Image: @xIAMHOLLYWOODx
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.
