YOUR AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament recap
The highest-profile event in CWF history has come to an end after 2 days of action that contained a mind-numbing 24 matches, with hardly a dud in the whole batch. With that in mind, my apologies for the briefness of some match comments because by weekend's end, a lot of stuff, especially from the first day was a complete blur and a star-rating could easily go up or down one full * once I get the opportunity to check it out on DVD which I look forward to doing. Brad Stutts did a flat-out awesome job on commentary, far superior to anything I could have done when it came to handling the non-regulars. He was joined by a wide crop of rotating experts including CW Anderson, Gemini Kid, Brian Logan, Nigel Sherrod, Rick Noon, and more.DAY ONE
ROUND ONE
1. Gregory Vercetti (Italy) pinned Darrel Kelly (TN) in 6:24 -
Decent little opener that went a touch too long considering that 14 matches were still to follow on Friday night. A little awkwardness due to the unfamiliarity, but still a solid way to kick things off. **1/2
2. Ultra Dragon (Wild Card) pinned Shane Matthews (WV) in 4:01 - Dragon gets a desperately needed win as he had been venturing towards mid-card hell as of late over a fairly nondescript, but passable, Shane Matthews. *3/4
3. "A Very Handsome Man" Mitch Conner (WI) pinned Brass Munkey (Wild Card) in 5:28 - The first CWF-CWF matchup of the weekend brings us the rubber match in this recent series. Munkey looks great early on and is on fire until the cheap screwjob. Perfectly executed and booked. **1/4
4. "Krazy K" Kirby Mack (SC) pinned Kamakazi Kid (with Kid Kazi in his corner - GA) in 7:30 -
The homecoming of Kazi, 7 1/2 months after injury, ends all to quickly as he falls to Krazy K. A fun little match to be sure, but a shocking, and almost painful, first round outcome. I would have much rather seen at least this particular matchup go down in round 2 as Kazi's involvement in the tournament was completely wasted here. **3/4
5. "El Mochi" Damien (with Stevie Slick in his corner - UT) pinned American Steel Ninja (Wild Card) in 3:12 - Damien is easily the most questionable entry in the tournament, seemingly breaking the 220 pound limit, with no noticeable Light Heavyweight repertoire, very generic gear, and wearing a Dr. Wagner Jr. match that each and every smart mark will shit all over once they see the DVD. The match itself was passable in it's brevity. *
6. "El Fuego" Jesse Ortega (TX) defeated Daniel Sigma (Wild Card) by submission in 5:30 - Similar to Vercetti-Kelly in it's unfamiliarity = awkwardness, but still a passable little first round match. **
7. Kid Justice (Wild Card) pinned the Great Malaki (IL) in 8:32 -
The biggest first round upset easily as Malaki appears to be one of the more impressive "outsiders", going up against Kid Justice who, despite being on an upswing as of late, still appeared to be a first round casulty. Just as shocking is the crowd's first TRUE "Us vs. Them" reaction as despite Justice being booked as a tweener into heel has of late, they were 110% behind him, in his effort to best the Illinois representative. Very enjoyable match. **3/4
ROUND TWO
8. "Mr. 630" Jerelle Clark (FL) pinned Caprice "Ice" Coleman (Wild Card) in 12:48 -
Round one had some seriously good stuff in abbreviated form, but no real chance of break the *** plateau due to time constraints. And boy, did we ever find that out as Round two kicked off as two of the first round byes collide, as Jerelle and Caprice put on an insanely crisp masterpiece that actually received a standing ovation at the end. A vary rare CWF crowd reaction with respectful applause throughout, rather than the more traditional Southern-style heel-face boos and cheers. Jerelle was one of the few outsiders to be actually greeted with love, rather than hate. The match was a perfect example of two premier Indy workers going at it, no BS entertainment to be had, with every move being executed near flawlessly. Fantastic stuff though that I can't wait to see again. ****1/2
9. "Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore (NC) pinned Dexter Poindexter (Wild Card) in 10:00 - Two more first round byes meet up (how the heck did Dex get a bye??). Moore actually turns heel prior to the match cutting a promo on how he loathed to be forced back into dumps like the CSA. It works too, although the crowd still doesn't buy the fact that Dex has ANY chance at all of winning and despite some solid false finishes, the match went WAYYYY too long. **
10. Xsiris (VA) pinned Gregory Vercetti (Italy) in 7:15 -
