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CZW Best Of The Best 6
This is CZW's big annual technical wrestling tournament, and one of their biggest shows of the year. Commentary on this event was done by Eric Gargiulo, Eddie Kingston and Nick Gage.
Austin Aries and B-Boy def Jigsaw
A hot opening match here. Jigsaw stepped things up a notch in this match, holding his own with the more experienced wrestlers in the match, and the crowd were really behind him. The definite highlight of the match was a German Suplex/Slingshot Powerbomb three man spot, a nasty move. B-Boy also gave a nasty Facelift to Jigsaw, standing on his face after hitting the move. The finish saw Jigsaw hit the Jig-N-Tonic, but B-Boy hat him with the Shining Wizard in mid-pin, allowing Aries to reverse the pin to get the three count.
Roderick Strong vs Jay Lethal vs Claudio Castagnoli
This was another good match, and was very hard hitting. Claudio got a huge ovation from the crowd, because of turning on ROH at the 100th Show. It was pretty much what you'd expect from these three men and nothing else, but the match was full of great wrestling from start to finish. The finish saw Strong pin Lethal with a Schoolboy rollup holding the trunks for the pinfall. Better than the first match, and really solid action.
Matt Sydal vs Sonjay Dutt vs Sabian
A great high flying match, and these three man really clicked with each other. I liked the exchanges between Dutt and Sydal especially. One thing that annoyed me though was that Sydal was playing a complete face despite being an ROH guy in CZW, he really should have played the heel here. Still, the action flowed really well barring one sloppy spot by Sabian. Sabian got the big upset victory by pinning former BOTB winner Sonjay Dutt to eliminate him from the tournament. My favourite of the first round matches.
World Heavyweight Title Match- Christopher Daniels vs Derek Frazier vs Ruckus
Originally it was supposed to be Niles Young in this match, but since he refused to defend his Junior Heavyweight Title then he was kicked out of the tournament, replaced by Ruckus on the condition that Chris Hero could get a title shot anytime he likes (remember this for later on).
Again, another match filled with solid wrestling, with a mixture of high flying and mat based offense used, plus some innovative double team spots. This had everything you would expect from these three men. Christopher Daniels got the win by pinning Frazier with the Angels Wings.
Non-Tournament Match- Rhett Tidus and Pelle Primeau vs Drew Galuk and Andy Sumner
This was not too good at all, seeming like nothing but a filler match between ROH and CZW students. Sure enough, there wasn't anything truly horrible, but there wasn't anything really good about this match either. Sumner won this match for the CZW team with a Reverse Armbar submission move (I didn't catch the name).
Non-Tournament Match- Heretic and Ravage vs Cheech and Cloudy
Not too great a match either to be honest, but better than the previous tag match. The real problem was that all four men looked quite sloppy in this one and botched spots all over the place. There was some decent fast paced action at times though, especially from the former Special K team who have quite a bit of tag experience. Cheech acted strangely in this match, at times looking like he was on Cloudy's side, while turning on him at other times. Cloudy pinned Heretic in this with the Code Red.
The interesting thing about this tournament is that even Eric Gargiulo didn't know that the finals of this tournament would be a four way match. Who knows why he wasn't informed, but it makes for some annoying commentary talking about semi-finals. Then again, maybe it was a last minute change, which would explain things.
A good singles match that was the best of the night so far to this point. This had a bit of everything, with hard hitting strikes, high impact moves, matwork and high flying. B-Boy held his own here with the former ROH Champion, and it makes me wonder why B-Boy doesn't get booked in ROH more often. The only thing was that the crowd were very quiet, probably because of the two filler matches beforehand killing all the heat in the arena. Aries once again advanced by pinfall with the Brainbuster.
Roderick Strong vs Claudio Castagnoli
Quite a hard hitting match here, with Strong throwing out his hard chops while Claudio used some hard European Uppercuts. The match was also good on the mat, with Strong using his usual strategy of working over the back to setup for the Strong Hold, while Claudio took the strategy of working over the right leg of Strong. The result was that Strong never managed to hit any of his Backbreakers, and Claudio was able to get the submission win out of nowhere. A really good match that seemed to come to an end a little too quickly.
