PWG After School Special 10/1/2005

Written by: Jim

After School Special
October 1, 2005

This happens to be held on the same night as ROH’s Joe Vs. Kobashi. I wonder how many PWG fans wished they lived on the east coast for once.

Dino Winwood opens up the show by reading a letter from So Cal Val. It’s a little hard to hear him, but I do pick up that So Cal Val makes Winwood the full commissioner of PWG.

2 Skinny Black Guys (c) vs Super Dragon and Davey Richards – PWG Tag Team Titles
This came about when Super Dragon wanted another match with Kevin Steen. Since his win/loss record hasn’t been too great lately, Dino ruled that Dragon couldn’t wrestle the champion again just yet. However, he does have enough wins to warrant a tag title shot. Since Dragon doesn’t have any friends, Winwood pairs him up with Davey Richards. The entire story is based around Dragon and Richards. Early on, it’s a game of “Anything you can do, I can do better” which poor Generico pays the price of being the legal man during all of it. As the match goes on, Richards and Dragon finds their groove and settles on just kicking some serious ass. There are a lot of botches in this, some of which were pretty scary looking. The normally great Tornado has an off day, botching more than anyone else. However, he makes up for it with his great selling. Tornado took a huge dive to the outside, crashing and burning hard on the floor. If Tornado was just selling, he deserves an award for it because I thought he was legitimately knocked out. The old cocky Super Dragon returns by not pinning Tornado, instead pulling him up to break a couple of counts. On his own, Generico nearly wins the match a few times, but is put away with a top rope Pearl River Plunge from Super Dragon. Super Dragon and Davey Richards are the NEW PWG Tag Team Champions! PWG really went over the top in making Dragon and Richards look like a dominant team. Thanks to the sloppiness, I enjoyed the story more than the actual action, but the new tag champions has some natural chemistry. The SDDR era has officially begun. 3 1/4 Stars.

TJ Perkins vs Alex Shelley
I wonder why Shelley isn’t at Joe Vs. Kobashi? Perkins and Shelley are pretty similar, especially since both are rocking the 3/4 length tights at this time. They end up having a long mat based match where it’s just hold, reversal and back to the hold. For the first half, it’s not too bad, however; there’s several awkward spots when it comes to pin attempts near the end. The wrestler doesn’t get the shoulder up in time, the referee has to pause before coming down for a three count or the kick out was so small that you didn’t even realize there was a legit kick out. At the end, Shelley nails the Air Raid Crash and a Frog Splash. Perkins (I guess?) kicks out, so Shelley quickly locks in the Border City Stretch to force Perkins to tap out. I liked what they were going for, but there were just too many questionable moments. At twenty-three minutes, it tends to drag on. Cutting five-seven minutes would still allow for a lengthy match and it’d flow better. 2 3/4 Stars.

The New SBS and Ronin vs Quicksilver and Gunning for Hookers
This feud just never ends. Excalibur has had a problem with Top Gun since January. Despite having Quicksilver on the babyface team, Top Gun is chosen to play the face-in-peril. It wasn’t very interesting and the hot tag was met with a mild reaction. The second half is all spots with everyone getting in their moves. The positive thing is that means Quicksilver gets some time to shine and add something of value to this. The bad thing is that Hook Bomberry and Excalibur has a dreadful sequence in the corner. After a long delay, Excalibur finally hits the Air Raid Crash on Bomberry to pick up the win. Luckily, this is the last Gunning for Hookers/New SBS match for 2005. 1 1/2 Stars.

Dino Winwood is in the ring to call out Joey Ryan. If that means a fight, then so be it. Winwood is distracted by someone in the entrance way. The camera never picks up who it is, but it’s a safe guess that it’s Scott Lost. Joey Ryan runs in the ring and nails Dino with a chair in the back. Joey challenges Dino to a singles match, but he’s willing to wait until October 14th (PWG’s Straight to DVD) to get an answer. I have to admit, I’m digging this feud. After months of little interactions, I’m ready to see them in an actual match.

Joey Ryan vs Chris Hero
Before the match, Ryan promises that Hero will be unable to put him in a cravat. That’s one way to create some story. Early on, it’s all about mat based wrestling. Considering this is in the middle of the Technical Wizard time period, it’s exactly what Ryan wants. Then it morphs into a Lucha based match, which loses my interest some. A fun comedy spot occurs when Hero kips up. Ryan tries, but fails. It’s very similar to the kip up spot seen during Hero/Danielson at Card Subject to Change, but it works better since Joey’s a real heel. Finally, Joey has the ref and Hero help him kip up. Due to all of the work, Joey needs his inhaler. Ha. Just like for the rest of the show, the match drags on. You could have easily cut out 10 minutes and it would have been fine. At the end, the ref takes a bump, signaling for Scott Lost to run out. Hero easily takes care of him though. After a Hero’s Welcome, Hero covers Ryan, but Lost counts to three without Hero knowing the truth. Lost runs to ring the bell to further continue the illusion. Lost sneak attacks Hero and Lost and Ryan hits a cool looking double team move (Hero in torture rack position and is thrown up and down into a Joey Ryan face buster). Joey picks up the win and continues his impressive record against technical workers. For what it was, it was fine, but it can’t hold a candle to their 2009 matches. 2 3/4 Stars.

