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AJPW – 1/26/1998 – Misawa vs. Akiyama 2

by Jeff on September 22, 2013 at 8:23 pm

Posted In: Blog

A couple of weeks ago I posted Jun Akiyama’s first shot at Mitsuharu Misawa’s AJPW Triple Crown. If you haven’t checked that out, I strongly encourage you to do so, because it was great. You know what was also great? Their rematch. In January of 1998, Jun Akiyama got a second shot at the Triple Crown, and it was a very different but also fantastic bout. This second match-up struck me as very fast-paced in comparison to the typical AJPW championship match of the time, although that may be the result of the white-hot, drive-it-like-we-stole-it pace of the first few minutes. By the two minute mark, the crowd is convinced they’re about to see a new champion crowned in devastating fashion. That’s pretty impressive given that most of the matches for the Triple Crown clock in at over 20 minutes.

But enough from me, check out Misawa vs. Akiyama 2.

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All Japan Pro Wrestling – Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama 6/9/1997

by Jeff on September 5, 2013 at 3:31 am

Posted In: Blog

My cable box shit the bed for a while today, so I spent a couple of hours watching the History of the Triple Crown DVD set I picked up from RudoReels as a Christmas gift for myself. I’m about halfway through that beast of a set, and I stumbled upon this gem. Mitsuharu Misawa, in the midst of his run as pro wrestling’s green-clad god and the subject of many of Dave Meltzer’s 5 star wet dreams, defends the All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown against a new challenger, Jun Akiyama. At this point, Misawa is All Japan’s undisputed ace, while Akiyama has been rising up the ranks since his debut in 1992 against Kenta Kobashi. This is Akiyama’s first match for the Triple Crown, and much like his debut, his first championship match is excellent. Also, there’s a shot during his entrance where he looks like the spitting image of Inoki, which I was amused by. Inoki and Akiyama – chin brothers.

└ Tags: AJPW, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Jun Akiyama, Mitsuharu Misawa, Triple Crown

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Ring Of Honor: SCUM’s Time Has Come

by Jeff on July 29, 2013 at 1:32 am

Posted In: Blog

Ring of Honor’s much-hyped Steel Cage Warfare episode of ROH TV aired in my market tonight, and it was the kind of wrestling television that motivates me to write blog posts. The SCUM story in ROH has been a big deal, but not a wholly positive one in the views of a lot of critics on the internet, which is basically the entire internet, because apparently anonymity and negativity go hand-in-hand. Anyway, I’m going to break down some elements of the SCUM angle and it’s resolution in a handy-dandy plus/minus list!

PLUS – Steen, Jacobs, and Corino were a group of rebels with legitimate reasons to want to destroy ROH. All of them could handle their business on the mic and perform in the ring, and Steen was a juggernaut of ultraviolence as he shredded the list of contenders to his title in his quest to demolish ROH.

MINUS – Steen, Jacobs, and Corino were opposed by Jim Cornette’s sense of propriety and whatever random opponents he could throw at the upstarts who ruined a dinner party.

PLUS – Steve Corino’s evolution as a character was fascinating to watch as he was pushed farther and farther over the edge by his continued failure to destroy ROH. The culmination of his arc at Steel Cage Warfare was gripping, as even his long-time ally Jacobs knew he had gone too far when he tried to set Steen on fire. Corino clobbering Jacobs and revealing that, ultimately, SCUM was nothing but an extension of his psychosis was a fitting end to a fantastic run of character work, and it also capped off a high-concept company-spanning feud with a very personal, human element.

MINUS – A lot of time was spent questioning Steen’s loyalty to ROH after he was excommunicated from SCUM, but at the apex of its dramatic potential, nothing was done with that idea. The commentary hinted heavily that Steen wasn’t in the building and expressed concern that he might not show up. He came down the ramp immediately when his music hit. Steen not showing immediately could have been an amazing point of drama in the match, that unfortunately that story thread was just tied up neatly with Steen’s allegiance never being in question once he stepped into the arena.

PLUS – Matt Hardy was pretty much perfect for the role in which he was placed. When Kevin Steen lost the ROH title to Jay Briscoe, Corino lost faith in Steen’s commitment to the cause. Enter Matt Hardy. An outsider who made his name in the domineering corporation the shadow of which ROH struggles to break free from.

MINUS – Matt Hardy matches. Hardy’s matches were a perfect fit for his character. They didn’t jive with ROH’s style, and that’s the point, but for me personally they just weren’t all that entertaining.

