PWG Bad Ass Mother 3000 Stage 1 8/29/2003

Written by: Jim

Bad Ass Mother 3000 Stage 1
August 29, 2003

It’s worth mentioning that the building makes Reseda look like a Wrestlemania location. It’s in a small gym-like room with all of the workout equipment removed. The crowd is only on one side (Camera side, so we rarely see them) and one wall is covered with a mirror.

Super Dragon vs Hook Bomberry – First Round
The crowd’s chant of “HOOK! BomberryBomberryBomberry HOOK!” is pretty damn entertaining. The most memorable part of the match is the overzealous Super Dragon fan who won’t stop chanting his name. It’s a pretty popular clip from Youtube and even included in some of the Botchamania’s. The match alternates between a dull, long match and an exciting “Can Hook actually win?!” story. Due to the length in being over twenty minutes, it’s just too long to end up being anything noteworthy. There’s one moment in the middle of the match when Super Dragon powerbombs Bomberry against the turnbuckle that just looks sick. Of course, the match continues for another ten minutes, completely ruining a perfect ending. Despite Bomberry coming so close to beating Dragon, he finally falls thanks to the lariat. The story of the match would have been far better with anyone other than Hook. Since I’ve already seen plenty of Hook, I can’t believe he’s actually hanging in there with Dragon for so long. For a first round match, it’s fine though. 2 Stars.

Matt Cross vs Colt Cabana – First Round
Cross coming out to “O Fortuna” is perhaps the greatest theme choice in the history of wrestling. Right away, Cabana shows that he’s a heel by teasing throwing his headband into the crowd before stashing it in his tights. Heel Colt is a lot like face Colt only he’s more of a douchebag and something feels missing. Regardless, Cabana is still entertaining as he does his best to drag something decent out of Cross. M-Dogg looks so lost out there. He has his random spotty moves, but there isn’t a shred of story or crowd interaction from him. I don’t care how pretty his flips are, they’re just flips. Cabana wins by destroying Cross with a Colt .45. The one plus that this has going for it that the opener didn’t was that it didn’t wear out it’s welcome by being too long. 2 1/4 Stars.

Scorpio Sky vs Joey Ryan – First Round
The pre-Dynasty explodes. Scorpio shows a little heel side to himself, but he doesn’t go too far into the alignment. Pretty simple match with Joey trying to out-wrestle Scorpio, but Sky focuses on the neck to stay in control. Scorpio’s go to move during the bout is the triangle choke. It’s not a bad way to go about trying to tell a story when you couple it with plenty of neck moves like the ace crusher and Dragon Clutch. Scorpio’s triangle choke comes back to bite him when he finishes up a Tarantula-style triangle choke in the ropes and Joey catches him off guard with the Duff Drop for the victory. The finish came out of nowhere, so it hurt the match a little. However, a good match is still a good match. 3 Stars.

Disco Machine vs Adam Pearce w/Vander Pyle – First Round
Before the match, Pearce announces a dance contest between Disco and Vander Pyle. As expected, Vander Pyle brings the lulz with his sad attempt. My memory of the debut show is a bit fuzzy, but this may be the first ever PWG dance off. Before the crowd can decide a winner, Pearce attacks Disco from behind like a true heel. To say is a great heel is an understatement. The guy seems so natural that I don’t believe anyone in PWG’s first year was as good as Pearce. He may not be the best technical wrestler, the spottiest worker or even the funniest, but the guy knows his character so well. He’s basically the polar opposite of Matt Cross. Disco and Pearce has a pretty enjoyable match thanks largely due to Pearce’s old school style. It takes some effort and interference from Vander Pyle, but Pearce picks up the win following a piledriver. Indy wrestling needs more Adam Pearce’s. 2 3/4 Stars.

