January 12th, 2018
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Opening Match: Fred Yehi vs. David Starr
Yehi wins an opening exchange with a suplex. He blocks a sunset flip and stomps on Starr’s fingers. Yehi follows with a series of stomps. Starr clotheslines Yehi off the apron. Yehi hits an exploder onto the floor and takes control back in the ring. Starr fights back by targeting Yehi’s right arm. Yehi finds an opening to hit two german suplexes followed by a dragon suplex. He adds two lungblowers and a basement dropkick for a nearfall. Starr hits a flatliner out of the ropes. They trade strikes and Starr lands a dive to the floor. In the ring, Starr connects with a shining wizard for a two count. Starr tries a pin attempt while using the ropes, so Yehi slaps him. Starr hits a DDT onto the apron and connects with a lariat. Yehi responds with a shotgun dropkick but falls victim to a brainbuster. Yehi locks in a koji clutch but Starr counters into a rollup for the win at 18:42. Nineteen minutes was certainly too long. Additionally, the crowd didn’t seem fully familiar with their mannerisms so some spots came off flat as a result. In time, I have no doubts that the PWG crowd will grow to love these two. I know they have a better, more concise match in them. **½
Match #2: Joey Janela vs. Morgan Webster
Webster snaps off a series of armdrags and lands an inverted senton. Janela tries to catch him with a few quick pin attempts to no avail. Janela tries to bring a chair into the ring but the referee takes it away. Webster dropkicks him to the floor and follows out with a dive. Janela answers with a dive of his own. Webster puts on his helmet and charges at Janela into a series of chairs. In the ring, Webster comes off the middle rope with a reverse hurricanrana and connects with a loud headbutt. Both men are down. Webster lands a springboard moonsault. Janela catches him with a death valley driver onto the apron. Janela follows with a nasty package piledriver for a nearfall. He misses a moonsault, allowing Webster to land a swantan. Webster hits a butterfly slam for a nearfall. They battle up top and Janela hits a superplex. Janela transitions into a crossface for the victory at 13:54. The beginning of the match was fairly routine, but they soon transitioned into Janela just beating Webster to a pulp. The crowd definitely came alive as the action became more violent. This match would have served much better as the opener, as the whole contest was a pretty unique experience. ***
Match #3: Sammy Guevara vs. Rey Fenix
They dodge each other’s offense until Fenix absolutely levels Guevara with a dive. Guevara responds with a fosbury flop. In the ring, Guevara lands an early 630 for a nearfall. Fenix teases a few dives before landing an insane springboard dive to the floor. He follows with a swantan but tweaks his knee in the process. Guevara hits a standing Spanish fly but runs into an ace crusher. Both men miss top-rope maneuvers and fall to the canvas. Guevara lands a standing shooting star press for a two count. Fenix crotches him on the top rope and spikes him with a hurricanrana. They battle on the top rope. Fenix back flips off the top rope in position to german suplex Guevara. Guevara answers with a 630 onto Fenix’s knees. Fenix looks to be in immense pain. Guevara lands a shooting star press for the win at 13:50. This was one of the best spotfests that I’ve seen in a long time. They came out of the gates early and had a great sense of how to keep delivering crazy sequences that made sense. Fenix tweaking his knee certainly caused some improvising with regards to the finish, but you couldn’t ask for anything more from them here. ***¾
Match #4: Keith Lee vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Lee does a good job at shrugging off Sabre’s cockiness early on. Sabre almost locks in a cross armbreaker, giving Lee some pause. Sabre tries a kneebar but Lee just walks him to the ropes. Sabre is eventually able to ground Lee and targets his left leg. Lee fights back with a combination of strikes but finds himself in a kneebar. He is able to drag himself to the bottom rope. Lee hits a spinebuster but misses a moonsault from the middle rope. Sabre connects with two penalty kicks but a cocky cover sends him flying. Sabre synchs in a triangle choke but Lee counters into a Spirit Bomb. They exchange strikes and Lee connects with a big lariat. Sabre answers with a series of snaps and applies an octopus hold. Lee quickly counters into a jackhammer for the victory at 19:09. They told an easily discernable story with Sabre successfully working over Lee’s left leg but going to the well one too many times with submissions that Lee could power out of at will. I wonder if I would have enjoyed this match more had I not seen them wrestle each other so much in the past year. I don’t think this contest really added much to their lexicon of matches together, although it was technically very solid. ***
