PWG held their DINK event Sunday night at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles.
The show was held in honor of Alan “DINK” Denkerson, a longtime PWG fan who recently passed away. The event was headlined by PWG World Champion Daniel Garcia defending against Jonathan Gresham.
Two changes were made to the lineup after Trey Miguel was unable to attend — In the scheduled Dark Order vs. The Rascalz match, West Coast Wrecking Crew substituted for The Rascalz. Additionally, the Rey Horus vs. Titus Alexander singles bout was changed to a triple threat, with Myron Reed of The Rascalz added.
Here are results from the show:
PWG World Championship: Daniel Garcia defeated Jonathan Gresham to retain the title
“Speedball” Mike Bailey defeated Lio Rush
Davey Richards defeated Shane Haste
Bandido, Aramis & Komander defeated Black Taurus, Arez & Latigo
Masha Slamovich defeated Jordynne Grace
The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson) defeated West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs)
PWG’s 16th anniversary show took place at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Friday night.
– Trey Miguel pinned Andy Brown with a meteora off the top rope
Strong opener, particularly by Miguel. Brown is local and the crowd was hot for this.
– The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson) defeated Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Barreta) by DQ
This was like a practice run for their All Out match on August 31. The match was very good. Great heat and a lot of cool moves.
It was very unlike a PWG finish. There was a strong face vs. heel dynamic and the Dark Order used low blows a few times when the ref was down. Trent finally used a low blow in retaliation — but the ref saw that and disqualified him. It’s probably building a program and PWG almost never does this type of finish.
– Darby Allin pinned MJF
MJF wore plaid trunks and a scarf which was in tribute to Roddy Piper since some people compare him to Piper. He got enormous heat in a way that nobody here gets. He ran down guys doing flippy moves and ran down the fans and said he was going to win with a headlock takeover. He tried it many times, including after a low blow, but Allin always kicked out.
Allin finally gave MJF a low blow and a headlock takeover and got the three. This finish worked huge. Great bout.
– Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus defeated Black Taurus, Laredo Kid & Puma King
Insane. People were saying this was the best PWG match since the famous Young Bucks & Adam Cole vs. Will Ospreay, Matt Sydal & Ricochet match a few years ago and I’d pretty much agree. So many dives and first time moves.
Bandido pinned Puma King with the 21-Plex. The place threw more money in the ring when it was over than I’ve seen thrown in a long time.
– Joey Janela pinned Jungle Boy with an elbow off the top rope
The crowd sees both guys as big stars now. Luchasaurus carried Jungle Boy to the ring on his shoulders. It was very difficult to follow the previous match but this was good.
– Brody King pinned David Starr with a ganso bomb
Good match but again once that six-man happened nothing was going to get the over-the-top reaction.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) retained their titles against LAX (Santana & Ortiz) in a ladder match
This was a great match. A lot of innovative stuff. Xavier climbed up the ladder and got both belts to win.
Tony Khan of AEW was at the show. He had been in town since midweek due to the Television Critics Association conference.
This year’s PWG Mystery Vortex show took place from the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday night, featuring a card where the matches weren’t announced in advance.
– Trey Miguel pinned Tony Deppen with double knees off the top rope
Both these guys have good timing and do cool things. Very creative but it was like one long high spot. Really, for this crowd, it was almost a perfect opening match.
The fans really liked Deppen and it felt like a large percentage of the crowd knew who he was, which also speaks to fewer of the WWE fan types that had been at the last few Globe shows.
– Chuck Taylor pinned Orange Cassidy with the Awful Waffle
Another sign of this crowd being very educated towards minor wrestling groups was that Cassidy had never appeared in PWG and the place went absolutely nuts when he came out and went nuts for every spot.
This was all the comedy stuff until the last three minutes. Cassidy is clearly going to be one of the hottest indie acts around because of his uniqueness. I don’t know how effective he’ll be with repeat viewings in the same building. But unlike at the WrestleCon SuperShow, where he got a giant reaction but there were people hating his stuff, everyone was into him here. Really, he should have gone over in his debut.
