S: Although the crowd was fairly quiet for a portion of this match, I thought this was a fun opening encounter for this episode. Sabre is probably one of the most interesting wrestlers to watch and has been for the last five years, in a good way. Thought he and Dux worked really well together, Dux more than held his own with ZSJ, as you’d expect a man of his experience to. He hit some lovely looking moves such as his Fisherman’s Buster and Spike DDT. ZSJ with some awesome yet brutal looking submissions and sweet strikes, especially his Penalty Kick, back of the net with that one. Beautiful Omoplata for ZSJ to advance to round two. Loved seeing the verbal submission being the method of victory as it’s not often seen in this era of wrestling. Thumbs up.
JT: Time for a spicy opinion! Honestly, I thought this one kind of felt flat for me. I think this is where the retrospective viewing is gonna change some of my opinions. I don’t think this was a bad match, I just don’t think it was either guy at their best. It felt like this match was what it was, meaning that it put all the focus on Zack Sabre Jr and his signature moves. It felt like there wasn’t as much of a cohesive story as it was moving from segment to show off Zack’s biggest moves, so the crowd can see them coming later on in the tournament. Funny thing is, I was actually a defender of this match when it first happened. And now? I honestly agree more with the criticisms against it. I wouldn’t say this was boring and the crowd certainly didn’t help much, but I don’t think it really impressed me the way other Sabre matches have. Looking back on my opinion on a first watch, I feel like I was easier going on this match, probably because I was familiar and liked Sabre, and wanted him to succeed on the big stage and hostile environment of WWE.
S: I think why I was more positive about this match is because I know it’s just a first round match and that not every match in Round One is going to be a belter like Ali vs Lince and that this round is supposed to be an appetiser for what’s yet to come with Zack.
JT: That’s fair, I think it does set the table decently well. Sadly for Tyson Dux though, that means he kinda gets the rough end of things. He’s there to set someone else up, and then he’s gone. But hey, he’s been quite active in the years since, want to hear about it?
S: Absolutely dude, I know he’s been making lots of dates in the last few years, all kinds of dates.
JT: So the thing is with him, he’s done so many sporadic indy dates that it’s kinda hard to boil it all down to a cohesive narrative. But I’ll start from where we are in the timeline, in 2016. 2016 would be a busy year for Tyson Dux, as he wrestled in more promotions than ever that year. It would also mark a real breakthrough for him, as he’d go on to win the majority of his titles from 2016 onwards. Dux worked in many different promotions over the years, always staying busy. He’d wrestle in WCPW’s Pro Wrestling World Cup in 2017, losing in the first round of the Canadian qualifiers, but he did so against Kyle O’Reilly. He fought two matches for Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling in 2016, both of which were NEXGEN Championship opportunities against Sonjay Dutt. He’s had 4 matches since 2016 in WXW but hasn’t been victorious in any of them, in singles or tag competition. He’s also had a handful of matches in Impact Wrestling, but mainly in losing efforts against bigger name competition like losing to Taiji Ishimori at Bound For Glory 2017, losing to Matt Sydal on Impact that same year, or losing to Killer Kross on Impact in 2019. His main success has come as part of Toronto based promotion Smash Wrestling. In fact, later in 2016 during a Smash & Progress Wrestling crossover, he got his win back against Zack Sabre. Nice of Zack to do the job for Dux after Dux really put him over here tonight.
S: That is very nice of Zack to do that for him. Yeah he sure was a busy boy for about four years, wasn’t he? It’s amazing what a spot in a tournament put on by WWE can do for your stock. I think he’s earned those bookings in major promotions on different levels. I remember seeing him at wXw and honestly thinking that he was a lot better than I remembered him being, which isn’t a knock on him at all, just more my stubbornness towards those who got knocked out in the first round of the CWC.
JT: Yeah, we gotta defend our first rounders!! Just because they lost early doesn’t mean they’re bad! It’s just a reminder that the world is big honestly, because you have these great competitors who have entertained their local area for years and really gotten to be great…but in the grand scheme of things that’s barely enough to get anywhere in WWE. Like Dux for example, he’s gotten to be a big part of the Canadian scene. As such, in Smash, aside from beating ZSJ, he’s had a lot of success. He also has wrestled in CZW as part of a Smash crossover event, facing off against the likes of Jonathan Gresham, Trey Miguel, Stu Grayson and Evil Uno. In Smash itself, he capped off his 2016 by winning the vacant Smash Wrestling Title, and would hold the belt for 435 Days. That would include victories against the likes of Colt Cabana, Jay White, Petey Williams, Mark Haskins, Stu Grayson, Pepper “The Blade” Parks, Jake Crist, Joe Hendry and more local independent wrestlers such as Brent Banks, Kevin Bennett and Franky The Mobster, with Franky ultimately defeating him at Smash’s “Any Given Sunday 6” in 2018. That would be the Title’s longest reign to their most recent reign by Kevin Bennett, which has been artificially ballooned by COVID. Quick side-tangent, I hope there’s some heel champion out there who won their title just before COVID and is now using their ballooned title reign for heel heat. Like I want a real slimy heel with like one title defense talking about how they’ve been Champion for 400 Days or something.
S: Oh my god yes! That is such a genius idea and they’ve gotta be away for so long because of COVID that they become the longest reigning champion of said company.
JT: Anyways back to Dux, who would also win the Smash tag titles in 2018 as part of his faction The Pillars, likely referring to him as a pillar of Canadian independent wrestling. Again, it goes to show the regional nature of wrestling, even still to this day. Dux’s latest match took place in March 2020, defeating Daniel Makabe in the Semi Finals of England based Preston City Wrestling’s “Road to Glory” Tournament, which has yet to see its conclusion due to the pandemic. However, despite the circumstances of the last year, Dux still managed something big. After all, he got the dubious honor of playing Chris Benoit in the wrestling footage for Dark Side of the Ring’s coverage of the Benoit tragedy. How about that! That’s, well it’s certainly an interesting thing.
S: Wow! I had no idea that was even him, that’s a pretty huge gig to be landing considering that was one of the most talked about wrestling documentaries in the last few years, which could be said for that entire second season of Dark Side of the Ring to be fair. Fair fucks to him!
JT: It’s not a glorious gig to play the man he played, and doing so completely in the shadows for the purposes of the documentary, but hey! Not including Benoit’s signature style would leave out an important detail of a very important story. So Dux’s involvement really was vital to a vital story, well done. At age 42, you’ve gotta think that Dux’s days in the ring are numbered, especially with such a long layoff, but he’s seen many people come and go over the years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if first chance he got, he was back in the ring and ready to wrestle again.
S: Yeah honestly, I think a fair few companies would be looking to book him soon considering the CV he’s built up for himself in the last five or six years. Let’s just hope he goes to some of the non-problematic companies or stays within Smash Wrestling and Impact.
JT: You’re right about that. Some promotions are especially scummy about who they chose to book, but Dux is a savvy veteran of the business, and wrestling has been a scummy business for a while, so I like to think he’ll have better judgement than most as far as where he’ll apply his craft.
S: All we can do is hope that he chooses wisely or stays loyal to Smash or goes to wXw, given that no wrong ones are booked there.
JT: The Germans have never been on the side of the bad guys!!
S: Nobody who speaks German could ever be an evil man!
—————————————————
Harv Times
JT: Moving on to our second match on the 3rd episode, we’ve a clash of technical style against flash!! It’s Philadelphia born and raised grappler Drew Gulak facing off against one half of the Bollywood Boys and representative of India, Harv Sihra!!
S: James! It’s your boy showing up on The Power Hour to wrestle! How do you feel about this?
JT: Now? If I had known in 2016 what I had known in 2021, I would’ve been ecstatic to see Gulak in this tournament. He’s a guy in my mind who is a great technical wrestler, with a sound mound for wrestling psychology, who knows how to cut promos across the spectrum of seriousness, and who isn’t afraid to make himself the butt of the joke. But in 2016? My Gulak knowledge was very slim. Like I would have been familiar with him from his PWG stuff, much like other guys. Most notably, I had seen his matches against Kyle O’Reilly and Tommy End in the first round of BOLA in 2014 & 2015. But honestly? I can’t remember the PWG crowds really responding well to him and his style, and I don’t think I came away as impressed with him as I did for his opponents. Seeing him in this was more of a “Hey, I know this guy!” than a “Yes, this guy’s in this!”.
S: I will say that my reaction was more or less the same due to the fact he was a name I was familiar with. Like I knew he was a good wrestler but I don’t think I really appreciated him as much as other technical wrestlers at the time because ZSJ was around and very over. Nowadays I think he’s probably one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world if you ask me.
JT: He really is if you ask me. I don’t think people really recognize the fact that you can put him in the ring with anyone, and it’ll be a good time. He can have a long winded PPV singles match, he could be a goofy heel getting squashed, he could be a sympathetic face fighting uphill. He’s really great, and I lament the fact that he’s not really doing much right now on TV. Oh, uh spoilers. You know the drill.
S: Ah shit, series is ruined now. Abort the mission and on to Season 4!
JT: But again, I wish WWE would just do more with their legions of wrestlers. As much as folks will make fun of the fact that seemingly everyone in AEW is in a faction of some kind, I wouldn’t mind if WWE took a page from their book and found more things for the members of their roster to do, even if it was just accompanying others. I mean we’ve made it pretty clear that neither Seán nor I are fans of Season 2 alum Jaxson Ryker, but I think we can both admit that he was elevated at least a little bit by being the bouncer for Elias. There’s a ton of little things like that you can do to give guys work.
S: As well as that, putting people in factions or in a camp of wrestlers who share a specific manager is just a great way to break up the roster and establish allegiances for your weekly programming.
JT: Yeah you’d require a lot less “the guy you were fighting happened to be helped by the guy I’m fighting so let’s team up tonight”.
S: That scenario is also known as WWE’s weekly programming from 2009-2015.
JT: Anyways, let’s get back to the CWC. So in his promo, Gulak puts over how you can win in a heartbeat with technical skill, and that he has all the skills one needs to win the CWC. For him, wrestling has been a long, and methodical grind but he now has the surreal honor of being in WWE for this tournament. Meanwhile, we get a solo interview from Harv Sihra, who we have heard a bit from in our first episode of Season 3. He reiterates that he is so proud to represent India, that he learned to embrace his heritage from Eddie Guerrero and that he’s going to represent the underdog style of Bollywood as he proves everyone wrong and wins the CWC. By the way as he was coming out he got the crowd involved with his dancing. Will the younger Sihra brother defeat the veteran of Philadelphia indy wrestling?
S: Can one half of the current GFW Tag Team Champions take down a former CZW Heavyweight Champion? There’s only one way to find out.
JT: The bell rings and we are off. We get a quick small package attempt early on by Gulak, but Sihra kicks out. Greco-Roman knuckle lock by the two of them, trying to figure each other out. Harv with a Monkey Flip, but then as he flips over, Gulak catches him with a body scissor. Yet, Harv is able to turn it around by crossing Gulak’s ankle over each other, forcing him to the ropes. Gulak reaches out a hand for a showing of respect, Harv shakes but refuses to let go, forcing Drew to get aggressive and break it up then take him down to the mat. They start picking up some speed, and Gulak catches Harv’s attempted Crossbody. He lifts him up to his shoulders, but Harv rolls him up for a 1 count. They both get up, Harv catches him with a Crucifix for a 1, then a Small Package, another 1 count. Harv rushes Gulak in the corner but runs into a back elbow, then gets a Flying Clothesline from Gulak, for a close 2 count. Gulak picks him up and whips him hard into the corner, for another nearfall. He peppers Harv with open hand slaps, then scoops him up and dumps him against the ropes with a Scoop Slam!! 1-2-Kickout! I don’t know about you, but I love when wrestlers use the ropes like this. As fans who don’t step in the ring, a lot of times we forget just how hard and unforgiving the ropes can be, so a stop like that really emphasizes how strong the ropes are and the harsh kickback from hitting against them.
S: I gotta agree with you there, it’s such a great use of the ring environment there. It’s a brilliant use of the ring because it’s proper rough and rugged looking which is what Gulak is at this point in his career. It’s also a real bully type maneuver too and it’s a real “sick of your shit” spot too. Love it so much.
JT: Harv ducks outside for a breather, then dumps Gulak up and over the top rope when he grabs at him on the apron. From there, Springboard Crossbody from the apron to the floor by Sihra!! He rolls Gulak back in, and starts hammering away on him with punches. He follows up with a Swinging Neckbreaker, but only manages a 2. Gulak catches him with a Headbutt and goes up top, only for Sihra to cut him off and get a Superplex!! Sihra looks to go for a Sharpshooter, but Gulak manages to fight him and block it, pushing him off then charges and catches him in a Dragon Sleeper!! Harv again crosses the ankles of Gulak, but Gulak reaches forward and yanks back even harder than before with that Sleeper!! Harv has no choice but to give up, and he taps out to end this. This was a short one, but man was that ending effective. You know, a Dragon Sleeper can have the tendency to be really fucking bad if done incorrectly, and Gulak is not one of those guys.
S: Absolutely, this Dragon Sleeper looked really fucking vicious and legit and you’d come to expect that from a top level submission wrestler like Gulak, he really makes his submissions look nice and snug. I also really liked how he locked it in from out of nowhere too, it really put him and the move over showing that he can beat you with this move at any time and from anywhere.
JT: I also liked the little detail of Harv going back to his ankles like he did earlier in the match, but this time Gulak was able to wrench back harder and force Harv to stop this time rather than the other way around.
S: Yeah I liked that too, really good stuff with that. What were your overall thoughts on the match though, James?
JT: Honestly aside from the spots I pointed out, I don’t really think there was much going on in this one. I felt like Gulak & Sihra never really got in rhythm honestly, like I feel like they just didn’t have great chemistry. They didn’t blow any spots or anything, but eagle eyed viewers could see that there was a little miscommunication a few times. Just a few seconds of hesitation and making sure the other guy was ready. Plus, this wasn’t terribly long so they didn’t have a real chance to build a layered story. So I don’t think this was a bad match, just one that never really got going. I’m just not necessarily sure if these two against each other was the best fit of opponents.
S: Yeah agreed, this match was essentially a one sided affair in all honesty really. It didn’t stand out in any way but this is the first round and there are gonna be some matches that’ll fly over your head. I think they did a good job in putting Gulak as a tough bucko with his Dragon Sleeper but aside from that, the match was just there.
JT: Yeah honestly there are certain matches in this tournament where they clearly paired one guy with another because of prior history or matching styles, but this one felt like they were kinda getting down to the last few remaining guys and they paired Gulak vs Harv because of Gulak’s experience. And no offense to Harv or Gurv, but working a singles match is much different from a tag match that they’d be more accustomed to.
S: Yeah I agree there. Like when you work predominantly as part of a tag team for your career, I’d imagine that sometimes singles matches can seem a bit alien at times but that’s just my assumption and I could be wrong there.
JT: Yeah we could know nothing honestly. Point is, something just didn’t work well between these two, meaning my boy Gabbagulak didn’t get off to a hot start and Harv Sihra had to go home after only one match. Now, usually I’d ask you if you want to hear about the most recently eliminated wrestler’s career since the CWC, but Harv is no one man! He’s a brother, a member of the Bollywood Boys! So how about this: We will check in on how Harv fared after we see how Gurv does. I mean that could be in multiple episodes from now, but it’s good to compare the two brothers who are so clearly connected to each other, right?
S: Yeah I think it’s only fair that we look back on both their careers post-CWC whenever Harv may or may not be eliminated, he could win the whole thing, who knows???
JT: Well everyone is out to win and nobody is backing down, so we’ll just have to wait and see…..
—————————————————
Things get Hairy
JT: So next up on a docket is two Americans battling against each other for a chance to move on to round 2. It’s Anthony Bennett, the Hair-o-Dynamic superstar facing off against The Premier Athlete, Tony Nese.
S: What’s that I see? Another Long Islander joining the fray! James, is Tony Nese an Islander you associate yourself with?
JT: Well first, it’s always nice to have another Long Island boy on The Power Hour. And to really explain why, I think it’s time for a little New York geography lesson, because what some people don’t always understand is that New York State, it’s a rather diverse place. It’s a big old state, with lots of people, so even if someone is from the state, our experiences aren’t universal, y’know? So are you ready, are you willing to learn?
S: Absolutely, lay that geography lesson on me, James! Power Hour Geography time.
JT: New York can realistically be split into 3 parts, more if you want to get specific, but that’s a bit overboard. Really you’ve got the folks from New York City, which I’m sure I don’t have to really explain much about, TV & Movies represent that life enough already. Small apartments, busy streets, and so on. There are 5 different Boroughs to The City with different aspects and culture, but for the purposes of this explanation they’re all more similar to each other than anywhere else. Then you’ve got “Upstate” which is pretty much considered to be anyone living North of NYC. That’s where you’ve got Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, the state capital Albany. Those are pretty much the main cities upstate, and they’re much smaller than NYC or even other East Coast cities like Philadelphia and Boston. But they’re definitely more developed than the rest of Upstate, it is usually defined less by its cities and more by everything else. By that I mean just the more rural lifestyle, since aside from the cities it’s general small towns connected by the interstate highway. Oh, plus more snow. Especially as you go more northwest, where Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are. Cold air blowing off those lakes causes more snow, as I’m sure most of y’all know from your earth science classes. Finally is Long Island, which for the most part is like idealized suburbia. No seriously, like the sort of classical 50s style Suburb of matching homes can be attributed to Long Island’s Levittown, for better and for worse. Generally Long Island is a lot of villages that work as a centralized hub for the outstretching suburbs around them, all of which are connected to each other by highway, which has the main point of connecting them to The City, where many people commute. Long Island, as an island of course, has beaches on both North and South sides, meaning the beach is a pretty normal part of LI living. So all this is to say, Upstate is colder and more rural, NYC is pretty much exactly what you know it is, and LI is the warmer suburbs. And that’s your NY geography lesson. And I promise there’s a point to all this other than education.
S: In the words of Mean Gene, longfellow, couldn’t have said it better. That was a fascinating lesson right there not gonna lie, I know we’ve had the conversation about the Boroughs within NYC alright but the way you divided up the great big state of New York has really made me want to visit LI and a good bit of upstate because let me tell ya, NYC was a hustle and a bustle when I visited there. So let’s just clarify this for those who are unaware, you fall into the Long Island part of the New York map, correct?
JT: That’s correct! I’m not gonna get super specific just because, y’know. But I’m closer to the Northern shore, and I’d say I’m closer to NYC and the western tip of the Island than I am the eastern end. But so all of this was really to say, Long Island as a suburb of the biggest city in the eastern US, is kind of an odd place. I wouldn’t say it’s quite posh, aside from certain areas, but for the most part there’s a level of ego to this place. Nice houses in nice suburbs for the most part, people who work big jobs in the big city or have ambitions of getting a big job in the big city. So having lived here, my conclusion is that Long Island culture doesn’t really contribute to much of a wrestling culture. Not to say that there isn’t wrestling here or wrestlers from here. I mean I name dropped some earlier: Mick Foley, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Trent Beretta, MJF, Tony Nese. But the sort of gaudiness of Long Island I feel has led to an older population, and a population more interested in country clubs and beach houses than pro wrestling. Topped off with the fact that NYC has a bustling wrestling scene, means that wrestling on LI itself is kinda sparse. So while you might have expected me to have been familiar with Tony Nese or ever got to see him live and locally, that’s not the case. Not for me anyways. I may have seen this name here or there before, but I hadn’t really known Tony Nese or seen him wrestle before the CWC.
S: I had seen about maybe three Tony Nese matches at this point to be honest, I remember specifically having a match with Gargano at a PWG show in 2014 and him making select appearances in TNA when they were trying to revive the X-Division after years of neglect around 2013-2014 time. Anthony Bennett on the other hand, much like the trend in this tournament, not a notion of who this young fella was.
JT: As per usual, WWE had got the tenured indy worker with a nice number of years behind him to lead a guy with potential but significantly less experience. Okay now before we get to this match, I just want to do a quick Vince McMahon impression. WOW TAKE A LOOK AT TONY NESE!! I mean naturally all the guys in this tournament are in great shape, but Tony is absolutely shredded and has no problem with showing that off.
