Original Airdate: Wednesday, July 20th, 2016
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida
Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo hype up the response to the first episode. We then get a quick recap from Corey Graves. Again, the presentation here is very well done.
Tajiri vs. Damian Slater
Tajiri is of course best known for his runs in ECW and WWE. Slater has mainly been an indie performer with some Japanese experience as well. Tajiri is the oldest competitor in the tournament. Slater hits a corkscrew over the ropes to the outside, but gets little reaction from the crowd. Slater's offense looks a little soft compared to a lot of the other competitors involved. Tajiri gets Slater in the Tarantula, which always gets a reaction. Buzzsaw Kick by Tajiri and that one is over.
Match Rating: *3/4 (out of 5)
T.J. Perkins vs. Da Mack
T.J. Perkins of course was the first Cruiserweight Champion and is still involved with 205 Live. Da Mack appears to be wrestling in the indies. Really nice opening sequence by both competitors. Daniel Bryan is a huge fan of TJP. Da Mack has the Michael Jackson look, similar to that of Shinsuke Nakamura. Otherwise, he seems like someone that the WWE would want on their roster. Perkins is putting on a clinic on how to transition into submission holds. Da Mack gets too cocky and TJP gets him into the Muta Lock. Da Mack hit a great kick off the top rope. The action is moving faster than I can even type. TJP eventually gets him into the knee bar and Da Mack submits. Really fun match. I would have liked to have seen Da Mack advance and meet TJP in the 2nd or 3rd round.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali
Dorado is a member of the Lucha House Party and Ali is defying all of your typical WWE logic by becoming a big time player on Smackdown. Ali really is a great story and one that will hopefully end up with him being a featured guy for years to come. Interestingly, they have Ali playing the heel here. Ali was also an alternate for this tournament, who replaced Zumbi after visa issues. After Ali dominating the first minute or two it is an aerial show from Dorado including a flying head scissors off the apron. The crowd is firmly behind Dorado. Dorado hits a spring board into a reverse hurricanrana, which honestly should have been the finish to the match. Ali then hits an springboard Spanish Fly, which also could have been the ending. Ali then misses a reverse 450 splash off the top and Dorado hits the Shooting Star Press for the victory. There was a lot of good action in those last few minutes.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Akira Tozawa vs. Kenneth Johnson
Tozawa is of course with the WWE, while Johnson is working on the indies. I am a little surprised that they chose this one as the main event of the episode. Johnson holds his own with Tozawa through some technical wrestling. Tozawa stumbled a bit before destroying Johnson with a kick to the head. Both guys are going for a slower paced bout, while Tozawa continues to scream randomly. The announcers keep selling Johnson as an underdog, but with the way the match has been constructed, it doesn't feel that way. They go back and forth with some forearms, which leads to some knees to the face by Johnson and a nearfall. Johnson hits a reverse Unprettier but Tozawa kicks out. Johnson gets another nearfall, but then Tozawa hits two German suplexes and gets the victory. The announcers liked this a lot more than I did. It just felt like both guys were a little off to me.
Match Rating: **
We got two really entertaining matches sandwiched in between two that were nothing special. Again, this is presented in a way that makes everything feel more important than your typical Raw or Smackdown. I am looking forward to finishing up the rest of these episodes.
Overall Rating: 73%
No comments:
Post a Comment