WWE Cruiserweight Classic Review
July 27, 2016
By: Nick Bryant of Wrestleview.com
Tonight was the night of submissions with three of the four matches ending in a submission. That’s a nice change of pace to a lot of the high flying that you see in this tournament too. Gulak and Sabre are the best technical wrestlers, along with Jack Gallagher, in this tournament so that Second Round Match should be something.
Sabre and Dux put on a really hard hitting match that was completely different than what we have seen in the tournament so far. There wasn’t any flying around and Sabre was just showing off for much of the match with his creative submissions and holds. Dux stayed right there with him for much of the match with his own submissions as well as strikes. Both of them lay their stuff in really snug so everything looked great and believable. I would say that was the best technical match of the tournament so far.
Gulak and Sihra was okay but I’m not near as impressed with the Bollywood Boyz as some seem to be. Gulak is great though and I can’t wait to see the way he and Sabre twist each other up like a pretzel.
Nese and Bennett probably had the worst match of the tournament so far and I just don’t get where they come up with guys like Bennett. I understand they need “jobbers” or guys that are obviously not moving on, but who in the world can see him and then look at someone like Nese and think they are even in the same stratosphere? They botched a couple of spots with the ugliest being the Pump Handle attempt, and it made it even worse that just went right back to the move a few seconds later. Then, the referee stops Nese from doing the 450 before letting him do it a few seconds later, just a really weird finish and further hurt an already botchy match. Just not a good showing from either guy.
Mendoza and Kendrick was great and I think Mendoza really did a lot for himself with his showing. Kendrick used to be more of a high spot/fast paced guy but in recent years he has taken to doing more mat wrestling and submissions. Mendoza was awesome with his high spots and even broke out a crazy, crazy submission that would have made Zack Sabre Jr. proud. The finish was very creative and worked really well after the referee having previously checked on Mendoza’s bloody lip. Kendrick took advantage of that by faking an injury and then when catching Mendoza with the finish. Great stuff.
Scheduled for Next Week:
-Rich Swann vs. Jason Lee
-Noam Dar vs. Gurv Sihra
-Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner
-Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa
CWC FIRST ROUND REMAINING
– Rich Swann vs. Jason Lee
– Noam Dar vs. Gurv Shira
– Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner
– Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa