James: Everyone has the ability to be great, but only so many people can actually be great. And the only way to prove that in professional wrestling is by dashing the hopes and dreams of your opponent so that yours can live on. Last time on the Power Hour, we trimmed the field down from our sensational 16 all the way down to an elite 8. And now, as we get to the Cruiserweight Classic Quarter Finals, the field will be halved again.
Seán: On this edition of the Power Hour, we will break down the four matches to decide which final four competitors will advance to the two hour finale of this epic 32 man tournament. This is the part of the tournament where it’s the nitty-gritty, where we find out what separates the great from the world class. Ibushi, Kendrick, Metalik, Tozawa, ZSJ, Dar, TJP and Swann. Who will survive???
——————
Booting Up
JT: Helloooooo everyone and welcome back again to the JT & Seány McPower Hour, where Seán and I run through the odd and the interesting stories from professional wrestling history. We’re still rolling on ahead through the Cruiserweight Classic, 5 years after the fact. And as Seán said, we’re coming down to the end of things. We are onto our penultimate episode! We’ve got 4 Quarter Final matchups on our plate today.
S: That we do and I must say that I’m very excited to talk about these Quarter Final matches, there’s a lot to say with all four of these affairs, very eventful in-ring wise to say the least. This is also our penultimate episode too! We’re on the home stretch now with Season 3 and edging closer to Season 4, how crazy is that???
JT: I tell you what, it’s been a fun ride. It was really cool to check in on some of the guys I haven’t heard about in what must have been years. But don’t worry, we still have more recaps on the horizon. And with some big names guaranteed to come off the board today, things will still be spicy. You’d think that the stories of guys that made it this far would be pretty simple but believe me, we’ll have a lot to say. And of course, that’s only after we discuss the matches that are only getting more time to shine now that we’re down to so few people.
S: Exactly, just like we did with our recaps of Gargano and Ciampa simultaneously at the end of our Round 2 review, our “Five Years Later” recaps are just starting to get more informative and full of discussions. I’m on a real buzz right now, James, no lie!
JT: Me too! Now that we’re down to a quarter of the original field, we’ve got some matches with some real unpredictability to them. Like, coming into the CWC we knew at least some if not all of the big name indy wrestlers would move on. And now, that’s who we’re down to! All 8 remaining guys have incredible pedigrees, some even in WWE itself! So it’s time we get to the Quartet Finals, Episodes 8 & 9 of the CWC! Seán! Anything to say before we get into the action?
S: Well before we get into the thick of it all with our Quarter Finals, I should ask you how you felt about these matches going into them five years ago? Did you get the sense that the tournament was really up in the air and that anyone could win it?
JT: That’s a good question, and one well worth discussing. As such, let me lay out all of the remaining competitors, just in case y’all have forgotten the potential winners still in the tournament. We have Japan’s Akira Tozawa, America’s Brian Kendrick, Mexico’s Gran Metalik, Japan’s Kota Ibushi, Scotland’s Noam Dar, America’s Rich Swann, The Philippines’s TJ Perkins and England’s Zack Sabre Jr. all left in the tournament. Now, realistically, I think you can come up with a reason why every single one of these guys have a compelling reason to win. Whether it’s some kayfabe or real life story, or a justification you could see WWE using, everyone has their reason to win. But for me, watching it live, my mind was clearly set on two guys: Zack Sabre Jr and Kota Ibushi. I think they were the two biggest names heading into the tournament, and by this point you could safely assume that their reputation elsewhere definitely carried over to their run in WWE. And between them, my pick was the guy I thought would win from the very start: ZSJ. Not only did he have the Indy cred, not only did he have a unique style and bright presentation, but unlike Ibushi he had the advantage of being a natural English speaker, meaning he could win the whole thing and seamlessly slip into weekly WWE TV, whether it was on NXT or in Monday Night Raw’s new Cruiserweight division that had been announced by this point.
S: Yeah definitely, I’m in total agreement with what you just said. The two guys who I wanted to win back in 2016 were Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa. I liked everyone in this tournament at the time so I wouldn’t be too miffed with whoever won. Zack and Ibushi were my runaway favourites though, the only people I could’ve seen stopping them was the other man in the finals. I was 100% dead set on an Ibushi vs Zack Sabre Jr. finals, much like the rest of the CWC-ites.
JT: I’d also like to say, I think of the remaining guys, I actually probably would’ve thought Rich Swann had an outside chance. Like don’t get me wrong, I still would’ve thought Sabre & Ibushi were the favorites. But it felt like of all the remaining guys, he had the best chance. I mean he has been on NXT, he has good crowd support so far. I wouldn’t have put money on him, but hey, who knows! Well, I mean we knows, but like with hindsight.
S: Oh definitely and especially with how inspiring Swann’s story of his teenage years coming into the CWC was very heartbreaking for him and how wrestling was his saving grace, you combine that with the fact he’s on NXT already, has good crowd support, a catchy theme and flashy entrance. All the ingredients for what WWE would want in a face for their revamped Cruiserweight Division.
JT: Exactly, but like you said, it seemed like Ibushi vs Sabre was the consensus choice for the final, with only disagreements about who would win. Would it be the English speaking talent with an out there style, or would it be the more eye-popping star following in the footsteps of Shinsuke Nakamura from earlier in the year?
S: I remember being completely stuck on the fence as to who would win between those two for if they were to meet in the final, like I was changing my mind on an hourly basis. Each man had a very valid reason for winning it but who’s to say they’ll even meet in the final anyways, eh?
JT: Exactly! In fact last episode we saw one of the biggest upsets of the tournament as TJ Perkins tapped out perennial favorite Johnny Gargano clean in the middle of the ring! Brackets can be busted early on by unlikely upsets, but now is the time when things are really the hardest to pick. Let’s get right into episode 8, shall we?
S: Let’s get to it, amigo. That’s enough of our faffing for now
——————
Unlimited (To)Zawa
JT: So to sum up the opening video, we’re now down to our final 8, as the Quarter Finals begin tonight. We get our commentators Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan hyping up the past round of matchups. Mauro raves like most of the Internet did about Ibushi/Cedric and how great that was, while Bryan mentions he was big behind Nese/Kendrick and TJP/Gargano too. We then go to Corey Graves in the control room: saying that it’s done to 8 men from 6 countries, all with one goal. Left standing are the mat wrestling skills of ZSJ and Noam Dar, the High Flying of Rich Swann and Gran Metalik, as well as the Striking prowess of Ibushi and Tozawa. We’ll see some of those tonight, including our main event of Kendrick vs Ibushi. But we’ll get to that shortly, now we’ll head into Akira Tozawa vs Gran Metalik! And before I jump into the matches, we’ve got new pre-match promos!
S: Just a quick mention to the opening hype package to this show, I know we shouldn’t go too in depth into it but man, it was so fantastic to watch, honestly gave me a little bit of the bubbl- sorry, goosebumps. I liked seeing the new pre-match interviews, nice seeing our quarter finalists looking all snazzy in their suits but this did take me by surprise because I don’t remember them doing updated pre-match promos.
JT: Yeah I forgot about that too. You may have noticed, but after the first round, I didn’t really cover the pre-match promos. I mean, they mostly were just repeats of what they said before. But now in Round 3, these guys are all proper contenders to win it all. So they got more formal to talk about their opponents and their goals. Metalik talked about how much Lucha Libre means to him, how he loves trying out new things. He believes that’ll be what carries him to victory. Meanwhile, Tozawa says it’s his dream to be in WWE and this tournament is a chance to make that a reality. He can get there with just one German Suplex, like he’s done in the past two rounds. Speaking of which, Tozawa got here by defeating Kenneth Johnson in Round 1 and Jack Gallagher in Round 2. Gran Metalik (who is in a lovely blue and gold tonight) defeated Alejandro Saez in Round 1, then knocked off Tajiri in the second round to move on. With the crowd exciting for both men, I say we’ve got no more filler in the way, let’s get to the match!
S: All I’ve got left to say is that the gear in this match is awesome and that’s about it, James my man, let’s kick this match rundown off.
JT: We get a handshake and a typical feeling out process at the start, with Tozawa going for the leg but Metalik turning it over to ground Tozawa. Tozawa gets a headlock but Metalik gets a headscissor to counter it. Tozawa backs Metalik into the ropes, breaking the hold by tapping him on the chest, only to then deliver a boot to the gut. Tozawa looks like he’s not gonna play around now that a shot at the finals is so close. He goes to send Metalik across but Metalik reverses and then drops down, Tozawa hits the ropes and now Metalik hits the ropes and leapfrogs him as Tozawa slides under him. Metalik goes off the ropes, but Tozawa with a Japanese Arm Drag, only for Metalik to respond with one of his own, then they both go for dropkicks at the same time, get up and stare each other down. We’ve seen this sort of thing before, as once again, it’s being used to show that neither guy has gotten any sort of advantage. Of course, right as this happens, Mauro is a dated reminder that we are in fact in 2016. As a way of transitioning to “the keys” to victory for both men, he brings up DJ Khaled, Jay Z and Future since “he’s got the keys”. Get it, as in the 2016 single “I got the keys”? Oh Mauro. This tournament wouldn’t be the same without him.
S: This is a Mauro-ism that I can accept because he wasn’t going ham with the pop culture references, which, *controversial opinion* never really bothered me because at least there was a commentator who understood what was relevant in society and understood what references wrestling fans would get. He was on top of the references while D-Bry thought the “dab” was a “dubstep”. Chalk and cheese in terms of their knowledge of pop culture.
JT: Yeah this one wasn’t so bad. Especially since this one isn’t too distracting. But it does lead into actual discussion from Bryan, who says that Tozawa needs to stay aggressive to win, while Metalik needs to take to the sky. And Bryan seems like he’s perfectly in tune with the match because as he says things, things start to get more aggressive. Both men hit shoulder tackles but neither falls down. Tozawa hits a pair of forearm smashes to Metalik, but as he goes to the ropes he catches a Dropkick against them from Metalik! Bryan points out just how rough that is, because Tozawa’s head not only felt the impact of the kick but then it snapped off the ropes. Metalik sends Akira into the corner, he charges and gets sent to the apron, hitting an Enziguri, then gets a Springboard Missile Dropkick, followed by a huge Suicide Dive!! Metalik sends him back in, hits a Springboard Crossbody, but it only gets a 2 count! We’ve seen quite a few Suicide Dives, and I’m sure we’ll see at least a few more after this, but man rewatching this tournament just remind me of how good Metalik is. His Suicide Dive is so good because much like his other aerial offense, he just knows how to handle the ropes and his weight. His dive really pops because he’s able to just get max speed going through the ropes!
S: It really does refresh our memories to how fucking insanely talented Metalik is, the way he maneuvers about the ring, the way he just flies about and THAT SUICIDE DIVE??? Man, that Suicide Dive was reminiscent of what one Lucha Underground alumn and famed Seán’s Lucha Boy, Aero Star would do where he gets maximum speed before doing the dive and connects with his head almost spearing the wrestler on the outside. They dive at ya like Ralph Wiggum going through the window like.
JT: I swear Metalik and LU in general are just testaments to the idea that if you do high flying moves, you should spend at least a little time in Mexico. Like if I never have to see a scrawny white guy deliver a flying light push while almost clipping his feet on the middle ropes again, I’d be quite happy.
S: Yeah honestly, some of the dives through the middle ropes that we’d see in this time period of wrestling from various wrestlers, let’s just say that the quality and standard in the dives varied in the 2010s because, ooh boy, there’s been some dreadful dives in the last decade.
JT: Yeah, and again not to be a Jimmy C, but it’s especially bad when it’s small guys. Like I can understand why someone like Big E isn’t graceful flying through the ropes, he’s got a lot of weight behind him. But smaller guys? C’mon, if you can’t fly with style, what else do you bring to the table? Metalik looks good and is totally, though, the best of both worlds.
S: Definitely, he flies at the opponent with style, velocity and like a missile. Lovely stuff from him.
JT: And as we mentioned last time around, grappling isn’t key to Lucha and Metalik proves that as he locks in a Figure 4 variant in an attempt to control Tozawa, who is in pain but he still gets the ropes. Metalik starts getting aggressive, hitting chops. He goes to send Tozawa across but Tozawa reverses it, and when Metalik goes for a Back Handspring Tozawa catches him with a Dropkick to the back. This sends Metalik to the apron, where he gets hit with a Bicycle Kick to send him off the apron and to the floor, where he is left helpless for a Suicide Dive by Tozawa! But not just one, as Tozawa hypes the crowd up, goes back in, and hits another Suicide Dive!! Tozawa is another guy with a great Suicide Dive! I don’t know how much we can really say about it, he’s just good too. Maybe not as good as Metalik, but still very good.
S: Oh Tozawa’s Suicide Dive just has so much speed and ferocity to it, it’s insane! It’s very similar to Metalik’s in that he launches himself head and shoulders first into almost a diving Spear type move but his is more speed based, insanely impressive.
JT: So off the dives he rolls Metalik in and covers him but Metalik kicks out at 2. He also kicks out at 2 after a Scoop Slam and a follow up picture perfect Tozawa Senton. He chops Metalik, Metalik chops back, but it only makes Tozawa madder. This happens two more times, and as Tozawa seems fully fired up, he fakes out Metalik and hits a jab to the jaw, but it only gets another 2. Tozawa yells along with the crowd, only to tell them to be quiet as he hits a Basement Dropkick in the corner. He sends Metalik across, misses a Back Elbow in the corner, stumbling out to catch a Superkick to the face from Metalik. Metalik runs, turns himself on the ropes in the corner and then jumps off with a Missile Dropkick, followed by a Standing Shooting Star: 1–2—Kickout!! Now Metalik is digging into his bag of tricks! He follows up with a Springboard Back Elbow, but it’s not enough to put the Dragon Gate Star away. He lifts him up for the Metalik Driver but Tozawa slips behind him, and Metalik knows that Tozawa would be looking for a German Suplex, so he’s able to catch him with a Back Elbow to escape. With space between them, Metalik runs and goes for a Sunset Flip but Tozawa rolls through and hits a Bicycle Kick!! He picks Metalik up, hitting aBicycle Kick in the corner, followed up by a Saito Suplex!! Kickout at 2 again!! Crowd ahhhh with Tozawa, as he tries to psych himself up to put the Luchador away, but he runs right into a Superkick! He charges in again, Metalik chops him and hooks the arm as he hangs on and runs the ropes to hit him with a Springboard Dropkick!! This sends Tozawa to the floor, where he hits the Springboard Tope Con Hilo!! It may be repetitive every time we harp on it, but Metalik’s Tope never looks bad. It is always B-E-A-utiful. So Seán, what do you think so far of this closely contested match? Already a lot of nice moves and close calls for both guys, wouldn’t you agree?
S: Yeah for sure, this match was just very easy on the eyes for me watching this again. At the time and now it’s just a very visually appealing contest. Lots of flashy moves, not overdone like a good steak. Lovely submissions, cool strike exchanges. Some properly good dives, none of that dive and light push shit, not with Tozawa and Metalik! Just a very energetic, high velocity match that you could stick on any card really and it’d be guaranteed a reaction like it is getting here. Like there were so many times where this match elicited a big and audible reaction from me, at this stage, the match is doing its job pretty darn well.
JT: If you ask me, I’d say this honestly feels like a 1995-1998 WCW Cruiserweight Match if you ask me. All this needs is the WCW mat sounds, Mike Tenay explaining the names of the moves, and Tony Schiavone to respond to him by talking about what’s going on with the nWo.
S: And Bobby Heenan knowing that he doesn’t have to travel as often and being pleasantly surprised by the Cruiserweights, simpler times. I’m surprised WWE never properly reached out to try and sign Mike Tenay, you know. I know that’s more of a Season 2 topic but hearing the turtle like man being brought up in a WWE review does make me wonder why.
JT: Yeah I guess it really shows how bad the bad blood between certain people in both WCW and WWE, given that they never brought it Tenay or Schiavone. I mean, I feel like one of those two would have filled the hole left by Jerry Lawler’s 2001 departure. Or, y’know, any of the other occasions where they needed people on commentary.
S: Yeah agreed, they could’ve done with a WCW voice in 2001 for a spell during The Invasion but sure look, that’s a tale that’s been told to death at this stage. I think we should just start putting an end to this current tale we’re currently on, what do you think?
JT: So Metalik brings Tozawa in, slams him down near the corner, goes for a Moonsault, but Tozawa gets his feet up!! He covers, but Metalik kicks out!! Tozawa puts Metalik up top, but Metalik slaps him and sends him to the apron. Metalik goes back to the mat, Tozawa tries to springboard back in but Metalik hits a kick to the face, crotching him on the top rope. This allows Metalik to go up top, and hit a leaping Hurricanrana!! 1–2—Kickout!! He tries to set him up for the end, Tozawa hits a middle roundhouse, and as Metalik ducks, he slides between his legs, going for a Snap German Suplex, but Metalik lands on his feet!! He runs back at him, but gets caught with the Snap German!! Tozawa signals for the end!! He deadlifts him up, and scores!! 1——2——KICKOUT!!
That’s how he won both of his matches, and the crowd responds appropriately. Tozawa looks for a Package German, Metalik escapes, holding onto Tozawa’s arms to scoop him onto his shoulders and drive him down with the Metalik Driver!! 1—2——3!!! All match long, each guy looked for that one move to put the other away, and once again the Metalik Driver proves to be the move above all moves. What did you think of this match and it’s ending?
S: It may come as no surprise to absolutely no one reading this but I adored this match, I thought it was so awesome. A match built up so perfectly by commentary with Metalik having to keep it to his style with some good Lucha things and Tozawa having to keep it aggressive and frenetic if he wants to win. It’s a very simple story and I thought they told it well from what Bryan and Mauro told us from the off. So many gorgeous spots, dives and exchanges. That Hurricanrana by Metalik was class and every time that move is done like that, I always think that the guy who’s taking it, that his leg is gonna get caught on the top rope but thankfully, Tozawa’s knee was a-okay! Liked the finish too, the Metalik Driver has been put over super strong which is great and shout out to the Heyman t-shirt guy in the front row being bamboozled by Metalik going over too. Big old thumbs up from me.
