Intro post to understand why we are doing this.

First show of the year for 2CW, back at the Pastime Athletic Center in scenic Syracuse, New York. On tape we have a rematch between Isys Ephex and Slyck Wagner Brown, a match that I didn’t particularly care for. You also have another entry in The Killer Steves versus AMIL…for some reason. Plus an NWA World Heavyweight title match. What more could you want?

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

Knowing the future of what 2CW has to offer is truly important for this rivalry. You can’t fully appreciate these matches without considering them in the context of the promotion. That context being 2CW would eventually book a match every show featuring the same six “shitty” wrestlers. Both the promoter and fans referred to it as the Shitty Six. This series of matches between AMIL and The Killer Steves is clearly a precursor to that.

30. Spike Dudley vs. Abyss

Long time readers may or may not know, I’m a weirdo when it comes to post-WCW NWA championship business. For any sane person, an NWA title match on a small indie should be a nothingburger but me it MEANS something.

Bummer they laid a complete stinker in front of the 2CW faithful. I don’t think the fans particularly cared. Their brains never fully formed. The idea of a former WWF/ECW wrestler deciding to grace them month after makes him a hero. Pair that him being against the champion of the Number 2 promotion in the USA (actually, not just current TNA fan speak), the crowd wants to buy in.

The match from tip to taint drags ass. Everything takes way too damn long. Spots take eons to set up, only one delivers in any meaningful way, where Abyss press slams Spike through a table on the outside. Spike + Falling From High Point = Popped. Outside of that, every moment lacks heat. Nothing done with violence. In a match featuring a former ECW wrestler and Abyss, that is a major problem they never get past.

26. Zachary Springate III vs. Gordy Wallace 2CW 1.12.07

We got ourselves a lumberjack match folks. Does anyone like lumberjack match? Has there ever been a great one?

This series of matches have not been Killer Steves versus All Money is Legal levels of bland, but they are playing in the same neighborhood. ZS3 comes from the same school as folks like Triple H, Killer Kowalski’s place, and every match reads like that. None of the work looks terrible. All of the work is done at a pace that is 25% too slow. That is the separation between milking and dragging. Shameful. Early matches against superworkers JD Love and Isys Ephex fooled me into thinking that Gordy had a bag. Dude can’t hang even in the rec league.

Even if either wrestler was a Good Worker, lumberjack matches aren’t built that. They are built for the dudes on the outside to do a goofy little thing. Here you get Studley Steve Mckenzie put more energy into going at Gordy than he did his actual match. You also have this moment where Dizzie starts whipping his shirt at ZS3 while the faces do actual work. I loved it. Pure joy for me.

Anyway there is a fireball. Whatever. I hate how I’m whatevering a fireball. 2CW, what have you done to me?

9. Dizzie vs. “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards

The debut of future 2CW staple, Eddie “Eddie Edwards” Edwards. Real heads know. Also the match that makes me embrace Dizzie as a great flabby piece of crap workrate wrestler. He’s like me for real.

From the first chain wrestling sequence it is a treat to see Dizzie Trying Hard and Eddie effortlessly moving between A-to-B-to-C. Started getting tears in my eyes as Dizzie barely goes over for arm drags towards the end of the OPENING SEQUENCE followed by Eddie bumping like a freak to the outside through the middle rope. The duality of man on full display.

The only thing that stops this match from feeling like a true Diet Ring of Honor experience is Eddie is from New England. Those scumbags know How To Work. Which is to say, these Bostonians love to throw on headlocks and slow shit down. Baby, I WANT you to burn me out. That’s the plan, that’s the goal now. I don’t care about Eddie scraping his boot against Dizzie’s face as part of the not-terribly-long-but-still-too-long workover.

Luckily after all that we get a sampling of Dizzie’s Beautiful Brain. He does a backpack/snapmare into a Michinoku Driver!!! Probably a snapmare driver I GUESS. That is some backyard wrestling thinking. There is also now what I understand as a staple spot for Dizzie where he monkey flips Eddie, goes up top and does the crappiest splash you’ve ever seen. It is awe inspiring. That is the real treat of watching all these 2CW matches. That spot in the SWB match from a few shows back made me groan. Now, see him do it again against the most workrate wrestler in 2CW history, I’m fawning over it. Head over heels in love with this spot that is done with such little grace, I almost believe I could do it. I absolutely could not, but watching it I believe in myself. Believing in yourself is the magic only wrestling an give.

