Mike Reviews CZW Best of the Best IV – 10.07.04

Happy Ultra-violent Friday Everyone!

Today we’re returning to CZW for the first time in a while, with Best of the Best IV. Best of the Best was CZW’s attempt to show that they weren’t just blood and light tubes, as they’d have a more wrestling focused tournament based around the sort of high flying and technical based action that a lot of the other big independent companies were doing at the time.

The format of the tournament sees the First Round matches being Three Way Dances, where one wrestler will get eliminated and the two surviving wrestlers will then come out later on for a Quarter Final.

We’ve got Jack Evans, Homicide, Roderick Strong, Alex Shelley and Petey Williams amongst others in this one, so there should hopefully be some good wrestling, although the show itself is LONG coming in at over four hours. I ended up doing one big review rather than breaking it up into two reviews, but I was tempted to do the latter at one stage.

You can view the full card for Best of the Best IV by clicking below;

CZW Best of the Best IV Card

Best of the Best IV is emanating from The Arena in Philly on the 10th of July 2004

Calling the action are Eric Gargiulo and John House

There’s a decent opening video by independent wrestling in the early 2000’s standards, although I like how they didn’t have any footage of Bobby Quance so they just have to include a still photo of him. This Time’s for Real by Ill Nino is the song they go with for it, and it certainly sounds like a song you’d hear on a wrestling show in 2004

John House is outside the arena annoying fans asking them who they think is going to win tonight. The fans don’t seem that into it and don’t really play along with it that much. Ian Knoxx is out there as well, although he can’t compete in Best of the Best because he’s both too big and a hardcore guy, so he says he’ll win Tournament of Death instead

A young girl sings the National Anthem, and of course gets booed at one stage, because CZW. She does an okay job with the singing at least

Opening Match
Best Of The Best IV First Round Three Way Dance
Chris Ca$h Vs Jack Evans Vs “The Notorious 187” Homicide

Cash came to prominence following a really impressive ladder match with Joker but sadly passed away later in the decade and CZW ended up naming a show after him in a nice touch called “Down with the Sickness” as that’s the entrance track he uses. Evans is a flippy dude from the Pacific North West who Bryan Alvarez had a hand in training. He was in AEW for a bit, as well as Lucha Underground. Homicide is one of the best wrestlers from this period of Indy Wrestling and he stepped into retirement earlier in 2025. Cash is seemingly filling in for Trent Acid, as CZW boss John Zandig (of JEEEEEEEEEZUS infamy) joins us with a mic to say that Trent Acid can’t be found. Before that can be resolved though, Justice Pain makes his return to CZW after being away for a year. Justice Pain used to be the CZW World Champ, and he takes credit for taking Trent Acid out because manager Dewey Donovan seemingly put a bounty on Acid’s head. Pain says he’s now going leave again seeing as he’s got his money and he doesn’t work here anymore. Zandig challenges Justice Pain to return to CZW, but some of the crowd don’t seem to like that. I think he did end up returning.

The audio isn’t mixed great here, with the music being WAY louder than the commentary. You can at least hear the crowd reactions somewhat though, so it has that at least. Cash and Evans are all about the high flying, whilst Homicide is more about throwing strikes and delivering high impact moves like slams and suplexes, so the story of the match essentially comes down to the two flippy lads trying to do their flips whilst Homicide attempts to grab hold of them and destroy them with his brutal offence. It’s basically nothing but MOVEZ, but it’s an entertaining sprint whilst it goes on. Eventually Evans finds himself knocked out to the floor, which allows Homicide to cream poor Cash’s corn with a big Lariat, and that ends up being the three count, meaning that Cash is eliminated and the other two progress.

