CZW Disc. With hair which makes it hardcore?

The top just says CZW and this can go one of so many ways. The life of CZW feels like the life of the Ford Mustang. You have the beginning era where they are trying to get production off the ground and then almost immediately after find their niche and start producing some classics. A bit later on they completely change their design and make some head scratching decisions that a small minority will swear by while the majority will shrug their shoulders and say "eh, I guess". They will then completely re-invent themselves and produce some of the best stuff you have seen for a couple of years. When that wave starts to fade they will go back to basics and give you an homage to their original design and will draw a bunch of people back to reminisce over what was and that will go good for a while until the line seemingly disappears. You'll continue to think back to the good and not so good days while people all over debate what was the best era. Next thing you know you are driving down the street and see a weird 4-door electric SUV and say "What the fuck is that?" and "I thought the Mustang died in the late 2010s". Maybe DJ Hyde did adopt his entire business practices from Henry Ford with the high turnover, strict control over workers, resistance from skilled workers, and harsh working conditions. I don't know if this makes him a genius or a tyrant so lets move onto the wrestling!

This is another two disc set so lets hope that both discs once again work. I'm still loving going back to disc menus so want to showcase the greatness of whoever put in the time and effort to make this. The menu is where we also find out that this is 2011 CZW from Oberhausen, Germany which is definitely a different era than I was expecting but in that time frame when they were definitely wanting to dance to the oldies so I'm excited for it.

The days when we got awesome DVD menus.

Well this is definitely an interesting pairing to start the show off. For what its worth, not that it is really worth anything at all, I met Marty over Mania Weekend in Vegas and had a genuinely nice conversation with him over wrestling while I waited for my Uber. Not that it excuses whatever he did but it definitely helped humanize him a bit for me from what I had read online. Not to mention his wife has been in the business for what seems like decades and is still younger than my friend Mark. Then again my previous interaction with him was when Gabe came into the men's bathroom at Eddie Deen's Ranch in Dallas and was going over plans for the night and when I turned around at the urinal realized he had been talking to me instead of the manbun next to me. In stride, Gabe just took a few steps to the right and kept going. Drew Gulak told me he liked my Biff Rules shirt 4 times in a night after Mania 31. Okay, now that we are level set, lets see what this match can provide. Commentary mentions that Marty cracked Dick Togo's ribs on the show the night before so he had to pull out of this show and now I'm considering retracting everything I just said about him. I could also do without the nearly constant gyrating and humping but in between that the two are sharing some fun grappling and chain wrestling. Marty gets Gulak in the Paradise Lock and threatens to mount him... Marty wins with the classic British bridging pin that Sabre regularly uses now. I get that Marty's apparent gimmick is fist bumps and humping but wow was that a lot. Fun technical stuff in between and you get to see him eat a step with his hip on a tope.

Scurll eats the step with his hip.

We get a younger Hoshino right here. Jon Ryan looks like a psychopath getting in the ring with Hoshino so this might be fun. There are no immediate view of weapons which slightly disappoints me since Hoshino didn't scar up his entire back to exchange spinning toe holds. Both guys trade some forearms and maybe I might eat my words like Ryan eats Hoshino's strikes. Nice, loud chops and I'm really starting to come around on this. I'm retracting everything I said on this, Hoshino is a monster here, its like he put on yellow and black and channeled Kawada with the violence. He also has these giant gashes on his left side that make it look like a bear took a bite out of him. Jon Ryan looked like he wanted a middle rope avalanche-style sit out death valley driver but can't handle the weight and drops Hoshino. Then sets him up and just hits it in the middle of the ring for the win. Ryan got his ass handed to him in this, respect for taking those shots and I'm now seeing old man Hoshino in a whole new light after this.

Hoshino lays in these kicks.

A young Axel Tischer, otherwise known as Alexander Wolfe, is on the WXW side. The young guns of WXW seem to have a pre-conceived idea of how they are supposed to work with the Big Japan guys because they are absolutely laying in everything while the Big Japan guys are being relatively light. The Big Japan guys let the WXW guys get their shit in but only for a few minutes before the BJW side absolutely destroy Kim Ray. Miyomoto of all people locks in an abdominal stretch and transitions into an octopus for a pin before they all start teeing off on the WXW guys. Apparently this is an elimination match so it isn't ending after 6 minutes. The WXW side start to mount comebacks and try to isolate Miyamoto. Axeman ends up eliminating Miyamoto! Ryuji Ito comes in and exchanges with Axeman and Freddy Stahl. Stahl seemed to have some potential but doesn't seem like he hasted too long. Ito eliminates him after a short exchange which leaves Axeman in a two on one against Ito and Yoshihito Sasaki. I can see now why Axeman got picked up by WWE, he is an absolute beast even right here. His exchange with Sasaki is stiff and shows emotion. The beginning of this match felt like a lot of people were really excited to see the Big Japan guys and were cheering for them but the last ten minutes they did a great job of turning the crowd towards Axeman fighting for his life. I absolutely recommend checking this match down for the ending stretch. Axeman finally succumbs to a stiff lariet from Sasaki for the finish. The Big Japan guys all raise Axeman at the end to put him over in an absolute great exchange.