Scott Lost vs Scorpio Sky
Scorpio’s first match in three months. To coincide with now being maskless, Scorpio is now working shirtless. Pretty great simple booking with Scorpio wanting to kill Lost and Lost playing the chicken shit heel, who knows he’s in some serious trouble. Things brighten for Lost when he catches Scorpio chair in hand and super kicks the chair into his face. From there, it’s about Lost trying to pick up the win, but Scorpio refuses to lose. When Scorpio locks Lost in his own Sharpshooter, Joey Ryan comes out to distract Sky. This allows Lost to grab a pair of brass knuckles that Ryan subtly laid on the apron and knock Scorpio out. Lost wraps him up in the Sharpshooter and the referee is forced to end the match due to Scorpio being unconscious. For the first match in the feud, it went just as it should have. It’s good, but it leaves plenty of room for the future matches to be even better. Scorpio now has even more of a reason to hate Lost. As for Lost, he still hasn’t proven that he’s the better man. The feud lives on. 3 1/4 stars.

Kevin Steen (c) vs Chris Bosh – PWG World Title
This match is part of Chris Bosh’s prize for winning BOLA. Both guys are heels that generally receive babyface reactions. Bosh becomes the unofficial babyface since the crowd refuses to boo him at all, unlike Steen. The single biggest problem of the night, too long matches, once again rears it’s ugly head. By the midway point, it feels as if they’ve wrestled for nearly thirty minutes. The actual time for the entire match is far too long by clocking in at over twenty-five minutes. Another problem is that it just didn’t feel like a main event match. With all of the shenanigans, it would have been a perfect undercard match. It’s hard to describe, but it’s not difficult to notice. The big moment comes when Bosh goes for his trademark balls shot, but Steen moves out of the way. The ref takes the low blow and goes down hard. Bosh’s reaction is priceless though. Steen tries to get the win, but Bosh shows some heart and refuses to lose to the Package Piledriver. Bosh hits the Steiner Screwdriver and pins Steen to become the NEW PWG WORLD CHAMPION! Bosh celebrates with the title for a few minutes until the original referee waves off the decision and DQ’ing Bosh for the balls shot. Steen retains the belt in a cliche, but effective, Dusty Finish. Cut ten minutes off and drop some of the comedy and this would be fine. Similarly to the tag titles match, the story was better than the actual execution. 2 1/4 Stars.

Overall
I wondered at the beginning of the review, how many fans in attendance wished they were at Joe Vs. Kobashi? After watching the show, I was wishing I was watching Joe Vs. Kobashi instead. The show is missing a lot of top guys thanks to the ROH show and various other shows (Frankie Kazarian is at another So Cal show) and it mostly serves as a transitional event. With BOLA being the last show and the All Star Weekend 2 weekend coming up in a couple of shows, it’s nearly impossible to make this show feel too important. All of those problems are understandable and should make the viewer grade this event on a curve. However, the one thing they did have control of, match lengths, they completely dropped the ball on. Minus Scorpio/Lost, every match could have lost at least five minutes. There’s even a couple that should have lost a good deal more. One thing I love about PWG is that they normally don’t mind having a short (2 hours) show. They don’t force shows to go the full three hour norm. Those two hour shows are a lot of fun due to how easy it is to get through them. Despite only having six matches, the total length of the show is over two and a half hours. It’s just crazy to expect most of these guys to have a 20+ minute match without being able to rely on a Bryan Danielson-like wrestler to carry the bout.

Despite a fun Scorpio/Lost match, I can’t say this is worth buying unless you’re 1) A major SDDR mark (I’m looking at you, Capone) or 2) A DVD completest. If you’re either of those, I’d advise you to just wait until Highspots has it on sale for 5 dollars like they do a few times throughout the year. If you do want to check out the show, you’re going to see PWG in transition. Scorpio/Lost has begun their singles feud, Bosh’s quest to become PWG champion has also started. Finally, Dino Winwood and Joey Ryan’s feud appears to be nearly at the climax. Without seeing the final five shows of the year yet, I’m still confident that this is the worst show of the year.

Worth Checking Out
Scorpio Sky vs Scott Lost

Avoid
The New SBS and Ronin vs Quicksilver and Gunning for Hookers