Break It Down: CZW Deja Vu 5

Deja Vu 5 on October 16th, 2010

Opening Match: Scott Reed vs. Alex Colon vs. Ryan Slater
Colon and Slater decide to form an alliance but get caught with a double dropkick. Colon accidentally kicks Slater off the apron and Reed lands a dive to the floor. Reed just swings Colon into Slater. In the ring, Colon and Slater suplex Reed and work him over. They eventually come to blows while fighting over a pin attempt. Colon hits an assisted sliced bread on Slater and then gets powerslammed by Reed. Slater lands a lionsault onto Colon and Reed follows with a jackhammer. Slater hits a corner neckbreaker on Reed, who recovers with a bucklebomb on Colon. All three men are down. Everyone trades strikes and Reed gets sent to the outside. Slater hits a fisherman buster on Colon. Reed lays out Slater with a crucifix powerbomb. Colon nails Reed with a knee strike and hits the Colon Driver for the win at 7:45. Despite being a pretty random pairing, these three men produced some solid action in their eight minutes. Colon and Slater did a nice job of making Reed look powerful. Everyone involved has potential if CZW decides to continue showcasing them. **¼

Match #2: CZW Wired Television Title: Drew Gulak © vs. Johnny Calzone
Calzone wins the crowd’s approval before the match by calling Gulak a “dickhead”. He also criticizes Gulak for wearing sunglasses indoors. That’s actually one of my pet peeves so I can relate. Calzone utilizes his power advantage early on. Gulak starts stalling, prompting Calzone to make a bad “your mama” joke. CZW! CZW! Okay, Gulak finds an opening to work over the left leg. Calzone comes back with a powerslam and a corner charge. He follows with a sloppy backbreaker and hits a side slam. Gulak blocks another charge and applies the Gu-Lock to retain his title at 8:35. Gulak’s title defenses have been leaving a lot to be desired. His offense has no urgency and is quickly becoming repetitive. As far as Calzone is concerned, he is just plain awful in the ring and CZW should be taking notice of that. Hopefully Gulak loses his belt soon, as the Wired Television Title could be used to elevate someone more capable. *

Match #3: Sabian vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Sabian steals a cane from a fan in the front row, throws it across ringside, and tells him to “go walk and get it”. As much as I despise Sabian, that was slightly humorous. Ciampa powers him to the mat and targets his left shoulder. Sabian connects with a dropkick but Ciampa quickly returns the favor. Ciampa hits a snap suplex and connects with facewash knee strikes in the corner. Sabian clips his knee and hits a slingshot senton. He takes control until Ciampa comes back with a series of strikes. Sabian connects with a missile dropkick and hits a flatliner with inadvertent help from the referee. Ciampa gets him in a powerbomb position but hits a backcracker out of it. Sabian answers with Jesus Walks for the victory at 9:56. Ciampa definitely impressed and should undoubtedly be brought back. He mixes up his power-based offense with various strikes and keeps everything interesting. Sabian actually put forth a decent effort so this match was effective for the time given. **½

Match #4: Devon Moore vs. Niles Young
Young attacks Moore during his entrance. Moore catches him with a moonsault. A distraction by Chrissy Rivera allows Young to hit a lungblower. Moore is sent to the outside where Rivera gets some shots in. Back in, Young lands a frog splash and connects with shotgun knees. Moore fights him off and connects with a missile dropkick. They trade strikes and Young hits a blue thunder bomb. Moore blocks a charge and comes off the middle rope with a flatliner. Rivera enters the ring but Young accidentally chops her. Moore connects with a superkick and lands a shooting star press for the win at 5:10. This contest didn’t have any time to develop, but they were working well together during the time they had. I could see the Philadelphia crowd absolutely hating Young and it’ll be interesting to see if he returns to the Combat Zone. There’s really not much more to say about this match other than it deserved more time. **

Match #5: Joe Gacy vs. Sami Callihan
These two used to be partners until Gacy turned on Callihan after their match at Tangled Web 3. Callihan appropriately charges the ring but Gacy slows him down with strikes. Callihan sort of snaps off a hurricanrana. Gacy blocks a dive but Callihan sends him into the ringpost. They hit each other with a trash can and Callihan DDTs Gacy on top of it. Callihan knocks Gacy off the ring apron and lands a dive to the outside. Gacy hits a side slam onto the apron and launches Callihan into two trash cans. Callihan sends Gacy face-first into a support beam but gets back dropped onto the floor. Back in the ring, Callihan misses a kick and Gacy hits a sit-out powerbomb. Gacy elevates Callihan into a lariat and takes over. Callihan catches him up top with a superplex. Callihan follows with a top rope splash but gets booted down to the canvas. Callihan fires back with a series of kicks and repeated elbows. The referee stops the match, giving Callihan the victory at 9:23. The feud needs to continue because this was hardly a feud-ending match. Considering the unsatisfying finish (referee stoppage), I’d say these two will have at least one more encounter. I can’t remember either man trying a pin attempt too early, which I appreciate in a grudge match. While this was a decent first confrontation, hopefully these two raise the bar in their future meetings. **½

Callihan adds a stomp for emphasis after the match and walks away. Ryan Slater comes out to check on his partner.