ADVANCING: HOMICIDE & EVANS (HOMICIDE PINS CHRIS CASH)
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was just the kind of opener the show needed after so much talking at the start, as they went out there at 100mph and the crowd was suitably fired up when all was said and done. It was barely 4 minutes long, but then again we’re going to see A LOT of wrestling on this show, so keeping the energy high and sprinting through the opener isn’t the worst thing

Evans acts like a big man following that, but then backs off when Homicide advances in a funny bit of Heel cowardice

Match Two
Best Of The Best IV First Round Three Way Dance
“The Messiah of the Backbreaker” Roderick Strong Vs “The New Age Punisher” B-Boy Vs Jimmy Rave

Strong has of course wrestled in all of the major promotions of the past two decades, showing up in places like TNA, ROH, WWE and AEW. The most well-known promotions that B-Boy has worked in regularly would be here in CZW and in PWG, where he was one half of the inaugural Tag Champs with Homicide. B-Boy introduced me to “Real Mutha F’N G’s”, so he’ll be forever good with me because of that, and he’s the defending Best of the Best Champion. Rave probably gained his most notoriety as the Crown Jewel of Prince Nana’s Embassy in ROH or as a tag partner of Lance Archer in TNA depending on which promotion you prefer. Sadly Rave ended up coming to a tragic end, as far too many in the wrestling industry do.

These three all like to throw strikes, so the majority of the contest is made up of the three competitors taking it in turns to hit one another really hard. B-Boy looks to be the crowd favourite here, with Strong being the one the CZW audience like the least and Rave just being the other bloke in the bout. Strong’s trademark snug chops are on full display, although the other two combatants are no shrinking violets. True story; I was once backstage at a show and saw Strong preparing for his match by chopping the wall like he was Tong Po in Kickboxer or something. Strong is probably the best overall wrestler in this one, with Rave being the best bumper and B-Boy being the flashiest of the three.

The crowd digs the action for the most part and it’s entertaining viewing overall. There’s an incredible spot at one stage where B-Boy has Rave in a Reverse DDT position, but then Strong grabs B-Boy in a waistlock and takes him over with a German Suplex, with Rave going along with the ride as well. That could have easily ended in calamity had the timing been off, with Rave liable to land on his head, so well done to all three for pulling it off. Each wrestler gets a near fall, with the idea being that Rave is the underdog fighting from underneath against the other two. In a nice bit of psychology; Strong doesn’t try and break up pins that the other two wrestlers make (because why would he?) but he does wait to pounce if the pin doesn’t go down, which all makes sense within the story of the bout, because you don’t need to win to advance, just avoid defeat, so you would sit back if someone else has the pin. B-Boy eventually catches Rave with a Shining Wizard straight after Rave has just kicked out of a Strong roll-up attempt, and that’s three.

ADVANCING: B-BOY & STRONG (B-BOY PINS JIMMY RAVE)
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This would have been one of the better matches on a lot of smaller independent shows, which highlights the level of talent that CZW could attract. All three of these combatants worked well together, with it being more based around heavy hitting strikes and high impact suplexes than it was high flying, as Homicide was facing off with two flyers in the previous match, whereas everyone was down for clobbering the cheese sandwich out of one another in this one

Match Three
Best Of The Best IV First Round Three Way Dance
Ruckus w/ Maven Bentley, Robby Mireno and Sabian Vs Bobby Quance Vs Alex Shelley

Ruckus was kind of doing a Nation of Domination thing around this time, where he had a stable made up of angry minorities called BLK Out who didn’t like white people (and to be fair, us white folk can kind of suck sometimes). Mireno is the PG-13 of the group, with Bentley operating in Clarence Mason role whilst Ruckus plays Faarooq and Sabian is kind of the D’Lo Brown equivalent. Quance showed up in most of the major independent groups around this time, although he never really got past that level. Shelley enjoyed the most success of everyone in this bout, with him having solid runs in ROH and TNA before finally becoming a WWE Superstar in recent years. Quance has one of the most non-descript looks I’ve seen for a wrestler, even for this level of wrestling. He’s not out of shape or anything, but he just looks bland. The other two at least have something about their ring attire or personality that makes them stand out a bit.

