HF Reviews PWG

[Horrorfan_1986]

Straight to DVD
October 14, 2005

Dino Winwood opens the show by trying to talk about Arrogance and Joey Ryan, however; he's interrupted by the PWG referees. They've had enough of the future Dynasty's cheating ways and being attacked. The refs threaten to leave if things don't change. Dino closes out the segment with a great Mr. McMahon impression (Complete with the strut), but also promises to take care of things.

Quicksilver vs Disco Machine
Before the match, Winwood sings a remixed version of Qucksilver's theme song. Quicksilver dedicates the match to his girlfriend of six years. I know he's married these days, so I wonder if that's his future wife. Disco interrupts the lovely moment with a baseball slide to Quicksilver's back. This creates a little story where Disco's turned his back on love since his wife left him and he has to pay child support. The story runs thin for the rest of the match though. Quicksilver counters out of a couple of Chokebreaker attempts while Disco kicks out of Silver Splash. Quicksilver gets the surprise victory after sunset flipping out of Disco's Chokebreaker attempt. For an opener, it's fine, but I've come to expect more from Quicksilver. Both guys had some weak shots. With this now being seven shows since Quicksilver worked a tag match, I'm ready for him to get back to his natural environment. 2 Stars.

Joey Ryan vs El Generico
The debut of the 'stache. Joey's still referred to as the Technical Wizard, but he's wrestling like he would with his sleaze gimmick of 2006. The early going isn't anything spectacular other than Joey trying to get cheap heat by calling for big spots, but then headlocking Generico. At the time, those heel tactics were awesome. The other memorable part of the match was Ryan renaming the Duff Drop to the Mustache Ride. It only gets him a two count though. That begs the question "Why not introduce the move if you're not winning with it?" Joey gets the win in typical fashion by faking an injury and surprising Generico with a small package. This turned out a lot better than their PWG Title match from Horror Business. Ironically, that match would occur a week past the one year anniversary of this.2 3/4 Stars.

Frankie Kazarian vs Ronin vs TJ Perkins vs Hook Bomberry w/Top Gun Talwar
Logic? Who needs logic in laying out a match? This is an elimination match. Before the match, Kazarian gets on the mic and signals Ronin out for the one guy he has a problem with wrestling. Of course, that means Kazarian and Ronin barely even touches in the match since the real heat is between Bomberry and Ronin. This comes to a head when both guys are too busy fighting each other on the outside that they both get counted out. The logic continues with Perkins controlling most of the second fall. Kazarian only gets in a few moves, but easily pins TJ with the Wave of the Future. How does it help Perkins at all to basically lose after one move? Gah. As I'm typing this up, my hate for this match has went from a minor annoyance to full on hatred. The one good thing that came from this is that I'm interested in seeing Ronin vs Bomberry thanks to the hatred shown. However, I know those feelings will be crushed the single second the match begins. However, that match would be too logical for PWG as they would NEVER book it. : 2 Stars.

Chris Hero vs Scott Lost
They sure do love their kick outs. It feels like there's about a million different kick outs in this. Sometimes less is more. If you have too many kick outs, your fans are no longer expecting a three count when it actually does happen. The result is a finish met with apathy. Getting that out of the way, this ended up being a really fun match. Scott Lost brought his A-Game with his creative moves and Hero's a nice compliment by having a large collection of unique moves as well. Late in the match, Joey Ryan attempts to cause a distraction, but Scorpio Sky runs him to the back. Soon afterward, Hero gets the win with the Hero's Welcome. Dump some of the kick outs and you'd have a forgotten gem. 3 1/4 Stars.

Christopher Daniels vs Scorpio Sky
Before the match, Scorpio makes fun of Daniels for losing the TNA X-Division title. He then goes on a long spiel mocking Daniels for being bald. This goes on for far too long and is especially lame since Scorpio's bald too. The match itself wasn't too bad though. Daniels played to the crowd a lot, which made BG James' claim that Daniels didn't make it in TNA because he couldn't connect with the crowd lubricious. Near the end Scott Lost comes out to distract Scorpio so that Daniels can roll him up. Scorpio kicks out, causing Daniels to spear Lost off of the apron. Scorpio rolls him up for the easy win. The finish came off very weak. It wasn't necessary and only took away from a good match. Like most of Daniels' PWG matches, this is good, but isn't anything too special to go out of your way to see. 3 Stars.

Joey Ryan and Scott Lost hit the ring to attack Sky. This brings out Dino Winwood and Quicksilver to clear the ring. Dino gets on the mic to fire Lost and Ryan. Once Scorpio is able to get up, Dino offers him one match of his choice to make up for all of the beat downs. Scorpio demands that Lost and Ryan are rehired and that Arrogance and Joey Ryan must face AXP and DIno Winwood at the next show. Dino agrees and the first match for the 2nd All Star Weekend is booked.

Super Dragon and Davey Richards (c) vs Petey Williams and Chris Sabin - PWG Tag Team Titles
Even though this match was five minutes longer than SDDR vs 2 Skinny Black Guys, it feels at least half as long. The near thirty minutes flies by unlike a lot of Dragon's long matches. Dragon and Richards is still trying to get used to each other, but the chemistry is there. Both are perfectly fine with cheating and they love kicking some ass. Petey plays a decent face-in-peril for most of the first half. The match could have used a little more structure and the finish of Dragon picking up the win with one of the Psycho Drivers didn't felt like the ending. I'm thinking it would have been better had SDDR won the match with their power bomb/lung blower combo. It's a good match though, Davey sells his injured knee really well at the end. The big thing though is that PWG is building up SDDR as their top team. If nothing else, by time they book SDDR vs Arrogance, it's going to be the biggest PWG tag title match in history (At this point). 3 1/4 Stars.

After the match, Sabin attacks Super Dragon. He goes to throw him into Petey for the Canadian Destroyer, but it ends up just low blowing Petey. Williams gets pissed at Sabin and turns on him with a Stunner. Petey isn't selling the effects of the match at all before leaving. Sabin, who now isn't selling the match nor the stunner gets on the mic to verbally abuse Williams for turning on him (Yes, he said turn). Meanwhile, Super Dragon and Davey Richards of all people sell the effects of the match the most. This "Turn" was weak as hell. The turn didn't make sense and Sabin's promo was embarrassingly bad.

Kevin Steen (c) vs AJ Styles vs Chris Bosh - PWG World Title
Pretty simple story going into this. Bosh hates Steen and wants his title. Styles is still pissed at Steen for taking his belt and at Bosh for beating him at BOLA. And Steen just hates everyone. Plenty of double team spots even if they come off a little choreographed since one wrestler has to wait for another to get into position. The final few minutes is really good though. Styles delivers a sick looking brainbuster on the apron to Bosh. To follow it up, Styles nails a Styles Clash off of the apron to the floor to Steen. Steen legitimately looks out of it. Steen counters a Steiner Screwdriver attempt by Bosh and gets in a surprise roll up with plenty of leverage to win the match. I would have preferred Styles take the fall since Bosh is getting several more title shots, but at least Steen didn't decisively defeat Bosh. PWG tends to be really good with these triple threat title matches. They're never great, but you can always count on it being good. 3 1/4 Stars.

http://youtu.be/LuHMmoZiK6k

Overall
Straight to DVD was far from perfect, but it was a step up from After School Special. Both title matches succeed in being two of the best matches of the night. You have some importance with Joey Ryan debuting his sleaze gimmick. There isn't anything horrible, even if the booking could have been better. This was plain and simply a filler show. That's okay though. There's only four shows left in the year and each one has to be big. I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this, but it's more than worth the Highspots sale price of five dollars.

Worth Checking Out
Scott Lost vs Chris Hero
Kevin Steen vs AJ Styles vs Chris Bosh
Super Dragon and Davey Richards vs Petey Williams and Chris Sabin

Avoid
TJ Perkins vs Frankie Kazarian vs Ronin vs Hook Bomberry (Just for the stupid booking)

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

All Star Weekend 2 - Night One
November 18, 2005

The New SBS vs TJ Perkins and Rocky Romero
The SBS is represented by the standard tag team of Excalibur and Disco Machine. It's a good thing that they're no longer perceived as a super serious team that is going to fuck people up because Excalibur starting the match by jokingly ribbing Romero before screaming in pain with kicks would ruin their perception. The early comedy is a lot of fun though. Some of the highlights include Disco Machine's neck being draped on the bottom rope with Excalibur chasing Perkins around the ring. Of course, they keep having to step on Disco. It's once the SBS changes their attitude to play up a serious match, things go down hill. The only positive moment is late in the match when Perkins has Excalibur trapped in the Figure Four Deathlock and Excalibur is screaming his lungs out. The finish comes when Perkins heads up to the top rope for a move, but the referee counts to ten. Yes...someone ACTUALLY got counted out for being on the top rope too long. What a stupid way to give the New SBS a much needed win. 1 1/4 Stars.

Petey Williams vs Chris Sabin
After being a team since their debut in PWG, Petey turned on Sabin at the last show (Straight to DVD). This is Sabin's first chance at revenge. Before the match, Petey does his best to ensure that he gets booed. To accomplish that goal, he turns his back on Canada and vows to not use his Canadian moves again. Those moves include the Oh Canada! low blow, Sharpshooter and the Canadian Destroyer. It's the last move that gets the boos. The match doesn't have the intensity that you'd want to see in a former partners match, but they manage to have a fun match that keeps the fans interest. Sabin plays to the crowd by allowing kids to chop Petey whereas Petey tries to keep the heat by teasing moves, only to hit other ones. By the end, he's ready to hit his new finisher, the swinging neckbreaker, but Sabin easily kicks out. Petey attempts to win with his feet on the ropes, but that also fails. A little story of "Can Petey win without his Canadian moves?" is created before Williams finally wins with his feet on the ropes for a second time. Petey really did a great job at creating a fun match, but one that kept his word in refusing to give the fans what they wanted. Thanks to their chemistry, this wasn't too bad. 3 Stars.

Christopher Daniels vs Frankie Kazarian
Kazarian is still a good nine or so months away from returning to TNA, but this still feels like a TNA vs TNA match. Similarly to the previous two matches, there's a lot of comedy. It's a few minutes before the action even begins due to both men posing for the camera. Even though it's not the match I was expecting, they produce a quality comedy match mixed with some solid wrestling. The best moment came on the outside as Daniels ducks a charge from Kazarian. While Daniels back is turned, Kazarian hits the ring post with his hands and falls down. Once Daniels turns around, he believes Kazarian is knocked out. Being unable to pick up the "Unconscious" Kazarian, Daniels rolls back in the ring to allow Rick Knox to count Kazarian out. Kazarian waits until Daniels has his back turned and sneaks back in to get a two count with a roll up. Based on the fact that Eddie Guerrero had just died earlier that week, I imagine it was a little tribute to him. Kazarian gets the win when he rolls through a flying cross body to get three count. 3 1/4 Stars.

Excalibur comes out to inform Super Dragon, Davey Richards and the fans that Gunning for Hookers are suspended for All Star Weekend 2 due to failed drug tests. As a result, they will no longer be receiving a tag title shot. Since Dino Winwood is busy preparing for his match later tonight, Excalibur took it upon himself to announce SDDR's opponents for their now non-title match. Logically, he picks buddy Ronin and Super Dragon's part time partner, B-Boy. With the New SBS getting a tag shot on night 2, Excalibur wants Ronin and B-Boy to soften the champs up.

Super Dragon and Davey Richards vs Ronin and B-Boy
The start of this match is just beyond epic. Due to Ronin's association with the New SBS, Dragon and Davey instantly goes after him with Dragon killing Ronin with a forearm. Davey and Dragon takes their turn beating on Ronin on the outside. The one chance Ronin gets to chop Dragon, Dragon throws a chair at his face. : Early on, B-Boy didn't have a lot of reason to hate Dragon, but once Dragon begins taunting him with the middle finger, B-Boy's ready to turn the intensity up to another level. Richards and B-Boy has an exciting sequence where they find out who's the real man by taking stiff kicks to their back and forcing themselves to just endure it. This was legitimately shaping up to be a MOTYC. After, after the fifteen minute mark, the four no longer bothers to tag in and things just go down hill. They all seemed to be exhausted and only running on fumes. Still, they somehow made Ronin and B-Boy look like they could defeat the tag champions. If you hate Ronin, this match is perfect. You're able to see Ronin getting his ass kicked, but somehow pulls off his best performance I've seen out of him. Major kudos to Ronin for all of the effort. SDDR gets the win after Dragon hits the Psycho Driver on B-Boy (On Ronin) and Davey hits the Shooting Star Press on Ronin. Cut seven to ten minutes out and Ronin would have a legitimate PWG MOTYC. 3 3/4 Stars.

