I know I'm not breaking any ground here, but I wanted to take a little look at one of the best top to bottom shows I've ever seen. It was new to me.
1. “Pretty” Peter Avalon, Freddy Bravo, & Ray Rosas vs. Famous B, Chris Kadillak, & Candice LeRae
This was my first time being able to see all of these except for Avalon & Candice. Freddy Bravo's gimmick is that he's Mexican but he uses the American tights. I liked that. I'm not sure Avalon has hit puberty yet except for the goatee. What he lacks in size, he makes up for it in personality. He's bringing it nicely in the feud with Candice LeRae, whom I think did a great job in there with the men. What a wild first match. If you like action, you got plenty here. To me, the guy who stood out here was Chris Kadillak. They got a “That was awesome” chant and deservedly so.
2. TJ Perkins vs. “Azcar” Rocky Romero
It began with some awesome chain wrestling. The referee chopped a wrestler? I really loved Perkins' drop kick from the Tree of Woe. The referee got involved way too much in this match. I thought this was supposed to be Perkins vs. Romero. I really liked Romero's style. It is really easy to see the athleticism of both. They played up well that they were mirror images of each other. What a great match that ended up with Perkins winning.
3. Fightin' Taylor Boys (Brian Cage-Taylor & Ryan Taylor) vs. RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime &Johnny Yuma)
If you think that tag team wrestling is dead, you have not seen PWG. This just has to be seen. The Taylors played the heels very well. Much props to all these guys for really putting their bodies on the line. Monsters bumped like crazy in this match. I do not speak lightly when I say this is one of the most innovative tag team matches I've ever seen. The Monsters won and the crowd went total apes***. Great match.
4. Willie Mack vs. Davey Richards
Willie Mack is one of my favorite new wrestlers. And Davey is Davey freaking Richards, the closest thing wrestling has seen to Chris Benoit in the ring since his passing. Willie Mack is such a freak. For those of you who have never seen him before, imagine a taller Pez Whatley with the agility of Rey Misterio Jr. And the thing about Davey Richards is that he systematically dismantles you. I'm going to be negative for a moment, but I swear this match was the same from Davey's side that I would see against Eddie Edwards or BJ Whitmer or anybody else. The only thing that made this different was Mack's work. While the match was still good, I've not seen him have a different kind of match. That being said, even though Davey won, he still put over Willie Mack in a big way. Mack is very quickly becoming one of my favorite wrestlers out there.
5. The Dynasty (Joey Ryan & Scorpio Sky) vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)
Two names I'm very familiar with, but I haven't seen them wrestle much. The Zokre-Sky wrestling was great. I'm going to be honest. I don't know how many times I can say, “These guys are 4 great athletes. They did some extraordinary moves that innovated wrestling. They completely redefined what I see in wrestling.” First-rate match that I could not believe.
6. Ricochet vs. Chuck Taylor
I'm not quite sure I'd call this a dream match, but these are two guys I'm big fans of. I love the Chikara stuff I've seen from Taylor and I saw a lot of Ricochet on the Best of PAC from IVP videos. (www.ivpvideos.com) I hate Ricochet's tights, as I do Shiima Xion/Zema Ion's and Zack Ryder's old tights. However, after about 30 seconds in the ring I forget about it. I don't know how else to say this. This match HAS to be seen. Ricochet won.
7. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) – Champions vs. Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly) – Challengers
What more can you want from this show? This was another really excellent match between 4 really great workers. I'm going to be honest. By this time (and actually Taylor-Ricochet), I was so worn out, it was hard for me to devote everything I wanted into this match. The only disadvantage is that there were 3 excellent tag matches before this so where were they going to take it we hadn't already seen? This is a REALLY good problem to have.
8. “Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen (Champion) vs. El Generico (Challenger)
I have heard so much about this match, there is no way it will ever meet up to my expectations. They began by spitting on each other. While not exactly my favorite thing on Earth, it showed the intensity between these two. I dare call Kevin Steen the best heel in wrestling. The guy is sick. While 900 guys are trying to be the same kind of heel, Kevin Steen stands alone. I would put this up there with any ladder match: Shawn/Razor, Hardy's/Edge & Christian, Sabu/Malice from early TNA. How are these guys still alive? And then the Young Bucks interfered. I had a Mankind-Shawn Michaels (great match, horrible finish) rant ready to go. But their interference didn't end the match. There was a total “Yipee-Kay-Yay, Motherf***er” moment onto a ladder by Generico. Generico walked away with the win. I daresay it lived up to the hype.
After the match, the Young Bucks continued their beat down, and then the lights went out and Super Dragon appeared.
All in all… So what can I say about this event? There was not a bad match on this card. There wasn't a match that I would classify below good on this card. I saw a lot of shows from 2011: AIW's Absolution 6, Chikara's High Noon, ROH's Best in the World. I dare say this bests them all from top to bottom. For $15 from Highspots, it's a total steal.
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