S: I know right?! Like the way Nese is built physically is crazy, like you can’t believe he’s under 205 pounds but somehow he is.
JT: Consider for a moment, the physical shape wrestlers are in, as a sort of geometric axis. To the right you have “old school wrestlers” as far as looks go, and the left is “new school guys”. You can imagine the old school guys have very simple tights and boots, on the taller side of things, and probably having a background in like amateur wrestling and football. Then on the new school guys would be a lot of what we see today, guys who went straight into Indy wrestling, on the shorter side (comparatively) with a tendency to have intricately designed logos and patterns on their gear. Then consider the up and down, which I’ll say can be “jacked” and “not jacked”. So like, Hulk Hogan would be in the top right corner, with his simply red and yellow, and his huge muscles. Tony Nese meanwhile, is like the top left corner. He’s on the shorter side and has a lot more of that “indy wrestler look” as far as his gear goes, but he’s about as shredded as can be. And rather than being so muscular he might explode like the guys of old, he’s swole from being about as lean as you can get. I imagine the percentage of his weight that is fat would be in the single digits.
S: Yeah he’s definitely on the healthier looking side of being jacked, he’s the new age, healthy looking jacked. Geography and venn diagrams from JT, only on The Power Hour!
JT: Also for the record everyone, bottom left would probably be someone like Kevin Owens or maybe even like Keith Lee, whereas bottom right can only be defined by Dusty Rhodes. And for the record, they all rule. Body type doesn’t matter, just what you do with it.
S: Absolutely, all shapes and sizes are welcome here on The Power Hour. You’ve gotta trademark this venn diagram quick, you could make big bucks off of this, James. Maybe that email I got off WordPress about making money was a sign!
JT: Well you know what they say, everybody’s got a price AHAHAA!! But back to more contemporary wrestling, we’ve got our promos from our two competitors. Tony calls himself the Premier Athlete because he “moves like a Cruiserweight, but like a heavyweight”. He says he’s gonna be the biggest name by the end of this tournament, and he says it all without pulling any punches. He means business. Meanwhile, Anthony Bennett seems like a much more humble gut. He mentions that he’s only about 5’5 without his signature hair, but he’s tough he’s one of the smaller guys in this tournament, he knows this is a chance to make a name for himself. This kid don’t play, especially when it comes to the CWC. After all that talk about Nese’s look, I’d like to give Bennett some props for his look. His hair is pretty cool and definitely eye-catching.
S: It is a pretty snazzy look not gonna lie, even as one of the relative unknowns in this thing, it’s cool to see Bennett really stand out among the back with his hair and two pairs of sunglasses. He’s got sunglasses on his hair, James! He’s such a boy!
JT: Yeah sort of stuff is instant “Ok you’re cool, let’s go cool guy” material. Props to him for bringing his A Game, if the fans don’t know you, make them remember you.
S: Absolutely and I’d say the crowd sure remembered his look for the most part. Anyways, should we get into our rundown of this third match?
JT: Let’s do it to it. Right from the offset, Bryan warns against fooling around with someone as angry as Nese, who feels like he should’ve been here long ago. He’s got resentment and that means there’s going to be extra behind his shots. Immediate big waistlock takedown by Nese but Bennett quickly transitions out and gets a hammerlock. This is the early story, Bennett out wrestling Nese but Nese is stronger. Nese manages to get a leapfrog, he drops down and nips back up to his feet for a knee lift, chest kick and leg sweep for a 1 count. Bennett has the chain wrestling skills, but again Nese is the Premier Athlete, he’s no match for his speed and strength for far. But then again, that’s not a discredit to Bennett because I’m sure Nese would say that nobody matches up to his strength and speed. Nese sends Bennett to the apron, the. sweeps his legs out from under him, knocking him to the floor. Nese goes up and over the top rope to the apron, and as Bennett tries to take his legs out from under him, Nese cartwheels over it and lands perfectly on the floor to nail Bennet with a Superkick to the face. Nese is really flexing his muscles both figuratively and literally here.
S: He’s the Cruiserweight Lex Luger and I mean that in a nice way, all he needs now are the brilliant grunts with each sell. Seriously though, Nese looked fucking excellent in this opening exchange in this match, can’t believe how underutilised he is nowadays.
JT: He certainly has a unique skill set, even among the highly athletic guys we’ve already seen in this tournament. After that impressive coordination and speed, he now looks to show off the power and he grabs Bennet for a Powerbomb but Bennett grabs the ropes and pulls himself up onto the apron. He fights off Nese then hits a Diving Cannonball onto him!! He sends him back in, but Nese quickly takes back control as he catches Bennet and hotshots him on the top rope, then slides under his feet to take him down, then scores with a Springboard Moonsault!! 1—2—Kickout!! Nese goes for a Suplex, Bennett attempts to fight out but Nese still keeps him up and slams him to the mat. Yet, that’s not enough to put Bennett away. Maybe we start to wonder if Nese is so confident in his own abilities that he’s overlooking Bennett because of his stature. After all, Bennett starts to mount a comeback with an Arm Drag, some big forearms, then he ducks a Clothesline and hits a pair of Leaping Clotheslines!! He hits the ropes, but Nese pops him up into the air! Surely this is Nese overpowering Bennett? No, it’s not, Bennett nails him with a Dropkick out of the air!! Love that spot!! He’s caught Nese flush and is now looking to put him away, so he goes up top and sets up a Tornado DDT. He leaps and spins, but Nese is too strong, keeping him in position and shuffling his feet to put Bennet back where he started on the top rope. He tries to go up after him, but Bennett manages to knock him back, jump and catch him with the Tornado DDT!! 1–2–Kickout!! Nese had a nice showing earlier, but Bennett is showing he’s got some moves of his own!! After all, he wouldn’t have gotten here without some!!
S: Yeah at this point I was really impressed with the two of these lads and how they played off each other. The moves they were busting out were just so visually pleasing, weren’t they? That Springboard Moonsault, the Jushin Liger Cannonball and the Tornado DDT were just beautiful.
JT: Yeah I agree, at this point in the match, I’d say the score is about even. As such, they start trading shots in the middle of the ring. Nese charges, Bennett goes to his boot up but Nese catches it. He goes underneath and it trips up Bennett who falls to the mat. The crowd boos as Nese has to pick him back up in a waistlock, only for Bennett to go behind, only for Nese to reverse that as Nese slides through his legs to get a Pump Handle then slam him down with a Powerslam!! Nese goes up top, but the referee stops him from jumping off as he checks on Bennett to see if he’s knocked out or too hurt to continue. It takes a few seconds but the Ref rules that the match can keep going, and as soon as he does, Nese is able to leap off and score with a 450 Splash!! He hooks the leg, 1—2—3!! And man, it fell apart right at the end didn’t it?
S: It really did man and it pains me to say it because up until that final ninety seconds or so really brought my overall thoughts on the match not gonna lie. As I said earlier, I thought the action in this match was the best we had seen in this episode but man, that botched wristlock with the awkward crowd reaction and the scary moment with Bennett perhaps being knocked out after the Pumphandle Slam was awkward not gonna lie. I thought it was a good match, but the last stretch fell apart making it an okay match. Which sucks to say but sadly, it is true, I’m afraid.
JT: Yeah for me, not only is it a case of what happened but when it happened. The first wrist lock mishap happens right as they were about to get a nice fast final sequence, so the momentum got stunted. Then Bennett getting hurt during the Slam only made things once. First off, never want to see a guy get hurt, especially when there’s an opportunity to get a contract and a spotlight on the line. And in the context of the match, it just completely cut the legs off the finish. If there’s a little stumbling in the fast counter sequence leading to the finish, that’s unfortunate but that’s the risk of doing a fast counter sequence, it happens. But for that to happen, and then have another delay right before the very last move of the match, the match as they hoped it would be is just lost. Unless it’s a big work, and the valiant face keeps the Ref from stopping the match, there’s no real way to have “Move, Ref stoppage, another move, match over” and have it feel complete. It just destroys the momentum of the match. It’s a shame, that was a nice 450 and I wish it could’ve properly capped off the match like planned. That said, I’m glad they didn’t have to call off the match completely and that Bennett didn’t suffer anything major.
S: Yeah thank god for that because we see him after they make the word official on Nese’s victory and thankfully Bennett seemed okay. To touch on Nese’s 450 Splash for a second, it’s a fucking gorgeous move, isn’t it?
JT : It really, really is. On top of how perfectly done it was, it felt like he did it with a bit more weight behind it too, don’t ya think? Maybe I just believed that because I built him up as this shredded guy, maybe there’s something you can do when you land to get more of a sound, either way it just felt like he crushed Bennett. Sometimes it feels like guys jump off kind of lightly, probably to make sure they can complete their flip, but Nese’s Splash felt like you can see all the force of that 450 degree rotation.
S: Yeah this 450 in particular from Nese definitely felt like there was a lot of force behind it, I’d say this 450 from Nese was to this move what RVD’s Five Star Frog Splash was to the Splash. Just full of force and looked like it sucked to take.
JT : Properly squished poor Anthony Bennett. I imagine moves like that always suck to take, but then again that’s just how top rope moves work. Because of gravity, they’re always going to come crashing down hard, you just gotta hope they land where they mean to.
S: Well it’s safe to say that wee Anthony Bennett was properly squished on that 450 but was his career squished because of this, James? What’s our Hair-O-Dynamic one up to these days?
JT: Alright here’s my Hair-O-Dynamic run down! So as they mentioned on the broadcast, Bennett was trained in New Jersey’s Monster Factory wrestling school, which of course hosts MFPW. It was Bennett’s home before the tournament and he’s wrestled there a bunch since the tournament. It’s probably the place he’s wrestled most for. Although, he has had a series of matches on the CZW Dojo Wars shows, meaning he’s been training with CZW, which has produced a number of great talents over the years. Sadly though, CZW has really slowed down in the past few years. The last Dojo Wars show was in December 2019, and they only hosted 2 shows in 2020 before the pandemic, and hasn’t returned since. One of those shows was the CZW 21st Anniversary, which doesn’t appear to be well received (according to Cagematch reviews). Seán, what’s your take on CZW right now, or at least it’s place in the wrestling world right now? What’s your understanding of how they’re doing lately?
S: Alright so in the last few years, they’ve been losing loads of their big names. The likes of Joey Janela, MJF, Shane Strickland, Rickey Shane Page, Joe Gacy, Sami Callihan and loads of others have left the company and gone elsewhere or defected to GCW which they have made their home because of difficulties with DJ Hyde and all that. Like Gacy is still their champion and he’s signed to NXT right now. I also remember a shit load of controversy coming out last year about DJ and CZW as a whole too so yeah, they ain’t doing well these days.
JT: Yeah unfortunately for Anthony Bennett, I think getting involved with CZW would be a much bigger deal a few years ago. Right now sadly, it’s an uphill battle. But regardless, he’s still done some cool things in recent years in CZW. Some notable events for Bennett in CZW include successfully keeping his hair by winning a “Hair vs Hair match” in 2017, unsuccessfully challenging for the CZW Dojo’s top prize (The Medal of Valor) a few times, making the finals of the CZW Trifecta Tournament at CZW Proving Ground in 2018 (in a match featuring Wheeler Yuta & Ace Austin) and competing in a CZW Title #1 Contenders Rumble in 2018. I’m glad that he has done at least one Hair vs Hair match in his career, it feels like just such a must. It’s a gimmick with a lot of potential that doesn’t get that much use in America anymore, when it really should. I mean hair can always grow back, except for when it can’t, which is when a lot of hair vs hair matches happen anyway!!
S: I think the hair vs hair stipulation is criminally underutilised nowadays if you ask me, James. It’s a stipulation that adds a wicked amount of interest to any match and some great matches have come out of this stipulation too! Just think of Eddie and Art Barr against Octagon and El Hijo de Santo, Edge vs Angle or Punk vs Mysterio from Over The Limit 2010 just to name a few.
JT: Yeah it’s a gimmick that actually has stakes, but like not too crazy stakes where it’s obvious they’ll go back on it at some point, like Vince leaving WWE forever in 1999. So on the topic, I gotta ask you this, who would be your top candidates to do a Hair vs Hair match nowadays? I’ve got about 3ish off the top of my head, I can share them now if you want some time to think.
S: Alright so it’s got to be wrestlers who have hair that stand out a lot. Bianca Belair is easily the first name on that list, like have you seen that hair people? She’s obviously the number one candidate. If Baron Corbin still had his skullet, you’d have him but he’s embracing the dome. I’d have The Young Bucks in a tag team hair vs masks match against The Lucha Bros which would rule, obviously The Bucks would have to lose of course. I’d love to see two long haired wrestlers with their hair being a big part of their image having to do it, someone like Seth Rollins against Drew or Roman or even Adam Cole. Something like that. How about you, James?
JT: Yeah so Bianca was at the top of my list there, as were the Bucks. Both are naturally picks, for obvious reasons. And since you mentioned Roman, I’d like to bring up the idea of doing Jimmy Uso vs Roman Reigns, hair vs hair or hair vs title. That way, if Roman wins he’s dealt a huge blow, or if he wins, you have a lasting image of his dominance on Jimmy. You also have the potential for Jey to take his punishment for his brother, and then Jey’s head serves as a reminder to Jimmy every week of the consequences of his actions. I also think a Chris Jericho vs MJF Hair vs Hair match right now would be a great blowoff for the Inner Circle/Pinnacle storyline. Both guys are so prideful that losing their hair would mean something. MJF could always cover it up somehow, or at least grow his hair back. Jericho meanwhile I think could potentially pull off a bald look, or at least I think he’d be willing to commit to the gimmick. Another idea I had was Breezango being put in a hair vs hair match. They don’t have to lose it, but set it up for like a month ahead of time and they’d have some incredible segments about it. Like an Ever Rise vs Breeezango Hair vs Hair comedy feud would be lots of fun.
S: Those would all be tremendous fun now that I think of it. I actually do think that the angle you pitched for the Jericho vs MJF blow-off with the hair vs hair stipulation in place would be more than fitting. I could even picture MJF wearing the Kurt Angle hair piece to cover it up and it being pulled off in hilarious fashion. Ever Rise vs Breezango is definitely something that NXT should do and would be a great comedy feud. Who would you have Bianca feud with in a hair vs hair match? Surely Bayley, right?
JT: Bayley would’ve been a good option, had they not just finished their feud. If she were willing to commit to it, I think running Hair vs Hair in Bianca’s likely upcoming feud with Carmella would be a big stipulation for say, Summerslam.
S: Ohhhh now that’s a good shout alright. I think that’d make for a good feud and a highly entertaining and dramatic match. Would love to see that
JT: Oh one last thing while we’re on the topic. I had an idea for a match, and I want none of you to take it. Grrrr if some promoter saw this and used it on their show I’d be soooo mad! Anyway my idea is this: Hair vs Hair but with a bald guy. Like say, Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin. But how is it hair vs hair still? Simple, if Shinsuke loses, his head gets shaved. If Corbin loses, he has to wear a big comedy wig or comedy wigs during his matches for say, a month. Think of the hilarity! Corbin jumps off Bret’s rope, his wig comes off, the ref makes him put it back on, all in time to get rolled up and lose. Think of the excellent comedy wigs!!
S: OH MY GOD JAMES! THAT’S FUCKING INCREDIBLE! I absolutely love the idea of someone having to wear a big stupid comedy wig. Get him wearing a rainbow coloured mohawk or a clown wig. Brilliant stuff.
JT: OH LANCE ARCHER!! Put him in Hair vs Hair!! Sorry, I just remembered that since you said “Mohawk”. You could probably just do the “Big Show gets his head shaved” gimmick with him and it would work too. But yeah, hair vs hair, very cool of you Anthony Bennett. In other news, he’s also successfully defended the Stand Alone Wrestling Cruiserweight Title on a few occasions, but I can’t find out much about that title’s legitimacy based on their Cagematch page which seems to be inactive. Though he had more matches in 2017 (51) than he’s had overall since then, he’s still wrestling and from photos he’s uploaded on his Twitter, he looks good!! His latest match was just on June 18th against ROH’s Eli Isom for the Ohio Wrestling Alliance promotion.
S: That’s brilliant to hear him doing so well because he’s a very good talent, I’m really surprised that WWE never signed him on for their Cruiserweight revival though. You would think that someone with a look that stands out among the pack that were signed initially would be snapped up, right?
JT: Yeah you’d think he was someone they’d take a chance on. Young guy, exciting look, fun personality. I still feel like there’s a possibility he’s still on WWE’s radar honestly. But what do we know? I’m just glad the guy’s still making a living in wrestling.
S: Yeah good for him honestly because he’s someone who I feel companies should be taking a chance on, I personally think if not WWE then he’d be a fun addition to Impact’s X-Division nowadays.
JT: I can’t actually find an age for him on Wikipedia or Cagematch, but I still think it’s a fair guess to say that it’s likely he’ll pop up again somewhere with a bigger audience at some time. Wrestling’s a wild place, guys tend to come and go. I mean if Jean-Pierre LaFitte from 1995 WWF can become ROH Champion, who says Anthony Bennett won’t pop up in WWE or ROH or TNA or AEW or even like New Japan someday? The only thing that’s certain is nothing is for certain.
S: Much like The Stinger, if there’s one thing for sure it’s that nothing is for sure.
—————————————————
*Cue McBain jokes*
JT: Alright, now we’re on to the main event of CWC Episode 3. Representing Mexico is Raul Mendoza, and his opponent, in his WWE return, from the United States, it’s THE Brian Kendrick. The Power House veteran is back!!
S: He’s back baby! For his third consecutive season, Spanky Dawg or The Man with a Plan has returned. Three seasons running, what a streak and I’m convinced he’s only made three appearances in our reviews too!
JT: You’d be correct with that! Season 1, he left his usual spot on a Velocity card to show up at Vengeance 2003 during the APA’s Bar Room Brawl invitational. Then in S2, he made one singular appearance during the season, when he came out of a body bag to interfere on behalf of EV2.0 against Fortune during the Lethal Lockdown at Bound For Glory 2010. Now he’s here, and he might only last one episode again if he’s not too careful. So naturally, we’re both familiar with Brian, but how well acquainted were you with The Wizard of Odd back when this first aired in 2016?
S: Oh man Brian Kendrick was one of my absolute favourites as a young lad not gonna lie so seeing him here was such a fucking delight for the fan of his in me. I remember the wrestlers who were my early favourites included him and London who were my first favourite tag team alongside The Hardyz just because of the fact they flew around and wrestled like a team. I remember being well angry at him being a heel with Big Zeke but over time I really grew to appreciate that side of his career and him as a young Spanky being a comedic character always made me laugh. Especially his rap battle against Cena with Brian Hebner beatboxing. His TNA run I kept up with but I wasn’t watching a lot so his matches were some that I had to watch over the years. His matches with Red, Abyss, Aries etc. So seeing him back here was a really nice story and I remember being jazzed to see him here.
JT: I was familiar with Brian Kendrick by 2016 too, but more in name only than your close viewing experience. I had seen a few matches of his, most notably the infamous Armageddon 2006 Ladder Match that he & London won, also the WWE Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven 2008 where he became an interim WWE Champion. BTW that was a good gimmick match, bring it back! But aside from those two a few TNA Matches I saw, I hadn’t seen a lot of him. But I saw enough and heard enough about him to know to respect him. Oh yeah, he also had a one off NXT return the year prior where he fought Finn Balor!! Remember that? So suffice to say, he was definitely someone I had eyes on heading into this tournament.
S: I sure do remember his match against Finn Balor! That episode of NXT was one of the first things I watched on the Network! You say your eyes were on Kendrick going into this, was Kendrick a guy you would hear a lot of fans talk about how good he is?
JT: I wouldn’t say so much that, I doubt ever ran into people talking about him being the best in the world or something like that. But he was someone who frequently came up as an underrated guy, someone who has shown great flashes but never really got a headlining run. Even his record breaking tag Title reign, which I saw constant praise for, was on SmackDown in 2006, which wasn’t exactly a great time or a great place for tag wrestling. Plus, Daniel Bryan being my favorite wrestler and him constantly talking up Kendrick in the bracketology special and the commentary on this made me excited to see him.