Jack Evans vs El Generico
As expected, a dance off starts the match. Generico busts out the Worm to earn my vote. Also expected, there's a lot of spots...like seriously, a TON of spots. The crowd (Minus one guy who attempts to start a "You're both morons" chant early on) eats everything up though. However, due to having such crazy spots, they don't always come off looking too pretty. Whether it's awkward pauses or slight botches, you can find a lot of them in this. A basic problem I have with spotfests is that you're bound to reach a point where pinfalls no longer matter. We've already seen so many crazy spots that could have ended the match, so the actual final spot won't have the proper reaction. Sadly, they have the perfect spot with Evans hitting a beautiful top rope moonsault into a DDT that literally caused my jaw to drop. Instead of having that be the finish, Generico kicks out and Evans is forced to use his 630 splash to pick up the win. Probably the best thing you can do in such a spotfest is to keep it short. The shorter it is, the less time the viewer will have to grow tired of seeing spot after spot. At 18 minutes, this match is a little too long. Still, it's non-stop action with a lively crowd. 3 Stars.

Bryan Danielson vs Jimmy Yang
This would be Yang's PWG debut. He had only debuted in ROH the previous month and currently held the amazing record of 0-3. For the first time in PWG, Bryan Danielson really behaves like a heel. I suppose he sort of did against Chris Hero at Card Subject to Change, but it was played up all for comedy. Besides working on Yang's shoulder, Danielson creates a story out of the "I have til five!" shtick. Every time Danielson would use the five count, the referee could get more and more frustrated. It even got to the point where the referee claimed that he would DQ Danielson if he did it again. Yang plays the role of the plucky underdog who's nearly able to surprise Danielson with a loss due to all of Danielson's talks with the referee. Danielson makes the critical mistake of going for his airplane spin (I counted 30 revolutions), which only causes him to get more dizzy than Yang. Yang nearly gets the win by countering Danielson's superplex with a crossbody, but Danielson rolls through and holds Yang's shoulders down for a three. The referee claims Yang got his shoulder up, but it's apparent that Yang fucked up. Yang quickly pins Danielson following Yang Time. The fuck up at the end caused Yang's big win to be a rather lackluster emotional moment. I did get a chuckle at the irony of Jimmy Yang being winless in ROH, yet he just defeated ROH's World Champion. Danielson's nearly incapable of putting on a bad match and this no exception. That being said, it's a noticeable step below Danielson's ROH Title defenses. 3 1/2 Stars.

Aerial Xpress and Dino Winwood vs Arrogance and Joey Ryan
Give it up to PWG, this has been a match they've been building this up for months. Thanks to Scott Lost and Scorpio Sky now being in a singles feud, this means a little bit more. Most of the match just features Quicksilver facing off against the heels since they were saving Dino Winwood for the end and Scorpio Sky and Scott Lost couldn't mix it up much since they have a match on night 2. The real quality begins once Dino is tagged in after AXP are exhausted and selling. Dino goes through a Goldberg-like tear through Joey and Arrogance. Such highlights include Dino doing Trish Stratus' Matrix-like duck and then killing Joey with a spear. The match also serves the purpose as the "End of the reign of terror" by Joey and Arrogance. Rick Knox allows Scorpio Sky to use a chair, but pulls it out of Joey's hands to pay Arrogance and Joey back for all of the cheating. Dino gets the big win on Joey following the Mustache Ride. Everything is made to seem as if the good guys have won. Ironically, the real reign of terror has yet to star. As far as AXP/Arrogance battles, it's their weakest match, but I had a huge smile on my face for all of Dino's moves. The workrate may have not been high, but it was a ton of fun. 3 Stars.

After the match, Scorpio Sky uses the steel chair on Lost. He does it so many times to a defenseless Lost that you begin to feel bad for Lost. This may be a weird comparison, but Scorpio is similar to Anakin Skywalker in Episode 3. Dino and Quicksilver are losing their buddy to the dark side. Great job by Quicksilver and Dino during this beat down. They're not high five-ing or celebrating. They're looking on in shock, not sure how they should respond.

Kevin Steen (c) vs Samoa Joe - PWG World Title
This is all yet attempt by Steen to prove that he's better than Super Dragon. Back in August, Steen pinned Quicksilver several minutes sooner than Super Dragon did on the previous show. Now Steen is facing Dragon's toughest opponent to date, a man that he could never pin. Early on, Steen finds out the hard way why you don't slap Joe. Joe murders Steen for the next few minutes. Steen next finds out why you don't try to headbutt Joe. Joe's head is far harder than yours. Steen finally finds a strategy that works by working over Joe's right knee. Such a simple plan dramatically helps Steen stay in control for most of the remaining match. Joe has a few bursts from time to time, but Steen endures it. Finally Steen gets the surprise pin after countering a DVD into a crucifix pin. It may have taken Steen five minutes longer to beat Joe, but he actually pinned Joe. Unlike a lot of the other matches on this show, it didn't feel as if this was given too much time. Steen was great in his game plan and all of his antics and Joe brought the pain. Easily Steen's best match since winning the PWG title. 3 1/2 Stars.

Overall
For one reason or another, ASW 2 tends to receive a lot of hate. Sure, it may not have that MOTYC or those great matches that you'd expect from one of the biggest shows of the year, but night 1 managed to be a consistently good show. With the exception of the opening match, every match was at least good. You saw Ronin's best match (Ever?) in a bout that blew all of my expectations away, another chapter in the AXP/Arrogance singles feuds and Steen one upping Super Dragon. Like I said above, most of the matches could have benefited from being a little shorter. Unlike at After School Special, having longer matches didn't kill the show for me.

Worth Checking Out
Davey Richards and Super Dragon vs Ronin and B-Boy
AXP and Dino Winwood vs Arrogance and Joey Ryan (For Dino Winwood)
Kevin Steen vs Samoa Joe

Avoid
TJ Perkins and Rocky Romero vs Excalibur and Disco Machine

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

All Star Weekend 2 - Night Two
November 19, 2005

TJ Perkins and Human Tornado w/Jade Chung vs Alex Koslov and Ronin
This is Koslov and Chung's PWG debut. I'm not sure what the deal was with Tornado, but he was very over the top in his antics. It got to the point where I just wanted him out of the ring so Perkins can carry the match. Easily the most annoying Tornado has ever been. Despite the dull match, Alex Koslov was instantly over with the PWG audience. The last time I can remember a debuting wrestler being this over was Kevin Steen at Free Admission (Just Kidding). While it was a step above night 1's opening tag match, it's still a far below average match for Perkins. Perkins has the Figure Four Deathlock on Koslov for the win, but the referee refuses to call for the bell since Tornado was the legal man. Tornado simply locks in a Camel Clutch on Koslov to pick up the victory. What is with giving Perkins the horrible endings this weekend? 1 3/4 Stars.

In a nice ironic twist, ROH's Night of Tribute was held on the same night as this show. During that show (As we'd find out on the DVD release) Dave Prazak showed a digital picture of Jimmy Rave Pedigree'ing Jade Chung in a parking lot. Prazak claimed that Chung suffered broken cheeks and she was out of the professional wrestling business. Due to the time change, a few hours later, PWG holds ASW 2 Night 2 and Jade Chung makes her debut. :

Jack Evans vs Joey Ryan
Thanks to their differing styles, Evans and Ryan had a fun little match. Despite being the Technical Wizard, Ryan's mat work didn't have much effect since Evans could contort his body into getting out of any hold. However, it's Evans spotty style that gets him into trouble with Ryan finally going on offense. To keep Evans looking strong, they created a little story where Ryan couldn't hit the Mustache Ride and was forced to keep covering Evans with his feet on the ropes. Despite Rick Knox catching him twice, he doesn't notice the third time to allow Ryan the victory. At barely over twelve minutes long, it's one of Joey's shortest PWG matches up to this point. Even though it could have shaved off a couple of minutes, it didn't drag as much as most of his matches do. Joey had now won seven of his last eight singles matches. 2 3/4 Stars.

Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost
Lost attacks Scorpio during Sky's entrance with the very chair Scorpio used on him on night 1. The beat down goes on for a long time before the opening bell rings. From there, it's a match built around Lost punishing Scorpio and Sky just trying to fight through the pain. Near the end, Lost even uses the chair again to nail some painful looking blows to Scorpio's back. Lost locks in the Sharpshooter and it's battle between the ultimate submission hold and Scorpio's pride. In the long fight to get to the ropes, Quicksilver and Dino Winwood runs out to cheer Scorpio on. Once Scorpio is within inches of grabbing the ropes, Lost pulls him back to the middle of the ring. Scorpio's screaming in pain and Dino Winwood is crying, having to watch one of his best friends in so much pain. When Winwood knows Scorpio can't get to the ropes, he throws the towel in to give Scott Lost the win. After the match, Quicksilver and Human Tornado berate Dino for throwing in the towel. I have to hand it to PWG, they were trying hard to create this epic sort of storytelling. The execution was heavily flawed, but I still appreciate the effort. These sort of emotional roller coasters are difficult to tell to an indy audience since they know it's simply an angle. Still, this makes me want to fork over some money and buy the next chapter of their feud. And really, isn't that the ultimate goal of this? 3 1/2 Stars.

Super Dragon and Davey Richards (c) vs Excalibur and Disco Machine - PWG Tag Titles
Disco and Davey's early mat work is just stupid. This is supposed to be a blood feud with the most evil faction in PWG against the most violent tag team. Despite the early problems, this really heat up once Davey injures his knee. I'm really questioning whether Davey was actually hurt. Right after it happens, he seems super pissed off at Disco Machine in going after him (I'm not talking about with pro wrestling strikes, but just trying to grab and pull him to the floor so he can beat on him). If Davey was just selling his knee the entire match, even the biggest Davey hater has to be impressed with the selling. Like most SDDR matches, it goes on a little too long. That being said, it has the extra importance of bringing the Kevin Steen/Super Dragon back to the forefront when Steen comes out to distract the referee and Dragon in order to give his SBS partners a chance to win. Steen fails, but it's enough to heat the feud back up. Despite not being the one who got the pinfall, this was the best Davey looked since SDDR started up. Even though he was injured, he kept fighting and didn't always need Dragon there to save him. It started off rough, but it ended with another solid title defense (Albeit weaker than night 1) for SDDR. 3 1/4 Stars.

After the match, Steen attacks the tag champions. Davey gets a chair hitting his knee a few times and Dragon takes a Package Piledriver on a chair. I LOVE the story of this. It was the Package Piledriver on a chair that began the downward spiral for Super Dragon with Steen making him his bitch. Jason Takes PWG, the show it occurred at, was a major turning point in the feud with everything turning to **** for Dragon. Thanks to Dragon picking up a lot of wins lately with Davey Richards, I see Kevin Steen fearing that he didn't kill Super Dragon, that he's returning to his usual self. Steen needs to stop that momentum in order to keep Dragon down. Things are different though. Unlike post-Jason Takes PWG, Dragon finally has an alley that he can trust and beat the New SBS with in the form of Davey Richards.

Jimmy Yang vs Rocky Romero
For the "I totally just made this up, but it still applies" backstory of the match - Rocky Romero is preparing for his ROH World Title shot against Bryan Danielson in December. He wants to test his skills against the last guy who beat Dragon - Jimmy Yang. Unlike with the Danielson match on night 1, both guys here are babyfaces. As a result, there's zero heat in this. Oh sure, they both all of their pretty moves and the fans are appreciative, but it just feels like an exhibition. It doesn't help matters that Yang is the anti-James Gibson. I find Yang to be so much better in the short WWE matches compared to his longer indy bouts. Maybe his heart isn't in it, but he's botchy and isn't the Yang greatness that you could find on Smackdown or Velocity. Still, I can't hate on Yang too much and Romero is his usual quality self. Yang picks up the win after a Yang Time to a standing Romero. Good, but nothing special. 3 Stars.

