MMWA Special Comment

South Broadway has been getting some really good crowds in recent months...good for them.

The show kicked off with Espy doing a promo under the banner of his OVW interview segment "Straight Talk". Espy wanted to choose his opponent(Johnny Zulu) but Commissioner Keith Smith ix-nayed that plan. At this rate, Zulu's debut is going to become a running gag as it reaches Brodus Clay levels of postponement.

I've had some interesting discussions with my friends at shows about certain aspects of the current product...more on that in a bit.

Felt bad for the guys in the opener as they were clearly setting something up with the chair but couldn't get it to stay wedged between the turnbuckles. They managed to improvise well enough, so points to them for that.

The debuting Andrew Wilder looked okay for his first in-ring appearance...he badly needs proper gear, though. If you don't have proper gear, the first impression you're giving is "yarder". He had a good grasp on heel work, at any rate.

Please sell a finisher...if you take a devastating move to end the match, you shouldn't be back on your feet five seconds later.

Hey, a feud over the Jr. Heavyweight Title! Ace was bumping like crazy and I've dug Archer's heel work. Good matchup.

The tag title match was...yeah. The Lumberjacks did a post-match promo about the lack of competition and the internet nitwits and yadda yadda yadda.

Cruz-Osborne was really good. Always fun to see Osborne celebrate after throwing an opponent over the top rope(Battle Royal Champ!) only to be reminded that it's not a battle royal.

Cruz had a ringside seat for Jackson-Vaughn...Vaughn may have had the win on a few occasions but kept getting distracted by Cruz's presence leading to Gary turning things around for the victory.

I enjoyed Espy-LMC as the two have had some fun matches. It was noted to me that we were watching two "smaller" guys fighting for the HEAVYWEIGHT Title, yes. It's unfortunate that most of our current examples of "big" wrestlers are ones that aren't very good in the ring...I have no problem with a bigger wrestler if he knows what he's doing in the ring.

Another conversational note was the fact that everyone feels a need to be a high-flyer. That became cool during the Monday Night Wars when the cruiserweights and luchadors were a big part of mainstream wrestling. It had the side effect of encouraging aspiring wrestlers to just do FLIPPIES~! instead of learning the fundamentals...Evan Bourne didn't start moving up in the wrestling world until he became a more well-rounded performer.

A friend said that guys should learn how to work a full match without ever leaving the mat...not saying that people should NEVER do aerial moves, just so they learn to adapt to that particular scenario. For instance...what if you work in a building with a low ceiling? You can't exactly be flying off the top rope in that situation. Also, what if your opponent works a technical style and attacks the leg? It wouldn't be believable to make the comeback and jump around all over the place...you can only handwave it with "adrenaline" to a certain point.

I mistakenly thought SICW was running on the 17th but their show is actually on the 24th...so it doesn't look like I'll be going to any shows this coming weekend.