A new era for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is set to begin soon as they have announced matches for their next card, Threemendous V.
It will be the first show in the post-Reseda era, as it will return to the Globe Theater in Los Angeles after doing a test run back in March. The show will be headlined by the PWG tag team champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz), taking on one of the most prolific teams in the promotions history, The Young Bucks, in a PWG tag team title match.
A non-title match will also take place on the card, as current PWG champion WALTER will take on Brody King. Standing at 6’5, King is slightly bigger than the 6’4 WALTER, who has held the PWG title since defeating Keith Lee back in April.
Here’s a full list of matches for the July 13 event:
The Rascalz vs. The Young Bucks for the PWG world tag team titles
If this was the final PWG show in Reseda, they went out with a very good show that really picked up as it went on. This was not an all-time classic PWG show or anything, but it was very good.
Before the first match, Excalibur did his normal intro. He said that they are in the same position they were last month: they don’t know if this is their final show in Reseda, but it could be. Some fans cheered the chance of coming back, and booed when he mentioned the Globe, but they were in the minority.
– Tyler Bateman defeated Adam Brown
Brown was a late replacement for Trevor Lee. Pre-show, Excalibur mentioned Lee was hurt and wished he could be here but that he hated each and every one of us.
Bateman and Brown did a decent to good match, but I’d say that it’s below PWG standards. The crowd popped early for Brown. The reaction for Bateman was interesting, he was much more over for ASW. He got some boos, but also got more silence than I expected. They had some good striking and Brown did a good dive.
Bateman has some good forearms and elbows, but he threw a punching sequence late that did not look good. This lost the crowd a bit, Bateman won with a spinning tombstone. People did “please come back” for Brown, but not as much as I’ve heard before.
– Rey Horus defeated Jake Atlas
Atlas had quite a bit of heat, which I did not expect. The match was good, lots of fun lucha liver sequences. Atlas did a springboard to the floor, that looked kind of like a twisted bliss, where he might have landed really hard, but I couldn’t see the actual landing. Horus looked great, winning with a really great looking DDT off the ropes.
– Bandido defeated Robbie Eagles
This was a great match. I liked Bandido-Horus better, but people around me liked this one better. I am not going to do the high flying spots justice in this. Tons of dives and high spots. Bandido is over huge.
He won with a crazy spot out of the corner. Not sure how to describe this. He sat on the buckle, got Eagles in the torture rack position, and then gave him an inverted Michinoku driver into the ring for the pin. Crowd went nuts for both guys, throwing enough money into the ring to fill two pitchers and a baseball hat.
– Adam Brooks defeated Keith Lee
Really good match. Keith Lee is so great and works a big guy vs little guy match really well. Early story of the match was Lee no selling Brooks offense and overpowering him. Brooks did an eye gouge out of a test of strength spot where he faked going for the
test of strength, got a little bit of heat, but quickly got flattened by a great shoulder tackle from Lee.
Brooks came back with quick offense and cheap heel stuff. Crowd reacted well to Brooks. Finish came when Lee tried to get Brooks up for his jackhammer/powerslam, Brooks grabbed Justin (to crazy heat), low blowed Lee when Justin got turned around, and hit a swanton off the top.
Lee gave a nice promo into intermission.
– Jonah Rock defeated Timothy Thatcher
Tons of heat for Jonah. Thatcher got good reactions, but Jonah being the big heel was the story of the crowd responses. Lots of hard strikes and good submission spots from Thatcher. They brawled in the crowd in an area that I couldn’t see and Thatcher must have gotten murdered by a chair shot, because his back looked gross later.
The most memorable sequence for me was a great fight over a superplex. Thatcher had Jonah on the turnbuckle and kept fighting for the superplex. Jonah would knock him back down to the mat, and Thatcher kept jumping up from the mat and fighting for the superplex.
Third time ended up being the charm and he Jonah up and over for a great near fall. Jonah ended up winning with a frog splash to a chorus of boos.
– Matt Riddle defeated David Starr
Great technical match. This is one of those where every move and reversal made sense and built on top of each other. Great showing for Starr working heel, his matches in PWG have gotten better and better, and Riddle is always great. Riddle’s chest started bleeding from chops midway through.
Riddle hit his tombstone for a near fall. He ended up winning with a Gotch style tombstone off the second turnbuckle. Great reaction for both guys after the match.
– WALTER defeated Sammy Guevara to retain the PWG title
I loved the hell out of this match. This was my favorite match, but I’m guessing other people like Bandido-Eagles most.
