CZW ‘Best of the Best V’
May 4th, 2005
Best of the Best until this year was just a Junior Heavyweight tournament with a different format, but for this year’s tournament things were changed. Instead of 4 3-Way matches to start the tournament and the loser of each match being knocked out and two who hadn’t been pinned in the match advancing, this year there are 16 participants and a 4-Way Elimination final. Plus the addition of heavyweights to the tournament like Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli changed this around. This tape can be picked up from Smart Mark Video and for the Australians Martin Cox has it for you officially.
Before the review remember to visit Scott at BLUETHUNDERVIDEO~! and Parts Unknown.
Round 1: Super Dragon vs. Chris Bosh
Looking at all the first round matches, there would be no better way to open up the tournament. Both are very familiar with each other and always deliver. This match is different to the match they had the year before in Revolution Pro though, as instead of building around a 20 min match, they have a quick 10 min sprint.
Being Bosh’s debut in CZW he would not rather anything more than by making a huge impact by beating SoCal’s King and perhaps the favourite for the tournament, Super Dragon. He’s beaten him on the West Coast before, but not on the East Coast. Plus, it’s Best of the Best, this is the place to get noticed when wrestling in CZW. With that said, it is only fitting Bosh opens up the match before Dragon is in the ring with a Suicide Dive.
Dragon’s motives are very clear on the other hand. Bosh beat him for the Rev Pro Title in 2004 and he wants retribution. Plus, he wants to go on and finish the job on El Generico from ‘Cage of Death 6’ and get revenge on Kevin Steen from the same show. Bosh’s Suicide Dive only added to more fuel to Dragon’s fire and gave it even more incentive to pretty much kill Bosh. The fast opening could’ve won or lost it for Bosh and it practically lost it for him, since it just made Dragon even angrier.
Dragon also doesn’t make the mistake he made in the Rev Pro match by relying on the Psycho Driver to get it done. That was what cost him the match against Bosh. Bosh doesn’t wrestle the smart match he wrestled in Revolution Pro though. In Rev Po he was smarter, he baited and baited Dragon to get angrier and he was able to cradle him off the Psycho Driver II, but instead he’s stuck in this match trying to impress the CZW fans and beat Dragon at his style. In absence of the Psycho Driver I or II though, Dragon makes sure to use a big move to finish off Bosh in the Avalanche Tiger Driver. Bosh got too caught up trying to beat Dragon at Dragon’s style, but in the end, a win is a win. ***1/4
Round 1: El Generico vs. Excalibur
I really don’t get this match being the pace it is. The match is fine as it is but along with Super Dragon, Excalibur was trying to kill off Generico with what they did to him at the end of the tag match. Generico should be coming out looking for revenge but instead we get a handshake to begin. When you take all that out of the equation though, you get a nicely built 7 min match. We get a nice bit of psychology at one in the match where we get the same Brainbustahhh sequence that went down at COD 6 but Excalibur was able to reverse into a Spider German Suplex. They make sure that the finish is high impact and for Generico to get his revenge, but by this point it seemed the hate was gone.
Round 1: Chris Hero vs. Brandon Thomaselli
Expectations were high coming into this one but ultimately IMO it didn’t pay off, but is a nice match. For some reason Hero’s matches in CZW aren’t up to the level of his IWA Mid-South, Chikara or PWG stuff. It may be the crowd and that he has to work a different style, but outside of that I don’t really know. Thomaselli was on a roll from the previous show where he won the Trifecta Elimination Tournament to get his way into BOTB, but coming in Hero is the favourite.
They do a nice job with an underdog story here with Thomaselli getting in quick spurts of offence here and there but Hero cutting him off each time. Hero does a nice job teasing and building the Cravate (3/4 Chancery) in this match. For those who don’t know, the Cravate is a Hero signature and he knows over 500 variations of it, bases moves around it like the Cravate Suplex, Cravateclasm and one of his finishers in the Hangman’s Clutch is an STF with a Cravate (but he knows many variations of the Hangman’s as well). Thomaselli’s quick spurts of offence though are very well done; the match just seemed to be lacking something as a whole outside of that. The finish is quite the sick one as well, with Thomaselli landing on his head off the Hero’s Welcome. A nice match, but ultimately not the quality I expected coming in.
