This was for Royal’s CWF Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Title.
It’s definitely weird to see Arik Royal here as a heroic babyface, but it just WORKS.
IIt’s weird as hell to see him here as the heroic babyface against cocky youngster Trevor Lee, but it all works. It work both because Royal is already both so good in the ring so so natural in his role, but also Trevor Lee here is only twenty years old and already this great. Beyond that, he doesn’t turn twenty one for another nine months. It’s genuinely unbelievable. To find another wrestler this great at this young, you have to turn to the literal greatest of all time, Bryan Danielson, or a top twenty to thirty all time guy in Rey Misterio Jr. It’s unbelievable.
He hurts his knee early on here on something as simple as a backbreaker, but it WORKS. Royal wins in the end, as he should, but the focus is on Trevor, and he absolutely kills it. Great selling, but also while pulling off all his coolest offense, the sort of thing that people way older than him struggle with, but that he innately seems to understand at TWENTY YEARS OLD. When I was twenty, I was doing meth with my downstairs neighbor because I was bored during a Ninja Warrior marathon on G4 because I hadn’t established residency yet. At twenty, Trevor Lee looks like he’s going to be a top twenty wrestler in the country, if not the world, within twelve months. Fuck him.
The knee selling is perfect for the occasion. Not pristine, but Royal also never devotes himself to it. It’s just good as hell. Trevor sells the heck out of it while also delivering all of this really stellar offense. Trevor’s twenty years old and his performance here genuinely made me Google other super-rookies through wrestling history to see how this performance stacked up.
A mission statement for the next four or five years.
HANDWERK 