CZW: 13th Anniversary Show Review

13th Anniversary Show on February 11th, 2012

Opening Match: Greg Excellent vs. Niles Young
Excellent's antics prevail early on. Young sneaks in a thumb to the eye behind the referee’s back and connects with a missile dropkick. He hits a bulldog and takes control. Excellent tries a few quick pin attempts to no avail and walks into a superkick. They battle on the middle rope and Young knocks Excellent to the canvas. Young lands a frog splash for a nearfall. He drives a Mountain Dew can into Excellent’s forehead. Excellent spits Mountain Dew at Young and hits a tiger driver for the win at 5:30. Young was simply a foil for Excellent, who was able to involve the crowd with his antics. The in-ring action wasn’t anything special but they got their point across. *¾

Mia Yim comes out after the match and challenges Excellent to a match at the next show. Excellent accepts the challenge and makes it a tables, ladders, and chairs match.

The Runaways and Kimber Lee make their way to the ring. Lee calls out BLK OUT and they come to the ring as well. Colon starts arguing with Lee and she challenges him to a match. Colon just happens to have his ring gear on under his jeans and we’re on…

Match #2: Alex Colon vs. Kimber Lee
Lee slaps Colon, who responds with a nasty boot. Joe Gacy clotheslines Colon on the floor and Lee follows with a chinbreaker in the ring. Lee applies an octopus hold in the ropes. She comes off the top rope but Colon catches her with a dropkick. Colon connects with a facewash kick and a basement superkick for the victory at 2:26. This felt like more of a segment, with the Runaways and BLK OUT brawling around ringside during the match. If anything, I can say that Colon running through his offense on Lee received a great crowd response and this feud definitely seems to have some steam behind it.

The Runaways attack Colon after the match. Azrieal and Bandido, Jr. make the save, leading to…

Match #3: CZW World Tag Team Titles: Azrieal and Bandido, Jr. © vs. Joe Gacy and Ryan Slater
Bandido lands a dive over the ringpost onto Slater. Azrieal comes off the top rope with a hurricanrana on Gacy. The champions take down Gacy with dropkicks. Slater knees Bandido from the apron, allowing Gacy to catch him with a neckbreaker. The Runaways isolate Bandido until he hits a tornado DDT on Gacy and makes the tag. Azrieal connects with shotgun knees on Slater and hits a butterfly suplex. Gacy suplexes Azrieal into a powerbomb from Slater. Slater follows with a slingshot powerbomb on Bandido. Azrieal hits an ace crusher on Slater but falls victim to a running powerslam from Gacy. Bandido almost hurricanranas Gacy off the top rope. Azrieal adds a frog splash. The champions hit a flying double stomp-DDT combination on Slater to retain their titles at 8:34. Aside from a moment of sloppiness down the stretch, this was a well-structured tag team match for the time given. Azrieal and Bandido are making the most out of their title reign and I don’t see them losing the belts anytime soon. **½

Match #4: Adam Cole vs. Drake Younger
A pre-match attack by Cole backfires. Younger clotheslines him to the floor and lays in a few strikes around ringside. Back in, Younger snaps off a few armdrags and hits a neckbreaker. He adds a delayed vertical suplex and a back suplex. Cole lures him into an enzuigiri and connects with a missile dropkick. Cole takes over until Younger reverses a Panama Sunrise attempt into a michinoku driver into the turnbuckles. Younger hits a gibson driver and connects with corner punches. He follows with a tornado DDT and the Drake n’ Bake. Cole escapes Drake’s Landing and connects with a yakuza kick. He lays in another enzuigiri. They tease finishers. Cole connects with a superkick and hits a german suplex. He adds another superkick but Younger won’t stay down. Younger takes another superkick but fires back with a lariat. Cole low blows him behind the referee’s back. Younger fights off the Panama Sunrise and hits a dragon suplex. Younger follows with Drake’s Landing for the win at 10:48. This was a solid back and forth contest, with Younger looking strong in victory. The only thing I disliked was Mia Yim’s constant interference, as it got to the point where the only time Cole could gain the advantage was through her distractions. This match was at its best when they were trading finisher attempts and both men worked hard to make the contest worthwhile. ***

