Some thoughts of the Cruiserweight Classic so far:
– Mustafa Ali and Kenneth Johnson really impressed me. Johnson’s still a little rough around the edges, and Ali threw a couple of strikes that looked a little weak, but overall, I really want to see these two get more airtime even though they’re already eliminated from the tournament.
– Daniel Bryan has a very bright future ahead of him on commentary, and he’s got great chemistry with Mauro Ranallo. I love it when they both geek out simultaneously about a particularly awesome spot. “SHOOTING STAR PRESS!”
– I want TJ Perkins to go far in this tournament, he’s VERY interesting. Ditto Cedric Alexander, but it seems safe to assume (sadly) that Kota Ibushi’s going to knock his teeth out in round two.
– I have never seen Tozawa wrestle before this, but now I’m a fan. Any suggestions on his past matches?
Overall, I’m really enjoying the CWC, and I’m glad that TripleH has said repeatedly in interviews that this is not going to be a “one and done” issue, that they definitely want to do more with cruisers in general down the line.
Tozawa did more than a couple matches in Dragon Gate USA, so check them out. He had a really good match with Ricochet at PWG Threemendous IV, which was last year I believe.
Honestly, you can’t go wrong with a Tozawa match. I’ve seen more than a couple and never seen a bad one.
Have you watched TNA in the past few years? If so, you’re familiar with TJP – he was the final guy to wear the Suicide mask, who then transitioned to being called Manik. TJP is awesome, I strongly recommend checking out his work in Evolve, especially lately as part of Catch Point (with Drew Gulak, Tracey Williams, Matt Riddle and Fred Yehi as his stablemates.)
I have never watched TNA, no.
Tozawa stunned me with his on-screen charisma. I’m so pumped to see more of him.
Mustafa Ali is the current Freelance champion, so if you wanted to see him live they’re running Chop Shop in Wicker Park next month, Isaac Sher. I’m thinking about going…!
I’ve been really impressed with the booking so far. I guess you could quibble about who’s going over a little bit, but as an hour of wrestling television I feel like the individual shows are booked great. The matches have different qualities to them, they aren’t all spot-fests, the “big names” are booked against people that they elevate. I feel like everyone is going to come out of the tournament looking better, which is so great!
Agreed on all points.
TJP! TJP! TJP! TJP!
The whole thing has been handled wonderfully and I really have no complaints so far. Ranallo and DB have been incredible.
If there’s anything that kinda stuck out as weird or uncomfortable for me, it’s that the American audience is still pretty ignorant and set in their ways in terms of booing anybody that even resembles a person from the middle east. It’s almost like we’re back in the 80’s and lightweight (pun intended) cringe worthy when watching.
The matches have all been fun, and it was a delight to see Tajiri still has something left in the tank!
Yeah, having the Iranian and Pakistani guys be heels by default was upsetting, but both guys seemed to roll with it and wrestle a heelish style as a result.
AFAIK, Ariya Davari pretty much wrestles as a heel most, if not all, of the time. I’ve seen him more than a few occasions in different feds across the US, and he’s always doing the heel thing.