HF Reviews PWG
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Ernest P. Worrel Memorial
March 12, 2005
Excalibur starts off the show with Super Dragon (Oddly enough, in his red gear). He demands that Disco Machine comes out to let them know whether he's with Team SBS or if he's going to continue to let power go to his head. Super Dragon turns on Excalibur which brings out Disco Machine and Super Dragon to make the save. Disco Machine and Excalibur makes up. Silly Excalibur, why would you ever trust Super Dragon if he's in his red gear?
Excalibur, Disco Machine, Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Charles Mercury, Ronin and Ballard Brothers
Hey! It's The Chuck! So are we just supposed to forget about Excalibur attacking Talwar at Card Subject to Change? What's even odder is that Top Gun and Bomberry seemingly turns heel when they turn on Excalibur and Disco Machine to allow a Ballard to get the pin on Disco Machine. Mercury looked halfway decent like he normally does, but other than that, it's just Top Gun carrying the workload. Yes, it's that scary of a though. For a multi-man match, this was pretty fun though. 2 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Bomberry and Top Gun continues the beat down on Team SBS. Due to Talwar screaming and the mic being so horrible, I can't really understand what Top Gun is saying. Based on other reviews, it seems as if Top Gun is the one who stole the tag titles so he could melt down the gold and inject it into his ass. That should be a really stand idea, but it's pretty tame for Top Gun.
:
Chris Sabin vs Ricky Reyes
I believe this is Sabin's PWG debut. Like with his match against Roddy Strong, it's a low key, unmemorable, yet pretty solid match for Reyes. Minus his tag matches with Rocky Romero, I never dug Reyes in ROH, but the guy is pretty good in PWG. He's actually dare I say...reliable and consistently good? Sabin gets the win following a Cradle Shock. You're not going to see these matches on any PWG Sells Out Volumes, but you're not going to have to click on the 'Skip forward' button on your DVD player. 3 1/4 Stars.
Dark and Lovely w/Dino Winwood vs Los Luchas
The debut of Scorpio Sky and Human Tornado as a team. Without listening to the commentary, there isn't any explanation given for why Tornado's teaming with Sky instead of Quicksilver, but I'm not complaining. I do know that it was scheduled to be Aerial Xpress vs Los Luchas. So whatever happened, it was a last minute change. A really fun spotty match with Human Tornado once again being so fucking over. I'm starting to wonder if I hate Los Luchas solely because of how badly Zokre sucks. Phoenix Star has been pretty good in these 2005 matches. Mix in fun spotty, funny moments and the bout never slowing down, you have the best match thus far. I'll be willing to say it's my favorite Los Luchas match. Los Luchas get the pin on Scorpio following their springboard senton/Lion Sault combo. Wow, I hate that finish so much. IF Dark and Lovely had to lose (They should have won), why not have Tornado take the pin? Scorpio Sky is in a pretty big angle, there's no reason to have him lose to someone so far down the card. 3 1/2 Stars.
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Kevin Steen vs El Generico
The winner here gets a title shot against Super Dragon in the main event. Originally, the title shot was supposed to be given at All Star Weekend Night 1, but thanks to Tony Stradlin being signed by the WWE shortly before this show, he was removed from the main event against Dragon. Just a reminder, TNA's Destination X 2005 took place the night after this. As a result, Daniels and Styles smartly plays up their issues for their Ultimate X four way. Daniels spends the entire match staying out of the ring when Styles is in. For most of the match, you could have had anyone replace Styles and Generico and it wouldn't have made a difference. Daniels and Steen made this match so much fun with their shenanigans, chickenshitness and random yells of slight comedy. Despite being fun, there's one major issue. El Generico just disappears late in the match. He's not on the apron and the camera never finds him. This plays into the Daniels/Styles angle with Styles being tagged in by Steen and Daniels wasn't able to tag out. However, with Styles and Daniels on the outside, Steen fakes diving on them. Instead, he chooses to easily pin El Generico. Generico reappeared in the middle of the ring and flat on his back. The ending is confusing, takes you out of the drama and just generally sucks. Luckily, Daniels and Steen added plenty of fun moments before the ending. I always dig when companies acknowledge feuds from other promotions, so the Styles/Daniels story was pretty cool. 3 Stars.
Arrogance (c) vs Frankie Kazarian and Joey Ryan - PWG Tag Team Titles
Kazarian's mystery partner turns out to be Scott Lost's former partner, Joey Ryan. Ryan finally makes his return after legitimately being injured in the great Iron Man Match against Super Dragon back at Use Your Illusion IV. The booking makes perfect sense. The match was a little sloppy with wrestlers botching such simple things as covers. However, it's a good enough match to be a positive on the show. Scott avoids Ryan for most of the match, by not nearly to the degree that Daniels did with Styles. At the end, Kazarian and Ryan has problems with Ryan trying to use a chair behind the ref's back. Kazarian is strictly against it. During the argument, Bosh attacks Kazarian and lays Ryan out for a chair shot to get the victory. I suppose you can't expect much from a team that has never teamed before. In that regard, the match is fine enough. However, Ryan looking up to see where everyone was after the chair shot really hurts the big moment for me. It's still the worst Arrogance match thus far in their run together. 2 1/2 Stars.
After the match, several men come out to check on an out cold Ryan. Once he finally comes to, he low blows Kazarian and attacks him. On the mic, he blames the fans for causing the problems between Lost and himself. Lost and Ryan hug it out to reunite the two. This was sort of similar to Bret Hart's infamous promo where the Hart Foundation reunited in 1997, only not nearly as good. Still, the angle is great.
Super Dragon (c) vs Kevin Steen - PWG World Title
I first saw this match back last July. I love it even more now. Maybe it's because of the weak title defenses by Dragon, but this was all kinds of awesomeness. Steen was his normal great self. Super Dragon doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me in this match. Despite Steen wrestling once awhile, Dragon takes a lot of abuse early on. Dragon comes off as a giant pussy who's always able to come back at the very end to save himself. What really made the match great was the fans. As the match went on, they started to really get behind Steen. It's really his breakthrough match with PWG. Up until this point, he was just an entertaining undercard guy. By the reaction of the crowd, PWG would have been stupid not to push Steen as hard as they could. Great ending with Steen attempting to win the title while humiliating Dragon via winning with Dragon's Psycho Driver. Dragon counters that into Steen's Package Piledriver for the win. Hands down, the best match of Dragon's title reign. Even though their Guerrilla Warfare match at Astonishing X-Mas gets all of the attention, don't overlook this bout. It's that damn good. Fuck Joe vs Dragon 3, give me Steen vs Dragon 2. 4 Stars.
Overall
For some reason, Ernest P. Worrel Memorial doesn't get much talk. Whether it's positive or negative, you just don't hear about it. The main event is the best match of the year thus far. You have yet another red Super Dragon appearance. The much needed Joey Ryan return and heel turn. The debut of Dark and Lovely. Hell, even Ricky Reyes puts on a good match. It's a very solid show without anything bad enough you need to skip. Granted, the booking was weak at points, but it doesn't take away from the moments that were great. Currently, Highspots has it on sale for only 10 bucks. Without any of these matches on either of the PWG Sells Out DVD sets, it's definitely worth the money to pick up the DVD.
Worth Checking Out
Dark and Lovely vs Los Luchas
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon
Avoid
N/A
March 12, 2005
Excalibur starts off the show with Super Dragon (Oddly enough, in his red gear). He demands that Disco Machine comes out to let them know whether he's with Team SBS or if he's going to continue to let power go to his head. Super Dragon turns on Excalibur which brings out Disco Machine and Super Dragon to make the save. Disco Machine and Excalibur makes up. Silly Excalibur, why would you ever trust Super Dragon if he's in his red gear?
Excalibur, Disco Machine, Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Charles Mercury, Ronin and Ballard Brothers
Hey! It's The Chuck! So are we just supposed to forget about Excalibur attacking Talwar at Card Subject to Change? What's even odder is that Top Gun and Bomberry seemingly turns heel when they turn on Excalibur and Disco Machine to allow a Ballard to get the pin on Disco Machine. Mercury looked halfway decent like he normally does, but other than that, it's just Top Gun carrying the workload. Yes, it's that scary of a though. For a multi-man match, this was pretty fun though. 2 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Bomberry and Top Gun continues the beat down on Team SBS. Due to Talwar screaming and the mic being so horrible, I can't really understand what Top Gun is saying. Based on other reviews, it seems as if Top Gun is the one who stole the tag titles so he could melt down the gold and inject it into his ass. That should be a really stand idea, but it's pretty tame for Top Gun.
:Chris Sabin vs Ricky Reyes
I believe this is Sabin's PWG debut. Like with his match against Roddy Strong, it's a low key, unmemorable, yet pretty solid match for Reyes. Minus his tag matches with Rocky Romero, I never dug Reyes in ROH, but the guy is pretty good in PWG. He's actually dare I say...reliable and consistently good? Sabin gets the win following a Cradle Shock. You're not going to see these matches on any PWG Sells Out Volumes, but you're not going to have to click on the 'Skip forward' button on your DVD player. 3 1/4 Stars.
Dark and Lovely w/Dino Winwood vs Los Luchas
The debut of Scorpio Sky and Human Tornado as a team. Without listening to the commentary, there isn't any explanation given for why Tornado's teaming with Sky instead of Quicksilver, but I'm not complaining. I do know that it was scheduled to be Aerial Xpress vs Los Luchas. So whatever happened, it was a last minute change. A really fun spotty match with Human Tornado once again being so fucking over. I'm starting to wonder if I hate Los Luchas solely because of how badly Zokre sucks. Phoenix Star has been pretty good in these 2005 matches. Mix in fun spotty, funny moments and the bout never slowing down, you have the best match thus far. I'll be willing to say it's my favorite Los Luchas match. Los Luchas get the pin on Scorpio following their springboard senton/Lion Sault combo. Wow, I hate that finish so much. IF Dark and Lovely had to lose (They should have won), why not have Tornado take the pin? Scorpio Sky is in a pretty big angle, there's no reason to have him lose to someone so far down the card. 3 1/2 Stars.
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Kevin Steen vs El Generico
The winner here gets a title shot against Super Dragon in the main event. Originally, the title shot was supposed to be given at All Star Weekend Night 1, but thanks to Tony Stradlin being signed by the WWE shortly before this show, he was removed from the main event against Dragon. Just a reminder, TNA's Destination X 2005 took place the night after this. As a result, Daniels and Styles smartly plays up their issues for their Ultimate X four way. Daniels spends the entire match staying out of the ring when Styles is in. For most of the match, you could have had anyone replace Styles and Generico and it wouldn't have made a difference. Daniels and Steen made this match so much fun with their shenanigans, chickenshitness and random yells of slight comedy. Despite being fun, there's one major issue. El Generico just disappears late in the match. He's not on the apron and the camera never finds him. This plays into the Daniels/Styles angle with Styles being tagged in by Steen and Daniels wasn't able to tag out. However, with Styles and Daniels on the outside, Steen fakes diving on them. Instead, he chooses to easily pin El Generico. Generico reappeared in the middle of the ring and flat on his back. The ending is confusing, takes you out of the drama and just generally sucks. Luckily, Daniels and Steen added plenty of fun moments before the ending. I always dig when companies acknowledge feuds from other promotions, so the Styles/Daniels story was pretty cool. 3 Stars.
Arrogance (c) vs Frankie Kazarian and Joey Ryan - PWG Tag Team Titles
Kazarian's mystery partner turns out to be Scott Lost's former partner, Joey Ryan. Ryan finally makes his return after legitimately being injured in the great Iron Man Match against Super Dragon back at Use Your Illusion IV. The booking makes perfect sense. The match was a little sloppy with wrestlers botching such simple things as covers. However, it's a good enough match to be a positive on the show. Scott avoids Ryan for most of the match, by not nearly to the degree that Daniels did with Styles. At the end, Kazarian and Ryan has problems with Ryan trying to use a chair behind the ref's back. Kazarian is strictly against it. During the argument, Bosh attacks Kazarian and lays Ryan out for a chair shot to get the victory. I suppose you can't expect much from a team that has never teamed before. In that regard, the match is fine enough. However, Ryan looking up to see where everyone was after the chair shot really hurts the big moment for me. It's still the worst Arrogance match thus far in their run together. 2 1/2 Stars.
After the match, several men come out to check on an out cold Ryan. Once he finally comes to, he low blows Kazarian and attacks him. On the mic, he blames the fans for causing the problems between Lost and himself. Lost and Ryan hug it out to reunite the two. This was sort of similar to Bret Hart's infamous promo where the Hart Foundation reunited in 1997, only not nearly as good. Still, the angle is great.
Super Dragon (c) vs Kevin Steen - PWG World Title
I first saw this match back last July. I love it even more now. Maybe it's because of the weak title defenses by Dragon, but this was all kinds of awesomeness. Steen was his normal great self. Super Dragon doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me in this match. Despite Steen wrestling once awhile, Dragon takes a lot of abuse early on. Dragon comes off as a giant pussy who's always able to come back at the very end to save himself. What really made the match great was the fans. As the match went on, they started to really get behind Steen. It's really his breakthrough match with PWG. Up until this point, he was just an entertaining undercard guy. By the reaction of the crowd, PWG would have been stupid not to push Steen as hard as they could. Great ending with Steen attempting to win the title while humiliating Dragon via winning with Dragon's Psycho Driver. Dragon counters that into Steen's Package Piledriver for the win. Hands down, the best match of Dragon's title reign. Even though their Guerrilla Warfare match at Astonishing X-Mas gets all of the attention, don't overlook this bout. It's that damn good. Fuck Joe vs Dragon 3, give me Steen vs Dragon 2. 4 Stars.
Overall
For some reason, Ernest P. Worrel Memorial doesn't get much talk. Whether it's positive or negative, you just don't hear about it. The main event is the best match of the year thus far. You have yet another red Super Dragon appearance. The much needed Joey Ryan return and heel turn. The debut of Dark and Lovely. Hell, even Ricky Reyes puts on a good match. It's a very solid show without anything bad enough you need to skip. Granted, the booking was weak at points, but it doesn't take away from the moments that were great. Currently, Highspots has it on sale for only 10 bucks. Without any of these matches on either of the PWG Sells Out DVD sets, it's definitely worth the money to pick up the DVD.
Worth Checking Out
Dark and Lovely vs Los Luchas
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon
Avoid
N/A
Since I already watched All Star Weekend Night 1 awhile back, just a few thoughts:
8 Man Tag - Fun for an eight man, but nothing special. Davey Richards looked good in his debut.
Chris Hero vs Chris Sabin - Really good match with both men working over a body part of another. 3 1/2 Stars.
Johnny Storm vs Petey Williams - Petey's PWG debut. Jonny Storm flat out sucks.
Havana Pitbulls vs Puma and Dragon Soldier B - Perkin's return to PWG is wasted with Dragon Soldier B dragging down a match the night before ruining ROH's Juniors Tournament.
Bryan Danielson vs James Gibson - Forgotten due to the ROH match several matches later. A damn great match though. 4 Stars.
AXP and Frankie Kazarian vs Arrogance and Joey Ryan - A bit sloppy, but fun six man tag that was all about storylines. 3 1/4 Stars.
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Fine match, but it can't compare to their TNA matches. Just another example of Styles not putting in as much effort as he does in TNA.
Super Dragon vs El Generico vs Kevin Steen - PWG Title - For a triple threat, it's fine enough. However, it's not nearly as good as Steen vs Dragon from Ernest P. Worrel Memorial from the previous show. 3 1/4 Stars.
----
All Star Weekend 1 Night Two
April 2, 2005
Ricky Reyes vs Davey Richards vs Ronin vs Puma
Puma and Reyes goes right at it to play off of their match the previous night. Kind of weird since Perkins and Reyes are training buddies. Davey steals a pinfall on Ronin to eliminate him after less than three minutes. Davey only lasts a couple more minutes before tapping to Perkin's Figure Four Deathlock. Reyes and Puma has a sloppy, but a decent encounter. Reyes gets the win with a brainbuster. Perkins, how had been 6-0 before taking a break from PWG returns and immediately goes 0-2. Drop the mask already, Perkins. For an opener, this wasn't too good, despite the talent. It was mostly just random fighting for eight minutes. Had it not been eliminations, it may have been okay. But instead it was three incredibly short matches combined into one. 1 1/2 Stars.
Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Disco Machine and Excalibur
Now this is more like it. With four less than hot talents, they make it worth checking out due to the feud based on Talwar and Bomberry turning on Team SBS a couple shows ago. For the talent involved, it's a really good match without many spots being blown. Excalibur hits a nice piledriver on Bomberry to pick up the win. 2 3/4 Stars.
Petey Williams vs Joey Ryan w/Arrogance
Gotta love simple booking. After the six man tag on Night 1, Ryan and Arrogance continued the beat down on Frankie Kazarian until Kazarian's fellow TNA buddies, Petey Williams and Chris Sabin ran out for the save. Arrogance distracts Petey early on until new PWG commissioner, So Cal Val, forces them to the back. A lot of solid arm work by Ryan with Petey selling it. That being said, I wasn't too into this match. Ryan looks good with really getting over his Technical Wizard character, but that doesn't mean the match is very exciting. Petey gets the win with the Canadian Destroyer and all I can think of is "Why?" 2 1/2 Stars.
Oreo Express w/Dino Winwood vs El Generico and Los Luchas
Oreo Express is the one night pairing of Scorpio Sky with his two tag partners, Quicksilver and Human Tornado. Obviously, the name stems from how the trio looks when Quicksilver is standing in between the others. The match starts off with a dance off between Tornado and Generico. Great comedy stuff. The match that follows has a mixture of comedy and big time spots. If there was one problem, it's that there wasn't a story. Instead, it was a lot of stalling in between the spots before the all out finisher ending. For the position on the card, it's perfectly acceptable and even good. However, some simple storytelling could have bumped it up into a PWG MOTYC territory. It's worth noting that the first interaction between Generico and Tornado in a PWG ring is full of magic and potential. El Generico gets the pin on Quicksilver following a brainbuster. Somehow, Los fuckin' Luchas has two wins over Dark and Lovely. There is no God. 3 1/2 Stars.
After the match, Dino Winwood leads the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Scorpio Sky. Fun little moment.
Christopher Daniels (c) vs Chris Hero - TNA X-Division Title
This was extremely early in Daniels' first X-Division title reign. His first PPV title defense wouldn't be for another few weeks at Lockdown. Similarly to Hero's match against Chris Sabin on the previous night, it's all about Hero having a body part worked over. Hero sells it well enough that I begin to wonder why he was never signed by TNA. Especially watching these older matches, Hero had some real talent. It's not as if Hero magically acquired talent in 2010. Since Daniels is playing the role of the babyface, he's just blending into the match and isn't nearly as memorable as he was at Ernest P. Worrel Memorial. Hero's knee problem comes back to haunt him as he tries to finish Daniels off with a double stomp from the top rope. Daniels moves out of the way, causing Hero to be in immense pain. With the injury distracting Hero, Daniels easily puts him away with Angel's Wings. As great as this match was, it's ALL because of Hero. 3 3/4 Stars.
Kevin Steen vs Jonny Storm
Outside of Arrogance, Steen is my favorite thing going in PWG at this time. So why are you wasting him on a complete loser like Storm? Thanks to Steen's usual antics, this wasn't so bad. However, thanks to Mr. Botchy, Jonny Storm, it's my least favorite Steen PWG match thus far. They at least has the sense to have Steen with the Package Piledriver. 2 1/2 Stars.
Arrogance (c) w/Joey Ryan vs Frankie Kazarian and Chris Sabin w/Petey Williams - PWG Tag Team Titles
Kazarian's last PWG match before heading to the WWE. Fairly short without much to it besides the normal Arrogance spots. Both Petey and Joey interferes behind the ref's back. Scott Lost picks up the win on Kazarian with a roll up. It's nothing to go out of your way to see, but it is better than Kazarian and Ryan vs Arrogance. 3 Stars.
After the match, the ring fills up with wrestlers saying goodbye to Kazarian. Included are Christopher Daniels, Jon Ian and Excalibur all saying kind words. In a moment that I hate, Joey Ryan is one of the ones that also speaks highly of Kazarian as well. I get that it's a farewell moment, but don't break kayfabe right after the match ended. Kazarian and Ryan could have had their moment backstage. Right before Kazarian gives his speech, a fan shouts out "See you at the next Wrestlemania!" Heh. What a moron. This segment feels especially weird considering how Kazarian's WWE run would go. First, while in OVW, Kazarian would return three shows later to challenge for the PWG title. By BOLA time in September, Kazarian was back on the PWG roster full time. I really don't feel as if Kazarian ever found his place after winning the PWG title for a second time. The worst part about Kazarian leaving at this point was that we never got to see a Kazarian vs Joey Ryan match. Sure, we eventually saw it after Kazarian returned, but it's not the same.
Super Dragon (c) vs AJ Styles - PWG World Title
Styles won this shot by pinning Samoa Joe the previous night. I suppose this would be a dream match for some people. Despite going nearly twenty minutes, they manage to keep my interest the entire ways through. Dragon hits one of his trademark dives to the outside on Styles, but the momentum sends him head first into the wall. It's shots like that is why Dragon's no longer wrestling today. The final few minutes are particularly exciting without even being finisher reliant. The end comes with Dragon missing his top rope "Watch me twist a thousand times" splash. That allows Styles to hit a mean looking discus lariat that folds Dragon over to get the victory and become the NEW PWG World Champion. I don't "Get" the point of the title change. After wasting Dragon during most of his title reign, he finally has something going on. The biggest PWG feud of the year is literally about to really heat up and Dragon will be at the center of it. So PWG decides to take the belt off of him? For fucks sake, it's the very reason why I wanted PWG to give him the belt over Kazarian in the first place. You put the belt on the guy who's in the most high profile matches and feuds. Maybe I'll change my mind, but I see this as being a really stupid move by PWG. Good match, but poor choice for a winner. 3 1/2 Stars.
To wrap up the DVD, one of the extras:
[video]http://youtu.be/mGMc7WbQSic[/video]
In just mere seconds, Ricky Reyes shows more personality than in his entire stint with ROH.:
Overall
Well, it's not as high profile nor are the best matches as good as the best from Night 1, however; Night 2 was still a pretty decent show. Chris Hero virtually produces the best match of the night all on his own. Super Dragon wraps up his title reign with the third straight good title defense. Aerial Xpress, Human Tornado and El Generico brings the entertainment for their six man. You have the (At the time) big moment of Frankie Kazarian leaving for the WWE, while spotlighting the big feud with Kazarian vs Arrogance/Ryan. With the introduction of Petey Williams and Chris Sabin on Night 1, the pre-Dynasty trio has another feud to keep themselves busy while Arrogance still has AXP on the back burner. I'd rank Night 1 as the best show of the year thus far, but Night 2 isn't too far behind Card Subject to Change.
Worth Checking Out
Chris Hero vs Christopher Daniels
Oreo Xpress vs Los Luchas and El Generico (At least for Generico and Tornado dancing)
Super Dragon vs AJ Styles
Avoid
Davey Richards vs Ricky Reyes vs Puma vs Ronin
Jonny Storm vs Kevin Steen (So many better Steen matches)
8 Man Tag - Fun for an eight man, but nothing special. Davey Richards looked good in his debut.
Chris Hero vs Chris Sabin - Really good match with both men working over a body part of another. 3 1/2 Stars.
Johnny Storm vs Petey Williams - Petey's PWG debut. Jonny Storm flat out sucks.
Havana Pitbulls vs Puma and Dragon Soldier B - Perkin's return to PWG is wasted with Dragon Soldier B dragging down a match the night before ruining ROH's Juniors Tournament.
Bryan Danielson vs James Gibson - Forgotten due to the ROH match several matches later. A damn great match though. 4 Stars.
AXP and Frankie Kazarian vs Arrogance and Joey Ryan - A bit sloppy, but fun six man tag that was all about storylines. 3 1/4 Stars.
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Fine match, but it can't compare to their TNA matches. Just another example of Styles not putting in as much effort as he does in TNA.
Super Dragon vs El Generico vs Kevin Steen - PWG Title - For a triple threat, it's fine enough. However, it's not nearly as good as Steen vs Dragon from Ernest P. Worrel Memorial from the previous show. 3 1/4 Stars.
----
All Star Weekend 1 Night Two
April 2, 2005
Ricky Reyes vs Davey Richards vs Ronin vs Puma
Puma and Reyes goes right at it to play off of their match the previous night. Kind of weird since Perkins and Reyes are training buddies. Davey steals a pinfall on Ronin to eliminate him after less than three minutes. Davey only lasts a couple more minutes before tapping to Perkin's Figure Four Deathlock. Reyes and Puma has a sloppy, but a decent encounter. Reyes gets the win with a brainbuster. Perkins, how had been 6-0 before taking a break from PWG returns and immediately goes 0-2. Drop the mask already, Perkins. For an opener, this wasn't too good, despite the talent. It was mostly just random fighting for eight minutes. Had it not been eliminations, it may have been okay. But instead it was three incredibly short matches combined into one. 1 1/2 Stars.
Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Disco Machine and Excalibur
Now this is more like it. With four less than hot talents, they make it worth checking out due to the feud based on Talwar and Bomberry turning on Team SBS a couple shows ago. For the talent involved, it's a really good match without many spots being blown. Excalibur hits a nice piledriver on Bomberry to pick up the win. 2 3/4 Stars.
Petey Williams vs Joey Ryan w/Arrogance
Gotta love simple booking. After the six man tag on Night 1, Ryan and Arrogance continued the beat down on Frankie Kazarian until Kazarian's fellow TNA buddies, Petey Williams and Chris Sabin ran out for the save. Arrogance distracts Petey early on until new PWG commissioner, So Cal Val, forces them to the back. A lot of solid arm work by Ryan with Petey selling it. That being said, I wasn't too into this match. Ryan looks good with really getting over his Technical Wizard character, but that doesn't mean the match is very exciting. Petey gets the win with the Canadian Destroyer and all I can think of is "Why?" 2 1/2 Stars.
Oreo Express w/Dino Winwood vs El Generico and Los Luchas
Oreo Express is the one night pairing of Scorpio Sky with his two tag partners, Quicksilver and Human Tornado. Obviously, the name stems from how the trio looks when Quicksilver is standing in between the others. The match starts off with a dance off between Tornado and Generico. Great comedy stuff. The match that follows has a mixture of comedy and big time spots. If there was one problem, it's that there wasn't a story. Instead, it was a lot of stalling in between the spots before the all out finisher ending. For the position on the card, it's perfectly acceptable and even good. However, some simple storytelling could have bumped it up into a PWG MOTYC territory. It's worth noting that the first interaction between Generico and Tornado in a PWG ring is full of magic and potential. El Generico gets the pin on Quicksilver following a brainbuster. Somehow, Los fuckin' Luchas has two wins over Dark and Lovely. There is no God. 3 1/2 Stars.
After the match, Dino Winwood leads the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Scorpio Sky. Fun little moment.
Christopher Daniels (c) vs Chris Hero - TNA X-Division Title
This was extremely early in Daniels' first X-Division title reign. His first PPV title defense wouldn't be for another few weeks at Lockdown. Similarly to Hero's match against Chris Sabin on the previous night, it's all about Hero having a body part worked over. Hero sells it well enough that I begin to wonder why he was never signed by TNA. Especially watching these older matches, Hero had some real talent. It's not as if Hero magically acquired talent in 2010. Since Daniels is playing the role of the babyface, he's just blending into the match and isn't nearly as memorable as he was at Ernest P. Worrel Memorial. Hero's knee problem comes back to haunt him as he tries to finish Daniels off with a double stomp from the top rope. Daniels moves out of the way, causing Hero to be in immense pain. With the injury distracting Hero, Daniels easily puts him away with Angel's Wings. As great as this match was, it's ALL because of Hero. 3 3/4 Stars.
Kevin Steen vs Jonny Storm
Outside of Arrogance, Steen is my favorite thing going in PWG at this time. So why are you wasting him on a complete loser like Storm? Thanks to Steen's usual antics, this wasn't so bad. However, thanks to Mr. Botchy, Jonny Storm, it's my least favorite Steen PWG match thus far. They at least has the sense to have Steen with the Package Piledriver. 2 1/2 Stars.
Arrogance (c) w/Joey Ryan vs Frankie Kazarian and Chris Sabin w/Petey Williams - PWG Tag Team Titles
Kazarian's last PWG match before heading to the WWE. Fairly short without much to it besides the normal Arrogance spots. Both Petey and Joey interferes behind the ref's back. Scott Lost picks up the win on Kazarian with a roll up. It's nothing to go out of your way to see, but it is better than Kazarian and Ryan vs Arrogance. 3 Stars.
After the match, the ring fills up with wrestlers saying goodbye to Kazarian. Included are Christopher Daniels, Jon Ian and Excalibur all saying kind words. In a moment that I hate, Joey Ryan is one of the ones that also speaks highly of Kazarian as well. I get that it's a farewell moment, but don't break kayfabe right after the match ended. Kazarian and Ryan could have had their moment backstage. Right before Kazarian gives his speech, a fan shouts out "See you at the next Wrestlemania!" Heh. What a moron. This segment feels especially weird considering how Kazarian's WWE run would go. First, while in OVW, Kazarian would return three shows later to challenge for the PWG title. By BOLA time in September, Kazarian was back on the PWG roster full time. I really don't feel as if Kazarian ever found his place after winning the PWG title for a second time. The worst part about Kazarian leaving at this point was that we never got to see a Kazarian vs Joey Ryan match. Sure, we eventually saw it after Kazarian returned, but it's not the same.
Super Dragon (c) vs AJ Styles - PWG World Title
Styles won this shot by pinning Samoa Joe the previous night. I suppose this would be a dream match for some people. Despite going nearly twenty minutes, they manage to keep my interest the entire ways through. Dragon hits one of his trademark dives to the outside on Styles, but the momentum sends him head first into the wall. It's shots like that is why Dragon's no longer wrestling today. The final few minutes are particularly exciting without even being finisher reliant. The end comes with Dragon missing his top rope "Watch me twist a thousand times" splash. That allows Styles to hit a mean looking discus lariat that folds Dragon over to get the victory and become the NEW PWG World Champion. I don't "Get" the point of the title change. After wasting Dragon during most of his title reign, he finally has something going on. The biggest PWG feud of the year is literally about to really heat up and Dragon will be at the center of it. So PWG decides to take the belt off of him? For fucks sake, it's the very reason why I wanted PWG to give him the belt over Kazarian in the first place. You put the belt on the guy who's in the most high profile matches and feuds. Maybe I'll change my mind, but I see this as being a really stupid move by PWG. Good match, but poor choice for a winner. 3 1/2 Stars.
To wrap up the DVD, one of the extras:
[video]http://youtu.be/mGMc7WbQSic[/video]
In just mere seconds, Ricky Reyes shows more personality than in his entire stint with ROH.
:Overall
Well, it's not as high profile nor are the best matches as good as the best from Night 1, however; Night 2 was still a pretty decent show. Chris Hero virtually produces the best match of the night all on his own. Super Dragon wraps up his title reign with the third straight good title defense. Aerial Xpress, Human Tornado and El Generico brings the entertainment for their six man. You have the (At the time) big moment of Frankie Kazarian leaving for the WWE, while spotlighting the big feud with Kazarian vs Arrogance/Ryan. With the introduction of Petey Williams and Chris Sabin on Night 1, the pre-Dynasty trio has another feud to keep themselves busy while Arrogance still has AXP on the back burner. I'd rank Night 1 as the best show of the year thus far, but Night 2 isn't too far behind Card Subject to Change.
Worth Checking Out
Chris Hero vs Christopher Daniels
Oreo Xpress vs Los Luchas and El Generico (At least for Generico and Tornado dancing)
Super Dragon vs AJ Styles
Avoid
Davey Richards vs Ricky Reyes vs Puma vs Ronin
Jonny Storm vs Kevin Steen (So many better Steen matches)
Jason Takes PWG
May 13, 2005
Human Tornado w/Sarieha vs El Generico
I have no idea who Sarieha is, but she's pretty hot. This happens to be the first show with Rick Knox's arm in a cast. It seemed like he had a cast or tape around his left hand forever. They start out with a super pose down. It's funny, but not nearly as good as their dance off from ASW Night 2. Highlight of the match occurs when Tornado bitch slaps Generico and Generico oversells it so much that Shawn Michaels couldn't even top it at Summerslam 2005. Sarieha plays the role of Debra by distracting Generico with her looks while she's on the apron. To take it one step further, she hits a Bronco Buster on Generico when the ref isn't looking. Generico uses all of his strength to keep her on him though.: Generico manages to block a DND and get the win following a brainbuster. The match was fine, but Sarieha just doesn't work with a babyface Tornado. Distracting the face and attacking them? That's straight up heel tactics. She would have worked fine with Tornado in 2007/2008, but she feels out of place at this point. Tornado's much better off with a Candice LaRae, someone who's willing to mix it up when Tornado's heel opponent is cheating. Remove Sarieha and I imagine the match would have been better. Still, the comedy was gold. 2 1/2 Stars.
Ricky Reyes vs NOSAWA
This can't be too long after NOSAWA stopped working for TNA. NOSAWA actually debuted for PWG back on the second show as part of the two night tournament to crown the first PWG champion. Not sure what happened, but this was originally supposed to be Puma vs Reyes. NOSAWA is a really unique sort of wrestler. I can't tell if he's doing comedy or if he's just very eccentric. Eventually, NOSAWA starts doing famous wrestler's holds after he says their name. This gets the crowd into it by yelling out random names. Benoit, Hart and Tajiri are all named. NOSAWA turns down the Tarantula sadly. After a fan yells out Cena, NOSAWA does the "You Can't See Me" gesture, but Reyes counters the FU into a body scissors Dragon Sleeper to force NOSAWA to tap out. If you don't like NOSAWA, this match isn't for you as he's the one doing 90% of the work. However, I found it fun and the finish of NOSAWA ****ing around too much and Reyes making him pay for it smartly done. The right guy went over. 3 Stars.
Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood vs Ballard Brothers vs Hook Bomberry and Top Gun Talwar
Los Luchas were also supposed to be in this, but they no-showed like usual. I wonder who's no-showed more? Briscoes or Los Luchas? This was exactly what AXP needed. They're able to beat two established heel teams to get another win to rebound from a lackluster year (In terms of wins/losses) thus far in 2005. Tons of spots with only Bomberry looking bad. I'm not a Hook fan, but I know he's capable of better than this. One highlight spot came when Shannon Ballard was spinning Top Gun (Maybe Bomberry) around and Scorpio Sky drop kicked Top Gun's head as he spun around. Essentially, it was the KRS before the Kings of Wrestling even teamed up (Don't quote me, I know they started teaming right around this time period). AXP gets the win with their low dropkick/piledriver combo. Pretty fun match. 3 1/4 Stars.
Kevin Steen vs Sexxxy Eddy
I can't say I know too much about Eddy other that he wrestled Steen a lot in various promotions. He looks like the bastard offspring of Alberto Del Rio and Alex Shelley. As always, Steen steals the show with his antics. While Eddy has Steen in a headlock* "Why don't you use you brain size now?!" *Steen eye pokes Eddy and gets out of the headlock*: If the idea was to debut Eddy and make me want to see him again, they failed. That's oddly the problem with Steen at this point. He's too entertaining. If you're a marginal worker and entertainer, you're not going to get over while working with Steen. Steen gets the win with a weird head trapped Alley Oop called the Steenalizer. It's about as awesome as Steen always is. At 15 minutes, the match feels too long for mostly just a Steen showcase. Still, it's better than Steen vs Jonny Storm.2 3/4 Stars.
Super Dragon and Excalibur comes out. Excalibur is sick of the fake red Super Dragon. He blames Dragon losing the belt to Styles due to being distracted with all of the mind games from the red Super Dragon. It ends tonight though. Excalibur challenges the red Super Dragon to face the real Super Dragon in a Guerrilla Warfare match. As Dragon gets ready for his match, Excalibur turns on Dragon. Dragon is laid out with a double under hook piledriver. Once again on the mic, Excalibur blames Dragon for Excalibur being stuck in the opening match for months. PWG and the SBS has been more about Super Dragon and himself and Disco Machine. He knows who the red Super Dragon is, but he's going to accept the match for red Super Dragon, leading to...
Excalibur vs Super Dragon - Guerrilla Warfare Match
A brutal match that sees some wicked chair and ladder shots. If both men were able to leave this match without a concussion, I'll be amazed. If this had happened after the Benoit tragedy, people would be all up in arms about all of the unprotected chair spots. That being said, it is a pretty fun match without many down periods. It's spotty and the selling is never great, but it's that train wreck greatness that is what Guerrilla Warfare is all about. Once Super Dragon appears to have the match won with a top rope double stomp on Excalibur's head (Which was laying on an open chair), the red Super Dragon runs out and attacks Super Dragon. Red Super Dragon unmasks himself to be Kevin Steen~!!!!!1! Package Piledriver to Super Dragon. Steen helps Excalibur position Super Dragon on a table for another double under hook piledriver, but the table breaks apart while Dragon is lifted up. If you remember the iconic image of that happening to Kurt Angle and Triple H from Summerslam 2000, it's like that only so much scarier. Excalibur gets the biggest win of his career. If you're only going to watch on Excalibur singles match, make it this. Despite the flaws in the storytelling, it's still one hell of a fun match. 3 1/2 Stars.
Disco Machine runs out to look over Super Dragon. The SBS is now broken up into Super Dragon/Disco Machine and Kevin Steen/Excalibur. It's a small thing, but it naturally sets up a tag match for the next show.
Arrogance (c) w/Joey Ryan vs Disco Machine and Mr. Excitement - PWG Tag Team Titles
Chris Bosh is strangely over tonight. It's not as if Bosh isn't normally over, but rather the fans are like...REALLY into him. Some even has signs. Arrogance talks about how they ran Frankie Kazarian out of PWG. Bosh makes an eerie comment about being willing to give Kazarian another beating in six months after the WWE fires him. Granted, it didn't turn out exactly like that, but Kazarian would be back before then. Since Disco Machine was scheduled to team with Excalibur, he needs a new partner, bringing out the returning Mr. Excitement. Excitement's pretty entertaining. Back and forth match, that turns out far better than I expected. Joey Ryan interferes a lot, including holding Excitement back from breaking up the winning pinfall. Arrogance wins their eighth title defense. There's only two other PWG tag title reigns that has lasted longer. 2 3/4 Stars.
AJ Styles (c) vs Christopher Daniels (c) - PWG World Title/TNA X-Division Title Match
Both belts are on the line. In some ways, this is the perfect first defense for Styles. Daniels has been undefeated in singles matches thus far in 2005. His only loss came in the four way which he didn't even get pinned. Thanks to their feud in TNA being carried over into PWG, they also have that going for them. However, instead of having the classic they're capable of, they decided to go with the one hour draw. It ends up being such a boring match with very little actual action. At the end of the hour, there were two (!) attempts at a finisher. Daniels managed to hit his BME, but time ran out as Styles was struggling to hit the Styles Clash. Are we really supposed to believe that they'd only go for those big moves at the very end (It's 57 minutes before we see the BME) when they normally go for them within the first ten minutes? The match ends up with plenty of dead spots where they're noticeably just killing time. Remember all of those great headlocks in Joe vs Punk 1? When they somehow made headlocks exciting? These two managed to make much shorter ones loads duller. Despite being bigger stars, these two couldn't even come close to having as great of an hour long match as SoCal's Super Dragon and Joey Ryan. Hell, I'm not even a Dragon fan, yet it's still better than this.: This is my pick for the single most disappointing PWG title defense in history. Sure, there may be worst matches and it's not as if Joey Ryan didn't have his duds. However, they at least were short enough that you didn't feel as if you wasted your time. I'd rather watch a ****ty NXT Diva's match that goes for 3 minutes and every move is botched than watch this borefest again. 1 3/4 Stars.
NOW SOMEONE CHEER ME UP!
http://youtu.be/_fyeA80qnlA
Oh Dino...you know just what to do. <3
Overall
It shouldn't be surprising that this is a fairly lackluster show. Typically, the first show after a major show tends to be fairly low key. This is true for PWG, ROH or even the WWE. The undercard isn't bad though. Most of the matches are kept short and aren't negatives to the show. The main event ends the show on a severely sour note. This show would have turned out a lot better had they scrapped the main event and just had Super Dragon vs Excalibur close out the show. Despite the problems of the show, Excalibur/Dragon match and all of the events surrounding the angle makes this show worth checking out. Damn if they didn't make one of the biggest moments in the biggest angle of 2005 occur on a lame duck show. It's a smart strategy. You almost have to buy this show to see what happened. Before spending the bucks on it, wait a while until PWG gets around to creating PWG Sells Out Vol. 3. If Excalibur vs Dragon is on that (It should be), there isn't a single reason to watch this. At least for now, I'd rate this as the worst PWG show of 2005.
Worth Checking Out
Excalibur vs Super Dragon
Avoid
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels
May 13, 2005
Human Tornado w/Sarieha vs El Generico
I have no idea who Sarieha is, but she's pretty hot. This happens to be the first show with Rick Knox's arm in a cast. It seemed like he had a cast or tape around his left hand forever. They start out with a super pose down. It's funny, but not nearly as good as their dance off from ASW Night 2. Highlight of the match occurs when Tornado bitch slaps Generico and Generico oversells it so much that Shawn Michaels couldn't even top it at Summerslam 2005. Sarieha plays the role of Debra by distracting Generico with her looks while she's on the apron. To take it one step further, she hits a Bronco Buster on Generico when the ref isn't looking. Generico uses all of his strength to keep her on him though.
: Generico manages to block a DND and get the win following a brainbuster. The match was fine, but Sarieha just doesn't work with a babyface Tornado. Distracting the face and attacking them? That's straight up heel tactics. She would have worked fine with Tornado in 2007/2008, but she feels out of place at this point. Tornado's much better off with a Candice LaRae, someone who's willing to mix it up when Tornado's heel opponent is cheating. Remove Sarieha and I imagine the match would have been better. Still, the comedy was gold. 2 1/2 Stars.Ricky Reyes vs NOSAWA
This can't be too long after NOSAWA stopped working for TNA. NOSAWA actually debuted for PWG back on the second show as part of the two night tournament to crown the first PWG champion. Not sure what happened, but this was originally supposed to be Puma vs Reyes. NOSAWA is a really unique sort of wrestler. I can't tell if he's doing comedy or if he's just very eccentric. Eventually, NOSAWA starts doing famous wrestler's holds after he says their name. This gets the crowd into it by yelling out random names. Benoit, Hart and Tajiri are all named. NOSAWA turns down the Tarantula sadly. After a fan yells out Cena, NOSAWA does the "You Can't See Me" gesture, but Reyes counters the FU into a body scissors Dragon Sleeper to force NOSAWA to tap out. If you don't like NOSAWA, this match isn't for you as he's the one doing 90% of the work. However, I found it fun and the finish of NOSAWA ****ing around too much and Reyes making him pay for it smartly done. The right guy went over. 3 Stars.
Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood vs Ballard Brothers vs Hook Bomberry and Top Gun Talwar
Los Luchas were also supposed to be in this, but they no-showed like usual. I wonder who's no-showed more? Briscoes or Los Luchas? This was exactly what AXP needed. They're able to beat two established heel teams to get another win to rebound from a lackluster year (In terms of wins/losses) thus far in 2005. Tons of spots with only Bomberry looking bad. I'm not a Hook fan, but I know he's capable of better than this. One highlight spot came when Shannon Ballard was spinning Top Gun (Maybe Bomberry) around and Scorpio Sky drop kicked Top Gun's head as he spun around. Essentially, it was the KRS before the Kings of Wrestling even teamed up (Don't quote me, I know they started teaming right around this time period). AXP gets the win with their low dropkick/piledriver combo. Pretty fun match. 3 1/4 Stars.
Kevin Steen vs Sexxxy Eddy
I can't say I know too much about Eddy other that he wrestled Steen a lot in various promotions. He looks like the bastard offspring of Alberto Del Rio and Alex Shelley. As always, Steen steals the show with his antics. While Eddy has Steen in a headlock* "Why don't you use you brain size now?!" *Steen eye pokes Eddy and gets out of the headlock*
: If the idea was to debut Eddy and make me want to see him again, they failed. That's oddly the problem with Steen at this point. He's too entertaining. If you're a marginal worker and entertainer, you're not going to get over while working with Steen. Steen gets the win with a weird head trapped Alley Oop called the Steenalizer. It's about as awesome as Steen always is. At 15 minutes, the match feels too long for mostly just a Steen showcase. Still, it's better than Steen vs Jonny Storm.2 3/4 Stars.Super Dragon and Excalibur comes out. Excalibur is sick of the fake red Super Dragon. He blames Dragon losing the belt to Styles due to being distracted with all of the mind games from the red Super Dragon. It ends tonight though. Excalibur challenges the red Super Dragon to face the real Super Dragon in a Guerrilla Warfare match. As Dragon gets ready for his match, Excalibur turns on Dragon. Dragon is laid out with a double under hook piledriver. Once again on the mic, Excalibur blames Dragon for Excalibur being stuck in the opening match for months. PWG and the SBS has been more about Super Dragon and himself and Disco Machine. He knows who the red Super Dragon is, but he's going to accept the match for red Super Dragon, leading to...
Excalibur vs Super Dragon - Guerrilla Warfare Match
A brutal match that sees some wicked chair and ladder shots. If both men were able to leave this match without a concussion, I'll be amazed. If this had happened after the Benoit tragedy, people would be all up in arms about all of the unprotected chair spots. That being said, it is a pretty fun match without many down periods. It's spotty and the selling is never great, but it's that train wreck greatness that is what Guerrilla Warfare is all about. Once Super Dragon appears to have the match won with a top rope double stomp on Excalibur's head (Which was laying on an open chair), the red Super Dragon runs out and attacks Super Dragon. Red Super Dragon unmasks himself to be Kevin Steen~!!!!!1! Package Piledriver to Super Dragon. Steen helps Excalibur position Super Dragon on a table for another double under hook piledriver, but the table breaks apart while Dragon is lifted up. If you remember the iconic image of that happening to Kurt Angle and Triple H from Summerslam 2000, it's like that only so much scarier. Excalibur gets the biggest win of his career. If you're only going to watch on Excalibur singles match, make it this. Despite the flaws in the storytelling, it's still one hell of a fun match. 3 1/2 Stars.
Disco Machine runs out to look over Super Dragon. The SBS is now broken up into Super Dragon/Disco Machine and Kevin Steen/Excalibur. It's a small thing, but it naturally sets up a tag match for the next show.
Arrogance (c) w/Joey Ryan vs Disco Machine and Mr. Excitement - PWG Tag Team Titles
Chris Bosh is strangely over tonight. It's not as if Bosh isn't normally over, but rather the fans are like...REALLY into him. Some even has signs. Arrogance talks about how they ran Frankie Kazarian out of PWG. Bosh makes an eerie comment about being willing to give Kazarian another beating in six months after the WWE fires him. Granted, it didn't turn out exactly like that, but Kazarian would be back before then. Since Disco Machine was scheduled to team with Excalibur, he needs a new partner, bringing out the returning Mr. Excitement. Excitement's pretty entertaining. Back and forth match, that turns out far better than I expected. Joey Ryan interferes a lot, including holding Excitement back from breaking up the winning pinfall. Arrogance wins their eighth title defense. There's only two other PWG tag title reigns that has lasted longer. 2 3/4 Stars.
AJ Styles (c) vs Christopher Daniels (c) - PWG World Title/TNA X-Division Title Match
Both belts are on the line. In some ways, this is the perfect first defense for Styles. Daniels has been undefeated in singles matches thus far in 2005. His only loss came in the four way which he didn't even get pinned. Thanks to their feud in TNA being carried over into PWG, they also have that going for them. However, instead of having the classic they're capable of, they decided to go with the one hour draw. It ends up being such a boring match with very little actual action. At the end of the hour, there were two (!) attempts at a finisher. Daniels managed to hit his BME, but time ran out as Styles was struggling to hit the Styles Clash. Are we really supposed to believe that they'd only go for those big moves at the very end (It's 57 minutes before we see the BME) when they normally go for them within the first ten minutes? The match ends up with plenty of dead spots where they're noticeably just killing time. Remember all of those great headlocks in Joe vs Punk 1? When they somehow made headlocks exciting? These two managed to make much shorter ones loads duller. Despite being bigger stars, these two couldn't even come close to having as great of an hour long match as SoCal's Super Dragon and Joey Ryan. Hell, I'm not even a Dragon fan, yet it's still better than this.
: This is my pick for the single most disappointing PWG title defense in history. Sure, there may be worst matches and it's not as if Joey Ryan didn't have his duds. However, they at least were short enough that you didn't feel as if you wasted your time. I'd rather watch a ****ty NXT Diva's match that goes for 3 minutes and every move is botched than watch this borefest again. 1 3/4 Stars.NOW SOMEONE CHEER ME UP!
http://youtu.be/_fyeA80qnlA
Oh Dino...you know just what to do. <3
Overall
It shouldn't be surprising that this is a fairly lackluster show. Typically, the first show after a major show tends to be fairly low key. This is true for PWG, ROH or even the WWE. The undercard isn't bad though. Most of the matches are kept short and aren't negatives to the show. The main event ends the show on a severely sour note. This show would have turned out a lot better had they scrapped the main event and just had Super Dragon vs Excalibur close out the show. Despite the problems of the show, Excalibur/Dragon match and all of the events surrounding the angle makes this show worth checking out. Damn if they didn't make one of the biggest moments in the biggest angle of 2005 occur on a lame duck show. It's a smart strategy. You almost have to buy this show to see what happened. Before spending the bucks on it, wait a while until PWG gets around to creating PWG Sells Out Vol. 3. If Excalibur vs Dragon is on that (It should be), there isn't a single reason to watch this. At least for now, I'd rate this as the worst PWG show of 2005.
