Written by: Jim
Ernest P. Worrel Memorial
March 12, 2005
Excalibur starts off the show with Super Dragon (Oddly enough, in his red gear). He demands that Disco Machine comes out to let them know whether he’s with Team SBS or if he’s going to continue to let power go to his head. Super Dragon turns on Excalibur which brings out Disco Machine and Super Dragon to make the save. Disco Machine and Excalibur makes up. Silly Excalibur, why would you ever trust Super Dragon if he’s in his red gear?
Excalibur, Disco Machine, Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry vs Charles Mercury, Ronin and Ballard Brothers
Hey! It’s The Chuck! So are we just supposed to forget about Excalibur attacking Talwar at Card Subject to Change? What’s even odder is that Top Gun and Bomberry seemingly turns heel when they turn on Excalibur and Disco Machine to allow a Ballard to get the pin on Disco Machine. Mercury looked halfway decent like he normally does, but other than that, it’s just Top Gun carrying the workload. Yes, it’s that scary of a though. For a multi-man match, this was pretty fun though. 2 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Bomberry and Top Gun continues the beat down on Team SBS. Due to Talwar screaming and the mic being so horrible, I can’t really understand what Top Gun is saying. Based on other reviews, it seems as if Top Gun is the one who stole the tag titles so he could melt down the gold and inject it into his ass. That should be a really stand idea, but it’s pretty tame for Top Gun.
Chris Sabin vs Ricky Reyes
I believe this is Sabin’s PWG debut. Like with his match against Roddy Strong, it’s a low key, unmemorable, yet pretty solid match for Reyes. Minus his tag matches with Rocky Romero, I never dug Reyes in ROH, but the guy is pretty good in PWG. He’s actually dare I say…reliable and consistently good? Sabin gets the win following a Cradle Shock. You’re not going to see these matches on any PWG Sells Out Volumes, but you’re not going to have to click on the ‘Skip forward’ button on your DVD player. 3 1/4 Stars.
Dark and Lovely w/Dino Winwood vs Los Luchas
The debut of Scorpio Sky and Human Tornado as a team. Without listening to the commentary, there isn’t any explanation given for why Tornado’s teaming with Sky instead of Quicksilver, but I’m not complaining. I do know that it was scheduled to be Aerial Xpress vs Los Luchas. So whatever happened, it was a last minute change. A really fun spotty match with Human Tornado once again being so fucking over. I’m starting to wonder if I hate Los Luchas solely because of how badly Zokre sucks. Phoenix Star has been pretty good in these 2005 matches. Mix in fun spotty, funny moments and the bout never slowing down, you have the best match thus far. I’ll be willing to say it’s my favorite Los Luchas match. Los Luchas get the pin on Scorpio following their springboard senton/Lion Sault combo. Wow, I hate that finish so much. IF Dark and Lovely had to lose (They should have won), why not have Tornado take the pin? Scorpio Sky is in a pretty big angle, there’s no reason to have him lose to someone so far down the card. 3 1/2 Stars.
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Kevin Steen vs El Generico
The winner here gets a title shot against Super Dragon in the main event. Originally, the title shot was supposed to be given at All Star Weekend Night 1, but thanks to Tony Stradlin being signed by the WWE shortly before this show, he was removed from the main event against Dragon. Just a reminder, TNA’s Destination X 2005 took place the night after this. As a result, Daniels and Styles smartly plays up their issues for their Ultimate X four way. Daniels spends the entire match staying out of the ring when Styles is in. For most of the match, you could have had anyone replace Styles and Generico and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Daniels and Steen made this match so much fun with their shenanigans, chickenshitness and random yells of slight comedy. Despite being fun, there’s one major issue. El Generico just disappears late in the match. He’s not on the apron and the camera never finds him. This plays into the Daniels/Styles angle with Styles being tagged in by Steen and Daniels wasn’t able to tag out. However, with Styles and Daniels on the outside, Steen fakes diving on them. Instead, he chooses to easily pin El Generico. Generico reappeared in the middle of the ring and flat on his back. The ending is confusing, takes you out of the drama and just generally sucks. Luckily, Daniels and Steen added plenty of fun moments before the ending. I always dig when companies acknowledge feuds from other promotions, so the Styles/Daniels story was pretty cool. 3 Stars.
Arrogance (c) vs Frankie Kazarian and Joey Ryan – PWG Tag Team Titles
Kazarian’s mystery partner turns out to be Scott Lost’s former partner, Joey Ryan. Ryan finally makes his return after legitimately being injured in the great Iron Man Match against Super Dragon back at Use Your Illusion IV. The booking makes perfect sense. The match was a little sloppy with wrestlers botching such simple things as covers. However, it’s a good enough match to be a positive on the show. Scott avoids Ryan for most of the match, by not nearly to the degree that Daniels did with Styles. At the end, Kazarian and Ryan has problems with Ryan trying to use a chair behind the ref’s back. Kazarian is strictly against it. During the argument, Bosh attacks Kazarian and lays Ryan out for a chair shot to get the victory. I suppose you can’t expect much from a team that has never teamed before. In that regard, the match is fine enough. However, Ryan looking up to see where everyone was after the chair shot really hurts the big moment for me. It’s still the worst Arrogance match thus far in their run together. 2 1/2 Stars.
After the match, several men come out to check on an out cold Ryan. Once he finally comes to, he low blows Kazarian and attacks him. On the mic, he blames the fans for causing the problems between Lost and himself. Lost and Ryan hug it out to reunite the two. This was sort of similar to Bret Hart’s infamous promo where the Hart Foundation reunited in 1997, only not nearly as good. Still, the angle is great.
Super Dragon (c) vs Kevin Steen – PWG World Title
I first saw this match back last July. I love it even more now. Maybe it’s because of the weak title defenses by Dragon, but this was all kinds of awesomeness. Steen was his normal great self. Super Dragon doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me in this match. Despite Steen wrestling once awhile, Dragon takes a lot of abuse early on. Dragon comes off as a giant pussy who’s always able to come back at the very end to save himself. What really made the match great was the fans. As the match went on, they started to really get behind Steen. It’s really his breakthrough match with PWG. Up until this point, he was just an entertaining undercard guy. By the reaction of the crowd, PWG would have been stupid not to push Steen as hard as they could. Great ending with Steen attempting to win the title while humiliating Dragon via winning with Dragon’s Psycho Driver. Dragon counters that into Steen’s Package Piledriver for the win. Hands down, the best match of Dragon’s title reign. Even though their Guerrilla Warfare match at Astonishing X-Mas gets all of the attention, don’t overlook this bout. It’s that damn good. Fuck Joe vs Dragon 3, give me Steen vs Dragon 2. 4 Stars.
Overall
For some reason, Ernest P. Worrel Memorial doesn’t get much talk. Whether it’s positive or negative, you just don’t hear about it. The main event is the best match of the year thus far. You have yet another red Super Dragon appearance. The much needed Joey Ryan return and heel turn. The debut of Dark and Lovely. Hell, even Ricky Reyes puts on a good match. It’s a very solid show without anything bad enough you need to skip. Granted, the booking was weak at points, but it doesn’t take away from the moments that were great. Currently, Highspots has it on sale for only 10 bucks. Without any of these matches on either of the PWG Sells Out DVD sets, it’s definitely worth the money to pick up the DVD.
Worth Checking Out
Dark and Lovely vs Los Luchas
Kevin Steen vs Super Dragon
Avoid
N/A