PWG Zombies Shouldn’t Run 8/6/2005

Written by: Jim

Zombies Shouldn’t Run
August 6, 2005

Hardkore Kidd w/El Jefe vs TJ Perkins
Hardkore is Aaron Aguilera, better known as WWE’s Jesus, Carlito’s body guard in 2004. After over six years, does most people even still remember Jesus? Hardkore wrestled in PWG before heading to the WWE, including wrestling on the very first show. This is his official return. Perkins answers the open challenge and generally beats the hell out of the much bigger Hardkore. Maybe it’s because Perkins busts his nose open early on, but he comes off looking like a total bad ass. Despite being a few inches taller, a good 50+ pounds heavier and having a manager cheating whenever he can, Hardkore still can’t gain a real advantage over Perkins. The two has some good chemistry, but the match stretches on a little long. Perkins nails a 450 splash, but Hardkore kicks out. Perkins goes for the 450 again and puts Hardkore away. A fine opener showcasing how good Perkins can be. 2 3/4 Stars.

Davey Richards vs Rocky Romero
This was set-up at the last show and how Davey’s been a dick to Romero’s buddy, Perkins. The announcer gives the single greatest introduction for Romero in history. He’s rolling his R’s and everything. Too bad he announced Rocky as Ricky Reyes. The match ends up being a hard hitting kick/striking bout as you’d expect. The crowd was pretty into it, with Davey playing the heel role. I believe Capone calls this Davey’s breakout match in PWG. Personally, it doesn’t feel like a breakout as much as another solid reaction. Especially by watching all of his matches in a short amount of time thus far in his PWG career, Davey’s breakout wasn’t in a single match, but in a few month time period. This was good, but I felt as if it wasn’t as good as they were capable of. Check out Passive Hostility from 2006 to see a better Romero/Davey showing. 3 1/4 Stars.

Excalibur, Disco Machine and Ronin are in the ring. Since Kevin Steen has a title match, Excalibur felt they needed another man to watch their backs. Thus, Ronin is brought in for a six man tag. Shockingly, two of their opponents, Los Luchas, have no showed the event. So Cal Val comes out to announce their new opponents. Once again, you can barely understand what she’s saying due to her screeching. Luckily, she’s looking especially hot tonight.

The New SBS and Ronin vs Top Gun Talwar, Hook Bomberry and Mr. Excitement
I’m pretty sure this is the first time that Talwar wears a thong to the ring. Top Gun gets in some comedy by rubbing his hand on his ass and balls while Disco is looking at everyone except for him. Disco and Talwar lock hands to the groan of Excalibur. It’s not quite as funny as when Talwar did it to Generico at the last show. It’s difficult to care too much about a match when the best talent may be Excalibur. The New SBS’s return to the lowcard scene feels out of place as they’re in the middle of the most heated feud at the moment. On the plus side, they do win with Disco’s chokeslam on Talwar so the New SBS doesn’t look like fools. It’s worth noting that Ronin delivers a hell of a lariat to prevent the breaking up of the pin at the end. For what it was, it was fine. However, it can’t compare to Excalibur and Disco’s last few matches. 2 1/2 Stars.

After the match, Excalibur praises Ronin and rewards him with membership in the New SBS (On a probationary level). That’s right, Kevin Steen is leading a kick ass faction with three of the worst talents in PWG. God bless Mr. Wrestling.

Joey Ryan vs Claudio Castagnoli
This is Claudio’s PWG debut. Claudio had just debuted in ROH against Nigel McGuinness at Fate of an Angel and was eagerly awaiting his second match at this time. Joey’s back to wearing the Jedi robe and pants that makes him look like a pirate. Early on, Claudio dominates with his unorthodox style. Even when Joey attempts to copy the style, Claudio easily counters it right back into his hold. The real story comes into play when Ryan resorts to choking Claudio on the middle rope to finally get on the offense. Ryan works over Claudio’s neck for a good portion of the match. Claudio does a fine job at getting the crowd into his act by encouraging them to count along with his delayed vertical suplex (32 seconds if you’re curious). Despite his Technical Wizard gimmick, Ryan can only win after throwing powder in Claudio’s eyes behind the ref’s back. However, like a truly great poser, Ryan locks in the Cross Face Chicken Wing. I love that finish. While slow going, this match ended up being better than I expected. Ryan played his part perfectly while Claudio has the best debut since Kevin Steen. More Claudio in PWG, please. 3 1/4 Stars.

Christopher Daniels gets on the mic and trashes the company. He’s sick of wrestling in such a hot place where the crowd doesn’t appreciate him and the company doesn’t appreciate all of his X-Division title defenses. Since there isn’t anyone of value in the back, he refuses to defend the title again in TNA. During his tirade, he jokingly guesses some of the future wrestlers PWG would book in X-Division Title defenses. Top Gun Talwar, Hook Bomberry and…Davey Richards are all mentioned. It reminds me a lot of a TNA match in 2003 when AJ Styles and D-Lo trashes their opponents by calling them jobbers. One of the “Jobbers” was CM Punk. Chris Hero is fine with not getting a title shot tonight, but if he wins, he wants a future shot.

