WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episodes 5-9 Review

I take a look at this second batch of episodes from the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, which feature the Second Round and the Quarter-Finals!!

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 5 (Original Air Date - 8/10/16)

1.) Gran Metalik vs. Tajiri: ***3/4

2.) Cedric Alexander vs. Kota Ibushi: ****1/2

Overall: 9.0/10

We all knew that the matches in this tournament would get better once we got past the first round, but I don't think any of us expected the second round to get off to such a hot start. Of course, the main event of this particular episode, Cedric Alexander vs. Kota Ibushi, was one of the best bouts of the entire tournament. It featured incredible action from start to finish, and the fans in Full Sail were going wild for it throughout. Both guys worked very well together, and while this match took place in the confines of a tournament for cruiserweights, you could've put it in the G1 Climax and it wouldn't have felt out of place. Kota Ibushi ultimately emerged victorious (not much of a surprise), but Cedric Alexander certainly had a star-making performance here. As he was about to exit, all of the fans in attendance at Full Sail loudly chanted "Please Sign Cedric", and Alexander was greeted by Triple H (who gave a thumbs up to the fans) before he went to the back. Elsewhere on this episode, Gran Metalik defeated Tajiri in a really good match that got overshadowed by the main event. While it was definitely a unique match, I wasn't expecting much from it. In the end, it exceeded my expectations, as it featured some good back and forth action throughout. The amount of time it got was perfect, and it was fun to watch. Gran Metalik got the win (again, another result that wasn't much of a shock) to advance to the Quarter-Finals.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 6 (Original Air Date - 8/17/16)

1.) Akira Tozawa vs. Jack Gallagher: ****

2.) Noam Dar vs. Ho Ho Lun: **1/2

3.) Brian Kendrick vs. Tony Nese: ***3/4

Overall: 7.75/10

As a whole, this was probably the weakest episode of the second round, but it was still had some really good stuff on it. The only match that was a disappointment was Noam Dar vs. Ho Ho Lun. To be fair, however, to call something disappointing would suggest that you were expecting that thing to be good. Average was probably the ceiling for that particular bout. Ho Ho Lun is not a good wrestler, and while I'm don't dislike Noam Dar, he's better off when he's in there with a better worker. The best match on the show was easily Akira Tozawa vs. Jack Gallagher. It's encounters like this (featuring a Dragon Gate talent vs. a guy from the prospering British Independents) that made the Cruiserweight Classic such a cool tournament to watch. These two guys had a great back and forth battle, and it was really entertaining to watch from beginning to end. Tozawa would get the win to advance to the next round, but Gallagher looked very solid in defeat. The main event of this episode, Brian Kendrick vs. Tony Nese, wasn't the exactly the most appealing (on paper), but it ended up being pretty good. There was solid action throughout. This was a fine outing for Nese, and he nearly had the match won on a few occasions, but ultimately, Kendrick managed to score the victory. Again, while this wasn't quite as good as Gallagher/Tozawa, it was still a quality main event. It was also another step in Kendrick's story, as the veteran who saw this tournament as his last shot at glory in the WWE. He was going to do everything he could to get closer to the finals.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 7 (Original Air Date - 8/24/16)