We get quite a bit of technical wrestling in this one, which continues the trend so far of each of the First Round bouts having their own sense of flavour when it comes to the styles we’re seeing. Quance is a decent technical wrestler and has a nice array of quick paced moves, but he has all the personality of a mannequin, so his moves lack some “oomph”, even when he delivers a nice looking Shooting Star Press off the top rope onto the other two wrestlers when they are outside of the ring. Shelley is as smooth as usual in there, doing some nice crisp technical wrestling and some fluid counters to his opponent’s offence. Ruckus does some nice wrestling as well, and also does the most character work as he’s actually trying to be a Heel in there, albeit a Heel who can also do cool moves at points.

Sadly the only move where Shelley’s timing is a bit off is when he tries to counter a Ruckus handspring elbow with a neck breaker, but he doesn’t quite get there in time and ends up neck breakering some air. Nate Hatred, a big muscled up bloke with face paint who was feuding with Ruckus’ crew at the time, runs down to attack Ruckus and throw him through a table. This supposedly leads to the referee counting out Ruckus (because apparently these matches actually have rules. They sure kept that quiet!) and that means Quance and Shelley advance to the next round.

ADVANCING: QUANCE & SHELLEY (RUCKUS GETS COUNTED OUT)
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was okay in the early stages, but it started falling apart a bit in the closing stretch and the finish was absolutely awful. I get they were pushing Ruckus at the time, but another guy running in and throwing him through a table would surely protect him enough that him getting pinned afterwards wouldn’t hurt him too much?

Match Four
Best Of The Best IV First Round Three Way Dance
“The Canadian Destroyer” Petey Williams Vs “Spyder” Nate Webb Vs “The Original Playa from the Himalayas” Sonjay Dutt

Williams will be best known for inventing the Canadian Destroyer, and now he’s an Agent in WWE. Webb was a skinny slacker/skater styled character who did flips and entered to “Teenage Dirtbag” most of the time. Dutt had a long run in TNA before moving onto AEW as a member of Jeff Jarrett’s crew. Dutt was actually the CZW Junior Heavyweight Champ at the time of this Best of the Best tournament. They do an intricate running spot to start, with all three of them countering and nipping up at different points, and it’s a bit hit and miss. When the timing is right, it looks good, when the timing is off it looks pretty sloppy. That leads to us having a dance off, with Williams of course doing the comedy spot of being the lamest dancer. So this appears to be more about comedy and character work, which is yet another change of style compared to the other bouts in the first round, which is at least keeping things from feeling too samey. Whoever has agented this tournament deserves credit thus far, as they’re doing a good job of keeping the concept reasonably fresh in these first four contests.

Things do eventually get a bit more serious, with Williams leaning into more of a Heel role, whilst Dutt focuses mostly on counter wrestling and Webb alternates between doing high spots and being a human punching bag depending on what the match requires at any given time. The best spot of the match is probably Dutt giving Williams a Muscle Buster whilst also somehow delivering a leg drop to Webb at the same time. They smartly build up to The Canadian Destroyer, and when Williams gets it on Webb it’s the finish, with Williams and Dutt advancing. Back in 2004 you didn’t see everyone and their grandmother delivering that move, so it still felt special and basically got Williams booked everywhere for a while.

ADVANCING: WILLIAMS & DUTT (WILLIAMS PINS NATE WEBB)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was a solid conclusion to the first round, with the match having a decent mix of character work, comedy and high spots. Webb was popular with the crowd, but Williams Vs Dutt makes sense as the Quarter Final, so I can understand why they went that way with it

Rucks is selling the after effects of his First Round shellacking in the backstage area. Ruckus cuts a promo about how he’s tired of getting screwed at Best of the Best every year, but next year is his year. Nate Hatred cuts a promo of his own elsewhere in the building, promising more pain for Ruckus. Ruckus’ promo was decent. Hatred’s was less so

Match Five
Xtreme Strong Style Tournament First Round Match
“The Saviour of CZW” Chris Hero Vs “The Texas Sandstorm” Hotstuff Hernandez

Hero had runs in CZW, ROH, PWG, CHIKARA and basically every other major independent promotion in North America, along with a spell in Pro Wrestling NOAH as well before eventually heading to WWE as Kassius Ohno. Hernandez is probably best known for his run in TNA as a tag team with Homicide, as well as a less well received push as a singles star when that tag team broke up. Hero was a cocky Heel in CZW at the time, although he would eventually turn babyface when CZW started feuding with ROH in 2006 as the CZW fans appreciated him sticking up for the company. Hero cuts an arrogant promo before the bout, saying that Hernandez might have wrestled Great Muta, but he hasn’t mixed it up with Chris The Bambi Killer like Hero has, so Hernandez needs to get out of Hero’s ring. Hernandez refuses to budge though, both figuratively and literally, as Hernandez bumps Hero around to start, with Hero taking some nice bumps for the big man.

