James T: Last time on the JT & Seány McPower Hour, we took a pit stop in Brooklyn to catch the sights and sounds of NXT in the midst of its heyday. After all, it featured two of our prized Cruiserweights. It was a good time by all, but now, it’s time to get back to business.
Seán: That’s right, James. In this, the fourth episode of Season 3, we go back to the main storyline and shift our attention towards the Second Round of the Cruiserweight Classic! We haven’t got one episode to run down, not even two, we’ve got THREE 50+ minute episodes to review. Three episodes, eight matches and no cans of Wolf Cola.
JT: Our first two CWC episodes trimmed the field of 32 down to 16, and now of the remaining 16 stand outs, only an elite 8 will move on. We’re edging closer and closer to the end, and things are bound to get only more interesting.
S: In this round we’ll see elation, tension, heartbreak, frustration and excitement! Who will progress to the Quarter Finals? Which men will make up the Super Eight of the CWC?
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Booting Up
JT: Hellooooooooo and welcome back to another episode of The Power Hour!! Once again, we’re on the Cruiserweight road!! It was nice to see some more varied styles last episode, but now it’s back to our beloved Cruiserweights. Back to the friendly confines of Full Sail!
S: Oh absolutely, it’s great to be back with our proper story arc after a nice stop to Brooklyn with TakeOver. A fun time was had there and now we’re back in what seems to be the proper stomping grounds for our reviews with Orlando, Florida because we’ve more or less become residents of this city in the last two seasons, haven’t we?
JT: It really has, now that you mention it. Between the Impact Zone and Full Sail, I feel like we’ve written more about wrestling in Florida than anywhere else! Thank god we didn’t have to be there in person for every episode, I don’t think I could handle that much Florida.
S: Never been to Florida, personally but I feel like if we were in Florida as much as we’ve been reviewing it from our remote locations, we’d be dressing like Lisa Simpson as “Floreda”. I’M A MONSTER!
JT: So to recap the first round of the CWC, we had to say goodbye to these 16 gentlemen: Anthony Bennett of the USA, Ariya Daivari of Iran, Alejandro Saez of Chile, Clement Petiot of France, Da Mack of Germany, Damien Slater of Australia, Fabian Aichner of Italy, Gurv Sihra and Harv Sihra of India, Jason Lee of Hong Kong, Kenneth Johnson of the USA, Mustafa Ali of Pakistan, Raul Mendoza of Mexico, Sean Maluta of American Samoa, Tyson Dux of Canada, and Tommaso Ciampa of the USA.
S: And those men we recapped what they are up to now, except for Ciampa in our second and third episodes of this season which you can check out now if you haven’t done so already
JT: Yeah, please do that if you haven’t already! I mean the recaps of some of the careers we covered, they only get crazier and crazier the longer this season keeps going. Shit keeps happening to our god dang Cruiserweights!!
Anyways, with 16 down and out here are the 16 still standing: Akira Tozawa of Japan, Brian Kendrick of the USA, Cedric Alexander of the USA, Drew Gulak of the USA, Gran Metalik of Mexico, Hoho Lun of Hong Kong, Jack Gallagher of England, Johnny Gargano of the USA, Kota Ibushi of Japan, Lince Dorado of Puerto Rico, Noam Dar of Scotland, Rich Swann of the USA, Tajiri of Japan, TJ Perkins of the Philippines, Tony Nese of the USA, and Zack Sabre Jr of England.
S: About as good as a Last 16 field of wrestlers as you could ask for. There are a lot of different handicap matches I’d put Gallagher in where he gets stiffed like hell with his shite tats, exciting!
JT: I agree. Now, shall we see our field get halved once again as we run through this round of 16?
S: I think it’s about time that we go into phase two of the CWC. Let’s do it! I’m absolutely buzzing for this.
JT: So before we get into our first episode’s matches, I just wanted to talk about the intro video for Episode 5 of the CWC. It’s not too different in later episodes, so I’ll just quickly highlight what they say as the new round starts. It’s a perilous journey, as 32 men have been cut down to 16. The CWC is about sacrifice, sweat and determination, and round 2 starts tonight. This is all said with some slow motion highlights of the first round action on screen. Bryan talks about how great round one was, and he says his favorite moment of round 1 was Gargano/Ciampa. Mauro says that tonight’s show will be Too Sweet, and Corey Graves runs through tonight’s matches from the control room. And that’s about how it goes for the start of every episode, so let’s just get back to the action!!
S: A very straightforward but effective opening video, talks about how grueling the tournament is and will continue to be. They put over matches from the First Round and put over the tournament again and say it’s going to be even more awesome. Brilliant stuff!
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We Will Mist You
S: What’s our first match of the Last 16 then, James?
JT: Well Seán, the fun part about leaving the 1st round means we’ve got some spicy matchups to speculate about. Though the first round was fun, there was very much a feeling to it that you knew who would be the winner. For real dedicated followers of independent wrestling, you could tell who was the guy with pedigree and experience and fan support, and that their own opponent didn’t stand much of a chance. Like no offense to guys like Sean Maluta or Raul Mendoza, but they were facing some big names, their odds were slim to start with. But now? Now things get interesting. To kick off this very special 2 match episode of the CWC, we’ve got two favorites going at it!! It’s Mexico Gran Metalik, the last bastion of Mexican Lucha Libre left standing!! And he’s facing off with a Cruiserweight legend, Japan’s own Tajiri!!
S: Talk about opening up with a brilliant pairing for Round 2 right off the bat! My word, kicking off with one of the standout winners of the last round in Metalik against one of the most unique Cruiserweight wrestlers of all time in Yoshihiro Tajiri. It’s a pretty awesome sounding match on paper in all honesty and given that Metalik has crazy athleticism and Tajiri is a wiser wrestler at this stage in his career, it makes for an interesting clash of styles.
JT: Yeah especially because, as commentary notes, Tajiri is no stranger to Mexican Lucha Libre. As a young boy, he was sent to train over in Mexico, and later his most famous rivalry would come against Mexico’s own Super Crazy. On the other hand, Metalik is the other side of that coin. Born in Mexico, started his career in Mexico, and was sent to Japan to get more training and seasoning. He had plenty of experience in Nee Jason Pro Wrestling after all. So it’ll be an interesting pairing of styles. The fast, dynamic style of Gran Metalik facing off with the veteran knowledge and ring savy of Tajiri.
S: It’s just an interesting pairing in every way you look at it really, two guys with similar. Two men with unique wrestling styles who travelled across the world in order to make themselves better wrestlers, shall we run this one down then?
JT: Let’s do this! Gran Metalik defeated Alejandro Saez to get here, Tajiri defeated Damien Slater. Now only one of them can move on. Who will it be? They shake hands, as the crowd chants for both of them, and we’re off. We start off with some grappling before Tajiri hits the ropes and knocks Metalik down with a shoulder tackle. He hits the ropes, Metalik gets up, but Tajiri sends him back down to the mat with a Running Arm drag. Again Metalik gets up and they both start moving around, but this time Metalik gets a Wheelbarrow into an Arm Drag to take Tajiri down! He gets up and hits an arm drag to Metalik, Metalik responds with an arm drag of his own, Tajiri sweeps the leg, pins and Metalik and kicks out, getting up in time to sweep the leg and cover Tajiri, who kicks out, nips up and stares down his opponent as the crowd cheers. Classic ECW style Lucha Libre start right there. A proper Tajiri/Super Crazy spot.
S: That’s immediately what I thought of when I was seeing these two guys doing their constant counters, reversals and the standoff at the end. Really reminded me of the 1999 Super Crazy and Tajiri matches. Really exciting way to start things off between these lads.
JT: It’s pretty crazy to see Tajiri pull out the same sort of stuff he would’ve been doing nearly 20 years earlier, but as Bryan states, Tajiri’s skill set is dependent on age. Of course he’s not as fast or athletic as he used to be, but he’s only honed his technique over the years. His grappling, his strikes, they’re going to be as good as ever. We see this as they grapple on the mat, ultimately leading to a grounded octopus by Tajiri, which gets turned into a Grounded Ankle Lock by Metalik, which is reversed into a crucifix pin by Tajiri, which is kicked out of as Metalik gets up and gets a pin of his own, only for Tajiri to get up and get a pin himself for a kickout. These two demonstrate well just how important grappling skills are to Lucha Libre. I know everyone always thinks of the flips and athletics and bright costumes when they think of Lucha, but this is just as important to the art.
S: Yeah the grappling on display was very impressive and it really reminded me that Tajiri in his mid 40s here is as good of a wrestler that you could want from a man of this age. Really caught my eye watching this match alright, good Lucha things all around
JT: As the match continues, Metalik gets some arm drags in, but Tajiri with chops to the chest. He swings for one more, but Metalik ducks it coming off the ropes and then gets a Hurricanrana to send Tajiri to the floor. Metalik goes for a Baseball Slide but Tajiri ducks out of the way, only for Metalik to land on his feet and hit a Superkick. He rolls Tajiri in, but Tajiri rolls right back out of the ring on the other side. Metalik tries to follow him back out by the wily veteran trips the luchador up and then gets on the apron, nailing a kick to the face followed by a Neckbreaker!! Tajiri gets in control but just briefly as Metalik gets out of a rest hold and hits the ropes, only for Tajiri to get a Sleeper in and then gets a Grounded Headscissor on Metalik. Tajiri is in control, and he shows his vicious side and he just punts Metalik in the face, but Metalik doesn’t take it! He gets up and chops The Japanese Buzzsaw back hard, and Tajiri responds with a kick to the chest to send him back to the corner. The two trade elbows in corner, Metalik gets sent over the ropes to the apron, but he hits an Enziguri to Tajiri’s face, following up with a Springboard Dropkick to send Tajiri to the floor!! Metalik goes up top, walks across the ropes, then dives off with a Somersault Plancha to the floor!! More incredible high flying by Metalik!!
S: Nothing short of incredible if you ask me, the sheer effortless agility from Metalik is so captivating to the point where he stands out due to his ability to use the ropes to his advantage. Brilliant stuff.
JT: Yeah I’m sure we touched on this in his last appearance but he moves so silky smooth. He just glides through the air and off the ropes with no problem. Gorgeous move by Metalik. Metalik rolls Tajiri in and goes to grab Tajiri but gets a kick to the face. He falls to the apron, Tajiri goes for another kick but Metalik catches him and gets a Dragon Screw on the ropes! Metalik then goes up top, walks across the top again, and hits a Diving Elbow Drop!! 1–2–Kickout!! Like we said, walking the ropes, he knows the ring and it’s ropes like the back of his hand.
S: His rope walking abilities is honestly up there with the likes of Jinsei Shinzaki and Rey Fenix. Like holy shit, watching the way he tightrope walks across them makes him look like a trapeze artist. It’s spectacular to watch every time he does it.
JT: Metalik keeps putting pressure on Tajiri, as the Buzzsaw sends him across but Metalik comes back at him with a Springboard Back Elbow!! 1–2–Kickout!! He tries to put him away with the Metalik Driver, but Tajiri goes behind, so Metalik hits with an elbow then goes behind himself, only for Tajiri to nail a Back Hook Kick to the face! From there, Tajiri hangs Metalik up in Tree of Woe and gets a Sliding Dropkick to the face!! Vintage Tajers!!
S: Fucking hell, I really did take for granted how good Tajiri still was in 2016, didn’t I? I was just watching this, looking at Tajiri wrestle thinking that he could honestly do this style until he’s 55 and still walk around grand. He seems like a Tito Santana where he’s more than likely going to be as fit as a fiddle once he enters his 60s. Beautiful spot by the way, looked very brutal as his Sliding Dropkicks tend to. Mwah.
JT: Yeah it’s incredible how it’s more or less the same spot he’s been doing for decades but it’s still just as good as the first time most people saw him do that spot. He covers off the dropkick, but Metalik kicks out. He still stays on the attack, sending Metalik back to the corner with a kick. Metalik manages to get a boot up as Tajiri charges, he then hops to the second rope and leaps off, only to be caught out of the air with a Powerbomb!! 1–2—still Metalik kicks out!! Tajiri loads up the Buzzsaw Kick to finish Metalik like he’s finished hundreds before him, but Metalik ducks under it and pushes Tajiri to the ropes. Tajiri rebounds back with a Sunset Flip into a Submission where he traps Metalik’s arms with his leg and he’s yanking Metalik’s head and neck forward for a submission!! Metalik hit kicks to the head, barely able to break the hold. Tajiri again tries to put him away as he hits a High Kick to the head, then goes for another but Metalik ducks under and gets him up, before putting him down with the Metalik Driver!! Out of nowhere!! 1—2—3!!! Metalik moves on and makes a huge statement by eliminating the only former WWE Cruiserweight Champion in the tournament! Seán, what did you think of this match? What did you think of Tajiri’s big comeback getting cut short by The King of the Ropes?
S: I really enjoyed this match to be honest with you, I thought these two and their styles meshed so well together. Tajiri just knows how to work with luchadors, he’s one of those guys. He’s done it with Super Crazy, Rey Mysterio, Psicosis and Metalik is up there as well. He works that style so damn well. I really liked the very similar career paths these two had which was told to us by commentary, only difference being that there’s an age gap of about nearly 20 years between them. I knew this match was good when I first watched it but man, I honestly forgot how damn good it was. I remember being shocked that Tajiri lost this early in the tournament at the time, as was the bloke in the “Paul Heyman Guy” shirt and snapback cap. Metalik is spectacular, Tajiri is who he is, a living legend if there ever was one who can still go at his level, not as quick but just as smart. Loved it.
JT: Honestly I wasn’t as head over heels in love with this and you are, but I still thought this was pretty good. It didn’t have as much of a story as other matches we’ve seen and it wasn’t the flashiest but it did its job well. At the time, I too was surprised that Tajiri was eliminated so early, I thought he was a shoo-in to get at least the Elite 8. But hey, way to put Metalik over like having him beat such a storied Cruiserweight like Tajiri. I was also surprised we never got any green mist in this tournament!!
S: Yeah I’m gutted he didn’t get a green mist spot in, I reckon if he were against one of the proper heels in the First Round like Ariya or Clement Petiot then he would’ve for sure busted it out and gotten a sneaky win.
JT: Yeah I agree, he was put up against 2 nice fellas in Metalik and Damien Slater. Plus, I get the feeling that the intention behind the tournament was to have pure wrestling over gimmicks, so something more gimmicky like the Green Mist was left out. As much as I love that spot, I get why they didn’t have it in this tournament. Plus, there are plenty of opportunities to rewatch him Mist people on the Network or on YouTube.
S: I’m pretty sure there’s a mist compilation of Tajiri out there somewhere. Anyways, James! As is the tradition with this season of the Power Hour, we look at what the losing competitors have gotten up to since their elimination from the tournament so what has one of our personal favourites on this show in Tajiri been up to in the last five years?
JT: So after his exit from the CWC, Tajiri wrestled on the NXT in Osaka episode we talked about last episode, teaming with Akira Tozawa to take on NXT Tag Champs DIY in a losing effort. The next day he would announce that he signed full time with WWE and would return to full time competition in 2017. On the January 3rd episode of 205 Live after multiple vignettes, Tajiri returned and defeated Sean Maluta. Brian Kendrick came back afterwards, wanting to shake Tajiri’s hand to welcome him back to WWE, only for Tajiri to hit him with the dreaded Green Mist to the face. But then, disaster struck! Working a Dark Match on NXT against Shinsuke Nakamura, he injured his knee and would have to spend some time recovering. He was cleared in February, coming out after a Brian Kendrick/Lince Dorado match, seemingly to continue his feud with Kendrick, but it would never actually go anywhere. He would depart from WWE in April, saying that he was cleared but WWE just decided not to use him because of his age. And that was Tajiri’s final WWE run to date! What a waste!! How can you tempt me with more Tajiri and give me practically nothing?!? I mean, I understand being concerned about injuries since he was 45 at the time, but it was a minor injury that didn’t even put him out for 2 months!
S: I just don’t get that at all, like he was only 45 at that stage in 2017 and yet Triple H, Goldberg and Taker were still all still headlining Manias in high profile matches. All older than Tajiri and they were at a combined age, just the three of them were 149 YEARS OLD! Makes no sense to me, like they’re only going to use him on 205 Live, he only has to work once per week or once per every two weeks with the odd match at an NXT Taping. You limit his travelling, have him work with some of the younger guys, give him a programme with whoever is the CW Champ (not Enzo) and then you can have him help and elevate some of the other guys. Simple as that, it’s that logical.
JT: To be fair, I definitely think there could’ve been a real solid comedic dynamic between Enzo and Tajiri where Enzo just keeps getting misted every time they meet. Like Tajiri just constantly outsmarts him and goads him into a false sense of security only to mist him in the end.
S: That’s pretty damn awesome sounding to be honest with you man. All those title reigns, on paper, sound like they were pretty good fun if you ask me. It’s good to see that Tajers kept himself busy during that time too. Wouldn’t mind checking out some of those matches if they’re readily available, would be interested to see how a Super Crazy and Tajiri match goes down in 2019.
JT: Believe it or not, he had even more crazy matches to come! At a House Of Glory in April 2019, he teamed with Pentagon Jr & Great Muta against Santana, Ortiz & Low Ki! Fucking bananas!! He’d also team with Great Sasuke & Massnobu Fuchi on AJPW’s first show of 2020. In February 2021, he joined with the heel stable Total Eclipse led by newly heel turned Jake Lee, as he had ousted Shotaro Ashino from his Enfates Terrible stable that had jumped to AJPW with the closure of Wrestle-1. In Total Eclipse he captured AJPW’s newest titles, the AJPW Six Man Tag Titles with Hokuto Omori and Yusuke Kodama in June 2021 but would lose them after only 26 Days. Oh and across the last 4 years, he’s participated in various singles and tag team tournaments in AJPW, with mediocre results. Mostly his past few years have been spent filling out AJPW cards as a heel as a respected veteran of wrestling. His most recent match came on August 8th 2021, teaming with Total Eclipse’s Hokuto Omori to defeat Jun Saito and Rei Saito (current AJPW Dojo trainees) as an undercard match of the Royal Road Tournament shows (a tournament in which Tajiri lost to Atsuki Aoyagi in the second road a week before). So he’s keeping busy and for a now 50 year old, he’s not doing bad for himself!
S: Yeah it’s awesome to see that at his age, a big company like All Japan, despite their flaws these days, is finding great use for an amazing veteran lime Tajiri. Really happy for him, good to see him still probably kicking ass after a half century of being alive. What a legend.
JT: Agreed. He’s an absolute legend and it was a pleasure having him on the Power Hour again, even if it only was for 2 episodes.
S: Could’ve done with him being around much more in both Seasons 1 and 3 but for what we got, it was well worth it. We love ya Tajers.
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Business is Booming
JT: Coming up next is the main event of episode 5!! That’s right, this episode only had 2 matches! But how could that be? Well, our main event is just a long match, a long match between Japan’s Kota Ibushi and America’s Cedric Alexander. I’m soooooooo ready for this one.
S: It’s our main event for Episode 5 of the CWC and what is, I’d say going back to this is the most famous match of this entire tournament, right? Like I’m pretty sure this is what people think of when the Cruiserweight Classic is brought up all these years later.
JT: Yeah for sure. It helps that Ibushi was already an acclaimed wrestler already, and that Cedric already did time in ROH. But this was one you know people were very hyped to see from the start, and the match obviously lived up to the standards people set for it. I will also say, this one definitely feels like one of the more unpredictable matches. Yes, Ibushi is a favorite in this tournament. I mean Bryan introduces him as such. But Cedric is American made, with an inspirational story about dropping weight to get into this tournament, on top of being a phenomenal wrestler. So I think heading into this one, a lot of people believed that Cedric could do the impossible.
S: I was definitely one of those who thought that this was a time where WWE could make their star of the tournament by giving Cedric that big win which he always needed in his career to just reach that level everyone knew he was capable of making. I mean we saw it with Metalik beating Tajiri, granted Metalik isn’t what you’d call “American Made” but they really legitimised him by giving him that big win over an established, bigger name talent in the tournament in Tajiri. Will the same happen for Cedric???
JT: We’ll just have to see! Will he beat Ibushi like he did Clement Petiot, or will Ibushi defeat Cedric like he did Sean Maluta? So the match begins with a hand shake, then Cedric rolls through and nips up to escape a wrist lock. In response, Ibushi back flips out of a Wrist Lock as there are loud dueling “Let’s Go Cedric/I-bu-shi” chants before a “both these guys” chant breaks out. Mauro name drops Wrestle Kingdom 9 as Bryan touts Cedric’s amateur background. Ibushi yanks down on the arm with an arm wringer until Cedric takes him down, rolls over him and gets an arm drag. Ibushi gets an arm drag of his own, hits the ropes and runs into Cedric’s attempted Tilt-a-Whirl but Ibushi lands on his feet. He goes for a High Kick, Cedric ducks under it but swings and misses as Ibushi grabs his arm and sends him into the corner. Cedric goes into the corner, goes up and pushes himself out of it and over an incoming Ibushi. He gets the Backflip Headscissor, sending Ibushi down to the mat, but he cannot follow up with a Dropkick because Ibushi side-steps it. Kota goes for a High Kick on Cedric, but Cedric ducks, and Ibushi prepares for a Moonsault, only for Cedric to roll him up!! 1–2–Kickout right into a Jackknife pin by Ibushi: 1–2–Kickout, and back to a stalemate as the crowd goes wild!!
S: It’s almost as if this Full Sail crowd can just sense that this match is going to be something special. You’d hope they’re not leaking any spoilers though, you’ll be banned for doing that. You and your children, and your children’s children, and your children’s children’s children! Two matches in and I’ve already squeezed in a Simpsons reference, from Season 7 to be exact.
JT: Well done! But in all seriousness, I just wanted to say that this sequence rules. Both guys played off spots they did in their first match, so the crowd knew what to expect next only to see the move get countered. Love that sort of shit. It’s not the usual big counter sequences, it actually played off prior knowledge in order to get across how evenly matched they are.
S: It’s just brilliant continuity in terms of actual in-ring action and conditioning the fans to know what are the Second Round combatants’ signature moves and spots. I’ve always loved that sort of simplicity in wrestling, New Japan were very good at doing that as well around this time. Like when Okada would hit you with the Spinning Tombstone Piledriver, that was the prelude to the Rainmaker and you were already done before that.
JT: Yeah it’s little things, and I appreciate that. Like with Okada’s matches, I won’t complain about too many finisher kickouts if they go the Spinning Tombstone route, they establish that’s the end. If you’re good at establishing what means the end (or the end for like 99% of other wrestlers) then I can handle some finisher spam. That’s another thing the CWC does well in this tournament, which we’ll see when we get to even the end of this round, they’re good at establishing what is the moves that end matches and can then play off these expectations.
S: Oh yeah definitely. We’ll even get to see it more in this round even, I do love more of the simple things in wrestling. When a signature move was pretty much the setup to guarantee your finisher being hit. Puts both the prelude and the finish over, it’s very effective.
JT: So they lock up again, Cedric with a strongly applied Side Headlock. Ibushi tries to throw him off twice, but Cedric hangs on. When he finally throws Cedric off, Cedric runs and knocks him down with a Shoulder Tackle. He hits the ropes, Ibushi goes for a leapfrog but Cedric slides under him and goes behind, and when Ibushi goes behind him, he hits a hard Back Elbow. Cedric follows up with a big European uppercut, only for Ibushi to respond with a huge Kick right to the chest. Cedric retreats to the corner, Ibushi charges in and Alexander sends Ibushi to the apron in the corner, only for Ibushi to land on his feet, hits a chop, then a Springboard Missile Dropkick!! He sends Cedric to the floor, then he follows him out with a Golden Triangle Moonsault, only for Cedric to slide back in the ring!! Ibushi hits hard on the floor, and Cedric is already sprinting off the ropes and diving over the top with a Tope Con Hilo!! He throws Ibushi in, goes to the apron, and hits a Springboard Clothesline that knocks Ibushi head over heels!! 1—2—Kickout!! First of all, that’s the craziest sell I’ve ever seen for that Springboard Clothesline. That’s Ibushi for you. But more importantly, THAT CEDRIC TOPE!!!