Round 1: Kevin Steen vs. Kenny the Bastard
Even with around 3 mins less than the previous match, they do a better job playing Kenny as the underdog. His spurts of offence are more explosive and flashier than Thomaselli’s and Steen’s going back on offence and heat sessions are much better than Hero’s. Whenever he cuts off Kenny, he makes sure to do it in big fashion with a high impact move. The German Suplex and Side Winder Suplex came off extremely well. Kenny’s highlight on offence was his Dragonrana to the floor and even though Thomaselli’s standing SSP was impressive, this just blew it away. The finish is also sicker in the Steenalizer (Capture Powerbomb with opponent thrown over Steen’s head) into the corner.
Round 1: Mike Quackenbush vs. Arik Cannon
Quackenbush may be the hungriest of competitors for this tournament because even though he’s been wrestling 12 years, he’s never won a tournament. 2004 he had many opportunities but had the legs cut out from him each time. He made it far in the JCW ‘Jersey J-Cup’ but was cut off by B-Boy, made it to the Semi-Finals of IWA Mid-South’s ‘Ted Petty Invitational 2004’ but was defeated by American Dragon and got to the finals of Chikara’s ‘World Tag Grand Prix’ but was betrayed by partner Chris Hero and they fell to Arik Cannon and Claudio Castagnoli.
So this is stage one for Quackenbush, getting revenge on Cannon. Cannon also has a bit to prove as well because he’s had opportunities in CZW but has come away a little short each time, but much like Chris Bosh he has the chance to impress at BOTB. Although both men are hungry, they know not to rush in, so they wrestle methodically and wait for a chance to take the win to come to them, they don’t rush to the win.
After a while of wrestling and not taking risks, Cannon is the first one to hit a real high impact move in his Hanging Neckbreaker Suplex. It might not seem like a big risk but something as simple as that can cost you the match when you’re wrestling Mike Quackenbush. Quack realises that he must come back if he is going to win and he takes even more of a risk hitting a running palm strike, which could’ve been reversed much easier than Cannon’s move.
The closing sequence is where they pick up the pace and the only reason Quack is the winner is due to him being the smart wrestler. It seems somewhat unfair though to lose this match when you’re in Cannon’s shoes since he pretty much excelled Quack in every category. When it came to hold for hold wrestling he was equal, when it came to high impact moves his were more high impact but what cost him was Quack being the smarter wrestler. Quack knows after the first attempt of the Glimmering Warlock that Cannon just can’t hit it out of nowhere, it needs a setup. So Quack takes advantage of that and cuts off Cannon mid Glimmering Warlock with the Quackendriver II. ***1/2
Round 1: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Derek Frazier
This is one that really creeps up on you to be a great match. We all know CC is great, but Frazier is the one that impresses. It might be due to the fact that it’s Best of the Best, but his moves are a lot crisper, his kicks a lot harder and there being more thought thrown into his moves. The story of the match is above and beyond what I expected as well, since I expected a 5 min squash here for CC but we end up getting a 9 minute match where Frazier is actually made to seem a threat.
The simple story they work is the old underdog story. Frazier gets on offence a few times but CC cuts him off simply with his patented European Uppercuts. What’s most dangerous about CC’s Euro Uppercuts is he can hit them from anywhere and they’re a move you always have to watch out for and Frazier does a good job of defending them but when on offence he forgets about them and is cut off again. CC also is on a much larger level than he was before the Trifecta show due to him defeated 2004’s winner Sonjay Dutt, which would make a Frazier victory even bigger. Sadly though Frazier plays right into CC’s hands when he locks on a Triangle Choke, since all CC has to do is pick Frazier back up and nail him with the Pyramid Bomb.
