Written by: TJ Hawke
March 23, 2013
Reseda, California
Commentators: Excalibur, Rick Knox, Sami Callihan, Chuck Taylor, & Kevin Steen
Jay Lethal vs. Willie Mack
Lethal made his PWG the night before. I did not really enjoy the match, but others seemed to do so. Mack had presumably fallen out of favor with PWG in the seven months preceding this. That’s not a SCOOP or anything. He just had not been put into positions to succeed since losing in the first round of BOLA.
They did an early sequence that ended with Lethal doing three tope suicidas. The crowd loved that. Mack came back with his standing moonsault. Lethal hit the handspring back elbow. Mack got a nearfall with a saito suplex. This match feels like a collection of stuff. Mack went for a corkscrew splash, but Lethal avoided. Lethal hit a superkick and a Lethal Injection. Mack no-sold them. Lethal then hit the Lethal Combination and the Hail to the King, which got a nearfall. Lethal hit three more Hail to the Kings: 1…2…3
Oof baboof. This match was not good at all. I know a lot of people liked the Lethal/Edwards PWG match, but it’s pretty clear to me why PWG has not brought back Lethal since this weekend. I was not a fan of his matches.
Match Rating: **
Friends In Similar Tights (Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor) vs. The RockNES Monsters (Johnny Yuma & Johnny Goodtime)
Chucky mentioned that he watches PWG shows and knows that Reseda loves when people fight on the apron. Chucky challenged Goodtime to come to the apron. They then did wrist locks on the apron, as the crowd begged them not to tap. Taylor won that particular exchange, but the Monsters fought back and got control of the match. Taylor was worked over for a while. Gargano finally tagged in and made a comeback. Gargano hit a tope con hello. Chucky hit a springboard senton onto the Monsters. Back in the ring, FIST hit the Eating Pussy and Kicking Ass for a nearfall. The teams proceeded to go back and forth. Eventually, FIST hit Yuma with a DDT/wheelbarrow Hurt’s Donut: 1…2…3
This was a fine match. They did not do anything too crazy or special, but it was a solid tag team for PWG. I really enjoy FIST as a team in PWG. Gargano will eventually become a singles guy for PWG, but I’m hoping Sext Chucky T will be booked going forward regardless of how much Gargano works singles matches.
Match Rating: ***
Paul London vs. Trent?
This feels like a waste of London, but I’ll keep an open mind. There were a bunch of shenanigans early on. Trent? got control. London took an awesome bump for a back body drop. London eventually avoided a German and hit a springboard double stomp. London then hit a double jump senton to the floor. Trent? came back and got a nearfall with the Dudebuster. Trent? got another nearfall with a swinging DDT. London went for a slingshot move, but Trent? caught him with a Jig ‘N’ Tonic for *another* nearfall. Trent? went for a corkscrew senton, but London avoided it, hit a buckle DVD, a springboard spiked stomp and a shooting star press: 1…2…3
This was okay. I was not into it at all, and the crowd did not seem to care until London made his thirty second comeback to end the match.
Match Rating: **1/4
AR Fox & The Inner City Machine Guns (Rich Swann & Ricochet) vs. The Unbreakable Fucking Steen Machines (Brian Cage, Michael Elgin, & Kevin Steen)
Kevin Steen vs. AR Fox was supposed to be a match on this show, but PWG switched stuff around the day of the show. They went back and forth for a while. It was very entertaining. Eventually, the Unbreakable Fucking Steen Machines worked Ricochet over for a while. Ricochet obviously managed to escape at some point. The unmasked flippers did awesome stereo dives. Fox then ate an apron powerbomb and a Fucking Machine suplex. The teams went back and forth. This went on for a while. Elgin ate a standing 450, a 450 and 630. It was a delightful sequence. Cage saved Elgin. Fox then ate a F5, a wheelbarrow German, a buckle bomb, a package piledriver, and an Elgin Bomb: 1…2…3.
After the match, Steen said El Generico texted him the morning of the show to say he missed PWG. Steen then put over the crowd, everyone in the match, and Drake Younger.
This was a really good match that I enjoyed a great deal. All six men “left it all in the ring” (cliches~!) with the clear intent to have the best match on the show. I’m not sure if they did that, but I’ll just have to wait and see.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Samuary Del Sol vs. TJ Perkins
They did a lot of nifty stuff early on. TJP eventually got the advantage after a Silverking Dropkick. Excalibur and Chuck Taylor discussed the ages of everyone on the show. Del Sol came back with an Arabian Press Moonsault and a tope suicida. TJP came back with some kicks and a slingshot plancha. Back in the ring, they traded submissions. TJP got the “Mexican Stretch” (Excalibur made up the name on the spot). Del Sol hit the Rising Sun II: 1…2…NO! Del Sol went for the Rising Sun I, but TJP avoided it. TJP then hit the Detonation Kick and the 450: 1…2…3.