El Generico vs B-Boy
Watching B-Boy's singles matches is starting to become a chore. They're always so long and the first half is just a time killer before the excitement beings with the wrestlers picking up their pace. Generico and B-Boy tries to add some comedy early on by talking on a couple of fan's cell phones, but it's about as funny as Human Tornado's antics earlier tonight - not funny at all. With B-Boy's win, this is now El Generico's fifth straight singles loss. In fact, for all of 2005, Generico only won one singles match. Meh. B-Boy picks up the win after his "I'm only going to use this in the toughest matches only" Delikado, which seems a bit unnecessary. 2 Stars.

Chris Sabin and Frankie Kazarian vs Petey Williams and Hardkore Kidd w/El Jefe
El Jefe~! The only reason why I even bother to watch Hardkore Kidd's matches. Petey's back to wearing his Canadian gear, but he still worked the match as if he's trying to be Canadian move free. Surprisingly, Kidd and Petey work well together. For most of the match, Kidd doesn't even attempt any of his stupid high flying moves. However, it's just as I'm ready to praise him that he does a springboard spot. Even though he's botchy and generally isn't too interesting, seeing Kidd work a big man style is a lot better than seeing a lackluster high flyer. Sabin and Kazarian takes turns playing the face-in-peril, but neither hot tag receives a major reaction. In the end, Kazarian nails his Flux Capacitor on Petey to get the victory for his team. For an undercard (And much shorter match) this would have been fine, but for as much time as it was given and the spot on the card, it wasn't too special. 2 1/2 Stars.

Kevin Steen (c) vs Chris Bosh - PWG World Title
Before the match, Bosh gets on the mic to tell us about his last jerking off session. God came to his in a vision and told Bosh that jerking it was a sin, but he can make up for it if he beats Steen to win the title. If Bosh doesn't win the belt, he's going to hell. Bosh ends up getting his ass kicked for the majority of the match. Steen relishes in throwing Bosh against the wall, into chairs, onto the ring apron and giving him a loud chop that even Roderick Strong would think was too mean. In addition to taking months off of Bosh's career, Steen spent a lot of time jaw jacking with the crowd. Sure, you could say Steen was being a "Cool heel", but the entertained crowd responded by booing and making fun of him, so he kept his heel heat. Near the end of the match, Scott Lost and Joey Ryan run out. With Lost distracting the referee, Joey Ryan looks to super kick Kevin Steen, but instead kicks Bosh! Steen covers, but Bosh kicks out. 450 Splash by Steen, but Bosh kicks out. Finally, Steen manages to get the win following a top rope Package Piledriver. This match was a ton of fun and brutal. Even though the commentators make it clear that Lost meant to help Bosh, it's unknown why Ryan would turn on Bosh. A huge improvement on their After School Special match. 3 1/2 Stars.

Overall
Similarly to the first All Star Weekend, night 2 is a step below night 1. While the action is a little disappointing, night 2 is loaded with importance. The Lost/Sky feud has a new chapter that upped the violence and has given Scorpio a reason to distance himself from Dino Windwood. Super Dragon has finally gotten one over on the New SBS thanks to help from Davey Richards. Super Dragon and Kevin Steen's feud has heated up again with both men at their peak unlike their previous matches. The biggest thing is Joey Ryan's turn on Chris Bosh that would set up a major angle for the next half year. They've even managed smaller important things to happen such as building Jimmy Yang up and debuting Alex Koslov and Jade Chung. From an in-ring perspective, this isn't a must see show, yet there's enough big things happening that you do need to see certain parts.

Worth Checking Out
Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost
Kevin Steen vs Chris Bosh

Avoid
TJ Perkins and Human Tornado vs Ronin and Alex Koslov (Perkins deserves better and Tornado was off of his game)

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

Chanukah Chaos (The C's Are Silent)
December 3, 2005

TJ Perkins vs Christopher Daniels
If only all openers could be like this. Here we have a match that didn't wear out it's welcome (Just under 15 minutes), had a basic story, and was just straight up quality grappling. The story of the match is that despite being the underdog, Perkins manages to surprise everyone and control the much bigger star. There's a lot of times where Daniels is struggling to not be pinned. For Daniels, he has to use his experience to outsmart Perkins whenever he can. One such moment was when Perkins sat on the top turnbuckle (Tornado DDT?), but Daniels quickly counters it into a DVD. Daniels once again manages to avoid a strike and surprises Perkins with the Koji Clutch, to force Perkins to tap out. 3 1/4 Stars.

Chris Sabin vs B-Boy
According to the old press releases, Sabin is possibly replacing an injured Chris Bosh here. This is the first step in B-Boy's quest for a PWG Title shot. It's the speed of Sabin vs the hard hitting style of B-Boy. As Jim Ross would say, Sabin is as quick as a hiccup. This was still a period where I consider Sabin a great talent and he backed it up. It's kind of a shame this was more of a showcase for B-Boy because Sabin was better in every way. I felt as if the story could have been a little better. The action was great and all, but the whole "Back and forth" wrestling isn't the most compelling of stories a lot of the time. Likewise, it went on a touch too long, partially because of the lack of story. B-Boy ends up beating Sabin with a Shinning Wizard to win this hard fought contest. Man, I miss old Sabin. 3 Stars.

El Generico and Los Luchas vs Ronin, Nemesis and Alex Koslov
Man, this is sorta the ultimate melting pot of my favorite and least favorite old PWG acts. I believe this is the debut of Nemesis. In a lot of ways, this reminded me of the six person tag at Fear. The early comedy was good with Nemesis instantly making himself a memorable lowcarder with some really fun antics. The crazy non-stop spots at the end was good until it went into overkill territory. Unlike the Fear match, the match isn't nearly as long, so the length doesn't affect your enjoyment too much. Los Luchas were pretty damn passable here and Ronin was his usual decent self when it comes to tag matches. Generico wins the match for his team with the top rope brainbuster on Koslov. Predictable winners aside, this was a lot better than what I expected. 3 Stars.

Kevin Steen (c) vs Joey Ryan - PWG World Title
PWG's two biggest heels of 2005 colliding. The one is evil for turning friends on friends while the other isn't afraid of turning on friends to help his cause. In typical faux Technical Wizard fashion, most of the story is based around Joey getting an unfair advantage (Slamming Steen's arm down on exposed steel) and then Ryan works on the body part like he's a technical genius. I thought this story did a great job at keeping the match interesting until the crazy ending. After Ryan realizes after all of this work, he still can't beat Steen, he takes out the referee so he can nail Steen with a chair. This brings out the ultimate tweener, Chris Bosh, to take the chair away and nail Ryan with it as payback for Ryan costing Bosh the belt at ASW 2 Night 2. However, as Steen is covering Ryan, Super Dragon runs out and pulls the ref out of the ring. That sets Dragon up to hit two Psycho Drivers on Steen to allow Joey Ryan of all people to win the PWG World Title. A really fun little match that had enough interest before the ending and the ending helps continue two huge feuds. 3 1/4 Stars.

AJ Styles vs Chris Hero
A ROH dream match that never happened. Sadly, if this is the quality of match we were depraved of seeing in ROH, we didn't miss out on much. I can appreciate some slow building matches, but this didn't click for me. It clocks in at twenty-eight minutes and a good deal of that was just grappling on the mat. While Hero can be entertaining in that role due to his creative submission holds, it's very clear Styles is just killing time. Styles is best when he's flying around and creating an exciting match. Up until the final few minutes, the crowd is fairly quiet, only making the occasional (And random) chant. The fact the match ends with Styles surprising Hero with a simple roll-up just further backs up the idea that it's an effortless match. I really should have had more realistic expectations. With this being Styles' final PWG match of 2005, it sums up his year nicely - boring and too long. Hero made this halfway decent entirely on his own. 2 3/4 Stars.

Dino Winwood comes out to talk on the mic. Eventually, Disco Machine and Excalibur comes out as well. The mic is so bad that I only pick up the occasional word. From what I gather, Quicksilver and El Generico were booked to challenge for the tag titles, but Quicksilver isn't here. Upset that Steen lost his belt, The New SBS wants a tag title shot. Winwood gives them it, but if they lose, they can't challenge for the belts again for six months.

Super Dragon and Davey Richards (c) vs The New SBS - PWG Tag Titles
It's angle time, baby! The early going shows Dragon bringing the hate. When Disco Machine rolls out of the ring to escape Davey in the opening seconds, Dragon is so enraged that he runs in the ring and nails a suicide dive to the outside. ****ing awesome. Poor SBS takes a huge beating in the first half before they finally make a comeback by focusing on Davey. When the SBS seems to have the match won after killing Davey with a spike Tiger Driver, Kevin Steen runs out and attack Dragon drawing the DQ. This match is really short (Under 13 minutes), especially compared to the fact that every other SDDR title match up to this point was over twenty minutes long. The angle takes away a little from the match quality, but the the angle was never about Dragon and Disco/Excalibur, so it doesn't really matter. Good for what it was. 3 Stars.

After the match, Steen and Dragon have the brawl of all brawls. Steen attacks both Excalibur and Disco Machine when they try to pull him off of Dragon. The locker room clears out, but that's barely able to stop the two guys from fighting. Poor El Generico takes a few good punches and chair blocks from a crazed Dragon. Even when they're separated, both guys are finding random little objects to throw at each other. In other words, they brought the hate in a HUGE way. Finally, Steen gets on the mic and challenges Steen to a Guerrilla Warfare Match at the next show. This was awesome.

Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost - I Quit Match
The culmination of their long feud. This one had the early brawling of a Guerrilla Warfare Match (See: Throwing each other in chairs for minutes on the outside), but then kept most of the remaining match in the ring. Weapon wise, it was mostly just chairs, a chain and a table spot late in the match. I love that they made note that you can't win if your opponent passed out (Only by saying 'I quit') and then playing on that late in the match. After Lost passes out in a triangle choke, Scorpio uses a bottle of water to revive him. Scott Lost shinned with some of his ideas. The best spot of the match would be his trademark Superman Spear. On the outside, Lost jumped over a group of chairs to collide with Scorpio. Later, Lost put Sky in a tree of woe and then wrapped a chain around Scorpio's head, and pulled back with the chain in Sky's mouth. The ending is pretty great as well with Sky forcing Lost to say 'I Quit' with the Sharpshooter. This entire feud was based around Lost humiliating Scorpio, so it only made sense for Sky to humiliate Lost by beating him with his own move (And the move of Lost's idol). A great feud ender that smartly kept things tame so it wouldn't take away from the next show's Guerrilla Warfare Match. 4 Stars.

In one of the post-show interviews, Excalibur suggests the New SBS split up and go their own ways. RIP New SBS 2005-2005.

Overall
Despite just coming off of All Star Weekend 2 and the huge Astonishing X-Mas to come, PWG made Chanukah Chaos an important show for 2005. Joey Ryan's reign of horror begins. Depending on how you look at it, that's either great or terrible news. The major feud of Scorpio/Lost comes to an end. Meanwhile, Steen/Dragon once again has a show stealing angle and the end of their feud is now set. The undercard is okay, but nothing too great. As usual, AJ Styles disappoints me, but that's nothing new outside of TNA. I found a lot of the undercard matches were given too much time while Super Dragon was oddly in the shortest match. How often can you say that? The big thing is how they've set-up the next show and the next PWG Title feud. Up until the Dynasty is created, the PWG Title is centered around Joey Ryan vs Chris Bosh. Yay for angles!

Worth Checking Out
Super Dragon/Kevin Steen Brawl
Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost

Avoid
Chris Hero vs AJ Styles (Not as good as you'd imagine)

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

Astonishing X-Mas
December 16, 2005

Alex Shelley vs Scott Lost
I really like this match choice and I'll tell you why. Scott Lost just came off of a big loss at Chanukah Chaos. He could have easily bounced back with a match against TJ Perkins or someone else of that low stature for the easy win. Instead, they bring in the rare fly-in Alex Shelley. If Lost wins, it's a huge win and he's completely recovered from the Sky feud loss. Yet, if Lost loses, that's two huge matches in a row that The Professional lost. A loss would send him in the Ronin level of stars. This match offered a fun beginning of mat work and comedy, a boring middle, but the action picked up for the indyerrific series of moves near the end. Both guys manage to kick out of each others big moves. In the end, Lost manages to make Shelley tap to the Lion Tamer version of the Sharpshooter. Despite some flaws, this ended up being a fun way to begin the show. Better yet, the result not only made sense, but it helped the PWG regular. 3 Stars.