PLUS – Corino recommitting SCUM to destroying ROH after Steen’s title loss to Jay Briscoe was a great visual and an important part of Corino’s character journey.

MINUS – Corino’s new SCUM suffered very badly from nWo syndrome. The newly inflated SCUM added Rhino, Cliff Compton, Rhett Titus, Matt Hardy, and, for like one night, Jimmy Rave. The problem with this new version of the stable was that the only ones who actually mattered were Corino, a non-wrestler at this point, and Matt Hardy. Jacobs faded into the background. Rhino was off of television enough that I forgot he was in the group on several occasions. Titus has been in a freefall since Kenny King jumped to Impact and wasn’t given a large enough role in the group to turn himself around. Cliff Compton was also there. I’m not sure why.

PLUS – Steel Cage Warfare was an excellent end to the feud and a compelling match in and of itself. It’s combination of the War Games and Survivor Series formats provided an exciting bout that always made it seem like SCUM was within reach of destroying Ring of Honor.

MINUS – On paper, SCUM’s team and ROH’s team were not evenly matched AT ALL. Elgin and Lethal are upper tier guys in ROH and either one could hold the ROH World Title and do a great job in that role. Steen, once the unclear allegiance thing was swept aside, is in the same position. Whitmer is a legacy guy in ROH, and is particularly suited to matches which feature long-form exercises in the arts of ultraviolent ass-kickings. Now look at the SCUM team. Hardy wasn’t part of the team due to challenging Jay Briscoe, so SCUM’s top flight guy was missing, at least in terms of being a legitimate participant. So who have we got? Loyal soldier Jacobs, because somebody needed to be interesting on that team, and boy did he ever put in work to make that match as exciting as it was. Rhett Titus, who bumped like a cartoon character for some reason, and hasn’t done anything of significance since his feud with Charlie Haas. Cliff Compton as also there. He got powder all over the ring and I’m seriously not sure if he ever performed an interesting offensive move during this ROH run. He’s sure making the most of being on Colt Cabana’s podcast, but thus far he has given me no reason to find him interesting.Oh, and Rhino, who I forgot was in the faction, showed up for like thirty seconds. Seriously, I had to come back and edit this part in because I FORGOT THAT HE WAS EVEN THERE. So it’s three World Title contenders and a veteran of big-stage violent matches versus Jimmy Jacobs, two bland low card guys and Rhino who I keep forgetting is part of SCUM.

PLUS – Even taking my above issues with SCUM’s line-up in relation to ROH’s into account, Steel Cage Warfare was a fantastic match that built on the model of Survivor Series and War Games in an interesting way while telling a compelling story and taking several characters to new levels that make me want to see what they’re going to do next. It was an exciting half hour of professional wrestling that you should go out of your way to watch.

Also, the video package that led into Steel Cage Warfare was a well-produced encapsulation of the story leading to the match. ROH should use those more. Sure, they can’t match WWE’s team of video package wizards, but it did what video packages are supposed to do: remind you of important story beats that are about to be built upon or paid off.

└ Tags: Ring of Honor, ROH, Steel Cage Warfare

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Rey Mysterio, Jr. vs. Psicosis – Mexican Death Match

by Jeff on June 27, 2013 at 5:42 pm

Posted In: Blog

I posted this match on the blog about a year and a half ago, but it turns out that version was taken down. I just watched it again because Bloodsport: ECW’s Most Violent Matches is on Netflix, so I figured I’d find a new version to post. I really love Mysterio and Psicosis’ stuff from ECW. They’re a fascinating change of pace when looked at in the context of the billions of matches they’ve had against each other over their careers, because the ECW matches are the ones that deviate from their formula. The extreme elements really help separate those matches from the rest of the oeuvre while still retaining what made their encounters special. For your viewing pleasure, their Mexican Death Match from November 2 Remember 1995.

Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis – Mexican Death Match by superbatista619

└ Tags: ECW, Psicosis, Rey Misterio Jr, Rey Mysterio

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Wrestling Retribution Project – Champion’s Grail Battle Royale

by Jeff on June 26, 2013 at 9:58 pm

Posted In: Blog

So Jeff Katz’ much ballyhooed and then much maligned Wrestling Retribution Project has finally emerged from the internet ether with its first footage. Katz put out a statement, which I read via Pro Wrestling Ponderings’ Facebook page, about what caused the project to disappear and why it’s reappearing now, which I’ll let you read for yourself if you’re interested. What I’d rather write about is the video itself.

First things first, you should check out the video HERE. The password is whattooksolongkatz.