– PWG World Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Jonathan Gresham to retain his title
Cobb and Gresham had flights out that night, Cobb to Michigan and Gresham to Japan, so they went on early. Cobb broke his thumb on the first spot.
This was very good, but it had a flaw in that the size difference was such that it was hard to buy Gresham being a threat. To his credit, the crowd was very into his near falls and they were so close to three with Cobb’s kickout timing that people actually bought it.
Gresham did a crazy tope where Cobb’s back was turned on the floor and Gresham did a tope into a choke. Cobb then climbed from the floor into the ring while being choked.
– Brody King defeated Trent Barreta and Jake Atlas in a three-way match when he pinned Atlas with a Bruno backbreaker dropped into a piledriver
The amount King and Atlas have improved in the last six months is unreal. When they debuted here, which wasn’t that long ago, they were nowhere near ready for PWG caliber, and now they had one of the two best matches on this show and were top level. Both could go anywhere and be stars now.
– Jungle Boy pinned Puma King
Short match. Very good. Jungle Boy has also improved greatly. He should be pushed like a late 70s Tommy Rich in AEW. He’s just got a natural charisma about him.
Jungle Boy got a huge reaction and people just gravitate to him. He’s also good enough now to carry it where before I’d have a very different idea of getting him over based on the long haul years from now, but now I think he’s got something missing from the major groups.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated Flamita & Rey Horus to retain their titles
Excellent match. Horus is maybe the most underrated guy in the business. Flamita has gained a lot of weight but he can go. Xavier flipped Wentz on top of Flamita for the pin.
– Darby Allin pinned Joey Janela in a Guerrilla Warfare match with a leglock into a bridging cradle
This was insane. Both guys seemed intent on ending their careers before they can start with AEW. Both fell off the balcony together through tables on the floor. There were cinderblocks used but not broken, thumbtacks with Janela bleeding all over his back and especially around one of his elbows, Allin had a garbage can put over his head and fell off the top rope to the floor where he couldn’t see when he was landing, and piledrivers through chairs.
They worked really hard. Janela did a promo talking about returning and what they had done.
Here are results from last night’s PWG Two Hundred show at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles.
– Jungle Boy defeated Trey Miguel and Jake Atlas in a three-way match
Really good stuff. A little too synchronized at times but creative as hell. Miguel is really good and Atlas has improved a ton in the last several months. Jungle Boy pinned Miguel.
Jungle Boy was really popular and I was surprised to see him there given his father suffering a stroke two days ago. He just has the ability to get over with a crowd.
– Puma King defeated Laredo Kid
Excellent Lucha match. There were tons of moves and dives with a lot of creativity. It’s just what this crowd wanted from this match. Laredo Kid was great here, kind of doing so much stuff because he was losing.
– Best Friends (Trent Barreta & Chuckie T) defeated Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher)
Long match. Some really good stuff, a few misses. Basic tag stuff. They worked hard and went long.
While making a comeback, Davis did a spot where he went to bodyslam both at the same time and lost them. But there was a lot of good stuff in this one and it was more psychology based than the first bouts.
– Brody King defeated Darby Allin
Great for what it was. A big bruiser type and a smaller guy selling great for him.
Allin got his mouth busted open. He took some insane bumps being thrown around, and he did two backwards dives like Kofi Kingston, including one off the balcony.
– Jonathan Gresham defeated David Starr
This was a technical match that got more wide open with big moves later. A lot of people saw this as the best match. It was different from everything else because of the level of modern technical skill and — while there was flying late — it built to it.
Gresham is one of the most underrated guys in the business and Starr was great working in that style.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated LAX (Santana & Ortiz) and The Lucha Bros (Penta 0M & Rey Fenix) to retain their titles
Fenix was pinned by Xavier. These guys went out like it was hell on wheels with nothing but big moves. The creativity was awesome and the execution was mostly good with a few exceptions.
