The Official PWG Thread

[Flash]

joey ryan is back also

[cobystag]

So 11 months later how about a mega bump for Battle Of Los Angeles 2014!

 

24 competitors this year spread across three nights. They are:

 

Matt Sydal (formerly Evan Bourne of the WWE/ROH)

Drew Gulak [PWG DEBUT] (CZW/Beyond Wrestling)

Trevor Lee (CWF Mid-Atlantic)

Chris Sabin (TNA/ROH)

Johnny Gargano (DGUSA/Evolve/Chikara)

Brian Myers [PWG DEBUT] (formerly Curt Hawkins of the WWE)

Michael Elgin (ROH World Champion)

Biff Busick [PWG DEBUT] (CZW World Heavyweight Champion/Beyond Wrestling)

Kyle O'Reilly (PWG World Champion/ROH World Tag Team Champion)

Brian Cage (TNA)

ACH (ROH)

Zack Sabre, Jr. [PWG DEBUT] (Pro Wrestling NOAH)

Rich Swann (DGUSA/EVOLVE)

Trent? (Formerly Trent Baretta of WWE/DGUSA/EVOLVE)

Cedric Alexander (ROH)

AJ Styles (TNA/ROH/NJPW/IWGP Heavyweight Champion)

AR Fox (DGUSA/Evolve)

Chris Hero (Evolve Champion/ROH/formerly Kassius Ohno of NXT)

Chuck Taylor (DGUSA/Chikara/EVOLVE)

Roderick Strong (ROH/TNA)

Tommaso Ciampa (ROH)

Adam Cole (ROH/CZW)

Ricochet (DGUSA/EVOLVE)

Kenny Omega (NJPW/DDT/ROH)

 

And the cards:

 

Night One

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

AR Fox vs. Brian Cage

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Cedric Alexander vs. Trevor Lee

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Biff Busick vs. Roderick Strong

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Michael Elgin vs. Tommaso Ciampa

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

AJ Styles vs. Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins)

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Drew Gulak vs. Kyle O'Reilly

 

Non-Tournament Six-Person Tag Team Match

Best Friends of Low Moral Fiber (Chuck Taylor, Kenny Omega & Trent?) vs. The Mount Rushmore of Wrestling (Adam Cole & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)

 

Non-Tournament Three-Way Tag Team Match

Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian) vs. Inner City Machine Guns (Ricochet & Rich Swann) vs. World's Cutest Tag Team (Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan)

 

 

 

Night Two

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Chuck Taylor vs. Johnny Gargano

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Rich Swann vs. Trent?

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Adam Cole vs. Zack Sabre, Jr.

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Chris Sabin vs. Ricochet

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

Chris Hero vs. Matt Sydal

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match

ACH vs. Kenny Omega

 

Non-Tournament Tag Team Match

Biff Busick & Drew Gulak vs. Unbreakable F'N Machines (Brian Cage & Michael Elgin)

 

Non-Tournament Tag Team Match

Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

 

 

 

Night Three

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter-Final Round Match:

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Semi-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Semi-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Semi-Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD

 

2014 Battle of Los Angeles Final Round Match

TBD vs. TBD vs TBD

 

 

TPI 2004 levels of Indy goodness or what?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Jesus. Some lineup that. The Three-way tag match looks quite great.

[lightningxlock]

TPI 2004 levels of Indy goodness or what?

 

That's exactly the way I described this on my radio show. Next years 16 Carat has a LOT to live up to!

[Vamp]

My only real criticism is that it seems a bit of a shame to have Gulak and Biff without having them go against Timothy Thatcher.

[The Cum Doctor]

Really hope Matt Sydal gets a better match than Chris Hero over the course of the tournament. Other than that, this looks like an amazing set of shows. Everything from the non tournament action looks tremendous, and almost every tournament match appeals to me.

[Twatters]

Really hope Matt Sydal gets a better match than Chris Hero over the course of the tournament. Other than that, this looks like an amazing set of shows. Everything from the non tournament action looks tremendous, and almost every tournament match appeals to me.

