CZW Best of the Best 16
Maxwell J. Feinsten Interrupts the show intro to say he IS the Best of the Best, cool, sure, whatevs.
DJ Hyde Inaugurates the BotB16 Tournament - He brings out every competitor of the tournament for the picture. Everything went well. 16 wrestlers this time around.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
So Lio Rush is Papa Legba or some kinda of emo here? This is like a high flyer dream match....and Joey Janela, and it's not that he was bad, he actually brought in some good grapple spots to the match, but the things that Strickland, Rush, and Xacier were doing were out of this world, moves that I had never seen before. This was somewhat short, but an amazing match, sad that only one can go to the next round. I heard the words Reckless Abandon like 10 times during the match.
David Starr Promo - They're doing pre-taped promos, audio ain't that good, but good enough I guess. He just says that this time he's gonna show who the best is. All promos are likely saying the same thing over and over again.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
KInda like the same match plan as the previous, tons of flying by all 4 guys. We had more spots involving all 4 guys inside the ring, those that look super rehearsed. Fox and Cade had their seconds out there (Veda and Fox), and they did get involved in some spots, Veda hit a plancha and Fox took a superkick from Cade. Match also felt short, but it may be that they're soo good. Equal quality for sure, but actually less flight spots.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
Ok, at least this match has a non-flier in Elgin. Story of the match is that Henry, Sky, and Wentz are all pretty much equal in speed and agility, and then Elgin would come and destroy, until taken out by the three of them together. I was really impressed by Henry's kicks and overall Wentz looked great, gonna have to check out more stuff from them. The match was great once again. This show is great so far.
They keep saying it's 16 of the bets wrestlers all over the world, but aside from Elgin and Fenix, they're all from the US. Mexico and Canada aren't either that far.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
This had to be the most mixed of matches, one luchador, two brothers, and the Callihan Spit Machine. Jake and Dave did some teaming during the match, but it didn't last long. This was the less high fly match of the four first rounds, even with Fenix here. This match saw more cutters and superkicks, like tons of them. Good match, but didn't feel as good as the past ones.
CZW World Heavyweight Championship
I swear someone else uses Gacy's entrance theme, but I can't remember who, I wanna say The Kings of the North? Story of the match is that Cage is just tons more stronger than Gacy, but Gacy has crash style that is hard to plan ahead to and had to work Cage little by little. or at least this is the story that they tried to tell, because at some points Gacy was all athletic and doing damage to Cage. Match was good, but I think it was way too even and it just doesn't seem that is something you should do when you have someone like Cage in there, and someone as contrasting as Gacy, who can be the champ and all, but he ain't a freaking Machine. Finish was a roll up, so once again, why did Gacy get so much offense if he was gonna get a fluke win over Cage.
8 Man Scramble Ultimate Opportunity Token Match
Token gives you any match, any opponent, any time, any stipulation. Ace's gimmick is that he is a powerless Gambit from the X-Men. This was really Konley, the best mini in the world, and a bunch of geeks, ok that was harsh, a bunch of up and coming guys. Mascarita Sagrada came out as the surprise entrant here, no one was expecting him, but he got a bad pop. Match was tons of comedy, Mascarita Dorada had a chance to take out everyone, one by one, they all fell to Doradita, Meltzer would hate this. Once they got done with Mascarita spots, we saw everyone gets their shit in, some stuff was cool, but nothing noteworthy really. Ricky Shane Page takes the win at the end. Flip Gordon and Konley should had been in the BOTB16 tournament if you ask me.
Best Of The Best 16 Semi Final Match
Elgin and Crist went straight for the brawl all over the bleachers, not like super violent, but they did go all over the hall. Match eventually made it to the ring and wrestling was good, a bit of a hoss fight, since Dave ain't no small guy. Elgin had most of the momentum during the match, so at the end Dave Crist goes for the roll up win on Elgin. This was really similar to the Cage v Gacy match once inside the ring.