Quicksilver and Top Gun Talwar vs Ronin and Nemesis
Man, where has Talwar been? He hasn't wrestled since After School Special (Missed four shows). This was your typical undercard tag match. A lot of comedy early on with Nemesis being slightly funnier than Quicksilver and Talwar. By midmatch, they cut out the comedy and throw in nonstop action. It's nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done. Ron proves to continue to be a decent talent in tag matches as he and Nemesis has some chemistry together. It's not enough though as Quicksilver pins Ronin with the Silver Flash. Luckily, this is the end of Quicksilver's non-push. 2 1/4 Stars.

Colt Cabana vs Scorpio Sky
The first half of this reminded me of Colt's Final Battle 2005 match against Azriel. This time, it's Colt who just wants to have fun while Sky is the one who'd rather just. It makes for some fun comedy, but Scorpio ends up legitimately injuring his knee before the story could reach a chapter 2. Scorpio tries to work the match, but eventually he can't even stand, so Cabana works in some leg submissions before casually pinning Sky while he had a spinning toe hold locked in. Abrupt finish. The real injury killed this match. Pity. 1 3/4 Stars.

2 Skinny Black Guys w/Jade Chung vs Generation Next
First time 2 Skinny Black Guys are teaming since they lost the belts to SDDR at After School Special. I believe this is Roddy Strong's PWG debut. This match was unofficially set-up by Jack Evans pinning Generico during ASW 2 weekend. Once you get past the obligatory dance off with Evans, you're left with a match with nonstop action. Gen Next heels it up a bit, but not enough to make them into full blown heels. The final ten minutes is nothing but non-tag spots that keeps the fans interested. As long as you don't mind tag rules being ignored, this was a lot of fun. If Strong wanted to make an impact in his first night in, he succeed. Gen Next wins after a botched Skipping a Generation (Can you say 'Worst possible time to botch?) is followed up by a standing Phoenix Splash by Evans on Tornado. 3 3/4 Stars.

Joey Ryan (c) vs Chris Kanyon - PWG World Title
Joey's first title defense. In a lot of ways, it really sums up what Joey's title reign will be about. While Joey's very over, the match doesn't offer a lot of quality, it's too long and there's a BS finish to allow Ryan to retain the belt. In this case, a fake Mortis came out and distracted Kanyon after he delivered the Kanyon Cutter. This allowed Ryan to sneak up and roll-up Kanyon for the win. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but bringing in Kanyon was a waste of time. He was an average at best worker and beating him isn't that big of a deal. Kanyon lives up to his Innovator of Offense gimmick by hitting several creative moves. The problem is that's all Kanyon did. There wasn't any rhyme or reason for the funky moves other than to be different. This whole post-death cult following Kanyon has is something I'll never understand. Match sucked and the only redeemable quality was how much heat Ryan got. 1 3/4 Stars.

Samoa Joe vs Davey Richards
Since Super Dragon is busy tonight, Davey gets to try out his skills against Dragon's toughest opponent. As expected, Davey took a huge beating. Even though it wasn't a total squash, the only time I truly felt Davey was in control and Joe was in danger was after the lung blower spot. Joe seemed to be completely thrown off of his game instead of just standing back and letting Davey get in some moves like he did the rest of the match. Still, it didn't matter though as Joe recovered and went back to killing Davey. I dug Davey's brash overconfidence in locking in Joe's STF/Crossface transition only to pay for it later when Joe did it too. In the end, Joe wins with ease after the Muscle Buster (No need for the choke). Davey looked good, but he was out of his league, just as he should be. 3 1/4 Stars.

Alex Koslov, B-Boy, Christopher Daniels and Petey Williams vs Chris Sabin, Frankie Kazarian, Rocky Romero and TJ Perkins
A lot of recent issues here. Sabin's in the middle of a friendly series with B-Boy, but he still hates Petey. Petey's still the foe of Team TNA (Sabin and Kazarian). Perkins and Daniels just had a match at the previous show. Koslov and Perkins just had a tag match a couple of shows ago. Meanwhile, Perkins and Rocky are buddies, so Romero will just go along with him. This was the comedic/lighthearted brother of the BOLA eight man tag. Instead of the vicious exchange between Dragon and Davey, you had a lot of comedy. Surprisingly, it's the heel side (Daniels and company) that supplies the comedy. Early on, Petey creates a spot where he hip tosses all four babyfaces, two of his partners and even the referee. Later, all four heels takes turns hitting a dropkick on Kazarian and then dancing. It's a bit on the long side, but it was so much fun. The best part is that in this comedy/spotfest, it served the purpose of continuing the Sabin/B-Boy feud. With Sabin getting the pin over B-Boy with the Cradle Shock, it evens the series 1-1. Awesome. BOLA eight man was better, but this was tons of fun. 3 1/2 Stars.

Before we move to the main event, I really must applaud PWG's match order. With the main event going to be so violent and hate filled, they smartly decided to have a fun match precede it. Not only does it help keep the show from feeling too much of one style, but it makes the violence of the main event feel more intense.

Super Dragon vs Kevin Steen - Guerrilla Warfare Match
The final match of the year is also the single biggest of the year. Just a quick refresh what Steen has put Dragon through in the past year. Countless attacks, beating Dragon in several matches, caused Disco Machine and Excalibur to turn on Dragon, got in his head to cost Dragon the PWG Title and the Joe/Dragon trilogy and caused Dragon to lose his killer mindset. Dragon's rebound happened at BOLA where he attacked Steen after their match and the next night destroyed Davey Richards. Since then, Dragon had slowly been rebuilding his mindset with his tag title reign with Davey Richards. To get in Steen's head, he had just cost Steen the PWG title. Now, this is the end of the feud, neither guy will accept defeat unless they're killed. And that's exactly what we got.

They had this heat filled brawl early on where they took one sick bump in the chairs after another. By midmatch, they're in the ring and using chairs, tables and thumbtacks. Steen even put on the red Dragon mask to bring everything back to the beginning of the angle. By the end of the match, Dragon is fully recovered and is once again the biggest bad ass in PWG. Dragon went as far to pull Steen up in a few covers to make it clear that he won't end the match until he kills Steen. It's the revenge Dragon had been waiting for a full year. Handcuffing Steen, he gets the win after hitting the Psycho Driver on thumbtacks. Keep in mind this is with Steen being handcuffed, so he couldn't protect himself. Steen is a bloody mess, thumbtacks in his head and unconscious as PWG closes out 2005. Steen came so close to ending Dragon, but in the end, he only made Dragon an even angrier bastard. It's my second time watching this match and I still feel it's the best match in PWG history. 4 1/2 Stars.

Overall
PWG ends the year with a huge show. After over a year, the Dragon/Steen feud ends with both guys being so much bigger stars than they were in late 2004. Could Kevin Steen have asked for a better first angle? He may have lost the feud, but he's forever one of the bigger stars in PWG. It's also kind of sad because Steen wouldn't have another huge year for PWG until 2011. Thanks to being partnered with Davey Richards, already has something ready for him in 2006. With the Steen feud over, it's time for SDDR to make a lasting impact in the tag division. The World Title match was a bust, but it was clear filler for Ryan. Thanks to Chris Bosh still being injured, they're just delaying Ryan's first angle as champion. Both the Gen Next/2SBG and eight man tag delivered in a big way. Scorpio's injury resulted in one of the two duds on the show, but that's another filler match. So I suppose it doesn't matter much. Even with the few noticeable flaws, the positives outweigh the negatives in a big way.

Worth Checking Out
2 Skinny Black Guys vs Generation Next
Samoa Joe vs Davey Richards
Koslov, B-Boy, Daniels & Williams vs Sabin, Kaz, Romero & TJP
Super Dragon vs Kevin Steen

Avoid
Colt Cabana vs Scorpio Sky
Joey Ryan vs Chris Kanyon

 

[Postman Dave]

Dragon/Steen is so stiff it's almost hard to watch at times, but it sure does it look like they hate each other. I loved the post match promo from Steen too, keeping him as one tough bastard despite defeat.

Definite contender for best PWG match ever. I know it's a while away, but I can't wait for your thoughts on Generico/PAC.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

Dragon/Steen is so stiff it's almost hard to watch at times, but it sure does it look like they hate each other. I loved the post match promo from Steen too, keeping him as one tough bastard despite defeat.

I still consider it to be PWG's best match, in addition, I use my rating of 4 1/2 as the standard barrier for all other PWG reviews. I've yet to give a rating higher than that and all of the very best matches in the company's history, that's the rating I gave out.

I know it's a while away, but I can't wait for your thoughts on Generico/PAC.

I don't have all of 2006 reviewed. The 2004-2005 reviews were done mostly because I bought PWG Anthology 2 and 3. So I had a ton of shows in order. Most of my other PWG reviews (Minus 2010-2012) are done in just randomness.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

All Star Weekend IV - Night Two
November 18, 2006

Human Tornado vs Petey Williams
Tornado stole Joey Ryan's PWG Title at a previous show, so Candice is holding on to it. While I love Tornado, I didn't expect this to be anything more than decent. They do some comedy early on with Petey being forced to dance and him hating it. To show how smart Tornado could be, he knows when to cut out the comedy and playing to the fans to get serious so the match can be good. The final five minutes or so are pretty entertaining. Tornado counters the Canadian Destroyer with a jackknife cover to pick up the surprise win. Cut to Petey nailing the Canadian Destroyer and chasing Candice around before he gets the title. On second thought, he decides the title isn't worth his time and throws it back down on Tornado. Cut to Joey Ryan running out and stealing his title back from Candice. Much better than I expected. Pretty solid way to start the match. 3 Stars.

Colt Cabana vs Christopher Daniels
These two worked an epically serious 30 minute mat classic that awed everyone. Okay, that's a complete lie. The match was just one comedy stunt after another. Referee Patrick Hernandez is left frustrated at Daniels and Cabana using him to add to their shenanigans. As an actual match, there's almost no real action. However, it's a great comedy showcase. These two knew how to put on a very entertaining comedy match, but PWG is smart enough to put this on early. Too much comedy to rate, but it's one of the better comedy matches I've seen.

Arrogance vs Frankie Kazarian and M-Dogg 20
Kaz is just filling in for Josh Prohibition who broke his thumb before the show so he backed out. This went pretty much as I expected. Arrogance brought some good tag skills and a lot of entertainment while Kazarian and Cross were just there. Kazarian connected with his Van Terminator that he badly botched at From Parts Well Known. Good for him. Cross hits a shooting star press that comes off looking very awkward. Scott Lost (Who was on top of Bosh) rolled off to avoid it, but Bosh was still hit by it. However, Cross pretty much just landed on his knees and the force then brought his chest down on Bosh. It's kind of hard to describe how it looks awkward. Arrogance wins with a nice Northern Lights Suplex into a back breaker. The ending redeemed the match some. While it's not bad, it's nothing really special. At least Arrogance looked great as usual. 2 3/4 Stars.

Homicide vs Scorpio Sky
Scorpio cuts a promo before the match dressed as a thug. He comes off about as hard as when Colt Cabana tries to look gangsta. Homicide absolutely destroys Sky, leaving Scorpio to beg like Carlton Banks. Jade Chung is always there to try to help out Sky to survive. The end result was Sky surprising Homicide with a roll up for the huge upset. I had a feeling that the match would either be awesome or somewhat of a let down. It was more of a letdown than awesome. However, I had high exceptions for this match though. 2 1/2 Stars.

AJ Styles vs Rocky Romero
I suppose I have a couple of uncommon opinions when it comes to these two. Personally, I love Romero. He has a hard hitting style that I just eat up. I think part of what makes me love his style is all of the arm attacks. Arm attacks aren't as common as other body attacks. Meanwhile, there's AJ. While I loved him in TNA, I've never been impressed much with his non-TNA work. My only guess is that he doesn't put as much effort into non-TNA matches or Styles just looks better to me with Mike Tenay and Don West commentating. However, this match is like watching TNA AJ vs the kind of Rocky I love. It's back and forth action with a lot of stiff shots and Styles looking as if he's trying to put on a really good match. They had me reacting to every move in the final five or so minutes. The end sequence that has Styles hitting a few one arm power bombs while Romero nearly has a triangle choke on him is followed up with a Styles Clash. They had good intentions with it, but the transition into the Clash looks a bit awkward and hurts the final moment a bit. Still, a really enjoyable match and the best match thus far. 3 3/4 Stars.