JT: Gotta agree, I thought this was a Pretty solid match. It needed some time to heat up in my opinion but it was fun once it got going. It really had all the appropriate ohs and ahs for a Quarter Final match, showing that things are gonna ramp up even more from last round Good finisher Kickout too, it was all in service of making Metalik that much more of a favorite. I mean if that delayed German could put away Gallagher & Johnson and not Metalik, what is it gonna take??
S: They definitely succeeded in making Metalik a fan favourite in this match because this was the point where I feel like he was properly legitimised, kicking out of someone’s finisher and then his own finisher is put over mega strong.
JT: Yeah by winning against Tozawa, in the way that he did, he really got elevated to that sort of top level. Though I know he had his time in New Japan, and I was convinced of his legitimacy just because of how excellent his whole getup was, he wasn’t quite at the level of someone like Tozawa or Swann or Dar or TJ in terms of prior fan connection. But now? Nobody’s going to take him lightly as a contender to win it all. He needed to beat someone like Tozawa to really elevate himself, arguably more than anyone else in our remaining field.
S: Oh definitely, I just feel like him winning as good of a match as this was after beating Tajiri was the moment where he was officially a legitimate contender to win this whole thing and definitely seen as a top level talent in the eyes of WWE fans.
JT: Still, like the fan in the Paul Heyman shirt probably thought, it’s a shame to see Tozawa go. Talk about a guy who really endeared himself to the audience in just 3 matches.
S: And that’s just a testament to how good he really is, he’s an energetic, physically charismatic wrestler who got himself over with a crowd in about just over half an hour of simply wrestling. What a guy.
JT: So, should we run down what’s happened to Akira Tozawa in the last 5 years?
S: Yes we shall! Or, yes we shall… Because this is gonna make me a bit sad once we get to about 2019 or 2020.
JT: Like so many others from the CWC, Tozawa was announced as part of the new Cruiserweight division. But unlike many others, Tozawa’s debut wasn’t for a few months. I’m not sure if this was a case of just staggering debuts so as to have too many new people at once, or if they were just doing extra preparation for putting him in front of a WWE camera. Either way, on the January 31st episode of 205 Live he made his debut defeating Aaron Solow (of AEW’s The Factory fame) and on February 6th, he made his Raw debut defeating Drew Gulak. His first feud came against Brian Kendrick, who wanted to teach lessons to Tozawa. Tozawa declined Kendrick’s condescending offer, as he was a 12 year veteran already, leading months of fighting between the two. Ultimately, Tozawa defeated Kendrick in a Street Fight to end the rivalry in May. In June, Tozawa caught the eyes of Raw’s most important brand, the Titus Brand. Titus O’Neil had turned heel in 2016 and had flaunted his own personal “Titus Brand” for months but was now turning face and recruiting to his brand. First came Apollo Crews, and now he added Tozawa to the mix, rebranding the group “Titus Worldwide”. Remember Titus Brand & Titus Worldwide? I definitely didn’t.
S: Yeah I certainly remember Titus Worldwide alright, it was definitely a group that was a group. Had Tozawa as the Cruiserweight, Apollo and Titus as a tag team and Dana Brooke as the female wrestler of the group who would also dress up as a faux secretary? Like why?
JT: Well fun fact, Tozawa was gone from the group by the time Dana showed up. But yeah it was such an odd group that seemed gimmick, yet never gimmick enough, y’know? Like the whole idea of it being Titus’s venture, trying to expand worldwide, it never really manifested in any way other than Titus signing people to team with. I feel like this is a gimmick that they should’ve just gone full 1995 with. I’m talking vignettes, and just hamming it up. I think then it would’ve been something actually noteworthy and memorable. Would that have made it good? I don’t know, but it would’ve made it something.
S: I mean it would’ve been better if he just jazzed a load of the geeks on the Raw roster up so that the group could at least have somewhat of an identity rather than three people just being a group saying “WORLDWIDE”. Like give me all the geeks in the group and don’t be afraid to go beyond having three or four people in a faction.
JT: I like that! I love the idea of Titus having this multi-level marketing scheme where he signs on as many guys hanging out at catering as possible, all in the name of hocking his brand. He could’ve done a “The Titus Brand gets you on TV” type of deal. But regardless, Titus wasn’t the worst guy to have cutting promos for Tozawa, I suppose?
S: Oh no, not at all, like Titus is a well spoken man with pretty good delivery so there are definitely worse guys you could have speaking for Tozawa but what should’ve happened is that you get Paul Heyman on board and Paul Heyman has the Cruiserweight Suplex Machine in Tozawa and the Nightmare/Night-Mayor (what’s he really saying) of Suplex City, Brock Lesnar. Suplex Inc. Baby.
JT: And hey, regardless of our fantasy booking, with Titus behind him, Tozawa actually began building more momentum, challenging Neville for the Cruiserweight Title at Great Balls of Fire on the kickoff show, but he was unsuccessful in becoming champion. However, he was able to pin Neville the next night on Raw and then he won a #1 Contenders match a few weeks later. On the August 14th episode of Raw he got his rematch against Neville, where he ended Neville’s 8 month reign and became Cruiserweight Champion!! Titus Worldwide had struck gold and got their first champion! And he’d be champion for….all of 6 days as he’d lose the title back to Neville on the Summerslam kickoff show. And I just don’t get what was up with this. Especially since Tozawa just kinda left Titus Worldwide quietly in late 2017. He was doing so well and then what, did the writing team just get bored of him?
S: It really did seem that way, didn’t it? I mean he had a really solid Spring and Summer in 2017, he barely if ever lost, he was featured on Raw and 205 Live with Titus O’Neil being his hype man and Apollo, like probably one of his best friends. He got into a feud with Neville right before he was about to leave WWE entirely, he got to beat him twice and the second time for the Cruiserweight Title and then they just killed his reign dead at six days. He lost his title and that’s that. I remember being really annoyed by this because what was the point in him holding it for six days and winning it on Raw, why not give him the win at SummerSlam? It really bothered me because I was properly a big Tozawa mark at this time and I was delighted to see him win the belt. I was staying up watching Raw and SmackDown at this stage, people. I was full of hope and optimism then.
JT: Yeah I’m rarely a fan of having someone win, then quickly lose back a title. I think the only acceptable times are if you have them win in their hometown (as a nice moment) and then lose it back because you just don’t want to commit beyond that one moment, or if you’re having a story involving them losing the title so fast, like Christian in 2011. Even then though, those stories can be really frustrating if you’re a fan of the guy who loses the belt, and it’s especially bad in a situation like this where they don’t even keep him on TV. What was the point? To split up Neville’s reign so he doesn’t have like 200 Days as Champ?
S: Yeah honestly, it makes fuck all sense as to what the thought proves was behind it but then we remember all the shit we as wrestling fans have brought up over the years about WWE in 2017 and there was definitely a lot of questionable booking decisions being made among some of the good things they did that year.
JT: I mean I’m glad he won the title at all, like it was a nice moment for him. Considering all the guys we’ve covered who stuck around WWE for a while and never actually won the title. So, as we covered in the Drew Gulak recap last episode, he and Gulak would feud in Fall 2017, ultimately winning the feud with a win in a Street Fight. He’d get upset by Mark Andrews in the 2018 Cruiserweight Title tournament, and he’d also begin teaming up with fellow countryman Hideo Itami. They’d feud with the Lucha House Party for a few months, until Tozawa accidentally struck Itami in a match. This would happen again, and Hideo would split their team, with Itami winning the blowoff match as well. As again mentioned in Gallagher & Gulak’s recaps, Akira would join Brian Kendrick in facing Gulak & Gallagher in late 2018, winning the feud against the two heels. In early 2019, he’d compete in a Four Way for the Cruiserweight Title at the Royal Rumble, but come up unsuccessful. He’d defeat Itami in Itami’s last match in WWE, then he defeated Cedric Alexander, Humberto Carrillo and Lio Rush to become #1 Contender and earn another title shot. He’d take on Champion Buddy Murphy at Elimination Chamber but lost on the kickoff show. He’d mostly just float around until the 2019 Draft, when he was drafted to Monday Night Raw to the surprise of many. Any comments about the next 2 years of his run? Any expectations you had for him now that he had been drafted onto Raw?
S: Well at this stage with WWE, late 2019, this was a period where the weekly TV product on Raw and SmackDown was very dire for numerous reasons so I had absolutely no expectations for them to do anything decent except for the Rumble to Mania stretch, let alone book Tozawa as a serious competitor. Were my expectations met? Sadly both yes and no.
JT: I just wanted to add before we move on, his match against Bud Murph was fire. Ok, so on Raw he first lost an inter-band match for the Cruiserweight Title at Survivor Series. On the December 23rd episode of Raw from New York City, Tozawa won the 24/7 Championship for the first time, pinning R-Truth in front of the famous Rockefeller Christmas Tree. But later in the show, he’d lose the title to Santa Claus of all people, who’d lose it back to Truth, who’d call a truce between him and Tozawa for the holidays. Now this, this was a version of the 24/7 Title I didn’t hate. Sure, it was most just a vehicle for R-Truth skits, but actually going out into the real world? I like that. And though skits aren’t exactly the best use of Tozawa’s skills, this wasn’t the worst thing to be involved with.
S: Yeah with the whole 24/7 stuff, when it’s outside of an arena where the wrestling is taking place, I like it because wrestling being taken out of its natural habitat is always an interesting viewing experience. It’s the shit where they have a bunch of geeks chasing after whoever the champion is which bothers me.
JT: Yeah and a real frustrating thing about that Title for me is that they never could be consistently good. And I’m not being facetious here, I genuinely think we had good moments with the Title. The whole Drake Maverick marriage storyline was pretty funny if you ask me! I like when they go onto some special program like College Gameday and some network executive wins the title! I really liked when they were in Tennessee and Mayor Glen Jacobs showed up and won it! I really liked the legends who got involved with the Title on Raw Reunion!! Bad Bunny holding the title and carrying it around on Saturday Night Live? Great!! But it felt like every worthwhile moment was immediately followed by like a month straight of the jobber parade, and Truth winning and losing it without any real story other than “wow anyone can win it”. I think there’s a chance the title could’ve been good, but I think it was such a low priority that it quickly fell into thoughtless, last minute writing.
S: Exactly! Like for real there have been a lot of positives with the 24/7 Title in it’s tenure, the ones you just mentioned I really enjoyed too. Shoutout to R-Truth pinning Jinder while he was asleep on a plane as well, brilliant comedy but the whole all the jobbers chase the champion? Get the boat lads, not for me. Another thing which annoyed me about the belt too was that there’s been a real lack of proper matches with it without run-ins. I understand the namesake of the title allows for anyone to run in but the Hardcore Title always managed to have normal 1 on 1 matches with no interference and it’s 24/7 rule in effect. Why couldn’t this belt have that?
JT: Right! There’s no reason that the 24/7 Title can’t have regular matches. Hell, any time they want to do a little Halloween or Thanksgiving or Christmas themed gimmick match? Give it to the 24/7 Title! Something like that Randy Orton/David Otunga Christmas match would’ve been perfect for that belt!
S: Exactly! Give it some fun gimmicked weapons matches to keep the interest there. Hell, even do a 24/7 Invitational Match between 10 or so where whoever is the champion after 15 or so minutes is declared Champion. Give it a bit of pompe and don’t make everyone involved in it look like geeks.
JT: Of course, we’re having this discussion because Tozawa would become a big player in the 24/7 Division. If you want to call it that anyways, that’s probably generous. But before we get totally into that, in 2020, he’d compete in the Interim Cruiserweight Title tournament going 2–1 but failing to advance. Alright, into the heart of things. At Backlash 2020, he would appear with a Gang of Ninjas on motorcycle to go after the Street Profits and Viking Raiders, turning heel. This ninja thing would become a recurring part of his character, dressing up in black ninja robes and for a time being accompanied by other ninjas. Sometimes including a really big Ninja. Dare I say, a Super Giant Ninja! But yeah, he’s just a full on ninja now. I’ll just hand the mic over to you Seán, I know you’ll have something to say about this. I just don’t have the energy for it. Tear into it son.
S: Alright so this whole ninja bollocks, where do I even begin with this utter shite? Well I guess I can say that this “gimmick” change for Tozawa came off the back of Tozawa doing a Rolling Senton on an episode of Raw to where the culturally sensible Jerry Lawler called it a “Ramen Noodle Moonsault”. A: Not a Moonsault. B: Go fuck yourself, King and C: Thankfully, King hasn’t been on commentary all that much since which is a god send. You can just tell this comes from the 50s brain of Vince’s biggest lick arse, Bruce Prichard. Just completely dumb, does Tozawa absolutely no favours, it permanently makes him a comedic goof and perennial jobber to everyone at least a single step above on the pecking order and it damages his legitimacy. At this stage I just want him to request a release and tear it up all around the world again, go back to Dragon Gate, PWG, maybe make a splash in ROH, Impact or AEW. I just want the best for him as a wrestler, look he could be happy doing very little and taking as little bumps as possible but I know that Tozawa being unleashed elsewhere would make people remember how much of a beast he is while wrestling. Free Tozawa to be honest.
JT: Yeah there’s really nothing else to say. Dude is a stereotype straight out of the 90s. Just pointless shit that makes him into a total loser. And lose he has! In regular singles action anyways. He’s had some success in the 24/7 Division though. He’d win the 24/7 Title from R-Truth in June 2020, only to lose it back to him on the same night. He’d win the title in a triple threat in August, only to lose it a week later to Truth disguised as one of his ninjas. He’d win the Title 5 more times, before winning it for an 8th time on the February 15th Raw, only to lose the title to Bad Bunny. It’s good because Bad Bunny is good but man, he got thrown into some crates to lose it. Anyways, in the time since then, he’s continued to fight over the 24/7 Title with Truth and Drew Gulak and Drake Maverick, and such. As it stands, Tozawa is the only person aside from Truth to have double digit reigns. He’s held the Title 10 times, and he’s held it for a total of 82 Days. Aside from that though, he’s mostly been used for squash matches on Raw, such as his most recent match, losing to Keith “Bearcat” Lee on September 27th. So a success in 24/7 Division, but really is that much to write home about? Especially nowadays when the title is neither fresh nor interesting.
S: Yeah definitely, he’s at the very bottom of the food chain across the two brands on the main roster. It’s pretty sad to see but I guess it was always going to happen when he was saddled with that ninja gimmick.
JT: Y’know, if you told someone during Tozawa’s heyday in Japan in the early 2010s that he was signing with WWE, they’d probably respond with a derisive “Oh what are they gonna do, making him a ninja?”. Sad to see things turn out this way. And to think, I had thought that maybe joining with Titus Worldwide would mean he’d get to tag with Apollo Crews. That would’ve been more fun than what we got.
S: Yeah it’s surprising that they never bothered making him and Apollo a tag team who challenged for the tag belts for one of the Raw exclusive PPVs against The Revival or The Bar, or at least have them team on a few occasions.
JT: Oh well, the past is in the past. I was gonna say “Oh well since he hasn’t wrestled in nearly a month, maybe he’s on the way out!”. But since I originally looked for his most recent match, it now appears he’s doing 205 Live throwbacks on Main Event, since he fought and lost against Drew Gulak. Who knows what he’ll do next. I just hope it gets better.
S: Yeah I do hope so too, even if it means going back to the bizarre dimension which is NXT 2.0 and being part of a Cruiserweight Division, that’s cool with me.
——————
Life of Brian
JT: Well moving on, we’re already at the main event of Episode 8! Remember, these Quarter Finals episodes only have 2 matches to fill the entire hour! So that means up next we’ve got a big one. It’s Brian Kendrick, trying to keep his dream of one last shot in WWE alive! And he’s going against the awe inspiring, golden star of professional wrestling, Kota Ibushi!
S: It’s a big one! The man who’s a standout favourite and has got plenty of years ahead of him against the man who without wrestling, he’s just living and is going into this one with his last shot at glory. The polished stud in Ibushi against the grizzled, desperate veteran in Kendrick. An interesting dynamic going into this match.
JT: Before the match, Daniel Bryan mentions it’s gonna be difficult for him to try and be impartial for this one, he is worried for his longtime friend Brian. Brian isn’t oblivious to the challenge ahead of him either, as he says this could be his last shot and he knows the younger guys have other shots, but this is it for him. He feels the happiest he can when he’s in a wrestling ring, but he can see the light dimming and he understands now that you don’t know what you have till it’s gone. If he can’t beat Kota Ibushi, his dream is over. On the other side of things, Ibushi says Wrestling isn’t a job, it’s something far more important. He showed the audience something they had never seen before in the first round, and he’s going to win because he loves wrestling more than anyone else. And that doesn’t seem like a mean declaration in isolation, but when you pair that with Kendrick’s ferocious desperation to keep his dream alive, what Ibushi says stings.
S: I fucking love what Bryan is saying here, he is not afraid to show his bias towards his best friend, Brian Kendrick but at the same time he is putting over Ibushi as a threat, making him out to be as feared of a wrestler as anyone else in this tournament. You just love to see it.
JT: Kendrick has fought hard to get here, but Ibushi feels like his biggest test yet. If Kendrick wants to move on here, like he did by beating Raul Mendoza in Round 1 and Tony Nese in Round 2, he’s going to pull out at the stops. And Ibushi is no stranger to doing that, as shown by his Round 1 victory over Sean Maluta and especially in his Round 2 victory over Cedric Alexander. I’ve got nothing else to say before we get into this match, what about you? Anything else to add, or shall we just get to the match?
S: I think we’ve said all that needs to be said for the readers, we’ve set the scene and now it’s time for the act to play out. Take it away, my man.
JT: The bell rings and the match begins with Kendrick shoving Ibushi and running to the outside, begging him to fight him out on the floor. Mauro speculated that Kendrick knows he can’t go hold for hold with Ibushi, so he’ll have to brawl with him and outsmart him. He breaks the ref’s count and slides back in, only to blow a kiss at Ibushi and trying again to escape to the floor but Ibushi grabs his leg and pulls him back in, hitting heavy body blows. Kendrick with a back elbow after a standing switch, he runs the ropes, and runs into a High Kick from Ibushi. Ibushi pumps the crowd up, and scores with the Golden Triangle Moonsault already!! He rolls Kendrick in, but Kendrick rolls out the other side. Ibushi goes to grab him, but Brian pulls the cover off the barricades, and then rams Ibushi into it and then traps his legs between the bars! He tries for a countout win, but Ibushi frees himself and hits a Springboard Missile Dropkick for 2!! Ibushi is lighting Kendrick up with kicks to the chest, sending Kendrick to the corner. Ibushi charges in, gets sent to the apron, only for him to send Kendrick to the apron too. They’re fighting now on opposite sides of the turnbuckle rods, and Kendrick uses that to an advantage as he manages a Neckbreaker across the top rung of the turnbuckle!! Like in rounds past, Kendrick has his back against the wall and is pulling out a unique use of the ring to get the advantage!
