Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla – Seven – 30th July 2010
This is the next stop on my whirlwind tour through a random selection of PWG shows that I own. I picked this one up on eBay because it was getting SO much buzz at the time. Bryan Danielson is on the show as part of his whirlwind tour of the indies in the summer of 2010 after being temporarily released from the WWE for his non-PG tie assault on Justin Roberts, Scott Lost has his retirement match, Brian Cage (who went on to be a pretty big deal in PWG) tore it up on his debut and the two main events were being touted everywhere as legitimate MOTYC’s. In the first of those, PWG World Champion Davey Richards defends his belt against Chris Hero, the longest reigning champion in PWG history who has been waiting for his rematch since losing it in 2009. The second sees the notorious ¡Peligro Abejas! (El Generico and Paul London) defend their PWG Tag Titles against the most decorated tag team in PWG history – the Young Bucks – and the rising stars of the tag division – the Cutler Brothers. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also in Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla’s most notorious and dangerous match: Guerrilla Warfare. We’re in Reseda, CA. Excalibur will lead commentary, probably with a revolving door of guests throughout the night.
Malachi Jackson/Ryan Taylor/Peter Avalon vs Brandon Gatson/Johnny Goodtime/Candice LeRae
As ever, we kick things off with the SoCal guys (and girl) busting out as many spots as they can think of in the allotted time. Last time I reviewed a PWG show (Kurt RussellMania) Mal Jackson was opposing Ryan Taylor, and teaming with Goodtime and Candice so lets see how that relationship plays out. This is Peter Avalon’s debut
Taylor punts Goodtime in the face during his usual pre-match routine with a Dance Revolution mat, so we’re getting underway in a hurry. Avalon’s first action in PWG is to get massacred by Candice – who is then joined by her partners for a neat double biel/back body drop triple team. Amusingly Jackson and Taylor send Peter right back into the ring…so he demands LeRae in the ring with him. He has absolutely zero muscle mass but he makes up for it with plenty of personality and gets their second interaction off by grinding against her ass. Rather than wrestling her he then drags her to the mat and DRY HUMPS HER! Unsurprisingly he’s now totally over with the nutty Reseda fans. His next sex pest move is to forcibly rub his face into her ass and crotch (can’t believe I’m typing that), and finally Brandon and Johnny have seen enough. They take over and start tearing lumps out of his scrawny torso. Taylor creates a distraction so poor Peter can tag out. Malachi drags Gatson into their corner to give their team a serious advantage for the first time. Ghetto Blaster by Taylor, followed by the Spin-aroonie! Goodtime rescues his partner, leading his team as they clear the ring of their opposition. SPRINGBOARD MOONSAULT INTO THE CROWD BY GOODTIME! Amazingly he comes up drinking from a jug of beer too. He tries to go back to the top rope…only for Avalon to shove him all the way to the floor. Tags all round, bringing LeRae and Peter back together once again. Taylor and Avalon argue about who gets to rape Candice first…until she tricks them into making out! This is insane! FLIPPING FALLAWAY SLAM from Gatson to Jackson! He puts his head up and eats a swinging neckbreaker from Taylor. ROPE RUN SUPERPLEX BY MALACHI! BALL-PLEX BY CANDICE! She then tries the same move on Peter but acts like she can’t find his balls to suplex him. AMAZING! BURNING HAMMER! STEREO HANDSPRING DIVES INTO THE CROWD BY GOODTIME AND GATSON! LeRae wins it with a moonsault on Malachi at 13:40
Rating - *** - If you’d never seen a PWG match or a PWG show before this was the perfect introduction. It was weird, wonderful, exciting, inexplicably bizarre, nobody sold a dime but you had a riot watching it anyway. The crowd also proved why they are such a special part of PWG’s reputation and aura. Peter Avalon, by all rights, should have been crapped on. He’s a scrawny little white guy, who didn’t seem anywhere near as talented as some of the dudes he was in the ring with. But he got over because he got the audience, and his interactions with Candice throughout the match were brilliant. My one criticism of the whole thing was that Candice won by pinning Mal Jackson rather than Peter. Everyone else got a chance to contribute, and the flurry of highspots at the end tore the roof off the place. Sometimes these clusterf*ck tags that PWG open their events with can be a real mess. This one was absolutely spot on
To give you an idea how much of an impression Avalon made – as Candice has her hand raised in victory, the fans are chanting his name. And he was supposed to be the heel!
