Six More Winners Crowned At CWA Showcase: Round 2; Moore With First Fall in League History
Williamsport, Pa.- It was another stellar night of folkstyle wrestling at the Liberty Arena on Saturday night as the CWA Showcase: Round 2 took place in front of a raucous Central Pennsylvania crowd. The six match showcase was highlighted by a Mitch Moore (New Jersery Mob) fall over Graham Rooks (Pittsburgh Skywalkers) just 1:10 into the bout. Moore sinched a head pinch tight and forced Rooks over in the first period for the first ever fall in Championship Wrestling Association history.
The evening opened up at 140 lbs. as Zeke Moisey (Lehigh Valley Hellbenders) rekindled an old flame against Eddie Klimara (New Jersey Mob) with an 8-6 victory. Klimara opened the scoring early with a pair of takedowns and a turn to take a commanding 6-1 lead after three minutes of competition.
Moisey, however, mounted a comeback in the last six minutes of the opening bout with an early escape and a funk roll to counter Klimara’s high crotch and score a takedown. A hard ride by Moisey allowed him to obtain a riding time point at the end of the 2nd period.
Klimara chose neutral to start the third period, but it was the Hellbender in Moisey who took the lead with a straight on double leg. Another hard ride by Moisey through the rest of the third to secure yet another riding time point and finish off the match with a final score of 8-6.
At 160 lbs, Mitch Moore stole the show with a head pinch front headlock to finish off Pittsburgh Skywalker, Graham Rooks, in 1:11. Moore pulled Rooks into a front headlock almost immediately off the whistle and while Rooks was almost able to work himself out of bounds for a new start, Moore was able to get the fall while keeping a point of contact in bounds on the edge of the mat.
In the third bout of the evening we saw local fan favorite, Rippin’ Ronnie Perry (Central PA Whitetails) square off with Rick Durso (Philadelphia Founders) in a tightly contested bout between another pair of familiar foes.
After a scoreless first period, Perry was able to grab a quick escape early on in the second period for a 1-0 lead. Durso kept on the attack throughout the second period, but it was the counter attack of Perry that proved to be the lone takedown of the match. Durso was able to get in on a sweep single and begin to come out the back door whenever Perry created a scramble situation came to his feet with a single leg of his own. Perry did a great job of negating Durso’s ability to scramble by finishing below the knee on the edge of the mat to make the score 3-0 heading to the final three minute period.
An early escape by Durso made it 3-1. Both wrestlers collided heads a minute into the third period and Perry was the one who walked away with a cut under his left eye. The Whitetail needed to take multiple blood times to get the bleeding under control, allowing both wrestlers to recover a bit for the final stretch of their nine minute match. Durso put together multiple attacks and drew a pair of stall calls late in the match from official, Nick Sipes, but Perry about able to hold off the Founder wrestler and hold on for a 3-2 win.
At the conclusion of the match, Perry took his shoes off and placed them in the middle of the mat signifying the end of his competitive career. “I think this was awesome to be able to do this in front of all of these guys and everybody here, and for Derek Caldwell the Commissioner and I hope they keep this thing rolling, but I think I’m going to stick to beating up these guys (Lock Haven wrestlers) in the room,” Perry told mat side reporter, Donnie Hall, at the conclusion of his match.
In the fourth bout of the evening Chad Walsh (Philadelphia Founders) and Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh Skywalkers) brought the funk in a crazy battle with a pair of wrestlers with unconventional styles of wrestling.
Both wrestlers traded attempts to create offense with overhooks (Walsh), slidebys (Wentzel), and body locks, but the counter offense in all of those positions by both wrestlers proved to be just as good with the score at the end of the first period being 0-0.
Walsh chose bottom to start the 2nd period and Wentzel capitalized on that decision. After getting his patented leg ride on the right side of Walsh, Wentzel was able to lock a cradle up when Walsh quadpodded to his feet and attempted to granby out of the position. Wentzel held tight to the cradle though and pulled Walsh to his back to get three backpoints for the first score of the match.