S: Agreed, I remember reading in Bryan’s book in 2015 about how friendly he was with Kendrick for his whole career and add that on top of his love for him on the Bracketology special? That’s a recipe for a great story.
JT: It’s always fun when a commentator has a little extra reason to care about a certain wrestler, positively speaking anyways. As we’ll discuss, Bryan is great during this, you can think of JR with Stone Cold or Bobby Heenan with Ric Flair. When a commentator is cheering someone on, that’s always funny. The other way around can be a little less fun, Michael Cole and Daniel Bryan during 2010 sticks out in my mind. But even then, Brain’s hatred of Hogan, Jerry Lawler’s hatred of Bret Hart, even right now Taz with Darby Allin is really fun stuff.
S: Yeah those hatreds are actual kayfabe reasons, that was just WWE telling Michael Cole to be so god damn mean spirited and such a prick, you know? We’ve talked about Bryan enough, how about his opponent? MENDOZAAAAAAA!
JT: I didn’t know anything about Mendoza heading into this, but again, diversity is cool, especially for this tournament. Another person who can bring the Mexican style to this tournament is alright in my book. But here’s what he presents to us in his promo package: He represents not just Mexico but all Latinos, he wants to show that hard work and dedication can pay off. Mauro also tells us that the reason Mendoza says for not wrestling in a mask is that he doesn’t want to hide his pretty face. That reminds of a quote I heard, and I can’t remember who said it, but someone in WWE was talking about Andrade and they flat out said “Hey would you ever put that face under a mask?!?”. That’s not exactly culturally sensitive, but I mean their point kinda stands. At least they didn’t make Mendoza remove his mask to be here.
S: I remember hearing that about Andrade actually, I’m guessing it was one of the main guys in charge of NXT that isn’t Triple H or maybe it was, I don’t remember. I am glad they didn’t specifically make him remove his mask just for this tournament, I actually don’t recall any instances of WWE making wrestlers remove their masks when they’re signed to them, you know. Like Santos Escobar was already unmasked before he unmasked in NXT, Rey they actually wanted him to put the mask on but historically speaking, WWE are surprisingly more respectful towards masked wrestlers and Mexican Wrestling culture than you’d think.
JT: They certainly did better than WCW that’s for sure. But WCW mask related stuff is way old by 2016, just like Brian Kendrick, who is also old! He says he’s in this tournament because of his experience. He says he was fortunate to have gotten a chance to live his dream when he was younger, and admits he let it slip through his fingers because he was too busy patting himself on the back. This second chance gives him a new lease on life, because without wrestling he’s just living. The fans are certainly excited to see him as he gets a big pop as he comes out. Honestly, I’m surprised they recognized him because he looks well different with his goatee, long black hair, and he’s got more muscle definition than he did in his original WWE run. Gotta say this look of his, it only makes his character better. He looks like an old, salty pirate captain, especially since he’s carrying around a flag. Like Mauro said, he used to be compared to Leonardo DiCaprio, but now he looks like Leo from The Revenant (which is a very 2016 reference).
S: It’s a very culturally relevant reference alright, the type of references which he would never be criticised for at all. I do love this Kendrick look by the way, really fits his more grizzled character of someone who’s been around the block a good few times, has seen various things and has lost that twinkle in their eye. That goatee too, oh baby.
JT: Funny thing is, if he hadn’t shaved he’d be coming out here looking like it was still 2009. The man only ages when he chooses to look older. But you’re definitely right about that lost twinkle, he’s properly seen it all, and he is wise enough to know that this is likely his last chance. And that’s why, if anyone were to win this, Daniel wants it to be his old friend Brian.
S: I do remember when he decided to shave the goatee and go back to his old look for a while on 205 in I’d say 2019 and he looked the exact same as he did ten years before that! Remarkable ageing from Kendrick. Before we get into this match James, we mentioned Mauro, last time we brought up Mauro’s hair and how bad it looked. We thought he had cut it at TNA’s Rebellion show but wait! Has it gotten worse? Because we do have a Mauro Hair Update, people!
JT: Incredible!! Give it to us!!
S: Well this tweet was shared to me by you a while back but Mauro now has his ever growing hair slicked back looking like a mob boss BUT the ends are starting to come under the ears which makes him look like an anime villain or more fittingly, a villain from the Pokémon TV series, more so Indigo League than any other Pokémon. What’s your thoughts on this ever evolving look?
JT: I’ll tell you what, Mauro with that look reminds me of a character from Community, a man by the name of Professor Professorson. He shows up in Season 2 Episode 9, and is played by character actor Kevin Corrigan who you might know from supporting roles in the Goodfellas, The Departed, Superbad and Pineapple Express among other things. Basically he’s got the same sort of hair shape in the show, and glasses. Or at least that’s what I see, but I’ve also come to realize when it comes to matching one person’s face to another’s, I’m not very good. I’ve had times where I’ve said “Hey, they kinda look like X, don’t they?” and haven’t gotten back flat out “No they don’t”. Either way, the point is Mauro’s got that same kinda sleazy, potentially plotting look to him, except for the warm smile that he’s got.
S: OH MY GOD HE IS KEVIN CORRIGAN! What a fucking shout that is. His smile is settling but I’d say that’s the way he lures you into his evil masterplan which is some corporate nonsense of taking out a certain area with many residents so he can build a new warehouse for his corporation where his employees get paid below minimum wage.
JT: Either way, I’m glad we don’t have to rag on Mauro anymore. I don’t take pride jt making jokes about him, especially since he’s so open about his mental health and trying to raise awareness about it (which is very noble) but I couldn’t let it go. So if all goes well, this will be the last of the Ranallo Report regarding his follicles.
S: I think these jokes are more jovial in that way because it is genuinely weird seeing a man with the same haircut for the last like five or six years just decide to grow it out. Sure I haven’t got a haircut in six months and I’m starting to look like a football player in Spain or Italy. I can relate to Mauro, you’ve got someone by your side, don’t worry.
JT: So I think we’ve had more than enough preamble, shall we get to final match on episode 3 of the CWC?
S: Let’s do it, man. I’m well excited to talk about this match here.
JT: Loud chants for Kendrick as the match begins with the typical hands shake. Kendrick quickly takes the arm of Mendoza and kicks at it, though Mendoza manages to get his way out of things, and even from that first sequence we can tell that Kendrick is working with a real aggression to his actions. He gets a shoulder tackle, Mendoza nips up to his feet, but Kendrick just kicks him hard in the stomach. Mendoza leapfrogs, Kendrick leapfrogs him, Kendrick drops down but Mendoza with a front flip over him, then ducks a Clothesline and gets a Hurricanrana to send Brian to the floor. He looks like he’s going for a dive, but it’s only a fake out as he flips off the ropes and poses for the crowd. I always love when you have a match like this with a young upstart against a old veteran, and there’s a moment like this where the young guy just shows the older guy up early, as to say “This is why I’m coming for your spot, this is what I bring to the table, this is how I can win”.
S: Yeah it’s such a great story to have in a match too, like Mendoza wasn’t getting much support from the crowd when it started off but when he started busting out his offence, that crowd were gradually starting to get behind him. Crazy how he’s still only 24 years old here too.
JT: As Mendoza is getting applauded, Kendrick is slowly getting back in, like exaggeratedly slow. He’s not hurt, he’s just taking his sweet time. When he finally gets back in, he quickly goes for a punch but Mendoza blocks it, hits a few punches himself, then goes to send him across but Brian counters the whip to send Raul across, only for Mendoza to hold the ropes as Kendrick crashes down to the mat, having missed his dropkick. Mendoza crosses Kendrick’s legs, picks him up and swings Kendrick through the air and slams him down chest first, then locking in a Body Scissor while keeping the legs crossed!! However, Kendrick gets to the ropes and Mendoza has to let go. Raul wants Kendrick to get up but Kendrick hangs between the ropes to force the refs to break things up, again slowing down the pace. This allows Kendrick to nail a big boot, to some boos from the crowd. Like you said, Kendrick had the full crowd support at the start, but little by little, more people jumped off the Kendrick bandwagon to Mendoza’s instead.
S: I love that. Absolutely love it because judging off the promos, Kendrick was the familiar veteran looking to give it one last shot but as he’s gotten in there and wrestled, he’s shown how crafty and sneaky he can be. He’s establishing himself as a wise veteran who knows all the tricks he needs to pull in order to win it. Brilliant stuff.
JT: He continues to show those tricks as he opens Mendoza’s mouth, forces him to bite the ropes and kicks the ropes!! And from here on out, Mendoza is bleeding from the mouth. Kendrick also works the shoulders, until Mendoza gets the ropes, only for Kendrick to kick him across the back as he lets go. Not exactly a clean break, but the ref can’t do anything as Kendrick walks away with his hands up, he’s not going to do anything. As Mendoza gets up, Kendrick swings at him, but Mendoza ducks and rolls him up, 1–2–Kickout!! They get back up, Kendrick with an elbow, then a Clothesline in the corner (after the Ref checks to see if Raul can still compete). Kendrick whips him across but Mendoza goes through the ropes and Kendrick hits the corner hard. Mendoza springboards back in with a Missile Dropkick, sending The Man with a Plan out to the floor. Mendoza isn’t going to let him dictate the pace this time though, as he follows him out with a Corkscrew Plancha!! I adore the contrast in styles between these two. Kendrick controls the pace, getting most of the offense in, but it’s really not all that flashy. But when Mendoza breaks through, he breaks through with flashes of spectacle and speed!!
S: It’s so good, Kendrick being the veteran between the two is always going to control the tempo of the match and want to keep it to a relatively moderate pace but Mendoza is the man with everything to prove and nothing to lose at the end of the day so he goes balls to the wall with his offence, high octane and full of flash. That Corkscrew Plancha from him there, my word, absolutely unbelievable. Something Amazing Red would’ve been dead proud of to see.
JT: And he can do more than just that! He rolls Kendrick back in, leaps back in the ring with a Springboard 450!! But Kendrick moves out of the way, and Mendoza has to roll through to his feet. endrick swings, Mendoza catches him, turns him around and hits an Enziguri to the back of his head!! He covers, 1–2—Kendrick gets the shoulder up!! As we said before, the crowd has reversed since the start of the match, more people seem to be cheering for Mendoza than Kendrick!! Mendoza runs at Kendrick but Brian gets his foot up, then follows up with a Rocket Kick to the face. After that, he goes up top, but Mendoza sweeps his legs out from under him!! Kendrick is hung up in the tree of woe!! Mendoza gives him a few kicks to get him still, then he ascends to the parallel corner, leaping off, Coast to Coast!! Holy shit all the way across in a single leap!! Brian falls to the mat limp, Mendoza freaks out for a second for hitting the move, then realizes he has to take advantage and put the match away. He picks Kendrick up, and nails an End of Heartache aka a Suplex into the Double Knee Backbreaker!! He covers Kendrick, 1—2—but Brian gets his foot on the ropes!! That’s gotta be one of the closest nearfalls of the whole first round, isn’t it?
S: Yeah for real, that was such a dramatic nearfall because Mendoza has his right leg hooked, which is the one closest to the nearest rope so what Kendrick does is that he limply jerks his leg out and it basically lands on the bottom rope, just barely. Ahhhh it’s so fucking smart!
JT: I don’t know if the far leg hook was meant, but I just want to say I way prefer this than when they only hook the near leg, and the guy they pin gets the ropes with the other leg. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good spot, but when a guy hooks the near leg near the ropes, at this point I know it’s always gonna be a rope break. Again, I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but I liked it either way.
S: Yeah I really liked the spot but I do get the impression that Raul ended up hooking the far leg just out of habit for doing it in pretty much every leg hook he’s done and with that, Kendrick had to improvise.
JT: That just makes Brian even more of a pro. So with Kendrick still alive in this matchup, Mendoza has to just try anything he can muster to try and advance to the second round. He batters Kendrick with shots, he nails a kick to the chest, then hits the ropes, only for Kendrick to just drop to the mat covering his head. He’s covering up like a man who never even wanted to fight in the first place, his body language just reads “please don’t hurt me”. The referee comes over and forces a break between the prone Kendrick and Mendoza. He checks on Kendrick, and then in a moment of impatience, Mendoza goes after Kendrick, only for Kendrick to spring up as quick as a cat, grab Mendoza by the tights, and yanks him forward, sending him throat first into the ropes!! In a split second, Mendoza has the air knocked out of him, in that brief moment, Kendrick is able to go behind him and get a reverse headlock takedown, into the Bully Choke!! He wrenches back his bicep on the windpipe of Mendoza, and Raul has no choice but to tap out!! Only 30 seconds before, Kendrick looked like he was cowering in fear, but now he is holding his head high!! He looks all peachy and happy as the Ref prepares to raise his hand, but then shoots an angry look at the crowd as they chant for Mendoza. Nevertheless, his moment of indignation fades as he celebrates as the winner of the Night 3 main event, moving on to round 2. Seán, gimme your thoughts.
S: What a brilliant match this was, the wiley veteran against the exciting yet unknown luchador with so much to prove. Really liked the dynamic between the two here, Mendoza is the flashy wrestler while Kendrick is still who he is but has learned so much in his time, becoming more intelligent in his time away from WWE. Really enjoyed this one, Mendoza honestly worked his ass off to earn the contract, he’s such an exciting wrestler and won the crowd over in one match. Really loved the lengths that Kendrick would go to in order to advance and the in-ring IQ that he’d show. Some beautiful moves from the pair, especially the Corkscrew Plancha or Diving Tornillo and Coast to Coast from Mendoza. The Bully Choke, or Captain’s Hook is probably one of my favourite submissions ever, mainly because of how much of a desperation move it looks and I’m all here for it, suits the grizzled Kendrick down to the ground. I just loved this match all over, thought it was paced so well, when Kendrick controlled the pacing it was physical and not in the boring bland big man heel on SmackDown kind of way like Luther Reigns. When Mendoza burst into life, it was amazing looking. At this stage in the round, I think I’d have to say that this was the best match of the round so far.
JT: I mean I’ll ultimately reveal to you my master list of matches by the end of today’s episode but obviously I really enjoyed this too. Again, Kendrick is just pulling out all these perfectly timed tricks that display to the audience that he knows his craft. The playing possum thing he did is one of my favorite spots in wrestling honestly. Jay White in New Japan has taken to using the spot, and it always tickles me pink, it’s just so cowardly and despicable. It’s not even a defensive move, it’s just trying to play on the empathy of their opponent, even after everything they’ve done to their opponents. I really like that even Bryan, who was outright about his support of Kendrick, admonishes him as he declares “I can’t say I approve of the tactics…”. Yet, he continues with nothing but facts, “…but you gotta do whatever you can to win”. Kendrick through his savvy but dirty tactics just exemplifies desperation. He has to win, and he doesn’t care how he does it. Not only does this make him a great character, but it serves to make Mendoza even better. Kendrick only helped turn the crowd completely around, Mendoza was just as responsible for the cheers he got. He definitely impressed me, I know I instantly recognized him the first match he had after this first round elimination.
S: 100% agree with you there James, Mendoza was definitely the of the main standouts of the defeated 16 in the First Round of this tournament, another one I think we’ll see a little bit later. I thought he looked fantastic, the way he moves around the ring is amazing because at this stage, he’s kind of a buff guy for his size because he would trim down a fair bit by the time NXT finally figured out what the hell to do with him. Enough of my rambling, James, what is Raul Mendoza up to these days?
JT: Well after this first round elimination, he went back to doing his thing in Mexico, wrestling for Indy promotions like Desastre Total Ultraviolento (Disaster Total Ultraviolence) and Lucha Libre Elite among other promotions. It wasn’t until May 2017 until it was reported that Mendoza had signed a developmental contract and would be reporting to NXT. He only had 4 televised matches on NXT TV in 2017, all of which were under 5 minutes and of which were in defeat. In order, he lost to Textateen Dream, Johnny Gargano, Aleister Black and Lars Sullivan. 2018 was more of the same, losing to the likes of Kassius Ohno, EC3, Kona Reeves and Lars Sullivan again. He’d form a tag team with Humberto Carrillo, but in 2018 they only ended up with losses to Lorcan & Burch and the Forgotten Sons. Mendoza would win his first WWE Match in 2019 with a victory over Riddick Moss on NXT TV. Remember Riddick Moss? Anyways, Mendoza also made his way to 205 Live debut in July, teaming with Carrillo to defeat Lucha House Party (Metallik & Kalisto). He’d beat Tony Nese in September, and then going nearly 15 in defeat to Lio Rush. While he saw more success on 205 Live, he was still losing more than he won. His NXT record was just as mixed. So really by the end of 2019, he had spent a few years in WWE now, but hadn’t really done much of note. Getting singles wins is more than nothing, but he was hardly setting the world on fire, even though he seemed to have a cult status among NXT fans as a lingering memory of the CWC and for sticking around Full Sail for nearly 3 years despite a lack of success. In my eyes, I wouldn’t quite say he was an enhancement talent, but he felt like the crowd’s favorite enhancement guy, y’know? Like whenever I’d see him, I’d go “Oh hey, it’s Raul Mendoza! I like him!” and that’s about all it’d amount to. I personally would kinda hope that he’d get some sort of storyline or push, but at the same time, it felt like I understood why he was kind of treading water. He had good moves and he looks good, but as far as I knew he still couldn’t speak English, and we all know WWE can struggle to use Luchadores as is, let alone if they don’t speak English.
S: That has always been a problem with certain Luchadores in WWE, it’s what held Mistico or the original Sin Cara back but to be fair, he didn’t want to learn English and it’s happened to someone else in this tournament, more on that in the future episodes. WWE always tends to struggle to use not just Luchadores but wrestlers in general who can’t speak English, always been a common problem in Vinceland. I always thought Mendoza was signed right off the back of the CWC, I had no idea that he was signed a year after his match. His time on 205 Live, I’m assuming this was in 2019 after Cedric, Ali and Buddy Murphy had all moved on, right?
JT: Yeah it was starting in July 2019. So he faced off with a few ex-CWC guys like Nese & Daivari, who seemed to be picking on him as a new guy to 205 Live, but otherwise he didn’t really run into any of those main 3. This was the Lio Rush/Angel Garza era of 205 Live, if you can really even call that an era.
S: I mean you could call that an era or sorts but most of their stuff was happening on NXT when they went live rather than on 205 Live.
JT: Yeah it wasn’t exactly a happening time for 205 Live. Back to our topic at hand, A key encounter happened for Mendoza on 205 Live in January 2020, where he faced off with and lost to Joaquin Wilde. I mention this because they’d team up (in a loss) together on NXT before having another 2 matches against each other on 205 Live, with Wilde effectively winning the best of 3 series 2-1. But on March 10th both Mendoza and Wilde would be seen getting abducted during backstage interviews segments on NXT. They’d both disappear from WWE TV for nearly 2 months, only to show up in masks and attack Drake Maverick when he confronted then Cruiserweight Champion El Hijo de Fantasma. Fantasma would join in on the debut, with all 3 men unmasking themselves as a symbolic gesture. Legado Del Fantasma was born then and there, a villainous group focused on ensuring the success of newly renamed Santos Escobar. Alongside Wilde and Escobar, Mendoza would have the most prolonged success of his career to this point, showing up on TV on a regular basis as the trio feuded with Breezango and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott. Though they lost the blowoff Street Fight on NXT Super Tuesday, El Legado continued to interfere in Escobar’s matches and prevented Scott from becoming Cruiserweight Champ. What do you think of Legado Del Fantasma? Do you like the gimmick? Do you like the pairing of guys? Do you like this whole thing for Mendoza?