1.) Rich Swann vs. Lince Dorado: ****1/4

2.) Drew Gulak vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: ****

3.) Johnny Gargano vs. TJ Perkins: ****1/4

Overall: 9.0

After a slight dip in quality with Episode 6, the action picked up again in a big way with Episode 7 with three great matches. None of them reached the awesomeness that was Cedric Alexander vs. Kota Ibushi (easily the best match of the second round), but they were all incredible in their own unique ways. Rich Swann vs. Lince Dorado had an incredibly fun match to kick off the episode. I probably liked it a little bit more than others did, but regardless, it was very entertaining to watch. Both guys are so talented that it would've been next to impossible for them to have anything less than a good match. Swann would pick up the win after hitting a Phoenix Splash. Then, we went from a bout that featured a ton of fast-paced action to a more technical bout in the form of Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Drew Gulak. This was essentially an EVOLVE showcase match, and if you really enjoyed that kind of style which (up until very recently) was very prevalent in EVOLVE, then you'll love this one. What was interesting about it was that it only went eight minutes or so (almost the same length as Dorado vs. Swann), but honestly, I didn't mind that. While that technical style was a big part of EVOLVE's identity, sometimes the matches can drag a bit if they go too long. Well, at just over eight minutes, this didn't have that problem. There was plenty of great exchanges throughout this one, but in the end, Zack Sabre Jr. got the victory after catching Gulak in the European Clutch. Finally, TJ Perkins scored a huge victory over Johnny Gargano in the main event to be the final participant to advance to the Quarter-Finals. I would call this the best bout on Episode 7. Both guys are just so awesome, so it's no surprise that they had an amazing match. As you would've expected, there was a ton of great action in this one, but at the same time, they also told a good story, as Gargano hurt his knee during the match. He fought through the pain the best he could, but eventually, TJ Perkins locked in a knee bar and forced Gargano to tap out. This result was somewhat of a surprise, since I feel like most expected Gargano to go pretty far, but ultimately, it was the end of the road for him in this tournament. Again, the match was great, and it was a perfect way to cap off this episode.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 8 (Original Air Date - 8/31/16)

1.) Gran Metalik vs. Akira Tozawa: ****1/4

2.) Brian Kendrick vs. Kota Ibushi: ****1/4

Overall: 9.0

This episode featured the first two matches of the Quarter-Finals, and both of them were pretty fantastic. In the first bout, Gran Metalik defeated Akira Tozawa in a rare CMLL vs. Dragon Gate clash (again, another example of why this tournament was awesome). Of course, this was an awesome encounter. There was plenty of exciting action throughout this one, and it got a good amount of time (about sixteen minutes or so). That's the one thing I enjoyed about these bouts in the Quarter-Finals. Now that we're deeper into the tournament, the matches are getting more time, and that was good to see. Anyway, towards the end of the match, Tozawa went to hit his Straight-Jacket German Suplex (which he won his first two tournament bouts with), but Metalik was able to get out of it, and hit his Metalik Driver for the win to advance to the Semi-Finals. That was a pretty cool moment, because they built up that move by Tozawa as his finisher, so it was a big moment when Metalik countered it. Then, Kota Ibushi punched his ticket to the Semi-Finals with a victory over Brian Kendrick, which ended his "road to redemption" of sorts. It was a very good bout, but the story they had been telling with Kendrick added a lot to the tournament (and Daniel Bryan added a lot to that story as well through his commentary). In Kendrick's mind, this was his last chance at stardom, and he was going to do everything in his power to win. He worked over the neck of Ibushi, and tried to pull out every trick he had, but in the end, Ibushi got the win (though apparently, at the actual taping, he got counted out by accident, and of course, the restarted the match and edited that moment out). Personally, I liked Metalik/Tozawa a little bit more, but Ibushi/Kendrick was still great in it's own way.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 9 (Original Air Date - 9/7/16)

1.) Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Noam Dar: ***3/4

2.) Rich Swann vs. TJ Perkins: ***3/4

Overall: 8.0

The ninth episode of the Cruiserweight Classic wasn't quite as amazing as some of the episodes that came before it, but it still featured some very solid matches that set the stage for the Semi-Finals. In the first bout of the episode, Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Noam Dar in a pretty good bout. I'm not totally sure, but I feel like these guys must've crossed paths on the UK independent scene at some point (but I could be wrong). It was easily Dar's best match of the tournament, which goes to show just how awesome Zack Sabre Jr. is (though to be fair to Dar, he didn't exactly have the best opponents in the prior rounds). This match was far from perfect, but I enjoyed it as a whole. It was, for the most part, entertaining to watch, even though it's not one of those bouts that you'll remember when the tournament comes to a conclusion. Then, we had our final match of the Quarter-Finals as TJ Perkins got the win after forcing Swann to tap out to a knee bar. This was another encounter that was very good, but didn't quite reach the heights that the matches from Episode 8 did. There was good action throughout, with Perkins focusing on the knee while Swann (like Gargano before him) tried to fight through it. Of course, since Swann is a high-flyer, this strategy from Perkins was going to hurt him more than it did Gargano, even though the outcome was the same in both cases. With those two victories, Perkins established that his knee bar would be his submission of choice as the tournament headed towards the Semi-Finals. Additionally, this was actually another EVOLVE showcase (even though they really weren't in the promotion together at the same time), so that was cool as well. Much like Episode 8, these Quarter-Finals matches got more time than bouts in the previous rounds, which was nice to see. In a way, it makes sense in the context of a single-elimination tournament as well, since you would expect that matches would be harder to win the deeper into the bracket you go. Again, the second half of the Quarter-Finals wasn't as a good as that first-half in Episode 8, but the matches were still pretty solid from start to finish.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episodes 1-4 Review