I clipped this before realizing it was an elimination. Kim Ray utilizes his five minutes to lay into Miyamoto.

This match is for the CZW World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Chuck Taylor, internationally beloved going all the way back to 2011. Adam Cole... Isn't there yet. Although apparently a portion of the crowd brought signs that say "YOU SUCK DICK" so at least he is being thought about? Chuck's situational awareness and thinking on the fly is second to none as he takes the YOU SUCK DICK signs and chant, immediately goes for a test of strength and gets Cole into the blowjob position to a pop. This is a nice breather from the previous matches where they do a good job of blending comedy and some basic wrestling to let the fans have fun. Adam Cole does his "Adam Cole baby" to absolute silence and I'm really glad he never gave up on that. The pacing of this match is great, the wrestling in here is pretty good, and this match accomplishes what it was there for. Even though it was for the title, it wasn't focused on the fans wearing themselves out getting their adrenaline going for near falls, huge spots, or super hard exchanges but allowed them to laugh, see some proficient exchanges, and take a breather. But it was still a good match and Adam Cole goes over with the Panama Sunrise. And I actually would say go out of your way to watch this if you haven't seen early Adam Cole as you can definitely see based on the way he works the crowd and still allows for everythign to make sense why he has accomplished all that he has in wrestling.

Chuckie T immediately takes advantage of the YOU SUCK DICK signs and chant.

A young Tommy End showing a lot more emotion than we are used to. He says the tag champions in the Wanderers are just kids and they may be. Immediately I am a bit worried for their safety as they look like little kids next to End and Zeus (Not Tiny Lister). His partner Anthony Zeus was apparently trained by End. I didn't realize that End has been wrestling since 2002, there is a fun fact. And apparently End had a hand in training both of the Wanderers as well. Jay Skillet has a bit more size on him while Jason Hendrix is the smaller of the two. Carson Beck tried to interfere which should be a disqualification but because he hit his own teammate of Anthony Zeus, they let it slide. End and Zeus hit a finish that looked kind of sloppy but watching it over and over and in a vacuum makes it less sloppy and kind of cool. Sumerian Death Squad become the WXW Tag Tam Champions. This match felt kind of abbreviated as every stage of the match just felt rushed. Anthony Zeus changes his name to Michael Dante in the post match promo. Cool.

Finish of the match. Cool move after watching it a handful of times.

CZW is now asking me to move on to disc 2 so I shall oblige.

No menu for disc two as we go straight into the action.

I tried to get a picture with MASADA once outside of WrestleCon in 2016 in Dallas. Truth be told, I was slightly inebriated from what I can only assume was a questionable beer that Amber O'Neal didn't trust and handed off to me. I remember most of the night but would be lying if I said I could remember all. But when I asked for the picture, MASADA said no and walked off. Good guy Chuck Taylor stepped in and took a picture with me though proving that Chuck Taylor is the nicest guy in the world to anybody not named Ricochet. But it was a great heel move, we need more heels telling fans to fuck off for pictures. I'm expecting blood and very hard hitting and they don't disappoint as DJ Hyde lays it in and delivers a headbutt. There is some weird DVD glitch where the DVD just ends so I have to re-open VLC and just go past that DVD timestamp. The joy of physical media. We get a bit of the ultraviolence as MASADA tries to stab Hyde's head with a broken beer bottle but is unable to draw blood so moves to old faithful and starts jamming lots of lots of skewers into Hyde's head to make him bleed. They work the skewers for a bit with them in various spots of Hyde's head and digging them around. MASADA then pulls them out and jams into into Hyde's mouth and into the cheek before jamming them back into his head again. MASADA DDTs Hyde with the skewers in and they all go flying. A lot of this is violence for violence sake but has some stiff shots. The fans were really behind MASADA for this to the dismay of DJ Hyde so there were great interactions when DJ Hyde was beating MASADA down and cheers when MASADA was beating DJ Hyde. MASADA takes too long to set something up so DJ Hyde kind of putzes around before going through a set of chairs. Fun finishing sequence with MASADA hitting a back drop driver to get the pin. Again, violence for violence sake. Had some good strikes and back and forth.