Brandon Bonham vs Brian Cage
This is Cage’s PWG debut. If you’ve not seen him before, he’s exceptionally well-built and muscular and looks like a totally generic, cookie-cutter WWE guy…but then shocks you when you realise he can really go in the ring. Amazingly, he’s had flirtations with signing for both WWE and TNA but, as of writing, he’d never really made it with either. Judging a book by its cover, the PWG crowd (who just cheered a skinny white guy dry humping a beautiful girl) crap all over him before the match. I’m betting he’s won a few over by the end…
‘Who the f*ck are you’ – Reseda to Cage. Brian greets those chants by slapping his opponent straight in the face and looking to grapple the sh*t out of him. Bonham doesn’t like that one bit and does the same thing right back. He bails, which is never a good idea in PWG, and Brandon is on him in a flash with a somersault plancha. Bonham continues stiffing lumps out of the debutant and as he struggles to recover he finds his skull massacred with a SLINGSHOT DOUBLE STOMP TO THE FLOOR! RINGPOST BOMB by Cage! Fans and beer are sent flying in all directions as the brawl continues all round ringside. The newcomer continues to show real confidence by slowing it down and pissing off the fans by working the back. From the apron comes Brandon, only to go crashing down onto his back again as Cage counters him in mid-air to a northern lights suplex for 2. ‘His torso is getting f*cked up’ – Chris Hero on commentary. When he’s not working over the back Brian is also battering his opponent with some incredibly rough strikes too. Hammer Of The Gods countered to an Alabamabomb for 2! CUT-THROAT EXPLODER BY BONHAM! Sadly he’s too injured to cover right away. He struggles to catch his wind, and staggers into a brutal discus lariat from the resurgent Cage. LIONSAULT nailed by Cage…only for him to get nailed with a jumping enzi as he tries to scale the ropes. Olympic Slam variant gets 2 for Brandon but he’s really struggling with his back now. That injury really isn’t helped when he eats a GERMAN SUPERPLEX. Cage is really getting fan support now as these two continue to beat the crap out of each other. WEAPON X SCORES! FOR 2! He then tries to steal Bonham’s Hammer Of The Gods finisher…only for Brandon to flip him round. INTO HAMMER OF THE GODS! Bonham wins at 16:17
Rating - *** - This is how you make an impression on your debut. Obviously PWG were pretty confident in his abilities already since they sent him out there with the best part of twenty minutes to work with, but this was an all-out war. In one match he won over a sceptical and partisan Reseda crowd with his awesome assortment of power moves, solid wrestling strategy and vicious striking. He’s actually a lot smaller and less jacked than he would become in the years to follow, so it was a pleasant surprise seeing him move around the ring with even more speed and agility. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give him is that he reminded me of a taller Austin Aries with his performance. With my ‘critic’ hat on, I could have done with Bonham even attempting to sell his offence. Much as with his match against Gatson on the last PWG show I reviewed, Bonham has this annoying habit of not selling anything and basically just killing time until he gets to hit another high spot. Kind of like bad RVD matches, except the crowd don’t care that much about him and he doesn’t point with his thumbs.
Chris Sabin vs Akira Tozawa
Originally Sabin was supposed to be teaming with his Motor City Machine Guns partner Alex Shelley at this show, but was inserted into a match with Tozawa when Shelley backed out due to injury. This was during Tozawa’s year-long extended stay in the United States. He won fans over all across the indies with some great performances, but seemed to gather a genuine cult following in PWG.