Matt Sydal vs Sabian
This proved to be a good high flying match that also had some suprisingly good matwork. Once again, my main problem was that Sydal played face, when as a member of Team ROH in CZW, he should really be playing the heel, although he did shows some heelish signs in this match at times. Sabian played the strategy of working over the right arm of Sydal, while Sydal just put his high risk offense to use instead of working a body part. The finish saw Sabian get a near fall with the Black Jesus Stomp, then lock in a Stretch Plum for the submission victory.
Christopher Daniels vs Ruckus
This match proved to be a real clash of styles, with Daniels trying to keep Ruckus on the mat, while Ruckus used lots of innovative high flying offense as he usually does. I can't stress enough how much Ruckus has gotten into shape, he looks excellent compared with a year or so ago. Daniels was very methodical in this match, slowly picking Ruckus apart piece by piece. The finish saw Daniels go for a German Suplex, but Ruckus reversed in mid move into a pinning combination for the pinfall. My favourite match of the second round matches, and match of the night in my opinion.
Non-Tournament CZW Tag Team Title Match- Super Dragon and Necro Butcher vs Blackout (Joker and Eddie Kingston)
Undoubtedly the hardest hitting match of the night, as you would expect considering who's involved. Although this started in the ring with hard hitting strikes, it soon turned into an all around the arena brawl, including Dragon giving Joker a brutal Curb Stomp on the ramp, and some hard chair shots by Necro. Once things were back in the ring, we saw some hard hitting exchanges between the two teams, including some hard punches by Necro to Joker. The finish saw Dragon hit the Pumphandle Psycho Driver on
Junior Heavyweight Title Match- Cloudy vs
I guess this is to make up for Niles Young not being in BOTB, but I'd rather not have seen this match now to be honest, especially defending against a guy who already wrestled a match. Despite this, this was a decent enough match, a lot better than I was expecting, but it just felt like spot after spot at times, plus the crowd were completely dead. The finish saw Niles Young's manager Crissy Rivera distract the referee, allowing Cheech to interfere and attack Cloudy. This setup Young finisher, the Chair Assisted Top Rope Double Stomp, to get the pinfall.
The H8 Club (Nick Gage and Justice Pain) vs Chris Bishop and Lionel Knight
I thought this might have been another filler match, but after some lackluster exchanges early on, the match picked up and got pretty good at times. The big spot of the match saw Gage on the top rope, only for Bishop to hit a Rope Assisted Kick to knock him to the outside through a table. After that we saw some great double teams from the Canadian duo, and some solid wrestling action. Pain looked great in this match, he's really getting back on his game again. But at times the action was a bit sloppy as well. The finish saw The H8 Club give Knight two consecutive Spike Piledriver's to get the pinfall win.
Best Of The Best Final and World Heavyweight Title Match, One Fall To A Finish- Austin Aries vs Claudio Castagnoli vs Sabian vs Ruckus
The thinking behind this being a four way match would be that there's only one ROH wrestler against three CZW wrestlers, thus ROH wouldn't be able to win the tournament, and that's pretty smart booking. The atmosphere was great as well, with the ROH fans cheering on Aries while the CZW fans would shout them down. As for the match, it was a pretty good final, although not the best match of the tournament. It was mostly wrestled on the mat, with some high flying moves by the Blackout duo as well. Aries was the most entertaining wrestler in the match, wrestling an old school style a lot like he does in 1PW (including the use of the 'feared' back rake), and wasn't able to tag out to anybody because nobody was on his side. There were some hot near falls at the end of the match, with everybody hitting their finishers. The finish saw Ruckus block an Aries Brainbuster attempt, then roll through into a Fisherman's Suplex pin for the three count.
I hope you were taking notes earlier, because after the match, Chris Hero runs out and attacks Ruckus to 'claim' his promised title shot. The match is on...
CZW Title Match- Ruckus vs Chris Hero
Well, I was looking forward to seeing how this went, but my DVD started playing up during this match so I missed about a minute or so. From what I saw, the match was pretty good, but short. Bryce took a ref bump, then Hero brought out Bryce Logan who did a quick count which Ruckus escaped from in time before taking
This was a really good CZW show, easily their best this year, but it wasn't perfect. Every match in the tournament was good to great, and the Blackout vs Necro/Dragon tag match was also good, but the rest of the non-tournament matches weren't too good at all. Still, the good outweighs the bad on a CZW show for once. You can order the DVD from www.SmartMarkVideo.com
Top Three Matches- Christopher Daniels vs Ruckus, Super Dragon and Necro Butcher vs Blackout, Claudio Castagnoli vs Roderick Strong
Magnus D
