Break It Down: CZW Lines In The Sand

Lines In The Sand on June 12th, 2010

I decided to try something a little different on 411Mania. I’ve chosen to enter the Combat Zone. I picked CZW to review because they simply don’t receive much hype. Whether there’s a good reason for that or not, I’m unsure. However, with Chris Hero making his return, I figured this show would be a good starting point. After my recent falling out with JAPW, I’m hoping CZW proves to me that they deserve more attention.

Opening Match: Alex Colon vs. Mark Angel
Colon attacks before the bell. Angel fights back with a dropkick. They exchange kicks and this is getting serious. Colon hits an ace crusher and connects with a kick in the corner. Angel responds with a backbreaker and transitions into a german suplex. Colon connects with a few stiff kicks and hits a steiner screwdriver for the win at 3:49. I’m not sure what this match was trying to accomplish. Even for an exhibition, four minutes is entirely too short. Neither man looked dominant and the short duration made this match unproductive. *

Match #2: T.J. and Kirby Mack vs. Ryan McBride and Rich Swann
Swann plants Kirby with a headscissors. Kirby answers with a hurricanrana. He tries to sunset bomb Swann off the apron but McBride catches him and swings him into the guardrail. TJ lands a dive onto McBride and trips up Swann on the apron. In the ring, TJ catches Swann with a neckbreaker and Kirby adds a double stomp. Team Macktion take control until McBride enters the match. He holds TJ in a pendulum, allowing Swann to connect with a dropkick. McBride lands a dive to the floor onto both of his opponents and Swann follows with a moonsault from the apron. Back in, McBride hits a powerful death valley driver on Kirby. Swann misses a shooting star press. Ryan Slater jumps onto the apron and hits a piledriver on Swann. Meanwhile, Rodney Rush hits McBride with a piece of wood. Kirby covers Swann for the victory at 7:59. Team Macktion made a solid first impression and I definitely see potential in them. I haven’t seen much of McBride and Swann, but they seemed a little off here. They brought some sloppiness to the match and had a few moments of miscommunication. The finish wasn’t ideal either and interrupted the finishing stretch. I’d like to see more from Team Macktion. **

Team Macktion celebrates with Rodney Rush and Ryan Slater, cementing their alliance.

Match #3: Sabian vs. Ruckus
This should be interesting. The issue here is that Ruckus is being blamed for the end of BLK OUT. They botch a headscissors and trade armdrags. Sabian blocks a handspring attempt with a dropkick. Ruckus kicks him to the floor and sends him into the guardrail. Ruckus lets a couple of fans chop Sabian. Sabian becomes a little angry and throws a chair at Ruckus’ head. In the ring, Sabian controls until Ruckus connects with an enzuigiri. Ruckus follows with a springboard kick but gets planted with a tornado DDT. They sloppily trade pin attempts until Sabian finds success with a rollup for the win at 10:37. I honestly don’t know what to make of this grudge match. I never felt as though these two legitimately hated each other and it seemed like these two were treating the match as a joke at certain points. Ruckus couldn’t be bothered to give any effort and the match was way too sloppy. The crowd even started to turn on it. This feud will continue and I hope they improve upon this joke of a match. ½*

Ruckus shoves Sabian off the apron after the match. He doesn’t look happy and says that the feud has just turned into a competitive one. At least he admits that the previous ten minutes weren’t competitive at all.

Match #4: CZW World Junior Heavyweight Title: Adam Cole © vs. Ryan Slater
They start with some chain wrestling and Slater shows off his mat skills. Cole hits a wheelbarrow german suplex and lands a crossbody to the floor. Slater gets back body dropped onto the concrete floor. He recovers by draping Cole’s throat across the top rope and starts targeting the neck. Cole comes back with a leg lariat from the middle rope and hits a tornado DDT. Sabian comes down to ringside to watch the match. Slater hits a bucklebomb. Cole reverses another powerbomb with a hurricanrana. Slater counters a spinebuster and applies a guillotine choke. Cole powers out but falls victim to a dragon suplex. Slater walks into a superkick and Cole hits a fireman’s carry neckbreaker. Slater suplexes Cole to the floor. Cole fights off a hangman’s piledriver and they battle up top. Cole looks at Sabian, hits a front flip piledriver, and connects with the Corona Kick to retain his title at 13:15. I had never heard of Slater before this match but he impressed big time. He worked over Cole’s neck in different ways and made this contest unique. Cole’s stock seems to be slowly rising, with a recent appearance on a DGUSA event. Sabian made his presence known at ringside without affecting the match in a negative way. Cole was able to include Sabian in the finish by simply looking at him and this match worked on many different levels. ***¼