Sabin has a hard time containing the tenacity of the Dragon Gate star in the canvas and needs to use all his experience to keep out of his clutches in the opening moments. The beauty of these guys is that they are competent working the mat, but as the pace quickens they are able to go stride for stride with each other too and battle to another stalemate. Evidently Sabin backs himself as the stronger of the two as he looks to intimidate Akira with muscle poses…until he walks into the Iwaki hip attack. Tozawa definitely has the edge in volume, so screams in the Machine Gun’s ear whilst wrenching him to the mat with a chinlock. SPRINGBOARD plancha to the floor by Sabin! The TNA worker starts dialling up the intensity and in his desperation to win starts to break rules along the way. He chokes and throttles his Japanese adversary to really press home the advantage. Remember, Tozawa is still a pretty inexperienced wrestler at this point and really starts to get overwhelmed by his more confident foe. He catches Sabin across the head with a sliding flash kick almost out of nowhere…and as Chris tries to escape him he sprints like a maniac into a TOPE SUICIDA which sends him about five rows deep into the crowd. Springboard headbutt misses, but a standing senton doesn’t. Once again it’s his unorthodox offence which Sabin struggles with. Hesitation Dropkick by Sabin…only for Tozawa to battle back up and crash into his face with a corkscrew enzi. BRIDGING GERMAN! ELECTRIC CHAIR GERMAN! Tozawa wins at 11:57
Rating - *** - Less flashy and spot heavy than the opening two matches, but I actually appreciated that they slowed down and let some of their stuff breathe a little. They were actually working a pretty neat and subtle little story into their work as well, with Sabin trying to intimidate and overwhelm the less experienced worker with his sh*t, only to find Tozawa constantly out-witting him with his totally erratic and unpredictable moveset.
Scott Lost vs Scorpio Sky
This one is Lost’s retirement match. As one of the founding members of Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla he has a lot of affection from this fanbase, so expect this one to be a pretty emotional affair. Sky was a SoCal scene stand-out and a regular on the PWG roster for many years, but had actually been away from the promotion for quite a while (I don’t know my PWG history that well but I’m thinking it was well over a year since his last booking). He was brought back as a long-time friend of Lost, as the guy he wanted to work his final match against.
Lost gets buried in streamers before the match, and looks absolutely thrilled by his ovation. In an awesome opening spot he sprints across the ring, boots Sky in the face then fires streamers into the air Spider Man style. Not to be outdone, Scorpio gets up and kicks him so hard he falls out of the ring. Scott then spends much of the opening minutes ducking for cover and hiding in the ropes to duck out of the increasingly frantic attacks coming his way. For his part, Scorp looks determined to make a splash on his return to PWG and dominates for several minutes. At last Lost lands a double stomp to the chest, marking his first offence since the first minute of the match. He spends several minutes working the torso of his friend – battering it with suplexes, strikes, then simply drilling him chest-first into the apron. The fight spills into the crowd where Lost jumps at Sky and mows him down through dozens of chairs. A judo throw wrenches the midsection again as soon as they get back into the ring too. Out of nowhere Scorpio catches him in a hanging triangle choke…and as Scott looks to fire back with a backbreaker Sky counters him mid-rotation for a spike DDT. Despite having his ribs and back pummelled for several minutes, for some reason the only offensive move Sky can think of to follow that is a springboard CROSSBODY which totally no sells all of Lost’s work. It’s sh*t like that which is why Sky has never really got on seriously on a national level. SUPLEX OVER THE TOP ROPE BY SCOTT! Lost In Space elbow drop gets 2! And he inflicts more damage to the chest with a frog splash seconds later as well. Superman Spear countered with knees to the face…before Scorpio picks him up and BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEXES HIM INTO THE DAMN CROWD! RUNNING CORKSCREW SENTON INTO THE FRONT ROW! He looks to polish Lost off with a frog splash…but gets knees driven into his chest. Big Fat Kill blocked…so it’s an Ace Crusher instead! Both guys are fatigued now and swing wild punches as they wearily drag their asses off the mat. Final Answer gets a nearfall for Scorp, before he walks right into a corkscrew enzi. Big Fat Kill gets 2! Scorpio may have kicked out but he looks spent. It’s a surprise when he manages to toss Scott off the top rope then flatten him with a frog splash. Silver Slice (his old partner Quicksilver’s finisher) nailed as well! Ace Of Spades as well, and still Lost refuses to be pinned. Scorpio begs him to stay down. ACE OF SPADES AGAIN! LOST KICKS OUT! ‘You can’t beat him’ – Reseda to Scorpio. BIG FAT KILL ON LOST! Sky finally wins with his own finishing move at 21:37. The crowd absolutely HATE that!
