The Sierra Wrestling All-Stars Thread, CRITICAL Edition

World Open 2023 Week in Review - Week 3

A Block
This week, we finally started to get a clear sense of what things are going to look like in the A Block. With Kazuo Saji and Armel St. Martin both at 8 points, whoever wins that matchup next week is heading to the finals, barring some truly weird circumstances. I say that shit with my fingers crossed, because that exact thing happened to Kazuo and Armel back in 2021. A no contest in that match would throw things completely sideways, and the block would come down to tiebreakers.

Here's where shit gets weird. Carlos Ortega-Reyes holds a tiebreaker over Armel St. Martin, and El Rey Dorado holds one over Kazuo Saji. And at this point, Kazuo holds a tiebreaker over Carlos and Armel over El Rey, and El Rey holds a tiebreaker over Carlos. So things could get very contentious if we have a repeat of 2021. If El Rey and Carlos win their matches on the final night of A Block and Kazuo and Armel go to a No-Contest, then we'll have four wrestlers at 8 points, and a tangled mess of tiebreakers to figure out. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that, under those circumstances, SWA would probably have to do an elimination run-off.

But, again, that would take a No-Contest between Kazuo and Armel to happen, and I would fuckin' hope nobody's looking to make a massive mockery of the entire league this year. So most likely one of either Armel St. Martin or Kazuo Saji will be going to the finals, and the other A Block wrestlers will be playing for pride next week.

Okay. Now that we got all of that out of the way. Jake Adair continued to embarass himself this week, losing to both Adam Nishimura and Paul Lambert in fairly decisive contests. Seems like his victories against Kazuo Saji and El Rey Dorado earlier in the tournament really were just flukes. Meanwhile, Kazuo Saji continued to impress, fighting hard and rivalling Paul Lambert for ring-time this week. Kazuo's been looking steadily more impressive in this tournament over the last few years, and this is really starting to look like it could be his year.

My match of the week for A Block this week combines two great flavors that turned out to taste great together. Kazuo Saji vs. Carlos Ortega-Reyes was one of the nastiest fights we've seen in the A Block, and I loved every second of it. And like with Paul Lambert last week, Kazuo went the distance again, going over 29 minutes with Carlose while wearing the ol' crimson mask for most of it. SWA's referees have gotten wise to Carlos' tricks, so this time he hid the railroad spike under the ring, and managed to rip Kazuo open with it during a scuffle on the outside. The blood in his eyes only seemed to motivate Kazuo, though, and he fought as hard as we've seen him fight, again sealing the deal with the Chrome Splitter a mere 6 seconds before the time limit expired. Hot damn what a match that was.

A Block Point Totals:
Armel St. Martin: 8
El Rey Dorado: 4
Kazuo Saji: 8
Jake Adair: 4
Carlos Ortega-Reyes: 6
Paul Lambert: 6
Adam Nishimura: 6
Raye Groves: 6

The Nerd's Match of the Week: Kazuo Saji def. Carlos Ortega-Reyes by PINFALL in 29:54

B Block
This time last week, it was looking like both Connor Cipris and Samael Tangaroa were undefeatable in this year's tournament. This week, that got thrown into chaos, with Connor eating a loss from Aaron Wolff, and Samael eating a pair of losses. Don't get me wrong, they're still pretty solidly at the front of the block, and I don't think it's currently possible for anyone but Samael to upset Connor on the last day of the block, but it's certainly a turnaround from the previous two weeks.

At this point, Connor is sitting pretty on the top of the block with 10 points, and the only way he could not win the B Block this year is if he loses to Samael next week. If Samael wins next week, he'll be at 10 with a tiebreaker over Connor and there'll be no way for anybody else to get enough points to challenge. So ultimately, this block is still going to come down to Samael vs. Connor, but their dominance of the block, especially Samael's, got throw into question this week in a way it hasn't bee so far.

Kyle Sieras was also fully out of whatever funk he's been in this week, pulling off impressive wins over both Samael and Fabio Silva. Guess Connor must've kicked some sense into him. If Kyle had come into the tournament from the beginning with this level of fire and dedication, he'd undeniable be up there with Connor and Samael. As it is, he now sits at 6 points, right next to Fabio, and has a decent chance of finishing with an 8 point record.

The biggest surprise this week, though, was Tommy Powers. I mentioned last week that Tommy was actually starting to show off some of how good he can be, but this week he really proved himself in a big way. Not only did he pin Samael clean in the center of the ring when a lot of people thought he might just lay down, but he fought hard for that win, and this was Samael's longest match of the block so far. Up until now, Samael has put every opponent away in under 20 minutes, (and most of them in under 15!) but this time they went just a hair under 25, and Tommy looked surprisingly dominant in the back half of the match, staying on top of Samael and working on those legs to chop the giant down. The Samael we used to know would've been furious at the loss, but the Samael of 2023 raised Tommy's hand at the end of the match and invited us all to "bask in the glory of the Lords of Desolation." Weird shit. But a great fucking match.