Worth Checking Out
Excalibur vs Super Dragon
Avoid
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels
Guitarmageddon
June 11, 2005
Arrogance (c) vs Hook Bomberry and Top Gun Talwar - PWG Tag Team Titles
Before the match, Bosh shows the fans the single most ugliest thing ever...a tiny Mexican flag. They promptly burn it with a match. Ha. Lost brings up the fact that he's been a PWG Tag Champion for a full year now (Counting his last reign with Ryan, since he never stopped being champion). Pretty impressive considering the fact that the company hasn't been around for two full years and the titles were only introduced seven months into the company. Bomberry and Talwar earned this shot by losing their last two matches. Yeah, I don't get how they're the number 1 contenders either. Pretty fun match with plenty of comedy, spots and nonstop action. My only problem was Rick Knox refusing to count for Top Gun covering Lost since Bosh was the legal man. Since when has that ever stopped PWG before? It seems like every tag match throws the legal man issue out the window. Arrogance picks up the win with the Hart Attack into the back breaker combo and Lost wrapping Hook into a sharpshooter. You can almost always count on Arrogance putting on a good match. 3 Stars.
Davey Richards vs Puma vs Human Tornado
Who would have thought back at the start of 2005 that Tornado and Davey would have much more successful PWG careers than Perkins? This is an elimination match, but unlike the last one at ASW Night 2, this is actually really good. Tornado brings the comedy while Puma and Richards has some awesome exchanges. Strangely, Puma breaks up the cover after Richards hit the shooting star press on Tornado. After a great final exchange, Puma pins Richards with a roll up. This means Richards has only lost two matches in PWG, both to Puma. Richards returns shortly after and pulls off the mask of Puma to reveal TJ Perkins. Granted, I wasn't watching at the time, but was this really a surprise? Richards stays at ringside cheering on Tornado, but Perkins easily beats Tornado with a 450 Splash. The second fall wasn't much outside of the angle, but the first fall was pretty awesome. It's the first time that Davey actually looks like a solid worker. I wouldn't call it a breakout match, but it did make me want to see Perkins vs Davey. With that, young Davey Richards now has his first program with the company. 3 1/4 Stars.
Joey Ryan vs Alex Shelley
Tons of mat wrestling and eventual arm work by Ryan on Shelley. The selling of Shelley is hit or miss though. He keeps going back to holding the arm, but he ignores it when he's hitting his moves. The big event in the match is all of the hard bumps Shelley took. Most of them didn't even look intentional. Alex had to wake up in the morning sore as hell. Shelley goes for a La Magistral cradle, but Ryan counters it with a pin with his feet on the ropes. Despite a few flaws, it was easily Shelley's best match since his PWG debut. Meanwhile, Joey's Technical Wizard gimmick gains some credibility. 3 1/2 Stars.
Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood vs Los Luchas
Winners get the next tag title shot. Better than your typical Los Luchas match with very few blown spots. It's just as I'm thinking that that Zokre botches the hell out of a dropkick/moonsault combo. Oh Zokre, you fucking suck.: The good matches just keep on coming. AXP gets the win following a springboard version of their dropkick/piledriver combo. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Arrogance comes out to argue having to defend the belts against AXP for a third. However, they have an idea. If AXP are willing to put their masks on the line as well, the match is on. AXP agrees and a huge match for the first night of the 2nd Anniversary Show is made.
AJ Styles (c) vs James Gibson - NWA/PWG World Title
Seriously, why bother making this for the NWA title as well? Even though Gibson had a very small chance of winning the match due to only working PWG once before, it's pretty obvious he won't be winning now. It's a way of making the match feel more important, but is it worth eliminating any doubt of the outcome? Despite the slow start, it ends up being a pretty great match. Styles works over the left arm while Gibson works on the midsection. Gibson in 2005 was great enough to carry Styles to a good match, despite AJ's tendency of phoning it in on non-TNA shows. The ending sequence of counters after counters before Styles counters into a Styles Clash was a pretty damn fun ending. It's just another day for Gibson though in his amazing 2005. Much better Styles title defense than the previous show. 3 3/4 Stars.
Joey Ryan comes out to talk about Mr. Excitement and how he attacked Joey at the end of the tag title match between Arrogance vs Disco/Excitement a couple shows ago. He challenges Excitement to one last match at the 2nd Anniversary show. Mr. Excitement comes out and talks...forever. He gets in a few good zingers about how Ryan was replaced by Bosh and now is Arrogance's bitch, but it just goes on for too long. I like the idea of hyping up another match for the anniversary show, but you don't need to make it last so long.
Christopher Daniels (c) vs El Generico - TNA X-Division Title
Similarly to AJ's deal, having Daniels defend a TNA title leaves little question to the winner. However, Daniels has been able to have some good matches while defending the belt. Hell, compare these X-Division Title matches to the ones he had on TNA PPV and the PWG ones are typically better. Good match, but the lack of comedy disappointed me some. Generico was left getting his ass kicked for a good deal of the match. It makes me wonder why booking Generico if all he's going to do is sell? I probably would have thrown on another 1/2 star had Generico gotten in a little more offense. Eh, it's still a good match, despite not being as good as it could have been. 3 Stars.
Excalibur cuts a pre-match promo where he once again talks about his reasons for turning on Super Dragon. Dragon's selfish and kept Disco and himself down...blah blah blah. The open invitation for Disco Machine to join himself and Kevin Steen as the new SBS is still out there though. The promo's fine, but when you've heard the same thing a few times in the last 24 hours, you don't care too much. Still, it's a good reminder for those fans who aren't watching the shows back-to-back.
Kevin Steen and Excalibur vs Super Dragon and Disco Machine
Well holy fuck, for a match with two guys with little talent (Disco and Excalibur) and another guy I'm not a big fan of (Dragon), this was pretty damn great. The best part? It's all about storytelling! Suck on that, Young Bucks. Kevin Steen is just an evil bastard, so he doesn't care about hurting Disco Machine. However, Excalibur still cares about his buddy, so he's reluctant to fight too hard against Disco at first. There's a moment early on when Steen has to tell Excalibur to do his share when he's in the ring with Disco. Super Dragon seems to have taken what Excalibur said to heart. As a result, he's going above and beyond allowing Disco to get time in the ring, even tagging out when Disco hasn't recovered all the way. Disco ends up playing a damn fine face-in-peril. However, near the end, he begins to enjoy the spotlight on himself. Even though he has a few chances to tag out, he chooses to stay in the match, to try and win it for himself and Dragon. After having to endure watching Disco valiantly getting his ass kicked, Dragon comes in the ring to pull Disco to their corner so Dragon can tag in. This is where the stories all come together. Everything Excalibur has been saying was head by Disco. Not only is Dragon forcing Disco to work so hard in a match against his best friend, but then he wants to steal the glory and get the pinfall? Something clicks in Disco's head with the realization that Excalibur's claims of Dragon only caring about Dragon were right. Disco turns on Super Dragon and throws him into the awaiting arms of Kevin Steen for a couple of Package Piledrivers to get the win. Forget about every other match Disco Machine has ever been in. THIS is his best performance ever. Yet another great chapter in the Steen/Dragon feud with all four guys pulling off their parts to perfection. While it won't be by the end of the year, for now it's the MOTY for PWG. 4 1/4 Stars.
After the match, The New SBS continues to attack Super Dragon until Human Tornado and El Generico makes the save. If you remember, Generico and Steen have had their problems in the past. Meanwhile, Generico and Tornado have formed a bond of sorts. So holy shit, it's even more smart storytelling! Excalibur gets on the mic and calls Generico a beaner and Tornado the N word a couple of times. He challenges the three of them to a match at the 2nd Anniversary Show.
Overall
After a disappointing Jason Takes PWG, PWG comes back in a huge way. With the exception of maybe Reason for the Season, this is PWG's best show up to this point. There isn't a single match under 3 stars, something that is unthinkable for PWG at this point. Hell, even modern PWG doesn't have that most of the time. You have three huge matches set-up for the first night of the 2nd Anniversary show. The PWG Title gets a good match, easily the best since Dragon/Steen back in March. There's the typical quality tag wrestling from Arrogance and Aerial Xpress. Joey Ryan gets in on the act with producing one of his best non-Dragon matches. A young Davey Richards now has a purpose with the feud against TJ Perkins. Finally, the main event produces the career bests of two of the wrestlers and the company's MOTY for now. If you're only going to own a few PWG DVD's, make this one of them. You can pick this up over at Highspots for 10 dollars.
Worth Checking Out
Davey Richards vs Puma vs Human Tornado (If you're a big Davey fan)
Joey Ryan vs Alex Shelley
AJ Styles vs James Gibson
Kevin Steen and Excalibur vs Super Dragon and Disco Machine
Avoid
N/A
Not buying this DVD
June 11, 2005
Arrogance (c) vs Hook Bomberry and Top Gun Talwar - PWG Tag Team Titles
Before the match, Bosh shows the fans the single most ugliest thing ever...a tiny Mexican flag. They promptly burn it with a match. Ha. Lost brings up the fact that he's been a PWG Tag Champion for a full year now (Counting his last reign with Ryan, since he never stopped being champion). Pretty impressive considering the fact that the company hasn't been around for two full years and the titles were only introduced seven months into the company. Bomberry and Talwar earned this shot by losing their last two matches. Yeah, I don't get how they're the number 1 contenders either. Pretty fun match with plenty of comedy, spots and nonstop action. My only problem was Rick Knox refusing to count for Top Gun covering Lost since Bosh was the legal man. Since when has that ever stopped PWG before? It seems like every tag match throws the legal man issue out the window. Arrogance picks up the win with the Hart Attack into the back breaker combo and Lost wrapping Hook into a sharpshooter. You can almost always count on Arrogance putting on a good match. 3 Stars.
Davey Richards vs Puma vs Human Tornado
Who would have thought back at the start of 2005 that Tornado and Davey would have much more successful PWG careers than Perkins? This is an elimination match, but unlike the last one at ASW Night 2, this is actually really good. Tornado brings the comedy while Puma and Richards has some awesome exchanges. Strangely, Puma breaks up the cover after Richards hit the shooting star press on Tornado. After a great final exchange, Puma pins Richards with a roll up. This means Richards has only lost two matches in PWG, both to Puma. Richards returns shortly after and pulls off the mask of Puma to reveal TJ Perkins. Granted, I wasn't watching at the time, but was this really a surprise? Richards stays at ringside cheering on Tornado, but Perkins easily beats Tornado with a 450 Splash. The second fall wasn't much outside of the angle, but the first fall was pretty awesome. It's the first time that Davey actually looks like a solid worker. I wouldn't call it a breakout match, but it did make me want to see Perkins vs Davey. With that, young Davey Richards now has his first program with the company. 3 1/4 Stars.
Joey Ryan vs Alex Shelley
Tons of mat wrestling and eventual arm work by Ryan on Shelley. The selling of Shelley is hit or miss though. He keeps going back to holding the arm, but he ignores it when he's hitting his moves. The big event in the match is all of the hard bumps Shelley took. Most of them didn't even look intentional. Alex had to wake up in the morning sore as hell. Shelley goes for a La Magistral cradle, but Ryan counters it with a pin with his feet on the ropes. Despite a few flaws, it was easily Shelley's best match since his PWG debut. Meanwhile, Joey's Technical Wizard gimmick gains some credibility. 3 1/2 Stars.
Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood vs Los Luchas
Winners get the next tag title shot. Better than your typical Los Luchas match with very few blown spots. It's just as I'm thinking that that Zokre botches the hell out of a dropkick/moonsault combo. Oh Zokre, you fucking suck.
: The good matches just keep on coming. AXP gets the win following a springboard version of their dropkick/piledriver combo. 3 1/4 Stars.After the match, Arrogance comes out to argue having to defend the belts against AXP for a third. However, they have an idea. If AXP are willing to put their masks on the line as well, the match is on. AXP agrees and a huge match for the first night of the 2nd Anniversary Show is made.
AJ Styles (c) vs James Gibson - NWA/PWG World Title
Seriously, why bother making this for the NWA title as well? Even though Gibson had a very small chance of winning the match due to only working PWG once before, it's pretty obvious he won't be winning now. It's a way of making the match feel more important, but is it worth eliminating any doubt of the outcome? Despite the slow start, it ends up being a pretty great match. Styles works over the left arm while Gibson works on the midsection. Gibson in 2005 was great enough to carry Styles to a good match, despite AJ's tendency of phoning it in on non-TNA shows. The ending sequence of counters after counters before Styles counters into a Styles Clash was a pretty damn fun ending. It's just another day for Gibson though in his amazing 2005. Much better Styles title defense than the previous show. 3 3/4 Stars.
Joey Ryan comes out to talk about Mr. Excitement and how he attacked Joey at the end of the tag title match between Arrogance vs Disco/Excitement a couple shows ago. He challenges Excitement to one last match at the 2nd Anniversary show. Mr. Excitement comes out and talks...forever. He gets in a few good zingers about how Ryan was replaced by Bosh and now is Arrogance's bitch, but it just goes on for too long. I like the idea of hyping up another match for the anniversary show, but you don't need to make it last so long.
Christopher Daniels (c) vs El Generico - TNA X-Division Title
Similarly to AJ's deal, having Daniels defend a TNA title leaves little question to the winner. However, Daniels has been able to have some good matches while defending the belt. Hell, compare these X-Division Title matches to the ones he had on TNA PPV and the PWG ones are typically better. Good match, but the lack of comedy disappointed me some. Generico was left getting his ass kicked for a good deal of the match. It makes me wonder why booking Generico if all he's going to do is sell? I probably would have thrown on another 1/2 star had Generico gotten in a little more offense. Eh, it's still a good match, despite not being as good as it could have been. 3 Stars.
Excalibur cuts a pre-match promo where he once again talks about his reasons for turning on Super Dragon. Dragon's selfish and kept Disco and himself down...blah blah blah. The open invitation for Disco Machine to join himself and Kevin Steen as the new SBS is still out there though. The promo's fine, but when you've heard the same thing a few times in the last 24 hours, you don't care too much. Still, it's a good reminder for those fans who aren't watching the shows back-to-back.
Kevin Steen and Excalibur vs Super Dragon and Disco Machine
Well holy fuck, for a match with two guys with little talent (Disco and Excalibur) and another guy I'm not a big fan of (Dragon), this was pretty damn great. The best part? It's all about storytelling! Suck on that, Young Bucks. Kevin Steen is just an evil bastard, so he doesn't care about hurting Disco Machine. However, Excalibur still cares about his buddy, so he's reluctant to fight too hard against Disco at first. There's a moment early on when Steen has to tell Excalibur to do his share when he's in the ring with Disco. Super Dragon seems to have taken what Excalibur said to heart. As a result, he's going above and beyond allowing Disco to get time in the ring, even tagging out when Disco hasn't recovered all the way. Disco ends up playing a damn fine face-in-peril. However, near the end, he begins to enjoy the spotlight on himself. Even though he has a few chances to tag out, he chooses to stay in the match, to try and win it for himself and Dragon. After having to endure watching Disco valiantly getting his ass kicked, Dragon comes in the ring to pull Disco to their corner so Dragon can tag in. This is where the stories all come together. Everything Excalibur has been saying was head by Disco. Not only is Dragon forcing Disco to work so hard in a match against his best friend, but then he wants to steal the glory and get the pinfall? Something clicks in Disco's head with the realization that Excalibur's claims of Dragon only caring about Dragon were right. Disco turns on Super Dragon and throws him into the awaiting arms of Kevin Steen for a couple of Package Piledrivers to get the win. Forget about every other match Disco Machine has ever been in. THIS is his best performance ever. Yet another great chapter in the Steen/Dragon feud with all four guys pulling off their parts to perfection. While it won't be by the end of the year, for now it's the MOTY for PWG. 4 1/4 Stars.
After the match, The New SBS continues to attack Super Dragon until Human Tornado and El Generico makes the save. If you remember, Generico and Steen have had their problems in the past. Meanwhile, Generico and Tornado have formed a bond of sorts. So holy shit, it's even more smart storytelling! Excalibur gets on the mic and calls Generico a beaner and Tornado the N word a couple of times. He challenges the three of them to a match at the 2nd Anniversary Show.
Overall
After a disappointing Jason Takes PWG, PWG comes back in a huge way. With the exception of maybe Reason for the Season, this is PWG's best show up to this point. There isn't a single match under 3 stars, something that is unthinkable for PWG at this point. Hell, even modern PWG doesn't have that most of the time. You have three huge matches set-up for the first night of the 2nd Anniversary show. The PWG Title gets a good match, easily the best since Dragon/Steen back in March. There's the typical quality tag wrestling from Arrogance and Aerial Xpress. Joey Ryan gets in on the act with producing one of his best non-Dragon matches. A young Davey Richards now has a purpose with the feud against TJ Perkins. Finally, the main event produces the career bests of two of the wrestlers and the company's MOTY for now. If you're only going to own a few PWG DVD's, make this one of them. You can pick this up over at Highspots for 10 dollars.
Worth Checking Out
Davey Richards vs Puma vs Human Tornado (If you're a big Davey fan)
Joey Ryan vs Alex Shelley
AJ Styles vs James Gibson
Kevin Steen and Excalibur vs Super Dragon and Disco Machine
Avoid
Not buying this DVD
I'm glad I finally understand the backstory with Joey Ryan's memory loss extra! At the same time though, SoCal Val was PWG Commissioner? Weird. The only reasons I can think of for the Styles title changes are they thought the Dragon angle didn't need the belt or they wanted to do something big to end ASW? Maybe to add to the big inter-promotional feud with Daniels? I also find the title weird since you say Styles usually phones it in when not wrestling for TNA.
You said at Ernest P. Worrel Memorial that PWG would've been stupid not to push Steen yet Red Super Dragon was already doing his thing before this, I guess PWG already planned on the Steen push but if he bombed in that match would the plans have changed for him do you think? Also, beardless Steen is weird and looks so young. Well, I guess he was but still... either way the gif reveal is awesome!
You said at Ernest P. Worrel Memorial that PWG would've been stupid not to push Steen yet Red Super Dragon was already doing his thing before this, I guess PWG already planned on the Steen push but if he bombed in that match would the plans have changed for him do you think? Also, beardless Steen is weird and looks so young. Well, I guess he was but still... either way the gif reveal is awesome!
For a very brief time. Prior to that (and I only cover this in a couple of reviews) she was the valet for AXP. It's kind of weird that her name is So Cal Val, but no one remembers her for her Socal wrestling days.
In theory, that makes sense. If there's ever been a guy in PWG that doesn't need the title, it's Super Dragon. He's the Undertaker of PWG. However, you do run into this problem where Super Dragon's feuds tend to take away attention from the PWG World Title. It was okay during the dual PWG 6/AXP and Pearce/Kazarian feuds since the latter lasted a good amount of time and made the title feel important. After that, the title struggled to be involved in it's own angles. To be completely honest, it wouldn't be until Joey Ryan won the belt (Late 2005) that the PWG title went back around the waist of a guy who could make the division important.
And maybe they wanted to add more to the lame Daniels/Styles feud, but there was already the X-Division and later the NWA World Title to feud over. The PWG title was never needed for Styles/Daniels.
Well, looking back, it was clear PWG had high hopes for Kevin Steen from his debut. I do wonder if it's possible that he wasn't always a lock for the Red Super Dragon. Based on the fact that Steen was loaded with personality and was over with the crowd, I doubt a bad match against Dragon at Ernest P. Worrell Memorial would have changed the decision to make him Red Super Dragon.
The 2nd Anniversary Show - Night One
July 9, 2005
Davey Richards vs Shannon Ballard
Davey's first one-on-one match in PWG. He's got a hair cut since the last show, so he looks like the Davey we'd all know until he shaved his head and wore the long tights. Speaking of different tights, Ballard has a pair of new short tights and completely did away with the Ballards white, yellow and blue look. Since he's wearing the knee brace, I finally know which Ballard is which. Davey's now working as a face, but ends up doing a great job. Ballard spends most of the match focusing on Davey's left shoulder/arm which Davey sells great. If you're not a fan of Davey these days because you think he doesn't sell, you should check this out. He's selling the arm so well that he's unable to hit certain moves. He tries to Irish Whip Ballard into the ropes, but his arm is too weak to pull him. It's all just great stuff. The match was shaping up to be a great hidden gem, but then the Shooting Star Press spot happened. I don't know who's fault it was, but they had a certain spot planned out. Davey goes for the Shooting Star Press, but Ballard catches him falling down to lock in the Crossface. Someone's timing was messed up and Ballard was on his feet before Davey had even jumped off of the top rope. Davey then tries to hit a standard Shooting Star Press when his opponent isn't even down on the mat anymore. Ballard locks in the Crossface, but the spot is blown and the match never regains the steam it had going. Davey continues to sell the arm well before finally winning with the D R Driver. The crowd was into it, they were really getting behind Davey, Davey's kicking and selling was good, but ****...that one spot really hurt it. Edit the spot out and I'll give it another 1/2 star. 3 Stars.
Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry w/Luscious vs Los Luchas
I don't believe Lucious is the former Prophecy member, rather just some former SoCal talent that used to manage the Ballard Brothers. I like the idea of this match. Both teams lost at the last show, so it's a way to get back into title contention. Despite a decent enough start, things went downhill quickly when all four men started to get involved. Blown spots, awkwardness and just a general "This sucks" feel. Luscious interferes a little, but she doesn't fit in with Hook and Top Gun. I know they're technically heels, but Talwar is too fun loving to be completely into it. Either way, this match sucks. Los Luchas gets the win after Zokre sunset flips Top Gun. Lame match with an even lamer ending. Worst PWG match of the year thus far. 1 1/2 Stars.
Mr. Excitement vs Joey Ryan
Seems a bit early to be doing this match, but whatever. Joey debuts some new gear including the epic Jedi robe. The crowd promptly chants "Butt pirate" upon seeing this new look. The belt does make him look like a pirate. Excitement hasn't worked a singles match in awhile, so it's nothing special. Excitement teases the use of the Exploder a few times before hitting it twice. Eventually, Arrogance comes down to distract the ref. Lost super kicks Excitement and pulls Joey on him. Excitement kicks out. Joey is given one of the new PWG tag titles to hit Excitement, but Excitement once again kicks out. Finally, Joey distracts the ref so Arrogance can hit their Northern Lights suplex into a back breaker finisher. Joey gets the win. If you've seen the average Joey PWG title defense, this is essentially just that. It's not horrible, but isn't anything special and it has plenty of interference to help Joey win. It's certainly better than the last match though. 2 Stars.
Ricky Reyes vs Petey Williams
The good thing is that Reyes almost always (Until recently due to being booked against poor talent or booking) a good match. The bad thing is that I can't remember anything about the matches once they're over. It's just good mind numbing TV that doesn't make you want to press the 'Chapter Skip' button. Reyes wins with his body scissors Dragon Sleeper. 2 3/4 Stars.
Super Dragon and 2 Skinny Black Guys vs Kevin Steen, Disco Machine and Excalibur - Elimination Match
Early on, it's all about the babyfaces. Disco Machine gets his ass kicked by all of the faces, playing a perfectly fine heel-in-peril. Steen gets his balls punished with a series of kicks and stomps. It's all great stuff. The match breaks down to a spotfest including an awesome triple dive from the faces. However, back in, Excalibur hits his weird top rope German Suplex where he remains sitting on the top rope to Super Dragon. Dragon is knocked out cold. Once they take down Generico, it's a good old fashion black beat down to Tornado. Disco Machine finally gets his moment in the spotlight by getting the pin on Tornado following his sit down choke slam. The match comes to a halt for a couple of minutes as Generico attends to the still out cold Super Dragon. Eventually, Dragon slowly starts to come to, so Generico rushes the ring to fight all three members of the New SBS. Dragon tries to help him and seemingly looks to be okay, but is quickly sent to the outside hurt again. This time, Steen lets Excalibur get his moment in the spotlight by eliminating Generico with the Tiger Driver '98. Despite dealing with a possible concussion (With Dragon, it may have even been legit.: ) Dragon bravely tries to fight all three members all by himself. In a great moment, Steen holds Excalibur back and yells at Disco Machine that "This is your moment!" letting Disco pummel a down Dragon all by himself. Steen then lets Excalibur join in with the beat down. Steen just comes off as such an evil cult-like genius. Steen hits the package piledriver and all three men cover Dragon to eliminate him. Damn, the New SBS comes off as so dominate. As the match went on, it was all about storytelling. Steen playing to the egos of Disco and Excalibur so they can feel as if they're finally being given the spotlight is an awesome sub angle. Dragon comes off as an epic babyface, despite injury, tried his best against large numbers. Finally, you have Dragon being able to find reliable partners, but it's still not enough to get the best of the SBS. It's a dark and depressing day if you're Dragon. This feud is just so ****ing awesome. 4 Stars.
Christopher Daniels (c) vs Chris Sabin - TNA X-Division Title
Although it's highly unlikely TNA will allow their title to change hands at a non-TNA show, PWG at least is smart enough to book Daniels to defend the title against another TNA wrestler. So it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. Early on, Sabin works over Daniels' arm, but it's forgotten as the match goes on. There's a little comedy thrown in during the middle stretch, but not enough to turn it into a comedic match. Sabin kicks out of a DVD and moves out of the way from the BME. At this point, Daniels is just trying to find any way to escape with the belt. This comes by way of a roll up with a handful of tights. The ref doesn't see it and Daniels once against retains the X-Division title in PWG. Enjoyable, but it can't touch Sabin's best match from July 2005 - vs Samoa Joe from TNA's No Surrender. 3 1/4 Stars.