This one has some good hard hitting action, with Hernandez being the wrestler with the most “big time” look we’ve seen so far. Hernandez is pretty quick on his feet for a big dude, and Hero is generally good at adapting to an opponent whilst also getting in character work, so the match has solid wrestling and mostly strong reactions as well. Having two bigger lads going in there and working more of a big man match helps with continuing the trend of keeping the card feeling varied on this show thus far. Hernandez actually sells pretty well here, which isn’t always the case when you have bigger guys on the independent scene because they’re so used to just beasting all of their smaller opponents that they never really get a chance to work on selling that much. We do of course get Hernandez doing his TOP CON HILO party piece at one point, because it looks so darn impressive, but Hero gets to kick out of Hernandez’s Border Toss powerbomb though.

Because this is an Xtreme Strong Style match, Hernandez decides to set up a table and do his best Mike Awesome impression by flinging Hero out of the ring through the wood. Hero doesn’t fancy doing that though and slips out of the powerbomb attempt before cleaning Hernandez’s clock with the Roaring Elbow, quite literally playing the role of Tanaka of Hernandez’s Awesome. Hero adds another elbow of the running variety to the back of Hernandez after that, and that’s enough for Hero to pick up the three count and advance in the tournament.

WINNER: CHRIS HERO
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was a solid big man match, with Hero doing his character work and bumping well, whilst Hernandez did a decent job of selling when on the defensive and also got to show off some of his more impressive moves. I actually like how the table was teased and didn’t get used, as it made Hero’s victory all the more surprising as everyone was expecting to see a table bump. It’s still early on the show as well, and it’s CZW, so they should probably save the table for later on anyway if they’re going to use it, seeing as we’ve already had one table bump tonight already in the Ruckus match, and more are sure to come, because CZW

Hero makes sure to put the table back under the ring following the match, just to wind the fans up even more

Match Six
Best Of The Best IV Quarter Final
Jack Evans Vs Homicide

This is the high flying of Evans against the violent hard hitting of Homicide, so Evans spends most of the bout getting bumped around and rag dolled. Evans takes a lot of really good bumps, and eventually manages to fling a chair at Homicide in order to get a foothold in the bout, although it doesn’t last for long. Evans does such a good job selling and bumping in this one though that some of the crowd gets behind him, although Homicide also retains his share of fans. The most amazing move in the match is Evans getting a Moonsault into a DDT. The execution isn’t QUITE right, but it’s close enough and the crowd reacts big for it. Homicide manages to shrug that off though and clotheslines Evans inside out before threatening Evans’ buddy Teddy Hart and delivering the Cop Killa for three.

WINNER: HOMICIDE
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was good fun, with Evans taking a career’s worth of bumps in one match in order to make Homicide look like a killer, whilst Homicide came across as a total star as he destroyed the ally of someone who he hated in order to send a message. Evans took about 3 or 4 of the best bumps I’ve seen in this one, with the Jannetty sell on the clothesline being particularly fantastic. Full marks to the referee for totally freaking out on the Cop Killa as well in order to really sell how devastating it was

Match Seven
Best Of The Best IV Quarter Final
Roderick Strong Vs B-Boy

These two pick up where they left off in their First Round contest, as they immediately start hitting one another really hard, with B-Boy clearly the crowd favourite, something Strong plays into by yelling at the fans and just generally being a jerk, as Roderick Strong is want to do. Strong eventually focuses on targeting B-Boy’s back with his usually array of backbreaker’s. B-Boy sells that well enough and Strong’s offence looks good, so it’s an effective heat segment. B-Boy continues to sell his back when he starts making the comeback, with it actively effecting his performance, which is always good to see. Strong manages to catch B-Boy in the Strong Hold, with the referee claiming that B-Boy submitted, even though he was actually just reaching for the ropes. Well, that was an unsatisfying finish.

