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CWC Tournament- Discussion thread

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Here's another question I have...

Clash of Champions is the 25th. Every advertisement says EVERY Raw title will be defended. I know it's making its debut on Monday the 19th, but are we going to get a title defense next Sunday?

They'll probably do a number one contender match on Raw. Several of the cruiserweights are scheduled, and more may be there. I can't imagine that Perkins won't retain the title, though.
 
They'll probably do a number one contender match on Raw. I can't imagine that Perkins won't retain the title, though.

It'd be pretty silly to take it off him that quickly. I would assume he'll win in a way to cement himself as a heel.
 
It'd be pretty silly to take it off him that quickly. I would assume he'll win in a way to cement himself as a heel.

It says that, in addition to Perkins, Jack Gallagher, Brian Kendrick, and Rich Swann are all scheduled for Raw. Perhaps those three will have a triple threat match for the title shot at Clash?

If I'm right and that's the route they go, Swann and Gallagher would make sense if Perkins is going to be a heel, and obviously Kendrick is the right choice if they go face with Perkins. I think Kendrick could be a great heel champ at some point, so I think they should hold off on having him lose his first title match. Gallagher would probably be the best choice, as he's instantly likable and has a unique style, and unlike Swann he has a more underdog vibe and thus would be less hurt by a title loss.

I'm not all that high on Swann, though. He never really impressed me all that much in the classic. The guys I really liked were Gallagher, Alexander (future star imo), Gallagher, Gargano (another future star), Sabre, Metalik, Ciampo, Ibushi, Perkins, and Kendrick. Tajiri was great as well in his role. Other guys were good too, but the people I listed (aside from Tajiri) were the guys who looked like they could really make noise in the WWE, and not necessarily just as cruiserweights.

Gargano and Alexander are the guys that I think have the most potential. Perkins is up there as well, especially if he can develop a great heel persona. Metalik will be limited by his language barrier, but the guy is insanely talented so he's got a shot as well. And Gallagher is just awesome and fun to watch. I don't know if his gimmick is that of a future WWE champ, but he can certainly win over the cruiserweight division and maybe win some mid-card gold.
 
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Perkins Can work Both as a face and as a Heel, his primo after the finals convinced me of that. The fact that he is also absolutely terrific in the ring makes him a great inaugral champion out of the gate and there is no shortage on match-ups for him, no matter what rolle he might be playing. I would personally Really like to see him in an extended program with Aries, once they more him up from NXT. He has been getting great Heel reactions at full sail for months, he has tons of experience on the Big stage, and he's a great worker as Well, so a program with him and TJP puld be a great Way to establish the title pressence on RAW. After that you Can slowly start turning Perkins Heel by putting him up against crowd favorites until his confidence tips over into arrogance and he vecomes despised by the crowd for being a shitbag dab Machine. At that point gargano and ciampa will probably have split up and finishen their inevitable blod feud just in time for Gargano to swoop in as the beloved underdog babyface to avenue his loss at the CWC and finally claim the cruiserweight title.


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Perkins Can work Both as a face and as a Heel, his primo after the finals convinced me of that. The fact that he is also absolutely terrific in the ring makes him a great inaugral champion out of the gate and there is no shortage on match-ups for him, no matter what rolle he might be playing. I would personally Really like to see him in an extended program with Aries, once they more him up from NXT. He has been getting great Heel reactions at full sail for months, he has tons of experience on the Big stage, and he's a great worker as Well, so a program with him and TJP puld be a great Way to establish the title pressence on RAW. After that you Can slowly start turning Perkins Heel by putting him up against crowd favorites until his confidence tips over into arrogance and he vecomes despised by the crowd for being a shitbag dab Machine. At that point gargano and ciampa will probably have split up and finishen their inevitable blod feud just in time for Gargano to swoop in as the beloved underdog babyface to avenue his loss at the CWC and finally claim the cruiserweight title.

Forgot about Aries. Yeah, he'd be a great choice to help put over the Cruiserweight Champion.
 
I met Gargano when I was all hammered at Barrio last weekend
 
I will be interested to see what elements Triple HHH implements onto raw. I really liked the the old school approach of presenting this as a sport rather than entertainment. .

However I am doutbtful the raw announcers would do the commentary justice as a team.

unless thee segment has its own announcer substitutions so focus can be on the actual wrestling rather than the storylines.

I really enjoyed Daniel Bryan describing how a move felt or how difficult what we just saw was to do.