Best Of The Best 16 Semi Final Match
Well, this was awesome, I'll never get tired of seeing these guys fight. This match, as you can imagine, had tons of flying and being dropped in the head, as both men worked each other's heads/necks. The match was back and forward, you never really saw someone dominate the match, and while I was expecting tons of counters, playing off on them knowing each other, most of the moves hit on target. There was a really stupid spot where Fox positioned Swerve as a bridge between the ring and the barricade, and there really was no reason why Strickland couldn't just move away, it's not like it's a 10 feet drop or anything. Strickland won clean with a Swerve Stomp to what seemed to be the head, the angle looked painful.
Deathmatch, Special Guest Referee: Kevin Sullivan
Both men come out with tons of light tubes. There is really no reason why Sullivan is the ref here, and i'm not even sure he can get to the mat fast enough for a pin, but whatever. One minute in, Tremont is bleeding. As the match went on, this was more of a hardcore match than a deathmatch, it was somewhat tame of an ultraviolent CZW match, there were forks, lighttubs, doors, and chairs, but none of the cringy stuff that I hate. There was a cool spot where they started hitting each other with light tubes like Ishii and Shibata would hit each other with elbows, that got the fans excited and Tremont bleeding bad. You just can't do a deathmatch with a luchador and not rip their masks, it makes every fork spot look stupid. Finish was really anti-climatic. Match wasn't bad, but it was short and not that violent. Pentagon vs Vampiro was a whole lot more violent.
As I figured, Sullivan can't get to the mat and so he wasn't counting pins, add to that tons of broken light tubes, so Sullivan killed every pin momentum. At one point he started sweeping the ring with a broom for fucks sake.
Post-Match - We see a video announcing Tremont vs Onita, that's huge, but it's a weird way to tell Tremont that he's fighting Onita, he just got excited and there isn't a reason why he should.
Dave Crist/Shane Strickland Promos - I can barely hear these videos. From what I got, both were good, but it was the typical "this is my year" promo.
Best of the Best 16 Finals
Before the match, commentary is talking about the ring may still have some light tube dust there, and they say, this is one of the risks when you're wrestling for CZW. Fuck that. Both Crist and Swerve came to the ring with more focused mannerisms, gave it a nice touch of importance to the finals. Crist started dominating the match working Strickland's arms/shoulder. Crist started then to bring out chairs and tables and ladders and set them up around the ring, and I don't know, I kinda just wanted to see a straight wrestling match for a BOTB finals. They spent like 10 minutes doing spots outside the ring, then ring apron, and finally made it in to the ring, and through all the wrestling inside the ring, none of it involved weapons, so this is why I didn't like the chairs/ladders outside, completely unnecessary, if you wanna do a match inside the ring where they're both tired and damaged, then the whole idea of a one night tournament is enough.
Towards the end, there was a ref bump and Crist's manager gave Strickland a spinebuster, Strickland took him out quickly like nothing. Unnecessary overbooking. Then once again, he interfered to give Crist a super elevated cutter and the one, two, three for the win. Not sure why chairs are ok, but not interference.
The formula of the match worked and the wrestling was good, but it didn't feel worthy of the finals. Unnecessary weapon use, and no one got pissed at the dirty win, so why even do them.
Post-Match - Dave Crist hugs Strickland and puts Shane over, what the fuck, you're putting over the guy you just cheated on to win!
This was a great show wrestling wise top to bottom, but it's really unfortunate that the show was empty, not sure how many tickets they sold, but most of the bleachers were empty. Anyway, show was a really easy watch, none of it dragged, and considering this is a one night tournament, that is something worth mentioning. This is a show worth checking out non-CZW fans, especially if you're not into the deathmatch stuff.
DJ Hyde Inaugurates the BotB16 Tournament - He brings out every competitor of the tournament for the picture. Everything went well. 16 wrestlers this time around.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
Shane Strickland vs Joey Janela vs vs Lio Rush vs vs Dezmond Xavier - 7/10
So Lio Rush is Papa Legba or some kinda of emo here? This is like a high flyer dream match....and Joey Janela, and it's not that he was bad, he actually brought in some good grapple spots to the match, but the things that Strickland, Rush, and Xacier were doing were out of this world, moves that I had never seen before. This was somewhat short, but an amazing match, sad that only one can go to the next round. I heard the words Reckless Abandon like 10 times during the match.
