Only one night after the Round of 16, the eight finalists in WhatCulture Pro Wrestling’s (WCPW) Pro Wrestling World Cup ’17 are set to take the stage. All four quarter final matches will take place, including Ricochet versus Penta El Zero M in a match of Lucha Underground alumni, and KUSHIDA versus Zack Sabre Jr. Hiromu Takahashi will go to war with the alternate entrant for the injured Michael Elgin, and former WCPW Champion, Joseph Conners, while the Englishman, “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay has the unenviable task of facing off with the Canadian, “Speedball” Mike Bailey.
+ Will Ospreay vs Mike Bailey (Quarter Final Match): there were some very obviously pre-choreographed parts in the early goings here, but damn if they weren’t entertaining (there may have been some shades of Low Ki and Amazing Red in the ‘ROH Matrix Minute’). Bailey’s kicks were brutal, Ospreay flipped and flopped all over the place, and both guys knew just when to act like they were dead before springing back up to keep on going. This was great
+ Hiromu Takahashi vs Joseph Conners (Quarter Final Match): I did not care for Conners in the WWE UK tournamnet, and I did not care for him on Day 1. Gratefully, he was slightly better here, with the clear size advantage over Takahashi, but this was still not a very good match up in the end. Takahashi played the bad guy against the home-town competitor, but the crowd was 50/50 on both men, at best. This was the best Conners match I have ever seen, btu I’m near certain that is just because Takahashi is so good. Whatever the reason, I liked this match
+ Ricochet vs Penta El Zero M (Quarter Final Match): by coincidence or not, this match took place only one week ago on Lucha Underground (which was taped some months ago), and this match lived up to the standards set there. Although technically they were different characters than their LU counterparts (that is, Prince Puma and Pentagon Dark, respectively), this still managed to build on their past, punctuated by gunshot-like overhead chops and some huge high flying moves, but unfortunately a frustrating finish made one guy look really bad and left a bad taste in my mouth. This was great, except for the ending
– KUSHIDA vs Zack Sabre Jr (Quarter Final Match): maybe it was just because it followed the Ospreay/Bailey match, but this felt so underwhelming. This was seemingly intended to be a technical, tactical mat-classic, but it just looked liek the two lying on their backs or sides for the majority of the match. It’s unfortunate, but when one of the commentators said “I can’t tell if we’ve been here for ten minutes or an hour”, I agreed, but not in the positive way I’m sure he meant it.
Should you watch this event: Three of the four matches were great, though one of those had a silly ending, but the whole show could be called about 7/10 worth of good wrestling. The winners all set up some interesting matches for the semifinals, and the final match on Day 3, and a promising end to this world wide wrestling tournament.
MoshFish Reviews 