But the ending came out of nowhere. It was patterned to look like a save was coming and it was too slow and the ref counted to three. It was also shorter than expected, but the first nine minutes were incredible.
– PWG World Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Bandido to retain his title
Cobb retained with the Tour of the Islands. There was a lot of really good stuff here as well, but unfortunately these two had such an incredible match at BOLA, and following the craziness of the tag match, the crowd only went nuts for it in spots.
This was excellent and on another show people would be raving about it like it was a classic. The most memorable spot was Cobb coming off the top with a crossbody and Bandido catching him and powerslamming him. I also think people badly wanted a title change and they never got them biting on that happening.
PWG’s first show of 2019 took place at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Friday night.
Overall, it was a fun show. It wasn’t a total blowaway like the classic PWG shows, but it was a fun night and there were a few very strong matches. I saw empty seats in the back, but it was still packed. If they never got to a true sellout, they definitely got close.
The promotion did not announce their next date, but Excalibur said that they would be back soon.
– Brody King defeated Jungle Boy
Jungle Boy was making his PWG debut and got a great reception. The match had a decent enough big guy vs. little guy dynamic. This was my second time seeing Jungle Boy live. i see the potential, but he’s still pretty green. A few of his arm drags were a little rough, and he and King had some awkward transitions. Most people are better by the time they debut in PWG, but the crowd seemed into the match.
King chopped the hell out of Jungle Boy throughout, leaving him with a very marked up chest. There were strong “please come back” chants for Jungle Boy after the loss.
– Puma King defeated DJZ
This result surprised me and made me wonder how long DJZ will be a free agent. The fan appreciation of this match is determined by how much one responds to the Puma King gimmick. I really like it, so I enjoyed the match. But I have friends who don’t like it and didn’t think much of it.
They did a bunch of cool reversals, arm drags, and pinning predicaments. It was a perfectly fine second match on a wrestling card.
They had a great, all-action tag match. The crowd loves LAX, and rightly so. Horus looked great, but he always does. Laredo Kid received a warm welcome and had some cool spots during the match.
Horus did his insane running dive from the ring over the corner post to the outside, cheating it slightly by going a little diagonal. There was a healthy “please come back” for Laredo Kid afterwards.
– Robbie Eagles defeated Jonathan Gresham
Great response for Gresham here. It was a really strong debut for him as all of his stuff looked great and he was over with the crowd. Eagles is just a guy. The crowd liked him more than me, but not a lot more.
Gresham worked the right arm the whole match, including chopping it, rather than the chest, during striking exchanges. Eagles won with his 450 onto the leg followed by his figure four variant. He didn’t even set up the leg submission throughout the match.
There was a very strong post-match “please come back” for Gresham, noticeably stronger than Jungle Boy or Laredo Kid.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated Best Friends (Beretta & Chuck Taylor) to retain their titles
I really enjoyed the build up during this match. It had plenty of offense, but it was less of a spot fest and had a better story than other Rascalz PWG matches (though I love the Rascalz firefight and a million high spots matches as well)
The story of the match was Best Friends working their heavyweight advantages on the smaller Rascalz. The Rascalz outran Best Friends right away, but the match turned early when Taylor told Beretta to stop acting like a junior and do heavyweight stuff. Beretta got Xavier to do the running shoulder tackle spot, and then floored him.
There was another good story moment with a fun payoff later: Xavier was demolished in a chopping exchange with Beretta. Xavier switched tactics to quicker-paced offense and gained the upper hand. But after a series of tags in and out with Wentz, Beretta made a comeback by flooring Xavier with a hard chop.