S: This spot was so fucking awesome, what a beautiful and brutal way of using the ring to your advantage. This spot audibly made me gasp when it happened and now with knowing more about the neck surgery that Ibushi had a year prior to this, it makes it even more brutal and is honestly one of the biggest holy shit moments of the tournament.
JT: I agree completely, it looked great! And as you said, Kendrick is doing just that: working the surgically repaired neck of Ibushi. As such he’s got a cravat in, which Ibushi tries to slam him out of but Kendrick rolls through and holds on. Crowd tries to rally Ibushi back up, finally managing to get out for the cravat. Kendrick tries to snap him back down for the Bully Choke, but Ibushi lands on his feet and hits a Dropkick! Despite Kendrick’s unsavory tactics, the crowd is split down the middle with chants for both guys. Ibushi charges into a boot in the corner, but Kendrick comes out into a Snap Powerslam, after which Ibushi rolls over him to the corner, hitting a Moonsault off the second rope!! He covers, but Kendrick kicks out at 2. Ibushi gets the Golden Star Blitiz on Kendrick, goes for the high kick, but Kendrick ducks to the mat, causing Ibushi to go for the Standing Moonsault but Brian gets the knees up!! He rolls him up into a small package but Kota kicks out!! Kendrick’s veteran knowledge came into play, he knew not only what Ibushi was going for, but he knew what he’d follow up with and how to turn that in his favor! Kendrick follows up with a quick Superkick to keep Ibushi down! They’re just trading shots now, Bryan speculates it’s not Kendrick’s smartest choice as Ibushi hammers him, only for Kendrick responds with elbows right down on the neck!! He dodged an Ibushi kick and hits a boot of his own, before grabbing him and running to the corner, connecting with Slice Bread #2!! He folds up Ibushi, 1—2—Kickout!! His old WWE finisher that beat heavyweights in WWE wasn’t enough!!
S: The move which he used to temporarily become WWE Champion at Unforgiven 2008! The move which WWE temporarily called “The Kendrick”, I shit you not, they actually called it that. It is kinda funny that the old Sliced Bread #2 never really became a finisher again in WWE when he came back, isn’t it?
JT: It’s kinda funny, but I get it. He’s a heel, it’s not a very vicious move. I’m surprised he didn’t pull it out on occasion though. Also “The Kendrick” is just like, not even trying. But regardless of what you call it, this is a good Kickout. He got a move with significance to the audience, but one that also hasn’t been protected in this tournament. So when Ibushi kicked out, people cared, but it wouldn’t have hurt Kendrick had he continued to use that move in the future!
S: Yeah exactly and also, of course Ibushi found a way to bump on his neck and shoulders whilst taking the Sliced Bread. He just had to do it, didn’t he?
JT: If he can’t make a move into a neck bump, nobody can. So Kendrick grabs a sleeper on Ibushi, pulling him up as he scales up to the top, looking to just hang him off the top in the sleeper, but Kota slips free and then hits a Pele Kick on Kendrick! This knocks Kendrick off the top to the apron, allowing Ibushi to climb the bottom rope, then the middle rope, grabbing Brian around the waist, lifting him up and over the ropes back in!! A spot he made famous in New Japan against Shinsuke Nakamura!! 1—2——Kickout by Kendrick!! Gotta say, this spot has become a bit more regular in Ibushi’s repertoire, but man it’s a fun big match move.
S: Oh it’s such a cool looking move, very scary at times but when it’s done, it’s always going to get a big reaction out of an audience. It’s a guaranteed big pop from a wrestling crowd when it’s busted out.
JT: So Ibushi is starting to dig deep into his well of moves now. Much like Kendrick, the pain and fatigue is starting to set in, he knows he’s gotta put this away sooner rather than later. He pulls Kendrick in for the Golden Star Powerbomb but Kendrick holds on for dear life. Ibushi kicks him hard and pulls him in again, lighting him up only for Kendrick to go behind and grab him for the Bully Choke!! Ibushi escapes as Kendrick seemingly lifts him up, but Kendrick holds on and swings him down to the mat to lock it in!! He’s got the Bully Choke!! He’s pulling back hard to choke out Ibushi, but Ibushi has got too much left in the tank, squirming and trying to stand himself up. Kendrick tries to keep it applied and modifies the hold as Ibushi starts to stand, but Ibushi still breaks free. Kendrick charges at him, but Kota side steps him. Ibushi charges at him against the ropes, but Kendrick side steps and sends him throat first into the ropes!! He lifts Ibushi onto his shoulders from behind, dropping him down neck first with a FUCKING BURNING HAMMER!! AHHHH HOLY FUCK!!Kendrick dumped him right on his surgically repaired neck!! He pins him down, 1—2————KICKOUT?!? Talk about a move you’d never expect to see on WWE programming!!
S: I know right?!?! Like holy fucking shit! When did anyone ever expect the motherfucking Burning Hammer to ever be busted out EVER on WWE programming, like I’m pretty sure that move is probably top of the list of banned moves in WWE’s rules alongside maybe the Victory Star Drop or the Sit-Out Tombstone Piledriver which Owen Hart did. Absolutely mental spot and forever will be because who ever expected Kendrick to bust it out? Like, it’s the ultimate rare move in wrestling and for good reason because it’s the ultimate heart in your mouth move in wrestling history. Absolutely mental seeing it every time I watch this spot. Crazy and the fact he kicks out? Even more crazy.
JT: Much more exciting than the last Burning Hammer we saw in WWE, which I’m presuming would’ve been Tyler Reks doing it. IT’S NOT THE SAME AS A REVERSE AA!! And though I will say it’s not quite on the level of Kobashi’s original “I’m just gonna drop you directly on your head, fuck you Misawa” Burning Hammer, he did not hold back. He landed him right on his shoulders and neck.
S: For real, this Burning Hammer looked well fucking brutal. When you think about it in kayfabe though, Brian Kendrick is so desperate to win that he’s willing to use a move which is specifically designed to drop Ibushi on his head or neck and shoulders in order to win, so smart.
JT: And I like that he didn’t just pull out this kind of move with no narrative stake. He’s been working the neck, there’s extra significance because Ibushi’s Japanese, and he even teased it earlier! I didn’t realize that the first time but as I mentioned earlier, there’s a spot where he goes behind Ibushi and goes to lift him up but Ibushi escapes. Of course I didn’t even consider a Burning Hammer, because again that’s like ordering off the menu. We didn’t even realize that was possible.
S: It’s like when you go to a restaurant and you put your own spin on a dish that you want. A modification to a dish where you don’t even consider being possible but they make it happen, great times.
JT: Also shoutout to Ibushi’s selling on that move, just sitting totally dazed. He’s not dead on the mat, because most of the time when guys get real hurt, they aren’t totally knocked out. He’s just sitting there like his brain had left his body behind. Like Homer listening to Flanders talk about apple juice and apple cider gone.
S: Now that’s a brilliant reference right there! I also did like that while he was selling, he looked like he was knocked stiff and you could see that as well when Kendrick had a little bit of trouble trying to cover Ibushi.
JT: Yeah he couldn’t just cover him, he had to push him over and pin his shoulders down, because otherwise he was like a piece of petrified wood. And yet, he still kicked out. Kendrick went deep, secret menu deep, and he still couldn’t put Ibushi away. And what’s worse, Ibushi is starting to get back up! Kendrick may have done a lot of damage in the moment, but it seems like it took a lot out of him to hit that. After all, he hammers on Ibushi as he tries to stand, trying desperately to keep him down, but Ibushi still gets up and hits a Kick to the chest!! Ibushi hits the ropes, Kendrick leaps at him for a Body Scissor, but Ibushi plants him down to the mat neck first!! Tombstone Driver!! 1—2—Kickout!! Daniel is full on rooting for Kendrick now, no attempt to be unbiased. Ibushi points up top and goes up, leaping for a Phoenix Splash, but Kendrick moves at the last second!! And now he locks in the Bully Choke again!! This is how he beat Tony Nese!! The crowd is on their feet, ready to see Ibushi give it up, Brian is bridging and trying to get as much torque as he can!! But he’s too desperate to make him tap out because staying that far off the mat allows Ibushi to reach underneath Kendrick and shift him to get his shoulders to the mat!! 1—2——Kickout!! They both get up, High Kick by Ibushi!! He pulls him in, Golden Star Powerbomb!! Shoulders down, 1—2——3!!! Kota Ibushi wins yet again, and the last shot of Brian Kendrick has come to an end in spectacular fashion.
S: What a way to go out for Brian in this tournament, just such a brilliant match which completely delivers no matter when you watch it. Both guys were on top form going into this match and they continued their top form within this match, it was great to see. I loved the working of the neck that Brian did throughout. The Neckbreaker across the turnbuckle as well as the Burning Hammer just showed how vicious he was going to be if was to beat the tournament favourite. I really marked out seeing Kendrick snapping at the opportunity to lock in the Bully Choke just after Ibushi missed the Phoenix Splash. I know I’ve talked a lot about Kendrick but I will say that Ibushi’s selling of the head and neck in this match was masterful, like when he took that Neckbreaker, he sold it as if he had damaged his neck again which is terrifying to say but he did it so well. You couldn’t ask for Kendrick to lose to a better wrestler to end his CWC pursuit. Do watch this if you have the chance to, it’s brilliant.
JT: I gotta agree, I thought this was very good. Kendrick plays the desperate veteran very very well, and Ibushi is so naturally gifted that he is the perfect opponent for Kendrick to face. And to top things off, I think this is a very uncontroversial opinion, but this is the best commentated match of the tournament. Daniel Bryan is clearly very invested in this match and it makes for good commentary. You can hear it all match and you can definitely hear it after it ends. I wasn’t there, I can’t say for sure, but it definitely sounds like Bryan is crying calling the end of his friend’s journey. Which just makes the final embrace of Kendrick & Ibushi all the sweeter.
S: I’d definitely agree with you on that point of this being the best commentated match because when I think about how well the commentary team worked in the CWC, the prime example or examples which I will always use as evidence are the matches involving Kendrick but more specifically, Ibushi vs Kendrick. Bryan’s commentary was absolutely wonderful in this match so it was. Positives all around with this match.
JT: Really the only negative about this whole ordeal is that Brian Kendrick is out. We have to say goodbye to the most consistently great character we’ve had in this whole tournament. Kendrick really believed this was the end of the road for him, but was it?
S: What was the fate of Brian Kendrick then, James? What has The Post-Apocalyptic Scavenger, The Man With a Plan and The Wizard of Odd been up to in the last five years of his career?
JT: So though he didn’t win the tournament, this wasn’t Brian’s last hoorah! He got another shot! Instead, he got a spot in the new Cruiserweight division. He made his re-debut to Monday Night Raw in a big way, winning a Fatal 4 Way #1 Contender’s match against Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik and Rich Swann on the September 19th Raw. This earned him a title match at Clash of the Champions against TJ Perkins, ultimately failing to win the Title. He’d embrace Perkins after the match, only to Headbutt him and show the world his true colors as a heel. No more shades of gray, he’s a full on bad guy. This would lead to an extended rivalry with Perkins, culminating in a rematch at Hell in a Cell, where Kendrick would fake an injury but win a championship, forcing Perkins to tap out and becoming the 2nd ever Cruiserweight Champion of this reborn division. However, sadly for Brian his reign was not a long one, only lasting 30 days before Rich Swann won it from him on the November 29th 205 Live. Although he did manage a defense against SmackDown’s Kalisto at Survivor Series (thanks to a run in DQ by Baron Corbin). He lost his subsequent rematch and in a Triple Threat against Swann & Perkins at Roadblock: End of the Line. What did you think of his whole Cruiserweight Title run, winning it from Perkins, but losing it to Swann?
S: I mean, it was better than Perkins’ reign but that’s not saying much given how long he had the title for. The storyline between him and TJP was, from what I remembered, completely carried by Kendrick while TJP went on about video games or some shit. I do remember the match he had with Swann to be good though. He did the best he could given the lack of interest fans had in the Cruiserweight Division.
JT: I’m not opposed to him being a transitional champ honestly. He’s had a nice long career, and I don’t know what he could do with a longish title reign aside from proving he’s good, which we all already know by this point. I think he did a good job actually having a character and getting Swann over as the next champ.
S: Yeah I suppose that’s true, him getting the Cruiserweight Title for as briefly as he did sure felt like validation for his great performances in the CWC. Definitely something he was owed and he did get Swann over pretty well too.
JT: Don’t get me wrong, I think he could’ve done more as Champion, but it’s nice that he got that moment at all considering his career seemed over. However! After his title run ended, so did his spotlight, as what could be considered just “the rest” of Kendrick’s career on 205 Live began after he lost to Swann. He’d feud with folks and have matches on 205 Live but rarely would his storylines go beyond the confines of the purple brand. We’ve covered most of these storylines already so I’ll try to keep it brief. January to May 2017 feud with Tozawa. May to August feud with Gallagher, August to December team with now heel Gallagher. In December his orbital socket was fractured thanks to a GTS from Hideo Itami, putting him on the shelf till May 2018. May to October is back to teaming with Gallagher, eventually joined by Drew Gulak. Gulak & Gallagher would oust him as “a weak link” on October 3rd, turning Kendrick face and leading him to team with Tozawa against the two. By December, Kendrick returned to the look he had way back in his mid 00s WWE run, with short hair and a clean face. It was like he stepped out of a time machine.
S: I remember being really shocked when he brought back the young Leonardo DiCaprio look too, like I couldn’t believe he brought his boyish looks back after looking like a grizzled veteran for a good few years. It really was like he stepped into that time machine The New Day built on Raw in 2016 or even better, the time machine from SmackDown vs Raw 2011 with the Christian (Cage) storyline in Road to WrestleMania mode and beyond.
JT: Now those are some fine references! Shoutout to the Road to WrestleMania mode and the wild shit that happened. Can you imagine, CM Punk against Tazz? Ha! That’ll never happen! So, Kendrick would lose to Drew Gulak in the First Round of the 2019 Cruiserweight Contenders Tournament, all while teaming with Tozawa through most of the year. Like I said in Tozawa’s recap, while feuding with now face again Jack Gallagher, Kendrick snapped after a loss and went after Gallagher with a Kendo Stick. When Tozawa confronted him, Kendrick used the weapon on him too, effectively turning Kendrick heel again. In November, he went on Twitter and announced he’d go on an indefinite hiatus from 205 Live. He’d return in January 2020, he cost Danny Burch a match against Ariya Daivari and attacked Burch afterwards. He’d beat Burch in a rematch with help from Daivari, and then he went and had 2 matches on NXT UK, losing to piece of shit Travis Banks and then losing to A-Kid. It seems like he was going to start a run in NXT UK, but with COVID-19 shutting things down for a while, he’d be inactive until August. Unfortunately, he’d be a good hand to help some of the less experienced folks over there. So he’d return to the states in victory against Tehuti Miles. Now, do you know who that happens to be?
S: Tehuti Miles? By any chance would that be Hit Row member and current SmackDown Superstar, Ashante Thee Adonis?
JT: That’s right! Kendrick fought him and showed him respect, turning face in the process, and helping Miles evolve. The next time they’d face odd, Adonis would be his fully fleshed out gimmick. He put Adonis through the fire, beating him again before the rising star proved his worth by defeating Kendrick the third time around. Kendrick would then lose a match against Adonis’s eventual buddy Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, and then again he would be defeated by the younger, talented as Mansoor bested him. On October 30th, he teamed with Mansoor to defeat Ever Rise, which to this point is his final match. He did an interview in a YouTube video called “Brian Kendrick: Life After Wrestling” on the WWE Performance Center YouTube channel, saying that match was a semi-retirement and that he’d be wrestling part time. So I would say that the door isn’t necessarily closed on Brian, but I really doubt we see much more from him in WWE. He’s on to the life of training the next generation now.
S: I watched that video as soon as it dropped actually and it is a nice little watch, very happy to see Kendrick very much at peace with going into semi-retirement, he seems very happy and it’s great that the next generation of wrestlers in WWE or maybe elsewhere will get to learn from a man who’s been very prominent in the last 20 years of wrestling.
JT: Honestly, I think someone like Brian Kendrick is the perfect kind of guy to learn from. He was always very solid while he was active, and he’s been through a lot in his career. He’s seen the highs and lows, been in and out of companies, he’s been all over the world too. Plus, he obviously cares a lot about the business. He’s exactly the type of guy you want to learn from if you ask me.
S: 100% agree with you there, he can give you insight on wrestling basically anywhere in the world and in whatever wrestling scenes. WWE, ROH, TNA/Impact, New Japan, the US and European Indies. The ideal wrestler you would want to learn from in the current era of wrestling.
JT: Ohhh you know what sounds like a really cool, full circle story if I’ve ever heard one? Imagine a wrestling school with lead trainers Bryan Danielson & Brian Kendrick! The two guys who trained together and traveled all over the world, reuniting one last time to train the next generation. I could actually see this happening in a few years when both guys are totally retired, especially with how frequently it feels like trainers come and go from the PC. You know those two together would have all their classes instantly filled. Also they could use the name “Bryan and Brian Pro Wrestling school” which would be the most professional law firm ass name I’ve ever seen.
S: You know what? I could absolutely see that happening in the next ten or so years when both of these guys are probably retired and for a man who once had a promotion called “Wrestling Pro Wrestling”, the “Bryan and Brian Pro Wrestling School” definitely seems like it’d be a name for a wrestling training school the two best friends from the state of Washington. Let’s hope it happens and if that name which James suggests comes true, you shall send your royalties to James.
JT: I mean my jokes aside, I hope both guys are able to help train the next generation after they’re retired. Their minds are so sharp that it’d be a loss if they didn’t. Unless they chose not to in which case, it’s their lives, do what you want. But I get the feeling these guys care about the future of wrestling in that sort of way. We’ll just have to see. Kendrick is already there, and we got to talk about it after he lost with grace in the CWC.
