 |
| Jason Axe, with thumbtacks stuck in his head Photo Credit: Mark Griffin, JR. |
Highlights:
- Slyck Wagner Brown put down Colt Cabana in the opening match with a top rope leg lariat.
- In a handicap match, Zaquary Springate III had Milan X defeated with a Pepsi Plunge, but Bin Hamin took him out with a fireball behind the ref's back, allowing X to get the pin.
- Colin Delaney defeated a game Dalton Castle with a ring-in elbow.
- Spike Dudley put Masada through a table with the Acid Drop, but still lost because Kevin Steen and Jason Axe came out to waylay him before he could get the pin in the no DQ death match.
- Kevin Graham and Punisher van Slyke retained their Tag Team Championships in a five-team battle royale by last eliminating Kevin Carr.
- Sami Callihan foiled a Matt Hardy Twist of Fate into a small package to get the victory.
- In a BRUTAL hardcore ladder match, Isys Ephex was able to retain his 2CW Championship after sending Jason Axe over the top rope into an altar made out of a ladder and four chairs.
- Terry Funk promised to show up at the next 2CW show to confront Kevin Steen.
- After each competitor kicked out of the other's finishers once, John Hennigan was able to put Kevin Steen down with a second Starship Pain.
General Observations:
- Daw, Colt Cabana pulled a kid out of the crowd during his entrance. Naw.
- Slyck Wagner Brown's manager/second, Big Business, knocked Cabana down while Brown had the ref distracted, took a picture of Cabana while he was down, and then apparently tweeted it. I say "apparently" because I don't know the guy's Twitter handle. Still, that's how you do social media integration!
- So, when did Cabana start doing the Go 2 Sleep? Makes sense since his best buddy uses it, but then again, maybe he was just teasing it since he never was able to give us the payoff to whatever went after the G2S taunt and fireman's carry.
- Bin Hamin... whoa boy. I guess that character is about as good as your stock Middle Eastern/Iranian militant gimmick could be, but just once, I'd love to see a wrestling company present a character of that stock as SOMETHING other than in the terrorist oeuvre.
- I will say his line about Kim Jong Un being too much of a coward to follow through on his attack hit the spot though.
- Springate was announced as "ZS3," marking the second match in a row where one of the competitors was announced by his initials (Brown as "SWB"). Springate, Brown, and Rob van Dam facing off in a triple threat match would provide the ultimate in economy of ring introductions.
- I will never not adore when an opposing wrestler works over someone's beard. Good on you, ZS3.
- PEPSI PLUNGE! At least someone followed through on the use of a CM Punk finishing move.
- No sooner did Springate nail the Plunge on Milan X than did Hamin bust out the fireball. I guess he's from the Memphis district of Tehran, eh? In all seriousness though, love me some fireball action.
- Dalton Castle entered the arena preening for his match, which elicited a "Who the fuck are you?" chant from the Watertown faithful.
- I thought that a Colin Delaney skin the cat into a ring in elbow was an odd choice to use as a match finish at first, but y'know what? It works. I wish more matches would end on odd moves, just so we can keep finishers special, y'know?
- Spike Dudley in his old Spike Dudley gear coming out to "Highway to Hell" but with salt and pepper hair made me feel so, so, so goddamn old.
- Dudley grabbed Masada by his cheek piercing, which might be the most logical move for anyone ever in any wrestling match. If you're gonna wear piercings to the ring, and you don't include your opponent yanking/tugging/leading you around by them, you're doing it wrong.
- Dudley mistimed a back leapfrog out of the corner, ending up right in front of Masada, who up and clotheslined him in the back of the head. This was a very cleverly put-together match in the early going.
- Masada went for a hip press, but Dudley grabbed a chair and crotched him on it. Man, so many crafty spots in this match.
- I would have liked this match to have had a non-schmozzy finish, but hey, there could be worse things than hardcore feuding between Dudley and either Jason Axe or Kevin Steen.
- The tag battle royale was about the only match I had no thoughts on. It was just there.
- Holy crap, Matt Hardy wasn't playing around, grabbing a table from under the ring before his introduction was finished.
- Psychology comes in many different forms, including trying to get countout victories over an established and tough opponent. Sami Callihan trying his hardest to get Hardy counted out was amazing. Even better was when Hardy turned it around on him.
- I really dug Callihan countering Hardy into the stretch muffler out of the Twist of Fate. It was an amazingly smooth transition.
- The first fully-formed Cherry Bomb match I've ever seen was her mouthing her way into my heel-loving heart in WSU. In this match, where she teamed with Pepper Parks against Jimmy Jacobs and Christina von Eerie, she played a thoroughly convincing babyface. Versatility!
- I hope that Jay Bradley and Robert Anthony sit down, watch this match, and learn how you can do an intergender match where the women aren't on the same plane of strength as the men but still look like they belong in the ring. It's easy, all you have to do is not make cracks about getting back in the kitchen or set up a misogynist revenge fantasy post-match.
