Hey Guys! The Kernodle Cup began this week. Due to some technological issues, the format of this episode was different. This week gave us the first two rounds in highlight form. I think it’s fitting that since this week’s episode format was different, my format of this review will be different.
Usually, I like to give y’all a review that tells the story and also go through the moves. Basically, I try to pretend that I’m on commentary whenever I review. My goal is to be a hybrid of the color commentator and play-by-play commentator. I want to give y’all the best of both worlds! The only difference is I use written words instead of spoken words.
However, today, I am going to change my style. I’m just going to focus on the character development of certain teams. I plan on using a more play-by-play moves style when the full matches are uploaded. I really appreciate every view, like, or retweet that I get. Because of this, I promise to give all of y’all my best every time! In order to do that, I must do two reviews for the Kernodle Cup. One for the highlight format, and one for the full matches.
Another heads up for you guys, I won’t be going through every team for this particular review. Instead, I will be looking at the teams that really stood out to me from this episode from a character development standpoint. In other words, the wrestling itself won’t be discussed.
The first team I’ll be looking at will be Kerry Awful and Nick Iggy, The Carnies. They stood out to me because they showed two vastly different personalities in one episode. Their first match was against Otto Schwanz and Mace Li. Li is the All Stars’ rising prospect, and Otto is a decorated veteran that’s gone off his rocker!
Their second round match was against the team of Aaron Biggs and Kool Jay. Because they’re the next team I’m discussing, I’ll keep this one short. The Carnies really dropped the fun loving, almost comedic personality in this match. They were really great bully heels. This made them perfect foils for Kool Jay’s underdog personality.
Biggs and Kool J stood out to me for different reasons. First, they received a bye in the first round. With this team, it almost felt like the smaller Kool Jay had more fight in him. This isn’t by any means meant as a knock on Biggs. He was just in the ring more. It was almost like the big man was the little guy’s cheerleader until he came in to clean house.
Early in the match, The Carnies told Biggs that they haven’t forgotten about last year. In the first Kernodle Cup in March 2017, Aaron Biggs and Mecha Mercenary won the tournament and beat The Carnies in the semi-finals. The Carnies would ultimately get their revenge by pinning Biggs.
The next team to really stand out to me in this episode was Corruption, Ethan Sharpe and Cain Justice. What really impressed me was their aggression against Nick Richards and Michael McAllister. Cain has always been a tad bit of a hothead, but he’s always been able to keep it under control. It’s always been different with Ethan. For the first few years of his career, Ethan was always the rich guy that would have his minions do the dirty work. He never really had that fighter’s mentality and was perfectly fine with just relying on his stooges.
Last year was when Ethan started to become that competitive fighter. To be more specific, he really showed his aggression during last year’s Weaver Cup, making it all the way to the semi-finals and coming very close to beating the eventual winner, Chet Sterling. A few months later, he took his aggression to the next level after Trevor Lee broke his Ironman record in last year’s Rumble. This made him realize that he’d gotten as far as he could with his minions and now he must count solely on himself.
By no means am I trying to make Ethan into a heroic wrestler. He’s still just as arrogant and abrasive, he’s just become a more independent wrestler. I believe Sharpe’s aggressive nature is rubbing off on Cain. This could be very good for Cain, as long as he becomes selectively aggressive.
For this last portion, I’m going to talk about two teams simultaneously. I’m choosing to do this because the stories of each team couldn’t be any more polar opposite. On one side, you have Arik Royal and Roy Wilkins. From the very beginning of their careers, you could tell they were going to be top guys. As a matter of fact, I believe Arik and Roy got to the top quickly. This can’t really be said for Nick Richards and Michael McAllister.
Nick and McAllister didn’t really have an easy path to the top. Honestly, they’ve probably had the two paths with the most twist and turns. However, when they team together, something about them just clicks. To me, that’s what their moniker of Redemption is all about. Two men who’ve had recent rough patches joining forces and succeeding despite everything they’ve gone through.
As members of the All Stars, Arik and Roy benefit from associating with The Coach. Coach is basically CWF’s resident cockroach. The man survives everything no matter how hard you try to get rid of him! He also happens to have an incredibly high in ring IQ. He’s a master strategist and incredible at manipulating the official. Having him ringside is a huge advantage.
Despite having Coach in their corner, 2018 hasn’t been a banger year for the All Stars. In February, Arik lost the Television Title to Hurricane Helms, and Roy failed to regain the Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Title. Since then, both men haven’t really found that big moment where momentum shifts.
These two teams wrestled in the main event. I believe this was the only match on the episode presented in its entirety. However, I’m still going to wait to do an in ring review until every match is released in full form. However, I will say Nick and McAllister went 2-0 on this episode. Redemption continued their winning ways and the All Stars have yet to get their mojo back. Last year, Arik and Roy made it to the finals and the team of Nick Richards and Michael McAllister wasn’t even a thought yet. It’s really interesting how much things can change in a year.