The stream, as with last time, was running pretty much flawlessly but the picture quality wasn’t good and going full screen wasn’t advised.
Pre-Show: League of Justice (Capt. Dick Justice, “Studly” Steve McKenzie, Guero Loco, & ZS III) VS. Hamin’s Hackers (Capt. Bin Hamin, Eric M. Timmins, Peter D. Order, & AL-Qaeda)
A few minutes of bad wrestling that quickly went to a no-contest. I’d note how terrible a pre-show this was, but given the main show was free it was more of a horrible opener followed by 20 minutes of dead air.
Juggernaut Jason Axe vs Johnny Gargano – 30 Minute Iron Match
Good opener – Gargano was his usual self, a great fiery babyface, and Axe held up his end. There were no falls after 30 minutes, and they built to a 60 minute match in the future. The heat was up and down, mainly down towards the end which hurt it, but the action was solid. Fans were chanting for five more minutes. It was good, but I honestly I don’t think it needed 30 to begin with.
The lights are so ungodly awful that you can’t NOT think about them. Very distracting during the first match and didn’t change throughout the show. Steen buried them on commentary later.
Cheech vs. Slyck Wagner Brown
A fun SWB showcase, highlighted by him catching Cheech mid-dive on the floor, and hitting a tombstone. Brown won with a powerbomb into a facebuster. Crowd were pretty into SWB.
Capt. Nick Ando vs. Gregory Iron vs. Dalton Castle vs. Adam Pearce.
Heels triple-teamed Iron early on, until it broke down into a four way move fest. Nothing amazing. Ando won with a roll up with the tights. Iron was well liked. Not a whole load to it.
Kevin Steen vs. Jay Freddie – No Holds Barred
Good brawl – they didn’t do any OTT nonsense with seven stacked tables, or tacks or the like. Steen was really entertaining as usual, playing more of a heel and jawing with the fans early. They did a bunch of cool spots with chairs, including Steen’s pop-up powerbomb on two open chairs. Steen worked his knee throughout, and Freddie’s selling was good. The ref stopped it after Steen Pillmanized the leg, which was a lame finish. Steen cut a heel promo afterward and was cheered.
Colin Delaney vs. Isys Ephex (c) – 2CW Championship
Ephex retained the title in a nothing match – kinda lame as a title bout, but at least it wasn’t the main event. Ephex was moving in slow motion and looked off by several steps at certain points. Delaney fared better but the match never came together. Ephex kicked the ropes to crotch Delaney before the finish which lead to Colin cutting a whiny promo after the fact. They also built to a rematch – which seems to be the theme of the evening.
Hamin’s Hackers came out with DICK JUSTICE~! They had kidnapped him on the pre-show. They did a lame promo followed by the tease of a beheading (yes) until some faces did a run in – a horrendous run in – and subdued Hamin. They cut his beard off after wrapping him in an American flag. A positively dire waste of time.
Michael Elgin vs. AR Fox
All action from the go – almost exactly what you’d expect from both guys in the best possible way. Fox in particular looked awesome. Best thing on the show thus far. Elgin won when he blocked a frankensteiner and hit a Super Powerbomb.
Mickie James vs. Jessicka Havok
Another ‘just a match’ match. Mickie’s selling was on point for Havok’s monster heel stuff early but that was really the only notable thing – except Havok taking a billion steps while doing Callihan’s old face-wash spot, which irritated me more than it should have. James won with her DDT.
The DoJo Bros vs. The Young Bucks
Excellent match. In the same league as their PWG battles – lightning quick pace, near flawless action and, as a special surprise, heel Kevin Steen commentary which was highly amusing. The DoJo Bros won clean and, interestingly, there was hand shaking and KLIQ hand signs after the match – no antics from the Bucks, just sportsmanship.
CK (Sean Carr & Kage) (c) vs. Punisher VanSlyke & Kevin “The Man” Graham vs. OI4K – Tag Team Tables Match for the 2CW Tag Team Titles.
The announcers clarified as the match got under way that it was elimination rules, and that both men from a team had to go through tables to be eliminated.
Kage was eliminated right away as he brawled to ringside with Graham and VanSlyke who immediately put him through a table. The other competitors quickly joined the fray. Carr went through a table via a Dave Christ lionsault which was almost completely missed by the production crew. The commentators weren’t sure if Kage’s initial elimination counted, noting the referee might not have seen it, or maybe there wasn’t a bell. After a minute of confusion, the ring announcer noted that the team was eliminated.