S: Dude! That’s exactly what I’ve written down, holy fucking shit like. The air he got on that Tope Con Hilo (a diving somersault over the top rope for anyone unfamiliar with the names) was actually insane. The way he flew over the ropes was the same kind of look as when Jeff Hardy is mid-flight for the Swanton Bomb. Like Cedric was always a crazily agile guy but since he’s got that weight, he’s turned into the action man.
JT: Yeah like, what he really gets me is that he jumps and like doesn’t turn until he’s midway through it. It’s not like he’s jumping and already shifting his body forward; he properly jumps, gets over the top rope, and then starts to flip. Amazing body control.
S: Oh it’s incredible to watch every time so it is, it’s crazy because he basically shifts his body and starts to rotate as soon as he’s level with the top rope on the outside mid-dive.
JT: He was impressive, but that’s not enough to put away Ibushi. Cedric tried to stay on top of him, but Ibushi started to come back with elbows, then a roundhouse to the gut. Ibushi goes for another kick, but Cedric catches him and unleashes a huge overhand chop to the chest!! Ibushi falls, 1–2—Kickout!! Jesus the sound of that chop!! Properly smacked the fuck out of him!!
S: Oh my god, this chop from Cedric was so scary because I never knew he had this such force in his chops, like ever. I always knew his strikes looked really hard hitting but this chop really took me by surprise. He absolutely chopped the soul out of Ibushi here.
JT: After caving Kota’s chest in, Cedric goes for a Brainbuster, but Kota goes behind only for Cedric to respond with elbows. He then hits the ropes, only to get caught with a Dropkick to the face by Ibushi!! They’re trading big elbows in the middle of the ring, only for Ibushi to land the Gold Star Rush to knock Cedric to the mat. He makes Cedric duck a Kick, so he can leap, and nails a Standing Corkscrew Moonsault!! 1—2—Kickout!! I don’t think Ibushi can do this now since he’s put on a little more mass, but it’s always fun to remember that even when Ibushi’s doing a flawless standing Moonsault, he’s still holding back because he can do stuff like that.
S: Yeah I completely forgot that he was still busting out the Standing Corkscrew Moonsault as late back as 2016 but then again, this period was almost the end of him being the Junior/Heavyweight hybrid wrestler which he was at this time and not the strictly Heavyweight wrestler he’d become in 2017 and to this day.
JT: He’s just an athletic marvel. Still, it didn’t end the match, and Bryan reminds us of the 20 minute time limit!! It’s getting up there in time, someone’s gotta win soon or they’ll both get the boot! Ibushi charges at him in the corner, but Cedric gets his boots up, only to charge back at Ibushi and get hit with an Exploder Suplex!! Alexander rolls to the floor, Ibushi runs, leaps and nails the Golden Triangle Moonsault!! The crowd chants “Fight Forever” as Ibushi rolls him in and pins him, with Cedric kicking out at 2. Ibushi sets up the Gold Star Powerbomb, but Cedric slips through his legs, pushes him into the ropes, then nails a beautiful Michinoku Driver!! 1—-2—Kickout!! Cedric lines him up and charges in the corner, Ibushi moves but Cedric hits a back elbow and goes up top, only for Ibushi to hit him with a chop to the chest. Ibushi goes for a Super Rana and Cedric lands on his feet!! Though it’s mistimed somewhat, it’s still impressive! Cedric runs and hits a big forearm, but Ibushi turns and hits a Pele Kick!! Again Ibushi goes for the Powerbomb, Cedric escapes behind, pushing him into an Enziguri in the corner!! He hooks him, picks him up, and nails a Brainbuster!! 1——2——KICKOUT!! Immediately Cedric backed up with a roundhouse to the face!! 1——2——Kickout!! Two huge moves, and two huge kick outs!! At this point, it seems like nothing will put away Kota Ibushi!!
S: Even reading this part of you recapping the match just made me get goosebumps thinking about it. Like that sequence, just watching it in real time gives me such a serotonin boost and always gets me to flip out. Especially when he nails him with that sick Brainbuster and then nails him with the Roundhouse Kick. Fucking excellent stuff, thought Cedric selling his frustration of Ibushi managing to kick out of these big moves was really good and not over the top.
JT: I agree. First off, seeing an honest to goodness Brainbuster in WWE was beyond surprising. Like this is probably the only instance in 2010s WWE where anyone hit a Brainbuster, let alone one that looked as good. Number 2, Cedric had been using a Brainbuster as his finisher on the indies, so experienced fans of Cedric (the type real invested in seeing him win) would’ve completely bought on that nearfall. I know I did. Finally, in an actually logical moment in wrestling, Cedric did the smart thing and immediately pounced off the nearfall, which is something I feel like rarely happens. All in all, magical stuff.
S: Yeah I did love the urgency from Cedric to just try and put away and stay on Ibushi while he had the chance, instead of doing a big build up to a move, what he did was not fuck around and go for the kill immediately.
JT: But still Ibushi won’t go away!! What else can Cedric do? Well he tries to go high risk as he climbs up to the top rope and jumps off for a Diving Double Stomp, but Ibushi moves out of the way and Cedric lands on his feet, rolling to keep his momentum. He then charges right back at Ibushi and ducks a kick, but snaps him up and hits a lightning fast German Suplex!! Cedric rolls to his knees after being dumped right on his neck, and Ibushi immediately follows up with a High Kick to the head!! Ibushi with no hesitation, he’s going for the kill, he hooks him, picks him up and drives him down to the mat with the Golden Star Powerbomb!! 1—2——3!! Ibushi wins an all time classic, where the crowd is immediately left chanting for “Both these guys chant”. For my money, one of the best 15 minute matches ever.
S: Oh absolutely, this match is nothing short of spectacular and it shows that in wrestling, but more importantly modern day wrestling that having spectacular matches with a time limit is definitely attainable. I absolutely loved this match, to quote Bob Holly as Thurman “Sparky” Plugg, auld Thurman Murman himself, this was just pedal to the metal for the off. An amazing match if there ever was one, like holy shit, I still mark out properly watching this match as if it was my first time watching it. It’s that good, people. There are so many spots and moves in this match which got a loud reaction out of me. Cedric and Ibushi are definitely two wrestlers whose offense is always going to elicit a reaction, that’s how amazing their moves look. An excellent match if there ever was one, one of the best matches that year in 2016, a year which had plenty of great matches. Go out of your way to watch or rewatch it!
JT: Yeah obviously I remembered this match being good, and I think I’ve seen it maybe one other time since it aired, but I don’t tend to rewatch wrestling. So I went into this with fairly fresh eyes again, thinking “okay let’s see if it’s as good as I remember it” and within minutes I was already thinking “Oh it’s definitely as good as I remember it”. Just incredible all the way through. It’s not really focused on psychology, but every 15 minute Cruiserweight match doesn’t need to be about limb targeting. They have the athleticism and skills to be incredibly fast and hard hitting, and that’s what these two did. Both guys gave a lot to their opponent and it kept the crowd on their feet all the way through. This is as close as we’ve come to having a 50/50 split at Full Sail, and even as Ibushi won, nobody was disappointed. Just wonderful stuff.
S: That’s how you fans should feel at the end of an incredible face vs face match really, isn’t it? It should end with the fans being happy with whoever wins. This was brilliant in every sense of the word. Unreal.
JT: But we’re not done here! After the match, Cedric is heartbroken in defeat. He walks to the back as the crowd chants their thanks at him for a great performance. As he waves goodbye and prepares to go to the back, they start to chant “Please sign Cedric”, and as this happens, Triple H comes out from behind the curtain. He shakes Cedric’s hand, and gives the crowd and thumbs up. One of the best “Papa Haitch” moments ever. Maybe the best.
S: Yeah this was definitely a “Papa Haitch” moment when they were considered a nice thing in wrestling and not the meme which they’d go on to become. It was simple, there wasn’t a picture between the two of them and all was needed was a thumbs up to the crowd. Simple yet effective.
JT: Plus, I’m pretty sure this was edited into the broadcast. Like, it distinctly doesn’t have any commentary over it, which to me means that they didn’t plan to have this moment, it just happened. With wrestling you can never totally buy into something being genuine, I’m always gonna have seeds of doubt in mind. But still, I just have a feeling this was just a spontaneous nice moment.
S: Plus, I’m pretty sure this was edited into the broadcast. Like, it distinctly doesn’t have any commentary over it, which to me means that they didn’t plan to have this moment, it just happened. With wrestling you can never totally buy into something being genuine, I’m always gonna have seeds of doubt in mind. But still, I just have a feeling this was just a spontaneous nice moment.
JT: I mean and it’s not like he had to go very far, he was probably just behind that curtain, listening in on a headset and just decided to go for it.
S: When you say he didn’t have to go very far, my mind immediately went to after Undertaker’s match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33, he does the whole “retirement” deal and when he’s about to go backstage, Triple H is there in his full gear, the first guy to see him backstage. No doubt he sprinted so he could be the first guy to meet Taker.
JT: That sort of stuff is always interesting. You have the sad, like Kevin Owens’s infamous “we’re not cool” moment from WM33, the funny like Haitch’s complete stonewalling of Miz when he won the WWE Title for the first time, and then the lovely moments of guys and gals going backstage as champions for the first time. I tell you what, I’d love to have been in gorilla position for wrestling’s most famous moments. What an interesting and odd place.
S: It’s definitely an area in wrestling arenas all over the world where volumes of books could be written about various tales which have occurred there. Vince would probably have a whole volume dedicated to him solely.
JT: So the crowd wanted Cedric Alexander to get signed, and it seemed pretty likely that they’d get their wish. Should we discuss what has happened since then?
S: Yes we shall. James! What has everyone’s boy Cedric Alexander been up to since this amazing match in the CWC?
JT: So like many other Cruiserweights, Cedric debuted on Raw in 2016 as part of the Cruiserweight Division. Very early into his run he’d begin dating Alicia Fox, only for her to get hit on by Noam Dar, leading to a feud between the two. In January while feuding with Dar, he broke up with Alicia for costing him a match, and she would go out with Noam instead. Unfortunately, as this storyline was in its final stage, Cedric suffered a new injury, putting him out from March to May. Finally in July, Cedric defeated Dar in an I Quit match to end their feud. He would continue his success into the winter, where he’d become #1 contender to the Cruiserweight Title. He had a match for the title against Champion Enzo Amore, but Enzo retained due to losing by countout. He was scheduled to have a rematch at the Royal Rumble 2018, but the match was canceled when Enzo was fired from WWE. As a result, Cedric would enter the Cruiserweight Title tournament, defeating Gran Metalik in Round One, TJP in Round Two and Roderick Strong in the Semi Finals to earn a place on WrestleMania 34. At WM34, Cedric defeated Mustafa Ali to become Cruiserweight Champion in the biggest win of his career. He held the title for 181 and defended it 5 times before ultimately losing the title to Buddy Murphy at the Super Showdown in Australia in October. He’d get a rematch at TLC but fail to win his title back. He’d continue to chase the title into early 2019, losing in the finals of a tournament to Tony Nese. He’d shortly afterwards enter a feud with Oney Lorcan, but would shake his hand and show respect to him as their feud ended. This was his last match on 205 Live, as he was drafted to Raw in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup. As one of the standouts of the CWC, what do you think of the time Cedric spent on 205 Live?
S: Oh I think Cedric was nothing short of brilliant on 205 Live. I’d say it’s been said numerous times but he was one of the three guys on 205 Live who you’d wanna check out whenever they were wrestling. He was instrumental in 205 Live having a real good run for itself for the sixteen or so months from January 2018 until about April or May of 2019. He had a lot of good matches with many good wrestlers like Murphy, Ali, Gulak, Nese, I remember his match with Roderick Strong being well good too. Just a great face for the brand.
JT: I agree. Even if it wasn’t until like halfway through his run that he became “the face of the brand” he’s the closest there’s been to a proper babyface top star for 205 Live. His time at the top of 205 Live wasn’t quite the brand’s high point but his run was just a real solid and consistent period for a brand that’s had a ton of instability in its history.
S: Yeah for a brand that’s been around for almost five years, it’s had the ups and downs and varying degrees of quality of one that you’d think has been around much longer.
JT: Very true. But by April 2019, Cedric was separated from the happenings of 205 Live. On Raw, he’d win the 24/7 Title from R-Truth on June 24th only to lose it moments later to EC3. In an odd occurrence, Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre had to pick a weak tag partner for Roman Reigns on Raw in July, so they picked local Janitor Gary “The Goat” Garbutt. Gabutt would wrestle in a mask after appearing mask-less earlier in the show, showing up with a mask for the match. The crowd was shocked as the masked wrestler performed crazy moves during the match, even in defeat. After the match, he was unmasked to be revealed as Cedric, leading to a match between McIntyre and Alexander on Raw the next week, where Cedric scored the upset. I had 0 memories of this.
S: Raw in 2019 man, talk about a fucking purple haze of things you forgot happened in wrestling. I remember the janitor disguise alright but him beating Drew? I very vaguely remember because there were so many times that year where people were getting upset wins. I think people genuinely forget how inconsistent Drew’s booking was before he turned face.
JT: Yeah it some ways he was. But that’s a whole other can of worms, we’ve got enough on our plates already. So after his stint as a janitor? He’d enter a brief feud with AJ Styles and the OC. He’d defeat Sami Zayn in the First Round of the King of the Ring tournament, but would lose to Baron Corbin in the Second Round after the OC attacked him before his match. He’d score a pinfall over Styles on Raw to get a US Title shot, but would be defeated at Clash of Champions and then again on Raw shortly afterwards. He’d do very little from September till April, when he’d form a Tag Team with Ricochet that would gain some traction. Together, they’d begin to feud with Bobby Lashley, MVP and Shelton Benjamin, The Hurt Business. MVP would attempt to sway Cedric by telling him he’s more than Ricochet’s sidekick, but Cedric wasn’t listening as he’d end up winning the 24/7 Title from Shelton Benjamin (only to lose it back to him later in the night). This would go on from the summer into the fall, when Cedric finally turned on Ricochet to join The Hurt Business, turning heel for the first time in his WWE career. In December, he and Shelton Benjamin would defeat New Day for the Raw Tag Team Titles, holding them for 85 Days with 2 defenses before losing the titles back to New Day. Before we get into the recent destruction of the Hurt Business, let’s just take a second to just acknowledge how great they were.
S: Oh they were just so damn cool together as a stable, weren’t they? Like just talk about a faction that was just right in every way, the aesthetic, the theme song, the members, the mouthpiece, the overall look of them with the cool looking suits? Just checking all the right boxes for what’s needed to make a cool faction.
JT: Yeah it really felt like they had the perfect setup. Lashley finally got that top star run he had been destined to have for 15 years. MVP triumphantly returning to WWE and reminding everyone of just how good he is as the lead speaker. Shelton as the veteran to fill out the group, who could mentor the youngest member and be the least protected member of the group while still being a good hand. And Cedric as the talented and cocky young star who could learn from the veterans around him and elevate his game to the next level. But sadly, that never happened, at least not in the Hurt Business. Shortly after he and Shelton lost the Tag Titles, Lashley insulted the two for losing and for losing a handicap match to Drew McIntyre that got them banned from ringside for WrestleMania. This led to Lashley attacking both of them and effectively ending The Hurt Business. Alexander would lose to Lashley in singles action, then he and Benjamin would enter a losing streak before Cedric turned on Shelton to break up their team. What a fucking waste. I know we haven’t had as much time to see things age and play out since this break up, but man it felt wrong then and it continues to feel wrong now.
S: Yeah the breakup of The Hurt Business stands out among all the irrational booking decisions which WWE have made the last five years and that’s saying something because there’s been a lot of them. It just didn’t feel organic or necessary, like why are you breaking up the top faction on your brand right before WrestleMania? It just doesn’t add up if you ask me and knowing the paths which these two have been down since then, I honestly don’t get what the main aim in breaking them up was.
JT: For real. Lashley & MVP are still rolling! They’re still on top of the card? Why wouldn’t they still need bodies in between them and Drew and Braun and Kofi and Goldberg?!? Especially since, well, they clearly had no plans for Shelton and Cedric. Now Shelton? He’s a good hand but frankly, he’s older and we very much know who he is at this point. If his booking fell apart after the Hurt Business broke up, that would be a shame but it’s not entirely unexpected. Honestly, his push in the Hurt Business felt like his last chance to have a significant run at age 46. But Cedric?!? Now that’s a travesty. He is only 32, and WWE has no clue what to do with him. Case and point, he feuded with Shelton as a heel after getting booted from the Business. Fair enough, they have a natural reason for their tensions to flair, and you’d have Cedric looking strong afterwards. Shelton may have won their first matchup, but Cedric would win the next two and did so in convincing fashion to win the feud. It seemed like Cedric was back on the up and up but since April Cedric has tumbled back down the card, as he hasn’t won a match since May. His record since ending his feud with Shelton is as follows: Loss in 6 minutes to Jeff Hardy, loss in less than 3 minutes to Jeff, loss in a Battle Royal, loss in a minute flat to Jaxson Ryker after tag partner Elias left him to fend for himself, a loss to Ricochet on Main Event, defeated with Shelton Benjamin against Lashley in a handicap match in less than 3 minutes, two loses to Jaxson Ryker on Main Event and one more loss to Jeff on the September 2nd episode of Main Event in a little over 6 minutes. That was his most recent match by the way. It’s such a shame to see his career in WWE hanging on by a thread at this point, it feels like was booked pretty greatly in 205 Live, and then things had gotten on the right path on Raw.
S: It’s such a travesty, honestly. A man of his amazing ability should be a shoe-in on either brand for the Intercontinental and United States Championship scenes, like you’re telling me that he wouldn’t be a good opponent for Nakamura or Damian Priest at this point in time? They’re codding themselves at this point if they’re overlooking Cedric as a wrestler.
JT: Yeah it just exemplifies the total lack of long term thinking and planning in WWE. One minute he’s a rising star, the next minute he’s just some guy. Again this goes back to what I said in episodes past about microwave pushes. Rather than consistently build someone’s stock, they just warm them up when they’re interested in them. It works in getting them over in the short term but how much it works in the grand scheme of things comes down to how things continue to progress for them as far as ticket sales, viewers, and how history is written.
S: And it does nothing but damage your company in the long run because what’s now going to happen in the next few years is that there’s going to be a revolving door effect with talent like there was with the women for many, many years because of how they go about pushing wrestlers that aren’t top guys.
JT: And from the looks of things, those guys are likely not going to be the type of guys like Cedric, if we are to believe the rumors about NXT reshuffling. But much like 5 years ago with the CWC, it’s another era of transition. And only time will tell how things will go.
S: Time will tell indeed but judging from what’s supposedly going on at the moment, the future looks very bleak in a lot of ways in that part of the wrestling world.
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Legacy of the Egregious “Gentleman”
JT: Moving on, we’ve got another interesting pairing of styles. Representing Japan and the explosive style of Dragon Gate, after defeating Kenneth Johnson in the first round, it’s Akira Tozawa!! And his opponent, representing England and English Catch Style, after defeating Fabian Aichner, it’s Jack Gallagher!!
S: We should add that this is the first match on the sixth episode of the CWC by the way but yeah, talk about a styles clash (not the wrestling move) if there ever was one, right? The explosive, fast-paced, strength based style of Akira Tozawa against the World of Spot, British throwback style of Gallagher. This was definitely a match which I was intrigued by going into back in August of 2016. What were your thoughts on this pairing going into it?
JT: I was definitely excited for this one going into it. Both guys had impressed me with their unique personalities and styles in the first round. On top of that, this was the first true pairing of independent stars in this round. Tajiri was someone who had already been in WWE, so it was hard to see him as just another one of the guys. And though Ibushi hadn’t been in WWE before, he had received the most substantial push on the biggest stage out of anyone else in the tournament. This time around, it’s two oddballs with experience but without overwhelming pedigrees to make them favorites. And since both of them have unique styles, this feels like both guys have a chance to win, it’s wide open.
S: Agreed, this was definitely a match which had a lot of intrigue to it, both men have their own unique characters and to add to that, with the way the bracket is laid out, the winner of this match faces Metalik in the Quarter Finals so it leaves that top half of the left side of the bracket wide open.
JT: Honestly I don’t have much else to say. You’ve got two quirky characters, both popular with the crowd, facing off in a match that only one of them can win. Shall we get to the match and find out who is moving on?
S: I don’t see why not, let’s get busy with this bad boy.
JT: So the two of them come out, get nice responses from the crowd, they shake hands and the match begins. Gallagher escapes a Waistlock by getting his hands in and ducking down, going and bringing Tozawa down to the canvas. He ties up the legs of Tozawa in an Indian Death Lock, all while staring Tozawa right in the face. Tozawa eventually realized this, trying to crawl closer and grab him, unknowingly pulling Gallagher with him. Throughout the early part of this match, Tozawa was just screaming during the chain wrestling, making all sorts of funny noises while Gallagher got his goat. For example, he gets a grounded headlock on Gallagher, only for the Enlighsman to handstand and back right out of the hold. To make things even worse for Tozawa, Gallagher ties Tozawa in a ball, trapping his hands under his legs, leaving Tozawa unable to move and screaming for help. And how does Gallagher help him out? Well he only gives him a big punt kick right to the butt, completely with comedy wind ups to make sure he squarely hits his ass. Quite a comedic affair compared to our first 2 matches, wouldn’t you say so?
S: Oh this was a hoot and a holler right here. You have the intelligent one in Gallagher outsmarting the high energy, easily agitated one in Tozawa. Like the kick up the arse spot is something which needs to be stolen from Gallagher, I’d normally condemn such move stealing but it’s Gallagher and he’s a rotter so I encourage it. Shades of Father Ted kicking Bishop Brennan up the arse.
JT: Well if you’re a Shin Nihon freak like me, brother, you’ll know that Los Ingobernables de Japon’s Sanada does a variation of the spot. Having been passed on the ball hold, known in NJPW as Milano Collection A.T. ‘s Paradise Lock, Sanada locks traps his opponents and they unlocks them with a Dropkick right to the posterior. Not quite the same, but functionally the same. Then again, it’s always felt like a silly move for Sanada, who has always been a stoic character. Seeing that spot pulled out on the likes of Okada and Tanahashi always felt to me like it undermined the seriousness of Sanada’s main event opportunities. Not the same as silly Jack Gallagher pulled a naught little trick against a heel.
S: Yeah honestly, I always felt like this move really didn’t fit the character of SANADA at all, I just feel it’s more of a light hearted, belly laugh for a spot in all honesty. The opposite of what SANADA is all about. The Paradise Lock though, THIS is what the Australian government should’ve used to ensure that Bart Simpson got his booting that they so desperately craved, amateur hour from the Aussies there.
JT: Well I’ll say this, I don’t know if this little joke by Gallagher benefited him, as it seemed to just piss off Tozawa and his explosive temper. Tozawa starts hitting elbows only to catch a European Uppercut from Gallagher, but as he hits the ropes, and goes for a Sunset Flip, Tozawa rolls through and hits a Leg Lariat!! More screaming by Tozawa, before telling the crowd to shush as he gets a Scoop Slam, and a jumping Senton by Tozawa, good for a 2 count. The crowd is behind Gallagher seemingly more so than Tozawa but the tide seems to be turning. Chop from Tozawa, elbow from Gallagher, Chop from Tozawa, elbow from Gallagher, Tozawa fakes a chop and then punches Jack right in the face! He sends Gallagher across but Jack starts to turn things around as only he can as he stops and slides between the legs of Tozawa, and when he goes for a double leg takedown, Gallagher flips him up and over! The comedy portion of the match is over as Gallagher has a meaner demeanor as he works the leg, including a Bridge while bending Tozawa’s knee, a Dragon Screw, and Gallagher driving Tozawa’s knees into the mat by jumping down on them! Gallagher gets a compression lock on the right leg, but Tozawa gets the ropes. Gallagher goes to send him across, Tozawa holds onto him and goes for a Suplex but Gallagher lands on his feet. He goes behind Jack, Jack with a back elbow, he sends Tozawa into the corner, but Akira explodes out of the corner with a Bicycle Kick!! However can’t cover quite immediately because of his injured leg, allowing a kickout at 2. Tozawa struggled to get up, sending Gallagher into the corner, followed up with a Jumping Forearm. He screams out BRAINBUSTAHHHH but Gallagher gets him into an Achilles Lock mid scream. Tozawa gets the ropes but the damage is clearly being done. First off, please tell me you love Tozawa’s “BRAINBUSTAAAAHHH” meme spot as much as I do.
