1) Brian Cage vs. Drake Younger - Quarter Final Round Match What a way to kick off the evening with this fast paced opening contest. Drake went after the bigger man Cage immediately as he dropkicked him off the apron. This match didn't last long, but it was balls to the wall the whole time. Did its job of getting the crowd fired up which is what an opening match should do. Match rating - ***1/4
2) Johnny Gargano vs. Kevin Steen Gargano has only been in PWG for a few months be he is certainly making a name for himself in Reseda. He went at it with Wrestling's Worst Nightmare Kevin Steen and proved he was the real deal. This was a great match and much better than I expected. I knew it had the potential to be good, but it was much more than that. Outstanding match in which Gargano comes out victorious.
Match rating - ***3/4
3) Michael Elgin vs. Roderick Strong Strong is a PWG veteran as he has competed in every single BOLA tournament in history. While Strong has more experience in this tournament, Elgin made it to the finals last year in his first ever BOLA, so he's no slouch either. This was a very good match. There a few slow spots, but for the most part it was a solid encounter. The final ten minutes was the best part of the bout as Elgin and Strong really turned it up a notch.
Match rating - ***1/2
4) ACH vs. Kyle O'Reilly Last month at Ten, O'Reilly put on an incredible technically based match with TJ Perkins, but somehow he managed to outdo himself and put on even BETTER match here! I expected this to be good, but ACH & Kyle went out and blew my expectations out of the water. I wasn't that familiar with ACH, but I thought he was mainly a high flyer/spot monkey - I was wrong. Kyle is a master of submissions and ACH hung right there and showed his technical wrestling skills. O'Reilly continues to impress the hell out of me with how he can catch someone in a submission ANYWHERE. Here he reversed a powerbomb attempt from ACH into a guilliotine choke as well as catching ACH in mid-air and locking him in a
PWG All Star Weekend 9 Night 1 DVD Review This was the first night of PWG's 9th Annual All Star Weekend. It featured the PWG debuts of Jay Lethal, Samuray Del Sol, AR Fox, Johnny Gargano and Trent? As well as the return of Paul London. The main event for the show was a Guerilla Warfare Match between Sami Callihan and Drake Younger in which the winner would face PWG World Champion Adam Cole the following night.
1) Paul London vs. Kevin Steen Steen and London are both funny as hell so it was only fitting that this match featured alot of comedy. The first part of the match was mainly the two doing comedy stuff, but once the match got started it was pretty good. Don't let the rating I'm giving this one fool you - it's entertaining stuff and served its purpose as the opener.
Match rating - **3/4
2) Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor vs. The Young Bucks And in his debut in PWG, Johnny Gargano won the crowd over immediately. In all honesty, Gargano put in the most outstanding performance here in my opinion. Maybe it's because I'd never seen him wrestle before, but I was really impressed. We all know how good The Young Bucks and Chuck Taylor are, so this was a recipe for a quality tag team match which is exactly what we got. Just an awesome match here.
Match rating - ***3/4
3) Eddie Edwards vs. Jay Lethal The two men started off with some chain wrestling which was very fun to watch. In fact, I think the best way to describe this match would be "fun". It was such a good bout between Edwards and Lethal. It was Lethal's debut in PWG, but the crowd was behind him just as much or more than they were behind Eddie. In my opinion, the beginning and the ending were the best parts of this match. It seemed to me they made it go a bit longer than it needed to, but that's just me. Still a very enjoyable and great match up.
Match rating - ***1/4
4) AR Fox & Samuray Del Sol vs. Ricochet & Rich Swann This was the match on the card that I was most looking forward to seeing. Fox & Del Sol were making their debut here and they certainly set out to impress. This match was absolutey insane. Some of the best reversals, counters, and catch wrestling that I've ever seen. The exchange between Ricochet and Del Sol near the beginning of the match was just epic. And the dives... WOW! Just amazing stuff. Ricochet ran and dove OVER the top turnbuckle into the crowd onto Fox which was just insane. I have no idea how he flew that far in the air. Crazy awesome match and the best one of the night for me.
Match rating - ****1/2
5) Roderick Strong vs. Trent? Wasn't expecting much out of this one, but they really surprised me. I got Night 2 several months ago so I watched it before this DVD and Trent's match on Night 2 with London wasn't that great, but Strong really meshed well with Trent here. This was a very good match especially when compared to Trent's match on the next night. Good stuff.
Match rating - ***1/4
6) Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O' Reilly) vs. Unbreakable F'N Machines (Brian Cage & Michael Elgin) Future Shock was such an underrated tag team in my opinion. If I'm correct, I believe this was the last time they teamed together before fully going separate ways and what a way to go out! This was a very hard hitting and physical match as one would expect with the names involved. Kyle hung right in there with the big guys while Cole played the sneaky heel which is what he does best. All around great match.
Match rating - ***3/4
7) Sami Callihan vs. Drake Younger - Guerilla Warfare #1 Contender's Match I had heard mixed reviews about this one prior to buying this DVD so your enjoyment of this match will all depend on your wrestling preferences. If you like hardcore, brutal matches - you'll love this match. And I'm not talking about WWE style No DQ matches with a few chairshots and kendo sticks. I'm talking about slams through chairs and trashcans, thumbtacks, staple guns, and all that shit. This was a super brutal match that featured all of the above things listed. Drake and Sami beat the hell out of each other once again, but this was on a whole nother level. Drake took the worst beating as he got suplexed through a stack of chairs, thrown over the top rope onto a pyramid of chairs, he got two dollar bills stapled to his face, he got dumped headfirst onto thumbtacks and somehow still managed to win. Callihan took a beating as well though as he got slammed in the tacks and took some hard bumps. Again, some will hate this match because of the level of violence and some will love it. Either way, you have to give these guys credit for putting their bodys on the line like this.
Match rating - ****1/4 Overall: On this show, PWG gave fans a little bit of everything. You got a highflying tag match loaded with spots, a few solid technical based matches, some hard hitting tag team bouts, and a hardcore war between Younger and Callihan. The match of the night for me was AR Fox & Samuray Del Sol vs. Ricochet & Rich Swann. Just awesome stuff. It's worth the price of the DVD alone. Nothing's rated under 7 except for the opener which is still entertaining and funny as hell. Another great show from PWG.
PWG Mystery Vortex DVD Review This was PWG's final event of 2012. Going into the show, the whole card was a mystery, hence the title "Mystery Vortex". The only match announced prior to the show was the main event which pitted current PWG World Champion Kevin Steen against Adam Cole. 1) Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong vs. The Young Bucks What a choice for an opener! As Steen and Excalibur mentioned on commentary, this easily could have been the main event of a show. It could qualify as a main event not only because of the names involved, but also the quality of the match. This bout was easily one of the best opener's ever. Just an awesome tag team match that blew me away. Some people might say it was too much for an opening match, but it's a great match so I have nothing to complain about. Some insane moves as one would expect from both teams including a tornado DDT on the apron and a superkick party. All around great stuff. Steen described it best on commentary, "This is fucking amazing! This is just the first match on the show and I have to be last!"
Match rating - ****
2) Sami Callihan vs. Drake Younger - First Match in a Best of 3 Series After an opening match that awesome, Drake and Sami were two of the only people who could follow it. These match was balls to the wall from the start as Sami immediately put Drake in the corner and delivered multiple kicks, but Drake fought out and hit a huge clothesline on him. The battle was taken to the outside soon after where the fight truly began. Drake hit a dive off the apron planting a chair into Sami's face. Sami fought back however and hit a brutal belly to belly suplex on Drake onto a pile of chairs! The action spilled back into the ring where
