Orange County Championship Wrestling seems to have started a new tradition, as they presented “Cage Match II” on January 27th, 2018, featuring a card full of cage matches and unintentional comedy.
I reviewed OCCW’s first “Cage Match” show. Then I took a look at their August 27th, 2017 event. Needless to say, they weren’t the best shows. So now here we are with “Cage Match II.” Let’s take a look at this show.
Auntie Hydie vs. Kitana Vera
This match was really slow to start.They kept trying to work some chain wrestling stuff, which didn’t get the crowd very hyped. Kitana went for a running arm drag spot that ended up being badly botched by Hydie. The match went on and Hydie went on offense for awhile. She screamed at some points, but overall her character work was terrible. The pacing of this match wasn’t good either, and the structure was bad. This match ended when Hydie rolled up Kitana for the pin following a sloppy, overly choreographed sequence.
VooDoo Master w/ Valet vs. Drew Masters
I found it funny that there were two guys with the word Master in their name in this match. VooDoo (who didn’t do any type of voodoo) had a valet at ringside. She didn’t have a gimmick that matched his either. Both guys are very inexperienced and green, so I expected this match to be bad. Turns out my expectations should’ve been lower, as this was really awful.
There was one moment where Drew Masters hit VooDoo with a Uranage. After that, he got up to a knee, and then went down after. What a masterful grasp of ring physiology. Later in the match, Drew Masters sent VooDoo into the corner. He charged at him looking as if he was going to throw a running kick, but stopped in the middle of the ring. This resulted in him standing around looking confused while VooDoo looked momentarily lost before he salvaged the spot. I know they’re rookies and all, but man that was really bad.
The best part of the match came when Divine Intervention did a run in and attacked Drew Masters, resulting in the match ending. Azrael acted like he was going to punch VooDoo’s valet as VooDoo walked by, not worrying that a man was threatening to punch his valet. What a chivalrous man he is. The referee called for the bell when Drew Masters was being attacked. Aren’t cage matches No Disqualification usually? Shit don’t make no sense. Since VooDoo left the cage, he should be ruled the winner, right? Right. I declare VooDoo Master the winner.
Look, I’m not a trained worker, but I’ve been watching this shit for a long ass time. I can tell that these guys, especially Drew Masters, aren’t ready to be performing in front of crowds for various reasons. This match was awful. Like XWW-level awful. Get these guys more training ASAP.
Guy Cool vs. Azrael
The opening part of the match had some really sloppy moments, and Azrael did a poorly worked armbar in the opening sequence. After the opening sequence, Azrael threw Guy Cool into the cage on the door side. This would result in that part of the cage breaking. The referee ended up having to hold the cage while the ring crew used twist ties to fix it as the match went on. This ended up taking a lot of attention away from the match. Thankfully the ring crew secured that side of the cage (during the match as opposed to before the show) so that it didn’t end up falling on attendees. Hooray for competence!
The rest of the match was okay, but pretty uneventful outside of the cage breaking. Guy Cool threw Azrael into the same side the cage broke, but this time it was secured. Sadly this match being uneventful is an actual improvement to everything else on the show so far. There really wasn’t much of a flow in the match, and it felt like they were just going from spot to spot. Azrael ended up wining the match, but the real winners here are the people in the crowd who didn’t have a cage fall on them.
Freddy Hellmuth vs. Max Ammo w/ Dude in a suit
Hellmuth botched an attempt at trying to leap over Max Ammo when he was sent into the corner. He didn’t seem to have the upper body strength to elevate his body, and his ass ended up in Ammo’s face. After fucking up the spot, they tried it again and it looked like Ammo hit his head on Hellmuth’s body. After that, they did the spot AGAIN and it looked as if Hellmuth landed on Max Ammo’s head and shoulder. Then part of of the cage broke after Hellmuth tried to put Ammo’s head into the cage. This was all in the first two minutes of the match. You can tell this is going to be an early contender for SoCal Match of the Year.
The ring crew trying to hold the cage together trying to fix it while the referee helped was the best thing that happened in this match. The action was pretty sloppy and the selling was terrible. There was one moment where Hellmuth hit Max Ammo with a Samoan Driver, but Ammo got up before Hellmuth did. I guess delivering the move took more out of Hellmuth than it did to Ammo, who took the move. Max Ammo got the win after hitting Hellmuth with that looked to be rolled up coins followed by a DDT. This was an actual finish to a pro wrestling match in 2018? Yeesh. This was another match that was near XWW-level quality.
Lord Ateu vs. Mikey O’Shea
The opening part of the match saw both guys playing to the crowd for a minute and a half before they ddi anything. Then they did some comedy mixed with some armdrags and shoulder tackles. Both guys then started to act tired. This set up Mikey O’Shea trying to make a joke about how they’re not “205 Live,” and that they’re heavyweights. Fergie’s rendition of the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star Game got a better crowd response than that joke.
