Every week I trash Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. In this article, I take a look at why their shows are awful.
Many people have noticed that I’ve been very harsh on Championship Wrestling From Hollywood based on my reviews. That’s mostly because the show has so many flaws that I would be insulting the intelligence of you, the readers, if I didn’t speak so honestly.
Usually in my reviews I just go off and comment briefly on what CWFH does wrong. In this column, I’m gonna take an extensive look at the many flaws CWFH has going.
Poor Storytelling
One thing CWFH sympathizers like to point is that it isn’t a work rate promotion. People also say since it is a TV product, it is more storyline centric. I can understand that. You need something to get the viewer hooked. That said, CWFH doesn’t do a good job at telling compelling story lines.
With only one hour of TV time (cut down to 45-50 minutes with commercials factored in) there isn’t much time to develop stories while packing episodes with matches. This results in angles not being mentioned on TV for a week or two at a time. Case in point: Scorpio Sky’s current storyline. He lost the United TV title to Rocky Romero, and later his old manager Christian Cole and former stablemate Big Duke turned on him. Basically everything is going to shit for him in the storyline.
What’s wrong with this storyline is that the main part, Duke turning on Sky. The angle has consisted of Sky trying to go after Duke once after Duke won a squash match, a promo after losing a tag team match Duke wasn’t in, and being on the winning team in a tag match where Duke was pinned cleanly. You’d think this would get decent TV time, right? Wrong. There were gaps between episodes where neither guy was mentioned. It has sorta quickly became an afterthought on this show. Oh, and Sky still has an unresolved issue with Rocky Romero. That has gone unmentioned for many episodes.
It isn’t the only storyline with problems either.
Nearly every CWFH angle going on now seems to be going terribly. From Ray Rosas losing heat during his comeback, to Ruby Raze vs. Kevin Condron, nearly every angle going on is terrible. The creative team at CWFH produces a lot of terrible, poorly though-out story lines that don’t get their workers over.
The other problem with these story lines is inconsistency. Not every storyline needs to have a long segment on every show. Short video recaps or (good) promos would suffice. Things like that are crucial to help get the audience emotionally invested in angles and performers. Sure, there are a lot of other problems like workers winning and losing in the wrong matches, but there’s nothing worse than the audience forgetting what’s happening on the shows.
Terrible Build Ups
Whether it involves workers, matches, championships events, or story lines, CWFH does an awful job at building and hyping up things.
Recently CWFH on-screen minority owner that I like to call “Fake Marquez Son” announced the creation of the “World Heritage Invitational” tournament in the middle of an episode during a pre-taped segment. The only thing that was explained about the tournament was that the winner would get a shot at the Hollywood Heritage title. After that segment, the tournament started with a triple threat match.
No hype. No explanation of who was participating. Nothing.
This is a common theme in CWFH, and is also part of a larger problem CWFH has when it comes to making their audience aware of the show’s current events.
When you watch a pro wrestling show, you usually know what’s going to happen. If you watch the opening of a wrestling show, you’re going to hear about the top matches. Those shows also go out of the way to keep you informed of what is to come too. Not just that, but they also try to advertise matches and angles that have been set up for future episodes.
CWFH? They don’t even have enough sense to let the audience know what’s happening on an episode at the top of the show. Unless you’re following their social media, you’ll be completely clueless as to what is coming up. This doesn’t help fans get interested in shows, matches, or workers. If people don’t know when a compelling match is going to happen, they’re not going to be inclined to tune in.
Sometimes CWFH puts effort into building up things. For instance, the Red Carpet Rumble. They usually do a thing where guys try to fight to win the chance to be #30 in the annual battle royal. However, even when they try to build up things, they’re still lazy and unoriginal.
Titles Don’t Mean Shit
The majority of title matches in CWFH are often times “open challenges” or random matches with no credible contenders. This is a major problem as the biggest marketing tools for pro wrestling promotions are championships. If they’re treated like they can be won by just anyone, they’re not going to have value. If they’re being defended in matches that nobody can be excited for, they’re going to have even less value.
At the moment, the CWFH titles have no real credible contenders in any division. Tyler Bateman, who won the Red Carpet Rumble, is currently the only established title contender in the promotion with a shot at the Heritage title.. After Bateman, there aren’t any real title contenders that have been built up for any of CWFH’s championships.
While the “World Heritage Invitational” is a quick way to build a contender, it isn’t enough to boost anyone’s credibility as a title contender. It’s like putting a band-aid on a would that needs stitches.