Okay, so to start with, a lot of what I have to say here might be changed by seeing this match in the context of the entire show and not as an isolated event, but my initial impression is that the costs involved in producing this were absurd considering the quality of the product. I’m sure payroll was hefty, given the number of guys that needed to be flown in and then put up in hotels, as well as the fact that the crowd were all paid extras, but I’ve seen indy shows with better production value that had 2-3% of WRP’s budget.

The camera work needs to be called out here, as it’s particularly clunky. Even after being edited, stuff that’s being highlighted by the commentators is flat-out missed by the cameras being out of position. There’s no hard camera that is set up to get the entire ring in a single shot, which results in a cutting between several roaming cameras which are all basically getting the same shot from different directions. This gives the video a weird swaying quality whenever there’s a cut between the cameras, like the viewer is just floating in circles around the ring. As a result, there are also issues with what parts of the action the cameras are actually getting, as I mentioned earlier. While missing spots is certainly egregious on such a scripted show (moreso than a normal show, I’ll get to that), a lot of the shots gave me the impression that the camera men weren’t told what they were supposed to be focusing on at any given time in the match, and so they just guessed. In a normal indy battle royale, that would probably be fine, but in a match which is clearly developing multiple stories, somebody should have been directing the cameras. At one point just before the 19:50 mark of the video, the camera man gets a close-up of the mat. Yes, just the mat. Nobody was on it. It was just the mat, and the ring rope. And that got left in on the final edit. A hundred thousand dollar budget got less competent video than my local indy shows get with a two camera set-up and an editor who cuts the entire show for a couple hundred bucks.

Now, WRP is a project that was set up to take an HBO approach to professional wrestling, with tightly scripted stories told over a series of episodes with a beginning, middle, and end. Cool. Sounds like a good idea. The problem is that telling a tightly scripted story with the aforementioned production buffoonery is nigh-impossible, because while the wrestlers in the ring are trying to convey subtle emotions through facial expressions and the way they execute their spots, the production is shooting the wrong thing half the time. Compounding that issue, the commentary team of Jeff Katz and Nigel McGuinness (who seemed to be using a different name for this, but I didn’t catch what it was). Compared to his ROH work, Nigel sounded like he had been shotgunning bottles of Nyquil and then trying to read a script that was mounted on spinning cartoon newspapers. Jeff Katz, on the other hand, just kind of sucked. The play-by-play guy is supposed to be the audience’s guide through the stories and verbally manipulating where they are placing their attention in a match like this. Katz instead chose to constantly mention how impossible it is to call that much action in between tortured attempts to get himself over with clumsy attempts to breathe new life into wrestling cliches. Nigel, on the other hand, just sleepily threw cliches out whenever it was his turn to talk, presumably keen to return to the state of Nyquil-based hibernation that emerged from to call the match. Overall, the storytelling was reduced to sloppy mentions of rivalries that were budding or escalating just as one of the people involved in said rivalry was eliminated.

Now, the big angle of the battle royale was actually pretty interesting, and something that could definitely only be done in a super-scripted setting. If you plan to watch the video, but haven’t yet, go watch it before you read the rest of this so I don’t spoil it for you.

No, really, go watch it. SPOILERS AHOY.

At the end of the battle royale, with Joey Ryan’s “Chase Walker” character having fought valiantly through a knee injury only to be suckered by MVP’s “Lord of War,” Walker was dejected in the ring when the Illuminati, eliminated earlier in the bout, returned. Bobby Hollywood (Kevin Matthews) proved to be pretty excellent on the stick while Stan Shooter (Kenny Dykstra) proved to be… also there. Anyway, Hollwyood cut a very good promo about twist-endings in movies, then revealed that he had a twist of his own, before outing Chase Walker as gay. Now, given that it’s pro wrestling, this was done using a pair of F words. Now, here’s the part that wouldn’t work with a standard wrestling audience: the fans rallied behind Walker, because as paid extras, that’s what they were told to do. If this angle had happened in front of a normal wrestling crowd, Walker would have been booed mercilessly and the Illuminati would have been babyfaces because homophobia. Walker ran off the Illuminati by jumping Bobby Hollywood, and was then consoled by his now-revealed-to-be-fake girlfriend as he limped backstage, unable to say his piece on the mic.

Now, this angle was brilliantly executed, except for one thing: the commentary. Jeff Katz immediately busted out his “Owen” voice. Instead of letting the angle play out in silence, which would have been narratively the strongest way to emphasize its importance, Katz and Nigel chipped in with murmured assertions that what was happening was not okay. Which is a fine stance for the commentators to take, by the way, they just should have taken it after Walker left and the scene was over.