WINNER: RODERICK STRONG
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was a decent enough match with a lousy ending. I guess they wanted to protect B-Boy in defeat, but it ended up just making the referee look like an idiot, as B-Boy clearly wasn’t tapping there. Up to that point, the match had been fine, with B-Boy selling the back well and Strong looking good on offence. Sadly the finish kind of ruined it

The fans excrete all over that finish, and I don’t blame them, as Strong bails to the back and B-Boy complains to everyone in earshot

Match Eight
Best Of The Best IV Quarter Final
Bobby Quance Vs Alex Shelley

Quance winning this one would feel like a bit of a waste seeing as Shelley is a much more interesting opponent for either Williams or Dutt, but you do normally get an upset or two in Best of the Best tournaments, so there’s every chance that Quance could go over here in order to throw a curveball. This one is a technical wrestling battle to start, with both combatants trading holds and trying pick up a submission victory or a quick pin. The wrestling is executed well, so if you’re a fan of that style then you’ll probably get on okay with this. Quance eventually starts throwing some kicks, so Shelley replies with a Stun Gun (the move, not the item) and the match becomes a bit more of a fight rather than just a technical exhibition. It’s still decent action once it moves into being a more traditional Indy Wrestling match, although I probably would have enjoyed it more if they’d just kept it as a technical battle as it would have been something a bit different. Big moves are traded, with Quance continuing to have the charisma of a cardboard box, but he’s a mechanically sound Pro Wrestler at least. Quance ends up missing a Shooting Star Press, but he lands on his feet and catches Shelley with a Cross Arm Breaker for the instant submission.

WINNER: BOBBY QUANCE
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was okay, although the wrong wrestler won in my opinion. I liked how once the arm bar got properly applied then it was over, because that’s what would happen in a real fight so it would have been goofy for Shelley to lie around in it for ages once it was locked in fully

Match Nine
Best Of The Best IV Quarter Final
Petey Williams Vs Sonjay Dutt

This is another match where we have a clear Heel and babyface, so Williams settles into his usual role from this timeframe of being a bullying jerk and Dutt settles into his usual role at the time of being a quick paced underdog. The wrestling is done well, with Williams’ work earning him some chants from the crowd. Dutt is the second wrestler of the night to try a Moonsault DDT and not quite get it, with it looking more like a Moonsault Press to the back in the end, but it at least looks like some sort of a move, so the two get away with it and the crowd reacts to it positively. Williams goes for the Canadian Destroyer from the top rope, but Dutt manages to fight that off and both tumble to the floor, in a spot that might have been planned but could easily have just been something that went awry and they covered for it. We get some near falls, with Williams getting to kick out of both a Corkscrew Moonsault and a Muscle Buster. They seem to mess up a rana spot from the top rope at one stage, but they power through and Williams manages to get the Canadian Destroyer. There’s a decent length delay in Williams making the cover due to fatigue though, which leads to Dutt being able to kick out. That does protect the move somewhat at least. Dutt is lucky that he only took a Canadian Destroyer and not a Pedigree, otherwise he would have been toast there! Williams tries a Splash Mountain following that, but Dutt counters it to a rana and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: SONJAY DUTT
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: This was hit and miss. There was some good action at points, although there were a couple of moments where their timing was off. Dutt surviving the Canadian Destroyer was done in a way that made sense due to Williams selling for long enough to cause a reasonable amount of delay for Dutt to believably kick out of the move. Had some of the execution been better here then I would have gone a bit higher with the rating. Not a bad match, but not an especially good one either

Ruckus, Maven Bentley and Robby Mireno are in the parking lot to cut a promo. They say that John Zandig isn’t going to harsh their buzz. The gag here is Mireno isn’t African American, but he acts like he is. I can assure all you younger readers that this was considered the height of comedy in 2004, which is why my generation will sometimes adjust our collective collars in shared embarrassment over comedy from this time period

