Date: November 17th, 2006
Location: Legion Hall - Reseda, CA
Commentators: Excalibur & Disco Machine
PWG World Champion: Joey Ryan (since Astonishing X-Mas - December 2005)
PWG World Tag Team Champions: Super Dragon & B-Boy (since Self Titled - October 2006)
1) Colt Cabana vs. Petey Williams
Man, this crowd is hot. It's almost like a modern day Reseda crowd. Cabana does some good comedy early on. Petey plays the cuntish character he's been playing in PWG by continuing to tease the Canadian Destroyer, but never hitting it. This was a decent enough opener. The crowd was hype, they did a little comedy, and had a few nice exchanges. Cabana wins.
Match rating - **1/2
2) Ronin vs. M-Dogg 20 (Matt Cross/Son of Havoc)
What the fuck is this crowd on?! Jeez, they were on fire here. M-Dogg set Reseda ablaze as he ran through his stuff on Ronin after being dominated for a short period of time. This only lasted a few minutes unfortunately however it still ruled thanks to how well the crowd responded. Ronin has been getting a ton of heat for just being Ronin and M Dogg came in with a bunch of flashy stuff that wowed the crowd. It was a pretty great dynamic. Ronin wins with a vicious death valley driver after kicking out of a phoenix splash.
Match rating - **3/4
3) Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs (w/ Lacey)
The hotness continues here with this great tag team match. It's both Black & Jacobs respective debuts in PWG in this match that Excalibur labeled best as a mid-west showcase. Shelley & Jacobs have a long history so I knew this would be good, and it was. Excalibur had some quality commentary in this as well, saying he worked in the japanese women's dojo as what they called "a peeping tom". It was so hilarious the way that he said it because he sounded serious at first only to say that. None the less, super fun stuff here, the action never got dull.
Match rating - ***1/4
4) Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels
This is branching off their feud in TNA at the time as it was LAX/Styles & Daniels in the fall of 2006 so it started off hot with a great brawl. They were all in the crowd, throwing chairs, and the intensity was high. The sad thing is that it gradually slowed down from there and it's like they found a resting gear and floated there for the rest of the match. The finish came abruptly with Homicide getting a roll up. If only this had kept the steam it started with. Man, this match could've been something.
Match rating - **1/2
Post match, Christopher Daniels gives a short little speech about being back in PWG before targeting a fan that is sitting on the stage. He goes off on him and ends his rampage with "pucker up your lips and kiss my ass, motherfucker!" Daniels hands the mic to Excalibur and makes his exit. I wish I knew what exactly led to this confrontation.
5) AJ Styles vs. PAC
DREAM MATCH. In 2015, as I write this, this is pretty big money match up. PAC is in WWE as Neville and Styles is in NJPW tearing it up. Now, we turn the clock back nearly TEN years to their first and only meeting. This is PAC's debut in PWG so it's gonna be awesome seeing the crowd's reaction to him considering he'd soon become an all time favorite of the audience. This match started off hot and kept a pretty good pace the entire time. They didn't go all out, but what they did was awesome and flawless. Styles hit a running flying superman punch off the apron, PAC hit a top rope cancun tornado moonsault to the floor - there were a number of mark out moments here. Seeing PAC run and head scissor Styles off the top rope out of nowhere and the crowd jump to their feet was epic. In the end, a piledriver followed by a Styles Clash puts the valiant newcomer away. Fun, fun, fun.
Match rating - ***1/4
6) Super Dragon & B-Boy (c) vs. Roderick Strong & Davey Richards - PWG World Tag Team Title Match
So this went around 25 minutes. Possibly nearing 30. Admittingly, the time didn't fly by however it wasn't a drag either. It still seemed like it went a bit too long though. I like how the Dragon tags are set up though because they are rarely your typical slow build to insane finish like PWG has become known for over the years. The Dragon/B Boy-KOW tag from the last show is an example of how great these can be. This encounter wasn't able to reach that level surprisingly. Considering the bad blood between SD & DR since Dragon found a new partner when Davey was unable to challenge for the titles with him at Self Titled, I figured this would be an epic battle. Especially since it began with a sick staredown between the rookie and veteran. Well, they had some exchanges that were nice, but that was about it. That's really the best way to describe this match. It had some moments that make it worth a look, but as a whole it's nothing special. Davey & Roddy pick up the surprise victory - new champs!
Match rating - ***
7) Samoa Joe vs. Rocky Romero
This started off rocky, no pun intended, only to build to a pretty good contest. It was highly entertaining from start to finish. And if you dismiss a few slip ups, you may even say this didn't start off rocky like I said. Being an overthinker causes me to notice small things. None the less, this was pretty enjoyable to watch. They have similar styles despite being different in a lot of ways. Plus they trained together in the New Japan dojo for a period of time so this could almost be considered a dream match. Strikes and power moves were the regular in this bout that never really slowed down. After a nearfall or two, Joe finally is able to pick up the win with a muscle buster. Action packed bout.
Match rating - ***1/4
8) The Dynasty (Joey Ryan, Scott Lost, Chris Bosh, & Scorpio Sky) (w/ Jade Chung) vs. The PWG Unit (El Generico, Frankie Kazarian, Human Tornado, & Quicksilver) (w/ Candice LeRae)
It wasn't until I saw both squads in the ring with my own eyes that I got excited for this. The Dynasty are such great heels at this point and Generico & Tornado are over as hell with Quicksliver being popular as well. To top it off, Kazarian chants filled the legion hall as the introductions began. So, this was perfect when it comes to storyline work and such. I enjoyed this way more than I expected. Simply put, because it WAS way better than expected. A small, ALMOST overdone heat segment. Keyword, almost. The final 10 minutes or so are filled with good stuff. The faces doing all their respective signature manuevers on The Dynasty at the same time, an INSANE run of finishing moves, a little Candice/Chung exchange that ends with Joey doing a fucking casadora on Candice. Good main event that sees Quicksilver do one of his crazy piledriver/canadian destroyer looking things to pin Joey and get the win for his team.
Match rating - ***1/2
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