[2001-06-08-CZW-Take One] The SAT & Amazing Red vs Divine Storm & Brian XL

[NintendoLogic]

CZW has never been on my radar screen as something worth checking out, but Jetlag picked this match for me as part of the Secret Santo project. From a presentation standpoint, pretty much everything about this screams "poor man's ECW." Even the play-by-play guy is a dollar store version of Joey Styles. I will say that the venue is appropriately seedy. There's a chain-link fence in the background that makes it seem like they're competing in the Andore cage fight level in Final Fight.

 

The match itself can be broken up into three sections. The opening minutes consist of lucha-esque exchanges where the goal is flashy oneupmanship rather than seriously working for a pin or submission. From there, we get a couple minutes of SAT working over XL and Storm. Even Fuchi would have cringed at some of the triple-team offense they busted out. The combination surfboard/springboard double foot stomp looked especially brutal. About seven minutes in, any semblance of psychology is thrown out the window and the match becomes a deluge of flips, dives, and head drops with a few chair shots thrown in. You as the viewer barely have time to catch your breath, let alone process what's happening. This is pretty much the epitome of Michael Bay wrestling. Deep and nuanced storytelling this is not, but I can't help but be impressed by their willingness to go all out. If you're going to have a spotfest, have a spotfest.

[soup23]

Sometimes a spotfest should just be a spotfest and this is one of the best one in wrestling history. Tons of points throughout where this could have went off the rails and seemed to be headed that way and at the last second, the rotation is perfect or the wrestler that is in the way moves.  Only a few things aren't hit absolutely wonderfully in this match like XL's springboard 450. This match does bend the star rating formula in much the same way the Kamen/Ebessen 1/7/01 match does.  I think you can just admire that its one of the best interpretations of the style of match the wrestlers went out to accomplish and was never topped by these performers again.  **** (8.2)