PWG: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Review

PWG: The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies DVD Review

 

1) Los Luchas vs. The Cutler Bros
This was the PWG debut of The Cutler Bros and what a challenge they had as they faced off against PWG veterans, Los Luchas. The last few PWG shows haven't had very good openers, but this broke that trend as this was an awesome tag team match! The Luchas and The Cutlers put on an oustanding display of tag team wrestling in a match that featured alot of moves that I had never seen before. Great opening match!

Match rating - ***1/2

2) Austin Aries vs. TJ Perkins
Perkins continues to be placed in matches that I'm excited about. Aries is a very well rounded wrestler including being skilled in the technical aspect of wrestling. Of course, that is what TJP's offense is based around so there were high expectations from me for this one. While this wasn't anything that will blow you away, it was still a damn good match. Aries and Perkins worked well together and the result was a very good bout.

Match rating - ***1/4

3) Bobby Quance vs. Joey Ryan
This match started off slow, but after the first five minutes or so, it really picked up! Quance hadn't competed in four years and this was his one night only return to the ring. Despite that, he still looked very good and put together a solid match with Joey Ryan. Surprisingly, Quance was the MVP of the match as he brought a whole new life to it with his action packed offense. The two men traded Stunners and Rock Bottoms which was hilarious. It was an overall solid match with some good action.

Match rating - ***1/4

4) Bryan Danielson vs. Scott Lost
If you've read my previous reviews, you'll probably noticed how impressed I've been with Scott Lost on the past few shows (All Star Weekend 7, BOLA 2008). So I was pretty excited for this one. Lost's recent hot streak combined with Danielson's ability to have a good match with anybody made for a great match. Lost went after Danielson immediately knocking him off the top rope while he was posing for the crowd. The match was technical, but had a high flying and brawling side to it as well. There was alot of crazy moves in the crowd such as Lost setting up some chairs, running and diving over them to deliver a huge spear to Bryan. Bryan got his share of offense in the crowd in as well though as he threw Scott Lost through chairs across the legion hall. The match went back in the ring after this and was very competitive. This was a great match that lived up to my expectations. Danielson was outstanding and so was Lost. He continues to impress me.

Match rating - ***3/4

5) El Generico vs. Chuck Taylor
This was a decent match. Wasn't really anything special, but this feud is really good. The story is somewhat of a comedy one as Chuck Taylor "hates kids" and El Generico is starting an orphanage in Mexico so Chuck wants to take him out. Pretty hilarious. Chuck even grabs a kid in the crowd and puts him in front of him to shield him from Generico. There was some good action here and it was a fun match.

Match rating - ***

6) The Young Bucks vs. Davey Richards & Roderick Strong
This was The Young Bucks first title defense since winning the Tag Titles from Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs at All Star Weekend 7. Ironically this is also Strong & Richards rematch for the titles since losing them to Black & Jacobs several months prior to this show. This was for the most part an average tag match. I was expecting a bit more since it was the main event, but it was still good. Newer PWG has set the bar really high and this match didn't meet the standard as far as 2011-current PWG goes, but alone - this was a really good tag match.

Match rating - ***3/4

Overall thoughts: I originally thought this was going to be one of the weaker shows in the anthology set that I bought, but it turned out to be really good. The PWG atmosphere of today that we all know and love is seen here for the first time in several shows. The crowd is much bigger than it was at All Star Weekend 7 and in my opinion, this was a much better show. The opening bout between Los Luchas & The Cutler Bros and the Danielson/Scott Lost match were the most outstanding matches on the show. Everything else was good, but nothing beyond that. Which isn't a bad thing. This was a solid show. Not as good as BOLA 2008, but much better than All Star Weekend 7.