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| Best Of the Southern Indys 2004; A tape review | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 13 2005, 10:32 AM (584 Views) | |
| whitemilesdavis | Apr 13 2005, 10:32 AM Post #1 |
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Tha Nu Me
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First things first: This is a CWF compilation. All but the last match takes place in the Carolina Sports Arena in Burlington, NC. It looks like a great atmosphere to watch wrestling, bringing to mind the studio shows of the early eighties. The room looks very professional with banners and backdrops all around and a few rows of bleacher style seating around the visible portion of the ring. It doesn't appear to hold a large audience, but sometimes on the indy circuit it looks better to have a "full" audience than a "large" audience. The video quality is great except for the last match, which is still perfectly acceptable for an indy. The sound only comes into play for the first match as it is the only one with commentary. The sound seems fine, but the second commentator is hard to understand at times. I don't know if that is because of the sound or poor pronunciation. Anyway, it's not too bad. On to the tape: The tape opens with an interview segment with Xsiris. It gets the job done as it gives us a brief history of the feud leading to this match. Gee-Starr took Xsiris to a time-limit draw in their last match. This is the rematch, and her chance to become the first ever female Mid-Atlantic TV Champion. We then get a quick backstage vignette with Gee-starr and her manager Brad Stutts, once again putting over the angle. He does a good job, but you so want this guy to be a heel. Gee-Starr vs. Xsiris ©- Mid-Atlantic TV title match First things first, Gee-Starr is way over with this crowd. She gets an enormous pop when she steps through the curtain. I'm not sure if the crowd is so hot for her, or hot for this angle, but either way it's not a bad thing. The match starts with Xsiris trying to talk her into just laying down, but it's not happening. He hits her, then she immediately goes for the STF submission, but Xsiris gets to the ropes. This is a nice little piece of booking continuity, because when time ran out in their last match Gee had Xsiris in the STF when the bell rang. This is the only match on the tape with commentary, and they do exactly what they should do: they discuss the match, and put over the history behind what we are seeing. One of the two is a bit hard to understand at times, but it's not enough to distract from the match. For her part, Gee-Starr takes a heck of a beating. Xsiris gets the opportunity in this match to display his impressive move set, and Gee-Starr sells it all nicely. The tide of the match doesn't turn until the 8 minute mark, when Gee catches Xsiris on the top rope and hits him with a Death Valley Bomb. X goes to hit Gee with the belt, but Stutts steps in allowing Gee to get the pin with a nice little roll-up move....the name of which I'll never be able to spell. It would appear that Gee-Starr is a better worker than any woman on the WWE roster right now, with the exception of maybe Molly, and she seems to have a better move set than Molly.(EDIT: Now you can make that ANY woman on the WWE roster) Her downfall will be that she doesn't have the WWE look, meaning only that she isn't 95% plastic. XSiris is an excellent worker. He could succeed in most any indy, and possibly WWE as a cruiser. I’m not a fan of inter-gender matches, but this was pulled off better than most any one I've seen before. Just over 9 minutes: **3/4 The faces fill the ring afterwards for a celebration, then Gee runs out and celebrates in the crowd. Some really cool TV moments here. Micheal Yamaha and Xsiris vs. Kamikazi Kid and Kid Justice CWF has lots of guys with "Kid” in their name....just an observation. Yamaha is a Shane Helms student, who has recently pulled job duty on Velocity, unlike his teacher who is pulling job-duty on RAW. He's a good heel and reminds me of Kid Kash in a way. Kamikazi Kid is a great suicidal, high-spot, masked character. He is very exciting to watch, but I think he is out indefinitely with injuries right now. If you watch him wrestle once or twice, you kind of expect that. Justice is a good cruiser weight. He kinda looks like AJ Styles' mini-me. Good back and forth action for the first few minutes with the heels finally getting the upper hand. Kamikazi Kid does a good Ricky Morton for several minutes, taking a beating, but showing just enough sign of life that the fans don't give up. In fact, the crowd chants "Kazi" for the majority of the match. The story of the match unfolds at the 11 minute mark, when Justice takes a huge bump from the top rope to the concrete. Good heel work by XSiris in going to check on him, but then beating the crap out of him. After Justice is taken away from ringside, Kamikazi continues to take some strong offense, including an incredible top-rope back flip into inverted DDT from Xsiris. The match plays out with the underdog face overcoming all adversity to win the match. More post match goodness, with a nice double team beatdown. Yamaha finally decides Kazi has had enough and takes a chair away from X. Just when you think Yamaha has shown a soft spot, he turns and crushes Kazi's head with the chair himself. 17 minutes: ***1/4 CWF Rumble Not a lot to say here. It's fine as far as Battle Royals go. It served its purpose nicely though. 1) You get to see basically every CWF wrestler for a couple of minutes. 2)It really puts Brad Attitude over as a force to reckon with and cements his face turn. 3) It establishes the feud between Attitude and Ric Converse. So angle-wise, this match did its job well, and there are enough fun spots to keep it entertaining. Also, Krissy Vaine is involved, and she is well....hot. Sorry. I know I should be all about work rate and all, but I'm not blind. Attitude wins in 33 minutes. No rating, but it was fun. Converse comes out after the match for a brief stare down. "Dangerous E" Corey Edsel vs. Slick Ric Converse © - No DQ, No Count-out ,Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight title match You've already heard me sing the praises of both these guys, so I won't go too much further with that. I will say this: I'd take this match on any card in the country, and I'd leave feeling like I got my money's worth. Corey comes through the curtain screaming " Tonight is the night", and the intensity just builds from there. The boxing style intros are a good effect, and Converse standing there with that cool old-school Mid-Atlantic belt is just great to see. This feud built for a long time, and this wasn't the final blow-off for it. At this point, Edsel is playing the face, and Converse is the heel. Before the two even lock-up, the match just has this special feel to it. We start off with some nice headlock spots, which the crowd is actually reacting to for once. The psychology is