Never Say Never Indeed
Right after our latest addition to the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling BLOG family in Kamakazi Kid, we now welcome none other than the MA champ himself, "Slick" Ric Converse. To me, that's kinda cool considering Ric is pretty much the MAN as far as this area goes and much like the #1 representative for the company, it kinda adds a little credence to this goofy little fad Stutts started way back in October 2003 and many of the rest of us have picked up on since that time. I've been able to watch Ric in action since 2001 and don't get me wrong, Ric was a heck of a talent even back then but for those that never saw him back then, you would never believe it's the same guy. From his work ethic, to his workrate, to his promos, to his mentality and just the way he flat out carries himself, Ric Converse is everything the modern-day prototype professional wrestler SHOULD be.Ya know, the "Little House on the Prairie" really wasn't that little...in fact, that was a pretty big fuckin house on the prairie all things considered.
CWF was back in action Sat night to officially kick off the "Summer Action Series" tour at the CSA with a TV taping (that wouldn't provide a whole lotta TV), and the officially big ass plug for "Friday Night Fights" on 6/24. Spent most of the afternoon shooting pretapes and promos that would air the following weeks on TV and for FNF and it certainly felt like the most production promo session we've EVER had and I'm very proud of that and thankful for everyone that participated. Pretty solid crowd that was certainly into enough early on before we effectively killed that. Personally, my role in this show was slightly different this time around as the first half was spent training Troxler on the main camera which is no easy task during a live show but all things considered, he did a more than adequate job. Although he disappeared on me after intermission which leads me to believe he was curled up in the fetal position crying somewhere.
1. Julius Augustus and the Street Sweepers (Jay Sinn and Gregory Vercetti) defeated Ultra Dragon and Classic Rock ("Classic" Chris Collins & "Rock N Roll" Matty Dee) in 11:21 -
Fun 6-man opener that went WAYYYY too long for an opener, thereby starting a series of chain reactions and setting a standard that would carry through the majority of the night. Augustus made his debut and having never seen him work before, my initial impressions are that he has a very good physique and favors working the right leg. The Street Sweepers are still coming along as a pretty solid heel duo while the babyface trio is of course gold from top to bottom. Nothing offensive, just long for what was needed. **
2. CWF/AWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight champion Ric Converse pinned Donnie Dollars in 4:21 of a non-title match -
A million billion stars. Every person involved with the match got over, the crowd was hot for the entire thing, and left them wanting more, not less. Much like my beloved Munkey/Ninja-Tungsten/Houston Battlecade match, one of the absolutely most perfect TV matches you could EVER have. **1/2
3. Rising Generation League champion Kid Justice pinned Otto Schwanz in 13:37 - A rematch from 4/30 Wentworth with Justice tying the series. Schwanz as a heel is still too over with the crowd to truly get booed and, as is the case with WWE (as I steal this from Scott Keith's journal) "fans these days will cheer strong characters in general, regardless of heel-face alignment, because everyone is booked to be such losers most of the time." Thankfully, that's not a problem we have in CWF too often because just about everyone is booked as strongly as humanly possible. But I can definitely see that being a fair analysis of this particular match because Justice, as solid of a cruiser as he is, hasn't been able to overcome the mid-card hell status ever since the loss of Orlo. Certainly solid wrestling but went WAY too long and by and large, but this would be the match that began the downward spiral for the rest of the show. *3/4
4. "Madd Trucker" Garry Stevens and Caprice "Ice" Coleman defeated Xsiris and Brass Munkey in 13:34 when Coleman pinned Munkey - This match can pretty much be summed up as a counterproductive nightmare and god knows it will never see the light of day anywhere, anyhow aside from a couple of clips winding up in a highlight reel somewhere. Don't get me wrong, aside from a couple of psychology holes, it wasn't a BAD match by ANY means. But you had the pushed tweener, the returning superstar, one of the top heels in the company, and one of the top babys in the company and NONE of them could afford to take the pin. Make no mistake, the wrong man definitely took the pin in this one, but on the other hand, there wasn't a RIGHT man to take the pin in this match. Then add the fact that once again, it went WAY too long and I'd just prefer to pretend this match never happened.
5. "Dangerous E" Corey Edsel pinned American Steel Ninja in 9:33 -
Four months after the fact, Corey and Ninja FINALLY have their singles showdown. Better late than never though. Pretty fun stuff and I'm SO thankful that CWF FINALLY has a heel that can believably go over top babys clean as a sheet without the baby losing ANYthing. That's how strong Corey is right now as a monster. With Ninja's gimmick and general persona, it can be very hard to pry true intensity out of him sometimes, but this was getting up there with the UNOD and Twisted Aggression feuds as far as a stand-alone match goes. **1/2 Post match we get another Corey-fan incident shoot although in a totally different vein than the near altercation last time as him and Stutts shake hands with...Justin Feeche.
Yes, after long, long back-and-forth conversations and "negotiations" (so to speak), Feeche appears in a CWF building. Not that the handshake SHOULD be newsworthy at all, especially considering it was a legitimate unplanned moment. But the simple fact is that it DID happen so let the rumors and livejournals begin rumbling. It's actually fascinating to me as the Feeche/CWF relationship kind of reminds me of the later days of Bret Hart/WWF. When you weren't sure what was real and what wasn't in what was aired on TV combined with all the backstage rumors. It's almost as if either party were to deny something at this point, that denial would be questioned by someone or another. Will Feeche ever wrestle for us? I hope so but I don't know. Will Feeche make it for more than five shows if he does? I hope so but I don't know. I don't like shoot angles. But I love reality-based angles, and without question, NO one plays off of reality more than CWF does. If the reality card is played here, I think it could be one of the most intriguing angles we've ever done.
