5 Ups And 1 Down From WWE Cruiserweight Classic (Aug 10)

by Scott Carlson

1. Ibushi And Alexander Tear Down The House

Ibushi Alexander
WWE.com

That title doesn’t do this match justice: Kota Ibushi and Cedric Alexander tore down the house, then proceeded to rebuild it, douse it in gasoline, light it on fire and then demolish the flaming structure again.

Seriously, this was a match worth tracking down and watching (or re-watching) if you truly enjoy that high-impact, high-flying wrestling that cruiserweights are known for. Ibushi brought the stiff kicks, the aerial acrobatics and the charisma, while Alexander brought a truckload of moxie and a ton of high-impact moves that created near-fall after near-fall.

At one point, Cedric escaped Ibushi’s Golden Star Powerbomb finisher and hit a vicious brainbuster for 2, then immediately followed it up a round kick to the face for another long 2 count, and the fans were insanely into both pinfalls. That might have been the most memorable highlight, but it was far from the only one.

This match blew away about 95% of what WWE is putting out these days, which isn’t a criticism of everything WWE is doing (the company actually has been producing some really good matches). It’s more of a statement of just how good this match was. Sometimes you say that a match you can only watch on the WWE Network was worth the $9.99 for the month, and this was it.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.