TV Review: WWE Cruiserweight Classic #6 - The Brian Kendrick v Tony Nese

Last week's Cruiserweight Classic was the best so far, so as the second half of the tournament began, could the likes of Akira Tozawa, Jack Gallagher and Tony Nese improve on the previous week's outing?

In this episode's main event, The Brian Kendrick and NYWC's Tony Nese produce a strong bout with a split crowd. Both men played to their strengths and what we got was psychologically sound encounter, that set it's shop out well in the opening stages and built on it throughout the match. The idea that Nese was the quicker and stronger competitor was presented early as Kendrick ran straight into a knee and dominated the early going including a slick sequence leading into a superkick on the outside. On the other side of the coin, Kendrick reverted to the gritty veteran role quickly, doing everything and anything to take control after initially fish-hooking Nese's mouth. Pushing the Premier Athlete's arm inside the turnbuckle pad (which is much larger than WWE's regular pad) is one of the most intelligent spots of the tournament so far. 

Once the story was set-up, the pair put on some real quality wrestling inside of it, mostly going back and forth with Kendrick locking in submissions and Nese get a number of near falls. A section of the bout were Kendrick locked on a cross armbreaker and Nese escaped with a series of blows to the back of the neck had more than just a hint of an MMA influence, in a contest that was one of the most varied of the CWC to this point. The build towards the conclusion was done neatly, introducing Kendrick's Bully Choke, initially having Nese power out of the hold in a dramatic sequence, before The Post-Apocalptic Scavenger was able to take advantage of a missed 450 splash and pick the victory after Nese submitted almost instantly. A clever wrestling match to close the show with Kendrick moving onto a Quarter Final match with DDT's Kota Ibushi.  

Whilst Kendrick v Nese was a good main event, the match of the show for me was Dragon Gate's Akira Tozawa taking on FSW's Jack Gallagher. The contest unfolded brilliantly with the popular Gallagher ruling the initial exchanges, tying Big Over into knots and generally being a bit of a cheeky chappy. This would infuriate Tozawa who fired back with a series of big strikes and getting more and more aggressive in his demeanor as Gallagher continued to entertain the crowd with his technical submission style. Similar in it's set to the main event, the story of both competitors styles was presented early with both guys getting a chance to demonstrate their approach, before the rest of the match would build on those foundations and continue to run with that psychology throughout. 

Whilst Gallagher's lively style had most of the crowd on his side, Tozawa's performance was definitely that of a star. The Extraordinary Gentleman would strategically work over Tozawa's knee and Big Over sold it for all that he was worth. Seriously, the former Open the Brave Gate Champion was brilliant here, not just selling when Gallagher had moves locked in, but whenever he was on a roll himself. A charging bicycle kick where Tozawa grabbed his knee immediately got a big grin and a double thumbs up from me. The final stretch astutely brought elements of the bout together as Gallagher caught Tozawa with a heel hook after the latter had shouted to the crowd, before a deadlift German suplex attempt from Tozawa was initially countered by the Mat Wizard by grabbing hold of the injured knee, with the 31 one year old from Japan powering through to get the win adding a lovely bridge to his suplex. Tozawa goes on to face CMLL's Gran Metalik in the Quarter Final.

Rounding out the action this week was ICW's Noam Dar taking on ZERO1 Hong Kong's Ho Ho Lun in the best outing for both competitors in the tournament so far. After disappointing showings in the 1st Round, the crowd was cold to both guys, but definitely had begun to warm to, at least, Dar by the close of the contest. However, for me, whilst this was a solid contest, I felt that it suffered from coming straight after the Tozawa v Gallagher match, with which it had a number of similarities. Dar worked the knee well, but whilst HHL sold the injury consistently I found his selling a little bit hammy, especially with the instant comparison to Tozawa earlier in the show. The moment where HHL was unable to maintain the bridge from a Fisherman's suplex was well performed however and probably the best work HHL has done in WWE, alongside a tasty Michonoku Driver near fall. A much more aggressive Dar would claim the victory with the Champagne Super Knee Bar to earn a Quarter Final bout against either Zack Sabre Jr or Drew Gulak.  

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 7.05/10

Following last week's breakout episode for the show, this week maintained that momentum with a very good hour of wrestling TV. A slight drop in quality from last week, but with more action on display, this is well worth the watch. 

The Cruiserweight Classic has been the best show WWE has to offer ever since hitting the 2nd Round, with next week's episode bringing Round 2 to a close and featuring Zack Sabre Jr, Johnny Gargano and Rich Swann in action could we see the best episode yet next week?