Once again, the ring crew trying to reenforce the cage as the action was going on was the best part of the match. Another highlight was seeing some kid from the second row walk up to the cage door as Ateu was trying to escape. I was seriously hoping he slammed the door in his face, but alas, the kid walked off looking confused. Where is the security to make sure kids don’t walk up to the cage during matches? The comedy in this match wasn’t funny, and Ateu wasn’t really exciting on offense. Mikey O’Shea had a good performance in this one, and the match was decent overall.
OCCW Tag Team Championship Match: La Raza (Freddy Flores & Alexander Vega) w/ People vs. The Feelyons
Before the match, the Feelyons tried to do some comedy by bringing cardboard boxes into the ring. It got no laughs. As the match started, the grey Feelyon was locked out of the cage. A fat guy that was with La Raza would then do his best to try to keep him out of the cage as La Raza went after the black Feelyon. He’d do so by slowly chasing the grey Feelyon and allowing him to climb the cage, where the grey Feelyon politely waited to be attacked. The fat guy and the grey Feelyon did some brawling at ringside that looked about as intense as a parent play fighting with their kid.
During the shenanigans outside of the ring, the Feelyon in black was trying to fend off La Raza. Eventually the black Feelyon was able to open the cage door, and the grey Feelyon made it inside. The fat guy at ringside with La Raza stood at the cage door after that, and the black Feelyon kicked the cage door into his face. This caused the fat guy to fall backwards into some kid who was running around at ringside. The little kid also almost had the cage door slam into his face. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the match.
The match quality itself was pretty bad. It was like watching something from the infamous Heroes of Wrestling event in 1999. Aside from a few kids yelling meow, the fans didn’t seem to really care about this match. I don’t blame them. The boxes the Feelyons brought in would be used towards the later parts of the match.The spots involving those didn’t really get a big reaction either.
La Raza had some valet at ringside wearing a coat. She didn’t really do shit most of the match until the end when the Feelyons tried to escape the cage. She got up on the apron, pulled the right part of coat down and gave them a good look at her black shirt. How arousing. This would lead the fat La Raza guy slamming a cage door on their faces, leading to La Raza rolling up the Feelyons to get the win. They would then beat up the Feelyons with boxes. The unintentional comedy here was much funnier than the comedy that was meant to be funny (but wasn’t).
OCCW Heavyweight Championship Match: Rudy w/ Kid in White Shirt (c) vs. Othello w/ Manager Guy
Before the match, Othello grabbed Rudy, let go, and walked off. He seriously looked like he was two feet taller than Rudy. After that, Rudy pulled out a sledgehammer from his trench coat and hit Othello with it. Rudy would then have the early advantage on Othello, who laid around on the mat selling. Then Othello went on offense, throwing Rudy into the cage a few times.
At one point, Othello gave Rudy an Irish Whip, and then lifted him up in the air where Rudy nearly hit the ceiling before slamming him down on the mat face first. Midway into the match, Mikey O’Shea, with Drew Masters following behind, could be seen on camera fixing the cage. Othello was in control for the most of the middle part of the match. He kept throwing Rudy into the cage and worked him over with basic offense.
Othello’s manager kept doing heel work at ringside that riled up a bunch of kids. At one point a kid in a white shirt decided to have enough of his bullshit. He would get out of his seat, run to the other side of the ring, and acted as Rudy’s manager. He would pound on the apron and yell at Othello’s manager. This kid is seriously the second best performer on the show behind Mikey O’Shea. Eventually Rudy made a comeback. Obviously the kid helped rally him back. When the kid went back to his seat, Othello was back in control, further proving that Rudy needed that kid at ringside. Eventually someone from OCCW’s staff went to the kid and looked to have told him to chill. Why did it take so long for someone to try to do some crowd control with these kids?
Well, that talk didn’t go far as the kid tried to help Rudy again. During the finishing sequence, Othello’s manager tried to climb the cage to distract the referee as Rudy was making him tap to a Crossface. This would inspire the kid to again get involved where he would shake the cage as Othello’s manager was on the cage. The same OCCW staff guy went to the kid again to get him back to his seat. Othello would then hit some moves on Rudy and pinned him to win the title.
Final Thoughts
Overall this show was pretty bad wrestling wise. Mikey O’Shea had a good performance, and the main event was okay. Every other match was terrible. There were a lot of moments with questionable selling and most of the matches had bad psychology.
Seeing parts of the cage break at some points was the best part of the show. It reminded me of the infamous XPW Genocide show where the cage was falling apart before the event. Only difference was that the ring crew on that show managed to keep the cage from falling again. The ring crew and the referee trying to fix it during the matches had me laughing. The kid in the white shirt becoming Rudy’s manager was also hilarious. I really don’t understand how nobody on the OCCW staff thought to make sure kids weren’t going up to the cage and getting involved in the matches.