Rating - **** - I absolutely hated Scorpio Sky’s performance in this match. Considering it was his friend’s farewell you’d think he might be motivated to at least try to sell his offence. Lost works the ribs and back for ten minutes – so the first move Sky attempts in his comeback is a springboard crossbody or a frog splash? That is so unbelievably basic and retarded my words fail me. I know he’s had exposure in TNA and Wrestling Society X, I know he’s had minor acting and commercial roles. But the reason Sky has basically been nothing more than a SoCal indy guy his whole career is because of crap like that. But here’s the miraculous thing about this match. Lost and the crowd were so awesome, they basically carried Sky and his spot-happy ineptitude through to a hell of a bout anyway. The last couple of minutes, with the crowd willing Lost not to give up even as Scorpio just unloaded finishers on him was magical. It’s the kind of drama you only get from professional wrestling. I’ve never been a huge Scott Lost fan, but he was phenomenal in this match and it’s a testament to how much of a ‘professional’ that he put over Sky in his last match – even though Scorpio isn’t a regular anymore and it would have been easy for Scott to put himself over. A fine and fitting farewell…
Scorpio leads the standing ovation and congratulations to Lost for his career. Scott then gives a speech that is as classy as his performance in his final match before leaving the company he helped create.
Bryan Danielson vs Roderick Strong
After bidding a fond farewell to the independent scene in 2009, nobody expected to see American Dragon back quite so soon. He’d excelled in the rather bizarre spectacle that was the first season of NXT and he’d taken part in the explosive Nexus takeover on Raw. Unfortunately for him, the powers that be deemed his now-infamous tie-throttling of Justin Roberts (as well as spitting in John Cena’s face) to be wholly inappropriate with the PG rating of WWE programming and he was fired. Unbothered by the turn of events, he went right back to kicking ass on the indies. Dragon Gate USA secured him for a bunch of their summer shows, PWG got him for this date and he popped up in other places too. Mere weeks after his termination he seemed destined to return to the WWE family, and it was clear this really was nothing more than a summer vacation back on the indies. Tonight PWG pits him against his old rival Roderick Strong. This is a big match for Roddy. Not only as he always struggled against Bryan – but he’s also desperate to get into the PWG Title picture and knows he needs high profile victories to do that.
Fans throw ties instead of streamers for Dragon which is completely awesome. Roderick isn’t concerned with all the fanfare and gets straight into the business of grappling with his highly skilled adversary. ‘Cena got his f*cking head kicked in’ – Reseda. Both Roddy and Bryan have to stop wrestling because they both crack up at that one. Strong then has to leave the ring to prevent himself from suffering a similar fate to Cena. He comes back and absolutely hammers Dragon with chops – reminding him that he’s not clowning around on TV with The Miz anymore. DRAGON F*CKS HIM UP! Realising he isn’t going to out-strike Danielson, Strong goes to his traditional tactic of working over the back. TIE CHOKE ON BRYAN! ‘You are fired’ – Reseda. Danielson levels him with a running enzi…and gets one of the biggest pops I’ve ever seen watching an independent show as he throttles Roddy Justin Roberts-style. Sayama flip into a running elbow next! Strong can’t cope with this increase in pace it seems and just barely escapes the Cattle Mutilation. Stronghold locked in to crank the back again! Super stiff strikes are traded….down into MMA ELBOWS! Cattle Mutilation! Despite that and a follow-up Roaring Elbow, Roddy works back to his feet and rocks Dragon with the Sick Kick. DEATH BY RODERICK…rolled straight into a torture rack backbreaker! GIBSON DRIVER COUNTERED TO THE LEBELL/YES LOCK! Roddy taps at 12:57
Rating - *** - The match itself was basically just a greatest hits package of all the normal spots Bryan and Roddy utilise. What made it special was the unique and special crowd they were competing in front of. The Reseda PWG crowd gets all sorts of praise, but matches like this show why they are the most hyped group of fans anywhere in wrestling these days. The love they had for Danielson, and the support they showed him during what could have been a rather traumatic time for him was extremely special. His summer 2010 story had a happy ending and he was straight back to the WWE, but at the time us fans didn’t know that. This is just a snapshot, and brief look into the sort of affection Dragon is able to draw from wrestling fans – be it a few hundred people in a small building in California to stadium crowd at WrestleMania.