S: I feels like from the off I was really intrigued by the idea of this group, like finally the Cruiserweight Division is getting a proper evil faction. I was always a fan of the three lads whenever I’d see them, DJZ was someone who I feel became more appreciated over the years, Mendoza was always considered an underrated talent and Fantasma is just an absolutely excellent wrestler who has succeeded everywhere he’s gone so seeing them paired up together had me really excited to be honest. I really like the presentation of them, they just look like they should be a big deal and I’m delighted that Mendoza is getting a proper go of it although I think they need to pull the trigger on Legado holding all the belts to be honest, I want Wilde and Mendoza as NXT Tag Champions
JT: Yeah speaking of that, they’ve had some real chances at holding gold this past year. At the start of 2021, Wilde & Mendoza made it to the Semi-Finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, before losing to the eventual winners MSK (Nash Carter & Wes Lee). At NXT Stand & Deliver, Wilde & Mendoza failed to capture the vacant NXT Tag Titles, once again losing out to MSK. But later in the night, Escobar defeated Jordan Devlin to become Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion in a Ladder Match. This success didn’t last long though as Escobar would lose the title the very next week to Kushida. Now without the Cruiserweight Titles, Legado del Fantasma moved on to heavyweight titles, Mendoza & Wilde again failed to win the tag titles from MSK while Escobar picked on North American Champion Bronson Reed. This led to their most recent match at the time of writing, a Winner Takers All Match at Takeover In Your House 2021. Once again, Legado del Fantasma failed to defeat MSK & Reed, not capturing any of the titles up for grabs. Still, I get the feeling Legado Del Fantasma will keep being a crucial part of NXT this year, and in time, the gold will follow.
S: Yeah I really hope so but I get the impression that when it does happen, it might a case of them pulling the trigger too late on them considering how often they’ve been lost to MSK, now that could be playing into a story where Legado can’t get one up on MSK and when it happens it’ll be worth it, I don’t know to be honest. Santos Escobar is definitely going to be either a North American or NXT Champion, there’s no doubt about that because they have a lot of faith in him so hopefully they can achieve that success for themselves.
JT: Either way, I’m glad Raul Mendoza has gotten a chance to be involved with something. Again like I mentioned with AEW before, why not just have guys in groups? Mendoza didn’t do anything really of note the first few years of his run, but now has been a frequent part of NXT TV. Just make teams and gangs, it can’t hurt! Gets guys involved, it helps them out!
S: Absolutely, it’s how you establish which wrestlers are aligned with one another and it breaks up your roster perfectly. It’s worked for New Japan, it’s worked in Dragon Gate and Stardom. It’s working in AEW and now NXT are taking note of it, the main roster honestly needs to do the same but it’s main roster so the groups will only have a shelf life from a range of one week to at most, a year because their patience is as worse as a five year old’s.
JT: Still, even a few months can help out someone’s career, like look what having the Hurt Business did for Lashley, MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander even though they blew it up at the worst possible time?
S: Yeah, it was glorious while it lasted but just when it was coming to their most prominent roles at a Mania in some time, rug gets pulled out from underneath them.
JT: Well before we get too off track, let’s close the book on Raul Mendoza, another talented and useful member of the WWE roster brought in thanks to the CWC. Now since we’re so eager to talk about what’s going on in wrestling nowadays, why don’t we head to our halfway point break, the Recharge!! After all, we’ve got 4 of our 8 in the books!
S: All of this talk about all sorts has brought my energy well down, I think it’s time we head to the old Recharge Café!
—————————————————
The Recharge
JT: Welcome everyone back to The Recharge. As always, this is a place to just take a little halfway break. We talk about things in the world of wrestling outside of the limited scope of our main timeline, as well as just any other topics of interest, and we play a wee little bit of trivia just for fun! Seán, how you doin?
S: I’m doing alright as of late James not gonna lie. The Euros are currently on and we’re about to go into the Last 16 as of this episode, I’ve recently got myself a part time job and Rick and Morty Season 5 has started and it definitely seems better than the first half Season 4, what’s not to love lately?
JT: That’s great to hear! Honestly I haven’t seen S5 of Rick & Morty, mostly because I was super into it in S3 right as the Pickle Rick drama happened, which definitely damaged the show’s reputation in my mind. And then S4 had its odd release schedule, which meant that S4 came out and I totally forgot about it. I’ll have to get on that, it can be a real fun show at its best.
S: Yeah it really is because their best episodes is some fucking excellent TV, it’s not as deep as people make it out to be, quit it people. I think the reputation to be honest has just been marred by the toxic subsection of the fan base that is out there if you ask me. I’ve just avoided all that shit so it doesn’t damage my enjoyment because it’s probably one of my favourite shows really.
JT: Yeah when I caught up with the show, I watched it in my own bubble. I didn’t really go on the internet, I just let my own opinions determine my thoughts on it. And you’re right, it’s not a deep show. I think the Rick & Morty fandom became more obnoxious when it tried to make it something it’s not. Sure, there are darker elements and themes to what is going on, and occasionally it does lean into more advanced scientific knowledge than you learn in high school. But for as much as that stuff happens, there’s an equal amount of basic pop culture references and silly gore and poop jokes. It’s not a deep show, you don’t need a 1000 IQ show. It’s just a silly, sci-fi animated sitcom that can be a little up it’s own ass but can also provide funny parodies of typical sci-fi. It’s funny, I kind of got to see the rise and fall of the show in a way. I started using Reddit in 2013, and it felt like every time the topic of “underrated tv shows” came up, Rick & Morty was always a top response. Then S3 seemed to be the show getting that bigger fandom, only for it to boil over to with some toxic outbursts. And now the show still has a bigger fandom than in S1 & S2, but it’s once again back to being more quiet and self contained (at least as much as it can be). I think just the overall point I can take from that whole ordeal is this: don’t try to impress people with the shows you watch. You should want people to watch it because you like it, you don’t have to hype it up to be something mind blowing. Just be open and honest to the best and worst parts of the show, let people give it a chance, and if they like it, they like it. And if they don’t, they don’t. That’s just how shit works. It’s not a big deal.
S: Absofuckinglutely, you’ve said it as perfectly as you could possibly say it. It’s a silly sci-fi comedy show which does have some good character arcs, in Season 2 you see Rick become a shittier person than he already was and obviously the divorce in Season 3 but it’s not a complicated show, in fact it’s a really simple show to follow, it’s just a bunch of wild fun which is insanely animated. Like what I’d do with the show is simply suggest it to people and if they liked it, cool and if they didn’t get into it, fine! It’s no big deal at all. I am really glad that Season 4 was pretty weak compared to the other because now I feel we don’t hear loads of the obnoxious subsection of the fan base as much, in a way that season was a bit of a blessing because it brought everyone back down to earth in a sense.
JT: In other fun news, I started a side project that I’ve been having a lot of fun with! Starting a few weeks ago, I’m watching every episode of Nitro and Raw from the Monday Night Wars, and just seeing who was better and just generally trying to see what it was like at the time.
S: You’ve been telling me this recently and I’ve been very intrigued by this project you’ve been doing. Tell us about your experience with the infantile days of the Monday Night Wars and what exactly are you watching along with the weekly shows?
JT: So my plan is to watch every head to head episode available to me. That of course, comes with the caveat that certain episodes of Raw and potential Nitro aren’t available. Like the VERY FIRST RAW FROM THE MNW?!? But anyway the idea is to watch one, then watch the other and just size them up. On top of that, I’m going to try and compare the PPV Specials each show does. Of course, this can be troublesome. The first PPVs once the War started were Fall Brawl 95 and In Your House 3, which weren’t actually head to head but were a week apart from each other. Which meant that before I could watch the next Nitro I had to watch all of the PPV, then watch Nitro and Raw and then IYH3. We’ll see if things get more direct down the road. So far though, my main takeaway is that Nitro is stomping Raw. Raw has some angles and storylines going on that I like, such as the heel turn of the British Bulldog and the crumbling friendship between the 1-2-3 Kid and Razor Ramon, but otherwise Raw feels kind of like filler. They’ll have matches that matter per say, but most of them don’t feel like they’re building to a set end goal. Like Bret Hart’s PPV match was against Jean Pierre LaFitte, aka young PCO. There was 0 buildup on Raw during the Raws I watched. There was also Waylon Mercy vs Savio Vega on PPV, for some reason. Meanwhile, Nitro has clearly been trying to build up storylines and rivalries for PPVs. Lex Luger for example, had been really well booked since he came into Nitro. Since coming in, he’s reestablished his friendship with Sting, fought Hogan for the WCW Title but while still being a face and joining Hogan’s War Games team, ticked of Randy Savage, confronted Randy to make a match where his title shot and career are on the line, and have that match on the next episode of Nitro on my schedule. Point is, things on Raw don’t feel like they have a direct result on the next week’s show, whereas every Nitro matters. Also, Nitro has some great low-midcard wrestlers while Raw has made me sit through more Dean Douglass than I expected. He’s….he’s just such a teacher…..
S: So far it really feels like it’s a one sided war if you ask me. Like there are clear, glaring positives with both shows but if you ask me, I’d be tuning in to Nitro every week if I were a fan at that time. You’re an absolute trooper for doing this whole thing James and I sure do hope you can succeed in watching through the entire Monday Night Wars. This is the stuff that will be legen- wait for it…. dary!
JT: So far, even with the not so great stuff, it’s been a blast. I look forward to unearthing random gems I find along the way. Like Sgt Craig Pittman is actually kinda really good? He had a genuinely fun match on Nitro against Kurasawa, who New Japan fans would know as Manabu Nakanishi. They were just throwing each other with Suplexes, it was random and great!!
S: Okay now that is a match I’d be almost eager to check out and see to be honest because of how bizarre it sounds. Is Sgt. Craig a babyface???
JT: I suppose so? I mean my personal worst match of Fall Brawl 95 was him vs Cobra, in part because I couldn’t tell who I was supposed to be rooting for. And also they did very little. Regardless though, it was a nice match on Nitro, The Pitbull has a mean exploder suplex.
S: Sounds pretty awesome and hopefully with each Recharge we can get further updates on your progression through this 67 month period in wrestling!
JT: In other fun news, I will be going to a New York Mets baseball game soon (I may have already gone by the time you’re reading this!) and it’ll be the first time since summer 2019 and my first real major public gathering since the pandemic started. I’m quite excited.
S: That’s pretty awesome to hear man! It’s a great time to be going to a Mets game too considering they’re top of their division in the National League.
JT: The energy has been very high in the ballpark too, so it’ll be a fun experience to have again. Also, in related ticket buying news, I’m looking into getting tickets to the AEW Dynamite that will be in New York in September!! Tickets go on sale in July, and I’m gonna see if I can snag them, since I haven’t been to a wrestling show since late 2018!!
S: Boy how I wish I could go to AEW and a wrestling show which didn’t say they were flat out gonna book every sex offender under the sun. Thanks OTT ya giant pieces of shit!
JT: Fuck you, you fucking assholes!! But yeah not only is the prospect of seeing AEW itself exciting, but I’ve been wanting to go to a non-WWE show for a while. The problem is like I said before, there ain’t a whole lot of wrestling on LI. Everything else is in NYC, and a lot of the places I’d have to get to, like say the Hammerstein Ballroom, are kind of a hassle to commute to. Especially since I can’t drive, and my Dad ain’t a wrestling fan. Going to say an ROH show at the Hammerstein would end up being like a 2 hour drive in and I’d have to drag my old man along with me. Luckily the AEW show is pretty much on the exact same train route I’d take to see a Mets game, so I wouldn’t need to drag anyone unwilling along. Of course, if I can even get tickets. They might sell out in minutes, who knows!
S: Knowing how popular AEW tickets are probably going to be on the East Coast, especially in New York, it’ll probably sell really quickly, which is pretty great for them!
JT: Oh for sure, it’s good to see AEW doing good business. More good, hot wrestling is good for all of us!
S: Absolutely and with more competition makes other companies do better! I must say, this has been an excellent Recharge chat, hasn’t it?
JT: I’m glad to see we’ve been up to a lot and that we’ve got a lot on our plate coming up.
S: Yeah it’s a good feeling to have life going back to a form of normality and that socialising is starting to find its feet again.
JT: It’s nice to not have such big restrictions anymore. I’m glad to have lived that way for everyone else’s safety, but on the other hand, I’m glad that we don’t have to be as worried anymore.
S: That is for sure, although I’m not vaccinated yet I do feel a lot safer going to places these days as I did for the last nearly 16 months of living in fear. Those two and a half hour trains commute to go up for like two hours of college classes, they were not fun and very weird, let me tell ya.
JT: Oh I can imagine, closed up public transport is the exact sort of thing that would’ve gotten me really anxious to be on.
S: Awkward, draining and stress increasing experiences at the worst of times. Tell you what isn’t stress increasing though, Recharge Trivia baby!
JT: Oh baby!! Love me some trivia!! Here’s how we do it here: We each ask each other a question, and usually the other guy gets 3 guesses and a hint to help them out. I say usually because we like to stay flexible here on the Power Hour, sometimes we adjust based on the question we have in mind. Sue me.
S: Yeah sue me too, you know where to find us! A question each, three guesses and one hint. James, what have you got for today’s question good sir?
JT: I’ve actually got a series of questions to ask you!! Last episode, we talked about how Mustafa Ali was an alternate in this tournament, and only got in when Brazilian wrestler Zumbi had VISA issues. So now, over the course of this episode and the next 2, I will ask you to guess 3 of the 5 alternates. I’m giving you Kai Katana and Vandal Ortagun for free because frankly, I doubt I know enough about them to lead you in the right direction to guess about them. But I can for the 3 others. So today, I’ll give you two hints. One to start you off, so you’re not just guessing into the blue, and one as a hotter/colder type thing. You think you’re up to the task?
S: Oh I’m most certainly up to the task my friend because unluckily for you, I know who the other three alternates are mwahahahahaha
JT: Well if that’s the case, why don’t we get flexible and see if you can name them all, right now on the spot!!
S: Aaron Solow, Jessy Sorenson and Jesus Yurnet aka Mr. 450 or Mecha Wolf 450. Boom!
JT: Very well done!! We’ve got one member of AEW’s The Factory, one former member of TNA Impact, and one veteran of the American indy scene. Fun fact! Aaron Solow doesn’t have a Wikipedia page! Well, actually that’s not a fun fact. But it led me onto some fun facts. Since he didn’t have a Wikipedia page, I did a quick Google search to make sure the Aaron Solow on the CWC Wiki page was in fact the same guy, I was hoping it wasn’t some sort of Terry Funk and Terry Brunk (Sabu) situation. So in the process I looked up Vandal Ortagun to see if he went by any name I was more familiar with. I wasn’t familiar with him, but I did learn that he worked an NXT match back when the Ascension were still around in 2013 with Aaron Solow, and then 3 years later he teamed with a separate member of the AEW Roster in a loss to the Authors of Pain. That AEW Roster member? The Acclaimed’s Anthony Bowens! Funny how many ex-members or at least visitors to NXT are now roaming around in the wild.
S: Holy shit! That’s a pretty crazy fact to hear right there not gonna lie, this is right up there when John Silver faced, ehm, that really hateful person *mutters* lars sullivan… on ehm, NXT.
JT: More Johnny Hungy fun facts! I could’ve sworn he fought Braun Strowman during his 2016 squash match redebut project, but I was wrong about that. However, he and Alex Reynolds did work a squash match against Heavy Machinery in 2019!!
S: How about that! Both members of The Beaver Boys and current Dark Order tag team getting themselves sweet little paychecks working enhancement matches on NXT before landing in AEW. Good for them!
JT: With such a saturated American indy scene, it’s always fun to investigate the local talent that appear on WWE shows. They might turn out to be someone in a few years, or they might already be someone now!
S: Or they might be Americo, Johnny Knockout, Oliver John, Walter Slow or Ken Raper. Boy, sucks to be that guy with THAT name, huh?
JT: Well you know how they say that last names originated from the jobs people used to have back in the olden days? Like the last name Smith came about because their line were blacksmiths? Yeah I’d stay away from Ken if that were the case. Anyways, you demolished my question, do you have less of a softball for me?
S: My question today involves one John Boy Gargano, the wrestler that I like and everyone can come at me with their pitchforks and I’ll still survive like I’m Vin Diesel in Fast and Furious. Anyways! Old Johnny wrestling made his way to WWE in 2015 alongside Tommaso Ciampa but that was not his first WWE appearance, what was his first appearance in a way WWE ring and who was it against?
JT: Ahhh I think I know this one too!! I can’t remember what his name was, but I remember he was the Champion of Liechtenstein, facing off against MVP on SmackDown in I believe Cleveland. I can’t remember if MVP was US Champion yet or if he was on his way to it, but he wanted to prove his American dominance by putting a whooping on international talent. And one of them was John Gargano in a silly outfit.
S: Correct! He was the Champion of Lichtenstein Cedrick Von Haussen during MVP’s Road to WrestleMania 23 where he faced off against various champions of various obscure countries like Honduras and Ethiopia. He was there in his lederhosen, dressed like a small elf man with his ratty look and famously on the Kevin Steen show, he said his parents were there and properly denied that the small elf man was their son wrestling when asked. Oh the joys of being an enhancement jabroni.
JT: Oh my god his parents make this whole ordeal even better. It’s one thing to be an enhancement talent who gets the stuffing beat out of them, it’s another thing when not only do you get no offense in and you lose, but you have to dress up silly or same some dumb shit. Blessed be the enhancement talent who do dumb shit for our entertainment.
S: It’s on the same level as Abe Simpson denying Homer was his son in the “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet” episode of The Simpsons and claiming Apu to be his son. Pretty sure John Boy was a random security guard at one stage too during a segment on Raw but ah sure look, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?
JT: Well to show you just how much of a fucking mark I am, I actually know the greater context of it. Why can I remember this but I can’t remember birthdays? Lord knows! But Johnny was a security guard, and he was part of a team in charge of protecting Michael Cole as he berated former NXT contestant Daniel Bryan!! Oh 2010, what a time!! He’s some pictures as proof!
S: There he is! Young John Gargano, member of Team FIST in Chikara. Growing that hair well long before he and Chuck Taylor lose it in that hair vs masks match against The Colony.
JT: Good old Friend In Similar Tights!! What an all time team name. Hats off to whoever came up with that gem.
S: That team name was definitely either a Chuck Taylor, Colt Cabana or Bryce Remsburg creation. Just has their fingerprints all over it if you ask me. More than likely a Dustin creation considering how amazing he is with wrestling names.
JT: Well all three guys are hilarious and have my respect, they set lofty standards for comedy wrestling. But things aren’t so silly, here on the Power Hour. I say we get back to the super serious, life changing action of the Cruiserweight Classic!! What say you?
S: Absolutely, JT! It’s time we round out the first round of the CWC with Episode 4 which features some pretty big names if you ask me. Cheers for the coffee, Mr. Barista Man!
—————————————————
I’m a BeLEEver
JT: We’re back in the thick of things as we end off Round 1 with episode 4 of the CWC, which starts off with a recap of episode 3. They mention that we’re 3/4s of the way done and that the final 4 spots in round 2 are on the line. Kicking things off quite literally is a matchup between Hong Kong’s Jason Lee, with his martial arts inspired style, against America’s high flying, highly charismatic superstar, Rich Swann!!
S: An interesting clash of styles but two men certainly relying on their speed for this First Round encounter, this was actually a match I was really intrigued to go back to watch because of how insanely athletic Swann is. Speaking of Rich Swann, how familiar were you with him? As well as Jason Lee? Not the actor from Kevin Smith movies or My Name Is Earl.
JT: I just want to say off the bat, having seen Jason Lee first in the CWC, I had thought that All Japan’s Jake Lee might have been the same guy when I started hearing more about AJPW back in 2018. They’re very much not the same person. As far as Swann goes, I would’ve been familiar with him from his time in PWG in the 2014 BOLA against Candice LeRae, 2015 BOLA against Marty the Nonce, and generally teaming with Ricochet in the Inner City Machine Guns. Plus, he had 2 matches in NXT earlier in the year, one against Baron Corbin and the other against Finn Balor. Neither were winning efforts and neither match went very long, but he was presented more as a debuting talent rather than just a typical enhancement you might never see again.
S: I remember being very hyped by his signing after BOLA in 2015 if I’m being real with you, I just thought that signing a guy with that much charisma and an insane amount of athleticism and in ring skills was such a massive get for WWE at the time, like he was doing moves that were massively standing out in a time where so many insane high flying wrestlers were emerging so seeing him here made me super excited. Jason Lee on the other hand, I’m currently on Season 2 of My Name Is Earl and it’s very good so f- shit sorry, wrong person again. For real though, Jason Lee was on the same level of Ho Ho Lun levels of familiarity for me and I was shocked that there were two wrestlers from Hong Kong, which is pretty damn cool!