Say what you will, but without question the crowd favorite to win it all, Xsiris, starts his run in a really fun match with Vercetti, in another CWF vs. CWF matchup. Really solid stuff as Vercetti finishes with a very good 2-match showing and X heads into day two on a roll. **1/2
11. Ultra Dragon (Wild Card) defeated Noah Lott (MN) by submission in 6:39 -
This would become, without question, the biggest "Holy shit!" upset of the entire tourney. As alluded to earlier, Dragon had been in such limbo that making it past the first round was questionable and making it all the way to day TWO was unfathomable. The true great underdog story of the tournament was indeed Ultra Dragon. For Noah Lott's part, he seemed to have certainly fine psychology but his style didn't really resemble that of a Light Heavyweight. I was somewhat overwhelmed initially but he did so much enjoyable stuff on night two, I came to the conclusion that he would actually probably fit in just fine down here not in the true Cruiserweight-sense but in the Mikael Yamaha-more evil-than-style kinda way. And boy, did the crowd ever pop like crazy when Lott tapped out to Dragon's christo. **
12. Ricky Landell (Japan's Zero-1 Max) defeated "A Very Handsome Man" Mitch Conner (WI) by submission in 9:19 -
Solid little no-frills wrestling contest as with these two, you get your basic boots and trunks and that's IT (not a complaint at all, by the way). **1/2
13. "Krazy K" Kirby Mack (SC) pinned "El Mochi" Damien (with Stevie Slick in his corner - UT) in 11:33 - Went way too long as Damien was really out of his element here with this style of wrestling. *3/4
14. N8 Mattson (MI) pinned Kid Justice (Wild Card) in 10:00 - N8 makes his first appearance as the crowd finally begins to die after holding together pretty well for the first 3 hours of day one (including my own fried brain as these last few matches of day one are a blur at this point). Still a solid little matchup though from what I recall. **1/2
15. Rickey Reyes (Cuba) defeated "El Fuego" Jesse Ortega (TX) in 8:52 -
What will go down as the best "forgotten" match of day one, being the last on the show, but a fantastic mat-based match for both guys. Really enjoyable stuff with Reyes surprisingly gong over (to our fans) anyway, via KO. ***
DAY TWO
1. "Mr. 630" Jerelle Clark (FL) pinned Ultra Dragon (Wild Card) in 9:57 of a AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match -
Day two kicks off with the hometown underdog against the show stealer from night one. Extremely fun matchup with Dragon's run finally coming to an end. ***
2. "Krazy K" Kirby Mack (SC) pinned Rickey Reyes (Cuba) in 10:16 of a AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match -
Another solid matchup as Reyes had firmly established himself as the #1 heel in the final 8. **3/4
3. N8 Mattson (MI) pinned Xsiris (VA) in 9:28 of a AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match - A HUGE shocker to the crowd as I think if you had actually shot Xsiris in the middle of the ring, that crowd couldn't have been any more stunned than when the ref counted three to end X's quest for the title. That crowd fell deathly silent like it WAS a funeral. It'll certainly be interesting to see where we go from here as X not only didn't win the title, he didn't even get to a spot in the tournament where every single fan thought he was going. **1/2
4. "Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore (NC) defeated Ricky Landell (Japan's Zero-1 Max) by submission in 8:21 of a AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match - Another fairly basic match with Moore, although certainly fundamentally sound. **
5. "A Very Handsome Man" Mitch Conner, Gregory Vercetti, The Great Malaki, Daniel Sigma, and Noah Lott defeated Kid Justice, Dexter Poindexter, Shane Matthews, Kamakazi Kid, and Eric Matlock (with Kid Kazi in their corner) in 17:25 of a Cibernetico Torneo Elimination match with Great Malaki being the winner after pinning Eric Matlock in the finals. Order of elimination: Justice, Vercetti, Kamakazi, Lott, Sigma, Conner, Poindexter, Matthews, Matlock. - This was flat out fantastic. This was everything I WISH Ultimate Survivor could be every year and honestly, SHOULD be. Non-stop action from the opening bell that had the crowd in a frenzy. FANtastic finishes and got every single guy in it over big time. Personal hilight: About 5 minutes in, Kazi (who everyone is ACHING to see back in the ring after the one and done the night before) FINALLY gets the tag and the roof comes off as he hits his twisting frog splash off the top to pin Vercetti. Then, 5 seconds later, Noah Lott earns his spot in CA history by nearly getting booked out of the building but cradling Kazi from behind, feet on the ropes, 1-2-3. That one sequence took the crowd from the highest of highs to the sheer disgust. Just awesome. The match was a pleasure to watch and one of the most satisfying Indy matches I've ever been witness to. I only hope we can pull one of these out at least every year and maintain this level of quality. MAJOR props to every single worker in it as ALL 10 delivered big-time. Totally different, but up there with Caprice-Jerelle from night one as your "Match of the Weekend." ****1/2