Jon Moxley makes his way to the ring. He says that no one was willing to answer his open challenge and just announces details for the after party. Greg Excellent interrupts and accepts Moxley’s challenge. Moxley makes the match non-title and we have…

Match #5: Jon Moxley vs. Greg Excellent
Excellent sends Moxley to the floor and follows out with a dive. In the ring, Moxley blocks a corner cannonball with a lariat. He connects with a dropkick but Excellent catches him with a crossbody from the middle rope. Excellent hits a side slam and a corner cannonball. Moxley reverses a tiger driver into a jacknife pin for the victory at 4:21. Not long enough to mean anything. Excellent ran through his offense and Moxley at least looked resourceful. This was primarily a setup for the next match. *½

Moxley hits Excellent with his title belt after the match. Moxley cuts a promo against DJ Hyde, who runs down to the ring. They trade strikes and Hyde hits a spear. Sami Callihan comes out but Hyde lays him out with a side slam. Joe Gacy follows and slows down Hyde with a chair shot. Callihan gets in two chair shots to the head and brings a pane of glass into the ring. Callihan and Gacy put the pane over Hyde and break it with chair shots. Moxley puts his foot on Hyde and makes the referee count to three. He says that there is no one capable of stopping him. Nick Gage enters the scene, leading to…

Match #6: Jon Moxley vs. Nick Gage
They exchange forearms and the action goes to the floor. Gage busts Moxley open with repeated fork shots. In the ring, Moxley hits a DDT onto the shards of glass leftover from the attack on DJ Hyde. Moxley sets up a chair but Gage sends him into it. Gage hits a german suplex onto the glass and follows with a chokeslam. He suplexes Moxley onto a chair but misses a diving headbutt. Moxley hits the Hook and Ladder onto a chair for a nearfall. Gage dropkicks the chair into Moxley’s face and then connects with a chair-assisted facewash. Gage hits a powerbomb for the win at 8:18. These are the kind of matches that CZW is known to have on every show. Moxley is a good brawler and the CZW crowds love Gage. They made their weapon choices count and Gage’s elbow looked pretty banged up. You’ll find me saying this often when I review these type of matches: if you’re into this sort of stuff, you’ll enjoy this match. **½

Gage celebrates after the match and thinks that he won the CZW World Heavyweight Title. The referee informs him that it was a non-title match and Moxley parades around the ring with the title. Gage cuts his usual promo and challenges Abdullah Kobayashi to a match at Tournament of Death.

Match #7: TJ Cannon and Bruce Maxwell vs. Aaron Arbo and Unbreakable Andy vs. A.R. Fox and Jonathan Gresham
As a special rule, one member from each team is allowed in the ring. Andy and Fox both attempt quick rollups on Maxwell. Fox catches Andy with a dropkick and Andy returns the favor. Fox baseball slides Maxwell into the guardrail and wrestles Andy to a stalemate. Arbo snaps off a headscissors on Cannon. Gresham and Arbo try a bridging sequence but Cannon breaks it up with a senton. The Best Around hit a samoan drop-neckbreaker combination on Gresham. Arbo and Andy hit a chinbreaker-backcracker combination on Cannon. Fox lays out Cannon with a twisting brainbuster and Gresham adds a standing shooting star press. Maxwell connects with a northern lariat on Gresham and The Best Around work him over. I guess the rules mean that there can be three wrestlers in the ring, not necessarily one from each team. Or maybe they just figured “screw the rules”. Probably the latter. Gresham snaps off a double hurricanrana and makes the tag. Fox cleans house but gets caught with an enzuigiri from Andy. Andy follows with a corkscrew to the floor. Fox adds a springboard 450. In the ring, Fox connects with a corner yakuza kick on Cannon. He does the same to Maxwell and hits a bulldog. Arbo hits a burning hammer on Fox for a nearfall. Gresham takes out Arbo with his version of a lightning spiral. Andy german suplexes Gresham and holds the bridge. Cannon comes off the top with a shooting star double stomp on Andy for the victory at 12:43. I think the “three men in the ring” rule hurt this match more than anything. They had a hard time making the action flow and it came off as extremely spotty. Nevertheless, this was still a decent showcase for the new talent in CZW. Arbo, Andy, Fox, and Gresham look to be receiving a chance in CZW and they all seem like capable workers. Structure of the match aside, this was fine for what it was. **½