All content - James Marston

TV Review: WWE Cruiserweight Classic #1 - Maluta v Ibushi

It's been a long time coming, but finally WWE's Cruiserweight Classic kicked off on the WWE Network on 13th July, with four first round match-ups. With names like Kota Ibushi, Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) and Cedric Alexander on the first episode, would the tournament start as it meant to go on? 

In the main event, DDT star Kota Ibushi would over-come Sean Maluta [Roundhouse Kick and Leaping Sitout Elevated Powerbomb] in a strong contest. Ibushi would come out of the bout looking like a real star, with a mixture of his in-ring performance, Maluta's selling of his offence and some brilliant commentary from Mauro Ranallo & Daniel Bryan. Considering this was Maluta very first broadcast match I thought he presented himself well and despite botching an angled tope conhilo attempt (wonderfully thoughtful commentary from Bryan here), he sold Ibushi's offence well, whilst bringing an underdog type fire to his performance, fighting Ibushi's superplex attempt off (and then getting nailed with a ridiculous Pele kick) before delivering the strongest near fall of the show, blocking a tiger suplex attempt and hitting savate kick with Ranallo adding to the drama on commentary. All these first round contest seem to have the aim of showcasing the winner to set them up for the rest of the tournament and Ibushi came out of this looking like a real star. 

Clement Petiot (Tristan Archer) came up short against former ROH regular Cedric Alexander [Lumbar Check] in a good demonstration of Alexander's potential. Petiot came across as a generic French heel type, which probably wouldn't last long on WWE's roster these days, but as a means of putting over Alexander and allowing him to show off what he can do it worked. There was a nice story of the brawl against the highflyer usedd here, with Petiot initially controlling the match with strikes, whilst Alexander looked for space. The strongest action of the bout came during a back and forth transition sequence that would climax with Petiot nailing a big lariat for a near fall. The prospect of Alexander taking on Kota Ibushi in the second round in a few week's time is positively mouth-watering and the quality of these opening round matches has a lot to do with that. 

Ho Ho Lun picked up a speedy victory over Ariya Daivari [Bridging German Suplex] in what was probably the weakest bout of the show. For me, this was carried by HHL coming across a very likeable performer, whilst Daivari played WWE's typical Iranian heel. It wasn't ground-breaking but it got the crowd going and kept the mediocre action entertaining for it's five minutes of air time. Despite the characters sizing up well, the duo didn't gel well in the ring and most of the action was kind of clunky. There were similarities to the Gran Metalik and Alejandro Saez opener as well, with Daivari's missed frog splash being the opening for HHL's final flurry of action. HHL will have to improve in the next round if he doesn't want to stick out like a sore thumb! 

If the opener that saw Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) defeat Alejandro Saez (Xtra Large) [Corner Clothesline & Samoan Driver] was supposed to be a little appetiser for things to come in CWC then it did it's job very well. At only four minutes long, the match was fought a real lightning pace with Metalik able to show off just a handful of his lucha libre style moves with a tightrope splash and gorgeous tope conhilo standing out amongst the bunch. Saez showed he wasn't just there to make up the numbers either, as the current XNL World Champion hit a shooting star press off the apron, that whilst not perfect, was impressive none the less. As mentioned above the finish shared similarities with the Ho Ho Lun v Ariya Daivari match, as Metalik moving out of the way of a Spiral Tap by Saez before finishing the match off. I can't help but feel that a little discussion between the various competitors would've helped and removed the similar finishes.

Next week's matches were also announced as former ECW Television Champion Tajiri will face Damian Slater, former TNA X Division Champion TJ Perkins taking on Da Mack, Full Impact Pro star Lince Dorada shaping up to Mustafa Ali and former Open the Brave Gate Champion Akira Tozawa going up against Kenneth Johnson.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.94/10 

This was a very easy to watch first episode for the Cruiserweight Classic and perhaps the score may seem harsh because of this. However, I wouldn't really have wanted the first episode of a show based on a tournament to be scoring much higher. If the Cruiserweight Classic had came out of the box with a couple of top top matches, then they would have had nowhere to go for the rest of the series. This was all about showcasing the winners, introducing Kota Ibushi, Gran Metalik, Cedric Alexander and Ho Ho Lun to a WWE audience, letting them show what they can do, whilst having as good a match as they could, without giving everything away in one go. As I had been expecting the show to be around this level, the main positives that I came away with here were the strength of the commentary from Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo, who will only become better together throughout the next nine weeks, as well as the different types of presentation that WWE have chosen for the show, like the referee being miced up during the start of each match and the raising of the winners arm at the conclusion. 

I feel like many wrestling fans, I'm looking forward to the seeing the next three weeks of First Round matches and getting to see how the likes Akira Tozawa, Johnny Gargano and Zack Sabre Jr. get on, but this tournament is really going to get going in the 2nd Round.