PWG Steen Wolf 10/22/2011

Written by: Jim

Steen Wolf
October 22, 2011

Candice LaRae, Chris Kadillak and Famous B vs Peter Avalon, Ray Rosas and Freddy Bravo
PWG debut for everyone except LaRae and Avalon. Out of all of the new guys, I thought Famous B looked the most impressive. He handles himself as a star, has some flashy moves and had enough common sense to sell a DDT/Downward Spiral for a long time. In a time where wrestlers don’t sell nearly as long as they should, it’s nice seeing a guy who knows what he’s doing. Kadillak looked like he’s going to be an awesome addition when it comes to high flyer. He may just be a spot monkey, but my God, does he have some awesome spots. Rosas at least has the look to stand out, even if he’s only halfway decent. Then there’s Bravo. Bravo looks like a forth grader and wasn’t much better. Honestly, he wasn’t remarkable in any way. He was the easy weak link for his team and I wouldn’t be bothered if he doesn’t work PWG again. The babyface side of Team LaRae just outclassed the heels in every way. In the end, a senton/Frog Splash combo from Famous B and Kadillak won the match for their team. 2 1/4 Stars.

Rocky Romero vs TJ Perkins
One of the better undercard series of matches returns to PWG. Sadly, this would also be their weakest match together in PWG. I dug Romero’s heeling up and thought he did a fine job at everything, but Perkins seemed to have an off day. His hits generally looked off or weak and they had a missed 450 Splash spot where Romero didn’t even need to move because Perkins completely overshot him. Perkins wins by slapping on his old Figure Four Deathlock out of nowhere. Even without the botched pin attempt, this never got going. Stick with their superior 2006 series. 2 1/2 Stars.

RockNES Monsters vs The Fighting Taylor Boys
This was a spotfest, plain and simple. There wasn’t any real story to the match, just big moves and wrestlers selling for a bit. Yet I feel it was the right move. The Taylor boys have been in PWG for about a year’s time and they haven’t exactly lit the world on fire. Ryan Taylor just had his worst PWG performance at the last show against Willie Mack. The Taylor’s needed something to show that they have some value to PWG as a tag team. Hell, Ryan Taylor needed to prove he had value as just a wrestler for PWG. Over the course of this spotfest, the crowd got more and more into this. That just doesn’t happen in the Taylor Boys matches. So while it may just be a spotfest, the crowd loved every minute and it made people care about Ryan Taylor again. Thanks to some miscommunication and mishaps, the Taylors lose to a roll-up to continue pushing RockNES hard. It’s only a matter of time before RockNES are in ROH. A really fun spotfest. 3 1/2 Stars.

Davey Richards vs Willie Mack
Yet another match in Willie’s series against PWG legends. I’m just now realizing it, but this run reminds me a lot of Chris Hero’s series against the PWG locals in 2010. Up until this match, Mack was just the ultimate underdog local. You knew he wasn’t in his opponent’s league, but the whole story of the match was how Willie was doing surprisingly well against the bigger star. However, during this match, I saw Willie as just a top guy for PWG. It’s a lot like Akira Tozawa’s transformation at DDT4 2011. He went from being the flavor of the week underdog to just another top guy. Davey controlled the majority of the match working over Willie’s shoulder Bryan Danielson style, further punishing Willie’s ankle (Willie previously injured it early in the match) before putting Mack away with a series of kicks to the head. Willie may have been the underdog, but he made Davey work for everything he did. Loved Mack’s angry face late in the match as well. Willie still needs to work on some things (His covers look so weak), but I’d gladly say this is Mack’s best PWG match. 3 1/2 Stars.

The Dynasty vs Los Luchas – Lucha Rules
Los Luchas’ return to PWG. I believe this is this first match since…Guerre Sans Frontières? They have new gear that made it difficult telling them apart. Not that it matters. The one sucks (Zokre) and the other one is passable at best (Phoenix Star). The Lucha Rules didn’t play a huge part in the match other than giving the wrestlers an excuse to not have tags. Los Luchas are only good for their big spots, so the gimmick helps hide their faults. In typical Reseda fashion, the previously beloved Joey Ryan is now booed out of the building. Gotta love how bipolar the PWG fans are. The Dynasty continues to have good, but not great tag matches. Dynasty wins with a TKO by Scorpio. 3 1/4 Stars.