 

To be fair to him, Hero is generally awesome in PWG. Him and Sydal should have a good match

[The Cum Doctor]

Thought the match with Ciampa was boring as fuck. Didn't think the ACH match was much better. Thought the Cole match on night one of All Star Weekend was good, but that was mainly down to the constant shenanigans.

 

I've been a fan of Hero before, but he seems to have regressed pretty badly. He's actually bordering on infuriating to watch at times.

[gadge]

ZSJ gets Adam Cole in the first round? Tough draw.

[Big Benny HG]

Well, I’ve just started my long-overdue PWG catch-up.  For no particular reason, I’d let my regular viewing slide and, despite actually getting the DVDs (such as in PWG’s awesome annual winter sale, or an ROH Store sale), hadn’t got round to watching any PWG for over a year.  Indeed, the last shows I sat down to watch were the 2012 ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ tournament, won by Adam Cole.  That was until now.  Since these shows are over 2 years old, I won’t do ‘proper’ reviews like I had been doing, but will instead share a few thoughts on each...

‘Failure to Communicate’ (27 Oct 2012) isn’t an essential show, but is fun.  I really enjoyed the 3-way main event with Kevin Steen defending his title against Ricochet and Michael Elgin, which is a frantic, non-stop all-action contest.  It’s 3 men each with a vastly different style and approach – brawling vs. flying vs. power - it shouldn’t work, but it just does.  The highlight of the DVD for me, though, was Elgin’s match earlier on the same show against Eddie Edwards, where they just tear into each other for 15+ terrific minutes.  It’s a brilliant match where both cement their status in this promotion.  There is some c**p on the show, though, such as the indyriffic horrors that are  Ryan Taylor vs. Joey Ryan and RockNES Monsters vs. B-Boy & Famous B, and I found Brian Cage vs. Willie Mack to be a disappointment.  Despite those, Davey Richards vs. Sami Callihan and Roderick Strong vs. the debuting Rich Swann are both very strong singles efforts, and The Young Bucks vs. El Generico & Kenny Omeg is another fine example of the oft-repeated Generico & partner vs. Bucks formula, which doesn’t seem possible to provide anything other than at least a really good match.  I’ve missed seeing the Bucks on these shows, in this venue, where they are perfect in playing up to being absolute dicks, making all of their matches super-heated.  Generico really was their perfect opponent, and I could watch their PWG matches against each other all day long.

And yes, it did strike me how far behind I was when I see current WWE and TNA guys like Generico, Steen, Callihan, Edwards, Richards, TJ Perkins and Drake Younger as regulars on these shows...

‘Mystery Vortex’ (1 Dec 2012) was a unique themed show in which PWG had only announced a single match – Steen vs. Adam Cole for the title – and everything else was an unadvertised surprise revealed to the live crowd on the night.  What we actually end up with, for me as someone who has seen every one since the start, is one of PWG’s best ever shows.  There’s not a single poor bout on the entire DVD, with plenty of absolute crackers.  The three tag team matches (Edwards & Strong vs. Bucks; tag champs the Super Smash Bros vs. RockNES Monsters; then Smash Bros vs. Edwards/Strong) are all genuinely excellent, providing PWG’s signature breath-taking action from start to finish.  The spot-spot-spot tag style might not be to everyone’s taste, but if it is your thing then you won’t find it being done better anywhere else in the western world.  Generico vs. Swann and Callihan vs. Drake Younger are also both pretty great, the latter being a taster for what will become an increasingly-violent series.  Cage & Mack have an infinitely better match than on the previous show, this time as part of a 4-way with B-Boy & TJ Perkins that is tonnes of fun, and while Joey Ryan vs. Scorpio Sky is probably the ‘weakest’ bout on offer, I can’t criticise as that too is actually really decent and enjoyable.  Best of the bunch, though, is the pre-announced World Title match between Steen and Cole, which features its own surprise as it is made into a Guerrilla Warfare match (PWG’s big feud-ending No Holds Barred trademark).  It’s brutal, it’s crazy, it’s violent and it’s incredibly exciting, while allowing both men’s strong personalities and characters to shine through.  A top show all round.

