czw_14th

CZW regards itself as the land of misfit toys. In so many ways, they live up to this reputation with the talent they bring in, their fans, and the types of matches they book. This show alone featured a real-life couple having a death match, a food fight, and a four way where two men won to qualify for the Best of the Best tournament. As DJ Hyde said on one of our podcasts, he believes the promotion is a buffet table for wrestling. Just like actual buffets, there is something for everyone, but everyone won’t necessarily like what they’re being served.

Although Matt Gibson will be doing all CZW reviews moving forward, I wanted to make sure the 14th anniversary show got its due. Companies should always be celebrated for surviving another year in the trenches. Given CZW’s recent improvements and the number of stars they’ve first given exposure to, it’s appropriate that so many of these wrestlers got to showcase themselves on this show. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get the best of CZW in every match, but there were still some clear highlights.

Because of the departure of Pancoast productions, DJ Hyde felt the need to address fans and the roster about the future. RF Video, for better or worse, will be handling the production end and insuring the iPPV models continues forward. After Hyde’s speech, CZW smartly put AR Fox and Rich Swann as the first match. They may have met in the WWN Universe multiple times, but CZW is the company who trained them and first gave them chances. This must never be forgotten. Swann and Fox are two of the best high flyers. This match proved why. Fox is quickly stepping into the role of having the best match on every card he’s on, and Swann is showing signs of improvement. This was extremely innovative and showed the best of CZW. Even someone who isn’t a CZW fan should easily be able to embrace this high flyer battle as something special. It’s only unfortunate this was the opener and didn’t get just a few more minutes to develop into a four star classic. Fox retained the Wired championship, and we were off to a roaring start with what will probably be one of the best openers of the year.

Up next was a four match where both Shane Hollister and Shane Strickland each got pinfalls to advance into Best of the Best XII. Colin Delaney continues to show the value of getting into good shape and taking oneself seriously. An argument could be made he deserves to be involved in BotB as well, but Delaney has some rebuilding to do this year before I think companies fully trust him. Latin Dragon appears to have gotten significantly better in his time down in Mexico. The right two wrestlers won as Strickland excelled in a feud Swann late last year, and Hollister has deserved this sort of push from another one of the biggest feds for the last couple years. The ending was a bit goofy, but the endgame was clear. I’m almost hoping Hollister versus Strickland is either a semifinal or the finals to really wrap up the story and give us a definitive winner. Strickland needs time in Japan (Dragon Gate?) or more ring time with better workers to really establish himself, but he’s coming into his own. If Hollister isn’t a contracted independent wrestler by the end of 2013, I’ll be floored. I only wish this four way had received more than eight minutes given what other matches got.

Another underrated wrestler on the CZW roster is Alex Colon. I’m not always the biggest Drake Younger fan at times, but he was a bit more under control. Solid three star match between these two. Nothing extraordinary, but it was good back and forth action. I hope Colon can receive a bigger push in 2013.

Adam Cole and Sami Callihan continued their feud. This time they had female partners. Cole was a magnificent heel as he hid behind his partner, Jessica Havok, at the beginning of the match. Although the issue was really between Cole and Callihan, Lufisto tapped out the WSU champion to set up their championship match. LuFisto had earned a title shot earlier in the day by defeating Mercedes Martinez at the WSU show. Just like the opener and four way, this didn’t receive the proper amount of time. I also can’t say I was a huge fan of Callihan shouting about Adam Cole being gay while on the bullhorn. For someone who could be a future national star and has a reputation for being a top flight wrestler, you’d think he could avoid homophobic comments to get babyface heat from the maniac CZW crowd. Cole can absolutely be a heel, but his sexuality should play no role in his being over as a heel. Callihan’s behavior with the bullhorn was simply unacceptable and something that really took me out of what was a good show up to this point.

The wheels really fell off in the tag team match as Eric Ryan and Dustin Rayz won the CZW world tag team titles over Irish Airborne and Nation of Intoxication. I’m a huge fan of Ryan’s AIW work, and Rayz definitely has a certain something to get over in this business, but their win came after a convoluted angle involving BLK Out stealing the belts and integrating themselves into the match. It was pure chaos and did the titles no favor. Nothing against the result, but if you want us to believe these belts mean something, have an actual match instead of an angle and barely  a minute of actual wrestling before a finish. What could have been a show stealer was a ho hummer.

For whatever reason, Greg Excellent and Chrissy Rivera received about five more minutes than many of the matches in the first half of the show. Excellent’s character works for CZW, and I’m not against this type of match happening at all. However, they could have told the story they needed to in eight minutes. The result was never in doubt given Excellent’s future involvement with Colt Cabana. A shorter match and I would have been entertained. This was just a mess…literally and figuratively  I think this match speaks to the conflict happening within CZW, especially given what happened next.

Odd to see such a technical match in the semi-main event spot, but there was Chris Brookes defeating Alexander James, followed by a Front beatdown. The Campaign for a Better CZW is now in an odd position, but if Biff Busick, Kimber Lee, and Drew Gulak are involved, I can get at least slightly interested in what’s being presented. While I can understand the buffet aspect to professional wrestling, I have to ask why a food fight is getting 15 minutes and a pure technical match is being positioned just before the main event of a CZW show. This is not the type of crowd that typically enjoyed straight wrestling, so I question both the positioning and the idea behind it.

The main event featured Masada in a non-title match with Christina Von Eerie. A weird psycho sexual thing has been going on between these two. I wish the main event of the anniversary show could have gotten an actual finish, but apparently the world needed Joe Gacy to inexplicably get another opportunity in the main event. Gacy is the complete opposite of whatever over is and also not a great wrestler from what I’ve seen. People might look at Masada as just another death match guy, but he certainly has an ora about him. Plus, CZW has done a tremendous job putting him over month after month. It takes discipline and patience to do what CZW has done with Masada, and they deserve a lot of credit for pushing him so strong the last 18 months. The Von Eerie match was a solid brawl for the most. Glass and other toys were used, but this was quite mild compared to other CZW brawls I’ve seen. Still, as with all death matches, I don’t feel comfortable rating this.

This was an average wrestling show. I liked the opener a lot, and I can’t say there was any truly bad wrestling on the show. However, there were also some timing issues, and everything surrounding the tag team titles could have been done. This show represented the best and worst of the Combat Zone. I can only hope for continued improvement because for all the positives and negatives, I’ve done a 180 in my view of CZW from last year to this.

Grade: C

-CZW Wired Championship: AR Fox retains over Rich Swann/10:54/***3/4

-Shane Strickland and Shane Hollister qualified for Best of the Best XIII over Colin Delaney and Latin Dragon/7:52/**1/4

-Drake Younger defeats Alex Colon/11:58/***

-Sami Callihan and LuFisto defeat Adam Cole and Jessica Havok/9:40/***1/4

-The Catalyst (Dustin Rayz and Eric Ryan) win their first CZW world tag team championships over Nation of Inroxication (Lucky 13 and Danny Havoc) and Irish Airborne (Jake and Dave Crist w/Naveah)/7:07/*

. -Ultraviolent Food Fight: Greg Excellent defeats Chrissy Rivera/15:31/N/R

-Chris Brookes defeats Alexander James/9:40/**1/2

-Fatal Attraction Match: CZW World Champion Masada goes to a no-contest with Christina Von Eerie/20:50/N/R

For more information on CZW, check out their website. To purchase live iPPVs, on-demand streams, and DVDs. go to Smart Mark Video or Highspots.

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