Written by: Jim
Roger Dorn Night
June 10, 2007
Going into the show, Bryan Danielson was recently injured in his Driven match against Nigel McGuinness. The speculation was that he’d be unable to challenge for the PWG Title tonight. Davey Richards comes out to nominate himself to take Danielson’s spot. Bryan Danielson comes out with staples in his head, but still willing to work tonight. He’s willing to add Davey Richards to the match to make it a triple threat though. Davey’s scheduled opponent, Kevin Steen, makes his way out to complain about being forgotten. He wants in the match as well. Generico finally makes an appearance and is fine with defending the belt against all three men.
Bino Gambino vs Top Gun Talwar
A match that could main event any arena in the country. Gambino offers Top Gun some coke, but it’s laced with something else that ends up burning Talwar. The rest of the match isn’t interesting. It does make me wonder if Bino is really mentally handicap or if it’s just his gimmick that you’re supposed to question if he is. Gambino kicks out of the Chipotle, which gives away the fact that Top Gun won’t be winning. Gambino wins with a weak looking Ace Crusher. Pretty lame way to start off the show. 1 3/4 Stars.
TJ Perkins vs Tony Kozina
An exciting mat based match that features very few bumps for most of the match. It gets to the point that whenever Kozina does something as simple as a hurricrana, the fans are going crazy at such a crazy bump. Late in the match, Kozina seems to have snorted up some of the remaining coke on the mat because he throws a dozen or more chairs on Perkins on the outside and then slingshots himself over the top rope and on to the chairs. Really scary moment with several officials checking on Kozina with Tony begging them not to stop the match. Perkins gets up and angrily throws Kozina back in the ring. For the rest of the match, Perkins is screaming about his neck. Kozina gets a few near falls before falling to a superplex. I really hope the injury was a work. Otherwise, Kozina is a damn fool for doing that insane bump and then continuing. Fun quality mat based match, but so scary. 3 Stars.
Human Tornado w/Candice LaRae vs Ronin
Ronin is taking the place of Super Dragon whose career is just about wrapped up due to injuries. However, this is one of the few times when having a guy like Ronin is a better choice than Dragon. Tornado’s new heel attitude and his abusive behavior towards Candice has been building up over the last few months. In fact, Tornado prevents an opening ring bell forearm by Ronin by holding Candice in front of her. Candice takes the hit and rolls to the outside to sell. A surprisingly fun match follows with Tornado just getting his ass kicked or threatening Candice. The actual match between Tornado and Ronin is meaningless though. The real purpose is the end of the match when Tornado orders Candice to hit Ronin with a chair behind the ref’s back, but she finally stands up for herself and decks Tornado with it. Ronin gets the easy win and the angle between Candice and Tornado sees it’s first real change with Candice showing she can only take so much. Due to the nature of the match, it wouldn’t have worked as well had the ultra serious asskicker, Super Dragon, have been in it. So for the first time in his career, I’m glad Ronin was booked in a match. Yay for storyline progression! 2 1/2 Stars.
Post-match sees Tornado ordering Candice back in the ring. Like a victim of domestic abuse, Candice goes back in despite the warnings of the crowd. As far as what happens, the visual shows it far better than I could type it.
Roderick Strong and PAC (c) vs The Havana Pitbulls – PWG Tag Team Titles
Strong and PAC just won the vacant tag titles by winning the first ever DDT4 tournament (Defeating the teams of Super Dragon and Davey Richards, Muscle Outlaw’z and The Briscoes) after Cape Fear were forced to forfeit the titles due to Quicksilver’s career ending concussion after a match with Davey Richards and Roderick Strong. Skip forward to the middle of the match when the story actually begins. Like he does all throughout his matches, PAC does a crazy dive to the outside, however; he ends up landing on his left foot badly, thus injuring it. This allows the Pitbulls to focus on the body part and to do so in quite the asshole manner. Strong is just dying to get in to help his partner. There’s one moment when Rocky Romero gets cocky by shoving Strong off of the apron. Strong runs in and gives Romero a chop from hell. All Ricky Reyes can do is stare at Strong blankly for a few moments before yelling “Why did you do THAT?!” It’s at this point that the match is at it’s best. Once Strong gets tagged in, PAC’s selling of his leg becomes sporadic. He’s not completely no selling it since he is grabbing at it from time to time, but he’s still able to do all of his spotty moves. PAC gets the win over Romero with some sort of twisting shooting star press variation. It’s still a good match, but it could have been so much better with better selling. 3 1/4 Stars.
Tyler Black vs Joey Ryan
Black’s still a few months away from making his ROH debut, however; he’s already worked and finished with WSX. Kind of a weird match with comedy, but it’s not an overly comedic match. Best moment came when Joey did his running of the ropes for a minute or so (Joey would have aced that drill on Tough Enough) until he finally runs out of steam and needs his inhaler. Tyler Black steals it and plays a game of keep away, forcing Joey to chase him all throughout the building. Finally, Black puts the inhaler in his tights. As expected, when Joey finally gets his inhaler, there’s the funny spot where he realizes he had just had his mouth on a object that was touching Black’s junk. Joey was the star of the match though. Several times he called for a big move only to lock on a headlock. By now, it’s not too special of a spot, but I seem to recall a lot of people loving such spots a few years ago. Basic story of the match is that while better, Black isn’t any match for Ryan since Ryan is a cheater. Former PWG wrestler, Scorpio Sky, climbs the ring apron after Joey low blows Black. The distraction allows Black to nail his God’s Last Gift for the victory. The match could have used a few minute being cut off, but it was fine for what it was. Gotta love Joey when he’s full of antics. 2 3/4 Stars.
After the match, Joey Ryan demands Dino Winwood come out to deal with this Scorpio Sky problem. In case you’re not aware, Scorpio lost a Loser Leaves Town match against Frankie Kazarian at the start of the year. Dino, still hating Joey, decides that while Scorpio can’t actually wrestle for PWG, he can fight Ryan in an unsanctioned match at the next show (Giant Sized Annual #4). Joey agrees as long as Scorpio is forced to stay 100 feet away from any PWG show if he loses. Scorpio agrees as long as he’s reinstated if he picks up the victory. It’s booked. Granted, the booking of the match has some issues (Scorpio is done with PWG, why offer him a chance back in?), but it’s a nice way to add more importance for the biggest show of the year.
Arrogance w/Jade Chung vs The Young Bucks
The Young Bucks’ PWG debut. They’re still wearing the trunks instead of the long tights. The Bucks manage to get in all of their spots without causing the match to become a cluster fuck, endless kick outs or overly spotty (Such as hitting 450 splashes on someone’s arm). There isn’t much of a story, but it’s refreshing to see the Young Bucks work such a simple match. Despite coming close a few times, Matt Jackson is forced to tap out to Lost’s Sharpshooter. Without realizing it at the time, PWG just booked the perfect tag match for it’s historical significance. The biggest team in PWG history (Arrogance) has it’s final match against the debuting future biggest tag team in recent years. It’s really kind of cool when you think about it. 3 Stars.
El Generico (c) vs Kevin Steen vs Bryan Danielson vs Davey Richards – PWG World Title
Someone forgot to tell Danielson that he was supposed to take it easy. Despite suffering a concussion and having three stapled on his head, he still hits his suicide dive to the outside, the flying headbutt and takes an Ole Kick from Generico. The guy just doesn’t know how to not give it his all. Pretty straightforward match with very little action from all four at once. Davey’s a complete asshole to Danielson and Generico. Davey pays for it by taking a Super Brainbuster to lose the match while Steen and Danielson just miss out on breaking up the fall. There’s not much you can say about it other than it’s as good as you’d imagine it would be without being great. Since Danielson didn’t get pinned, he’s still a rightful number 1 contender. 3 1/2 Stars.
Overall
When it comes to June shows, you should always lower your exceptions. There aren’t any great matches, but only one was a real dud. It does set-up Giant Sized Annual #4 nicely. Danielson vs Generico is ready to finally happen. Scorpio Sky’s return match against Joey Ryan is booked as well. The big development was the debut of the Young Bucks and Chris Bosh’s last full time match. At the time, I’m guessing even those three couldn’t have known what a historic show this would be for them. As long as you’re entertained, the June show accomplishes it’s goal.
Worth Checking Out
The Young Bucks vs Arrogance (Historical significance only)
Bryan Danielson vs El Generico vs Kevin Steen vs Davey Richards
Avoid
Top Gun Talwar vs Bino Gambino