It did amuse me that Joey Ryan gets the big send-off here, due to his TNA contract preventing him from appearing on other shows taped for release, and jokes that he’ll return if he gets fired from TNA.  As it turns out, I think he only misses 3-4 PWG shows before he’s back...

With tag team wrestling being one of PWG’s undoubted strengths, it is no surprise that the annual DDT4 tag team title tournament is usually one of the highlights of the year.  While it isn’t the very best version they  have produced, ‘DDT4 2013’ (12 Jan 2013) doesn’t break the overall mould and is another sterling effort.  As with before, the PWG World Tag Team Championship is on the line throughout the 8-team tournament (and we see multiple changes).  What is key to this one is that there are two main stories running through the event.  First, as in previous years, you have the Young Bucks always seeming to find a way to scrape through each round, to increasing annoyance and frustration of the fans who just want to see them get smacked.  DDT4 is pushed as key to the Bucks, having won twice before and reached the final of another.  It was the 2009 DDT4 in this building that saw the audience turn on the Bucks for the first time, which was the catalyst for them becoming the tremendously ridiculous over-the-top goofy characters they are at this point.  They are on form here, and their quarter- and semi-final matches against the ‘Inner City Machine Guns’ (Ricochet & Rich Swann) and the ‘Unbreakable F N Machines’ (Michael Elgin & Brian Cage) are both massively enjoyable.  The second main story is that of Kevin Steen & El Generico, which is kinda apt given the WWE NXT special that’s just been on this week.  On this show, they are rivals forced together in the tournament to reform their classic team for Generico’s final PWG appearance before heading to WWE developmental retiring to Mexico to concentrate on running his orphanage.  I’ve really liked the way the Steen/Generico feud has been booked in PWG.  I was hugely engrossed by their split and then year-long feud in ROH, and their PWG rivalry has been purposefully crafted to acknowledge, compliment, build on and continue that story.  For example, while Steen was banished from ROH following the stipulation bout at ‘Final Battle’, he returned to PWG and waged non-stop war with his former partner for another year.  Although both by this point are fan favourites, it has been clear from any interaction they have shared over the previous year that the two are still enemies and there is still a grudge.  What happens over the course of the tournament is fantastic: in the first round against The Briscoes, they are clearly on different pages, with blind tags, no cooperation and awkward looks.  They somehow get through to the next round, against Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly, and while there is still no love lost between the pair, they come together with unspoken chemistry as the match develops, ending with them flawlessly reprising their old signature double-team series without so much as a word spoken between them.  The audience LOVES IT.  The tournament final pulls both of these threads together, as Steen & Generico face the Young Bucks, bringing together PWG’s top 4 guys in a reprisal of some classic former encounters for the whole thing.  The Bucks are an absolute hoot as they dance, pose, flip, fly and cheat for all they are worth, and ‘Steenerico’ finally look like they might be back on the same page again.  Yes, I did just call them that.  The audience is at fever pitch for the whole thing and the action is something fierce.  It’s brilliant.  In the end, the Bucks get another win out of nowhere that stuns and flattens the entire building, until they erupt when a dejected Steen and Generico embrace, finally reconciling after all these years.  We then get the Generico farewell.

The two tournament matches I haven’t mentioned, ‘Dojo Bros’ (Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong) vs. Cole & O’Reilly and Super Smash Bros. vs. Unbreakable F N Machines are both very good indeed for the most part, though the latter loses its way after an unfortunate injury to Player Uno.  Aside from this, B-Boy vs. Willie Mack isn’t much of anything, but Drake Younger and Sami Callihan (this time a ‘KO or Submission only’ contest) is very strong, with a noticeable emphasis on the escalating violence between them.  A great show, well worth checking out.

[Big Benny HG]

And so it continues...