Match #8: Chris Hero vs. Egotistico Fantastico
This is Hero’s return to CZW and the crowd is ecstatic to have him back. He cuts a promo before the match, saying that he came back for competition. He tells Ego to earn his respect. Hero toys around with Ego early on. Ego doesn’t provide a clean break and Hero makes him pay for it. Ego snaps off a few armdrags and connects with a flurry of chops in the corner. Hero mafia kicks him off the apron and drapes him across the guardrail. Hero takes over in the ring until Ego clotheslines him to the floor and follows out with a dive. Back in, Ego hits a tilt-a-whirl slam and a powerbomb. Hero answers with a saito suplex and connects with another mafia kick. He follows with two rolling neckbreakers but Ego hurricanranas him off the middle rope. Ego counters the Hero’s Welcome into a backslide for a nearfall. He blocks the Deathblow with a boot. Hero is draped across the top rope and Ego hits a senton. Ego hits Taco Pizza for a two count. He misses a moonsault and Hero connects with a roaring elbow. Hero follows with the Deathblow for a nearfall. He takes off his elbow pad and connects with two more roaring elbows. Ego blocks a third one and hits a jig n’ tonic for the win at 21:17. These two put on a very good match and Hero gave an excellent performance in his return. However, it’s obvious that this contest was designed to put Ego over. While the crowd was solidly behind Hero (which is understandable), Ego still came out of this match looking strong. Hero played the role of a bully while Ego tried to withstand various strikes and submissions. They created genuine suspense down the stretch and everything worked out in the end. I truly hope that Hero is brought back whenever possible. ***½

Hero and Ego shake hands after the match. Eddie Kingston walks out while Drake Younger tries to hold him back. Kingston and Hero exchange glances. Hero heads to the locker room as Kingston and Younger enter the ring for their match…

Match #9: CZW World Tag Team Titles: Drake Younger and Eddie Kingston © vs. MASADA and Brain Damage
Younger lands a rolling senton off the apron onto Cult Fiction. MASADA answers with a dive of his own. Younger violently whips MASADA into the guardrail. Elsewhere, Kingston has busted Brain Damage open. In the ring, the Suicide Kings back drop Brain Damage onto two propped up chairs. Kingston launches Younger to the floor onto Cult Fiction and contributes a dive of his own. Kingston low blows Brain Damage and sends him through a table. He yakuza kicks MASADA in the corner and hits a back drop driver. MASADA responds with a german suplex but Younger just hits him with a table. A table is setup across the top rope. Younger irish whips MASADA into it and hits a neckbreaker. MASADA uses the table as a platform to death valley driver Younger through another table. MASADA catches Kingston with a missile dropkick and hits him with a chair. Security brings out some sort of barbed wire platform for Cult Fiction. They set it up against the middle rope. Cult Fiction try to wheelbarrow suplex Kingston into it but can’t lift him properly. MASADA settles on powerbombing Kingston into the barbed wire. Younger takes out MASADA with a chair shot but walks into a punch from Brain Damage. Brain Damage misses double knees and collides with a chair. Younger rolls him up to retain the titles at 14:03. Although I would have liked to see Younger and Kingston just wrestle, they are also excellent brawlers. MASADA also brought a lot to the match. Brain Damage, on the other hand, was plodding and struggled to do anything other than punch his opponents. Three out of four isn’t bad and this match was going along nicely. Then the barbed wire board came into play and the big spot of the match was botched. The finish was shortly after and I don’t think a rollup was appropriate here. I understand Younger trying to “out-wrestle” someone like Brain Damage, but he should have utilized that strategy way earlier. At the end of the day, this was a decent brawl. Some will like it more than me, some will like it less than me. **½

Cult Fiction attack the Suicide Kings after the match. Billy Gram runs down the crowd while the attack is going on. Cult Fiction take out security and members of the locker room. They cause more damage around ringside and eventually leave. Younger gets on the microphone and challenges Brain Damage to a match at Tournament of Death. Kingston tells Cult Fiction that they can bring as many weapons as they want at the next Philadelphia show because he’s bringing a gun.

The 411: Lines In The Sand is an interesting introduction to CZW for me. The first thing I noticed is that the deathmatch wrestling isn’t that bad. In fact, if the matches were slightly more focused, they could be in the three star range. CZW also has some unique talent that delivered quality contests. Cole and Slater wrestled a smart match and I’m looking forward to seeing more from both men. Ego put in an excellent showing against the returning Chris Hero and they ended up having the best match on the show. With guys like Jon Moxley, Sami Callihan, Drake Younger, and Eddie Kingston in the picture, this promotion definitely has some potential. Unfortunately, the two matches I mentioned previously were the only worthwhile contests on the show. I can’t give this show a full recommendation based on wrestling quality. However, I’m at least interested in seeing how future shows turn out and hopefully CZW utilizes its talent to their fullest potential.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]