Fans swarm the ring and basically don’t let him leave until he is given a microphone and gets to talk. As usual he judges the mood perfectly and has the crowd laughing, cheering and supporting the company rather than himself in equal measure.
Davey Richards vs Chris Hero – PWG World Title Match
Richards is the defending champion, at a point in time when he was killing it in every promotion he worked for. He won the belt from Kenny Omega in a match everyone raved about. He marched into this title defence, which everyone told me at the time was a must-see MOTYC. And he capped off his summer producing one of ROH’s greatest matches ever when he challenged Tyler Black for the ROH Title at Death Before Dishonor 8. For Hero, this title shot is a long time coming. Last time I checked in on PWG was January of 2010, and he was petitioning for a rematch for the belt even then. It’s taken him another six months to earn the title shot he craved and won’t want to leave empty handed
The crowd is split right down the middle as the opening bell rings. Hero is taller and has a more diverse mat game, so starts the ring at a slow pace looking to avoid Davey’s kicks and keep him on the deck. He actually frustrates the champ so much that he has to leave the ring to regroup. His next strategy is to try and trade submissions with Chris on the ground…and he promptly has his surfboard attempt easily countered. In terms of pure, technical wrestling the opening five minutes of this match have been better than anything else on the show by miles. The one area Richards has a clear edge over his challenger is speed, and we see that as he dodges his opponent then sprints across the apron into a harsh soccer punt. And having rattled off a couple of kicks, NOW Hero is damaged enough that he can try some submission holds of his own. Chris can throw strikes too though and he powers out into a big boot! Once again Davey is sent to the floor, perhaps wondering if he has what it takes to beat the former champion now. They tour the cramped ringside area tearing into each other with strikes and it’s still Hero who makes all the running. Not that you expect brilliance from the announce table, but Excalibur and Brandon Bonham on commentary are basically ruining this match so I have to turn them off at this point. The challenger is rampant now, controlling the canvas and having no problem delivering as many elbows, kicks and stretches as he likes. Richards tries to muscle back up…so gets chopped IN THE FACE! Literally right across his damn face! The champion can barely stand so it’s credit to him that he can still throw strikes. With one last burst of speed he nails the handspring enziguri – taking Hero off his feet for the first time in a while.