S: Oh I love the “BRAINBUSTAAAHHH” spot so much, man. It always gets a chuckle out of me whenever someone does it, only for the person screaming it to be countered immediately! It’s a guaranteed laugh every time and considering how good Tozawa is at comedy throughout his career up to this point, he’s the right guy to have do it.
JT: Agreed. Guy yelling out a spot and then completely flopping or getting immediately countered is an all time comedy spot. See also Chuck Taylor’s patented “Triple Moonsault” spot. On a more serious note, what did you think of Tozawa’s leg seeking in this match? Gallagher has clearly decided on a target, and if you ask me, Tozawa is doing a great job showing how that gameplay is working.
S: Oh man, I thought Tozawa’s selling of the leg in this match was absolutely class on his part. He just sold it so damn well in his facial expressions and body language. Really enjoyed the targeting on Gallagher’s part as well, not the kind of targeting he’s known for nowadays but it’s still a good story for the match. Sorry, I couldn’t not make a joke at his expense after the use of “targeting” and “Gallagher”. Had to be done lads.
JT: We will get to that soon enough. Because despite the attack on Tozawa’s leg, he’s making a comeback. Gallagher backs up as Tozawa is in the ropes, allowing him to stand. He sends him across, but Tozawa collapses. Gallagher waits for him to get up, only to catch a Quick Roundhouse from Tozawa!! Tozawa goes for a High Enziguri, Gallagher ducks, Tozawa slides through his legs and goes behind, but Gallagher blocks the German, breaks free of his grip, turns and hits a Big Headbutt!! 1–2—Kickout!! Gallagher hit the biggest blow, but it seems like Tozawa has the fighting spirit to fight through his injury at the same blazing speed he’s managed when healthy. Gallagher needs to put him away now with a Leg Submission, but Tozawa rolls him up!! 1—2—Kickout!! They both rush up to their feet, Tozawa with a Snap German Suplex!! He lifts Gallagher up for a Deadlift German, Gallagher hangs onto his leg!! But Tozawa is too strong!! He pries Gallagher off, continuing to lift him up before dumping him down on his neck for the bridging German Suplex!! 1—2—3!! Akira Tozawa screams his way on to the Quarter Finals!! What do you think of this match and this result?
S: Awh I thought this match fucking ruled to be honest with you, James. Really really enjoyed watching this at the time, it’s cliché at this stage with us but it’s aged well over the years. I like the differences between the two’s actual wrestling styles with Tozawa being fast, strong and explosive in comparison to Jack’s technical, old school, intelligent style of wrestling but yet the both of them have got smidges of a comedic personality among themselves. As I mentioned previously, at the time I was really rooting for Tozawa to win this whole thing or at least get to the final because I really admired his work that much and found him so likeable so seeing him win here was a delight to Younger Young Seán. I liked the limb targeting throughout it, though Tozawa really sold the leg and his knee well. There were some funnys, there were some moves which got a big reaction from me like the headbutt, Tozawa’s signature offence and my god, the Snap German Suplex is forever going to be a thing of beauty. The finish where Gallagher tries to go for a Knee Bar whilst up for the Deadlift German Suplex only for Tozawa’s strength to be the deciding factor was a brilliant finish. Thumbs up from me.
JT: Yeah I loved that finish. Of course Gallagher would try to get the leg he’s been working on all match, but Tozawa cannot be denied. I too thought this was a pretty great match. It had technical wrasslin, it had hard hitting explosive action, it didn’t neglect its psychology and it had some laughs. Honestly, I forgot that Tozawa won this. I don’t know why, for some reason I assumed Gallagher won it. But hey, I’m perfectly happy to see Tozawa succeed instead. And y’all know why. And we’re so close to finally shooting that big elephant in the room, but before we get there, might as well run down Gallagher’s WWE run before that, right?
S: That elephant is just staring daggers at us at this stage but we’ve gotta get to our destination by going the full journey so take it away, dude.
JT: So with his time in the CWC coming to an end, Gallagher had the consolation prize of becoming a cornerstone of 205 Live through its early years. He competed on the first episode of the show, winning a match against Ariya Daivari. This would lead into a feud with him, as we mentioned in Daivari’s breakdown, featuring a Gentlemen’s Duel between the two, with Gallagher ultimately winning the blowoff to their rivalry in a “I Forfeit” match. Gallagher would take part in the 2017 Royal Rumble, the only member of the Cruiserweight roster to do so that year. He came down to the ring with his Umbrella, only to be eliminated first when he was sent flying like Mary Toppins over the top by Mark Henry for the first elimination of the Rumble. He earned a Cruiserweight Title match in a Fatal 5 Way, going on to face Champion Neville at Fastlane, proving unsuccessful. At this point, I feel like Gallagher was one of the Cruiserweights with the most momentum. He was funny and unique enough to get a role in matches beyond 205 Live, he had to that point the best PPV match of the new Cruiserweight Title era, and he got a gimmick upgrade as his official ring name became “Gentleman Jack Gallagher”. Things were going well, and I was greatly enjoying his run. Early 205 Live was a bit of a mess but Gallagher was one of the few to actually hit the ground running.
S: I’m glad we agree on this because Gallagher at this stage definitely was a Cruiserweight act which I feel the Raw audiences really found appealing and/or entertaining because he’s a 40s English stereotype in many ways, he’s got the comedic characteristics to him and all the weird quirks to a character which wrestling fans would appreciate. His wrestling style too of course is flashy enough to draw the eye of a viewer of Raw.
JT: Yeah he wasn’t different enough to be unique but approachable enough that he could connect with the crowd. He was having a pretty good run. He made an appearance in April on NXT, unsuccessfully facing Tyler Bate for the United Kingdom Championship. Later into the year, he’d feud with Brian Kendrick, before joining Kendrick and turning heel on Cedric Alexander. And here’s where things started to turn. He’d ditch the neon colored tights and start wrestling in a full suit instead. To my total surprise, this feud actually made a PPV with Gallagher & Kendrick losing to Alexander and Rich Swann on TLC in 2017. I had 0 memories of this. Do you remember this, at all?
S: I have absolutely no recollection of this match making it to a PPV or Kendrick and heel Gallagher getting a PPV pay day in general. I definitely remember there being a feud between the four lads because I’d watched 205 Live regularly but had no idea this match was featured on a PPV. Then you remember it was a brand exclusive PPV and now it makes sense.
JT: So he’d go on to compete in the 2018 Cruiserweight Title tournament but lose to Mustafa Ali in the first round. He’d also lose in the first round to Zack Gibson in the UK Title Tournament 2018. During that summer, he and Kendrick would be joined by Drew Gulak, and the trio would feud with Lucha House Party before Gulak & Gallagher turned on Kendrick for being a “Weak Link”. This would lead to Kendrick turning face, teaming with Akira Tozawa and putting away his old allies in a December 2018 Street Fight. He and Gulak would adopt Humberto Carrillo in 2019, trying to teach him the ways of ground based wrestling. Gulak would attack Carrillo after one of his matches, and Gallagher would turn face by defending Carrillo from Gulak. However, this face turn didn’t garner him much success, as he’d go on a losing streak before eventually head butting 205 Live GM Drake Maverick in November. In February 2020, he’d return in victory over Lio Rush with a beard, shorter hair, and tattoos. Like I said, the original heel turn was where things fell off. He had a great first 6 months and then afterwards he just kind of drifted. Truthfully, I forgot he turned back face and then turned heel again just to have a rebrand I don’t remember.
S: Oh man, I had no idea that he even had a second face run to begin with. Talk about those being the times where WWE’s lack of focus on 205 Live was becoming more and more apparent. I do however remember his shit tattoos and overall shit look upon his return. His WWE career really was a great first six months and then just spinning his wheels until he was close to the chopping block.
JT: Speaking of which, let’s just get to his 2020. Rebranded, he would pick up wins over Tyler Breeze and Oney Lorcan on 205 Live, before being entered into the Interim Cruiserweights Title Tournament in 2020. He’d only go 1-2, losing to Tozawa and El Hijo de Fantasma and beating Isaiah “Swerve” Scott. After this he had a few matches on 205 Live, including a June 15th loss to Jake Atlas, which to date is the last match of his career. And then, the elephant. As part of the #SpeakingOut Movement, a 2014 case of sexual assault by Gallagher was made public, with multiple women alleging similar incidents. Gallagher was released by WWE, and though he has since apologized for the 2014 assault, he alleges it was an isolated instance. Thus ends the story of Jack Gallagher. A sad, and upsetting end, that does a lot of damage to his career with the benefit of hindsight.
S: Yeah I totally agree with that point. His WWE career was already winding down more and more every six months it seemed and the whole exposure of him being a sexual predator, him more or less admitting to it and being released with no signs of returning just goes to show how sad it is. Not the kind of sad where we show sympathy, not at all. More of a sad where we’re just embarrassed of them and their existence.
JT: On top of that, his gimmick is totally fucking dead. He’s supposed to be “Gentleman Jack Gallagher” and I don’t think I need a lot of explanation as to why that doesn’t fucking work anymore. Like just hearing him referred to in that way, talking him up as a man of class and integrity and manners just churns my stomach. It’s just bad.
S: Honestly, just hearing him referred to as anything which describes a gentleman, good manners and cordial behaviour just makes me cringe in all honesty, it’s aged poorly because of what is known about him now.
JT: The only thing about this whole situation which even has a twinge of positivity about this is the fact that he hasn’t wrestled since the truth came out. At the very least, we don’t have to see him paraded out on indy shows or even National TV as some sort of normal guy, innocent of any wrongdoing. At the very least, he’s dropped off the planet. I know nothing can truly undo the damage he’s done to his victim(s), but I hope that they at least have gotten some satisfaction in the small measure of justice that is ending his career. I’m not normally someone who celebrates someone’s career ending, but when you can’t get penal justice, it’s more than nothing that he isn’t wrestling anymore. Sadly, too many women have gotten nothing out of Speaking Up, and again I’d like to emphasize our unflinching support of the victims of sexual assault and domestic violence who go public with their stories in an attempt to get justice when the law has failed them.
S: Oh without a doubt, we’ve voiced our support for those who spoke up during Speaking Out on here before and for as long as we cover wrestling which may feature those exposed during Speaking Out, we’ll continue to show our admiration for their bravery and hope that one day, those who were hurt during those experiences will get justice.
JT: So this’ll be my final words about Jack Gallagher: It’s regrettable that he is involved in the Cruiserweight Classic. Regardless of his performance, his involvement in this tournament has left a permanent blemish on the legacy of this tournament. Go fuck yourself.
S: Agreed. Fuck you, Gallagher.
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Hey Hey, Hoho
JT: So we’ll move on from nasty business with our next match! From Hong Kong, fresh off a victory over Ariya Daivari, it’s Hoho Lun! And his opponent, representing Scotland, defeater of Gurv Sihra, it’s Noam Dar! For the first time in this second round, we’ve got 2 guys left as the sole representatives of their country, with only one able to move on!
S: Look at this, people. JT is the man with all the facts, only on the Power Hour will you get this level of facts. When you think about it, this is definitely the most intriguing match of the Second Round in terms of the fact that one of these real dark horses now have a good shot of making it to the Semi Finals.
JT: That’s a good point! Nothing against either of these two, but compare them to our last 3 matchups. When you pit them against the other opponents in this round, in the words of Scott Steiner, their chances of winning drastic go down! Like we’ve already put over the stellar backgrounds and unique personalities of the rest of the field, you know that those first 3 matches were pretty stacked. And again nothing against Hoho or Noam, but both were sort of more Raw deals. Both were younger wrestlers with less experience but plenty of talent. But we saw in the first round, most of the guys with lengthy independent pedigrees and years of experience moved on. So the fact that one of these two will make it down all the way to the Elite 8 is a big chance for both of them.
S: Oh it definitely is and I remember thinking that exact same thing. It’s almost like in sports or more specifically, darts because I’m a darts fanatic, it’s like where in a section of the draw you have a good few seeds that are eliminated and now a few non-seeded players and the lower seeds, say the 20th-32nd seeds now have a great chance of getting a crack at the World Darts Championship Semi Finals. It’s always intriguing to see because those matches with unseeded players in the nitty gritty of a long tournament make those matches more interesting.
JT: Yeah and again it may seem like we’re downplaying Hoho & Noam, but part of becoming a champion is getting lucky. Every single championship team gets lucky in some regard. In this case, that’s avoiding tough draws. Like imagining these two inexperienced guys going up against Tajiri would be a disaster for them. He’s been picking apart young lions for decades. Not to say they wouldn’t be able to win, but it’s always best to play your matchups. You shouldn’t ask Mugsy Bogues to defend Shaq would you? Or uh…Seán come up with a more appropriate metaphor for our readers who aren’t of the American/NBA persuasion.
S: I think I’ve got one, you wouldn’t be asking a young centre back like Rhys Williams to defend against a beast of a striker like Romelu Lukaku now, would you? Something like that?
JT: Yeah that’s about right. Either way, the only people preventing Hoho Lun and Noam Dar from being in the top 3rd of this tournament are each other and their own abilities. Shall we see which of these two will make it to the Quarter Finals?
S: I think it’s about that time again to run down another wee match and what is most likely the most intriguing match in the Second Round. Belt ahead there, James.
JT: As is CWC tradition, they shake hands and the match begins. Quick pace from the start as Dar rams into Lun with a Shoulder Tackle, he hits the ropes and comes back, only for Hoho to Leapfrog him, and though Dar ducks out the way of a High Roundhouse Kick, he runs right back into a Spinning Heel Kick. Hoho tries to establish a ground game against Dar, but unfortunately for him, that is Dar’s field of expertise. Twice Hoho tries to grab a headlock, only for Dar to quickly escape with a wrist lock in. Unlike Dar, Hoho can’t grapple his way out, but he gets out anyway and breaks Noam’s grip with a shot to the gut, a snapmare and a Dropkick to the back of the head. Dar doesn’t take kindly to this, and now he goes to execute his gameplan. As they both stand up, Dar grabs ahold of Lun’s leg, gives it a swift kick and delivers a Dragon Screw Leg Whip! So, we’ve had a few matches now where someone has worked over a leg. I think it’s a tried and true story for wrestling matches, and one that I tend to enjoy. I mean, it makes sense, it’s easy to convey to an audience. So I’ve gotta ask you, who are some of your favorite wrestlers to work the leg in wrestling? Or if you don’t have a favorite guy, what are some of your favorite matches that use this trope?
S: I’ve always loved when Tanahashi would work the leg with the Dragon Screw Leg Whip, both versions really, I think he makes the move look really well and sore on the opponent. Kurt Angle too where he’d work towards the Ankle Lock is always a great viewing experience. Matches wise, I really like both Angle vs Guerrero matches from Mania 20 and SummerSlam 2004 in terms of leg work matches. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar from SummerSlam 2003 which gave us LESNAR SELLING THE LEG, HOPPING AROUND WITH ANGLE ON HIS SHOULDERS AND HITTING A HOPPING F5. I will always mention that F5 from Lesnar whenever I get the chance to.
JT: Of course, those two are two of my favorite wrestlers, and those matches you mentioned are some all time favorites of mine. Brock in particular is a great seller of those sorts of beatdown. Take Brock vs Daniel Bryan for example. Tanahashi is also just as great at selling as he is at working the leg. Look at his 2012 King of Pro Wrestling and 2018 New Beginning matches against Minoru Suzuki. He gets his leg practically ripped off his body. I’d also like to give credit to the Flairs, both Ric and Charlotte. Ric obviously has a huge legacy for using his Figure 4 to incapacitate his opponents, but Charlotte herself has built quite a legacy too. Lots of great matches by both father and daughter where the deciding factor is attacking the leg.
S: Oh man I should’ve mentioned Ric and Charlotte! Especially Charlotte against Rhea Ripley just as early as Money in the Bank recently, that spot where traps Rhea’s leg in the steps and then boots the steps into her legs, just wonderfully brutal.
JT: Is those sort of folks that Dar is trying to emulate, especially as he used a Dropkick to the knee to not only damage that limb more, but it causes Hoho to hit the ring apron face first. He sends him back in the ring, Dar attacks him with a big punch in the corner, and then hits a Back Suplex for 2. He gets a Reverse Indian Deathlock by Dar, but Hoho gets the ropes and tries to start his comeback as he hits a Spin Kick to the face. He grabs Dar, but Noam spins out and kicks the leg out from under Hoho. Lun pulls himself up in the corner, and Noam comes bounding in with a Dropkick in the corner, with some taunting too. The crowd sadly seems kind of out of this, as they’re just kind of murmuring chants as opposed to the loud excitement of past matches.
S: Yeah this has been the case with Dar’s matches in the CWC really, hasn’t it? I mean we mentioned how Dar looked really good in his match with Gurv Sihra but yet that match lacked real involvement from the crowd. I don’t know if it’s a case of Dar being unfamiliar to the majority of the crowd, this match doesn’t particularly appeal to the audience as in the two lads facing each other or maybe they’re sparing their energy for later matches. I’m not entirely sure but it could be one of those three, if not all three.
JT: Yeah, in my opinion, I don’t think Dar’s character entirely translates to an American audience. Here’s what makes me think that. So in round one he faced Gurv Sihra, a young man who only wanted to bring his culture to wrestling. He wanted to combine the joy and heroics of two of his favorite things, Bollywood and wrestling. Given that, you can say he’s a pretty clear babyface. And likewise, Hoho was clearly an established face, with his backstory of making his home country proud of him and of its growing wrestling scene, but through how he interacted with Ariya Daivari in the match. Dar on the other hand falls into a weird middle ground. He’s clearly got a loud swagger and style, something that by itself isn’t heelish. Especially among the loud and rebellious culture of America. But Noam seems to be almost overbearing in his swagger, like to the point where it rubs me the wrong way, like an air of arrogance. But the problem is he’s too cool and flashy for crowds to want to hate him, but he’s got that smugness about him that makes it hard to cheer for him. Am I making sense here?
S: No I totally get you, man. I feel like that’s a massive issue which a lot of wrestlers from the UK faced with trying to get their characters over to an American audience. Take for example, Grado when he went to TNA. I can sit here and say that Grado is a master of comedy, he’s one of the funniest wrestlers like ever, he’s got that Colt Cabana type energy where he’s just naturally funny. When he went to TNA, for some reason it didn’t translate well there and I think that TNA just didn’t truly get Grado’s character too.
JT: I think it’s just impossible to calculate. Sometimes it’s the fans, sometimes it’s the company they’re booked in, sometimes it’s the wrestlers themselves either changing too much or not changing enough. I think Noam actually managed to balance that well enough later on, but I suppose we’ll leave that for his post CWC career breakdown. Back to the match?
S: Let’s get back to it and see who comes out on top, my friend.
JT: So Dar goes for the Corner Dropkick again but this time Hoho gets a boot up before he can connect. Hoho starts to rally, and though Dar tries to cut him off, Hoho knocks him away and hits a Missile Dropkick! He follows up with a Running Knee Lift in the corner, only to stagger out of the corner clutching his knee in pain. Dar sees this and tries to charge at him and take advantage, but he gets caught with an elbow to the face, stunning him and allowing Hoho to scoop him up and hit a Michinoku Driver!! 1—2—Kickout!! Lun follows up by hitting a Fisherman’s Buster and bridging the pin on one leg, but Dar kicks out again. Hoho sits Dar up, hits with a big knee to the back of his head, and Superkick to the face!! 1–2—Kickout! Still it’s not enough! So he has to go for what won him his last match! He goes for a German Suplex, but Dar with a Back Elbow right to the nose. Hoho is forced to let go, and as he rushes to try for it again, Dar quickly escapes from his grip as he drops to the mat and brings him down into the Champagne Super Knee Bar!! Hoho doesn’t want to give up, but he has no choice but to tap out, meaning Noam Dar advances to the Round of 8! Seán, regale us with your thoughts and opinions on this match.
S: Well to put it as simply as this, I think this was probably the weakest of the eight matches that we got in the Last 16 but I don’t think there was anything wrong with it technically, from an in-ring point of view. This match is perfectly serviceable, we mentioned that Dar does his signature moves and pulls off his offense so well, like with his match against Gurv Sihra. I didn’t see much wrong with the body language or facial reactions of Hoho in this match like we did with his First Round affair. This match did suffer from a lack of crowd interaction or interest, aside from the small chants for Dar early on. The lack of crowd involvement has hurt Dar’s run in this tournament when you think about it, I feel like he’s not translated as well as I thought he would have done five years ago.
JT: Yeah I totally agree. From the way that Hoho Lun got talked about in the aftermath of this tournament, you would’ve thought this was a much worse match. I mean people talked about it like it was a bad match, it wasn’t even that! Was it exceptional? Not really. It was a pretty average match, with pretty solid wrestling brought down by a lack of crowd interaction that made it feel sort of unexciting. Certainly compared against Alexander/Ibushi, this isn’t anywhere close. But not every match can go to 11 out of 10. This was a fine match between two relatively inexperienced wrestlers on a big stage. It’s smack dab in the middle of this round and this episode, so I don’t see why it should be held up against Main Event matches instead of other midcard matches.
S: Agreed, like comparing it to the bangers we’ve seen so far is a bit unfair and there’s no need to expect a banger from these two lads. The match served its purpose, it wasn’t exceptional by any means but it’s not bad like.
JT: So with that, Hoho Lun has been eliminated for the tournament, shall we run through his career since then?
S: Hoho is actually the guy who I’m most intrigued to hear what he’s been up to since the CWC so take it away, dude!
JT: So Hoho’s first Post CWC appearance came in NXT, teaming alongside Chinese wrestler Tian Bing, losing in the first round of the DRTTC against DIY. He wouldn’t make another televised appearance until February 2017, when he was defeated by Andrade “Cien” Almas, and then not again until June when he lost to the NXT pedo we don’t talk about. On August 3rd, WWE announced that Hoho had requested and was granted his release, as he wanted to return home and care for his ailing mother. And that’s his whole WWE run aside from Live Shows that he worked for NXT.
S: Yeah I remember his run with WWE and NXT being blink and you miss it type short lived but I always assumed that he was just cut because WWE didn’t see much use for him. I had no idea that he left for the reason he did and that was very selfless and noble of him to leave in the way he did. He truly is the nice guy he came across as throughout the tournament, what a hero if you ask me.
JT: I admire his attempt to spread his wings and go to America, but I also admire him deciding what’s best for him and working towards that. There’s no shame in trying something and then realizing it’s not for you. So after his WWE release, he would make his way back to Eastern Asia, quickly making his way to Guangdong China’s King of Pro Wrestling promotion, winning its inaugural KOPW Title tournament. He’d hold the Title for 294 Days and defend it twice. He would also make his Dragon Gate debut during their tour in Hong Kong in October 2018. He would wrestle in Pakistan’s Ring of Pakistan promotion in late 2018, work another tour with DG in Hong Kong in Spring 2019 before making his way over to England to work some Indies in Summer 2019 before finally making it to Dragon Gate shows in Japan working as an unaligned face in December 2019. In August 2020 he became part of the English commentary team for Dragon Gate Network and in December 2020, he won his first ever singles match in DG….debatably. It was a dark match. But it was still a singles win? Regardless, his time in DG hasn’t been tremendously successful as far as match results, but he’s wrestling pretty often even if it’s mostly in tag matches. His most recent match was teaming with Genki Horiguchi to defeat Ultimo Dragon and Yasushi Kanda on Night 2 of Dragon Gate’s Storm Gate tour. So he hasn’t had the most acclaimed career, but hey! For a Hong Kong kid who didn’t even get wrestling training at home, getting anywhere is an accomplishment!
S: Absolutely and much like we’ve appreciated and admired how well the likes of Alejandro Saez and Jason Lee have done for themselves in the last five years. I can sit here and safely say that I am absolutely delighted to hear that the man who should be everyone’s boy, Hoho Lun is doing well for himself. Even if he isn’t having an accomplishment scattered career so far, he’s doing the small nation of Hong Kong so proud by being their flag bearer for a country which didn’t even have wrestling, he’s the innovator and founder of Hong Kong wrestling and he’s doing it by working in a brilliant company like Dragon Gate and even doing English Commentary. That’s awesome in all honesty!
JT: I’m happy for him, I’m glad that he’s found a spot. For whoever long it lasts, I’m just glad he’s doing well. Best wishes Hoho, both inside the ring, outside the ring, and in everything outside of wrestling!