S: That we sure have done and it’s been lovely talking about Kendrick this entire time during his Cruiserweight Classic run, he’s been probably one of the front runners for MVP of this entire season for me.
JT: Well Seán just like that, we’re done with half of our matches from this episode already. Even though it’s a little earlier than usual, how about we head into the Recharge for today’s episode?
S: You know what, James? I think that sounds like a damn solid plan, I could do with heading to the Recharge Café once again. I’m feeling in the mood for a cappuccino and a croque monsieur, how about yourself?
JT: Oh man, a croque monsieur sounds excellent right now. So let’s goooooo…
——————
The Recharge
JT: ….into the Recharge! Welcome to the Recharge! This is our halfway point break time where we can have brief discussions of stuff outside of the wrestling we’re covering, be it present day wrestling, sports, media, what have you! And of course, we have our signature Recharge Recall, aka wrestling trivia! But before we get to the Recall, anything on the docket for you Seán that you feel we must discuss? Anything interesting to you since last we met for the Power Hour recharge?
S: Boy I’m just trying to think of where we were at the last time we did a Recharge. From what I can gather, we were chatting during the Recharge just after AEW’s All Out 2021 show happened and boy, it’s been a super interesting almost two months in wrestling since then but we’ll get to that eventually. With my life, I’m still tipping along with my regular, shop clerk job whilst also doing my second year of my Media Studies degree in Maynooth. Actually living away from home during the weekdays too which has been interesting but surprisingly easy to adapt to for me. College life has been treating me well, I’m doing lots of interesting things including TV Production, Film Studies and Screenwriting. A good time all around and I’ve just started a new series for myself. Parks and Recreation! Having a great time enjoying that and I’m just waiting for that handsome devil, Adam Scott to rear his perfect haired head onto the screen.
JT: Aha! There’s something I can latch onto! I watched all of Parks & Rec in about 3 weeks back in my senior year of high school, so about 5 years back now. How’s the show treating you? What do you like, what do you dislike?
S: The show has been treating me very well, it’s gotten progressively funnier with about nine episodes which is very impressive. I like the casting choices if you ask me, I think each character has their moments in getting laughs out of me. Amy Poehler plays her role really well in particular, as well as Nick Offerman. Ron Swanson is literally what I think of when the term “Libertarian” comes to mind. Aziz Ansari on the other hand, his character is funny, yes but given that his character is a hornball and everyone thinks he’s a bit pervy, a bit harrowing given the sexual misconduct allegations which came out against him three years ago.
JT: Yeah the Aziz stuff is unfortunate, but I totally agree that the casting feels very, very good. They knocked it out of the park, everyone fits their character really well. From the sounds of it, you’re still quite early on, no?
S: Yeah I’m only on Season 2 Episode 3 at the moment, just after watching The Stakeout episode which was bloody hilarious. Funny that Season 1 only had six episodes too, how very Channel 4 of them to do so.
JT: Well I’ll happily say, you’re gonna get to the good stuff. I mean S1 isn’t necessarily bad, but as soon as S2 starts it really starts to hit its stride, which he’d stay at for the next couple seasons. Also as the show picks up steam, you’re gonna get a lot of fun guest starring roles, so look forward to that! I mean, Louis CK was there in S1 and that was fun when I first watched it, but I bet that’s significantly less fun now.
S: Ahhhhh so that’s who the cop was! I knew he looked familiar. Definitely a less charming character now, that’s for sure. Well the last time we chatted, James, I more or less pitched the idea of Netflix’s Sex Education series to you and since then, you’ve only gone and watched all of it! Including the newest season! James, what’d you think of it???
JT: Well I’ll tell you what, I had a grand old time watching Sex Ed! A while ago (probably when S2 dropped) I saw it on my Netflix front page and I scoffed at the show. Not to sound like a prude but honestly I can find sexual humor to be rather crude, unfunny and lazy when in certain contexts. Think of something like Big Mouth or the much maligned Amy Schumer “my vagina” jokes. But luckily, I really liked Sex Ed’s style. Obviously I’m not some sort of snub who thinks cock and ball jokes can’t be funny, and what helps for me is that there’s a real sincerity to Sex Ed. Sex itself is just a funny thing when you think about it, and the way the show handles the natural awkwardness that comes with it really is charming to me. It also helps that it’s not all gags, the main characters are all pretty delightful and their writing is pretty good. I mean if I didn’t think that, why else would I have gone through the show in about two weeks? If I’m not hooked, I wouldn’t have gone “okay one more episode”. Shoutout to the younger actors and actresses as well, they properly feel like high school kids for the most part. Especially when I compare them to Ben Platt in the “Dear Evan Hansen” film that I saw not too long ago. I mean they made him look older than his actual age! But long story short for Sex Ed: it’s funny, it’s sincere, it’s got wholesome and diverse representation that’s valuable for a teen drama show, it’s got great acting and writing, and a slam dunk soundtrack to boot!
S: I’m absolutely delighted you’ve enjoyed it like I did! And for the exact same reasons that I did too. It really is a bingeable show which got me hooked so quickly. The show has got so many strong suits to it, the representation is pretty amazing and other shows in 2021 should use this show as an example for how representation is done. The soundtrack, man it’s honestly an absolute slam dunk as you said. It’s got so much going for it. Did you have any favourite characters in the show?
JT: Well obviously the main pair of Otis and Maeve drive the show forward and I think they’re pretty great, but my favorite character is honestly Adam Groff. I just think he’s had the most development of anyone, and it’s come in a pretty natural but still interesting way. It’s crazy to see how he’s gone from one of the least sympathetic characters in the show to arguably being more sympathetic than one of the original main characters in S3. I wouldn’t say directly what’s what for those of you that haven’t seen it, but if you have you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’d also like to shout out Dr Jean Milburn for also being a really great character.
S: I totally agree with your choices there. Adam Groff is the character who I also feel has had the best progression. I mean it’s just really natural with how his overall character progresses. Shoutout to Dr. Jean Milburn too and Gillian Anderson in general.
JT: Oh yeah! I mean I shouldn’t only give the younger actors credit for handling their roles well, but the actors and actresses who play their parents and teachers, etc. they’re all great. I’d also like to give props to something else I just remembered. I just really like how this show handles its side characters. You can easily distinguish between who are the main characters and everyone else, but I like the way that they’ll circumstantially introduce a character, and then they’ll come up every once in a while and get more development. Because y’know, that’s what it’s like going to school. You’ll meet someone new, and you might not always hang out with them, but it’s not like they’re gone. They do a good job of just slowly adding more people in and only adding them in if they’re going to show up more than once. It’s just nice, it makes the show’s world feel lived in, like oh hey, it’s the person from a few episodes ago! There’s the side character from the one episode, what’s they up to now? Shoutout to Lily in particular for an example of what I’m talking about.
S: Definite shoutout to Lily because she was a character who was seen as almost a slightly odd side character but by the end of Season 1 and the start of Season 2, she becomes more prominent and even goes through a character arc in Season 3. She’s just one of the many, many examples of great side characters who become a little more prominent.
JT: I will say, I have 3 real concerns about the show, although 1 of those concerns is on my own behalf. And that is, I just hope I don’t forget key details by the time season 4 comes around. I do worry about for the legacy of shows like Sex Ed that can be released and binged in a day. I always feel like those shows have a good week and then almost disappear. So I’d hate to see that happen to this show.
My only other concerns are about the shipping and the eventual ending. I say shipping because I know folks care about the romantic pairings, and I hope the writers don’t place too much emphasis on that rather than the characters. I’d hate to see the discussion about the show boil down to “Are you Team X or Team Y” which feels like the least interesting direction. As for the ending, I just hope they have an end goal for the show and the characters in mind. I’d hate to see the show drag out for longer than it has the legs to do only because there’s money to be had. I’d always take a show ending with room to tell more than keep going when it’s got nothing left to say. Like, say Bojack Horseman ending when it could’ve gone on longer vs The Walking Dead stumbling through a million seasons to less and less interest.
S: I fully agree with you on that, I do hope that it’s a show which has an end goal by either Season 4 or if they have to do so, by the time they get to a fifth season, if necessary. I do think that they should end it with four seasons if you ask me, it would fucking kill me if they kept dragging it out like with The Walking Dead.
JT: Yeah, uhhh moderates spoilers for S3, but as things steps away more from the original setup, I would want it to end in S4 if possible. I don’t like when shows start to get really out there from the original setting and premise. Nothing like a show where everyone starts off in high school, and then by the end you have like one person as a navy seal, one person is the secretary to the president, and the main character is still bumming around the home town but has been graduated for years. None of that. Some things can handle that sort of ramp, I don’t think Sex Ed is that type of show.
S: Oh god no, absolutely not. The way the show should probably end is by having them probably graduate from high school and we see how each character has grown just going into their adult years, much like Malcolm in the Middle with Malcolm and Reese.
JT: I think we’ve mentioned them before, but shout out to Malcolm in the Middle. Damn good show. Also just wanted to say, I saw Dune recently and that was really good!! It’s been a while since I saw a really nice high concept fantasy/sci-fi thing. The movie was gorgeous and interesting! And I’m really hoping at the time of writing to get to see Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho soon. Love his films, I like the professionals involved, I hope it’s good! Maybe I’ll update y’all next Recharge.
S: Please do update us next Recharge because Dune and Last Night in Soho are two films I’m very intrigued in seeing and much like yourself, I definitely am a fan of Edgar Wright’s movies. So James, how’s things been in the wrestling side of the world for you lately? Apart from what we’ve reviewed, what’re your thoughts on the world of wrestling these days?
JT: Well, earlier today some potentially concerning news came out about Ring of Honor. They were releasing all their wrestlers once their deals ended at the end of the year. I want to talk about this and what it could mean for ROH, but I think it’s best to wait just a little bit for more details to come out. As for other wrestling, WWE’s draft has come and gone and been odd. Hangman Page is back in AEW and it seems like his journey to the AEW Title is coming to a close at Full Gear, which is exciting! Oh speaking of ending, the Impact & AEW deal is reportedly over! Oh and NJPW’s cursed run continues as the G1 has come and gone with not only injuries to Naito that caused him to miss the whole tournament, but Ibushi got hurt in the G1 finals, causing a Ref stoppage in their biggest match since January. A lot of stuff is happening in wrestling right now, and aside from Page’s return, I can’t say that the rest is particularly good.
S: I mean, on the WWE side of things it feels like all we hear these days is negative news coming out of the company. NXT 2.0 is a thing now and is definitely more vibrant than what NXT of 2020-2021 was, which is a good thing, those NXT shows were far too dimly lit and dingy looking. Big E is now the WWE Champion, the brand split has come and gone, I still stand by that the halfway point from Mania of one year to Mania of the next year is a fucking ridiculous time to have a draft. Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch took part in an absolutely diabolical SmackDown segment which allegedly caused the two women previously mentioned to have a full blown backstage argument, wow. CM Punk is doing well for himself in AEW, having some good TV matches and looking good. Bryan Danielson is who he is and that’s by having great matches with people he wants to have great matches with. Hangman Page looks to complete his two year odyssey and become the AEW Champion by defeating Kenny Omega, let’s hope he does!
JT: Very happy for Big E and I think NXT 2.0 has definitely been an improvement. I’m a big fan of Tony D’Angelo and Bron Brekker especially. They’re both a lot of fun. And while we’re mentioning positives, lest we forget about Katsuyori Shibata’s return to the ring! After 4 years of retirement, he took part in a 5 minute grappling exhibition against the CWC’s own ZSJ, promising afterwards that the next time we see him it’ll be in a real match. Very excited to have him back. Gotta say, I really prefer this era of “guy takes a few years off to recover and get clear” over “guy works through injuries and permanently retires”.
S: Oh man, tell me about it. This era of wrestlers taking a good few years off of wrestling due to an injury and coming back healthier is really a blessed time. I cannot stress how cool it was, not only to see Shibata to wrestle, not only to see him wrestle ZSJ but to see him wrestle in a 5 Minute Grappling Exhibition?! DUDE! That’s like so fucking wacky like it was randomised in Fire Pro Wrestling but also the coolest thing ever as well.
JT: I love when NJPW occasionally pulls out really random stipulations. Like at the first WK I watched, Wrestle Kingdom 8, had a “King of Destroyer” match between Togi Makabe & Bad Luck Fale. What does that mean? I don’t know! But it’s something!
S: A “King of Destroyer” match?! I think I need to find a way to watch that now, that sounds bloody awesome! Speaking of the word destroyer, that was my older brother’s trampoline wrestling name. He was basically the Mike Awesome of the trampoline where he would give me sick Powerbombs and would take absolutely nothing in return.
JT: I bet he bumped on his knees for DDTs too!!
S: He fucking did and everything! I was the man taking the flat face bumps and the rolling spike bumps for DDTs, I was the man who was taking all the sick bumps. Young me was basically the Spike Dudley of my household.
JT: Meanwhile, I was properly like, old man Geinchiro Tenryu or Jumbo Tsruta of my household. I was only 3 years older than my brother but like, the difference between ages 8 and 11 is big. My poor little brother got worn the hell down, whether in long headlocks or front face locks, or worse: my dreaded single leg crab. I think any younger sibling who was into wrestling can tell you from experience that that move and the Walls of Jericho/Boston Crab are not fun holds to be in.
S: They most definitely are not, the dreaded Long Island Crab from Jimmy T. The submission game was always in that locker of yours. I was basically the wrestling dummy for taking all the moves from all of my older brothers. Powerbombs, Piledrivers, Chokeslams, Cutters, Spears, Strikes, F5s, Pedigrees, top rope super moves, being put through cardboard boxes, pretty sure I took the Cesaro Swing a few times. Definitely took the Dominator too, add a few Lariats in there and a sprinkle of a 3D from two of my brothers at some stage and that’s about what I took.
JT: Oh lord you went through the ringer. I think at worst I could do an AA and a Samoan Drop, actually hitting an F5 is impressive to a degree. But anyways, how about we get to our Recharge Recall aka our trivia!!
S: I think it’s about time we get down to doing our trivia! Recharge Recall, I like the sound of that, we should trademark that.
JT: Or at the very least, I should put a sticky note up to remind myself that we’re calling it this. So, as always a little run down. We’ll ask each other a trivia question, the question will get 3 guesses and a hint. This is all for bragging rights, but it’s good fun. Now Seán, I’ll give you the option of whether you want to ask first or be asked. Which will it be?
S: In the words of one C. Montgomery Burns, a tough question but a fair one. I think I’ll give you the honours/honors of going first, for asking me on the Recharge Recall!
JT: Ok! So, we talked about a bunch of “lasts” for Brian Kendrick this episode. So I figure it’s only right for us to talk about some firsts too. Now, I’m not gonna go easy on you. I know we both know that his first ever match was against Bryan Danielson aka The American Dragon. And I bet you also know that his first televised match was against Kurt Angle on SmackDown as part of Angle’s 5 Minute Challenge gimmick. So I’m bringing out the big guns. Who did he face in his first ever House Show match in WWE?
S: His first ever house show match? I’m gonna take a stab straight off the bat and base it off his first real feud, was his first house show match against John Cena??
JT: That is not correct. Now, I’m going to give you a hint here. This isn’t your one, chosen hint. I am just going to aid you a bit because House Shows can be rather unpredictable and if I don’t give you something to go off of, you’re going to be just throwing out 3 random names and be wrong. So this hint will help limit your scope. This match happened on a November 11, 2002 for a SmackDown House Show. Make of that how you will.
S: Alright so it’s SmackDown in November of 2002 so a good few people are yet to come through at this stage. I’m going to assume that he faced a Cruiserweight wrestler at this time so I’d say, maybe Tajiri?
JT: I’m sorry but again, you are incorrect. Please give your final guess, and feel free to use your hint.
S: I’m gonna use my hint good sir because I feel like I’ve a good streak of correct answers going for myself so please give me my hint de jour?
JT: Alright so for your hint, I’ll tell you first that you are correct that it was a Cruiserweight match. Not only that, but it was a Tag Team match! So he teamed with a Cruiserweight against two other Cruiserweights! So think hard, and figure out who Spanky teamed with against who.
S: Awh man now this is a fucking tough one. If I were to guess who his opponents were in that match and they were both Cruiserweights, then I would’ve automatically said Kidman and Rey but at this stage Rey would’ve been Tag Champion with Edge so it couldn’t be Rey and Kidman.
JT: Yeah again this is a tough one so I’ll steer you a bit closer by saying neither Kidman nor Rey were in the match. In fact those two, along with your guess of Tajiri and also Jamie Noble were in the Cruiserweight Title match later on in the show. And Spanky’s first ever House Show singles match was actually against Kidman for the Cruiserweight Title! But so to recap, no Rey, no Kidman, no Tajers and no Noble.
S: Ohhhhh now I think I may have an idea as to who was involved in this match! By any chance did he team with SmackDown’s Number 1 Announcer Funaki against Shannon Moore and Crash Holly?!
JT: Ahhh so close! This may have been our hardest question yet, and you did a good job, but no cigar. You got 2 of the 3 other people, but not in the right order. So Spanky’s first House Show match? It was with Shannon Moore, against Crash Holly and Nunzio!
S: Wowwwwww! Now that’s an interesting affair if there ever was one but a match that I’d love to watch if it’s hidden somewhere in Vince’s Secret Lair of Video Tapes. I was going to say Nunzio but I wasn’t sure if he had debuted on SmackDown properly at this stage because I know the FBI: SmackDown 2003 Edition didn’t become a thing until around close to WrestleMania XIX (19) time, one of our first episodes by the way!
JT: Yeah it’s an odd match. I can see where you were going with Shannon & Crash though, the Mattitude Followers that they were. I guess it just wasn’t figured out yet. If anything, this was probably a chemistry test for Crash & Shannon, or maybe even Kendrick to see who could work well with whom.
S: Yeah that does make sense alright, I do think I’d love to see Crash against Spanky though, I feel that match would be a bit of a banger on a house show.
JT: Well the good news about that is that it’s happened twice! I was worried, given that Crash’s WWE run was coming closer to its end by 2002, but it has happened. First was on May 3rd 2003, on a House Show in Quebec! And then only 10 days later, they fought on Velocity from Baltimore!
