After picking up All Star Weekend 9 and seeing how amazing PWG was, I decided to pick up this set. It's three discs featuring nine hours of the best matches in PWG. Some of the people featured on this set include Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan), Rob Van Dam, Claudio Castagnoli (Antonio Cesaro), Kevin Steen, The Young Bucks, El Generico (Sami Zayn), PAC (Adrian Neville) and many more. Without further a due, let's get started.
1) The Briscoe Brothers vs. B-boy and Super Dragon - Are You Adequately Prepared To Rock? - October 4, 2003
As some of you know or don't know, The Briscoes are a phenomenal tag team. Them combined with the excellence of Super Dragon gave me high expectations for this match. Needless to say, they fullfilled those expectations. All four men put on a good showing here and The Briscoes showed once again why they are one of the best tag teams of the past decade. Solid tag team wrestling is showcased at its finest in this awesome match.
Match rating - ***3/4
2) Super Dragon vs. Quicksilver - Zombies Shouldn't Run - August 6, 2005
Dragon and Silver start out mainly with some mat wrestling trading various submissions. That didn't last too long however as Quicksilver took to the air diving onto Super Dragon. Dragon controlled Quicksilver for the majority of the match. This match was good, but not as enjoyable as I expected. The ending sequence is pretty sick though. Quicksilver hits a sunset flip powerbomb on Super Dragon off the top turnbuckle sending him to the floor at ringside. Dragon's finisher is always crazy to see as well. One of the most innovative piledrivers that I've ever seen. I feel this match could have been better if they had delivered a better first half as the match didn't really pick up to a good pace until about halfway through. None the less, it's still a solid encounter.
Match rating - ***1/4
3) Chris Bosh & Scott Lost vs. The Briscoes vs. B-boy & Homicide - 2006 Battle of Los Angeles Night 2 - September 2, 2006
You put the current PWG tag champs in a match with the first ever PWG Tag Champions (B-boy & Homicide) and one of the best tag teams of the past decade (Briscoes) and the result is pure insanity. This match had several crazy spots and dives, but it also had some solid wrestling. I love good tag team bouts and this triple threat was great. Very enjoyable match.
Match rating - ***1/2
4) El Generico vs. Pac - All Star Weekend V - August 27, 2007
For the WWE fans reading this, El Generico is signed to WWE and competing under the name Sami Zayn on NXT. Pac is also signed to WWE and competing in WWE under the name, Adrian Neville. What a coincidence that both of these guys are both with WWE, it shows that hard wark pays off. The match that Pac and Generico had here was a pure wrestling showcase. They kept it clean, shaking hands before and during the match, and delivered an outstanding back and forth contest. Both men showed how well versed they are in technical wrestling as well as high flying. This match saw beautiful dropkicks, numerous hurricanranas (and reverse ones too), some solid mat wrestling, and an insane tiger suplex on the ring apron! Great back and forth contest with alot of near falls. Generico's turnbuckle brainbuster is insane!
Match rating - ****1/2
5) Claudio Castagnoli vs. Pac - 2007 Battle Of Los Angeles Night 3 - Quarterfinal Match - September 2, 2007
Here we have another match up between two guys who are currently in WWE. Pac, as I mentioned before, competes in NXT under the name Adrian Neville while Claudio Castagnoli competes on Raw and Smackdown as Antonio Cesaro. Once again, it was very cool watching these guys pre-WWE work. WWE definitely made a smart decision by signing these two. This was sort of strength vs. speed match up. Claudio has speed, but being a big guy, he can't match the speed of Pac. The two styles meshed very well here and it was a great match. This took place during the Battle of Los Angeles tournament so it only lasted around 15 minutes. If given more time, this could have been a classic. None the less, it was still a great match. We saw Claudio break out the Giant Swing, which he uses today in WWE, as well as his signature uppercuts. Pac delivered many jaw dropping manuevers as usual such as diving to the outside and catching Claudio with a hurricanrana. Good match.