Ian Knoxx is having a drink backstage and hypes up his feud with former tag team partner Adam Flash, as they’ll be wrestling one another in August in some kind of stipulation bout. This got a little bit too much “angry shouting Indy promo” at points, but Knoxx had some decent intensity and I bought into the story he was telling of wanting revenge on his former partner, so it worked well enough

Match Ten
Xtreme Strong Style Tournament Semi Final
Dan Maff Vs Nick f’n Gage

Maff used to tag with Monsta Mack as Da Hit Squad and he was a fixture in both ROH and JAPW for a while. Maff and Homicide ended up having a falling out of some kind, and that led to Maff eventually leaving wrestling for a bit, although he did eventually return. Gage has had such a wild life that he even had an episode of Darkside of the Ring dedicated to him. He’ll always be the guy who introduced me to “Voodoo” by Godsmack in my mind though, and that’s his music here on Best of the Best in fact! Gage normally does the hardcore stuff and this one is being fought under “Xtreme” rules, so we might see some weapons and silliness in this one, although Gage did sometimes try to show that he could do actual wrestling too, and that’s mostly what he does in the early going here.

Nick Berk, someone who was supposedly feuding with Gage and Nate Hatred at the time, joins us at ringside and riles up Gage, leading to Gage bringing a chair into the ring. This gives us a sickening unprotected chair shot to Maff’s head, but Maff no sells it and grabs a mic to cut a promo, as this match is quickly going off the rails, especially when the mic doesn’t work at first. The gist of the promo is that Maff wants to fill the ring with chairs, which Gage is seemingly fine with, so the fans oblige and we get both wrestlers fighting in a ring filled with chairs. This leads to Gage getting suplexed onto the chairs, as wrestler safety appears to be a low priority on this one based on what we’ve seen so far.

Maff is nice enough to hit Gage in a the back with a chair as opposed to clocking Gage in the head with one. More moves onto the chairs follow, with Gage taking some nice bumps and actually selling both his back and neck reasonably well. To be fair, Gage might not have had much of a choice as Maff is FLINGING him onto these chairs with some of these suplexes and throws. Gage does eventually manage to fight back, giving us some more chair based offence, along with some stiff strikes for good measure. The crowd reacts reasonably well to things, especially the chair attacks, and we eventually get a table introduced into things. Gage gets Speared through the table in the corner by Maff for two, which leads to Nick Berk coming in to the ring with a chair. Gage manages to dispose of Berk easily enough, but that leaves Gage open to a Burning Hammer from Maff for three.

WINNER: DAN MAFF
RATING: **

Thoughts: This had decent intensity, and the crowd was mostly with it throughout, but some of the chair stuff will definitely put some people off. An unprotected chair shot to the head just being shrugged off so that the person who took it could cut a promo is a very CZW thing to happen, and I could easily see that just taking a lot of people out of the match, and I couldn’t blame them

Nick Berk enters the ring with a mic following the match and complains that Nick Gage gets opportunities all the time when Berk doesn’t. Berk talks for too long though, and that leads to Gage fighting back and destroying Berk with one of the chairs, giving us yet another disgusting unprotected chair shot to the head. Those things just make me queasy these days. Berk takes a few horrible looking chair shots to his knees as well, as Gage hits him something like 8-10 times in total. Berk is helped to the back following that, and I buy that he’d need help following that

Match Eleven
Best Of The Best IV Semi Final
Homicide Vs Roderick Strong

I’d have Homicide win this and go all the way here, but I’m thinking that Dutt is making the Final so they’ll probably have Strong win here in order to go with a Heel Vs Face dynamic in the Final. I’m actually watching this without knowing who wins the tournament, so it’s all fresh to me. You can sense that the crowd is starting to get tired now, as this show has been going on for a while and the reactions are getting progressively more muted. They start out doing headlocks and the like and move into the same formula as Strong’s previous bout with B-Boy, as Strong focuses on Homicides back and neck area in order to weaken it for the Strong Hold. Homicide’s selling is on point, and Strong’s combination of strikes, slams, throws and holds all look suitably brutal.