S: Awh baby! If only all episodes of Velocity were on the Network, I’d definitely check it out then
JT: Honestly, I’d love for Velocity and Heat to be on the Network. Like it’d be such good background noise. And you’d run into fun moments and odd stuff every once in a while.
S: Exactly! Like they ain’t got nothing to lose when it comes to those shows. Just give us all of Velocity, Heat, Jakked and Metal. I want those random ass C and D shows on my Network. Hell, even give me WWF Super Astros, the short-lived Spanish language WWF Lucha Libre show!
JT: Alright, so I gave you quite a tough question, now I gotta grit my teeth and take what question you’ve got for me on the Recall. What’s my trivia question?
S: Well my question concerns one, Theodore James Perkins, TJP. James, he’s a man who’s been around a good long while. He’s had plenty of praise, acclaim and especially plenty of slander. He’s also had his fair share of characters and gimmick changes over the years, prior to this run in WWE. James! TJP is a man who’s had his stints in various companies but in TNA he’s had quite a few stints, as well as identities. Could you name me his very first gimmick name in TNA all the way back in the early 2000s???
JT: Ohhh that’s an interesting one. I know he worked time under a mask as both Suicide and later Manik. But your phrasing leads me to believe it’s obviously not either of those. It wouldn’t be Manik, right?
S: It is not Manik, Manik actually came about in 2013 where Suicide was renamed after an endorsement from Hulk Hogan of all people where I believe he’d become X-Division Champion soon enough.
JT: Yeah, I knew Manik was after Suicide in the dismally tough days of TNA, I just figured it was worth a shot in the dark that maybe that was a ring name he had hung onto for a while. Like Jeff Nero Hardy bringing in Willow to TNA probably around the same time as Manik actually, which he had used back in 2003 ROH and as a kid.
S: It’s a decent guess alright but it’s not the correct one. Would you like your hint now or would you like to take a stab at a second guess?
JT: Well I took my blind shot and I got nothing. I’d like my hint now, and maybe it’ll knock loose some hidden well of knowledge.
S: Okay so just like you did for me earlier, I’m gonna go ahead and give you a cheeky 2 for 1 deal on this wee question. The gimmick which he wrestled under was under a mask and he used the gimmick in TNA from 2004-2008 and even once for an X-Division Exclusive TNA One Night Only show in 2013.
JT: Oh man, I gotta say, this sucks. Because I swear I can picture him in his checkered white and black shorts, with some sort of mask on. But for the life of me, I can’t remember what it is. But I gotta guess. Is it something like El Flash? Ahhh, even that guess is just out there, because I think I’m getting caught up with Mauro calling him the Phil-Am Flash!
S: It is not El Flash, although that could definitely have been a character for him in Southpaw Regional Wrestling. Rest in peace Season 3, we got the teaser trailer and now it’ll never happen. He did happen to wrestle a few matches in the old TJ Perkins gear though, he did a few dark matches in 2009 actually, even one against Colt Cabana.
JT: Oh neat! That must’ve been Colt fresh out of WWE, trying to wet his feet and see if he could stay in the “big promotions” or go back to the indies. But man, I’m gonna kick myself, because I’m gonna recognize the name as soon as you say it. But nothing’s coming to mind now. So I’ll just give my final guess as Super Fly.
S: Well, this must be a first or perhaps a second time occurrence but we’ve both stumped one another on our trivia rounds! Super Fly was not the name of TJP’s first persona in TNA. Instead he was the masked man known as… PUMA! He would compete as this persona in various X-Division gimmick matches and tournaments such as the 20 Man X-Division Gauntlet at Victory Road 2004, TNA’s first PPV in the TNA Impact Era. Or perhaps representing Mexico in the 2006 Super X Cup alongside Magno, Shocker and Incognito. A little bit of getting eliminated first in the Ultimate X Gauntlet Match from Victory Road 2007 and sprinkle in losing in an X-Division Xscape Cage Match which would be won by Christian York.
JT: Yep, I knew it! As soon as you said it, I recognized it! Puma! He must be the stage one form that evolves into Ricochet’s Prince Puma when you give it the Royal Stone or something like that. I mean as far as a gimmick name for a X Division guy in the mid 00s with nothing really going on, it could be worse I suppose? I definitely think my guess of “El Flash” is worse.
S: Yeah for sure, like he only made sporadic appearances under the masked gimmick over the years while he was busy doing other work so to come in under a mask and not many people knowing who it is, pretty good to be honest. I do think this could be done more in my opinion.
JT: Yeah I suppose it’s nice for him to get a TNA paycheck for a day, get a look in for future opportunities, and then not have those matches too tied to his actual name and face. Though I suppose that’s kind of what AEW does with Dark. Give guys a chance to come in and show some skills, though they’re still presented as the same sort of guy or gal they were in those losing efforts I guess.
S: Yeah AEW Dark is really a great proving grounds type show for a lot of guys who WWE would probably never consider signing at all. It’s one of those shows which I have a lot of time for and all of it is on YouTube as well, for free, which is amazing.
JT: Just having wrestling on YouTube is great man. It’s just great. Anyways, we’ve done the recall, we’ve said our pieces about media and present day wrestling, ready to get this show back on the road and get to Episode 9 of the Cruiserweight Classic?
S: I think it’s just about that time. My cappuccino was foamy and filling, as was that croque monsieur. Back to the CWC we go! Time to wrap up this bad boy!
——————
Near, far, whenever you Dar
JT: So we move on to our second half of this episode of the Power Hour, with Episode 9 of the CWC!! Kicking off this episode, it’s a battle of the British Independent scenes best! We’ve got Noam Dar of Scotland, against England’s own Zack Sabre Jr!! So before we get into anything, I’ll ask you this. So obviously I know Ireland most definitely is not British, but you are still within close proximity to what’s considered “The British Wrestling scene”. So I’ve gotta ask, when this match first happened, did you feel any additional attachment to this match happening, with these two guys facing off for a big opportunity in WWE?
S: Well basically James, being an advocate against the hated British, I just wanted both of them to lose via Double Countout so Gran Metalik could get a bye to the finals. I kid, I jest, I remember being happy for both of them, I honestly was. I thought it was pretty cool that they both went from wrestling in various arenas and probably clubs across the UK to wrestling in the US, in the arena where NXT takes place, which is shit hot at this stage and it’s being aired on the WWE Network. Like that’s gotta feel pretty cool for both guys, add to that as well and if either of these two win, they’ll get to wrestle live on a two hour finale on the Network with the eyes of the wrestling world on them!
JT: Yeah it must be a big improvement to go from the smarks in a little sound stage in Newcastle for WhatCulture Pro Wrestling to the smarks of a little sound stage in Orlando!
S: I don’t know what smarks I’d rather wrestle in front of. 2016 WhatCulture smarks, which is also a smarky British crowd in 2016 or the Full Sail crowd of 2016? What would you pick then, James?
JT: Well honestly, I think if I’m ZSJ & Noam, I’d easily pick the smarky Brits. At least you’d have that sort of cultural understanding for things. Like they’re from that area, they know about the football culture and the chanting and such. But as an American? For a one off? Still probably the Brits, because then I can be a cool, special treat from overseas. As much as the British scene has become maligned in a way, I do think there was a real sincerity to the excitement in the crowds. Whether you think that excitement got too big for its britches or too smarky or what have you, that’s a debate for another time. But those crowds were very, very passionate. And Full Sail has always had a degree of insincerity to it if you ask me. The well might be poisoned now because of stuff like how MSK is treated, or maybe it’s just being attached to WWE. Something about it rings hollow compared to the genuine excitement that used to be the British scene. Ouch on the “used to”.
S: Yeah I definitely think that being an American wrestler in the UK for a tour or whatever had it’s merits for sure. They do their chants and all that, which did get on my nerves after a while but there always has been some appreciation for overseas wrestlers in the UK, I feel. Just think of how well Keith Lee was received in the UK, Germany and Ireland for example. That whole Full Sail and MSK stuff, what a bunch of petty, rotten fuckers those people chanting really horrible stuff at Zach Wentz or Nash Carter are. Honestly, the guy was genuinely concerned and advised that a pre-teen year girl shouldn’t be taking flat back bumps from a young age, maybe take heed of how that affected Paige over the years. But anyways, for me personally, I see it as both of them having their positives and their negatives. I wouldn’t be too keen on either of them when I think about their negatives so I’d be indifferent on which one I would choose.
JT: Yeah one last thing about the Full Sail/Capital Wrestling Center family is this: Maybe you should listen to what wrestlers say about how it affects their bodies? Also maybe don’t sign your 13 year old daughter to train with a convicted sex offender?
S: All I’ll say is this, read the fucking room and be responsible parents for fuck’s sake.
JT: So back on topic, ZSJ in his promo says that performing in front of billions of people is “no problem”. After all, when he’s in the ring, that’s all there is to focus on. He’s not here to do pretty submissions, he’s here to win. And he’s got the most suitable style to win it all. He’s got the pressure of the British Wrestling Culture on his shoulders. His opponent Noam Dar though, he’s also confident in himself. He says he’s the best version of himself for this tournament, he’s had to adapt to his opponents. Though he knows it is important for him to make an impression, he’s also aware that this is a tournament and he needs to win. To get here, ZSJ beat Tyson Dux and Drew Gulak, and Dar beat Harv Sihra and Hoho Lun. On top of that, these two are familiar with each other from before this tournament! They have known each other for 8 years, as Dar met him when he was 14 and training in a garage in Scotland. Speaking of training young! So now it’s a question, will their prior friendship affect the match? And can Dar, who has won each of his matches by submission, tap out ZSJ? Or will Sabre do as he’s done against Dux and Gulak, and prove that he is the best technical wrestler in the world?
S: It’s a very interesting setup going into this match really, there’s history between the two going back around eight years before this so since 2008 they’ve both known each other. They’ve had dissimilar routes to the Quarters in terms of the legitimacy of the wrestlers they’ve faced. Zack has faced one veteran technician with Tyson Dux and a badass submission grappler in Drew Gulak while Dar has faced two perennial underdogs in his first couple of matches with Gurv Sihra and Ho Ho Lun. Zack once again facing a technical, submission based wrestler for the third round in a row is pretty neat and interesting too.
JT: Yeah they’ve really planted the seeds to make whoever wins this a big deal. Either Sabre, for beating essentially all of the best technical wrestlers in the tournament, or Dar for beating the submission master as a young guy with submissions of his own. Shall we break down the match?
S: Yes we shall, take to the stage with this one James because I’m well amped to chat about this match.
JT: So we get a hand shake, and we’re off to the races. We get some Noam Dar Star Wars chants as they grapple on the mat, trying to take control. Zack takes the ankle in order to get a headlock, then turns it into a straight jacket that wrenches back on Dar. Zack gets backed into the corner, and has to break the hold. Again we’re seeing Zack’s philosophy of escapology, he’s not going to use the ropes to get out, and he’s going to respect the rope breaks. He wants his submissions to win on their own, without any bending or breaking of the rules to take away from his skills. But this actually comes back to bite him, because as he cleanly breaks, Dar takes the opportunity to elbow him in the chest. Zack is not happy with this and Dar looks at him and tells him to calm down and shush, which leads to Zack charging at him and getting a Dropkick to the knee with some cat hands from Dar. This is the exact sort of thing that Mauro was interested to see would happen. They’ve known each other for a while, so Dar knows how Zack likes to wrestle, he knows that Zack’s got a temper too, and he knows how to manipulate both to his advantage.
S: That’s something I’ve always liked about the in-ring and overall character of Zack Sabre Jr. to be honest, I’ve always appreciated that whether he’s face or heel, he’s always known for having a temper if he’s pushed to the brink but he’s always going to be aggressive without rule breaking, it just makes him more vicious.
JT: So now that Noam got under Zack’s sink, he’s now got a point to attack, as he starts going after the knee with elbow drops to it. Zack comes back, traps the wrist of Dad and stomps down on the elbow. Dar runs into a back elbow in the corner, but before Zack can follow up off the second rope, Dar hits a Dropkick to the knee again. He Grapevining the leg to continue the attack. Then we get this sequence where, I’m not really sure what happens. Dar seemingly trips over Zack, which sets him up for a ZSJ kick that he misses but I’m not sure if he was supposed to because Dar catches his foot afterwards so ZSJ can bring him to the mat from that position and wrenches the arm. What do you suppose this was?
S: Yeah this was just odd really, wasn’t it? A bit of a malfunction at the junction and a miscommunication if anything because that’s sure what it came across as. I think what it was supposed to be was when Dar would go for the kick, Zack would catch his leg and put him in a submission of sorts but I’m just spitballing here.
JT: It may not read too badly, but the whole sequence just felt really awkward. But we’ll move on like they did. So Zack fires back with a headbutt to the stomach, a European Uppercut, and then one more as he shoves Dar into the ropes. Dar comes back at him and goes for the Sunset Flip but ZSJ reverses into a pin reverse sequence, you know the kinda thing. 1–2–Kickout now Dar has a pin, 2–Kickout now Zack has a pin, with neither guy putting the other away.Dar slides under ZSJ coming out of the corner, hits to thrusts top the chest, then an uppercut, but as he goes to taunt, ZSJ goes behind him and gets a Half Nelson Suplex!! 1-2-Kickout! Sabre lines him up for the Penalty Kick but misses, and as he turns around Dar sweeps the Leg, then hits an Enziguri, then a Fisherman’s Suplex! 1-2-Kickout! Dar goes for the Leg, Sabre tries to fight him off. Dar grabs at his face, Sabre kicks the socket of Dar’s arm to get him off! He goes behind for a Half Nelson Suplex again, but Dar drops to the mat to roll him up for a European Clutch, only for Sabre to push him off and then hit a Penalty Kick!! 1—2—Kickout!! Bryan and Mauro point out how Zack didn’t have as much power behind that kick as he has in the past, and his leg almost gave out underneath him. Sabre waits on Dar to get up, then charges at him and when Dar moves out of the way, he springs off the ropes out of the corner for a Body Scissors, but before he can lock a submission in, Dar dumps him to the apron. From there, Dar sweeps the leg, hits a Bicycle Kick to the face to knock Zack to the floor, and then follows up with a Suicide Dive!! Dar throws him back in, lines him up in the corner, and hits a Dropkick in the corner!! Still, he cannot put Sabre down, and Zack out of nowhere goes to apply an Octopus Stretch, but Dar is able to attack the knee and get free! His game plan is coming to fruition!
S: This was fucking fantastic, holy shit. What James has just brilliantly recapped there really is as awesome as it sounds. Dar is looking like a real tactician here and it puts him over to be as good of a technical wrestler as Zack, in terms of targeting a body part. Brilliant selling of the knee too by Zack, making it out that the leg of his gave out trying to deliver a Penalty Kick, love it. We’ve mentioned it before in his first match but Dar really does have a very visually appealing style of wrestling, his Dropkicks, his strikes, even does a decent Suicide Dive as well to be fair to him.
JT: Agreed. But just looking pretty isn’t enough to win! ZSJ jumps at Dar for a Triangle Choke, but Dar transitions into a Knee Bar!! ZSJ leans back to get Dar on his shoulders, but Dar kicks out and turns his hold around to get the Knee Bar in again! But this time he doesn’t get it as deep as ZSJ is able to slip free and go for an Armbar, only for Dar to slip free and get on a mount, but Sabre trips him up and goes for a Gedo Clutch into a Prawn Hold: 1–2—Kickout!! Zack goes a running European Uppercut, but Dar catches him out of the air and puts him into a Backslide: 1–2—Kickout! Dar smacks Sabre but he lacks vigor behind his strikes as he takes the leg and gets some hard slaps from Sabre, who dares at him to swing back, baiting him so he can catch the arm and bring him down for an Armbar, only for Dar to bunch him up and pin him to the mat!! 1—2—Kickout, and Sabre keeps the grip for the armbar, pushing Dar off him and back to the canvas! Dar tries to block, Sabre finally gets the arm extended, but just as Dar gets the ropes!! Very close call for the Scotsman, as such Sabre is looking to put him away. This causes him to do something he rarely does, as he goes up to the top rope, looking for a Double Knee Drop onto the arm, but Dar moves and Sabre hits his knees on the mat! He goes to follow up with a kick but Dar moves, hits a shot to the face, then kicks his leg out from under him! Dar goes up top and hits a Double Stomp to the leg!! Zack got desperate and tried something he doesn’t usually do, and it looks like it’ll cost him!
S: This is so well done too because we’ve firmly established at this stage that Zack is firmly a ground based wrestler who doesn’t usually take unnecessary risks but here, because his knee is vulnerable to Dar, he has to become desperate and because he’s wearing no knee pads, it fucks his knee up more! In the words of Father Dougal Maguire on Christmas Day, “Ahhhhhh brilliant Ted!!!”
JT: Zack really dug his own grave. And Dar wants to put the dirt on top of him, as he waits for Zack to stand and then goes for a kick, and even though Sabre dodges it, he gets caught as Dar brings him to the mat for the Champagne Super Kneebar!! Sabre reaches out for the ropes as Dar repeatedly slams his leg into him to try and get him to tap! Dar sees ZSJ is close to the ropes, so he lets go of the submission temporarily so he can deliver kicks to the hamstring! He points at Sabre as if to say “Now I put you away” and goes for the Kneebar again, but Sabre rolls with him as he goes to apply it, causing them to both roll out to the floor!! Sabre appears to have hurt his elbow in the process too! Dar gets up and looks like he’s going to try and further attack Sabre, but he hears the count at 8 and dives back in, only for Sabre to get back in and beat the count too!! First off, the fall to the floor looked tough. You wouldn’t normally consider that a scary bump, but both guys fell straight off with no way of really bracing for the fall. They just rolled straight off the apron and to the floor with a thud. And then from a kayfabe perspective, what do you think of Dar going for the countout? Because at this point, I think it’s worth it to try. A win is a win, the finals are in sight, and ZSJ seems like he’s not going to tap out no matter what.
S: Well I think it’s a very good strategy because at this stage in the match, Dar has locked in the Knee Bar what feels like two or three times at this stage and Zack’s knee has been pretty banged up at this stage to the point where it’s definitely worth a shot so I think that Dar’s strategy of going for the countout win is pretty desperate but also very clever because he doesn’t know what it’ll take to beat ZSJ.