FLASH KICK BY HERO! Literally nothing Davey tries works…and so as Hero flips over the ropes like a tiny luchador Richards takes another chance. He sprints across the ring into the TOPE CON HILO! It was executed with such velocity that Richards actually bounced off the challenger into fans, chairs and even the stage at the back of the building. A major strike for Davey, and capitalising on it is key. His strategy is clear from that point – work the legs. From dragon screws to leg submissions to straight kicks to the leg he batters the limb as he enjoys his first elongated period of offence of the match well over fifteen minutes in. NECK DROP REGALPLEX from Hero, but it hurt his own leg executing it. Cravat knee strikes next (selling every time he uses the bad leg)…into a cravat neckbreaker for 2. BICYCLE KICK TO THE FACE! NO SOLD! TEXAS CLOVERLEAF! Can Hero’s leg survive? His mat skills ensure it can as he small packages his way free! KICKS! ELBOWS! DISCUS LARIAT BY DAVEY! Hero goes for a German suplex, but his knee starts to buckle allowing Richards to roll him into an ANKLELOCK! Hero muscles out into the ROLLING ELBOW! Now the question is whether Richards has anything left – as Hero STOMPS ON HIS HEAD! MOONSAULT! RICHARDS KICKS OUT! Hero comes up holding his knee too which I love. DEATH BLOW…BLOCKED! ROARING ELBOW INSTEAD! ANKLELOCK AGAIN! Hero is too close to the ropes…SOCCER PUNT! ROLLING GERMANS! BUZZSAW KICK! ONE COUNT OF DISRESPECT FROM HERO! DR DRIVER! HERO KICKS OUT AGAIN! ANKLELOOOOOOCK! LEG GRAPEVINE! HERO TAPS! It’s over at 24:48
Rating - ****1/2 - Wow. Sometimes when you sit down to watch matches that have been majorly hyped up your expectations can get the better of you. Back in 2010 people raved about this match. Even into 2011, when Hero and Davey had a killer match on an ROH show most people were quick to point out ‘it wasn’t as good as PWG’. But this…was…awesome! Some of Davey’s very best matches are when he is positioned as the underdog. Just looking through his ROH stuff, his great matches with Tyler at Death Before Dishonor 8, Danielson from Final Countdown Tour Boston, or the Aries vs Richards classic – the common theme uniting them is that Richards was deemed to be inferior to his opponent. He had to use his tenacity, stamina, speed and strategy to overcome guys who were bigger, faster, more experienced or just plain better. The same can be said for this one. Hero bossed the first fifteen minutes. And it made perfect sense – Hero is bigger and stronger. He works styles from all over the world. He can strike as hard as Davey (with a bigger reach), he can mat wrestle as good as Davey. He even has more experience being a top level champion than Davey. Despite being the champ, Richards faced a fight just to stay alive in the match. His only asset was his speed – which he finally used to create an opening in the match after the psychotic tope con hilo spot. To reduce the skills gap between them he reduced Hero to fighting on one leg. Hero sold it well, and suddenly it was an even fight – and effectively a sprint for the finish line. Which man could drop enough bombs, finishers or submissions on their opponent to get the job done? In the end Richards won because he survived Hero’s opening burst, and managed to tap him out before Hero could hit his Death Blow finisher. Brilliant story-telling, fantastic wrestling, a great crowd. If you’ve never seen this one you need to track it down…
¡Peligro Abejas! vs GenerationMe vs Cutler Brothers – PWG Tag Title Guerrilla Warfare Match
Originally London and Generico were scheduled to defend their titles against the Motor City Machine Guns tonight. One could argue they have the rough end of the deal on Alex Shelley’s cancellation, as instead they are inserted into a match against two high quality duos – and forced to defend their belts in the most violent match in PWG. Can the Intrepid Traveller and the Generic Luchador survive? Will PWG’s premier tag team, the Bucks, return to the top of the mountain again? Can the Cutler Brothers pull off an upset in the highest profile match of their careers?
Nick Jackson comes out wearing a TNA shirt, so I guess they are very much in GenMe mode tonight. He is punished for his lack of loyalty to the company by Dustin Cutler – who comes through the crowd to take him out even before the match starts. ASSISTED SHIRANUI ON THE APRON BY JEREMY! Finally the champs arrive – sprinting down the aisle right into stereo somersault planchas! Is Paul planning to work the whole match in a cape? Max Buck punishes him for it by hurling him into a ringpost. SLINGSHOT SPINEBUSTER from Dustin to Max! He then literally picks his brother up and THROWS him at the Bucks…before being Yakuza Kicked off the apron by Generico! SUNSET FLIP BOMB OVER GENERICO…TO BRANDON CUTLER ON THE FLOOR BY LONDON! Bringing the fight to the outside cranks up the danger factor and the Young Bucks revel in it by tossing chairs around. SPIKE DDT OFF THE APRON THROUGH A CHAIR from Brandon to Jeremy! THE CHAMPS GET TOSSED INTO THE BAR! I mean full on destroying the building’s bar area with human bodies! TOPE CON HILO INTO A BLOCKBUSTER ON THE FLOOR BY JEREMY BUCK! How is that even possible? His reward is getting back dropped through an open chair by Brandon, who then does his best to murder Generico with another chair. Generico lines up his through the turnbuckles tornado DDT…only for Dustin to block him with a trash can shot. POWERBOMB THROUGH CHAIRS from Max to Dustin! He comes up from that bleeding through his mask, as inside the ring the Bucks violently toss his partner face-first to the floor. HANDSPRING BACK RAKE…WITH AN ACTUAL F*CKING RAKE!