S: One hundred percent with you on that one and probably more from my end. Good on ya, Hoho!
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Strong Island Story
JT: Coming up next is our main event for CWC Episode 6!! This time, it’s two Americans facing off for a chance to move on! It’s Brian Kendrick, hot off his win against Raul Mendoza, going against Tony Nese, who defeated Anthony Bennett. Despite the tactics Kendrick used to win, he’s still quite popular here tonight. But hey, maybe fans are giving him a pass as this might be his last match on his final run at glory. What do you think of this pairing?
S: I really like the pairing in all honesty. You’ve got the man who feels he deserves to be here, that he’s long overdue this opportunity and the man with every attribute needed for succeeding in Tony Nese against the man who’s been here before, he’s made mistakes in the past and looks to redeem himself, a man who feels this is his last shot, looking for redemption and “without wrestling, he’s just living”. The Brian Kendrick, the character differences between the two based off the promos alone is just amazing if you ask me. It’s almost Brian is facing a younger, alternate version of himself from another dimension if he was jacked but still has all the athleticism he’s got.
JT: Yeah I also think the physicality of Nese makes this a very interesting matchup. Essentially as far as strength goes, Nese is the worst draw anyone can get. And this could be a huge problem for Brian considering his whole game is based on technical wrestling and cutting corners. Round One was against a risk taker in Mendoza, who is a perfect draw for him, he used Mendoza’s style to make him crash and burn. Against another technical wrestler, he might be able to find little opportunities to really punish his opponent and create openings to turn the tide. But we forget, when you’re getting slammed or thrown, there’s a point where you just cannot counter the move. You can always counter a hold, but you can’t stop gravity. It’ll also be interesting to see how these two play off each other, considering neither one of them was a particularly nice guy in round one. They were out for themselves and themselves only.
S: Agreed, on paper so far Kendrick is being put to the test in terms of the wrestlers he’s had to face. He’s had to face an extremely impressive, formerly virtual unknown in Raul Mendoza who pushed him to his absolute limit and now he’s against probably the best pure athlete in all of the tournament. In kayfabe, it’s putting Kendrick to the test to see if he can still hang with the younger guys.
JT: And for Nese, he’s facing one of the most crafty wrestlers in the business. If Tony really is the “Premier Athlete” like he says he is, this is a chance to prove that his athleticism can overwhelm even the most experienced competitors.
S: Very true, very good point there, James. It’s Long Island vs Seattle! The New York Islanders vs The Seattle Kraken! Everybody Loves Raymond vs Frasier! Nese vs Kendrick, who will be victorious???
JT: So we don’t get a handshake in this one, and Kendrick charges at Nese immediately after the bell rings, only to catch a kick to the head! Spinning Back Elbow, Running Knee in the corner by Nese. He goes for the Springboard Moonsault, which Brian just avoids as he goes to the floor, but Nese follows him out. Nese chops him on the floor, and when Brian tries to send him down onto the apron, Nese lands on it, then cartwheels over him and hits a Superkick to the face!! Nese is just overwhelming him early on, now just hammering him with chops and punches!! Seán I feel like this is a very important moment for Kendrick’s character! Like, in wrestling, it’s often that we get these sort of, crafty schemer type characters. Like we all know Kendrick’s path to victory is through getting away with every cheap trick and clever attack he can get away with. But something like this, it’s an important way of not only developing his character but making his opponent look good too. And what I mean is that this a clear example of a plan not working out. It establishes that he’s always trying to think of something, but this also shows that he’s not some sort of genius, sometimes a plan doesn’t work, so you’ve gotta think of Plan B or else. I just think it just makes Nese look good for being able to dominate the match early osmartern, and it makes Kendrick come off as more desperate as the beatdown continues.
S: Oh definitely, like this is how the match should start off given Kendrick’s story going into this match where he’s shown his desperation previously against Raul Mendoza. Him being overwhelmed from the offset is exactly what this Brian Kendrick needs to feel in this match, he needs to be stunned and almost on the ropes early on and it allows him to come across as the desperate veteran which he has been portrayed as thus far. It’s really good stuff and it plants the dread of “Is Kendrick’s run really going to end like this”? I really like this just as much as you do.
JT: So Nese picks Kendrick on his shoulders, and feeling the end is near, Kendrick hooks his hands around Nese’s eyes and nose, then clubs him before shoving him into the corner face first. In the corner, Brian hooks Nese’s arm in the turnbuckle pad and cuts his legs out from under him before just choking him with his boot and using that trapped arm to his advantage to some boos. Again the veteran Kendrick has found a way to use the ring to his advantage. Last time it was the ring ropes, this time it’s the turnbuckle pad.
S: The way that Kendrick uses the ring environment to his advantage in the last two matches really puts his crafty veteran over to that next level, doesn’t it? I find it so entertaining watching and waiting to see what part of the ring he can use to get the upper hand in his matches. Real nasty heel tactics from him here.
JT: Yeah it drew some boos from the Full Sail faithful, but still they’re split between the two. Kendrick runs at him into the corner, but Nese gets an elbow up and goes for a Moonsault only for Kendrick to move out of the way. Nese still lands on his feet, then he ducks a Clothesline with a Matrix Escape, hits a roundhouse kick to the gut, knee to the face, kick to the chest and then he sweeps the leg!! This impressive combo only nets Tony a 2 count though. He hits a couple of Leg Drops, another nearfall. Brian starts to fight back with some elbows, he runs the ropes, but Nese cuts him off at the ropes. Nese goes for a boot, Brian moves out of the way and Nese gets tangled in the ropes, allowing Brain to kick Nese’s hamstring and using the ropes as a wedge to Nese’s elbow, pulling him against the ropes. He then locks in an Armbar, just pulling at the fingers and going for anything he can to get Nese in pain. Nese manages to get out of the Armbar and sends Kendrick to the apron, where Kendruck hits a shoulder on Nese and comes back in for a Sunset Flip but Nese holds onto the ropes and kicks him on the side of the head!! Nese goes for the Springboard Moonsault again, but nobody’s home as he hits the canvas!! Kendrick goes back to the armbar, using his boots to push against Nese’s head and pull the arm, just pulling at the arm and shoulder any way he can. Nese clobbers him with shots to finally escape. Nese pulls himself up, Kendrick charges in, Nese sends him to the apron and sweeps his legs. Kendrick is down on the floor, allowing the Premier Athlete to hit the ropes and soar through the air with a Fosbury Flop!! Now in his first round match, Nese was definitely the heel. But here we see his potential as a face as well, hitting this incredibly athletic and exciting dive to the floor!!
S: Holy shit, that Fosbury Flop was absolutely perfect, I always think that move looks gorgeous whenever it’s done right but when Nese did it here, I think that may be the best I’ve seen that move ever been done. I remember feeling weird about him being a face about two years ago on 205 Live but here? I think he had potential babyface written all over him if you ask me, really pulling out all the flash to win over the crowd in this one.
JT: Well a face is often only as good as the heel he’s fighting, so we gotta keep that in mind. But yeah, he’s really exciting the crowd in this match. After the big dive, he rolls Kendrick back inside the ring and they start trading shots in the middle of the ring until Nese with a Face Crusher on the Knee, a kick to the side of the head, and then a Spinning Heel Kick!! He lifts for a Suplex, Brian with knees to the head, but Nese still holds him and drops him with a Falcon Arrow!! 1–2–Kickout!! Nese goes to the top, Kendrick rolls out of the way, so Nese dismounts and runs to the other side, and right into a boot, only for Nese to come back with a Lariat! Nese goes up top, Kendrick pulls him off the top and goes for a desperation pin, but Nese kicks out. From here, we see vintage Brian Kendrick as he just nails a beautiful Leg Lariat to Tony!! This is like out of the 2006 babyface London & Kendrick playbook!!
S: Taking me back to my early days of being a wrestling fan and instantly gravitating towards London and Kendrick as a tag team. Loved seeing that throwback to the high risk, daredevil days of Kendrick. Back when he had the boyish looks, uncanny resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio and the baggiest shorts ever.
JT: As the match progresses, now it’s Nese getting desperate as he tries for a roll up only for Brian to to kick out and get an Armbar again. Nese manages to block the armbar, lifts him up with one hand and Powerbombs him into the corner!! He covers: 1—2—Kickout!! No Seán, I have complicated feelings about this sort of spot, the Powerbomb out of an Armbar. On one hand, it’s always very impressive, and I love me a big powerbomb. On the other hand, I always feel like this spot kind of undermines the story, just because if the arm is worked all match, how does this sort of spot always happen? How do they always hit the Powerbomb working through the pain? Am I just being a stickler here?
S: Oh I totally get what you’re saying here, in the real world or the world which wrestling is trying to be real in, there’s no way someone having their arm worked over the whole match musters the strength in their arm to hit the Powerbomb, that just doesn’t happen because if anything you’d damage your arm. It’s a cool spot but it does go against the story, I think this works better if it’s done without all the previous arm targeting before it really.
JT: So off the Powerbomb both men are exhausted. Nese manages to pull himself up in the corner and then Nese charges in at Kendrick as the crowd chants for both of them, but Kendrick catches him with the takedown. He goes for the Bully Choke but Nese picks him up on his shoulders, only for Kendrick to rotate his body to take him down to the mat and get the Bully Choke in!! But Nese rolls over, pinning Kendrick’s shoulders to the mat and hooking his leg: 1–2—Kickout!! They both get up, Nese slides between the legs of Kendrick, picking him up out of the Pumphandle for the sit out Powerslam!! But again it’s not enough to put Brian away!! The two get up, they get the yay/boo thing with the crowd more behind Kendrick than Nese. Kendrick starts hitting Headbutts, then a boot and a Superkick and a Leg Lariat to finally knock down Nese! Kendrick goes up top only to get hit with repeated Enziguris until he falls off the top. With Kendrick down near the corner, Nese goes up for the 450 Splash, but Kendrick sits up and Nese hits the canvas!! Kendrick grabs him and gets the Bully Choke, and this time it’s academic!! Nese has to tap, and Brian Kendrick moves on!! What do you think of the story of this match, the performance by these two guys, those sorts of things?
S: I thought this match was very exciting from beginning to end and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like this was just a very gripping match from bell to bell, as soon as it started with Nese getting the upper hand for the first ninety seconds or two minutes, I knew that this was going to be a good one. I thought it was good back then but now having more of an understanding and a wider opinion on things these days, I must say that I thought the way the match was planned out and executed really got across the two characters of Tony Nese and this current iteration of Brian Kendrick. Nese feels he deserves to be on this stage so he’s obviously going to go into fifth gear with his offense while Kendrick is showing his desperation when he was overwhelmed early on and proving his experience is to his advantage by capitalising on Nese’s mistakes and cheating when necessary. I loved how the ending was Nese missing his finish, the 450 Splash and immediately Kendrick slaps on the Bully Choke for a quick tap out. Which makes sense because the Bully Choke is an air choke so him slapping it on to Nese right after missing the 450 works even better because Nese probably would’ve been pretty winded from crashing onto the canvas with no one there. Love it.
JT: I don’t think this was quite up there with the best of the best, but it’s definitely still pretty good. Like you mentioned, this match was structured interestingly because of Nese’s early onslaught against Brian. Like you said their backstories work well for this match, I just do think they’re characters didn’t quite work as well as needed. This isn’t necessarily on either guy as much as it was the booking of the tournament. The only real issue I had is that it felt like Kendrick wrestled a dirty style again, but because he was booked against someone who was very much a heel in the first round, the crowd didn’t quite buy into his psychology as much. I feel like this match could’ve gone better if you had Cedric vs Kendrick, not because Cedric is necessarily better than Tony, but because Cedric had more sympathy behind him to start with. But that’s just nitpicking, we can’t change the past. Things still worked out pretty well.
S: Oh yeah I totally get the point of that a true blue babyface may have made the psychology in this match that little less effective but I do think the way it was done and the cards we got dealt with were pretty good. May have not been the Royal Flush we were looking for but we had ourselves a decent little Full House. Still good, mind but not quite the hand which we were dealt with in Cedric vs Ibushi. So we can agree that we both liked this match then, right?
JT: I agree. Solid match! Now, shall we move on to our after match segment? The rundown of Tony Nese’s career?
S: Let’s go for it man, a lot has happened since we last talked about Nese on here so this should be interesting to discuss.
JT: So after his time in the CWC ended, his first match was a tag team defeat with Ariya Daivari against TM61 before making his main roster debut in a loss to *spoilers* Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins in September 26th 2016 Raw. But he’d get his first victory against Rich Swann on the October 10th Raw. He’d make his pay-per-view debut on the Hell in a Cell 2016 pre-show, teaming with Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari in a losing effort to Cedric Alexander, Lince Dorado and Sin Cara. Remember Sin Cara in the Cruiserweight Division? He’d also wrestle on the pre-show for the next PPV, where he, Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari lost to T.J. Perkins, Rich Swann, and Noam Dar on the Survivor Series pre-show. Oh and he and Gulak were defeated by No Way Jose and Rich Swann in the 1st round of the DRTTC. Aside from that, 2016 to mid 2017 was just a lot of nothing for Nese. Just trading wins with various people on Raw, 205 Live and Main Event. His first real storyline came with the arrival of Enzo Amore to the Cruiserweight scene, as one of the many Cruiserweight wrestlers to clobber Enzo, and also as one of the many heels to join Enzo in The Zo Train. However in December, he got attacked by The Zo Train, taking him off TV for two weeks and putting his alignment in jeopardy…only for this storyline to get dropped due to Amore being fired in January 2018 and the faction dissolving. He entered the 2018 Cruiserweight Title tournament but was defeated by Drew Gulak in the first round. That 2016-2018, not ideal for Tony if I’m being honest. I mean getting on National TV, but it seems like his entire first 2 years can be reduced to “face in the crowd”.
S: Oh he was just spinning his wheels as one of the various heels on the 205 Live roster, wasn’t he? Like when you’re stuck in a faction with Enzo as henchman number four then you know you’re just making up the numbers. It’s weird though because it seemed like every few months they’d just give him a small mini push or always make him out to be somewhat of a threat to whoever the Cruiserweight Champion was.
JT: I suppose the only reason to have a “Heavy” like Nese is to have him present like a threat, just due to how he looks. Like if a guy is bigger than most other guys, it’s at least worth pretending like that size and strength matters, right? But even then, you’re right that he wasn’t even the lead bodyguard, he was still a glorified henchman, no different from Daivari or Dar. And with the Zo Train things were totally falling off the rails. First, he appeared in the Greatest Royal Rumble. What did he do in it? Well he eliminated a Cruiserweight Champion!!! Unfortunately, that Champoon was Hornswoggle. And then he got tossed out by the New Day, with his whole run essentially played for yucks. Then he’d lose to Mark Andrews on 205 Live, as the start of Andrews full run on 205 Live after making his debut in the 2018 Cruiserweight Title tournament. But of course, Andrews full time run new materialized as the start of NXT UK kept him busy and he’d only have 1 more match on 205 Live after beating Nese. This also rendered Nese’s face turn, saving Andrews from Drew Gulak just a moot. Like you said, just wondering about Big Tony.
S: Yeah he was just drifting aimlessly from feud to feud at that stage, wasn’t he? Although, from what I recall, Gulak absolutely brutalised him in their First Round match in the Cruiserweight Championship Tournament so him saving Mandrews from the same sort of beatdown he suffered earlier that year does make sense in a way but definitely drifting about for sure.
JT: Well luckily, he finally got his break in mid 2018, as Buddy Murphy arrived on the scene, and Tony became Buddy’s main man. Nese seemed to finally pick up momentum in this pairing, ending up on the winning end of a feud with the Lucha House Party. Moreover, Nese defeated Cedric Alexander shortly after he lost his title to Murphy, and won a 5 Way after pinning Alexander again. However, he couldn’t become #1 contender as he lost to Mustafa Ali. Afterwards, he feuded with Noam Dar, attacking him in a parking lot, getting suspended for it, but ultimately winning his feud with Dar after a No DQ match in February. He had built momentum just in time to determine a #1 Contender for WrestleMania. Unlike the last tournament where he lost in the first round, Nese went all the way this time, defeating Kalisto, Drew Gulak and Cedric Alexander to earn his match at WrestleMania 35. After the match, Murphy attacked him to cement Nese as a face. At WM35 in NY/NJ, Nese won gold as he defeated Murphy to become Cruiserweight Champion. He’d retain the Title at Money in the Bank, then lose it at Stomping Grounds in June to Drew Gulak, who would beat him in the rematch at Extreme Rules. His reign was 77 Days and had 3 defenses. What do you think of his run with Buddy, his face turn leading into his WrestleMania victory, and his subsequent title reign?
S: I thought the pairing with Buddy Murphy actually worked, Murphy was doing his whole “Juggernaut” deal on 205 Live at the time so it’d only make sense that his right hand man would be someone equally as jacked as he is. Now with him getting his match at Mania 35 and winning the Cruiserweight Title, I remember being really surprised that he actually won the belt and that he was the one to dethrone Murphy. His title reign I don’t remember much of aside from the actual feuds he was put into like having a match with Ariya Daivari at Money in the Bank 2019 and him losing the belt but even then, I remember just feeling so disconnected with the WWE programming at that stage because of how stupid long PPVs had gotten, I was focusing on my Leaving Cert exams at the time and I thought the Wildcard rule was absolute piss. I Felt like Tony as Cruiserweight Champion was a placeholder for Gulak to finally get his run with the belt not gonna lie.
JT: Yeah when I think about his reign, he was more or less a transitional champion, but he got to be a transitional champion at WrestleMania!! He got to beat arguably the best Cruiserweight Champion of the 205 Live era in his home state (or at least the home stadium of his home state’s football teams, MetLife Stadium is weird) at WrestleMania! For a guy who really didn’t get much before then, it’s a big moment. Hell, it’s big enough even without his background. In fact, he and Cedric are the only wrestlers to ever win the Cruiserweight Title at WrestleMania (out of 5 CW matches at WM). Just because you don’t have many other big moments to compare it to, your biggest moment should still be special to you. I hope he enjoyed it!! Lord knows how many of us would trade everything for just a WrestleMania match let alone a WrestleMania title win.
S: Oh yeah, no doubt about that, the fact that he got to win a title at WrestleMania must be such an awesome feeling to experience. Yeah it was on the Pre-Show and everything but still, no one can take that away from him and good on him if you ask me.
JT: Plus I imagine the blow of being on the pre-show feels much less substantial when you’re in that huge stadium with the WrestleMania logo.
S: Exactly and technically he’s the first match on the show so he gets to win the Cruiserweight Title in front of a packed stadium and open up the show.
JT: After Tony’s title reign ended, it went back to his 2017-2018 business, mostly just having matches and trading wins on 205 Live. He turned heel in a feud with Oney Lorcan and represented 205 Live in a 10 Man Tag against NXT roster members. He was in the Interim Cruiserweight Title tournament, but failed to pick up a win in his matches against Kushida, Drake Maverick and Jake Atlas. This led to a feud with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, who mocked him for going winless. After a few encounters, Scott earned Nese’s respect, with the two shaking hands, turning Nese face. By the end of 2020 he aligned himself with Ariya Daivari as the “205 Live OGs”, having low card matches until he was unfortunately released in June 2021. He hasn’t had a match since his release, with his final match being a loss to Ikeman Jiro on 205 Live on June 15th.
S: It’s pretty crazy how quickly Nese’s career fell all the way down the pecking order, isn’t it? I mean from one Mania to the next he went from winning the Cruiserweight Championship to not even on the card and then barely winning matches at all, all leading to his release during WWE’s merciless gutting of the 205 Live roster. Like holy shit, that is pretty saddening to hear. His no-compete clause should be coming up soon though, right? Because I feel he could be a great addition to the Impact Wrestling roster in their X-Division.
JT: The wrestling world is big enough that he should be able to find a place to work, but yeah it’s a shame how his WWE career is honestly defined by them never putting any stock in him. He made it two the second round of the CWC and lost, never did anything of note till someone else needed protection, only won the title because it was his home state and they needed a transitional champion, and then sent him right back down the card for his loyalty. But again, considering all the guys who never even got their foot in the door, Tony did well by Long Island if you ask me. Good job Tony Nese, we here at the Power Hour look forward to whatever you do next. And from the sounds of it, he can’t wait for what he does next too.
S: Seems like Mojo vs No Way Jose has got themselves a formidable challenger for the greatest ever feud on Main Event. Best of luck to Tony Nese anyways, hopefully he gets to face some fresh new names because my god, it’s been Groundhog Day for that man for 80% of his WWE run.
JT: Groundhog Day!! What a movie! Speaking of movies and tv and all things entertainment, now that we are done with Episodes 5 & 6 of the CWC, how about we head to the Recharge?
S: Let’s do it man, I’m feeling rather peckish for something out of the Café Recharge. What’re you in the mood for?
JT: Honestly I can go for some nice raspberry jam and toast. That sort of good stuff, that we can only get in the Recharge.
S: I like your style, my friend. Two of those please! It’s The Recharge, baby.
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The Recharge
JT: In the words of Bill Fucking Murray himself, well it’s the Recharge. Again. Hello and welcome to the Recharge! This is more or less our halfway point, where Seán and I can get out any extra lingering thoughts about anything not related to our main timelines. And we get to play a little trivia, woooo!!
S: It’s always a light-hearted affair here at Café Recharge! This is the time where James and I shy away from what we’re reviewing, chat about anything that’s happening in the world of wrestling, other interests and oftentimes life in general. Today we’ve got our raspberry jam and toast, two slices each by the way. Today for my drink of choice I’ve got a lovely cappuccino with some cinnamon on top. James, what’s your drink de jour on this occasion?
JT: Well to break the fourth wall, right now I’ve just got water with me. But I’ve also got the final episode of Secret Base’s incredible series cataloguing the ridiculous history of the Atlanta Falcons. Them Secret Base fellas sure know how to make content, I tell you what.
S: Do tell me more about them, I’m intrigued to hear about this. What is it in relation to sports? A series, a podcast, a YouTube series?
JT: Secret Base, formerly just the YouTube channel for company SB (Sports Blog) Nation, is one of the best sports related channels on YouTube. Led by Jon Bois with Seth Rosenthal, Graham MacAree, Kofie Yeboah, Alex Rubenstein, Clara Morris, William Buikema, Phil Pasternak, Jiazhen Zhang, Michael Das, and Ryan Simmons all helping out, you just get the highest quality you can ask for on YouTube. They’re known for series such as Beef History, Dorktown, Rewinder, Fumble Dimension, Collapse, That’s Weird, The Worst and others, which all revolve around explaining and examining narratives in sports. Their videos are well written, well edited, well researched and always interesting. The Atlanta Falcons series just went through the franchise’s entire history from start to the infamous Super Bowl 51, using charts and starts the whole way to explain what was going on and why you should care. I highly recommend checking out their stuff, it’s also so great. You don’t have to be an American sports fan or even a sports fan to like their stuff.
S: Well that right there has definitely sold me on the idea of Secret Base, that’s for sure. You’ve given me a summary of what they do, who’s involved and where to get it. That Atlanta Falcons series sounds extremely fascinating to watch, I must check it out as soon as I can because Super Bowl 51, ooh boy. That’s surely one of the biggest bottlejobs in American sports history, right?
JT: Arguably the biggest choke job of all time. The whole country was rooting for Atlanta, because they were facing the New England Patriots. The Pats were in the middle of a Dynasty, looking for their 5th Super Bowl in their 7th try in 15 years. Everyone wanted to see the Falcons win, and as Secret Base so thoroughly elaborated on, the Falcons had a big long history of things going wrong. Oh and Atlanta is a city symbolic of black culture, going against a team whose Owner, Coach and Quarterback had all shown their sympathies for the newly elected President, Donald Trump. Like legitimately, the owner of the Patriots, Robert Kraft, is legit friends with Trump. Lovable Losers against the Evil Empire in one of the most politically fueled sports games in American history, and the Evil Empire ripped victory back from the jaws of defeat in the most horrific way possible. The final part gets to that game, the thing the whole series was building towards. And it was a wonderful episode clocking in at 1:37:46 long.
S: Now that is something which I would definitely have the patience in watching all the way through. Yeah I’d heard about most of the stuff you’d mentioned there, I knew this game was very much a good versus evil type showdown in the eyes of the average American sports fan. I’d known that Tom Brady was a Trump supporter alright and as far as Robert Kraft goes, American billionaire, he’s obviously gonna be in good graces with Trump or the Republican Party alright.
