Search - Mat Wars: NWA Florida Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup 2004 on DVD

Sluggish and sloppy, a poor effort from promising young tale

Andariel Halo | Phenomynouss@hotmail etc is my e-mail | 09/13/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps spoiled by ECW and ROH, and disillusioned with the WWE, I was expecting NWA Florida to blow me away the way WWE cannot. In the end, it turns out that most WWE events I've seen blew THIS NWA Florida event away!

The talent is young, and promising, but their main problem is they are BORING. It is not a matter of entertainment value, it is a matter of wrestling ability. Most matches go from headlock to chinlock to armlock to leglock to lock to lock to lock to lock to lock to lock to lock, for ten minutes at a time, with some sloppy attacking moves, such as dropkicks that barely touch an opponent, moves that seem to confuse someone into taking a dive or selling a move that doesn't exist, or overselling a move that they obviously shouldn't have.


Sedrick Strong vs Roderick Strong
Neither of these two had much charisma to keep me interested, as they were brothers who each looked alike, and their wrestling style was the typical "lock-to-lock" style I mentioned above. The worst element of this match and many others was the commentators, broadly proclaiming how "beautiful" sloppy or botched moves are, and almost comically proclaiming how many different ways Roderick Strong can do a backbreaker. What started with hundreds LITERALLY went up to millions by Roderick's second match in the DVD. (2/10)


Teddy Hart vs Azrieal
Teddy Hart, for all his bluster, came off as just boring in this match, and Azrieal as the promising young athlete to watch. There was a little more action in this match, but like the second one, it seemed to be all about headlocks, hammerlocks, leglocks, etc. Many moves were botched as well. (3/10)


Puma vs Mikey Tenderfoot
This one was little different from the others. Lock to lock, sloppy attack moves, and many other botches. (0/10)


Justice vs Jack Evans
Jack Evans is an ROH alumnus, and he really showed it in this match. Justice and Evans were ON the entire match, and shamefully it only lasted about 5 minutes. Shameful because this was the absolute best match on the DVD. (9/10)


With the end of the first round, I have to complain about the ring. I usually don't mind the grunginess of independent arenas, such as Ring of Honor which sometimes appear to take place in High School gymnasia, but this one was quite literally a warehouse with maybe 150 people, with no metal guardrail separating them from the ring. The second round and final round matches, thankfully, took place in a better locale.


Justice vs Petey Williams
Like the others, this was a lock-to-lock botchfest, though thankfully without too many botches. Still, it was lazy, and uninvolving. (0/10)


Teddy Hart vs Mikey Tenderfoot
This one was a shameful exercise all around. First off, the commentators and Teddy Hart try to sell us this bullshit about Teddy hurting his eye and bleeding from the eye after being ambushed from behind by Tenderfoot, when a momentary camera angle shows he's not bleeding at all. Then he starts trying to sell us this bullshit about his wrist getting hurt. They tried to convince us that the brawl taking place outside of the ring was not kayfabe, and failed miserably. As soon as it got back into the ring, it was back to lock-to-lock action with sloppy attacks. (0/10)


Alex Shelley vs Roderick Strong
This was the match that one of the commentators claimed Strong had "millions" of variations of the backbreaker. I only saw two in this match. The rest was what seems to be becoming typical of NWA Florida---sloppy attacks, botches, and placid locks that go nowhere. Shelley literally had nowhere to go the latter part of the match but to put on the Crippler Crossface three or four times in a row. (0/10)


Finals

Justice vs Roderick Strong vs Chris Hero
With all that's passed on the DVD, could I have expected anything else? Indeed, I was right. The action was dull, though less sloppy than the others, and the action was mostly lock-to-lock. What's worse, they didn't even bother to mask, like the WWE, the triple threat match as a singles match. The first seven minutes consisted of Roderick and Chris Hero fighting while Justice sat back and watched, then Chris Hero laying back while Justice went back in. Later on, all three would start fighting at once, but there was no three-man action---just phases of one on one action. (0/10)


This is no Ring of Honor. It is certainly a different style than TNA and WWE, but it is no better than the WWE, and made worse only by the lack of charisma and entertaining gimmicks or circumstances in use.
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