Arrogance (c) vs Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood - PWG Tag Team Titles
If Aerial Xpress fails to win the belts, they'll be forced to remove their masks. It's also announced that there's no DQ's. Before the match, Scorpio Sky and Scott Lost has a shoving match. Lost shows early on what having knowledge of your opponents can do for you. During Scorpio's trademark drop kick spot, Lost counters it into a gut buster and then does the Scorpio pose. Awesome. Later on, they even incorporate the other major players of the feud by having Joey Ryan run out and super kicks Scorpio Sky. This brings in Dino Winwood to a big reaction. Ryan and Dino trades slaps before Dino power bombs Joey. Awesomex2. The great angle really kicks in when Quicksilver misses a dive to the outside. Chris Bosh nails him in the head with a chair while the other side of Quick's head was "Cushioned" with the ring post. That sends Quicksilver out of the match. From there, it's Scorpio's biggest moment in his career. He kicks out of EVERYTHING. Scorpio gets in a couple of long two counts, but he can't seem to get the win either. The final moments sees Scorpio hit with Arrogance's top move, the Hart Attack into Bosh's back breaker and Lost turning it into the Sharpshooter. The very move that forced SUPER DRAGON to tap out in Arrogance's first title defense together. However, before Lost can turn Scorpio over, Sky counters it into a small package to get the surprise pinfall to become the NEW PWG Tag Team Champions. Post-match events really help put this match over the top. It takes awhile for everyone to convince Bosh that they lost (His back was turned). However, he eventually gives his belt to Scorpio. Instead of doing the same, Lost nails Scorpio with it. Lost goes crazy, busting Sky open and ripping at the mask. Eventually, Joey Ryan and Chris Bosh holds Scorpio while Lost removes the mask of Scorpio. The story is topped off with Arrogance and Joey leaving while Scorpio is attended to by a bunch of guys. He throws off a towel, covering his face. Looking into his mask, Scorpio weeps, knowing that that part of his career is now over. Scott Lost raped him of his identity. The crowd chants loudly for Scorpio as he leaves bloody and assisted by Mr. Excitement. Hands down, my favorite PWG tag match ever. They couldn't have planned a better way to end Arrogance's long title reign. Slightly better than Dragon/Disco vs Steen/Excalibur. 4 1/4 Stars.
So Cal Val flirts with AJ Styles before she announces who his mystery opponent will be. The mic sucks, so I can't even hear what she's saying. His opponent is revealed to be WWE Superstar, Frankie Kazarian...
AJ Styles (c) vs Frankie Kazarian - PWG World Title
In theory, this is a perfect way to end night one of the anniversary show. Frankie's the first PWG champion and had never received a rematch after losing the belt to Super Dragon. Add in the fact that he's not supposed to even be able to work such shows, it has the special element as well. Finally, these two met in the main event of the very first PWG show. However, it fails in a huge way. For one, it's yet another lame duck Styles title defense. His first title defense was a dreadfully long one against Christopher Daniels while his second was in the midcard behind a TNA X-Division title match against James Gibson. Now, he's working a long match against someone who can't possibly win. Even worse, we've already seen two of the better matches of the year thus far tonight. This can't possibly end up living up to being worthy of the main event slot. The finish is what makes it such a pointless match. After over 21 minutes of boring fighting, it's a race back in the ring. Styles on the apron while Frankie's on his feet with enough energy to jump in the ring with a couple seconds left before reaching 20. Instead, he decides to hit Styles with a ****ty Wave of the Future to the floor so they both get counted out. It makes Kazarian look like a total moron for not trying to win. I'm guessing the one main condition for the WWE to allow Kazarian to work the show was that he didn't lose, but why book him in a match where the opponent can't lose either? For ****s sake, book him in a match against someone like Ricky Reyes or Petey Williams. They can lose while the PWG Title match can have a proper ending. How can PWG have such great ideas such as Dragon/Steen and Arrogance/AXP, yet fail so hard in the match that should be the most important? At this point, I'd rather have Top Gun Talwar as PWG Champion. Take the belt off of AJ! 2 Stars.
Overall
The undercard leaves a lot to be desired. With this being an anniversary show, it should be a great all around card. Having your last show be better isn't exactly a good thing. However, once the one hour mark comes and the six man match begins, things improve drastically. At the end, you have two PWG MOTYC's including one that is temporary the MOTY. As much as I hate to admit it, Super Dragon has been carrying these shows lately. Meanwhile, the show has my favorite tag match. As a result, it's worth checking out, regardless of how headache inducing the main event is. If PWG ever releases the six man match on a PWG Sells Out DVD set, they're going to have a difficult time getting anyone wanting to spend money on this show.
Worth Checking Out
Super Dragon and 2 Skinny Black Guys vs The New SBS
Arrogance vs Aerial Xpress
Avoid
Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Los Luchas
Frankie Kazarian vs AJ Styles
July 9, 2005
Davey Richards vs Shannon Ballard
Davey's first one-on-one match in PWG. He's got a hair cut since the last show, so he looks like the Davey we'd all know until he shaved his head and wore the long tights. Speaking of different tights, Ballard has a pair of new short tights and completely did away with the Ballards white, yellow and blue look. Since he's wearing the knee brace, I finally know which Ballard is which. Davey's now working as a face, but ends up doing a great job. Ballard spends most of the match focusing on Davey's left shoulder/arm which Davey sells great. If you're not a fan of Davey these days because you think he doesn't sell, you should check this out. He's selling the arm so well that he's unable to hit certain moves. He tries to Irish Whip Ballard into the ropes, but his arm is too weak to pull him. It's all just great stuff. The match was shaping up to be a great hidden gem, but then the Shooting Star Press spot happened. I don't know who's fault it was, but they had a certain spot planned out. Davey goes for the Shooting Star Press, but Ballard catches him falling down to lock in the Crossface. Someone's timing was messed up and Ballard was on his feet before Davey had even jumped off of the top rope. Davey then tries to hit a standard Shooting Star Press when his opponent isn't even down on the mat anymore. Ballard locks in the Crossface, but the spot is blown and the match never regains the steam it had going. Davey continues to sell the arm well before finally winning with the D R Driver. The crowd was into it, they were really getting behind Davey, Davey's kicking and selling was good, but ****...that one spot really hurt it. Edit the spot out and I'll give it another 1/2 star. 3 Stars.
Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry w/Luscious vs Los Luchas
I don't believe Lucious is the former Prophecy member, rather just some former SoCal talent that used to manage the Ballard Brothers. I like the idea of this match. Both teams lost at the last show, so it's a way to get back into title contention. Despite a decent enough start, things went downhill quickly when all four men started to get involved. Blown spots, awkwardness and just a general "This sucks" feel. Luscious interferes a little, but she doesn't fit in with Hook and Top Gun. I know they're technically heels, but Talwar is too fun loving to be completely into it. Either way, this match sucks. Los Luchas gets the win after Zokre sunset flips Top Gun. Lame match with an even lamer ending. Worst PWG match of the year thus far. 1 1/2 Stars.
Mr. Excitement vs Joey Ryan
Seems a bit early to be doing this match, but whatever. Joey debuts some new gear including the epic Jedi robe. The crowd promptly chants "Butt pirate" upon seeing this new look. The belt does make him look like a pirate. Excitement hasn't worked a singles match in awhile, so it's nothing special. Excitement teases the use of the Exploder a few times before hitting it twice. Eventually, Arrogance comes down to distract the ref. Lost super kicks Excitement and pulls Joey on him. Excitement kicks out. Joey is given one of the new PWG tag titles to hit Excitement, but Excitement once again kicks out. Finally, Joey distracts the ref so Arrogance can hit their Northern Lights suplex into a back breaker finisher. Joey gets the win. If you've seen the average Joey PWG title defense, this is essentially just that. It's not horrible, but isn't anything special and it has plenty of interference to help Joey win. It's certainly better than the last match though. 2 Stars.
Ricky Reyes vs Petey Williams
The good thing is that Reyes almost always (Until recently due to being booked against poor talent or booking) a good match. The bad thing is that I can't remember anything about the matches once they're over. It's just good mind numbing TV that doesn't make you want to press the 'Chapter Skip' button. Reyes wins with his body scissors Dragon Sleeper. 2 3/4 Stars.
Super Dragon and 2 Skinny Black Guys vs Kevin Steen, Disco Machine and Excalibur - Elimination Match
Early on, it's all about the babyfaces. Disco Machine gets his ass kicked by all of the faces, playing a perfectly fine heel-in-peril. Steen gets his balls punished with a series of kicks and stomps. It's all great stuff. The match breaks down to a spotfest including an awesome triple dive from the faces. However, back in, Excalibur hits his weird top rope German Suplex where he remains sitting on the top rope to Super Dragon. Dragon is knocked out cold. Once they take down Generico, it's a good old fashion black beat down to Tornado. Disco Machine finally gets his moment in the spotlight by getting the pin on Tornado following his sit down choke slam. The match comes to a halt for a couple of minutes as Generico attends to the still out cold Super Dragon. Eventually, Dragon slowly starts to come to, so Generico rushes the ring to fight all three members of the New SBS. Dragon tries to help him and seemingly looks to be okay, but is quickly sent to the outside hurt again. This time, Steen lets Excalibur get his moment in the spotlight by eliminating Generico with the Tiger Driver '98. Despite dealing with a possible concussion (With Dragon, it may have even been legit.
: ) Dragon bravely tries to fight all three members all by himself. In a great moment, Steen holds Excalibur back and yells at Disco Machine that "This is your moment!" letting Disco pummel a down Dragon all by himself. Steen then lets Excalibur join in with the beat down. Steen just comes off as such an evil cult-like genius. Steen hits the package piledriver and all three men cover Dragon to eliminate him. Damn, the New SBS comes off as so dominate. As the match went on, it was all about storytelling. Steen playing to the egos of Disco and Excalibur so they can feel as if they're finally being given the spotlight is an awesome sub angle. Dragon comes off as an epic babyface, despite injury, tried his best against large numbers. Finally, you have Dragon being able to find reliable partners, but it's still not enough to get the best of the SBS. It's a dark and depressing day if you're Dragon. This feud is just so ****ing awesome. 4 Stars.Christopher Daniels (c) vs Chris Sabin - TNA X-Division Title
Although it's highly unlikely TNA will allow their title to change hands at a non-TNA show, PWG at least is smart enough to book Daniels to defend the title against another TNA wrestler. So it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. Early on, Sabin works over Daniels' arm, but it's forgotten as the match goes on. There's a little comedy thrown in during the middle stretch, but not enough to turn it into a comedic match. Sabin kicks out of a DVD and moves out of the way from the BME. At this point, Daniels is just trying to find any way to escape with the belt. This comes by way of a roll up with a handful of tights. The ref doesn't see it and Daniels once against retains the X-Division title in PWG. Enjoyable, but it can't touch Sabin's best match from July 2005 - vs Samoa Joe from TNA's No Surrender. 3 1/4 Stars.
Arrogance (c) vs Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood - PWG Tag Team Titles
If Aerial Xpress fails to win the belts, they'll be forced to remove their masks. It's also announced that there's no DQ's. Before the match, Scorpio Sky and Scott Lost has a shoving match. Lost shows early on what having knowledge of your opponents can do for you. During Scorpio's trademark drop kick spot, Lost counters it into a gut buster and then does the Scorpio pose. Awesome. Later on, they even incorporate the other major players of the feud by having Joey Ryan run out and super kicks Scorpio Sky. This brings in Dino Winwood to a big reaction. Ryan and Dino trades slaps before Dino power bombs Joey. Awesomex2. The great angle really kicks in when Quicksilver misses a dive to the outside. Chris Bosh nails him in the head with a chair while the other side of Quick's head was "Cushioned" with the ring post. That sends Quicksilver out of the match. From there, it's Scorpio's biggest moment in his career. He kicks out of EVERYTHING. Scorpio gets in a couple of long two counts, but he can't seem to get the win either. The final moments sees Scorpio hit with Arrogance's top move, the Hart Attack into Bosh's back breaker and Lost turning it into the Sharpshooter. The very move that forced SUPER DRAGON to tap out in Arrogance's first title defense together. However, before Lost can turn Scorpio over, Sky counters it into a small package to get the surprise pinfall to become the NEW PWG Tag Team Champions. Post-match events really help put this match over the top. It takes awhile for everyone to convince Bosh that they lost (His back was turned). However, he eventually gives his belt to Scorpio. Instead of doing the same, Lost nails Scorpio with it. Lost goes crazy, busting Sky open and ripping at the mask. Eventually, Joey Ryan and Chris Bosh holds Scorpio while Lost removes the mask of Scorpio. The story is topped off with Arrogance and Joey leaving while Scorpio is attended to by a bunch of guys. He throws off a towel, covering his face. Looking into his mask, Scorpio weeps, knowing that that part of his career is now over. Scott Lost raped him of his identity. The crowd chants loudly for Scorpio as he leaves bloody and assisted by Mr. Excitement. Hands down, my favorite PWG tag match ever. They couldn't have planned a better way to end Arrogance's long title reign. Slightly better than Dragon/Disco vs Steen/Excalibur. 4 1/4 Stars.
So Cal Val flirts with AJ Styles before she announces who his mystery opponent will be. The mic sucks, so I can't even hear what she's saying. His opponent is revealed to be WWE Superstar, Frankie Kazarian...
AJ Styles (c) vs Frankie Kazarian - PWG World Title
In theory, this is a perfect way to end night one of the anniversary show. Frankie's the first PWG champion and had never received a rematch after losing the belt to Super Dragon. Add in the fact that he's not supposed to even be able to work such shows, it has the special element as well. Finally, these two met in the main event of the very first PWG show. However, it fails in a huge way. For one, it's yet another lame duck Styles title defense. His first title defense was a dreadfully long one against Christopher Daniels while his second was in the midcard behind a TNA X-Division title match against James Gibson. Now, he's working a long match against someone who can't possibly win. Even worse, we've already seen two of the better matches of the year thus far tonight. This can't possibly end up living up to being worthy of the main event slot. The finish is what makes it such a pointless match. After over 21 minutes of boring fighting, it's a race back in the ring. Styles on the apron while Frankie's on his feet with enough energy to jump in the ring with a couple seconds left before reaching 20. Instead, he decides to hit Styles with a ****ty Wave of the Future to the floor so they both get counted out. It makes Kazarian look like a total moron for not trying to win. I'm guessing the one main condition for the WWE to allow Kazarian to work the show was that he didn't lose, but why book him in a match where the opponent can't lose either? For ****s sake, book him in a match against someone like Ricky Reyes or Petey Williams. They can lose while the PWG Title match can have a proper ending. How can PWG have such great ideas such as Dragon/Steen and Arrogance/AXP, yet fail so hard in the match that should be the most important? At this point, I'd rather have Top Gun Talwar as PWG Champion. Take the belt off of AJ! 2 Stars.
Overall
The undercard leaves a lot to be desired. With this being an anniversary show, it should be a great all around card. Having your last show be better isn't exactly a good thing. However, once the one hour mark comes and the six man match begins, things improve drastically. At the end, you have two PWG MOTYC's including one that is temporary the MOTY. As much as I hate to admit it, Super Dragon has been carrying these shows lately. Meanwhile, the show has my favorite tag match. As a result, it's worth checking out, regardless of how headache inducing the main event is. If PWG ever releases the six man match on a PWG Sells Out DVD set, they're going to have a difficult time getting anyone wanting to spend money on this show.
Worth Checking Out
Super Dragon and 2 Skinny Black Guys vs The New SBS
Arrogance vs Aerial Xpress
Avoid
Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Los Luchas
Frankie Kazarian vs AJ Styles
The 2nd Anniversary Show - Night Two
July 10, 2005
Dino Winwood and Quicksilver opens up the show. Quick's okay after his chair shot from Bosh, but Scorpio Sky is nowhere to be found. Dino has yet to hear from him last night or today. As a result, he's going to take Scorpio's place in defending the tag titles tonight. So Cal Val comes out and I suddenly have problems understanding what's being said on the mic. Maybe last night's problems weren't actually mic problems, but rather So Cal Val shrieks on the mic. From what I gather, she refuses to let Dino take Scorpio's place since he's just a manager. As a result, she strips AXP of the PWG Tag Titles. This gets a big 'Bullshit' chant. I concur. Well, last night ended with a 'Bullshit' chant, might as well open up tonight with one. Since Quicksilver is signed to wrestle, Val has found him a new opponents...
Quicksilver w/Dino Winwood vs Ronin
Ugh. I could do without seeing Ronin ever again. Sadly, his big push is still to come. Quicksilver has a pretty amazing talent. Quick may not be a Bret Hart or a Ric Flair, but he's the horse whisperer of shitty PWG wrestlers. He had one of Joey Ryan's best title defenses and he somehow makes Ronin look like a halfway decent talent. The match goes on longer than it should have for someone as high up as Quicksilver against a lowcarder like Ronin. Quicksilver gets the win after using Ronin's own DVD. Fun opener, but couldn't they have made Quicksilver sell a little from the chair shot last night? 2 3/4 Stars.
Davey Richards vs TJ Perkins w/Rocky Romero
Stemming from the issue back at Guitarmageddon when Richards unmasked Perkins. Perkins doesn't even let Richards get in the ring during his entrance before diving through the ropes to him. They get over how it's a grudge match with neither guy not letting their intensity shown enough. The fan reaction for Davey is fairly interesting. At first, they're just as behind him as they were last night. However, as the match goes on, he plays a little more of the heel role. To me, it feels like PWG planned on him being a heel, but then he started to get cheers. So now he's sort of a tweener. Davey's anger over Perkins is carried over to Romero. They have a few interactions including Davey spitting at Romero. Perkins gets the surprise pin with a prawn hold. For what it was, it was good. Perkins was a good talent at the time, but you weren't going to get a great match. It does add a little build to a Richards/Romero future match. 2 3/4 Stars.
Joey Ryan and Scott Lost vs Petey Williams and Chris Sabin
Seems like forever ago, but this was originally built up back at ASW Night 1 when Petey and Sabin formed an unofficial alliance with Kazarian against Arrogance and Joey Ryan. Shame it didn't happen when Arrogance were still the champs. No idea why Bosh isn't wrestling, but it's still a pretty big test for Team TNA. Lost and Ryan hadn't teamed together in over 13 months. Early on, TNA works over a fun spot with Scott Lost where he gets an Atomic Drop several times by both guys. It's not long until all four men are in the ring battling it out. Eventually, Petey lays Lost out with the Canadian Destroyer to win the match. It's not a bad match, but they go to four men chaos far too soon. Booking wise, I have to question it. TNA just defeated one half of the (Then) longest reigning PWG tag champions and the only two time tag team champions (Who technically never lost the belts), wouldn't that make them the automatic number 1 contenders? It's worth noting that the fans really wanted to see Bosh. It's pretty clear that he's so fucking over, but the other two are still normal heels. 2 1/2 Stars.
Ricky Reyes w/Rocky Romero vs CM Punk
Punk was advertised as a mystery opponent. To say he's a better surprise than Kazarian on night one would be like saying Bret Hart was only a decent wrestler. To give you an idea of when this show aired, the night before was ROH's Escape From New York when Punk tore the house down with Roderick Strong to successfully defend the ROH title during his Summer of Punk. Why is Romero out for two matches to be there for his boys, but PWG can't find room to put him in a match? Ditch Ronin and throw Romero vs Quicksilver. That would have been a great match. A ROH style match with a lot of mat wrestling and zero comedy. Ricky works over the back for a little bit before ignoring it. Around the mid point, Punk survives the dreaded body scissors dragon sleeper that has garnered Reyes' several victories. At the very end, things get really good as both men get their second wind with a flurry of kicks and forearms. Sadly, it leads directly into the finish instead of another 10 minutes. Reyes tries to victory roll Punk, but Punk Owen Hart's that to get the pinfall win. This was pretty good, but I could have gone for an even longer match. 3 1/4 Stars.
Rocky Romero gets on the mic and announces that the previous match was probably CM Punk's final match in PWG. Punk gives a very brief farewell address by thanking the fans and telling them to stay tuned for the second half of the show. With as little as Punk did in PWG, this is more than enough. I like that Punk found time to wrestle one last match for PWG before leaving for the WWE.
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon - Number 1 Contender's Match
So much different from their first PWG match together. This wasn't about making Steen a star, but rather playing to the storyline. Since they hate each other so much, they don't go for any BS collar and elbow tie-up, instead, they take turns seeing who's the bigger man with forearms and slaps. Steen ends up dominating most of the match. Even though it's not uncommon for Dragon to be on the defensive (Which is stupid in most cases) it makes perfect sense here. Steen has gotten in his head so much that he can't even control the match. Near the end, he tries for a comeback, but after missing his twisting finisher from the top rope, Steen puts him away with a moonsault and a 450 splash. This was all about making it clear that Steen was in the lead of the feud. For the first time in PWG history, someone seemingly has Super Dragon's number. Not as good as their Ernest P. Worrel match, but yet another good match between the two. 3 1/2 Stars.
2 Skinny Black Guys vs The New SBS vs Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Los Luchas - Elimination Match
Top Gun and Hook really needs a tag name. This is the first match that Generico/Tornado are officially called 2 Skinny Black Guys. Jon Ian announces that the winners will face Arrogance at the next show to crown the new PWG tag champions. I love the booking of Excalibur and Disco in this match. Most of the time, they just hang out on the apron and wait for their moment to pick up the scraps and eliminate a team. They eventually eliminate Los Luchas, but not before Los Luchas eliminate Bomberry/Talwar with their double flippy finisher. The first two eliminations are meaningless though. The real story is between 2SBG and SBS. They end up having a good last few minutes, although they should have been given more of the overall time to have the third fall. Tons of near falls with everyone gets in their moves. Generico manages to catch Disco Machine on the top rope to nail the top rope brainbuster to get the win. If there's one issue, it's that three different teams got a fall. Wouldn't it have been better to give 2SBG a couple of pinfalls leading into their big title match at the next show? 3 1/4 Stars.
AJ Styles (c) vs Christopher Daniels vs James Gibson - PWG World Title
As much as I love Gibson, why is he in this match? He had a title match a couple shows ago and he cleanly lost. We could have had Rocky Romero vs James Gibson, which if it's anywhere near as good as their ROH matches, would have been the best match of the night. Then again, I don't want to see another singles match between Styles and Daniels in PWG. Really short match though, I would have been fine with it receiving another five minutes. It would have still been under 20 minutes. There's the usual one-on-one fighting that most triple threats has, but when all three men are active, it's a great fight. The highlight of the match was all of the unintentional double team moves. For example, Gibson would monkey flip Styles, whose momentum would send him flying into Daniels, giving him a head scissors on the way down. Not surprisingly, the one-on-one action between Daniels and Styles is awkward and sloppy at times. The finish is a thing of beauty though. Daniels has Gibson set-up for the Angel's Wings. Styles sunset flips Daniels. The momentum of Daniels falling backwards sends Gibson flying in an unintentional butterfly suplex. Styles hangs on to Daniels legs and stands up right into the Styles' Clash to get the pinfall victory. I may hate Styles' title reign, but that's a hell of a way to successfully defend the belt. Given more time, this could have been the match of the night. For what it was, it was an enjoyable title defense for Styles though. 3 1/4 Stars.
Overall
Maybe having two nights for the 2nd Anniversary wasn't necessary. It's not a bad show, but it can't compare to the two 4+ star matches on Night 1. Super Dragon once again has the MOTN while Styles' title reign continues to not steal the show. On the plus side, now that Styles pinned Daniels, that ends the only story that Styles had as champion. So the title reign is ready to be ended (Thank God). I wish I knew why Rocky Romero was here tonight without wrestling. Romero vs Quicksilver, Gibson or Punk could have all been great. Despite having yet another really good match from Super Dragon/Kevin Steen, they've had better ones. Sadly, there goes your main reason to check out this show. If you watch one 2nd Anniversary Show, make it night 1.
Worth Checking Out
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon
Avoid
N/A (There's just not much reason to watch the show though)
July 10, 2005
Dino Winwood and Quicksilver opens up the show. Quick's okay after his chair shot from Bosh, but Scorpio Sky is nowhere to be found. Dino has yet to hear from him last night or today. As a result, he's going to take Scorpio's place in defending the tag titles tonight. So Cal Val comes out and I suddenly have problems understanding what's being said on the mic. Maybe last night's problems weren't actually mic problems, but rather So Cal Val shrieks on the mic. From what I gather, she refuses to let Dino take Scorpio's place since he's just a manager. As a result, she strips AXP of the PWG Tag Titles. This gets a big 'Bullshit' chant. I concur. Well, last night ended with a 'Bullshit' chant, might as well open up tonight with one. Since Quicksilver is signed to wrestle, Val has found him a new opponents...
