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 2/4/17)

Heavenly, But Not So Gentlemanly

– Caleb Konley came out, recently returned from whatever he worked on prior. Instead of being an honorary Wrecking Crew member, he remained a friendly associate. That’s fine, though. Konley shines better as a solo heel act in WCWC. His opponent was Damian Drake in an odd take on “Hero Vs. Villain.” That “story” will happen no matter who Drake’s opponent is, frankly. This was a confusing pairing if the plan wasn’t to put Konley over in spades. We actually wish we could get some advancement with the vague superhero characters in the Midnight Marvels. What if they ever became heels in a “Hero Becomes The Villain” type of thing? Some touch-and-go mat-based grappling dominated the pace early on. This was more competitive than it had any business being, which we had no problem with. Drake has strong potential as a midcarder down the road if they want to go that route. He pulled off an impressive spinning basement enziguiri. We got back into familiar territory as Konley took Drake’s momentum and swung into his side with a long-winded chop before he struck with the Cradle Shot to get the three count. In essence, Konley gets the win and Drake got to show some endurance, but it seems we type the same things every week. Will they finally be serious about a Drake push? What’s next for Konley to do here?

– Who doesn’t like a good three-way? Hey, we’ll keep that joke strictly between the ropes. Last week, a Battle Royale to determine a new WCWC Legacy Champion ended with three men going over the top rope, which they claimed to be the first in professional wrestling to do that scenario. Hopefully they fact-checked that. As we predicted, those final three men – Adrian “The Adrenaline” Matthews, “The Gentleman Brawler” Eric Right and “The Rock God” Ricky Gibson were booked into a three-way to determine the new Champ. Seems fair enough. They cut to a backstage interview with Matthews before the other two men walked into the shot and staked their claim at gold and argued about “who eliminated who.” Strictly for hype purposes, but we get it, being the main event and all.

– Dillon Divine came out with his manager, Mr. Tubbs. He’s apparently a past beloved WCWC talent, though we’re still not so sure what his gimmick entails. Is he a fitness junkie convinced he’s stronger than he actually is? He seems to be fishing more for laughs than actual heat, so we guess that’s why they put him with good ‘ol Tubbs there. He was desperate to get on the winning board and hilariously referred to his record as “Oh and a half.” The focus then shifted to his opponent, once notorious for being overweight – Mikey O’Shea. Not only did he look like he cut down considerably, he had new kickass theme music to boot. He actually might’ve had that before the Story Of The Year theme, but that’s another story for another time. With Divine presented as someone not to take seriously and O’Shea on the up and up, it was easy to predict where this one would fall on the victory spectrum. Some match highlights (there were very few) included Divine’s “soft chop” to O’Shea, which prompted “The Irish Juggernaut” to throw Divine halfway across the canvas. The finish was okay, as like a fool, Divine was too concerned with impressing Tubbs with his ability to sit on the top rope, which only set him up to jump into the Gunslinger. Three-count. Will they hotshot O’Shea towards a midcard Title or will he go straight to the top? He’s fit in either role. All in all, kind of eh.

– We heard from The Heavenly Bodies as they prepared for a WCWC Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Match against Adam Thornstowe/Alexander Hammerstone. Can we call them ThornStone or HammerStowe? That would kick ass, just saying. Anyways, we finally figured out who was Desirable Dustin and who was Gigolo Justin. It’s harder than you’d think, especially when you consider that they don’t even look alike. They spoke well for themselves here and you could tell they were Champions in other companies beforehand. One company was Pro Wrestling Syndicate. Check out a past review here. Good times, good times.

– The WCWC Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Match between Thornstowe/Hammerstone and HB had some nice implications and we liked that it wasn’t predictable off the bat. HB already propelled themselves to a Title shot previously and lost, while HammerStowe were newly developed. The action was constant, yet there was a monotone feel to it. It’s hard to describe, but we were lulled at this point. It probably also didn’t help that Kris Kross blundered on commentary as he tried to emphasize the match’s importance as he ended up saying that maybe the winners would be considered for a future Title shot, when Morty Lipschitz stepped in and covered him well to remind us that it was a #1 Contender’s Match. Anyways, things picked up towards the end once The Wrecking Crew came out to abduct Hammerstone and left Thornstowe to fend for himself. They did throw in a hope spot for Thornstowe, but in the end, it was the Pearly Gates that did him in. We liked this because it put HB in another high spot in the Tag Division and advances the story with Hammerstone’s war against his former group.

– They followed up the match with a backstage segment where Thornstowe was irate at his partner’s disappearance and promised to get revenge on the Crew Of Wrecking. We liked that he banged his fists on the wall there to sell it a little bit more.

– The Triple-Threat Match for the WCWC Legacy Championship between Gibson, Right and Matthews already had its share of hype, we were just eager to see how things would develop. Not surprisingly, Right/Matthews double-teamed Gibson early on until they decided to duke it out themselves. Richard Syncyr, one of Right’s family members that had recently quarreled with Right for “not winning the big one,” came out again at ringside, presumably to cheer on the opposition. He physically touched Right’s leg a couple times to sell their feud. The first red flag came when Matthews punched Syncyr off the apron, to which Right looked flustered at. We suddenly remembered that Right/Syncyr never actually touched one another in last week’s main event. Now this? Right/Matthews did a cool double superplex on Gibson. The gist was that Syncyr was out to enjoy Right’s failures, so it only made sense to have the finish go down as Right was disposed of over the top rope and landed at his feet. Gibson landed the pin and we had a new Champion. Sweet. Post-match is where things got most interesting. Syncyr attacked Matthews before “The Adrenaline” fought back. Right came into the ring presumably to get back on Syncyr. They whipped Syncyr into the ropes and out of nowhere, Right clotheslined Matthews to the canvas. Turn your heels, son. That commenced a two-on-one beatdown as we began to think of the possibilities with a heel Right. Maybe the greatest thing ever. We still couldn’t dismiss the idea that they would’ve conspired to have Right win the belt, but maybe they had a bigger purpose on hand? They could also sway the story to have it be about Right’s disdain for Matthews for coming into the company and stealing his fans from him. Many ways they can go for it, but for the premise of shaking things up, we give it an A. Extra heel points for the piledriver, spitting on Matthews and pouring the tonic on his face. It sparks a new feud and so everyone wins.

Quick Results

• Caleb Konley def. Damian Drake via pinfall 
• Mikey O’Shea def. Dillon Divine (w/Mr. Tubbs) via pinfall 
• WCWC Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Match – The Heavenly Bodies def. Alexander Hammerstone/Adam Thornstowe via pinfall 
• WCWC Legacy Championship – Triple-Threat – “The Rock God” Ricky Gibson def. “The Gentleman Brawler” Eric Right and “The Adrenaline” Adrian Matthews via pinfall to become new Champion