JT: Yeah again I cannot overstate that Secret Base are so good at finding interesting little narratives. Whether for a franchise’s whole run like this series or their series on the Seattle Mariners or Cleveland Cavaliers, highlighting individual big moments and why they matter like the Holly Holm vs Ronda Rousey, highlighting weird moments or careers like Adam Dunn, or chronicling beef between teammates like between Kobe and Shaq. They do not miss. But that’s enough about what I’m doing, what about you Seán, what are you up to?
S: Well I’ve just been tipping along as of late, been working in my new job, I left Supermac’s by the way and as of late I’ve just been working in my local ship doing a few four hour shifts per week, basically just trying to save as much money for my upcoming year of university which I start on the 20th of September because I’ve got some college and accommodation fees to pay off. In terms of outside all that stuff, well since Sex Education is one of my favourite shows I’ve ever seen so far and Season 3 is dropping on the 17th of September, I’ve been doing a rewatch and oh boy, it’s still really emotional, funny and so well done.
JT: Ohhh I’ve heard about that show, and I’ve seen a lot of people I know support it. What would tell someone if they were perhaps interested in potentially picking the show up? Like how would you sell it?
S: I’d sell it as a show that is insanely relatable to people of our age and younger, more so our generation than anything. It’s a show which goes about all the different sexual preferences and interests in people maturely and realistically, like the arcs which all of the central characters go through in Season 1 is so compelling and plays out brilliantly. Like the amazing thing with the show is that you get general first impressions of characters from the first episode or first two episodes and the more you get to see them on the show, you learn more about them, what their personalities are and most importantly what struggles they deal with on a daily basis. In Season 2 you get more of that and also character building for so many recurring characters. It’s funny, it’s relatable, it’s got lots of heart to it and it’s very emotional in parts. Also, the soundtrack dude, it’s class. Would thoroughly recommend watching it.
JT: Guess I gotta throw it on the ever growing list of shows and movies and books and songs and comics that I want to read. Seán the lists, it never gets shorter. It never comes closer to completion, it just grows forever for all times. But perhaps I’m being over dramatic, I realize I’m starting to sound like Newman talking about the mail on Seinfeld.
S: Now Seinfeld is one I’m definitely gonna properly dedicate to watching once it drops on Netflix. I think you should put Sex Education right at the front of your list if you ask me, it’s only 16 episodes episodes and each episode is around 50 minutes long. You should give it a proper watch in my opinion.
JT: I’m definitely considering it. And you should definitely consider Seinfeld. There’s this real charm about it if you ask me, it just has this great way of poking fun at little things in society and culture that we don’t tend to dwell on. Plus, all the chemistry the cast has is really great. If you ask me, it stands the test of time, aside from the various controversies the actors have been involved in since then.
S: I’ve seen the first season alright and an episode or two of the second season. I’d say why I didn’t properly commit to it at the time was probably because I was so soon after finishing my watch of Frasier, which I would also thoroughly recommend.
JT: So let’s switch gears here, because I want to talk about AEW!! We’ve had some big developments just this past weekend with 2021’s version of All Out. Seán, care to just share anything on your mind about it? Be that comments on matches, moments, any of that sort of stuff.
S: Oh there’s just so much to comment about really, isn’t there? But boy am I willing to chat about it because fucking hell, what a fucking PPV that was. Nothing but fun from start to finish, and extremely easy to watch and about as good of a wrestling show in modern times as you could ask for. So many people stood out to me in terms of their performance, their presence and even their debuts. To talk about performances we should mention the likes of Kris Statlander, who I feel was the star in the Women’s World Title match, CM Punk and Darby Allin had a match which suited Punk’s return match perfectly. The Steel Cage Match between The Young Bucks and The Lucha Brothers was my Match of the Night, a fucking excellent and crazy match which got me to flip out when Fenix and Penta won the AEW Tag Titles. Lovely debuts such as Ruby Soho finally getting a moment she’s been owed on a big stage for her whole career by winning the Women’s Casino Battle Royale. Minoru fucking Suzuki!!! Kenny Omega and Christian having a great main event which didn’t overstay its welcome, refreshing in modern wrestling and the debuts we got afterwards, just wow.
JT: Yeah I’m normally a bit of a stickler when it comes to AEW. As opposed to modern WWE, which has the bar set on the floor, I have high expectations for AEW. This means I’m often more critical of AEW, mostly because I believe they have the capacity to be better. But for this show? I got pretty much nothing. Paul Wight vs QT Marshall wasn’t a PPV level match, but I get why it was there. Uhh, the Moxley/Suzuki build was pretty much identical to their Wrestle Kingdom spot. That’s about it. From stop to bottom, the show was a lot of fun and everyone did their jobs. Like you said, that Cage Match was an absolutely crazy spectacle. I think the ridiculousness of it and now spot-fest-y it was to it’s benefit, since it was a big title reign ending in a big stipulation on PPV. And of course, those debuts!! I gotta ask you Seán, describe to the readers how you felt getting that double barrel blast at the end of the show?
S: It was like getting two big bags of Crispy M&M’s to be honest, man. To remind everyone, ADAM COLE AND BRYAN DANIELSON ARE IN AEW! Like holy fucking shit! I figured Bryan was on his way out of WWE after putting Roman over so many times and losing a match which stated he’d leave WWE if he were to lose so once I heard the rumours of him and Punk joining, I was pretty certain about him. Adam Cole was one I thought WWE would’ve fought tooth and nail to keep around but as we said as we watched this together, they let him walk over a Twitch channel, which is a big no no for those on the main roster. WWE, you’ve had an absolute howler and are continuing to have them more frequently. Fair play to Cole, honestly, he’s dead fucking right to go to AEW, he’d be more appreciated there and he’s mates with all the EVPs. Better than being a cowardly heel manager, great thinking there, WWE. Howler.
JT: Yeah, I agree. Cole was almost a bigger shocker. Of course, Bryan is my favorite, just ever. But if you take a step back and think about his career, it makes sense he’d make the jump. He’s always been big on trying out new things and shooting for the moon, and he’s talked so much about his time in the indies and how special it was. He really did all he could do in WWE, he went to the big leagues and he swam with the sharks. And now it’s a chance to go over the next horizon, trying some new things, and facing some new people. But Cole felt like someone WWE had really failed in letting go. I mean they had him on the roster for 4 years, and he was in NXT the whole time. If rumors are to be believed, he was someone on WWE’s radar long before he signed. So letting him leave before he can have feuds with the top WWE guys like Reigns, Rollins, Orton, AJ, is a real mess. Seems to me like he had done enough to be happy with, then went off to work with his friends and his wife. Plus, Twitch is another big win. Like Adam is only 32. If he could stay healthy, you could get a good decade from him on the main roster. But they fumbled the bag. And plus, AEW having them both come out felt huge. Normally I’m for maximizing the moment for one new guy, but this was the best possible ending you could’ve had for All Out. Fucking cheers AEW, you not only hit a home run, you hit it out of the stadium.
S: Agreed, they legitimately knocked the ball out of the park with this one, at first I kinda groaned that he’d be linked up with The Elite and be heel but then I remember, he’s a fucking awesome heel and The Elite desperately need someone that’s close to that level with Kenny or even someone that could possibly usurp his power one day or even step up to be that top heel of the group if Kenny takes a break for a while in a year or two. With Bryan, oh it totally makes sense, he’s much like Kevin Owens, or possibly Kevin Steen by next year, he’s a very goal oriented wrestler. Once he achieves what he wants, he wants something new and fresh. It’s a very smart way to stay motivated with wrestling.
JT: Yeah when Cole turned heel I was annoyed at the idea of their big payoff being another heel for an already strongly booked faction, but I quickly calmed down knowing that:
A) They wouldn’t end a PPV like that, which they didn’t. This is why I hold them to higher standards, I know they’re capable of being an A+.
B) We didn’t have face Adam Cole. I’m honestly not sure how a goodie Adam Cole would work, considering he’s cemented himself a top heel for the past…7 years? Like I know he was the face after the breakup of Future Shock, but that young baby Adam Cole is way in the past.
Also after Cole & Bryan jumped, you cannot convince me Kevin Steen isn’t joining them afterwards. He’s a mix of both of them. Like Bryan, he’s accomplished a lot and proven he can hold his head above water in WWE. Aside from another World Title run, where this time he carries the load all by himself, or a Tag Title run with Sami Zayn, I don’t know what more he could do in WWE. And like Cole, he’s got a real long-standing connection with AEW EVPs. Unless WWE unloads a dump truck of money on his doorstep, I can’t see him staying. Hell, they might offer him a ridiculous amount and he might still bolt for his own happiness and drive. And you can bet that Sami Zayn is out the door if Kevin goes.
S: Yeah I fully agree, after I saw the news that Kevin’s contract is up in March 2022, I’m fully convinced that he’s going to leave. I feel like he’s done everything he personally wants to do aside from those two things you just mentioned, I feel like he’s not been done by right in the last few years if you ask me. Like don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see him as a face and usually getting good wins for himself but I just feel like he’s been owed another World Title reign, as a babyface if you ask me. We talked about this the other night but it’s been over four years since his last title reign in WWE, it’s strange but he feels like a mega over face wrestler in the 80s where he’s over with the crowd but WWE don’t think he needs a title. And as far as Sami goes, whenever his contract is up, which could be soon, he’s out the gap. Olé!
JT: Yeah Kevin is in such a weird spot like that, because he’s so naturally over that he can bounce off loses no problem. Like I mean dude spent all of the fall months into early winter losing to Roman and Jey Uso, but he didn’t really get hurt at all. I guess he’s just that kind guy fans love. Funny to see 3 of WWE’s biggest fan favorites who beat John Cena potentially going to AEW. First it was Punk, then Bryan, potentially next Kevin. All I’m saying is, Vince McMahon better protect AJ Styles.
S: You’d fucking hope he would because AJ could easily wanna have one more run elsewhere and probably have himself another career renaissance because I still think he’s capable of that if you ask me.
JT: I think Vince would want to fight Tony Khan in the streets if he took AJ away from him. Like I’ve never seen an Indie guy become one of Vince’s boys as much as AJ has.
S: Oh it’s actually crazy how much Vince has been a fan of AJ Styles for the last five years, like fucking hell, seven to eight months into his run he beat Cena clean as a whistle and then won the WWE Championship the month afterwards. Then he also held the belt for a bloody year! And he faced Brock too?! And Taker in his (as of right now) final match? Bloody hell, fair play.
JT: Regardless of whether they get AJ or KO or Sami or all three, AEW is rocking right now. And I can’t wait to see them myself live on the 22nd. I haven’t been to a wrestling event since Evolve 118 back in December 2018. Seeing AEW is a treat. Seeing wrestling live again is a treat. Seeing AEW, in what they’re building as a pretty big show, as my first event in nearly 3 years? I’m gonna have a great time regardless of what actually happens on the show, I’m sure of it.
S: I’m very happy that you’re getting to see AEW in the midst of this popular, hot streak that they’ve got going on for themselves and getting to see it in a venue such as the Arthur Ashe stadium, their first time in New York is pretty awesome as well.
JT: Yeah I’m really interested to see what they do, considering they’ve made a big deal of this show by giving it an actual title. Plus they’ve been advertising it a bunch. I mean it’s the biggest gate in AEW history, so I know they’re not going to let that crowd down. But that’s enough about me, how about we do some Recharge trivia?
S: Oh you know it’s that time again, people! James, I’m damn sure ready for a bit of Recharge trivia. Would you care to remind our lovely readers what the rules are?
JT: Our house rules are pretty standard stuff. We ask each other (usually) an open ended question, where our trivia master is given 3 guesses and 1 hint to try and get the answer. Sometimes this varies, maybe we’ll do a multiple choice or maybe we’ll give each other an extra hint, but that’s the usual set. 3 guesses one hint, we each get to ask and answer. Simple enough! Now Seán, as always I will default to you. Do you want to ask me some trivia, or do you want to answer my question first?
S: Well for a change, James, I think I might do the honours and go first for a change. My question today regards the one, the only “Japanese Buzzsaw” himself, Yoshihiro Tajiri! Would you like to hear the question I’ve got in mind?
JT: I’m game, hit me with it! How well do I know perennial Power Hour favorite Tajiri?
S: So here’s the question for you, sir. Before his return to WWE in the Cruiserweight Classic, what was Tajiri’s last match in WWE before his match with Damian Slater? We’re talking televised matches too by the way.
JT: Ohhh does that include your Sunday Night Heats, Velocities, Metals and Jakkeds of the world? Or did it happen on Raw/SD? Would that be my hint if you answered that?
S: I think it would be your hint used no matter what way I used it. Are you willing to use your hint from the off?
JT: No, I think I can go without it. So my first guess for an opponent is gonna be Steven/Stevie Richards!
S: It was not Steven Richards, would you like to take another stab at it or use up your hint?
JT: Yeah I’d like to use my hint here. I think it was worth a guess but I’ll use my hint now. Really thought I had something considering Steven was the master of Sunday Night Heat.
S: Okay so I was considering using the initial hint I was planning out but I feel like that wouldn’t be good enough so my hint for you is this, James. Tajiri’s last match in WWE prior to his brief return was, in fact, a tag team match, playa!
JT: Ohhh see I was thinking singles matches the whole time! Like I had proper Sunday Night Heat match opponents like Steven or Tommy Dreamer or Nunzio in mind. Ok I think I might have a shot with this next one, was his last match against La Résistance?
S: It was not La Résistance either, my friend. I’m not going to say this is a hint but you are on the right track by saying it’s a proper tag team. So James, your final guess for me and the readers please? Take your time to think about it, sir.
JT: Alright, one final guess. For some reason, I feel like he was on Raw, probably because I knew he and William Regal had a tag title run and that feels like it was close to the end of his first WWE run. Thus the La Résistance guess. So with all of that in mind, my final guess will be: Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak!!
S: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, James but sadly, that is incorrect. By the time Tajiri had his final match, Garrison Cade was Lance Cade and teaming with Trevor Murdoch while Mark Jindrak was almost a year gone from WWE. Would you like to hear the correct answer, sir?
JT: Drat! I thought I had pulled a name out of my ass. And considering Trevor Murdoch (congrats on the NWA Title win btw!) was teaming with Cade, Tajiri must’ve been around later than I figured. Tell me, who was his final match of his first WWE run against?
S: Well technically his final match while contracted as a WWE wrestler was against Rob Conway on an episode of Sunday Night Heat but alas! It was not his final match on WWE programming, in fact, his final match on WWE programming came in the year of 2006 where he and longtime foe, Super Crazy teamed up in a losing effort to The FBI, Full Blooded Italians team of Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke at ECW’s One Night Stand 2006!
JT: Of course, how could I forget ONS?!? So many dudes who showed up on that show in 2005 & 2006 didn’t necessarily stay, but of course that makes so much sense. I didn’t even consider WWECW, that would have certainly been a factor in my decision. I know he wasn’t in that, so I probably would’ve set that up as a cutoff point, and maybe then I could’ve figured it out. Oh well, good old fun facts! And I suppose I was on the right track when I thought of Nunzio as one of his final opponents, just not in the way that I originally thought.
S: Unfortunately not, so now that I’ve stumped James with my question. James, would you like to try and return the favour?
JT: Yeah I will! So, we mentioned Cedric Alexander, and his two separate 24/7 Championship reigns, neither of which passed 1 day in length. In the history of that title, 32 different people have held the Title and never managed to get past the 1 day mark (33 if you count a Peter Rosenberg title win that was pre-taped and thus only lasted <1 day in WWE’s record books but longer in actuality). Now, Cedric is special, because he’s only 1 of 6 people to not surpass a day despite holding it on more than one occasion. The record holder for this is a man who held the Title 4 different times, but never held it longer than a day. Who is that man?
S: Alright I’m going to take a stab at this right from the off and say that this man is, in fact, EC3?
JT: Damn, I gotta pick harder questions! That’s correct! EC3 had 4 separate 24/7 Title reigns, all of which ended at the hands of the 24/7 Champion GOAT, R-Truth. All except one of those reigns (the first one) were on Live Shows. By the way, people other than EC3 and Cedric to hold the title more than once for under a day? They are as follows: Jinder Mahal, Mike Kanellis, Tucker and someone named “Joseph Average”. Do you happen to know what the deal is with this Joseph Average character?
S: Got it first try, let’s go peeps! Very proud of myself there. Now, the character of Joseph Average, from what I remember, this character was part of a 24/7 Title YouTube series which was a joint thing by WWE and Old Spice, which they landed as a sponsor relatively recently. Now the character of Joseph Average, from what I could gather was just Rick Boogs, current guitarist for Shinsuke Nakamura and SmackDown Superstar playing the character of a salesman for Old Spice who got wangled into all this 24/7 Title nonsense for a few weeks as part of that series.
JT: Yeah pretty much. I’m assuming they needed someone who wasn’t a character on TV but wasn’t needed elsewhere and was not shit at promos. Basically acted as a Clark Kent/Superman deal for Old Spice’s Night Panther scent, so Joe Average was the normal guy and he had a sort of luchador deal as Night Panther. But it worked! Why? Because I’m a doofus, repeating their advertising. In actuality I bet it helped Boogs get his job on TV, since all that crap happened around Mania 37, and he was accompanying Shinsuke Nakamura by May 2021.
S: Yeah to be honest this probably was an audition to see if he was a good enough character for main roster TV after being in the Performance Centre for like three or four years at that stage. Boy, Boogs has been getting a good few mentions in recent episodes lately, hasn’t he?
JT: Oddly yeah, but he’s great and he deserves it. Total boy. So, have we had our fun? Is it time to get back to our feature presentation?
S: I mean, I’ve eaten my toast, I’ve had my coffee and I think it’s time we head back to our regularly scheduled episode of the CWC if you ask me.
JT: We’re outta here!! Back to the show!!
S: Back to Florida, again.
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Road of L Dorado
JT: So we’re on to our final set of 3 matches in the Quarter Finals, and we’re starting off with some high flying!! Representing Puerto Rico, having defeated Mustafa Ali in Round One, it’s Lince Dorado!! And his opponent, representing the US of A, fresh off a 1st round win against Jason Lee, it’s Rich Swann!!
S: Talk about starting off the final set of Second Round matches with an exciting, high flying match up, eh? Like this right here is as tasty of a Second Round match you could ask for when you lay out the draw, this is up there with Cedric and Ibushi in terms of how cool this match sounds on paper. We talked about how good Lince was in his match with Mustafa Ali and we also gushed about the amazing athleticism which Swann showcased against Jason Lee so this should definitely be a good one.
JT: Yeah and like, you’ve just got two, solid good guys in this one. Lince’s got some crowd support from his days working in Chikara and the like, and Swann’s got exposure working the indies and showing up in NXT. The crowd likes both these guys, and are ready for a good time. Ready for the match rundown?
S: Let’s just jump straight into it, man. Take it away!
JT: “Can you handle this?” and let’s go Swann chants as the match begins. Swann front flips over Dorado’s drop down, boy guys go for quick overs, pressing each other off in typical Lucha fashion. Lince goes for a Hurricanrana, but Swann handstands out of it!! Swann goes for it to Lince, Lince flips through, nipping up to his feet!! Swann and Dorado are staring at each other face to face, and since everyone knows and loves Swann’s dancing, why shouldn’t Lince strut his stuff too? Lince pops me big as he just does the fucking Alex Wright Wunderkind dance!!! Fucking yes!! That’s my boy!! Love it, it’s such a great comedy dance, there’s no way to do it and look cool.
S: Oh it’s such a brilliant, goofy dance and the best thing about it is that it works if you’re either a face or a heel. It works in both dispositions, it’s a great, lame dance. We’ve had Das Wunderkind, now we have El Niño Maravilla. Thanks for that http://spanishdict.com!
JT: Swann looks like he’s gonna give him some props for his fancy footwork, as he goes to shake his hand, but it’s a ruse as he pulls him into a big headlock. Lince goes to the ropes and sends Swann across, then goes for a Leapfrog but Swann catches him in mid air with a dropkick!! Now Swann dances and then goes for a dive, but Lince with a kick to cut him off then a Springboard Missile Dropkick and a big Crossbody to the floor!! Fun stuff here, I like how they’re ramping up the tension between two well intentioned guys. They’re not trying to be violent or mean, but all it takes is a little something to stick in one of their craws, and now business is picking up.
S: Yeah it was all fun and games with the dancing and the feeling out process of it all at the start of the match but now they’re starting to know what’s at stake here and they’re starting to raise their game. Nice, gradual build of excitement there.
JT: So Lince gets sent into the corner after all that and manages to land on his feet, but Swann with a Neckbreaker, then a Unique Lucha Libre submission on Lince. Dorado tries a quick pinning combo but it isn’t enough. They start trading shots, Swann getting mad and hammering on him, only for Dorado to duck and hit a big chop! He sends Swann in, follows him in with a forearm, then Swann follows him across with one, then Swann catches him with a Superkick! He puts Dorado up top and goes for the leaping Super Rana but Dorado holds on and rolls out of the corner. They both go for bicycle kicks but both hit at the same time and they both go down. Once again they’re up and trading shots, exchanging chops and punches, Dorado lands on the apron, gets a kick on Swann and gets a Flying Crossbody but it only gets a 2! Dorado goes for a German Suplex; but Swann flips and lands on his feet, then he front rolls into a DDT and plants Lince!! He gets up and goes for the Standing 450, but Dorado gets the knees up and cradles him: 1—2—Kickout!! Sweet exchange by these two! Great moves and great job playing off spots from last match.
S: Yeah I’m really liking the continuity in this match and that Lince has almost been studying Swann’s offence and figuring out ways to counter his signature spots. It’s really good psychology and it makes Lince look really intelligent. As well as that, they also seem to both know what the other is going to hit like the double down spot from both of them cracking each other with Bicycle Kicks. The near fall of the Standing 450 reversal into the Cradle Pin was very cool too. Good stuff from both of these lads!
JT: Yeah even though based on how all the matches thus far have been conclusive, I really bought into the quick nearfall. That’s just a credit to both guys.
S: Exactly, it’s great to see a bit of a change that when the finisher is in sight, it isn’t leading to the actual end of the match but not in a finisher hit and then near fall. Rather, finisher is in sight, finisher reversed and nearly loses because of their finisher.
JT: So after a very close call for Swann, who is now getting hammered by a combination of back elbows and an Enziguri by Lince. He goes for the Springboard into a Reverse Rana but Swann Ducks, hits a High Roundhouse Kick, and another, then goes for the Reverse Rana himself, but Lince ducks under him and hits one himself!! 1—2—Kickout!! Lince has only one move left in his arsenal bigger than that Reverse Rana. It was the move that won him his match in Round One. He goes up for the Shooting Star Press with Swann in the drop zone, he takes a leap of faith, and crashes and burns! Swann moved out of the way!! And now with Lince down, Swann is the one who goes up. He looks out towards the crowd and blindly leaps back, but he scored with a Phoenix Press!! He hooks the leg: 1—2—3!! Rich Swann moves on to the final 8 in our opening match of episode 7!!
S: Really liked the finish in that one and I also thought this was a damn good match in all honesty. Very exciting action between these two, thought they gave it socks for the sake of entertaining us and I’m all good with that because they’re two very exciting wrestlers in their own right! As I mentioned beforehand, I appreciated how intelligent Lince looked as a wrestler throughout this match and the reversals of an opponent’s finisher. Speaking of that last sentence, the finish was really well done, the fact it was Swann who then rolled out of the way of the Shooting Star Press and then busted out a new finisher, thus giving him two weapons of choice for his Quarter Final match is a very good way of pushing Swann as a competitor. Thumbs up from me, give it a watch or a rewatch, readers.
JT: Yeah I really liked Swann’s Phoenix Splash. Not only did it look good, but it really made a statement. I feel like him pulling out an extra big move really positions him as someone who might just have the moves to win it all. He can not only beat someone like Jason Lee, but he can pull out the big stops to win against someone with Lince Dorado.
S: Yeah honestly that Phoenix Splash which Swann busted out was fucking insane looking, wasn’t it? Like if you end up throwing a gif of it in there then prepare to be amazed by the height and the distance he gets on it. It’s insanely impressive.