6. CWF/AWA Mid-Atlantic TV champion Jesse Ortega pinned the Spoiler in 8:50 - An extremely solid psychologicaly sound matchup, but unfortunately, the pace was just murder on the crowd thanks to the insane length of some of the earlier matches. They were already drained and this didn't help matters. BUT I'd put it on TV in a heartbeat because it told a story that made sense and really, that's all you can hope for. Oh, and booooooo on Jesse for debuting his new gear tonight rather than on FNF. :P **1/2
-The contract signing for Ric Converse and Garry Stevens for FNF was held.
Excellent segment with all parties doing what they should be doing, wanting to get it on and not wait, a Kool-Aid drunken McAllister refusing it to go down "tonight because it's bad for business", and Garry giving Ric a final cheap parting shot. Lovely. It's on June 24th.
7. CWF/AWA Mid-Atlantic tag team champions $outh$ide Playas (J-Money and Will B. Smooth) defeated Mitch Conner and Tank Lawson in 10:50 - Whew boy...another very scary matchup on paper, especially considering the last time this matchup occurred on a TV taping it was pretty much an unequivocal disaster. Well, this one WAS an improvement on the last one but (am I sounding redundant yet?) went WAY too long. *3/4 Postmatch attack by the Street Sweepers, followed by Classic Rock actually woke the crowd up momentarily but even that segment went too long.
8. Mikael Yamaha pinned "Boggie Woogie Man" Rob McBride in 11:57 -
A rematch of the **** TV match from 2/19. Unfortunately, this one didn't quite live up as the crowd has been pretty much officially killed by this point and even with these two pros, have a hard time getting into it. However, upon Yam's entrance, it occurs to me that Yamaha is in the ring with Redd Jones for the first time since...well, since this...
last October and the now legendary Yamaha/Solo-Redd/Munkey match. So you just KNEW some shit was gonna go down. And sure enough, in one of the finest business exposing spots we've ever had at a TV taping, Yam does the 30 second Pat Patterson bendover while waiting for Lucha Boogie to fly through the air with a sunset flip. If I ever have suicidal tendencies I will simply make a "Great Moments in Yamaha History" comp tape, get drunk, and die laughing. The Sunset Flip, The Snake Eyes, The Moonsault, The Double Hip Toss...I could go on and on. Anyways, Yam goes over and then soils himself when he turns around and sees Corey, who lifts him in the air in celebration. Double-team on Rob as Munkey makes the save and goes absolutely apeshit, murderizing Corey with a lariat and a chairshot. See, there's this little tag match on June 24th too. Munkey/Rob-Corey/Yam. Bastard will break ***3/4 or I'm crying. Seriously though, Munkey's having a career year and he hasn't added one single move to his own repertoire (yes, that is a compliment). *1/2 Rob wanted to kick my ass after this match cause it pained me so much but then he bought me the "Dukes of Hazzard" pilot DVD, causing me to reverse my rating to ***1/2, thereby making all parties very happy. :P
Overall Thoughts - Make no mistake, I'm a company man through and through but still gotta be honest when it comes to our own shows. I would never outright shit on our product at all but in a case like this where it SHOULD have been a great TV taping, it fell short of that and I just HAVE to touch on those reasons. For one, this show was a collection of house show matches for the most part. Unfortunately, we were running a TV taping of 8 matches as opposed to the house show 6 matches which caused the show to drag onto a near-painful length. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE 99% of the guys I get to watch in action every week, but there's still a great deal that need to learn that less is more and they are just KILLING their heat by staying out there too long. If Ric, Jesse, and Corey-Ninja (the two singles champs, and a pretty big historical matchup) can ALL go under 10 minutes then there is NO reason everyone else can't do the same. I'm not saying that every match should be under 10, but when you're doing 8 matches, a couple of interview segments, and a TV taping in general, use your head and think of the big picture.
One another little topic I wanted to touch on in regards to the show and that being the lost art of the hot tag. It amazes me how many times recently I have seen a hot tag totally killed by one factor or another. Let me throw out a few basic rules to keep in mind for future hot tag sequences. Now remember, take this with a grain of salt cause I'm only the videoguy and since my in-ring training is somewhat limited, I don't really know what I'm talking about but...
1-If you're the baby, bump and sell AWAY from your corner rather than TOWARDS it.
2-For the love of god, if you're the heel, do NOT make the baby look like a flippin idiot by shooting him into his OWN CORNER IF HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO MAKE THE TAG. Christ.
3-If you've been getting your ass kicked for more than 3 minutes then you don't just start arbitrarily running actual spots like you're completely fresh. You make the hot tag, get the fuck out of the ring, and then come back to fight again after that.
And finally, just a personal opinion that not EVERY single tag match EVER has to have a double down. Same goes for singles matches on that rule though. On a positive note, I AM extremely excited about what appears to be a resurgence in tag team wrestling in the area. Since 2000, we've pretty much ONLY had (at most) two legitimate tag teams at one time. Right now we've got the Playas looking better than ever, Classic Rock, and the Street Sweepers which is THREE, count 'em THREE! Plus, Puhhh-lenty of other legitimate combinations out there (as in NOT make shift duos). Exciting stuff since tag team wrestling in the Indys is usually a forced process at best.
Anyways, that's enough ranting for now and despite any criticism, I'm still lovin every second and just insanely jakked for this summer, FNF, the Weaver Cup, and all the other goodies. Love to ALL and I is outta here!
GRANT "STATMARK" SAWYER
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