Just when you thought it was safe to read Championship Wrestling From Hollywood reviews on SCU, I pop back up like a bad cold sore. On this episode we have Jervis Cottonbelly facing Eric Watts, Brody King and D’Marco Wilson show people why they’re going to be stars in a few years, Dicky Maier shows potential against Dylan Bostic, Ray Lyn is renamed Jarek 1:20 and faces Ashley Grace while Ruby Raze does commentary, and we got a rematch for the UWN Hollywood Heritage Championship with champion Peter Avalon taking on Tito Escondido. Prep yourselves and enjoy, cause as usual, I don’t hold back.
We start the show with Joshua Shibata interviewing Jervis Cottonbelly. Hobo wasn’t there. Thank God. He talks about Eric Watts and stuff. Apparently Watts won the United Wrestling Network Tag Team Championship on his own against Hobo and Jervis awhile back. See, I haven’t watched these shows in a minute cause I’ve got stuff going on in life which is why Steve has been reviewing the shows, so I don’t know what’s the haps here (sup Sam Roberts). CWFH does a terrible job at recapping things that have happened on their shows, making it hard for people to get into their shows. WWE, TNA, ROH, and pretty much every other wrestling TV show features past clips and highlights to get people either caught up or give new fans an idea of what’s going on here. CWFH doesn’t, because they’re stupid and don’t want people getting into their program. So Jervis babbled. He’s facing Watts. You know, Jervis Cottonbelly isn’t a friendly guy. He’s been saying I say “mean” and “hateful” things about him and the Hobo. I reached out to Jervis on Twitter and told him that being honest wasn’t “mean” or “hateful.” Then he blocked me for no good reason. What a dick!
Eric Watts (w/ Ty Matthews) vs. Jervis Cottonbelly
This wasn’t very good. This started out with Jervis attacking Watts when the bell rang with the weakest looking striking flurry that Watts sold as if he were on the receiving end of a brutal beating from . You know, people in the SoCal area praise Watts as being a good “big man” wrestler, but honestly, he’s one of the most bland workers in the area. He hit some really awful looking punches on Jervis. It looked like a parent playing with their kid. The fake crowd noise in this match was very unbearable. Dave Marquez needs to cut that shit out. Seriously. It doesn’t add any heat to the matches. There were shenanigans with Ty Matthews, that allowed Watts to hit his finisher (which looks like a lamer version of John Cena’s Attitude Adjustment) for the pin fall victory. Very weak match overall, and the fake crowd noise was fucking awful.
Post Match shenanigans: Ty Matthews does the WORST beatdown on Jervis Cottonbelly, and the referee disqualifies Watts. Jervis no-sold the beating as he left the ring. Watts was mad at Ty, and Ty was doing some terrible acting before the show went to a commercial for Live Links. Funny how David Marquez is trying to market a “family friendly” product and yet has phone-sex commercials on his show. An “Alabama Man” commercial would’ve been more appropriate than that!
D’Marco Wilson vs. Brody King
Fuck yeah, a good match. Brody tried to get the better of D’Marco when the match started, but D’Marco was hanging in there until Brody nailed him with a nice lariat. Better than Big Duke’s and the DEEJ’s. Let me just say, I think Brody King is the SoCal Rookie of the Year for 2016 for a good reason. He’s a big man who can do athletic shit, he has an impressive move set for a guy with his experience, and he has presence. D’Marco Wilson is also a very talented prospect with a solid mix of natural charisma and skill. During the match, the announcers said Ty Matthews has to defend the UWN Tag Team Titles with Watts. ZERO FUCKS GIVEN. Brody worked over D’Marco, who did a wonderful job selling the beating Brody was giving him. This was a fun match. It wasn’t a squash too, which was a major plus. D’Marco got a fair amount of offense in on Brody King, and the match got a good amount of time to let these guys showcase their shit. Brody got the win with a Black Thunder Bomb. Good stuff here for two of SoCal’s brightest prospects.