The match built to some high flying and dives to the outside by the Rascalz, but the dives felt like they meant more. The Rascalz won with the Hot Fire Flame (assisted standing Shooting Star Press), with Xavier pushing Wentz mid-Shooting Star over a bent over Taylor and onto a recently laid out Beretta. The crowd loved the match and all four guys
– Bandido defeated ACH
This was my favorite match. Bandido is great and ACH is one of the most underrated guys in the business — he can really do everything. He worked heel here and did a great job as a cocky bastard. He worked the fans when he was in the crowd. He was smarmy and cocky, and he found moments to build chants for Bandido without making it obvious that he was doing it.
Here’s my favorite part: ACH did the chopping the outside ring post by mistake spot (after really working some vocal Bandido fans into a rage) and then sold the hand for the rest of the match. No one does that. Not even WALTER, who is good about that kind of thing. And ACH didn’t overdo it or make the entire match about his hand. He just made sure to sell that it was hard to grip when attempting a German suplex — or he became reluctant to have another chopping exchange.
There were a bunch of other great heel touches, and Bandido was great as always. He won with his handspring German suplex.
– PWG World Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Trevor Lee to retain his title
This match had a lot of trouble getting off the ground, but eventually built to a great peak and finish. The energy was very weird early.
Lee came out and started to do his typical heel promo. Right away, he noted that Cobb wouldn’t get him like he got him last time (Cobb pinned Lee in about 10 seconds in round two of BOLA 2018 by grabbing Lee during his promo) — only to have Cobb grab him and suplex him. But Lee escaped and got a small package for a two count. A lot of people, myself included, thought the flash pin could happen. However, after this moment, the match went flat for awhile.
The crowd did not boo Lee at all, which they normally would. I think this was because everyone knew this was Lee’s last PWG match, so they didn’t want to boo. But Lee also didn’t work heel. He conveyed that he earnestly wanted the title and was working hard to win. So, the crowd didn’t really know how to react.
Lee worked his ass off, doing a tope to one side and later a tope suicida to the other. Even with the dives, the crowd would die down quickly. However, the match really took off for the final 5-10 minutes. They worked a spot where Lee accidentally punted Justin the referee (the biggest heel in PWG), and the crowd came to life for that.
Lee then worked heel by hitting a low blow, but now the crowd was mainly pulling for him. He hit a running flip dive from the ring over the corner post to the outside. He hit his big standing double stomp for a near fall. Cobb came back with deadlift gutwrench suplexes and a bridging
German for two.
Cobb hit a release airplane spin, flinging Lee high into the air for a near fall. Lee escaped a top rope superplex attempt by rolling over into a powerbomb set up, carrying Cobb a few feet from the corner, and hitting a sit-out power bomb. That was another two count.
Everyone was on their feet for the final few minutes. The finish came when Cobb hit the Tour of the Islands, but Lee kicked out at one. The crowd lost it. Cobb hit a huge German (landing Lee on his face) and then another Tour of the Islands for the three count.
After the match, Lee cut a great, heartfelt promo. He said that he never thought he would main event in PWG when he debuted in 2014, calling it a company that he had dreamed about working for. He thanked the fans for tweeting after that debut to get him booked again. He said he read every message they sent to PWG and made sure that he worked his ass off to deliver for them.
Lee said that PWG helped make it so he could quit his job “selling frozen yogurt to sh*tty kids” and wrestle full time. And he said that he never won BOLA or the PWG title as he said he would, but the fans made it so he could get hired by WWE. Lee finished by saying he’d probably just get fired by WWE and come back and win the PWG title
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. At least not for me — I hope he makes a billion dollars.
PWG held their first show since the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles last night.
– Trevor Lee defeated Darby Allin
Lee won with a double foot stomp holding the tights. He duct taped Allin’s arms behind his back. Allin did both a Braque and a tope con giro with his hands tied behind his back.
– Puma King defeated Rey Horus and Flamita in a three-way match
Puma King pinned Horus after a powerbomb off the top rope.
– Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hechicero from CMLL
Sabre won with a bridging cradle. This was a different crowd than usual. Most of the regulars loved this match but there was a different minority of the crowd that wasn’t into the great mat wrestling. Plus, the storyline of Sabre being hated by Mexican wrestlers is something only a small percentage understood.
– Bandido defeated Rey Fenix
Bandido picked up the win with a gutwrench into a piledriver. Lots of unique stuff here. Super entertaining.
– Timothy Thatcher defeated Brody King
King busted open Thatcher’s nose with a clothesline and he was bleeding all over the place. Thatcher won via submission with a Fujiwara armbar.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated LAX (Santana & Ortiz) to retain their titles
Wentz pinned Ortiz with a twisting senton. These guys worked hard. It was tough because Xavier & Wentz have been working with The Young Bucks and Pentagon Jr. & Fenix.
– Jeff Cobb defeated WALTER to win the PWG World Championship
Cobb pinned WALTER with a three-quarter nelson pin like you’d see in an amateur match after escaping a choke. Pretty great match. Not as many WALTER chops and not as many Cobb power moves, they seemed to save the big stuff to make it mean more. The crowd was going crazy at the end.
The first half of the show was really special but no matches of the year. The crowd threw money into the ring after Puma King vs. Horus vs. Flamita, and threw a lot after Bandido vs. Fenix. A lot of first-timers in the crowd or those who hadn’t been in the modern era. Previous shows have felt like Reseda but in a much nicer and larger building.
Here are notes from last night’s PWG Threemendous V show at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles. There were no matches of the year, but aside from the opener, every match was very good to great:
– Dalton Castle defeated David Starr with a crossface submission.
Castle is very limited in what he can do due to all his injuries. It was never boring but probably went too long. Starr did a scary tope spot. Castle was nowhere near him and the plan was to do a tope into either the chairs a few rows deep or the floor. And that’s what he did.
– Rey Horus defeated Penta 0M with a rana off the top rope.
Excellent match. Fans threw a lot of money in when it was over. This was high-level Lucha done with the modern United States indie style worked in.
– Jeff Cobb defeated Joey Janela with the Tour of the Islands.
As expected, Janela did crazy bumps and Cobb did insane power moves. Cobb did a superplex off the middle rope where he had Janela up, keeping him at a nearly 90 degree angle rather than vertical in a way where the laws of physics looked like there’s no way he could have gotten him back up. He did.
– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated The Young Bucks to retain their titles
This started as total comedy. The Young Bucks started out almost doing a Drew Gulak gimmick of anti-high spots, coming out with the “How Psychology Works” book that Kenny Omega gave them on Being the Elite this week. So whenever Nick Jackson would want to do high spots early on, Matt Jackson would spot him. Xavier and Wentz did all kinds of high flying.
The Young Bucks opened up late and it turned into the best match on the show. Everyone thought it was over when they gave Xavier a Meltzer Driver on top of the psychology book, but Wentz made the save. They set up More Bang for Your Buck, but Matt got pinned with a crucifix. They all raised each others’ hands after.
– Rey Fenix defeated Trevor Lee with a Fenix Driver.
One thing very different is the perception of Impact Wrestling. Lee always comes out and says he’s from Impact and he’s making money doing that gimmick, and it usually gets a lot of heat. Here, almost nobody booed him even playing it up as a heel, so it appears the indie crowd hating Impact days are over.
Fans threw money here as well.
– Matt Riddle defeated Marty Scurll
Two great pros. The match was short but excellent. Instead of breaking Riddle’s fingers, Scurll broke his toes and then stomped on the other foot. Riddle powered out of a chicken wing and used a tombstone piledriver followed by the Twister submission.
– PWG World Champion WALTER defeated Brody King to retain his title
This was advertised as non-title, but King asked WALTER to put the belt up and he agreed. The story was that King kept ducking and escaping WALTER’s chops while chopping the hell out of WALTER. WALTER’s chest was all bruised. The chops were exploding.