As a first impression of what was supposed to be a groundbreaking project, this battle royale left me firmly entrenched in a state of “meh.” If the entire series is available for free, I’ll watch it, because I think it’s a concept with potential, but I don’t think I’d buy it based on what I’ve seen so far.

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FORCE #1 Show Recap

by Jeff on April 19, 2013 at 10:08 pm

Posted In: Blog

FORCE Pro Wrestling
April 12^th, 2013
Londonderry Community Hall

FORCE Pro Wrestling made it’s debut in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, April 12^th at the Londonderry Community League Hall. Just like the show, let’s get straight to the action!

STRIFE vs. SCOTLEY CRUE

The first FORCE bout in Edmonton was Scotley Crue taking on Strife, although Crue spent as much time taking on the fired up audience as he did battling with Strife. Crue, the self-proclaimed dirtiest man in wrestling, spent much of the early portion of the match making friends at ringside then getting clobbered by Strife when he got too distracted. Strife attempted to hit a plancha to the floor, but Scotley Crue pulled a fan out of his seat to use as a human shield. While Strife was able to catch himself on the apron and avoid hitting the fan, Scotley Crue took advantage and started putting the boots to the Pearl of the Rising Sun. After a missed Trailer Trash Splash from Crue, Strife was able to hit Sliding D for a near fall. Strife countered a cross body block attempt into a Black Hole Slam for another near fall, but it took Made In Japan (a wrist clutch driver) to keep Crue down for the three count, earning Strife the victory in the first FORCE match to take place in Edmonton.

Winner: Strife via Made In Japan.

Officer Gordon is usually on the other end of police brutality. Photo courtesy Trident Photography.

C-Block (Ugg & Officer Gordon) vs. Chance Beckett & Colten Kelly

Prior to the opening bell, Officer Gordon grabbed the microphone from ring announcer Geoff Chevrier and declared that C-Block was looking to add more bodies so that they could increase their bodycount. This bout featured three FORCE in-ring debuts, with only Ugg having previously competed in a FORCE match. Chance Beckett was making his return to Alberta after over a decade away, including a trip to the finals of the 2003 Super 8 Tournament against Paul London. C-Block wasn’t going to make Beckett’s return to Alberta a pleasant one, though. All four men spent the bulk of the match unsubtly bludgeoning each other until both members of C-Block found themselves dazed on the floor. Chance Beckett climbed to the top turnbuckle to a rising buzz from the crowd, then soared through the air and crashed down onto his opponents, followed by a faked senton into a flying body press from Colten Kelly that took out all three men. Beckett and Kelly attempted to double suplex Gordon on the floor, but when they had Gordon vertical, Ugg demolished everyone with a running cannonball from the apron. All four men continued to brawl on the floor, ignoring the referee’s ten count. The official result was a double count out, but C-Block certainly left the ringside area looking like winners, as after the bell they decided to go bowling with Colten Kelly and about four rows of folding chairs and then slammed the unfortunate “Pretty Boy of the Trailer Park” onto one of the chairs before Gordon could get Ugg under control.

The fans applauded Kelly’s ability to get back to his feet with the help of Beckett. His continued consciousness was, based on the abuse he had taken, a pretty significant accomplishment.

Winner: Double Count Out.

After Kelly’s battered body had been removed from ringside, Thadeus Richards II made his way to the ring along with his new client, Big Jess Youngblood. Richards bragged about Big Jess’ monstrous stature and his impressive in-ring abilities, claiming that his opponent in the main event, Cam!!ikaze, would be no match for him. Before Big Jess could add to Richards’ boasts, Cam came to the ring to assert that while Youngblood may be a monster, Cam!!ikaze was a freak, and it was going to be the freak that came out on top tonight. The two men stared each other down before Thadeus Richards was able to convince Big Jess that it wasn’t worth fighting Cam now, when there was no fight purse on the line.

Slammer suddenly misses the free dental care he got in prison. Photo courtesy Trident Photography.

Slammer vs. “The Omen” Gabriel Lestat

Gabriel Lestat entered the ring in his usual measured fashion, but was notably carrying a goblet full of red liquid. Slammer entered the ring in his unusual fashion, tonight including a top hat with snakeskin accents. Apparently Slammer’s release from prison resulted in him deciding that Slash was who he should turn to for inspiration on how to dress himself, now that he has a choice.