JT: We’re in the final stretch here back in the ring as Zack is openly favoring his knee. He grabs at Dar to protect it only to get an arm wringer that sends him down on the injured elbow, followed by a Double Knee to the arm! Bryan questions Dar’s strategy of going after Sabre’s arm now after all the work on the leg and having the Kneebar in his repertoire. Sabre with a Big Boot, then they both connect with boots to the face, then Dar hits a Bicycle Kick!! Dar charges in, Sabre grabs this crazy takedown, like a headlock while grabbing the arm with his legs to send Dar to the mat! With Dar all of a sudden down on the mat, he manages to get Dar’s arms in essentially the rings Rings of Saturn before using his legs to squeeze the arms together!! Not only has he been working on the arms all match, but this hold is brutal, and it takes mere seconds before Dar is forced to tap out!! We’ve got our 3rd finalist, and it’s Zack Sabre Jr!! What did you think of this final stretch of the match, as well as the match as a whole?
S: Oh man, where do I begin with this one? I guess where I can start off with is that I thought this match was fucking class, it was brutal and the finishing stretch was pretty damn solid too. I really enjoyed this one from bell to bell to be honest. I thought both lads really gave it socks in this one, it was Dar’s best performance of the CWC and it was definitely his best match. He more than held his own against Zack and didn’t look out of his depth at all. That Rings of Saturn finish with the legs being used though? Absolutely brutal looking and an excellent way to finish off a class match. Would definitely recommend watching this one.
JT: Gotta agree that this was Dar’s best performance so far. Not only was this just a better overall wrestling match, but I feel like we got a much better grasp at his character than in other matches. Like he was heelish in past matches, but this time I think it really helped that he had someone he could bounce off of and really show how much of a dick he can be. As for the match itself, if you ask me it felt like this one took some time to get going, but was good once it got going. That said, I think the focus on the arm at the end kind of detracts from the work on his leg after all this time. I mean maybe that was the story they were going for, with the inexperienced Dar losing track of his focus and losing, but if that were the case I would’ve wanted them to emphasize that a bit more. Have it a bit longer to make it obvious, y’know? And finally, I also think at times Sabre sacrifices his selling in order to do impressive counters. Like as good as the end of the match was, he was using the leg he had hurt all match long to put Dar away, really without much trouble.
S: Yeah I do think that it didn’t make much sense in the proper context of the story for Dar to target Zack’s arm towards the end after all this time. His character was definitely well established here too, more of an idea of who Noam Dar the wrestler actually is. Although the cat claws taunt, I still don’t know why he did it.
JT: Yeah I have no clue about that. But hey, after his best performance, how about we look at what he’s done in the years since the CWC?
S: Let’s do it, what’s this old dafty been up to in the last five years, James?
JT: Dar joined many of the others we have mentioned as members of the initial return of the Cruiserweights to WWE in August 2016. That said, he didn’t make his debut until November 7th but that was on purpose, as he debuted in his home country of Scotland to a strong reception. He teamed up with Brian Kendrick against Rich Swann & Sin Cara, and after his team lost, Kendrick tried to throw his weight around on Dar, but Dar dispatched him to a happy crowd. But that would be the last time he was cheered for a while, as he shortly thereafter went on to be a heel on 205 Live. As we discussed when talking about Cedric Alexander, Dar’s first real feud was against Alexander, over Cedric’s girlfriend Alicia Fox. Cedric won their first two matches, but Dar won the third after Alicia tripped up Cedric, siding with Noam. Together the two would become an item, allowing us to hear week in week out about the beautiful Alicia Fawwwwkkkssssss. And I gotta say, I thought this was a perfect role for someone like Dar.
S: I remember thinking this role was completely random at first but as it kept going on, I really did start digging it not gonna lie, I thought the pair of them had pretty good chemistry too and of course, the famous line for 2017 is still a great line.
JT: Also, around this time, Cruiserweights were getting more of a role on Raw than they’d get as years went on. So like him teaming up with someone outside of the division, being known more for his character work than just his wrestling, I figured it would be good for him. Like especially at his age, I thought that he was in a good position where he didn’t need to win now, but if he could be memorable, he’d be able to be more than just a Cruiserweight. Like he’s a good looking young guy, who is funny and is a solid wrestler. Like he’s no Eddie Guerrero (because nobody is) but I thought he could get a Eddie/Chyna thing going, where he’d really benefit from the pairing.
S: Oh definitely and that’s why I thought it was only nothing but a positive as well, when the Cruiserweights were kept so separate from the rest of the roster for the first few months, any of them being paired with a main roster act away from the Cruiserweight scene was obviously going to benefit from it and that’s they should’ve done more of.
JT: Agreed. There aren’t many notable examples, but there was no reason there wasn’t more stuff like this or Titus managing Tozawa in the first year or so of the Cruiserweight Division. Like at least to try and make the division seem interesting.
S: Exactly and if you want to make the division seem interesting to the casual viewer or younger viewer, maybe saddling some Cruiserweight wrestlers with some main show acts can get some eyes on the boyos.
JT: Yeah so though everyone else was on their own, Dar and Fox would be together for most of early 2017, despite the fact someone was anonymously sending her flowers. It was later revealed to Rich Swann, trying to play mind games. Alicia would actually leave Dar for Swann, but it was all a ruse in order for her to trick Swann and get a victory for Dar. This led to Dar actually competing on PPV, as Swann got a partner for himself for Extreme Rules 2017. His partner was none other than Sasha Banks, and together they defeated Dar & Fox with ease. And after that loss, Dar broke up with Fox for good. Honestly, I’m okay with that. They had a nice little run and ended it when they were out of material, no need to try and squeeze every last ounce out of them. It may have been the end of an era for Dar, but it also led to a throwback! In later 2017, he would make a special one off appearance for Scotland’s ICW, teaming with Sha Samuels against Bram & Joe Coffey in a victory of the Main Event of Night 1 of Shug’s House Party 4! Ain’t that neat?
S: Ahhhh yes, I do remember this alright. Back in the days where a lot of people were a little bit naive in relation to WWE contracted wrestlers going to wrestle now and again in indie promotions. Little did we know this was all part of a multi-year plan.
JT: Don’t worry, we’ll get back to that very shortly. But to get back to his affairs in America, Dar joined the Zo Train like many others we’ve discussed, but he was not a major part of the group as in early December he hurt his knee and required surgery. He was on the shelf until June 2018, when he returned to the UK as part of the UK Championship tournament tapings. On the show, he defeated Flash Morgan Webster, Mark Andrews and Travis Banks to become #1 Contender for the NXT UK Title. This would lead to the main event on the first episode of NXT UK in October, where he was defeated by defending champion Pete Dunne. In November, he showed up in ICW again at Fear and Loathing XI, teaming with Wolfgang and BT Gunn against British Strong Style. In the meantime back in the states, he just bounced around 205 Live feuding with various people without many notable moments. He had a few matches against TJP, he had a few matches against Lio Rush, he fought Tony Nese into 2019, losing the blowoff in a No DQ match in February 2019. After that, he had a loss to Ariya Daivari on May 7th, and a win over Mike Karma on the 28th. Since then, he’s been gone from 205 Live. Another 205 Live original, gone.
S: And he’s not gone in the sense where he’s been released, he’s just not been on WWE US programming AT ALL in the last two and half, nearly three fucking years since he’s been featured in the US in WWE and he wasn’t even on one of those Worlds Collide specials either. He’s just been back in the UK.
JT: Yeah, it’s funny how priorities change right? I mean the pandemic has certainly had an effect on this, but man, at this point I wonder if he’ll ever make it back to America. And if he does, why? Like, what would be the plan that necessitates him going to America again?
S: The only reason I see him going back to America is if WWE kills NXT UK, releases all the talent and he goes somewhere like AEW, Impact or somewhere else. Maybe New Japan in the Jr. Division. I honestly don’t know.
JT: Yeah I agree. It’s tough to imagine a scenario where he ends up back in America, especially for WWE. As for his time in the UK, it’s been interesting. When he went back to the UK in early 2019, he turned back heel as he began going after their Cruiserweights like Mark Andrews. He offered Andrews a handshake, but then he went to attack him only for Andrews to counter. That led to a match between the two of them the next week, but it ended in a No Contest as Dar once again injured his knee and missed 2 months this time around. At Takeover: Cardiff, he returned and defeated POS Travis Banks in his first Takeover match of any kind. At ICW Fear & Loathing XII in November, Dar appeared again, this time winning a Triple Threat against Kieran Kelly and Leyton Buzzard, while announcing he’d be back in ICW full time again due to their working relationship with NXT UK. This culminated at ICW’s 9th Annual Square Go show in February 2020, where Dar won the ICW Championship from Stevie Boy. Despite all his history in the promotion before his WWE run, this was his first ever reign with the gold. This is the culmination of what you said earlier, the once red hot UK scene bending over backwards to accommodate WWE. And I don’t mean this as a slight to Dar. I’m very glad he won the title, but like his literally a WWE contracted performer.
S: Yeah fucking hell, this is Evolve levels of accommodating WWE, that’s very bad form on their part. Also, I literally had no idea whatsoever that he ever even won the ICW Championship around that time, I knew that Stevie Boy had won it back but man, I had checked out of the entire UK scene at that stage so Dar winning the ICW Title completely flew over my head.
JT: And that brings up another problem with WWE’s involvement in the UK Scene. Sure it’s nice that Noam finally wins the ICW Title, but by that point, they’ve taken all the steam away from the scene. Their punches have no more oomph behind them now. Grado winning the ICW Title meant something. But Dar? By that point, I doubt many fans really cared. And it doesn’t help that he won it when he won it. February 2020. Right before the pandemic. He held the title for 583 days but due to WWE commitments and worries about COVID, he was never ever to even defend the title once and ultimately vacated it only about 2 months ago from the time of writing. Whole lotta good that did ICW huh?
S: Oh definitely, ICW totally benefitted from that one. Man had one of the longest reigns in history by default, like longer than Jack Jester’s and Drew Galloway’s reigns and yet he didn’t even have to defend the belt. Classic.
JT: It got them a nice sum of 24 thousand views! Not bad! Except Grado’s Title win got them nearly 600k in the 5 years since it’s been posted. Okay, maybe talking about YouTube views isn’t the best way to talk about how much it matters, but still. Not a great turn for ICW, and you can say the same about the likes of Progress and what have you.
S: Oh those recent views on Progress’ YouTube channel are definitely a tale for another time, let me tell you that much.
JT: Suffice to say, it’s a grim situation. Back to Noam! So, after NXT UK returned from its COVID related hiatus, Dar was entered into the tournament for the NXT UK Heritage Cup, which is a special Championship contested under “British Rounds”. I only just now learned what this is, like I literally had to go to Wikipedia. So what are British Rounds? This is British Rounds:
* Matches consist of six three-minute rounds with 20-second breaks between each round.
* Matches are 2-out-of-3 falls.
* Falls can be won by pinfall, submission, or countout.
* Once a fall occurs, the round ends.
* The match ends once a wrestler has won two falls.
* In the event of a disqualification or knockout, the match instantly ends without the need for two falls.
* If all six rounds are completed, whoever is ahead on falls wins the match.
Honestly it doesn’t sound that bad, but it does feel like something that could never be a main staple on anything other than a promotion with a limited scope.
S: Like I think NXT UK is probably the worst brand that WWE has ever created, not in the creative side of things but in the actual ethical side of things, it’s just been shrouded in controversy and grimness in it’s short life span. Although, this whole Heritage Cup gimmick and accolade, it sounds pretty damn cool and I do like the premise of it but it’s NXT UK and I do not have any intention of watching it whatsoever. It’s got some unique rules to it but as you said, it’s not the main focus, it’s there to be a unique gimmick on a lacking programme of WWE’s.
JT: Yeah exactly. Like, it’s a nice variety on a show that’s desperate for anything unique and exciting. So in the Heritage Cup Tournament, he defeated Alexander Wolfe in the first round 2-1, but lost in the semi finals to the eventual winner A-Kid. In 2021, Dar started hosting his own talk show called “Supernova Sessions” and began an on-screen association with real life friend Sha Samuels, who is now in NXT UK. On the October 7th, 2021 episode of NXT UK, Dar won a tournament to become the next #1 Contender to the NXT UK Heritage Cup, defeating Mark Andrews, Kenny Williams and finally Wolfgang in the finals. And in just this past week, he got his match for the Cup against Tyler Bate. It took 6 rounds, but Noam Dar defeated Bate with the Champagne Super Kneebar and won the Heritage Cup!! With an asterisk of course. That being that Pretty Dangerous (NXT UK Tag Champs and total CAWs Lewis Howley and Sam Stoker) interfered, and in their brawl with Trent Seven, Trent accidentally threw the towel in for Bate. But a wins a wins a win, Noam Dar is now the oldest man to ever win the Heritage Cup at an ancient 28 Years and 92 Days old.
S: It’s funny how that works out, isn’t it? Like when the CWC happened, he was the young looker on the scene, the ladies choice if you will and now five years later, he’s the auld fucker who’s the same age as one of my brothers, one of my fifty brothers. I come from a big family, is what I’m saying here. He’s looking fairly grizzled too as well, I saw a picture of him the other day and fucking hell, he’s easily in the best shape of his career.
JT: Yeah he’s definitely doing well for himself, both in the ring and outside of it. But I gotta ask, do you think where he is now is almost like depressing or disappointing at all? Does this recent win change any of that for you? Because for me, it does depress me a bit, especially in the context of the CWC. Like in the CWC, they talk all about how he’s the youngest competitor in the tournament. And then in the 5 years since then, he’s only just now winning something that’s got any sort of weight to it. Being on PPV is nice, debuting in front of your home country is nice, but still, is this all there really is for him?
S: This has always been the problem that Noam Dar has had in WWE really, hasn’t it? He’s gotten some nice things in WWE, he’s had a singular PPV match and he got to debut in front of his home crowd but for fuck’s sake, he lost both of those. He made it on to a TakeOver, he won but that’s marred now because the man he was in the ring with is an exposed sex pest and absolute nonce. It does depress me in all honesty, I came out of the CWC feeling pretty good about Noam Dar, granted I was more naive back then and expected everyone to succeed but still, even in the Cruiserweight Division, he’s been smacked bang in the middle. He wins something, great, but he wins something on a dead brand which no one cares about and in kayfabe he wins by an absolute fluke. It is pretty sad because I do like Dar, in and out of the ring he’s got a great personality which translates well to me. He’s naturally funny like nearly all Scottish people really but I do feel like he can succeed elsewhere but with him, I can only see him as a bottom card act.
JT: You know what he feels to me right now? He feels like some talented lower card act in late WCW. Like an Elix Skipper or Shane Helms or Jamie Noble type. Maybe you could even throw in Kanyon. But guys you know are talented, you know can do more than what they were doing, yet you also know there was no chance they’d make their way up the ladder. And I of course don’t want to say that Dar is unhappy or anything. I don’t know how he’s feeling. Maybe he’s delighted to be close to home, work a few matches every couple months, and then go back to hanging out. But yeah he feels like he’s someone who unless he has a radical change in character and/or body shape, he’s already hit the ceiling he has.
S: That’s definitely what it is for sure, he’s like a young footballer who’s done really well at such a young age but they hit their ceiling in their mid 20s and you don’t know what the hell is going to happen with their career in the next few years and it almost feels like no opportunities are going to open up for them.
JT: Well I won’t say that for Dar. I’d say if he can keep himself healthy and can keep working for a while, I’d say he’d be someone in a good position to teach others. Success doesn’t dictate how well you can teach others, look at someone like Norman Smiley who never had much success in his career. He’s one of the head guys at the PC. But who knows!
S: Yeah no one really knows what the trajectory is for a lot of those NXT UK guys and a fair few of the new crop on NXT 2.0 as well. It’s all a bit unknown what the next step for those lot is but hopefully for Dar, he’s still got plenty upon plenty of years left.
JT: Before we end this bit, I have an axe to grind Seán. And it’s something that WWE specifically did with Dar in this tournament, though it’s not a WWE only thing. It’s something I want gone from wrestling and wrestling discourse entirely. And that is the “And they’re only ____ years old, think about what they’ll be like in the future!” type discussions. I want to see them no more!
S: I agree, it’s not only a shit tonne of pressure to be putting on any young wrestler but it’s also so overdone, like it’s just a repeatedly churned out commentary topic. Does this also include all the same commentary topics regarding young wrestlers? Like the old “wise beyond his/her years”, “veteran like from the young man/woman” and all those other classics?
JT: I don’t know about those chestnuts, but my reason for hating the “they’re only so young!” trend is at least partially what you said. Like, it really puts an unfair standard on wrestlers who are good already to try and go even further just because of circumstance. It’s all fine to be ambitious, but it’s not fair to hold someone like Dar to a standard of “Oh he was this good when he was this age, why didn’t he get better?”. BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T EVOLVE LIKE FUCKING POKEMON!!
Another reason I don’t like it is because like I said, people don’t always get better with age. Especially in wrestling. Like I remember people, myself included, saying that sort of thing about Kazuchika Okada in 2017. He was only 29 then, and everyone assumed “Just imagine him still putting on bangers into his late 30s!! He’d be the greatest ever!”. Now Okada is still plenty good, but for all our talk about “Imagine what he’d be like in a few years” I think we can safely say he peaked in 2017. And as someone who watched and analyzed NJPW quietly closely in 2018-19, even 2020, I think we can say that his body is not quite holding up as well as it used to. And that’s fine, it happens in wrestling. But we never know when things like this will happen, so we can’t put that sort of expectation up.
And finally, my last point ties into the one before it. It almost glorifies getting trained really early. And though that works out for some people, I’m sure there are plenty of others who hurt themselves trying to get a start early. I mean, you mentioned her earlier, but look at Paige and her early retirement. Is it all a result of how she was trained? No, of course not. She had a few tough breaks in her career. But I think that those sorts of breaks will only be worse if you try to push yourself so early.