They also did a good job of reminding viewers to focus on the action more than the pending result.

The wrestling itself seemed spontaneous and ad libbed as opposed to guys being instructed how to make the other look. it appeared as it was on the wrestlers to make themselves look good or bad in the booking.

I also got a feeling that how the wrestlers performed directly impacted how they were booked the next round.

I am probably wrong but it didn't not seem like there was a predetermine outcome of the entire bracket but each booking was decided round by round.

this was refreshing wheter it was an illusion or not doesn't matter but it had that feel

I liked that it seemed the wrestler were responsible for putting themselves over and if they didn't they most likely lost the next round.

I enjoyed feeling that if they did the whole tournament over again the results could be booked differently depending on what the same cast did or didn't do in the ring.

can that feeling be bottled and put into a weekly show to some scale? will they even try... Raw may have finally solved the 3rd hour issue.
 
I also got a feeling that how the wrestlers performed directly impacted how they were booked the next round.

I am probably wrong but it didn't not seem like there was a predetermine outcome of the entire bracket but each booking was decided round by round.

I think that is probably at least a partially accurate statement. I think that they had an idea of who was going to advance far in the tournament, but I agree that they likely booked parts of it round to round. I'm sure that they had Ibushi penciled in for the semifinals from the moment he signed on. I don't believe that Perkins was their first choice to win, either. I think that, if Ibushi had signed a WWE deal, he'd be the Cruiserweight Champion right now. The same goes for Zack Sabre, Jr. Thus, they obviously made some alterations as the tournament went on.

The booking was for sure based on previous matches. That's why the tournament continued to get better, as story lines were being built as it went on. You saw Kendrick develop a character over his several matches. You saw guys use certain finishers to put away guys for several rounds so that when someone finally kicks out of that finisher, it means more. Perkins had to continuously work harder and harder to submit people as he advanced. You can't accurately do that without seeing what guys do each round and what works best for them.

The tournament was fantastically booked, though.
 
I think that is probably at least a partially accurate statement. I think that they had an idea of who was going to advance far in the tournament, but I agree that they likely booked parts of it round to round. I'm sure that they had Ibushi penciled in for the semifinals from the moment he signed on. I don't believe that Perkins was their first choice to win, either. I think that, if Ibushi had signed a WWE deal, he'd be the Cruiserweight Champion right now. The same goes for Zack Sabre, Jr. Thus, they obviously made some alterations as the tournament went on.

The booking was for sure based on previous matches. That's why the tournament continued to get better, as story lines were being built as it went on. You saw Kendrick develop a character over his several matches. You saw guys use certain finishers to put away guys for several rounds so that when someone finally kicks out of that finisher, it means more. Perkins had to continuously work harder and harder to submit people as he advanced. You can't accurately do that without seeing what guys do each round and what works best for them.

The tournament was fantastically booked, though.
well the bracket was certainly stacked to ensure a wwe signed guy made it to the semifinals.
I Believe Swann, Dorado, TJ and Garganp were all signed for the wwe before the tournament launched guaranteeing a wwe guy in the semifinal against ibushi.

the other side of the bracket was a bit more open. Metalik agreed to a wwe contract on 7-15. . Sabre did not. had neither agreed to a contract it is believed Sabre would of advanced to be defeated by the wwe guy instead of metallik aka dorado.
 
well the bracket was certainly stacked to ensure a wwe signed guy made it to the semifinals.
I Believe Swann, Dorado, TJ and Garganp were all signed for the wwe before the tournament launched guaranteeing a wwe guy in the semifinal against ibushi.

the other side of the bracket was a bit more open. Metalik agreed to a wwe contract on 7-15. . Sabre did not. had neither agreed to a contract it is believed Sabre would of advanced to be defeated by the wwe guy instead of metallik aka dorado.

Well yeah the bracket was stacked that way, but the entire tournament was basically designed as a recruiting tool for the WWE, so that's not unexpected. I would have been absolutely shocked had a non-WWE guy won, although I think they did a great job of having all their NXT guys lose in the early rounds to make way for guys who weren't kayfabe signed to advance. But still, you don't have a major tournament like that and not have one of your guys win. It'd just be dumb.

Smart of them to still have Ibushi and Sabre in the semifinals, though.
 
