Original Airdate: Wednesday, July 13th, 2016
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida
To keep things interesting I am going to pick a few different timelines so that I am bouncing around different eras, rather than just seeing the same rosters over and over. So I figured I would start up the original WWE Network tournament, the Cruiserweight Classic. This is actually the only one that I have seen every episode of, but haven't watched it since they aired live. Looking forward to re-visiting now that I am more familiar with a lot of the talent involved.
The presentation to this tournament was top notch with Daniel Bryan being an excellent color guy and having Corey Graves in the studio was a nice touch as well.
Gran Metalik vs. Alejandro Saez
Gran Metalik is of course still a part of 205 Live. Saez appears to be back in Chile wrestling there. They keep hyping that Saez lost 30 pounds to make weight for this tournament. After some early offense from Saez, Metalik goes to the air with a crazy springboard flip to the outside. He now scales the ropes and hits a splash. Metalik was a standout the first time I saw this and now I remember why. Saez hits a shooting star press from the apron! Very nice. Saez misses a corkscrew from the top rope and Metalik hits a fisherman driver and gets the victory. Good action, but too short to be much more than that.
Match Rating: **3/4 (out of 5)
Ho Ho Lun vs. Ariya Daivari
Lun was released from NXT in 2017 to go back home to take care of his ailing mother. Daivari is the brother of Shawn Daivari and I believe is still under contract with WWE. Daivari refuses to shake hands before the match. Daivari very much works a vanilla WWE type style. Lun has a good babyface look, but you can tell he isn't as seasoned as some of the top competitors in this tournament. Daivari misses a splash from the top. Lun hits a nice kick combo and then a suplex for the victory. The crowd likes Lun, but this was a little underwhelming.
Match Rating: *1/2
Clement Petiot vs. Cedric Alexander
Petiot was trained by Lance Storm and seems to currently be on the indy circuit. Alexander of course has been one of the major players of 205 Live. Right off the bat, it's easy to see why the fans fell in love with Alexander. Let's hope he gets another shot to showcase his talents. Petiot is definitely more of a mat based competitor and it's easy to see now that Storm was his trainer. There is such a grace to Alexander's aerial offense, very much in the same breath as a guy like AJ Styles. Alexander hits the Lumbar Check and gets the win.
Match Rating: **1/2
Sean Maluta vs. Kota Ibushi
Ibushi was the big draw to this tournament. He is considered one of the best wrestlers in the world and definitely lives up to that hype. I was lucky enough to see one of his first US performances back in 2008 for Ring of Honor. Maluta is related to the Samoan dynasty that owns wrestling. He seems to have done some spot appearances for NXT and 205 Live. Maluta looks to be solid, but it's obvious Ibushi is first class all the way. Maluta hits a nice codebreaker off the second rope in an impressive spot. He then goes for a somersault flip over the top and is incredibly lucky that he didn't break his neck there, as he hit the top rope as he was rotating. This is somewhat surprising that Maluta is getting as much offense as he is. Maluta blocks an attempt for a superplex and then Ibushi hits a beautiful Pele kick and then a moonsault to the outside. Maluta pulls off a nice surprise 2 count after a superkick. Ibushi recovers and hits a roundhouse kick and sitdown powerbomb for the victory. Nice effort by both men.
Match Rating: ***1/4
This was overall a nice introduction to the tournament with some good action. The presentation was unique to the show and made it feel like a nice alternative to WWE's weekly programming. Looking forward to reviewing the rest of the tournament.
Overall Rating: 71%
No comments:
Post a Comment