JT: Two cool dudes from Hong Kong, training together and building up the wrestling scene!! Pretty fucking cool. So Lee tells us in his promo, with perfectly fluent English by the way, that he wants to make the people of Hong Kong proud, and show what a Hong Kong wrestler can be. Well if Hong Kong wrestlers are a lot of guys with cool ring robes and sick nunchuck skills like Lee, I’m way in. He properly impressed the crowd and me with his skills.
S: His entrance was fucking awesome so it was, this dude was looking like Steve Blackman with those nunchuck skills. His gear was properly cool too, reminded me of a young Taiji Ishimori in Pro Wrestling NOAH with the yellow leather baggy pants.
JT: Meanwhile, Swann says that doesn’t take anyone lightly. He is motivated to make his dream come true. He wants to show the fans who he is. And if you thought the crowd got into Lee’s entrance, boy they went another level up for Rich Swann’s. He’s just got this infectious energy, and a super fun theme song that had the crowd clapping and dancing along.
S: Yeah Swann is just a natural entertainer isn’t he? Such great craic he has doing his entrance, you can tell that he’s already going to be a crowd favourite. He sure knows how to bust a move too, doesn’t he? He dances just so effortlessly.
JT: Some people just naturally have that fancy footwork and rhythm. For example, Chris Jericho? He doesn’t have it. Dances with the Stars proved that.
S: Chris Jericho at that time period should’ve been going on Hell’s Kitchen when he was looking like Gordon Ramsay.
JT: Ok but genuinely, Gordon Ramsay as a Guest Host of Monday Night Raw would’ve been incredible. Just let him do his Kitchen Nightmares thing against Jericho & Big Show, let him treat Raw like a restaurant that needs to be whipped into shape.
S: Oh my god yes! A Kitchen Nightmares episode of Raw would’ve been perfect in 2009. I’m actually stunned that Ramsay was never an actual guest host during that time period of Raw but I guess you’ve gotta make way for the MacGruber guy and Cheech and Chong about years after their sell-by date. Honestly Ramsay would’ve genuinely been up there with Bob Barker and Seth Green if you ask me.
JT: They were too busy getting Jeremy Piven on Raw, sorry. But genuinely, I hope that they were too dumb to ask for him, because him turning down WWE would heart me in me heart. And yes, he’d absolutely kill it.
S: He’d be roaming around catering and would find nothing but BONES, THOSE MOULDY LAMB BONES!
JT: Look, all I’m saying is that Gordon Ramsay and Santino Marella together would’ve had the greatest segment in the history of television.
S: A pairing I never knew I wanted until now. Maybe a cook off between the two of them? Boy, how did we get here, don’t we have a match with Rich Swann to review?
JT: Yeah hey wait a minute! We’ve hijacked our own show! Let’s just get into Rich Swann vs Jason Lee. Will Swann win his first match back from injury, or will Lee win the biggest match of his career?
S: It’s the battle for Hell’s Kitchen! Jake it away, Tames.
JT: So there are some “All Night Long” chants to start things off, and he keeps the crowd cheering with the first exciting moment of the match as he nips up to get out of the Headscissor by Lee. Fast action as Lee leaps some frogs, but so does Swann, who then front flips through a drop down and nails Lee with a Dropkick. Just any sort of standing flip is so impressive. Lee leaps over Swann coming out of the corner and opens up on Rich with chops and palm strikes, before hitting an Enziguri to the back of his head for a nearfall. Big forearm by Lee, which seems to anger Swann. He nails big forearms, then a backfist. He sends Lee back in the corner, but Lee gets a boot up! He quickly hops up to the second rope only for Swann to leap up and get a Hurricanrana on Lee from the second rope!! He follows it up with a roll and a jumping frog splash!! 1–2—Kickout!! Rich Swann’s leaping ability man, god damn!! Dude has got hops!!
S: It’s absolutely insane, it’s honestly like he’s got springs loaded in his boots, he’s like Spring Mario from the Mario Galaxy series. His name may be Swann but he can leap like a bloody salmon. That Rolling Thunder Frog Splash in particular made me lose my shit, it’s amazing to watch.
JT: Yeah and not only does he have those springs in his shoes but his technique is perfect! Like boy does that Rolling Thunder Frog Splash and that jumping Hurricanrana look good!
S: And the speed he does that Jumping Hurricanrana too is just so quick, sudden and super safe too.
JT: So Swann tries to get Lee up, but Lee grabs him instead and l hits a Flatliner, and then a Superkick to the face!! He grabs him and puts him in a La Magistral Cradle!! 1—2–Kickout!! Lee waits for Swann to get up, then charges at him when he’s up, but runs right into a huge Roundhouse to the face!! Swann drags him over to the corner, but rather than leaping off the top, Swann hops twice before hitting a Standing 450!! He hooks the leg, 1—2—3!! This one was a pretty short match but boy did it pack a punch in its short run time!! Also, a fucking standing 450, how?!?
S: It’s absolutely crazy stuff to witness when you see a man doing a STANDING 450 SPLASH, like doing a 450 is pretty tough already but a standing one? It’s absolutely mind blowing. This was probably the shortest match of the round and probably the tournament but I really enjoyed this one. Lee is a lot better than I remember him being, I think he’s probably better than Ho Ho Lun if you ask me. Swann was insanely athletic and agile as you’d expect him to be. The two pacey boys done did good. A real hidden gem in this tournament if there ever was one.
JT: Yeah I gotta agree with you about Jason Lee, I just feel like he has “It” more than our boy Hoho does. Like even just entering, you can tell he’s got this sort of confidence and charisma to him. Then in the ring, he delivered pretty well on his side of things. Now, it was a shorter match, so perhaps that means we only got exposed to stuff that he was good at. But still, if this was the kind of stuff you can get from him while hiding his weaknesses, I’d be pretty darn happy. Alas, Jason Lee was not long for the World of Sports Entertainment. But we can at least find out what he has done elsewhere since 2016, right?
S: For sure! I really hope he’s done well for himself because he seems like someone who would always put the shift it, the dude is bilingual like, for all we know he probably speaks like five languages like Cesaro.
JT: Well then, you’ll be happy to learn that Jason Lee has turned out to be one of the most busy wrestlers out of everyone we’ve covered so far! Though 2016 was actually a pretty inactive year for him, his career has gotten significantly more active since then. This is because by late 2017, he joined Dragon Gate in Japan. Ever since, he’s been wrestling very frequently and mainly there. He had over 150 matches in 2018 & 2019, still managed 99 matches in 2020, and already has over 70 matches just this year. That’s an average of more than 10 matches per month!!
S: That is absolutely brilliant to hear! I knew he joined Dragon Gate a while back but to hear he’s a mainstay there and is putting in the shift, wrestling 100 matches per year since 2018 and is already on 70 matches? That’s incredible, he’s certainly been a busy boy so he has. Has he won many championships in Dragon Gate by any chance?
JT: Well as a matter of fact, he has, and I’m gonna run through his Dragon Gate career so far to explain the circumstances of his wins. Firstly for those with a lack of DG knowledge, I’ll educate you on, like the one thing I know about Dragon Gate, which is that the promotion is focused around stables. Like, more than any other company, like there are all sorts of specific gimmick matches and stipulations involving poaching other faction’s members or making a group disband, that sort of stuff. Like imagine the NJPW & AEW ecosystem of groups dialed up to 11 in terms of how seriously they treat their “units”. Guys are constantly joining and leaving units, groups get disbanded, groups get formed, there’s tension about guys teaming up but not yet being a unit, and so on. So, Lee’s first Unit was with Naruki Doi’s & Masato Yoshino’s MaxiMuM, being recruited shortly after becoming a full time member of the DG Roster. MaxiMuM by the way, at the time were sort of the main face faction composed of the company’s top faces, with Doi & Yoshino at the top of the group. Lee wasn’t instantly a big deal in DG or anything, but being aligned with them definitely helped his standing. For example, he won the Open The Triangle Gate (Trios) Title with his Doi & Yoshino, holding the title for 134 days across 2018. In all likelihood, Lee was the fall guy for the group as they built up feuds for Doi & Yoshino but hey, it’s not bad to rub noses with top guys in any capacity.
S: That’s such a big deal that he was not only aligned with Naruki and Yoshino but he was also Triangle Gate Champs with the two top faces in Dragon Gate? Man, good for him!
JT: Sadly for our boy Jason though, units always have an expiration date on them, especially in the chaotic world of Dragon Gate. In 2019 there became a generational struggle between Ultimo Dragon returned to Dragon Gate and urged all his fellow graduates of the original Toryumon Dojo to join together and whip them youngsters into shape, whether that be DG’s top heel unit RED or everyone else. This led to Lee joining Team Dragon Gate, in a “TNA Frontline” type situation, all the folks who weren’t in RED and who weren’t from Toryumon teaming up to protect DG as it is today! This saw more success for Lee as he managed to win the Open The Twin Gate (Tag) Titles with Kota Minoura (the youngest champion in the title’s history BTW) for his unit, holding the belt for 104 Days.
S: Boy the success just keeps on rolling for our boy, Jason, doesn’t it? That storyline of Ultimo Dragon being real bitter and wanting to whip the young wrestlers into shape sounds like a pretty awesome story to watch unfold to be honest. TNA Frontline, eh? How the fuck didn’t the lot of them not beat the Main Event Mafia, honestly? There’s far more of them, it’s a mystery to me.
JT: Well it’s one thing if the TNA Frontline were fighting just regular men, but they weren’t. They were facing off with an Olympic Gold Medalist, an Icon, a King, a Genetic Freak, and Kevin Nash (who is really cool).
S: That is true, they were only scrubs in comparison to the IMPECCABLE Main Event Mafia!
JT: Back on topic though, by late 2020, the Generation War storyline had run its course, and it was time for a new big change to hit Dragon Gate. What was that change? Well Shun Skywalker was back! Who is he? Well, Shun Skywalker was one of the hottest rising stars in Dragon Gate, and was someone who had challenged PAC for the Open The Dream Gate title (aka DG’s top title) back in 2018, with many speculating he could be the guy to beat him. But instead, Skywalker lost the match and then went on a losing streak. This resulted in him heading on Excursion to Mexico, only returning in Fall 2020, and winning the Dream Gate in his first match back belt to boot. As top champion, he needs support, and so he built his own unit, thus Masquerade was born. It’s the aesthetic of the Carnival of Venice, with each member having a jester mask, and that includes Lee, who defected from Team Dragon Gate to join. And it has proven to be a fruitful decision for Lee, as he has gotten another reign with the Triangle Gate belts again this year! In fact, at the time of writing, he is currently still holding the title alongside Dragon Dia and La Estrella. Lee has seemed to have carved himself a little niche in DG as a useful midcarder, involved with the top guys of the promotion. He isn’t on the same level as someone like Skywalker or Yoshino, but he’s managed to hold his own and get lots of work as a result. His most recent match was teaming with Shun Skywalker as they defeated Ben K and Yasushi Kanda during DG’s Rainbow Gate tour on June 15th.
S: Yeah it really seems that Jason Lee has found himself in a comfortable position in Dragon Gate alright and good for him because he certainly earned it. It’s great that he’s always been aligned with whoever the top guys may be at the time, he certainly gives me the vibe of the ideal utility player for Dragon Gate to be honest, always being trusted in Trios and Tag Title runs. I’d say he’s certainly having himself a grand old life in wrestling, good on him!
JT: Yeah he’s really had one of the more consistently successful runs out of everyone we’ve seen. Good on him, making a space for yourself in the wrestling world is hard but he’s done it!
S: More than delighted for him, he deserved to get a shot somewhere after impressing in short time here.
—————————————————
“You just go Gurv’d, bro” – Vince Russo
JT: Next on the docket, we’ve got ourselves a very interesting clash of styles. Representing India, the older Bollywood Boy Brother, it’s Gurv Sihra!! And his opponent is the young upstart from Scotland by way of Israel, it’s the Scottish Supernova Noam Dar!!
S: Noam Dar! UK Indie mainstay of the 2010’s at this point, renowned for his work mostly in ICW up in Scotland, as well as Progress and Rev Pro in England and various other UK Indies. Gurv Sihra, the other half of the GFW Tag Team Champions!
JT: So I’ll say I was familiar with Dar, but not from ICW or Progress. I would’ve been familiar with Noam Dar from WhatCulture Pro Wrestling, yeah baby!! You love it!! So Dar was clearly someone they were building up and saw as a top of the line wrestler, but they never had a chance to really go all the way with them since he signed with WWE fairly early into their run. But still, he had a great match against Jay Lethal when Lethal was at his apex, and he was a standout of early WCPW, enough to make me excited to see him in this.
S: Yeah he was someone who I was familiar with from ICW, Progress and WCPW too, ya love to see it. He was always someone who I thought had great timing in the ring and had a lovely wee moveset for himself. Gurv Sihra, I knew of the name and the fact he was GFW Tag Champion with younger brother Harv but hadn’t seen much of their actual wrestling to form an opinion of him.
JT: Yeah the same sort of stuff applied to his brother applies to him. He’s got a nice story, he’s got an interesting perspective and a fun attitude, and I looked forward to seeing him wrestle. He believes the CWC is all about hard work and endurance, and that he has what it takes to go all the way. Dar in his promo says that as the youngest guy in the tournament, he feels like people will look down on him for his age, but he’s been wrestling since he’s 15, so it wouldn’t be the first time. He’s going to win and set the bar high. Also fun fact, the wrestler that got Dar into wrestling? Brock Lesnar. Hell yeah, good taste.
S: Brock Lesnar 1st run from 2002-2004? One of the best wrestlers of all time, hands down. Noam has a good eye for spotting a class wrestler when he sees one.
JT: One last thing I just wanted to say before we got into this is that I just really like the energy both guys have coming into this. I know the old knock on Cruiserweights was that they tended to have very little personality, but these guys don’t have that problem. Gurv has a lot of pizzazz, and Dar in my opinion just had this real swagger to him.
S: Yeah he just has such swagger and confidence about him when he’s entering here, the theme song suits him down to the ground and he’s almost entering the ring like a professional footballer who’s just brimming with confidence.
JT: Early on in the match, Dar manages to avoid a hip toss, landing on his feet and hitting a Dropkick to the knee of Gurv. This is going right into the usual Dar playbook of setting up the knee for the Champagne Super Kneebar. He grapples with Sihra for a bit, until he gets a big back elbow to the face by Gurv, who gives Dar a little Hollywood Blondes-esque camera taunt!! This obviously peeves off Noam, who runs right at him, into a headlock takedown. Dar manages to get up, shooting him off and hitting a Dropkick with precision, followed by a taunt of his own. Daniel Bryan has to add “I don’t know why he did cat claws there”. Just one of many “Bryan-isms” that we get throughout this tournament so far, that I plan on highlighting a bit more going forward.
S: Speaking of Bryan-isms, I completely forgot to mention this earlier in Episode 3 but did you hear the Bryan-ism during the Gulak match?
JT: No, what was it?
S: So when he was talking about how much Gulak likes to inflict pain with his submissions, he added “Drew Gulak said that nothing fills him with more joy than hearing his opponents go…” and he lets out an almighty grunt on commentary!
JT: If you haven’t watched the CWC before, you gotta get used to Daniel Bryan noises, be that grunts of approval, or disapproval, or various yells of “OH MY GOD”. He especially likes that last one. He’s very excitable, bless his heart.
S: Daniel Bryan has the same level of excitement as a colour commentator as let’s say, Don West. Hopefully DW gets well soon by the way.
JT: Of course, best wishes to DW. Back to the match, Sihra reverses a whip to send Dar into the corner, hits him with a Forearm to the back, then catches Dar with a Backbreaker as he comes back at him. Dar tries to come back but Gurv hammers hard on his back and sends him hard off the corner. Each man has his area of focus: Gurv has the back, Noam has the leg. He tries to whip Dad in hard again, but Dar reverses and gives him a taste of his own medicine. Gurv gets back up and charges at Dar, by Dar side steps, sending Gurv into the ropes chest first, allowing Dar to kick Sihra’s leg out from under him, as he was caught in the ropes. Dar throws him into the corner, hits a Running Elbow in the corner, and follows up with a Single Leg Dropkick, which Bryan has to add “I don’t know why he added the roll though”. He also speculates about how Sihra has slowed down because of the work on the leg. Sihra manages to get Dar down and goes for a Sharpshooter attempt but Dar blocks it and gets him away. Gurv sends Dar towards the corner but Dar stops himself in the corner with his foot against the turnbuckles. Sihra was following in after him though, so Dar slides through the legs and hits Gurv as he turns around with two jab-chops right to the throat, followed by an uppercut to knock him back to the corner, where he can run, leap and score with another Dropkick in the corner!! Though I know we have an actual English man in this tournament, I think Dar most represents the modern English style with that sequence. He’s got the World of Sport-esque maneuvering to stop himself in the corner and slide between Gurv’s legs, then he follows up with a hard hitting, but still quick combo of strikes. I feel like when you watched stuff in Progress & RevPro at the time, you saw a lot of that kind of stuff.
S: Yeah this is what you’d come to expect from Dar if you were familiar with him. I swear as a wrestler Dar has always been underrated and never truly gets spoken about for how freaking good he is in the ring, like his strike combinations and his kicks are just brilliant to witness.
JT: He’s definitely a solid hand, I just think he’s struggled due to just not being put in high leverage situations. Like we’ll talk about this when we eventually talk about his post CWC career, but *spoilers* he sadly doesn’t have a lot of big matches on his resume. Not necessarily because he can’t hack it, but because he just doesn’t get put in situations that yield matches with crowd investment, big stakes, a lot of time to work with, or any combination of those three.
S: Doesn’t help that he’s been a mainstay of 205 Live and unfortunately for him, a regular member of the NXT UK roster. Poor guy, how does a supposed promotion become a demotion?
JT: Oh boy NXT UK. We can have a more thorough talk about that down the line. So after his combination offense in the corner, Dar looks to put Sihra away with a leg submission, but Gurv rolls him up!! 1–2–Kickout!! Gurv gets up first, Dar follows him up to his feet but gets caught with a Spinning Heel Kick to the face!! 1–2—Kickout!! Gurv goes for an elbow off the top, but he takes time to do his camera taunt again, so when leaps off, Dar is able to roll out of the way!! Dar lines the Bollywood Boy up, and scores with an Enziguri! He then pulls him in and nails a Fisherman’s Buster!! He covers, Sihra kicks out, but the pin was just a set up to single out the leg for the Champagne Super Kneebar!! That quick transition has left Gurv with nowhere to go, and has to tap out!! Noam Dar, moving on to Round 2.
S: This match had ZSJ in the US syndrome, that being that the crowd were pretty dead for this one if I’m being real here but I don’t think there was anything wrong with it at all if you ask me. It definitely wasn’t going to be a spotfest affair but there were some lovely looking moves in this match. Like there’s 16 matches in this round, not all of them can be a Lince Dorado vs Mustafa Ali. I think a lot of people take Dar for granted in terms of his in ring ability because he is a very capable wrestler, some lovely offence from him and his variation of a Knee Bar after transitioning from a kickout of a Fisherman’s Buster was pretty cool. Champagne Super Kneebar is a brilliant name. I liked this one better than ZSJ vs Dux.
JT: Yeah I get the feeling that this match was probably filmed later in a tapping. It was a fine enough match, not too flashy or exciting, but certainly nothing wrong with it. The crowd was just kinda quiet, and it didn’t have any sort of spot to really make them lose their shit. Overall it was a solid wrestling match though I’d argue it doesn’t really stand out in the overall context of this tournament.
S: Nah it would never really stand out among some of the matches we’ve had already in this tournament but I still find it to be a grand old wrestling match in my opinion. Nothing wrong with it but lacked the crowd involvement.