very solid, as Corey works the head and leg, while Ric works the arm. That makes sense because Corey being the big guy would want to ground Converse, While Converse would want to neutralize Corey's strength advantage. Very slick exchanges early on, with both guys always going back to the body part they were working. Edsel is getting the upper hand in these exchanges, so Ric decides to brawl a bit. Good punches, chokes, kicks to the face, but then Corey is right back to the leg. If there is one weakness in Corey's game, it would be that his punches aren't the best I've ever seen. His chops and kicks are brutal though. Ric only takes advantage again when the match goes back to brawling, and that makes sense with him being the heel. Good brawling action outside the ring to take advantage of the no count out stip, which sees Corey get the advantage again by going back to the legs. He does the old nuts to the ring post spot, and then does a figure four type lock around the post. Back in the ring, and Corey has Ric in the sharp-shooter. Ric hits a beautiful Hurricana ran out of nowhere to gain control momentarily, but that is halted by a vicious series of suplexes. Ric lands a very cool side-slam kind of move, but can't get the three-count. He gets frustrated, so he beats Corey with the title belt, which is all good since it's no DQ. Another bit of continuity with Corey rolling out of the ring, and Ric telling the ref to count him out, "forgetting" about the no count out stip. Back in the ring we get a couple of reversals before Corey piledrives Ric and gets the pin for the title. This finish would seem to come out of nowhere if don't know the angle leading in, but it is really one of the smarter finishes I have ever seen. If you know the history of it, it really is astounding. Excellent match. I really can't say enough good about this match, as it has turned into one of my very favorite of 2004. 22:30 ****1/2 "Dangerous E" Corey Edsel vs. Garry "Madd Trucker" Stevens - Texas Death rules, title vs. title, promotion vs. promotion To be honest this is a big letdown after watching the previous match. I know there is some historical significance, because Stevens' SWA was was absorbed by CWF with the ending of this match. Al-in-all, though not my style, it is a good action filled brawl. Stevens pulls a pretty heavy blade job, to the point that I can't tell if Edsel blades or if that is just some of Stevens blood...which is cool. The Corey Edsel we see in this match is drastically different than the one in the Converse match. Here we start to see glimpses of his sadistic character that has since surfaced as a heel. That may be one reason this match just didn't click for me. You've got two huge guys with psycho characters going at it hardcore, and it just becomes tough to attach yourself to one or the other, or really even differentiate. The highlights of this match include some good crowd brawling with Edsel bumping down three or four bleachers. Keep in mind, he's a big, big guy, so it's kind of a sight to behold. Edsel also delivers some sick fork shots to Stevens’s blood-soaked head...which is heart-warming. The ending happens when Edsel locks Stevens in a deep freezer. That's right, a freezer. If you took out a lot of the redundant brawling, and just segued between the aforementioned spots this match would be more enjoyable. It went 24 minutes, and that felt about 9 minutes too long. It's kind of a hard match to rate because of all the brawling, but if that is your thing you would probably enjoy this. ** Final Impression: This is a really good tape. Are these matches the best 5 matches in NC last year? No, but they were all in some way significant to CWF, and that is more the point of this tape. Out of the 5, three are very good, and one of those is great. CWF seems to have really strong, linear booking which makes for great feuds and meaningful matches. I would recommend this tape to anyone, if for nothing else the Edsel / Converse match. |
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| Mad Dog | Apr 13 2005, 10:39 AM Post #2 |
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ho ho who the hell are you?
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Keep up the reviews. I have to say my knowledge of southern indys is pretty weak. Good stuff. |
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| whitemilesdavis | Apr 13 2005, 10:41 AM Post #3 |
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Tha Nu Me
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Well, you'd be in the majority. The net loves the north east , and for good reason, but we've got some good things going on down here too. Thanks for the feedback ;) |
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| Mad Dog | Apr 13 2005, 10:52 AM Post #4 |
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ho ho who the hell are you?
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I might have to give Mid-Atlantic a try in the future. |
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| whitemilesdavis | Apr 13 2005, 10:55 AM Post #5 |
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Tha Nu Me
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They are very good about angle development and have good talent. When you start wanting to shop around for stuff, I can direct you to some good resources. |
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| Mad Dog | Apr 13 2005, 11:04 AM Post #6 |
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ho ho who the hell are you?
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Cool, I'll drop you a PM when I decide to get some shows. |
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| Stuttsy | Apr 13 2005, 12:12 PM Post #7 |
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TV title contender
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Fantastic review. I have always felt like the "southern indys" tag Statmark uses is a huge misnomer because he basically covers one promotion, which is hardly comprehensive of "southern" indys whatsoever. GREAT anaylsis of the Converse/Edsel match especially. I am glad you like our stuff so much. |
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| whitemilesdavis | Apr 13 2005, 12:15 PM Post #8 |
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Tha Nu Me
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See, it looks like I'm smooching some booty here, but I'm really not. That was just a great match. I'll have to find something I can really blast you guys over next time :D |
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| Stuttsy | Apr 13 2005, 12:49 PM Post #9 |
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TV title contender
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Oh I feel like we have a good group going, but as far as stuff to blast us over, there is still plenty to choose from. :) I think that goes for pretty much any indy though. |
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