This backfist sounded nasty.

After the match, Adam Cole superkicks MASADA and he and DJ Hyde double team him before Sami Callihan intervenes. DJ Hyde cuts a promo setting up additional matches for the tour. He claims nobody can beat him... After MASADA just beat him. Clean. Well I guess at least the Cage of Death should be cool and the Triangle of Ultraviolence too? We do get the classic review of the punctures in DJ Hyde's head which I always loved and what encouraged my buddy to get his first CZW VHS tape and dub it over to me when we would get to see Jun Kasai's bone in his elbow up close when he took a crazy ladder spot at Un F'n Believable. Some things are just so nostalgiac.

It has been forever since I've watched a Danny Havoc match. This one is a scaffold match although it is an independent wrestling scaffold match so it is really only there for spots. Apparently it is Devon Moore's birthday. Even more than a scaffold match, it is apparently a drunken scaffold match so Danny Havoc pulls out a bottle of Jaeger and a pair of shot glasses, one of which breaks as soon as he dumps them out of the bag. Drinking out of a broken shot glass is truly hardcore. Climbing a scaffold after... I guess just makes sense. Apprently there is also a rule where the potentially underage ref goes for a count, he has to take a shot too. Eh, it's Europe so most of them get wine with their elementary school lunches, right? It starts off with the Savage/Steamboat exchange of falls which means the ref has to immediately take four shots. With how quickly he downed the Jim Beam, I have a sneaking suspicion that he is taking shots of Iced Tea. The ref his half a dozen shots in before minute three of the match. Havoc sets up Moore on a makeshift table consisting of two saw horses and a board and scales the scaffold. Moore shakes the scaffold and while Havoc is confused he climbs up to join him. They stop the match for a shot and Moore is dumb enough to fall for it which means as soon as he takes the shot he is thrown off the scaffold through the makeshift table. Havoc takes another shot and then dives off the scaffold with a flying forearm. The way they keep making it a point to meet each other at the top of the scaffold makes me think they strictly booked this match as an excuse to get a free bottle of Jaeger from the venue. Havoc gets half the bottle poured on him before getting thrown off the scaffold by Havoc through another makeshift table. Havoc has a crazy rotation and destroys both the board and the sawhorse. Moore channels Lawler with a fist drop from the top rope and when he goes for the pin, the ref decides to take the shot before counting the pin and gets superkicked by Moore for his troubles. Moore climbs the scaffold to go for a shooting star press but apparently has had one shot too many and stumbles from the top of the ladder down to the ring below. I know it would hurt like hell but the spot would have been so much better if he went for the shooting star press and missed. Maybe had they set up a second makeshift table it would have worked. The locker room is standing at the back watching the match as main event opponents WALTER and Sami Callihan are stood next to each other watching this. Moore takes his last shot and hits an elbow drop from the scaffold for the win. This was a car wreck with some fun spots.

Capitlizing on the shot to throw Moore from the scaffold.

I guess it is Big Van Walter in this case. The crowd is fully behind Sami for this. Was there ever a time where WALTER wasn't the most hated badass in the room? This is for the WXW Heavyweight Championship with WALTER currently holds. This is such a perfect match for this time because it is at one of Callihan's best points of his career where he was really heating up and had a good intensity and WALTER is still that motherfucker who will level you with a hard chop. This is a fun David Vs. Goliath match with Callihan doing really well at being vulnerable. Then again, it probably isn't hard with WALTER beating the shit out of you. Callihan is so over with this crowd, this really was a good time for him. When he gets WALTER in the Stretch Muffler, the crowd is going insane for him thinking he might win. Tommy End, Michael Dante, and the other member of WALTER's group are yelling at him to not tap. To me, this is really prime Sami Callihan and one to watch. He is fun as surly veteran in TNA right now but young and angry Sami Callihan is just a different animal. WALTER has to throw everything at him to finally get the win and the boos from the crowd. This place would have exploded if Sami won but just like today, WALTER is your champion and retains. Good, fun match.

Interesting it isn't Sami spitting on someone in a match, that is different.

This show was a bit to get through for me. The main definitely delivered but everything else was just alright. If you want to check out the show, you have two ways: Smart Mark Video or IWTV. I am thinking of starting up a Google Drive for things not readily available but for anything that is, I'm going to direct to those sites for you to be able to support them.

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RESPECT TO THE DEATH VALLEY PLAYAZ~!

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