PWG All Star Weekend 10 Night 2 DVD Review
The event was held December 21, 2013. It's PWG's final show of 2013 and the final night in PWG for Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards before going to TNA.
1) Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas vs. Willie Mack & B-Boy vs. RockNES Monsters
This is one of those classic insane PWG multi-man openers. PPRay and Willie Mack & B-Boy are insanely over while the RockNES Monsters continue to be the 2nd most hated tag team in PWG. They get alot of heat. The crowd is on fire for this match though and for good reason. The action never stops. From a sick head stomp off the top rope to a dive over the top turnbuckle to the outside of the ring to a border toss on the ring apron. It was crazy! The most amazing sequence however had to be the tower of doom followed by a double frogsplash followed by a shining wizard! Just awesome, fun stuff! Don't see how anyone can't enjoy this!
Match rating - ***1/2
2) Tomasso Ciampa vs. Anthony Nese
The insanity continues here as Nese strikes Ciampa right out of the gate with a dive out of the ring during his entrance. These two put together a great match that was much better than I thought it would be. Ciampa's personality continues to come out in PWG as he yelled at Kevin Steen on commentary before doing his signature crotch into the ring post. Funny stuff. Steen had just got done putting Ciampa over on commentary then Ciampa steals his move - how ironic! Ciampa has only been in PWG for a few months, but I'm already enjoying his work here WAY more than in ROH. Nese was also very impressive here. A story that developed in the match was whether Nese could lift up Ciampa with one arm. After three separate attempts, Nese finally got him up and slammed him into the corner! Brutal stuff as Ciampa returns the favor! These two beat the hell out of each other. Ciampa was super stiff like always and Nese gave it right back to him! Great match!
Match rating - ***1/4
3) Michael Elgin & Brian Cage vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?)
The pace of the show slows down a bit here which isn't necesarilly a bad thing. We are treated to a nice tag team bout between two of PWG's most popular teams. Elgin & Cage have been popular for months, but Taylor & Trent? have only been teaming a few months and they are really becoming crowd favorites. This was a really good match with a fair amount of comedy involved. Chuck Taylor was funny as shit as always. Something funny to look out for here is that you can see Davey Richards peaking out of the curtain at the entrance way watching the match. About half way through Steen points it out and I found it hilarious. Anyways, The match was just a regular good tag bout, but then the final stretch hit and these guys turned it up a notch. The final 10 minutes or so of this match are amazing. That caused me to bump my rating up a bit. Very good and entertaining tag team match.
Match rating - ***1/4
4) Chris Hero vs. ACH
This weekend was Chris Hero's return to PWG since being released from WWE so it was nice to see him back in Pro Wrestling Guerilla ring. He is the second longest reigning PWG World Champion after all. Hero and ACH put on a technically sound bout that had a physical edge as usual with Hero's outstanding striking abilities. And as expected there were some WWE jokes. Hero was dancing around during the beginning of the match and ACH said "This is PWG not WWE!" Hero would respond later by kicking ACH then yelling "Was that WWE? NO, THAT'S FUCKING PWG!" Awesome, funny stuff. Really good match between these two technically sound wrestlers. Nice seeing a veteran like Hero compete with a young talent like ACH. This match reminded me of ACH's amazing match with Kyle O'Reilly a few months back at BOLA Night 2, but they weren't given as much time to create a classic, but this was still good for what it was.
Match rating - ***1/2
5) AR Fox & Rich Swann vs. Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong
Holy shit! This is your classic insane PWG tag team match! The match started off in chaos as Strong & Edwards completely took control. Strong lifted up Fox on his shoulders on the outside of the ring and Edwards dove out of the ring knocking him to the ground! That was the start of the Dojo Bros taking complete control of the match. They dominated this bout for the most part until about half-way through when Fox and Swann starting building some momentum. And of course the "All Night Long" chants started which is always great to hear. There was just so much awesome action in this match. The most amazing thing though had to be Swann countering Strong's backbreaker attempt in mid-air into a hurricanrana. Craziest thing I've ever seen. Awesome match and one hell of a way to end Eddie's run in PWG!
Match rating - ****
After the match, Edwards gave a short farewell speech. He said PWG was "the funnest and best fucking wrestling company." I agree. Before Edwards leaves, Strong gets the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to Eddie since it's his birthday in a few days. Edwards then leaves to a roar of "Thank You Eddie!" chants. Great sendoff for Eddie Edwards! Thanks for all the fantastic matches!