‘All-Star Weekend 9’ sees 5 wrestlers make their PWG debuts (EVOLVE/DGUSA stars Samuray Del Sol, AR Fox and Johnny Gargano, the former Trent Barretta from WWE and ROH’s Jay Lethal) as well as favourites Chuck Taylor and Paul London making their returns.    On ‘Night One’ (22 March 2013), singles matches of Kevin Steen vs. Paul London, Eddie Edwards vs. Jay Lethal and Trent? vs. Roderick Strong aren’t particularly impressive, but are fine.  It is once again the tag matches that provide most of the thrills on this show.  Gargano & Taylor are brought in to reprise their Ronin/F.I.S.T. team from elsewhere and immediately become a hot new addition to the tag ranks in a brilliant battle with the Bucks.  Unbreakable F N Machines (Cage & Elgin) vs. Futureshock (O’Reilly & World Champ Cole) is another impressive bout, with Cole’s stock continuing to increase, while Ricochet & Rich Swann vs. A R Fox & Samuray Del Sol is an incredible aerial display, the likes of which you rarely ever get to see outside of a major Dragon Gate Japan PPV.  They do so much cool stuff here that you can’t possibly take it all in and remember it, but as an overall package this is tremendous.  They don’t miss a beat, keep the thrilling action coming with each dive, jump or move more spectacular than the last.  “Phew”.  On top is the final match in the series between Sami Callihan and Drake Younger, this time a Guerrilla Warfare match to determine the title challenger for the next night.  What we get is their most hardcore, brutal, violent effort to date, where they tear into each other in increasingly terrifying and bloody ways.  It comes over special since it is over and above anything you normally get in PWG, but it is the two personalities involved that makes it such engrossing drama.  In exactly the same way as the spectacular high-flying spotfest of a tag bout earlier, I wouldn’t want all wrestling to be like this, but once in a while as a spectacle I am absolutely fine with and can enjoy immensely.

People who are down on hardcore wrestling usually use arguments like “There’s no skill in hitting each other with chairs, falling in wire, or slicing yourself open”, but I take a different view. The things that make a ‘good pro wrestling match’ are exactly the same every time, regardless of whether you are doing a hardcore match, a hold-for-hold technical wrestling match, a high-flying stunt show, a pseudo-MMA shoot-style, comedy – whatever.  If a hardcore match was just people just hitting each other with stuff and falling into things for the sake of it, it is likely to be crap, in precisely the same way that a technical wrestling match just going soullessly from hold to hold, or a cruiserweight match where they just take it in turns to get up and do flips for no reason.  If a match is based around the audience having a connection to and caring about what is actually happening to the characters, having an interest in seeing the story play out, structured to build towards the bigger spots, paced in a way to let the action have impact and meaning, you’ve got yourself a good ‘pro wrestling match’, regardless of whether they are exchanging wristlocks, 450 splashes or light-tube shots.  A lot of hardcore, ultraviolent matches are indeed shite, but that’s not because of the style itself, it’s because they are missing the key elements that make wrestling good in any setting.  A paraphrase a brilliant quote I saw once (possibly on here), 100 paid to see John Zandig and Wifebeater cut each other open with a weed cutter in a car park; 55,000 people paid to see Atsushi Onita desperately try not to fall into barbed wire and bombs in a baseball stadium.

‘Night Two’ (23 March 2013) is similar in a lot of ways to its predecessor.  The undercard singles matches (Lethal vs. Mack; London vs. Trent?; TJ Perkins vs. Samuray; O’Reilly vs. Callihan) are decent enough but don’t sizzle, while the tag matches are great.  Young Bucks vs. Dojo Bros is a belter, while Taylor & Gargano continue to look the business against the RockNES Monsters.  I had heard beforehand the 6-man affair that is Steen & Elgin & Cage (“The Unbreakable Fu**ing Steen Machines”) vs. Ricochet & Rich Swann & AR Fox being included in ‘Match of the Year’ discussions.  I wouldn’t class it on that level, but it is still terrific.  Steen’s involvement seems to give it more of a sense of ‘fun’ than the all-out flying action sprint it might otherwise have been.  Each man brings something completely different to the match and is allowed to be themselves, making for a massively enjoyable effort as all these styles and personalities clash and mix.  Superb entertainment.  The main event is Younger’s title shot at Adam Cole, and it is clear that he is the big new babyface hero to the PWG regulars after his performance the previous night.  It is apparent here that, while they display different personalities, Cole is being cast as a solo version of the Young Bucks, the heel champion who always looks like his time is up, but manages to irritate everyone by always finding a way to eventually come away with the gold.  It works, in that it has added the same heat and drama to the singles title bouts as it did to the tag title picture.  It is clear to me that Younger doesn’t come across as strongly in a ‘normal’ match as he does in a more hardcore setting, but it is the audience’s rabid support of him as a foil to Evil Cole that makes this one work, making for a really good match.