JT: You’re right about that. Really this whole tournament, there hasn’t been any match that was bad, or at least bad without extenuating circumstances. Even the matches that are closer to the bottom of the barrel like this one, they still have something to tip your cap at.
S: Yeah that’s the thing about the matches in this tournament, even the ones that aren’t going to be the most memorable are going to leave you with a particular move or spot that you’ll remember about that match.
JT: So now, sadly, both of the Bollywood Boys are now out. Gurv & Harv Sihra, both eliminated in the first round. How about we run down how their runs have gone in the last 5 years?
S: Let’s hear it man, might as well get it out there quickly because they might be released by the time ye all read this.
JT: Yeah, to tell y’all about how the sausage is made, we are writing this episode out right as the likes of Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, Breezango and more have been released by WWE. Like, we interrupted our process to talk about it. So back on topic, First things first for these two, they would head to NXT and the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic….where they’d lose in the first round to the Authors of Pain. But then on the first episode of 205 Live, they’d defeat Tony Nese and Drew Gulak in Tag Action. However, they would then not show up again on 205 Live for the rest of the year, or even the next year, instead being squashed by Sanity & Heavy Machinery on NXT. However on April 18th 2017, a change would happen. In the weirdest #1 Contender’s Match of all time, Jinder Mahal defeated Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Mojo Rawley after help from the Bollywood Boys, now renamed Sunil (Gurv) and Samir (Harv) Signh. To make things crazier, they put their bodies on the line literally, as Randy Orton beat the shit out of them on multiple occasions, but they helped Jinder become the most improbable WWE Champion in decades. Time and time again, they’d run in and stop Jinder’s opponents for just long enough to allow Jinder to retain through the summer, and almost all the way through Autumn. Even after Mahal lost the title, they’d remain in that sort of henchman/run-in role for the rest of 2017 as Jinder remained the Modern Day Maharaja of Wrestling. Sadly for Harv/Samir, he’d tear his ACL in January 2018, but Sunil would still interfere in matches, helping Jinder win the US Title at WrestleMania 34. Just to take a step back for a second, man that 12 months of Jinder being pushed from April 2017 to April 2018 was just the oddest time wasn’t it?
S: It was the most bizarre time on the blue brand without a doubt. Like I wouldn’t call him an undeserving champion by any means, but what I would call is probably the most out of place top heel champion that I’ve ever seen, that’s not on Jinder by the way, he could cut some good promos and was given a cool entrance but the way he was always booked throughout his career made it a bit hard to get behind and the matches, they were just very bleh. Oh and I’m just after finding out The Bollywood Boys have been released, like, right now. Like, literally as we’re writing this. James just linked me a tweet. I’m a fucking psychic, I’m like Daphne Moon up in here.
JT: Just to wrap up my Jinder thoughts real quick, I agree he’s not under deserving. I think the guy has a whopper look and a good promo delivery, but sadly his run as WWE & US Champion was too repetitive and often in poor taste (Shinsuke Nakamura Asian jokes) to really enjoy. If they suddenly had him go to US Champ then move up to WWE Champion, it might have been received better, but it was just too much too soon and without enough creativity put behind it.
Now back to the lovey Singh Bros. After Jinder’s US Title run, things pretty much petered out. They’d move with Jinder to Raw in 2018 and then back to SD in 2019 until they themselves were drafted to 205 Live, returning for the first time since 2016. Since then, they’ve mostly worked as enhancement talent on 205 Live and whichever brand required a tag team squash. Although they did reunite with Jinder in a losing effort to Drew McIntyre and Indus Sher at the Superstar Spectacular in 2021. Oh, and each Sihra has managed to win the 24/7 Title for a Cup of Coffee. And now, their run has come to an end after 5 years, being released today at the time of writing. All I can say about these two is that they seem like incredible fellas. Like really fun, humble, lovely guys. They always played the role they were asked to, whether it made them look silly, whether they had to take crazy bumps or not. I hope they had a good time with their run, and I hope they can find a new place to be their home. Godspeed fellas.
S: I wholeheartedly agree with you there. I thought they were the perfect foils that Jinder needed for his heel run, they were a fun little team during their run and were always great in whatever roles they played. Also massive bonuses for them just coming across as really lovely, jovial guys who are grateful for everything they have. They should be snapped up and Impact, there’s a tag team for ya. Put them with Rohit Raju or something along those lines, Desi Hit Squad 2: Electric Boogaloo!
JT: That’s a good shout honestly! Though they represented India, they themselves were natives to Canada, so I could see them going up North and helping out. Either way, I just hope they show up on TV in some capacity again.
S: Yeah I hope so too and hey, they’ve got that GFW connection so a run in Impact isn’t out of the ordinary in the slightest!
JT: Oh and to just end this sour segment on a good note, after the match we get an advertisement for the Stone Cold pod with Dean Ambrose!! What a fun time that was!!
S: Is that the most awkward wrestling podcast in history aside from the time Ross from Cultaholic did straight to hell with Jimmy [REDACTED]?
JT: I’m sure there’s other more awkward podcasts by independent creators and indy wrestlers, but none have been quite as awkward by a major industry power like the Ambrose one. Like I mean, if it were you and I fumbling to say our words and not putting together a good product with a wrestler, that’s understandable. This was Stone Cold Steve Austin on the WWE Network, and it was bordering on amateur level.
S: I’ve only seen very little of the podcast, like I’ve avoided this fucking trainwreck like the god damn league for over five years now. How bad was it?
JT: I mean I’m exaggerating, but it’s just not good. And I might be a bit off, since I haven’t seen it since it aired. Austin is just clearly pushing at Ambrose is a way that Ambrose doesn’t respond to. Ambrose is too loose and lax for Austin, and Austin is just taking it way too seriously for Dean. Austin really wants him to get fired up and Dean just wants him to relax and leave him alone. It’s just not a good combination.
S: Goes together as well as jam and mashed potatoes if you ask me. We’re not reviewing it by the way.
—————————————————
Aichner? I hardly know her!
JT: Up next we’ve got our 2nd to last match of the 1st round. It’s an all European battle for this one! It’s Italy’s Fabian Aichner facing off against England’s Jack Gallagher! And right off the bat, I think we have a few things to say about Mr. Gallagher, don’t we?
S: Oh we certainly do have a few things to say about this certain “gentleman” alright. Alright so if you’ve noticed on our Season 3 edit for the CWC, you’ll see that Gallagher is not featured on it. Why do you ask? Well during the Speaking Out Movement in June of 2020, countless wrestlers were exposed for being sexual predators, rapists, groomers, pedophiles and abusers. A staggering amount of them came from the UK Indie Scene and one such wrestler who was exposed was one Jack Gallagher. A count of sexual assault at the hands of Gallagher in 2014 was made public in June of last year and since that one brave voice spoke up, several other women have accused Gallagher of multiple cases of sexual misconduct. He owned up to these allegations and was subsequently shitcanned and his scummy ass was shown the door. He’s a fucking piece of shit, fuck him.
JT: Yeah his silly “gentleman” character really doesn’t hold up to a rewatch when you know the things on his permanent record. He claims that only one of the cases against him is true, but even one case of sexual assault is too many. Fucking meathead, wrestling doesn’t need you.
S: What a fucking dumbass, how can you possibly say something that moronic? You own up to a case of sexual assault but try to pass it off as not a big deal because there was only one. To take words from Nigel Pearson, you are a bloody ostrich with your head buried in the sand.
JT: With all that said, I want to emphasize that our review of his match is obviously not an endorsement of his actions or his personal character. Any praise that goes his way is solely going towards the particular performances in this vacuum of the CWC. We don’t want to see him wrestle again, and we both hope that wrestling can forge a community where that sort of behavior is firmly condemned and that the attackers like Gallagher get punished for their actions. But again, we covered Chris Benoit is S1. If you’re on the show, we’re gonna review your match. This retrospective covers everything and everyone in the CWC. If you feel uncomfortable reading about him in any capacity, I don’t blame you, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.
S: Exactly what James said there and as well as that, I don’t feel particularly comfortable talking about him or watching and reviewing his matches so soon after his exposure but we’ve just got to get through this. If you skip ahead, feel free, we do not blame you.
JT: Yeah unfortunately as much as we’d like to take Gallagher, or even the performance of the “Jack Gallagher character” out of wrestling, we can’t. We can always push people still in wrestling out, but we can’t retroactively erase people. Since we can’t remove it, we’re gonna always make sure to bring this stuff up every time we run into someone like Gallagher. Hopefully, wrestlers and wrestling fans will continue to push so that we won’t run into retroactive POS like him when future fans look back at wrestling content from 10-15 years from now.
S: I sure do hope that will be the case by 2030 or 2035 because pieces of shit like Gallagher or any other of those vile assholes in that scene should always have giant asterisks after their names because they shouldn’t be in the record books.
JT: *Sigh* alright let’s buckle down and actually talk about this one, fuck Oliver Claffey. Did you have any prior exposure to him or Fabian Aichner heading into this tournament? Because I can’t say I really saw anything from either guy before this, sans maybe an entrance from Gallagher.
S: Gallagher was someone who I always heard was held in pretty high regard for his old World of Sport style of wrestling and being a throwback in some respects. Aichner, I really didn’t have a notion as to who he was but the fact he was built like a tank and yet he’s a Cruiserweight was enough for me to be interested in what he could do. Also, discovering there was an Italian wrestler really was a surprise so there’s that too.
JT: Yeah the first thing I thought when I saw of Aichner was that he looked like a WCW Power plant product along the lines of Mark Jindrak, Sean O’Haire or Chuck Palumbo, just a few inches shorter and more lean muscles than weird veiny muscles. As you said, he looks like a tank. And then, the first thing I thought after his promo was about wrestling in Italy. I mean in his promo he talks about how he was proud to represent Italy because there isn’t a huge wrestling culture there so there aren’t many places to train. Which when you think about it, is something I never realized but checks out. I mean think about characters like the FBI, Enzo, Cass and Carmella, or Santino Marella. While many members of the FBI like Little Guido/Nunzio had very legitimate Italian heritage, he himself was not Italian. Enzo & Cass & Carmella all come from areas with lots of Italian heritage, but none of them are from Italy. And Santino is in WWE’s record books for “First Italian to do etc.”, but he’s Canadian with Italian heritage. As far as actual pro wrestlers actually from Italy itself, it’s slim pickings.
S: He really does look like he could be part of the Natural Born Thrillers in 2000 WCW when you look at him. I could see him and Mark Jindrak being an absolutely FIRE tag team against The Misfits in Action, Team Canada (not the TNA one) and the Filthy Animals alright. James, I believe you’re forgetting one important Italian wrestler. What about Nashville, Italy’s own Tracy Smothers???
JT: Ahhh, he fought for Italy very proudly, but alas he wasn’t from Italy and I don’t think he was even Italian American from what I can find about him. RIP Tracy Smothers. You’re a legend, Italian or otherwise.
S: Rest in peace, my man. You did Nashville, Italy and Nashville, Italy very proud. Might as well just get through this match then, yeah?
JT: Well before we get to the match, I’d like to point out that Gallagher’s entrance song was 19th Century French Composer Georges Bizet’s “Les Toreadors” aka “The bullfighters”. And to that I say, more wrestlers need to enter classical music! There’s so much of it available in the public domain, and it’s great at getting across an emotion without even saying a word. Like between this and Walter’s Theme song, you can see what I mean. Also, Gallagher’s colorful trunks compared to his extremely pasty complexion really help build him up as a fun, kinda silly character.
S: The trunks are really cool to be fair to him, hate to say it but they’re very snazzy, I like the black with the bright coloured stripes down through them and the wee booties with no knee or elbow pads too, real 30’s circus act vibes off it.
JT: Yeah his whole act has a real “come see the circus” vibe to it doesn’t it?
S: It really does, he looks like he should be an opening act in a Disney style circus or something. He’s the warm up act for Dumbo like.
JT: Yeah he looks like he’s going to lift a barbell with comically large weights on the end. Also he looks a little like Escanor from Seven Deadly Sins. Observe!
S: That is brilliant! Really good should that is and when he lifts a powerlifting bar over his head that is too heavy, he tips over with the bar and gets squashed like Tom in Tom and Jerry.
JT: More slapstick in wrestling!! Like speaking of which, Fabian Aichner. Since he had very little options in Italy for pursuing wrestling, he went to Germany and trained with the Wrights!! Yes those Wrights, as in Das Wunderkind Alex Wright and his father Steven Wright. Man, Alex Wright knew how to play the fool. Quality character, quality wrestler. On the other hand, Gallagher trained at a place with quite the pedigree as well. He learned his grappling skills at the infamous English Snake Pit, where greats like Billy Robinson mastered their craft. Both guys have the ability to do great things, but only one can come out on top, shall we find out who is number 15 out of 16 in Round 2?
S: I think it’s time we shall. Whose training skill is better? Das Wunderkind’s or Billy Robinson’s? Take it away James.
JT: We get a clean handshake as one might expect from “The Gentleman” to kick this one off. As the actual in ring action begins, Aichner is the one who is impressive, as he gets a series of rolls, cartwheels and even a handstand as he relieves the pressure of a wrist lock, goes behind Gallagher and brings him down with an arm drag takedown. Not to be outdone, Gallagher twists himself, goes under the arm of Aichner and reverses the wrist lock after teasing it. After being outdone, Aichner just overpowers Gallagher as he drops a level, gets a Fireman Carry takeover, then locks in a single leg, keeping him on the mat. Still, Gallagher is able to take Aichner down to the mat as he rolls on his back to get his foot free, then uses his feet to trip up Aichner and get him down on the mat. The styles couldn’t be any more opposite, yet somehow similar in purpose. Aichner is flashy and eye-catching, while Gallagher’s escape is just a matter of getting the right footwork and grip.
S: This opening exchange was really the type of real European Wrestling that you’d want to see from these lads. Precise footwork, beautiful reversals and lovely chain wrestling. Really eye catching work from them.
JT: Of course, Gallagher has to show a little flash himself, as he cartwheeled out of Aichner trying to flip him away with his legs. At this point, Gallagher has proven his trickiness, so Aichner is the first one to get physical as he delivers a kick to the gut of Gallagher then hits a shoulder tackle. The pace starts to pick up, Gallagher leaps at him, but Aichner catches his legs, only for Gallagher turns over to his stomach, twists his legs and flips Aichner over to the mat!! A Billy Robinson Classic according to Bryan. Gallagher goes for a Suplex Aichner blocks and opens up on Gallagher with chops, sends him across into the ropes, then hits the ropes and goes for a Springboard Kick though he didn’t get all of it, so only a 2 count. He sends Gallagher across again, but Gallagher leaps over him for a Sunset Flip: 1–2–Aichner turns it to a cover of own: 1–2–Gallagher with a pin, back and forth, continuous kickouts. They are both dizzy getting up, Gallagher charges and gets caught with a Tilt-a-Whirl Backbreaker!! 1–2-Kickout!! With Gallagher down, Aichner signals to the crowd that he’s going to do something crazy, as he goes to the apron, and gets a Double Springboard Moonsault!! 1—2—Kickout!! This for me, was one of the most memorable moves of the whole CWC. Flat out impressive.
S: Yeah for absolutely sure, this spot was fucking glorious to watch. You could watch it again and again, and again and again and again, and again and again and again and again. Simpsons reference for ye all. Seriously though, this was an amazing spot, up there when Brian Cage busted it out at DDT4 in 2012 PWG. An absolute sight to behold.
JT: Being unfamiliar with Aichner ended up being a total benefit just for being so shocking in this moment. I mean I know we kinda saw it in his hype video, but there’s nothing like seeing it actually happen in a match.
S: For sure, it’s one thing when you’re pissing about with crash mats and a wrestling dummy in the PC but doing it in front of an audience is something else and this here was something else.
JT: So as big and awesome as that Moonsault was, he didn’t get the win, so he’s gotta keep fighting. He goes for a Suplex, but Gallagher goes behind, hits two dropkicks then finally knocks him down with a Crossbody!! Gallagher waits for him to get up, runs and gets a Guillotine Choke on!! Gallagher is trained in jiu jitsu and has actual MMA experience, and he had actually won his last MMA fight with a Guillotine!! But Aichner will not go down, instead he powers Gallagher up into a Suplex position, then pops him up into a Sitout Powerbomb!! 1—2—Kickout!! Impressive strength to go with that impressive athleticism!!
S: That Powerbomb was the exact same as Dragon Lee’s finisher but it was a freaking deadlift version of it! Insane strength to put that off.
JT: Yeah it took some real muscle on his part (and probably Gallagher to stay in position to get picked up) but honestly the delay probably gave fans a second to realize what was happening and freak about it.
S: Yeah absolutely, an insane feat of strength on his part, excellent looking Powerbomb.
JT: Still, it didn’t put Gallagher away, so he needs to dig deep and find something that’ll end this bout and move him on to round two. Desperate now, Aichner grounds and pounds on Gallagher which draws the ire of the crowd, but he pays them no mind as he did it to set up Gallagher. Gallagher is down flat as he goes up to the top rope and leaps for a Frog Splash, but no water in the pool!! Gallagher moved out of the way!! Aichner hits hard off the canvas and now it’s potentially Gallagher’s chance to put this match away. He pounces on the opportunity with a Headbutt, knocking Aichner all the way back into the corner. With him stunned there, Gallagher lines him up, charges on and scores a picture perfect Corner Dropkick right to the face of Aichner!! The Italian crumples to the mat, Gallagher makes the cover: 1—2—3!! Jack Gallagher is moving on to round two!!
S: To give another devil their undeserved due in Gallagher, this was a pretty good match. Aichner is an insanely talented wrestler and his power moves were a great addition in this match. Some beautiful moves like some of the chain wrestling by both of these lads, Aichner’s Double Springboard Moonsault, his Sit-Out Powerbomb and Gallagher’s Corner Dropkick, shades of Dave England from Jackass with that one. A brilliant combination of high-flying, technical, striking and power moves in this match. It had a bit of everything really, I think Aichner should be used in a more prominent role in my opinion, I just think he has all the tools to be a very solid upper mid-carder who you could slot into a quick main event programme not gonna lie, really wish he would’ve been used in this tournament as the powerhouse monster.
JT: Yeah I thought this l was one of the best paced matches of this whole tournament to this point, they made every second count to do something impressive or interesting. Both guys did a real great job here getting over their individual talents while still having a compelling match. As for Aichner, like you said he flashed a ton of potential in this match, he was probably one of the first round eliminations I remembered most. Again you bust out those big moves he did, you’re gonna make an impact. Shall we talk about how his career has gone in the past few years since the CWC?
S: Yes we shall, enlighten me James because his career since the CWC has been rather interesting in the best way since this tournament.
JT: So after the CWC, Aichner would work the European indies a little, clearly having improved his place on the card thanks to his CWC exposure. Why do I say that? Well over the course of the summer and fall, he would challenge for IPW’s All England Title, the Future Shock Wrestling Title, OTT No Limits Title at OTT Extreme Supershow 2 against Pete Dunne (and featuring Marty “Fuck that Guy” Scurll) and finally to close out the year, a Progress World Title shot against Pete Dunne at Progres Chapter 41. Though he wouldn’t win those belts, he was still getting high profile opportunities. That included matches against Joe Coffey, James Drake, Zack Gibson, and against the team of Jordan Devlin & Sean Guinness alongside Dave Mastiff. Goes to show that even for the guys who didn’t get signed, being in the CWC was a boost to your stock, at least for a short time.
S: Yeah I remember seeing him and Petiot getting booked a fair bit in those bigger European promotions for the rest of 2016 alright. That slight bit of a WWE stigma attached to your name off the back of a brilliant effort in one match did wonders for him.
JT: Unlike Petiot though, Aichner would eventually get another call from WWE. By June 2017, he had signed a developmental contract and was part of NXT. His debut came in a losing effort against Kassius Ohno in September of that year, but in November he picked up the first big win of his career, scoring an upset against Johnny Gargano. Remember that, during Gargano’s losing streak gimmick after the DIY split up? What a case of right place, right time for Aichner am I right? Like he was absolutely the right guy for the role. He was new and unproven enough for his win to be shocking, but he’s impressive enough for it to not be a total burial of Gargano.