Here’s the story of this match: WALTER wants to chop Sammy, Sammy wants to kick WALTER in the knee, and WALTER succeeded most so he won. Such a simple idea and so well told. Sammy avoided chops for a little while before finally getting flattened by won. Then he kicked WALTER in the knee as WALTER tried to chase him out of the ring. WALTER had an ugly bruise on his knee and Sammy’s chest was a disaster.
WALTER chopped him all around the outside of the ring. Sammy got the edge back by working the knee and hit some great high flying offense. Match ended when WALTER got Sammy by one wrist and flattened him with a chop. WALTER held onto the wrist, repeatedly struck him down then pulled him up one more time and killed him with a huge clothesline for the win.
After the match, WALTER tried to shake Sammy’s hand, but Sammy flipped him off and walked out.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has announced the dates and location for this year’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament.
BOLA 2018 will be taking place at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, California on September 14-16. The tournament is usually scheduled for three days during Labor Day weekend, but it had been known that wouldn’t be the case this year.
The Bullet Club’s All In show will be held at the Sears Centre Arena in the Chicago area on September 1st during Labor Day weekend.
The last four Battle of Los Angeles tournaments have featured 24 entrants. There haven’t been any wrestlers announced for this year’s edition yet.
Ricochet won the tournament in 2017 and went on to win the PWG World Championship before heading to WWE.
PWG debuted at the Globe Theatre in March and has another show taking place there on July 13th. “Bask in His Glory,” Keith Lee’s farewell to the promotion, is set for American Legion Post #308 in Reseda on May 25th and may be PWG’s final event at the building before it’s sold.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has revealed the lineup for what might be their final show at American Legion Post #308.
“Bask in His Glory” will take place in Reseda, California on May 25th, and the name of the show — a reference to Keith Lee and his catchphrase — is sure to increase speculation about Lee’s future on the independent scene. Lee lost the PWG World Championship to WALTER at All Star Weekend night two earlier this month and is scheduled to face Australian wrestler Adam Brooks in May.
WALTER will defend his title against Sammy Guevara in the main event of Bask in His Glory.
At the beginning of All Star Weekend night one, PWG announced that the sale of their longtime home venue hasn’t been finalized and their May date may not be the final show there. PWG will be returning to the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles on July 13th, with Dave Meltzer noting that it’s possible there will be more shows in Reseda if the Legion Post isn’t sold by August.
Here’s the full card for Bask in His Glory:
PWG World Champion WALTER defending against Sammy Guevara
Great opener. Lee did great heel work, attacking Webster before the bell and then grabbing the mic and introducing himself as he beat up Webster. The crowd was hot all match and we saw as close to a babyface vs. heel dynamic as we get from this crowd.
– Joey Janela defeated Robbie Eagles
Very strong follow-up match. Eagles got over well with the fans during it. It really was two big spots near the end that got the crowd really on his side. Janela tombstoned Eagles on the apron and then picked him up and immediately tombstoned him again onto the seat of a chair. The referee got to 19 before Eagles rolled into the ring — only to get piledriven again, but Eagles kicked out at two.
Eagles then fired up an mounted a comeback, and the crowd was with him the rest of the way. Janela eventually won with a top rope brainbuster.
– Sammy Guevara defeated Taiji Ishimori
This match was a bit weird. Guevara had huge heat. Ishimori got a good reaction, but not as strong as he did on night one. They were building momentum on the match, but Ishimori slipped trying to do a springboard dropkick and had an awkward fall into the
ring. Guevara covered for him by immediately attempting a pinfall, then started beating on him.
Ishimori got up and was moving weird and looked out of it, but they moved quickly to a spot where Guevara took Ishimori outside, went back in the ring, and did a ridiculous dive over the post onto Ishimori. Guevara is really unbelievable. He won with a Shooting Star Press.
Guevara refused to leave the ring until he got the microphone. The boos rained down, and he eventually got the mic and cut a promo about how great he is and how we all know that he always comes to the show and gives it everything he has. And for what reason? So that everyone can talk about how he had match of the night? So Dave Meltzer can write him up? He said he wouldn’t come back to PWG unless he got a World title shot.
The crowd, who were booing him the whole time, then switched to singing the goodbye song.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) defeated Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tyler Bateman) to retain their titles
Violence Unlimited were so over. King remained as over as he was on night one, but there was a huge response for Bateman. The match was great and fast moving, and everyone looked good. The story of the match was what it should be: VU overpowering The Rascalz and The Rascalz using their speed and incredible tandem offensive combinations to come back.
Xavier did a reverse hurricanrana to King and looked like he landed right on his head. He said he was okay after the match. The Rascalz won with an assisted Shooting Star Press onto Bateman. The crowd loved this match.