B Bock Point Totals:
Samael Tangaroa: 8
Chad Jackson: 4
Connor Cipris: 10
Fabio Silva: 6
Aaron Wolff: 4
Kyle Sieras: 6
Tommy Powers: 4
Javier Valiente: 4

The Nerd's Match of the Week: Tommy Powers def. Samael Tangaroa by PINFALL in 24:57

World Open 2023 Week in Review - Week 4

A Block
Okay, first of all, let me get the apology out of the way, since you fucknuggets spent all week yelling at me about it on the socials. I got mixed up with all the goddamn math I had to do last week and incorrectly said that El Rey Dorado could end this tournament at 8 points, creating a four-way tie for the block. That was obviously wrong, as this week's events attest. Shit happens. Moving on.

Kazuo Saji has been wrestling for SWA since 2015, and in that time, there's a lot he's accomplished. He's won the Summer Tagfest with Connor Cipris, he's won the Escalation tournament, he's held the Aftermath Championship, he's been tag-team champion, and he became a founding member of the most popular faction in SWA. Sometimes, I see dumbasses online opine that Kazuo's done all there is to do in SWA and he should move on. But there are three things Kazuo Saji has never done in SWA: He's never held the SWA Openweight Championship, he's never won the World Open, and up until this week, he's never won a pinfall victory over Armel St. Martin in a singles match.

Saji's never been hotter than this, though, and his fortunes are starting to change. After nearly a decade of a rivalry in which Kazuo had wins in tag matches and multimans but could never quite get it done when it came to the big singles matches, Kazuo Saji beat Armel St. Martin this week. And while that match was nowhere near as long or as violent as his match against Carlos Ortega-Reyes last week, it was nonetheless absolutely spectacular. Next week, Kazuo heads to the finals against... well, we'll get to that in a bit.

Elsewhere down the card, Jake Adair finished out his World Open with a wet fart, having the lowest point total in the block, and having lost five matches in a row. Not that anyone probably expected Jake to take down El Rey Dorado, but he had probably the worst tournament anyone's had since unimportantguy walked out of the World Open with two points back in 2018. Carlos Ortega-Reyes and Raye Groves, meanwhile, finished strong at eight points, just one win behind Saji.

I spent a long time this week thinking about match of the week for this block, and I don't think anyone would blame me for giving it to the main event, but while Kazuo and Armel did put on a hell of a show, I think I actually have to give props to someone else. Paul Lambert and Raye Groves put on an absolute mat-wrestling clinic, going long in a match that had nothing but pride on the line. And given how Raye Groves has struggled over the last few years to finish strong in these tournaments, his eight point finish is a triumph in and of itself. That gets my match of the week.

A Block Point Totals FINAL:
Armel St. Martin: 8
El Rey Dorado: 6
Kazuo Saji: 10
Jake Adair: 4
Carlos Ortega-Reyes: 8
Paul Lambert: 6
Adam Nishimura: 6
Raye Groves: 8

The Nerd's Match of the Week: Raye Groves def. Paul Lambert by SUBMISSION in 21:37

B Block:
Since the beginning of the World Open this year, it was always clear that B Block was going to come down to Connor Cipris and Samael Tangaroa. Connor in particular looked incredibly strong throughout his return to the tournament, and it seemed like this would be the year that we'd finally see Connor vs. Kazuo III in the finals. But everyone's least favorite End Boss had other plans.

Samael has always been a force to be reckoned with in the World Open. People often assume the big galoot will gas out as the tournament draws on, tiring out from the exertion of moving his massive bulk around the ring so much for a month of straight singles matches. People are wrong. If anything, Samael tends to get more dangerous in the later stages of a tournament, and that's exactly what Connor Cipris fell victim to this week. Samael avoided overexerting himself, preferring to use DDTs, lariats, and chokeholds instead of showing off his power, and that gameplan paid off in spades. Connor tried his best to hobble the giant with his legwork, but that strategy is less effective if the giant you're attempting to hobble decides to just fall down on top of you. Big win for Samael, and a heartbreaking loss for Connor.

Down the card, Aaron Wolff and Kyle Sieras both were in cruise control, coasting to easy victories against Tommy Powers and Javier Valient respectively. Meanwhile, I became a Chad Jackson fan when he spiked Fabio motherFUCKING Silva on his stupid fucking head with the Action Express, putting Fabio out of action for what I hope is a good long while. Nothing really quite rose to the level of the main event though, and it easily gets my nod for match of the week.

B Block Point Totals FINAL:
Samael Tangaroa: 10
Chad Jackson: 6
Connor Cipris: 10
Fabio Silva: 6
Aaron Wolff: 6
Kyle Sieras: 8
Tommy Powers: 4
Javier Valiente: 6

The Nerd's Match of the Week: Samael Tangaroa def. Connors Cipris by PINFALL in 18:40