Quicksilver w/Dino Winwood vs Ronin
Ugh. I could do without seeing Ronin ever again. Sadly, his big push is still to come. Quicksilver has a pretty amazing talent. Quick may not be a Bret Hart or a Ric Flair, but he's the horse whisperer of shitty PWG wrestlers. He had one of Joey Ryan's best title defenses and he somehow makes Ronin look like a halfway decent talent. The match goes on longer than it should have for someone as high up as Quicksilver against a lowcarder like Ronin. Quicksilver gets the win after using Ronin's own DVD. Fun opener, but couldn't they have made Quicksilver sell a little from the chair shot last night? 2 3/4 Stars.
Davey Richards vs TJ Perkins w/Rocky Romero
Stemming from the issue back at Guitarmageddon when Richards unmasked Perkins. Perkins doesn't even let Richards get in the ring during his entrance before diving through the ropes to him. They get over how it's a grudge match with neither guy not letting their intensity shown enough. The fan reaction for Davey is fairly interesting. At first, they're just as behind him as they were last night. However, as the match goes on, he plays a little more of the heel role. To me, it feels like PWG planned on him being a heel, but then he started to get cheers. So now he's sort of a tweener. Davey's anger over Perkins is carried over to Romero. They have a few interactions including Davey spitting at Romero. Perkins gets the surprise pin with a prawn hold. For what it was, it was good. Perkins was a good talent at the time, but you weren't going to get a great match. It does add a little build to a Richards/Romero future match. 2 3/4 Stars.
Joey Ryan and Scott Lost vs Petey Williams and Chris Sabin
Seems like forever ago, but this was originally built up back at ASW Night 1 when Petey and Sabin formed an unofficial alliance with Kazarian against Arrogance and Joey Ryan. Shame it didn't happen when Arrogance were still the champs. No idea why Bosh isn't wrestling, but it's still a pretty big test for Team TNA. Lost and Ryan hadn't teamed together in over 13 months. Early on, TNA works over a fun spot with Scott Lost where he gets an Atomic Drop several times by both guys. It's not long until all four men are in the ring battling it out. Eventually, Petey lays Lost out with the Canadian Destroyer to win the match. It's not a bad match, but they go to four men chaos far too soon. Booking wise, I have to question it. TNA just defeated one half of the (Then) longest reigning PWG tag champions and the only two time tag team champions (Who technically never lost the belts), wouldn't that make them the automatic number 1 contenders? It's worth noting that the fans really wanted to see Bosh. It's pretty clear that he's so fucking over, but the other two are still normal heels. 2 1/2 Stars.
Ricky Reyes w/Rocky Romero vs CM Punk
Punk was advertised as a mystery opponent. To say he's a better surprise than Kazarian on night one would be like saying Bret Hart was only a decent wrestler. To give you an idea of when this show aired, the night before was ROH's Escape From New York when Punk tore the house down with Roderick Strong to successfully defend the ROH title during his Summer of Punk. Why is Romero out for two matches to be there for his boys, but PWG can't find room to put him in a match? Ditch Ronin and throw Romero vs Quicksilver. That would have been a great match. A ROH style match with a lot of mat wrestling and zero comedy. Ricky works over the back for a little bit before ignoring it. Around the mid point, Punk survives the dreaded body scissors dragon sleeper that has garnered Reyes' several victories. At the very end, things get really good as both men get their second wind with a flurry of kicks and forearms. Sadly, it leads directly into the finish instead of another 10 minutes. Reyes tries to victory roll Punk, but Punk Owen Hart's that to get the pinfall win. This was pretty good, but I could have gone for an even longer match. 3 1/4 Stars.
Rocky Romero gets on the mic and announces that the previous match was probably CM Punk's final match in PWG. Punk gives a very brief farewell address by thanking the fans and telling them to stay tuned for the second half of the show. With as little as Punk did in PWG, this is more than enough. I like that Punk found time to wrestle one last match for PWG before leaving for the WWE.
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon - Number 1 Contender's Match
So much different from their first PWG match together. This wasn't about making Steen a star, but rather playing to the storyline. Since they hate each other so much, they don't go for any BS collar and elbow tie-up, instead, they take turns seeing who's the bigger man with forearms and slaps. Steen ends up dominating most of the match. Even though it's not uncommon for Dragon to be on the defensive (Which is stupid in most cases) it makes perfect sense here. Steen has gotten in his head so much that he can't even control the match. Near the end, he tries for a comeback, but after missing his twisting finisher from the top rope, Steen puts him away with a moonsault and a 450 splash. This was all about making it clear that Steen was in the lead of the feud. For the first time in PWG history, someone seemingly has Super Dragon's number. Not as good as their Ernest P. Worrel match, but yet another good match between the two. 3 1/2 Stars.
2 Skinny Black Guys vs The New SBS vs Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Los Luchas - Elimination Match
Top Gun and Hook really needs a tag name. This is the first match that Generico/Tornado are officially called 2 Skinny Black Guys. Jon Ian announces that the winners will face Arrogance at the next show to crown the new PWG tag champions. I love the booking of Excalibur and Disco in this match. Most of the time, they just hang out on the apron and wait for their moment to pick up the scraps and eliminate a team. They eventually eliminate Los Luchas, but not before Los Luchas eliminate Bomberry/Talwar with their double flippy finisher. The first two eliminations are meaningless though. The real story is between 2SBG and SBS. They end up having a good last few minutes, although they should have been given more of the overall time to have the third fall. Tons of near falls with everyone gets in their moves. Generico manages to catch Disco Machine on the top rope to nail the top rope brainbuster to get the win. If there's one issue, it's that three different teams got a fall. Wouldn't it have been better to give 2SBG a couple of pinfalls leading into their big title match at the next show? 3 1/4 Stars.
AJ Styles (c) vs Christopher Daniels vs James Gibson - PWG World Title
As much as I love Gibson, why is he in this match? He had a title match a couple shows ago and he cleanly lost. We could have had Rocky Romero vs James Gibson, which if it's anywhere near as good as their ROH matches, would have been the best match of the night. Then again, I don't want to see another singles match between Styles and Daniels in PWG. Really short match though, I would have been fine with it receiving another five minutes. It would have still been under 20 minutes. There's the usual one-on-one fighting that most triple threats has, but when all three men are active, it's a great fight. The highlight of the match was all of the unintentional double team moves. For example, Gibson would monkey flip Styles, whose momentum would send him flying into Daniels, giving him a head scissors on the way down. Not surprisingly, the one-on-one action between Daniels and Styles is awkward and sloppy at times. The finish is a thing of beauty though. Daniels has Gibson set-up for the Angel's Wings. Styles sunset flips Daniels. The momentum of Daniels falling backwards sends Gibson flying in an unintentional butterfly suplex. Styles hangs on to Daniels legs and stands up right into the Styles' Clash to get the pinfall victory. I may hate Styles' title reign, but that's a hell of a way to successfully defend the belt. Given more time, this could have been the match of the night. For what it was, it was an enjoyable title defense for Styles though. 3 1/4 Stars.
Overall
Maybe having two nights for the 2nd Anniversary wasn't necessary. It's not a bad show, but it can't compare to the two 4+ star matches on Night 1. Super Dragon once again has the MOTN while Styles' title reign continues to not steal the show. On the plus side, now that Styles pinned Daniels, that ends the only story that Styles had as champion. So the title reign is ready to be ended (Thank God). I wish I knew why Rocky Romero was here tonight without wrestling. Romero vs Quicksilver, Gibson or Punk could have all been great. Despite having yet another really good match from Super Dragon/Kevin Steen, they've had better ones. Sadly, there goes your main reason to check out this show. If you watch one 2nd Anniversary Show, make it night 1.
Worth Checking Out
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon
Avoid
N/A (There's just not much reason to watch the show though)
The whole Arrogance/AXP match & post-match is all sorts of awesome, it's between that and Dragon/Steen for my personal best PWG match. Scorpio is absolutely fantastic fighting off Lost & Bosh on his own.
I prefer Dragon/Steen (Still the best PWG match ever), but Arrogance/AXP is my favorite PWG tag match.
---
Zombies Shouldn't Run
August 6, 2005
Hardkore Kidd w/El Jefe vs TJ Perkins
Hardkore is Aaron Aguilera, better known as WWE's Jesus, Carlito's body guard in 2004. After over six years, does most people even still remember Jesus? Hardkore wrestled in PWG before heading to the WWE, including wrestling on the very first show. This is his official return. Perkins answers the open challenge and generally beats the hell out of the much bigger Hardkore. Maybe it's because Perkins busts his nose open early on, but he comes off looking like a total bad ass. Despite being a few inches taller, a good 50+ pounds heavier and having a manager cheating whenever he can, Hardkore still can't gain a real advantage over Perkins. The two has some good chemistry, but the match stretches on a little long. Perkins nails a 450 splash, but Hardkore kicks out. Perkins goes for the 450 again and puts Hardkore away. A fine opener showcasing how good Perkins can be. 2 3/4 Stars.
Davey Richards vs Rocky Romero
This was set-up at the last show and how Davey's been a dick to Romero's buddy, Perkins. The announcer gives the single greatest introduction for Romero in history. He's rolling his R's and everything. Too bad he announced Rocky as Ricky Reyes.
: The match ends up being a hard hitting kick/striking bout as you'd expect. The crowd was pretty into it, with Davey playing the heel role. I believe Capone calls this Davey's breakout match in PWG. Personally, it doesn't feel like a breakout as much as another solid reaction. Especially by watching all of his matches in a short amount of time thus far in his PWG career, Davey's breakout wasn't in a single match, but in a few month time period. This was good, but I felt as if it wasn't as good as they were capable of. Check out Passive Hostility from 2006 to see a better Romero/Davey showing. 3 1/4 Stars.Excalibur, Disco Machine and Ronin are in the ring. Since Kevin Steen has a title match, Excalibur felt they needed another man to watch their backs. Thus, Ronin is brought in for a six man tag. Shockingly, two of their opponents, Los Luchas, have no showed the event. So Cal Val comes out to announce their new opponents. Once again, you can barely understand what she's saying due to her screeching. Luckily, she's looking especially hot tonight.
The New SBS and Ronin vs Top Gun Talwar, Hook Bomberry and Mr. Excitement
I'm pretty sure this is the first time that Talwar wears a thong to the ring. Top Gun gets in some comedy by rubbing his hand on his ass and balls while Disco is looking at everyone except for him. Disco and Talwar lock hands to the groan of Excalibur. It's not quite as funny as when Talwar did it to Generico at the last show. It's difficult to care too much about a match when the best talent may be Excalibur. The New SBS's return to the lowcard scene feels out of place as they're in the middle of the most heated feud at the moment. On the plus side, they do win with Disco's chokeslam on Talwar so the New SBS doesn't look like fools. It's worth noting that Ronin delivers a hell of a lariat to prevent the breaking up of the pin at the end. For what it was, it was fine. However, it can't compare to Excalibur and Disco's last few matches. 2 1/2 Stars.
After the match, Excalibur praises Ronin and rewards him with membership in the New SBS (On a probationary level). That's right, Kevin Steen is leading a kick ass faction with three of the worst talents in PWG. God bless Mr. Wrestling.
Joey Ryan vs Claudio Castagnoli
This is Claudio's PWG debut. Claudio had just debuted in ROH against Nigel McGuinness at Fate of an Angel and was eagerly awaiting his second match at this time. Joey's back to wearing the Jedi robe and pants that makes him look like a pirate. Early on, Claudio dominates with his unorthodox style. Even when Joey attempts to copy the style, Claudio easily counters it right back into his hold. The real story comes into play when Ryan resorts to choking Claudio on the middle rope to finally get on the offense. Ryan works over Claudio's neck for a good portion of the match. Claudio does a fine job at getting the crowd into his act by encouraging them to count along with his delayed vertical suplex (32 seconds if you're curious). Despite his Technical Wizard gimmick, Ryan can only win after throwing powder in Claudio's eyes behind the ref's back. However, like a truly great poser, Ryan locks in the Cross Face Chicken Wing. I love that finish. While slow going, this match ended up being better than I expected. Ryan played his part perfectly while Claudio has the best debut since Kevin Steen. More Claudio in PWG, please. 3 1/4 Stars.
Christopher Daniels gets on the mic and trashes the company. He's sick of wrestling in such a hot place where the crowd doesn't appreciate him and the company doesn't appreciate all of his X-Division title defenses. Since there isn't anyone of value in the back, he refuses to defend the title again in TNA. During his tirade, he jokingly guesses some of the future wrestlers PWG would book in X-Division Title defenses. Top Gun Talwar, Hook Bomberry and...Davey Richards are all mentioned. It reminds me a lot of a TNA match in 2003 when AJ Styles and D-Lo trashes their opponents by calling them jobbers. One of the "Jobbers" was CM Punk. Chris Hero is fine with not getting a title shot tonight, but if he wins, he wants a future shot.
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Hero
These two had a fantastic match back at All Star Weekend Night 2. Instead of a mat based match, this had a lot of stalling early on and then featured Daniels heeling it up. It eventually became another good match between the two, but it can't compare to their first match. Daniels focuses most of his attention to Hero's neck. This sets up Daniels' DVD to get the victory. Hero's leg was on the bottom rope, but Daniels hits it off before the ref can see it. Nice little way of adding a little extra heel flavor before leaving. Although entirely different, it's on par with their BOLA 2010 Night 1 match. However, if you want to see them at their peak, watch their ASW Night 2 match. 3 1/2 Stars.
Super Dragon vs Quicksilver
There isn't any real reason for this match other than Super Dragon needs someone to fight since Kevin Steen is booked in the main event and Quicksilver is still Scorpio Sky-less. They do have a past in Revolution Pro where Dragon injured Quicksilver. It was also in 2004 that Super Dragon and then buddy, Excalibur, defeated Quicksilver and then partner, Chris Bosh, for the PWG tag titles. If nothing else, they can regale in tales of how their former partners ended up being major douchebags. The story of the match is pretty interesting though. Early on, Dragon's focus isn't on the match at all. Quicksilver not only is in control, but he finds time to poke fun at Dragon by slapping him and kicking the proverbial sand in Dragon's face as he's laying on the mat. Not surprisingly, this ends up pissing Dragon off enough to destroy Quicksilver. The ass kicking wouldn't be complete without Dragon mockingly doing the Quicksilver pose. Despite being on offense for awhile, Dragon's mind is still elsewhere and he pays for it with a sunset flip to the outside. It takes Quicksilver slapping him several times to wake him up enough to throw into the ring. Super Dragon does end up winning with the Barry White Driver, but it comes off more like he got lucky than actually was the better man. After all, Quicksilver is nothing more than some tag wrestler. Granted, one hell of a tag worker, but a tag wrestler nonetheless. Meanwhile, Dragon's supposed to be the baddest mofo in all of PWG. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but this puts over just how much Kevin Steen has got into Dragon's head. Good story and plenty of great action from one of my favorite SoCal stars and Super Dragon. 3 3/4 Stars.
So Cal Val announces that no one will be allowed to be at ringside during the tag title match. To ensure that a certain future mustache PWG Champion stays away, Val brings out the new co-commissioner, Dino Winwood! Joey Ryan attacks Winwood, but Dino's too heavy to pick up. Dino lays Joey out with an F5. Yeah, it's that awesome.
Arrogance vs 2 Skinny Black Guys - PWG Tag Team Titles
The winners become the new PWG tag champions thanks to Scorpio Sky's disappearance. Before the match, Bosh raffles off his first pair of wrestling boots, but not before berating the weight of the winner. The bigger news is that Arrogance is wearing their spanking new t-shirt. It's a play off of Fight Club with 'Arrogance' being written on the pink soap. A fun match follows with plenty of big spots and nonstop action. I especially enjoyed seeing Lost lock both Tornado and Generico in the Sharpshooter. It ended up looking painful for both faces instead of the usual mess that these double holds looks like. Arrogance seems to be off their game, misscommunication happening a couple of times. Tornado hits the DND on Lost and Generico follows it up with the brainbuster to score the victory and to become the NEW PWG tag team champions. Great pop from the crowd. Good match, but I prefer Arrogance vs Cape Fear more. 3 1/4 Stars.
AJ Styles (c) vs Kevin Steen - PWG World Title
These two could not be bigger polar opposites in PWG for 2005. The one is pushed as the best, but lacks a real storyline and is constantly a negative note in my book. The other can't seem to get the belt, but has the biggest feud in the company and tends to produce the match of the night on a regular basis. Steen adds his usual comedic hijinx to an otherwise dull Styles bout. I couldn't pick up on any real story other than Steen being so damn entertaining. There's a moment early on when Steen is yelling at Styles to not hit his knees. During a small comedy, a few fans are yelling for Styles to hit the knees. Instead, Styles hits Steen's gut a few times. It's small things like that that really showcases how little Styles is trying to get the crowd into the match. Steen heads up to the top rope, but Styles catches him with the Pele kick. Steen falls over and hangs upside down in the perfect position for the Styles Clash. AJ picks him up for the finisher, but Steen uses the ropes to pull Styles down. Still using the ropes, Steen picks up the victory and becomes the NEW PWG World Champion. For a Steen 2005 match, this is below average, but this is about what you'd expect from the lackluster former PWG Champion. 2 3/4 Stars.
http://youtu.be/elaPr038XmI
Overall
Occurring so soon after the 2nd Anniversary weekend and still having BOLA and All Star Weekend 2 coming later in the year, I would have perfectly fine with PWG taking it easy on this show. After all, they have bigger shows to worry about. However, PWG decides to take this B-show and inject a lot of importance in it with crowning new champions for both titles. That alone makes this show worth checking out. As much as I hate to admit it, once again Super Dragon steals the show and puts on a better match then either title bout. Considering the fact that the worst match is 2 1/2 stars and it's with Ronin, it says a lot about how good the show is. The debut of Double C was refreshing and I'm already left looking forwarding to his second match. The show can't compare to ASW Night 1 or Guitarmageddon, but it's exactly as good as a B-show should be. All hail World Champion Kevin Steen, the savior from the evil AJ Styles.
Worth Checking Out
Joey Ryan vs Claudio Castagnoli
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Hero
Super Dragon vs Quicksilver
Avoid
Having the volume on when So Cal Val talks
Smells Like Steen Spirit
August 19, 2005
Dino Winwood opens the show talking about the first ever Battle of Los Angeles. All of the first round matches are booked except for one. Before Winwood can announce Chris Sabin's opponent, Frankie Kazarian makes his return to PWG. Thanks to the entrances being cut, it's difficult to understand 100%, but I imagine Kazarian's return means that he's Sabin's opponent next month. That or he's taking Sabin's place since Sabin wouldn't be involved in the actual tournament. Kazarian trashes the WWE and it's writers, but only comes off looking like a fool since he's the one who asked for his release. When you've barely even been in the WWE (Although undefeated on Velocity) you don't really have room to bitch. The entire segment is confusing and doesn't really accomplish anything.
Gunning for Hookers w/Ed Powers vs Ronin and Disco Machine
I finally get my wish of Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry having a tag name. Powers is the mastermind of a porn company. I believe this is his first and only time in PWG. What's with Gunning for Hookers having one-time managers? Honestly, who wants to see a match where the best technical wrestler is Top Gun Talwar? It's sloppy at times and goes on for far too long. These four should not even have ten minutes, let alone the fifteen they were given. The worst part is it makes the New SBS feel like the old SBS of being stuck in the opening match with the comedy guys. To continue the booking snafu, Bomberry forces Ronin to tap out for the win. Meh. 1 3/4 Stars.
Scott Lost vs Charles Mercury
THE CHUCK! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever Mercury has a random match in PWG. Mercury has a gigantic goatee here tonight. Back and forth match with both men looking really good. There's one spot when Lost goes for his trademark closeline, but either Mercury blocks it in an incredible manner or botches it. Either way, it looked really cool. While in a body scissors, Mercury pulls back into a creative variation of the Boston Crab. Just after the ten minute mark, Lost locks in a Sharpshooter and forces Mercury to tap out. The match loses points for not having the Superman Spear nor Mercury's wickedly cool knee drop, but it was a solid effort for both men. Mercury looked like a mild star while Lost was able to win a hard fought match cleanly. 3 Stars.
Joey Ryan vs Rocky Romero
This match was made by Ryan's request. Since he's working the Technical Wizard gimmick, he's trying to prove it against the best technical wrestlers in PWG. Since Romero's last match was won by choking out Davey Richards, Ryan wants to prove his dominance over Romero. The crowd in this is GREAT. I can't even hear Joey's pre-match promo because they're booing him so loudly. The crowd is never quiet, always cheering for Rocky and jeering for Ryan. Favorite crowd reaction would be when Romero is setting Joey up for the Lady in the Lake. The crowd chants "Grab his hand", but when Joey does and ends up in a submission hold, the crowd fires back "You Dumb Fuck!": Joey once again cheats to gain the advantage by shoving Romero shoulder first into the ring post. While the ref is down, he shoves a chair between the middle and top rope. This plays into the end when Ryan predictably throws Romero shoulder first into that and rolls Romero up. Who said predictably is a bad thing? This ended up being exactly what it was supposed to be with Ryan's Technical Wizard gimmick continuing to be a fraud title. 3 1/4 Stars.
Davey Richards and Hardkore Kidd w/El Jefe vs TJ Perkins and Alex Shelley
Richards and Kidd are teaming since neither likes Perkins. This begs the question of why Romero isn't teaming with Perkins instead of Shelley? Even though it was a long twenty minutes, it feels like twice as long. That's not so much of a bad thing though. There's a definite "This is a tag classic" aura of the showdown. Granted, with the talent involved, there wasn't any was it was going to be a classic. Still, I love seeing plenty of mat work in tag matches. The weak link in the match is Kidd though. Kidd may not be Big Show size, but he's still a fairly large dude, especially in the indy's. Yet, it's as if he doesn't realize how large he is. Kidd wrestles as if he's the size of the puny Perkins. Mike Awesome may have flown around as if he was a junior heavyweight, but the guy also used his huge size to over power everyone. Kidd fails to wrestle how he should. It's no wonder he didn't last long in the WWE. For Davey, he looks really good in a tag team. Maybe PWG should *Ahem* put him in a tag team in the future. Davey picks up the win by nailing the DR Driver on Perkins to finally get a win over Perkins and company. With that, Davey's first program is officially over. 3 Stars.
Random DVD note. For some reason, the DVD skips back to the beginning of the tag team match instead of going to the next match. I have to manually skip the chapter.
Kevin Steen (c) vs Quicksilver - PWG World Title
God bless PWG and their random backstories on their website. So, Christopher Daniels was originally scheduled to challenge for the title. That is until Steen's hotshot lawyer made the case that Steen can't defend the belt against new challengers (That PWG picked out) until AJ Styles gets his rematch. Since Styles wasn't booked on the show, Steen had a choice of what he wanted to due. Steen choose to defend the title against Quicksilver, confident that he can beat him in less time and easier than Super Dragon did at the last show. And really, that's exactly what happened in this match. Steen gets the win in roughly six or seven minutes less time than Super Dragon. Even better, Steen didn't look as if he won by sheer luck. There were times in which Quicksilver looked good, but Steen was clearly the better men during the entire bout. Steen winning with the Steenalizer in the corner was one hell of a way to end the match. This is exactly what Steen needed to get his title reign off to a good start. You have Steen going over cleanly, it plays into the Steen/Dragon feud and the match was good. This is easily the best start to any PWG title reign since the second year began at The Secret of the Ooze. 3 1/4 Stars.
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Bosh
For the pre-match promo, Daniels brings up the fact that Scott Lost petitioned for this match so that Bosh can weaken Daniels before Lost's match against Daniels at BOLA. Despite still being a heel, Bosh is so incredibly over. He blows away the Fallen Angel in his typical Bosh-ness style. Due to their heel tendencies, they both agree to have a respectable grappling contest. This takes up the first half of the match with the comedic spots of Bosh nearly cheating a few times. However, while suckering Daniels in with his trance, Bosh cheats first by gauging the eyes. Daniels fires back with the same heel tactic. Both guys end up working over the back of the opponent. At the end of the match, Bosh is finally able to his his ball shot, but as he rolls up Daniels, Daniels reverses it and wins with a handful of tights. I enjoyed the comedy, but with the match broken down into two smaller matches (One comedic and the other serious), neither felt truly complete. It's still highly enjoyable though. 3 Stars.
After the match, Chris Bosh vows to win BOLA and to take the PWG Title from Kevin Steen.
Dino Winwood comes out with the PWG tag titles to present them to the new champions. Before he can, Joey Ryan runs out to attempt to attack Winwood. Dino channels his inner fat boy Goldberg and spears Joey. Chubby Jackhammer follows and Dino once again gets the better of The Technical Wizard.
2 Skinny Black Guys (c) vs Frankie Kazarian and Petey Williams - PWG Tag Team Titles
This was supposed to be Petey and Chris Sabin, but Sabin was injured at the last TNA tapings. Since it's Petey's birthday, he gets to pick Kazarian as Sabin's replacement. Early on, it's all comedy. However, unlike with the previous match, it's not all that funny. It mostly centers around Kazarian's dislike of Human Tornado's hair. All of the comedy just stretches the match out too long. By time the serious action begins (Which is good), I'm already waiting for the match to end. Still, Tornado and Generico has some great natural chemistry so it's easy to get behind them. However, this wasn't the best way to start their title reign. When you compare this to Arrogance's first title defense against Super Dragon and B-Boy, it's not even in Arrogance's league. Everyone gets in their spots before Petey Williams falls to the DND after hitting the Canadian Destroyer on Generico. 2 1/2 Stars.