S: You’ve said that so brilliantly, James. Another brilliant breakdown of wrestling from yourself there, this is why he’s the host, peeps. The people don’t evolve like Pokémon line really popped me not gonna lie. We’ve talked about this before with Okada too outside of doing this blog but Okada is definitely someone who we had genuine concerns for in the latter half of 2020 and the early part of 2021. Like he looked so fucking beat up that it was concerning that he was that hurt looking at the age he is right now. I’ve not watched New Japan in a good while, I know he’s won the G1 this year and good on him but I’ve no idea how he’s moving about. Paige, I mean look, she was born into a wrestling family but her training and breaking in so young is what may have caused her neck issues for a solid three years. I definitely agree that the commentary is almost glorifying getting trained at a young age, which I don’t agree with, it’s healthier to let your body develop throughout your teen years and into your early adult years before you start if you ask me.
JT: Yeah so I’ll wrap our points up with two points. Number one: We never know what a wrestler will do going forward, so don’t force expectations onto them and don’t lock anyone in for automatic greatness. And number two: If you want to get trained the day you turn 18, go ahead, but please do your research about the effects wrestling has on human anatomy. Stay safe friends. Godspeed Noam Dar, you Heritage Cup Hero!!
S: He’s the labeller of dafties, the man who knows a good dug (dog) when he sees one and a member of The Pinky Party. A cat claw taunt to you, Noam.
——————
Swann Song
JT: And just like that, we’re onto our final match on the Quarter Finals! Only one spot remains! It’s “The Duke of Dab” TJ Perkins facing off against the “Charm City Champion” Rich Swann!! TJ considers himself the best Cruiserweight in the tournament, saying that you need to have that confidence to succeed. Getting so far is validating and being so close is motivating, he can taste victory! Meanwhile, Swann is just as motivated, motivated to give the people what they want, entertainment. When the pressure is on, that’s when the best comes out of him. Just to get here, he’s overcome so much and it feels amazing. He’s proven dreams do come true no matter what is in your path. We’ve got two men facing off here, whose stories are pretty similar, whose attitudes are pretty similar, yet only one can make it to our final episode.
S: Two men with similar journeys, both overcoming struggles in their teen years to get where they are today. Both oozing with confidence and are both showboaters in their own right. Will Swann get yet another big win under his belt and make it to the biggest stage in his career so far? Or will TJP take out another fan favourite to get one step closer to his goal?
JT: Swann defeated Jason Lee in Round One and Lince Dorado in Round Two, Perkins defeated Da Mack in Round One and Johnny Gargano in Round Two. Who will go home in Round Three? Let’s find out. As the match begins, the crowd is singing and chanting for Swann. Quick pins, quick kickouts, nip ups by both guys, we get a Greco Roman Knuckle Lock, TJ sweeps Swann’s legs and brings him to the mat, but he can’t keep Swann down as Swann nips up a few times before reversing the wrist lock. Not to be outdone though, TJ rolls over, nips up, handstands and gets the Headscissor takedown and the dab to take Swann to the mat, only for Swann to get a Headscissor of his own applied on TJ. TJP with a headstand and then pushing off the mat and nipping up out of it, before dabbing on Swann again. Swann seems offended to get danced against, like we’ve seen in previous matches. Both men quickly hit the ropes, Swann with a front flip over the drop down, then two Japanese arm drags and dabs on TJ back. It’s tit for tat so far, both men showing off their technical skills, their athleticism, and their swagger.
S: This opening was pretty good to be honest man, really impressive from both guys here. Their usual opening spots really do get a great reaction from the crowd, like if you want to get a crowd interested in a match right from the off in 2016, these are two lads who’d you rely on to get an early reaction. Never thought I’d say this but the dab from Swann in the opening exchanges of this one got a reaction from me.
JT: Yeah it was great to see TJ get a taste of his own medicine. And he’s not happy to have it! So now the two are trading blows, TJ quickly goes for a takedown and the Kneebar, but Swann gets the ropes before Perkins can apply it. European Uppercut by Perkins, he sends Swann across, Swann with a kick to the face, then he flips off the ropes on a hip toss while holding on TJ to bring him to the mat, only to strike him with a Dropkick as he stands back up. Swann lines him up as he jumps to apron, dodging TJ and hitting a Superkick! He goes for a Moonsault but Perkins slides back in and Swann appears to tweak his knee. TJ goes for and connects with a Wrecking Ball Dropkick, but hits his back on the apron. He sends Swann back in, hits a Senton Atomico, followed by a Suplex and a Back Suplex. The crowd rallies behind Swann, who flips out of a Back Suplex and hits a Spinning Hook Kick to the face, though he holds his knee in pain. He charges at TJ in the corner and gets put up top, but fights TJ off only to leap off only for Perkins to catch his foot and hit a DDT on the leg. Now TJ has got the focus on the knee, working it over, as the crowd really tries to rally Swann and get him to come back. It seems like Swann is the crowd favorite, no? What do you think it is that puts his above TJ in the crowd’s heart?
S: I’d say what puts Swann above TJ in the hearts of the fans at Full Sail is probably because Swann comes across as a really likeable wrestler, as in his character is a fun loving, happy character who connects with the fans more than TJ does. His moveset is probably considered more flashy and given it’s 2016, flips and athleticism are absolutely rampant in independent wrestling at this moment in time so Swann being insanely athletic is probably considered far cooler to the Full Sail crowd.
JT: Yeah I agree. I think his time in NXT also ties him to the Full Sail crowd more. It just feels like while both characters are faces and are both confident and often showboats, I feel like on a face—heel scale, Swann is like 7-8/10 as far as likability and TJ skews just slightly down at like a 6/10. Like don’t get me wrong, I still think TJ is a face here, but he has a more pronounced swagger to his moves, like he just feels a hint better about his stuff than Swann does. Plus I think we can’t underestimate the pettiness of Full Sail, some people might still be mad at him for beating Johnny last round.
S: Oh definitely, knowing how god damn petty and annoying the Full Sail crowd have been at times throughout the years, your theory of the Full Sail crowd being pissed off with Gargano being eliminated by TJ and the Full Sail crowd resenting him for doing so is definitely likely.
JT: So Perkins throws Swann into the corner, charges in but catches an elbow from Swann.TJ runs in again, and this time Swann dodges with TJ hitting the corner hard. Swann comes running out and hits a jumping clothesline, then a Twisting Neckbreaker! TJ is sitting on the mat, Swann leaps over him and hits a kick to the face! Bryan notices that Swann is visually slower than in past rounds as he plants TJ with a jumping DDT!! It’s enough to put Perkins away, and later Swann charges in at TJ in the corner, but this time TJ moves out of the way, following up with a Neckbreaker then a Double Underhook Facebuster on Swann! 1–2–Kickout!TJ puts Swann up top, but Swann sends him off the top to the floor. Swann is favoring his knee and can’t take advantage, with Perkins cutting him off. Perkins tries for a Hurricanrana off the top though Swann tries to flip through, he just can’t complete the rotation due to his injured knee. So the spot looks kind of incomplete as Swann lands but doesn’t. Perkins tries to go up top, but Swann is back up and leaps from the mat to send Perkins off the top with a Hurricanrana. And I think that right there is an example of good improvisation by both guys, as they saw the spot go wrong and decided to take a second to sell after Swann couldn’t complete the rotation, and then still do a high spot.
S: Yeah for real, they covered themselves up very well after that small error with the Hurricanrana from TJ. They covered it up by Swann showing us that his knee was hurt so they used it as an opportunity to sell, adding to the story and then filling in that gap with Swann getting his leaping Hurricanrana in. Great save from these two.
JT: So following the top rope Hurricanrana, Swann rolls and hits a Frog Splash, then a Cartwheel into a Standing Moonsault!! He can’t cover immediately because of the knee, and when he covers, Perkins kicks out. Swann is not hesitant though as he nails Perkins with a high kick immediately after the kickout, then a Suplex Driver, but Perkins kicks out again! Swann sets up the Double Jump 450, but Perkins grabs the leg! He pulls him down into the Kneebar!! Perkins wants the tap out, but Swann gets the ropes. Still, TJ uses all of his 5 count before letting go. Again, TJ is a bit more on the heel side of things than Swann. TJ focuses the knee with kicks, he ducks a jumping Enziguri and pulls up Swann the Double Underhook Facebuster again, but this time Swann rolls through! 1–2—Kickout!! They get up, Swann catches Perkins between his legs and hooks the arms, Tiger Driver by Swann!! He flips through with his pin and a bridge: 1—2—Kickout!! Again, his knee was troubling him on the pin, and that may have made the difference. Now we’ve seen plenty of spots like that in this tournament, so I won’t retread how it’s good to sell even when you’re not on offense. But I did want to point out, I love when wrestlers do a little extra pin on a move. Just something to make the cover deeper, to show that extra desperation to win. Plus, I feel it always adds a bit more tension when they get an extra snug looking pin in off a big move.
S: Yes, absolutely. I do love myself a solid extra pin or putting extra leverage into a pin, I can’t lie. That’s what all wrestlers should do to show how badly they want to win, it just makes wrestling more believable really. Like when Jack Evans does his Backslide pin but he then flips through and does a bridging pin, this just looks great. It reminds me of Fire Pro Wrestling where a Jackknife Pin just happens further into the match.
JT: I’m a big fan of this little thing Taichi does sometimes. Occasionally after he hits a Last Ride, he will just like put all his weight on the opponent. Like to a comical degree of just laying with all his weight forward on the guy while they’re balled up post Powerbomb. It looks silly but if you were desperate, you’d bet I’d just throw myself on my opponent with all my weight if it meant winning.
S: Yeah that’s another great example, I’m a big fan of when Shane Strickland or Isaiah “Swerve” Scott does his JML Driver and upon impact, he’s got them set up for the pinfall. Shout out to the Small Package Driver as well, as was done by Trevor Lee and a young Tyler Black, Seth Rollins.
JT: Yeah those are the type of moves both guys are looking for right now to put the match away. Back to the match as Swann swings with clubbing blows to the head, but a Jumping Hook Kick by TJ in response! Then TJ ducks a high kick and hits one of his own! He hits the ropes but runs into a Spinning Hook Kick by Swann!! Swann tries to follow up with something big but as he hits the ropes his leg collapses under him! He stands up again and tries for a move with a roll, but TJ catches him on his shoulders and hits the Detonation Kick!! Swann is out on his feet, and Perkins follows up by locking him in the Kneebar!! Rich Swann has no choice, he has to tap!! We’ve got our final finalist!! TJ immediately consoles Swann after the match, and honestly the crowd sounds unhappy about his win. I mean you can pretty clearly hear chants of “bullshit” as Perkins is victorious. It’s not a universal hatred, but it’s pretty clear that not everyone is happy to see Perkins stay and Swann go. Still, the two hug it out to close the show.
S: Before I get into my thoughts on this match, I think I probably should address that I think this is the moment where I feel a lot of the CWC crowd started to turn on TJ Perkins. Like coming out of this round, it’s safe to say that he’s probably the least popular out of our four semi finalists, right?
JT: Yeah I think that’s fair to say. Again, like we’ve said before, he’s definitely on the lower end of the Indy cred spectrum. Like he definitely does not have the hype around him that Ibushi & Sabre has. You can argue that Metalik has that to an extent, but even so he’s been presented as much more of a face in his run. Like he’s been put over as a valiant face against Tajiri & Tozawa. And as much as TJ has played things as a face, I feel like in a fictional setting like wrestling, submission moves are mmmm still lean heel. It’s not necessarily a heel thing to do, but it’s hard to come out looking like a face after a tap out win, unless you’re against a despised heel.
S: Yeah that makes total sense there, like a face winning convincingly by submission against face wrestlers every time, especially when the last two guys he’s beaten are as popular with the regulars at Full Sail like Gargano and Swann are. When that happens and he wins in the manner he’s won in, there’s going to be a good portion of the crowd that will resent that, for sure.
JT: Yeah and it’s tough for Perkins, because like, though he was a bit more aggressive than Johnny & Swann, he wasn’t particularly heelish. And he wasn’t a heel when he used his submission to win. It’s just so hard to do that and have it work when you’re less popular than the other two. If he were more over than them, it can kinda work because the crowd warms up to the guy with a “well he fought hard” sentiment. But it just doesn’t work as well the other way.
S: I don’t think Perkins has been heelish at all during the CWC either, I mean his in-ring character is a tad bit cocky but like, that’s his gimmick and he does it in a manner which is meant to get a cheer from the crowd. It’s funny though because Perkins has almost 20 years wrestling experience at this stage, like he has nearly the amount of years under his belt as Tajiri and he’s been around the block in so many places so you’d think he’d be one of the more popular guys in the tournament but he’s more received as a very good wrestler who they are familiar with.
JT: I mean like we mentioned in the Recharge, he was under a mask a lot of the time. So yeah we know he was good, but the connection wasn’t with him as much as his past characters. Plus, aside from being in impact he was never in the big place that was blowing up in popularity like Ibushi or Sabre or even Swann with PWG.
S: And when he was a regular in PWG, he was more or less there as a guy who’s typically good for being in an opening match or facing a more popular or higher on the card wrestler in PWG and making them look great and of course being around for a few Battle of Los Angeles tournaments as well. Usually we get my thoughts on the match first but for the sake of being different and mixing it up, James, what’d you make of our final Quarter Final match?
JT: Y’know going back through my notes, I realize I didn’t write anything! So this is all off the cuff baby!! I thought it was a pretty solid match. I thought these two had pretty good chemistry together, they were able to make everything pretty smooth and good looking, and quickly recover when things didn’t go right. I thought Swann did a solid job with his knee selling, not just showing pain but in effecting his movements as well. I thought the final roll into the Detonation Kick into the Kneebar was solid. All around just a solid match!
S: Yeah I’m basically in unison with you in regard to the quality of this match, just the definition of solid. Nothing really wrong with it at all, they worked well with each other and it probably shows that this is probably not the first time they’ve worked with each other either. Also, I really like the Detonation Kick as a move, I think it looks really cool and Ricochet used to a fucking rocking version of it called the Benadryller 2 Point, which is a cool name. It also works as a nice prelude to the Kneebar as well, so good stuff.
JT: 100% agree about the Detonation Kick/Kneebar Combo. It knocks the guy out on his feet, and then he’s right behind and underneath him, so he immediately takes down his opponent and gets the tap out. Not quite on the level of the AA into the STF, but you know what I mean.
S: Yeah I get what you mean, it just works really well as a prelude in terms of the positions of both wrestlers after the move is delivered. Nothing will ever be as deadly as the AA straight into the STF though, an undefeated combo.
JT: I will maintain this opinion: Every babyface with a submission finisher needs another finisher. Either as a big set up, to avoid having to do a tap out by the heel, just for variety’s sake, and just because it’s cool. Unless you’re like a ZSJ whose submissions aren’t reliant on a setup.
S: Yes, that is something I have banged on about for years when it came to Gargano not having a proper finisher during his face run until he started using One Final Beat as a finisher when he turned heel. It just works better because he can’t be tapping out all the heels and faces.
JT: So that’s enough about tangentially related things, shall we talk about Rich Swann’s career post CWC?
S: Let’s go for it, man. There’s a fair bit to say here with Rich Swann so take it away.
JT: So Swann was one more member of the Cruiserweight Class of 2016, making his debut on Raw September 19th, in the 4 Way won by Brian Kendrick. He’d go on to win a #1 Contenders match against Cedric Alexander and TJ Perkins in November to earn a shot at Brian Kendrick, and as we mentioned earlier, Swann would win!! On the premier episode of 205 Live, Swann became the 3rd Cruiserweight Champion under this new rebrand. He’d go on to defeat Perkins & Kendrick in a Triple Threat at Roadblock: End of the Line, only for Neville to come out. Though it appeared like Neville would embrace him, Neville instead attacked him and turned heel. This would lead to Neville vs Swann at Royal Rumble 2017, where Neville won the title, ending his reign at 60 Days. He would spend the rest of 2017 just hanging around 205 Live, aside from the PPV Mixed Tag with Sasha Banks as I mentioned before. He also teamed with Cedric Alexander against Kendrick & Gallagher at TLC 2017, with him as Alexander teaming up for often. I’m deliberately cutting this off here because things are about to get, well let’s call it “eventful”. But before that, any things to say about his title win, title run, feud with Neville and extra bits?
S: Nah not really, what you said there more or less encapsulated what he’d been at for that year, he’d gotten probably the most PPV matches out of most of the division by the end of 2017 bar Neville when you think about it. A decent enough run really but ehm, things happened by the next year, let’s say.
JT: Okay, now let me make an interesting proposition for you. With the benefit of hindsight only up to what we’ve talked about so far, what do you think about the idea of switching the outcome of this match? Like, say, Swann eliminated Perkins in this match, then followed the same path and won the CWC and became the inaugural Cruiserweight Champion. Do you think the division would’ve got off to a better start if that were the case, instead of going Perkins to Kendrick to Swann?
S: I believe the division would’ve gotten off on a better foot, yes and I’ve stood by that for the last five years. I won’t go too in-depth on it now because I should really spare that for the season finale but the Raw crowds really did not take to TJ Perkins or his character, or lack thereof at all. There’s a reason he became a heel by the Spring of 2017. A Kendrick vs Swann feud to kick off the division would definitely have worked far better than Kendrick carrying the feud with TJP.
JT: Well since you’ve got that to say, I’ll slip this discussion into my back pocket for later. Now, ugh, time to rip the bandage off.
S: Ohhhhhhhhhh. I’ve been dreading this.
JT: Yeah I have too. So on December 10th, 2017, Swann was arrested for allegedly having put his wife, Vannarah Riggs (aka wrestler Su Young), in a headlock and forced her back into his car after she had jumped out of the slow moving vehicle. As reported by PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, a witness had told police Riggs “seemed very afraid of the Defendant and was trying to get away from him.” The charges were battery and kidnapping/false imprisonment, and as such he was suspended for WWE’s zero tolerance policy towards DV. The charges were dropped for insufficient evidence on January 25th, but he was still released from his WWE contract on February 15th, 2018. And, look, we’re not the best platform to talk about this stuff. But when discussing this sort of thing, we have to keep a lot in mind. On one hand, Swann & Young are still together to this day. On the other hand, we know that relationships can be manipulative and complicated and are very difficult to gage when we’re talking about people we don’t know. And we should also acknowledge that the law when it comes to violence against women, frequently isn’t great. “Insufficient Evidence” in this case could mean exactly what it sounds like, it could also mean through technicalities that the witness testimony couldn’t be used in a court of law. Now I don’t want to sink Swann’s career like other people from the CWC, I’m not gonna say stuff like “Rich Swann should never be booked again” because this is clearly a complicated thing that I don’t have a grasp of because I don’t know either Rich Swann or Su Young. I wasn’t there, I didn’t see what happened, I don’t know their relationship to know how the event reflects on them. But still, we cannot forget that this sort of thing happened, and you have to keep it in mind when watching or reviewing Rich Swann matches.
