PWG The Musical 4/17/2004

Written By: Matt Peddycord

April 17, 2004
Santa Ana, CA
Elks Lodge

Your hosts are Disco Machine & Excalibur.

Before the first match begins, everybody from Scorpio Sky’s stable (The Aerial Express?) is in the ring. Chris Bosh, Quicksilver, Charles Mercury, Top Gun Talwar and Scorpio Sky himself. Bosh insults the crowd. “You can hate us, you can love us – but we’re getting paid.” Sweet. Scorpio Sky is on the MIC! He recalls what happened last month in his Guerilla Warfare match with Super Dragon. Since that crazy finish where Super Dragon double-stomped his head on a chair, he’s had a dream about getting in a fight with Captain Crunch and he’s realized that maybe Super Dragon isn’t such a bad guy. Everybody in his crew is confused. Top Gun Talwar’s balls shove back into his body as he speaks on the microphone. See, he’s got a steroid thing going on. Talwar mocks the WWE by saying that if Scorpio wants respect, first he’ll have to wrestle KANE~! Awesome. No Kane, of course. Scorpio gets psyched up for his match against Disco Machine and tonight, Super Dragon is going to get SERVED to Bosh and Quicksilver.

Top Gun Talwar & Charles Mercury vs. Human Tornado & Supa Badd

Talwar and Tornado start us off. There’s a funny little bit where Talwar runs into the ropes backwards for some reason and then takes a pimp slap from Tornado. Double-suplex to Talwar sets up an ugly standing shooting star press from Tornado where he lands on his face. It still gets two. Talwar bites Tornado’s ashy elbow to fight back. Tornado starts to dance only to get creamed with a clothesline. Tag to Mercury, he keeps Tornado grounded with a chinlock. Back to Talwar. He snapmares Tornado over for a sliding shoulderblock. Talwar covers Tornado while he’s doing push-ups and gets kicked away by Supa Badd. More ground and pound on Tornado as his fly has apparently come open during this match. Talwar seems to have a bad habit of biting Tornado’s elbow cleavage. Tornado avoids a corner charge by Mercury and flips off the ropes into an inverted facelock neckbreaker. HOT TAG TO SUPA BADD! Clothesline city! Atomic drops all around! DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Chokeslam to Mercury! Cover, 1-2-NO! Talwar breaks it up. Talwar wants a chokeslam on the much taller Supa Badd, but can’t get it done. Oh wait, yes he does. Completely unrealistic, but anyways. Talwar tosses out Supa Badd as Human Tornado springboards into a TEXAS CLOVERLEAF! He doesn’t give it up, so Talwar delivers a flying legdrop to him while he’s still in the hold. Mercury turns him over for a jackknife cover and gets three. (8:47) Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. However, the hot tag to Supa Badd was fun. **¼

Apollo Khan vs. Ricky Reyes

No relation to Killer Khan. Apollo Khan looks like the love child of the “Gold Standard” Shelton Benjamin and “The Natural” Butch Reed. And we have Ricky Reyes – who is definitely the more boring of the two Havana Pitbulls. The feeling-out process ends when they start throwing forearms. Reyes wins that showdown. I think. He got in the last shot. After a headlock from Reyes, he shoulderblocks Khan in the knee when he tries a leapfrog to create a problem for Khan. This match becomes a little more interesting once Reyes pulls down the knee pad of the injured leg as Reyes delivers some pretty sick kicks to the knee. Khan jumps over a second sliding kick and nails Reyes with a springboard spear. Uhhhhhhh, what about your knees? Khan starts throwing Reyes around with armdrags. A series of three rolling snap suplexes gets two. Reyes has enough of that and takes Khan down for a half crab, but he finds the ropes. Now he’s dishing out a couple rolling Northern Lights suplexes. What is wrong with this guy? That gets two. Reyes fights off some sort of spinebuster not just once, but the second time he drills Khan with a DDT. Khan NO-SELLS. Oh wow. Reyes takes this scrub down for a Rolling Kneebar and gets the submission we have been wanting to see. (9:37) The no-selling from this Apollo Khan guy ruined this match. Reyes looks pretty strong here with giving out most of the offense in this match, which will become important later. *½

