Championship Wrestling From Hollywood Episode 322 Review: StrangerSlam

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The debut of George?

To watch this episode of Championship Wrestling From Hollywood, or to check out shows from promotions such as ROH and CMLL, check out the Fite TV app. For MMA fans, is the Fite TV app is slated to carry SoCal’s CXF on August 19th. Also, the Fite TV app will have ROH War of the Worlds UK: Liverpool on August 19th, 2017. Download it now!

We start this episode with Joshua Shibata (on loan from SCU Digest and SCU Focus) interviewing Jarek 1:20 and Oliver Grimsly. They cut a pointless promo before the intro played. This should’ve ended with someone spearing Oliver Grimsly back to Arizona.

Jarek 1:20 vs. Oliver Grimsly vs. Jake Atlas & Lucas Riley

You knew off the bat what was gonna happen here. Atlas and Riley got “already in the ring” treatment. No entrance. Just a quick intro before a predictable match. Todd Keneley is on commentary for this episode. Terrible. David Marquez decided to make matters worse by adding fake noise again to this. UGH. If I wasn’t reviewing this show, I would’ve stopped watching. This was match your standard “heels work over babyface before hot tag spot” formula match. Oliver Grimsly is really boring. Jake Atlas had a decent babyface fire sequence before Jarek 1:20 and Grimsly got the win. This was a boring match. Joe Heiken’s “Slammed by a Stranger” isn’t boring though, and a lot less predictable.

Backstage, Joshua Shibata is gonna interview Ray Lyn, who he called lovely. She went from looking like a bootleg Alexa Bliss to looking like a bootleg Sasha Banks. Dylan Bostic told Josh not to look at her or call her lovely. Golly jeez, this was a knee slapper. Seriously though, I think Josh would fuck Bostic up in a real fight. Josh does karate and shit. He asked her what their relationship was. C’mon Josh, you know they’re fucking married. She has a match against Amale Winchester next week. Ray Lyn said she’s gonna twerk her face off and did a thing with her boobs. Dylan Bostic yelled at Josh for looking at her tits. That sorta shit should’ve gotten him Chokeslammed. Lame segment overall.

Ruby Raze and Kevin Condron segment.

We get an in ring segment with Ruby Raze. She talked about being the first woman in the Red Carpet Rumble. What a monumental moment for society. It was like when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, except here it was Ruby entreating a shitty battle royal for some indy wrestling TV show nobody watches. She talked about Kevin Condron (the former Jervis Cottonbelly) and called him out. Condron comes out from the crowd, where you could see all the empty seats. You know who would fill those seats and put on great inter-gender matches with strangers? You guessed it, Frank Stallone.

Kevin goes to the ring and stands on the turnbuckle to talk about how men should be allowed to fight women. He tries to attack her, but the referees break things up. Condron’s camera guy walked around in the middle of the ring, resulting in a predictable spear from Ruby. Kevin cried and tried to attack Ruby, but was held back. I guess this segment wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t that great either. They should get advice from Joe Heiken on how to work an inter-gender segment.

Backstage, Ty Matthews and Eric Watts are interviewed by Joshua Shibata. Matthews is in a feud with Anthony Idol now I guess. Yippie. They hyped up the Watts vs. Bateman match. Words were said and no fucks were given. After a commercial break, Tristan Archer and Amale Winchester are interviewed by Karl Mandik. Tristan is facing D’Marco Wilson next week. Guess we know who is gonna go over. Amale Winchester spoke french in response to Ray Lyn. It was implied what she said was vulgar.

Julius Coleman vs. Ray Rosas

There was fake crowd noise during Julius Coleman. Holy fucking shit this shit is ridiculous. The ring announcer almost said Ray Rosas was from Lancaster, PA instead of Lancaster, CA. Sadly, Ray is from the Lancaster in California. They had a pretty solid match with both guys getting a decent showcase in. Peter Avalon walked out to ringside with a chair to watch the match. Coleman controlled the match after this, and the fake crowd noise got progressively annoying as the match went on. The sound in Joe Heiken’s “Slammed by a Stranger” series is mixed better than the crowd noise on CWFH.

Even though this wasn’t a bad match, it wasn’t an exciting one when Coleman was on offense. He wasn’t doing anything to get the crowd behind Ray, which hurt the crowd heat when Ray made his comeback. I mean, the crowds at these tapings always suck, but things like that are why they’re always shit. Ray Rosas eventually got the win in a pretty unspectacular match.

Post match shenanigans: Joshua Shibata interviewed Ray Rosas at ringside, and the fake crowd noise could still be heard. He called over Peter and said he was happy to see him. Some annoying ass woman in the crowd went “OH MAH GAWD YOU MISSED HIM!” Ray did some good improv mic work off her comments and ended up getting the crowd behind him after this. They played up reuniting, and then said PPRay will return next week. This would be really touching if they haven’t been teaming elsewhere. Either way, I’d like to see them face this tag team from Slammed by a Stranger. They’ve been getting a decent push down south and could probably draw new fans.

Backstage, Joshua Shibata interviews Tito Escondido. There’s not much to say. Tito said he was a bad dude and all that. I think he’s facing this guy. I’m not sure.

After a commercial, Pac 3, a referee, and that fat ring announcer guy are yelling at Dave Marquez. Nobody has been paid lately. Love how CWFH booking is making itself look so bush league. Shibata then interviews David Marquez. They ended up being interrupted by some dude wearing a Keffiyeh. Dave called him “George” before he asked who he was. “George” handed Dave a stack of cash and said his money problems are over. I swear, there’s something about this guy with the Keffiyeh that reminds me of some shitty worker who was part of this show once. Hmm.

George?

Eric Watts (w/ Ty Matthews) vs. Tyler Bateman

Take two guys who work matches at the slowest pace, and what do you get? This match. Aside from Watts giving Bateman a Chokeslam on the ring apron, this match was really boring. There were a lot of moments where they’d do a spot, and then nothing for about 10 seconds. Is that supposed to be storytelling or something? If it is, it’s not good. Watching Tyler Bateman trying to have matches full of striking sequences is really unbearable. It just looks terrible and stupid. Watts’ style also continues to come off as lethargic. Bateman got the win with a bunch of elbow strikes and then his hammer fist finisher. This episode of Slammed by a Stranger” was more intense and entertaining.

Final Thoughts

What a rough episode. Nothing flowed really well, the Scorpio Sky/Big Duke angle wasn’t followed up on, the story lines weren’t interesting, and the matches weren’t interesting either. CWFH did one thing right on this episode, and that was building up next week’s episode. So far we know we’re gonna see Tristan Archer vs. D’Marco Wilson, Ray Lyn vs. Amale Winchester, and the supposed PPRay reunion. That’s one improvement. Now if only they can stop looking so cheap, booked better matches, had better story lines, upgraded their production, got better commentators, ran shows in a place that isn’t in the middle of nowhere, and a million other things, they could be a somewhat decent program!

 

About the Author

Andrew
SoCal's favorite son. Won 1st Place in my division at the 2013 Gracie Worlds. 2019 East San Fernando Valley Water Champion. Keyboard Warrior.