S: I remember that match very vividly, they were getting over the fact that Gargano was still shook following TakeOver: Chicago, I did like that to be honest with ya. The reason that the upset win was good as well was because he is a believable threat to any wrestler, especially Gargano given their size difference. I do remember them not doing a whole lot with him afterwards though, NXT must’ve thought he just needed to EVOLVE in some ways…
JT: Yeah you’d expect a win like that to really kickstart his NXT run but that win wasn’t quite the breakthrough you might expect, as his last televised match of 2018 would be losing to NXT Champion Andrade “Cien Almas”, and then he would spend the first half of 2018 losing to Roderick Strong, Ricochet and EC3. Elsewhere in WWE, NXT UK began in 2018 and by fall Aichner would make his way over there, having 3 matches and winning 2. But by the end of September, something even stranger would happen, NXT would invade American Indy company Evolve!! I mean, WWE had a working relationship with Evolve, but it was “an Invasion” of sorts. What did that mean for Aichner? Well as you alluded, he’d have a big role in this storyline. After all, he’d only defeat Shane Strickland to become Evolve Champion at Evolve 114!! He’d even manage to defend the title against Kassius Ohno before dropping it to Austin Theory at Evolve 117. Fun fact, I went to Evolve 118!! So uhhh, weird stuff right, this whole Evolve/NXT crossover?
S: Yeah I remember hearing about the Evolve shows the invasion angle of sorts was in swing and seeing Aichner wearing jeans after winning the Evolve Title sure was an absolute sight to behold, that and the Street Profits being Evolve Tag Champs too, very strange times. If only Evolve fans knew what the fate of the company was going to be.
JT: It’s so odd because Evolve was struggling to retain relevance around this time, so you got a boost for that with the invasion, but the guys who invaded wildly varied. On one hand, guys like Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno and even Mustafa Ali showed up!! Obviously indy fans would love them. Then you have the middle ground of guys who had potential but whose NXT run hadn’t totally taken off yet, like Aichner and the Street Profits. Not exactly blockbuster names at the time, but you could see why them showing up made sense. But then you had like Arturo Ruas and Dan Matha show up, which feels like nobody would care about. And I know you through less polished guys out there to improve, but like, this angle lasted all of like 6-7 shows max and the less polished guys got like 1-2 appearances max. What makes this stuff funnier in hindsight was one of Evolve’s top title contenders, Darby Allin & Shane Strickland. Now we know Darby as an AEW guy and Strickland as NXT Isaiah “Swerve” Scott (congrats on the NA Title win Swerve!!). So it’s just funny to see Swerve face off against guys who would someday become his NXT colleagues, while we now have an odd assortment of matches that some might consider “Dream Matches” for an AEW/WWE crossover like Strong vs Allin or Ali vs Allin.
S: Holy shit! Could you imagine the selling that Darby would do for Strong’s Backbreakers and the End of Heartache? Fucking hell I wanna see that match happen now!
JT: Well I can tell you from experience, that he did a good job selling the moves. After all, Strong vs Allin was my semi-main event match of the night! Here’s a shitty iPhone picture I took during the entrances as proof!!
S: Nice one! What an experience that must’ve been to see live, I got to see Darby live too against a shithead who I refuse to mention but seeing him against Roddy? That’s well cool, is that when Strong was NXT Tag Champ with Kyle when Fish was injured by any chance?
JT: It is!! Just in general, the show is the weirdest wrestling thing I’ve been to. Not necessarily because of the content of the show, but rather the content in hindsight. People on the show aside from Darby & Roddy included Curt Stallion, Anthony Greene (formerly WWE’s August Gray), BSHP King (who has done some enhancement matches on AEW Dark), Priscilla Kelly, Shotzi Blackheart, JD Drake (also has done AEW Dark enhancement matches), Eddie Kingston, Street Profits, Austin Theory, AR Fox, Leon Ruff, Anthony Henry (NXT’s Asher Hale) and Kassius Ohno. What an odd assortment of talent, am I right?
S: That really is a pick and mix of all the indie wrestlers who have been snatched up by WWE and AEW over the last few years, isn’t it? All except for AR Fox, one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world if you ask me.
JT: At this point, I feel like he’s gotta be Fox himself, like he enjoys working the indies and being able to decide his schedule or he doesn’t want to sign a contract and be tied down or something like that. Otherwise, I just don’t see what WWE and AEW or even like ROH or the NWA or MLW don’t see!! Then again, he hasn’t had a match since late 2020, but he might be injured. Point is, he’s good and consistently seeing him is a good thing, Lucha Underground understood that!!
S: Yeah for real, Season 3 of Lucha Underground him and Killshot (Swerve) were legit some the fucking MVP’s of that season. Back to Aichner though! What’s he been at since his dizzying highs of being on top of a dying Evolve?
JT: Yeah so back to the man of the hour, Fabian Aichner. At around the same time of his Evolve Title run, he would also form a tag team with Marcel Barthe on NXT UK, dubbed the “European Union” since Aichner is Italian and Barthel is German. This would lead to more consistent television appearances for the two across early 2019, though they often were defeated by more experienced teams such as Mustache Mountain, Burch & Lorcan, and the Street Profits. But the biggest moment of Aichner’s career would come on May 22nd 2019, when he and Barthel interfered in an NXT UK Title match between Walter and Pete Dunne. What’s their business there? Well, unbeknownst to Dunne, they’re Walter’s buddies. The two would join with Walter to form Imperium, the dominating force of NXT UK, playing off of Barthel & Walter’s WXW History with the “Ringkampf” faction, and dragging Aichner in alongside them. Walter is the longest reigning NXT UK Champion of all time at an astounding 800+ Day reign, mostly due to his imposing size and strength but also to the aid from Aichner and Barthel, and later addition Alexander Wolfe. In Imperium, Aichner would win a much more of his matches, and have more high profile bouts including NXT UK Tag Title shots, a Quarterfinals Appearance in the 2019 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, an 8 Man Tag Match on Monday Night Raw against Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and the Street Profits, and involvement in a tag team battle royale on the kickoff show for Survivor Series 2019. The highlight of his career though came just last year, as Imperium won the NXT Tag Team Championships!! With Pete Dunne stuck in England, Timothy Thatcher subbed in for the reigning Champs The Broserweights, and when miscommunications led Thatcher to leave Matt Riddle high and dry, Imperium capitalized and won. They would hold the belts for 105 Days before losing them on NXT TV to Breezango. Most recently, Imperium cut the fat from their lineup by kicking out Alexander Wolfe for his weakness, and with that showing of strength I believe Aichner will remain a fixture of the NXT and NXT UK midcard, being a scrappy and dangerous fighter whenever it benefits him and whenever it benefits the rest of Imperium. His most recent match was with Barthel in a losing effort against Breezango on the June 15th episode of NXT. You’d think that since Breezango were out the door, Aichner & Barthel might win their match, but that goes to show that main branch WWE has prioritized other things over checking in with NXT Creative. But that’s another topic entirely, it’s nice to see that Aichner has finally gotten himself a solidified role in NXT.
S: He certainly seems to have found his role in NXT alright, albeit the creative team there is certainly not what it really used to be, the back end of 2019 and throughout 2020 there were some glaring problems I found with the product in all honesty. Like every single Tag Title reign since UE’s last run and with MSK’s win was forgettable, Broserweights definitely could’ve gone somewhere but the pandemic struck. Imperium did fuck all with it, as happy as I was to see Breeze and Fandango finally get their rewards for being brilliant, they still didn’t do shit with them, Burch and Lorcan held the belts for a spell on were in Wargames as champs but they never defended them on a TakeOver like. Finally with MSK they have champions who feel like they’re a top team and they have faith in them, good because they’re an elite level tag team. Question for you James, since TakeOver Portland and until MSK won the belts, how many times were the NXT Tag Titles defended on a TakeOver?
JT: From your assessment, I’m gonna guess once? Like Burch & Lorcan probably had a match against someone, but that’s probably it.
S: Oof, this is gonna be awkward. There were five TakeOver events between Portland and Stand and Deliver. Those were In Your House, 30, 31, WarGames and Vengeance Day. The NXT Tag Titles were defended a whopping number of, ZERO TIMES. No Tag Title matches on a TakeOver for 14 fucking months!
JT: Jeez Louise!! I mean, I know having weekly TV, and weekly TV where you’re trying to get a rating, means you’ve gotta put some title matches on free TV but come on!! NXT’s Tag Titles are directly responsible for some of the best opening matches in history, and some of the best NXT match periods. DIY vs The Revival, American Alpha vs The Revival, Undisputed Era vs Burch & Lorcan, UE vs Mustache Mountain, War Raiders vs Ricochet & Aleister Black, Broserweights vs Fish & O’Reilly!! Really up until the pandemic, the Tag Titles were guaranteed to deliver great matches!!
S: Exactly! Like they were probably the most consistently good title matches that you’d get on a TakeOver card. If there’s a Tag Title match on any TakeOver from when The Revival got them in late 2015 until TakeOver: Portland, chances are that the matches are absolute bangers. Like the NXT Title has the most prestige but there’s been quite a few forgettable NXT Title matches, let’s be honest here.
JT: Yeah, NXT Title matches have had some not so great challengers *cough* LARS SULLIVAN *cough* and has also gotten bogged down occasionally with big gimmick matches. But barring the occasional ladder match, the tag titles got essentially 15 minutes to work with at the start of the show almost every time. And almost every time, they delivered. Here’s hoping when proper NXT Takeovers come back, they go back to basics and give them tag team wrestlers a chance to start the shows off hot.
S: Absolutely and I think once you get MSK out there in front of a proper audience, you’re gonna have fans going mental in my opinion.
JT: I’m sure when they come back, we’ll get to see Aichner go all out and kick ass for the tag belts, whether that be in the States of the UK.
S: I sure hope so because Aichner fucking rules to be honest.
—————————————————
The Prologue
JT: Now it’s time to move on to our main event, the final match of round one!! And realistically, the biggest match of round one!! It’s two NXT familiar faces squaring off!! It’s Johnny Gargano going one on one against his tag team partner, Tommaso Ciampa!!
S: This match was literally the biggest deal to me at the time, it was the tag team who had become my favourites so quickly in such a short space of time facing off against each other in Round One. Even with the promo package for this one, it’s just presented as a match which completely dwarfs every match in terms of its importance.
JT: Yeah every other match in this tournament was booked as either “You don’t know either of these guys, time to learn about who they are” or “You know one of these guys, time for them to show off why they’re good” but this is two established names to the WWE audience, especially at Full Sail. Instead of doing one person at a time, this promo focuses on both guys at once. Johnny had been a singles wrestler his whole career, teaming with Tommaso was the first time he’d ever been thrust into a tag team, and things just clicked instantly. Tommaso is going to be at Johnny’s wedding in the fall, and Johnny says that might even talk to Tommaso more than his fiancée. At the end of the day though, they’re both competitors, when they go one on one, they’ll shake hands and then they’ll see who comes out on top, because you fight family harder than anyone. Tommaso says he doesn’t hit with the intent to injure, but he does hit with the intent to hurt and he will hit with the intent to hurt Johnny because he doesn’t want to lose. In the end, may the best man win. So we both knew these two guys were heading into this match, but I got to ask, were you familiar with either guy before they got to WWE?
S: Yes I certainly was, I discovered who Johnny Gargano was through PWG highlights videos and was completely blown away by his moveset and how unique it was, I also liked his gear from what I remember. I recall him being someone who clicked with me to the point where I’d check out as many free matches as I could with him, even if it were on the old dodgy streams if ya catch my drift. Ciampa on the other hand I had gotten to know through PWG in some way but mostly through Ring of Honor and his Psycho Killer persona that he did in 2013-2015, always felt like he never got his full due in ROH to be honest, it always seemed he was in the top heel role beneath Adam Cole and maybe Jay Lethal during his TV Title run at that time and was underneath like all of the faces that were being pushed. Jay Briscoe, Michael Elgin and maybe even Hanson who was being pushed until Ray Rowe came back. He caught my eye from his look really and seeing him in a face team really took me by surprise at first.
JT: Yeah I was in the same sort of boat. I knew Ciampa from his days in ROH, and he also lost in the first round for the 2014 BOLA to Michael Elgin. Gargano was someone I had seen a few matches from, as in the same tournament Gargano made it all the way to Finals, beating Chuck Taylor, Candice LeRae and Trevor Lee before losing to Ricochet. But aside from that, I hadn’t seen much of Johnny….before NXT when they started teaming up. I was equally surprised by Ciampa being a non-psycho face. By the way, Seán!! How about I run down their NXT run to this point?
S: Absolutely! Let’s hear what these boys had been up to.
JT: On September 9th 2015, Ciampa & Gargano were seen in William Regal’s office, having been entered into the first ever Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic as free agents to fill out the tournament. However, the two managed to upset established NXT competitors Tyler Breeze & Bull Dempsey in the first round, before losing to the team of Rhino & Baron Corbin in Round 2. Despite their upset win though, they wouldn’t be a major part of NXT TV during the rest of 2015 and even into very early 2016, mostly just having impressive showings in defeat against more established NXT Talent like Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin, Tyler Breeze or American Alpha. Meanwhile, the two would also continue having matches on the indies both on their own, and as a duo, including a pair of matches in PWG, one against The Young Bucks for the PWG Tag Titles and one against the Unbreakable F’N Machines (Michael Elgin & Brian Cage), both in losing efforts. Man Young Bucks vs Gargano & Ciampa, what a dream match that would be for many people by like, 2018!
S: DIY against Young Bucks in 2018? Boy that would be a surefire banging match if there ever would be one. How about when they finally showed up in NXT properly though? What did they get up to from the Spring until the Summer?
JT: So after sort of milling around and being beaten a bunch in late 2015 early 2016, the two quickly began to build up some steam, with Ciampa defeating the likes of Danny Burch, Bull Dempsey and Jesse Sorenson, while Gargano picked up a solo win against Elias Samson. Then in a return to tag action in April, the two knocked off former NXT Tag Champions The Vaudevillains on NXT. This would begin a string of victories against Danny Burch & Rob Ryzin, then the more impressive trio of TM-61 (Nick Miller & Shane Thorne), The Revival, and The Hype Bros. That victory against The Revival proved to be their biggest, as Dash & Dawson would win back their NXT Tag Team Titles less than a week later, making Gargano & Ciampa the #1 Contenders. Though the CWC was filmed 2 months before it actually aired, by the time this aired, Gargano and Ciampa would only be 2 weeks away from challenging for those Tag Titles at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II. It took a little time before they properly got their run but when they got their run they were off to the races. And to top it all off, I’ve got a fun fact! Did you know that despite both men being long time independent wrestlers, neither man had any prior experience teaming with each other on the Indies. Like from what I could find on Cagematch, I couldn’t even find one tag match together, Can you believe that? Only like 8 months of a run together and they became one of the hottest tag teams in wrestling!!
S: It’s absolutely mental how quickly they clicked as a tag team really, like they just got each other and started acting like a team so early into their run. It’s got to be one of the best examples of a makeshift tag team actually working, this may be a slightly hot take but I’d say they’re up there with The Hollywood Blonds as a makeshift team working so well so quickly.
JT: Yeah, I mean like look at Lorcan & Burch as a makeshift team. Like they didn’t have any experience together as a team, they got paired together in late 2017 and got a big title match against Strong & O’Reilly by June 2018. But even their title match was what really cemented their place as a solid tag team, whereas Gargano & Ciampa were off to the races almost immediately. Which is no slight as Burch & Lorcan, they’re great, just goes to show how Gargano & Ciampa was just a lightning in a bottle pairing.
S: They really were and that really doesn’t get enough attention in all honesty because of the years that have followed in their careers since 2016.
JT: Also I just want to give some props for booking this match in the first round. First of all, like we mentioned before, this is a big proper main event match to close out the first round. Second, you can’t have boy guys in this tournament if you don’t have them face each other in my opinion. Like one of the key elements of their tag team is the fact that Johnny & Tommaso are just different guys with different styles. If they hadn’t put them against each other, then it just becomes a game of “Figure out how many matches each guy will win until they face each other”. By booking it here, you cut right to the good stuff and save the bracket from predictability.
S: For sure, the fact that the meeting of the tag team partners happens right at the close of the first chapter of the CWC gives it a real air of unpredictability because one is going to advance and one of them, who would each be favourites on paper, are going to fall at the first hurdle. Brilliant booking.
JT: To add to the whole affair, they get another pre-match promo, with both men taking the interview together. Gargano says it doesn’t matter that Ciampa is his tag team partner and like a brother to him, when they face off he’ll see just another guy, it’s win or go home, and Johnny Wrestling ain’t ready to go home. Ciampa says all he ever hears is “Johnny Wrestling”. Johnny may have called him “just another guy” but after tonight he’ll not only be The Guy to knock him out of the Cruiserweight Classic, he’ll be the guy who hurt him. Johnny out first, getting a nice reception. Tommaso walks straight to the ring, he’s all business. They both get nice receptions, but before we get to the match, I wanna ask you about that Johnny Gargano theme. What do you think of it?
S: It’s pretty much the prototype theme to his ‘Rebel Heart’ song mixed with elements of his DIY theme song, a cool hybrid I may say, the only time a mash up of sorts works. I think it’s a cool song but it is very much a “CWC only” theme song, not in a disrespectful way by any means. I like it.
JT: Yeah it’s very much a little extra bonus for everyone who watched the CWC. Shhhh we’ve got a secret Johnny Gargano theme, don’t tell anyone. Also, I just wanted to add, love when a theme song evolves over the years. You’ve got Johnny as a good example, The Rock especially has that, you can look at Stone Cold as well. And hell, usually I’m a fan of tweaks of an original too, like Shinsuke Nakamura’s rap theme or Batista going from the starter version of his theme to the final form I Walk Alone.
Honestly something that never sits right with me is when someone’s theme song changes, seemingly for no reason. Like there are a lot of valid reasons to change your theme. Face/Heel turn like Gargano has had, returning from injury like Edge, getting a push like John Cena going to My Time is Now, or a complete repackage like Seth Rollins becoming “The Messiah”. Hell, his new theme works for me because it’s a new run since coming back in January. But what I don’t like is when someone just changes their theme just because the office is tired of it or they have a new band, stuff like that. I think a lot of guys in WWE suffer from that now, you can’t get accustomed to their songs that way!!
S: I completely agree with you there and that’s a problem which Jim Johnston has with the current music in WWE, the problem with it is that you can’t become gravitated towards a certain wrestler with some of their themes and a lot of the time they just change their theme songs for no reason whatsoever, theme songs need to change for a reason, not just because they feel like doing so.
JT: It’s especially rough for guys who just debut, because you need something to hang on to. But that’s enough about that, shall we get into our final first round match?
S: Let’s fucking do it! I’m so fucking jazzed to talk about this one.
JT: Before the bell, Ciampa seems sort of reluctant to shake Gargano’s hand, but he shakes it away, as almost immediately we get dueling chants of “Johnny Wrestling/Psycho Killer”. The crowd is just high energy from the start. Johnny takes down Tommaso and yells “Johnny Wrestling” right as we start off, he reverses a Hip Toss into an Arm Drag, holding on and bringing him to the mat for a crucifix pin, but Ciampa kicks out at one. Ciampa pops up to his feet, but runs right into another arm drag, Ciampa gets a Headscissor reversal to get Johnny off him, they both get up, Gargano with another arm drag as he’s just got Ciampa’s goat early. Gargano has a hammerlock in, but Ciampa with a huge back elbow that knocks the slobber from Johnny’s mouth, as he then throws Johnny to the apron and then rams him with a knee to the face to knock Gargano to the floor. We’ve got the tone set early on. Gargano seems to be the nicer of the two, with superior mat wrestling skills, but Ciampa is not afraid to hit Johnny with his hardest shots and almost seems hesitant to even regard Johnny like his friend.
S: I love how their tag team dynamic is shown in a singles match between these lads, clearly showing that Gargano is the better pure, technical wrestler while Ciampa has never lost his mean streak and is just not holding back at all with his strikes. It’s showing that the evilness in Ciampa is almost being held back due to his tag team affiliation.
