Taking a look at the latest episode of CWFH. Plus I talk about why this show gets overlooked by wrestling journalists.
I was sent this tweet made by user @JimHinsonBrand on Twitter. In it, he asked why CWFH and the United Wrestling Network doesn’t get attention from wrestling journalists.
https://twitter.com/JimHinsonBrand/status/1117122587669061633
This was a pretty interesting question. I felt like he brought up some good points that I wanted to talk about. For now, I’m going to review this latest episode of CWFH. At the end of the review, I’ll talk about @JimHinsonBrand’s tweet and why CWFH is overlooked by, well, everyone.
Jonny Loquasto, Todd Keneley, and Dan Joseph opened the show talking about what happened to Jamie Iovine on last week’s show. Yeah, you read that right. CWFH actually did something I’ve suggested they should do for a long time now. Then they went over the show. They’re basically doing what I’ve been suggesting in these reviews. Dave Marquez should just stop screwing around and hire me to write this show.
Brandon Cutler vs. Peter Avalon
The match started out competitively with both guys going back-and-forth. Brandon Cutler would get the better of Peter Avalon and controlled for a bit. Then Peter made a comeback and worked over Brandon for heat. The later stage of the match saw both guys go back-and-forth again. Peter eventually got the win by submission after putting Cutler in a Half Crab. While the in-ring work wasn’t bad, this was pretty boring because of all the useless restholds.
After the match, Kathy Campanelli interviewed Peter Avalon at ringside. The fans chanted “Princess Peter” during this. Peter Avalon cut a promo on David Arquette and challenged him to a match at Coastline Clash. Hmm, I wonder who came up with the idea to put them in a match…
Sketch vs. Adrian Quest
@JimHinsonBrand on Twitter was right. CWFH attracts big stars. Like Sketch. I looked him up on Google and found no information on him. His gimmick is that he’s the “skatepark scumbag.” That must mean his character is a 20-something-year-old skater who hits on underage girls and buys beers for their 13-year-old brothers to keep them from snitching on him. That or his character always starts fights with the scooter kids after doing heroin.
Stupid gimmick aside, Sketch wasn’t bad inside the ring. He’s got some athleticism. At the same time, he looked pretty sloppy. Adrian Quest had a good performance in this. There really isn’t much to say about this match. The pacing was fine, and the action wasn’t bad. At the same time, it wasn’t great. Adrian Quest did a good job at carrying this though.
Caleb Perez & Max X vs. The Soul Burners (Tomaste & Ryan Taylor)
Before the match, the commentators talked about how Tomaste suffered a “mysterious” injury after an attack. He was actually injured after taking a 450 from the ring apron during a match against Joe Heiken at a Ground Zero show. Mystery solved. The match itself wasn’t very good. There wasn’t anything noteworthy in this. Ryan Taylor had a good showcase, but that’s the only good thing I can say about this. The Soul Burners won after hitting the Burning Man on Max X.
After the match, Kathy Campanelli interviewed the Soul Burners. Tomaste spoke about how they’re moving up. Ryan Taylor said they needed to destroy Vermin. This entire segment was such a waste of time, much like this entire show.
After a commercial break, John Roberts interviewed Andy Brown. Andy was about to challenge “anyone” for his title. Then Adrian Quest walked in, implying he was answering the challenge. John Roberts closed by saying Andy was defending his title next week. I guess the backstage interviewer had the authority to make this match official.
Jervis Cottonbelly (Kevin Condron) w/ Sir Thomas and Kid Isaac vs. Royce Isaacs
Here were the notes I had typed up as I watched this. They pretty much sum up my thoughts on this match.
- Jervis and his posse’s dorky characters represent everything I hate in pro wrestling.
- This is really boring. Royce can do better.
- Why is Jervis main eventing shows? Aside from creating a popular subreddit, Jervis isn’t over or good and nobody talks about the show on there. He should be curtain-jerking D6W and OCCW shows.
- Royce looked like he almost died while taking a hip toss.
- This crowd does not care for this match. I don’t blame them.
- I’d rather watch Amy Schumer’s latest Netflix special than any Jervis Cottonbelly match again.
The finish saw Jervis counter a suplex attempt with a small package to get the win after Bateman came out to tease cashing in the PP3 Cup for the United Wrestling Network TV title. Royce was upset, Bateman was laughing, and the show closed with Jervis leaving with his friends.
Overall show thoughts
This was a really boring show full of filler matches. Everything felt like it was meant to waste time just to segue into short angles. The only highlight of the show was that my ideas are now being used. I guess this means Madison Rayne and I are like twins now. Anyways, the show sucked. It was your usual mundane nonsense that this show always produces. Everything was predictable, and the pacing of the matches were way too slow.
Back to @JimHinsonBrand’s tweet…
This episode was a prime example of what a CWFH show is like. It was full of unknown talent in boring matches in front of a small crowd. The storytelling isn’t strong, and most of the show ends up being pointless. While it has brought in “stars” (depending on what your definition of a “star in wrestling is) and featured NWA content, that stuff isn’t very common. Nothing important ever really happens on this show. You might see some type of NWA title match here and there, but most of the time you’re going get programming that is insignificant.
With so many wrestling shows being produced by more prolific promotions, CWFH is producing programming that isn’t enticing enough to draw attention to its product. WWE alone has five weekly programs that are being covered. NJPW, ROH, Impact, AAA, and CMLL all have programming being produced all the time. On top of that, they have actual stars on their rosters. CWFH just can’t compete with their uninspired shows in front of live audiences that don’t even care about what’s going on.
If you look at social media, you’ll notice something interesting. Nobody outside of people who work for CWFH talks about it on social media. There’s hardly any talk about the shows on social media from actual fans. It shouldn’t be any surprise that this show isn’t on wrestling journalists’ radars. Sure, the show is available on TV in several small markets outside of LA. It is also streamed online. But even with several platforms carrying it, I don’t think it attracts more than 700 viewers based on the buzz (or lack thereof) it gets.
To sum it up, CWFH doesn’t get attention simply because it hasn’t done anything to garner any attention. It also never really builds up to anything important. It’s a shame, because with the right minds and the right talent, Dave Marquez could have a great show that people would watch, and in turn, command more revenue from advertisers. Instead, CWFH is run by people who think doing the bare minimum is sufficient. There’s so much that could be done with CWFH, but the people in charge aren’t very imaginative or creative. Unless things change, it will always be a run-of-the-mill show that will (deservingly) get overlooked by wrestling journalists and fans alike.