Arik Cannon vs Ronin
Ronin reminds me a little of Super Dragon. Both are wearing cheap Halloween looking costumes and are on the pudgy side, only making their looks look worse. However, while Dragon has been mostly a letdown, Ronin is slightly impressive. That doesn't mean I think Ronin is a better wrestler though. I didn't have any expectations of Ronin, so seeing his look, I just assumed he sucked. Meanwhile, there's so much hype around Dragon that it was easy to be disappointed. Speaking of disappointments, this match. Cannon's entertaining, but the only thing the fans were into were yelling out "OH YEAH" over and over. It's not to say that Cannon and Ronin were giving them much to get excited about with a ton of Lucha arm drags that makes the match look so scripted. Ronin's DVD that put away Cannon came out of nowhere and caused the ending to feel flat. They managed to work a match that you don't have to skip the chapter, but the moment it's over, you don't remember anything. 2 Stars.

PAC vs El Generico
Before I review this match for the second time, I want to talk about another recent Generico match I just recently saw. Generico defended the PWG title against Davey Richards at Album of the Year. This was a thirty minute match that never got out of first gear. Every few minutes, Davey would leave the ring and talk to the fans. Meanwhile, Generico just took a lot of offense. They never built anything up to have the ending mean anything. This match, has the opposite problem. It's the epic final two or so minutes in a match that has near falls galore, but stretched out to last the entire twenty minutes in the match. It was one big move, a pin attempt after another. While the moves were nice, I can't say they really meant much to me once the match was over because there wasn't any build to those moves. PAC may be a great high flyer and spot monkey, but he's not really telling a story. Because I've already seen this a couple of times, the match wasn't as exciting as it was the first time. Sure, I "Oooh" and "Ahhh" with the crowd, but getting those kinds of reactions isn't getting the crowd into the match. They're just reacting to moves, not the story. Now, this match does have a very vocal crowd that is never quiet. Because of that, the match has a big feel to it. So while it's not great, it's never dull. 3 Stars.

Joey Ryan (c) vs Quicksilver - PWG World Title
Now this is more like it. Quicksilver attacked Ryan while Joey was cutting a promo before the match. There's a lot of heat in this, with plenty of brawling on the outside. There's two clear personalities in this match. Ryan, who believes Quicksilver isn't a match for him and toys around with him a bit and Quicksilver, who wants to upset Ryan, but also punish him. During the first half of the match, Ryan is messing with Quick's mask a lot. He finally pulls it off while Quicksilver is on the top rope. This brings out El Generico with his extra blue alternate mask for Quick to wear (Quicksilver is wearing blue). Later, the shenanigans continue with the referee distracted, allowing Scorpio Sky and Scott Lost to force Quicksilver under the ring while Chris Bosh comes out wearing the yellow and black Quicksilver costume. Ryan tries to pin Boshilver, but the referee notices the difference. The referee forces the Dynasty to go to the back. Scott Lost (In trying to convince the referee that Boshsilver was Quicksilver) "But he did *Lost does Quicksilver's pose*" Ha. Human Tornado even finds time to hit the DND on Ryan while the ref is busy with the Dynasty. Ryan tries every dirty tactic he could think of before getting the win with a steel chair super kick. This may not be for everyone, since there's a lot of shenanigans (Super Troopers made this word so f'n popular) and cheating by Ryan, but I loved it. They had a great balance of wackiness, heated brawling and suspense that resulted in a surprisingly good Ryan title defense. From what I've seen of Ryan's title defenses, I'd rank this just below Tornado's title win as second place. Quicksilver is becoming one of my favorite old school PWG wrestlers. 3 1/2 Stars.

Davey Richards and Roderick Strong (c) vs B-Boy and Super Dragon vs Kings of Wrestling vs MCMG - PWG Tag Titles
Claudio and Hero are the ROH tag champions while MCMG have a pair of Zero 1 tag titles, which leaves Dragon and B-Boy as the only non champions in this. There's a good 15-20 minutes of just straight up legal man wrestling. None of it is too overly exciting because there's so many men trying to tag in. They ran a fun spot where everyone is in a submission hold except for Claudio and B-Boy (They have holds on others though). Roddy has a vertical suplex for 20 seconds to set up the future spot of Claudio lifting Davey up for a vertical suplex and holding him there for 100 seconds. All during it, Strong is trying to run in to stop it so he can keep the record, but Hero is playing blocker in the ring. Strong in a pathetic effort, throws a water bottle at Claudio before giving up. Hero tries to get the crowd to start up a counting chant while he has Davey in a single leg Boston Crab. Ha. Soon afterward, things pick up when they just say to hell with tags and it becomes more of a spotfest with everyone getting in this big moves. During all this, Davey and Dragon even finds a moment to hit their old Power Bomb/Lung Blower combo. Dragon's able to finish Davey off with the Psycho Driver to regain the titles he and B-Boy lost the previous night. While the first half may have not been too exciting, the second half was more than exciting. It loses points for just doing away with the rules, but it's still a good enough match to end the show. Give credit to Super Dragon (He finally hit a sick looking Curb Stomp in a match I see), Davey Richards (The guy took so much punishment and appeared to possibly break his hand or thumb near the end) and the Kings of Wrestling (Just being so entertaining) for the mild success of the match. 3 Stars.

Overall
The All Star Weekends tend to have a high reputation of being some of the best PWG shows. This was a pretty solid show the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes. They had big star matches (Main event), well regarded classics (PAC vs Generico), epically funny ones (Cabana vs Daniels) and some forgotten gems (Styles vs Romero). I imagine if you liked the matches as much as I did, but thought PAC vs Generico was one of the best PWG matches ever, this would be a must buy.

Worth Checking Out
Rocky Romero vs AJ Styles
PAC vs El Generico (Even though I wasn't a big fan, I know a lot are)
Joey Ryan vs Quicksilver
Christopher Daniels vs Colt Cabana

Avoid
N/A

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

All Star Weekend V - Night One
April 7, 2007

NOSAWA vs Disco Machine
After somewhat liking NOSAWA in his brief time in TNA, I've been wanting to see more matches with him, preferably longer ones than he was given in TNA. However, taking on Disco Machine, NOSAWA can only look so good. On the plus side, Disco is on defense for most of the match, so he's not able to drag down the match too much. NOSAWA taunts Disco several times with the Rick Rude hip swivel and low blows him three times. All that doesn't matter as Disco surprises NOSAWA with a choke slam into a back breaker for the win. Disco got in maybe 5 moves, yet he's able to win. Lame. NOSAWA was able to make this watchable though. It's a decent way to start the show though. 2 Stars.

Roderick Strong vs Rocky Romero
If I could describe Roddy in this match, it would be "A sadistic genius bastard." He absolutely murders Romero in a combination of brutal throws and creative holds involving the ropes. I don't think I've ever seen someone use the ring ropes to his advantage as much as Roddy did here. He somehow had the ropes keep Romero in a Sharpshooter like move with Rocky unable to free himself. Once Romero does fight back, there's a ton of stiff shots. If there's one negative to the match, it's that the quality dropped some in the second half. It was still a hard fought match, but it didn't have my on the edge of my seat like the first half did. Still, it's possibly Strong's most creative match. 3 3/4 Stars.

Human Tornado w/Candice LaRae vs Claudio Castagnoli
In all honesty, Tornado could be the worst wrestler of all time, but I'd still look forward to his matches as long as Candice is out there. Enough of my nearly stalker level crush. Besides showcasing Claudio's freakish strength, this match was more of angle progression with Tornado acting more of a heel by mistreating Candice. I feel like I say this a lot, but Candice takes so many nasty bumps that you generally don't see women in wrestling take. Overall, it's a fun match that really accomplishes the goal of making Tornado look like a first class asshole. 3 Stars.

Kikutaro vs Matt Classic
Kikutaro or any of the other thousand names he's used is easily one of my guilty pleasures in wrestling. The guy may not have much skill, but damn if he isn't hilarious. Seeing as I gave up watching WSX after the second episode, I never got around to watching Colt Cabana as Matt Classic. It's typical Cabana goofiness, but in an old school manner. Some good funny spots such as all three men (Including the ref) were low blowed and fell over at the same time. It's not as funny as Cabana vs Daniels, but I don't think I've disliked any Kikutaro matches and this is no exception. Just like Cabana vs Daniels, I can't rate this.

Kevin Steen vs Jack Evans
Pretty much as you'd expect. Evans is bouncing off flying all around while Steen brutalizes him with power moves. Maybe it was because they were on such a big show while being one of the lesser important matches, but it felt as if they may have been holding back some. I thought the match would have been a little better than it was. Still, it was fun and the move Steen used to finish off Evans (Turnbuckle Steenalizer) was pretty nasty looking. Good undercard match, but that's about it. 3 Stars.

The Dynasty vs Frankie Kazarian, Top Gun Talwar, TJ Perkins and Ronin
So I guess Scorpio Sky was already gone from the Dynasty at this point. He attacked a fake Scorpio Sky, leaving Karl Anderson to be the fourth men along with Joey Ryan, Scott Lost and the greatness that is Chris Bosh. There should really be an official rule in wrestling. If you're going to have a match that clocks in at over twenty minutes, you need to make sure you have wrestlers in the match that's capable of working a long match. Especially on the face side, you didn't have that. It didn't help matters that the wrestlers weren't sure whether to make this a comedy match or more straight up wrestling. So instead, you have a lot of comedy with some poor wrestling that went on too long. One of the bright spots in the match was referee Rick Knox getting a pin on Joey Ryan. Once the rules go out the window and everyone takes turns hitting their moves, the match improves some. But still, it's not a match I'd really want to watch again. Shave ten minutes off and it could have been halfway good comedy match. 2 Stars.

Kaz Hayashi vs Alex Shelley
Somewhat of a dream match, especially with how similar Shelley and Kaz are. This one had moments of greatness, but it wouldn't stay at that level for long. Kaz works on the arm of Shelley some early on, but Shelley stops selling it. So Kaz begins working on the knee including launching Shelley into the guard rail, forcing Shelley's knee in between the rails. There's a lot of great work that goes into hurting the knee, but Shelley often times goes back and forth on whether he should sell it or not. If your knee is so bad that you can barely climb to the top rope, your knee should keep you from being able to run around to hit moves. There's several moments of fighting spirit that is great for creating more excitement, but Shelley looks really weird doing it. I saw a lot of Hayashi in WCW in the late 90's and early 2000's, but I was never really impressed. However, he's so much better than he was in WCW. The guy has attitude and knows to work on body parts. I imagine he and Bryan Danielson could have worked one hell of a match. While the match was long enough to tell a story, they could have taken 2-3 minutes off as it started to drag on right at the end. Still, it's a pretty entertaining match with Kaz impressing the hell out of me. I just wished Shelley would have been on his game more. 3 1/2 Stars.

Low-Ki vs Davey Richards
This is a dream match for me. I just wish it could have happened in 2009. This is also Ki's PWG debut. Might as well go to PWG. He already burned his bridges in ROH. Ki doesn't take Davey too seriously early on, so we have a fairly uneventful first 5 or so minutes. Davey Gets in a lot of offense, showing up Ki. This only pisses Ki off to the extent he tries to kill Davey. I don't know what was up with Ki, but out of the two of them, he was surprisingly, the weak link. Several of his kicks and chops were either botched or didn't even connect. We do get some stretches of time where the action is pretty great. The end result sees Ki getting the win after a double stomp while Davey is in the tree of woe. Even with Ki being a little weaker than usual, he still kicked a lot of ass. From what I've seen of Ki in PWG, this is one of his weaker matches. That's not a bad thing. 3 1/2 Stars.

