WWN Style Battle S1E2 Review

Hey guys it’s Josh reviewing the second ever episode of WWN Style Battle. 

Dan Barry vs Sami Callihan

Prediction: Sami Callihan

Who I want: Dan Barry 

Dan Barry is, in my opinion, one of the most underutilized talents in the world. Finding out that he was in this tournament was one of the main things that made me want to see this show. However, once I saw he was facing Sami I was less excited as I’m not big on Sami and I thought it would be a squash. This was far from a squash and is quite possibly my favorite Dan Barry performance ever. He did his comedy stuff early on, which is always great in my opinion, but he showed any doubters that he is an amazing wrestler. Sami also did very well, looking very evil and matching his appearance with his vicious offense. This was such a great match with tons of exciting nearfalls. One of the top 5 matches I’ve been emotionally invested in this year. Hopefully this makes WWN/EVOLVE more willing to book Dan as a singles competitor in the future. ***1/2

Fred Yehi vs Tracer X

Prediction: Fred Yehi

Who I Want: Fred Yehi

Fred Yehi has over the past year become one of my favorite wrestlers, but I haven’t seen much of Tracer X so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect here. I always enjoy Fred Yehi so I didn’t actively dislike this, but I never got into it. I think Tracer X winning this match was a complete mistake, he just beat one of the biggest stars in WWN and didn’t even really have an impressive performance. Fred Yehi is the EVOLVE Tag Team Champion, the FIP World Champion, is extremely over, and recently pinned Timothy Thatcher, yet he loses to a guy who was unknown to many people watching and didn’t have a standout performance. I really don’t understand why he won. I’d be more okay with it if it was an above average match, but it wasn’t. This was dumb. **1/4

Anthony Henry vs Caleb Konley

Prediction: Anthony Henry

Who I Want: Anthony Henry

I’ve become a pretty big fan of Anthony Henry over the past year but I’ve never really been that big on Konley. Going into this I was hoping Konley would prove me wrong and show that his booking was the problem in EVOLVE, not his in ring ability. This was a pretty good match with some good nearfalls and good performances from both guys. Not anything special but definitely an improvement from the last match. **3/4

Drew Galloway vs AR Fox

Prediction: Drew Galloway

Who I Want: Drew Galloway

I like both of these guys so I was fine with either one winning going in, but Galloway winning made more sense considering he’s just coming back to WWN after being sidelined with an injury. Galloway losing here wouldn’t have made as little sense as Yehi losing did, but it still wouldn’t have made sense. Fox’s energy here was needed though as you could tell many people were upset after the Yehi loss. These two worked well together and put on an enjoyable match. Fox does such crazy stuff and makes it look so effortless. I would’ve liked to see them go at it for a couple minutes longer but this was a fun and good match with the right guy winning. I hope these two get to go at it in a WWN ring again soon. ***

Sami Callihan vs Tracer X

Prediction: Sami Callihan

Who I Want: Sami Callihan

It isn’t easy for me to root for Sami Callihan, but thats how average Tracer X came across in his first round match. Tracer X looked much better in this match than he did in the first one but there was still literally no reason for him to win this match. The match wasn’t bad by any means but it wasn’t very good either. **1/4

After this match Sami Callihan lost his mind and completely destroyed Tracer X. Sami is doing very well in his deranged heel character tonight and I’m glad they still made him look good through his illogical and unnecessary loss. 

Drew Galloway vs Anthony Henry

Prediction: Drew Galloway

Who I Want: Drew Galloway

I was excited going into this and could have seen it going either way, but thought they’d protect the bigger star in the WWN world (not that that seems to matter to them tonight sadly). Plus Drew Galloway throwing around Tracer X and beating him (I would hope) sounds more appealing than Henry vs Tracer. Aaaaand then there was a countout. The booking on this show is horrendous. Anthony Henry wins but Galloway destroys him after the match. So the final is Anthony Henry vs Tracer X but both were viciously attacked after their matches? Can we get a Galloway vs Callihan match then? N/A

FRAY

Austin Angels vs Tommy Maserati vs Connor Braxton vs Eddie Machete vs Xander Killen vs Ashton Starr vs Alex Taylor vs Austin Theory vs Jackson Kelly vs CT Brown vs Matt Palmer vs Snoop Strikes vs AC Mack

The only guy I had previously seen was Austin Theory, and while a few others had potential, he’d be the only name I would remember anyway most likely. Nobody was in long enough for me to care about this and it was kind of sloppy but it was a fine way to break up the show I suppose. **1/4

Anthony Henry vs Tracer X

Prediction: Tracer X

Who I Want: Anthony Henry

This was not good. If it was a first round match it would have been, but if they were in any way trying to sell the fact that they had already wrestled two matches and been brutally assaulted, then they didn’t try very hard. As a match it wasn’t bad but they were wrestling like it was their first match of the night when it clearly wasn’t. Tracer X is a bad professional wrestling and the storytelling that was needed in this match to save this show was nonexistent. I’m kind of embarrassed for whoever booked this show. *

Overall Review:

The worst wrestler on the show beat three men who are significantly better than him and didn’t even try to sell the fact that he got chokeslammed into a wall about seven hundred times. This was one of the worst booked shows I have ever watched in my entire life. I don’t even actively dislike Tracer X other than for his lack of selling Callihan’s attack but there was literally no reason for him to win. It is hard to find anyone saying anything positive about this show. His attempted megapush was destroyed by the atrocious booking. Two good matches, one decent match, and the rest was just rough. Yikes. It was still a nice 3-hour break from the real world and being disappointed about wrestling is a lot better than being disappointed about other things. But yikes. 

Show Rating: 3.5/10.