They did a lot of cool stuff in their match, and this was definitely a welcome addition to the show. However, the match did not really come together quite as well as I expected. Still though, this was my second favorite match of the show so far.
Match Rating: ***1/4
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Sami Callihan
Sami’s consolation prize for losing the main event of Night 1 was this match.
They traded a lot of strikes. Steen and Excalibur did some amusing banter on commentary. For instance, they pointed out how much Super Dragon hates their banter on commentary. Kyle got control of the match. Sami came back with a Silverking Lariat and a tope suicida. Sami hit an exploder through a chair. KO came back with the dropkick to a seated Sami. They got back in the ring. Sami charged, but KO caught him with a knee. Sami reversed a saito into a Muffler, but KO escaped. They traded a lot of kicks. Sami caught him with a DVD. They traded more strikes. This match won’t end. Kyle got a nearfall with brainbuster. Kyle then hit a Regalplex and locked in a sleeper. This match won’t end. Sami survived and hit a delayed saito. Sliding D from Sami got a nearfall. Kyle got a guillotine, but Sami reversed it into an exploder. They traded submissions until KO locked in the triangle. Sami was forced to tap.
For some reason, I was not into this match at all after eight or nine minutes. After they did a sequence on the floor, the match seemed to be reaching its conclusion. Then they wrestled for what seemed like ten more minutes. While I would never want to imply that I feel like matches should always be structured a certain way, I do have to point out my speculation that this structure is probably why I (and the crowd, seemingly) lost interest in the proceedings. The effort was clearly there, but this ended up not being for me.
Match Rating: **3/4
The Young Bucks© (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs. Dojo Bros (Eddie “Eddie Edwards” Edwards & Roderick Strong)
LOL! The match started with the Bucks killing Angelo Trinidad!!! ‘
That was amazing. EEEE hit a big tope suicida, and Roddy then hit a tope con HELLO~!* The Bucks eventually worked over Roddy. EEEE tagged in and made a good comeback. The teams went back and forth. It was delightful. Roddy and EEEE got stereo submissions. Nick managed to push Roddy off into EEEE. The Bucks came back. EEEE ate a double tombstone, but Roddy made the save. The Bros hit Matt with the double stomp/dominator combo, but Nick gave Rick Knox a 450 to save the belts. EEEE ate a low blow and a small package; they had to wait for a second ref. EEEE was able to kick out. The Bucks then gave Eddie More Bang for Your Buck: 1…2…3
*Excalibur and Steen marked out huge for Roddy doing a dive, because they had never seen him do one before. Sadly for me, I immediately remembered Roddy doing one in the 2009 Survival of the Fittest Finals. The choices I made in life that caused me to retain that knowledge have clearly been poor.
This match featured a lot of fun action, but I thought everything after the 450 on Rick Knox was somewhat flat. While this was obviously a good match, the flat-ish ending probably made me underrate it.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Adam Cole© vs. Drake Younger [PWG World Championship]
Drake has eighteen stitches on the top of his head. He quickly hit a moonsault to the floor and kicked Cole’s ass. Cole managed to briefly get control of the match. Drake came back with a spinebuster. Drake then hit two half-nelson suplexes and a piledriver for a nearfall. Drake hit a chokeslam backbreaker for a nearfall. Excalibur and Steen made Nick Gage jokes. Cole came back with a brainbuster on the knee and a release German. Drake no-sold it and hit a lariat. Drake avoided a Panama City Sunrise and hit a Buckle DVD. Gibson Driver from Drake got a nearfall. Colt came back with a pair of superkicks and the Florida Key: 1…2…no. No one has kicked out of the Florida Key in PWG. Drake avoided a belt shot and hit the Drake’s Landing. Cole managed to get a foot on the ropes. Cole hit the Panama City Sunrise: 1…2…no. The crowd has only been politely invested in everything. They traded some strikes. Drake hit a half-nelson suplex, a lariat, and a running Drake’s Landing: 1…2…NO! Drake reversed a brainbuster into a small package for a nearfall. Drake started to Drake Up. Cole hit a German and a wizard. Another wizard from Cole. Drake kept Draking up. Cole caught Drake with an O’Connor Roll and got a handful of tights: 1…2….3.
Adam Cole immediately ran to the back.
This was a solid main event. It seemed laid out to create an ultimate babyface vs. ultimate heel dynamic without much of an in-ring story told beyond that. That’s all well and dandy if the Reseda crowd was its normal molten self. Unfortunately, the crowd just never really added anything to the proceedings, which made the match rather flat until the last few minutes. I was expecting a bit more from this.
Match Rating: ***
Final Thoughts:
Much like Night 1, I could not help but be underwhelmed by this show. There was plenty of quality wrestling, but it did not reach the heights I’ve come to expect from a normal PWG show. PWG went out of their way to bring in lots of new talent for this weekend, but it did not seem like they knew how to put them all in the best position. Just like Night 1, this is a “Thumbs Up” show, but it’s nothing that I was overly impressed with.