Transitioning out of the position, Wentzel got high on Walsh’s back with a power half and Walsh was able to swim out and score a reversal. Walsh let Wentzel up to make the score 4-2 with 1:09 remaining in the 2nd period. Late in the period Walsh was able to secure a takedown on a low single with 12 seconds to go, but Wentzel accumulated over a minute of riding time int he 2nd period pushing the score to 5-4 in favor of Wentzel.
Wentzel chose top to start the 3rd period, but didn’t find the success he had in period two as Walsh was able to score a reversal in 32 seconds and take a 6-5 lead. Walsh did not relinquish the lead after that. A hard ride on Wentzel utilizing a number of maneuvers to keep him flat allowed Walsh to ride out the third period, gain a riding time point, and win by a score of 7-5.
At 220 lbs. we saw Greg Bulsak (Pittsburgh Skywalkers) show a dominant performance against Gavin Hoffman (Central PA Whitetails) with a 9-2 victory. It was a 50/50 match early with both guys trading attempts to score, but it was Bulsak who nabbed the first takedown with just under a minute to go in the opening frame after sitting the corner on a Hoffman low single attempt. Hoffman was able to score an escape late in the period to make it 2-1 at the end of the first period.
Hoffman chose bottom to start the 2nd period and was almost able to come out with an escape off of a few elevator attempts, but Bulsak was able to readjust and get double boots in to build his riding time to 1:38 before Hoffman finally escaped. In that riding time, Hoffman was hit with stalling for not opening up and advancing his position on bottom. With the bout tied at 2-2, Bulsak was able to get to a late takedown to take a 4-2 lead. Bulsak also grabbed the riding time point for the 2nd period to make it 5-2 at the end of the 2nd frame.
Bulsak chose bottom to start the 3rd period and Hoffman gave him the escape for free to make it 6-2. The Skywalker’s counter offense was in full force as well and Hoffman got to a sweep single, but Bulsak was able to get his leg back and step into a bent leg turk to secure the takedown. Bulsak then rode Hoffman out to secure another riding time point and bring the match to it’s final score of 9-2.
In the finale of CWA Showcase: Round 2, we saw Demetrius “Meech” Thomas (Pittsburgh Skywalkers) throw down with Sam Schuyler (New York City Response) at 300 lbs. Thomas, in his second appearance in the Championship Wrestling Association, came away with a 4-1 victory, but it wasn’t with out a tough battle and a few close calls that went his way.
Schuyler had a few shot attempts in the first, but was unable to capitalize on them as Meech’s head and hands defense didn’t allow for Sam to get his hands locked. Meech was able to score an escape eight seconds into the 2nd period to take a 1-0 lead. Schuyler was in on Thomas’ leg multiple times throughout the second frame, but it was the Skywalker heavyweight that was able to counter and finish his own double leg for a 3-0 lead with 1:08 remaining in the middle period.
Schuyler chose bottom to start the 3rd period and was able to get the escape in the final minute of action. Sam gave himself a chance to score a late takedown when he almost capitalized on a sucker drag, but could not get Meech’s hand to the mat in the exchange. A riding time point gained by Thomas for the two plus minutes of riding time in the period gave the Skywalker the 4-1 victory and pushed his CWA record to 2-0.
“It was a grind. Sam was a good opponent,” said Thomas in his post match interview. “At first he was really good about keeping his head in and you saw how good of an opponent he is, it was about getting one takedown and grit.”
“I think we saw these guys come out in Round 2 and we saw more of the same (that we saw in Round 1),” CWA Commissioner and Founder, Derek Caldwell, said of the performance. “All 12 of these guys got a taste of what things are like in the CWA. The returning guys had gameplans going in and executed. Obviously, it stinks to see Ronnie Perry put his shoes in the middle of the mat, but overall I think it was a great performance.”
The Championship Wrestling Association will be back in action on Wednesday, March 19th 2025 as they take the next showcase to Philadelphia, Pa. For more details regarding the March 19th Showcase, follow the CWA on all of their social media channels and check back in at cwawrestle.com.