8. Ajax820 vs. “Main Event” Jason Axe

Not entirely sure this isn’t ranking high based purely on the great tope from Ajax820. I’ve seen so many shitty topes in American wrestling for so long, you grow numb to it. Then Ajax treats me to this full body tope, puts some stank on it, and you remember things don’t have to suck.

Real treat for Jason Axe to also go fully into his gimmick on this one. A couple points in the match where Jason Axe flat out loses, gets on the mic and says “THIS IS MAIN EVENT, THE RULES CHANGE”. The countout is a 20, not a 10 in the main event…makes sense. You also only a certain amount of rope breaks…okay now we are stretching it brother. I’m fully biased towards 2CW so I’m ashamed to admit I find the wrestler and the promotion fully embracing the gimmick totally charming.

It isn’t JUST a tope and an extended series of bits. There is also extended leg work! Ain’t that what we are all here for? Shockingly good stuff from Axe going to town, using the whole ring to his advantage. Easier to do when you force the referee, and everyone in attendance, that rope breaks don’t matter. If everyone is on board, who am I to argue?

The leg becomes the story, Ajax sells it well. By that I mean does a showy spot where he breaks down during a superkick.

2CW’s crowd is one of the most Get Yourself Over crowds you can imagine. At least they are loud even if they completely suck the life out of the finish because they need to chant YOU TAPPED OUT before the actual finish. Jfc.

6. Loca Vida vs. JD Love

Dear close personal long time friend Pat recently said to me “…you guys know that being a smart mark means you’re still a mark, right”.

So yeah, this match is worked entirely as a follow up to their previous matches and I almost think would almost not function without watching those. Yet, being the astute 2CW viewer I am, I’m a mark for it.
The biggest spot of the last match between the two was without question Loca Vida diving from the basketbal hoop. Always fun to see someone jump from a high object and bonus points if that object is interesting from a wrestling context. Of course they tease Loca Vida doing it again and JD Love ripping him down before he can get more than a yard off the ground. Mabe the most aggredious “how does this play if you didn’t already see Loca Vida do the jump already”. Probably feels more like being robbed at that point of something cool. At least Love made sure to yank Vida with some oomph. Throughout the match Love puts stank on everything. Chops, cut-offs, etc.

I’d argue the second coolest spot from last bout was VIda jumping from the floor to doing a springboard in the ring. Folks, you aren’t dumb, you’ve already guessed it, our lord and savior JD Love snuffs it as Loca Vida springboards into the ring. Again, puts some honest to god STANK on the OK Stampede.
A match for the people who think they are smarter than they are. I just happen to know I’m an idiot.

3. Isys Ephex vs. Slyck Wagner Brown

The rematch is everything I was hoping the first match would be. A classic TEW style “Isys and SWB’s chemistry is improving” type shit. More of an Isys Ephex match than a Slyck Wagner Brown match all for the better.

The previous match felt like two guys who felt like their shit was over enough where they could milk every big move. Here, they cram this mother trucker. Everything and the kitchen sink. Don’t let anyone’s mind wander.

No small part of that is Slyck Wagner Brown works way more micro than macro. Sometimes I say shit like that and mutter to myself “you pretentious sack of crap” but also, sure. SWB usually is more focused that the big spots play. Plenty of folks that watch wrestling where that matters more than almost anything. The chops being thrown full smack, tossing your opponent into the guardrail with full force, throwing a wrinkle on an armdrag, tbh not everyone cares if it isn’t leading to a bigger moment. Do I think those people are watching wrestling wrong? Yes, but do I think that makes them worse fans of wrestling? Yes, of course. Bit when I see SWB thrown these nasty knees to Isys’s midsection I can’t help squint and see Too Cold Scorpio. The level of violence in those individual moments.

I won’t meta-narrative and go “Well you see, clearly this is building from his Too Cold Scorpio series and you show SWB’s development as a wrestler”. That is every analysis of 2010’s New Japan Pro Wrestling which I won’t sink myself too. The real meta-narrative is they tanked the last match so I personally would be more impressed by this one.

Isys is a rule of cool wrestler, busting out every idea that comes in his head, and SWB came to play. When you hit a tope full freight into the first row you know you are speaking my language. Not a match with layers nor some singular through-line that has me going gaga but I’m so impressed with how they actually don’t have weird chemistry and the two dudes built up to be two best Wrestlers in the promotion can produce something worthwhile.