Round 1: B-Boy vs. Sabian
Coming in Sabian is CZW Junior Champ and B-Boy is the only former BOTB Winner in the tournament, so when it comes to stakes, this is the match with the highest stakes. Both have reputations to protect and B-Boy must show that he still what it takes and for Sabian, to prove that he is the new wave of CZW and there’s no better way to show than beating B-Boy in the first round.
Sabian’s problem is that he tries to wrestle B-Boy’s game of Strong Style too often. He’s better off using his speed to try and garner him the victory but instead many upon many times is he stuck trying to go two to two with strikes. One point where Sabian tries some Dragon Kicks but B-Boy shakes them off and delivers 6 consecutive hard ones. Sabian should’ve really learnt from that mistake but sadly he didn’t and that’s why he did not come out on top.
When he is wrestling his style of using his speed he looks extremely dangerous and looks to be able to beat B-Boy at any time, but trying to out strike Sabian cost him. Hell, Sabian’s tag partner Eddie Kingston couldn’t even out strike B-Boy and Kingston is a tremendous striker, how the hell does Sabian stand a chance. B-Boy in the end outclasses Sabian though. He’s able to cut Sabian off at many times with offence and shows a prime example of knowing your opponent by countering a Quesadora Armdrag from Sabian into a Storm Cradle Driver, which is a move Sabian uses often. ***
Round 1: Ebetaro vs. Nate Webb
Ebetaro is none other than everyone’s favourite clown Ebessan. Now none other than a few comedy spots, this doesn’t really have much going for it. The comedy spots are good though with Ebetaro mimicking Flair a lot in this match and allowing Webb into the ring only to crotch him on the middle rope, but other than that there isn’t much to the match. Webb doesn’t really do much in this match, probably due to the fact that he’s backing up later in the night but then I don’t really get putting him in the tourney. The match quality just suffers and it would’ve been better served having a match like Ebetaro vs. Hallowicked (which would’ve been top banana). Instead we get Webb trying to keep his energy later in the night.
Round 2: Super Dragon vs. El Generico
Stage 2 for Generico’s revenge takes place here and boy does he give Dragon a fight. What this match does unlike Generico/Excalibur is get over the hatred and make you think these guys really hate each other. The brawling on the outside really sets the stage for the madness which would come. Dragon is his usual badass self, not fan’s bears out of their hands when he beats down Generico, showing he doesn’t need their support. Generico on the other hands doesn’t really worry about the fans and just wants to hurt Dragon.
A main part of why Dragon is successful is that he plays around with his opponents and tries to make them feel inferior. This match is no exception and tries to see how insecure Generico is, but Generico even with a bloody nose toughs things out and survives a portion of offence from Dragon. When Generico is on offence and handing out his share of punishment, he’s not trying to play around with Dragon, he’s trying to hurt Dragon. He remembers when Dragon wedged his head inside a chair and stomped on his head from the top rope and he wants to make Dragon pay.
When it comes to the final section of the match Dragon knows Generico is know joke and has to hand out extra punishment than he thought he would. Generico is also really smart to revisit the sequence that won him his first round match, but sadly Dragon is able to kick out of the Brainbustahhh. It was only the couple of seconds that Generico didn’t know where he was that cost him though. With the big fight Generico put up as well though, it’s only fitting he survives the Psycho Driver. But that was just the final high impact move that was required to kill off Generico though, as the Psycho Driver II was able to finish things. ***1/2
Round 2: Chris Hero vs. Kevin Steen
Just like Hero’s previous match with Thomaselli, this doesn’t live up to the hype. It is due to the fact they never really got the chance to build a real wrestling match. It started out with Hero attacking Steen from behind and working him over for while. There’s no chain wrestling or build, it just goes from Hero’s heat section on Steen to the near falls. This isn’t to say this is a bad match though, it’s good and if you’d never seen either man wrestle before you might be tempted to give it *** but with the standards these two have set for themselves this one is disappointing.