– Bandido defeated Rey Horus
Apart from the main event, this match was clearly the most beloved of the night. Each guy looked great, but Bandido was a little sharper and super over. There were a million great spots, including each guy hitting dives to the outside. Bandido did the Fosbury Flop and looked amazing.
The finish was unreal and hard to describe, with Bandido doing Trevor Lee’s reverse flipping powerslam where he catches an opponent and uses their momentum to flip over in mid-air — but Bandido did it from the top turnbuckle. The place came unglued for that, and rightly so.
The fans threw money into the ring after the match. They filled two pitchers with money, and then needed another pitcher, which resulted in a chant for a pitcher until one arrived.
– Matt Riddle defeated Timothy Thatcher
Riddle submitted him with the Bromission. This was a solid technical bout, but it suffered a little from having to follow Bandido-Horus. The crowd got into this by the end, with it being a really well put together match where each guy had multiple holds and submission attempts that flowed really well and logically followed what came before.
– WALTER defeated Keith Lee and Jonah Rock in a three-way match to win the PWG World Championship
This was the meanest “mean guy match” of all time. Rock got the heat early by attacking both WALTER and Lee. Lee and WALTER had a great early sequence where Lee ran the ropes and kept evading WALTER’s chops. They did a great job of making a few minutes pass before WALTER finally landed a chop, but then the floodgates opened.
Both Rock and Lee tried to exchange chops with WALTER but were chopped down. Lee eventually knocked WALTER outside and was setting up a dive when Rock cut him off to huge boos from the crowd. Rock hit a tope suicida, then Lee hit a tope con hilo onto both. There were a bunch of great hard-hitting sequences, getting everyone on their feet multiple times. Lee hit a huge powerbomb on WALTER for a great two count. He also hit the jackhammer on Rock, but Rock kicked out.
The finish came when Rock laid Lee out to set up a splash, but WALTER came in, knocked Rock to the floor outside, and hit the top rope splash on Lee — only to have him kick out at one. The crowd was going nuts, but WALTER got up, hit Lee with a huge clothesline, and pinned him. Everyone went nuts for the title change.
Lee cut a great promo after, referencing the last show where he won the title at the Globe Theatre and that he failed in his promise to Chuck Taylor to elevate the championship. Lee said that he meant what he said at the last show about how much his year in PWG meant to him. He told WALTER to keep the title after the promotion leaves Reseda and to elevate it and the company for the fans.
Guevara came back out afterwards and got in WALTER’s face — only to get hit by a huge chop, which got a big pop.
The sale of the American Legion Hall has run into snags so the May 25th event may not be the last show in the building. It also still may be the last one. That May 25th show will take place in Reseda and the next one is July 13th at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles. It is possible to return to Reseda after that point.
Last night’s All Star Weekend 14 night one show was a strong one. There was no match on the card that wasn’t very good, and this was top tier when it came to crowd heat. In particular, the main event, Taiji Ishimori vs. Bandido, and Walter & Timothy Thatcher vs. Brody King & Tyler Bateman were over huge and in very different ways.
– Rey Horus pinned Trevor Lee with a front rolling cradle off the middle rope.
Lee is one of the most underrated guys in the business, and Horus had a good night here as well. Lee used his Impact Wrestling status to get easy heat.
– Taiji Ishimori pinned Bandido with a suplex into a codebreaker.
These guys had a match that most thought would steal the show when it was over, but the quality late was so strong that it didn’t. These two have the potential to have one of the best feuds in the world with their respective skill sets, but it was their first time in the ring together and there was a very minor style clash that kept it from near match of the year levels.
Ishimori is the typical Japanese wrestler who is so much more impressive live than on TV because of how technically great they are.
– WALTER & Timothy Thatcher defeated Brody King & Tyler Bateman
WALTER beat King with a choke. WALTER and King have something special together, When they tagged in, the place exploded for no reason other than it was two talented big guys, and King has only done a couple of PWG shows and his last match had issues with guys getting hurt. But I sense the people can see the future with him.
– Sammy Guevara defeated Robbie Eagles and Flash Morgan Webster in a three-way match
Guevara is a super talented top heel waiting to happen. Eagles was making his PWG debut and looked good. Webster is becoming a regular and anyone who’s a regular here has to be top-notch because the competition to work here is the highest it has ever been. Guevara hit a 450 on Eagles and Webster and pinned Eagles.
– Jonah Rock pinned Joey Janela with a top rope superplex that broke the ring, followed by a powerbomb and a splash off the top rope.
Since Rock and WALTER are both challenging Keith Lee in a three-way for the PWG title tonight, I figured Rock to get a dominant win. Instead, they did more back-and-forth and Janela got a lot of offense — and in that sense what they did made for a better wrestling match.