Disco Machine vs. Scorpio Sky

It’s the match that Scorpio Sky has been looking forward to – getting his hands on a member of the SBS. Waistlocks and wristlocks to start. Scorpio prevents himself from suffering a CHOKEBREAKER and monkey flips Disco away. He follows up by taking Disco to the floor with a headscissors and BASHES his head in with a mini disco ball given to him by a fan, says Disco on commentary. Back in, that gets two. Scorpio pulls a page out of Super Dragon’s playbook as he full-nelsons Disco with his legs while he proceeds to kick Disco in the back of his head and neck. I have no idea what you call that hold, but I have seen Super Dragon do that to a couple different people and it looks very painful. Disco tries to escape, so Scorpio laces his jaw with clubbing forearms. Disco avoids the FINAL ANSWER and hits a fisherman’s suplex for 1-2-NO! In between taking time and shaking his booty, he kicks Scorpio to the floor and delivers his cannonball splash off the apron! They fight to the other side of the floor where Disco slaps Scorpio across the face with the PWG bananas. Back inside, Disco gives Scorpio a senton and goes for his Straight Jacket Piledriver. Can he pull it off? Looks pretty dangerous. Nope, he can’t. Scorpio maneuvers out and delivers the FINAL ANSWER! He doesn’t even let go of Disco as he applies a triangle choke for the win. (7:59) Because nothing says ‘respect me’ like making another man tap out. The AXP boys storm the ring to stomp down Disco Machine. Scorpio Sky calls them off and stands face-to-face with Chris Bosh. Scorpio shoves Bosh back – and Bosh retaliates with MAXIMUM BOSH! Talwar and Mercury join in to beat up Scorpio, but Quicksilver pulls them off him. What is going on with these guys?! **½

The Thomaselli Brothers vs. The X-Foundation

This is, in fact, a six-man tag match. We have Joey Ryan, Scott Lost and “Funky” Billy Kim squaring off against Vito, Sal and Brandon (of all names) of the Thomaselli family. While you may associate their names with rather large Italian people, all three brothers are essentially the same size of say Tony Mamaluke or Little Guido from ECW. Vito and Joey are “feeling it out” to begin things. Once that’s over, Billy Kim and Brandon tag. Kim is all over Brandon with a headlock. He takes Brandon off the ropes for a rollup and then nails him with a double-thrust ala Ricky Steamboat. The X-Foundation keep Brandon on their side of town for a while as they take turns giving this poor guy dropkicks. A jawbreaker to Lost is all it takes for Brandon to reach Sal for a tag. Lost catches Sal with a D-Von Dudley style corkscrew back elbow smash. Sal catches Lost coming at him in the corner and stunguns Scott in the corner. Front dropkick gets two. Nice back suplex by Sal. He tags Vito for a flying legdrop for two. Brandon tags in and hits a standing shooting star press. Disco Machine ~ “That was unexpected!” And they have seen this match before! Now Lost is cut off from his tag team partners for a little bit. Scott Lost battles back by flipping over Sal to prevent a backdrop ala Jacques Rougeau and nails Sal with a DDT. HOT TAG TO JOEY RYAN! Dropkicks a plenty! Slams for you and yours! This match breaks down as Billy Kim drops Vito’s neck from a fireman’s carry position across his knee! Cover by the legal man Joey Ryan, 1-2-NO! Ryan and Kim do the AMW toss on Vito into Lost for a sitout powerbomb for 1-2-NO! Brandon stops the count with a flying headbutt and then takes Ryan to the floor. In the ring, Lost gives Vito the Superman Spear. Now Lost rolls out and Ryan gets rolled in the ring. He’s left alone with all three of the Thomaselli brothers. They all ascend to the top rope in three separate corners! Looks like somebody has watched Ready to Rumble one too many times. IT’S A THREE POST MASSACRE to Joey Ryan! Vito covers Joey for 1-2-NO! Ryan reverses a whip and grabs Vito for the XTINCTION AGENDA. Lost is up top, but he decides to jump down on Sal and Brandon instead. Understandably so, Joey isn’t very happy with that. Vito grabs him for an ELECTRIC CHAIR DRIVER for the 1-2-3. (12:30) Didn’t seem like they put much effort into the match until everything broke down. After the match, Joey blames Lost for the um…loss. Things are not good in the X-Foundation camp. Everybody seems to be breaking up these days! **¾