Strong tries giving out to the fans in order to try and rile them up, but the crowd isn’t really biting on it, and after eleven matches, with more to come, I can kind of see why. Homicide eventually wakes the crowd out with a flipping dive to the floor, and that takes us into the closing stages, with Homicide managing to get a two count from a Piledriver at one stage when Strong gets a limb onto the ropes. Strong fights back, and there’s a great look of incredulity on Homicide’s face after Strong potatoes him with a punch at one stage, and Homicide probably replies with some live rounds in response. Strong is able to survive that though and catches Homicide with yet another Backbreaker, which is enough for the three count OUTTA NOWHERE.

WINNER: RODERICK STRONG
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was decent, but the combination of a quiet crowd and a lack of chemistry prevented it from truly kicking into a higher gear. It was still a solid match though, with Homicide’s selling being good and Strong’s back focused offence being well executed. The finishing stretch where Homicide was throwing bombs at Strong until Strong managed to catch Homicide with the match winning move was executed nicely and it actually paid off all of the back work in the bout up to that point, which is twice now that Strong’s

Match Twelve
Best Of The Best IV Semi Final
Bobby Quance Vs Sonjay Dutt

These two have clearly decided that it’s too late in the night for a patient build up here, so they start it on the front foot with Dutt immediately getting a wild TOPE CON HILO onto Quance after sending him out of the ring with a Spin Kick. Dutt tries to keep the pace up back inside the ring, whilst Quance tries to slow things down with holds, which at least brings a stylistic battle feel to things. The action is decent in general, but the crowd flattens out again once things settle down from the opening quick exchanges. You can tell that both wrestlers are getting worn down by a busy night of action, as the execution starts to get a bit sloppier, especially Dutt tries some kind of Slingshot Suplex and ends up dropping poor Quance on his head. Quance almost ends up winning it with a Trouble in Paradise spin kick, but Dutt kicks out and heads up with a Phoenix Splash soon after for three.

WINNER: SONJAY DUTT
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: An okay exhibition of MOVEZ, but the crowd didn’t really get that into it and the action was a little bit sloppy in places. Some of the moves were nicely done, but at points it just felt like they were stitching moves together with no real flow, which can work if the crowd is fired up and ready for that kind of match, but when you’re over three hours into a show that has already had all kinds of wild moves and violent hardcore spots, those matches don’t tend to garner as good of a reaction

Quance gets a nice reaction from the crowd on the way out

Match Thirteen
Four Way Dance
Chris Ca$h Vs Nate Webb Vs Ruckus w/ Maven Bentley, Robby Mireno and Sabian Vs Jimmy Rave

This is the losers Four Way Dance, where everyone eliminated in the first round has a chance to come out and redeem themselves. Mireno cuts a promo prior to the match. No offence intended to Mireno, but this show has already been going on long enough and we don’t need to stretch it out further. Ruckus adds that he thinks this match isn’t worth his time, and I’d argue that it’s not really worth any of our times, as it’s not like it was essential to include it here when we’ve already had twelve matches on Best of the Best IV, along with a lengthy promo segment with Pain and Zandig earlier on. They could have easily just gone straight from the last match of the First Round to the first Quarter Final and put the Chris Hero match in here or something if they wanted a break between the Semi Finals and Final.

Jimmy Rave attacks Webb during Webb’s crowd pleasing entrance, which I think constitutes a Heel turn, but it’s CZW so who really knows. This one is worked with two wrestlers waiting on the apron whilst the other two wrestle inside the ring, which is probably the worst way to do one of these things. Ruckus and Rave essentially work as a tag team, as they get the “heat” on Cash in order to build to a Webb “hot tag”. Rave and Ruckus eventually start arguing over who is going to get the pin, whilst the commentators argue over whether OJ actually loved Nicole in one of the more surreal commentary disputes I can remember. Webb does eventually get tagged in, but the crowd doesn’t really react that much to it. Things breakdown following that, with all four wrestlers in the ring hitting big moves on one another. Rave ends up getting a knee on Webb whilst Ruckus and his goons beat up Cash outside of the ring, and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: JIMMY RAVE
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: Nothing really wrong with the actual wrestling, but the crowd didn’t really care and the match felt like it dragged as a result

Nick Gage and Nate Hatred run down to attack Ruckus and his goons following the match, which does at least mean that we get to hear Voodoo once again.