6) Davey Richards vs. Ricochet
The match starts out with some mat wrestling. A skill that I knew Davey Richards had, but I'd never seen Ricochet do technical wrestling like this so I was impressed. The match had a variety of styles throughout. From technical wrestling to highflying manuevers to strikes. Davey and Ricochet put on a really good match here. It's not the MOTY caliber match that one may expect from these two, but it's still a enjoyable, solid encounter. The most impressive move had to be Davey going for a german suplex off the top turnbuckle, but Ricochet flips in the air and lands on his feet. Just amazing. In the end, Ricochet puts Davey away with a 630 off the top rope. Nice to see Davey put over some new talent before leaving.
Match rating - ***3/4
After the match, Eddie Edwards came to the ring followed by Tomasso Ciampa, Brian Cage, Michael Elgin, Willie Mack, and several others from the locker room to bid farewell to Davey (and Eddie). Davey cuts a fantastic farewell speech about how he used to ride a greyhound bus to California from Washington just to get on PWG shows back in the day. He said he also lived in his car for a few months so he could be on the shows regularaly. THAT's dedication, wow. Davey goes on to say that PWG taught him alot including my favorite line, "PWG taught me that it's okay to stand up against corporate wrestling and say FUCK YOU! WE ARE WRESTLING!" Davey then puts over the talent in the ring saying they are the future and that his time in PWG may be over, but their's is just beginning. He thanks the fans before leaving. Awesome farewell for Davey Richards!
7) Kevin Steen & The Young Bucks vs. Drake Younger, Candice LeRae, & Joey Ryan
I knew this match would be epic when I saw it on the card, but it was taken to another level when Steen & The Bucks got into it with Legion Larry (the owner (i'm guessing) of the place that PWG holds their shows). He yells at Steen for smashing something in the ring and The Young Bucks give him the crotch chop and tell him to suck it! Larry says "Fuck you!" to Steen, but Steen responds with "Suck my dick!" WHOA! The crowd starts chanting "Fuck him up Larry, Fuck him up" and "KILL LARRY KILL!" Funny stuff! The pre-match antics continue as Excalibur messes up while introducing The Young Bucks by saying "Matt Nick Jackson" instead of "Matt and Nick Jackson" - I paid it no attention until Chuck Taylor on commentary said that Excalibur made it sound like there were three Young Bucks, "Matt, Nick, and Jackson". More funny shit. This match hasn't even started yet and I've already written a paragraph about it. Just goes to show how entertaining PWG is all around. The match gets going and the action is fast and furious. There were so many awesome moments in this match. From the multiple dives by nearly everyone in the match to Drake cutting a flip off the top turnbuckle and hitting a light fixture to a ballsplex off the top rope - it was insanity. Steen brought out his inner Stone Cold and hit a stunner on Joey, only for Candice to return the favor and deliver a Stunner to him! The commentary was gold as well. The Bucks hit their signature piledriver on Candice and Chuck Taylor named it "More Bang for Your Fuck". Hahaha. So many crazy spots and moves in this match. Just all around fun and awesomeness.
Match rating - ****
8) Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano - PWG World Title Match
After Gargano's amazing performance at the Battle of Los Angeles tournament earlier in the year, I was very excited to see him get a title shot. He really impressed me on that show and had a match of the year candidate bout against Kevin Steen so I expected this to be fantastic. The match started off a bit slow, which I didn't mind, but it never really seemed to pick up or keep a steady pace. Cole and Gargano had some awesome exchanges, but as a whole this match felt as if it was missing something. On its own, it was a really good match, but it didn't deliver like most PWG main events do. Great match, but not anything out of this world like we normally get in the main event slot on a PWG show. That being said, this is worth watching, don't get me wrong, but don't go into it expecting an amazing match and you should enjoy it. I think my extremely high expectations after Gargano's outstanding performance at BOLA made it hard for me to enjoy this as much as I could have.
Match rating - ***3/4
Overall thoughts: Yet again, Pro Wrestling Guerilla delivers another fantastic show. As usual, there aren't any weak matches on the card. There are two awesome MOTY candidate matches on the card in the form of Dojo Bros/Fox & Swann, and Steen & The Bucks/Drake, Joey & Candice. Hero/ACH was a fun technical bout. The opener was batshit crazy and Ciampa/Nese was an outstanding contest. Best Friends/Unbreakble F'N Machines was fun, Davey's final match with Ricochet was really good, and the main event was great although it was below par when compared to some of Cole's previous title defenses. All in all, this is a great show that I recommend checking out.
No comments:
Post a Comment