Super Dragon vs Samoa Joe
Here we go, match three of their PWG trilogy. Both men hold a victory over the other, but both were by count-out. I don't know whether this was done on purpose or not, but this show was held just days after the one year anniversary of the first Dragon/Joe match back at Secret of the Ooze. Kind of a cool little piece of trivia. Dragon makes the mistake early on of slapping Joe. Joe beats the holy shit out of Dragon, worse than when Dragon beat down Quicksilver after doing the same thing. Dragon manages to avoid being counted out a couple of times which plays off their previous matches nicely. Even though Dragon comes back, he's never able to truly inflict much damage to Joe. His attempts of hitting a Psycho Driver is thwarted by his inability of picking Joe up. Instead, Dragon is forced to hit moves from the top rope, including a butterfly suplex, but none of those moves keeps Joe down. To add insult to injury, Joe changes up his power bomb into a STF combo by switching out the STF for Dragon's own Curb Stomp. Joe puts Dragon away with a Muscle Buster to finally end their series with a true winner. It wasn't bad or anything, but I'd consider it the worst match of their trilogy. Despite being prone to having too long of matches, Dragon ends this feud with a match too short. On the plus side, I did enjoy this more than I did originally. 3 Stars.
Overall
Smells Like Steen Spirit is sort of a bizarre show. On one hand, it's mostly just a throwaway show to preview BOLA. On the other hand, it features the third and final match of Dragon/Joe. As far as matches go, that has to be the second most anticipated match of the year, behind the finale of Dragon/Steen. Most of the matches are good though, despite the two disappointments of the final two matches. Steen's first title defense is a huge success while 2SBG could have been a lot better. It's not a must see show, but it's worth the 5 dollars that Highspots charges for it anytime it's on sale.
Worth Checking Out
N/A (Everyone who has a good match has had better ones around this time period)
Avoid
Gunning for Hookers vs Ronin and Disco Machine
August 19, 2005
Dino Winwood opens the show talking about the first ever Battle of Los Angeles. All of the first round matches are booked except for one. Before Winwood can announce Chris Sabin's opponent, Frankie Kazarian makes his return to PWG. Thanks to the entrances being cut, it's difficult to understand 100%, but I imagine Kazarian's return means that he's Sabin's opponent next month. That or he's taking Sabin's place since Sabin wouldn't be involved in the actual tournament. Kazarian trashes the WWE and it's writers, but only comes off looking like a fool since he's the one who asked for his release. When you've barely even been in the WWE (Although undefeated on Velocity) you don't really have room to bitch. The entire segment is confusing and doesn't really accomplish anything.
Gunning for Hookers w/Ed Powers vs Ronin and Disco Machine
I finally get my wish of Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry having a tag name. Powers is the mastermind of a porn company. I believe this is his first and only time in PWG. What's with Gunning for Hookers having one-time managers? Honestly, who wants to see a match where the best technical wrestler is Top Gun Talwar? It's sloppy at times and goes on for far too long. These four should not even have ten minutes, let alone the fifteen they were given. The worst part is it makes the New SBS feel like the old SBS of being stuck in the opening match with the comedy guys. To continue the booking snafu, Bomberry forces Ronin to tap out for the win. Meh. 1 3/4 Stars.
Scott Lost vs Charles Mercury
THE CHUCK! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever Mercury has a random match in PWG. Mercury has a gigantic goatee here tonight. Back and forth match with both men looking really good. There's one spot when Lost goes for his trademark closeline, but either Mercury blocks it in an incredible manner or botches it. Either way, it looked really cool. While in a body scissors, Mercury pulls back into a creative variation of the Boston Crab. Just after the ten minute mark, Lost locks in a Sharpshooter and forces Mercury to tap out. The match loses points for not having the Superman Spear nor Mercury's wickedly cool knee drop, but it was a solid effort for both men. Mercury looked like a mild star while Lost was able to win a hard fought match cleanly. 3 Stars.
Joey Ryan vs Rocky Romero
This match was made by Ryan's request. Since he's working the Technical Wizard gimmick, he's trying to prove it against the best technical wrestlers in PWG. Since Romero's last match was won by choking out Davey Richards, Ryan wants to prove his dominance over Romero. The crowd in this is GREAT. I can't even hear Joey's pre-match promo because they're booing him so loudly. The crowd is never quiet, always cheering for Rocky and jeering for Ryan. Favorite crowd reaction would be when Romero is setting Joey up for the Lady in the Lake. The crowd chants "Grab his hand", but when Joey does and ends up in a submission hold, the crowd fires back "You Dumb Fuck!"
: Joey once again cheats to gain the advantage by shoving Romero shoulder first into the ring post. While the ref is down, he shoves a chair between the middle and top rope. This plays into the end when Ryan predictably throws Romero shoulder first into that and rolls Romero up. Who said predictably is a bad thing? This ended up being exactly what it was supposed to be with Ryan's Technical Wizard gimmick continuing to be a fraud title. 3 1/4 Stars.Davey Richards and Hardkore Kidd w/El Jefe vs TJ Perkins and Alex Shelley
Richards and Kidd are teaming since neither likes Perkins. This begs the question of why Romero isn't teaming with Perkins instead of Shelley? Even though it was a long twenty minutes, it feels like twice as long. That's not so much of a bad thing though. There's a definite "This is a tag classic" aura of the showdown. Granted, with the talent involved, there wasn't any was it was going to be a classic. Still, I love seeing plenty of mat work in tag matches. The weak link in the match is Kidd though. Kidd may not be Big Show size, but he's still a fairly large dude, especially in the indy's. Yet, it's as if he doesn't realize how large he is. Kidd wrestles as if he's the size of the puny Perkins. Mike Awesome may have flown around as if he was a junior heavyweight, but the guy also used his huge size to over power everyone. Kidd fails to wrestle how he should. It's no wonder he didn't last long in the WWE. For Davey, he looks really good in a tag team. Maybe PWG should *Ahem* put him in a tag team in the future. Davey picks up the win by nailing the DR Driver on Perkins to finally get a win over Perkins and company. With that, Davey's first program is officially over. 3 Stars.
Random DVD note. For some reason, the DVD skips back to the beginning of the tag team match instead of going to the next match. I have to manually skip the chapter.
Kevin Steen (c) vs Quicksilver - PWG World Title
God bless PWG and their random backstories on their website. So, Christopher Daniels was originally scheduled to challenge for the title. That is until Steen's hotshot lawyer made the case that Steen can't defend the belt against new challengers (That PWG picked out) until AJ Styles gets his rematch. Since Styles wasn't booked on the show, Steen had a choice of what he wanted to due. Steen choose to defend the title against Quicksilver, confident that he can beat him in less time and easier than Super Dragon did at the last show. And really, that's exactly what happened in this match. Steen gets the win in roughly six or seven minutes less time than Super Dragon. Even better, Steen didn't look as if he won by sheer luck. There were times in which Quicksilver looked good, but Steen was clearly the better men during the entire bout. Steen winning with the Steenalizer in the corner was one hell of a way to end the match. This is exactly what Steen needed to get his title reign off to a good start. You have Steen going over cleanly, it plays into the Steen/Dragon feud and the match was good. This is easily the best start to any PWG title reign since the second year began at The Secret of the Ooze. 3 1/4 Stars.
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Bosh
For the pre-match promo, Daniels brings up the fact that Scott Lost petitioned for this match so that Bosh can weaken Daniels before Lost's match against Daniels at BOLA. Despite still being a heel, Bosh is so incredibly over. He blows away the Fallen Angel in his typical Bosh-ness style. Due to their heel tendencies, they both agree to have a respectable grappling contest. This takes up the first half of the match with the comedic spots of Bosh nearly cheating a few times. However, while suckering Daniels in with his trance, Bosh cheats first by gauging the eyes. Daniels fires back with the same heel tactic. Both guys end up working over the back of the opponent. At the end of the match, Bosh is finally able to his his ball shot, but as he rolls up Daniels, Daniels reverses it and wins with a handful of tights. I enjoyed the comedy, but with the match broken down into two smaller matches (One comedic and the other serious), neither felt truly complete. It's still highly enjoyable though. 3 Stars.
After the match, Chris Bosh vows to win BOLA and to take the PWG Title from Kevin Steen.
Dino Winwood comes out with the PWG tag titles to present them to the new champions. Before he can, Joey Ryan runs out to attempt to attack Winwood. Dino channels his inner fat boy Goldberg and spears Joey. Chubby Jackhammer follows and Dino once again gets the better of The Technical Wizard.
2 Skinny Black Guys (c) vs Frankie Kazarian and Petey Williams - PWG Tag Team Titles
This was supposed to be Petey and Chris Sabin, but Sabin was injured at the last TNA tapings. Since it's Petey's birthday, he gets to pick Kazarian as Sabin's replacement. Early on, it's all comedy. However, unlike with the previous match, it's not all that funny. It mostly centers around Kazarian's dislike of Human Tornado's hair. All of the comedy just stretches the match out too long. By time the serious action begins (Which is good), I'm already waiting for the match to end. Still, Tornado and Generico has some great natural chemistry so it's easy to get behind them. However, this wasn't the best way to start their title reign. When you compare this to Arrogance's first title defense against Super Dragon and B-Boy, it's not even in Arrogance's league. Everyone gets in their spots before Petey Williams falls to the DND after hitting the Canadian Destroyer on Generico. 2 1/2 Stars.
Super Dragon vs Samoa Joe
Here we go, match three of their PWG trilogy. Both men hold a victory over the other, but both were by count-out. I don't know whether this was done on purpose or not, but this show was held just days after the one year anniversary of the first Dragon/Joe match back at Secret of the Ooze. Kind of a cool little piece of trivia. Dragon makes the mistake early on of slapping Joe. Joe beats the holy shit out of Dragon, worse than when Dragon beat down Quicksilver after doing the same thing. Dragon manages to avoid being counted out a couple of times which plays off their previous matches nicely. Even though Dragon comes back, he's never able to truly inflict much damage to Joe. His attempts of hitting a Psycho Driver is thwarted by his inability of picking Joe up. Instead, Dragon is forced to hit moves from the top rope, including a butterfly suplex, but none of those moves keeps Joe down. To add insult to injury, Joe changes up his power bomb into a STF combo by switching out the STF for Dragon's own Curb Stomp. Joe puts Dragon away with a Muscle Buster to finally end their series with a true winner. It wasn't bad or anything, but I'd consider it the worst match of their trilogy. Despite being prone to having too long of matches, Dragon ends this feud with a match too short. On the plus side, I did enjoy this more than I did originally. 3 Stars.
Overall
Smells Like Steen Spirit is sort of a bizarre show. On one hand, it's mostly just a throwaway show to preview BOLA. On the other hand, it features the third and final match of Dragon/Joe. As far as matches go, that has to be the second most anticipated match of the year, behind the finale of Dragon/Steen. Most of the matches are good though, despite the two disappointments of the final two matches. Steen's first title defense is a huge success while 2SBG could have been a lot better. It's not a must see show, but it's worth the 5 dollars that Highspots charges for it anytime it's on sale.
Worth Checking Out
N/A (Everyone who has a good match has had better ones around this time period)
Avoid
Gunning for Hookers vs Ronin and Disco Machine
2005 Battle of Los Angeles
September 3, 2005
Night 1
Dino Winwood and So Cal Val opens up the show. Due to TJ Perkins being injured, he's being replaced in the tournament by Davey Richards. All 16 of the BOLA wrestlers comes out for the annual BOLA photograph. Super Dragon and Kevin Steen has a stand off.
Excalibur talks about the last show where Gunning for Hookers defeated Disco Machine and Ronin. He's here to exact revenge. Meanwhile, since Chris Sabin was injured for his tag title shot at the last show, Excalibur offers him an invitation to join the match to get his hands on Human Tornado.
The New SBS and Chris Sabin vs Gunning for Hookers and Human Tornado w/Ed Powers
Despite adding a lot of storyline heat for Tornado on the heel side, it still seems weird that he's not in the BOLA tournament. He's one half of the tag team champions and has had more success than some of the guys in BOLA. Early on, there was a lot of comedy, mostly surrounding Top Gun Talwar. Normally, I don't mind this, but it feels out of place with so much bad blood in the match. Luckily, as the match goes on, the comedy is thrown out of the window and there's a serious tone added. Everyone gets in a big spot or two with plenty of pin attempts. Human Tornado does his trademark dive on the outside that results in Tornado taking the brunt of the punishment instead of his opponent. It's no wonder he's retired now. Tornado picks up the win with DND on Excalibur. It took awhile, but the match eventually found it's groove. This sort of spotfest is exactly how you want to open BOLA. 2 1/2 Stars.
Rocky Romero vs Frankie Kazarian - First Round
Quick question, if a wrestler accidentally chops a ring post, what sort of ending do you expect? If you guessed "Some sort of arm move would force the injured wrestler to lose" you'd be right. Only these two decide they're going to do the angle with Kazarian injuring his arm and eventually loses, but ignoring any future arm work of having Kazarian lose because of the injury. How is it that you forget about arm work? What's even the point of doing the injury angle if you're going to scrap the idea minutes after it starts? Romero and Kazarian has a back and forth match with about a million different pin attempts at the end before Romero wins with some sort of roll-up. Ugh. The match was "Fine", but the complete disregard or ignorance of telling a story ruined this for me. 2 Stars.
Davey Richards vs Quicksilver - First Round
Dino Winwood sings Quicksilver's entrance music for his entrance (Dio's "Man on the Silver Mountain"). If only Winwood would sing Bryan Danielson's. Such an intense match though. Early on, Quicksilver chops Davey. Davey's sole reaction is to give Quick the finger. Quick does it again, but Davey slaps Quickie hard and yells "Harder!" Ha, Davey's great.: Davey takes a wickedly brutal dive to the outside where he hits Quick, but also falls hard on a chair. Quicksilver runs and gets a jump off of the steps to take Davey out with a tornado DDT. At this point, the match should have really ended. You had Davey paying for his high risk dive and then selling the DDT as if he received a concussion. It's not as if Davey would have been hurt from losing. However, they continue a little bit longer in the ring to further try and put Davey over. Quicksilver gets the win following a middle rope Silver Splash (A sit down FU with the opponent falling between your legs). I do wonder if all of the unneeded action following the DDT on the outside was made because the bookers knew what Davey would be doing once BOLA ended. Either way, it's a fun match with the right man going over. Davey would have the last laugh by winning BOLA 2006 though. 3 Stars.
Joey Ryan vs James Gibson - First Round
Gibson is the reigning ROH World Champion still at this point. Joey's heat is still pretty incredible with the crowd booing everything he does. At this point in time, there wasn't a better heel in PWG than Joey. Early on, Gibson works over Joey's arm, but Ryan decides to stop selling it once he begins working over Gibson's arm. Gibson does a good job at selling it until he too decides to stop selling it at the end. Mid way through the match, Ryan throws in a chair to distract the ref so he can bring in a second chair. Gibson prevents any sort of attack, so Ryan pulls an Eddie Guerrero and tosses him the chair while selling a fake attack. The referee doesn't seem to buy it though. The action continues, but it's becoming boring. Gibson wins with a great looking running Gibson Driver. All throughout the match, I was wondering how they were going to have Gibson win while maintaining the Technical Wizard gimmick of Joey. As it turns out, they didn't bother having the technical side even come into the finish. Odd booking. Probably Gibson's worst match from his indy days in 2005. 2 1/2 Stars.
Chris Bosh vs El Generico w/Human Tornado - First Round
Generico is of course one half of the tag champions. These days, that would mean he'd lose so that we could see a tag title match on the next night. Although, if you know anything about BOLA 2005, the outcome of this match shouldn't be a surprise. The match is alright, but it never really feels as if they accomplished everything they wanted to do. Instead, it was just a thirteen minute match full of random moves and spots. Bosh wins with his sick Steiner Screwdriver to at least end the match on a high note. 2 3/4 Stars.
Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Reyes - First Round
This is Danielson's first match back to the American indy scene after taking the summer off following his loss to Austin Aries at ROH's Nowhere to Run. While you have to go back in time some, this does have a good backstory. In the PWG universe, these two were allies due to both training at the New Japan Dojo in Cali. However, back at The Musical in 2004, Reyes came in after the Danielson/Joe match and turned on Danielson. This lead to a tag match with Joe/Reyes vs Danielson and Christopher Daniels at the first anniversary show at Reason for the Season (Which Danielson won by pinning Reyes). Right away, the issues are brought up by neither guy breaking up struggles in the corner. The referee ends up looking like a total fool by counting to four several times and always stopping to attempt (And fail) to break up the two. All of the action is just great though. They're either struggling in the ropes or hitting each other hard. According to one review, this features the first ever "I have til 5!", although I can't say I know that that's a fact. It's about the right time period I imagine though. After a near twenty minute battle, Danielson finally forces Reyes to tap out to the crossface chicken wing. I challenge anyone to find a better one-on-one match of Ricky Reyes'. 3 3/4 Stars.
Scott Lost vs Christopher Daniels - First Round
With both guys as heels, the fan interest isn't too typical. Instead of cheering for either guy, they mostly just make fun of Daniels with various penis jokes. Early on, Scott Lost even pulls out a marker to draw a penis on Daniels' head. Both men gets in their spots including Lost's great Superman Spear and his spearing bridge/Sharpshooter combo. I love that move. Lost is sent up over Daniels, but stops himself from colliding into referee, Rick Knox. Daniels' uses that moment to low blow Lost and then hit the Angel's Wings to pick up the win. Pretty much your typical BOLA first round match. It's good for what it is, but you'd expect better on any other show. 2 3/4 Stars.
After the match, Scott Lost attacks Rick Knox for his loss. A masked Scorpio Sky (!) makes his return, laying Lost out with the Final Answer (Eye of the Hurricane only into his knee). Scorpio removes his mask and throws it down on the mat and leaves. Once Lost wakes up, all he knows about his attack was the mask that lays by him. Great return.
AJ Styles vs Jack Evans - First Round
I wonder if a match is still good if you're watching solely to see if someone ends up dying. The question comes up near the end after I watch three botches that really makes me question how both guys aren't paralyzed yet. Styles finally shows a little passion in PWG by bullying Evans early on in the match. Even the final moment with Styles nailing the Styles Clash on the outside is hate filled and pretty awesome. It may not be as technically good as the Gibson match, but this was the most I've been into a Styles match in PWG bar vs PAC during ASW 4 weekend. 3 Stars.
Super Dragon vs Kevin Steen - First Round
After all that had went down between Steen and Dragon thus far, you'd think that they'd instantly start the match by brawling. Instead, they lock up and mat wrestle for awhile. How about trying to put over how much you two hate each other? It takes a long time, but it slowly comes out with Steen relishing in slowly punishing Dragon that he doesn't try for covers or anything to win. By time Dragon makes his comeback, I'm into the match, even if it took twenty minutes. The final ten minutes is where the real quality occurs. Steen hits the moonsault and 450 Splash (The very moves that Steen used to beat Dragon at 2nd Anniversary Night 2), but Dragon rolls to the floor before Steen can cover him. Plenty of fighting on the outside with Steen sending Dragon head first into the wall (Think Kevin Nash and Rey Mysterio in 1996). Dragon pays Steen back by back body dropping Steen on the floor. Back in, Dragon jumps from the top rope onto Steen's head. Dragon nails one of the Psycho Driver's (Psycho Driver 4 I believe?) and lazily covers him. At two, Steen pulls him down in a crucifix cover (Exact thing happened with Triple H and Jeff Hardy at No Mercy 2008) to get the surprise victory. Even though I didn't enjoy the early going and it was too long, it ended up being just another one of their great matches. If you cut out the early BS lock up and mat wrestling, you're left with a match reminiscent of their hate filled match at Ernest P. Memorial. It's their weakest match out of their four match singles series, but that's still not a bad thing. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Dragon applauded Steen for pinning him cleanly. He wants a handshake. Reluctantly, Steen slowly shakes his hand while Dragon brings him in for a hug. It's how guys resolve all issues - they hug it out bitch. Dragon clobbers Steen with a forearm and nails the Psycho Driver 2. Excalibur and Disco Machine run out from the back to prevent any more harm on their fearless leader. As predictable as this moment was, it was AWESOME. This marks the shift in the Dragon/Steen feud. For the most part, their at opposite points from where they were when this all started. Steen started out as a loner without the PWG title and looking to play mind games to get what he wants. Meanwhile, Dragon had a couple of friends in Excalibur and Disco Machine and was the PWG champion. If using mind tricks was what helped Steen get the advantage over Dragon, Dragon's willing to do that too. For the first time in this feud, Dragon leaves a show with Steen laying on the mat. It doesn't matter that Steen won this match, Dragon's going to win the war.
Overall
It's night 1 of BOLA. There's certain shows that I expect great things from (BOLA Night 2, Anniversary Show, DDT4 and All Star Weekend), I expect the least from BOLA's first night. For the most part, it's just a night to set-up the second night and if you get one noteworthy match, you should be happy. In this case, we get two in the form of the Dragons. Add in the fact that night 1 featured the return of Scorpio Sky, you have some extra importance added onto the show. Even with all of the sub par or disappointing matches, it's not a bad way to start the first ever BOLA.
Worth Checking Out
Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Reyes
AJ Styles vs Jack Evans (Just for the botches)
Super Dragon vs Kevin Steen
Avoid
Joey Ryan vs James Gibson (Who wants to see a decent Gibson 2005 match?)
Frankie Kazarian vs Rocky Romero (Yay for forgetting the story of the match)
September 3, 2005
Night 1
Dino Winwood and So Cal Val opens up the show. Due to TJ Perkins being injured, he's being replaced in the tournament by Davey Richards. All 16 of the BOLA wrestlers comes out for the annual BOLA photograph. Super Dragon and Kevin Steen has a stand off.
Excalibur talks about the last show where Gunning for Hookers defeated Disco Machine and Ronin. He's here to exact revenge. Meanwhile, since Chris Sabin was injured for his tag title shot at the last show, Excalibur offers him an invitation to join the match to get his hands on Human Tornado.
The New SBS and Chris Sabin vs Gunning for Hookers and Human Tornado w/Ed Powers
Despite adding a lot of storyline heat for Tornado on the heel side, it still seems weird that he's not in the BOLA tournament. He's one half of the tag team champions and has had more success than some of the guys in BOLA. Early on, there was a lot of comedy, mostly surrounding Top Gun Talwar. Normally, I don't mind this, but it feels out of place with so much bad blood in the match. Luckily, as the match goes on, the comedy is thrown out of the window and there's a serious tone added. Everyone gets in a big spot or two with plenty of pin attempts. Human Tornado does his trademark dive on the outside that results in Tornado taking the brunt of the punishment instead of his opponent. It's no wonder he's retired now. Tornado picks up the win with DND on Excalibur. It took awhile, but the match eventually found it's groove. This sort of spotfest is exactly how you want to open BOLA. 2 1/2 Stars.
Rocky Romero vs Frankie Kazarian - First Round
Quick question, if a wrestler accidentally chops a ring post, what sort of ending do you expect? If you guessed "Some sort of arm move would force the injured wrestler to lose" you'd be right. Only these two decide they're going to do the angle with Kazarian injuring his arm and eventually loses, but ignoring any future arm work of having Kazarian lose because of the injury. How is it that you forget about arm work? What's even the point of doing the injury angle if you're going to scrap the idea minutes after it starts? Romero and Kazarian has a back and forth match with about a million different pin attempts at the end before Romero wins with some sort of roll-up. Ugh. The match was "Fine", but the complete disregard or ignorance of telling a story ruined this for me. 2 Stars.
Davey Richards vs Quicksilver - First Round
Dino Winwood sings Quicksilver's entrance music for his entrance (Dio's "Man on the Silver Mountain"). If only Winwood would sing Bryan Danielson's. Such an intense match though. Early on, Quicksilver chops Davey. Davey's sole reaction is to give Quick the finger. Quick does it again, but Davey slaps Quickie hard and yells "Harder!" Ha, Davey's great.
: Davey takes a wickedly brutal dive to the outside where he hits Quick, but also falls hard on a chair. Quicksilver runs and gets a jump off of the steps to take Davey out with a tornado DDT. At this point, the match should have really ended. You had Davey paying for his high risk dive and then selling the DDT as if he received a concussion. It's not as if Davey would have been hurt from losing. However, they continue a little bit longer in the ring to further try and put Davey over. Quicksilver gets the win following a middle rope Silver Splash (A sit down FU with the opponent falling between your legs). I do wonder if all of the unneeded action following the DDT on the outside was made because the bookers knew what Davey would be doing once BOLA ended. Either way, it's a fun match with the right man going over. Davey would have the last laugh by winning BOLA 2006 though. 3 Stars.Joey Ryan vs James Gibson - First Round
Gibson is the reigning ROH World Champion still at this point. Joey's heat is still pretty incredible with the crowd booing everything he does. At this point in time, there wasn't a better heel in PWG than Joey. Early on, Gibson works over Joey's arm, but Ryan decides to stop selling it once he begins working over Gibson's arm. Gibson does a good job at selling it until he too decides to stop selling it at the end. Mid way through the match, Ryan throws in a chair to distract the ref so he can bring in a second chair. Gibson prevents any sort of attack, so Ryan pulls an Eddie Guerrero and tosses him the chair while selling a fake attack. The referee doesn't seem to buy it though. The action continues, but it's becoming boring. Gibson wins with a great looking running Gibson Driver. All throughout the match, I was wondering how they were going to have Gibson win while maintaining the Technical Wizard gimmick of Joey. As it turns out, they didn't bother having the technical side even come into the finish. Odd booking. Probably Gibson's worst match from his indy days in 2005. 2 1/2 Stars.
