Reviews From the City of Orange: 2CW in Rochester, NY - January 13, 2007

Posted by Mike Campbell on 05.14.2008

Eddie and Isys tear down the house!

Shamless plug before we start the review proper: I was recently a guess on The Cool Kids Table and spoke at length with Brad Garoon about the current state of wrestling in Japan. Check it out at
http://thecoolkidstable.net/archives/514#more-514

2CW in Rochester, NY
January 13, 2007

The revolution comes to Rochester! After the previous night, there are questions to be answered. What will Gordy have in store for Springate? Can Spike get take the NWA Title away from Abyss? What’s next for Eddie Edwards? There’s only one way to find out: Continue reading!

All Money Is Legal . . . have yet another good outing against their longtime rivals, without the aid comedy.
Nikki Roxx . . . has a memorable 2CW debut by picking up where Violet Flame left off as the grumpy heel.
Eddie Edwards . . . ends his first tour of 2CW on a high note by tearing down the house with Isys Ephex.

JASON AXE vs. DIZZIE vs. AJAX 820
Wow. Considering the steps he took last night at getting over as a serious heel, this is a step backwards for Axe. Granted, he’s much higher up on the pecking order than he was when this same match happened in July, but he’s regulated to the same role, the bump taker. Axe only gets one real spot in the whole match, a Samoan drop to Ajax early on. This isn’t bad as an opener, they more or less go out there and heat up the crowd by doing a bunch of pretty stuff. It’s got the almost-prerequisite triple sleeper to start with and Axe gets double teamed a bit, when Dizzie holds him on the floor so that Ajax can dive onto him. Ajax snaps off a couple of nice double spots, the best being his springboard blockbuster to both of them, and also a nice ‘Tower of Doom’ spot where gives Dizzie a powerbomb off the turnbuckles, while Dizzie is giving Axe a superplex. If nothing else, Axe can at least take solace in not jobbing, that honor goes to Ajax after getting hit with Dizzie’s ‘Rat Trap’ (apparently the name of his inverted electric chair drop). It did its job of heating up the crowd, and then mostly gets out of the way.

LOCA VIDA vs. J.D. LOVE
There are a few nice spots here, but other than those and a couple of moments that play of their match the night before, there isn’t anything here that wasn’t seen in one of their previous matches. The best part is toward the end after the stinkface, when Loca goes crazy and attacks J.D. jumping on his back and pummeling him, and then sending him into the corner. Loca goes for the Bronco Buster but puts on the breaks and moves J.D.’s leg (which he used to block the move last time) and then does the move. Loca takes a couple of big bumps during the match, the biggest one being the backdrop suplex, and another decent sized one from the ‘Love Seat’ (Michinoku driver). In the end, after being outsmarted the night before, Loca outsmarts him back. J.D. has his trunks down and ass hanging out, so he doesn’t have the leverage to kick out of Loca’s surprise schoolboy. J.D. hits a big powerbomb afterwards to finally make this seem like a real feud.

STEVE McKENZIE/STEVE KRUZ vs. K-PUSHA/K-MURDA
With only or two exceptions, this is almost totally devoid of comedy, but it’s yet another good match from these two. It starts off with the Steves attacking AMIL at the bell and sending them both to the floor. This is where the spot that could arguably be considered a comedy spot comes up. Kruz decides that he wants to dive onto them, but at the last second McKenzie stops and him and decides he’ll do it himself. McKenzie dives and by this time it’s too late, and McKenzie crashes. It’s certainly funny, but not necessarily done just for laughs. AMIL gets Kruz all to themselves and start to work in him over and Pusha does his bit spot where he runs back and forth and instead of jumping over Kruz, he just steps on him. Kruz puts this over perfectly too, he flops like a fish out of water and rolls over after each time Pusha steps on him.

McKenzie does get back into ring, and the Steve take back control, and this is where the match starts to soar. The Steves get a very long control segment, and it’s all good stuff. As per usual, they don’t really single out a body part, or have a tight focus. They’re content to just work over Pusha with lots of punches, kicks, and throw in a few double team moves, such as the double sidewalk slam. But their greatness lies in how well they’re able to bait in Murda and prevent Pusha from tagging. For at least ten minutes straight, AMIL cannot get anything going. Probably the best moment of it is when Pusha looks like he’s almost there and he tries to crawl between Kruz’s legs to make the tag, but Kruz holds his foot and drags him back for more punishment. Add that to several phantom tags by the Steves, instances where McKenzie will charge into the ring and knock Murda off the apron, and illegal moves behind the ref’s back while he’s putting Murda out, and it’s quite the fun viewing experience.

When Murda finally gets hot tagged in, the fun doesn’t let up. He’s the proverbial house of fire, knocking both of the Killer Steves around the ring. Murda does get into some trouble and the Steves, remembering their win from the night before, once again attempt Dead Presidents. But this time Pusha cuts off McKenzie, and the other comedy spot pops up, when they yank down Kruz’s tights, slap his ass a bit, and double team him to win (the camera was actually on McKenzie on the floor, so what exactly they did wasn’t shown). This may not have been as story driven as their last match, but it was nearly just as good, and the couple of throwbacks to the previous night’s match were very nice touches. ***

NIKKI ROXX vs. PORTIA PEREZ
I’m not totally up to date with SHIMMER, so I don’t know if Roxx is a heel there. If she isn’t, then she needs to be, because she’s damn good at it. She’s good enough to even get the fans (who previously been chanting for puppies) into the match to an extent. They stick with a Rookie vs. Vet formula, and it mostly turns out okay. Nikki adds a few nice touches to the mix, such as the Camel Clutch, but also twists and turns Portia’s neck to add to the pressure. When Nikki does a bodyslam, she tries to really slam her down. Nikki also adds a nice Fisherman’s suplex. With Portia looking all of twelve years old, this is also a bit uncomfortable to watch, almost child abuse like. Portia doesn’t get much to do, but she does her stuff well too. She’s good as selling her beating, and she’s dead on with her attempted comeback by throwing fists, and the rolling small package around the ring was something original. The finish, with Portia countering Nikki’s bodyslam into a victory roll was okay, a bit of a throwback to Violet Flame/Kayla Sparks (which may hint that Portia was supposed to face Violet Flame here), but the execution was ugly. At worst, it still beats the previous Violet Flame matches, and at best it’s the Nikki Roxx show, and a fun show at that.

