Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/23/16)

Eight-Ballin’

– It has been no secret that one of West Coast Wrestling Connection’s 2016 agenda plans call for a Jessy Sorenson push, as he has already racked up decisive wins against Darin Corbin and Ethan HD, flashing his forearm strike finisher as the difference maker. For some reason, we got another rematch between Sorenson and Corbin, the latter looking to break out his “ginger snap.” We liked the in-ring storytelling, with the scrappy Corbin taking advantage of Sorenson crashing his knee into the steel steps, utilizing his prone limb to keep him grounded and unable to pull off his signature power moves. The script appeared to pencil in another Sorenson victory once he hit his forearm strike, but Corbin fell out of the ring. Little did we know what’d actually happen with Hammerstone attacking Sorenson and leaving him out cold, as Corbin went back in the ring. Obviously, we welcome this since it gives Sorenson an instant rival and also gives Corbin a cheap victory, something he could always brag about.

– On that note, Corbin’s backstage promo was gold, as he denied the fact that he had nothing to do with the way he won. Also liked the nice comedic touch of him not even knowing what year it was, yet bragging that he beat Sorenson like he said he would.

– There appeared to be some ruffled feathers with the “Rock God” Ricky Gibson (on tour with Alice Cooper dont’cha know?)/Greg Romero and WCWC Tag Team Champions, The Whirlwind Gentlemen on this episode. Gibson and Jack Manley battled it out in a bout that had possible Championship implications in it, Romero proving to be a thorn in Manley’s side all throughout. The back-and-forth action was excitable, though we questioned the finish given the post-match developments. If the idea was to put heat on the heels for a future shot, why not give them a cheap win to actually have them say they earned a shot at the Tag Titles? Manley winning was counterproductive, but we liked the eight-ball shot to his head afterwards, drawing out Remy Marcel, his partner to come defend him.

– The WCWC Legacy Champion Grappler III/Jeremy Blanchard backstage promo hyped G3’s upcoming defense against Crash Test Cody, promising to destroy the furious hopeful and send a message to Grappler I, questioning his sanity the last couple of weeks by targeting G3. These are good basic “mean guy” heels and this promo exemplified that.

– If you want to see a textbook heel Champion defense, look no further than the WCWC Legacy Championship match between G3 and CTC, with G3 breaking down CTC, combatting his brief offensive spurts by deflecting him to the outside, where Blanchard proved to be a constant nuisance to the very end. Just when it appeared CTC had them figured out, there was an orthopedic boot to the face to take him out. Basically, a heel pulling out all the tricks in the book to keep his belt. We loved the post-match angle of various locker room members like “Irish Juggernaut” Mikey O’Shea, Cameron Cole and Marcus Malone coming to fend off Blanchard/G3. We smell some sort of tag match involving these guys in the near future.

– Keeping the tradition of cheap heel wins up on this episode, we had the Romero-O’Shea match with Morty Lipschitz on commentary, talking a potential partnership with Mr. Tubbs, who had approached him several times. Only makes sense for two of WCWC’s biggest heel entities to want to team up. This gave us more even-handed action, as O’Shea sells it with the best of ’em, while Romero continues to be one of the company’s best heels. We applaud the eight-ball finish, but again, we’re still not sure how a guy can hit his opponent with his rolled-up t-shirt in plain sight of the Referee and not even be investigated for it knocking him out for the three-count. This is the second time this year we’ve had that finish for Romero. Is the Referee always this naive?

– We closed things out with the seemingly final chapter of the WCWC Pacific Northwest Champion Gangrel-Caleb Konley “blood” rivalry, with a No Disqualification match for the Title as the main event. Since the last time these two fought, Konley got himself blatantly DQ’d, the idea was that this match would give us a definite winner and it was also smartly covered on commentary that Gangrel actually sought out the match stipulation, giving this whole thing purpose. We give credit where it’s due – Gangrel hasn’t aged much and can still go, even if this kind of match plays to his arsenal, since it doesn’t involve much wrestling and more bumps. For what it was, it was entertaining as it could’ve gone either way from bell to bell. On that note, we dug the Impaler DDT on the stacked chairs as the finish. Coming out of this, what’s next for Gangrel?

Quick Results

• Daron Corbin def. Jessy Sorenson via countout
• Jack Manley def. Ricky Gibson (w/Greg Romero) via pinfall
• WCWC Legacy Championship – Grappler III (Champion) (w/Jeremy Blanchard) def. Crash Test Cody via pinfall to retain
• WCWC Pacific Northwest Championship – No Disqualification – Gangrel (Champion) def. Caleb Konley via pinfall to retain