The match resumed until one of the Christ brothers of OI4K was superplexed through a table. The bell rang and Punisher and Graham were declared champions. What? How? Why? Commentators were confused, fans were annoyed. Fade to black. This was an almost cliché example of bad booking where no one knew the rules of the match. A disastrous way to end a show that was almost a total stinker.
A free show is a free show but that doesn’t excuse a poor product – 2CW got some deserved hype after their very enjoyable free-for-view show earlier this year, and likewise they need to take the licks they’re going to get for this one. The show was hideous to look at from a production stand point. Many of the matches underperformed or outright sucked, including a disastrous main event. Mercifully, the DoJo Bros and The Young Bucks killed it once again, redeeming the show somewhat. I can and have seen that match elsewhere before BUT I greatly appreciate being able to share it with friends for free. Likewise, matches such as Fox vs. Elgin brought the goods but all in all this show felt like a wasted opportunity.
They didn’t fade to black after the bell rang during the main event. Pun and Graham, who looked visibly pissed, grabbed the other Christ and put HIM through a table too. And, you left out Steen’s AWESOME color commentary during Bucks/Dojo bros.
I remember the second table spot but hadn’t they already been declared the winner here at this stage? I did mention Steen’s commentary though.
After some Twitter conversations, since I can express my thoughts in 140 characters, here’s what I thought about the show / this particular review. I’ll put things in the same order you did so everyone can follow along.
— The lighting was an issue on the stream, yes. Not sure why everything had that yellow tint. The purple was a product of the lights at the show, but I’ve seen multiple pictures taken live at the show and everybody wasn’t yellow like what was seen on the screen. Not sure what caused that.
— The opening match when 2CW does a PPV isn’t really a match to take seriously. They use it to test the equipment and make sure everything is working right. Maybe ROH should take notice. As far as the actual match goes, it was what you would expect from the people involved as someone who’s been to almost (if not more than) half of their shows. These guys are the “filler” per se, in the shows. From the perspective of people that don’t live in NY and don’t attend shows regularly, I can see how you wouldn’t like this match, but this is one of the things that make 2CW 2CW.
— Ironman Match. It was a good match. I didn’t like the idea of a no finish, because the two guys no finished in Potsdam back a few months ago that lead up to that match. 2CW shows are 3 hours and once a month, so I think that a 60 minute iron man match isn’t really a good idea because that’s going to take up most of the show. I have no doubts that Axe and Gargano can do it and put on a great match, but when 2CW only runs shows once a month I think it’s unnecessary.
— You mentioned the lighting again and said that you couldn’t NOT notice it. By the end of the first match I stopped noticing it and didn’t really take notice the rest of the night.
— Cheech vs. SWB – This match was exactly what you’d expect from these two. Cheech always gets a great heel reaction with little pockets of cheering at 2CW shows because he’s so cocky, what’s not to love? Slyck is the same way. He’s been getting lots of face reactions lately at 2CW shows, I think it’s time for 2CW to turn him face. The heel isn’t over anymore. Good match to keep just enough energy in the crowd from the opener. The catch into tombstone was a good effect.
— Quadruple Conflict: I agree with everything you said. I wasn’t really impressed with Pearce, my first time seeing him. Ando is fun to watch, and Dalton Castle has been nothing short of entertaining and hard working in his 3 2CW shows. I like his work a lot. Gregory Iron has been really over with the crowd every time he’s been there.
— No Holds Barred. Loved every minute of this match, but I may be a bit biased as Steen is my favorite wrestler right now and I don’t understand the hype about Freddie. Steen is always an amazing heel when he shows up and he played the role perfectly, totally brutalizing Freddie’s knee. The stuff with the chairs was cool and it worked really well when aligned with the knee problems. The promo after was fun and Steen’s interactions with all the hats were probably the second funniest things I’ve seen in 2CW (He wore a friend’s Kane mask one show and did a bunch of Kane spots which was awesome)
— 2CW Title match. It was a pretty lackluster match, to be honest. I agree with most of what you said in the review. The match was a bit of a let down, but in hindsight this should have been the main event title match. You pointed out that Isys was moving in slow motion and looked off a bunch. That’s something that are part of Isys’ matches when he wrestles at a moderate to fast pace. He’s entertaining but seems to have a hard time keeping up with people faster than him. Jason Axe and Matt Hardy were some of his best opponents to wrestle because of the paces. This is another one of the nuances that you get used to when you see multiple shows. You come to love Isys for it because it actually adds this weird element to his matches and when he wins, it’s kind of an underdog effect. But I can see how this would look bad from an “outside” perspective after only seeing him wrestle Axe.
