We kick of tonight’s show with women’s action between the debuting Kaci Lennox and “The Midnight Mermaid” Aspyn Rose (with Aaron Epic in her corner). It’s nice to see we’re getting more and more women’s wrestling on CWF by the week. Granted, this wasn’t the best showcase of women’s wrestling, but not necessarily because it was bad or the competitors were bad. Mostly because it’s hard to have a good match in under three minutes. Rose had an impressive outing, especially thanks to a wicked knee from her. Lennox could use some work though. She only just started wrestling in late 2016 and it shows that she’s still green. However, I see potential in her. She has an imposing physique and she makes a good babyface you want to root for. She’s just a little clunky in the ring. As soon as she polishes her moveset, she could be quite the force on the indy wrestling scene.

The finish saw Lennox hit the top rope for a splash, but Epic hit the apron and distracted her, which gave Rose time to duck her splash. This also allowed Rose to win with the Koji Clutch in 2:37. Also, as much as I wanted to criticize CWF for having women’s matches this short in 2017, I’ll allow it since these two (especially Lennox) are still inexperienced in the ring and a longer match would risk exposing their inexperience. Regardless of gender, wrestlers need to work their way into longer matches by first having good short matches.

Next up is a showcase between AIW Academy and graduates of the CWF Dojo. Nothing is on the line except bragging rights for the best wrestling school in each team’s respective region. Frankie Flynn, Brian Carson, and Evan Adams take on Movie Myk, Dirty Daddy, and CWF Rising Generation League Champion Cain Justice. If this is what the future of wrestling is looking like, then the future looks bright. Character-wise, I think everybody has something to bring to the table. Everyone comes off as an interesting and unique character, especially Frankie Flynn. Haven’t seen much of him, but would like to see more because he’s infinitely charismatic. Wrestling-wis, some wrestlers are better than others and some are clunkier than others, but I think everyone has in-ring potential.

Throughout the match, Dirty Daddy and Justice couldn’t see eye to eye and it ultimately cost them the match. Justice pushed Dirty Daddy and the two were sent to the outside by Flynn. This gave Evans the opportunity to hit a splash on Myk for the win in 7:10. Dirty Daddy and Justice continued fighting on the outside. This wasn’t one of the most exciting matches to take place in CWF, but it provided a decent showcase of upcoming talent while also setting up a new feud through the story of the match. Plus, this seems to set up Justice’s new challenger for his title after he hasn’t showed up in what feels like several weeks.

Afterwards, AC Hawkes and Carlos Gabriel hit the ring. Hawkes spoke so low on the mic that I could barely hear anything he was saying. Maybe the crowd was too loud, but if he can’t speak loud enough to drown out a crowd who had no idea who these guys were, then he needs some mic work. Just saying. According to commentary, these two were pissed that they weren’t added to the last six man tag and demanded an open challenge. The Sandwich Squad answer the challenge and squash the duo. It was basically an overlong squash match. This should have been a quick one-and-done squash. There is no reason why it needed to be 5 minutes. It’s still short, but Sandwich Squad should’ve have decimated these two rookies on the quest to regain the CWF Tag Team Championship. In fact, I’d honestly switch out the timestamps between this match and the Rose/Lennox match. Hell, I’ll make this even shorter. Still, in 4:59, Sandwich Squad pin Hawkes after a Double Chokeslam and a Hero’s Welcome. 

Immediately after, Michael McCallister (the former Him) comes out and confronts his former Rage in the Machine partner, Mecha Mercenery on getting the band back together. Mercenary tells him he’s happy McCallister’s back to normal, but Mercenary is going to chase the tag titles with Aaron Biggs as part of Sandwich Squad; he has no plans on reuniting Rage in the Machine anytime soon. William L. Cross comes out and tells McCallister he doesn’t need his old tag team. He needs to work on himself and control “Him.” The two leave together. Wonder where this is going.

CWF TV Champion Aric Andrews comes out and as always, a random name is pulled from a jar to decide who Andrews will defend his title against. This time, Cam Carter is named that challenger. The same Cam Carter who got knocked out in 10 seconds by Smith Garrett in Round 1 of the Johnny Weaver Cup. Andrews thinks he has this one in the bag, but Carter surprisingly gives Andrews a run for his money. He gets several near falls on Andrews and plenty of well executed high flying moves. Although, thanks to Lee Valiant (who randomly decided to show up and help Andrews), and a Full Nelson Slam finisher, Andrews retains.

*sigh*

I thought we were done with Andrews having matches like these. For as long as I’ve been watching CWF, Andrews has always been having matches where he gets beat up for the entirety and puts in no offense until the dirty finish. His solid showing against Trevor Lee a couple weeks back made me think we were done with that. Tonight, he had about three moves: choke with t-shirt, sidewalk slam, then his finisher. Granted, this was mostly a showcase for the upstart Carter–and a successful one at that given he got a standing ovation after the match–but I can’t take Andrews seriously when he’s not putting in work for these matches. Yes, he’s a good heel character and these finishes get him good heat, but this isn’t the Hogan Era of the 80’s. Having these finishes all the time aren’t going to cut it in 2017. You can’t just be a good character. You have to be a good character and a good wrestler to strive in this industry. I’m starting to doubt Andrews is a good wrestler if CWF isn’t allowing the guy to ever put in any offense. And if he’s not a good wrestler, then take the title off of him and send him back to the CWF Dojo. I want to think he has something in him based on his performance against Lee, but I’m starting to lose hope. Andrews should’ve proved me wrong by now. Maybe he never will.

Tonight’s main event turned a subpar episode of CWF into a passable one. “The Real Ben Affleck” Alex Daniels challenged Logan Easton Laroux for the PWI Ultra-J Championship and they put on a great match. Had excellent chemistry, put emphasis on their feud thanks to some intensity, the stakes felt high for a typical CWF episode, and everything just meshed together for the two. They made the most of their time together and it worked out. In the end, Daniels goes for the Burning Hammer/Uppercut Combo that he laid Laroux out last week with. Laroux was able to escape and push Daniels into the referee, leaving Laroux to to thumb Daniels in the eye and hit a Cutter for the win in 6:18. With Laroux in the ring, Chet Sterling at the ramp, Ethan Alexander Sharpe in the crowd, and Smith Garrett at ringside, all four finalists in the Johnny Weaver Cup stare each other down to end the episode.

By Joe Anthony Myrick

A photographer/journalist working out of Detroit.

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