I read my match the night it was posted, and progressively read the card from start to finish over the next couple days. Then I had some work shit, and turkey day, but here are my thoughts!
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
We need to go to Philly more so I can hear more of H'Wood talk trash about the city. I love how rooted NFW truly is in Philly with the UWA influence. It allows us to pretend it's our hometown, with guys like Jack Bryant and now Kerry Kuroyama getting the push to the main show. It provides a place for characters to go when they are not needed for a storyline, and yet keep them "relevant" within the NFW's main fan base. Guys like August de la Rossi can disappear and show up whenever they like in this scenario. It's a unique way to introduce a slew of characters and have them at your disposal without feeling obligated to utilize them on a weekly basis.
I mentally checked out on the drama of the match when Kuroyama was introduced as a participant, since I knew as a backstage viewer that there was no way Kerry wasn't going to come out with the win. The characters themselves were quite interesting and their backstories with one another and personalities were pretty clear from the start. Like Pete said, I might have rearranged the order of the show, but it makes sense for the UWA personalities to get the opening bell in their hometown.
Calvin's almost retirement isn't what I expected the segment to initially be about. I figured it'd be about lighting a fire back under Cal, and I like that he took a shot at H'Wood's commentary gig. I could see that being the eventual outcome of Cal's career
. I love the swerve face turn from a heel. It's my favorite thing to do in wrestling. "Oh, this guy is finally seeing the light! OH! NO, it's actually the OPPOSITE of that." Fun stuff
I like the Chromatic Dragons, but this was a very short squash match and didn't really allow time for the characters to really breathe in their debut. I think they're a well put together team though. I like how Windham hated that they destroyed Banjo & Greysock. He spent more time in the prematch segment with them than they did in the ring
. I think the Dragons will fill a role in the tag division we didn't know was missing, and that's a great thing.
Lane Cash being fed to Mercado after facing two jabros was great. Plain Brown Rapper is one of my more favorite jobbers we've used so I like seeing him beaten down. I think we missed out on using Green Man however during this. Mystery Meat is a nice joke, but I don't think I want him coming back. I really like the interactions of Cash and Windham, Windham putting Cash through the ringer and celebrating when he comes out the other side victorious. I kinda wanna see Cash do the same to Windham somehow next, and Windham not nearly have the success Cash did.
Castor / Austin at each other's necks is nice, long overdue. I'd like to see Austin somehow overcome Castor, but he hasn't earned it yet. As for last name Black, first name ???, I think it's a total red herring for Rook Black. If it is Rook though, that makes me a happy panda, and a Rook / Castor match / feud would be phenomenal.
Ocho / Austin was a great match, very technically well written to put over Austin's submission expertise and his inexperience in the ring. On the other side, you had the recently crowned champion fighting to keep what he just worked so hard to earn, eking out a victory by using his opponents weaknesses to his advantage. Love the counter for Ocho to get the win. I think this match did everything it needed to to put both guys over. That's all you can ask for.
Then Teddy Alexander returns, and SQUASH KILLS MURDERS Ocho. Excited to see Voss back, and his character will inject quite a lot of a FLAVA into the Triple Crown scene. Perfect transition for Ocho now that he's done with Black.
And the main event. Very fun read. Thank you Pete for the service you did to NFW and to me and Biron. Thanks to those who deemed me worthy of being the champion when it could have gone either way. As others have already said, this match had some great psychology to it, with Impulse in control for the most of it, increasingly enraging Jack Bryant, Harmen weakened and worried until he pulled a trick out of his back pocket to turn the Iron Man match into a fifteen minute one fall match. The big spot of the match that was kind of glossed over was Harmen kicking out of the shooting star. The course of events if he didn't would have been completely different, and that allowed the ending where Pulse had Bryant hooked and Bryant refused to submit.
I think every character was portrayed just as they should have been. My ONLY complaint is the lack of chekhov's gun. Instead of using the chair, Harmen should have used the Bryant Basher to smash Impulse and Bryant. Or, now, thinking of it, it could have been awesome if it was Calvin sliding a steel chair into Harmen. That would have been a fun moment.
My ONLY complaint is that the show could have been reorganized. Not sure exactly how, but it felt like there were multiple parts to stories that could have been spaced out better. Don't ask me how, but it just felt like characters showed up, stayed on screen until they were done, and we moved on to the next story.
Show felt less like a patchwork quilt of awesomeness than a bunch of short stories filled with awesomeness. Not a bad thing, but it may have made the show feel a little "off" to some.
Also guys, you already do better than most feds on keeping track of history and implementing it into stories. But now is certainly the time and the place to continue that trend to get everyone on board with the storied history of this longstanding federation.
Thanks everyone, and it's on to the next one. I'll be e-mailing you guys shortly.
