Reviews From the City of Orange: 2CW Living on the Edge II: Night 1 - April 27, 2007
Posted by Mike Campbell on 09.26.2008
The beginning of the 2CW Title Tournament, the beginning of the end of the Killer Steves/AMIL feud, and Loca Vida has his career match!
LIVING ON THE EDGE II: Night 1
April 27, 2007
2CW celebrates its first anniversary, and does so in the best way possible. They booked back to back nights of action in Utica and Syracuse. But these aren’t just any shows, 2CW is crowning their first ever champion. They’re also bringing in a few big names, and have got some surprises in store for everyone.
C.W. Anderson . . . makes his 2CW debut with a good outing and even makes the announcers start waxing nostalgia.
Jason Axe . . . gets more rub in one match with Isys Ephex than he’s gotten after three matches with Brother Runt.
Loca Vida . . . works his first ever main event, and has the match of his career with Slyck Wagner Brown.
Due to their wins in Syracuse on 2/23 Ajax820, Zachary Springate III, Slyck Wagner Brown, and Isys Ephex have been granted byes into the second round of the tournament.
GORDY WALLACE vs. LOCA VIDA (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Round 1)
Keeping in mind that Loca was going to be wrestling later on, it’s not surprising that this is on the short side. What is surprising is how they’re able to pull off working such a simple and smart match, with so little time. The match itself is a bit rushed, but the message is loud and clear. Gordy uses his size and power to throw Loca to the mat whenever they lock up, and Gordy runs him down with a couple of shoulder tackles. Gordy offers Loca a chance to run him down, but to no avail. Loca stops trying to use strength he doesn’t have, and uses his brains, and that’s what gets him the win. He outsmarts Gordy with a roll up, and when Gordy is still recovering from it, Loca hits the wheelbarrow bulldog (with a funny bump from Gordy) for a near fall. It’d usually be a knock on him for going to the finisher so early, but with the winner getting a fresh Slyck Wagner Brown, it makes sense that they’d try to end as quickly as they could. Loca winds up winning when Gordy misses a corner charge and Loca hits the still stunned Gordy with a cross body press, hooks the leg, and scores the win. The booking seems a bit odd, with Gordy just having finished a high profile feud, while Loca was doing comedy in the undercard, but it foreshadowed the fact that Gordy was on his way to being lost in the shuffle, and that Loca was on his way to bigger things.
DIZZIE vs. J.D. LOVE (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Round 1)
And we’re two for two on short matches, but being fairly smartly worked, although this doesn’t have the smart sort of smart finish that Loca and Gordy had. J.D. forgoes the comedy routine in the beginning and goes right after Dizzie’s knee. He chops Dizzie’s knee, and while it’s not the visual or audible treat that his chops to the chest are, it’s a smart touch. J.D. also uses his size by splashing the knee, and dropping down on it. J.D. even pulls out the figure four to work it over. J.D. easily shows more intensity here than he has in his entire series with Loca. The finish is the same idea as Gordy and Loca, J.D. misses a charge and Dizzie rolls him up for the upset. But that doesn’t mesh as well with what came before it. Dizzie wasn’t exactly an underdog, and while it was fun watching J.D. tear into his knee, it never felt like Dizzie was in real danger of losing.
Brother Runt comes out and complains that he lost twice in a row to Jason Axe. He whines to the ref for not doing anything on 2/23 when Axe kicked him low or used the chair. He seems to have forgotten that the match was anything goes. Runt asks the ref to make his match a no DQ match, and the ref agrees.
BROTHER RUNT vs. JASON AXE (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Round 1)
This is better than their match from the month before, but it’s more like taking half a step, as opposed a full step, in the right direction. It starts off the same as the other match, with Runt wailing away on Axe, throwing him into the guardrails, and unloading on him with some nasty chair shots. Axe is at least allowed to get in some offense this time around, doing so with a low kick to block Runt’s leapfrog, and then following up by throwing Runt headfirst into the chair that Runt had wedged into the corner. The announcers play up the idea that Runt has a big goose egg as result of that bump. Axe throws Runt to the floor and follows him out and into the crowd they go, and the combo of the dark arena and fans in the way means that you can’t see what exactly happens, but Runt is back in control, so obviously he did something to hurt Axe. But at least Axe didn’t get totally squashed en route to lucking way his way to yet another cheap win.
They finish things up when they get back into the ring, and the finish is why this is only that half step in the right direction. Runt hits the Acid Drop and then appears to have hurt his arm or shoulder on the way down. The ringside doctor checks on Runt. Runt insists that he’s fine and levels Axe with another chair to prove it. The ringside doctor disagrees and the match gets stopped, and awarded to Axe since Runt can’t continue. Axe spent all that time laying on the mat, including when Runt hit that last chair shot. I can appreciate that Axe was selling the Acid Drop, but the door was wide open for Axe to really do something nasty, which would have in turn most likely added to his heat, taken their feud to a newer level, and given Axe some rub from this feud. The match being stopped because Axe is decimating Runt’s arm with a chair or because Runt passes out while he’s stuck in an armbar or crossface makes a lot more sense than the match being stopped after Runt hit a prone Axe with a chair because the NY State Athletic Commission declared that Runt was unable to continue.
