PWG (Please Don’t Call It) The O.C. 5/6/2006

Written by: Jim

(Please Don’t Call It) The O.C.
May 6, 2006

Rocky Romero vs TJ Perkins
Really good opener that showcases Rocky as the MVP of PWG that he’s become for me, but also that Perkins can be a surprise treat if he’s put with the right opponent. The main story here is that anything Rocky can do, Perkins can do too, sometimes better. No frills, just two guys going out there and performing some quality mat wrestling. My only issue is that the finish seemed to come out of nowhere. 3 1/4 Stars.

Austin “Macho” Aries vs Chris Sabin
Aries is dressed and acting a little like Austin Starr or A Double well before he worked the characters. The fans are just enjoying making fun of him for acting like Randy Savage. Aries, being the smart man that he is, plays to it, even hitting a double ax hammer from the top rope to outside of the ring. There was a lot of comedy and playing to the crowd in this. So the quality isn’t what you may imagine it could have been. Still, for the second match of the night, it’s perfectly fine. It does make me want to watch a regular Sabin/Aries match (See: serious). 2 1/2 Stars.

Joey Ryan and Scorpio Sky w/Jade Chung vs Frankie Kazarian and B-Boy
Joey is rocking out the wife beater like he’s Joey Ryan Atwood. This was supposed to be Ryan defending the title against B-Boy, however; thanks to Davey Richards injury, Ryan realized that champions are only required to defend their titles once every 2 months. So the match is changed to this tag match. There’s a ton of gay comedy between Ryan and Scorpio early on. However, after a few minutes it gets serious and results in a halfway decent match that was nonstop action. Although Ryan’s matches often are a drawback in 2006, this was actually entertaining. The post-match events sees Frankie (Who got the pin) and B-Boy arguing over who should be the number 1 contender. Dino Winwood rules that Frankie should be. On his way out, B-Boy is attacked by Ryan on the outside, while Sky goes after Frankie in the ring. Scorpio and Jade ends up cutting Frankie’s hair (Rumor has it that Frankie was fired by the WWE because he refused to cut his hair). Good match, but even more important post-match. 3 Stars.

Kevin Steen vs Bryan Danielson – Career vs Birthday Song Match
It’s apparently Steen’s birthday tomorrow, but no one has wished him a happy birthday yet. Before he’s willing to wrestle, he wants Dragon to sing him happy birthday. Danielson instead offers to sing if Steen beats him. However, if AmDrag wins, Steen leaves PWG forever. I’m shocked we’ve never seen such a match at Wrestlemania. This was back and forth with comedy and serious wrestling. There’s one fan who kept yelling for Steen to hit a moonsault, so it ends up being a minor story in the match. By time Steen finally goes for it, he gets crotch on the top rope. Pretty entertaining ending with both men hooking in Cattle Mutilations, but Dragon eventually gets the pin. Post-match sees Steen begging to not be fired. Steen “All I have left is CZW, and that’s a sad existence” Ha. This brings out Dino Winwood, but he refuses to decide if Steen has to go, he lets Dragon decide. Dragon lets Steen stay if he sings him happy birthday (Dragon’s birthday is later that month) while doing a booty dance. Steen does the booty dance and saves his job. With the comedy, it wasn’t able to be as good as you’d imagine Steen vs Dragon to be, but it’s still Dragon vs Steen, so it’s enjoyable. The real magic is Steen’s dance though.3 Stars.

Super Dragon, Ronin and Alex Koslov vs Disco Machine, Nemesis and Bino Gambino
Lets see, I hate Ronin, Disco and Gambino. Meanwhile, I sometimes hate Dragon. Nemesis can be fun in short matches, but he’s not someone I “Like” I guess? Luckily, I do like Koslov. Woo 1 for 6. This just went on for far too long (Just under 30 minutes). I dug a lot of Gambino on defense just because he did a great job of getting his ass kicked by the masked Russians. Yes, I believe that Ronin and Super Dragon are Russian. With how bad Ronin is, I firmly believe that he’s Boris Zhokov. It makes perfect sense. He wears the mask to cover his face, but he still wears all red and sucks. Poor Bino though, he gets his ass destroyed for long portions of the match. While the winners are very predictable, the six men accomplished the goal of not being horrible. Still, I don’t know who in their right mind would give these six a half hour to wrestle. 2 1/2 Stars.

Human Tornado vs Colt Cabana
Shenanigans galore. There’s not much to say about this. It’s exactly what you’d imagine. Light on the actual wrestling, but it’s funny and quite enjoyable. It’s Colt when he was still fun.

Arrogance and Kings of Wrestling vs Cape Fear, Kevin Steen and Super Dragon
Steen and Dragon (Super, not American) are here filling in for Los Luchas. I swear, Los Luchas (Either together or separate) are the only ones that misses more PWG shows than the Briscoes. It’s okay, as much as I dislike Russian Dragon at times, I’ll take him over Los Luchas any day. This reminds me a bit of the four team match at All Star Weekend 4 Night 2. There’s a lot of guys and it keeps from being a story. The interactions between Russian Dragon and Steen is great though. The heels (I guess Steen isn’t one in this match) ends up using a plastic cup on Quicksilver. You’ve never seen wrestling until you see grown men preforming moves on a cup to further hurt the wrestler under the cup. There’s ton of chaos near the end when everyone just hits their moves. Scott Lost gets the win over Generico to help solidify Arrogance as being the number 1 contenders for Davey/Russian Dragon’s titles. It was a fun match, but not the quality that it could have been. The lack of tags (Even before the chaotic ending) made the match lack some storytelling. 2 1/2 Stars.

Overall
Without any title matches or anything great, this isn’t a must see show. However, what it lacks in quality, it makes up in importance. It’s the beginning of the Kazarian/Scorpio feud, another chapter in the prologue to set up the Dynasty, setting up Arrogance’s title win, lining up a couple more challengers for Ryan’s title (Including the huge Threemendous cage match that will become a bigger issue later) and really just profiling some of the stars. Perkins looked good, Romero looked good as always and I even enjoyed the Ryan match. I bought this DVD for 5 bucks at Highspots, as long as you don’t pay full price, it’s worth checking out to fill in the gaps.

Worth Checking Out
TJ Perkins vs Rocky Romero
Colt Cabana vs Human Tornado
Frankie Kazarian and B-Boy vs Scorpio Sky and Joey Ryan (Especially for the storyline)
Kevin Steen’s booty dance

Avoid
Russian Dragon, Ronin and Alex Koslov vs Bino Gambino, Nemesis and Disco Machine (It’s not bad, but it’s far too long)