Intro post to understand why we are doing this.

Second show of a back-to-back to open 2007. Rematches galore with Spike and Abyss running it back from last night in Syracuse.

41. All Money is Legal (K Pusha & K Murda) vs. The Killer Steves (Studly Steve McKenzie & Mr. One Night Stand Steve Kruz)

Why do I keep doing myself? Maybe I’m not built for the “project” life. People who watch all available matches for something and decide “I shall waid through the utter crap because I am a warrior of God.”. But I feel like that is not built into my being. And yet…I am here.

Steve McKenzie has a nutty dive. There, that is something specific about this match.

20. Portia Perez vs. Nikki Roxx

This is some classic indie women’s wrestling in the sense that commentary is all about how this is “real wrestling unlike the garbage on TV”. A top tier shit trope.

It is bare bones bruiser versus “technical” wrestler type bout. Technical in the Dean Malenko sense, not the actual sense. The pace is…methodical. A rhythm never develops between the two . A shame because there are moments you see potential if they could just fill in the gaps. Moments like Nikki spinbustering the piss out of Portia for a cutoff. Certainly didn’t help with finding a groove though.

Oh, and to make sure y’all are aware, yes, of course, the 2CW faithful did chant for puppies 5 minutes into the match.

16. JD Love vs. Loca Vida

Can’t believe we didn’t get a dance off to start off. We do get JD forcing Loca Vida to motorboat him. We can have some good things I suppose.

Shame that JD Love doesn’t get put in there with The Good Workers. Loca Vida is fine, but someone with the best dropkick and chop in the company should be slinging with SWB and Isys Ephex on a show to show basis. There is no shame in saying he completely outclasses Vida because that would be the case for 90% of the roster. Can you imagine the gap between Love and either of the Steves? Good god, chills down my spine.

Think I’m blowing smoke up JD Love’s beautiful ass? The man turned the stink face into an honest to goodness violent spot. A god among men.

A fairly short thing, you are in, you are out, you got to see JD Love kick ass. Not a bad day in the 2CW mines.

13. Ajax820 vs. Dizzie vs. Jason Axe

Watching it back, going through my notes, not sure how I ended up this high. But you got to trust your gut in these situations, as rotund as mine is. It carries weight 😉

Another match where I continue to embrase my appreciation of Dizzie. Flings his flabby body around with wreckless abandon. Manges to catch a flying armbar from Ajax and does a quasi Rampage Jackson slam. The guy has a bigger brain than almost anyone in the company. Clearly he should be teaming with Isys Ephex as the Idea Guys.

Why was I gutchecking this? This is 5 minutes of non-stop bullshit. Jason Axe even takes a nutty bump on the guardrail, the small of his back, and Ajax hits one of the best indie topes you will see. Finish has Ajax getting creme’d with a Cradle Shock off the second rope. Give me some dumb moves, don’t have anyone out of the action for too long, and put a stamp on it, I’m easy to please.

11. Abyss vs. Spike Dudley

The opposite of “victim of expectations”. Read my thoughts on their match from the night before. I’m a generous man, TLDR: sucked donkey nuts.

Happy to say they followed up with exactly what you are hoping for. A fun little brawl that emphasises Spike’s strengths ie Being small and spunky.

I had to try tossing the last match out of my brain. From the start, where Abyss is shrugging off Spike but Spike is slipping and sliding around Abyss’s big ass. Schoolboy’s and Acid Drop’s coming from nothing. And the pace is just constant. How did the last match fumble so bad? Why did they have so many “ideas”?

Part of me thinks that this is simpler…but they really just go from thing to thing so much quicker. Spike hitting an Acid Drop over the guardrail is inspired. Plays into Spike either going with the rocket launcher or sneaking one past Abyss. He’s not going for a slow grinding down. Abyss is too friggin’ big for that business. Either blast him out of the water or hope you take him by surprise.

9. Gordy Wallace vs. Zachary Springate III

Sort of match that helps zero in on what I actually dig in wrestling. These two have had some extremely OKAY matches. This is clearly the best. But how? Why?

Conceptually, this is more straight forward than there other bouts. Less setting up spots, less having to engage with lumberjacks. There are shots with a cowbell early, and they are loud.

There is this moment early on where ZS3 is about to play to the crowd, not shocking. Gordy immediately drags him in with the rope for a sweeeeet belly to belly suplex. Too often ZS3 gets to soak it all in. It always drags ass. Gordy puts the foot on the gas from there. Smacking ZS3 with the bell, choking him, piledriving him, giving him the business through and through.

The moments where things break down and they throw, you feel the heat. God, so many moments were goofy in the previous matches or they didn’t follow through on the ideas. This match has probably 20 more impactful moves/moments than any of the other matches. Sure, movez culture is bad, but I do want to see people get slammed to shit

Also important to note because I dedicated a lot more notes to it, Gordy hog ties Springate at one point. Isn’t that beautiful? That is wrestling baby. Goofy, practical, a little bit of hate in it.

4. Eddie Edwards vs. Isys Ephex

The Goodest Match in 2CW history.

Uninteresting to talk about in a lot of ways. I’m a simpleton. This has the feeling of a midcard ROH match. Not trying to outshine the main event but plenty of action to show you “Yeah, we can wrestle baby”.

The pace is constant. From tip to taint, we are moving. One of the few moments where it feels it stops, or at least pauses, is EEEE hitting a fisherman buster on the apron. A silly dumb spot that looks like death. Perfect.

To be clear, this isn’t a thinker. There aren’t onion like layers to it. It is 13 minutes of chops, headdrops, and chain wrestling. Hard to find how each piece is connecting to one another but again, the pace is so tight that it doesn’t feel abrupt. You can’t focus on the ways the seems don’t line up because you are already to next wacky thing. Hard to figure out where they are going with strike exchange that more-or-less ends with Isys getting superkicked out of his boots OOPS there is a DVD, we poppin’. Doesn’t always matter how we get there, we keep grooving.