Slammer and Lestat both began the match with attempts to use their imposing bulk against each other, and while Slammer was able to get the edge of these exchanges, Lestat was quick to attack the throat of Slammer when he needed to turn the tide. Lestat focused on Slammer’s neck, softening him up for Six Feet Under, but Slammer was able to counter Lestat’s attempts to execute the move. He wasn’t able to counter an Impaler which very nearly spelled the end of his night, but he was able to score a near fall of his own after blasting Lestat through the air with his signature C4 Exploder. Slammer had the fans on his side, but eventually the supportive chants of “fish” got to his head and he took a moment to play to the crowd while perched on the top rope, giving The Omen enough time to roll out of the way of a diving headbutt. Lestat rolled out to the floor – seemingly to try to regain some of his strength by drinking from his goblet – while Slammer tried to regain the wind that he had knocked out of himself. As Slammer staggered to his feet, Lestat sprayed red mist in Slammer’s eyes, disorienting him long enough to score a roll-up victory. Lestat, red liquid running down his chin, allowed himself a sharp grin before taking his leave, as Slammer quickly realized that he had been cheated out of a win and hadn’t learned a lot of forgiveness in his time out of lock-up. Slammer chased Lestat backstage while the ring crew cleaned up the smears that Lestat’s mist had left on the mat.

Winner: Gabriel Lestat via roll-up.

Intermission

“The Hooligan” Evan Adams vs. “High Risk” Andrew Hawks

Surgeons are very excited by the prospects of what’s about happen. Photo courtesy Trident Photography.

This was a match that even non-wrestling fans would marvel at just due to its sheer athleticism and the daredevil nature of the competitors. Evan Adams, fresh from a successful tour of AAA Mexico, made his FORCE debut against “High Risk” Andrew Hawks. The first five minutes were comprised of fast-paced chain wrestling with heavy lucha libre influences, culminating in Adams catching himself after missing a dive to the floor only to be splattered by Hawks with a dive of his own. Adams’ most successful offence was his simplest: punches, forearms, stomps, and kicks peppered Andrew Hawks and were able to keep Hawks off of his game, but neither man was able to sustain their advantages for long. Adams, seemingly jealous of Hawks’ fearsome beard, made a point of ripping, tearing, and stomping at it. Both men also found themselves frustrated by an inability to keep the other man down for the three count, as several high impact moves were unable to earn a decision. In the white hot sprint to the end, Andrew Hawks seemed sure that he had the move that could send him home with the W, but Adams kicked out of Last Chance (torture rack powerbomb). Adams was able to regain an advantage while Hawks was dismayed at his opponent’s resilience, but “The Hooligan” missed his signature 3 Flip and got dumped on his head with the Beard Valley Driver (spinning wrist-clutch DVD) for his trouble, which was finally enough to keep him down after 20 minutes of action.

Winner: Andrew Hawks via Beard Valley Driver.

Cam!!ikaze vs. Big Jess Youngblood w/ Thadeus Richards II

Cam!!ikaze and Big Jess both entered this bout with very clear game plans; Cam wanted to use his speed and aerial offence to his advantage while Jess tried to ground Cam using his strength. Jess was initially more successful until Cam zeroed in on leverage maneuvers like the arm drag and side headlock takeover to put Jess on the mat. Cam!!ikaze got the better of the mat wrestling, but Big Jess was able to do a lot of damage when he was able to get back to his feet. The bulk of Cam!!ikaze’s offence involved springing off of the ropes or flying from the turnbuckles, including several attempts at flying body presses that ended in wildly varying levels of success. After nearly twenty minutes of intense action, Big Jess hammered Cam with a series of power moves, including a British Bulldog-style over-the-shoulder powerslam. With Cam!!ikaze in rough shape, Big Jess went for the kill.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait, we’re indoors. It’s just Cam!!ikaze picking a fight with a buffalo. Photo courtesy Trident Photography.