JT: Yeah a lot of the time, stuff like that looks like the guy barely managed to complete it. No shame in that, I can’t even come close, most wrestlers can’t. But that’s what makes Swann’s Splash impressive. He got through the full rotation and had time to spare.
S: And as well as what we’ve mentioned, it looks really devastating too, much like Nese’s 450 Splash.
JT: Yeah it’s a real upper echelon move. The standing 450 was a good move, but this feels like a more proper finisher if you ask me.
S: I like the Standing 450 too, it’s insane how Swann can even do it but the Phoenix Splash he does is almost like a super finisher for him. So is it safe to say that you approve of this match then, James?
JT: Yes indeed! I thought this was quite a good matchup. Again, I don’t think it was quite at that best of the best level, but it was damn fun and I have no real criticisms to levy against this one. And as much as it saddens me to say this, our pal Lince Dorado has been eliminated from the competition. Puerto Rico is officially out of the running. So as we do, let’s run down his post CWC career, shall we?
S: Ah sure look, we might as well look at what our feline friend has been up to.
JT: Well to start things off, he had a match on NXT shortly after the CWC where he fought and lost to Hideo Itami. He also teamed with Mustafa Ali in a loss to Kota Ibushi & TJ Perkins in the first round of the DRTTC. So Dorado was one of the bunch to be part of the original 205 Live and Cruiserweight Division on Raw. This meant he was on the Hell in a Cell Pre Show, teaming with Cedric Alexander and Sin Cara to defeat Ariya Daivari, Drew Gulak, and Tony Nese. Much like Tony Nese, he had just not much going on for the first year or so of his career, just sort of trading wins and loses. I mean, in June 2017 he fought Cruiserweight Champion Neville but was unsuccessful on Raw, and he had various matches with the various 205 Live heels like Daivari, Drew Gulak, Brian Kendrick, and so on. By early 2018, he made a pitch to creative. And thus, Lucha House Party was born. Alongside fellow masked Luchadores Gran Metalik and Kalisto, they would play up Mexican stereotypes by carrying around a Piñata named Penelope as well as having noisemakers and vuvuzelas. Just in general, they were about having fun and enjoying wrestling together. And I mean, it got them screen time. They teamed together on the 2018 Royal Rumble pre show to defeat Jack Gallagher, Drew Gulak and TJP. What do you think of the Lucha House Party, in concept and in actuality?
S: Well the concept of having a group of face Luchadores all band together and be faces because they all have masks is something I approve of. Now, the Piñata I’m not so sure of but if that was a pitch from Lince to get on TV because he knew that Vince would love it then Lince knows what the old mentalist wants and he’s a genius. In actuality, they were pretty fucking good on 205 Live if you ask me, I mean they were so good on 205 Live during 2018 to the point where fans were pitching and that there were actual rumours of CRUISERWEIGHT TAG TITLES in WWE, could you imagine how little they would’ve done with those belts? But aside from that, they were definitely a positive on 205 Live, they had some banging matches with various wrestlers.
JT: Yeah I agree. Sure they played up the stereotypes, and I’m sure at least part (if not all) of the reason Lince pitched it was because he knew it was what the higher ups wanted to hear. But still, it gave him, Metalik and Kalisto a distinction from everyone else on 205 Live. And as I’ll get to, it got them onto the main roster full time. And with how WWE’s treated their Cruiserweights over the years, it surely bought them more time than they have otherwise had.
S: Exactly and I think for Lince’s sake it’s been really beneficial for him and Metalik, I still think they deserve more than what they get but the fact they’ve been on programming the last four years because of it must do him the world of good.
JT: Agreed. In March 2019, Dorado was defeated by his teammate Kalisto in the first round of the Cruiserweight Title tournament. They’d continue to wrestle in various Tag Team encounters throughout the year, moving up to facing Heavyweight tag teams too in fall 2018. They were on Team Raw for the Raw cs SD Tag Team elimination match at Survivor Series for example (they eliminated Gallows & Anderson but were eliminated by The Usos minutes later). They’d have a feud with The Revival about Tag Team purity, beating them in Lucha House Party Rules matches, but ultimately losing the feud. The House Party would enter a feud with Lars Sullivan in May/June 2019, but the three of them would be unable to defeat him even in Handicap action. Here we see them falling into their role really, working as a low midcard tag team. They’d mostly have matches and lose, but they were credible enough where they could win and it wouldn’t totally throw a team like The Revival into the dirt. And when they weren’t doing that, they did singles stuff, which was less fortunate. Fucking Lars Sullivan man, Jesus.
S: Old Five Star Lars himself, he sure was a fucking failed project which was really recent but felt like six years ago, wasn’t he?
JT: Yeah it was only 2 year ago but it felt like forever ago. What a weird creep he was, and he stunk too. So back to our main man Lince, Dorado would actually get a Cruiserweight Title shot on the Clash of Champions 2019 Kickoff show but wouldn’t be able to win the Triple Threat featuring Humberto Carrillo and Cruiserweight Champ Drew Gulak. In the 2019 Superstar Shakeup Dorado & Metalik were drafted to SD while Kalisto remained on Raw. The two would continue teaming together but to the same level of success. They took part in the World Cup Tag Team Turmoil match at Crown Jewel but were eliminated first by Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode. They took part in the SD Tag Title Elimination Chamber at EC 2020, but were eliminated first by Heavy Machinery. They’d score a victory over Miz & Morrison to qualify for a Fatal 4 Way Tag Title match at Money in the Bank 2020 but were unsuccessful. They had two unsuccessful title matches against Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura in Fall 2020, then they moved back to Raw in late 2020. They’d enter a feud with Riddle against The Hurt Business, fighting them in various fashions throughout early 2021, including a failed title challenge against Benjamin & Alexander. They also took part in the 2021 DRTTC, defeating Imperium in the first round but losing to El Legado del Fantasma in the 2nd. Since the end of their involvement with The Hurt Business, Dorado & Metalik have had various matches with Mace & T-Bar. Their most recent match as of writing was on the September 6th episode of Raw, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil Contenders match (the whole contenders match thing is shit by the way) where they were eliminated by the New Day with no eliminations of their own.
S: Man, that’s pretty shit to hear that they’re basically seventh on the pecking order in terms of the entire main roster tag team division, fucking hell. Like I understand that WWE pretty much don’t have time for tag team wrestling but would you not do anything with these two aside from their typical, James T branded, “Microwave Pushes”?
JT: Sadly it would appear that they don’t think the Lucha House Party have a very high ceiling. Like with other guys, we’ve seen WWE give them a push just to see if they can reach that ceiling. Someone like Jaxson Ryker for example. But with LYH, they don’t even seem to think it’s worth giving a shot sadly.
S: And for all we know, they’ll keep the Lucha House Party tipping along and there to make up the numbers until they sack them inevitably.
JT: That seems like the inevitable result, but honestly as long as Lince is happy in his role and finds something fulfilling after WWE, I’ll be happy for him.
S: Absolutely and from what we know of, he seems to be someone that’s truly respected and well liked backstage so it’s good that he’s definitely appreciated by his peers.
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Techcellence
JT: Coming up next might be the most anticipated technical wrestling spectacle of the whole tournament!! England’s technical wizard Zack Sabre Jr, after defeating Tyson Dux, is now set to face off with the American Grappler Drew Gulak, who defeated Harv Sihra round one. Oh boy was I excited for this one coming into it.
S: Oh same here, James. When I saw this one was coming up, I was instantly hyped because I remembered this match being a bit of a banger back in the day and was intrigued by the rewatch. Like this is as good of a technical match that we could ask for in the whole tournament if you ask me. Two different types of technical wrestling too where Zack is lean, flexible and is limber to the point where he can transition from submission to submission with ease. Gulak, on the other hand, is rugged, hard as nails, has great striking and also has the most deadly submission in the tournament.
JT: Yeah this was definitely one people would have been interested in. Fun fact! This wasn’t the first meeting between these two. They have faced off 4 times prior, care to hear about these previous encounters?
S: I would indeed care to hear about their previous matches, tell me all about them.
JT: So the first match between them came on Gulak’s turf, at Combat Zone Wrestling’s International Incident event on April 10th 2011!! Gulak put his CZW Wired Championship (CZW’s midcard title) on the line against Sabre, and managed to retain. Their next matchup would also technically involve CZW, but not in the same way. This time, they faced off in Germany as part of the World Triangle League!! WXW, CZW and Big Japan Pro Wrestling each sent 4 people to represent them, with 3 Round Robin blocks. Gulak represented CZW and Sabre represented WXW, and Sabre would win their encounter and actually move onto the final before falling short. Other notable participants included AR Fox, Big Van Walter aka just Walter now, the disgrace himself Drake Younger, John Klinger, Jonathan Gresham, Ricochet and the eventual winner Deisuke Sakimoto!
S: Now that’s a pretty badass lineup if I’ve ever seen one for 2013 if you ask me. Drake Younger though knowing what we know about him now though? Leave him at DJ Hyde’s house there, will ya? That’s actually a really cool concept for a tournament, three promotions, four of the best wrestlers from each promotion and it’s a round robin style format with three blocks? Awesome! That sounds well worth checking out.
JT: Yeah they only did that tournament twice, in 2013 and 2014. Gulak & Sabre were also involved in the 2014 tournament, but they weren’t in the same block this time. However they would face off in WXW in 2014 in a tournament! This time, it was in Ambition 5, a single elimination tournament, where Gulak was again defeated by ZSJ. Then I wasn’t gonna include it, but I actually thought it was funny enough to include. The next time Gulak & Sabre faced off was again in a tournament. This time, it’s 2016, it’s Evolve’s Second Chance Tag Team Tournament. Representing Catch Point alongside TJ Perkins, Gulak defeated ZSJ and Sami Callihan in the 1st round. One guy fresh out of WWE, 3 guys going back in. Then finally, Gulak and Sabre actually faced off one on one earlier in 2016, on Evolve 57. Once again, Sabre defeated Gulak. So it may seem that though they’re both technical wrestlers, Sabre might just have Gulak’s goat.
S: Yeah after their first match which Gulak won back in 2011, Zack has just always gone over on Gulak since, hasn’t he? When you mentioned they had four matches prior to this, I just assumed that Zack had won all four of their matches.
JT: It’s important to also note that twice Sabre eliminated Gulak from a tournament, and Gulak’s only one on one win came in his home promotion. Full Sail sure as hell ain’t the Combat Zone, and the loser of this match will be going home. This’ll be a big match for proving technical superiority on the biggest stage yet.
S: Can ZSJ eliminate Gulak from a tournament yet again or does the losing streak against Zack end for old DrewGu tonight? Let’s find out.
JT: So we set the tone of this one before the bell, as Gulak refuses to shake Sabre’s hand, instead slapping it away. Once the bell rings, we get very physical mat wrestling, not the slow stuff we often see, but aggressive grappling and moving around by both guys. Bryan says Gulak takes umbrage to Sabre calling himself the best technical wrestler in the world, thus the animosity. ZSJ pulls the arms back with a Straight Jacket, Gulak whips him over, Sabre nips up still holding the grip, but Gulak reverses it and gets the hold on Zack. ZSJ shimmies and pulls the grip down before stepping on Gulak’s hand to escape. He wrenches Drew’s arms behind his back, only for Gulak to flip forward to the mat and kick Sabre off, both men showing off their technical skills. But as much as this match is about technique, ultimately all that matters is winning, so Gulak begins laying the hurt on Sabre with some rope assisted stomps before he starts chopping Sabre in the corner. Right off the bat, I gotta say that this feels like the most personal and aggressive match of the tournament. Even Gargano/Ciampa which had personal stakes for both guys still had a feeling of competition. Gulak though, he just makes it evident he doesn’t like Sabre from the very start.
S: Oh without a doubt, the aggression shown here between these two guys was really a sight to behold in what has mostly been a competitive, yet relatively level headed tournament so seeing Zack and Gulak just knock lumps out of each other in the first few minutes really was a nice change of pace.
JT: Yeah it’s a nice change of pace honestly, considering a lot of the dicks got eliminated in the first round. As nice as something like Swann/Dorado is, variety is the spice of life! So Gulak hits a Northern Lights Suplex for 2, and is now really taking control, driving his head into Sabre’s stomach. He delivers a disrespectful slap hard across the face of Sabre, just to show him who is boss. Sabre sends Gulak into the corner, Gulak floats up and over to the apron, then after an elbow shot, he goes up top and dives off only to get caught in a Fujiwara Armbar!! He’s not usually someone to dive off the top, so perhaps he was getting arrogant and Sabre wants to make him pay. However, Gulak reverses out of the Armbar, picking him up into a Gory Special. He’s just wrenching the shoulders, then wrenching on the neck, before lowering him down into a pin into a Boston Crab, only for Sabre to escape and get a pin for 2. Man this was a great sequence. We mentioned before that Sabre is quite a flexible wrestler, but here we see how that helps make his opponents look good. I’ve honestly never seen a Gort Special look quite that good.
S: I know right?! Like that Gory Special was absolutely brutal looking, it looked like he was about to tear his pectoral muscles apart and the flexibility of Zack, every time you watch the man you’re reminded of how insanely flexible he is. Brilliant sequence, brilliant stuff.
JT: But seemingly just as quickly as Gulak has taken control, Sabre snatches it back with an Octopus Hold out of nowhere by Sabre. However, before he can really cinch it in deep, Gulak grabs Sabre’s leg to get him into an Ankle Lock! Sabre brings his legs together to pull Gulak into a Headlock, only for Gulak to turn it into a Back Suplex! Gulak’s been studying his ZSJ footage! Gulak lifts Zack on his shoulders for an Electric Chair, but Sabre transitions into a Body Scissor into a Kimura Lock! He goes for the Jim Break’s Special, but Gulak is able to block and throw him into the ropes with a Scoop Slam. Gulak nails hard strikes, but ZSJ ducks under a European Uppercut to take Gulak’s legs out from under him, allowing him to hit a Penalty Kick!! 1–2—Kickout!! Pace is picking up now, as ZSJ runs at Gulak in the corner, but Gulak gets his boot up only for Sabre to catch him. He throws Gulak down to the mat and gets a Japanese Clutch with a Bridge!! 1—2—Kickout!! Now the two just trade slaps against each other, with Gulak knocking him silly!! Gulak takes off towards the ropes, Sabre goes to leapfrog, but Gulak rolls and takes him down with a Sunset Flip!! 1—2—Kickout!! Gulak runs at him and grabs the Dragon Sleeper but as he goes to bring it to the mat to lock it in deep, Sabre rolls back with him to escape the Sleeper. And then from there he pins holding Gulak’s arms down as he bridges back for a European Clutch!! Shoulders down, 1—2——3!! Sabre snags the win to move on to the next round!! Seán, what did you think of this matchup and this finish?
S: I thought this match fucking ruled in every single way not gonna lie, man. This match was an absolute humdinger, these two together put on absolute technical excellence for nearly fifteen minutes. What made this stand out as opposed to other technical matches is the speed at which the match was going, however long this match went on for, it felt like half that because it was that good. Some of the submissions looked so sore and painful, especially when Gulak would slap them on Zack, big mention to that Gory Special once again. The slaps they threw at one another, audible yells of shock for how hard they were slapping each other and the suddenness of the European Clutch snatching the victory, brilliant. Most importantly, THEY MANAGED TO PROTECT THE DRAGON SLEEPER! One of the best matches of the tournament so far in my opinion.
JT: I agree I thought this was a pretty solid match. I feel like when ZSJ doesn’t go well, it’s because he’s not focused in his attack. Like he’ll go from an arm submission to a leg submission for no other reason that he can. But here, you avoid that sort of problem by having him on the defensive. For the most part, Gulak is in control and he’s forcing ZSJ to respond to him. Unfortunately for Drew, Sabre is just that good that he can win even when he’s on his back foot all match. I also really enjoyed this finish. I feel like folks get this idea that technical wrestling is all about submission. And yeah, submission holds are a big part of it. But just because that’s the case, you don’t have to end a match by tap out. Sabre and Gulak managed to have a very entertaining technical match with a satisfying conclusion without relying on a tap out to end it. Great stuff. Especially with Gulak begrudging showing respect to ZSJ after the match. He’s still mad to lose, he still thinks he can beat him, but he respects the craft too much to not concede defeat this time. Great character work by Drew.
S: This really got Drew’s character across to perfection, he cares about wins and losses and he’s pissed off that he lost because of a pinfall. Really good stuff.
JT: So sadly, this is Gulak’s last match of this season. He is not out of contention, but he would not be out of WWE. Let’s get into his post CWC career. So, like Lince, he too had a match against Hideo Itami on NXT before joining 205 Live and Raw for the new Cruiserweight Division. Also as previously mentioned, his team with Tony Nese failed to move past the first round of the DRTTC in 2016 and he was on that Survivor Series pre-show loss. His first real feud came with Mustafa Ali due to his “No Fly Zone” policy, where he wanted to cut down on high risk moves on 205 Live for the show’s betterment. Ali would ultimately win this feud with a 2 out of 3 Fall match on 205 Live in July. But Gulak would win to a degree, as he’d begin incorporating PowerPoint Presentations into his promos during this time, which would become a regular part of his promos. And Seán, boy did I love this silly gimmick and Drew’s whole silly demeanor.
S: Oh I did too, I loved this Drew Gulak. This character was just golden in every way, it was goofy but it was the right kind of goofy. He had such great delivery with his promos, the fact he shaved his notable beard and had his comb over hair making him look like a politician is part of why it worked. The PowerPoint Presentations, just, just so fucking perfect. He never failed to make me smile or laugh with this character and as well as that, he showed that he wasn’t just Mr. Serious Technical Wrestler, he brought out a side in him I never thought he had. With the “No Fly Zone” gimmick, he’s shown that he’s got great versatility too.
JT: Let’s not forget the time Tyler Breeze and Fandango, Breezango, showed up on 205 Live to charge him as a fashion felon! They called him Captain Underpants, cuffed him, and made the crowd happy. You know he’s a lot of fun when someone from outside of the usual roster comes out specifically to do a segment with him. 205 Live needed to fill some time, so who did they sound out? Drew Gulak.
S: That just goes to show how good the character was. Also, I remember that segment and the comparison to Captain Underpants! He actually did look a good bit like him not gonna lie.
JT: Yeah he was just pale enough and had just a round enough face for it to actually fit with the book. Anyways, as 2017 continued on, Drew Gulak had a feud with Akira Tozawa, which he’d ultimately lose. But in the meantime, he picked up a new, and very important position. Of course I am talking about his role as the Conductor of the Zo Train. Though Amore had plenty of guys helping him stay Champ, Gulak or Gabba-Gulak as Enzo would call him, more than anyone would become Enzo’s second in command. This was a perfect move if you ask me, as his goofiness paired well with Amore’s overbearing cocky attitude and swagger. Some of Gulak’s best moments in WWE come with him bouncing off of Enzo.
S: In terms of comedy, absolutely, I think those two really bounced off each other well in the jokes department. I really feel like he fit in the Zo Train way better than the other lads did because of how goofy his character was. Also, Gabba-Gulak is an S Tier nickname if there ever was one. Gabba-Gulak? Ova heeeeere.
JT: Yeah I think you can justify reasons for having all the other Zo Train guys, but none of them quite had the chemistry Gulak & Enzo had. Like, one of my favorite segments involving the two saw Gulak do Enzo’s typical catchphrase against that night’s opponent Kalisto. He completely butchered the delivery of “There’s only one word to describe you, and I’m gonna spell it out for ya!!”. But Y’know, he’s not cool, he doesn’t get it, he just talks that way. But it’s fine…and then Gulak spells out SWAFT “S—O-F-T, soft 😃”. And Enzo just gives him this thousand yard stare, as if he’d told him a million times before that that’s not how you do the bit.
S: YES! SO FUCKING GOOD! A guaranteed laugh every single time and it makes so much sense for the straight laced, PowerPoint enthusiast, Drew Gulak to spell it the correct way. Bless him.
JT: I tell you what, we need more stuff like this. More wrestling supervillains need doofus henchmen. More Kronke and Yzmas in wrestling please!!
S: More doofus, non-threatening henchmen in wrestling please!
JT: So in the Zo Train, Drew was set to face Cedric Alexander with the winner determining who would face Enzo for the Title at the Royal Rumble 2018, but Alexander won and as we mentioned, Amore was fired and the Zo Train was disbanded. This was unfortunate for Drew if you ask me, since as his silly second in command, Gulak was getting more of a reaction than ever, and I feel like things were leading in the direction of Gulak being the one to take down Amore and the Zo Train. What do you think of my theory?
S: I definitely see a case for your theory there, James. Gulak was starting to get pretty over with the crowds he was in front of on a week to week basis and seeing that The Zo Train was slowly starting to show weakness on a show to show basis, the idea of Gulak being the one to take down Enzo is pretty believable if you ask me. However, as much of a case as I see for Gulak dethroning Enzo, I always thought the end goal with Enzo was to have him lose and put over Cedric but Gulak I definitely saw at the time as well.
JT: Maybe Cedric wins the Title but Gulak ultimately breaks up the stable. Like Cedric is the Goldberg, taking away Raven’s US Title, but Gulak is the Saturn who wins the Flock’s freedom.
S: Ohhhh I like that actually, so would that have made The Zo Train a cult then?
JT: I don’t think it was ever quite cult status, but who knows what the group would’ve looked like if Enzo lost the title. But anyways, he got released, and the group got disbanded overnight. After that, Drew entered the Cruiserweight Title tournament and beat Tony Nese and Mark Andrews but lost in the semi finals to Mustafa Ali. Afterwards, he went back to his more serious, submission based character, forming an alliance with Gallagher and Brian Kendrick. He’d also won a Title shot at Summerslam 2018, but was unable to defeat Cedric Alexander for the title. As mentioned when talking about Gallagher, he’d kick Kendrick out of their group, they’d fight Kendrick & Tozawa, before joining with and then turning on Humberto Carrillo. In the 2019 #1 Contender’s tournament, Gulak defeated Kendrick but was unable to defeat Nese in Round 2. After his feud with Gallagher & Carrillo, he’d leave TV for a while before coming back even more serious than before, with new gear and a new attitude. This would lead to him earning a title shot at Stomping Grounds, where he would become Cruiserweight Champion. He successfully defended the title against Nese at Extreme Rules, Oney Lorcan on Summerslam and 205 Live, Dorado & Carrillo at Clash of Champions before finally losing the title to Lio Rush on NXT in October, ending his reign at 108 days. He’d briefly team up with Nese again against Lorcan and Danny Bitch before he’d be drafted to SmackDown in the 2019 draft. And just like that, another 205 Live pioneer moved on. What did you think of his title reign and the last 2 years of his on 205 Live?
S: His reign as Cruiserweight Champion was definitely as good as Drew could’ve done given that three of the top guys the brand had built up for a year in Cedric, Ali and Murphy. I remember enjoying the match he had with Oney at SummerSlam and his match with Lio Rush but apart from all of that, I wasn’t watching loads of WWE programming as I had done previously over the years because of how oversaturated everything became and how long PPVs had become. Like I’d watch PPVs in full but it’d usually take me about two sittings to do so, you know? His run on 205 Live though, he was really great when he was on there. His “No Fly Zone” character was loads of fun and the transition back to his serious, technical character was what he needed to get that Cruiserweight Title run so a big positive from me, personally.
JT: Yeah even though I prefer his more silly WWE to his more serious WWE character, at least whoever booked him understood how stagnation hits wrestling characters pretty fast. Since he wasn’t doing too much, you gotta give him stuff to do. So changing his character up was pretty necessary. And I thought his reign was alright, like you said it kind of got lost in the shuffle with how long WWE shows were going. So after coming to SD in 2019, he went back to his sillier style, showing Braun Strowman a presentation as to how he could beat Tyson Fury. Braun attacked him. He’d mock Braun’s loss with a PowerPoint the week after, and again get attacked by Braun. He’d team up with the B Team before all 3 got beaten by Braun. He was pretty much a nonentity on TV after that brief run in October 2019 until February 2020, when he’d begin targeting Daniel Bryan, claiming to have found a flaw in his style. This led to Gulak testing Curtis Axel and Heath Slater against Bryan on SD, before a match between the two of them happened at Fastlane, which was very good but saw Bryan come out victorious. This match saw the two earn mutual respect, and Gulak turned face and became a running buddy of Bryan in his rivalry against the Artist Collective. In fact, Gulak pinned Shinsuke Nakamura to earn Bryan a title shot at WrestleMania 36. But at the event, Gulak was defeated by Cesaro on the pre-show and Bryan was defeated by Sami Zayn. In May after the IC Title was vacated, Bryan and Gulak faced each other in the first round of a tournament for the vacant title but Bryan defeated Gulak. The reports from the time were that Bryan was involved with SD’s Creative team to a degree, and had lobbied to get Gulak more involved in the show. So thank you Bryan, I thought his mini feud and team up with Gulak was pretty great. Much better than getting squashed by Strowman weekly.