S: Definitely James, it’s a very complicated situation from top to bottom which should definitely be kept in mind when watching a Rich Swann match but it’s definitely not our platform for us to go in depth on it, it’s a very muddled situation between these two. They are still together to this day, nearly four years after this incident occurred but we don’t know what their marriage is like nowadays.
JT: Basically to cut all this nasty business down to its most simple form: Stay on guard. You don’t have to cast off Rich Swann totally (though I’d understand why you might) but do be careful about how you talk about him and how you treat him and his situation. Handle with care.
S: Exactly, it’s a situation where we definitely should be careful with what we say about it and don’t say too much about it as well. It’s a delicate one.
JT: And with that in mind, you’re going to continue going through the past few years since then. Because he has been pretty active since his arrest and WWE release. So in the time since 2017 he has worked at a number of promotions including MLW, but his biggest spotlight has come in Impact Wrestling. He made his debut for Impact defeating Trevor Lee (NXT’s Cameron Grimes) in September 2018, and at Bound For Glory 2018 he teamed with the debuting Willie Mack to defeat Matt Sydal and Ethan Page. He’d compete for the X Division Title against Brian Cage in October unsuccessfully, but he’d win an Ultimate X Match in December to become X Division Champion. As X Division Champ, he’d enter a feud with Sami Callihan and Ohio Versus Everyone. Sami & OVE would try to recruit Swann, but when Swann declined he was thrown through a table. Swann would come back after the group, continuing to go after them despite their now desperate attempts to recruit him. Meanwhile, Swann defeated Flamita at United We Stand to retain the Title. His feud with Callihan would end at Rebellion 2019 when he defeated him for the title in an OVE Rules match. He retained the title at Slammiversary XVII against Johnny Impact before finally losing the title to Jake Crist on the July 26th episode of Impact, ending his reign at 194 Days. Already, it feels like he’s occupying an elevated version of the role he had in WWE.
S: Yeah he really was almost picking up where he left off but in a different promotion to be honest. He got some pretty big wins as X-Division Champion as well so all power to him, I mean he beat both Sami Callihan and Johnny Impact during his reign. Johnny Impact was just off the back of being Impact World Champion whilst Callihan was about a few months away from winning the Impact World Championship.
JT: Yeah and he’d get involved with Callihan’s title reign after a brief return to teaming with Mack. He and Mack would unsuccessfully chase The North and the Impact Tag Titles. Now back to Swann vs Callihan, at No Surrender, he’d challenge Sami Callihan for the Impact World Title but would be unable to defeat Callihan. In the main event of Bash at the Brewery 2, Swann, Mack, Cage and Tessa Blanchard were unable to defeat OVE in an Eight Person Elimination Tag Match, where Swann hurt his knee and missed several months of action due to the necessary surgery. So before we move on, props to Impact for running that sort of story. I love when a midcard feud becomes a world title feud with more personal stakes down the line.
S: Yeah for real, big ups to Impact for reigniting the feud between those two lads and making it a bigger deal. That’s something they’ve usually been good with redoing singles feuds, doing them later down the line but with the World Title being on the line. Almost like with Gargano and Andrade in that sense.
JT: Or the even bigger versions of Rock & HHH and Rock & Austin. And of course New Japan’s stuff with Young Lions.
S: Exactly, going back to good feuds typically work best when there’s higher stakes involved the second go around.
JT: Pretty crazy to think about him actually being a World Champion, isn’t it? The story they got to tell through the pandemic is pretty impressive on their end considering that it was during the dreaded no fans era and Impact were doing their shows in front of no one, just an empty studio. Fair play to them. What do I make of World Champion Rich Swann though? Good for him and I genuinely don’t think it would’ve happened in any other place than Impact because they’ve been very good in the last few years at putting their Championships on names you wouldn’t expect to be Champion elsewhere.
S: Pretty crazy to think about him actually being a World Champion, isn’t it? The story they got to tell through the pandemic is pretty impressive on their end considering that it was during the dreaded no fans era and Impact were doing their shows in front of no one, just an empty studio. Fair play to them. What do I make of World Champion Rich Swann though? Good for him and I genuinely don’t think it would’ve happened in any other place than Impact because they’ve been very good in the last few years at putting their Championships on names you wouldn’t expect to be Champion elsewhere.
JT: Yeah it’s an interesting question. Because I’ve never thought of him as a real top guy, honestly. He’s good but he’s never been a World Title contender elsewhere. But then again, he’s a good enough wrestler that it makes sense. I think it was a case of the right place at the right time for Swann. Not to say he can’t ever be a top guy, but Impact has had a lot of turnover over the years, so the fact that he stuck around and was a great wrestler meant he got a shot he might not have gotten elsewhere. And again, it’s a good shout to Impact for being unafraid to take their shot and put their belt on people who haven’t gotten it before. Especially when you know that they might be using Impact as a tool to raise their own stock. But hey, better to plant your flag on valuable land than keep it on board a sinking ship like say, an Alberto El Patron.
S: Oh god, the darkest hour was when they put the belt on him and he was being a raving lunatic on the microphone after shows or tapings ended. Absolute mental case he is, being gone with him for a long time, wrestling doesn’t need him around. He was insanely unprofessional during his time there.
JT: Well of course, Rich Swann was the first long term Champion after he won it from transitional heel champ/obstacle for Swann Eric Young, who won it off transitional champ Eddie Edwards, who won the Impact Title after it was vacated due to Tessa Blanchard being a piece of shit racist and also refusing to show up for tapings.
S: God almighty, I forgot that Tessa Blanchard was Impact Champion for those few months. Literally won it the night after she was exposed for being a racist piece of shit. I was trying to remember why she got fired but now it’s all flooded back to me. Impact released a fair number of people around that time, huh?
JT: Like I said, he benefited from being a good worker in a company with a lot of turnover. He benefited from having past storylines and being good enough to move up a level. Like I said, he benefited from being a good worker in a company with a lot of turnover. He benefited from having past storylines and being good enough to move up a level. But as Champion, he moved on to new things! In December 2020, he’d face his toughest challenge yet as AEW World Champion Kenny Omega made his way to Impact. The self proclaimed Belt Collector wanted to take Swann’s title to add to his AEW & AAA Championships. He, alongside Moose & Chris Sabin were unable to defeat Omega and Impact Tag Champions Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, setting up Omega as a future challenger. At No Surrender 2021, Swann successfully defended the title against Tommy Dreamer. Then, Scott D’Amore announced a Unification Match between Swann and TNA World Champion Moose for Sacrifice 2021, with the winner facing Kenny Omega for the Unified Titles and Omega’s AEW World Title at Rebellion 2021. Don’t ask me how the TNA Title became an actual legitimate title in Impact in 2022, I have no clue. So Swann defeated Moose at Sacrifice, but was unable to defeat Omega, ending his reign at 183 Days. But hey, facing Kenny’s still a big deal!
S: It is pretty damn cool when you look at it and think about it. Getting to face Kenny Omega for both the Impact and AEW Titles must be a real feather in the cap of Rich Swann, even though we all knew Kenny was most certainly going over, it’s still a bit surreal to see that match actually happened a few months ago. With Mauro on commentary too! What’s his hair like these days? Find out next time, or maybe, or not.
JT: Yeah Swann vs Omega might not have been the “Dream Match” people were envisioning when the Impact vs AEW stuff started, but it was big for Rich Swann and his career.
S: And it was certainly big for Impact having the AEW World Title being defended on a PPV of theirs too.
JT: Yeah I’m still surprised they didn’t even have like Swann vs Karl Anderson on Dynamite. Goes to show that for Impact it was about getting AEW guys on their shows, and for AEW it was about getting Kenny the belt, Don Callis and The Good Brothers and that’s about it.
S: Those were AEW’s priorities with the Impact working relationship to be honest, going full hog with the belt collector thing and getting all the pieces in place for the Super Elite to be formed.
JT: So his loss to Kenny pretty much puts an end to his minor involvement in AEW. He’d sit on the shelf selling the loss, until he’d return to save Mack from a beatdown by W Morrissey (WWE’s Big Cass) at Under Siege a month later, leading to a match against Morrisey at Against All Odds that Morrisey won. He would go back to teaming with Mack, again unable to win the Impact Tag Titles from The Good Brothers Gallows & Anderson, despite multi-man matches at Slammiversary and Emergence as well as a regular tag match at Victory Road. At the moment, he’s still teaming with Mack, now against Brian Myers’s (Curt Hawkins) stable The Learning Tree. His most recent match as of the time of writing was at Bound For Glory, where he competed in the “Call Your Shot” Gauntlet match. He entered at #15, and was the 3rd to last eliminated, getting eliminated by W Morrisey as well as the eventual winner Moose. So it looks to me like he’s not really on that main event level as much as he’s on that highest rung of the Midcard. Like I’m not expecting him to win the World Title again, but I could see him fighting for the title again or facing guys who are on the level of the World Champion. And if he’s not doing that, I expect him to be in the midcard, winning most of his matches and feuds.
S: Agreed, he’s certainly in that upper midcard tier of the promotion where he’d probably get a match against the World Champion on a B PPV for Impact these days or easily be slotted into a multi man World Title match either. He seems to be doing alright for himself nowadays so all power to him really.
JT: He’s found himself a home in Impact, which is good for the both of them. He’s got a nice little role, he’s doing well for himself, and they’ve got a guy who is actually sticking around. Which again, I hate to harp on this too much, but Impact is a company whose turnover from just year to year is big, let alone over a 5 year period. Seriously, just look at Impact from 2016 as opposed to 2021, it’s almost a complete turnover. With Swann sticking around since 2018, that’s already a degree of seniority!
S: By today’s standards for Impact, they must be delighted that Swann has stuck around for three and a half years at this stage, he’s no Eddie Edwards who’s gonna be there coming up on EIGHT YEARS STRAIGHT by the start of next year but what Impact has going for themselves right now is that they’ve a fair few lads on the roster who’ve stuck with them for a good while and seem to have found a good home promotion for themselves. It is miraculous how they’ve come out of that really dark old period where it felt like each passing week was another news story about Impact going broke and folding entirely
JT: Yeah, cheers to Impact for sticking things out! Though we should be careful about saying good things about Impact, they’ll probably get struck by lightning and fall into another period of struggle just for the fact that they’ve been competent for too many years in a row.
S: And knowing our luck with how big news stories occur when we do this every time. Impact could very well have done a Ring of Honor and released everyone on their roster by the time this comes out.
JT: Let’s just hold our tongues, and hope for the best.
S: Well with our recap of Rich’s career post-CWC out of the way, as well as covering all of our Quarter Final matches across the two episodes.
——————
Powering Down
S: I suppose all that’s left for us is to give our final thoughts, right James?
JT: That’s right Seán! It’s time for our shortest ever edition of Match of the Round and MVP of the Round considering we only have 4 matches to mull through, and next episode will have the overall CWC MVP and Match of the Tournament!! So since we’ve really got only 4 matches and 8 people to pick from, how about we don’t beat around the bush? Who have you got Seán?
S: Alright so for my Match of the Round, I could make a case for all four of these matches being my favourite of the Quarters because I did genuinely enjoy all of them but that’s not how this works, I’ve to pick one after all so what have I chosen? Simples, it’s gotta be Kota Ibushi vs Brian Kendrick. The match which I felt had the best story, the match which had the spots that stood out of me the most such as the Burning Hammer and the Neckbreaker on the turnbuckle. It was the match I associated with this round of the tournament, like Gargano vs Ciampa in Round One and Ibushi vs Cedric in the Last 16, Kendrick vs Ibushi is the match which I firmly associate with the Quarter Finals. It gave us an exciting affair with Kendrick once again showing his brilliant, desperate veteran character who will jump at any opportunity once the smallest of windows open up for him. He’s been fantastic, as has Kota Ibushi. He’s snagged himself another Match of the Round award. For my MVP on the other hand, I think it just has to be Kendrick, I’m sorry for being boring and unoriginal but he genuinely was the standout of this round yet again, like what he’s done in this tournament in the space of three matches has been brilliant and each time he’s had his match, he’s knocked it out of the park. Kendrick is my Quarter Finals MVP.
JT: Yeah I hate to be original, and at times I feel our tastes can be a little too similar, but I gotta agree on both accounts. Kendrick’s character has been great all tournament long, and this was the culmination of both. He put everything into his match with Ibushi, he fought for his life and it made for one of the most memorable performances of the tournament. So Match of the Round goes to Kendrick vs Ibushi and MVP goes to Brian Kendrick himself.
As for overall rankings of the guys who had a match this round, I’ll probably go
8. TJ Perkins
7. Zack Sabre Jr
6. Akira Tozawa
5. Noam Dar
4. Rich Swann
3. Gran Metalik
2. Kota Ibushi
1. Brian Kendrick
The bottom half didn’t even do a bad job honestly. Dar had his best performance, and Tozawa was good but wasn’t really the star of his match. As for the bottom 2, Sabre did neglect his selling a bit towards the end of his match but that’s minor, and TJ could’ve done more to be sympathetic to the crowd but we already stated that he was dealt a bad hand. Really, I’d say there were no bad performances this round.
Finally, the overall match rankings look as follows:
28. Anthony Bennett vs Tony Nese
27. Drew Gulak vs Harv Sihra
26. Akira Tozawa vs Kenneth Johnson
25. Noam Dar vs Gurv Sihra
24. Noam Dar vs Hoho Lun
23. Zack Sabre Jr vs Tyson Dux
22. Hoho Lun vs Ariya Daivari
21. Rich Swann vs Jason Lee
20. Gran Metalik vs Tajiri
19. Gran Metalik vs Alejandro Saez
18. TJ Perkins vs Da Mack
17. TJ Perkins vs Johnny Gargano
16. Brian Kendrick vs Tony Nese
15. Gran Metalik vs Akira Tozawa
14. Rich Swann vs Lince Dorado
13. Tajiri vs Damian Slater
12. Zack Sabre Jr vs Noam Dar
11. Jack Gallagher vs Fabian Aichner
10. Kota Ibushi vs Sean Maluta
9. Cedric Alexander vs Clement Petiot
8. TJ Perkins vs Rich Swann
7. Akira Tozawa vs Jack Gallagher
6. Zack Sabre Jr vs Drew Gulak
5. Brian Kendrick vs Raul Mendoza
4. Kota Ibushi vs Brian Kendrick
3. Lince Dorado vs Mustafa Ali
2. Kota Ibushi vs Cedric Alexander
1. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa
S: Cannot argue with your Rankings there at all, good to see two of our Quarter Final matches make it into your top eight. Your rankings of the Quarter Final MVPs is very accurate as to what I was thinking as well, like you could have Ibushi and Kendrick as your top two, put either one of them at the top spot and I wouldn’t argue with you. They’re interchangeable. Love seeing that my boy Gargano is still top of the charts. Can he keep that top spot after all is covered by us though?
JT: Well I will say this: Ibushi is in a prime spot to go for overall MVP. All 3 of his matches are in my Top 10, and if he’s really the favorite like he’s been touted to be, another 2 great matches and a tournament win would absolutely lock down his case. But who knows. Well I mean, we know. It’s a retrospective series. But let me joke here! Point is, Ibushi has got a hell of a case going, who will have a big finals and take the prize of CWC MVP and maybe even Cruiserweight Classic Winner…
S: I think I might be tempted towards Ibushi as overall MVP by the end of this series, I know I’ve gone on about Kendrick being brilliant at every opportunity but fucking hell, Ibushi is honestly showing why he’s an absolute diamond of a wrestler, he’s been nothing short of magnificent and in terms of match quality, Mr. Consistent if there ever was one. In terms of his chances at the CWC, he’s got TJ Perkins in the next round. Ibushi ended Kendrick’s dream, TJ has been crushing the dreams of the Full Sail crowd in the last two rounds. Who’s gonna come out on top?
JT: Then on the other side we have Gran Metalik vs Zack Sabre Jr, which has got to be one of the oddest combinations of styles in the tournament. I’m very interested in rewatching this one. And of course, we have the additional content in the 2 Hour Finale special. I know we’ve got at least one tag match on our plate.
S: We do indeed have a special bridge tag team match in between our Semi Finals and THE Final on the cards for our next episode but as well as that, I believe there are some extra bonus matches which WWE uploaded to their YouTube Channel five years ago days before the live finale so I’m probably going to check those out too. I’m ready to give this Finale all the preparation and dedication it deserves because my word, it’s been an absolute blast doing this third season with you, James.
JT: 100% Seán. I’d usually save something like this for our finale, but we’ll have at least 4 matches, 4 career breakdowns and an overall analysis of the fallout of this tournament on the next episode. So since that’s a loaded episode, I’m just gonna come out and say that this has been an absolute blast to rewatch. You can’t match the level of shock value of watching it live at the time, but as a piece of wrestling history it more than lives up to things. This has been so great to rewatch, and honestly there’s no way the final turns this sour for me. Like even with everything that we will talk about, this is still a positive experience. And I can’t wait for the finale.
S: It’s been nothing short of eye opening and a nice memory refresher has been this tournament, hearing what all the guys have done in the last five years, for better and for worse has been a brilliant jog down memory lane so far because my god we ain’t done yet! We’ve got one more episode left, the goddamn TWO HOUR FINALE! Four matches on our plate, some bonus features too, four career breakdowns and a whole lot to discuss. It may only be two hours but man, this is definitely going to be as loaded as an episode gets and I’m very fucking hyped.
JT: I’m so hyped for it! But until then, that’s gonna be it for now from the JT & Seány McPower Hour!! We’ve said our bit, we’ve reviewed some matches, it’s been a grand old time!! But for now, I’ve said all I’ve needed to say. So this a goodbye for now from me James!
S: And a bye bye from me, Seán!
JT: For the penultimate time this season, keep waving that Big Train down the line!!
S: *insert “Lonely Train” by Black Stone Cherry below*
The JT & Seány Mc Power Hour 