This week I step in to take a look at the latest episode of Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, which also happens to be the first part of their big Coastline Clash show.
The show started with a promo by Tyler Bateman to setup his match with Oliver Grimsly. Bateman was wearing an eye patch, due to being hit by a fireball thrown by Oliver Grimsly, and towards the end of his promo he pulled it off to reveal a red eye. I thought this was really good.
The show had a special Coastline Clash opening. This was good to set it apart from the normal weekly CWFH episodes.
Ricky Mandel vs. Scorpio Sky
The first match is Ricky Mandel challenging Scorpio Sky for the United Wrestling Network Television title. I thought at the start of the match the announcers did a good job of going over the history of Sky and Mandel’s feud in CWFH. This was a pretty good back and forth match. The crowd was pretty hot for it and was clearly behind Scorpio. Mandel had exposed a turnbuckle mid-match, and the finish saw him get thrown into that corner and then Scorpio hit the Ace of Spades on him for the win.
Post match Hideki Shibata interviews Sky and Sky challenges anyone in the world to face him for his title.
Oliver Grimsly vs. Tyler Bateman
I first saw Oliver Grimsly earlier this year at a Party Hard show in Phoenix, AZ and I didn’t think he really stood out, but here he is up against one of the best wrestlers in the area. I know Andrew mentions this all the time, but the fake crowd noise has to go. No one is fooled by it and it comes across so bad. The crowd was actually chanting and in to the match, so it was completely pointless too. Grimsly was in control for most of the match. Bateman did a great job of selling Grimsly’s offense. Bateman hit a desperation headbutt, which took both guys out. Bateman was able to regain control but Grimsley was able to counter a Death from Above and regained control. Grimsly worked Bateman’s knee some and later hit his knee with a foreign object that he had in his trunks. That allowed him to hit his Bed of Nails finisher and get the win. I thought the match did fine job of moving the story along and like I mentioned earlier, Bateman did a great job selling Grimsly’s offense throughout the match.
Next Kevin Condron interviews Big Duke to setup his match with Peter Avalon.
After a commercial for high end flash lights we get Hideki Shibata interviewing “Professional” Peter Avalon.
Big Duke vs. “Professional” Peter Avalon
Big Duke is in control early, but Avalon escapes the ring and regroups. Avalon takes control and works over Duke’s left arm and we go to a commercial break. The commercial breaks in the middle of every match really take you out of the match watching on TV. After the commercial, Avalon is still in control and continues to work over Duke’s left arm. Duke did a good job selling the arm throughout the match. Duke regained control and managed a near fall after a big boot. Avalon regained control and went right back to the arm. Big Duke goes for a superplex on the ropes, but Avalon gets out of it and rakes Duke’s eyes. Duke goes to the mat and Avalon hit the Marti-knees. Duke managed to get his foot on the rope during the pin, but Nikko Marquez, who accompanied Avalon to the ring, pushed the foot off the ropes before the ref could see it. Avalon picks up the win and retains the Hollywood Heritage title. I thought this match was pretty good. They did a nice job of telling a story with the match and it did its purpose to further cement Avalon as a heel.
Overall match quality wise I thought this was a good episode of Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. The opener and the main were good and Bateman and Grimsly was solid and did its job in advancing their storyline. My only real complaint with this episode (and every recent episode) is the fake crowd noise. It sounds terrible. If you have matches that you feel need fake crowd noise, you need to book different matches that will elicit a reaction from the crowd. The thing was, the crowd seemed good for all three matches on the show, so what was the point?
Anyway, this was part one of Coastline Clash. On the next episode they should have DJ Hyde and Bad Dude Tito Escondido in a no-rope, no-DQ match as the main event. The promotion also has its next television taping this Sunday at the Oceanview Pavilion in Port Hueneme.
The show is available on demand via the Fite TV app and airs weekly in Southern California on KDOC in Los Angeles/Orange County and CW6 in San Diego (for the next couple of weeks at least) at 4:00 pm on Saturdays.
