This show has been built up for weeks and now it’s finally here. CWF’s supercard of the summer: Absolute Justice! We kick off the event with an old-fashioned grudge match between the Rising Generation League Champion, Cain Justice, and the veteran Mitch Connor. They actually manage to have a decent wrestling match together. And when I say “wrestling match,” I mean a wrestling match. Granted, there are some moments where things spill out into a brawl. However, most of it is dominated by grapples, holds, mat-based offense. The match was a lot shorter than I expected, but for what it was, there wasn’t much to complain about. Well, apart from the ending.

In the closing moments of the match, Justice goes for his Twist Ending finisher, Connor reverses it into a roll-up for the win in 6:47. There is no reason why Connor needed to win this match. Nothing against Connor, but Justice is on his way to becoming a top heel in CWF and I would argue that he’s quickly becoming a legitimate contender to usurp Trevor Lee’s 500+ day reign as Heavyweight Champion. If CWF is building to that scenario, then Justice needs all the wins he can get now. Justice does not need to lose to the older Connor when his own future is still on the rise. I also don’t like that the match ended so soon just as the pace finally started to get going. The match was ok for what it was, but in my opinion, the wrong guy won and it should’ve been longer.

Immediately after that match, Jakob Hammermeier calls out and takes on Chet Sterling for his PWI Ultra J Championship. Hammermeier accuses Sterling of “identity theft” and interesting enough, they do wrestle like mirror images of each other. The two have such similar styles and know each other so well that they frequently reverse each other’s moves until Hammermeier gets the advantage early on. After Hammermeier had the offense for awhile, Sterling manages to mount a comeback and quickly hits a Blockbuster for the win in 5:04. Not a bad match, but like the last match, I felt like it ended just as it was getting started. It was just a standard wrestling match, but had potential to be a lot more than that.

Next, we get a Fatal Four Way Tag Team Sudden Death Everything Goes Match between The Dawson Brothers, Sandwich Squad, Otto Schwanz and Ethan Alexander Sharpe, and SIS and Him. Every team has put something on the line and if they lose a fall, that something is gone. Otto’s career is on the line, SIS and Him’s masks are on the line, Sandwich Squad risks never getting another tag team title shot for a year, and The Dawsons put their belts on the line.

At the finish, former tag partners Mecha Mercenary and Him tussle it out. Zane Dawson briefly helps Him out, until Mercenary hits a Black Hole Slam for the win in 12:22. Zane doesn’t even bother to break it up knowing that he’ll still keep his tag titles without being pinned (smart man), but the bigger story here is that since he was pinned, Him has lost his mask., revealing himself to be Mike McAllister. I thought that SIS had to lose her mask too, but interestingly enough, she ditched Him and headed to the back the moment he was pinned.  William L. Cross enters the ring to motivate McAllister, telling him that Him is dead, but he can find redemption as Mike McAllister. He promises McAllister that he is at a cross roads that he can either walk alone or walk with him. When Cross heads to the back, McAllister trails right behind him.

Very good match. Everybody played their roles to perfection and the match managed to both progress old feuds and set up new ones. This whole McAllister thing is shaping up to be something rather compelling, especially with his former partner being the one to unmask him. Anxious to see where that goes. The action itself was fun to watch as well. Plenty of memorable spots, especially from Schwanz who I’d argue to be the MVP of the match. He might’ve given the best performance I’ve seen him give in CWF yet, which makes sense since his career was on the line. All in all, this was one of the better matches on the show.

TV Champion Aric Andrews comes out to say he’ll break the record for longest reigning Television Champion within the next month.  Then, as per usual for Television Championship matches, a crowd member draws a name from a jar. The challenger for Andrews tonight is Ric Converse. Andrews sneak attacks him early on before the bell and retains offense for most of the match from there. Converse mounts a comeback in the knick of time. Moments before Converse is about to win the match, he sees CW Anderson (who beat Converse for his PWI International Heavyweight Championship not too long ago) up at the ramp. This distracts Converse long enough for Andrews to get a sneaky roll-up for the win at 5:20. It’s astonishing to think that Andrews has been champion for a year now. The guy isn’t featured on tv nearly as much as he should, is never given an actual storyline feud, and hardly even wins with a finisher. I can’t remember the last time he won without a roll-up, yet alone featured on CWF TV. He needs more credible wins or he’ll continue looking like a weak champion. Tonight did him no favors and it didn’t help that the match felt like an uneventful borefest.

Afterwards, Converse and Anderson have a staredown that almost breaks into a fight. Smith Garrett tries to hold the two back, but ends up butting heads with Anderson.