Match rating - ***3/4
6) Bryan Danielson vs. El Generico - European Vacation 2: Germany - October 28, 2007
Before the match starts, Kevin Steen comes to the ring along with Generico to announce that he won't be able to compete tonight. Steen says Generico dislocated his shoulder last night and that he's sorry that he can't wrestle. This brings Bryan to the ring who calls Generico a pussy for not wrestling him tonight. This fires Generico up and he decides to wrestle him since Bryan said he'll never get a shot at his PWG Title again if he doesn't wrestle him tonight. The crowd in Germany is hot as "Let's Go Dragon" chants were met with "El Generico" chants. This was a solid encounter between the two future WWE stars. Danielson stuck with his signature ground/submission game while Generico did more of the highflying here. As always with matches involving Bryan it was quite physical and very enjoyable.
Match rating - ***3/4
7) Joey Ryan & Scott Lost vs. The Young Bucks vs. Kazma and Miyawaki - Life During Wartime - July 6, 2008
Another stellar tag team match here. The Bucks first appearance on this DVD set and they certainly put on a show. I was inclined to say that they were the stars of this match, but in all honesty, every team showcased their amazing abilities here. The two guys from Japan were very impressive. Lost & Ryan surprised me. I never thought either were that good, but they really brought their A Game here. There are some very innovative spots in this match, so keep your eye open. It's not a high flying spot that was my favorite though, it was a submission move involving every man in the match. Yeah, its amazing.
Match rating - ****
8) The Young Bucks & Paul London vs. The Dynasty (Joey Ryan, Scott Lost, & Karl Anderson) - Express Written Consent - February 21, 2009
I swear, I don't think the Young Bucks have ever put on a match that isn't absolutely amazing. This is simply unbelievable. It starts off in chaos between the six men, but soon settles down into normal tag team format with tags and so forth. The two teams go back and forth trading manuevers and tagging in and out. But after about 10 minutes of that, it broke down again into complete craziness. The final 15 minutes of this match are simply unbelievable. Dives, flips, DDT's on the apron, combination moves, dropsaults, crazy shit! Awesome match.
Match rating - ****1/4
At the end of this Disc, you get two bonus backstage promos. One of them is from Paul London and Bryan Danielson. The other features El Generico. Both are hilarious.
Disc 2:
9) Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong vs. The Young Bucks
This was Danielson and Strong's first time teaming together, but you would never know it. They worked extremely well together, using quick tags to keep the Bucks isolated. All four of these guys are phenomenal athletes and they put on a solid tag team bout here. The crowd was split 50/50, but I believe they were more behind Danielson & Strong than the Bucks. Another great match from the Bucks and some outstanding team work from the new team of Danielson and Strong.
Match rating - ***1/2
10) Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong
This was one of those matches where it was only around 10-15 minutes, but it was packed with action. Short and sweet. Strong and Richards start off trading forearms and that set the pace for the rest of the match as each man hit their opponent with everything they had. Really good fast paced contest.
Match rating - ***1/4
11) The Young Bucks vs. Joey Ryan & Karl Anderson
One word to describe this match would be different. It was different from most Young Bucks' matches as it wasn't a spot fest. It showed that these guys aren't spot monkeys and can put on a great tag team match without doing multiple huge spots. The Bucks used a different offense than normal, even using some submissions. The other thing that made this different was that the crowd was heavily behind Ryan & Anderson moreso than the Bucks. Although, the crowd became split about halfway through as the Bucks won them back over with there outstanding in ring abilities. Just as I was impressed by Anderson in his previous match on this DVD (6 Man Tag), I was even more impressed here. He took to the air on several occasions including diving out of the ring and delivering a flying dropkick from the top turnbuckle. This was an awesome match. Anderson & Ryan impressed me even more and the Bucks showed everyone once again how great they are.