David Starr Promo - They're doing pre-taped promos, audio ain't that good, but good enough I guess. He just says that this time he's gonna show who the best is. All promos are likely saying the same thing over and over again.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
King Ricochet vs David Starr vs AR Fox vs Jason Cade - 7/10
KInda like the same match plan as the previous, tons of flying by all 4 guys. We had more spots involving all 4 guys inside the ring, those that look super rehearsed. Fox and Cade had their seconds out there (Veda and Fox), and they did get involved in some spots, Veda hit a plancha and Fox took a superkick from Cade. Match also felt short, but it may be that they're soo good. Equal quality for sure, but actually less flight spots.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
Michael Elgin vs Anthony Henry vs Scorpio Sky vs Zachary Wentz - 7.5/10
Ok, at least this match has a non-flier in Elgin. Story of the match is that Henry, Sky, and Wentz are all pretty much equal in speed and agility, and then Elgin would come and destroy, until taken out by the three of them together. I was really impressed by Henry's kicks and overall Wentz looked great, gonna have to check out more stuff from them. The match was great once again. This show is great so far.
They keep saying it's 16 of the bets wrestlers all over the world, but aside from Elgin and Fenix, they're all from the US. Mexico and Canada aren't either that far.
Best Of The Best 16 First Round Match
Dave Crist vs Jake Crist vs Rey Fenix vs Sami Callihan - 6.5/10
This had to be the most mixed of matches, one luchador, two brothers, and the Callihan Spit Machine. Jake and Dave did some teaming during the match, but it didn't last long. This was the less high fly match of the four first rounds, even with Fenix here. This match saw more cutters and superkicks, like tons of them. Good match, but didn't feel as good as the past ones.
CZW World Heavyweight Championship
Brian Cage vs Joe Gacy (C) - 7/10
I swear someone else uses Gacy's entrance theme, but I can't remember who, I wanna say The Kings of the North? Story of the match is that Cage is just tons more stronger than Gacy, but Gacy has crash style that is hard to plan ahead to and had to work Cage little by little. or at least this is the story that they tried to tell, because at some points Gacy was all athletic and doing damage to Cage. Match was good, but I think it was way too even and it just doesn't seem that is something you should do when you have someone like Cage in there, and someone as contrasting as Gacy, who can be the champ and all, but he ain't a freaking Machine. Finish was a roll up, so once again, why did Gacy get so much offense if he was gonna get a fluke win over Cage.
8 Man Scramble Ultimate Opportunity Token Match
Ricky Shane Page vs Ace Austin vs Alexander James vs Caleb Konley vs Ethan Case vs Mascarita Dorada vs Tony Deppen vs Flip Gordon - 6/10
Token gives you any match, any opponent, any time, any stipulation. Ace's gimmick is that he is a powerless Gambit from the X-Men. This was really Konley, the best mini in the world, and a bunch of geeks, ok that was harsh, a bunch of up and coming guys. Mascarita Sagrada came out as the surprise entrant here, no one was expecting him, but he got a bad pop. Match was tons of comedy, Mascarita Dorada had a chance to take out everyone, one by one, they all fell to Doradita, Meltzer would hate this. Once they got done with Mascarita spots, we saw everyone gets their shit in, some stuff was cool, but nothing noteworthy really. Ricky Shane Page takes the win at the end. Flip Gordon and Konley should had been in the BOTB16 tournament if you ask me.
Best Of The Best 16 Semi Final Match
Dave Crist vs Michael Elgin - 6.5/10
Elgin and Crist went straight for the brawl all over the bleachers, not like super violent, but they did go all over the hall. Match eventually made it to the ring and wrestling was good, a bit of a hoss fight, since Dave ain't no small guy. Elgin had most of the momentum during the match, so at the end Dave Crist goes for the roll up win on Elgin. This was really similar to the Cage v Gacy match once inside the ring.