6. "Krazy K" Kirby Mack (SC) pinned "Mr. 630" Jerelle Clark (FL) in 9:35 of a AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament semifinal match -
Somewhat disappointing considering the potential here. Had some fine arm work that would be unfortunately forgotten and no sold seconds later. Some fine spots here and there, but psychology was seriously lacking. **
7. "Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore (NC) defeated N8 Mattson (MI) by submission in 7:12 of a AWA World Light Heavyweight tournament semifinal match -
Despite Shannon's night one heel turn, the crowd started to turn back in his favor here considering N8 had taken out Xsiris, meaning he had about negative 47 on the crowd support level. Solid regardless though. **
8. Team AWA (Shauma Tengo, "El Mochi" Damien, and Noah Lott with Stevie Slick in their corner) defeated Team CWF (Jesse "El Fuego" Ortega, Brass Munkey, and Kamakazi Kid with Kid Kazi in their corner) in 13:27 when Damien pinned Munkey - Without question the single "What the fuck??" outcome of the entire weekend. I can only assume the logic here was that since someone that is viewed as a "CWF guy" was going over for the actual belt one match later (not that he's that at all), then the CWF "side" could afford the loss in the "Us vs. Them" matchup. Crowd was very, very hot for this, and more than any other matchup during the weekend, proved just how strong the CWF fanbase loyalty is when matched up against such outsiders. Nothing against Lott at all, but as a whole, the CWF crew easily outclassed and outshined the opposition the whole way, dominating the matchup and looking like a million bucks. Totally flabbergasting screwjob finish aside, fun matchup and make NO mistake, the wrong team went over. It's a shame that we can't do these types of matchups on a regular basis so we actually COULD trade wins back and forth cause the crowd was rabid for this. **1/2
9. "Krazy K" Kirby Mack (SC) pinned "Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore (NC) in 16:45 to win the vacant AWA World Light Heavyweight title (16:45) -
The final matchup will certainly be questioned by the smart marks on the internet and yes, to some degree, I would be right there with them. But when you look at all the participants in the tournament, and take into consideration availability and passable "name value", the outcome shouldn't be all that shocking. To many, Krazy K will always be remembered for the ROH fiasco; but in the eyes of the AWA, Krazy K is the man to carry the crown in the 21st century. The match itself was possibly the best for both Moore and KK in the tourney (which is exactly what you would want out of the final). **3/4
Overall thoughts - It's hard to complain too much about the weekend when you take into account you've got a joint booking committee and all the political problems that you're gonna automatically have when you try and pull off an event of this magnitude. For every flaw of the tournament had (Kazi's first round elimination and the 6-man match), the upsides (the perfectly booked Cibernetico match, the shocking Ultra Dragon run, etc) made it a wash in the end. From a wrestling perspective, you'd be hard pressed to find many Indy shows this side of ROH to put on such a tremendous effort from top-to-bottom. Personally, I'm VERY VERY proud of our roster. The "Us vs. Theme" theme wasn't even a pushed angle per se, but you could just FEEL it. We ALL wanted one of our boys to win and the crowd rose and fell with each win and loss by our crew. I think it was an eye-opening experience for many, considering a good portion of the incoming talent that is touted as "the best" in their specific territory, were out-worked in many cases by our regulars (and even our regular mid-carders, at that). The DVD release, more than any other product CWF has ever put out, WILL solidify the promotion as a true Indy-powerhouse. The Mid-Atlantic area has been overlooked long enough in favor of all the ROHs, IWA Mid-South, and so on and so forth but THIS event will showcase the simple fact that the performers in the MA area can indeed "cut the mustard" so to speak and deserve as much recognition as any other territory in the country today.
GRANT "STATMARK" SAWYER
<< Home