Hey guys, Mid Atlantic Miller here. It’s been a while, but, I’m back. CWF has their annual supershow, BattleCade on December 29th. I can personally confirm that I will be in attendance. If you can’t, the good news is that CWF streams all of their shows from the Mid Atlantic Sportatorium on Twitch for free! This year, CWF has given us a wonderful main event. Arik Royal has his heart set on dethroning Trevor Lee and taking his Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Championship!
As someone who’s been a fan of CWF for the past 5 years, I can testify that the amount of history between Trevor and Arik is insane. The long history is what makes this piece so much fun for me. Examining the history allows me to discover several cool things. I can look at the overall evolution of wrestlers, from appearance, to wrestling style, to personalities. With each match, you see a different Arik and Trevor. With all of this in mind, let’s dig in.
This match takes place in 2010. At this point, both Arik and Trevor are still relatively young in their career. Arik was in his third year and Trevor was just a 16-year-old kid. Despite their youth, of both wrestlers show a lot of potential. Arik already has this deadly combination of explosive power and quickness. For a man of his size, Arik moves with such incredible speed. On top of all of this, Arik has the crowd completely behind him. Even in his early years, Arik was always a likable guy. Trevor, on the other hand, had heel written all over him . From show-off antics and poses, to the way he flips his hair before entering the ring, Trevor did several hellish little things well.
The match itself wasn’t a back-and-forth classic. Then again, nobody should expect it to be an even match- up. You can tell Trevor is going to get creamed just by the size difference. Many wrestlers fight with a size disadvantage. However, Trevor is just too young and doesn’t quiet have the knowledge and experience to know how to properly neutralize Arik’s size and power. Even with the help of Joey Silvia, Trevor just can’t overcome Arik’s raw brute strength. The cocky youngster gets whooped and the crowd is pleased.
For our next match, we fast forward two years. CWF has a very prestigious tournament every summer called the Weaver Cup. In 2012, Arik and Trevor wrestled each other in the semi finals of the Weaver Cup. The winner would go on to wrestle either then current Mid Atlantic Heavyweight champ, Ray Kandrack or the Young Gun Nick Richards.
Both Trevor and Arik transformed into completely different wrestlers between 2010 and 2012. Arik lost a ton of weight, while also gaining a certain swagger about him that was missing. Trevor still had that trademark cockiness. The big difference, is that he could now back it up. During those two years, Trevor became a much more complete wrestler, mixing his high flying, athletic ability with his newfound striking power. Trevor also has a sidekick named Chet Sterling now. Chet has one main purpose: help Trevor win his matches.
Chet can accomplish his mission in multiple ways. Sometimes, he’ll distract the referee, sometimes he’ll distract Trevor’s opponent. If need be, Chet will even get involved physically. The match shown above is joined in progress. In the opening seconds of the video, Chet distracts Arik and provides Trevor an opening. Trevor capitalizes with an Asai DDT to the outside. Things continue to go well for Trevor until he inadvertently baseball slides Chet and eats an apron powerbomb for his troubles.
After this, the fight was even. The shenanigans were finished and fans saw two grown men dropping bombs on each other. In the battle of big moves, I would actually say that Trevor got the upper hand. On numerous occasions, Trevor came within a hair’s breath of victory. Sensing that his foe was rocked, Trevor went in for the kill with a series of powerful kicks. Instead of weakening Arik, the kicks just empowered him. Arik responded to the blows with laughter and eventually blasted Trevor out of consciousness with a Sick Kick. Royal advanced to defeat then Heavyweight champ Ray Kandrack in the finals. Arik cashed in on the victory for a title shot four months later at BattleCade. Ultimately, he was successful and the Royal reign began!
2013 was a great year for Both Arik and Trevor. Arik had a great year as champ, beating world class wrestlers such as Cedric Alexander, Chiva Kid ( Andrew Everett), Zane Dawson, and Nick Richards. Meanwhile, Trevor solidified himself as a top guy by winning the 2013 Weaver Cup in a 45 minute classic against Lee Valiant. In my eyes, this match was the birth of the prodigy, Trevor Lee. Winning the Weaver Cup awarded Trevor a Mid Atlantic Heavyweight title match within the next year.
Trevor would relentlessly target the champ in the months leading to BattleCade. The two found themselves on opposite sides in a tag match that pitted Trevor and Chet against Arik and the man challenging him in the near future, Matty De Nero. This match was mostly meant to build up animosity between Arik and Matty. However, I can’t help but notice how often Trevor would just stare at the champ. It’s as if Trevor was letting Arik know not to forget about him. The ending sequence of the tag match subtly confirms this as Trevor takes advantage of miscommunication between Arik and Matty by knocking out the Heavyweight champ with a vicious running knee. Arik momentarily took his eyes off Trevor and was left laying.