– PWG World Champion Keith Lee pinned Hangman Page with a jackhammer in a non-title match.
Page had a very tanned front and forgot to tan his back, and the crowd picked up on it and Lee and Page immediately responded to them. There were chants about the tan and Lee was laughing, so for nearly five minutes they played that up.
The crowd was very engaged in the match but the negative was, because it started so comedically, they never got the crowd into the seriousness of it. The crowd was very into it, but more as fun, even with Page doing all of his crazy stuff.
– The Rascals (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) won the PWG Tag Team titles in a three-way over champs Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb and The Young Bucks
This was exactly what you’d expect it to be. Wentz & Xavier are super talented guys that are only going to get better working with the type of wrestlers they are starting to work with. The other four are all among the best in the world. There were lots of big spots, dives, and Cobb twice did double suplexes, giving The Rascals a double back suplex, one with each arm, and giving the Bucks a double German suplex.
After the match ended, The Young Bucks did their farewell to Reseda after wrestling in their final match at the American Legion Hall. They talked about watching their first match in the building from 10 years ago and how much they’ve changed and things have changed, and this was the building that put them on the map. They talked about when people ask what matches of theirs they want to see, they talk about matches in the building.
They discussed matches all before I started going, mentioning names like Scott Lost, Paul London, El Generico, Kevin Steen, Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae and others, and said that Steen and LeRae told them today how much they loved working here as well.
It was pretty much the end of an era since The Young Bucks really built the promotion, both with their matches and selling T-shirts, but also their demand in their contract with ROH that would allow ROH full-time contracted talent to work here even though they were banned from all other indies in the United States.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is departing its longtime home venue.
The promotion announced the news last night and revealed the dates for the last three shows that will be taking place at American Legion Post #308 in Reseda, California: “PWG says goodbye to Reseda. The final three shows at the American Legion Hall will take place on April 20th/21st, and May 25th!”
The move, after Reseda had been PWG’s home for the past decade and they’ve been reluctant to use bigger buildings, is being made due to the Legion Hall being sold.
Because of an issue with PayPal where tickets were oversold, last Friday’s “Time is a Flat Circle” was the first PWG show to be held outside of Reseda since the Kurt Russellreunion events in 2010-2012. Time is a Flat Circle took place at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, and Dave Meltzer reported that the feeling is the venue will become a regular home base for PWG. Meltzer also noted that there may be other buildings that have to be used at times.
The Globe Theatre fit approximately 700 people for the show, which is an increase from the 400 who could attend in Reseda.
PWG’s two shows in April will be for this year’s All Star Weekend, with Taiji Ishimori (who recently departed Pro Wrestling NOAH), Adam (Hangman) Page, Robbie Eagles, and Tyler Bateman set to debut for the promotion. The Young Bucks will be wrestling at the Legion Hall for the final time as they face Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb and Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz in a Tag Team title match on night one.
Here are the cards for both nights of All Star Weekend 2018:
April 20th —
PWG Tag Team Champions Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb defending against The Young Bucks and Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz in a three-way match
PWG World Champion Keith Lee vs. Adam Page in a non-title match
Taiji Ishimori vs. Bandido
Brody King & Tyler Bateman vs. Timothy Thatcher & WALTER
Joey Janela vs. Jonah Rock
Robbie Eagles vs. Flash Morgan Webster vs. Sammy Guevara
Trevor Lee vs. Rey Horus
April 21st —
PWG World Champion Keith Lee defending against WALTER and Jonah Rock in a three-way match
Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher
Sammy Guevara vs. Taiji Ishimori
Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Brody King & Tyler Bateman
Here are results from last night’s PWG show (called “Time is a Flat Circle”), which was held at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, California.
– Joey Janela defeated Roy Horus with a package piledriver
A great opener. Janela was very over with the crowd.
– Brody King defeated Douglas James, Jake Atlas, and Eli Everfly when King pinned Everfly with a piledriver
All four men looked impressive — particularly King, who was bigger yet still did some killer dives to the outside.
– Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier defeated Bandido & Flamita following an assisted Shooting Star Press
This was one of the highlights of the night. All four wrestlers looked excellent here as well, but Bandido and Flamita stood out as the slightly better team. They had excellent chemistry with one another, doing lots of crazy assisted moves and tandem work.
After the match, people threw money in the ring and chanted “please come back.”
– Will Ospreay defeated Adam Brooks after the OsCutter
Tremendous match, the best of the night. It was a wild spectacle bout with tons of dives, counters, crazy kickouts, and everything you can think of in a high-profile match. Ospreay and Brooks hugged after it was over.
– Jonah Rock defeated Jeff Cobb following a frog splash
Rock was hated and was booed. Cobb was way over. They had a stiff, hard-hitting bout with some neat suplexes and cool counters. The crowd booed the finish.
– Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Matt Riddle with a bridging pin
A really nice technical bout with some good matwork and nicely-timed spots. For just having watched Sabre dominate everyone in the New Japan Cup, it was kind of weird seeing him take moves like a German suplex, but this was more back and forth than the New Japan Cup matches.
– Keith Lee defeated Chuck Taylor with the Ground Zero to win the PWG World Championship
A good main event. The start of it had Taylor ducking Lee and making remarks on the microphone, including one line about how everyone knows Lee is going to the WWE. Lee eventually got tired of the antics and they brawled around the ring. It turned into a good match with Lee winning the title.
Lee cut a really good promo after, saying one year ago he came to PWG from the Texas area and now he’s the champion. He thanked the fans to close out the show.
Here are some updates on injuries that have gone down over the last week.
Trent Barreta has confirmed on Twitter that he will be out of action for a while after suffering injuries during his match against Chuck Taylor for PWG last weekend. Kevin Kelly described the injuries during this morning’s Honor Rising show as a torn bicep and a torn pectoral muscle.
Barreta worked both nights of the Honor Rising tour. His match this morning was changed from a singles bout with Dalton Castle for the ROH World title to a triple threat match involving the Beer City Bruiser.
Our own Filthy Tom Lawlor suffered a broken forearm after hitting a clothesline on Dominic Garrini in the back of the head at last night’s AIW event. He expects to have an update early next week, but had to pull out of this weekend’s ASW Canada match against Davey Boy Smith Jr. due to the injury.
Bianca Belair appeared to be injured during an NXT house show on Thursday night in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. During the finish of her match, which was against Ember Moon for the NXT Women’s title, Moon was supposed to land The Eclipse and then pin her. The move didn’t appear to land properly, and Belair kicked out. The match ended anyway, with Belair being helped to the back.
Belair has not wrestled since, but Triple H did mention on Twitter earlier today that she’ll be facing Moon on tonight’s NXT card in Peterborough.
PWG has revealed the full card for their next event, Time is a Flat Circle.
In the main event, Chuck Taylor will defend his PWG World title against Keith Lee. Matt Riddle will take on Zack Sabre Jr. in the semi-main. And Will Ospreay will wrestle for the promotion for the first time since September 2016, taking on Adam Brooks. Rey Horus will also be back for the first time since October as he faces Joey Janela.
A number of people will be making their debuts on the show. Jake Atlas, Eli Everfly and Douglas James, all regulars in the Southern California indie scene, will take part in the same match alongside Brody King in a four-way. Zachary Wentz, who is a regular with Dragon Gate, will team with Desmond Xavier to take on Bandido, a luchador who has also competed for Dragon Gate as well as the Crash, & Flamita.
Here is the full card:
Chuck Taylor vs. Keith Lee for the PWG World title
Matt Riddle vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Will Ospreay vs. Adam Brooks
Desmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Flamita & Bandido
Jeff Cobb vs. Jonah Rock
Brody King vs. Jake Atlas vs. Eli Everfly vs. Douglas James
Rey Horus vs. Joey Janela
Time is a Flat Circle will take place on March 23rd. Tickets will go on sale on PWG’s website on February 27th at 8 pm PDT.
Image: SoCal Uncensored. Report submitted by reader Brian Reznick. Additional thanks to Dave Doyle and Ruby Flores.
– Adam Brooks defeated Brody King
Brooks won in 11:39 with a swanton. It was a good, short match. Brooks looked better than his previous PWG matches, and King was very over with the crowd while making his debut.
They did a few rough spots on the apron, which was a theme of the night. There were three different moments where they clearly miscommunicated or something went wrong, but they didn’t lose the crowd.
– Dalton Castle defeated Joey Janela
Castle hit the Bang-a-Rang to win in 21:29. The crowd loved both guys, and there was some good comedy based around eye poke spots by Janela. The match was a few minutes too long and lost the crowd a bit.
– Travis Banks defeated David Starr
A cradle/fisherman’s suplex off the turnbuckle ended this in 10:27. They had a good, hard-hitting match. Starr was much better here than in his PWG debut against Fred Yehi.
– Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Flip Gordon
Sabre submitted him in 15:43. This was my favorite match of the night up to this point, though a few people around me liked Banks vs. Starr better. The response for Gordon in his debut was great overall.
ZSJ took most of the match, stretching Gordon with creative submissions. They got a huge pop late when Gordon went for a standing Shooting Star Press and Sabre caught him in a triangle.
– Keith Lee defeated Matt Riddle
This was a hell of a match, with Lee using his big powerslam/jackhammer to get the pin in 18:31. Riddle’s chest was a mess coming into the match and Lee opened him up early with a huge double hand chop in the corner. The blood really increased the drama right away.