S: Agreed, I was really fond of the whole Gulak vs Bryan feud and later alliance as it unfolded on 2020 SmackDown, some of it in front of fans and the rest of it in empty arenas with no crowds and dead air, the strange times those were. You could tell that Bryan was behind all of this because well, whenever Bryan was gone for a while during the pandemic, you decided to see what WWE really sees in Gulak.
JT: Yep, that’s pretty true. Gulak’s contract expired shortly afterward his match with Bryan but he’d resign not long afterwards, and would be back on SD, managing to score a victory over AJ Styles to get an IC Title shot only to lose the follow up for the title. At Clash of Champions in 2020, he defeated R-Truth to become 24/7 Champion, only to lose it later in the night. In October he was drafted to Raw and has since been mainly in the 24/7 Title scene, mindlessly chasing the title. He’s managed to win the title 7 times but only has amassed 6 days of title time as Champion. In the meantime, he’s mostly been used on Main Event and on squash matches on Raw. His most recent match was a loss on the September 16th episode of Main Event to Jaxson Ryker. Before that, his most recent match was also on Main Event, also losing to Jaxson Ryker, over 2 months prior. I don’t know if Drew was sick or injured or if he requested time off or he just hadn’t been used, but he’s not doing much of anything right now, that’s for sure.
S: Yeah he’s been virtually unseen on TV and man, it’s just so annoying to see him being used as a miscellaneous 24/7 Title goon, idiotically chasing the green strapped pile of nothing which that belt is. I just see Drew Gulak as someone who should be involved in The Diamond Mine on NXT if you ask me.
JT: Ohhh now that’s a good shout. They could use someone who could take some losses, he fits their vibe, and seeing him and Malcom Bivens together sounds like a dream come true.
S: I know right? You just know that Gulak and Bivens would be a perfect pairing and since Tyler Rust got released for god knows what reason, they definitely need a right hand man for Roderick Strong. Let’s hope this happens anyway.
JT: I hope that happens. Either that, or anything good, be it in WWE or elsewhere. Drew Gulak is one of my absolute favorites, and he deserves good things. If WWE doesn’t see it, then I’d love to see him join Daniel Garcia and 2.0 in Jacksonville
S: Ohhhhh now you’re talking! Imagine him and Garcia tagging together even? A technical dream team of two different age groups if there ever was one.
JT: Yeah plus, he could work well as a comedic trio with 2.0 while giving AEW more of a chance to protect and build up Garcia. I also think he’d fit well in ROH’s Foundation stable, although that stable is pretty well constructed and I don’t think they necessarily need another body. Regardless, best wishes for Drew Gulak, you know the Power Hour boys will always be rooting for you.
S: Oh absolutely, I think it’s safe to say that we have a mutual favourite in Drew Gulak and all we want is for him to do the best and hopefully that can happen for him in the next six months to a year. Those Kobashi orange tights that he wears need to be legitimised, go on DrewGu!
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Garganall by himself
JT: Well just like that, we’re on to our final match for this round!! Only one spot remains in the Quarter Finals, who will it go to? Will it go to the sole representative of the Philippines, defeater of Da Mack, the charisma and technical prowess of TJ Perkins? Or will it go to American, one half of NXT’s hottest tag team, defeater of his own partner Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Wrestling himself, Johnny Gargano?
S: Who will go on to face Rich Swann and complete the Elite 8? The Whole Shebang or The Fil-Am Flash? Let’s find out but first! We have a backstage segment and James, John Boy Gargano is in the doctor’s room, isn’t he?
JT: That’s right! In our bonus episode of NXT Takeover Brooklyn II, we saw Gargano put his best effort towards becoming NXT Tag Team Champion with Tomaso Ciampa. However, they came up just short, and The Revival did a number to Gargano’s knee in Brooklyn. So now, he’s getting his knee wrapped by the doctor. He says he’s heard all the hype for TJP but now he’s a favorite to win the whole tournament, and he’s not gonna let anyone down. He’s gonna pour his heart out to make sure he leaves one step closer to winning the whole thing. He says this with Ciampa standing right by his side, with no hard feelings between them. This’ll be a tough one to predict. Like he said, he is a favorite to win the whole thing, but will his Knee injury prove costly at the hands of Perkins’ veteran experience and Knee Bar?
S: I don’t know about you James but that knee is definitely an easy target for a man with the submission game that TJP has got. Is it about that time we review our final match of the Last 16 then, sir?
JT: Let’s do it. They shake hands, match begins, body scissors takedown by TJ with a knuckle lock to start things off. Johnny with a Monkey Flip to send TJ to his back, TJ gets up and tries to get it himself only to get pulled into a body scissor and an Armbar. TJ rolls through, turning Gargano over and locking in a Muta Lock, beginning his attack on the knee. Gargano whips Perkins across, TJ catches himself on the ropes only for Gargano to hit him with a Dropkick, sending him to the floor and leaving him prone for a Suicide Dive by Gargano!! So far, Gargano has not been hampered at all by the knee.
S: The magic of the knee tape! Wrestlers, take note and you’ll be able to perform a fucking sweet Suicide Dive like Johnny does, Gargano honestly does one of the best dives in my opinion, he gets the perfect height and flies like a missile. Beautiful.
JT: He really does have his technique down to a science. So he gets an O’Connor Roll by and TJ kicks out but Gargano gets him in a surfboard stretch. TJ escapes and gets him in a Rocking Horse, before dropping him down and putting him in the Romero Special, but they’re forced to break after both of them have both of their shoulders down. After avoiding the double pin, TJ gets a Headscissor Takeover and a Dab, for the first time he’s gotten really anything going against Johnny. He goes to take him down again but Gargano shoves him back, then takes him down, rolls and hits a kick to the face!! Gargano runs at him and TJ sends him to the apron, only for Johnny to come back in with a Slingshot Spear. Gargano lights up Perkins with a number of big chops in the corner, before putting Perkins up on the top rope. He tries to get him over his shoulder, but TJ pushes him off, then is able to pop Gargano up for a Dropkick to the face. Gargano tries to bounce back for a Discus Lariat, Perkins ducks and hits a Spinning Back Kick to the face, knocking spit from Gargano’s mouth. TJ hits the ropes, Gargano hits an Enziguri. They both hit each other with boots, Gargano blocks a kick, Perkins catches his boot, lifts him up and hits a Sitout Powerbomb. Both men are down, with their shoulders down on the mat, so both Kickout at 2. Suddenly, this is becoming a very even matchup!
S: Absolutely, this match is just the definition of a 50/50 bout. They’re all getting their signature moves in on one another. Once Gargano hits a signature spot, TJ responds with one of his own and this is so even to the point where we’ve had not one but TWO double pinfall spots. Now that just screams an even match if there ever was one. Really exciting stuff from these lads.
JT: As the match keeps going, TJ is sent into the ropes, slips through to the apron, slides under Gargano, then sends him to the apron. He tries for a Springboard Kick to the apron, but Gargano catches him with a Superkick! Gargano runs and leaps off the apron with a Diving Senton, with Gargano’s bad leg clipping the apron. Gargano sends Perkins inside, goes for the Slingshot DDT, but Perkins catches him on his shoulder for a Detonation Kick, then a Facebuster across his knees!! 1–2—Kickout! They trade punches back and forth, crowd behind both guys, until TJ with a drop toe hold that sets Gargano on the ropes for a Wrecking Ball Dropkick! He goes up top, Johnny is back up already to hit an Enziguri. He then picks him over his shoulder, and charges towards the corner, but Gargano’s knee collapses underneath him. This is easily one of the biggest turning points for the whole tournament if you ask me. Johnny is on a roll, looking for a chance to put Perkins away, but disaster has struck.
S: I was just about to bring that up when talking about this and I fucking love how the turning point with his momentum occurred with Gargano just slightly overshooting his Diving Senton in the wrong place, that is such good storytelling, honestly. The way his leg clipped the barricade was perfectly done.
JT: Yeah it looked pretty painful. So after collapsing, Johnny goes back to grab TJ, but TJ rolls him up for the Knee Bar, only for Gargano to block it and go for the Gargano Escape. TJ manages to block and go for a Magistral Cradle, but Gargano blocks and hooks the leg instead: TJ kicks out at 2!! Gargano’s knee is clearly hurting now as TJ is able to avoid him in the corner and hit a Neckbreaker. TJ goes up top, Gargano gets up, goes under him and drops him face first on the top turnbuckle. Gargano now picks him up and launches him into the opposite corner with the Lawn Dart!! Gargano pulls himself up, lines up a Superkick but TJ ducks it, then tries to roll Gargano up only for Johnny to roll through and go for another Superkick but TJ ducks again and hits a Dropkick to the knee!! TJ goes for a Superkick himself, Gargano moves out of the way and hits a Superkick!! He goes for Hurts Donut, TJ rolls through and gets the Knee Bar in!! Gargano reaches out for the ropes, scratching and clawing for the ropes, but he can’t get them!! And he taps out!! And the crowd is audibly shocked, they can’t believe that Gargano has been eliminated, in one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.
S: I was in the exact same boat with them on this one, I know he went in with the kayfabe knee injury going into this and in a storyline that makes perfect sense but still, I was fully convinced as a young bloke in Sligo that Gargano was surely going over. Why? Because he was signed and the established NXT wrestler. Were you just as shocked as I was five years ago, James?
JT: Maybe I’ve managed to totally incept myself and change my mind, but I actually wasn’t super shocked. Why? Well, at this time I knew NXT saw Gargano & Ciampa as a duo. If you’re gonna have a tag team, especially with two guys you plan to push in the future, you don’t want one to look far and away better than the other. So my logic was that Gargano would get the win against Ciampa, but then would get bounced in the next round so as to keep them look relatively even, and that’s what happened. I didn’t predict an injury angle to keep Gargano strong though, that was a nice touch.
S: Yeah that’s a good point actually, if you had Gargano go a good bit into the tournament then it’d just make Ciampa out to be a weak link and sure you don’t want that given what’s to come down the road between both members of DIY. What were your thoughts on this match anyways, James? Were you a fan of this encounter?
JT: I liked this match for the most part, it was pretty solid in pretty much all aspects I could ask for from a CWC match. But my real gripe comes with the knee selling from Gargano, and how it affected the story. I may be harsh in saying this, but I don’t think he sold enough to fully sell the crowd. In my opinion, that’s at least partially why the crowd reacted the way they did to the ending. I might have to amend this when another inevitable favorite gets eliminated though. Basically I think that’s not just that Gargano was a favorite that caught the Full Sail crowd off guard by the ending, but the storytelling that also hadn’t established the knee as enough of a focal point. For example, you pointed out the knee as in an issue after he hit the time keeper’s post. As a viewer at home that’s obvious, but not to the people in the arena. Remember, this match had been filmed before the Takeover match where the knee was hurt in kayfabe. They don’t know to look at the knee as a weak point aside from the tape (which wasn’t like a DDP level of obvious). After hitting his knee there, Gargano is pretty fine, until his leg collapsed under him during the Lawn Dart. If he had sold it a lot after the dive, that would’ve set it up as a clear moment for the audience. This also isn’t all on Gargano. TJ attacked the knee at points, but not all that often. So then when Gargano tapped out in the end, the Full Sail crowd reacted the way they did because the story wasn’t as clear to them. If it had really been hammered home during the match, the crowd would’ve reacted appropriately. I think one other point in favor of my argument is that there’s a real lack of urgency from the crowd when Gargano is in the Knee Bar the second time. If the story had really been done as well as it could’ve been, the crowd would’ve been worried for him. Instead, they weren’t all that worried and were then surprised when it actually ended Johnny’s tournament. What do you say to that assessment?
S: I think what you’re saying there is definitely a fair assessment and you make a lot of good points. I feel like Gargano probably could’ve started selling the knee after the Suicide Dive but I think selling properly after the Diving Senton and the Lawn Dart was fine because when he has him up on his shoulders and he crumples, I think that’s a good enough moment and sell job for the crowd to realise that Johnny is injured if you ask me. As far as the match goes, I really really liked this match. I thought both of these lads, polar opposites as far as their overall attitudes about life goes, worked great together. I don’t think it was as good as Ciampa vs Gargano or even the best matches of this round but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. I’ve gotta say that the Lawn Dart is a move that thankfully isn’t used as much as it is because it definitely could’ve been another Buckle Bomb if it had been used as much as that move was.
JT: Yeah for as cool of a move as it is, it’s not a move that should be done regularly. Doing that as a signature move on a loop of matches sounds like an unnecessary risk to me. It’s best left to the Indies where someone only has to do it once and sign off on it themselves. But yeah aside from my leg criticism, I still thought this was pretty good. Not as good as Gargano’s first match and not up there with the very best of the second round, but still solid.
S: Yeah it’s definitely a good one alright, fitting for it to end to round, literally fitting as this aired right after SummerSlam weekend. James, we’ve held off on what Ciampa is up to now for a whole round of action and since Gargano is out now, what have the two lads from DIY been doing these days?
JT: Well Gargano and Ciampa together, they’d go on quite the journey. So both out of the CWC, they’d put their complete focus on the NXT Tag Team Title, which they’d capture in a classic 2 Out of 3 Falls match at NXT Takeover Toronto. They triumphantly defeated The Revival, but their reign was upended almost as soon as it started, as they lost the Titles at Takeover San Antonio to The Authors of Pain. At Takeover Orlando, they had an underrated classic against AOP and The Revival with the titles on the line. The old enemies from the summer before tried to team up at points to topple the new powerhouse Champions, but AOP defeated both teams to retain their titles. DIY earned one last shot at Takeover Chicago in a Ladder Match, where despite the best efforts of both Gargano and Ciampa, AOP proved too much and were victorious again. Now, before we move onto the inevitable and shocking moment that happened after that Ladder match in Chicago, I wanna hear your thoughts about that real 8 month period for DIY.
S: I said about as much in the last episode but I thought and I still think that they’re up there as one of the best, relatively short lived tag teams in recent times, maybe even ever. Like I’d compare them with the Hollywood Blonds in terms of great, relatively short lived tag teams who got each other and clicked instantly. That’s the true sign of a good worker and these two were that in 2016. As far as matches went, they had some bloody barn burners, the two matches with The Revival, the triple threat in Orlando and even got two solid enough matches out of AOP, who were still green at the time. In 2016 until 2017, they were far and away my favourite tag team at that time. Gargano at that stage was honestly one of the best, true babyfaces in wrestling and I’ll stand by that.
JT: Honestly, I agree. Say what you will about other aspects of his career, but in 2016-17, Gargano is someone who just seems like he’s gonna go far. It felt for sure like a consensus top face star on NXT. He just had so much fire and had a great connection with the crowd. But you gotta think, in kayfabe, that rubbed Tommaso Ciampa the wrong way. After all, after their loss in Chicago, he was the one to sever the bond of DIY. He brutalized Johnny to the despondency of the crowd. It seemed like a new chapter of their careers was just beginning, but as soon as it started, trouble arose. It turns out that Ciampa had torn his ACL in that ladder match, so NXT’s biggest storyline was immediately put on ice.
S: In a way though, I like what they did after they knew Ciampa had torn his ACL, not the fact that he was injured, god no, not at all. The fact he cut that promo on NXT after TakeOver: Chicago basically saying that when he comes back, he’s going to be more dangerous. I really liked that because every month which passed by with NXT was gradually getting close to his return and there was almost a sense of dread and fear for when he’d come back.
JT: They did the best they could, but it’s unfortunate it went in this direction. So in the meantime, Gargano had to figure out how to wrestle on his own. And for a while, it was rough for Johnny. He lost to Andrade at Takeover Brooklyn III after Zelina Vega distracted him with a DIY shirt, he lost to Fabian Aichner on NXT TV, he lost to Pete Dunne for the NXT UK Title. But slowly enough, Gargano got back to form, earning an NXT Title shot against now Champion Andrade. In one of the greatest matches in NXT if not WWE history, Gargano and Almas went over half an hour, but with Andrade retaining his Title still. And to make matters worse, Ciampa returned, crutch in hand, to rub salt in the wound with a shot to the chest back. Gargano tried to ignore Ciampa as he challenged Almas again for the Title, this time putting his career on the line. But again, Andrade won, with help from a Ciampa distraction, and it seemed Tommaso had successfully chased his former partner out of NXT. But Gargano wouldn’t go away, and kept going after Ciampa, forcing William Regal to make a match. In the Main Event of Takeover New Orleans, Ciampa finally faced Gargano, in an Unsanctioned Match, with vengeance and Gargano’s NXT career on the line. And finally, after months of scratching and clawing and coming up short, Gargano forced Ciampa to tap out, finally getting back at him for betraying him. And I’m confident in saying this was one of the best 12 month runs any individual has ever had in WWE history. Just what a run for Gargano as a character and from an in-ring perspective.
S: I wholeheartedly agree with you there, man. This was an absolutely incredible twelve month run for Gargano, he was just creating magic every time he stepped out into a big arena, like he just looked so comfortable in that element, he honestly did. That whole year of his career was what made me become such a big fan of his, he was the best babyface in wrestling at that time and the matches he was putting on were brilliant up to New Orleans. His matches with Andrade were simply fantastic also, the match in Philly from 2018 was one of the best live experiences I’ve had watching a match, honestly. And by live, I mean by watching from home, while I was sick with a sore throat and the most hoarse voice imaginable.
JT: So with all the Gargano/Ciampa talk, I think what we’ve said so far is pretty uncontroversial. Of course with wrestling fans, nothing will ever be 100% entirely agreed upon. But generally their whole tag run, Gargano’s initial solo run, and the NOLA match was pretty universally popular. Then though, things started to go off the rails and thinks will get contentious
So now that Johnny has his job back, Ciampa is not happy and things didn’t end in NOLA. At the sight of the big betrayal one year later, Ciampa/Gargano II happened, in a Street Fight. But this time, Ciampa had the last laugh, with a victory over Gargano. Now of course, the series is tied at 1-1. So a third match seemed like an obvious conclusion. But unlike when he lost to Gargano, Ciampa had now decided that things were settled, while Johnny still wanted to go after Ciampa. This led to Ciampa taking on NXT Champion Aleister Black, and winning his title after a run in by Gargano inadvertently led him to hit Black with the Title. The stage was set for Takeover Brooklyn III, Black vs Gargano vs Ciampa. But, weeks before the match, Black found injured in the NXT Parking Lot. Someone attacked him! But who? For now, we’ll lead that plot thread hanging. In the meantime, it’s time for Gargano/Ciampa III. The one that will settle the score. This time, in a Last Man Standing match. And for the second consecutive time, Ciampa came up victorious, retaining the NXT Title and seemingly winning the feud. Now before I get out all my thoughts about this whole period of time, I’ll let you cut in and give your thoughts. After all, we’re a team here. What were your thoughts about the Gargano/Ciampa feud at the time? What did you think of the storyline, the matches, the plot twists?
S: Well, in my opinion I didn’t mind the fact that Ciampa got his win back at the next show, he had to get his win back eventually but for me it happened way too soon. Gargano was hot off the heels of two banging main event matches in a row so he could’ve done with someone else for Chicago to lead into Brooklyn, Ciampa could’ve done the same if you ask me. Like I get why they did the match and Ciampa had to win the second match to give him some credibility on the back of his return. The third match is what killed it for me, if Black had stayed fit for the match, it would’ve saved things and I still stand by that. If they build to a Triple Threat and that’s where Ciampa wins the belt, with Gargano hitting Black with the title? That would’ve gotten some mega heat. I don’t entirely blame NXT for doing a third match (not yet anyways) because they had to play with the hand they were dealt with and there wasn’t anyone on the roster that could’ve slotted into that third man spot because Cole, Ricochet, EC3 and some Dream weirdo were all busy, who else could’ve been there? I do blame them for doing a Last Man Standing match though, entirely unnecessary and it should’ve been a straight singles match.
JT: Yeah I think in hindsight, it’s easy to go “They shouldn’t have booked the rematches”, but we forget how hot it was at the moment. I definitely see why you’d want to make Ciampa legitimate as a singles guy, and him getting that win would essentially pigeonhole you into a 3rd match. I feel like with their series of matches though, it was booked with very little foresight. Like what makes the rematches less bearable is how definitive Gargano’s win is. He has the moment of hesitation, sees through Ciampa’s ruse, and makes me tap out in the center of the ring. That’s it, it’s over. By dragging it out, it only hurt Gargano. Especially when you remember that the LMS ended with Gargano running himself into a wall. Like not exactly, but it’s not far off from what happened. So his triumphant revenge then got stretched out into him becoming an angry, naive loser.
S: Exactly! That’s what pissed me off about it too! They did more damage to Gargano than they did help Ciampa because it then triggered a portion of the wrestling fan base to turn on him and this is a problem I’ve always had with NXT booking Gargano until I’d say late enough 2020. They always fucking booked him to be winning on TV and ALWAYS losing on TakeOvers. If you think about it, he’s had the most TakeOver matches of anyone and you can just about count on two hands the amount of wins he’s had on TakeOvers.
JT: Exactly!! I distinctly remember in the lead up to one of his matches, he called himself “Johnny Takeover” and he had something like 3 wins and 8 loses at Takeover or something along the lines. I think another problem this storyline had was that there was no clear end goal. All the best storylines in WWE have an end goal. KofiMania culminated with Kofi finally winning the WWE Title. Austin/McMahon happened for a while, but the best parts of the storyline were in the buildup to Rock/Austin WM15, where Austin finally won his Title back to stick it to Vince. Where was this Gargano/Ciampa thing supposed to end? I mean based on what was set up, it would clearly end with Gargano winning the NXT Title from Ciampa, but when you think about how the storyline started, the NXT Title had nothing to do with it. It just became a prop to justify keeping the story going but with “bigger stakes” even though Gargano already won a match with his career on the line against Ciampa.
S: You’re totally right there, man, the NXT Title shouldn’t have been a prop in their feud. Johnny seeing Ciampa with the title he fought so hard to try and win but lose should’ve been a motivation for his character to chase the title, climb up the ranks, get some big wins and work his way up to Ciampa. It should never have been a feud of “how much higher can the stakes be this time around???”
JT: Yeah you know what, I can see why you could do Ciampa/Gargano for the Title. But to insert it into the feud only a few weeks before a Takeover, after having it main event the last 2 shows? It felt like a hotshotting. So to keep the story moving on, for weeks after Brooklyn, we saw Ciampa with the Title, all while this investigation over who attacked Black unfolded. And honestly? I thought it was pretty great. It didn’t ham things up too much, it went on for a couple weeks, and looped in additional characters. Nikki Cross for example really shined as the person who knew what actually happened but was too crazy/chaotic to reveal who actually did it. Of course, the attacker was ultimately revealed to be…Johnny Gargano, who had taken Black out to get Ciampa alone. This of course led to Gargano/Black fighting at War Games II while Ciampa defended his Title against the Textateen Dream. Ciampa retained, Black “absolved Gargano of his sins” as he defeated him. What did you think of the whole mystery storyline, as well as the direction it took Gargano’s character?
S: I thought the mystery storyline was really cool to be honest man, Nikki Cross was brilliant in the role she played, being too much of a lunatic to actually reveal who did it. When Gargano was revealed and he Superkicked Black, he knew he done fucked up and that’s what I like. Black actually felt like a killer again because his NXT Title run was severely underwhelming and overshadowed by other stuff and he felt like a hitman out to get some payback. I think the direction of Gargano’s character having more heelish in-ring tendencies but still acting like the righteous, heroic face in entrances was pretty funny too because he’s so used to being treated as a good guy where he’s oblivious that fans would ever boo him. Also, that Punisher gear for that match though? Fucking awesome.