Chuck Taylor vs Ricochet
I wonder if these two ever fought each other before. The most interesting thing about this match is the crowd’s reaction towards Chuckie T. Taylor was hands down the most popular guy on the show up to this point. The fans loved him. Ricochet ends up receiving some negative reactions because of how entertaining Chuck is. The first half was mostly just comedy while the second half was dives to the outside. Individually, the match is filled with fun spots, but it’s so incredibly long. It ends up just dragging on for far too long. Fun match, but far too long with too many big spots. Is there a point to having Chuck Taylor kick out to a top rope shooting star press? It’s overkill. Still, Chuckie T made this fun at times. 3 Stars.

The Young Bucks (c) vs Future Shock – PWG Tag Titles
Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly’s PWG debut. The Bucks prove why they’d be a great team if they followed the tag rules more at the end of any match. I thought the first half was pretty great with the Bucks controlling the match, cutting the ring in half and just getting heat. It’s not anything extraordinary, it’s just solid tag team fundamentals. I love it. Future Shock’s performance was hit and miss. As a team, they went into overkill at times. Do we really need to see a series of 5+ strikes to the head if it’s not the end of the match? Calm down some and just hit that one move. They remind me of early Bucks where they’re a bit too excited to show what they can do. Adam Cole needs to work on his arm when it comes to his kicks. He was approaching Marty Jannetty territory. Besides having the goofiest facial expressions in all of wrestling, O’Reilly looked pretty good in this. Even his weak looking guillotine choke wasn’t so bad since Matt Jackson ended up with a bloody nose. The ending was still a little too much for me, but it was tame compared to how crazy the Bucks normally get. The Bucks winning with More Bang for Your Buck was a pretty dominating win for them. All in all, a good title defense for Bucks. 3 3/4 Stars.

Kevin Steen (c) vs El Generico – PWG World Title – Ladder Match
Ironically enough, the last show was main evented with the ROH Champion challenging the PWG Champion at a PWG show for just the second time ever (First at The Next Show in 2004). One show later, and we have the second ladder match in PWG history. The first one just happened to have occurred at The Next Show (Joey Ryan vs Scott Lost) as well. This was one mean looking match. Thanks to the building, Steen and Generico couldn’t really fly around (By Money in the Bank/TLC standards), so instead, they just beat the **** out of each other with the ladder. A couple of negatives. They had that great little angle of the Bucks coming out and injuring Steen’s knee, but Steen didn’t sell it enough. But whatever, it’s a great ladder match in a time when ladder matches aren’t too good. In the end, Generico ends up tearing the roof down (Literally) to become a two time PWG World Champion. Slightly better than their BOLA match, but not quite as good as their Final Battle match. Looking back, this was a battle between the two top choices of PWG MVP of 2011. 4 Stars.

After the match, The Young Bucks once again run out to attack Steen. Bucks challenge Steen to a Guerrilla Warfare Match at the next show, however; they mock Steen for not having any friends. The lights go off and when they come back on SUPER DRAGON is in the ring and Curb Stomps a Buck. The other Buck ends up eating a Psycho Driver. Steen has his partner.

Overall
For some reason, I’ve seen various PWG fans call this the indy show of the year. I don’t really get it. It’s not even a top three for PWG, let alone every other indy. Instead, it’s just yet another good PWG show from 2011. It is better than the last show and there isn’t anything on the show that I’d consider bad though. The big thing is the return of Super Dragon. Even with my love/hate relationship with the guy, it was an awesome moment for his return. Easily the biggest reaction in PWG history. Better yet, for the second show in a row, we know the main event for the following show. The undercard is a bit weak, but things pick up for the semi and main event. For the debuts and returns, Famous B and Chris Kadillak gets my “You’re good enough for me to want to see more of you” award. Ray Rosas was just okay and Freddy Bravo sucked. Future Shock had a good debut, but Super Smash Bros’ debut was a lot better. Los Luchas’ return is meaningless since they’re just going to no-show soon. Super Dragon’s debut completely overshadows every debut and Generico’s title win though. Good show, just not the best show of the year.

Worth Checking Out
RockNES Monsters vs Taylor Boys
Davey Richards vs Willie Mack
Young Bucks vs Future Shock
El Generico vs Kevin Steen

Avoid
Those damn Mexicans (Bravo and Los Luchas)