Frankie Kazarian vs Scott Lost – First Round
Lost looks so insanely young. Kazarian has the easy advantage early on, but Lost gets the best of him by using his speed. The big story comes from the underdog, Lost, hanging in there with PWG’s first real star. Kazarian attempts his half nelson choke, but Lost manages to keep his arm up on the third try. One small mistake later, Lost eats a Wave of the Future to lose the match. At only ten or so minutes, the minutes just flew by with both guys looking really good. 3 1/4 Stars.

B-Boy vs Tony Kozina – First Round
With his long hair, Kozina looks like the midget version of Matt Hardy. With his unusual build, Kozina could easily be the Andre the Giant of midget wrestlers. The guy doesn’t have a neck! B-Boy comes out to “Eye of the Tiger” which seems so out of place for a guy of his gimmick. Before the match, B-Boy gets the referee to do his double horn taunt, but Kozina refuses. B-Boy is his usual self. He’s not bad, but he doesn’t sell enough and his matches tend to last too long. Kozina remains his reliable “I may not be great, but I’m always going to put on a mildly good match” attitude. B-Boy picks up the win with some sort of Tazplex looking move. After the match, Kozina finally does the double horn taunt. Perfectly acceptable action. 3 Stars.

NOSAWA w/Paul T vs Taro – First Round
Despite not even going ten minutes, this match just drags on and on. NOSAWA was pretty dependable to put on a good match in 2005, but here he isn’t offering anything of quality. Taro’s comedy gimmick is much better suited in short squashes. Paul T interferes right in front of the ref, but the ref allows it. NOSAWA wins with a Michinoku Driver. Easily the worst match of the show. Granted we’re only at the second show in history, but it’s currently the worst match in the company’s history. 1 Star.

Christopher Daniels vs Hardkore Kidd w/El Jefe – First Round
I have a headache trying to understand the Hardkore Kidd. The guy is pretty large for an indy worker, so it should be obvious that he uses a lot of power moves to play to his size. No, instead he flies around as if he’s one of the dime a dozen high flying indy wrestlers. To make it even more bizarre, Hardkore is the babyface of the match. He’s much bigger than Daniels and he has the heel manager, WHY IS HE A BABYFACE?! Hardkore even begins the match by surprising Daniels with a big boot. His first move is a heel move for fuck’s sake. I just don’t get it. After a few minutes of abuse, Daniels takes over by spiking the back of Hardkore’s head against the mat. Daniels smartly focuses his attention on the head with several kicks and even busting out the Koji Clutch. Hardkore has several hope spots where he’s flying around, but it doesn’t get him anywhere. With Daniels in the ref’s face, he low blows Hardkore with a Raven-like kick. Angel Wings finishes Hardkore off with Daniels being the final man to advance to the next round. Daniels is his normal solid self, but Hardkore just drags all of his matches down due to me questioning why he’s acting as if he’s a hundred and seventy pounds. 2 1/2 Stars.

Overall
If you treat this as the first night of BOLA, it’s not too bad. It’s not completely uncommon for the first round to only produce one meaningful match. While none of the matches were great, half of them were pretty enjoyable and lingered around that 3 star mark. The thing I care about most is that they’re continuing the themes from the debut show (See my review in post 7 of this thread). Super Dragon remains dominant. Adam Pearce continues to have the best character. Frankie Kazarian is 2-0 in terms of having the best match. Joey Ryan, Scott Lost and Scorpio Sky all have solid matches. The addition was the debut of Christopher Daniels. Daniels would become a regular fixture with PWG until leaving due to the TNA/PWG split in 2007. In a lot of ways, PWG is doing everything right in these early shows. They’re establishing who their main guys are so that when we begin seeing top guy vs top guy, it’s going to mean more. Even though I’d hardly say Kazarian is the type of guy you should build your company around for the long haul, but he’s proving his worth for the freshman year.

Worth Checking Out
Adam Pearce vs Disco Machine (For Pearce’s great old school style)
Frankie Kazarian vs Scott Lost

Avoid
NOSAWA vs Taro