They do a nice job of playing off how dangerous the Package Piledriver is in this match. Even though Steen doesn’t hit it in the match it gets him the victory via Sunset Flip. He outsmarted Hero and came into using his finisher with a game plan. If he couldn’t hit it he was always going to go to the Sunset Flip and due to the fact he outsmarted Hero it’s only fitting he moves onto the finals.
Round 2: Mike Quackenbush vs. Claudio Castagnoli
Stage 2 of Quack’s journey begins here with Cannon’s partner in the Chikara Tag Tourney. The match here also works off of the underdog story worked in the Frazier match but Quackenbush is a much more accomplished wrestler than Frazier and CC’s going to have a harder time putting away Quack. Quack shows how quick he is with holds by locking CC in holds really quickly at times and throwing CC off his game.
This forces CC to put more of a high impact force in his offence, even though he can go on the mat well, it’s Best of the Best, it’s do or die for CC. Not only does he use his Euro Uppercuts to wear Quack down, his uses many suplexes, a Tope Suicida and even goes as far to choking Quack with a chair. Quack on the other hand bides his time and waits for his opportunity to get his moves in, just like his match in Cannon.
Quack steps up his risk level in this match though when he realises even if he wins this match, just waiting for CC to make a mistake may cost him the tournament due to the length that the match would be and how worn down he would be. So he steps it up a notch by armdragging CC into the crowd and hitting a Springboard Tornado DDT into the crowd. His risk paid dividends, but it could’ve really hurt Quack if it had not connected. Even though the Tornado DDT went a long way to winning the match for Quack, it also almost cost him as CC was able to hit his Pyramid Bomb not too long after. Due to CC’s size, the Quackendriver I and II is a non-factor as a finisher, but Quack always has a plan and a Double Arm Cradle is sufficient enough to finish off CC. ****
Round 2: B-Boy vs. Ebetaro
This one falls into the passable action department. After their great interactions in the Chikara match I was expecting big things from this, but ultimately they were unable to deliver. They deliver some nice psychology though with B-Boy using Ebetaro’s crotching he did to Webb earlier. Since both also use a Shining Wizard for a finish as well, it would’ve been nice that the two moves had a bigger emphasis on the match. After all, it is a battle of Shining Wizards. When B-Boy does connect his Wizard though, we all know it’s over but Ebetaro sells it perfectly as almost a knock out shot, which would have to be the highlight of the match.
H8 Club vs. Toby Klein and DJ Hyde
This is an ok brawl, but nothing more. It’s just the usual H8 Club brawl. This isn’t to say they’re bad brawlers; they’re great when on their game but they don’t seem to be too into this. All it really is “I hit you with a weapon and then you hit me” and nothing more. No building a story, just smashy smashy, which is really sad when you have two who can really build a brawl well in Gage and Klein in a match. The match from the next month with Necro in Hyde’s spot looks much better and hopefully it is due to the fact it has Necro Butcher in it.
Ruckus and Eddie Kingston vs. Sexxxy Eddy and Nate Webb
This is not really what I expected coming in to this match. I thought it would be a 10 minute sprint with the 4 trading hard hitting offence, but instead we get a 20 min match with a LOOOONG heat section on Webb. Sadly the heat section takes the life out of the crowd and once Eddy is tagged in, even the most over guy in CZW can’t get the crowd going.
When we hit the near falls the match gets a little better, especially with Eddy trying his heart out and hitting his always beautiful Quebrada. Ruckus busting out a Mexican Spinning Backbreaker on the top turnbuckle to Eddy was also pretty amazing. They do, to their credit, try and get over the hatred with Webb trying to suffocate Kingston with a garbage bag, but still the match has no heat. When we hit the end, the reason Blackout lose is because of a few unlucky mistakes. The first is Ruckus being on the top rope and ready to finish off Eddy, but Kingston accidentally hit the ring post and knocked Ruckus down. The second costs them the match, with Kingston giving Eddy a German Suplex but Eddy landed on Ruckus for the pin. That causes Blackout to beat down Kingston and set the stage for the World Title Cage Match with Ruckus vs. Eddy.