Best Of The Best 16 Semi Final Match
Shane Strickland vs AR Fox - 7.5/10
Well, this was awesome, I'll never get tired of seeing these guys fight. This match, as you can imagine, had tons of flying and being dropped in the head, as both men worked each other's heads/necks. The match was back and forward, you never really saw someone dominate the match, and while I was expecting tons of counters, playing off on them knowing each other, most of the moves hit on target. There was a really stupid spot where Fox positioned Swerve as a bridge between the ring and the barricade, and there really was no reason why Strickland couldn't just move away, it's not like it's a 10 feet drop or anything. Strickland won clean with a Swerve Stomp to what seemed to be the head, the angle looked painful.
Deathmatch, Special Guest Referee: Kevin Sullivan
Penta El 0M vs Matt Tremont w/Stockade - 5.5/10
Both men come out with tons of light tubes. There is really no reason why Sullivan is the ref here, and i'm not even sure he can get to the mat fast enough for a pin, but whatever. One minute in, Tremont is bleeding. As the match went on, this was more of a hardcore match than a deathmatch, it was somewhat tame of an ultraviolent CZW match, there were forks, lighttubs, doors, and chairs, but none of the cringy stuff that I hate. There was a cool spot where they started hitting each other with light tubes like Ishii and Shibata would hit each other with elbows, that got the fans excited and Tremont bleeding bad. You just can't do a deathmatch with a luchador and not rip their masks, it makes every fork spot look stupid. Finish was really anti-climatic. Match wasn't bad, but it was short and not that violent. Pentagon vs Vampiro was a whole lot more violent.
As I figured, Sullivan can't get to the mat and so he wasn't counting pins, add to that tons of broken light tubes, so Sullivan killed every pin momentum. At one point he started sweeping the ring with a broom for fucks sake.
Post-Match - We see a video announcing Tremont vs Onita, that's huge, but it's a weird way to tell Tremont that he's fighting Onita, he just got excited and there isn't a reason why he should.
Dave Crist/Shane Strickland Promos - I can barely hear these videos. From what I got, both were good, but it was the typical "this is my year" promo.
Best of the Best 16 Finals
Shane Strickland vs Dave Crist - 6/10
Before the match, commentary is talking about the ring may still have some light tube dust there, and they say, this is one of the risks when you're wrestling for CZW. Fuck that. Both Crist and Swerve came to the ring with more focused mannerisms, gave it a nice touch of importance to the finals. Crist started dominating the match working Strickland's arms/shoulder. Crist started then to bring out chairs and tables and ladders and set them up around the ring, and I don't know, I kinda just wanted to see a straight wrestling match for a BOTB finals. They spent like 10 minutes doing spots outside the ring, then ring apron, and finally made it in to the ring, and through all the wrestling inside the ring, none of it involved weapons, so this is why I didn't like the chairs/ladders outside, completely unnecessary, if you wanna do a match inside the ring where they're both tired and damaged, then the whole idea of a one night tournament is enough.
Towards the end, there was a ref bump and Crist's manager gave Strickland a spinebuster, Strickland took him out quickly like nothing. Unnecessary overbooking. Then once again, he interfered to give Crist a super elevated cutter and the one, two, three for the win. Not sure why chairs are ok, but not interference.
The formula of the match worked and the wrestling was good, but it didn't feel worthy of the finals. Unnecessary weapon use, and no one got pissed at the dirty win, so why even do them.
Post-Match - Dave Crist hugs Strickland and puts Shane over, what the fuck, you're putting over the guy you just cheated on to win!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a great show wrestling wise top to bottom, but it's really unfortunate that the show was empty, not sure how many tickets they sold, but most of the bleachers were empty. Anyway, show was a really easy watch, none of it dragged, and considering this is a one night tournament, that is something worth mentioning. This is a show worth checking out non-CZW fans, especially if you're not into the deathmatch stuff.