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. C.W. ANDERSON (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Round 1)
Considering that this was the only match of the first round that got some time to develop, it’s no surprise that this winds up as the best match of the first round. At first Anderson seems to think that he can intimidate Eddie simply by his reputation. He’ll back Eddie into the corner and make like he’s going to really light up his chest, but then hit a playful slap to the face. However, Edwards himself came into the company with a bit of a reputation, so he’s not backing down, and when he backs Anderson into the corner, he just lets him have it. Anderson will drop Edwards with a lariat or a right hand, and when Edwards gets up, he takes an opening and hands it right back to Anderson. Anderson puts him in the corner and tries to really light him up, but Eddie just takes the next opening and hands it right back to him.
The match really picks up when Anderson decided to forgo the intimidation routine and just tear apart Edwards’ arm. This is the kind of stuff that Axe should have been doing when Runt got hurt. Anderson wrenches it in the ropes, he’ll wrap it around the post and throw a chair into it, and, of course, the hammerlock slam. Anderson is also good at cutting off Edwards’ attempts at comebacks by going after the arm. At one point Anderson went for the spine buster, and Edwards’ tries to counter with a sunset flip, the usual counter for that is a nice right hand, but Anderson just stomps Edwards in the arm. When Edwards finally does get an opening, he reels off a couple of spots, and smartly remembers to continue selling the arm. One of the smartest parts of the match was Edwards hitting his trademark dropkick from the top, and then remembering to shake out the arm after he hit the move. The finish leaves a bit of a bad taste, but their hands were pretty much tied. Anderson had to look good in his debut, but couldn’t win since he was only working this show. The idea itself is fine, with Edwards rolling through Anderson’s pin and getting his own pin, but doing it after Anderson hit his finisher doesn’t say much about the move’s effectiveness. They would have been better off with Eddie finding a way to counter into a small package, or having Eddie successfully pulling off the sunset flip counter. ***
In between the first round and the quarter finals, The Killer Steves and All Money Is Legal have a three stages of hell match. It was the Steves who put out this challenge so they get to pick the matches. The first stage is a sack race. Each man has to make one lap around the ring. Kruz beats Pusha to give the Steves the advantage, but Murda trips up McKenzie to give AMIL the win. The second stage is a water balloon toss (both teams toss to each other and the first team whose balloon pops are the losers), the Steves stack the deck in their favor by giving AMIL a huge balloon that’s completely full, while they get a tiny one. To no surprise, the Steves win and tie it up. The third stage was supposed to be a game of Twister, but AMIL got tired of the games and started attacking them (Steves win by DQ?). They take out a table, but the Steves turn the table and put K-Pusha through it to set up a tables match for the next night.
DIZZIE vs. AJAX820 (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Quarter Finals)
It’s matches like this that make me consider Ajax to be one of the most serviceable guys on the roster. This isn’t anything outstanding, but the action is solid and it’s nicely put together. With Dizzie having already wrestled, Ajax plays up how fresh he is early on with several armbars and dropkicks and sends Dizzie up and down, and all over the ring. He also pulls out a couple of cool spots like the springboard tornado DDT, and his escape to the Rat Trap. If you compare what Ajax does to what Dizzie does, it looks like Ajax spanks him here. Dizzie only gets to do a few spots, but he makes sure that there’s enough impact behind them to credibly finish off Ajax.
It’s not what Ajax does that makes him lose, but rather what he doesn’t do enough of. J.D. Love had practically gift-wrapped the win for him by hurting Dizzie’s knee. And when you consider that Ajax had lost to Jason Axe in January because of a hurt knee, he should probably have been all over it. But the few things that Ajax does seem more like mandatory spots to show that he knows Dizzie has a bad wheel instead of a genuine way to try to win. Dizzie’s selling of the knee isn’t bad when he remembers to sell it. It’s frustrating to see him do a monkey flip, roll back over, jump to the ropes, do a diving headbutt, and do it all as one smooth motion, and then afterwards to see him sell his head instead of his knee. There was a very nice moment when Dizzie went for the springboard elbow drop, but slipped off the ropes. The end boils down to a combo of Dizzie outsmarting Ajax and his knee being strong enough to hit his move. Ajax had already escaped the Rat Trap, so Dizzie waits until he’s on the top rope, with no means of escape and plants him with his fisherman’s spine buster to pick up the win. This could have benefitted from having more time and from Ajax doing more than just cool spots and mandatory knee work, but this is far from bad.