Walter finally started hitting chops in the end. This was one of those matches that was probably better live because of the impact of them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last night’s PWG show in Reseda, California, was, due to the last four matches, considered one of the best non-BOLA shows in company history, and really not far off the BOLA standard.
– Flash Morgan Webster defeated Brian Cage
This was a big man/little man match as Webster is probably about 140 pounds and Cage is probably 260 or more. They worked the right style to make it work. Cage went for a powerslam and Webster cradled him. Cage was a last minute replacement for Travis Banks, who had visa issues.
– Mark Haskins defeated Adam Brooks
Brooks was making his PWG debut. They went long, doing lots of near falls and having a very good match. It could have been a few minutes shorter, but Brooks got over. He does a lot of comedy and talking but is technically really good.
– Joey Janela defeated Trevor Lee
Excellent match, with the first three minutes being crazy. Janela did a lot of high flying. Lee is more of a standard great worker in the sense everything he does looks great and he can build a match with the best of them.
– Keith Lee defeated Jonah Rock
Rock was so much better here than in BOLA. Lee outright claims to be the best big man in wrestling and then over and over goes out and proves it. Lee showed amazing agility and both did a lot of power spots since both these guys are about 310-330 legit.
Great finish. Rock came off the top rope, Lee caught him, then hoisted him up to his shoulders and like he was going to do a Death Valley bomb, but instead used a jackhammer from there for the pin.
– Sammy Guevara defeated Flamita and Rey Horus in a three-way match
They had a crazy flying match. It was crisp, and this match looked like it potentially could be fun and overachieved. If this was at Arena Mexico, it would be the best match there all year, that’s how good it was.
– Ricochet defeated WALTER
WALTER throws the hardest chops, except for maybe Katsuya Kitamura. Ricochet had an incredible match working with him. With the huge size difference, Ricochet sold a lot but did great flying moves including a Fosbury Flop late.
This and the previous match were the two best. Ricochet should have won even though he’s likely not around much longer, since he’s going against Chuck Taylor for the title tonight.
– The Chosen Bros (Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb) defeated The Lucha Brothers (Penta 0M & Rey Fenix) to win the PWG tag titles
Super match as well. Riddle & Cobb won clean with a combo GTS where Cobb threw Fenix (I think) into Riddle’s knee. These have to be two of the three or four best tag teams in the world right now. Penta & Fenix have so many unique moves, so much charisma, and you never knew what they were doing next.
This match went way too long, with them trying very hard to establish Guevara as the heel and Horus as the face.
– The Unbreakable F’N Machines (Michael Elgin & Brian Cage) defeated The Young Bucks in 18:27
The pacing of this was pretty stale and there was a botch from The Young Bucks at one point.
– Keith Lee defeated Lio Rush and Trent? in 22:13
Rush ended up taking the pin here. The dynamic of this three-way match was that Trent and Rush were forced to team against the larger Lee.
– Dezmond Xavier defeated Sami Callihan, Jake Crist, and Dave Crist in 10:06
This was a total sprint. It was announced before the match that Shane Strickland and Jason Cade didn’t make the show due to travel issues, so this was changed to a four-way match instead of the six-man tag that it was originally scheduled to be.
– Ricochet defeated Trevor Lee in 14:46
– Chuck Taylor defeated Zack Sabre Jr. to win the PWG World Championship in 29:24
This had lots of storytelling and great heel work from ZSJ. He tried to get disqualified several times by using low blows and forced someone from the ring crew to disassemble the bottom rope so that Taylor couldn’t get any rope breaks. Referee Rick Knox wouldn’t let ZSJ retain in that fashion.
Taylor ended up hitting the Awful Waffle into thumbtacks (which he had already eaten plenty of) to get the pin and become the new champion. Trent came out to congratulate him and celebrate after the match.
Final Thoughts —
For the ultra high standard that PWG has set for themselves, this was a letdown. But it still would’ve been a show of the year contender for many other independent promotions.
