April 21st, 2018
Opening Match: Trevor Lee vs. Morgan Webster
Lee attacks before the opening bell and continues to claim that he’ll soon be PWG World Champion. Webster tries a quick rollup to no avail and starts reigning down punches. Lee throws Webster’s helmet at him and connects with a knockout kick. He takes control until Webster lands a moonsault. Webster lands a dive to the floor and applies a guillotine choke back in the ring. Lee powers out of the hold and connects with his mushroom stomp. Webster fires back with a knee strike and hits an inverted DDT. He follows with a headbutt. Lee catches him with an orange crush out of nowhere for the win at 10:51. They delivered an energetic opener, although Webster’s matches are starting to feel very similar to each other. It seemed as though they had a few more minutes left in them when the abrupt finish took place. **½
Match #2: Joey Janela vs. Robbie Eagles
They trade control on the mat. Neither man is able to hit a back suplex. Eagles snaps off a hurricanrana and connects with a spin kick. Janela responds with a charging bicycle kick. He lands a dive to the floor and takes control back in the ring. Eagles fights back with a dive of his own. They battle on the apron and Janela hits a tombstone. He follows with a second tombstone onto the floor. Eagles is able to beat the twenty count, but Janela is waiting for him with a piledriver. Eagles finds life with double knees in the corner and a chinbreaker. Janela connects with a superkick and a lariat. Both men are down. They exchange strikes on their knees. Eagles hits sliced bread twice for a nearfall. They battle up top and Janela hits a brainbuster for the victory at 14:36. The action started off slowly and the crowd really didn’t come alive until Janela hit a tombstone onto the apron. I wasn’t in love with all of the big spots this early in the card. I think PWG anticipated Eagles being more popular with the Reseda crowd than he actually was this weekend. **¼
Match #3: Sammy Guevara vs. Taiji Ishimori
Ishimori snaps off a headscissors and connects with a dropkick. Guevara answers with a dropkick of his own. Ishimori slips on a springboard attempt and Guevara takes over. He sends Ishimori into the crowd and lands a dive onto him over the ringpost. Back in, Ishimori hits a lungblower but walks into a superkick. Guevara adds a curb stomp but finds knees on a shooting star press. Ishimori applies a crossface and connects with a knee strike to the face. He follows with a basement superkick for a nearfall. Guevara headscissors out of a lungblower attempt and hits a standing spanish fly. Guevara connects with a superkick to the back of the head and lands a shooting star press for the win at 9:02. Ishimori’s match with Bandido last night had way more excitement and urgency despite this contest only lasting nine minutes. Guevara is being setup as Lee’s next challenger and while this was certainly a solid victory for him, I know these two have a better match in them. **½
Match #4: PWG World Tag Team Titles: The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz) © vs. Violence Unlimited (Brody King and Tyler Bateman)
Bateman wins an opening exchange against Wentz with a bicycle kick. Xavier learns firsthand that King has a power advantage against him. King hurricanranas Xavier to the floor. Wentz takes down King with a springboard crossbody. King responds with a corner cannonball. Violence Unlimited isolate Wentz until he catches King with a handspring knee strike and makes the tag. Xavier catches King with a hesitation dropkick and Wentz adds a bronco buster. Bateman cuts off Xavier from diving and lands a dive of his own onto Wentz. Xavier follows with a space flying tiger drop. In the ring, Wentz connects with a superkick on King followed by double knees. Violence Unlimited showcase some of their double team offense. Xavier almost breaks his neck trying to reverse hurricanrana King. Bateman accidentally forearms his partner. Wentz catches Bateman with an ace crusher and the Rascalz hit their assisted standing shooting star press to retain their titles at 13:19. I don’t think these two teams had the best chemistry together, but they made the match succeed by simply working extremely hard. Watching the Rascalz try to compensate for their size disadvantage was entertaining and the PWG crowd is still genuinely surprised by some of their offense. If the Rascalz become a premier tag team, the fact that they can have a good match with a variety of opponents will be part of the reason. ***
Match #5: Rey Horus vs. Bandido
They trade armdrags and find themselves at a stalemate. Bandido lands the first sustained offense with a dive to the floor. He military presses Horus into the ringpost. Horus answers with a slingshot hurricanrana onto the floor and a dive of his own. Bandido comes right back with a fosbury flop. In the ring, Horus hits a springboard leg drop but falls victim to a liger bomb. Bandido connects with a superkick for a nearfall. They both attempt dropkicks at the same time and fall to the canvas. They exchange chops and forearms. Bandido connects with another superkick. Horus spikes him with a DDT and hits a standing spanish fly for a two count. They battle up top and Bandido hits a flipping powerslam for the victory at 12:01. In terms of urgency and crispness, this match accomplished what the first three could not. The sheer amount of impressive sequences meant that you never quite knew where the action was headed. Additionally, the finish felt appropriately insane given what came before it. Bandido may very well be the MVP of the weekend. ***¼
Match #6: Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher
Something about seeing this pairing on paper brings back bad memories of Thatcher’s EVOLVE Title reign. Thatcher controls on the mat to start. He locks in a half crab and transitions into a fujiwara armbar. Riddle is able to reach the bottom rope. They trade gutwrench suplexes. Riddle hits an exploder and a senton. Thatcher fights back with a flurry of elbow strikes. He connects with an enzuigiri and hits a belly-to-belly suplex. Thatcher adds a butterfly suplex but Riddle won’t stay down. Riddle connects with the Bro 2 Sleep and hits a german suplex for a nearfall. Thatcher catches a kick and tries a backslide to no avail. Riddle hits a powerbomb and connects with a knee strike to the face. He follows with a tombstone for a two count. Thatcher locks in another fujiwara armbar. Riddle rolls through a sleeper hold and synchs in the Bromission for the win at 11:33. I could not care less about watching Thatcher wrestle. Putting him in a PWG ring couldn’t change the fact that his work feels lifeless and uninteresting. Riddle worked well with him but they never put me into a position to care about what was happening in the ring. I don’t see Thatcher reinventing himself anytime soon. **¼
Match #7: PWG World Title: Keith Lee © vs. WALTER vs. Jonah Rock
Rock catches Lee with a crossbody. WALTER scoop slams Rock and hits a seated senton. Lee hits a belly-to-belly suplex on WALTER. Rock and Lee land dives to the floor. In the ring, WALTER traps Lee in a boston crab but Rock agitates WALTER enough to break the hold. Lee and WALTER trade chops for some time and fall to the canvas. Lee catches WALTER with the Spirit Bomb for a nearfall. Rock hits a tiger suplex on Lee. WALTER takes Rock over with a german suplex. He german suplexes Lee with Rock on his shoulders. All three men trade strikes. WALTER catches both of his opponents with shotgun dropkicks. Rock low blows him and rolls him up for a two count. Rock hits a brainbuster on WALTER. Lee blocks a low blow from Rock and hits Ground Zero for a nearfall. Rock responds with a liger bomb and a senton. WALTER boots Rock to the floor and lands a top-rope splash onto Lee for a one count! WALTER connects with a lariat on Lee to become the NEW PWG World Champion at 13:24. Inserting Rock into this match probably sounded better on paper, but his heel turn was at least remotely interesting. Watching these three throw bombs at each other was entertaining and the crowd enjoyed this main event a great deal. The knowledge of Lee heading to WWE made for some suspenseful nearfalls down the stretch as well. ***¼
-Show Grade: C+
–You Need to See:
–You’d Enjoy Watching: Bandido/Horus, Lee/WALTER/Rock, Rascalz/Violence Unlimited
–You Should Avoid: