PWG Guitarmageddon 6/11/2005

Written by: Jim

Guitarmageddon
June 11, 2005

Arrogance (c) vs Hook Bomberry and Top Gun Talwar – PWG Tag Team Titles
Before the match, Bosh shows the fans the single most ugliest thing ever…a tiny Mexican flag. They promptly burn it with a match. Ha. Lost brings up the fact that he’s been a PWG Tag Champion for a full year now (Counting his last reign with Ryan, since he never stopped being champion). Pretty impressive considering the fact that the company hasn’t been around for two full years and the titles were only introduced seven months into the company. Bomberry and Talwar earned this shot by losing their last two matches. Yeah, I don’t get how they’re the number 1 contenders either. Pretty fun match with plenty of comedy, spots and nonstop action. My only problem was Rick Knox refusing to count for Top Gun covering Lost since Bosh was the legal man. Since when has that ever stopped PWG before? It seems like every tag match throws the legal man issue out the window. Arrogance picks up the win with the Hart Attack into the back breaker combo and Lost wrapping Hook into a sharpshooter. You can almost always count on Arrogance putting on a good match. 3 Stars.

Davey Richards vs Puma vs Human Tornado
Who would have thought back at the start of 2005 that Tornado and Davey would have much more successful PWG careers than Perkins? This is an elimination match, but unlike the last one at ASW Night 2, this is actually really good. Tornado brings the comedy while Puma and Richards has some awesome exchanges. Strangely, Puma breaks up the cover after Richards hit the shooting star press on Tornado. After a great final exchange, Puma pins Richards with a roll up. This means Richards has only lost two matches in PWG, both to Puma. Richards returns shortly after and pulls off the mask of Puma to reveal TJ Perkins. Granted, I wasn’t watching at the time, but was this really a surprise? Richards stays at ringside cheering on Tornado, but Perkins easily beats Tornado with a 450 Splash. The second fall wasn’t much outside of the angle, but the first fall was pretty awesome. It’s the first time that Davey actually looks like a solid worker. I wouldn’t call it a breakout match, but it did make me want to see Perkins vs Davey. With that, young Davey Richards now has his first program with the company. 3 1/4 Stars.

Joey Ryan vs Alex Shelley
Tons of mat wrestling and eventual arm work by Ryan on Shelley. The selling of Shelley is hit or miss though. He keeps going back to holding the arm, but he ignores it when he’s hitting his moves. The big event in the match is all of the hard bumps Shelley took. Most of them didn’t even look intentional. Alex had to wake up in the morning sore as hell. Shelley goes for a La Magistral cradle, but Ryan counters it with a pin with his feet on the ropes. Despite a few flaws, it was easily Shelley’s best match since his PWG debut. Meanwhile, Joey’s Technical Wizard gimmick gains some credibility. 3 1/2 Stars.

Aerial Xpress w/Dino Winwood vs Los Luchas
Winners get the next tag title shot. Better than your typical Los Luchas match with very few blown spots. It’s just as I’m thinking that that Zokre botches the hell out of a dropkick/moonsault combo. Oh Zokre, you fucking suck. The good matches just keep on coming. AXP gets the win following a springboard version of their dropkick/piledriver combo. 3 1/4 Stars.

After the match, Arrogance comes out to argue having to defend the belts against AXP for a third. However, they have an idea. If AXP are willing to put their masks on the line as well, the match is on. AXP agrees and a huge match for the first night of the 2nd Anniversary Show is made.

AJ Styles (c) vs James Gibson – NWA/PWG World Title
Seriously, why bother making this for the NWA title as well? Even though Gibson had a very small chance of winning the match due to only working PWG once before, it’s pretty obvious he won’t be winning now. It’s a way of making the match feel more important, but is it worth eliminating any doubt of the outcome? Despite the slow start, it ends up being a pretty great match. Styles works over the left arm while Gibson works on the midsection. Gibson in 2005 was great enough to carry Styles to a good match, despite AJ’s tendency of phoning it in on non-TNA shows. The ending sequence of counters after counters before Styles counters into a Styles Clash was a pretty damn fun ending. It’s just another day for Gibson though in his amazing 2005. Much better Styles title defense than the previous show. 3 3/4 Stars.

Joey Ryan comes out to talk about Mr. Excitement and how he attacked Joey at the end of the tag title match between Arrogance vs Disco/Excitement a couple shows ago. He challenges Excitement to one last match at the 2nd Anniversary show. Mr. Excitement comes out and talks…forever. He gets in a few good zingers about how Ryan was replaced by Bosh and now is Arrogance’s bitch, but it just goes on for too long. I like the idea of hyping up another match for the anniversary show, but you don’t need to make it last so long.

Christopher Daniels (c) vs El Generico – TNA X-Division Title
Similarly to AJ’s deal, having Daniels defend a TNA title leaves little question to the winner. However, Daniels has been able to have some good matches while defending the belt. Hell, compare these X-Division Title matches to the ones he had on TNA PPV and the PWG ones are typically better. Good match, but the lack of comedy disappointed me some. Generico was left getting his ass kicked for a good deal of the match. It makes me wonder why booking Generico if all he’s going to do is sell? I probably would have thrown on another 1/2 star had Generico gotten in a little more offense. Eh, it’s still a good match, despite not being as good as it could have been. 3 Stars.

Excalibur cuts a pre-match promo where he once again talks about his reasons for turning on Super Dragon. Dragon’s selfish and kept Disco and himself down…blah blah blah. The open invitation for Disco Machine to join himself and Kevin Steen as the new SBS is still out there though. The promo’s fine, but when you’ve heard the same thing a few times in the last 24 hours, you don’t care too much. Still, it’s a good reminder for those fans who aren’t watching the shows back-to-back.

Kevin Steen and Excalibur vs Super Dragon and Disco Machine
Well holy fuck, for a match with two guys with little talent (Disco and Excalibur) and another guy I’m not a big fan of (Dragon), this was pretty damn great. The best part? It’s all about storytelling! Suck on that, Young Bucks. Kevin Steen is just an evil bastard, so he doesn’t care about hurting Disco Machine. However, Excalibur still cares about his buddy, so he’s reluctant to fight too hard against Disco at first. There’s a moment early on when Steen has to tell Excalibur to do his share when he’s in the ring with Disco. Super Dragon seems to have taken what Excalibur said to heart. As a result, he’s going above and beyond allowing Disco to get time in the ring, even tagging out when Disco hasn’t recovered all the way. Disco ends up playing a damn fine face-in-peril. However, near the end, he begins to enjoy the spotlight on himself. Even though he has a few chances to tag out, he chooses to stay in the match, to try and win it for himself and Dragon. After having to endure watching Disco valiantly getting his ass kicked, Dragon comes in the ring to pull Disco to their corner so Dragon can tag in. This is where the stories all come together. Everything Excalibur has been saying was head by Disco. Not only is Dragon forcing Disco to work so hard in a match against his best friend, but then he wants to steal the glory and get the pinfall? Something clicks in Disco’s head with the realization that Excalibur’s claims of Dragon only caring about Dragon were right. Disco turns on Super Dragon and throws him into the awaiting arms of Kevin Steen for a couple of Package Piledrivers to get the win. Forget about every other match Disco Machine has ever been in. THIS is his best performance ever. Yet another great chapter in the Steen/Dragon feud with all four guys pulling off their parts to perfection. While it won’t be by the end of the year, for now it’s the MOTY for PWG. 4 1/4 Stars.

After the match, The New SBS continues to attack Super Dragon until Human Tornado and El Generico makes the save. If you remember, Generico and Steen have had their problems in the past. Meanwhile, Generico and Tornado have formed a bond of sorts. So holy shit, it’s even more smart storytelling! Excalibur gets on the mic and calls Generico a beaner and Tornado the N word a couple of times. He challenges the three of them to a match at the 2nd Anniversary Show.

Overall
After a disappointing Jason Takes PWG, PWG comes back in a huge way. With the exception of maybe Reason for the Season, this is PWG’s best show up to this point. There isn’t a single match under 3 stars, something that is unthinkable for PWG at this point. Hell, even modern PWG doesn’t have that most of the time. You have three huge matches set-up for the first night of the 2nd Anniversary show. The PWG Title gets a good match, easily the best since Dragon/Steen back in March. There’s the typical quality tag wrestling from Arrogance and Aerial Xpress. Joey Ryan gets in on the act with producing one of his best non-Dragon matches. A young Davey Richards now has a purpose with the feud against TJ Perkins. Finally, the main event produces the career bests of two of the wrestlers and the company’s MOTY for now. If you’re only going to own a few PWG DVD’s, make this one of them. You can pick this up over at Highspots for 10 dollars.

Worth Checking Out
Davey Richards vs Puma vs Human Tornado (If you’re a big Davey fan)
Joey Ryan vs Alex Shelley
AJ Styles vs James Gibson
Kevin Steen and Excalibur vs Super Dragon and Disco Machine

Avoid
N/A
Not buying this DVD