— Again, the people from the opening match are kind of point fillers. The beheading thing didn’t really surprise me after having been to lots of shows. There was one show where Jason Axe hung J. Freddie from the rafters to win a Last Man Standing match, so that didn’t surprise me much. Again, just one of those nuances of being a long time fan of 2CW and seeing these guys so much that you start to love them but as someone who’s only seen the 2 PPVs, I can see where you came from.
–Elgin vs. Fox. Loved this match. Agree with everything you said. Easily the best match of the night other than the non title tag match. AR Fox never disappoints and Elgin is just a powerhouse. Interesting how well the two differing styles mashed so well. Goes to show how talented these two really are.
–Women’s match. I agree with everything you said here as well. Havok doing the running boot thing really frustrated me as well. I even said to my friends I was watching with at one point “She really needs to stop doing that. It doesn’t look good when she does it. She should leave that to Sami Callihan.” This was a pretty standard 2CW women’s match. Not terrible, but not the best match on the card. Personally, I miss the days of seeing Portia Perez vs. Sara Del Ray in 2CW. They stole the show a few times in my eyes.
— Non-title tag match. Without ever seeing their PWG matches, I agree with everything you said. I think Steen on commentary made an excellent match extremely memorable. Especially when he let “What a fuckin match.” slip out in the middle of things. It was cool to see the handshake after, and it’s nice to see what Young Bucks can do outside of TNA. I’d never seen them before this weekend but I’m super impressed with them. I’ve never seen a bad match that involved either Eddie Edwards or Roderick Strong. Kevin Steen calling Edwards “The American Pitbull” Eric Philbin at the beginning of the match actually made me laugh so hard my nose bled. By far the best match of the night.
— Main Event. Not even going to touch this one. The biggest clusterfuck of a main event I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what happened but you can clearly tell that Kevin Graham was frustrated with the lack of any structure at all. This probably stems from the night before when Pun and Graham wrestled the Dojo Brothers in Watertown and the Dojo Brothers literally chopped the entire right side of Kevin’s chest raw. It took him almost five minutes after the end of that match to stand straight up and walk out of the arena. He refused to talk to me after the show when I tried to ask him if he was okay, and then this happened. After being at Watertown and seeing the PPV, I understand his frustrations and I would have probably reacted the same way.
Overall, as a fan of 2CW for about 7 years now I liked this show a lot. It’s the first show I’ve seen for the first time that I wasn’t actually there for. (I buy the DVD’s of all the shows I go to.) I can see how, from an iPPV only standpoint you would be disappointed, but other than the lighting and the main event, I think it was a pretty good show. A lot of the things that you didn’t like are subtle nuances that you come to know and love as a long time 2CW goer. Things like Isys seeming to be off point (I honestly think that’s just his style) and the guys in the opening match not being the best.
Honestly, I think those things make 2CW the perfect Indy wrestling promotion. They have their local, home grown guys that may not be the best but they work to the best of their ability and the crowd loves them for what they are. (Dick Justice, Bin Hamin, Pete D. Order…pretty much the opening match guys) Then you have their home grown guys that really can go and put on great matches when they’re called upon (Jason Axe, isys Ephex, J. Freddie.) Then you have people that aren’t really, or weren’t originally 2CW guys but are around for every, or almost every single show and never disappoint (Colin Delaney, Eddie Edwards, Kevin Steen, and reaching back to Sami Callihan and Brodie Lee.) Then they bring in one or two big established names to round out shows (Mickie James, Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno the night before the PPV, Matt Hardy, John Morrison, etc.) and they do a really good job of meshing all of those categories together to give you a show that, while it has it’s ups and downs, the more and more you see their shows you’ll start to know and love every bit of it (I think, because myself and everyone I know do.) Give it another shot in May 2014 and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.