Lee landed a second rope moonsault late, but Riddle kicked out at one. Later, Riddle hit a top rope senton and Lee kicked out at two. Riddle stomped Lee down and hit another top rope senton, with Lee kicking out at one. Everyone jumped out of their seats for that.
Riddle kicked out of a powerslam/jackhammer, then Lee kicked out of the Bro to Sleep. Just a crazy, great match.
– PWG World Champion Chuck Taylor defeated Trent Barreta to retain his title
Taylor pinned Barreta with a low blow and a small package in 25:38 to retain. This was a heel turn as Barreta had the opportunity to hit Taylor with the title, but he decided not to and handed the belt to referee Rick Knox. Taylor then low-blowed and pinned Barreta when Knox turned to hand the title out of the ring.
There was good drama in the match. They did an exchange early that ended in the Best Friends hug for a pop. Much later, they did a Japanese-style forearm exchange that led to them each collapsing to their knees and falling against each other, making it look like they were doing the Best Friends hug again. It was really well done.
Barreta did a great blade job at one point, cutting himself over the eyebrow right before a stiff looking kick to the face. There were tons of piledrivers in the match: Taylor got piledriven twice on the apron, Barreta got piledriven on chairs outside, and there were multiple piledrivers in the ring. Taylor kicked out of a Dudebuster and Barreta kicked out of various piledrivers before the finish.
After the match, Taylor didn’t shake Barreta’s hand or hug him and just walked out. The crowd had already booed him and it really turned up at that point. The show then ended quickly and awkwardly, which I think made the heel turn more effective.
Overall, this was a very good show based on the excellent second half. The crowd enjoyed it and was very hot for the final two matches.
With it being Mystery Vortex, no matches for last night’s PWG show were announced ahead of time. They tried to keep the talent so secretive that no wrestlers even came out to sell merchandise before the show, and at intermission, nobody who had yet to wrestle came out to sell merchandise.
Sammy Guevara did come out to shoot stuff for his vlog with fans in line for the show so people knew he was there. And in line word got around of some people there but none of the matches. People figured out the main event because Ricochet had to lose the PWG title since he starts with WWE on Tuesday, and early in the show, Chuck Taylor suddenly left the announcing position to go backstage and didn’t come back out.
– David Starr defeated Fred Yehi
Both men were making their debut. Starr won with a roll-up after a series of reversals.
– Joey Janela defeated Flash Morgan Webster
Janela hit a brainbuster off the top rope and submitted Webster with a crossface.
– Sammy Guevara defeated Rey Fenix
Guevara used a shooting star press to win. The first eight or so minutes of this match were incredible. But Guevara got hit with a tope and the back of his head hit the concrete. He was bleeding from the back of his head and it got worse as the match went on. It was hard to tell where the selling ended and if he was knocked silly, but it was definitely bothering him.
He also did a 450 on Fenix, whose knee was in a bad position and instead of landing on the body, landed on the knee. Fenix was hurt, although we don’t know how bad. They kept going but were careful and you could see some things starting to fall apart.
Guevara told me after he was okay, but then left the building after intermission. Fenix was limping after. Hopefully it’s not bad but it didn’t look good.
– Keith Lee defeated Zack Sabre Jr.
Lee powered out of the Octopus and pinned Sabre with a jackhammer slam. Most of the match was Sabre doing submission attempts.
– Trent Baretta defeated Marty Scurll
Baretta hit the Dudebuster after Scurll had thrown baby powder into his eyes. It made the ref look bad because not only could you see the powder everywhere but he was kicking the powder out of the ring. At least it made ringside smell nice. But the blinded Baretta then hit his finisher.
– PWG Tag Team Champions Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb defeated WALTER & Timothy Thatcher to retain their titles
Thatcher was pinned after the doomsday knee. This was the best match on the show. Cobb got a bloody nose from a kick and it got worse as the match went on.
– Chuck Taylor defeated Ricochet to win the PWG World Championship
Taylor won the title after Ricochet missed a 630 into thumbtacks and Taylor gave him a piledriver and the Awful Waffle. There was a story here because Taylor trained Ricochet about 15 years ago. They tried to work it like a fight although Ricochet did a lot of in-ring flying, but not much of his crazy out of the ring stuff.
Taylor gave a brief speech about how when he started Ricochet out, he could see very quickly that Ricochet was so much better than he was. He didn’t say Ricochet was going to WWE but implied that every person in the room knew it. There were some “205 Live” comments and heckles during the match at Ricochet, who was playing heel until the end, since Taylor was winning.
