We open the show with the NEW PWI Ultra-J Champion, Logan Easton Laroux, after he unseated Chet Sterling for the belt in a Ladder Match during a July 14th NOVA Pro Wrestling event. The Champion of the 1% cuts a promo bragging about his win. He also mentions that there will be a Fatal Four Way later in the night to decide the #1 contender for his newly won title. In fact, that match takes place right after Laroux’s promo on the crowd.
Those four participants are Garrison King, Carlos Gabriel, Pat Monix, and Tracer X. These are four regulars among promotions like Freelance Wrestling, AIW, MWO, and PWX. None of these guys have appeared in a CWF ring before and so regular fans likely won’t be familiar with any of them. However, each man is eager to make a strong impression and they do just that. Especially for the crowd, who give them a well deserved “This is awesome!” chant. From beginning to end, this match is filled with quick-paced high flying moves. Some of these moves I’ve never seen before. If you’ve never seen a Canadian Destroyer Backstabber, this is the place to see it. To quote Vince Russo (something I hope to never do again), this match was “un-freakin’-believable.”
At the finish, Monix disposes of Gabriel with a springboard Diamond Dust. Monix then runs right into a slingshot Complete Shot through the ropes from Tracer X. X capitalizes with a 450 Splash for the win at 6:33. A post-match segment sees Laroux and Tracer have a staredown. Looking forward to their title match. Hopefully, it takes place in a CWF ring.
Carving out new opportunities for young guns seems to be the theme of the night as newbie Marvelous Matt Knicks cuts a backstage promo about his participation in the Weaver Cup. Round 1 starts next week and, like Knicks said himself, you’re not gonna want to miss this one.
Right after, we get another backstage promo. This time, from Aspyn Rose and Aaron Epic. Epic takes control of the mic and tells Rose’s opponent that his “siren” is going to put her to sleep with a song. Then, his Weaver Cup opponent for next week, Matt Knicks, is going to get beat down.
Next up is a battle of the weirdos as the Boar of Moldova takes on the deranged Joshua Cutshall. We get a literal hoss battle here. I love a good hoss fight so I couldn’t help but love this. These guys are large and they hit hard, just how I like it. Cutshall actually unleashes a surprising amount of agility as well, particularly when he hits a Sling Blade. The Boar nails Cutshall with The Gore, but ring awareness allows Cutshall to roll out the ring before Boar can make a cover. After Boar rolls him back into the ring, goes for another Gore, but Cutshall ducks out the way. Instead, Cutshall pulls in Boar by his tail to connect with one whopper of a Realization Elbow to the back of the head. To put an end to a fun contest, Cutshall wins in 6:53.
We get yet another backstage promo from another Weaver Cup participant. This time, from Stevie Fierce, who admits that CWF fans probably don’t know who he is. Although, they will when he beats Alex Daniels next week. Not only will we know who he is, we’ll be chanting “I love Stevie Fierce.”
In another backstage promo, Aric Andrews says that he is now tied with Michael Yamaha’s historic reign as CWF TV Champion at 392 days. Andrews predicts that he’ll break that record after he survives an “8-Man clusterfuck” tonight to successfully defend his title. After it’s over, not only will Yamaha be forgotten in the past where he belongs, but Andrews will become the greatest TV Champion of all time. Great heel promo from Andrews.
Back in the ring, Jessica Troy takes on Aspyn Rose. The whole match was Troy on offense from the get-go. To be fair, Rose does he a crazy knee to the face in the bottom of the corner. That actually would have made for a believable win. Afterwards, Rose goes for a Complete Shot in the corner, but Troy counters and hits a beautiful Fisherman Suplex for the win in 5:39. Not a bad match at all. I wish it would’ve been more competitive to see what else Rose had in her arsenal, but as a showcase for Jessica Troy, the match did the job.
One thing I noticed was that the commentary really emphasized that Troy was from Australia. At last week’s Absolute Justice show, The Rapscallion called for any Australians out there willing to join his revolution. Interesting. Could we be looking at a future recruit in Jessica Troy for the revolution? We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m intrigued.
We follow that up with a backstage interview from CL Party with Utamaro, who will make his CWF debut next week for his Weaver Cup match against Logan Easton Laroux. He speaks Japanese for his promo. I don’t speak Japanese so I have no idea what he said. Looked like a good promo, though. I think
We transition into a backstage promo from Percy Davis and Frankie Flynn, who promise to win next week’s Tag Team Gauntlet for a future Tag Team Title shot. These two will be tagging for the first time next week. We’ll have to wait and see what they do in the ring, but as far as their theatrical characters go, they should make a fun team.
Speaking of The Rapscallion, Mike Moretti himself cuts a backstage promo to announce his participation in the Weaver Cup. Next week, he’ll take on Lucas Calhoun in Round 1. His promo was as eccentric as ever, though I’m disappointed that he didn’t mention that aforementioned Australian revolution. He alluded to putting his country on the map with a Weaver Cup win, but nothing about recruitments. Hope they’re not dropping that storyline so soon.
For our main event, we get an 8-Man Tag Team match. The stipulation is that if any champion gets pinned, they must defend their title immediately after the match against the guy who pinned them. The match-up is CWF Mid-Atlantic Tag Champs The Dawson Brothers, CWF Rising Generation League Champion Cain Justice, and CWF TV Champ Aric Andrews vs Snooty Fox, Dirty Daddy, Chet Sterling, Smith Garrett. Before the match, The Dawsons and Andrews basically give Justice the short end of the stick and patronize him. Either they’re picking on Justice because he’s the smallest and most inexperienced on the team, or they’re teasing a Justice face turn. I like to think the latter, but I’m note sure. Just something interesting I noticed that I figured I should point out.
As for the match itself, it was a good match. The stakes felt high and the action was packed. Everyone involved played their characters well and everyone involved delivered some stellar in-ring entertainment. The finish saw Sterling hit a killer clothesline on Andrews. Garrett allowed Sterling to take the pin, but Justice pushed Garrett into the pin attempt to break it up. Garrett and Sterling argue over the misunderstanding before Garrett pushes Sterling out of the way of a big boot from Justice, eating it himself. Andrews pushes Sterling into Justice and then rolls up Sterling by his tights (his signature finisher!) for the win in 19:15. After the match, Joshua Cutshall (who is still owed a future TV Title shot) hits the ring. He nearly hits his Elbow, but Andrews ducks and bolts out the ring. Cutshall chases him out of the building.
In a post-match promo, Sterling expresses that he let the fans down. He starts to apologize, but Laroux hits the ring and tries to clock him with the title. Sterling ducks, but Laroux bolts out of the ring before Sterling can retaliate. Now Sterling is pissed and fired up. So much so that he announces he’s going into the Weaver Cup tournament. Not just to keep Laroux from winning that Cup, but Sterling promises he is doing this for the fans. We close out the show with what is easily the best feud going in CWF TV.
Tonight was such a great episode of CWF Worldwide. We got awesome matches all across the board (some of which I’d call MOTY candidates), especially from the main event. A main event where pre-existing feuds were emphasized during the match and future feuds were being teased. We saw some essential building blocks take shape to set up some potentially great storylines. Solid way to end a great episode of CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide. Watch it below and we’ll see you next week for The Weaver Cup.