Chris Bosh vs El Generico w/Human Tornado - First Round
Generico is of course one half of the tag champions. These days, that would mean he'd lose so that we could see a tag title match on the next night. Although, if you know anything about BOLA 2005, the outcome of this match shouldn't be a surprise. The match is alright, but it never really feels as if they accomplished everything they wanted to do. Instead, it was just a thirteen minute match full of random moves and spots. Bosh wins with his sick Steiner Screwdriver to at least end the match on a high note. 2 3/4 Stars.
Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Reyes - First Round
This is Danielson's first match back to the American indy scene after taking the summer off following his loss to Austin Aries at ROH's Nowhere to Run. While you have to go back in time some, this does have a good backstory. In the PWG universe, these two were allies due to both training at the New Japan Dojo in Cali. However, back at The Musical in 2004, Reyes came in after the Danielson/Joe match and turned on Danielson. This lead to a tag match with Joe/Reyes vs Danielson and Christopher Daniels at the first anniversary show at Reason for the Season (Which Danielson won by pinning Reyes). Right away, the issues are brought up by neither guy breaking up struggles in the corner. The referee ends up looking like a total fool by counting to four several times and always stopping to attempt (And fail) to break up the two. All of the action is just great though. They're either struggling in the ropes or hitting each other hard. According to one review, this features the first ever "I have til 5!", although I can't say I know that that's a fact. It's about the right time period I imagine though. After a near twenty minute battle, Danielson finally forces Reyes to tap out to the crossface chicken wing. I challenge anyone to find a better one-on-one match of Ricky Reyes'. 3 3/4 Stars.
Scott Lost vs Christopher Daniels - First Round
With both guys as heels, the fan interest isn't too typical. Instead of cheering for either guy, they mostly just make fun of Daniels with various penis jokes. Early on, Scott Lost even pulls out a marker to draw a penis on Daniels' head. Both men gets in their spots including Lost's great Superman Spear and his spearing bridge/Sharpshooter combo. I love that move. Lost is sent up over Daniels, but stops himself from colliding into referee, Rick Knox. Daniels' uses that moment to low blow Lost and then hit the Angel's Wings to pick up the win. Pretty much your typical BOLA first round match. It's good for what it is, but you'd expect better on any other show. 2 3/4 Stars.
After the match, Scott Lost attacks Rick Knox for his loss. A masked Scorpio Sky (!) makes his return, laying Lost out with the Final Answer (Eye of the Hurricane only into his knee). Scorpio removes his mask and throws it down on the mat and leaves. Once Lost wakes up, all he knows about his attack was the mask that lays by him. Great return.
AJ Styles vs Jack Evans - First Round
I wonder if a match is still good if you're watching solely to see if someone ends up dying. The question comes up near the end after I watch three botches that really makes me question how both guys aren't paralyzed yet. Styles finally shows a little passion in PWG by bullying Evans early on in the match. Even the final moment with Styles nailing the Styles Clash on the outside is hate filled and pretty awesome. It may not be as technically good as the Gibson match, but this was the most I've been into a Styles match in PWG bar vs PAC during ASW 4 weekend. 3 Stars.
Super Dragon vs Kevin Steen - First Round
After all that had went down between Steen and Dragon thus far, you'd think that they'd instantly start the match by brawling. Instead, they lock up and mat wrestle for awhile. How about trying to put over how much you two hate each other? It takes a long time, but it slowly comes out with Steen relishing in slowly punishing Dragon that he doesn't try for covers or anything to win. By time Dragon makes his comeback, I'm into the match, even if it took twenty minutes. The final ten minutes is where the real quality occurs. Steen hits the moonsault and 450 Splash (The very moves that Steen used to beat Dragon at 2nd Anniversary Night 2), but Dragon rolls to the floor before Steen can cover him. Plenty of fighting on the outside with Steen sending Dragon head first into the wall (Think Kevin Nash and Rey Mysterio in 1996). Dragon pays Steen back by back body dropping Steen on the floor. Back in, Dragon jumps from the top rope onto Steen's head. Dragon nails one of the Psycho Driver's (Psycho Driver 4 I believe?) and lazily covers him. At two, Steen pulls him down in a crucifix cover (Exact thing happened with Triple H and Jeff Hardy at No Mercy 2008) to get the surprise victory. Even though I didn't enjoy the early going and it was too long, it ended up being just another one of their great matches. If you cut out the early BS lock up and mat wrestling, you're left with a match reminiscent of their hate filled match at Ernest P. Memorial. It's their weakest match out of their four match singles series, but that's still not a bad thing. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Dragon applauded Steen for pinning him cleanly. He wants a handshake. Reluctantly, Steen slowly shakes his hand while Dragon brings him in for a hug. It's how guys resolve all issues - they hug it out bitch. Dragon clobbers Steen with a forearm and nails the Psycho Driver 2. Excalibur and Disco Machine run out from the back to prevent any more harm on their fearless leader. As predictable as this moment was, it was AWESOME. This marks the shift in the Dragon/Steen feud. For the most part, their at opposite points from where they were when this all started. Steen started out as a loner without the PWG title and looking to play mind games to get what he wants. Meanwhile, Dragon had a couple of friends in Excalibur and Disco Machine and was the PWG champion. If using mind tricks was what helped Steen get the advantage over Dragon, Dragon's willing to do that too. For the first time in this feud, Dragon leaves a show with Steen laying on the mat. It doesn't matter that Steen won this match, Dragon's going to win the war.
Overall
It's night 1 of BOLA. There's certain shows that I expect great things from (BOLA Night 2, Anniversary Show, DDT4 and All Star Weekend), I expect the least from BOLA's first night. For the most part, it's just a night to set-up the second night and if you get one noteworthy match, you should be happy. In this case, we get two in the form of the Dragons. Add in the fact that night 1 featured the return of Scorpio Sky, you have some extra importance added onto the show. Even with all of the sub par or disappointing matches, it's not a bad way to start the first ever BOLA.
Worth Checking Out
Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Reyes
AJ Styles vs Jack Evans (Just for the botches)
Super Dragon vs Kevin Steen
Avoid
Joey Ryan vs James Gibson (Who wants to see a decent Gibson 2005 match?)
Frankie Kazarian vs Rocky Romero (Yay for forgetting the story of the match)
2005 Battle of Los Angeles
September 4, 2005
Night 2
Dino Winwood opens the show by bringing out the returning Scorpio Sky. Scorpio talks about how much his mask meant to him and how he went by home to Africa to find himself. He's back for one reason and that's to start a war with Scott Lost. Scorpio officially returns to the ring on October 1st at the next show.
The New SBS and Ronin vs Chris Sabin, Hook Bomberry and TJ Perkins
Excalibur and Disco Machine have an issue with Sabin due to Sabin failing to help them win the previous night. Thus the second six man tag with a couple of partners Sabin could find. I have no idea why Perkins is in this when he was supposed to be too injured to be a part of BOLA. The early going is sloppy with Bomberry failing to closeline Excalibur over the top rope in the early moments of the match. Things really never improve. After a few minutes, everyone comes in to hit a couple of spots before the finish that saw Sabin pin Excalibur after the Cradle Shock. Far too short of a match. It felt as if it had just began by time the finish came. The inclusion of Perkins is even more questionable as he never had a chance to do anything noteworthy. For those keeping track, the New SBS has lost three out of their last four tag matches. It's sad to see the faction already a joke minus Steen in singles matches. 1 1/2 Stars.
Rocky Romero vs Quicksilver - Second Round
The crowd entertains themselves with a "Lets go Cuba!" and "Let's go San Diego!" dueling chant. Even Romero and Quickie isn't sure what to make out of it. Quicksilver makes the mistake of trying to hit numerous slaps like Rocky does. Romero pays him back with some vicious slaps. Romero mostly controls the match while working over the ankle and knee. However, Rocky's tendency to be overly fancy resulted in Quicksilver countering Romero's twisting pin that he beat Kazarian with to get the surprise pinfall. It's not a bad match, but I definitely believe they're capable of far better. 2 3/4 Stars.
James Gibson vs Chris Bosh - Second Round
After calling Gibson gay for wearing another man's name on his tights (Since Gibson is still Jamie Noble to Bosh), Bosh gets his ass kicked by Gibson to start the match. A suicide dive to the outside causes Gibson more pain than Bosh due to landing head first on the ground. From then on, it's a fight from beneath for Gibson. Near the end, he seems to have the match won with a Dragon Sleeper and later his guillotine choke. Bosh manages to avoid being choked out by countering it with a Northern Lights Suplex. These few extra moments to rest to gives Bosh enough time to hang in there until Joey Ryan and Scott Lost runs out to the ring. Gibson easily takes both guys down, but Bosh rolls him up for the cheap victory. While it's not nearly as good as the average Gibson ROH match, it is a pretty good match with Gibson leaving PWG on a higher note than had he left following BOLA Night 1. With more experience together, I imagine Bosh and Gibson could have eventually produced a hell of a match. 3 Stars.
Christopher Daniels announces that he had thought about giving Bryan Danielson a TNA X-Division title shot, being the huge star that he is. However, since AmDrag has spent the last few months out of America wrestling British nobodies, Daniels changes his mind.
Bryan Danielson vs Christopher Daniels - Second Round
For the most part, this is nothing more than a comedy match. Danielson convinces Daniels to shake his hand at the start of the match, but Danielson pulls the hand down to stomp on it. The early going is all about Danielson just trying to have some fun while in easy control of the champ. That carefree attitude comes back to bite Danielson when Daniels surprises him with a twisting arm snap (Wrist lock when you pull the arm down hard to the mat). The next few minutes are the best of the match with AmDrag just selling the arm as only the best can. However, Danielson inexplicably stops selling the arm to redirect the match back to a lighthearted affair. Danielson eventually wins with the crossface chicken wing. It's a good match, but the selling issues from an unlikely victim kept it from being as good as it could have been. On the plus side, the 19 minutes just flew by. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Danielson gets on the mic to request a X-Division title shot the next time they're at a PWG event. Daniels eventually agrees and it's set. This ends up being a pointless segment since Daniels would lose the X-Division Title before the next PWG show. Ironically, the next time they'd both wrestle on a PWG show would be All Star Weekend 2 Night 1. They wouldn't wrestle each other, but the next night they flew to Philly for ROH's Night of Tribute. The two battled in a title match, but for Bryan Danielson's ROH World Title.
Kevin Steen vs AJ Styles - Second Round
Before the match, Steen asks Styles to avoid his neck and his knee due to the pain he's in from his Super Dragon match. Of course, Styles goes right after those two body parts at the sound of the bell. For the amount of time this match received, it's a nearly flawless match. The story is simple. Steen is in such bad shape that all Styles has to do is work on the knee and neck long enough and he'll win. However, since Steen is such an evil bastard, he'll cheat to gain the advantage. Since he's also the champion, Steen gets a couple of chances to prove that he can outsmart Styles. Steen's talent and sneaky cheating ways can only take him so far before Styles beats him. If there's one issue, it's that Styles beat Steen with the Spiral Tap instead of the Styles Clash. The Clash seems to be a little more directed at forcing Steen to land with his knees crashing on the mat and the head taking the punishment. It's not a huge issue though. Styles finally looks really good in PWG whereas Steen only further proves why he's the PWG MVP of 2005. 3 1/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe and NOSAWA vs Top Gun Talwar and Kikutaro
It's time for Joe to kill some bitches. The match is mostly just two matches compressed into one. The first is just all comedy with Top Gun being bullied by Joe and Kikutaro and NOSAWA having a comedic stalemate. The second part is showcasing what a good team Joe and NOSAWA could have been with plenty of double team moves on Top Gun. My one complaint is that Joe and Kikutaro barely even touched. Considering Kikutaro (As Cactus Jack) vs Samoa Joe from ROH's 3rd Anniversary weekend is one of my favorite comedy matches, it only disappointment me more. Fun match though and a good change of pace from the singles matches of this weekend. 2 1/2 Stars.
So Cal Val (Looking incredibly hot in her Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders like dress clothes) and Dino Winwood are out. Scott Lost and Joey Ryan are barred from the ring for Quicksilver vs Chris Bosh. If they come out, they will be fired. Lost and Ryan comes out to argue, but Winwood forces Lost back. After a long stare down at the entrance curtain, Lost points to the ring. *BAM* Ryan super kicks So Cal's head off in a great moment. Dino's distraught and a bunch of guys comes out to carry an unconscious So Cal Val to the back.
Chris Bosh vs Quicksilver - Semi Finals
Despite Quicksilver being the least big star that Bosh has to wrestle during BOLA 2005, there's at least a past. Quickie and Bosh were former PWG tag champions for a short time in 2004 before becoming bitter enemies in the AXP/Arrogance feud. Early on, Quicksilver tries to smash Bosh's head with a chair while his head is against the ring post. Bosh ducks, but it's a nice little reminder of what Bosh did to Quicksilver at the 2nd Anniversary. Towards the end, they take turns hitting big spots on the outside. This results in several long counts. While it puts over how much they hate each other and works perfectly fine in the context of the AXP/Arrogance feud, it doesn't create a great one off match. Bosh nearly gets counted out when he only gets to his feet at the 19 count. The ref purposely holds off counting to 20 for a few seconds so that Bosh can get into the ring. The crowd HATES this and chants "Bullshit". I'd kind of have to agree. Bosh quickly puts Quicksilver away with the Steiner Screwdriver. This would have been fine as an opening round match, but it fails as a semi-finals. 2 3/4 stars.
AJ Styles vs Bryan Danielson - Semi Finals
This tends to be hailed as one of the better matches in PWG history by some. Personally, I don't see it. They end up throwing away two possible stories. The first comes from Styles getting upset at Danielson's "Just here to have fun" attitude. The second comes from Styles selling the knee (How he injured it, I have no idea), but Danielson not even touching it. I'm not sure whether Styles decided to tell a story without cluing in AmDrag or if Danielson decided he didn't want to do it. Either way, it makes for a bizarre match. That being said, they do end up producing a fun match full of mat wrestling, similar spots and near falls. Like with Bosh's win, Styles winning made it looked like he went through a war. Unlike with Bosh, the war was pretty entertaining for Styles. One of the better matches that I have a lot of gripes with. 3 1/2 Stars.
Super Dragon, Jack Evans, El Generico and Frankie Kazarian vs Scott Lost, Joey Ryan, Ricky Reyes and Davey Richards
Everyone who lost in the first round is back again in an eight man tag. There's a lot of smack being talked before the bell. You'd think that this was a big faction vs faction match with how much everyone hates everyone. In particular, Davey Richards seems to have selected Super Dragon to pick a fight with. Even in the midst of the Steen feud, that's still a very stupid thing to do. Dragon makes him pay for it with a series of brutal hits, however; Davey keeps coming back. There's a definite young lion challenging the Alpha Male for his spot. To bring it back to the Steen feud, it seems like this is the sort of thing Dragon needed. Some young bad ass who's willing to take everything he can deliver and still want more. None of this mind games BS that Dragon has been forced to deal with for nine months. After the midway point, the match breaks down into a giant spot fest. However, it's a spotfest that you can't help, but get into. By time the finish occurs, you feel as if you've been taken through a long story which isn't always the case for spotfests. Dragon picks up the win for his team by hitting the Psycho Driver 2 on Davey Richards. Dragon, Davey, Joey (And his huge heel heat) and Jack Evans (SPOTZ~!) all made this match really fun. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I did originally. Best match of BOLA 2005. 4 Stars.
Chris Bosh vs AJ Styles - Finals
Styles defeated one of the top high flyers in the world in Jack Evans, the current PWG champion in Kevin Steen and the future ROH Champion in Bryan Danielson to get to this match. Bosh had wins over one half of the current PWG tag champions in El Generico, the next ROH World Champion in James Gibson and his former partner/last PWG tag champion in Quicksilver. Star power wise, I'd give it to Styles, but Bosh's wins were big too. Styles is selling his knee during the entire match, but Bosh doesn't touch it once. I'm now convinced that Styles created this knee injury storyline without telling anyone. Styles regains control, but he misses a Spiral Tap. Bosh nails the Steiner Screwdriver, but Styles kicks out. Bosh hits it again and wins the match and the first ever BOLA. What an uneventful finale. It was just mindless fighting that didn't make sense in terms of the story Styles tried to tell. The worst thing is that out of the entire tournament, this is the worst match. Lesson learned: If you're going to try and create a story, fill in your opponents. 1 3/4 Stars.
After the match, Bosh repeats the legendary Austin 3:16 King of the Ring 1996 speech. Styles stops him, pissed that Bosh would dare to poke fun at his religion. The crowd boos Styles. When Bosh tells Styles to lick his balls, Styles throws another tantrum by throwing his water bottle at Bosh. God, Styles looks like such a loser in this. Bosh throws down his trophy, stating that he only cares about taking the PWG Title from Kevin Steen.
Overall
Well, there you have it. The first ever BOLA event. Regardless of the tournament, I feel it's important to have three things to have a successful tourney. 1) You have to have enough good matches. BOLA 2005 accomplishes that thanks to Bryan Danielson and Kevin Steen. The matches doesn't have to be great, but just good enough that there's more than one reason to watch the show. 2) The best match has to be a tournament event. That's one of the biggest problems of the KOTR. Minus 1993, the best matches are always from the non-tournament matches. Sadly, BOLA 2005 fails at this as well. As good as Reyes vs Danielson from Night 1 was, it didn't end up being the best match of the night. To be fair, the losers tag is one of the better matches of the year, so it has that going for it. 3) The final match has to be worthy of closing out the entire weekend. To put it bluntly, Bosh vs Styles FAILED miserably.
The booking of the tournament can be questionable as well. As much as I love Chris Bosh, what's the point of having him win if they weren't going to eventually put the PWG Title on him? In theory, it would have made more sense to have Joey Ryan win the title. Then there's Quicksilver making it to the semi-finals. Once again, love the guy, but he didn't have any business making it to the semi-finals. Just making it to Night 2 is questionable as well. Steen, Gibson or Daniels would have all been a better choice. Even though I was disappointed in Bryan Danielson on Night 2, he should have been in Styles' spot as the babyface who carries the tournament. Out of the first three rounds, Danielson did have the best match each time. I'm sure he could have had a much better match against Chris Bosh (Or Joey Ryan had he won). Overall, for the first BOLA, it's good enough to warrant a second one, but it's still a weak BOLA. Thanks to the losers tag and Danielson vs Daniels being included on the two PWG Sells Out DVD sets, I wouldn't say it's worth the twenty dollar price tag at Highspots. By skipping the show, you'd be missing out on a really good American Dragon match, but it's Bryan Danielson. The guy has a million classics better than the one against Reyes.
Worth Checking Out
Kevin Steen vs AJ Styles (For Steen's awesome performance)
Bryan Danielson vs AJ Styles
Losers Tag Match
Avoid
New SBS and Ronin vs Chris Sabin, Hook Bomberry and TJ Perkins
AJ Styles vs Chris Bosh
September 4, 2005
Night 2
Dino Winwood opens the show by bringing out the returning Scorpio Sky. Scorpio talks about how much his mask meant to him and how he went by home to Africa to find himself. He's back for one reason and that's to start a war with Scott Lost. Scorpio officially returns to the ring on October 1st at the next show.
The New SBS and Ronin vs Chris Sabin, Hook Bomberry and TJ Perkins
Excalibur and Disco Machine have an issue with Sabin due to Sabin failing to help them win the previous night. Thus the second six man tag with a couple of partners Sabin could find. I have no idea why Perkins is in this when he was supposed to be too injured to be a part of BOLA. The early going is sloppy with Bomberry failing to closeline Excalibur over the top rope in the early moments of the match. Things really never improve. After a few minutes, everyone comes in to hit a couple of spots before the finish that saw Sabin pin Excalibur after the Cradle Shock. Far too short of a match. It felt as if it had just began by time the finish came. The inclusion of Perkins is even more questionable as he never had a chance to do anything noteworthy. For those keeping track, the New SBS has lost three out of their last four tag matches. It's sad to see the faction already a joke minus Steen in singles matches. 1 1/2 Stars.
Rocky Romero vs Quicksilver - Second Round
The crowd entertains themselves with a "Lets go Cuba!" and "Let's go San Diego!" dueling chant. Even Romero and Quickie isn't sure what to make out of it. Quicksilver makes the mistake of trying to hit numerous slaps like Rocky does. Romero pays him back with some vicious slaps. Romero mostly controls the match while working over the ankle and knee. However, Rocky's tendency to be overly fancy resulted in Quicksilver countering Romero's twisting pin that he beat Kazarian with to get the surprise pinfall. It's not a bad match, but I definitely believe they're capable of far better. 2 3/4 Stars.
James Gibson vs Chris Bosh - Second Round
After calling Gibson gay for wearing another man's name on his tights (Since Gibson is still Jamie Noble to Bosh), Bosh gets his ass kicked by Gibson to start the match. A suicide dive to the outside causes Gibson more pain than Bosh due to landing head first on the ground. From then on, it's a fight from beneath for Gibson. Near the end, he seems to have the match won with a Dragon Sleeper and later his guillotine choke. Bosh manages to avoid being choked out by countering it with a Northern Lights Suplex. These few extra moments to rest to gives Bosh enough time to hang in there until Joey Ryan and Scott Lost runs out to the ring. Gibson easily takes both guys down, but Bosh rolls him up for the cheap victory. While it's not nearly as good as the average Gibson ROH match, it is a pretty good match with Gibson leaving PWG on a higher note than had he left following BOLA Night 1. With more experience together, I imagine Bosh and Gibson could have eventually produced a hell of a match. 3 Stars.
Christopher Daniels announces that he had thought about giving Bryan Danielson a TNA X-Division title shot, being the huge star that he is. However, since AmDrag has spent the last few months out of America wrestling British nobodies, Daniels changes his mind.
Bryan Danielson vs Christopher Daniels - Second Round
For the most part, this is nothing more than a comedy match. Danielson convinces Daniels to shake his hand at the start of the match, but Danielson pulls the hand down to stomp on it. The early going is all about Danielson just trying to have some fun while in easy control of the champ. That carefree attitude comes back to bite Danielson when Daniels surprises him with a twisting arm snap (Wrist lock when you pull the arm down hard to the mat). The next few minutes are the best of the match with AmDrag just selling the arm as only the best can. However, Danielson inexplicably stops selling the arm to redirect the match back to a lighthearted affair. Danielson eventually wins with the crossface chicken wing. It's a good match, but the selling issues from an unlikely victim kept it from being as good as it could have been. On the plus side, the 19 minutes just flew by. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Danielson gets on the mic to request a X-Division title shot the next time they're at a PWG event. Daniels eventually agrees and it's set. This ends up being a pointless segment since Daniels would lose the X-Division Title before the next PWG show. Ironically, the next time they'd both wrestle on a PWG show would be All Star Weekend 2 Night 1. They wouldn't wrestle each other, but the next night they flew to Philly for ROH's Night of Tribute. The two battled in a title match, but for Bryan Danielson's ROH World Title.
Kevin Steen vs AJ Styles - Second Round
Before the match, Steen asks Styles to avoid his neck and his knee due to the pain he's in from his Super Dragon match. Of course, Styles goes right after those two body parts at the sound of the bell. For the amount of time this match received, it's a nearly flawless match. The story is simple. Steen is in such bad shape that all Styles has to do is work on the knee and neck long enough and he'll win. However, since Steen is such an evil bastard, he'll cheat to gain the advantage. Since he's also the champion, Steen gets a couple of chances to prove that he can outsmart Styles. Steen's talent and sneaky cheating ways can only take him so far before Styles beats him. If there's one issue, it's that Styles beat Steen with the Spiral Tap instead of the Styles Clash. The Clash seems to be a little more directed at forcing Steen to land with his knees crashing on the mat and the head taking the punishment. It's not a huge issue though. Styles finally looks really good in PWG whereas Steen only further proves why he's the PWG MVP of 2005. 3 1/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe and NOSAWA vs Top Gun Talwar and Kikutaro
It's time for Joe to kill some bitches. The match is mostly just two matches compressed into one. The first is just all comedy with Top Gun being bullied by Joe and Kikutaro and NOSAWA having a comedic stalemate. The second part is showcasing what a good team Joe and NOSAWA could have been with plenty of double team moves on Top Gun. My one complaint is that Joe and Kikutaro barely even touched. Considering Kikutaro (As Cactus Jack) vs Samoa Joe from ROH's 3rd Anniversary weekend is one of my favorite comedy matches, it only disappointment me more. Fun match though and a good change of pace from the singles matches of this weekend. 2 1/2 Stars.