Christopher Daniels vs Chris Hero
These two had a fantastic match back at All Star Weekend Night 2. Instead of a mat based match, this had a lot of stalling early on and then featured Daniels heeling it up. It eventually became another good match between the two, but it can’t compare to their first match. Daniels focuses most of his attention to Hero’s neck. This sets up Daniels’ DVD to get the victory. Hero’s leg was on the bottom rope, but Daniels hits it off before the ref can see it. Nice little way of adding a little extra heel flavor before leaving. Although entirely different, it’s on par with their BOLA 2010 Night 1 match. However, if you want to see them at their peak, watch their ASW Night 2 match. 3 1/2 Stars.

Super Dragon vs Quicksilver
There isn’t any real reason for this match other than Super Dragon needs someone to fight since Kevin Steen is booked in the main event and Quicksilver is still Scorpio Sky-less. They do have a past in Revolution Pro where Dragon injured Quicksilver. It was also in 2004 that Super Dragon and then buddy, Excalibur, defeated Quicksilver and then partner, Chris Bosh, for the PWG tag titles. If nothing else, they can regale in tales of how their former partners ended up being major douchebags. The story of the match is pretty interesting though. Early on, Dragon’s focus isn’t on the match at all. Quicksilver not only is in control, but he finds time to poke fun at Dragon by slapping him and kicking the proverbial sand in Dragon’s face as he’s laying on the mat. Not surprisingly, this ends up pissing Dragon off enough to destroy Quicksilver. The ass kicking wouldn’t be complete without Dragon mockingly doing the Quicksilver pose. Despite being on offense for awhile, Dragon’s mind is still elsewhere and he pays for it with a sunset flip to the outside. It takes Quicksilver slapping him several times to wake him up enough to throw into the ring. Super Dragon does end up winning with the Barry White Driver, but it comes off more like he got lucky than actually was the better man. After all, Quicksilver is nothing more than some tag wrestler. Granted, one hell of a tag worker, but a tag wrestler nonetheless. Meanwhile, Dragon’s supposed to be the baddest mofo in all of PWG. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but this puts over just how much Kevin Steen has got into Dragon’s head. Good story and plenty of great action from one of my favorite SoCal stars and Super Dragon. 3 3/4 Stars.

So Cal Val announces that no one will be allowed to be at ringside during the tag title match. To ensure that a certain future mustache PWG Champion stays away, Val brings out the new co-commissioner, Dino Winwood! Joey Ryan attacks Winwood, but Dino’s too heavy to pick up. Dino lays Joey out with an F5. Yeah, it’s that awesome.

Arrogance vs 2 Skinny Black Guys – PWG Tag Team Titles
The winners become the new PWG tag champions thanks to Scorpio Sky’s disappearance. Before the match, Bosh raffles off his first pair of wrestling boots, but not before berating the weight of the winner. The bigger news is that Arrogance is wearing their spanking new t-shirt. It’s a play off of Fight Club with ‘Arrogance’ being written on the pink soap. A fun match follows with plenty of big spots and nonstop action. I especially enjoyed seeing Lost lock both Tornado and Generico in the Sharpshooter. It ended up looking painful for both faces instead of the usual mess that these double holds looks like. Arrogance seems to be off their game, misscommunication happening a couple of times. Tornado hits the DND on Lost and Generico follows it up with the brainbuster to score the victory and to become the NEW PWG tag team champions. Great pop from the crowd. Good match, but I prefer Arrogance vs Cape Fear more. 3 1/4 Stars.

AJ Styles (c) vs Kevin Steen – PWG World Title
These two could not be bigger polar opposites in PWG for 2005. The one is pushed as the best, but lacks a real storyline and is constantly a negative note in my book. The other can’t seem to get the belt, but has the biggest feud in the company and tends to produce the match of the night on a regular basis. Steen adds his usual comedic hijinx to an otherwise dull Styles bout. I couldn’t pick up on any real story other than Steen being so damn entertaining. There’s a moment early on when Steen is yelling at Styles to not hit his knees. During a small comedy, a few fans are yelling for Styles to hit the knees. Instead, Styles hits Steen’s gut a few times. It’s small things like that that really showcases how little Styles is trying to get the crowd into the match. Steen heads up to the top rope, but Styles catches him with the Pele kick. Steen falls over and hangs upside down in the perfect position for the Styles Clash. AJ picks him up for the finisher, but Steen uses the ropes to pull Styles down. Still using the ropes, Steen picks up the victory and becomes the NEW PWG World Champion. For a Steen 2005 match, this is below average, but this is about what you’d expect from the lackluster former PWG Champion. 2 3/4 Stars.

Overall
Occurring so soon after the 2nd Anniversary weekend and still having BOLA and All Star Weekend 2 coming later in the year, I would have perfectly fine with PWG taking it easy on this show. After all, they have bigger shows to worry about. However, PWG decides to take this B-show and inject a lot of importance in it with crowning new champions for both titles. That alone makes this show worth checking out. As much as I hate to admit it, once again Super Dragon steals the show and puts on a better match then either title bout. Considering the fact that the worst match is 2 1/2 stars and it’s with Ronin, it says a lot about how good the show is. The debut of Double C was refreshing and I’m already left looking forwarding to his second match. The show can’t compare to ASW Night 1 or Guitarmageddon, but it’s exactly as good as a B-show should be. All hail World Champion Kevin Steen, the savior from the evil AJ Styles.

Worth Checking Out
Joey Ryan vs Claudio Castagnoli
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Hero
Super Dragon vs Quicksilver

Avoid
Having the volume on when So Cal Val talks