B-Boy vs. Christopher Daniels

For a fallen angel, Daniels sure is non-intimidating with those orange tights tonight. Very tentative feeling-out process with these two. Daniels schools B-Boy with an escape out of a headscissors into a headlock of his own. Excalibur ~ “Christopher Daniels has won more titles and tournaments than I have ate hamburgers over the course of my entire life – and I am a fan of the hamburger.” Just a little gem on commentary I thought I would share. Daniels delivers our first impactful move with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker followed by a back suplex to put a little bit of hurting on B-Boy. Curt Hennig neck snap gets two. After a hard whip in the corner, Daniels charges into a spinebuster and takes a forearm to the floor. B-Boy takes advantage and hits Daniels with a plancha! Back inside, Daniels fights out of a chinlock and gives B-Boy a reverse STO. B-Boy refuses to lay down and kicks Daniels away. Suplex and a knee drop to the back of the head gets two for B-Boy. He changes his focus and begins to work on Daniels arm all of a sudden. Crossface chickenwing is applied. Just when it looks like Daniels might get a break, B-Boy delivers an armbreaker DDT and grabs a Nagata Lock III. It’s a painful submission no doubt. B-Boy boots away a corner clothesline and bulldogs the arm to set up a Nagata Lock II! Yuji Nagata IN DA HOUSE! Daniels mounts a comeback with an STO. He sells the arm, but still manages a Blue Thunder Driver for 1-2-NO! B-Boy slows down Daniels with a German suplex. He catches Daniels coming at him in the corner and raises a boot to set up a Buff Blockbuster for 1-2-NO! B-Boy comes off the middle rope, but gets caught for a Samoan drop. BME connects! Cover, 1-2-NO! Double-KO ensues. They trade some nearfalls – ending with B-Boy giving Daniels a Northern Lights suplex and rolling through into a brainbuster! Cover, 1-2-NO! Back to the Nagata Lock II! Daniels tries for the ropes, but B-Boy rolls over which puts them both in the center of the ring. Now the Nagata Lock III! Ahh, Daniels manages to get his foot on the bottom rope. B-Boy prevents the LAST RITES once, but he can’t do it again. That gets the win for Christopher Daniels. (16:00) What a great match. I loved the arm work from B-Boy. It seemed random to begin with, but he just kept coming and coming with it. ***½

We’re supposed to have Hardkore Kidd vs. Teddy Hart, but first we have Hardkore Kid is on the MIC! He’s appalled at this PWG crowd for cussing so much. Long story short, he pulls out a Cuss Jar for various foul-mouthed PWG fans to put money in if they want to drop four-letter words all over the Elks Lodge. Funny, but it was a pretty long segment that could have been cut shorter. Teddy Hart comes out with a random blonde chick. He puts himself over a bunch saying that nobody has more balls than him and that he never uses his last name to his advantage. Another long story short, Teddy is taking the night off and brings out a couple dudes from Special K to wrestle in his place. Although, Teddy Hart and his woman will be sitting at ringside to watch the match and he will be back in PWG one of these days.