Up next is Snooty Fox and Dirty Daddy vs Roy Wilkins and Darius Lockhart, who hasn’t been on CWF TV since the first episode of CWF that I reviewed for this site. That was over two months ago. He certainly makes up for lost time tonight by putting on a strong performance mixed with mat-based technicality and quick offense. He actually had to put in most of the work since Wilkins was busy at ringside taking press conference pictures with the Super Chicken mascot. He eventually got the tag halfway into the match, though I think it would’ve been perfect heel heat if he kept at it until the very end and managed to tag in for the pin win. Anyway, great performances across the board on this one. It’s no surprise that all four prove to be tremendous athletes with bright futures in this industry, but they really played up the heel/face dynamic really well. They played into it without making the match feel like a basic heel vs face match. The finish saw Fox nearly get the win after a powerslam on Wilkins, but Carry distracts the ref, then Coach Gemini (who was banned at ringside) runs down and cracks Fox in the head with brass knuckles. Wilkins takes advantage for the pinfall victory in 13:12. I didn’t like that Gemini interfered for the win. It made the whole stipulation pointless. Gemini might as well just sat at ringside as usual. Other than that, solid match.

After the match, Coach Gemini cuts a promo offering an invitation for Darius Lockhart to join The All Stars. Lockhart politely declines, and gets jumped by Wilkins for his troubles. Fox and Dirty run in to make the save. Nice to see Lockhart make a clear as day face turn (last time he was on CWF, audiences didn’t understand that Lockhart was face and Cain Justice was heel). Not only did his decline get a huge pop, I’m pumped to see him take on Wilkins. This is set to be a good feud with an even better match in store.

We get a promo from The Rapscallion, who calls out a number of other promotions tonight. He calls out WCPW for holding a worldwide tournament that lumps in Australians like himself with “The Rest of the World” representatives. After he says Australia produces some world class talent, we get brief flashes of examples, including actual WWE footage of TM-61, Emma, Peyton Royce, and Billie Kay. Can CWF do that? That’s definitely WWE produced and copyrighted footage they flashed on their screen, along with an excerpt of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” Hope they don’t get sued. Anyway, Rapscallion promises to create a revolution in the US via the hashtag #YoureGonnaNoticeUs to recruit other Australians. Hell of a promo. Excited to see where this goes and really excited to see more of The Rapscallion on CWF.

After what happened between CW Anderson and Ric Converse earlier, now we have CW Anderson taking on Smith Garrett. The stipulation being that if Garrett won, he’d get a title shot against Anderson on a future episode of CWF TV. I really enjoyed this match. In fact, I’d call it the best match of the night. Or at least it would’ve been if not for the main event. More on that later. As for that match, it told a good story not only in regards to the feud, but the two worked a very technical match with Anderson continually working Garrett’s arm. Plenty of great spots, my spot being when Garrett lifted him up on his shoulders, but his arm gives out, allowing Anderson to hit one goddamn beauty of a Spinebuster for a near fall. After that, Anderson sets up his Shotgun Kick, but Converse is out for the distraction. Garrett capitalizes by hitting his Fireman’s Carry Knee Neckbreaker for a close near fall. After trading reversals, Anderson nails his Shotgun Superkick for the win in 10:12. Anderson then locks in an armbar after the match until Converse makes the save. This whole Converse/Anderson feud is slowly becoming my favorite CWF program, and it isn’t even for a CWF title. The feud is heating up and I’m loving every second of it.

Finally, our main event: the challenger Nick Richards vs CWF Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Trevor Lee in a no DQ, no count out, no time limit match with the title on the line. I was skeptical over how they would make Richards feel like a legitimate contender when I still had my doubts about him going into the show. Especially when he walked out to the ring tonight looking like a scared child rather than a ready-made contender. By time the match was over, I was sold on the guy as an underdog challenger and future champion. I wanna say that this was another case where Lee successfully put over an unsuspecting challenger and made him look like a million bucks, but I can’t say Richards didn’t do a lot of work himself. He may have looked unassuming, but the more the match progressed, he felt like a proper underdog. He really laid it into Lee in this match (he did hit three Cutters, two of which in the first 30 seconds, the other near the end with Lee’s head propped inside a chair), and received just as much punishment in return. Tables were broken, chairs were dented, and these two beat the hell out of each other. Apart from maybe Lee’s defense against Brad Attitude earlier this year, this might be the most hardcore title defense from Lee yet. In the end, after Richards gets suplexed off the top rope onto a bunch of chairs, Richards eats a penalty kick from Lee, and then submits to an STF in 28:02. I had such low expectations for this match that I’m happy to be proven wrong. Most importantly, Richards finally feels like he’s been elevated as a main event player in CWF. Hope I’m not wrong and he’s able to retain this aura to him.

Overall, I was kind of disappointed by tonight’s event, but only because my hopes were high after last week’s CWF episode, which included a MOTY contender between Lee and Michael Elgin. While this show wasn’t as good as last week nor was the main event as good as Elgin vs Lee, it’s all still worth a watch. There are enough reasons to watch Absolute Justice and enough reasons to support CWF that you’ll find at least a few things to like and recommend about the show. Watch it below.

By Joe Anthony Myrick

A photographer/journalist working out of Detroit.

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