Match #5: Sami Callihan vs. DJ Hyde
Callihan takes out Hyde with a dive during his entrance. He chops Hyde around ringside and hits a running hip attack. Callihan utilizes a chair. Hyde avoids a charge and Callihan falls over the guardrail. They throw chairs at each other and brawl throughout the crowd. Callihan rams Hyde into the boards of the hockey rink and lands a dive off the penalty box. He hits Hyde over the head with DVDs from the merchandise table. Hyde responds with a suplex onto the floor. They throw each other into the boards again and the action goes back to ringside. Hyde tosses Callihan onto a propped guardrail as the crowd chants “we want blood.” They’re only breaking guardrails across each other’s backs. In the ring, Callihan goes up top. Adam Cole runs out and distracts him. Hyde hits a chokeslam but finds knees on a splash attempt. Callihan charges at him but gets booted down to the canvas. Cole attacks Callihan on the outside while Hyde distracts the referee. Hyde maintains control until Callihan connects with a gamengiri. Hyde sees a facewash kick coming and hits a spear for a nearfall. Callihan hits a dead-lift saito suplex and connects with a sliding forearm for a two count. Hyde ducks a lariat and hits a tiger suplex. Cole enters the ring but accidentally superkicks Hyde. Callihan takes out Cole with a bicycle kick. He connects with a facewash kick on Hyde. Callihan applies the stretch muffler for the victory at 13:48. The early crowd brawling was entertaining due to them using their environment in creative ways. Once the action entered the ring, they had a few nice back and forth exchanges and were able to generate some believable nearfalls. In fact, I thought Cole’s interference added to the match as it gave some believability to Hyde winning. I was extremely happy with how this match turned out. It progressed pretty much how you’d expect it to but everyone was spot on with their execution. ***¼

After the match, Hyde and Cole start arguing. Cole angrily walks away as Hyde reminds everyone that he's the boss. Matt Tremont interrupts and chases Hyde away. Tremont talks about his opportunity to enter Tournament of Death in June.

Match #6: Danny Havoc vs. Rory Mondo
This match continues Mondo’s deathmatch trial. Havoc connects with a clothesline and throws a chair at Mondo’s head. Mondo responds with a stiff kick and lands a dive off the apron. Havoc blocks another dive with a kendo stick shot. In the ring, Havoc elevates Mondo into an atomic drop and chokes him with carpet strips. Mondo fireman’s carries Havoc through carpet strips. He dumps thumbtacks across the canvas. Mondo hits a DDT into the thumbtacks. Havoc responds with a dragon suplex and an exploder into the thumbtacks. He hits a carpet strip-assisted side slam. They battle up top and Mondo hits a sunset bomb through a propped chair. He follows with a flying double stomp for a nearfall. Havoc slams him into the thumbtacks and adds a sit-out powerbomb. Havoc hits a death valley driver through carpet strips for the win at 10:32. Havoc is one of the more entertaining deathmatch wrestlers to watch. With that said, the crowd hated everything Mondo attempted in the ring and the crowd’s lack of enthusiasm hurt the match. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, but this deathmatch couldn’t get off the ground. **

Match #7: Jake Crist, AR Fox, and Lucky tHURTeen vs. Dave Crist, Mr. Tofiga, and Chuck Taylor
Jake's team lands stereo dives to the floor before the opening bell. In the ring, Jake catches Taylor with a flying crossbody. Dave attacks his brother from behind. Fox connects with a dropkick on Dave and comes off the middle rope with an ace crusher. Fox lands his kick-flip moonsault to the floor onto Dave. Lucky tries to hurricanrana Tofiga, but he's pretty uncooperative. They do a five-way submission spot, which Taylor breaks up by pulling out a grenade. As usual, the grenade ends up in Taylor's tights and it explodes in the ring. Tofiga is able to withstand the blast. Dave's team isolates Lucky until he hurricanranas Dave and makes the tag. Jake lands a dive to the floor onto his brother and they start brawling. Fox connects with a missile dropkick on Taylor and comes off the top rope with a codebreaker on Tofiga. Tofiga plants Fox with a huge spinning side slam. Lucky knocks down Tofiga with an enzuigiri. Tofiga catches him on a plancha attempt and powerbombs him into the apron. Taylor overhead suplexes Fox into Jake. Dave hits an implant DDT on Lucky for a nearfall. Tofiga follows with a samoan drop. Fox hits Lo Mein Pain on Dave for a two count. Taylor catches Jake with Sole Food but gets overhead suplexed into the turnbuckles. Fox misses a second kick-flip moonsault and Dave takes him out with an enzuigiri on the floor. Jake superkicks Tofiga, who responds with a big piledriver. Dave pushes Tofiga out of the way and covers his brother for the victory at 9:03. The feud between the Crist brothers has produced some fun tag team matches and this was no exception. Tofiga was stoic throughout the entire contest but everyone else looked good in the ring. The story of Dave doing his best to avoid Jake, only for him to steal Tofiga’s win worked well and I really enjoyed this match for what it was. ***