So Cal Val (Looking incredibly hot in her Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders like dress clothes) and Dino Winwood are out. Scott Lost and Joey Ryan are barred from the ring for Quicksilver vs Chris Bosh. If they come out, they will be fired. Lost and Ryan comes out to argue, but Winwood forces Lost back. After a long stare down at the entrance curtain, Lost points to the ring. *BAM* Ryan super kicks So Cal's head off in a great moment. Dino's distraught and a bunch of guys comes out to carry an unconscious So Cal Val to the back.
Chris Bosh vs Quicksilver - Semi Finals
Despite Quicksilver being the least big star that Bosh has to wrestle during BOLA 2005, there's at least a past. Quickie and Bosh were former PWG tag champions for a short time in 2004 before becoming bitter enemies in the AXP/Arrogance feud. Early on, Quicksilver tries to smash Bosh's head with a chair while his head is against the ring post. Bosh ducks, but it's a nice little reminder of what Bosh did to Quicksilver at the 2nd Anniversary. Towards the end, they take turns hitting big spots on the outside. This results in several long counts. While it puts over how much they hate each other and works perfectly fine in the context of the AXP/Arrogance feud, it doesn't create a great one off match. Bosh nearly gets counted out when he only gets to his feet at the 19 count. The ref purposely holds off counting to 20 for a few seconds so that Bosh can get into the ring. The crowd HATES this and chants "Bullshit". I'd kind of have to agree. Bosh quickly puts Quicksilver away with the Steiner Screwdriver. This would have been fine as an opening round match, but it fails as a semi-finals. 2 3/4 stars.
AJ Styles vs Bryan Danielson - Semi Finals
This tends to be hailed as one of the better matches in PWG history by some. Personally, I don't see it. They end up throwing away two possible stories. The first comes from Styles getting upset at Danielson's "Just here to have fun" attitude. The second comes from Styles selling the knee (How he injured it, I have no idea), but Danielson not even touching it. I'm not sure whether Styles decided to tell a story without cluing in AmDrag or if Danielson decided he didn't want to do it. Either way, it makes for a bizarre match. That being said, they do end up producing a fun match full of mat wrestling, similar spots and near falls. Like with Bosh's win, Styles winning made it looked like he went through a war. Unlike with Bosh, the war was pretty entertaining for Styles. One of the better matches that I have a lot of gripes with. 3 1/2 Stars.
Super Dragon, Jack Evans, El Generico and Frankie Kazarian vs Scott Lost, Joey Ryan, Ricky Reyes and Davey Richards
Everyone who lost in the first round is back again in an eight man tag. There's a lot of smack being talked before the bell. You'd think that this was a big faction vs faction match with how much everyone hates everyone. In particular, Davey Richards seems to have selected Super Dragon to pick a fight with. Even in the midst of the Steen feud, that's still a very stupid thing to do. Dragon makes him pay for it with a series of brutal hits, however; Davey keeps coming back. There's a definite young lion challenging the Alpha Male for his spot. To bring it back to the Steen feud, it seems like this is the sort of thing Dragon needed. Some young bad ass who's willing to take everything he can deliver and still want more. None of this mind games BS that Dragon has been forced to deal with for nine months. After the midway point, the match breaks down into a giant spot fest. However, it's a spotfest that you can't help, but get into. By time the finish occurs, you feel as if you've been taken through a long story which isn't always the case for spotfests. Dragon picks up the win for his team by hitting the Psycho Driver 2 on Davey Richards. Dragon, Davey, Joey (And his huge heel heat) and Jack Evans (SPOTZ~!) all made this match really fun. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I did originally. Best match of BOLA 2005. 4 Stars.
Chris Bosh vs AJ Styles - Finals
Styles defeated one of the top high flyers in the world in Jack Evans, the current PWG champion in Kevin Steen and the future ROH Champion in Bryan Danielson to get to this match. Bosh had wins over one half of the current PWG tag champions in El Generico, the next ROH World Champion in James Gibson and his former partner/last PWG tag champion in Quicksilver. Star power wise, I'd give it to Styles, but Bosh's wins were big too. Styles is selling his knee during the entire match, but Bosh doesn't touch it once. I'm now convinced that Styles created this knee injury storyline without telling anyone. Styles regains control, but he misses a Spiral Tap. Bosh nails the Steiner Screwdriver, but Styles kicks out. Bosh hits it again and wins the match and the first ever BOLA. What an uneventful finale. It was just mindless fighting that didn't make sense in terms of the story Styles tried to tell. The worst thing is that out of the entire tournament, this is the worst match. Lesson learned: If you're going to try and create a story, fill in your opponents. 1 3/4 Stars.
After the match, Bosh repeats the legendary Austin 3:16 King of the Ring 1996 speech. Styles stops him, pissed that Bosh would dare to poke fun at his religion. The crowd boos Styles. When Bosh tells Styles to lick his balls, Styles throws another tantrum by throwing his water bottle at Bosh. God, Styles looks like such a loser in this. Bosh throws down his trophy, stating that he only cares about taking the PWG Title from Kevin Steen.
Overall
Well, there you have it. The first ever BOLA event. Regardless of the tournament, I feel it's important to have three things to have a successful tourney. 1) You have to have enough good matches. BOLA 2005 accomplishes that thanks to Bryan Danielson and Kevin Steen. The matches doesn't have to be great, but just good enough that there's more than one reason to watch the show. 2) The best match has to be a tournament event. That's one of the biggest problems of the KOTR. Minus 1993, the best matches are always from the non-tournament matches. Sadly, BOLA 2005 fails at this as well. As good as Reyes vs Danielson from Night 1 was, it didn't end up being the best match of the night. To be fair, the losers tag is one of the better matches of the year, so it has that going for it. 3) The final match has to be worthy of closing out the entire weekend. To put it bluntly, Bosh vs Styles FAILED miserably.
The booking of the tournament can be questionable as well. As much as I love Chris Bosh, what's the point of having him win if they weren't going to eventually put the PWG Title on him? In theory, it would have made more sense to have Joey Ryan win the title. Then there's Quicksilver making it to the semi-finals. Once again, love the guy, but he didn't have any business making it to the semi-finals. Just making it to Night 2 is questionable as well. Steen, Gibson or Daniels would have all been a better choice. Even though I was disappointed in Bryan Danielson on Night 2, he should have been in Styles' spot as the babyface who carries the tournament. Out of the first three rounds, Danielson did have the best match each time. I'm sure he could have had a much better match against Chris Bosh (Or Joey Ryan had he won). Overall, for the first BOLA, it's good enough to warrant a second one, but it's still a weak BOLA. Thanks to the losers tag and Danielson vs Daniels being included on the two PWG Sells Out DVD sets, I wouldn't say it's worth the twenty dollar price tag at Highspots. By skipping the show, you'd be missing out on a really good American Dragon match, but it's Bryan Danielson. The guy has a million classics better than the one against Reyes.
Worth Checking Out
Kevin Steen vs AJ Styles (For Steen's awesome performance)
Bryan Danielson vs AJ Styles
Losers Tag Match
Avoid
New SBS and Ronin vs Chris Sabin, Hook Bomberry and TJ Perkins
AJ Styles vs Chris Bosh
After School Special
October 1, 2005
This happens to be held on the same night as ROH's Joe Vs. Kobashi. I wonder how many PWG fans wished they lived on the east coast for once.
Dino Winwood opens up the show by reading a letter from So Cal Val. It's a little hard to hear him, but I do pick up that So Cal Val makes Winwood the full commissioner of PWG.
2 Skinny Black Guys (c) vs Super Dragon and Davey Richards - PWG Tag Team Titles
This came about when Super Dragon wanted another match with Kevin Steen. Since his win/loss record hasn't been too great lately, Dino ruled that Dragon couldn't wrestle the champion again just yet. However, he does have enough wins to warrant a tag title shot. Since Dragon doesn't have any friends, Winwood pairs him up with Davey Richards. The entire story is based around Dragon and Richards. Early on, it's a game of "Anything you can do, I can do better" which poor Generico pays the price of being the legal man during all of it. As the match goes on, Richards and Dragon finds their groove and settles on just kicking some serious ass. There are a lot of botches in this, some of which were pretty scary looking. The normally great Tornado has an off day, botching more than anyone else. However, he makes up for it with his great selling. Tornado took a huge dive to the outside, crashing and burning hard on the floor. If Tornado was just selling, he deserves an award for it because I thought he was legitimately knocked out. The old cocky Super Dragon returns by not pinning Tornado, instead pulling him up to break a couple of counts. On his own, Generico nearly wins the match a few times, but is put away with a top rope Pearl River Plunge from Super Dragon. Super Dragon and Davey Richards are the NEW PWG Tag Team Champions! PWG really went over the top in making Dragon and Richards look like a dominant team. Thanks to the sloppiness, I enjoyed the story more than the actual action, but the new tag champions has some natural chemistry. The SDDR era has officially begun. 3 1/4 Stars.
TJ Perkins vs Alex Shelley
I wonder why Shelley isn't at Joe Vs. Kobashi? Perkins and Shelley are pretty similar, especially since both are rocking the 3/4 length tights at this time. They end up having a long mat based match where it's just hold, reversal and back to the hold. For the first half, it's not too bad, however; there's several awkward spots when it comes to pin attempts near the end. The wrestler doesn't get the shoulder up in time, the referee has to pause before coming down for a three count or the kick out was so small that you didn't even realize there was a legit kick out. At the end, Shelley nails the Air Raid Crash and a Frog Splash. Perkins (I guess?) kicks out, so Shelley quickly locks in the Border City Stretch to force Perkins to tap out. I liked what they were going for, but there were just too many questionable moments. At twenty-three minutes, it tends to drag on. Cutting five-seven minutes would still allow for a lengthy match and it'd flow better. 2 3/4 Stars.
The New SBS and Ronin vs Quicksilver and Gunning for Hookers
This feud just never ends. Excalibur has had a problem with Top Gun since January. Despite having Quicksilver on the babyface team, Top Gun is chosen to play the face-in-peril. It wasn't very interesting and the hot tag was met with a mild reaction. The second half is all spots with everyone getting in their moves. The positive thing is that means Quicksilver gets some time to shine and add something of value to this. The bad thing is that Hook Bomberry and Excalibur has a dreadful sequence in the corner. After a long delay, Excalibur finally hits the Air Raid Crash on Bomberry to pick up the win. Luckily, this is the last Gunning for Hookers/New SBS match for 2005. 1 1/2 Stars.
Dino Winwood is in the ring to call out Joey Ryan. If that means a fight, then so be it. Winwood is distracted by someone in the entrance way. The camera never picks up who it is, but it's a safe guess that it's Scott Lost. Joey Ryan runs in the ring and nails Dino with a chair in the back. Joey challenges Dino to a singles match, but he's willing to wait until October 14th (PWG's Straight to DVD) to get an answer. I have to admit, I'm digging this feud. After months of little interactions, I'm ready to see them in an actual match.
Joey Ryan vs Chris Hero
Before the match, Ryan promises that Hero will be unable to put him in a cravat. That's one way to create some story. Early on, it's all about mat based wrestling. Considering this is in the middle of the Technical Wizard time period, it's exactly what Ryan wants. Then it morphs into a Lucha based match, which loses my interest some. A fun comedy spot occurs when Hero kips up. Ryan tries, but fails. It's very similar to the kip up spot seen during Hero/Danielson at Card Subject to Change, but it works better since Joey's a real heel. Finally, Joey has the ref and Hero help him kip up. Due to all of the work, Joey needs his inhaler. Ha. Just like for the rest of the show, the match drags on. You could have easily cut out 10 minutes and it would have been fine. At the end, the ref takes a bump, signaling for Scott Lost to run out. Hero easily takes care of him though. After a Hero's Welcome, Hero covers Ryan, but Lost counts to three without Hero knowing the truth. Lost runs to ring the bell to further continue the illusion. Lost sneak attacks Hero and Lost and Ryan hits a cool looking double team move (Hero in torture rack position and is thrown up and down into a Joey Ryan face buster). Joey picks up the win and continues his impressive record against technical workers. For what it was, it was fine, but it can't hold a candle to their 2009 matches. 2 3/4 Stars.
Scott Lost vs Scorpio Sky
Scorpio's first match in three months. To coincide with now being maskless, Scorpio is now working shirtless. Pretty great simple booking with Scorpio wanting to kill Lost and Lost playing the chicken **** heel, who knows he's in some serious trouble. Things brighten for Lost when he catches Scorpio chair in hand and super kicks the chair into his face. From there, it's about Lost trying to pick up the win, but Scorpio refuses to lose. When Scorpio locks Lost in his own Sharpshooter, Joey Ryan comes out to distract Sky. This allows Lost to grab a pair of brass knuckles that Ryan subtly laid on the apron and knock Scorpio out. Lost wraps him up in the Sharpshooter and the referee is forced to end the match due to Scorpio being unconscious. For the first match in the feud, it went just as it should have. It's good, but it leaves plenty of room for the future matches to be even better. Scorpio now has even more of a reason to hate Lost. As for Lost, he still hasn't proven that he's the better man. The feud lives on. 3 1/4 stars.
Kevin Steen (c) vs Chris Bosh - PWG World Title
This match is part of Chris Bosh's prize for winning BOLA. Both guys are heels that generally receive babyface reactions. Bosh becomes the unofficial babyface since the crowd refuses to boo him at all, unlike Steen. The single biggest problem of the night, too long matches, once again rears it's ugly head. By the midway point, it feels as if they've wrestled for nearly thirty minutes. The actual time for the entire match is far too long by clocking in at over twenty-five minutes. Another problem is that it just didn't feel like a main event match. With all of the shenanigans, it would have been a perfect undercard match. It's hard to describe, but it's not difficult to notice. The big moment comes when Bosh goes for his trademark balls shot, but Steen moves out of the way. The ref takes the low blow and goes down hard. Bosh's reaction is priceless though. Steen tries to get the win, but Bosh shows some heart and refuses to lose to the Package Piledriver. Bosh hits the Steiner Screwdriver and pins Steen to become the NEW PWG WORLD CHAMPION! Bosh celebrates with the title for a few minutes until the original referee waves off the decision and DQ'ing Bosh for the balls shot. Steen retains the belt in a cliche, but effective, Dusty Finish. Cut ten minutes off and drop some of the comedy and this would be fine. Similarly to the tag titles match, the story was better than the actual execution. 2 1/4 Stars.
http://youtu.be/9T-Kb2686W8
Overall
I wondered at the beginning of the review, how many fans in attendance wished they were at Joe Vs. Kobashi? After watching the show, I was wishing I was watching Joe Vs. Kobashi instead. The show is missing a lot of top guys thanks to the ROH show and various other shows (Frankie Kazarian is at another So Cal show) and it mostly serves as a transitional event. With BOLA being the last show and the All Star Weekend 2 weekend coming up in a couple of shows, it's nearly impossible to make this show feel too important. All of those problems are understandable and should make the viewer grade this event on a curve. However, the one thing they did have control of, match lengths, they completely dropped the ball on. Minus Scorpio/Lost, every match could have lost at least five minutes. There's even a couple that should have lost a good deal more. One thing I love about PWG is that they normally don't mind having a short (2 hours) show. They don't force shows to go the full three hour norm. Those two hour shows are a lot of fun due to how easy it is to get through them. Despite only having six matches, the total length of the show is over two and a half hours. It's just crazy to expect most of these guys to have a 20+ minute match without being able to rely on a Bryan Danielson-like wrestler to carry the bout.
Despite a fun Scorpio/Lost match, I can't say this is worth buying unless you're 1) A major SDDR mark or 2) A DVD completest. If you're either of those, I'd advise you to just wait until Highspots has it on sale for 5 dollars like they do a few times throughout the year. If you do want to check out the show, you're going to see PWG in transition. Scorpio/Lost has begun their singles feud, Bosh's quest to become PWG champion has also started. Finally, Dino Winwood and Joey Ryan's feud appears to be nearly at the climax. Without seeing the final five shows of the year yet, I'm still confident that this is the worst show of the year.
Worth Checking Out
Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost
Avoid
The New SBS and Ronin vs Quicksilver and Gunning for Hookers
October 1, 2005
This happens to be held on the same night as ROH's Joe Vs. Kobashi. I wonder how many PWG fans wished they lived on the east coast for once.
Dino Winwood opens up the show by reading a letter from So Cal Val. It's a little hard to hear him, but I do pick up that So Cal Val makes Winwood the full commissioner of PWG.
2 Skinny Black Guys (c) vs Super Dragon and Davey Richards - PWG Tag Team Titles
This came about when Super Dragon wanted another match with Kevin Steen. Since his win/loss record hasn't been too great lately, Dino ruled that Dragon couldn't wrestle the champion again just yet. However, he does have enough wins to warrant a tag title shot. Since Dragon doesn't have any friends, Winwood pairs him up with Davey Richards. The entire story is based around Dragon and Richards. Early on, it's a game of "Anything you can do, I can do better" which poor Generico pays the price of being the legal man during all of it. As the match goes on, Richards and Dragon finds their groove and settles on just kicking some serious ass. There are a lot of botches in this, some of which were pretty scary looking. The normally great Tornado has an off day, botching more than anyone else. However, he makes up for it with his great selling. Tornado took a huge dive to the outside, crashing and burning hard on the floor. If Tornado was just selling, he deserves an award for it because I thought he was legitimately knocked out. The old cocky Super Dragon returns by not pinning Tornado, instead pulling him up to break a couple of counts. On his own, Generico nearly wins the match a few times, but is put away with a top rope Pearl River Plunge from Super Dragon. Super Dragon and Davey Richards are the NEW PWG Tag Team Champions! PWG really went over the top in making Dragon and Richards look like a dominant team. Thanks to the sloppiness, I enjoyed the story more than the actual action, but the new tag champions has some natural chemistry. The SDDR era has officially begun. 3 1/4 Stars.
TJ Perkins vs Alex Shelley
I wonder why Shelley isn't at Joe Vs. Kobashi? Perkins and Shelley are pretty similar, especially since both are rocking the 3/4 length tights at this time. They end up having a long mat based match where it's just hold, reversal and back to the hold. For the first half, it's not too bad, however; there's several awkward spots when it comes to pin attempts near the end. The wrestler doesn't get the shoulder up in time, the referee has to pause before coming down for a three count or the kick out was so small that you didn't even realize there was a legit kick out. At the end, Shelley nails the Air Raid Crash and a Frog Splash. Perkins (I guess?) kicks out, so Shelley quickly locks in the Border City Stretch to force Perkins to tap out. I liked what they were going for, but there were just too many questionable moments. At twenty-three minutes, it tends to drag on. Cutting five-seven minutes would still allow for a lengthy match and it'd flow better. 2 3/4 Stars.
The New SBS and Ronin vs Quicksilver and Gunning for Hookers
This feud just never ends. Excalibur has had a problem with Top Gun since January. Despite having Quicksilver on the babyface team, Top Gun is chosen to play the face-in-peril. It wasn't very interesting and the hot tag was met with a mild reaction. The second half is all spots with everyone getting in their moves. The positive thing is that means Quicksilver gets some time to shine and add something of value to this. The bad thing is that Hook Bomberry and Excalibur has a dreadful sequence in the corner. After a long delay, Excalibur finally hits the Air Raid Crash on Bomberry to pick up the win. Luckily, this is the last Gunning for Hookers/New SBS match for 2005. 1 1/2 Stars.
Dino Winwood is in the ring to call out Joey Ryan. If that means a fight, then so be it. Winwood is distracted by someone in the entrance way. The camera never picks up who it is, but it's a safe guess that it's Scott Lost. Joey Ryan runs in the ring and nails Dino with a chair in the back. Joey challenges Dino to a singles match, but he's willing to wait until October 14th (PWG's Straight to DVD) to get an answer. I have to admit, I'm digging this feud. After months of little interactions, I'm ready to see them in an actual match.
Joey Ryan vs Chris Hero
Before the match, Ryan promises that Hero will be unable to put him in a cravat. That's one way to create some story. Early on, it's all about mat based wrestling. Considering this is in the middle of the Technical Wizard time period, it's exactly what Ryan wants. Then it morphs into a Lucha based match, which loses my interest some. A fun comedy spot occurs when Hero kips up. Ryan tries, but fails. It's very similar to the kip up spot seen during Hero/Danielson at Card Subject to Change, but it works better since Joey's a real heel. Finally, Joey has the ref and Hero help him kip up. Due to all of the work, Joey needs his inhaler. Ha. Just like for the rest of the show, the match drags on. You could have easily cut out 10 minutes and it would have been fine. At the end, the ref takes a bump, signaling for Scott Lost to run out. Hero easily takes care of him though. After a Hero's Welcome, Hero covers Ryan, but Lost counts to three without Hero knowing the truth. Lost runs to ring the bell to further continue the illusion. Lost sneak attacks Hero and Lost and Ryan hits a cool looking double team move (Hero in torture rack position and is thrown up and down into a Joey Ryan face buster). Joey picks up the win and continues his impressive record against technical workers. For what it was, it was fine, but it can't hold a candle to their 2009 matches. 2 3/4 Stars.
Scott Lost vs Scorpio Sky
Scorpio's first match in three months. To coincide with now being maskless, Scorpio is now working shirtless. Pretty great simple booking with Scorpio wanting to kill Lost and Lost playing the chicken **** heel, who knows he's in some serious trouble. Things brighten for Lost when he catches Scorpio chair in hand and super kicks the chair into his face. From there, it's about Lost trying to pick up the win, but Scorpio refuses to lose. When Scorpio locks Lost in his own Sharpshooter, Joey Ryan comes out to distract Sky. This allows Lost to grab a pair of brass knuckles that Ryan subtly laid on the apron and knock Scorpio out. Lost wraps him up in the Sharpshooter and the referee is forced to end the match due to Scorpio being unconscious. For the first match in the feud, it went just as it should have. It's good, but it leaves plenty of room for the future matches to be even better. Scorpio now has even more of a reason to hate Lost. As for Lost, he still hasn't proven that he's the better man. The feud lives on. 3 1/4 stars.
Kevin Steen (c) vs Chris Bosh - PWG World Title
This match is part of Chris Bosh's prize for winning BOLA. Both guys are heels that generally receive babyface reactions. Bosh becomes the unofficial babyface since the crowd refuses to boo him at all, unlike Steen. The single biggest problem of the night, too long matches, once again rears it's ugly head. By the midway point, it feels as if they've wrestled for nearly thirty minutes. The actual time for the entire match is far too long by clocking in at over twenty-five minutes. Another problem is that it just didn't feel like a main event match. With all of the shenanigans, it would have been a perfect undercard match. It's hard to describe, but it's not difficult to notice. The big moment comes when Bosh goes for his trademark balls shot, but Steen moves out of the way. The ref takes the low blow and goes down hard. Bosh's reaction is priceless though. Steen tries to get the win, but Bosh shows some heart and refuses to lose to the Package Piledriver. Bosh hits the Steiner Screwdriver and pins Steen to become the NEW PWG WORLD CHAMPION! Bosh celebrates with the title for a few minutes until the original referee waves off the decision and DQ'ing Bosh for the balls shot. Steen retains the belt in a cliche, but effective, Dusty Finish. Cut ten minutes off and drop some of the comedy and this would be fine. Similarly to the tag titles match, the story was better than the actual execution. 2 1/4 Stars.
http://youtu.be/9T-Kb2686W8
Overall
I wondered at the beginning of the review, how many fans in attendance wished they were at Joe Vs. Kobashi? After watching the show, I was wishing I was watching Joe Vs. Kobashi instead. The show is missing a lot of top guys thanks to the ROH show and various other shows (Frankie Kazarian is at another So Cal show) and it mostly serves as a transitional event. With BOLA being the last show and the All Star Weekend 2 weekend coming up in a couple of shows, it's nearly impossible to make this show feel too important. All of those problems are understandable and should make the viewer grade this event on a curve. However, the one thing they did have control of, match lengths, they completely dropped the ball on. Minus Scorpio/Lost, every match could have lost at least five minutes. There's even a couple that should have lost a good deal more. One thing I love about PWG is that they normally don't mind having a short (2 hours) show. They don't force shows to go the full three hour norm. Those two hour shows are a lot of fun due to how easy it is to get through them. Despite only having six matches, the total length of the show is over two and a half hours. It's just crazy to expect most of these guys to have a 20+ minute match without being able to rely on a Bryan Danielson-like wrestler to carry the bout.
Despite a fun Scorpio/Lost match, I can't say this is worth buying unless you're 1) A major SDDR mark or 2) A DVD completest. If you're either of those, I'd advise you to just wait until Highspots has it on sale for 5 dollars like they do a few times throughout the year. If you do want to check out the show, you're going to see PWG in transition. Scorpio/Lost has begun their singles feud, Bosh's quest to become PWG champion has also started. Finally, Dino Winwood and Joey Ryan's feud appears to be nearly at the climax. Without seeing the final five shows of the year yet, I'm still confident that this is the worst show of the year.
Worth Checking Out
Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost
Avoid
The New SBS and Ronin vs Quicksilver and Gunning for Hookers