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Follow @TheDocLOP Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to continued coverage of the Cruiserweight Classic. I hope this finds you enjoying the CWC as much as I have through two weeks and I personally felt that Week 2 exceeded the standard set a week ago. Week 1 saw three of four matches deliver, but the second match featuring the lackluster Ho Ho Lun dragged down the overall presentation as compared to that which we saw on July 20th. Four highly entertaining matches featuring eight engaging wrestlers made Week 2 an upgrade. As with last week, I will issue star ratings when appropriate. Match 1: Tajiri defeated Damian Slater in 5:29 (Doc's Rating - **1/2) (Doc's Notes - Early on, I found myself switching allegiances from the Japanese Buzzsaw to the World Beater, whose technical style reminded me of last week's losing competitor, Clement Petiot, who reminded me of the all-time great cruiserweight, Dean Malenko. I would like to see more of the technical-CWs advance in this tournament at some point, but that was not to be for the second straight week. Tajiri is no slouch at working over a body part; he and Slater's respective approaches to removing each other's primary strikes went over well with me and helped create a unique dynamic on the night. Thus far, we have mostly seen the favorites move to the Sweet 16 and I had an inkling that perhaps Tajiri would be the first to be up-ended by an underdog; it would be good for this tournament to have a Cinderella-story emerge. Good match) Match 2: TJ Perkins defeated Da Mack in 6:33 (Doc's Rating - **3/4) (Doc's Notes - To give you an idea of how my star ratings work with mostly short matches of the 7-minute or less variety, I put a lot more weight in a legitimate false finish to push such a performance to the 3-star level. Story is obviously still the most important thing along with execution, but that big near fall that sucks you further into the fiction clinches the higher rating from me. Perkins vs. Da Mack was quite exciting, with personality shining through from entrance to finish, and I enjoyed it more than any other match of the night despite its rating putting it in second place; it just lacked that one big near fall. TJP quickly became a favorite to win, bearing in mind my lack of experience watching the vast majority of these competitors, Perkins included. His brand of charisma and athleticism would translate straight away on the WWE roster; and that compliment extends to his opponent too. Of all the losers tonight, Mack probably stood out most. I loved, by the way, the knee injury on Mack's big top rope kick being the catalyst for the finish) Match 3: Lince Dorado defeated Mustafa Ali in 5:55 (Doc's Rating - ***) (Doc's Notes - Many things can shape a match rating and, when it comes to cruiserweight action, one of those things is often innovation. Truth be told, Ali vs. Dorado did not start out well for me. I thought they looked a little timid in the beginning, but I was also aware of the fact that the quality of Mack vs. Perkins had a lingering effect that might have overshadowed the first minute of Ali-Dorado action in this rapid fire environment of match after match with little down time in between. It took little time for that to change and, by the climax, Dorado vs. Ali had done two very important things when grading four matches of similar length - first it wowed with offense many of us had never seen before and second it utilized that innovation to create legitimate false finishes. Ali's launch between the second and top ropes followed by a roll into a jumping neck breaker, Dorado's amazing springboard reverse hurricanrana, and Ali's springing C4 were "stop, rewind, and show your novice wife" moments, the latter two of which sparked audible "Wows" from the near falls. Awesome stuff!) Match 4: Akira Tozawa defeated Kenneth Johnson in 9:45 (Doc's Rating - **3/4) (Doc's Notes - Rounding out a great night of cruiserweight wrestling was a solid story mirroring largely the main-event from last week of the plucky unknown against one of the tournament's heavy favorites to advance to the Final Four. While Tozawa was not as impressive as his fellow Japanese countrymen, Kota Ibushi, he was definitely a sight to see live for the first time. He brings more charisma to the table than Ibushi, but he is not quite as fluid and is not in the same world class as a performer. Johnson could've been a junior member of Harlem Heat back in the early 90s with his flame-streak pants and lanky athletic ability, but there were a few moments that were slightly off from my vantage point; a minor gripe to be frank as I really enjoyed the story of Johnson matching Tozawa early before succumbing to his more gifted opponent late. I liked Johnson's message in his pre-match video and his goal to inspire translated well in the ring with the commentary giving it a soundtrack) All in all, I continue to be extremely impressed with the presentation thus far. If anything, I enjoyed the presentation even more so than last week, as it seemed to me that they cut back on the Corey Graves stuff from the green room and allowed the in-ring action to take more of a center stage. Some of that feeling comes from simply better (and slightly longer) in-ring action than last week, but some of it also can be attributed to toning down the added talking points and letting the pre-match videos, Bryan, and Ranallo do their jobs in setting the stages and helping the stories along. We saw two Final Four favorites tonight in Perkins and Tozawa and they did not disappoint; and, this week, nobody else did either QUESTION OF THE DAY: Of the sixteen wrestlers we've seen so far in this tournament, who has impressed you the most?
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