JASON AXE vs. ISYS EPHEX (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Quarter Finals)
Even with the stupid finish, this is easily the best match that Axe has ever had. It’d be easy to give all the credit to Isys, and he does carry the bulk of this, but Axe does add his share of good things to the match as well. Isys does carry the offense for most of this, and it makes sense that he would seeing as (a. Axe already worked a match that night, and (b. Axe has spent the last three months getting beaten like a red headed stepchild and getting fluke wins. It’s pretty much a case of you name it and Isys probably does it, suplexes, matwork, armdrags, strikes, flying from the top, and taking Axe through reversal sequences. It’s sort of like the Dizzie/Ajax match in its own way, Axe doesn’t get nearly as much in, but they make sure that what he does counts. Axe’s standing hurricanrana is impressive, and he shows his own desire to win the title by diving from the top to the floor onto Isys. Axe also pulls off a couple of surprise counters on Isys, such as escaping the powerbomb out the back door, kicking Isys low, and hitting a DVD. And there are a few occasions when Axe will duck a strike and hit Isys with a lariat. And the rest of the time Axe is great with his selling and stooging around.
I can see what they were shooting for with the finish, continuing Axe’s streak of getting lucky wins where he really doesn’t do anything. I still have to question the wisdom of it, since, at the time, Axe was the only guy on the roster that 2CW had actually developed from the ground up, and was the only heel to get significant heel heat. It’s another case of the NY State Athletic Commission stopping the match, because Isys had given Axe a running powerbomb over the guardrail and they stopped the match and declared Isys disqualified. But even with the stupid finish, it’s still quite a fun match, and continues to give me hope that Isys will eventually get noticed and booked elsewhere. ***
EDDIE EDWARDS vs. ZACHARY SPRINGATE III (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Quarter Finals)
At first this looks like it’s going to be yet another good outing, but it didn’t quite hit the highs that it looked like it was going to. It starts off similar to the Edwards/Anderson match, Springate tries to show off a bit and get in Eddie’s head, and Eddie shows him that it’s not going to work. Seeing that his plan isn’t working, Springate targets Eddie’s arm. Eddie adds a smart touch when he hits his early dive onto Springate and remembers to sell the arm after he lands. Springate isn’t quite as inventive or dogged as Anderson was, but it’s still fun to watch him do dick things like slam it into the ring apron or wrap it around the post. Springate adds a great touch when he gets a two count after his handspring elbow and stomps Eddie’s bad arm.
The cracks start to form when they decide to drop the arm work. Eddie goes back on offense with a chop flurry and Springate does his usual exaggerated bumping and stooging for Edwards. It’s fine that Springate can make such simple things from Edwards look so devastating, but Eddie wasn’t breaking out any of his big guns, and Springate winds up winning anyway when he reverses Eddie’s sunset flip and grabs the ropes. The door was open for them to push the envelope a bit and they passed it up. Springate could have shown off a nice mean streak with the arm and won by tap out, they’d already run two matches where the athletic commission had stepped in, so I can see not wanting another like that, but it’d have made sense. This is fun for what it is, but it’s a bit of a letdown with what could have been.
LOCA VIDA vs. SLYCK WAGNER BROWN (2CW Heavyweight Title Tournament - Quarter Finals)
There is good news and bad news for Loca. The good news is that this is the match of his career, both in working a big name and in actual match quality. The bad news is that he gets pretty much annihilated in the process. Slyck smartly uses his size and strength of keep Loca on the mat, and then Slyck focuses on Loca’s back and stretches him out with several submissions such at the bow and arrow, camel clutch, and even a simple chinlock. After working so long with J.D. Love, Loca knows how to bump and sell, and indeed, Loca appears to be all but dead.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Loca starts pulling out all kinds of counters and reversals on Slyck and the match suddenly does a complete 180, instead of looking like Loca is a dead man, Loca is seemingly one or two moves away from pulling off the biggest upset since Rey Mysterio beat Kevin Nash on Nitro. Loca’s first surprise actually comes very early and is more of an eyebrow raiser than anything significant. Knowing that he can’t match Slyck’s power, Loca surprises Slyck with a short arm scissors, and, as expected, Slyck powers out and picks up Loca to escape. However, Loca knew it was coming and surprises Slyck by escaping out the back door and catching him with a sunset flip for a near fall. But later on, after Slyck had really put the hurt on, Loca starts pulling those kinds of surprises out of nowhere. When Slyck had him up for a brainbuster, Loca hit knees to the head to cause Slyck to lose his grip and Loca cradled him for a close near fall. Slyck gives him an Irish whip, and Loca comes back with a Hurricanrana. Slyck tries to revert back to working over Loca’s back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but Loca counters that into a head scissors. It’s only a matter of time before Slyck knows the idea though, and what can give Loca a fighting chance can just as easily seal the deal for Slyck. Loca goes up top for a rana, Slyck blocks that and muscles him back up and plants him with a Haterbreaker off the second rope and Loca is terminado. This is what I wish that feuding with Brother Runt would do for Jason Axe. The result isn’t even a real factor, it’s the simple fact that Loca got to work with a fairly well traveled veteran and wound up looking good and showing that he’s got in him to go higher up the ladder. ***1/2
The 411: 2CW finally breaks the curse of disappointing shows in Utica. The only real drags are the Axe/Runt match, which served its own purpose, and the Edwards/Springate match, and even that was a rather fun affair. Aside from those, there is plenty of fun to be had with the usual suspects, and a real hidden gem in Loca/Slyck.