Ricochet gave a speech after it was over, saying that while he considers Dragon Gate one of his homes (he did a final tour of Dragon Gate after leaving New Japan to show his gratitude toward them for his early break) that he considered PWG his home as well, since I believe this was his last indie match and they had him win both BOLA and the title in the last few months knowing he was leaving, in gratitude. Almost every wrestler came out and sat in the ring and applauded him after.
Editor’s Note: Every day this week, we’ll take you back to one of Dave Meltzer’s top-rated matches of the past year, starting with No. 10. What follows is an edited version of Dave’s writeup of that match from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Donovan Dijak vs. Keith Lee
PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 3 | September 3rd
*****
The best match of the BOLA weekend was an insane match of the tag team of The Monsters, Donovan Dijak and Keith Lee, in a singles match. This followed a tag match between their team and Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb two nights earlier that was nearly as good.
Lee is probably 6’2″ and 330 pounds while Dijak is about 6’5″ or more and 270 pounds with a good physique. From an in-ring standpoint, he is the most agile guy of his size that I’ve ever seen in pro wrestling, surpassing even Don Leo Jonathan. They have wrestled before and tore the house down in Northeast Wrestling, and many felt they had the single best match of WrestleMania weekend on March 31st for EVOLVE. That really says something when you consider the competition.
This match was ten minutes longer and had the same freaky athletic spots, but had tons more crowd heat than the EVOLVE match according to people who saw both live. It was also said to be far better than their May 20th EVOLVE match. This was their final meeting as Dijak started full-time with WWE in Orlando two days later.
Booked as the third match on the show, they went out there and did athletic spots and power moves with endless near falls. It was a cross between an Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels WrestleMania match and an Ishii vs. Shibata match, except with more spectacular moves thrown in. The crowd got hotter and hotter with each near fall, and when they kept kicking out of moves everyone figured were the finish, they got hotter and did the “fight forever” chants which was not a chant this hardcore audience would do lightly.
Keith Lee pinned Donovan Dijak in 21:41
There were so many insane moves and they kicked out of everything. Very early on, the ring broke, but unlike the night before, it only made things a little wobbly. You wouldn’t even notice it as a fan watching even though these were good sized guys landing hard from off the top rope. I could see it being uneven in spots and heard the spot where it broke, but didn’t know it was a break until after the match was over.
Early on, Dijak did a Fosbury flop dive and Lee came right back with a running flip dive. The rest of the match was filled with acrobatic spots that guys this size shouldn’t be doing: leapfrogs, matching huracanranas, one count kickouts that made the crowd explode, monster big man spots, and big power spots. Lee finally won with his second jackhammer (his finisher) which Dijak had kicked out of earlier in the match. Because the two have a unique chemistry, I guess the idea was to do their best match possible since they knew they’d never have a chance to do this kind of a match together again.
Even if Lee ends up in WWE and they feud, there’s no way WWE would allow them to do this kind of a match unless perhaps it was on a TakeOver show and even then, I doubt they’d let then kick out of so many finishers.
When I compare it with different key U.S. matches, Undertaker vs. Michaels got more out of doing less and were able to sell more because of the advantage of who they were. But this still felt like watching that match given the hot crowd and people buying the near falls so heavily, except the moves were far more spectacular. With Bate vs. Dunne (**** 3/4) or Cena vs. Styles (**** 3/4), those matches were similarly hot, but it was much bigger guys doing far more athletic things. That’s saying something when you talk about athletic things in a PPV main event and compare it favorably to Styles.
As compared with the SummerSlam main event, the advantage of that match is that I can remember the moves and structure of that match today. With this match, it was far more spectacular and blew the crowd away equally as a prelim match with far lesser name stars, but I can’t say the spots were as memorable because there were so many of them. I remember the four-way at SummerSlam better as far as the key points went, but it was a match relying on four guys doing their big spots over and over as opposed to Dijak-Lee where the guys did far more, but with moves I wasn’t as familiar with.
It was two different kinds of roller coaster rides: a great ride on one you’ve ridden since childhood but it still fun vs. a new updated coaster which has a lot more twists and turns but you don’t know it and aren’t as familiar with it.
A key to this match was the physical dynamics. The two have worked together a few times and because they mostly work with smaller guys, there are some limits as far as certain acrobatics. For guys this size, you need a powerhouse base that they usually don’t have. The fact they did this match in a ring that broke a few minutes into the match (there were people under the ring fixing it as the match was going on) made it even more impressive as they didn’t skip a beat. There were people who have been fans for decades saying it was the best live match they had ever seen.
