This week, Joey Janela defends the CZW Wired Championship, Ray Rosas and Big Duke have a #1 Contenders match, and more. Click for the review, click on the Fite TV links. Do it.
To watch this episode of Championship Wrestling From Hollywood, or to check out shows from promotions such as ROH and CMLL, check out the Fite TV app. If you’re a fan of MMA, the last RIZIN FF event with Mauro Ranallo on commentary is on the Fite TV app as well. Check it out!
The show is off to a terrible start when it opens with Yuma being interviewed by Kevin Condron to hype his match with Joey Janela for the CZW Wired Championship. I usually shit on Condron, mostly because he’s fucking awful, but he was more entertaining in this promo than Yuma, who cut the lamest promo ever. He said Janela might be a bad boy, but that if people asked CWFH, Yuma could be the worst. Well, he definitely is the worst as he’s terrible on the mic, boring in the ring, and a shitty booker. After the shit promo, we go to the outdated intro video. Seriously, this thing needs to be updated badly. CWFH looks so bush league when they have an intro where half the guys aren’t even on the roster anymore and one of the stables that is featured in it are broken up.
CZW Wired Championship Match: Joey Janela (c) vs. Yuma
The referee is wearing a CZW referee’s shirt, which was a nice touch. This match just showed how CWFH doesn’t understand, well, anything about modern professional wrestling. Janela, who is best known for getting over by doing crazy shit and viral videos, did nothing he is well known for and worked a boring match full of restholds against Yuma. The fans were shitting on this when they kept chanting for weapons, and chastised the match not being violent enough by chanting “WE WANT BLOOD” when Janela tried working over Yuma’s body. There was a cool spot where Janela hit a Death Valley Driver on the ring apron, Janela also hit a Falcon Arrow on Yuma from the top rope. Yuma got the win after countering a pin attempt from Janela and hit him with his shitty finishing move to win the CZW Wired Championship. This was a really boring match, and Yuma continues to make me cringe. He really is godawful. The big spots were decent though.
Backstage, Kevin Condron interviews Ray Rosas regarding his match with Duke. He cut a promo about winning the match so he can face Peter, so he could win the title and maybe win his friend back. Wait, what? How the fuck is Ray going to win his friend back if he beats him for his title? This makes no sense. Ray disappointed me here. After a commercial, Condron interviews The Estonian ThunderFrog from Chikara. This was just, ugh.
Dan Parker vs. Tito Escondido
This started out with Parker trying to talk down Tito and get control early by doing cheap stuff, and eventually Tito slapped Parker and hit the Fade To Black for the win. This was literally a waste of time and a waste of Tito’s talent.
Post match shenanigans: Tito got on the mic and cut a promo on DJ Hyde. He tells DEEJ to bring the CZW Champion to CWFH for a match, then leaves. It was nice to see CWFH booking a segment where Tito does something to elevate himself, but they didn’t need to waste anyone’s time with a squash match that accomplished nothing.
The Estonian ThunderFrog (w/ Jervis Cottonbelly) vs. Ryan Taylor
This started out with shenanigans from ThundeFrog. He kept overdoing his schtick during the match. This match wasn’t very good ThunderFrog was just awful. Ryan Taylor got the win with an awful looking leg lock. Seriously, pro wrestlers need to stop trying to work submission holds if they don’t even know how to do legitimately do them, because it looks stupid when workers are doing shit that doesn’t look close to looking like a real submission hold.
In some random dark place, Tyler Bateman cuts a promo on Oliver Grimsly. This was a promo. Nothing good, nothing bad, nothing really interesting. Just a promo. There wasn’t a match built up or anything, it was just talking. Yeah.
The Classic Connection (Buddy Royal & Levi Shapiro) vs. Pac 3 (Dan Joseph & Dicky Maier w/ Coach Flexo & Dylan Bostic)
Before the match, Coach Flexo cut a promo about the Classic Connection being in the tag title match at Coastline Clash, and cashes in Dicky Maier’s PP3 Cup (their WWE Money In The Bank ripoff gimmick) for a match at Coastline Clash. Yeesh.
The crowd was really behind Dicky Maier, and he had a really good showing in this in his opening sequence with Buddy Royal. Eventually the Classic Connection worked over Dicky and did the standard face-in-peril formula. Levi Shapiro is the type of worker who can make an average beer drinking fan think they can be a wrestler. He is just fucking awful. There was a hot tag spot with Dicky tagging in Dan Joseph, but the Pac 3 aren’t babyfaces so there was no heat. Classic Connection got the win after they kept working over Dicky’s shoulder and hit their finisher. This was so fucking boring. The only decent thing here was Dicky’s in ring work and the slow build for him leaving the Pac 3. Aside from that, this was a bad match.
#1 Contender Match: Ray Rosas vs. Big Duke
By the time Ray Rosas came out, there was about seven minutes left in the show, so it was obvious this would be a really quick match. The actual match started with five minutes left on the show. The crowd was really fucking dead for this match. Can you blame them though? They’ve sat through so much bullshit that it would be hard for them to be excited for this match as it was just full of basic stuff that went at a very conservative pace. The best thing about this match was the veiled shot at Donald Trump and his non sequitur “Make America Great Again” nonsense. The fake crowd noise started to make a huge comeback, and it did nothing for this match other than making it annoying. DEEJ and Peter Avalon attacked Ray Rosas and Big Duke after Ray hit a tope to the outside, and the match ends in a no contest. The fans chanted for Tito, but he never came out. What a pointless main event.
Final Thoughts
Remember earlier this year when I said this show was getting better? Well shit, I take that back. This show has gotten really fucking awful again in so many departments. From match quality, to storyline building, and everything in-between. Not only that, but this show was a huge missed opportunity for CWFH as they would probably have more fans watching this episode online than any other given the fact that they have a popular indy act like Joey Janela on their show. Joey Janela wasn’t even utilized in a way that showcases his strengths, and instead had a boring match with fucking Yuma of all people. I get the bookers want to showcase themselves and shit, but this was just ridiculous. Now with a match featuring a worker that could possibly bring in new fans, you’d think CWFH would be able to capitalize on this, and realize it’d be smart if they put on a very exciting show to captivate a potential new audience, right, RIGHT?
The show’s structure was just awful. There were way too many pointless matches here, and none of them were the type that would get interest from potentially new fans. I don’t know if Dave Marquez is beyond stubborn and refuses to better his product even though it fucking sucks, or if he just has his head up his ass and has no clue as to what modern wrestling fans want.
On top of the bad showing, CWFH was also going up against UFC on Fox prelims, and an Anaheim Angels’ game on KCOP 13 in the Los Angeles market. That is really huge competition running directly against CWFH on TV. There’s no way those events didn’t take viewers from CWFH, and there’s no way CWFH can ever book a show that would captivate an audience enough to draw them away from those live events.
I really don’t know why CWFH has regressed. Everything feels so uninspired and boring again. Either Dave Marquez needs to replace his creative team, or someone needs to get him to smoke a bowl or two so he can realize how bad his show is and how it is in desperate need of a change.
Again, don’t just take my word for it. Check it out on the Fite TV app and decide for yourself.
