DIA DE LOS DANGEROUS!Date: February 24th, 2008
Commentators: Excalibur & Dino Winwood
Champions: PWG World Champion - VACANT
PWG Tag Team Champions - Joey Ryan & Scott Lost
This is the fourth PWG event of 2008 and a pretty historic one as a new PWG World Champion will be crowned. Low Ki defeated Bryan Danielson for the belt in January and defended it successfully against El Generico earlier in February only to get injured and have to relinquish the belt. That led PWG to create a one night tournament to crown a new champion. That tournament takes place here. Roderick Strong gets a BYE to the finals because he was already the #1 Contender. The participants in the tournament are Frankie Kazarian, Karl Anderson, Necro Butcher, & Human Tornado. This show also features the return of Delirious and Hallowicked to PWG. Let's get into it!
1) The Young Bucks vs. Scorpio Sky & Ronin - DDT4 Qualifer Series
Around this time, PWG was running a little qualifer series with all the lower card tag teams with the team with the most points at the end of the series getting a place in the upcoming DDT4 tournament. This was one of those matches and it got the evening kicked off in great fashion. Fast paced action that never slowed down and brought the crowd to it's feet on several occassions. The most memorable moment here was Scorpio Sky going for a shooting star press of the stage onto all three of the other participants. Good opener.
Match rating - **3/4
2) Karl Anderson vs. Frankie Kazarian - Championship Tournament Match
We got promos from both guys backstage beforehand. Machine Gun wants his first taste of PWG gold and Kazarian wants to become a three time PWG Champion. This was Kazarian's first match back in PWG in almost a year and one of his final matches in the promotion in 2007 was against Karl Anderson at the mighty Holy Diver Down event. Anderson beat him there, but the question heading into this one was could he do it again with such high stakes? The answer is yes. The win didn't come without controversy though as Anderson used the ropes to earn the victory after surviving quite the flurry from Kazarian. Solid little match.
Match rating - **1/2
3) TJ Perkins & Hook Bomberry vs. Los Luchas - DDT4 Qualifer Series
This one was just there for me. I couldn't get extremely focused on the bout despite a few nice exchanges here and there. It just didn't flow well. Although, it did do a good job of establishing Perkins & Bomberry as a team in progress as they had some problems, but also were on que for certain things. Luchas pick up the win in a below average contest.
Match rating - **
4) Candice LeRae vs. Daffney - First Ever Women's Singles Match in PWG History
This wasn't anything to write home about however I enjoyed it. It's Candice LeRae and Daffney after all. They're two hot badass chicks grappling in P Dub G. What's not to love? I didn't head into this with high expectations considering Super Dragon said recently that he hasn't liked any women's match that he's booked so I wasn't disappointed. It was just nice seeing both women go at it in my favorite Independent promotion. Hometown gal Candice picks up the win. Not a bad match.
Match rating - **1/4
HUMAN TORNADO HITS THE RING TO ATTACK CANDICE AFTER THE MATCH! Chris Hero is nowhere to be found so it seems like Candice is up the shit creek. BUT NO! HERE COMES NECRO BUTCHER! WE HAVE A MATCH ON OUR HANDS!
5) Human Tornado vs. Necro Butcher - Championship Tournament Match
YES YES YES! People wonder I rave about the year 2008 in PWG despite it not being highly praised and here's why. The cast of characters on the roster was so vast that it made for many extremely interesting match ups where styles and personalities clashed perfectly. This is a prime example. You had the deathmatch brawler that was beloved by the fans facing the sly, heel pimp that got more heat than anyone on the roster. Polar fucking opposites but damn this match was so much fun. Cringeworthy chair spots, brawling around the legion hall, both men taking a break to take shots & drink at the bar - great match.
Match rating - ***3/4
6) Joey Ryan & Scott Lost vs. Delirious & Hallowicked - PWG World Tag Team Title Match
This was Delirious & Hallowicked's respective returns to PWG. Delirous was last seen in the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles while Hallowicked hadn't been in PWG since 2003 when he represented CHIKARA in a big multi-man showcase match. They cut a wild promo prior to the match that was hard to understand. If you've ever heard Delirious ramble, you know why. The match was solid although it probably would've been better if the crowd was more into it. Regardless, this was still a good title defense for The Dynasty and a decent showing for Incoherence.
Match rating - ***
There's a great Dynasty promo here after this match with the PWG logo being placed over Scott Lost's mouth when he says "motherfucker" whilst insulting The Briscoes. It was a moment for the ages.
7) Roderick Strong vs. Karl Anderson vs. Human Tornado - PWG World Title Match
Pretty straight forward match here which is totally acceptable considering two of the competitors had competed earlier in the evening. Human Tornado's performance in particular was exhausting so seeing him still put in 100% here was awesome. Roddy was the freshest of all three men and he got alot of his shit in here. Just action packed from bell to bell and a satisfying main event. Human Tornado picks up the cheap win and becomes a 2x PWG World Champion. A lot of people who are new fans to PWG probably wonder how in the hell a guy who isn't even booked in PWG anymore went over Roddy and Machine Gun, but I fully agree with this call. Tornado was an amazing heel and this was another key part in his feud with Chris Hero.
Match rating - ***
Overall thoughts: I enjoyed this event. That probably comes as no surprise considering I'm such a PWG fanatic. As I've mentioned before, 2008 is one of my favorite years in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla due to the Tornado/Hero feud and guys like Necro Butcher bringing something totally different to every event. Both of those things collided on this show as Tornado & Necro Butcher stole the show with a super fun, spot filled brawl and with this show on sale for $5 on Highspots as of this writing, I'd say that match is worth that price alone if you like either of those guys. Other than that, nothing here really stands out although this is a historic show considering that the vacant PWG Title found a new owner. So, if Tornado/Necro and historical significance interest you, I'd say check this out. If not, you can skip this one and safely not be missing anything.
Thanks for reading and be sure to follow me on Twitter @EthanPWT and this blog @ThePWTruth!
No comments:
Post a Comment