Match #6: Amasis and Ophidian vs. Ryan McBride and Rich Swann
Amasis and McBride start with some chain wrestling. McBride gets caught dancing and is almost defeated with a crucifix. Swann shows off his dance moves, which are admittedly pretty good. He hits an overhead suplex on Ophidian and McBride adds a handspring moonsault. Amasis lures Irish Drive-By to the floor and Ophidian follows out with a dive. In the ring, the Osirian Portal isolate Swann until he connects with a double dropkick and makes the tag. McBride dropkicks Ophidian and hits a powerslam on Amasis. Swann hurricanranas the Osirian Portal and lands a flipping senton onto Amasis. Irish Drive-By suplex Amasis but get caught with a missile dropkick from Ophidian. McBride falls victim to a fisherman suplex by Ophidian. Swann moonsaults onto Ophidian to interrupt a pin attempt. Irish Drive-By follow with a lungblower-wheelbarrow suplex combination. Amasis causes McBride to DDT his own partner. Ophidian lands a lionsault onto McBride. The Osirian Portal dump Swann on his head. McBride kicks Amasis out of the ring and hits a death valley driver on Ophidian. He applies a cloverleaf on Ophidian but Amasis breaks the hold. Amasis connects with a basement lariat on McBride. Swann wins a strike exchange and hits a falcon arrow on Amasis. Everyone connects with kicks and all four men are down. The fifteen-minute time limit expires and the match is ruled a draw. I understand what they were going for but the time limit draw didn’t come off as well as hoped. This was supposed to be a great showcase that would make both teams look equally strong. However, the action was mostly disjointed and the crowd had a hard time becoming invested. The match was coming together down the stretch and I actually think the draw hurt what was shaping up to be a decent contest. Nevertheless, I’m still looking forward to the progression of the CZW World Tag Team Title tournament. **½

Match #7: Lighttube Bundles Deathmatch: tHURTeen vs. Danny Havoc
Billy Gram goes on a huge rant about Massachusetts’ sports teams before the match. tHURTeen connects with an enzuigiri and Havoc responds with strikes of his own. Havoc knocks tHURTeen off the apron and follows with a dive to the outside. In the ring, Havoc hits a lighttube-assisted backbreaker. tHURTeen lands a flying crossbody, breaking lighttubes in the process. He breaks more lighttubes across Havoc’s head and back. They exchange headbutts on the top rope and tHURTeen snaps off a hurricanrana. Havoc powerslams him off the top rope and onto lighttubes. tHURTeen hits a lighttube-assisted backcracker but falls victim to a death valley driver. Gram interferes but Havoc breaks lighttubes over him. tHURTeen has a huge gash beneath his armpit. The action goes to the floor. tHURTeen misses a dive off the bleachers and nearly falls into a trash can. They battle on the bed of a truck where tHURTeen hits an air raid crash for the win at 11:17. Typical brawl involving lighttubes. They worked in a few innovative spots, building to the visually-impressive finish. tHURTeen suffered from a large gash on his side and deserves praise for finishing the match. However, this was a fairly standard ultraviolent showcase and nothing that I haven’t seen before. **¼

Match #8: CZW World Heavyweight Title: No Rope Barbed Wire: Jon Moxley © vs. Nick Gage
Gage avoids the barbed wire and slides to the floor. Back in, Moxley lures him into the barbed wire and then dropkicks him back into it. Moxley uses the barbed wire to grind at Gage’s forehead, busting him open. Moxley hits a neckbreaker and attacks the open wound. Gage comes back by utilizing a barbed wire baseball bat to bust Moxley open. He also uses a pizza cutter. Moxley blocks a facewash kick and suplexes Gage into the barbed wire four times. Gage takes Moxley’s shirt off and whips him into the barbed wire. Moxley avoids the Chokebreaker and applies a fujiwara armbar. He transitions into a crossface chicken wing but Gage powers out. Moxley locks in a cloverleaf and switches to a half crab. Gage escapes and hits the Chokebreaker followed by a powerbomb. Moxley hits the Hook and Ladder into the barbed wire along with an ace crusher for a nearfall. Moxley hits another Hook and Ladder, this time onto the barbed wire bat, to retain his title at 13:37. If this match proves anything, it’s that Moxley is by far the best talent in CZW. An otherwise dull crowd became vocal for Gage, mainly due to Moxley’s antics throughout the match. I also appreciated how Moxley utilized the barbed wire to work over Gage’s leg and then applied various submissions to target the body part. That’s the kind of action you don’t see too often in these types of matches. While this isn’t necessarily required viewing, it’s still a smart, concise brawl that made good use of its stipulations. ***

The 411: Deja Vu 5 is a lackluster show in the sense that there’s not much quality wrestling and little in the way of storyline progression. Some of the undercard matches had potential (Callihan/Gacy and Portal/Drive-By), but didn’t receive enough time to fully develop. The main event was well-constructed but it’s not nearly good enough to save the show. Hopefully CZW can start an upswing as they head towards the end of the year and Cage Of Death XII.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]