Arik successfully defended his belt against Matty De Nero a few weeks later. The next person to challenge him would be his former friend Nick Richards. Richards was one of CWF’s most popular wrestlers until he turned his back on his friends and fans. Nick would put up a fight, but once again, Arik retains. One match wasn’t enough, Arik wanted to hurt Richards.
The next month, Arik teamed up with Mark James, Donnie Dollars, and former challenger, Matty De Nero. Dollars and De Nero were former partners of Richards in a stable called Fatback. Arik used to team with Fatback on a regular basis. In a way, Arik was almost an honorary Fatback member. This match was personal!
Nick would team up with Jason Miller, Chase Dakota, and a mystery partner. The eight men would settle their scores in a Cage of Death match This is CWF’s version of a WarGames match. The main difference is Cage of Death is fought under elimination rules. Eliminations occur via pinball, submission, or escaping the cage.
Nick would save his mystery partner for last. As fate would have it, that mystery partner would turn out to be none other than Trevor Lee. Trevor wouldn’t enter the cage until the timing was right. When Arik’s back was turned, Trevor snuck in and immediately KO’d Arik with a leaping knee. After pinning him, Trevor officially declared that he’s cashing in his Weaver Cup title shot at BattleCade. After accomplishing his goal, Trevor Lee tapped out of the match.
CWF’s supershow of 2013 was main evented by the two biggest dogs in the yard. In one corner, you have Arik Royal, the dominant champion aiming to make it past the one year milestone in his reign. Accomplishing this won’t be an easy task as he is wrestling CWF’s workhorse, Trevor Lee. Trevor has unbelievable athleticism and ring IQ. At the same time, he has this confidence about him, this chip on his shoulder that makes him want to win at any cost. This dangerous combination makes Trevor almost impossible to beat.
Another fact that I can’t overlook is that Trevor has knocked out Arik twice. Because of this, Arik goes into the match with an almost scary level of intensity. You can feel every ounce of frustration and anger Arik has towards Trevor. This is shown to be true when they shake hands and the 20 year old prodigy, Trevor Lee looks intimidated and shook up.
The match itself starts off at a rather slow pace. Nobody wants to make the first mistake and get caught. Both of these wrestlers have one punch knockout power, figuratively speaking. If somebody rushes in, we could be looking at a short main event. The opening technical portion is somewhat even. Neither competitor gets a true advantage. This eventually changes when Arik decides to begin utilizing his strength advantage. The challenger responds by slapping the taste out of the champ’s mouth.
This sends Arik flying into a rage that ultimately culminates in the champ hurling his 250 pound body at his foe with a pretty suicide dive. For a brief moment, Arik let confidence get the best of him and struck Trevor Lee’s pose on the apron. It’s as if he was saying “I can fly just as beautifully as you can!” His pride allowed his enemy to find an opening.
For the next few minutes, Trevor was in the driver seat. His momentum would be cut short due to a questionable tilt a whirl backbreaker. Arik has a good 40-50 pound weight advantage on Trevor. Slamming those extra pounds onto his leg caused self-inflicted damage to the challenger. The bad knee would come into play with the majority of his moves. Huge moves such as the running Meteora, the Collision Course moonsault powerslam, and the Orange Crush didn’t have the full power behind them.
In the final minutes, it appeared that Arik would not make it to a full year. Everyone believed Trevor sealed the deal when he countered the football tackle into a flying knee to the dome. Unfortunately, this move aggravated his knee to the point that he was unable to make the cover. A strike battle ensues and Arik lands the final blow with a vicious sick kick. Trevor immediately rolls to the outside. While the ref checks on the challenger, Chet interferes with a flying beltshot that would make Shane McMahon smile.
Trevor looks to capitalize, but he can only manage a 2 count. The champ regains momentum with a single leg Boston Crab, torquing his opponent’s injured leg in the process. Trevor fought out into a rollup for a 2 count. He attempted a Hail Mary flying knee that was countered into a three quarter nelson for the 3 count . The champ has survived his toughest fight.
After the match, Arik gives what I consider the ultimate company guy speech. He thanks the audience and says tonight was about CWF proving that they are the best wrestling on the planet. After the speech, CWF legend Corey Edsel strapped the title on Arik and raised his hand. Royal was rapidly approaching Edsel’s record and if he survived 2 more months, he would surpass him. Edsel’s actions symbolized a passing of the torch. In my mind, this moment was the official start of Arik’s status of The Ace. However, for the next several years, he would have some competition to challenge his status in the form of the prodigy, Trevor Lee.