Best of the Best 5 – DISC ONE

I decided to get to some wrestling watching this past weekend after attending IWC’s annual Super Indy event. It just so happened that when I sat down to watch something that I was in a rather “Indy” mood as well and what better for feed the need than CZW’s annual Best of the Best tournament. BOTB 5 would be the first edition of said series that didn’t begin with the usual 3 ways to start out the first round. I was rather pleased by this considering that I always felt that it put a bit of a stigma on the tournament and made it too easy for them to eliminate the bigger named superstars earlier in the show. This year I thought it would make the competition stiffer for the entire tournament and then I noticed that CZW wasn’t going apeshit on the spending this year. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the majority of the guys in the tournament this year…………..but they aren’t the big money indy names like they brought in the last couple of years. Anyway this year’s crop looked promising with names such as Super Dragon, Chris Bosh, El Generico, Excalibur, Chris Hero, Brandon Tomaselli, Kevin Steen, Kenny the Bastard, Mike Quackenbush, Arik Cannon, Claudio Castignoli, Derek Frazier, B-Boy, Sabian, Ebessan, and Nate Webb. Let’s get to the first round action…..

The opening contest of BOTB5 was SoCal’s own Super Dragon vs. Chris Bosh. Coming into this match I didn’t know what to expect considering I’ve seen very little of Bosh and I kind of figured that Super Dragon might just run through him to get to the next round. I was impressed however at the fact that these two went at it pretty strong to start with some forearm trading sequences and some good wrestling. It seems that Super Dragon has improved over the last time I’ve seen him which is definitely a good thing. He always seemed that he had a problem with his pacing and if this match is any indication of that, he’s improved by leaps and bounds. We got to see all the patented SD spots too, the curb stomp, stiff shots, and more forearms. Also Dragon sold pretty well for Bosh and he also allowed Bosh to get in a decent amount of offense during the match. Bosh on the other hand is pretty damn athletic and did a very good job of keeping up with Dragon in the match. The finish came as SD tiger bombed Bosh off of the top rope for the pin. Really fun match that was paced at a pretty high level and both guys definitely worked it out.

Rating - ***

Second on the card would be PWG superstar Excalibur vs. El Generico. This looked to be an impressive first round match up and I was definitely looking for it. I’m not huge on Excalibur but he’s more than capable in the ring and if he’s in there with the right talent is more than acceptable. Generico just so happens to be that talent. He’s one of if not the most UNDERRATED guy on the Indies today. He actually has charisma that connects with the crowds that he wrestles in front of and he’s among one of the better performers on the indy circuit. But I must say that I was a bit disappointed in this one as it didn’t seem like Excalibur was having one of his better moments, but the match wasn’t really too bad.

Rating - **

Up next was one of the favorites on hand and former CZW Ironman champion Chris Hero vs. Brandon Thomaselli. They were selling Hero as the cocky veteran performer and Thomaselli as the young up and comer. Basically this was an alright match with Hero leaving the majority of the masturbatory mat work at home (thankfully) and the match although slow, had a better story going on in it than pretty much anything you’d see here in the first round. Hero hit various cravate’s and really took Thomaselli down a few notches playing up the veteran role. Overall I like Hero like this as he can really play a good heel and in CZW the crowd can make anyone look like a jackass………but not Hero. They pull out some hope spots for Thomaselli, but he never quite gets to where he needs to be and Hero slows the pace down and basically finishes him rather easily. Mr Chris Hero…..welcome to the second round.

Rating - **1/4

At this point I didn’t know what to expect as Mr. Wrestling Kevin Steen was to face Kenny The Bastard. Now, I knew basically NOTHING about Kenny the Bastard before this match and honestly I was rather surprised on some of the stuff that he pulled out. Steen is usually awesome and he was playing the dickish heel type in this one with Kenny the Bastard (aka a lizard like man or something) who played the underdog and actually did a lot better than I expected. Although all that ended when Steen went apeshit and hit him with most of his patented offense which would kill a normal man…..or just keep you out of the WWE, whatever way you want to put it.

