February 16th, 2018
Reseda, California
PWG World Champion - Chuck Taylor
PWG World Tag Team Champions - Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb & Matt Riddle)
Commentators - Excalibur
1) Brody King vs. Adam Brooks
"Adam Brooks traveled 18 hours to get here, Brody King traveled 18 minutes." -Excalibur
Brody has a black eye heading into this match and it looks ruff. None the less, this is his debut and they rocked the house in this opener. Things got a little sloppy near the end, but not enough to ruin the fun in what was all in all, a great showing for both guys. You can't really go wrong with a PWG opener as long as you keep the formula simple.
Match rating - **3/4
2) Dalton Castle vs. Joey Janela
"I like my strawberries when they're dipped in chocolate and I got a nice hunny to look at." -Joey Janela
Castle comes to the ring with the ROH Title in tow. I started watching this a week or two ago and had to cut it off for whatever reason so I just started it from the beginning and rewatched it and this wasn't half as bad as I remembered for a 20 minute long Dalton Castle match with no backstory. They did some comedy early on and kept me pretty interested throughout and threw some cool sequences in there. This certainly shouldn't have went 20, but it wasn't a trainwreck at all. Janela is starting to get over well with the PWG crowd and I honestly wouldn't mind if Dalton Castle just stayed in ROH from now on.
Match rating - **1/2
3) David Starr vs. Travis Banks
Always dug David Starr, this is his PWG debut and I'm glad he finally made it here. Travis Banks has yet to impress in his first few showings so this was a little rocky to start, but all in all ended up being a pretty solid match. They brawled outside the ring for a while and threw some bombs in the final few minutes for some near falls that got the crowd hype. Decent showing for both guys.
Match rating - **3/4
4) Zack Sabre Jr vs. Flip Gordon
Alright so I've never been the biggest fan of Flip Gordon, but holy shit. He's insanely athletic and was in major show off mode here which was the perfect opposition for the attitude of ZSJ. And speaking of Sabre, I'm sold on him being a Top 5 PWG All-Timer at this point. He just literally can't have a bad match and on shows like this, he brings it up to that level that makes it feel like an actual PWG show even though the undercard is lacking. So, yeah, this was a great match. Sabre was Sabre and Flip was flippy and vibrant. Some expected a lot more out of this, but I was honestly pleased with what we got. Sabre gains a victory to hopefully up his momentum after losing the PWG Title a few months back and losing to Keith Lee at the last show.
Match rating - ***3/4
5) Keith Lee vs. Matthew Riddle
Sabre/Flip got the momentum going and these two knocked it completely out of the park by following it up with this show-stealing match up. Keith Lee has came in and had nothing but bangers, aside from his match with Zack last month oddly enough, and this was another one on that list. His rise to the top of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has been nuts. Just crazy match after crazy match. Bask in his fucking glory as he & Riddle destroy each other and the crowd eats up every bit of it. Awesome match here and another win for Lee.
Match rating - ****
6) Chuck Taylor (c) vs. Trent? - PWG World Title Match
"I'm gonna kill my best friend." -Chuck Taylor
This was weird for a variety of reasons. The main one being that everyone LOVED Chuck while he was chasing the title and ultimately dethroning Zack Sabre Jr only to get bored with him immediately after. Therefore, him regaining the title from Ricochet last month only made matters worse. And that leads us here, to our next reason this was weird, he's facing his "best friend" and tag team partner with no build or reason. They've done this before like at last year's anniversary show and turned it into a fun, surprisingly brutal match, but at this point fans are so meh on it. If you take these factors out, it wasn't a bad match at all and actually pretty enjoyable, that's why I'm not giving this a rating of two stars or less like some have because this wasn't "bad" it was just... there. Chuck retains with some heel tactics. They tried their best dammit. And Greg got injured in the process which sucks. An arm injury plus he got busted open the hard way. Double whammy in a lack luster match.
Match rating - **3/4
Overall thoughts:
This show felt very repetitive and dull aside from Keith Lee and Zack Sabre Jr continuing to be the highlights. Sabre is the present and Keith Lee is the future and it seems like everyone else is just there to fill spots. I'm hoping the upcoming venue change that took place at the next show - Time is a Flat Circle, boosts some momentum into the G. This is still worth watching for Riddle/Lee and Sabre/Flip though!
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