Dicky Maier (w/ the Pac 3) vs. Dylan Bostic
So this was Dicky Maier, a heel, vs. Dylan Bostic, another heel. Bostic calls himself the “Justin Bieber Of Pro Wrestling.” He seems more Don from “Napoleon Dynamite” than he does Justin Bieber. This was a solid match. Maier had a nice display of offense, and honestly he seems like another guy who can be a solid technical wrestler in the future. Both guys worked the match like heels, which resulted in a heatless match. This wasn’t the fault of either guy, this was just bad booking. There was a toddler playing around with his mom on the hard cam during the match. He didn’t give any fucks about this match. Even if the heat wasn’t there, it was a solid performance from both guys that told a somewhat decent story. Bostic got the win after he cheated. Coach Flexo, who thankfully kept the whistle bullshit to a minimum, was upset that Dicky wasn’t listening to him.
Post match shenanigans: Coach Flexo recruited Dylan Bostic, and shoved Dicky Maier to the ground after giving Bostic his shirt. Bostic didn’t seem too interested in joining the Pac 3. I’ll be honest, this was a decent set up for an angle. I doubt the story will be good, or even go anywhere, but this was a nicely done angle.
Ray Lyn vs. Ashley Grace
Ray Lyn was listed as “Jarek 1:20” on the on screen graphic. The production crew at CWFH is really on point. Seriously though, this show was filmed over a month ago. You would think the people producing this shit would be on top of things like this, especially since they had so much time to correct this before it made air. Idiots.
On commentary for this match was Ruby Raze. She was pretty entertaining. She did a good job at introducing the audience to Ray Lyn and also putting over her trashy gimmick, something the announcers never do when a new talent debuts on the program, so Ruby is automatically better at commentary than the dorks that usually call this show. Ray Lyn looks like a bootleg Alexa Bliss, but she’s got some talent and had abetter performance than most male workers on this series. Ashley Grace was, well, she was decent at times here when she was selling Ray Lyn’s offense. Ashley got the win after making Ray Lyn submit to a submission move that I don’t feel like naming right now. The finishing sequence was decent, and overall this wasn’t a bad match. Ray Lyn impressed here and she seems like she’ll be a very solid addition to the SoCal scene.
Post match shenanigans: Ray Lyn talked shit to Ruby Raze on her way to the back, even though she lost.
United Wrestling Network Hollywood Heritage Championship Match: Peter Avalon (c) vs. Tito Escondido
This was a rematch from the Milestone event where Tito was screwed out of the championship. There was not much build up or hype for this match despite it being a rematch, a title match, the continuation of their feud, and the next chapter in the Tito Escondido vs. Marquez Family storyline. The match started with Peter Avalon going after Tito when the bell rang, giving this match an exciting start and to get control early on. Then the match became Resthold City with Peter trying to wear down Tito. Tito would eventually make a comeback and got some offense in on Peter, including a nice Exploder Suplex and a Blue Thunder Bomb after pulling him off the top rope. The idiot commentators called it a “Helicopter Spin Powerbomb.” Do these idiots know anything about wrestling? Anyways, this was a good match overall. Peter did a great job taking Tito’s offense, and Tito had a nice display of moves throughout the match that were cool. The fake crowd noise ruined the match. It was obvious there wasn’t heat at certain points, so the fake noise in the background becomes a major distraction and killed the action going on in the ring. The finish saw Tito hit Peter with with a TKO from the ring apron with Peter’s face hitting the apron, leading to Tito winning the match via count out. The fans weren’t happy with the finish, but I thought it was clever. However, this has now gotten people wanting to see Tito win the title, and the only logical way for this story to finish would be for Tito to win the title. I mean, Peter was booed when it was announced he was still champion. This feud really needs to end with a huge gimmick match and Tito going over.
Final Thoughts
The opening match sucked, but everything else was good. CWFH still suffers from having poor storytelling, bad follow ups to angles, a shitty atmosphere, awful post-production supervision, and lame booking. Despite all that, the workers on this episode of CWFH, aside from the opening match, all had good performances. The wrestling on this show was acceptable (aside from the first match) but there’s still lots of shit that needs to be fixed on this program. The fake crowd noise really needs to go.