Match rating - ***3/4
12) Chris Hero vs. Bryan Danielson - PWG World Championship Match
Hero and Bryan started this match off with some straight mat wrestling. These two are known for being technicians in the ring and that was showcased for the first 10-15 minutes of the match. Hero got the first real advantage of the match around 15 minutes in as he targeted Bryan's head with stiff elbows and brutal kicks. Hero kept this game plan throughout the match and the commentators even noted that his goal was to concuss Bryan. This plan was working very well until Bryan began to fight back. Bryan went to jump off the top turnbuckle onto Hero on the outside, but caught a chair to the head. This put Hero back in charge. The chairshot busted Danielson's head open and it seemingly looked like this one was over around 25 minutes into it. But Bryan fought back and the two went back and forth in some of the most amazing wrestling I've ever seen for the next 20 minutes. Hero continued delivering some of the most stiff elbow shots to the head that I've ever seen, but Bryan showed how tough he is by standing in and taking them. Danielson even delivered some of his own. This match was very physical and even the commentators noted it. Although, all I've mentioned here is mainly the elbow shots and kicks to the head of both men, there is much more to this match as Hero and Danielson trade suplexes and numerous submissions in some classic technical wrestling. It was very fun to watch and I LOVED this match. Something I'd also like to note is that this was Bryan's last match in PWG before heading to WWE. That alone had the emotions high in this one and there was some great storytelling done in this match. Alot of people try to say the Indies don't have good storytelling and that it's just a bunch of spots, this match completely proves that theory wrong. Another thing that was showed here is how classy of a guy Bryan is. First off, he didn't even have to wrestle this match, but he did and gave it EVERYTHING he had. Some guys woulda just went easy because they don't wanna get hurt before going to WWE, but Bryan delivered like he had done for the past 7 years on the Indies. Awesome match.
Match rating - ****1/2
After the match we get interviews from both Bryan Danielson and Chris Hero. Danielson thanks everyone for supporting him and this company and says that Independent wresling fans have made him who he is today. Hero talks about how frustrated he is and delivers an emotional promo about how he's only lost twice in the past 15 months and both of them were to guys leaving for WWE. Both of these guys promos were very emotional. Good stuff.
13) El Generico vs. Chris Hero
This was Hero's first match since his huge loss to Bryan Danielson. The story going into this bout was whether or not Hero would change his style since losing the title. From the start it seemed like Hero did change his style a bit as he rarely went for elbows and kicks and went back to stuff he used to do. As Cole would say "Vintage Hero". Hero went for a lucha libre to start with. He and Generico traded arm drags in the opening minutes, but as soon as Hero started losing the upperhand he went back to the trusty stiff elbow to the head. Hero knocked Generico silly, but he stayed in it. As for Generico in this match, he did his usual stuff which is always entertaining. He even did a move I've never seen him do, delivering a hurricanrana to Hero off the ring apron. This match went about 15 minutes or so and was a solid encounter.
Match rating - ***1/4
14) Roderick Strong vs. Kenny Omega - Battle of Los Angeles 2009 Finals
The significance of this match is that it was the first of Battle of Los Angeles tournament where the World Title was on the line. With the match being this important, Strong and Omega brought their A game. Strong and Omega started the match in the ring trading maneuvers, but it soon spilled to the outside into the crowd. Omega sat Strong in a chair and delivered a running knee to the face. That was the first moment in this match that made the crowd chant "Holy Shit!". Well, the part of the crowd they were in atleast, what's funny is the other side of the room started chanting "Can't see shit!" then the other side chanted back "Shoulda sat here!". Funny stuff that thankfully didn't take away from the match. Strong soon got back controlling body slamming Omega on the ring apron causing him to land on his head on the floor. Stiff landing, brutal manuever. Strong and Omega continued to battle outside of the ring and made their way to the other side of the crowd near the stage where the announcers sit. Speaking of the announcers, Colt Cabana joined Excalibur for commentary on this match, which is always good. Anyway, Omega got control and delivered another jaw dropping move as he climbed onto the stage, on the announce tables and did a backflip off it onto Strong in the crowd. WOW! The guys finally head back into the ring where the action is fast paced and hard hitting. The final ten minutes or so of this match are very good as both men leave it all in the ring. Overall it's one hell of a match.
Match rating - ***1/2
15) Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong
Excalibur and Colt Cabana are on commentary again for this one. The match starts off with all three men in the ring, but Van Dam leaves the ring and let Hero go at it with Strong. Strong throws Hero out after a few minutes of grappling and in comes Van Dam. Van Dam and Strong have a very good hold for hold exchange before Hero comes in. Hero and Van Dam faced off and went back and forth before Strong pulled Hero out of the ring. Strong dives off the apron taking out Hero before going back in after Van Dam. Van Dam hits some of his signature moves such as the leg drop off the apron onto Strong who is hanging on the railing. Van Dam even hit rolling thunder on both Strong and Hero. He also brought in a chair for some cool moves during the bout. This was a pretty good triple threat match. Good showing from all three men and cool seeing Van Dam in PWG.