I take a look at the first four episodes of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, featuring the entire first round!!

In early 2016, it was announced by Triple H that WWE would be hosting a special cruiserweight tournament, featured some of the best talents from around the world. The Cruiserweight Classic (originally called the Global Cruiserweight Series) eventually took place over a series of tapings in the summer of 2016, with the semi-finals and finals taking place on a live special in September (all of this, of course, aired on the WWE Network). With the weight limit being set a 205 pounds, talents from different promotions from all over the world flocked to Full Sail University to take part in this tournament (with Mauro Ranallo & Daniel Bryan on commentary), and when the dust settled, it proved to be one of the highlights of WWE's 2016.

My reviews of the Cruiserweight Classic are going to be similar to the reviews I've done for DVD compilations, or other special reviews I've done on this blog. I'll give my star ratings for the matches on a particular episode, before discussing my thoughts on the episode as a whole. I'll start with the first four episodes (featuring all of the first round matches), while Part 2 will feature reviews of the episodes that had the second round and the quarter finals. Of course, all of these episodes features the bracketology, along with the video packages that went with all of the wrestlers, but I won't be talking about those here. These reviews will just be covering the action in the ring. Without further ado, let's get started!!

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 1 (Original Air Date - 7/13/16)

1.) Gran Metalik vs. Alejandro Saez: ***1/4

2.) Ariya Daivari vs. Ho Ho Lun: **

3.) Cedric Alexander vs. Clement Petiot: ***1/4

4.) Kota Ibushi vs. Sean Maluta: ***1/2

Overall: 7.5/10

This first episode was a very solid start to the Cruiserweight Classic. Obviously, the majority of these opening round matches were meant to establish some of the favorites early on with strong wins, and on this particular episode, we got some of those big names right out of the gate. Gran Metalik, Cedric Alexander, and Kota Ibushi all punched their ticket to the second round with wins here. The best match on the episodes was easily Kota Ibushi vs. Sean Maluta. It shouldn't come as a shock that a bout involving Ibushi was the best on a given wrestling show. Even though he ultimately came up short, Sean Maluta looked impressive, especially to someone like me, who hadn't seen him before this tournament. In a way, that was kind of the theme for this first episode. While people like Cedric Alexander and Gran Metalik earned solid victories, relative unknowns like Alejandro Saez & Clement Petiot had good showings which, again, is important for those of us who hadn't seen them prior to this tournament. The only match on this show that stood out (in a bad way) was Ariya Daivari vs. Ho Ho Lun. It was pretty obvious that Ho Ho Lun was near the bottom of the barrel when it came to the in-ring ability of the participants, and fortunately, Ariya Daivari (the brother of Shawn Daivari) managed to carry to a somewhat decent match. Aside from that hiccup, this was a very good start to the CWC.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 2 (Original Air Date - 7/20/16)