- I usually don't like to comment on theme music, but my God, Isys Ephex's theme, a remix on MGMT's "Electric Feel," is re-goddamn-diculously awesome.
- There was a ring-out suplex tease in the beginning of the match, but Jason Axe wiggled out of it, bounced back, and just speared Ephex off the apron onto the ladder and the barricade. You don't go full Ziggler THAT early in the match.
- Axe gave Ephex a barbed-wire crown of thorns, cutting open his cheek. I surprisingly didn't cringe. Am I growing more extreme in my old age?
- Axe then went to set up an "altar" on the outside made of a ladder laid across four chairs. He tried to give Ephex a Death Valley Driver onto said contraption, but he was reversed into an apron ace crusher. I don't know whose fate would have been worse.
- Death Valley Drivers on the ladder and on the barbed wire? A Codebreaker off the ladder? Are you TRYING to kill the Champ, Jason?
- Well, you should've finished the job, because I think Ephex killed you with a high back body drop out of the ring onto the altar you built. Christ, a match against Spike Dudley was just announced today for Axe, but I wonder if he'll be there flesh and blood or as an undead minion of the zombie horde.
- TERRY FUNK! DOUBLE CROSS RANCH! LIVE! TWEETIN AND TALKIN! TWEETIN AND TALKIN! HE'LL BE THERE! TERRY FUNK! KEVIN STEEN! TERRY FUNK! KEVIN STEEN!
- John Hennigan came out and gave his shades to Colin Delaney (who had taken over color commentating duties after around the fifth or sixth match). Steen immediately went out and snatched them, because that's what Kevin Steen do.
- Steen corrected the ring announcer and added "Canada" to his billed-from location, which got some good heel heat from the crowd. Is there any pent up rage for our neighbors to the North you want to explain there, Watertown? Danielle's feelings are just a bit hurt right now, that's all.
- Guy in the crowd had an "I am a Steen Guy" sign, and Steen grabbed and held it up for the iFFV audience.
- A lot of brawling in this match early on. Gotta say, it suits Hennigan a lot better than I thought it would, but he was rarely ever called upon to get down and dirty in WWE. Plus, when he did, it was in broad strokes of exposition that exposed his punches as being turrible. Here, it was all close range stuff.
- Moonlight Drive, this early in the match? I'll allow it.
- We all know Steen can do a pretty fly moonsault, but from the second rope? Now you're just showing off there, Kev.
- I didn't mind seeing Hennigan kick out of the package piledriver, but I kinda wish he hadn't taken a super fisherman buster beforehand. Yikes.
- Hennigan still has to work on his Starship Pain or pick a new finisher, but he came off as VASTLY improved from his WWE days here.
Match of the Night:Sami Callihan vs. Matt Hardy - Callihan is a known quantity. He's a guy you know is going to turn in a tremendous performance every time. Hardy, however, was someone that even when he was well-regarded by the intelligentsia that ran hot and cold for me. In this match, he ran hot, really hot.
The main thread of the match was built around Callihan dragging Hardy out of the ring, kicking the shit out of him in a far remote location, and trying to get the countout. It actually reminded me of my old strategy in several oldentime wrestling video games, one that I used to win many a cheap match in career modes or survival gauntlets. But it was weirdly satisfying to see it bear out in an actual wrestling match. It almost validates my gamer habits until I realize this was an actual storytelling thing, and I was just doing it to collect rassle cash or what have you.
But yeah, all Hardy had to do was show up and not get gassed for this to be a good match, but he was actively good. Therefore, it was a great match. Callihan brought stiffness, Hardy had a sense of humor about himself, and they actually had great chemistry.
Overall Thoughts: The temptation on offering a free product is to skimp a bit, make people pay for the premium stuff. I didn't get that feeling at all from 2CW and its roster here. I definitely would have paid for this, and it felt like something that I should have paid for. It wasn't just the known quantities either. I have to admit, the first time I saw a 2CW show, Girls Grand Prix last year, I wasn't too impressed with a good bit of the native guys on their roster. But the effort and ability was there this time, whether it was the crazy bumps in the ladder match, or the controlled insanity in the tag team gauntlet. I was also introduced to guys like Dalton Castle and Pepper Parks, who are both making names for themselves in various other promotions.
The top matches all packed a huge punch though. Hardy and Callihan was one of the finest matches all year, and the main event between Hennigan and Steen nearly topped it. I might have liked the ladder match to have a little more cohesion, but those guys bumped their asses off. I dug parts of the intergender tag match too. The announce team of John McGraw and Colin Delaney was one of the best in the business. Hell, McGraw himself did a fantastic job setting the stage for the action.
I honestly don't know how 2CW remains in sort of a limbo. It's got location and talent. If the promotion keeps getting ignored after putting out free shows of this caliber, the fault isn't with them, it's with YOU PEOPLE.