Match rating -***1/4
Disc 3:
16) Kenny Omega vs. Davey Richards - PWG World Championship Match - As The Worm Turns
The third disc of this set starts off with a bang with this phenomenal match for the PWG World Title. It was Kenny's first title defense since becoming champion and Davey's long awaited shot at the title. The best way to describe this match is that it was simply amazing. I'm a fan of Davey's work, but was not familar with Omega (besides the other match on this set) and needless to say he made me a fan. The moves and counters these guys executed in such flawless fashion were very fun to watch. The crowd was split pretty much the whole match, but when the match ended, the crowd exploded in support of the guy and even got in the ring to celebrate with him. I won't spoil the outcome for you. Awesome match.
Match rating - ****1/2
17) The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks
This match started off with a bang as a brawl broke out immediately between the two teams. Both of these teams are known for putting on showstealing matches and this was no different. The Briscoes and The Bucks left it all in the ring here. Some of the moves these guys did were unbelievable. Both teams put on the type performance they are known for and it was so fucking great. I can't say much more, you just need to see it for yourself.
Match rating - ***3/4
18) El Generico & Paul London vs. The Young Bucks vs. The Cutler Bros - Guerilla Warfare Match for the PWG Tag Team Championships
A Guerilla Warfare match basically means anything goes. The name of this match was very fitting for what took place here as it was complete warfare and insanity. I don't even know where to start. There was action everywhere the whole time. They fought all through the crowd and around the arena. There were so many amazing spots that there is no way I could name them all, but one of my favorites was London running and cutting a flip over the top rope (and two men) to deliver a powerbomb to one of the Culters off the apron to the floor onto the Bucks. Some other crazy spots include Generico and London getting thrown over the bar, The Cutlers throwing someone (action was so crazy can't remember who) off the stage, and a 450 splash through a table. That's just a few things that took place. Numerous weapons were used in this match such as tables, chairs, rakes, and trashcans. This wasn't a hardcore, bloody match though as there was alot of athleticism shown in this match. I'm giving this one a 10/10 because these guys left it all out there and I don't know what else they could have done. Insane match plus the crowd was on fire the whole time and chanted "THIS IS AWESOME" loudly after it was over.
Match rating - ****1/2
19) Chris Hero vs. Akira Tozawa
Going into this match, I was interested to see Tozawa. I had never seen him compete and was excited to see what he brought to the table. Well, I saw him compete and damn if he didn't impress the hell out of me. Tozawa stood toe to toe and went move for move with one of the most hard hitting guys in wrestling, Chris Hero. The size difference is something else to look at. Tozawa is visibaly way smaller than Hero as far as height goes, but Tozawa was still able to mount some impressive offense. He has a chaotic and vicious style that took me by surprise. Out of nowhere, he would begin screaming in the middle of the match. This fired the fans up and seemingly shocked Hero the first time he did it. The two ended up screaming back and forth before trading a vicious series of chops and blows to the head. This was a very physical match with tons of near falls that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Match rating - ****1/4
20) Kevin Steen vs. Akira Tozawa
Here we have another match featuring Akira Tozawa. I was glad to see he was featured again because I really enjoyed his match with Hero. This is also Steen's first appearance on this DVD set. Tozawa started this match off in chaotic fashion by diving out of the ring onto Steen during his entrance. Steen and Tozawa fought through the crowd up to the stage where Steen took a present from under the Christmas tree and broke it over Tozawa's head, shooting glass everywhere! Steen then carried Tozawa back towards the ring where they finally got back into the squared circle. This was a really good match and just like Tozawa's match with Hero, it was extremely physical. At one point, Tozawa went for a dive out of the ring, but was caught by Steen and he delivered a brutal powerbomb to Tozawa onto the apron! That was sick. This led the crowd to chant "You sick fuck!" at Steen. Another amazing moment in this match came when Steen and Tozawa found themselves battling on the apron. Steen went for a suplex, but it was blocked, then Tozawa went for one, but it was blocked. So Tozawa delivered a kick to Steen then somehow managed to pick him up and deliver a german suplex ON THE RING APRON! WOW! The most physical spot however had to be Steen delivering THREE package piledrivers to Tozawa. This was just an awesome match. Loved it!