El Generico (c) vs PAC - PWG World Title
The big rematch that was one of the main reasons why I checked out this show. Unlike in their first match, they actually take things easy early on, so that we get some build before the crazy spots begin. The main story of the match is despite being champion and in control, Generico is so easily surprised by PAC and his spots that Generico's the underdog in the match. Excalibur gives us a lesson on how mouth guards can actually help prevent concussions. He tells a story of how Quicksilver's career came to an end because he was too poor to buy mouth guards. So instead, he just used orange wedges. Sadly, Quicksilver began eating it during a match, thus taking away his protection. The final ten or so minutes is one insane spot after another. Excalibur makes the odd prediction that the top rope brainbuster may not be enough to put PAC away since it wasn't enough to put Davey away at Album of the Year. Never mind the fact that PAC lost to Generico thanks to the top rope brainbuster at ASW 4. PAC hits a corkscrew moonsault, but only gets two. He goes back up for a 720 splash, but Generico moved out of the way. PAC looks dead. The fans even chant "Please don't die". Generico covers, but PAC kicks out. A few minutes later, PAC gets a half and half on the apron, but once again kicks out. I bring these two spots up because how perfect of a moment they were to end the match, either one of them. Generico attempts a top rope brainbuster, but botches it to where PAC's head barely touches the middle turnbuckle. Excalibur tries to claim that he connected, but it's clear it wasn't with any force. That's enough to get Generico the win. When it comes to having a spotty match, you need to know when to end it. Ending it with the botched brainbuster as opposed to the other two huge spots hurt the match a little bit. Still, I enjoyed it more than their first match. Even though the first ten minutes were just some blow job sequences to waste time, it still helped me get into the spots once they came. I'm starting to think that PAC is just a little too spotty for my tastes. I'm sure others enjoy him more than me. 3 3/4 Stars.

Overall
One of the better PWG shows I've seen. There was a good mix of high flying, brawling, hard striking, comedy and even physical violence on women. The one thing it's missing is that one great technical match. Ki/Richards and Strong/Romero had glimpses of it, but they were more hard strikes than mat wrestling. It's a shame that Danielson was still taking time off after his injury, a match with him could have filled that void.

Worth Checking Out
Roderick Strong vs Rocky Romero
Davey Richards vs Low-Ki
Kaz Hayashi vs Alex Shelley
El Generico vs PAC

Avoid
The Dynasty vs Kazarian, Talwar, Perkins and Ronin (It's not horrible, but it's too long serve as mindless entertainment)

 

[Postman Dave]

the first match is definitely the one I've seen. Pretty spot on with what I thought, but I saw one or two reviewers giving it "best match in PWG history" hype and was interested in what you thought. Great spots, but no story whatsoever.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

the first match is definitely the one I've seen. Pretty spot on with what I thought, but I saw one or two reviewers giving it "best match in PWG history" hype and was interested in what you thought. Great spots, but no story whatsoever.

I'm sure to this day, there's still some that believes it's the best match in PWG history. For me, it's just a mindless spotfest that included zero selling. At the same time, I can't deny how successful it was. In one match, PAC has debuted and is already a major name for PWG. After his performance and the fans being so hyped, you could now have a series of dream matches for PAC. Ironically, PAC's match from the next night (All Star Weekend 4 Night 2) against AJ Styles may be my favorite PWG match of 2006. Go figure...

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

Kurt Russellreunion 3
January 29, 2012

The Fighting Taylor Boys vs Famous B and Chris Kadillak
If Kadillak and B will be a full time team in PWG, they should come up with a team name. Otherwise, I'll probably just call them The Bonhams. This was their first match in PWG where they could really showcase what they could do since there wasn't a bunch of other people. Sadly, I was a little disappointed. Both guys looked a little sloppy and didn't show the potential they did at Steen Wolf. Then again, The Taylors' aren't exactly the best PWG has to offer, so I'll withhold judgment until they can clash with a team like RockNES Monsters. Anyways, a nothing match that just served the purpose of showing off the four young stars. Taylor's picked up the win after their tandem Canadian Destroyer on Kadillak. 2 1/4 Stars.

BxB Hulk vs Jimmy Susumu
I believe this is Susumu's third PWG show after previously being a part of All Star Weekend 7. This wasn't what I expected with Hulk being slow and methodical. I sort of dug it since it played towards his dark character. One problem with the match was that there were several noticeable moments where one guy would stop and wait for the other to come towards him and hit a move. Later, Hulk throws out his slow style and just hits a series of quick moves. Susumu wins after an Island Driver. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't do much for me. I think both guys realized they were working for a company that doesn't mean much to them and they were in a nothing match. As a result, they didn't do much. 2 3/4 Stars.

The Young Bucks vs Davey Richards and Harry Smith
My God, Smith looks like a giant compared to Richards and the Bucks. I wouldn't be surprised if I enjoyed this more than most. The main reason is that all of my issues with the Bucks' matches weren't on display here. The match was only around 13 minutes, so it didn't exceed it's welcome. Even though all four men got involved in the action near the end, the legal men were the only ones going for covers. At the end of the match, Matt Jackson made sure to roll off of Davey so that Nick (The legal man) would make the cover. If the Bucks worked more of these matches, I'd be much more of a fan. Meanwhile, as a big British Bulldogs fan, this is probably the closest I will ever come to seeing a new Bulldogs match. I'd love to see more of Dynamite Richards and Harry Boy Smith. Bucks pinned Davey with More Bang for Your Buck. 3 1/2 Stars.

Willie Mack vs Naruki Doi
Doi has the distinction of being someone I've seen several matches of, but I'll be damned if I can pick him out of a lineup or name a single move of his. Then again, put Dio with Masato Yoshino and the only way I could pick out which is which is by pure luck. This was a pretty big letdown. It lacked Mack's usual ultimate underdog against star story or his new "I'm in your league now, bitch!". Doi's only memorable part of the match was his continual "Up yours" hand gestures. Mack wins with Chocolate Thunder Bomb. This only served the purpose of making Mack look like a star. Meh. 2 3/4 Stars.

Joey Ryan, Peter Avalon, Ray Rosas and DEMUS 316 vs Candice LaRae, B-Boy, Cedric Alexander and Mascarita Dorada
Damn...DEMUS is like the Giant Khali of midgets. Can Rosas and Avalon finally become official members of the Dynasty already? It would sure make the match title a lot shorter. This is Alexander's second PWG match after previously working Kurt RussellReunion II. Once again, he impresses me by showing off some quick moves and did a better job at standing out this time around. Loved all of the Candice sexual comedy. DEMUS works well with the sexual antics only he's one of those sick snuff film-like stars as opposed to Joey and company's pervy characters. DEMUS' manhandling of Dorada makes me fall more and more in love with DEMUS. I don't care if he's a midget, bring him in as The Dynasty's official bodyguard. While the match was a little long, it didn't drag nearly as long as Fear's eight person match. The only real disappointment was the lack of Dorada/Avalon interaction. Candice pins Joey following a moonsault. Fun match. 3 Stars.

RockNES Monsters vs Spiked Mohicans
Mohicans are Ricochet and CIMA. I have to hand it to CIMA. Out of the four Japanese talent that has been on the show thus far, he's the first to leave some sort of impression. CIMA plays the role of a dick to perfection. Even though the first half was just the Mohicans playing the role of dicks and working over Johnny Yuma, I felt it was way better than the second half MOVEZ~! portion. As much as I can enjoy RockNES, I'm starting to get bored with their Young Bucks style of having these great first halves, but then going crazy without tags and kicking out of everything in the second half. There wasn't a reason for Yuma to kick out of a half dozen high impact moves in a row. Still, RockNES getting the win following their middle rope assisted DVD spot. A huge win for RockNES, but I need more from them. 3 1/4 Stars.

Roderick Strong vs Masaaki Mochizuki
First time seeing Mochizuki and I love his gimmick. Basically he kicks...a lot. If Mochizuki was in a horrible car accident and he lost both of his arms, he could nearly work this entire match just as he did. I love the simple approach of Mochizuki kicking the **** out of Strong's left leg and telling a story. Like a cheap virgin tease, Strong got my hopes up that he'd put on a good performance by selling the leg like a champ. Yet, once it was time for his comeback, he began running around as if he didn't just spend ten minutes being tortured with kicks. If PWG wants to know why the fans turned on Strong at World's Finest, it's because he's a shell of a wrestler he used to be. If you get kicked a lot in the leg, sell the damn leg! It's going to tell a much better story than you getting in all of your usual spots. Ugh. Mochizuki won with a kick to Strong's head. Kind of an abrupt finish, but there's enough Mochizuki greatness to make this a fun match. **** Strong though. 3 Stars.

Appetite for Destruction and Akira Tozawa vs El Generico and Junction Three
Junction Three are represented by Masato Yoshino and PAC. Everyone in the match had some sort of role. Kevin Steen was the Cartman of the match. A total dick who wouldn't stop making jokes, but he was also a coward. Super Dragon was just a beast and El Generico's worst nightmare. Tozawa was the unstable crazed guerrilla who enjoyed biting Generico. Yoshino was incredibly fast. That's about it for Yoshino though. PAC was fast, but also provided the most impressive spots. Meanwhile, there was Generico. Not only was there a story of Generico being unable to win little battles with Dragon and Generico was the torture victim of Team Steen, but he was the workhorse of the match. Everything centers around Generico from the beginning (Dragon/Generico showing hatred) to the middle (Generico the victim) to the ending (Generico sets up the top rope brainbuster on Tozawa to allow PAC to hit the winning crazy splash). If we don't get a Generico/Dragon feud in 2012, I'll be awfully surprised. While PAC and Yoshino didn't do much, Tozawa more than made up for it. It's a step under what PWG main events have been producing lately, but it's still yet another really good main event from Steen and Generico. 3 3/4 Stars.

Overall
This show reminded me a lot of Kurt RussellReunion 1. Most of the special guests didn't really bring anything to the table. While it's supposed to be one of the biggest shows of the year, there's plenty of B shows that are better. If you're bringing in a lot of guests for one show only, you'd expect that they'd do their best to make an impact. To be fair, I'm not including everyone though. The two midgets were memorable. CIMA (& Ricochet, but I wouldn't consider him a guest) and Mochizuki left their mark on the show. Yet, out of all of the guest stars, it's Tozawa that makes the biggest slash. That feels pretty cheap to me since we've already seen everything Tozawa has to offer. One of these other Dragon Gate guys should have stood out more. On the plus side, I wouldn't consider any match to be bad. Even a match like the opener was pretty fine. The lack of crowd interest did hurt the show. Even Excalibur mentioned several times on how they tried to get a chant going, but it didn't work. All in all, it's an A show without that one match that will be remembered at the end of the year. That's a pretty huge step down from Kurt RussellReunion II. With only ten PWG shows a year, this felt like a wasted event with all of the DGUSA guys. If I wanted to watch DGUSA, I would watch them. There's a reason why I'm an avid PWG fan and not a DGUSA one.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

World's Finest
March 17, 2012

Kevin Steen vs Peter Avalon
This was just there. The moments with Steen killing Avalon with chops was awesome, but it went on too long. These sort of matches can be really fun (See: Johnny Goodtime vs Roderick Strong from BOLA 2009), but you need some flow if you want it to last longer than a few minutes. Steen wins with relative ease with the Package Piledriver. The one real positive to this was that Avalon already had a cult following in Reseda. Having him face Steen is only going to bring him more attention. At the end of the day, they made Avalon a little bit more over. Thus, this match did succeed in something. 2 Stars.

Brian Cage-Taylor vs Ray Rosas
Time to get off on a tangent. Cage has some serious potential. He debuted at SEVEN and had a better match with Brandon Bonham than even Chris Hero had. The problem is that PWG never pushed him. After a year of remaining in the locals spot, Cage changed up his gimmick and created Mr. GMSI. The gimmick worked and he's like Avalon with having a small cult following in PWG. The problem is that he is Mr. GMSI. All he does is get his shit in. His matches (This is more apparent in singles matches) are just random moves without any real flow. It's really disappointing due to knowing what potential the kid has. This match is just another example of that. Rosas is fine for tag matches, but he's not good enough to be featured in singles matches unless he's battling Candice LaRae. Basically, he's Ryan Taylor. The match is rather boring, lasts too long and was just a series of moves. The crowd digs GMSI and the randomness of Rosas, but they didn't care about the actual match. I don't blame them. Cage won with a killer discus lariat to the back of Rosas' head. 1 3/4 Stars.

