In 2013, I gained heavy interest in independent wrestling. One of the first companies that I heard of when asking around was PWG. Well, its 2014 and I finally got around to checking them out. This is the first PWG event that I've ever seen so I was excited to check it out.
1) Jay Lethal vs. Willie Mack
One thing I noticed early on was how awesome the crowd was. They were on fire! In this match they were evenly split between both competitors as "Let's go Lethal!" chants were met with "Willie Mack!" chants. I've seen Lethal compete numerous times and am aware of how great he is, but this was my first time seeing Willie Mack. I was honestly impressed. The match starts off with Lethal sending Mack to the outside and then delivering three crazy suicide dives to the outside onto him. Also, for anyone who's never seen a PWG show, there are no railings so these guys were basically in the crowd doing this. They get back in the ring and Mack gets control for a bit. When the match first started, I thought that there was no way a guy the size of Willie would be able to do any impressive moves or keep up in a fast pace with Lethal. Turns out, I was wrong. Mack hit a standing moonsault onto Lethal which shocked me. Lethal and Mack kept a good pace and delivered a solid opener. Something to look out for is Mack mocking the Prime Time Players by putting his arm around on Lethal and doing the "millions of dollars" thing. Hilarious.
Match rating - ***
2) Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor vs. RockNES Monsters
A good bit of comedy in this match as they wrestle the first few minutes on the apron haha. Yes, the apron. Funny stuff. They get in the ring and the match really gets going and turned out be a really good tag team bout. I was impressed by all four men of which I've never seen compete before. There were some awesome moves hit through out this match. My favorite one being the Tower of Doom on the outside into the crowd. Really good match.
Match rating - ***1/4
3) Paul London vs. Trent?
I'm a long time Paul London fan, but am not familiar with Trent. He didn't really do much to impress me here either. Although, London did what he does best - put on a show. He hit several impressive manuevers during the match which kept this one from being a dud. London has control for the main part of the match and it is a solid affair. Worth a watch to see London do his thing.
Match rating - **3/4
4) AR Fox & Inner City Machine Guns vs. Kevin Steen, Michael Elgin, & Brian Cage (Unbreakable F'N Steen Machines)
I honestly don't even know where to start with this match. It was crazy. Before the match starts something funny happens that is worth mentioning. The ring announcer introduces the Unbreakable F'N Machines and Steen grabs the mic and says "FN? What are we? 12? Say it right." The announcer does say it right this time and introduces them as The Unbreakable Fucking Machines! The match kicks off and its a standard six man tag bout for the first few minutes until it break down and there is action everywhere. This started with all Fox, Ricochet and Swann all diving out of different sides of the ring onto the opposing team and the same exact time. The commentator described my reaction perfectly saying "What the fuck did I just see?" That was the start of a near 15 minute sequence of nonstop action and big moves. These guys left it all in the ring and delivered an action packed match. Steen cuts a good promo afterwards thanking everyone for coming to see them as well as thinking all the other competitors in the match. He also says he got a text from Generico earlier in the day saying he missed this place. Cool stuff, awesome match.
Match rating - ****1/4
5) TJ Perkins vs. Samuray Del Sol
Just a little background for those who don't know, you may know who Perkins is even though you've never seen his face as Perkins wrestles under a mask as Manik for TNA. Also, Samuray Del Sol is now under contract with WWE! I was pumped to hear this news as Sol is an amazing competitor. TJ P and Samuray delivered a phenomenal wrestling match here. It featured lots of high flying manuevers as well as some mat/submission based wrestling. Just as with the previous match, the crowd was chanting "This is Awesome" and that's exactly what it was - awesome.
Match rating - ****
6) Sami Callihan vs. Kyle O' Reilly
Just as most of the other matches, this was my first time seeing these two guys compete. I've heard a lot about Callihan and a little about O' Reilly. Needless to say, they both impressed me. This was a hard hitting, physical, back and forth bout. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole match. These guys left it all in the ring.
Match rating - ****1/2
7) The Young Bucks vs. The Dojo Bros (Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards) - PWG Tag Team Title Match
Wow. This was honestly one of the best tag team matches I've seen in many years, if not one of the best I've ever seen period. Non stop action, crazy combination moves, and SUPER KICKS. I knew of the Young Bucks from their time in TNA, but this match blew everything they did in TNA out of the water. It was amazing. There's not much else I can say, you need to see it for yourself.
Match rating - ****1/2
8) Adam Cole vs. Drake Younger - PWG World Title Match
Cole and Younger had one hell of a card to follow, but dammit they did it in outstanding fashion. This was my first time seeing Cole and Younger compete and I learned alot about both men. Firstly, they blew me away. Great competitors. Secondly, Adam Cole plays the heel perfectly. Thirdly, Drake Younger is a badass. Younger competed in basically a deathmatch with Sami Callihan the night before to earn this match. One of the most brutal matches ever contested in PWG. Younger suffered a huge gash in his head that took 18 stitches to cover up. Yet, he came into this match and gave it his all, diving off the top turnbuckle to the outside onto Cole into charis, taking numerous suplexes landing on his head, and getting back up numerous times after Cole would knock him down. This match told a great story and I think everyone including me thought he was going to win the title. Amazing match, the story and the crowd put it over the top for me. The ending was cheap, but it's expected coming from a guy with the character of Cole.
Match rating - ****1/4
Overall thoughts: BUY THIS NOW. If you've never seen PWG, I highly suggest taking a look at it. I honestly enjoyed this show more than I do WWE shows. Five out of the eight matches are rated 8 or higher on a scale of 1-10, and the other three are solid contests as well. I enjoyed every single match on this show, I watched it in one afternoon as soon as I got it. It's definitely worth the money. PWG definitely impressed and I will be looking into more of their shows soon.
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