JT: Yeah this version of Ciampa is very interesting. Because on one hand, he’s quite clearly a very brutal competitor, and like he said himself, he swings with the intent to hurt. Then again, it’s a fighting competition, and though he’s hitting his partner here HARD, according to Ciampa he’s just treating Johnny like everyone else. So I’d argue that you can’t even call Ciampa “evil” or “mean spirited”, he doesn’t seem to have any malice behind what he’s doing, he just believes in fighting hard and fighting to win. Then again, this idea becomes sort of undone as he chops Gargano across the chest and mocks “Johnny Wrestling”. I can’t act like that’s not specifically aimed at Johnny’s pain. From there he lays Gargano flat across the apron, runs and hits a knee to the head!! He rolls him in, 1–2–Kickout!! Man those Ciampa knees, they pack a wallop don’t they?
S: He surely fucking whacks whoever takes those knees, good lord. Those are some fucking mean ass knees. With what you just reeled off therefore, it’s as if we’re almost getting the foundation for what is to come for these two lads in about nine or ten months, especially for what Ciampa’s character will be in the future.
JT: I agree, especially as Ciampa slows down the match with a chin lock, effectively making Gargano the babyface who has to make the comeback. He does so with chops and elbows, he ducks between the ropes, but Ciampa slows him down with a single elbow after multiple Gargano shots. Ciampa goes to the second rope to try and bring him back in, but Gargano slips his legs out from under him to hang him up in the corner, then he nails an Enziguri to his face!! Ciampa falls down and is right where Gargano wants him, stalking him from the apron before he comes back in with the Slingshot DDT, 1—2—Kickout!! Honestly I think it’s kinda funny that it took this move as long as it did to become John Boy’s finished, right? Like it’s clearly an impressive move, yet he never used it really as a finisher on the Indies (I believe) and he didn’t use it as a finisher until a number of months into his singles run.
S: I never understood why it was never a finisher in the first place, the move is a thing of beauty if you ask me. It looks great and the way he just slings himself in before hitting it is very nice. I’m happy it’s a finisher now because it’s too flashy to be a near fall move.
JT: Yeah, the now named “One Last Beat” is a pretty smashing finisher if you ask me. And plus now that he’s heel, it’s a good way to win matches without having everyone tap out.
S: Very true and I always think that a wrestler who has a submission as their finisher should always have a finish where it involves pinning your opponent, especially if you’re a face.
JT: So after the DDT didn’t put Ciampa away, Johnny goes for something more drastic. He has Ciampa over his shoulder, potentially for the Lawn Dart, but Ciampa slips free and lifts Johnny onto his shoulder as he runs back at him. He climbs to the second rope, potentially for an Air Raid Crash, but Gargano gets free and goes for a Sunset Flip Powerbomb. Ciampa holds onto the turnbuckle for dear life and begins to rain punches down on Johnny, so Johnny stops trying to go for the Powerbomb and instead tucks Ciampa’s head in the corner so he can Superkick him!! From there, he follows up with a running powerbomb!! Ciampa rolls to the floor, Johnny follows him out with Suicide Dive!! Gargano sends him back in the ring, goes to the apron and launches himself in for the Slingshot Spear, but Ciampa nails him right in the face with a Knee!!!! This match has some great spots and memorable moments, but I think I can safely say that the knee Ciampa just delivered is the standout moment of their first encounter against each other. Would you agree?
S: Yeah I’d say so to be honest, the way he just flies at him with that knee when he’s about to do his Slingshot Spear is just beautiful brutality. We mentioned Ciampa’s knees being his weapon of choice earlier but man, this knee especially had some force behind it, this spot was an excellent counter to a cool move with a brutal strike. Awesome spot.
JT: Yeah what I think really gets me about this spot is how Gargano completely commits to his move, like he just throws himself face first into the knee. Like there’s very little safety with this, he’s gotta put his hands up and he’s gotta hope he doesn’t go too far and that Ciampa doesn’t come too close with his knee. So when a brutal counter like that happens on a move that is usually pretty safe in its execution, it’s really out there.
S: Yeah that was very fucking willing of John Boy to throw himself into what could’ve possibly been a dodgy spot with anyone he would be facing for the first time but the fact he’s doing this spot with Ciampa shows that there is real trust between the two lads.
JT: Ciampa covers off that huge knee, 1—-2—Kickout!! Somehow, that didn’t put him away! Johnny is still dazed though, so Ciampa tries to lift him up but Gargano blocks and spins out with a punch, only to get a High Knee to the face!! Ciampa pulls him in and picks him up for a Powerbomb, but Gargano gets free and lands on his feet, nailing with him an Enziguri!! Both men roll to the apron and begin trading shots. Johnny seems to have gotten the advantage with 3 chops in a row, but Ciampa nails a boot to the face, picks him up, and then drops him on the hardest part of the ring with the Air Raid Crash!! He rolls him back in, 1—2——Kickout!!! So with the Ciampa/Gargano feud, and even just wrestling from a few years ago, there are things that they do that might seem overplayed nowadays. Apron spots, in my opinion, are one of them. I feel like things have been toned down somewhat, but that might be because I’m less inclined to watch weekly wrestling. But it felt like every episode of NXT & AEW had at least one apron bump, if not every match that wanted to feel “big” across Raw, SD, NXT, AEW, ROH, PWG, even New Japan got in on it. But I will say this, back when this match happened, being dropped right on the “hardest part of the thing” was much less common than it became. I’d say Kevin Owens powerbombing Sami Zayn on the apron back in 2014 really brought it into the mainstream, then this match and others like it made it a trend.
S: Yeah back when Kevin Owens was Kevin Steen in his illustrious career before WWE really brought the whole apron spot to light with Zayn’s best friend, El Generico. I think at this point in time, the ring apron spot was still treated like a big enough deal but I’d say but mid-2018, definitely played out in my opinion.
JT: At this point, it was a surprise if the apron spot didn’t finish a match. Now, I don’t even expect them to finish a match, even if it’s like a Canadian Destroyer on the apron. One of the reasons why I don’t like stuff like that is because it makes wrestling more predictable and it just makes it harder for wrestlers to raise the stakes. Like if you save apron spots for big matches, it’ll mean more when they happen. Again to talk about KO, him Powerbombing Sami like that horrified me, because the apron was such a no go zone otherwise. Furthermore, if you protect actually using the apron spots, when someone actually kicks out of it afterwards, it means more. Otherwise it becomes just another spot, like the Superplex or the DDT.
S: Yeah the apron spot and the Canadian Destroyer are definitely two of the most bastardised spots in the last decade of wrestling really, Canadian Destroyer ON the apron? How the hell is that not the finisher of all finishers?
JT: Because wrestling! So off the big fall on the apron, Ciampa rolls him in and looks to end things as pulls down his knee pads. However, for the first time in this match, he seems to have a moment of indecision about hurting his tag partner, and pulls them back up. He runs back at Johnny for the knee but gets a Superkick, only to turn and respond with a Clothesline! He picks him up, gets him on his shoulders, and drives him down with Project Ciampa!! Lungblower Powerbomb!! 1——2———KICKOUT!!! Big shocked face from Ciampa! First off, Project Ciampa? Sick move. Secondly, what did you think of the knee pad change of heart moment? Finally, did you think Project Ciampa would end the match? Because I know I did.
S: I really liked that Ciampa had a change of heart when he was about to knee him into oblivion because I’d say that with the amount of knees he’s done, maybe one more might be one too many if you get where I’m coming from? As far as the use of Project Ciampa? I was completely convinced that was the finish to this match because that had been established for a good two or so years as Ciampa’s super finish so seeing Gargano kick out of it was a big shock. You hear that SHO, do ya? I think you’re good and all but quit robbing the Project Ciampa and Lumbar Check and just using them as a throwaway move. YOH Gang or No Gang to be honest.
JT: First off, YOH rules. Secondly, I liked the kneepad spot. It shows that deep down, some part of the “Psycho Killer” persona is just that, a persona. Some part of him cannot separate his in-ring career from his outside the ring life. Deep down, he doesn’t actually want to hurt Johnny…..at least right now. Which is a nice bit of depth. And yeah, after having Project Ciampa as his finisher for the last few years and busting it out for the first time in WWE, I thought I’d be the end for sure. But the match continues! And just in time for one of my favorite Daniel Bryan lines this whole round, “Chop to the face!! He just chopped him in the face!!” Ciampa, as you might guess, Chopped Gargano on the face. Ciampa pulls Gargano up to finish him off, but Gargano punches him right in the face!! Ciampa responds with multiple slaps, then he rips off the elbow pad for a Discus Elbow, but Johnny ducks and gets a Backslide, only for Ciampa to roll through to his feet and go for the Fujiwara Armbar, but Johnny turns it into a Crucifix Pin!! 1——2——3!!! Johnny Gargano gets the win in a flash, and moves on!!
S: Where do I even begin with this match? I think a good place to start off with is that this match fucking ruled and the crowd ate up every little bit of it. The story going into it was intriguing where Ciampa is gonna fight hard like he always does and that Gargano is going to go into the match just like every other match. The respect was there from the start and the story played into the match, the arsenal of moves on display from both lads was just brilliant, it flowed really well. The clash of styles with Ciampa’s striking and John Boy’s more flashy, technical style really created an interesting affair. The commentary from Mauro and Bryan, and the Bryanism to boot made this as big of a deal as portrayed in the ring. The closing sequence with the change of heart, the near fall from Project Ciampa and the Bridging Fujiwara Armbar reversed into the Crucifix Pin, mwah! The fact it finished with a sudden pin made sense because the other shouldn’t have to beat them outright, the more sudden, the better for a match between two tag partners. Loved it!
JT: Let’s be real, this was always going to be the best match of the first round. Two guys who have incredible chemistry, who already have a story coming in, and have a longer match than anyone else? C’mon, it was always going to be good. Revisiting this, I know that the rest of their series might be more controversial but this is pretty obviously very good.
S: I think when you mention that the rest of the series is controversial, I feel that we do need to dwell on it a bit, not overly, I think that’s possibly a story for another day for us but with the rest of their series. I’d argue that the first two matches they have in the actual rivalry are great. The first one is amazing in my opinion anyways and the second one is still great. I’d like to argue that the point where it fell off was when the match at TakeOver: Brooklyn IV was supposed to involve Aleister Black originally but he suffered a groin injury and had to get his Tommy Testicle removed. I like to think that if the triple threat went ahead as planned, the feud would’ve been saved. The match at Brooklyn is where it took a dip.
JT: Yeah I think that’s definitely something to keep in mind for future stories. Oh, and before we get into that blood feud, we should address the stuff that happens after this match. So after losing, Ciampa slams on the mat in frustration afterwards. Gargano offers his hand to Ciampa, and Tommaso seems to really deliberate about it. In fact, Tommaso actually walks away and steps through the ropes to the apron. But then, Tommaso comes back in and hugs it out with Johnny sitting down next to him. And I know this sort of stuff seems trite and played out in 2021, but honestly I feel like you very rarely got that sort of tender embrace at this time.
S: Oh no, definitely not at this time because this is the few year period of every Tom, Dick and Harry desperately wanting to be the cool heel or the face that’s too cool to embrace and show some emotion so seeing these two sitting in the ring having a friendly hug was very nice, a lovely way to close out the first round.
JT: So uhhh, before we wrap up the first round, I would normally say we look at Tommaso’s career since the CWC, but you had a proposition didn’t you?
S: I did indeed. So since everyone that’s reading this probably knows that Tommaso and Johnny’s careers are so intrinsically linked to the point where doing the five years later on Tommaso wouldn’t make sense unless we did both members of DIY at once when or even if Johnny gets eliminated, he may win the whole thing! Who knows? So the plan is to do both of these guys at once and it’s gonna be a long old segment because their careers since this tournament are extremely storied to say the least.
JT: Boy Tommaso is gonna feel real silly when he’s out in the first round and Gargano goes on to win the whole thing, am I right?
S: Oh you bet he is, he’s gonna be a real silly Sally at the end of this one, you know what you’ve got to do, time traveling John Boy from 2016. Win the tournament! Actually don’t, you’ll be stuck on Raw and be forced to endure bad crowds, bad creative and Enzo Amore.
—————————————————
Powering Down
JT: So just like that, we’ve got Round One in the books!!
S: 32 competitors, 16 matches, 16 winners across two reviews of eight matches each. A truly fun time we’ve been having with this one so far, don’t you think?
JT: For sure!! It’s been a whopper of a time for the first round, 4 episodes of just great wrestling!!
S: And there’s plenty more to come and perhaps a bonus of sorts… But before all of that, how about we do our awards for the First Round of the Cruiserweight Classic. James! Your Match of the Round and MVP?
JT: Well how about you give yours first, and then I hit you with my list of every match and every competitor from worst to best!!
S: Oh damn, son! You’re about to drop the list of all lists already? Well, just give me a few moments to think about these awards and we can cut to some sort of commercial for Wolf Cola or something.
Thanks to Mr. Frank Reynolds for sponsoring The Power Hour with Wolf Cola, the official soft drink of this show.
*whispers off camera* Jaysus this tastes like fucking kerosene.
Anywayyyyys, my Match of the Round award! There’s a fair few honourable mentions I’ll give out for this one. Ibushi vs Maluta, Petiot vs Alexander, TJP vs Da Mack, Mustafa Ali vs Lince Dorado, Brian Kendrick vs Raul Mendoza, Swann vs Jason Lee and Gallagher vs Aichner to say a few which stuck out to me but honestly the Match of the Round for me has got to be Gargano vs Ciampa, call me biased because I’m a Gargano fan but if you watch Episodes 1 through 4 you’ll understand why it’s the best, I loved Mendoza vs Kendrick and Ali vs Lince as much as anyone else but this match had everything you’d want in a tournament match. As far as my MVP goes, I think I’m gonna have to go with my man, THE Brian Kendrick on this one. I thought his character shone through the most of the sixteen matches we covered, I feel like his pacing and timing of his match with Mendoza was just spot on and really looked like a veteran. As well as that, his story and the way it was executed in Round One helped massively too.
JT: Alright my turn, I’ll start off with the first half of my match rankings. Here is 16-9. 16. Anthony Bennett vs Tony Nese
15. Drew Gulak vs Harv Sihra
14. Akira Tozawa vs Kenneth Johnson
13. Noam Dar vs Gurv Sihra
12. Zack Sabre Jr vs Tyson Dux
11. Hoho Lun vs Ariya Daivari
10. Rich Swann vs Jason Lee
9. Gran Metalik vs Alejandro Saez
How’s that sound to you?
S: That sounds about right to me, I think I may have had Hoho Lun vs Ariya Daivari lower than you but that’s just me. Bennett vs Nese being the bottom match is totally understandable considering how much it fell off at the end and given that none of the other matches suffered in the end, I’d have to agree with you.
JT: And here’s the rest!
8. TJ Perkins vs Da Mack
7. Tajiri vs Damian Slater
6. Jack Gallagher vs Fabian Aichner
5. Kota Ibushi vs Sean Maluta
4. Cedric Alexander vs Clement Petiot
3. Brian Kendrick vs Raul Mendoza
2. Lince Dorado vs Mustafa Ali
1. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa
That’s right we got the same MOTR. Like I said before, it was set up to succeed. If it wasn’t the best match of the tournament, someone must’ve had an all time performance, or they must’ve dropped the ball. More time, more story heading in, already established chemistry. That said, I pretty much enjoyed every match in this tournament aside from Nese/Bennett and that got messed up by circumstances outside their control.
S: Well would ya look at that? We’re on the same page yet again, great minds share the same opinions, most of the time anyways. I’ve gotta agree with you, there’s nothing technically wrong with the in-ring action of the top fifteen matches in Round One of the CWC. The criticisms we gave for some of the matches were minor at most and didn’t really bring down our enjoyment of the matches really.
JT: Like even in that bottom half, I don’t dislike the matches or feel like I wasted my time, I just feel like the wrestlers didn’t click together. Maybe I’m just giving the CWC the benefit of the doubt. Either way, I will not speak ill.
S: Like even in that bottom half, I don’t dislike the matches or feel like I wasted my time, I just feel like the wrestlers didn’t click together. Maybe I’m just giving the CWC the benefit of the doubt. Either way, I will not speak ill.
JT: Alright, now shall I get to my MVP list? Just a reminder, this is only about their performance this round and that’s it.
S: Absolutely, I’m very intrigued to find out this list.
JT: Here’s my first quarter. I’ll refer to these fellas as “guys who had potential but pretty much spent their matches making the other guy look good”.
32. Anthony Bennett
31. Kenneth Johnson
30. Harv Sihra
29. Gurv Sihra
28. Tyson Dux
27. Alejandro Saez
26. Sean Maluta
25. Hoho Lun
S: Can’t argue with that to be honest, even though Lun won his match I’m not really surprised that he’s down that low really.
JT: After that are guys who I liked but I think just would have benefited from different circumstances.
24. Noam Dar
23. Drew Gulak
22. Jason Lee
21. Tony Nese
20. Damian Slater
19. Zack Sabre Jr
18. Da Mack
17. Ariya Daivari
S: I think that’s fair, Ariya and Da Mack definitely looked good in defeat, ZSJ just didn’t translate as well with the Full Sail crowd in his first offering much like Dar. Gulak was given a one sided match essentially so he did the best he could.
JT: The next tier of guys just had solid performances and I’ve got no problems with them!
16. Clement Petiot
15. Raul Mendoza
14. Fabian Aichner
13. TJ Perkins
12. Akira Tozawa
11. Rich Swann
10. Cedric Alexander
9. Tajiri
S: A solid 16-9, the winners all looked solid in victory and the losers looked great in defeat so no form of objections from me.
JT: Finally he’s my top 8, with my MVP to top it off!!
8. Lince Dorado
7. Jack Gallagher
6. Johnny Gargano
5. Mustafa Ali
4. Gran Metalik
3. Kota Ibushi
2. Tommaso Ciampa
1. Brian Kendrick
That’s right, I also had to agree about Kendrick. We had some great wrestlers this whole time, but Kendrick in my opinion was the best character. Ciampa was close but Kendrick’s work was just so fully incorporated. He was just such a desperate, bitter veteran the whole time and it got a virtual unknown over to the Full Sail crowd, despite being a returning star. What a performance.
S: He was absolutely amazing so he was, after brief cameos in the first two seasons of the show, he shows up in Season 3 with an absolute Bobby Dazzler of a performance and proves his worth. Congrats to you, Spanky, you’re The Power Hour MVP of the First Round of the CWC!
JT: Brian Kendrick unanimous MVP, Gargano vs Ciampa unanimous Match of the Round. So, what’s next for this episode of the Power Hour?
S: Well what I think we should conclude with is the reveal of our next episode, which in fact is not all of the Sweet 16 of the CWC. In fact, we’re gonna take a trip elsewhere on the East Coast, two weeks on from this show and just before Johnny Gargano’s Second Round clash with TJ Perkins so that this all ties together. James! Where are we headed to next time on the Power Hour?
JT: We are heading back to Brooklyn. We’ll it’s not “back” for us, but it’s back for the black and gold brand!! We’re talking about watching NXT Takeover Brooklyn II!!
S: That’s right folks, we’re taking a 16 hour car drive from Full Sail all the way up to the Barclays Centre (Center), from Orlando to Brooklyn for a show which I have extremely fond memories of watching live and I’m sure you do too, my friend.
JT: I do in fact, I was there for this show!! I cannot wait to look at this show, it’s storylines, and just reflecting on the show and how it’s aged!
S: You lucky man! You were there among the boisterous Brooklyn crowd during a fantastic weekend of wrestling and I enjoyed it from the comfort of my bed at 1am with no one around because everyone else I knew was watching McGregor vs Diaz II, I was the winner that night. It’s going to be a show filled with unlikely matches, debuts, big title matches and surely some bangers. It’s going to be a bloody whirl of a time!
JT: I cannot wait to get to that, and hopefully we’ll be getting to that sooner rather than later. But for now, I’m James and I’m signing off!!
S: And I’m Seán putting on my sleeping cap and urging you to drink Wolf Cola!
JT: Play that Big “Boko Haram” Train!!
The JT & Seány Mc Power Hour 