Booking champions shouldn’t be hard either, but CWFH has done a terrible job at it. While Tito Escondido is the perfect choice to be Hollywood Heritage champion, his reign hasn’t been booked well. Since his title win, Tito has been featured minimally. CWFH has already burned through his rematch with Peter Avalon. Now Tito has nobody on the horizon aside from Bateman, and there are no signs CWFH are going to do anything with him for the title. Basically Tito is being wasted.
Without proper contenders, title matches aren’t going to mean anything. At this point the titles in CWFH are just worthless props. This needs to be fixed.
Non-Wrestling Personalities Go Into Business For Themselves
When you read my reviews, you’ll see that I praise Joshua Shibata’s work as a backstage interviewer. It’s because he knows his job, and he does it well. This is the opposite of what Grant Baciocco does, as he always goes over-the-top in backstage segments and takes heat away from workers. Everyone else on CWFH aside from Josh doesn’t know that they’re just background people. Instead they try to overshadow the talent.
David Marquez seems to employ people who aspire to be in the entertainment industry more than the wrestling industry, and it shows. I feel like if he used people who learned the wrestling business rather than entertainment people, he wouldn’t have shitty announcers and interviewers.
The commentary guys, Joe Galli and Johnny Loquasto, are also terrible. They spend more time trying to get themselves over than the talent in the ring. Todd Keneley, who serves as a backup whenever Galli or Loquasto aren’t around, is also the same. Almost every episode, Galli and Loquasto do whatever they can to inform the audience of their unimpressive accomplishments.
Does anyone really care if Galli won a Local Emmy? Should TV time really be devoted to mentioning Loquasto’s comedy album and podcast? The answer to both these questions is “no.” These guys shouldn’t be trying to get themselves over at the expense of workers, and instead should put more effort into learning the proper names of moves that are performed. These guys don’t know the business, and they shouldn’t be doing pro wrestling commentary at all.
What About The Women?
Since the inception of the show, the women’s division in CWFH has mostly featured one dominant heel going over a bunch of other women. This heel would always be the focal point of the division. Yet despite that, CWFH have never given their female performers anything to work for, i.e. no championships.
The roster for the women’s division is really small too. In fact, it’s sorta non-existent. Right now, CWFH’s women’s division consists of Ruby Raze (who is feuding with a man), Ray Lyn, random locals, and whatever female talent is in town during the weekend of a taping. That’s it.
With CWFH’s women’s division being poorly booked and lacking in female performers, it’d be better to just get rid of the women’s matches. Ruby Raze could do well in inter-gender matches, but at this point CWFH shouldn’t even be booking women if they’re not going to be booking them right.
Other Stuff
CWFH also has issues with smaller things that make the show unwatchable. While they don’t justify having their own sections, they’re still worth mentioning briefly.
- The opening to shows are always boring and cookie-cutter. Every episode of CWFH starts with a boring backstage promo that has no life or energy. On top of that, most of the people in CWFH suck at cutting promos. It’s really hard to entice the viewer if they’re not getting something intriguing at the start of shows. This is one big thing CWFH needs to change up.
- Promos are always boring and weak. Almost every promo is done in a backstage interview, and they’re always boring. Workers should be allowed to be more creative. Making them stand in front of a camera and black curtain while being interviewed by someone who doesn’t know the wrestling business like Grant does performers no favors. They’re not going to get over with that format.
- CWFH’s most annoying trait is the fake crowd noise they play on every episode. Since the crowds are usually dead because the booking sucks, CWFH does this so the audience doesn’t think the fans are bored. This doesn’t work though, since the fake noise sounds bad. On top of that, you can see the fans sitting around and not making noise, making CWFH look even worse. It really needs to go.
- There are too many matches that use standard formulas. Tag team matches on CWFH will always have heels beating up faces before a hot tag. Singles matches always see heels overdoing “crowd work” while slowing matches down with chin locks. Also, squash matches. None of this stuff makes for exciting TV.
- Oh yeah, the tag team division. It’s dead.
Closing Thoughts
There’s so much more I could say about this show. From the production, to the venue, to the fans in attendance, to poor roster organization. CWFH, despite its best efforts to come off as professional, is being put together by a bunch of amateurs who don’t know how to create a watchable wrestling show. There’s so much more I could say, but it’d take forever for me to write.
What sucks about CWFH is that there are several good performers who deserve a good platform to showcase their talents. They’re not getting that on this show, which is a real shame. If CWFH doesn’t fix their problems, their CW Plus deal with be a huge failure.
