I don't know if everyone on here is a strictly minded technical wrestling marks or what, but I figured I'd give this a try.

Cheech and Cloudy are friends of mine. Cheech went to my high school, and Cloudy goes to my current college. When I first met them, they were not very good. Plus, Cloudy is very small, even by indy standards. I was pleasantly suprised when Cloudy was put in Special K in ROH in early 2003. The first thing of note he did was get thoroughly fucked up by Low-Ki at the first ever Death Before Dishonor, when Ki bitchslapped Cloudy and knocked him out legit. A couple months later, Cloudy and Hydro (Jay Lethal) had a match against the SAT on a convention card, and was knocked unconcious again when they performed the Washing Machine. From what I know, at this point the powers that be at Ring of Honor decided Cloudy was too small and concussion prone to compete at that level. Cloudy hasn't been used in an actual match in ROH since. About this time, Cheech started to appear in Special K's corner. After about a year of just being an outside mad, Cheech got his chance to get in the ring on the convention card before the first part of the 3rd Anniversary celebration. He worked Vordell Walker, and was decidedly squashed. However, he was very good with his heel mannerisms and interactions with the crowd, and he bumped his ass off to make Walker look like a killer. Mission accomplished. This led to Cheech being given a larger role in the company, especially when Lacey's Angels split away from Special K. Cheech was put in a few tags with Deranged, and even had a singles match with HC Loc. He actually got very over with the fans, and was receiving chants at the 7/9 Manhattan show when he tagged with Deranged and Vordell Walker against the RCE and Dixie. Lacey's Angels as a whole have died down a bit since then, with both Izzy and Deranged taking time off to heel wounds.

Anyhow, my point is that people might have been interested in Cheech a little bit seeing his limited ROH work. If that is the case, I would certainly recomend you get your hands on some Chikara, where Cheech and Cloudy have been having a sizzling fued with ROH Students Turner/Franco/Hadagorn. Their work here has been very suprising, even to me. Cloudy is much better suited in a smaller environment, and he has much more confidence. Their double team moves are quite innovative, including Partly Cloudy with a chance of Cheech, which I think is a fantastic name for a move. They're also involved in the upcoming NWA Upstate tag team tournament, along with Alex Shelley/Jimmy Jacobs, The Ring Crew Express, and Generation Next of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong.

So if you like seeing young guys bust their asses to make it and improve literally in front of your eyes, check these two out. Sorry for the shameless plug, but I love these guys.

I can appreciate a good spotfest, and the former Special K are having really good ones. Azrael has been one of my favorites, but Cheech is really good too, and he has a great Shooting Star Press.

If you're into anything he did in ROH, check out Chikara. And I think it's unfair to group Azriel into the Special K group. It seems obvious to me that he and Jay Lethal were miles ahead of the other guys, especially with the matches they were putting on in JAPW at the time.

I actually just got into Chikara (bought the three night tag tournament recently), so what Chikara shows would you recommend?

The recent Young Lion Cups Tournament is definetly ownworthy.

I'll admit that I haven't seen them in Chikara, but I wasn't impressed by ANY of their ROH stuff. Now, nothing against them personally..........as I hope they end up getting better. They just don't do much for me right now.......................

They really haven't gotten a chance to do more than spotfests. And in all honesty, it's what they're best at. They're both very much into lucha and ECW, which had very strong senses of psychology, but not in the Northeast Indies kinda way. However, they have some pretty good Southern style tag matches up here in NWA Up-State and World of Hurt Wrestling, where they're much more featured members of the roster. I'd take American Dragon vs Samoa Joe over them any day, but the Chikara shows in general are a nice different view on pro wrestling.

I think my head just exploded upon reading this...............

I don't mean psychology in the way that 95 percent of the IWC uses it. I mean in the way that Jake Roberts uses it in his shoots. Yes, I know the man is a crackhead, but I think he has a point here. Psychology isn't all about "work the neck and shoulder if your finisher is the Crippler Crossface" or "if your arms been worked on, you shouldn't be able to slam somebody." Jake says psychology is more about getting the point across to the crowd, so they know what your intent is, they know where you're going. "Telling a story in the ring" if you perfer that phrase. Now in ECW, for instance, a good example of this would be the Sabu vs Cactus Jack series. If you're looking for bodypart psychology, this shit ain't for you. But as the fued goes on, you see Sabu realize that his normal fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants style doesn't work because Foley can take all that and more. So Sabu starts thinking about his spots a little more and he takes the advantage. A good example in Lucha would be the Eddie and Art Barr vs Octagon and Hijo del Santo match. Lots of spots thrown out there that might not make the IWC happy. But the blood, the hair, the masks, the stretcher, the comeback..... it all made such a huge deal in your head that the place exploded when the faces won.

I know some people may refer to this as "good booking," but I'm just going with Jake on this one, because I hate most of the internet wrestling community.

Ok, I see what you're saying here. But maybe you just worded it incorrectly........

Fair enough........it's all good.