Hardkore Kidd (w/El Jefe) vs. Lit & Deranged – Handicap Match

Well, Hardkore Kidd is so insulted for Teddy Hart turning him down. Excalibur calls Lit and Deranged the ‘gayest thing since gay came to gay town.’ Apparently, he’s not a fan of Special K, but a big fan of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force! These two can’t handle Hardkore Kid at all. He manhandles them around like the gorilla and the suitcase commercial. Finally, Deranged snaps off a few lucha armdrags and Hardkore Kidd hits the floor. Lit nails Kidd with a suicide dive and has a time getting Kidd to fall down. Deranged follows them out with a springboard moonsault on the floor. In the ring, Deranged leaps off Lit’s back for a roundhouse kick to Kidd in the corner. He tries again and gets caught for a spinebuster on Lit! Teddy Hart distracts Kidd to allow Special K to double low-blow. Somehow, Teddy Hart and the ref Mike Knox are down on the floor. Silly camera man getting too close of a shot. Kidd still kicks these buffoons away, but Hart jumps up top and nails him with a Diving DDT. Open Hart Surgery! Hart puts the Special K boys on top and exits the ring while El Jefe is helping the ref (?!?!) back into the ring. That is not even supposed to happen like that. No three-count is made. Lit and Deranged spout off to Teddy and climb to the top together. Hardkore brings them down with a DOUBLE SUPER ACE CRUSHER! SOUTH OF THE BORDER to Deranged! SOUTH OF THE BORDER to Lit! Kidd places his foot on Lit and gets the 1-2-3. (7:15) Wow. So far, that was the worst match I’ve seen in PWG. Kidd would have one last match in PWG losing to Frankie Kazarian at next month’s 44 Ways To Kill You With A Pimento show before heading off to WWE for a short-lived stint as Carlito’s sidekick Jesús in late 2004. His most memorable match while at the ‘E had to be at Armageddon where he faced John Cena in street fight. He would return to PWG at the Zombies (Shouldn’t Run) show in August 2005. *

PWG Tag Team Champions Chris Bosh & Quicksilver vs. Excalibur & Super Dragon

This should be much better. Super Dragon goes for the PSYCHO DRIVER on Quicksilver early, but can’t pull it off. Disco Machine mentions a time when Super Dragon nearly paralyzed Quicksilver with the PSYCHO DRIVER, which causes him to be very leery of it. Quicksilver makes a NICE escape out of a Curb Stomp and floats over into a side headlock. Never seen anyone do that before. Excalibur – in his new shiny Excalibur suit – gets a tag to take on Chris Bosh. They have an exchanging of the wristlocks and end with Bosh taking a dropkick before tagging out to Quicksilver. Excalibur catches him in mid-air when he tries a spin kick to kill Quicksilver dead with a backbreaker/flying double stomp combo. Curb Stomp! How about one more. That gets a two-count. The SBS boys continue to break down Quicksilver by pulling back on his arms every so often. Quicksilver comes back by reversing a whip into the corner and hitting Excalibur with a snapmare driver to free himself up for a tag to Bosh. Bosh cuts off the tag and catapults Excalibur into a spinning leg lariat from Quicksilver for two. Bosh begins to abuse Excalibur and takes a little time to mock him as only Bosh can do. Excalibur knees out of a chinlock from Quicksilver and hits him with an enziguri before he can make that much-needed hot tag to Super Dragon. The tag champs shut Dragon down with a Hart Attack for 1-2-NO! Modified Cradle Shock by Quicksilver gets another nearfall. Bosh tags in and has fun stomping Dragon a couple times. MAXIMUM BOSH! With Dragon down and Excalibur knocked off the apron, Bosh and Quicksilver take turns splashing Dragon. Bosh jacks Dragon’s stuff by dishing out his own version of the Violence Party! Bosh misses a crossbody out of the corner and gets nailed with a Tiger Suplex for 1-2-NO! Excalibur tags in and hits a bridging German suplex for two. Now that Bosh is down, Excalibur knocks Quicksilver off the apron and delivers a flying legdrop which sets up Super Dragon’s Badunkadunk Bomb! That gets two. Super Dragon shows Bosh what a real Violence Party is like and then delivers a flying double stomp to the back of his head for 1-2-NO! Tag to Excalibur, Bosh knows a TIGER DRIVER ‘98 is coming and reverses into a Billy Robinson backbreaker. Both men tag out, Dragon hits a tornado DDT on Quicksilver and rolls over into a double-underhook submission. Every time Quicksilver makes the ropes, Dragon floats him over for a butterfly suplex back into the submission. Dragon places Quicksilver up in the corner for a SUPER BUTTERFLY SUPLEX! Cover, 1-2-NO! Bosh makes the save. Excalibur tags and wants his Galactica Phantom, but Bosh saves his partner with a Galactica Phantom of his own! NICE! Dragon flies in with a springboard leg lariat on Bosh. Quicksilver grabs Dragon for a Piledriver! Everybody’s down! Great series of moves there. Quicksilver gets nailed with one lariat after the other by the challengers. TIGER DRIVER ‘98 to Bosh! He rolls out to the floor. Excalibur starts slapping Dragon around to psyche him up. Out of a catapult position, they lay Quicksilver across Excalibur’s knees for a MOONSAULT DOUBLE STOMP by Super Dragon! PSYCHO DRIVER! Cover, 1-2-3. New champs! (21:59) Just a fantastic tag match. Much better than their six-man tag from Taste The Radness. ***¾