Match #5: Marty Scurll vs. Trent
They begin with some chain wrestling. Scurll can’t quite lift Trent for a powerslam. He sends Trent to the floor and brawls with him around ringside. Scurll takes control back in the ring until Trent lands a corner charge and hits a tornado DDT. Trent follows with a shining wizard and a unique german suplex in the ropes. He connects with a missile dropkick, sending Scurll to the floor. Scurll trips up Trent on the apron and regains control with a neckbreaker. Scurll removes a turnbuckle. While Rick Knox is fixing it, Trent rolls up Scurll but there’s no count. Scurll hits a suplex into the turnbuckles. They battle up top. Scurll delivers a low blow and sends Trent into the exposed turnbuckle for a nearfall. Scurll hits Trent with his umbrella and adds a brainbuster for yet another two count. Trent blocks a superkick and hits a piledriver on the apron. Scurll finds an opening to lock in the chickenwing but Trent reaches the bottom rope. Scurll throws powder at Trent, but Trent fights through and hits the Dudebuster for the win at 20:10. With so many longer matches already on this card and the knowledge that there were two title matches still to come, I was pretty burnt out while watching this contest. Scurll’s antics were a bit overplayed and twenty minutes felt long without some kind of story to hold the action together. I could be being unduly harsh here, I’m really not sure. **¼
Match #6: PWG World Tag Team Titles: The Chosen Bros (Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb) © vs. Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher and WALTER)
Riddle and Thatcher begin by trading control on the mat. WALTER and Cobb trade shoulder tackles and take each other down. The Chosen Bros catch Thatcher with some tandem offense and isolate him. Thatcher connects with an enzuigiri on Riddle and makes the tag. WALTER starts firing off chops. He hits a german suplex on Cobb and a butterfly suplex on Riddle. Ringkampf find an opening to work over Cobb. Riddle eventually gets the tag and hits a series of sentons. WALTER boots Riddle into a saito suplex from Thatcher. WALTER adds a powerbomb for a nearfall. The Chosen Bros hit a doomsday knee strike on WALTER. Riddle powerbombs Thatcher. Cobb launches Thatcher into a knee strike from Riddle and the Chosen Bros retain their titles at 18:29. This was the solid, hard-hitting match that you would expect from these two teams. The PWG crowd genuinely likes all four men, so whatever personality they injected into the action was going to work well. WALTER and Riddle in the same ring has been proven to be an incredibly successful pairing. ***½
Match #7: PWG World Title: Guerilla Warfare: Ricochet © vs. Chuck Taylor
Ricochet attacks before the opening bell. He hits Taylor with a garbage can and coast-to-coast dropkicks the garbage can into Taylor’s face. At ringside, Taylor sends Ricochet into a chair and guillotines him onto a ladder. Taylor back drops Ricochet into a propped ladder in the corner. Ricochet quickly returns the favor. Ricochet starts hurling chairs at Taylor while setting up a pyramid of chairs at ringside. They battle on the stage and Ricochet hits a suplex. Taylor answers with a suplex through the pyramid of chairs. Taylor sets Ricochet on a table at ringside and then dives onto him. Back in, Taylor hits a falcon arrow for a nearfall. Ricochet answers with a standing shooting star press and rolling suplexes. He follows with a springboard 450 splash for a two count. Ricochet connects with the Benadryller for a nearfall. Taylor drop toe holds him into a chair and hits the Awful Waffle for a nearfall. Taylor brings thumbtacks into the ring. Ricochet powerbombs him into the thumbtacks. There are A LOT of tacks in Taylor’s back. Ricochet misses a 630 and crashes into the tacks. Taylor hits a piledriver followed by another Awful Waffle to become the new PWG World Champion at 23:56. It’s interesting how two wrestlers who I wouldn’t associate with weapons-based brawls have become so well-versed in them at PWG of all places. This was a very fitting send-off for Ricochet and a great main event. They were smart with the weapons usage and you could tell they were going above and beyond given the context of the match. If you enjoy this style of match, I would check this one out. ***¾
-Show Grade: B+
–You Need to See:
–You’d Enjoy Watching: Guevara/Fenix, Ricochet/Taylor, Bros/Ringkampf, Lee/Sabre, Janela/Webster
–You Should Avoid: