CZW Down with the Sickness Review 9/10/16

Hey guys it is Josh Masterson, the internet’s resident TNA and EVOLVE fanatic, back to review a show from a promotion that I don’t generally review or even watch. I follow it to an extent and watch matches that interest me but I don’t remember ever watching a full show before this one. This card looked really good for the most part so I was interested to see how it was.

TV Ready (Braxton Sutter and BLK Jeez) w/Cherry Bomb vs Monsta Mack and Homicide

I was really looking forward to this match as all four are talented and I always love watching Homicide. Sadly he doesn’t get booked in that many promotions that I watch but that makes me appreciate him more when I get the pleasure of seeing him. I was also excited as Cherry Bomb/Allie adds to every segment she is apart of no matter what character she is playing and this was no exception. Her antics made an already very fun match even more fun. Seeing the northeast veterans is always a good time and they both did well as did Jeez and Sutter. A lot of people criticize Sutter but as I’ve talked about in my Impact reviews in the past I’ve enjoyed his feud with Rockstar Spud this year and think he is a very solid talent. This was a really good way to kick off the show. ***¼

Anthony Henry vs Joey Lynch vs Ryan Taylor vs Tony Deppen

I didn’t really know what to expect from this one but Anthony Henry has become one of my favorite wrestlers to watch this year. He is so good at everything he does and 2017 should be huge for him. I also really like Joey Lynch who I was introduced to through this year’s Scenic City Invitational. However I hadn’t seen the other two wrestlers in the match before, but they both did pretty well. Deppen was a little sloppy at times but he appears to be very young and did well considering I’ve never even heard of him. Ryan Taylor did pretty well also. This was so much fun and while some may think it was too generic of a car crash multi-man match I thought it was great. ***½

Desmond Xavier vs Shane Strickland

Shane Strickland has been an entertaining wrestler to watch for a couple years now and Xavier is on the verge of having a major breakout so I was excited for this one. It did not disappoint with both men doing a bunch of crazy things that very few people are physically capable of doing. Another thing that I loved about this match and loved about the last match is that these types of matches show the future of independent wrestling. Even with the mass signings and everything that takes talents away from the indies there is always another whole line of talent ready to breakout and take over the spots that are open. This was a really good fast-paced high-flying match. ***½

Dale Patricks, John Wayne Murdoch, Josh Crane, and Reed Bently vs Nation of Intoxication

Not gonna lie I entirely intended on skipping this match as I had never seen or heard of any of these guys but I’m reviewing the show so I watched it. This was a fine brawl but I never really got into it and it was really short. Nobody looked horrible but nobody really stood out either, probably because there was a lot going on at once throughout the entire match. This wasn’t necessarily bad it was just short and I didn’t care for or about it as I said. *3/4

Sami Callihan vs Rickey Shane Page

I’m not a fan of Sami Callihan and have only seen RSP once (I was impressed by him in an AIW match with Ray Rowe from late 2015) so I didn’t know what to think going into this one. This was a quick but fun match. I didn’t mind the quickness of the match as Sami excels in shorter matches in my opinion. Page impressed me a bit here and popped me really hard with a Hardy reference. Nothing great but pretty decent. **½

Falls Count Anywhere

David Starr vs Dave Crist

He has never been one of my favorites necessarily but David Starr has always been a guy that I’ve enjoyed watching and he is usually one of the highlights on any show he’s on. On the other hand I’ve barely seen Dave Crist, especially as a singles wrestler. This was a fantastic match, starting off as a somewhat generic brawl and elevating consistently as time went on. There were plenty of great and brutal spots and even a time where I covered my eyes, cringing at the sight of a bloody David Starr pulling thumbtacks out of his hands. While the spotfest-violence was great, the storytelling was fantastic with David Starr perfectly playing as his role as he found unique ways to one-by-one fight off everyone who was trying to interfere for Crist. This is probably my favorite performance of his ever and it definitely made me appreciate him more. Watch this.  ***¾

CZW World Title

Boards of Nails, Carpet Strips, and Panes of Glass Death Match

Jonathan Gresham vs Greg Excellent vs Matt Tremont vs Joe Gacy

As you can probably tell by the name, this match was pretty gross. Tremont was in true form, already bleeding by about a minute into the match. There were a lot of disgusting spots and multiple times where I closed my eyes. Even though it was gross it was actually pretty fun. I liked the idea of Gresham going from being reluctant to use the weapons to attacking the deathmatch guys with barbed wire, even if I could’ve done without all the stapling it took for him to transform. Tremont and Excellent took the most damage but they all took a lot. It’s very hard to review and rate matches like this for obvious reasons, but it was pretty fun even if some of it was dumb and a lot of it made me cringe. My main problems were Tremont basically asking Excellent to hit him with an unprotected chairshot and the finish but I think I liked it overall.  ***

CZW Wired Championship

Lio Rush vs Joey Janela

Lio is a great talent but I’ve only seen Janela 3 or 4 times so I wasn’t sure what to expect here. Lio looked extremely badass during his entrance but this started off pretty slow and for a little bit I was worried that it was just going to be a basic ladder match with nothing unique about it. However they held my attention enough for me to keep it on and never be like legitimately bored so it wasn’t that bad. It definitely got better as it went on, with the turning point for me probably being the stuff with Penelope Ford which was a lot of fun. The last ten to fifteen minutes were crazy, with a series of crazy spots. These spots such as (spoiler alert) Janela grabbing onto the ceiling to hit an elbow drop as well as the Spanish Fly off the ladder through the table were insane even if the former was slightly hurt by that ridiculous cliche where they act like the face is getting brought to the back and then he heroically fights through the doctors and continues! (spoilers over) It was definitely interesting to see Lio as a heel and playing a much darker character than his more generic character that he usually plays when I watch him. This wasn’t as good as Starr vs Crist but it was still a very good way to end the show. ***½

Final Thoughts: This was legitimately a great show, with plenty of very enjoyable matches and a lot of variety. If you like high-flying or spotfest type matches there’s the four way without the staples, the main event, and Xavier vs Strickland. If you like deathmatches there’s the four way with the staples (that is forever what I will refer to it as). I highly recommend this show even for people who have never seen CZW or have no real interest in it.

Final Rating: 8.5/10.