1.) Tajiri vs. Damien Slater: ***

2.) TJ Perkins vs. Da Mack: ***1/2

3.) Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali: ***3/4

4.) Akira Tozawa vs. Kenneth Johnson: **

Overall: 8.0/10

The second episode of the Cruiserweight Classic was a step up compared to the first episode, but at the same time, it followed a similar pattern. There were three matches that ranged from good to very good, with the best being Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali. Honestly, that was one of the best bouts of the first round, in my view. I thought it was really good. There was a ton of great action throughout, and both guys looked very impressive. It's one of the hidden gems of the Cruiserweight Classic that needs to be seen. Another really good bout on this episode saw TJ Perkins (who won a qualifying match in EVOLVE) pick up a win over Da Mack (from wXw in Germany). I know this particular contest didn't get a ton of attention at the time, but I really enjoyed it. Da Mack worked pretty well with TJ Perkins, and in general, it was a fun showcase for both guys. The first match on this episode featured the return of Tajiri, who got a victory over Damien Slater from Australia. This didn't set the world on fire (It's pretty clear that Tajiri had lost a step in the later stages of his career), but he still got over with a fans, and had a fun little match with Slater. The worst match on this episode was actually the main event. Akira Tozawa (in a result that shocked nobody) easily defeated Kenneth Johnson (who made a few sporadic appearances in ROH as Weazy Woo). It was an incredibly average affair, but that didn't matter too much, as the whole point was to get Tozawa over. As a whole, this was a very good second episode, aside from the main event.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 3 (Original Air Date - 7/27/16)

1.) Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tyson Dux: ***1/2

2.) Drew Gulak vs. Harv Sihra: **1/2

3.) Tony Nese vs. Anthony Bennett: **1/4

4.) Brian Kendrick vs. Raul Mendoza: ***1/2

Overall: 7.0/10

While it did feature some good matches, this was easily the weakest episode from the first round. The  two bouts that are worth checking out were Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tyson Dux and Brian Kendrick vs. Raul Mendoza, and out of those two, I would say the former was slightly better. Even though it wasn't overly amazing, Zack Sabre Jr. & Tyson Dux had a very good technical contest. With those two, it was pretty much guaranteed that it was going to be really solid, and they certainly delivered. Brian Kendrick vs. Raul Mendoza was actually very similar to Gran Metalik vs. Alejandro Saez from the first episode. The established name got the win (as expected), while the relative unknown had a very impressive outing. Those two matches, which bookended this episode, were the ones that really lifted this show up, while the bouts in the middle were the ones that dragged it down. Based on who they were put against, it was pretty obvious that Drew Gulak & Tony Nese (both EVOLVE regulars before this tournament) were going to win. It wasn't the predictability that hurt this one, but the match quality. Drew Gulak vs. Harv Sihra (one half of The Bollywood Boyz) was decent enough, but not even close to memorable. Tony Nese vs. Anthony Bennett was just....there. That match featured some rough patches (I would guess this miscues were mainly caused by the inexperienced Bennett), but it accomplished it's goal of making Nese look good. Again, this was the weakest of the first round episodes, but it still had some good stuff on it.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Episode 4 (Original Air Date - 8/3/16)

1.) Rich Swann vs. Jason Lee: **3/4

2.) Noam Dar vs. Gurv Sihra: **

3.) Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner: ***1/2

4.) Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa: ****1/4

Overall: 8.0/10

This final episode was a real mixed bag, as the match quality was all over the place. We kicked things off with Rich Swann vs. Jason Lee, in what ended up being a relatively solid bout. Swann got the win (as expected) in this very short contest (clocking in at just under four minutes), but Lee proved that he does have potential to grow. After that, we got Noam Dar vs. Gurv Sihra (the other half of The Bollywood Boyz) in a match that wasn't very good at all. Parts of it felt disjointed, and it didn't come off well as a whole. This was one of the weakest matches of the tournament, up to this point. Then, things finally started to pick up. Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner had a really good bout that featured some cool stuff from start to finish. This was my first time seeing Gallagher, and he impressed me a lot on his way to victory. Meanwhile, Aichner is another guy who I didn't know coming into the tournament, but he certainly made a lasting impression on me after his first round matchup. In fact, I'd say that Aichner might've been one of the best out of the "unknowns". It was a very fun bout to watch. Finally, Johnny Gargano defeated his DIY tag team partner Tommaso Ciampa in the final match of the first round. This was the most anticipated encounter out of this first bunch of episodes, and it certainly delivered in spades. There was incredible action throughout (while also telling a solid story, both during the match and in the post-match), and the crowd in Full Sail was invested in it from beginning to end. It was easily one of the best matches of the entire tournament, no doubt about it. With that, the first round of the CWC came to close. The final episode of the first round had a bunch of ups and downs, but it ended on an awesome high note.