I wasn’t particularly expecting much from ‘Is Your Body Ready?’ (15 June 2013), but it turns out that it’s a bloody fantastic show.  Really, really good.  The main event is a 60-minute Iron Man match for the PWG World Title, with Adam Cole defending against Sami Callihan, in the latter’s farewell appearance before heading to Florida to, erm, do nothing for 18 months.  Iron Man matches on the indies are rarely any good, as they tend to try to use it as an excuse show how good PURE WRESTLERS~! they are, and rely on THE PURE WRESTLING~! to keep you interested for the hour, and it just doesn’t work.  There have been exceptions (I saw a cracking UK effort between Doug Williams and El Ligero), but not many.  This is one of those exceptions, as they put together a great effort that always has something going on and keeps your attention fixed throughout.  They cram it with ELEVEN individual falls and have the advantage shifting back-and-forth throughout.  I’m not as high on Callihan/Crowe as some are, but Cole is marvellous - the true full package.  Elsewhere, there are 3 more splendid tag team bouts (Unbreakable F N Machines vs. RockNES Monsters; Dojo Bros vs. Ronin/F.I.S.T.; Young Bucks vs. AR Fox & Samuray Del Sol), the last of which sees even the commentators mocking Fox for his stupidity in his suicidal aerials, but it makes for a dazzling contest.  Usually, the prospect of a Davey Richards vs. Kyle O'Reilly singles match would fill me with dread, but they actually go about having a strong match that doesn't fall into their trap of taking it too seriously. ‘Weakest’ match on offer is probably the Steen vs. Younger singles encounter, but even that is really good.  An excellent event all round.

For me, these shows do encapsulate everything great about PWG – it’s roster is able to be a melting pot of ROH (Elgin, Strong, Steen, Cole, Edwards, O’Reilly, Bucks), EVOLVE (Ricochet, Fox, Del Sol, Gargano, Swann, Taylor, Callihan), local SoCal guys (Cage, Mack, RockNES, Ryan), former national stars (Trent?, London, Lethal), CZW, Chikara and more, putting on matches with those folks that you aren’t able to see anywhere else.  They are able to be the ‘best of the indies’, bringing in all the people making waves in their own respective universes into the same place.  If there is any criticism, it would be that all these shows look and feel exactly the same, but with a combination package of great regular characters that resonate with a red-hot audience, in super-exciting matches that are different in style and pace to the mainstream, you have a fabulous little alternative product here.

[Southside crew]

Also just to add that Tommy End v Chris Hero has been confirmed for PWG in April.

[cobystag]

And Zack Sabre Jnr and Andrew Everett are also on the show too.

 

Feb 27th card:

 

PWG World Title Match

Roderick Strong © vs. Trevor Lee

Singles Match

Chris Hero vs. Drew Gulak

Tag Team Match

The Monster Mafia (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)

Singles Match

Biff Busick vs. Mike Bailey

Singles Match

Cedric Alexander vs. Tommaso Ciampa

Tag Team Match

Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent)

Singles Match

Matt Sydal vs. Ricochet

Singles Match

ACH vs. AR Fox

[Accident Prone]

Loving these PWG reviews Benny. I've got every show from mid-2009 on DVD and these posts really make me want to go back and watch them in order. Hey, it will fill the time it takes to get their Feb show over here as we'll probably get it for late-March/early-April. That's the one thing that annoys me about PWG; the fucking turn around time. Other than that, they are the absolute best.

[G-Unit]

Ordered some pwg dvds starting with bola 2014 all three nights. Not seen any shows yet so excited to see what they offer especially after the great feedback I have heard. What wrestlers in your opinions should I pay close attention to?