Main Event
Best of the Best IV Final
Roderick Strong Vs Sonjay Dutt

There seems to be some commotion in the crowd before this one can start, although I’m not sure what it’s about and it’s not referenced by the commentary team. Strong realises that he has to do something to get the focus back on the match, so he grabs a mic to insult the fans. Honestly playing up the Heel/Face alignment might be the best way of doing this one anyway, as it should give the wrestlers a better chance of getting the crowd invested in what they are doing. Dutt uses his speed in the early going in order to shine on Strong, but Strong catches Dutt on an Asai Moonsault attempt and drops Dutt onto the metal railings at ringside, which would appear to be the cut off, which Strong flinging Dutt into the railings a few more times in order to ram the point home.

Dutt sells well whilst being worked over and takes some nice bumps, whilst Strong resumes his usual MO of throwing stiff strikes and applying holds. Strong gets an impressive looking hanging Brainbuster at one stage, which Dutt does the big ragdoll sell for once he hits the mat. Dutt eventually manages to fight back and gets a big drive from the top rope out to the floor onto Strong. These two have worked well together, with their respective styles meshing well due to Strong being an excellent insufferable bully and Dutt being a fine gutsy underdog. The finishing stretch is done well, with the crowd getting into it, which is a testament to these two considering how late into the show we are at this stage.

Each wrestler has chances to win it, with Dutt surviving a series of Strong’s most violent slams and backbreaker’s, whilst Strong manages to kick out of a Dragon Rana and a Hindu Press from the top rope. It ends up being a really good Final, even if it doesn’t quite meet the heights of some of the best bouts in Best of the Best history. The finish is a bit anticlimactic, as Dutt just rolls up Strong OUTTA NOWHERE and that’s the three. I get what they were going for there with Dutt getting the flash three count in order to keep the underdog feel going, but I think a stronger finish (pardon the pun) might have worked better here, as the crowd was into the action and that flattened them out a bit.

WINNER: SONJAY DUTT
RATING: ***1/2

M-Dogg 20 runs out of the crowd following the three count, with the idea being that he had stolen Dutt’s CZW Junior Heavyweight belt. M-Dogg insults the CZW fans and then lays out Dutt. This would lead to them wrestling one another for the belt at Cage of Death. Everyone else in the tournament chases M-Dogg away and that means we can get our trophy presentation, as this show just KEEPS going

In Conclusion

This show was WAAAAAAAY too long, and it didn’t really have a blow away amazing match like other Best of the Best tournaments had, such as Jay Vs Mark Briscoe in the first tournament and Jody Fleisch Vs Jonny Storm in the second one. That being said, there was plenty of decent wrestling on Best of the Best IV, and the closing bout was at least a good way to close things. I wouldn’t have personally had Bobby Quance advance as far as he did, especially as Alex Shelley was right there and would have made for a more interesting Semi Finalist.

Homicide was the MVP of the show for me, as he came across as an absolute superstar in all of his matches and the bout with Jack Evans was one of the most enjoyable ones on the event. Chris Hero had a good night as well, and to CZW’s credit, they would normally get out of the better wrestler’s way and just let them wrestle, not unlike how ECW used to do. The hardcore stuff was CZW’s bread and butter, but you could also get shows built around in-ring technical, high flying and Strong-Style like Best of the Best now and then.

Best of the Best IV could have been improved if they’d found a way to shave 30-60 minutes off of the run time (maybe just cut out the First Round matches entirely and just go straight to the Quarter Final stage) but it wasn’t terrible by any means and there was plenty of decent wrestling to be found, along with the usual weapon based hardcore stuff at points as well. There are better shows from this time period that you can watch for a CZW fix, but Best of the Best Iv is basically fine.

Mildly recommended show