Match rating - ****
21) The Young Bucks vs. The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards)
As usual with Young Bucks matches, I have no clue where to start. First off, the Wolves are an amazing tag team and they put on one hell of a match with the Young Bucks. This was Eddie Edwards' first time competing in PWG and the crowd was HOT for him. They chanted for he and Richards throughout the match. As for the action, well let's see we had superkicks, dives, reverse hurricanranas, an epic german suplex off the top rope and so much more. These four guys tore the house down in an epic tag team bout. PWG has an amazing tag team division and this once again showcases that. The crowd described it best by chanting "This is Awesome!".
Match rating - ****
22) El Generico & Ricochet vs. Kevin Steen & Akira Tozawa
And the hits just keep on coming. Another insane tag team match here. As soon as I saw these four name pop on my screen, I knew this would be awesome. Steen & Tozawa had never teamed together before this match where as Generico & Ricochet have. So I guess that would give them the slight advantage, but they nearly split after their last tag match together so that was a story leading into this match as well. Steen and Generico go after each other before the bell even rings and Tozawa and Ricochet have to break them up. Once they finally got separated the match began. Steen and Tozawa actually worked very well as a team. This was shown when Tozawa went for a dive onto Generico & Ricochet, but they moved and Steen caught him. Steen swung Tozawa around so his feet would hit Generico & Ricochet in the face. Then Steen carried Tozawa onto the apron where he through him off onto Generico & Ricochet. Crazy stuff. Generico and Ricochet worked well together too, despite the differences going into this match. They hit a badass combination move that I had never seen before where they did like a 619 around the turnbuckle/ring post. It was different, but cool to see, definitely something to look out for. Steen hit some high impact moves throughout this match such as his signature running flip into the corner as well as an epic move where he lifted Ricochet up for a powerbomb only to drop him head first onto the second turnbuckle. BRUTAL move. The exchanges these four men had were so awesome and the crowd ate it up. After the match, the crowd chanted "Match of the Year". That's how great this match was. Awesome match featuring four of the most phenomenal wrestlers in the world today.
Match rating - ****1/4
23) Bonus Match: Terry Funk vs. Roddy Piper
At the end of the third disc, they give us a bonus match from the Kurt Russel Reunion. It was the end of the legends battle royal which featured Funk and Piper as the last two men. Funk was bloodied and gave a really good promo before striking Piper with the mic. This "match" only lasts a few minutes as Piper throws Funk out to win the Battle Royal. Fun little bonus.
Overall thoughts: Once again, PWG has blown me away. This is one of the best compilation sets that I've ever bought. Every match on here ranges from good to absolutely amazing. There aren't any duds. Yeah, there are some matches that are way better than others, but every match is good and enjoyable. Although all of the discs are solid, the third disc is unbelievabe as every match ranks in at 9 or better on a scale of 1-10. I normally list my favorite matches on DVD's or the stand out matches, but the truth is if I did that here, I'd end up listing over half of this DVD set. That alone should tell you that this is worth buying. If you are tired/bored of WWE and TNA or just looking for something new in the world of wrestling, I urge you to take a look at PWG. This set would be a good place to start. It's available for 19.99 plus shipping and handling on PWG's official site prowrestlingguerilla.com or it can also be found on Highspots.com. If you don't wanna pay that much for a company you've never seen, even though it'd be well worth the money, you can get pretty much any show from PWG's past for $14.99 or less on Highspots.com. This is only my second PWG DVD purchase and I'm hooked. Hell, I was hooked on the first DVD of theirs that I purchased a few weeks ago which was All Star Weekend 9 Night 2. That would also be a good DVD to get if you're looking to get into PWG. PWG is an awesome company and this DVD showcases that, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this three disc set. You won't be disappointed.
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