A bunch of qualifying matches for the PP3 Cup tournament, a Champion vs. Champion match, bad booking, and shit storytelling. I also talk about my drug addiction. Enjoy!
The show starts with Toasterdork Grant interviewing the Friendship Express. This show is off to an abysmal start, and it hasn’t even been a minute. This was total cringe as usual with these cards. Hobo sucks, and Jervis’ voice is a shitty ripoff of the voice of Pops from Regular Show. Jervis is in a random tag match to qualify for the PP3 Cup. Fucking awful way to start the episode. Ugh. We go to the outdated intro to start the show, which features Vermin, who are now broken up. My feelings can pretty much be summed up in one video.
PP3 Qualifying Match: Kevin Martenson vs. Yuma
So is Johnny Yuma’s gimmick supposed to be some douche with a shitty haircut and does cringey shit in the ring? Shitty haircut aside, the opening sequence was good. Then they tried brawling, and it sucked ass. The match slowed down a bit, and then Yuma hit a tope on Martenson on the outside, gaining control of the match before going to a commercial break which featured an ad for heroin, pain killer, and alcohol addiction recovery services. CWFH really knows their audience, which is me and the workers of this show. Personally, I need help with my horse tranquilizer problem. After the commercial break, Yuma was still in control before Martenson made a comeback and hit a german suplex on Yuma. The match evened out, they did a bunch of counters and other shit. There was a cool moment where Martenson did a rope assisted hurricanrana sending Yuma to the outside, and followed it up with a double stomp to the floor. The finish came after a sequence of random shit that ended with Yuma rolling up Martenson for the win. This wasn’t a bad match. There were some dull moments, but overall this was good.
Backstage, Peter Avalon is with Toasterdork and some guy who are going over a run sheet or something. They’re interrupted by Watts and his manager Ty Matthews. He says Peter is lucky Watts didn’t go for him, and says they’re gonna take Peter’s title when they win the PP3 Cup. Peter challenges Watts to a Champion vs. Champion match. Aside from Toasterdork, this wasn’t bad. Then there’s a commercial for Live Links again. Family programming! Toasterdork is backstage with Ryan Taylor and Espitiru. Espiritu and Ryan have a heated confrontation. Grant really needs to stop fucking yelling. I swear, I’m past the point of tolerance with him. I feel about him the same way Jim Norton feels about parades.
Jace Battle vs. Big Duke
The match started with Duke hitting Jace with a running boot to the face in the corner. Duke controlled the match at a slow pace that saw him trying to do “character work” by acting like he’s all crazy and shit because DJ Hyde, who John Zandig literally buried in his parents backyard, made him that way in this feud. Duke hit a nice rope assisted piledriver on Jace, which Jace sold like a champ. Duke won with a lariat. This was a pure squash, which was an okay way to build up Duke, but at the same time it was shitty cause it didn’t do Jace Battle any favors. The crowd didn’t care for this either, which was also not good whatsoever.
Post match shenanigans: Toasterdork interviews Duke at ringside. He cuts a promo challenge the DEEJ to a cage match on the 300th episode, and the fans were booing Duke and chanting for the DEEJ. Awful. Duke was getting Roman Reigns type heat here. To make matters worse, they’re chanting for a guy who was buried in his parents’ backyard by John Zandig. No buys.
PP3 Qualifying Match: Brody King & Jervis Cottonbelly vs. Ryan Taylor & Espiritu
I hated the booking of this match. Brody and Espiritu had a really good exchange in the early part of the match including a really nice Quesadora into a Bulldog spot. The booking for this ended up going full retard, as Ryan Taylor attacked Espiritu when they nearly had the match won. Then Brody King was about to win the match before Ryan Taylor went back to the ring to stop the three count, but instead the ref stopped himself to let Ryan get in the ring to kick Brody. Then he tagged himself in and got the submission win on Brody with a modified Rings of Saturn. This was all sorts of stupid. Like I get it, Ryan Taylor hates Espiritu and wants the glory, but this was straight up shitty storytelling and awful character development. He nearly cost his own team the match, and a chance at being in the PP3 Cup tournament. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a bad match quality wise aside from Jervis’ usually bullshit. It’s just that the booking was stupid and hurt things.
Peter Avalon vs. Eric Watts w/ Ty Matthews
You know, I write a lot about how Watts has very underwhelming performances, but he was pretty much okay here against Peter Avalon. I still think Watts needs to bring out more intensity. Despite that, he and Peter had a good match. Watts has done really well with really good workers to perform with, like Rocky Romero and Scorpio Sky in past episodes of CWFH. The story was pretty basic, as was the formula, with Peter using his speed to get the advantage, and Watts throwing Peter around the ring and using his power to get advantages while Ty Matthews got involved at times. There’s really no need for that. Watts is supposed to be built up as a credible monster. He doesn’t need a midget in a suit fighting his battles to get heat. Peter’s feud with Tito was briefly mentioned on commentary, but it felt like an afterthought. Watts controlled the match, then Peter made a comeback before Watts regained control. There was a cool spot where Watts tried to powerbomb Peter, but Peter attempted to counter it with a rana, but had his counter countered by Watts with a vicious powerbomb. Peter won after getting a schoolboy pin on Watts. Good stuff.
Post match shenanigans: Watts was mad, Ty tried to hold him off. We’re out.
Final Thoughts
The show as a whole was solid again when it came to the match quality. Duke vs. Jace Battle was the weakest match of the show simply because it was a squash that nobody cared about. The shows weaknesses, mainly the booking, still hurts this show. I totally forgot Big Duke was in a feud with the DEEJ, and there wasn’t much (if any) mention or build up for the Scorpio Sky/Tyler Bateman story. The angle in the Ryan Taylor/Espiritu vs. Brody King/Jervis match was really bad and poorly planned out. Another thing that I noticed was how terrible CWFH’s tag team division is now. Watts, a singles wrestler, if the champ and the only other teams in the division are the Friendship Express and Classic Connection. Oof. As much as I praise this show for stepping up its match quality, there’s still too much bullshit keeping this series from being really good.
