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1/18 TRADITIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING REPORT

By Nathan Favel on 1/18/2014 12:13 PM

 

Traditional Championship Wrestling 1/18/14
By:  Nathan Favel
                This week, we start the era of The Empire’s reign over TCW!  I’m interested to see how far they take this storyline and whether they intend for this to go a great distance or for it to be a short program.
                Speaking of the new hierarchy, The Empire made the announcement that they were going to crown a new International Champion for TCW in an eight-man tournament. They called the roster out to the ring while announcing that some cuts had to be made to the roster, in the near future.  Tim Storm then entered the ring and turned face, claiming that The Empire didn’t represent the TCW fans.   Tim was put into a Handicap Match for our main event for tonight.  It seems that he is poised to be the top baby-face in the company.
                A backstage segment aired between Lily and Lars, where Lily claimed that someone sent her flowers and she was trying to discover who it was.  This seems to happen in wrestling a lot, doesn’t it? Also, how does that camera-man always know when to show up during these people’s private conversations?  Why is it getting air time? There’s got to be some kind of industry wide conspiracy that needs to be unearthed here!
Greg Anthony vs. Lars w/ Lily - TCW International Championship Tournament Quarter - Finals Match
This was a very well-performed match that had some excellent mat work worth highlighting.  Lars, being new to my eyes, made an excellent first impression, with fluid transitions and a healthy amount of intensity in every movement made.  Anthony continues to win me over with his great heel work and continues to be one the best characters in the company.  Towards the end of this quarter finals match, Titan came out and offered Lily flowers, while offering Lars a choke-slam on the outside area. For some reason, no DQ was called and, in fact, Anthony would win this bout by countout to move forward in th tournament.
Winner:  Greg Anthony
                Jeff Resnick cut a good interview with Jon Omari, who took the opportunity to plug his music ventures, as well as his tag match against The Good Ol’ Boys. Omari has a notable amount of potential as a talker in wrestling, a talent that showed here.
                The Good Ol’ Boys claimed that they need to prove to their opponents that they aren’t simpletons.  This was a good talk to get everybody on their side.
The Good Ol’ Boys vs.  Jon Omari & Big Mike
                A strong contrast in gimmicks helped to add to the flavor of a fun, creative tag team bout.  The Boys represent the rednecks of yesteryear, but with better speech function.  Omari and Mike are very athletic and charismatic, which are two qualities that should serve them well in the wrestling world. These two teams had a good brawl here, with the rednecks proving that they aren’t simpletons.
Winner:  The Good Ol’ Boys
                Boyd Bradford made his way into The Empire’s office and accepted the position of “Special Referee” for the Handicap Main Event.  They all celebrated by laughing maniacally, which I always thought went out of style back in 1923, but I seem to be mistaken in that regard.
                Tim Storm walked to the ring, with Jeff Resnick in tow, telling him that he’s going to retain his title, no matter what.
Main Event:  Tim Storm vs.  Kincaid, Roosevelt and Titan – Handicap Match for the TCW Heavyweight Championship
                This match had a big fight feel to it, with Storm showing through as the big star that’s needed for this angle to work.  He’s got a certain star power that meshes quite well with the TCW style and really gives them an anchor to rely on.  He’s essentially a more likable, enviable version of John Cena.  Anyhow, after some decent back and forth action, Storm and Bradford came to blows and a DQ was called.
Winner: No Contest by way of Disqualification
                After Kincaid, Roosevelt and Titan assaulted Storm post-match; Tommy Dreamer came out, with a chair in his arms, ready to beat Storm’s assailants to death, if need be. 
The announcers thanked us for watching and told us they would return, next week.
Well, this was information overload, with an early start time cutting away the first nine minutes of my viewing time.  The updated productions values really helped to increase the atmosphere for the broadcast and the usage of pre-match promotion helped to lead in to the matches with more urgency.  However, there was an increased reliance on talking segments here that watered down the proceedings.  TCW is at its best when they wrestle, not when they’re undertaking the world of soap opera performance.  Keep in mind, these segments were well done, but TCW stands for a more refined approach to wrestling, meaning that adhering to the format that the WWE uses might draw the ire of more than a few people.  I hope it’s just a phase and not a new standard for this company, as yet another promotion setting out to talk my head off is no way to spend and evening.
One more bit of info:  it seems that these episodes are a full year behind, as the year 2013 was referenced, multiple times, as the current year in which we were viewing TCW.  I think that is the kind of development that M. Night Shyamalan loves to write for all of his movies, if I remember correctly.
Overall, this was a good episode that set us up for a refreshing year, despite my gripes from a few paragraphs ago.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.