PWG All Star Weekend 7 Night 1 Review
I recently bought PWG's Volume 10 Anthology set and it features 9 discs of PWG shows from 2008-2009. This is the first disc in the set so there are going to be alot more PWG reviews on the way so stay tuned!
1) Hook Bomberry & TJ Perkins vs. Mark Davis & Ash Riot
Going into this match, I had only seen one of these four men wrestle and that one person being TJ Perkins. So this was my first experience seeing Bomberry, Davis, & Riot compete. Chris Hero was on commentary and apparently he's worked with Davis & Riot before so that's a plus for me when it comes to them. I wasn't particularly impressed by Riot here as he had one or two minor botches, but Mark Davis stood out to me. He's a pretty big guy, but he's very agile for his size. This match wasn't anything special to start with, but the slip ups by Riot caused me to drop my rating a bit. TJ Perkins and Mark Davis were the best part of the match and unfortunately Davis didn't get that much time in. I enjoyed this one fairly well though. Fun opener.
Match rating - **1/2
2) Jimmy Jacobs vs. Vin Gerard
Just like the first match, this really wasn't anything special. I'd never seen Gerard compete and he didn't do anything to impress me. Jacobs put in a solid performance and the majority of the match was wrestled at a slow pace which he set. He sat Gerard in a chair on the outside and dove onto him which was pretty impressive, but it's become signature to Jacobs' repertoire so it's nothing I haven't seen before. These guys didn't botch anything and it was a decent match, but nothing really worth seeing either.
Match rating - **
3) Alex Koslov vs. Rocky Romero
The show started to pick up with this match. I didn't really have high expectations for it, but they put on a good match that was much better than I expected. Some good technical wrestling was showcased here as well as a bit of highflying. Koslov and Romero put together a really good match here, not much else I can say. Solid contest.
Match rating - ***
4) The Dynasty vs. Los Luchas
Something I like about this show compared to the more recent PWG shows I've watched is that they show the wrestlers entrances. It works well here as Scott Lost completely owns some of the fans as they chant "Shut the fuck up" to him while he's talking and he says "I'm at work, you should respect that, you don't see me at your job telling you to get the penis out of your hands" hahaha. The match finally gets underway and it turned out be a damn good tag team match. The Luchas are always fun to watch and they put in the most impressive performance here. The match was very fast paced when they were in control, although it slowed down a bit during the middle when Ryan & Lost had control. None the less, this was a great tag team match.
Match rating - ***1/4
5) Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) vs. Roderick Strong
This show continues to get better as it goes on as we were treated to an outstanding match here between Tyler Black and Roderick Strong. Just like the Koslov/Romero match earlier, this was a technically based match for the most part, but these guys did an even better job of executing this type of match than Koslov and Romero did. Alot of exchanging manuevers and some impressive high flying moves from Black. The ending sequence is what solidified this as an oustanding match. So many near falls and close submissions that made you think the match was over. The crowd was really into it as well. All around great match. Best of the night up to this point in the show.
Match rating - ***1/2
6) Chuck Taylor vs. Candice LeRae
After three very well wrestled matches, it was a time for a match to slow the pace a bit and be entertaining at the same time. This was the perfect choice for that spot on the card in my opinion. Chuck Taylor was making his debut and he was hilarious as always. Taylor and LeRae got into shoving contest that ended in Chuck trying to kiss her then changing his mood once again saying "I'm the pretty one here". That's just one of the comedic antics that Chuck Taylor utilized during the match. The funniest moment had to be him screeching like a girl as Candice chopped the hell out of him in the corner. So hilarious. On top of the comedy, these two worked well together and made for an entertaining match.
Match rating - **3/4
7) Kevin Steen, El Generico, & Susumu Yokosuka vs. The Young Bucks & PAC
I knew this would be awesome as soon as I saw it on paper. Even the entrances were great. The Bucks & PAC came out first and got the crowd fired up. Steen then got on the mic before coming out saying "I refuse to come out unless I have entrance music." Then you hear Generico say "OLE OLE OLE OLE OLE" which caused the crowd to start singing it! El Generico bursts out from behind the curtain followed by Steen and Yokosuka. Steen says "I've never seen Generico want a mic so bad, my nuts will never be the same!" Hahaha. The match gets started and it's just as awesome as I expected. Tons of fast paced action from all six men and some very physical strikes from Kevin Steen although he did his fair share of flips and shit too. Steen worked the crowd very well here as he got a guy pissed on the front row by telling him to suck it. Steen went face to face with the guy before Excalibur got security to talk with the guy. I found that hilarious. Steen is a great heel. The in-ring action was amazing. As usual with a match involving these six, I can't even begin to name all the combinations, impressive moves, and innovative spots. Awesome match.
Match rating - ****1/4
8) Chris Hero vs. Low Ki vs. Eddie Kingston vs. Necro Butcher - PWG World Title Match
I'm a long time fan of Hero and Ki, but I've never seen Kingston or Necro Butcher compete so this should be interesting. I know both men are crazy though and Kingston showcased that early as he took the championship up to the stage and held it up saying he was the next champion. The match finally started and Eddie Kingston got beat down by everyone so he ran through the crowd to near the entrance of the building. Necro Butcher followed him over there and they started brawling. Meanwhile Hero and Low-Ki were in the ring wrestling. This was a solid match. Not your typical PWG main event, but it's still enjoyable. Kingston and Hero beat the shit out of each other with some of the most stiff strikes I've ever seen. Necro Butcher didn't really do anything impressive and Low-Ki didn't do much here either aside from a few impressive manuevers such as dropkicking Necro into some chairs. As I said before, solid match, but not your typical PWG main event. You'll either love it or hate it. I enjoyed it, but probably won't go back and watch it again.
Match rating - ***
Overall thoughts: This was a pretty good show. The first two matches were pretty much throwaways. I watch shows all the way through because that's how I like to do it and because I normally review them, but if you skip through matches on shows, those would be the two to skip here although I enjoyed the opening tag match. After the first two matches, the show really picks up and started gradually getting better. Koslov/Romero was good, Dynasty/Los Luchas was great, Black/Strong was outstanding, Taylor/LeRae was fun, the 6 Man Scramble was awesome, and the four way main event was different, but enjoyable. There are only two matches here that I may go back and watch again, those being Black vs. Strong and the 6 Man Tag Match. Decent show, but not PWG's best although there are some really good matches here. Unless you're willing to pay $15 for the two matches mentioned above, I'd skip out on this one and try to find it on eBay for a little less because regardless of the few bland matches on the card, there's still some stuff on here worth checking out.
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