Joey Ryan vs Candice LaRae
Before the match, Ryan cuts his best Andy Kaufman-like promo complete with Kaufman style ring gear. Thanks to channeling his ultra old school heel side, this Ryan/LaRae match was a little different from their other matches. It was last rap-y and more taunting and manhandling. The biggest moment of the match was Candice giving Joey a top rope reverserana. Now, you know you just witnessed something crazy when Kevin Steen (Commentating) shares genuine concern for Candice's safety after such a crazy bump. The spot did sorta kill the momentum of the match, but it only made me dig Candice more. Candice wins after counting a Boob Plex into a roll-up. I always dig these sort of matches. 2 1/4 Stars.

TJ Perkins vs Scorpio Sky
For shame on Excalibur for not mentioning this is a first time ever singles match. The crowd was fairly dead for this (A running theme of the night), except for a couple of morons making strange noises. It even bugs Excalibur and Steen. These two worked a pretty MMA influenced match, but one without a ton of selling. Once again, TJ Perkins hasn't impressed me much since his return. Scorpio dives to the outside barely grazes Perkins. Eventually, Scorpio gets the win following the Ace Crusher/Dragon Clutch combo. The bell fails to ring though so the crowd remains quiet, unsure that there was even a finish. Disappointing. 2 1/4 Stars.

The Young Bucks vs RockNES Monsters vs Super Smash Bros.
You're either going to love or hate this. The Bucks working over both tag teams in a sort of two tag matches rolled into one is the only real story of the match. There was a ton of highly choreographed wacky spots that are designed to draw a laugh. Perhaps it's because I was really down on this show, but I found this match to be a ton of fun. Suspend your disbelief and turn off your kayfabe meter and it's an ultra fun spotfest. The final few minutes has some amazing spots which leaves the result unpredictable. Thumbs up for PWG playing off the Kurt Russellreunion II ending (Which this was basically a three team version) with RockNES hitting their tag team DVD off of the top on to a Buck. However, Nick Jackson got his knees up. A failed More Bang for Your Buck causes the Bucks to be pinned following an awesome looking Gory Special/Ace Crusher combo by SSB. Huge win for the Canadian duo. Yay for adding something fun on this show. 3 1/2 Stars.

Kyle O'Reilly vs Alex Koslov
Koslov's first PWG match since All Star Weekend 7. Since I already went off on one tangent, I might as well go off on one more. During the match, Excalibur seemed surprise to see the fans boo O'Reilly. Newsflash, it's very clear that O'Reilly is just a poor man's Davey Richards. Whether you like Davey or not, O'Reilly is just a poor substitution. Furthermore, I feel as if people are getting sick of O'Reilly because it's obvious he's only receiving such a huge push because he's Davey's boy. So the result is a guy who is a weaker version of another wrestler and someone who doesn't deserve the push he's getting. Due to this, there's a backlash forming. Having O'Reilly go over the popular Koslov with a never ending Guillotine Choke isn't going to help O'Reilly either. Koslov impresses in his return. He has some awesome looking moves (A kick ass draping DDT onto a chair that O'Reilly didn't sell), some stiff Irish Whips into the corner and VINTAGE KOSLOV (Russian kicks with the hat on). Koslov still rules. The match was fine, but the lack of selling by O'Reilly failed to tell a real story. Instead, it was Koslov greatness and O'Reilly's determination to keep it a jiu jitsu-like match. Still better than the other singles matches tonight. 3 Stars.

Willie Mack vs Roderick Strong
The rematch from Willie's coming out party last year. Despite the immense popularity of Willie, the crowd just barely comes alive. I'd compare it to a person in a coma (Other matches) to a person asleep (This one). My biggest issue with their first match was that Roderick didn't look like he had any desire to be there. This time, we got to see a semi-motivated Roddy taking on a much improved Willie. Though it was clunky at times, I was into the match and dug the story of Roddy slowly working over Willie, body part by body part. The big moment of the match occurred when Strong hit a combo of moves leading into the Sick Kick (How he beat Willie last time), but Willie managed to kick out to the shock of everyone. Willie picked up the win following the Chocolate Driver. A minor upset and now Willie's push up the mountain has come full circle. 3 1/4 Stars.

El Generico (c) vs Kevin Steen vs Eddie Edwards - PWG World Title
Originally scheduled to be Generico vs Edwards, but Steen weaseled his way into the match. Besides being the weakest wrestler in the match, I feel Edwards was just there to offer another Generico/Steen showdown without it being one-on-one. More than anything, this match has an important backstory leading to the finish. For years, Generico's biggest accomplishment in PWG was that he was the only man to hold the World and Tag Titles at the same time. Last October, Generico stole Steen's World Title. It's time for Steen to steal what matters most to Generico. The finish revolves around a top rope brainbuster to Edwards by Generico, but Steen pulls Generico out and power bombs him on the apron. Steen then easily pins Edwards for the win and title. Steen more or less stole (In many ways) the World Title and Generico's honor of holding both titles at the same time. The best part is that it continues Steen's failure to beat Generico himself that can be traced back to when they started their PWG feud back up in May 2009. This is just classic Steen/Generico ultra hatred on display yet again. Edwards doesn't really add anything to the match other than blowing the one spot that was botched and allowing Steen to get the win without pinning Generico. Steen and Generico can do no wrong. 3 3/4 Stars.

Kevin Steen: "Anything you can do, I can do better...bitch."

Overall
World's Finest, this is not. This show was just over two hours long and nearly the entire first hour was skippable. It was really shaping up to be a lame duck show until the second half saved it. The main issue falls at the hands of the fans. With the exception of the main event, they didn't get too much into the matches. It really hurts a match when you're not hearing a crowd cheer on their favorites or even react to the moves. Even Excalibur was noticeably irritated by the end of the show. I know it's not the best looking show, but the fans made it even worse. Remove the main event and this show feels like an old 2006-ish era show. Back then, you had so many shows per year, that some shows fell flat due to other shows having to be better. Since the reduction of shows a couple of years ago, PWG has been really lucky in having nearly every show feel big. This one ends that streak. As enjoyable as the main event was, is it really worth the price tag when you can see better Steen/Generico showdowns last year? Those other matches at least featured much more round shows. So if you end up buying the show, there's enough quality to make it worth it, but you're better off buying one of the amazing shows from 2011.

Worth Checking Out
The Young Bucks vs RockNES Monsters vs Super Smash Bros.
Roderick Strong vs Willie Mack
Kevin Steen vs El Generico vs Eddie Edwards

Avoid
Brian Cage-Taylor vs Ray Rosas
The terrible Reseda fans

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

DDT4 (2012)
April 21, 2012

RockNES Monsters vs The Fighting Taylor Boys - First Round
RockNES won their sole two-on-two match against the Taylors back at Steen Wolf. The first RockNES chant pretty much sums up their standing in PWG current. One fan chants "Let's go Rock-NES" and then there's dead silence. They have the expected spotfest, but there's an effort to keep the legal man in the ring. I do appreciate that. Brian Cage-Taylor is so fucking over in Reseda. Probably the best part of his overness is Ryan Taylor. He's able to act like the younger brother of the star football player. He doesn't quite understand that his "Popularity" is solely because of Brian. Brian hit an incredible springboard double jump moonsault that saw Brian rotate 180 degrees in the middle of the two jumps. Yuma tried to play the face-in-peril for awhile, but it wasn't working out thanks to how over Cage was compared to everyone else. RockNES wins after an Enzuigiri/Ace Crusher combo on Brian. Fun spotty match to start off the show, but Taylor Boys probably should have won. 3 Stars.

The Dynasty vs Future Shock - First Round
Future Shock is currently 0-2 in PWG. An enjoyable match with it's share of flaws. The punching comedy early on was good, but it got to the point late in the match where there too much in sync team spots. I absolutely deplore the "You punch me, I pause and then I hit you, repeat" spot. So having to see a double version of it wasn't enjoyable. O'Reilly has some killer combos, but I feel he's a bit overzealous. The problem is that he doesn't have enough speed to do all of these combos perfectly. What happens is they can look a bit sluggish or disjointed. The Dynasty looked good though. Scorpio's Kurt Angle inspired hurricanrana from the top rope is pretty killer. Future Shock's tag finisher of the high and low is so fucking crisp and beautiful looking. Future Shock picks up the win with it over Scorpio to give Future Shock their first W in PWG. Good match, but the longer it went on, the more the flaws became apparent. 2 3/4 Stars.

Ride the Lightning: for one moment, you can forget you hate O'Reilly​

Roderick Strong and Sami Callihan vs 2 Husky Black Guys - First Round
Callihan's PWG debut. He's now Strong's fifth different partner in DDT4 history. That Roddy sure is a tag whore. Surprisingly, I found Callihan and Strong to be a better team than Generico and Mack. The former had more double team moves and seemed to have better communicative skills. I also loved their vicious attack on Willie's knee. Sadly, Willie's still in the stage of his career where he's not going to win any "World's Best Seller" awards. Despite lacking some flow, things heated up near the end with a series of SPOTZ~! 2 Husky Black Guys pick up the win after an Ace Crusher by Willie and a Brainbuster by Generico on poor Roddy. A really fun match that shockingly showcased Roderick Strong as the best in the bunch. 3 3/4 Stars.

After the match, Sami Callihan gets on the mic and accepts Kevin Steen's open challenge for the PWG World Title.

The Young Bucks vs Super Smash Bros. - First Round
Thus far, the Young Bucks have yet to enter a DDT4 tournament without at least making it to the finals. This ended up being a match that I have a lot of hate for, but also some solid praise. The big negative was it was just too much. At only fifteen minutes, it felt a lot longer. Likewise, there were too many kick outs, wackiness and contrived spots. A philosophy of "Less is more" would have greatly helped. Yet, from a booking perspective, it succeeds big time. While I lost interest as the match went on, the crowd only became more exceed. When SSB got the surprise pinfall fall during a More Bang For Your Buck attempt, the crowd popped. It also has the advantage of being a huge upset. The Bucks have been involved in three DDT4 tournaments. Of those three years, they lost a single match and even then, they were the runner ups of the tournament. By all means, The Bucks are the tag team in PWG. Yet, they lost in the first round against a new tag team. Winning the triple threat at World's Finest against RockNES and Young Bucks was the first step. Beating the Bucks in the first round was the second step in establishing SSB as the new top team of PWG. Great angle booking and fun spots makes this a mix bag with trying to do too much. 3 Stars.

Super Smash Bros. trademark​

RockNES Monsters vs 2 Husky Black Guys - Semi-Finals
RockNES receives a mixed reaction during their introduction. Sadly, this was a major disappointment. I don't know if RockNES were thrown off due to the poor reactions of the night or if RockNES and Willie's lack of experience in working multiple times a night, but this never got going. Furthermore, there was so little action early on. I'll even go as far to say that it's Generico's worst PWG match since DDT4 2010 where he and Paul London worked against the random team of Chuck Taylor and Scott Lost. That at least had the excuse of being a first round match and wasn't important. The action did pick up near the end with RockNES finally flying around. There's also some mildly funny antics in the early going. Willie Mack wins out of nowhere with the Chocolate Thunder Driver. If RockNES are having problems in convincing the bookers that they shouldn't be depushed, this only continue to hurt them. 2 1/2 Stars.

Future Shock vs Super Smash Bros. - Semi-Finals
While this suffered from the usual tag team issues of PWG, finisher overkill and too many kick outs instead of break ups, this was a much better semi-finals match. To say SSB are over with the Reseda audience would be an understatement. Due to how over SSB are, it lead to the crowd becoming more and more engaged in the match as it went on. This allowed for the crowd to be going apeshit at the end. Despite having a love/hate relationship with O'Reilly (More hate than love), he and Cole work really well together. The surprise of the match was how much I dug Player Uno. He went from a guy I tolerated in CHIKARA (2009) to being entertaining enough that he's the MVP of the match. Since both teams were babyfaces, SSB and Future Shock took turns showing a little extra intensity as a substitution to heeling it up. One FATALITY! (Gory Special/Ace Crusher combo) later, SSB have scored their third straight win in PWG. Not great, but certainly a quality match that showcases the future of the tag team division. 3 1/2 Stars.