Yeah, as far as booking goes, i don'tthink they could have done a much better job, maybe except having Dar go as far in the tournament as he did. They used the established Stars impeccably, building Them up throughout the show, in order to make the people who beat Them Seem like a Big deal. At the same time, and this is a Big testament to how great IBushi and Sabre are, pretty much everyone who faced Them outside of the first round was made to look like an absolute STAR. Drew Gulak, Cedric Alexander, Brian Kendrick, TJP, Gran Metalik... They more or less established the CW title picture on the performances and reputations of Ibushi and Sabre, instead of merely having them steamroll every single match up until the semis. They got everything they could reasonably get out of their presence and used it to propel the new stars forward.


So strange to actually compliment wwe on their booking for once.


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Yeah, as far as booking goes, i don'tthink they could have done a much better job, maybe except having Dar go as far in the tournament as he did. They used the established Stars impeccably, building Them up throughout the show, in order to make the people who beat Them Seem like a Big deal. At the same time, and this is a Big testament to how great IBushi and Sabre are, pretty much everyone who faced Them outside of the first round was made to look like an absolute STAR. Drew Gulak, Cedric Alexander, Brian Kendrick, TJP, Gran Metalik... They more or less established the CW title picture on the performances and reputations of Ibushi and Sabre, instead of merely having them steamroll every single match up until the semis. They got everything they could reasonably get out of their presence and used it to propel the new stars forward.


So strange to actually compliment wwe on their booking for once.

Pretty sure Dar is signed to the WWE now, so it makes sense for them to give him a push in the tournament.

Agree about Ibushi and Sabre. They are both the real deal, and they make everyone who faces them better. But even without them, most of the guys the WWE signed really shone in this tournament. I absolutely loved Gallagher. Rewatched his matches last night and they were both highly entertaining. Kendrick just hit a home run with his role and character work (by the way...if Rollins can be Crossfit Jesus, can Kendrick become Junkie Jesus?). Metalik was great in every match, as was Perkins. It was just a great overall tournament. I also loved that they didn't push Gargano to the finals simply because I think they already realize that he's a future star. His two matches certainly seemed to show that.

I kind of hope they replay the CWC finals on Raw and then introduce Perkins. That would be a great way to bring him in, even if the live crowd gets screwed out of twenty minutes.
 
By the way, the Cruiserweight Division is reportedly composed of:

TJ Perkins (duh)
Gran Metalik
Akira Tozawa
Jack Gallagher
Johnny Gargano
Tomaso Ciampo
Cedric Alexander
Rich Swann
Brian Kendrick
Noam Dar

That's a pretty goddamn good line-up. I still hope they can agree to some sort of deal with Ibushi and Sabre, even if neither wrestles full time. They are just both a joy to watch wrestle.
 
Pretty sure Dar is signed to the WWE now, so it makes sense for them to give him a push in the tournament.

Agree about Ibushi and Sabre. They are both the real deal, and they make everyone who faces them better. But even without them, most of the guys the WWE signed really shone in this tournament. I absolutely loved Gallagher. Rewatched his matches last night and they were both highly entertaining. Kendrick just hit a home run with his role and character work (by the way...if Rollins can be Crossfit Jesus, can Kendrick become Junkie Jesus?). Metalik was great in every match, as was Perkins. It was just a great overall tournament. I also loved that they didn't push Gargano to the finals simply because I think they already realize that he's a future star. His two matches certainly seemed to show that.

I kind of hope they replay the CWC finals on Raw and then introduce Perkins. That would be a great way to bring him in, even if the live crowd gets screwed out of twenty minutes.

Compleyely agree and especially about Gallagher, he absolutely shone in his matches. Being able to get your character and gimmick across in your ring work and style is really something that I think gets lost in the wwe and it was so refreshing to see a guy who, the second you see him in the ring, you completely understand what he's about. His match with tozawa is one of my favorite matches of the tournament because it seemed like a total oil and water affair and they were both able project their styles into a cohesive match.


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Compleyely agree and especially about Gallagher, he absolutely shone in his matches. Being able to get your character and gimmick across in your ring work and style is really something that I think gets lost in the wwe and it was so refreshing to see a guy who, the second you see him in the ring, you completely understand what he's about. His match with tozawa is one of my favorite matches of the tournament because it seemed like a total oil and water affair and they were both able project their styles into a cohesive match.

Gallagher/Tozawa was great, and props to Tozawa for being willing to do some of those spots that made Gallagher look good. I guess it all balanced out since Tozawa won, but still.
 

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