Rating *1/4

From this point it was to be Mike Quackenbush vs. Arik Cannon. Now, you either love or hate Mike Quackenbush but honestly I’ve always been a fan of the guy. He basically created Chikara with former indy star Reckless Youth and I remember seeing Quack at PWX shows in Pittsburgh in the mid 90’s. I always thought that Quack was more technically sound than 90% of the guys that I had seen at the time and honestly, I’m usually a big fan of career indy guys like Quack. It takes dedication to stick to a business that long and Quack has certainly cut his own niche out in the business. Arik Cannon on the other hand is one of the wrestlers on the indy circuit that I’m pretty mixed about. I mean I’ve seen him have some pretty great matches (I remember some pretty damn good matches with him in IWA-MS with guys like Homicide and AJ Styles) but sometimes I’m extremely UNDERWHELMED with him. Overall though I thought this match had some promise and it was pretty good when all was said and done. They had Quack working some extremely cool submissions and Cannon was struggling to keep up. But then Cannon basically was coming back with some good shots and some other dirty moves…….but it wouldn’t be enough. Quack came through again with the win, and on to round 2 he goes.

Rating **1/2

The next first round match up would be Claudio Castignoli vs. Derek Frazier. Now I’m a fan of Claudio myself, and I couldn’t recall seeing anything with Derek Frazier……….but I must admit that I was pretty jazzed when Claudio came out in full Chris Hero garb……tights and all. This match was awesome, and it was all because of Claudio. He was working cravate holds just like Hero and basically just mocked him the entire match……..and keep in mind that at the time of the show…..him and Hero were basically tagging all across the country. They definitely were building up that Claudio vs. Hero would be the match to look for in the tournament as they were the two best competitors there. But only time would tell if that would happen. Honestly there’s not much to talk about in this match as Derek Frazier basically reminds you of a random member of ROH’s Special K group…..minus the personality. Now, I’m not totally dogging the guy……he’s just simply NOT the type of wrestler I enjoy. So I took great pleasure in watching Claudio break him down fairly easily and basically win the match the same way.

Rating - *1/4

Well this is the conclusion of Disc one of the CZW’s annual Best of the Best Tournament. The sad thing is that the show was a lot more enjoyable up to this point than the match ratings indicate. Although I’m sure this shows about to get MUCH better………..tune in for Part 2 coming as soon as I watch that shit……….

-DK

Thanks for the review, looking forward to the next parts. I've always hated Hero and Super Dragon, but I am curious how this turns out.

No problem, glad you enjoyed it.

I've always been kind of in the middle with both of them. Hero gets a bad rap because a lot of the shit that he was doing 3/4 years ago sucks. He's much better if he could just calm down with all of the masterabatory mat shit and just get back to basics. Which I feel that he did in his first round match here. Plus, he IS a pretty good heel.....although maybe a BIT too funny for the role.

Super Dragon is kind of hit and miss with me though. I do like him and he certainly has skills, but people tend to go apeshit for him or assume that he's all "strong style". I've seen him kick the shit out of lower level guys, work a horribly paced match at the open of a show before, or just plain out work sloppy with people. But on the other hand I've seen him work downright GOOD ass matches with people before too. Consistancy is my main issue with him and it's always been that way.

Head to head though, I'd say Hero is a better worker, but not by much.

I watched like 3 or 4 matches from both guys and liked none of them, so I just kind of stopped looking for it.

Do you remember if it was older stuff or newer?

I haven't seen a Hero match in a couple of years. I've seen more recent Dragon stuff. I may give them another shot when I'm in an indy mood.

I pretty much agree with DK's thoughts on Hero and Dragon completely. However, Claudio and Quack fucking own consistantly. Look for a match between the two on Youtube, it's good stuff.

Great review so far, I thought about buying this once upon a time but decided not to for whatever reason...

Quack is great, but I thought I heard he was retiring..or had retired. Anyone know anything about this?

Quack is always kickin the retirement talk. Even if he does I guarantee that he'll still wrestle a couple times a year.

Oh and RFS, you want the show.....let me know. I gots the hookups...

He got injured or something, didn't he? Back problem?

I think he's had some back problems for a while now.........but I don't know for sure if something happened or anything. I don't remember reading anything.....