Youngblood hefted Cam high into the air, looking for the Bannock Bomb, but Cam!!ikaze had the presence of mind to attempt a hurricanrana as a counter. Jess was able to use his monstrous strength to haul Cam back up into powerbomb position, then drew gasps of concern from the crowd as he drove Cam into the corner with a buckle bomb. The crowd’s gasps went from concern to shock as Cam!!ikaze rolled a shoulder off the mat just before the three count, which enraged Thadeus Richards II, who insisted to anyone who would listen that it was a three count during a tirade at ringside. Frustrated by his inability to put Cam away with the buckle bomb, Jess went up to the top rope for his 300 Pound Moonsault. That turned out to be the turning point in the match, as Cam was able to roll out of the way at the last moment, causing Jess to drive all of his 302 pounds into the canvas. Even worse for Youngblood, his initial point of contact was the left knee. Seeing an opportunity, Cam!!ikaze quickly went to work softening up the knee further, then applied the figure four leglock to a chorus of “woos” from the audience. Big Jess nearly tapped, but was able to make his way to ropes just seconds before it seemed like he would have to submit. Cam!!ikaze, realizing this, quickly tried to reapply the figure four, but Big Jess kicked him off and hit him with a limping spear for a near fall. Another limping spear and Big Jess made a crucial mistake: he went for the Bannock Bomb a second time. Jess’ knee, barely able to support Jess anyway, buckled under the extra weight of Cam!!ikaze, who landed square on the Mahikan Son’s chest. Cam jack-knifed Jess’ legs and was able to score the pinfall victory over the stunned giant.

Winner: Cam!!ikaze via jack-knife pin.

After the match, Cam!!ikaze offered Big Jess his hand, wanting to celebrate a match well fought by both competitors. Jess returned Cam’s sportsmanship with treachery, bludgeoning Cam with a clothesline. The two brawled briefly before being separated by FORCE officials and members of the locker room. The fisticuffs were broken up, but the fight doesn’t appear to be over between these two.

FORCE’s next show at Londonderry Hall will be Friday, May 17^th!

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HEAT Volume 1 WrestleMania Sale!

by Jeff on April 5, 2013 at 11:29 pm

Posted In: Blog

Until the end of WrestleMania 29 weekend, the digital version of HEAT Volume 1 will be available at DriveThruComics.com for ONLY TWO BUCKS! That’s right, until the end of the biggest weekend in the wrestling year, you can get 124 pages of space wrasslin’ action, including exclusive commentary on all 100 pages from the first year of HEAT and a bonus 14 page short story illustrated by Daniel Schneider for LESS THAN A CUP OF COFFEE. Actually, isn’t a cup of coffee like six bucks or something stupid now? Whatever, just buy the book.

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CNWA Tournament of Champions – Bobby Sharp vs. AJ Sanchez

by Jeff on February 23, 2013 at 4:08 pm

Posted In: Blog

I haven’t posted any local wrestling stuff in a while, and this match popped up in my Facebook feed today, so I figured I’d share. The NWA has plummeted into irrelevance recently with Adam Pearce and Colt Cabana’s 7 Levels of Hate series ending with both men abandoning the gold and the NWA, but the Canadian National Wrestling Alliance has continued to grow.

For the most part, the CNWA appears to serve as a talent exchange program that allows guys from all over Canada to work in regions that they may not be booked in otherwise, which is cool. They had a big tournament in Red Deer in the Fall of 2012 to crown the Canadian Heavyweight Champion, which saw the Heavyweight Champions of 8 of the member of promotions compete in a single elimination tournament. I remember wanting to drive down to Red Deer for this show, but I couldn’t arrange the rest of my day so that I could get there in time for the show.

This is an opening round match from the tournament, featuring Pure Power Wrestling Champion Bobby Sharp taking on CWE Tag Team Champion and winner of a battle royal earlier in the show (which got him into the tournament) AJ Sanchez. These guys are both really entertaining and not all that well known outside of Western Canada, so give this one a watch. The site that CWNA hosts its video content on doesn’t have an embed option (boooooo), so click the link below to check it out.

CNWA Tournament of Champions – Bobby Sharp vs. AJ Sanchez

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Smackdown 01/11/2013 – Alberto Del Rio vs. Big Show – Last Man Standing

by Jeff on February 10, 2013 at 7:51 pm

Posted In: Blog

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but it’s been tough to find the whole match online on its own. Alberto Del Rio’s shocking World Heavyweight Championship win over the Big Show on Smackdown in January was the best TV match I’ve seen in quite a while, particularly in terms of the psychology and emotional beats of the match. Remember, this is like two weeks after Alberto Del Rio ALMOST KILLED SANTA CLAUS, and by the end of the match, he’s getting some pretty outstanding babyface reactions. It’s also, in my opinion, better than their rematch at the Royal Rumble. That’s probably not an overly brave assertion, because the finish in their match at the Rumble was really dumb, but I think overall it was a more enjoyable watch. Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for a new comic.

Alberto Del Rio vs Big Show (Last Man Standing… by chriswormley

└ Tags: Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Smackdown, WWE

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