Best of the Best V Final, Elimination: Super Dragon vs. Kevin Steen vs. Mike Quackenbush vs. B-Boy
When it comes to a booking standpoint, this is probably the best final possible. You’ve got Super Dragon who is the favourite for the tournament, Kevin Steen the dark horse, Quack who is out to win his first ever tournament and B-Boy who is looking to be the first to ever win two BOTB tournaments. There is also a big feud in this with Dragon and Steen going right back to COD 6 and they’ve had confrontations in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla out on the West Coast. Dragon and B-Boy also have a big history from their series on the West Coast which has produced some of the best indy matches of all time.
From the start you know this is going to be wrestled at a slow pace with all the chain wrestling involved. After a feeling out process where Quack was able to get the best of all his opponents, it’s time to take a risk. Steen, B-Boy and Dragon all have each other locked up in a side headlock and Quack breaks it with an Enzuguri, taking them all to the outside. On the outside he takes out Dragon with B-Boy with a Springboard Senton Atomico, but doesn’t take out all the men like he intended and Steen is left surviving. Back in is where Steen is able to take over on Quack with a kick to the head and everyone begins beating on Quack.
When Quack is getting worked over, when Dragon and Steen do it they’re more taunting each other rather than trying to hurt Quack and eliminate him, B-Boy is the only one who focuses on doing damage to Quack without outside distractions. Quack isn’t going to be put away easily though after 12 years of fighting and to his credit he is able to survive all the punishment dished out upon him and tag out. He stays with the action though even after tagging out and even reverses Super Dragon’s Curb Stomp and hits a reverse version.
Super Dragon’s elimination of two Package Piledrivers may seem like overkill but it has a little back story to it. Dragon survived the first Package Piledriver in PWG and Steen doesn’t want Dragon kicking out, so the 2nd is just security to make sure Dragon isn’t kicking out. The next elimination is Kevin Steen and it seems a little ironic he is eliminated with a version of a piledriver, this time a Straightjacket Piledriver from B-Boy. He made his mark tonight though; he eliminated a favourite in Chris Hero and then the favourite and rival Super Dragon.
The battle between Quack and B-Boy at the end is the best move that could’ve been done. Will Quack be denied once again or will B-Boy’s quest to win his second BOTB be put a stop to again? Even though Quack gets in his fair share of offence, it is more about him surviving B-Boy’s offence and trying to get the opportunity to hit the Quackendriver II or perhaps lock B-Boy in a cradle, much like he did to CC. B-Boy’s problem is though he tries to secure the pin much like Steen did earlier, but the problem is one Shining Wizard could’ve possibly finished Quack, he didn’t need to add the second and the Facelift. He needed to capitalise, but he didn’t.
B-Boy trying to secure the win though is what costs him the match though, since he doesn’t really have anything else to offer. Quack is smart wrestler and won’t try the Quesadora Armdrag like Sabin did earlier and catch himself in a Storm Cradle Driver and he’s going to do his best not get caught in a position for a Straightjacket Piledriver. He’s come too far to go down in the final. Luckily Quack does find that opportunity to hit the Quackendriver II and he doesn’t try to secure it like B-Boy and he gets the win. Quack’s victory is akin to Chris Benoit’s Super J-Cup win and Toshiaki Kawada’s first Champion Carnival (which both took place on the same night). Quack shares the common bond that they fought and struggled their way to victory and had to do it the hard way. Tears are shed for Quack’s victory (even from myself) which shows how the fans understood his struggle for victory, since CZW fans aren’t the most caring (at least a lot of them). ***3/4