American Dragon vs. Samoa Joe

And now we have the match of the night. These two lost to the FREAKIN’ BALLARD BROTHERS last month and Danielson left Joe to get beat up – now they must fight. Knucklelockage all around to start. Since this show is called The Musical, they start snapping and circling each other like they’re starring in one of the gayest Broadway plays of all time – West Side Story. Yes, it’s the Jets vs. the Sharks. Excalibur and Disco discuss which would be from which gang. Back to serious business. Well, not really. Joe shakes his booty while Danielson gets down with his bad self. It’s all kind of gay. Danielson takes Joe to the mat and tries to school him with an Oklahoma Roll, but Joe’s power override anything Danielson can do as he pulls back on a half crab. They trade chops. Joe takes Danielson off his feet with a headbutt because he’s Samoan and has that coconut head. Now they take turns stretching each other on the mat. Joe powers out of a cravat and we’re back to square one with a lock-up. Joe corners Danielson and takes advantage of the five-count by getting in as many forearms as possible before getting disqualified. Danielson does the same because that’s his thing. He dropkicks Joe to the floor and wants his suicide dive, but Joe walks away. He thinks he is safe, but that’s when Danielson strikes with a springboard somersault plancha! Danielson lets Joe get to the apron and tries a suplex, but Joe overpowers him again and takes Danielson to the floor. Uh oh, Danielson’s knee is hurting. Joe helps him out with a kick to the head. Are we going to see an Ole Kick in stadium seating? YES WE ARE! Why not one more. Danielson chops back, but Joe is still stronger and one chop puts him down. Back inside, Joe goes his snapmare – toe kick – knee drop combo. Danielson sits up before the knee drop and receives multiple kicks in the back for it. Okay, now Danielson eats the knee drop. Joe gives Danielson a running face wash and talks some crap. Joe starts giving him his best shots and Danielson keeps getting up to his feet! Not even a Samoan headbutt will keep him down. Finally, a series of forearms and a huge chop lays Danielson out. Once he’s up and firing off European uppercuts, all it takes is one legsweep from Joe to put him back down. Joe applies his hyper extended Boston crab until Danielson makes the ropes. He goes up top, but Danielson is there to stop him with a top-rope superplex! Slow cover gets 1-2-NO! Reverse headscissors by Danielson! He beat Brad Bradley with this hold a few shows back. Of course, Samoa Joe is not Brad Bradley. Lucky for Joe, he makes the ropes. Joe comes back with a snap powerslam and floats over into a cross armbreaker. Danielson reaches the bottom rope, but charges into a spinebuster. Joe runs into a boot in the corner and takes a flying European uppercut for 1-2-NO! Slow cover again by Danielson only gets him two. Leg swing DDT sets up the Flying Headbutt, but Joe gets his foot up to block. Holy crap. They fight to their feet and tumble out to the floor as Joe tries to avoid I believe what was going to be either an abdominal stretch or an Oklahoma roll. Joe has enough of Danielson’s chops and kicks him around the ring. Danielson fires back and sits Joe down. He mocks Joe and teases an Ole Kick only to change his mind and hit Joe with a running dropkick! Awesome. It doesn’t seem to have much effect on Joe though as he still counters the suplex on the floor. Joe comes off the apron with an elbow drop, but misses. Who is he, Cactus Jack now? Back in the ring, Danielson starts working the knee and keeps Joe staggered with chops. Four minutes left in the thirty minute time limit. He goes for the running forearm in the corner, but Joe catches him for STJOE! You don’t ever charge at Joe in the corner! Danielson chops out of the corner and rolls through a Fujiwara armbar attempt into CATTLE MUTILATION! Joe rolls through that as well, but turns around into a Rolling Elbow! Cover, 1-2-NO! Joe kicks off a half-crab attempt and KILLS Danielson dead with a Lariat! WALLS OF JERICHO! Danielson makes the ropes. Joe reapplies that hyper extended Boston crab, but once again Danielson crawls to the ropes. Oops, twenty seconds left. Joe mounts Danielson with the COQUINA CLUTCH! It’s his last chance to make Danielson tap, but Danielson makes it to the time limit. (30:00) Well that was fantastic. It wasn’t your typical ‘hurry up and get a quick pin’ finish like you see with most time-limit draws because Joe was just obsessed with making Danielson tap the F out. The PWG crowd is so much more subdued – they get excited at random moments, but they’re never what you call a *hot* crowd. At least not in these early shows where there is a ton of empty seats. If this were in ROH, this match would receive much more attention I do believe. But it’s not in ROH – it’s in PWG. It’s a great match by itself, but you just feel like it would be more awesome with a better crowd. Think RNR Express vs. Heavenly Bodies at Survivor Series 1993. ****