There is the belief, and it was expressed by some after the fact, that wasn’t the kind of match to do that early in the show, and there are questions about kicking out of so many finishers. The reality, however, is this match didn’t burn the audience out for the rest of the show. I could see hating to follow it, and when it was over, I thought immediately that they should have at least taken an intermission.
Editor’s Note: Every day this week, we’ll take you back to one of Dave Meltzer’s top-rated matches of the past year, starting with No. 10. What follows is an edited version of Dave’s writeup of that match from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WALTER vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
PWG All-Star Weekend | October 21st
*****
The match of the weekend by far was Walter vs. Zack Sabre Jr. I’ve given five stars to two PWG matches so far that both of which, by coincidence, ended with “five star match” chants. This one had no such chants, but I still had people coming up to me individually saying that live it was five stars as it reminded me of being there live for the 1989 Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat classic in Chicago except WALTER’S chops were much stiffer.
Flair-Steamboat did have an element of artistry and the feel of a historic match between the two best guys around battling for a real world title that this one couldn’t touch. But, this was more physical and far more heated. Still, the key to the match were the chops and physical matches always translate better live than on television or later viewing, so I don’t think people viewing this later would rate it the same. It was a better version of the WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov match in wXw earlier in the year that I didn’t see live and gave ****3/4, but people who were there live thought was the best match they’d ever seen and were consistent that it was five stars. Zabre is better than Dragunov and WALTER is the same WALTER so this match felt better to me, but, at that level, they’re all great.
WALTER beat Zack Sabre Jr. (20:02)
WALTER highlighted this match with some of the hardest chops you’ll ever see thrown. It was amazing live because they’d go into the crowd and would throw chops that sounded like a shotgun was fired. They played up the size difference. WALTER threw some great suplexes and when it was time to sell, he was great there too. I’m really not sure why he isn’t more on the international stage given his size and how well he works. His body is soft, but he comes across like a “Big” Bill Miller-sized guy and is far better than Miller ever was, and Miller was a great star. I’m not sure how his personality when it comes to talking would hold up but as far as the ability to work and get a match over and come across like a tough big guy while not destroying his opponent, he’s incredible.
Sabre went for a cradle and Walter got behind him for a choke for the submission. There were people who said this was the best PWG match ever. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was an incredible live spectacle.
*****
Subscribers can listen to Dave and Bryan’s November interview with WALTER now.
The aforementioned WALTER-Dragunov match can be seen below for a limited time:
Last night’s PWG show in Reseda, California was another strong one. It included an amazing match with WALTER vs. Zack Sabre Jr., that some were calling the best match in PWG history. I wouldn’t go that far, but if you’ve seen WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov from wXw’s 16 Carat Gold final this year (and you should if you haven’t), this was the same type of match but only better.
– Jonah Rock defeated Adam Brooks
Both of these men are from Australia and have good chemistry together doing the big man-little man thing. Very good opener.
– The Young Bucks defeated Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Haskins
The Young Bucks won with a Meltzer Driver on Haskins and a double sharpshooter finish. They did a six boots spot (with Marty Scurll, Nick Jackson, and referee Rick Knox) that got over huge. Excellent match.
– Marty Scurll defeated Joey Janela
Scurll won by submission with the chicken wing. Very good match.
– WALTER defeated Zack Sabre Jr.
The story of this match was WALTER just blistering Sabre with ridiculously hard chops. At times it felt like a shotgun was going off. Sabre Jr’s chest was beat to death, and it was very reminiscent of a Ric Flair/Ron Garvin match.
What made it was Sabre’s selling. The match had excellent pacing and WALTER did good suplexes and won by reversing a bridging pin by Sabre into a choke.
– Trent Barreta defeated Matt Sydal and Rey Horus in a three-way match
Trent pinned Sydal after hitting a Dudebuster. Really good match, but there were a few botches from Horus that kept it from being excellent. The Trent is a heavyweight stuff from New Japan was the focus of the match with him playing more of a big man and fans chanting he’s a heavyweight. There were tons of near falls.
– Ricochet defeated Chuck Taylor to win the PWG title
Very different match than you’d think. Ricochet worked as a heel and just showed a different type of bout than he usually does. He got the pin to win the title with a low blow and a belt shot. Then the referees had a consultation and ordered the match restarted. Usually that means a quick babyface win but they went more than 13 more minutes.
Taylor undid the top rope, I guess with the story that Ricochet can’t do his best moves without a top rope. He still did a shooting star press and a 450 off the middle rope for near falls. They did a ton of big moves and near falls back and forth, including a tease of another pin after a low blow, but Ricochet then won with a Rock Bottom like move.
Nobody expected Ricochet to win after they did the restart. He said, and keep in mind this was as a heel, that everyone is wrong and he’s going nowhere and winning the belt proves it.