Jeremy Buck and the Cutlers brawl all the way up onto the stage…where the Cutlers PRESS SLAM Jackson off the stage onto everyone else in the match. It leaves London alone to fight off both the Cutlers. He then sprinkles f*cking bang snaps (those little white firecracker things you drop on the ground) onto a table! YAKUZA KICK OFF THE APRON from Generico to Jeremy! Max pops up to save his brother with a corkscrew Ace Crusher…only to be SUPERPLEXED THROUGH THE BANG SNAP TABLE! Brandon and Jeremy try a chair duel…which Cutler wins with the assistance of a low blow from his brother. MAX SPEARS BRANDON CUTLER as they cue Jeremy up for a tombstone through open chairs! DOUBLE STOMP ON THE CHAIRS BY LONDON! DROP-SAULT/KOBASHI-PLEX COMBO THROUGH THE OPEN CHAIRS BY THE CHAMPS! JEREMY KICKS OUT! Max shoves Paul off the ropes to block the SSP! This is complete insanity. EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S FOR LONDON! INVERTED CODE RED ON A CHAIR from Max to Dustin gets 2! SUPERKICK WITH A CHAIR! Dustin then nearly cracks Generico’s skull with another chair as he sets up a dive. SPIKE TOMBSTONE ON A CHAIR BY THE CUTLERS! LONDON SAVES! Another table is brought into play by the Bucks. SPRINGBOARD SWINGING DDT TO THE FLOOR FROM MAX TO DUSTIN! 450 SPLASH THROUGH THE F*CKING TABLE BY JEREMY! LONDON SAVES AGAIN! He then frantically tries to escape More Bang For Your Buck since everyone else is incapacitated. YAKUZA KICK BY GENERICO! LONDON STAR PRESS TO THE FLOOR! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? TURNBUCKLE BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAH! GENERICO WINS! ¡PELIGRO ABEJAS! WIN! The madness is finally over at 19:39
Rating - ****1/2 - This is one of the craziest spotfests I’ve seen in my entire life. I’ve reviewed a lot of wrestling over the years, but this was as psychotic as it gets. It brought together the insane high spots of the Young Bucks, size and power from the Cutlers, total unpredictability and chaos from London and Generico…and they just did not stop doing their best to murder each other for nearly twenty minutes. However you want to score this type of match – this one was a near perfect example. There was almost no dead time setting up spots. They hit almost everything cleanly. And, most incredibly of all considering how fast they started…they didn’t peak too early, had the crowd with them the whole way and actually BUILT THE DRAMA as the match went along. It obviously isn’t as revolutionary or iconic, but for perfect execution within the genre this is probably as good (if not better) than the legendary Hardyz/Dudleyz/E&C TLC-era stuff. I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor after it.
Tape Rating - **** - It’s PWG so it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But from where I sit this was a hell of a wrestling show. It was consistently good from top to bottom, and covered so many bases in terms of wrestling tastes. You had multi-man spotfests, great junior action, hard-hitting strike-fests, an emotional farewell match, a genuine celebration of possibly the greatest independent wrestler of all time in Bryan Danielson…and we ended the night with two completely different but equally phenomenal MOTYC’s. Richards/Hero was a mat classic of the highest order but just when they finished patting themselves on the back for stealing the show the Bucks, the Cutlers and the PWG Tag Champions went out and went all round the building in one of the wildest hardcore stunt-bump displays you’re ever likely to see. I haven’t enjoyed a show as much as this in a long time.
Top 3 Matches
3) Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost (****)
2) Davey Richards vs Chris Hero (****1/2)
1) ¡Peligro Abejas! vs GenerationMe vs Cutler Brothers (****1/2)