After the bell sounds, everybody wants five more minutes. Ricky Reyes comes down and gets between them before firing off a forearm in Danielson’s face. Joe joins in on the beatdown as Reyes dumps out ref Mike Knox. RICKY, WHY? Joe holds up Danielson while Reyes comes off the top rope for a flying reverse DDT. Joe tells Danielson that he should have never turned his back on the boys from the New Japan dojo. Did he turn his back on the boys from the New Japan dojo? Once he recovers when everyone is gone, Danielson gets on the mic and calls Joe a pedophile’s world champion. SUH-NAP! He challenges them both to matches once he returns from his tour of Japan. Danielson would return in July to team up with Christopher Daniels and got the pin on Reyes.

Extras: (Go to the last page of the ‘Match Select’ option and select the banana.)
Adam Pearce in Vegas: Since the PWG champ Adam Pearce is suspended, he takes a vacation in Las Vegas…and acts like a total a-hole. Anyways, he picks up a couple of ugly hookers and wears his title belt to bed. AWESOME! But wait, there’s a knock at the door. Who could be? It’s Babi Slymm with a couple bandanas wrapped around his head! He beats the heck out of Pearce. After Pearce pokes Slymm in the eye, Pearce storms out of the room with nothing on but his boxers. Slymm chases Pearce over to the elevator where he’s stopped by who else but Frankie FN Kazarian. Together, they chase Pearce down the hallway. They stop running once they spot the girls in Pearce’s room, so they take full advantage of the situation. ULTIMATE OPPORTUNISTS! VINTAGE BABI SLYMM AND FRANKIE KAZARIAN!

Final Thoughts: Even if you own the phenomenal PWG Sells Out DVD set (which means you own the Danielson/Joe match), this show is still totally worth buying. Apparently, PWG ran out of the DVDs for this show when it released, which should tell you how good it is. Either that, or how under supplied they were. I’m not sure. You can always buy it from Highspots. Anyways, a very entertaining show with lots to like. Thumbs up for PWG…The Musical. A definite improvement over the last show.