JT: I forgot about that gear! It was pretty sick. Anyways, for me, this time period was a real turning point in the storyline for me. At the time, I was totally on board with the Gargano/Ciampa storyline. I thought the matches were diminishing and quality and that it should be wrapping up sooner rather than later, but I was still willing to follow it and see where it goes. But after War Games II, this is where I fell off board with the whole thing. So like you said, Black was this real vengeful character, who had put Gargano back in his place and was now going after the title that had been stolen from him. That? I’m all for that. The problem is where Gargano went from here and where Aleister went from here on. Gargano after losing, to me should’ve seen the error of his way. He should’ve fallen back in a slump, realizing he had fallen to Ciampa’s level. He should’ve gone from a morally gray character back to a full on face. But instead, he pretty much went back the other way as he turned fully heel, and defeated Ricochet for the North American Title. On top of that, Ciampa defeated Black. Maybe I’m still mad because I always liked Black more than Ciampa, but it felt like Gargano going heel and Ciampa keeping his belt meant that the previous few months were all for nothing. And that deeply frustrated me, on top of Gargano & Ciampa reuniting after their shared wins at Takeover Phoenix. DIY was back again, holding both belts, and as heels. For me, this is when I fully turned on this storyline. It felt to me like it had gotten to the WCW type of “swerve for the sake of a swerve” level storyline. There was no clear reasoning for things, the plot had been lost, I wanted the storyline canned.
S: Absolutely agree with you, at this stage they were just turning it into an overblown saga which hadn’t even spanned across two years. It’d be like a TV series making a saga between two characters over two seasons, it just doesn’t work like that and I know wrestling is a week to week, continuous show and TV series are only about ten-twenty weeks per year but still, even soap operas don’t have sagas as overblown as this.
JT: Yeah, so I’ll do a little apples to oranges comparison. One of my favorite series I’ve seen over the past couple years is She Ra and the Princess of Power. Of course this is a modern reboot of the 1980s She Ra cartoons. In the modern Netflix series, the main story focuses on Adora, who leaves her home to help the Princesses fight the evil army she was once a part of, and Catra her scorned ex-friend who remains with that army. They’re the two main characters and their relationship is at the heart of the show’s conflict, across all 4 seasons. However, even then they’re not fighting each other every episode. The show slowly builds up the characters both in opposition to each other and on their own terms, allowing for a fleshed out, compelling and complete story. And most importantly, you never lose track of the conflict between them on the original terms. Adora feels altruistic and obligated to help the weak and oppressed, and Catra feels betrayed as a result of Adora’s desertion.
At this point in the DIY saga, it feels like we’ve totally lost the plot. Why is Johnny fighting for belts other than Ciampa’s? Why is he suddenly willing to team up with him? Why does Ciampa believe Johnny is his ally after all their rivalry? Who are we supposed to be rooting for? Is it Johnny? Because months before we saw him “go bad” and get punished for his actions, but he then continued down that path, how are we as an audience supposed to sympathize with or root for him? To me, at this point, the storyline seems more concerned with moments more than an overall story. You keep the feud going for the image of them fighting at the place it all started. You have Ciampa win so you can have the image of a dramatic trilogy of matches. You have Ciampa win for the image of having a big rivalry for the Title. You have Gargano lose for the image of rage overtaking logic. You have Gargano attack Black for the image of a good guy fallen to the dark side. You have him turn heel and win the title for the image of them holding the belts, together as a duo again. They’re all sound images, but the narrative that gets you from point to point is completely unwinding.
S: It’s literally all it became really, isn’t it? It just became this saga of “what moment can we have on TakeOver this time?”. Not a saga of how they progress the storyline in a gradual manner. It became massive overkill, even by 2019 and my god, you’d think it wouldn’t get any worse
JT: And don’t worry folks, the worst is yet to come! Only a month after Gargano won the NA Title, he lost it to you know who. And then, haha! He attacked Ciampa! It was all a plan by John Boy to uhh…uhhh I’ll get back to you on that one. Regardless, we’ve got the clear end in sight! It’ll be Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa, one year later, NXT Title is on the line, it ends here! What could possibly go wrong? Only the injury bug came up at the worst possible time. Ciampa would need to go on the shelf, so his big match was scrapped and his title vacated. So what does that mean for Johnny? Well he gets to wrestle Adam Cole and win the vacant title, and oh look at that! Tommaso is here to say hi! Awww they’re hugging it out, what a lovely conclusion, am I right?
S: I mean, it’s nice that he was there to congratulate him but they should’ve done the old Seth Rollins WWE 24 shot where they cut to Ciampa in a press box just looking down with a vacant stare, would’ve been about a million times more effective but sure look, what’s done is done now, you know? Also, I’m pretty sure we started this very blog around the time that WrestleMania Week happened actually!
JT: Ayyy!! Happy Power Houriversary!! But I agree, that would’ve been better. I assume WWE did that as a way of trying to get some level of closure with the injury canceling the match. But still, it felt very much like trying to slap a bandaid over a gaping wound. After all this time, it felt very unsatisfying as an ending to what WWE wants to be “the greatest rivalry in NXT history”.
S: It really was unsatisfying in a way, or was it?!
JT: Yeah because we’d find out that that moment wasn’t the end. Because through the Summer, Gargano would get in a rivalry with Adam Cole, losing the NXT Title to him only 57 days, beginning Cole’s record setting 407 Day reign. Losing the title certainly didn’t help Gargano’s record at Takeovers, and that series certainly didn’t help fans who were growing steadily annoyed with the Gargano/Ciampa dramatic and long NXT Takeover Main Events. But Cole wasn’t safe at the top of the mountain though, as in October on NXT’s debut on USA Network, Ciampa returned to face off with Cole, making his intention to get the title back clear. At the same time, Gargano briefly got taken out of action after a legitimate neck injury as a result of Finn Balor’s heel turn on him and a 1917. This all culminated at NXT Takeover Portland, where Ciampa challenged Cole for the Title he had never lost. And of course in that match, who would appear but Johnny Gargano, as he’d cost Ciampa the title, turning heel for the first time in NXT and reigniting their rivalry…again…continuing it into a 4th year.
S: And this was the point where I stopped caring about NXT properly, I know a lot of people had enough of the “TakeOver Style” and NXT as a whole long before I did but this was just pissing me off, this wasn’t even jumping the shark, this was jumping right through the shark and coming out fine at the end.
JT: This was all done for the purpose of the “One Final Beat” match. It was a pre-taped match, filmed in an empty arena, where Gargano and Ciampa could have gone into the Final Beat of their hearts in an anything goes match. And it…it was something that’s for sure. I find with the whole Gargano/Ciampa feud, it’s on a sliding scale. Their CWC match and their NOLA match are pretty much universally agreed upon as good. Gargano/Ciampa 2 & 3 are more contentious and controversial, with mixed opinions depending on who you ask. But One Final Beat? Well from the impression I get, people weren’t really fans.
S: I’ve never watched it to be honest with you because I honestly feel like it’d damage my perception of Gargano as a wrestler, that’s how damaging I reckon that match is.
JT: Well, I’m gonna give a shoutout to Joseph Monticello. He’s a YouTuber who makes a load of good content, and he’s also a fellow WordPress blogger. He has a very well written piece from last year talking about how he thought it was the worst match of the year at the time of writing. And I can’t help but agree. The match was long, slow, the camera work damaged the match, and a lack of commentary and crowd noise did not help. And of course, it only worked to damage the storyline further. Like let’s think of it this way: this is the grand finale of the storyline. Why do you do that at this point? Well, since the first match, Gargano hasn’t won despite being the victim in the storyline. So really, this is about closure for Johnny right? Well, the problem with that is that now Johnny’s a heel, and are we really going to end this with a dirty heel winning? But that’s exactly what happened. And in such a kick to the nuts. Literally. Candice LeRae, seemingly pleading for it to stop, kicked her husband low, only to turn around and do the same to Ciampa, and then have Johnny reveal he was wearing a cup. The whole thing was just the biggest slog. By the way he’s the link to Joseph’s article: https://josephmontecillo.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/johnny-gargano-vs-tomasso-ciampa-wwe-nxt-4-8-20/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
S: The whole thing ended because Johnny had his Johnny covered, just, just no. Read Joe’s blog, he’s done some great ones before and after this, they’re very good reads. I’m actually curious to see if this match is as bad as the Swamp Fight now.
JT: Oh good question. Because I saw One Final Beat, but I didn’t see that. So I’ll leave that up to the poor souls who saw both. Now I have one last criticism about One Final Beat, and that was that Gargano & Ciampa both hammed it up. Now, this isn’t something new. You can honestly say that even in their CWC match, there’s an element of “big faces” in the Gargano/Ciampa. There’s been plenty of criticism online that the Gargano/Ciampa matches have come off as corny (to some folks) due to their reliance on big gestures like the staring at their hands or sitting with mouth agape or dramatic pseudo-crying stuff. I think it’s undoubtedly part of One Final Beat, and without crowd or commentary, it comes off like backyard fed shit. But I wanna ask you, what do you think of this criticism? What do you think of the idea that their series relies on overacting and melodrama?
S: I think the whole overacting and melodrama has its place in wrestling with the first match they had, to an extent and not overdone but I don’t think the whole staring at the hands thing works given the storyline, this only works when it’s two actual friends, who are faces being put in a match which demands them to be violent towards one another and are obviously going to regret what they’re doing. In this feud and the context the feud was in, it doesn’t work because Ciampa tried to end his career twice, both in different manners. In promo packages, Gargano literally was pissed off by his actions in promos, why would he be remorseful towards someone who’s wanted to make his life miserable, you know? Also the whole Gargano “why am I so violent” meme, it was funny then for about a second, you can chuck it in the bin now if you ask me but that’s just my opinion. I think people tend to over exaggerate when it comes to these two. There’s been far worse in wrestling that’s not the real life controversies, people.
JT: To keep it simple, I’ll just say that I’m a terrible judge when it comes to that sort of stuff. Sometimes it annoys me, sometimes it doesn’t. I wouldn’t recommend anyone put much stock into what I say about those sorts of things, it can just depend on how I’m feeling that day. You’re definitely right that people have hammered that point to death in the past year, though I will say again, it was especially bad in their final bout. But hey, some people hate it, some people don’t mind it, it’s not something I concern myself with much. So finally, Ciampa & Gargano’s career deviates, and we can break down the last year plus of their runs. Shall I do that, starting with John Boy?
S: Yeah, sure we might as well. Imagine that, a year for John Boy Gargano without Ciampa? How did they do it, James?
JT: Well through the first half of 2020, Gargano struggled to really pick up momentum. He competed a number of times for the NXT Title but failed to win it. Luckily for Johnny, he did this with his wife Candice at his side, as she and Johnny were more of a duo on TV than ever before. It wasn’t until NXT: Halloween Havoc that Johnny got on the board, defeating Damien Priest to become a 2x North American Champion. Johnny vowed to do better than his last reign, but on November 11th’s NXT, he put the title on the line against Leon Ruff, a wrestler chosen by a wheel. Though it later turned out he had rigged the wheel to get an easy match, it didn’t matter because Ruff shocked the world by ending Johnny’s reign at a measly 14 days. This led to a 3 Way between Ruff, Gargano and Priest, with Gargano winning the title back. He’d successfully retained the North American Title for the first time against Ruff in December. And this time, he did so not just with Candice but with his new gang by his side. Gargano, LeRae, Austin Theory and Indi Hartwell, this is The Way!! With them backing him up, he’d hold the Title for 163 Days and 3 defenses, ultimately losing the title to Bronson Reed. Not a fun fact! None of the guys Johnny has ever lost the NA Title to are in WWE anymore. But regardless of that, give us your thoughts on The Way!
S: Well, I like three out of the four members. Guess one I don’t like, I’ll give ye a hint, it isn’t the recently wedded, tall Aussie, Indi Hartwell. I mean to be fair to them, they’ve got good chemistry together, like really good comedic chemistry, there’s parts about it which I’d want differently and as weird and awkward as I feel about Austin Theory, he does perform his role well, I guess? I just ignore him every time he’s on screen really, it’s an extremely awkward type of heat he has with me. But aside from that, I’m delighted that Gargano has finally gotten himself a proper title reign, in which he had some pretty damn good matches too. Almost a bit of a renaissance for him now that he’s actually wrestling and not being forced into doing the overacting stuff again.
JT: Yeah the Austin Theory stuff is unfortunate. Look it up if you’re not familiar, he feels like one of the people to have gotten away from Speaking Out clean despite allegations. It’s a shame too, because The Way has great chemistry from what I’ve seen. I haven’t seen a lot of their stuff, but they’re funny together in the stuff I’ve seen. I also enjoy Gargano being able to thrive in something completely separate from Tommaso. Like that was a good 4 year period of his career, it’s good for him to do something not at all related. One of my favorite storylines during this time is InDex, of course the love story between Indi Hartwell and resident oddball Dexter Lumis. For months they seemed to have this connection, much to the disapproval of Johnny, aka Team Dad. Yet, they couldn’t deny their connection. Ultimately this led to a Love Her or Leave Her match between Lumis & Gargano, which Johnny won. But y’know what? Indi had made her decision, stipulation be damned. She chose Dexter at the risk of getting kicked out. She proposed to him, and after a series of vignettes, the family gave the okay. And just this past week, in a hilarious main event segment, Dexter & Indi got married and actually nothing went wrong! The most successful wrestling wedding ever! Johnny’s involvement was minor but still significant, and as a whole it’s one of my favorite weddings in wrestling.
S: Rarer than a unicorn or a good Will Ospreay tweet (amirite lads???), a SUCCESSFUL WEDDING IN WRESTLING. Unbelievable, like I was shocked that nothing bad happened but I was also delighted. I thought the segment was honestly brilliant, I was laughing and the fact that Lumis hushed the entire wedding by opening the left side of his blazer to show a stashed axe was just, mwah! C’est magnifique!
JT: Now let’s look at the other side of the coin, the Psycho Killer. His run has been, well it’s been up and down. So after the Gargano feud ended, he began a feud with Karrion Kross who attacked him backstage. At Takeover: In Your House, Kross absolutely demolished him, putting Ciampa on the shelf temporarily. He’d come back and turn heel by battering Jake Atlas, fail to win the vacant NXT Title in a 4 Way, then turn back face in a feud with Timothy Thatcher. They had a match at War Games 2020 that Ciampa would win, and then they faced off in the Fight Pit on NXT TV in January that Thatcher won. But splitting this series, they’d earn each other’s respect. They’d enter the 2021 DRTTC, where they’d beat Nese & Daivari, The Undisputed Era’s Cole & Strong, but lose to the Grizzled Young Veterans in the Quarter Finals. At Takeover Stand & Deliver, Ciampa faced NXT UK Champion Walter but couldn’t win the gold, nor could they win the Tag Titles from MSK at the Great American Bash. But, just recently, Ciampa finally got on the right path. He defeated Ridge Holland on August 31st to qualify for a #1 Contender’s 4 Way. And then when NXT Champion Samoa Joe vacated the title, the 4 Way became for the title! On the first episode of NXT 2.0, Ciampa finally won back the belt he never lost, beating Pete Dunne, LA Knight and Von Wagner to do so. I know I kinda breezed through all that but honestly? Ciampa hasn’t been someone I’ve been really interested in since the Gargano feud ended. Johnny was able to branch out, but it feels like Ciampa still hasn’t gotten on a steady path since then.
S: Totally agree with you, dude. He’s just struggled to find his footing after these four years of being joined at the hip with John Boy. That period from May 2020 until maybe the match with Walter was just a bizarre time for him on the roster. He just ambled from feud to feud, either as a face or as a heel and he was even wearing these weird looking tights for a spell, remember that? I do think that the match with Walter and teaming with Thatcher helped him a good bit. Him being NXT Champion again is not what I expected in 2021 not gonna lie but hey, let’s just hope we don’t get another feud between him and Gargano, eh?
JT: For God’s sake, keep them apart for another 3 years at least. I’d rather see Ciampa feud with every single new PC recruit than see him even be in the ring with Johnny at the same time. Send your Bron Breakkers, send your Von Wagners, send your Creed Brothers, there’s no shortage of people in NXT. Just please, let the damn thing rest. It had its place and time, but it’s long since done. I don’t care if both guys jump ship to AEW, don’t do it there either. If anyone wants Gargano/Ciampa, let them rewatch the CWC and the rest of their matches on Peacock.
S: Fucking amen to that, my friend and good lord, this has been one of the longest “where are they now” segments I can imagine.
JT: Yeah there’s just sooooo much to discuss with those two. But now that Johnny is out, we’re done with this episode. Let’s close this episode out, shall we?
S: Do you hear Semisonic playing? Because I think it’s Closing Time, James. Let’s wrap this one up.
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Powering Down
JT: Just like that, our discussion of the second round is in the books! We got through all 8 matches in all 3 episodes. Now all that’s left is to break down the round. We gotta talk about our match of the round and our MVPs. Now as you might remember, last time I ranked out all the matches and all our competitors for my MOTR and MVP. Now for MVP, I’m not adjusting my overall 32 person ranking. I just don’t think I can really grade someone like Mustafa Ali to someone like Ibushi who will have at least 3 matches. So after Seán gives his MOTR and MVP, I’ll give mine for this round (ranked of course) and then I’ll give one more overall ranking of all our matches. Those, those I can still match up fairly. Sound good?
S: That sounds pretty good to me, James. Now, for my Match of the Round, there are plenty of options I could’ve had. I was a big fan of TJP vs Gargano, Dorado vs Swann, Gulak vs ZSJ and Ibushi vs Cedric but if I had to pick a top two, if would probably be Zack Sabre Jr. vs Drew Gulak and Kota Ibushi vs Cedric Alexander. If I had to pick the definitive best match of the round, it’s got to be Ibushi vs Cedric.
Now for my MVP of the round, surprisingly enough, I’m still very unsure on who my MVP is going to be for this round of the CWC. As soon as Kendrick’s match happened, I was dead set on him being my MVP last round. Now who is going to be my MVP this time around you ask? Well, to give you my shortlist, I shall include Cedric Alexander, Kota Ibushi, Brian Kendrick, Akira Tozawa, Drew Gulak and Zack Sabre Jr. Now I’m going for my MVP in terms of who I felt came off the best throughout the matches and the shows themselves. Who do I think shone the most and looked the best? I think it’s got to be Cedric Alexander, no man had as much buzz coming out of the CWC at this stage than Cedrix Alexander did. The match he had with Ibushi was so damn good, to the point where he looked just as good and valuable to wrestling as he would have in defeat, which speaks volumes to the worker that Ibushi is as well. So Cedric, you’re my MVP for Round Two of the Cruiserweight Classic!
I don’t think any match or any wrestler really disappointed me in their performance at all in this round. If you ask me, this was a very easy watch going back on it. Getting to review three shows under one hour long instead of a near three hour PPV does break up things very nicely. James, what do you say? Your Match of the Round and MVP?
JT: Respectable picks, respectable picks. I agree, it’s been a real easy watch, and I can’t wait to break down my picks. So for the sake of expediency (we had such a long recap I figure I shouldn’t drag out my big here too long) I’ll give you my “bottom half” of matches. I say that, but none of them are particularly bad.
8. Noam Dar vs Hoho Lun
7. Gran Metalik vs Tajiri
6. TJ Perkins vs Johnny Gargano
5. Brian Kendrick vs Tony Nese
#8 & #7 were fine matches but honestly to me, in the grand scheme of the tournament, they don’t particularly stick out a ton. Good matches, but not ones that lodged themselves into my memory like others. #6 & #5 were matches I enjoyed, but ones that I think had obvious tweaks that could’ve made them better, and I can’t say that for my top 4. And they are:
4. Rich Swann vs Lince Dorado
3. Akira Tozawa vs Jack Gallagher
2. Zack Sabre Jr vs Drew Gulak
1. Kota Ibushi vs Cedric Alexander
I hate to copy you, but something like Ibushi/Alexander, it’s overwhelming. It’s undeniable. Swann/Dorado was excellent LuchaLibre fun, Tozawa/Gallagher had a nice story focused around Tozawa’s knee, Sabre & Gulak was the best technical match thus far. But Alexander/Ibushi is a match that has gone into the collective memory beyond most CWC matches for a reason. It is EXCELLENT. My match of the round is also Kota Ibushi vs Cedric Alexander.
S: Can’t argue with that ranking of the matches in the Second Round and it just had to be Ibushi vs Alexander, you said it was excellent. I say there’s not enough positive adjectives to describe it. How about your MVP for Round 2 then, James? I’m intrigued to hear what your thoughts are for this one.
JT: Well first, I’m just going to drop my overall match rankings. I’m not gonna break them all down individually, just take from it what you will.
24. Anthony Bennett vs Tony Nese
23. Drew Gulak vs Harv Sihra
22. Akira Tozawa vs Kenneth Johnson
21. Noam Dar vs Gurv Sihra
20. Noam Dar vs Hoho Lun
19. Zack Sabre Jr vs Tyson Dux
18. Hoho Lun vs Ariya Daivari
17. Rich Swann vs Jason Lee
16. Gran Metalik vs Tajiri
15. Gran Metalik vs Alejandro Saez
14. TJ Perkins vs Da Mack
13. TJ Perkins vs Johnny Gargano
12. Brian Kendrick vs Tony Nese
11. Rich Swann vs Lince Dorado
10. Tajiri vs Damian Slater
9. Jack Gallagher vs Fabian Aichner
8. Kota Ibushi vs Sean Maluta
7. Cedric Alexander vs Clement Petiot
6. Akira Tozawa vs Jack Gallagher
5. Zack Sabre Jr vs Drew Gulak
4. Brian Kendrick vs Raul Mendoza
3. Lince Dorado vs Mustafa Ali
2. Kota Ibushi vs Cedric Alexander
1. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa
Then for my MVP picks, I’ll start off with my bottom half of guys. Not that these guys were necessarily bad, but I felt their matches either weren’t as impressive as others, or their impact on their match wasn’t as big as their opponent.
16. Hoho Lun
15. Noam Dar
14. Johnny Gargano
13. TJ Perkins
12. Tajiri
11. Gran Metalik
10. Tony Nese
9. Lince Dorado
So for our actual MVP, we had a smaller field but it was no less easy this time around. ZSJ, Gallagher, Rich Swann, and Tozawa all did a great job in their matches, but I couldn’t sway myself to them over my top 4. Like you said, Kendrick did a great job this round but I don’t think it was as impressive as the round before, so he just missed the cut. Kota Ibushi obviously had a classic, but honestly? He was the foil in his match. Though his moves were impressive, it was ultimately not his match, if that makes sense. So I came down to the same final 2 as you, Cedric Alexander and Drew Gulak. I thought Drew really carried the character department in his very solid match with ZSJ, but like I said before, Cedric just cannot be denied. It was his round from the moment his match started. So my final top 8 looks like this, with Cedric as my MVP.
8. Zack Sabre Jr
7. Jack Gallagher
6. Rich Swann
5. Akira Tozawa
4. Brian Kendrick
3. Kota Ibushi
2. Drew Gulak
1. Cedric Alexander
S: Well would you just look at that? Another mutual agreement between us on The Power Hour. I totally agree with your top eight there as well, I thought they were the eight guys who stood out among the field and it was hard to deny giving them credit. I can’t believe I had forgotten how awesome Gulak looked in his match with Zack Sabre, he just looked legit and was ready to be given that platform because his performance was class. Cedric was the runaway star of the Second Round, we’ve both touched on it and he’s well deserving of the praise that we’ve given him.
JT: Agreed, the “Please Sign Cedric” moment is one of the few moments that have lived past the CWC itself and still gets brought up when talking about him. Cedric earned it big time. But sadly, he won’t be around for the next episode, and we’re down to our Final 8!!
S: That’s right, we are barrelling down towards the finish line of the Cruiserweight Classic because we’ve only got three episodes left to review! Next time on the Power Hour we will review the Quarter Finals of the CWC. Two episodes, four matches, four winners. Next time we will see Gran Metalik vs Akira Tozawa, Rich Swann vs TJ Perkins, Zack Sabre. Jr vs Noam Dar and Kota Ibushi vs The Brian Kendrick. James, I’m fucking pumped for next time because we’ll be on our penultimate episode by then!
JT: The CWC has been just as good as I remembered it being, and now we’re getting into matches with some real stakes to them! We’re getting down to knitty gritty, where legends are made and dreams are crushed! But until then, this is a goodbye from me James!!
S: And a buh bye from me, Seán!!
JT: Until next time, keep rolling down the line!!
S: Cue thee large train, kind sire.
The JT & Seány Mc Power Hour 