Posted in: Doctor's Orders
Doctor's Orders: The Cruiserweight Classic - Round 2, Day 3 (The Best-Rounded Night of the Tournament To Date)
By The Doc
Aug 24, 2016 - 10:43:14 PM





QUESTION OF THE DAY: With just eight competitors left, who do you think is going to win the CWC? Is that same person who you want to win?

Welcome back to continued coverage here on LordsofPain.net of the Cruiserweight Classic. Tonight's episode featured the last three matches of the Round of 16 and did not disappoint, offering what was quite possibly the best-rounded single night of the tournament to date with three very strong matches to set-up the start of the quarterfinals next week. During the main-event, the crowd started a chant of “Both These Guys,” a phrase that could have applied throughout the night and for much of the Sweet 16 to be sure. Let's get to the action!

Match 1: Rich Swann defeated Lince Dorado in 8:13 (Doc's Rating - ***) (Doc's Notes – With one of the most entertaining minute-for-minute matches of the first round and another example of maximizing minutes here in Round 2, surely Dorado has to be one of the greatest casualties of the single elimination format. Nobody who made it to Round 2 and who had top flight opponents in both rounds got less total time to do his thing than Dorado, but he shined as well as anyone in the CWC if you ask me. Swann continued to impress in his own right and might I add that any detractor of the pre-match video packages should reconsider their position for at least the purpose of supporting the value in Swann's story being repeated because, frankly, his background is partly what makes him endearing; sure, he's a lot of fun to watch with his dancing and crazy athleticism, but his history combined with his physical gifts and charisma make for a killer combination. Win or lose in the the Elite Eight, Swann has made a fan out of me and I will anticipate his work on the main roster as part of Raw's Cruiserweight division; I just hope that perhaps Dorado joins him)

Match 2: Zack Sabre, Jr. defeated Drew Gulak in 8:27 (Doc's Rating - *** ¼) (Doc's Notes – Part of what drove my opening 'graph comment regarding this being arguably the best episode through seven weeks of the CWC was the balance on display. We went from the high flying style exhibited by Swann vs. Dorado to the technical mastery of Gulak vs. ZSJ. Though my eyes most appreciate the high risks taken by smaller wrestlers, even dating back to the early days of WCW's division my mind loved more than anything the technical wizardry of cruiserweight wrestling; that plus the story told of Gulak trying so hard to prove himself against one of the tournament's favorites made Match 2 a superior effort in my opinion than Match 1. Gulak was excellent in this bout, showing a vicious side that we haven't yet seen much of in the CWC, at least not to that degree and with that “chip on the shoulder” mentality. ZSJ was yet again special; nobody in the tournament uses his body better to create holds and counter holds. Some of the things that Sabre Jr. can do defy conventional belief as to what's possible in a wrestling ring; the fact that he makes it look so easy only adds to the allure of it. In-ring creativity is typically thought of in WWE as a high flying trait, so it's nice to see guys like ZSJ remind WWE fans that innovation absolutely extends to what can be done on the ground as well as the air)

Match 3: TJ Perkins defeated Johnny Gargano in 12:21 (Doc's Rating - *** ½) (Doc's Notes – One of the best matches of the tournament so far. My reviews have come under fire in recent months for what some have felt to be unjust criticism of Chris Jericho's timing issues. Rewind the clock a couple of decades and I became a Jericho fan by watching him string together sequences in matches against the likes of Ultimo Dragon and Rey Mysterio that had incredibly high degrees of difficulty and pull them off with relative ease. At that point – and even dating back to a few years ago – Jericho had incredible timing that ranked him among the most versatile competitors in the game. He just doesn't have that timing anymore. What that has to do with Perkins and Gargano should be obvious – look at what the two of them were able to do in the ring together tonight, with both aerial and grappling sequences that were extremely complex but were executed excellently with precision timing. That's what great timing looks like and if you are capable of executing at that level of difficulty, then more power to you because it is absolutely fascinating to watch. Also of note was the brilliant use of the NXT Takeover tie-in with the CWC, as Gargano's injured knee was a focal point of both the narrative in the ring and the commentary in support of it. NXT's reputation as one of the elite collections of talent in the world surely made it difficult for officials not to determine Johnny Wrestling as the ideal candidate to move forward in this tournament, but as mentioned in the opening about the crowd chant, “Both These Guys,” you almost had to go with Perkins despite Gargano being a hometown choice via NXT, which created probably the most unpredictable pairing in the entirety of the second round. It was hard not to want to see both of the advance. The knee injury angle gave NXT as a brand an out and still made Perkins look dynamite moving forward as surely one of the favorites. I'll say this, TJ Perkins has emerged as my favorite wrestler of the tournament and the one in whom I've most developed a rooting interest)

All in all...I thought that there was a clear progression in quality throughout the night, with the first match treated like an exhibition, the second one adding the storytelling element that was mostly lacking in the first, and the main-event combining the scintillating action from the first match and combining it with the storytelling acumen of the second to create a really well-rounded performance. Now, we move onto the Elite 8 and I will actually review that in one big column in two weeks since I won't be able to watch Day 1 of Round 3 until several days after it airs. Round 2, overall, was fantastic in my opinion, with several standout matches and one Match of the Month candidate in Ibushi vs. Alexander

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