FATALITY!​

Kevin Steen (c) vs Sami Callihan - PWG World Title
Now this, this was fun. Similarly to the Steen/Richards feud of ROH, you're not sure how much of this feud is a work or a shoot. Their main beef is believing that Callihan is nothing more than a flavor of the week. Due to having an "Issue", Steen and Sami have a fight. It's not pretty, full of wrestling holds or overly choreographed. It's meant to be a fight and that's exactly what it was. It's rather refreshing actually. The main story is a different take on Finlay/Sami. Rather than just beating on Sami like Finlay did, Steen mocks him and does the normal Steen impersonation of Cartman. Sami takes the abuse and keeps going. Even though Sami spent most of the match getting his ass kicked and did eventually lose, Sami comes off looking like a total star. Maybe it's because it's a completely different match from the rest of the show, but I loved this. Steen vs Callihan 2. Make it happen. 3 3/4 Stars.

One gif that sums up Steen and Callihan's personalties​

2 Husky Black Guys vs Super Smash Bros. - Finals
Fun fact, there has one been one DDT4 finals that did not involve The Young Bucks or El Generico (2007). I'll be honest, had this happened on any other show, I wouldn't think it was anything special. Both teams were a lot slower than you'd expect. Likewise, all four guys appeared hurt. Hell, El Generico looked to have a legit back injury in the opening minutes of the match. It got to the point where would collapse on the mat or be unable to climb into the ring without painfully grabbing at his back. If El Generico was just selling and wasn't legitimately injured, than he just made Ricky Steamboat look like a shitty seller. Yes, for all of those reasons, I wouldn't be impressed with the match on any other night. However, this is a three round tournament show. Both teams looked and wrestle as if they had already had two grueling matches. So rarely do you see a tournament finals with guys who are acting like they're sore, tired or hurt. Yet, that's what they did here. El Generico proved why he's been PWG's MVP of their company's history by putting in so much effort while hurt. Super Smash Bros. looks great for once again cleanly beating another team that they were underdogs against. Willie Mack tried his best to carry his team. While he was noticeably tired, he did perform above expectations for a guy with so little experience. Unlike the RockNES matches, the crowd were perfectly happy cheering on both teams. It takes one FATALITY! (What a fitting name) to Generico to allow Stupefied to score the win and award SSB their first DDT4 trophy. Hell of a match if you judge it as a tournament finals. 3 1/4 Stars.

Gimmick infringement​

After the match, the Young Bucks run out and attack both teams. Kevin Steen, with a chair, makes the save. The Young Bucks cut a promo on how they're the kings of DDT4 and that they were robbed. Steen lays down an open challenge for Bucks/Appetite for Destruction once Dragon returns. Afterwards, Steen puts over SSB, Willie Mack (Fans chant "Next World Champ") and tells Generico, "You're still a piece of shit." :

Overall
If there's one thing DDT4 has been it's consistent. The odd years (2007, 2009 and 2011) have been the best while the even years (2008, 2010 and 2012) have been the easy weak links. 2012's DDT4 will be remembered for two things. One, it's the coming out party for Super Smash Bros. While they were a popular act since arriving in PWG, they weren't exactly successful. Now they went up against the top team in PWG history, another recent team that had been the #2 team and a makeshift team comprised of the guy I feel is Mr. PWG (Generico) and one of the biggest breakthrough stars in years (Mack), and they won every match. Two, the debut of The Callihan Death Machine. Callihan not only debuted, but he had the two best matches of the night, instantly has the crowd support and looks like he could be a major player in the next couple years. The rest of the tournament suffered from overkill, too much comedy and guys putting on performances that were far below their capabilities. If RockNES end up being Cutler'ized, you'll be able to look back at this show to see where it all started. Not surprisingly, the best two guys on the roster, Steen and Generico, are once again involved in the best matches of the night. What is surprising is how much I enjoyed Roddy Strong. Every once in awhile, the guy will put on a hell of a performance just to make sure the viewers are paying attention. Like I said, it's among the worst DDT4's, but there's still plenty to enjoy. Like 2012 PWG, it's good enough, but still a little disappointing.

Worth Checking Out
Sami Callihan and Roderick Strong vs Willie Mack and El Generico
Future Shock vs Super Smash Bros.
Kevin Steen vs Sami Callihan

Avoid
El Generico and Willie Mack vs RockNES Monsters (You should never have to watch an average Generico PWG match)

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

Death to All But Metal
May 25, 2012

B-Boy vs Famous B
Never before have I wanted to see two men team more solely because of how easy their tag team name would be. "Famous B-Boy" explodes~! This was sorta a coming out party for Famous B. It's kind of tough making someone into a star when B-Boy hasn't mattered too much in years. Yet, Famous B looked like a star and he and B-Boy somehow got the crowd to start a "This is awesome!" chant in the opening match. Mark my words, Famous B is going to mean something in PWG. They tease Famous B picking up the surprise upset several times, but a desperation Ace Crusher and Air Raid Crash gives B-Boy his first singles victory since Express Written Consent in early 2009. This is how B-Boy should be booked. A reasonable time length and the sole purpose of trying to make his opponent look good. 3 Stars.

B-Boy will fuck up your face.​

TJ Perkins vs Ryan Taylor
The biggest compliment I can give TJP since his return to PWG is that he's the first guy to make Ryan Taylor look good in a singles match. Normally, Taylor's God awful in singles match. The match isn't anything special, but it's fast pace, features a lot counters and they had enough common sense to not attempt to steal the show by going into finisher overkill. TJP wins after hitting Taylor with a gutbuster from the top rope and finishing him off with a beautiful 450 Splash. An enjoyable little match. 2 3/4 Stars.

One of the few enjoyable things about modern TJP.​

Kevin Steen (c) vs Brian Cage - PWG World Title
I'll say it right now, some people will hate this match since it's mostly just Kevin Steen's wacky antics. Me, on the other hand, loved it. Let's face it, Brian Cage was not deserving of a title shot. What was the biggest singles victory of his career? Ray Rosas? The comedy allowed for me to have fun. Most of the comedy was even built around how awesome Cage looks and allowed for him to get in his moves. Take whenever Steen was arguing with a fan. It had a storyline purpose since Steen allowed the distraction, which meant Cage was going to go on the offense. There's also a sequence in the match where Steen is hitting every muscle on Cage's body. Not only is it a way to pimp how well built Cage is, but it was part of a story of Steen Cage's body as a bunch of little targets. The best part is that Steen didn't beat Cage decisively. Instead, Steen merely counters a weak cover by Cage after Steen was hit with a giant discus lariat. Cage beat Cage. Now, suddenly a guy who didn't deserve a title shot has a little legitimacy. So you're not only setting up Steen/Cage 2, but that match can be completely different since Steen won't need to add so much comedy since it'd be a grudge match. This was a hell of a productive match. 3 1/2 Stars.

Brian Cage is a fucking machine.​

The Young Bucks vs Super Smash Bros - No DQ - PWG Tag Titles
Due to Super Dragon's injury, the PWG tag titles were declared vacant. The biggest criticism this match can receive is the lack of selling. This is a full on spotfest and it never pretends to be anything else. If you had guys not selling attacks, you will hate this match. That being said, if you're going to have a spotfest, go balls to the wall and do whatever you can to steal the show. The Bucks and SSB did exactly that. Moment after moment, the viewer is shown an incredible spot after an incredible spot. They make it clear that they're having a war and both teams are willing to risk their well being to leave Reseda as tag champions. And really, isn't that what you want any title to be about? Something so important? One of the nicer things about the crazy spotfest is that it's SSB's biggest match in PWG thus far and they ended up having their best match as well. For storyline purposes, they had Stupefied lay out of the ring injured for a little bit to allow for some two-on-one beating. Despite being a massive heel, Nick Jackson, came out looking damn good by kicking both of SSB's ass for a bit after Matt Jackson is killed after being thrown through a table. Finally, the long and epic feud between The Young Bucks and referee, Rick Knox, was once again highlighted after Knox took a Buck super kick, but paid the Bucks back by delivering a closeline. Finally, everything built up to SSB winning with their trademark FATALITY! And thus, the SSB's rise to the top has be reached. As long as you go into the match expecting a spotfest, it's a hell of a fun match. PWG's first MOTYC. 4 1/4 Stars.

The war for the PWG Tag Team Titles.​

RockNES Monsters and Candice LaRae vs Joey Ryan, Ray Rosas and Peter Avalon
Yet another chapter in the Joey Ryan/Candice LaRae feud. At this point, these two may have the longest standing feud in PWG history. At the start of the match, you have Peter Avalon trying to molest LaRae, however; RockNES were there to save their partner. So, how do they save LaRae? They basically rape Avalon in the middle of the ring! : We even get a case of sodomy when Yuma sticks his thumb up Avalon's ass. Oddly, that's the highlight of the match and the match becomes quite dull afterward. The crowd become quiet and nothing the men could do could get a response. In fact, it's only Candice's spots and the spots that were set-up by something involved with her that received any sort of heat. With RockNES's depush, this was not the sort of reaction they needed to get back into the good graces of Super Dragon and company. The babyfaces win after a Mushroom Stomp/Ace Crusher combo to Rosas. Even though the crowd didn't care, I quite liked using Rosas and Avalon as Ryan's lackeys. 2 1/2 Stars.

Willie Mack vs Michael Elgin
The PWG debut of Michael Elgin. Truth be told, I wasn't impressed with Elgin in his debut. I really don't know if he's a good fit for PWG. If you look at most of the successful acts in PWG history, they all have one thing in common - they had a lot of personality. Take Chris Bosh for example. Whether you think he was a talented wrestler or not, he was packed filled of personality. Personality is what gets you over with the Reseda crowd. Would a guy like Akira Tozawa have been nearly as popular had he not had his screaming gimmick? I don't believe so. Elgin's silent assassin gimmick would probably work for most companies, but he's just sorta boring in a PWG ring. The match is built around establishing Elgin as a monster with Willie Mack having to endure and slowly fight back. Everything builds up to an impressive spot where Elgin dead lifts Willie into a power bomb. Willie picks up the big win after a sick looking Chocolate Thunder Driver. After the match, the crowd once again chants "Next World Champ". Glad Willie won. Hopefully Elgin shows more personality is he continues to be booked in PWG. 3 Stars.

Next world champ?​

El Generico vs Ricochet
A match nineteen months in the making. Back at Cursed of Guerrilla Island, Ricochet and Generico tore the place down with a great match. Shockingly, the crowd was more pro-Ricochet than Generico. That caused Generico to show far more intensity and aggression than he's used to. Then in 2011, Ricochet and Generico tried teaming up, but they had too many conflicts, leading to them splitting up with Ricochet not showing Generico any respect. So many great things about this match. For one, it's completely different from their original match. This time around, it's not an indy dream match where Generico slowly shows signs of being a heel. Instead, Ricochet is a bully, but he's still always one step ahead of Generico. It got to the point where Generico only got the win because Ricochet thought he had the match in the bag, but Generico had enough smarts to get his knees up during a senton. A big kick in the corner and a top rope brainbuster later, Generico won. Another thing I dug was that Generico acts so different around Ricochet. We've seen Generico in plenty of grudge matches, but Generico looked so much angrier than than in other programs. It's almost as if Generico is jealous of Ricochet, so even if Ricochet is acting like a bully, Generico hates him for other reasons than just that. Anyways, Ricochet ended up putting on a hell of a performance. All throughout the match, he was delivering one awesome kick after another. With Generico winning and evening the series at 1-1, it makes Generico/Ricochet 3 seem likely. Can you say semi-main event at TEN? A quality match with an even better story. Personally, I thought it was even better than their first. 3 3/4 Stars.

Ricochet will knock you the fuck out.​

Overall
After being a little down on PWG in 2012, this show helped picked me right up. The Super Smash Bros' road to becoming the top team in PWG has been reached. While it took two years, PWG has finally realized that Brian Cage can be a star. So we have the start of the Steen/Cage program. At least for the time being, we saw the end of the Generico/Ricochet issues. And to top it all off, you even had B-Boy trying to make a star out of Famous B. I imagine the debut of Michael Elgin will excite people far more than it did me, so there's that as well. For the first time in 2012, there aren't even matches that you should actively avoid. Sure, the six person match was a little disappointing, but it's not like anyone had high expectations for it. After the harsh loss of The Kings of Wrestling and Akira Tozawa last year, it looks like PWG is finally starting to find it's stride again. A really good show for a B show.

Worth Checking Out
Famous B vs B-Boy (Just to see a star in the making)
Kevin Steen vs Brian Cage
Super Smash Bros vs The Young Bucks
El Generico vs Ricochet

Avoid
N/A