Match #8: Sabian vs. Homicide
The tag team partners of both men, Joker and Eddie Kingston, had a singles match at An Excellent Adventure with Kingston coming out on top. Sabian attacks before the opening bell. Homicide connects with corner punches. They battle on the apron where Sabian hits a DDT. He follows with a dive to the floor. Homicide bulldogs him onto a propped chair. Sabian sends Homicide into the guardrail and chokes him with a chair. Homicide returns the favor by choking Sabian with a piece of the guardrail. Some violent brawling ensues in the ring. Sabian throws Homicide head-first into a propped chair. Homicide responds with a gibson driver. Sabian hurricanranas out of a second one and hits a back suplex. He adds a lionsault but Homicide gets fired up. Homicide hits a running powerslam and connects with a diving headbutt. Sabian retreats to the outside and throws a security guard into the ring to stop Homicide from diving. I thought that was hilarious. Sabian hits a brainbuster and headscissors out of an iconoclasm. He brings a chair into the ring. Homicide tries a quick small package to no avail. Sabian back drops him onto the chair and hits a german suplex onto the chair for a nearfall. They battle on the middle rope and Homicide hits a nasty ace crusher for a two count. Sabian misses a 450 splash but almost gets the win with a bridging pin attempt. Homicide connects with a lariat. Joker appears on the apron and distracts Homicide. Sabian plants him with a flatliner for the win at 13:34. The beginning and ending portions of this match were very good. However, they hit a lull in the middle of the action that completely took the crowd out of the action to the point where the crowd was actively booing them down the stretch. I think part of the problem was that Sabian randomly used a chair about eight minutes into the match that disrupted their flow because up to that point, they were having a solid wrestling match. I would expect there to be a tag team match between Sabian/Joker and Homicide/Kingston forthcoming. **¼

Match #9: MASADA vs. Robert Anthony vs. Devon Moore
The winner will become the #1 contender for the CZW World Heavyweight Title. MASADA and Anthony throw Moore to the outside and do battle in the ring. Moore connects with a leg lariat on Anthony. Everyone lands strikes on each other. Anthony back drops Moore over the top rope and onto MASADA. He attempts to follow with a dive but it gets blocked. They elevate Anthony across the guardrail. MASADA throws Moore into the steel steps and brings out some chairs. In the ring, Moore connects with a double missile dropkick. MASADA escapes the Queso Killer and tries a small package to no avail. Anthony hits a german suplex on MASADA. Moore lands a lionsault to break up the pin attempt. Anthony hits Taco Pizza on Moore, sending him onto MASADA. All three men battle on the middle rope. MASADA superplexes both of his opponents. He applies a sleeper hold on Anthony, who lariats out of the hold. Anthony locks in a boston crab on MASADA. Moore enzuigiris Anthony to break up the hold and hits a michinoku driver. MASADA saito suplexes both of them at the same time. He powerbombs Moore into Anthony and hits a death valley driver on Anthony. Moore crotches MASADA on the top rope. Anthony misses a dropkick on MASADA and then Moore dropkicks MASADA through a bundle of chairs on the floor. Moore connects with an enzuigiri on Anthony followed by a yakuza kick. Anthony responds with a bridging back suplex. The referee counts both men’s shoulders down and the match is ruled a draw at 14:14. Both Moore and Anthony will challenge for the CZW World Heavyweight Title. The match was just kind of plodding along until the finish took the wind out of everyone’s sails. If the goal was to setup a triple threat match for the title at the next show, I’d have to think that there were better ways to go about doing that. Even before the finish, the crowd wasn’t responding to any of the three-way spots that they attempted and while all three men were working hard, nothing about this match fully clicked. **

Match #10: CZW World Heavyweight Title: Scotty Vortekz © vs. Drew Gulak
Gulak stalls on the outside early on. They begin with some chain wrestling and Gulak applies a full nelson in the ropes. They shove and slap each other. Vortekz snaps off a few armdrags. Dewey Donovan trips him from ringside and Gulak attempts an early Gu-Lock. He takes over, with his camp attacking Vortekz at various times while the referee is distracted. Lucky tHURTeen, who is in Vortekz's corner, gets taken out by Mr. Tofiga. Vortekz tries to mount a comeback with a moonsault but he misses. Gulak applies the Gu-Lock but Vortekz is able to escape. Vortekz hits the Swisher Sweep. Donovan pulls the referee out of the ring during the pin attempt. Tofiga slams Vortekz onto the apron and Gulak reapplies the Gu-Lock. Devon Moore comes out and causes Gulak to break the hold. Tofiga traps Moore in a bear hug. Danny Havoc distracts Gulak, allowing Vortekz to hit a spanish fly to retain his title at 16:19. This match felt like sixteen minutes of wrestling just for the sake of sixteen minutes of wrestling. The crowd became completely indifferent to the action, chanting “Cena sucks,” “Super Dragon,” and “we want fire” at various points throughout the contest. I don’t think anyone bought Vortekz losing the belt in his first title defense, especially to Gulak. The finish also seemed overbooked and confusing. This was not the ideal way to end the show. *½

Overall: The 13th Anniversary Show hit its stride in the middle of the card with three solid matches that each brought something different to the table. As far as match quality is concerned, this show was about on par with the previous two events of 2012. However, I cannot give a recommendation here due to a lackluster double main event. The triple threat match featured a confusing finish that the crowd quickly turned against while the crowd just found themselves bored during the world title match. Considering that this was one of the bigger shows of the year, finishing strong was important and this show failed to do that. While there are some matches worth watching in the undercard, I don't think a purchase is necessary.

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