ZACHARY SPRINGATE III vs. GORDY WALLACE (Bull Rope Match)
Just like their fans with straps match in November, this is okay, but it’s held back by the gimmick. Springate does what he can to salvage things, he bumps like a pinball for the few wrestling spots that Gordy uses, namely the piledriver and the powerbomb. He’s also good with playing to the fans, to keep things amusing during downtime. The bull rope stipulation holds them back a bit, there’s only so much they can do while they’re attached to each other, so more often than not they’re trading punches and cowbell shots, and coming up with ways to work the rope into their spots. Sometimes they’re inventive, like Gordy’s hogtie near fall, and Springate’s raking of the rope across the eyes. It doesn’t help them that the sound the cowbell makes when it hits is too comical to take seriously, it sounds like a cartoon character knocking on something hollow. It’s disappointing to see them not play off the fireball angle from the night before, even if Gordy just came out with a small bandage on his face, it’d have added a bit to Springate’s rope raking spot. Given some recent events (read: Benoit), Gordy winning the match by hanging Springate with the rope may be a bit uncomfortable for some to watch, but it does its job of getting over exactly how much they hate each other.

ISYS EPHEX vs. EDDIE EDWARDS
Now this is how Edwards’ debut should have been. With the reputation he brings to the table, putting him with Isys, who’s always been the ‘worker’ of the 2CW roster is obvious. They took a bit of time to warm up, but once they did it was good stuff all the way. The early sections with Isys firmly in control dragged on for a bit. Isys got in a nice spot with his double arm backbreaker, but other than that it was your typical feel out process, nothing bad, but nothing outstanding. But when Isys thought he had a minute to catch his breath and fix his knee pad, and Eddie came off the top with his missile dropkick, it was on.

This doesn’t have anything as obviously story-oriented as the first Isys/Slyck match, with Isys’ run of bad luck. Instead they stick with the most basic story of all, their mutual desire to win, and as the match goes on both of them get more and more aggressive. Their extended exchanges chock full of reversals and counters really get the crowd heated up, and, for the most part, they look good. They flub up a bit early on with Edwards’ reversal of Isys’ sunset flip when Eddie loses one of Isys’ legs, but that’s the only instance of that. Eddie also does a good job in putting over Isys’ bombs, so that it seems like Isys is closer and closer to finishing him off. Isys is good about spacing them out a bit, so that it’s not overkill. Not that things like a DVD or fisherman’s buster variation is considered a huge spot nowadays (unless they’re done through tables), but the thought is still very much appreciated. Eddie only gets in a few big spots of his own, but Isys put them over so well that it was clearly all that Eddie needed on this night. Eddie’s fisherman buster on the apron is the first really mind-blowing spot of the night, and after the Shiranui Kai (Spanish Fly) there was no way Isys was getting up, and the struggle before it was also a nice touch. If they could have just made the beginning stages a bit more interesting, and cleaned up their spots a bit (both of which would come with a few more matches together), then they could probably really put on a great match. As it is, it’s still the best match that 2CW has run up to this point. ***1/4

ABYSS © vs. BROTHER RUNT (NWA World Heavyweight Title)
Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t live up to the wrestling that preceded it, but Spike and Abyss are good enough at making the match interesting at times. This is actually fairly similar to some matches that Spike would have had in ECW. He fights valiantly, but at the end of the day all he has is a big heart and one move, the Acid Drop and it’s just not enough. Not that this is a squash or anything, Abyss is good about bumping and selling for Spike early on when Spike charges him by surprise and takes the fight to him, he takes a great bump off the first Acid Drop and then rolls to the floor. The second Acid Drop, over the guardrail is about as good as it gets, thanks to the way Abyss sold and put it over. But the Acid Drop was the only thing that Spike had, and when the third attempt went haywire, all Spike had to fall back on was brawling and weapon shots, and there was no way that Spike was going to beat Abyss by those means.

When the match settles down into the straight brawl, it gets easy to stop paying attention. The blood was a nice touch, as was Spike getting fired up a bit, and they did some cute stuff with the chair, but that’s the extent of it. Abyss going for the tacks was totally out of left field. The night before when Spike went for them it was to try to show Abyss how far he would go to win, but there’s no rhyme or reason why Abyss goes for them, he just seems to grab them because it’s time for them to come out. At least their big tack spot is original, with Spike taking a Military press into them (a bump similar to the ones that Ultimate Warrior’s jobber victims would take, although not a flat bump for obvious reasons), and the Black Hole Slam once again finishes him off. Jason Axe hits the ring and asks Abyss to end Spike’s career, Abyss attacks Axe, Spike puts Axe through a table, Spike and Abyss show each other respect and the fans go home happy.

The 411: Isys/Edwards by itself is enough to make me recommend this show. But it’s also got the bonus of having the usual parade of fun matches from the usual suspects. Only the bull rope match didn’t deliver in the ring, but that due to the gimmick more than the workers, and they still made their point, definite recommendation for this show.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]