CWF Mid-Atlantic
CWF Mid-Atlantic Sportatorium (Gibson, North Carolina)
2 out of 3 falls for the CWF Mid-Atlantic Ultra J Champion
There are not many [good] reasons for a match to go 60+ minutes. There is not a whole lot you can accomplish in a 60-minute match that could not be accomplished more efficiently in a 20 or 30-minute match. I get why matches go this long. The longer the match, the rarer it is, the more hype the match will get, and theoretically the more people will seek it out. It is just that going extra-long rarely results in a better match. This match is proof positive of that. There were a lot of good ideas and a lot of positives along the way, but it probably would have fared better wrapping up before the 40-minute mark rather than after the 60-minute mark.
The match – particularly the first two falls – were well-thought out. The overall story is that Lee is frustrated by the fact that Everett has become a breakout star in the past year even though he believes he is the better wrestler. It is the Misawa/Kawada story, a point not lost on one of the CWF Mid-Atlantic announcers who makes that exact comparison during the match (the announcing was very good and helped the 60+ minutes move a bit faster).
That particular contention point for Lee is established straight out of the gate. Everett dominates the action early on, which mainly consists of holds in between some well-timed high spots. Lee’s main recourse to this is to bail to the outside. They also tease a dive from Everett for the first 20 or so minutes of the match. Lee keeps moving and/or wields a chair when on the outside to keep Everett at bay. I liked how Everett – after being thwarted from hitting a tope several times – threw caution to the wind and did a double rope springboard vertical body block to the outside as sort of a tease to the real dive. He finally gets the tope in a turning point of the first fall (and hits a second one immediately afterwards for good measure).
Between the story of Everett getting the upper hand (which plays into their larger ongoing issue) and the teased dive, the first fall remains focused. At least relative to other 60-minute matches, the first half-an-hour in this match does not feel like it had much filler at all, thanks to that focus.
Lee transitions onto offense when he gets Everett on the outside and brawls to gain an advantage. They teased a count out victory for most of the rest of the match (the first fall came about 30 minutes in) but it never fully paid off. 60-minute matches tend to have either too little action for too long or too much action for too long. With the latter, you get 20 or 30 minutes of bigger moves and kick outs to the point where they mean nothing by the end. Lee and Everett side-stepped that a bit – at least briefly – with the idea that Lee wants to hurt Everett and send a message, rather than simply beat him. The announcers established this as a possibility in the first fall so that when it plays out in the second fall, it doesn’t come off contrived. Lee controls the second fall but goes for few(er) covers with side steps the early near falls issue. Lee gets the second fall with his running knee over 50 minutes in.
The match shows its length at the end of the second fall and all of the third fall. Despite valiant efforts to avoid it, they end up with too many kick outs and too many near falls too early. The match never really peaks with strong near falls like a good match should. There are a lot of big, good-looking moves late but not any good near falls. It was obvious by the end that the strong stories of the first two falls could have been maintained and the third fall made less tedious if the match was compressed to about 40-minutes.
Move wise, Everett hit a lot of athletic flying spots like always. There is more room for error in 60-minutes so it was not a huge surprised that there were some miscommunication and rough spots, but nothing momentum-killing or anything. Lee was also fine and as good as I have seen him, but unlike the Misawa/Kawada comparison, I would be surprised if at any point Everett is thought of as the better wrestler of the two.
It is a shame that there is a lot of good stuff in here, but likely not enough to justify 60-minutes of watching time too unless you happen to have a lot of free time on your hands. If you have the time, it is worth seeing, but would have been a no-brainer match to watch at 2/3’s or half of the length is only a mild-recommendation at 60+ minutes.
Juniors | Worthwhile | Long Match (60-Minutes)
