Sunday, July 5, 2015
PWG: DDT4 2015 Review
Hello, I'm Big Boy and this is my first review ever. I'm 19 years old and I'm a huge pro wrestling fan. Let me start off by saying thanks to Ethan (@EthanPWT) for allowing me to post this review here, much appreciated. I recently got into independent wrestling in March of this year and really haven't looked back. I only watched WWE but ever since I saw a PWG preview video on YouTube, I've been hooked. That leads me here. I hope whoever reads this enjoys my thoughts and opinions!
Match 1: Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) vs Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Bill Carr) - First Round Match
Team Tremendous are making their PWG debut with this match and I'd say they made a good impression. I'll start off by saying that 4 matches on this show had camera issues where only the hard camera was working and this was one of those matches so that was kind of a bummer and honestly turned me off from the get go. Nonetheless, this was a decent match with a bit of comedy involved. For instance, at one point in the match, Dan Berry from Team Tremendous had John Silver in the corner and he gave him some chops and said something like "what did you do with the girl?!?" Yeah, their gimmick is that they are detectives who solve crimes through the art of pro wrestling. I dig it. Beaver Boys pick up the win and advance in the DDT4 tournament. Decent opener, camera issues aside.
Match Rating- ***1/4
Match 2: Biff Busick and Drew Gulak vs Inner City Machine Guns (Rich Swann and Ricochet) - First Round Match
This was another match with the camera issues as noted in the first match but it didn't take away from how awesome this match was. I'm not a huge fan of Biff Busick and Drew Gulak but they made me a fan with this match. Very hard hitting with some great double team moves from Gulak and Busick. Ricochet had an amazing sequence in this match where he super kicked both Gulak and Busick one at a time and then threw Biff Busick into Drew Gulak and Gulak caught him in a DDT hold and Ricochet hit a running neckbreaker (I think?) it was like an RKO but from the front but anyways it caused Gulak to give Busick a DDT and it looked awesome. ICMG pick up the win and advance in the tournament. Great tag match.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Match 3: Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee vs Mike Bailey and Matt Sydal - First Round Match
Thank god the camera issues weren't present in this match. This was originally supposed to be Lee/Everett vs Love Gun (Chris Sabin and Matt Sydal) but with Chris Sabin getting injured beforehand, he was unable to compete thus giving Mike Bailey the nod to be Sydal's partner for the tournament. I'd say it was a great choice. Both guys have never teamed before but it sure did look like it. This match was fast paced as you'd expect and was easily match of the night. Lee/Everett played the heels in this match and at one point, Matt Sydal went for a springboard moonsault and Trevor Lee pulled the middle up rope up causing Sydal to fall right on his ass and it was amazing. Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett also had a very cool tag team finisher where Everett ran off the ropes and Lee tossed him in the air for a 450 splash on to Mike Bailey for the win. One more thing, Matt Sydal does the prettiest standing moonsault I've ever seen. Amazing match.
Match Rating: ****1/4
Match 4: Worlds Cutest Tag Team (Joey Ryan and Candice Lerae) vs Monster Mafia (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) - First Round Match for the PWG Tag Team Championships
I really did not care for this match. It wasn't bad, it's just not something I wanted to see. Maybe it's just that I'm tired of the Worlds Cutest Tag Team. I think they have ran their course in PWG. I really don't like Joey Ryan cause nothing he does in the ring impresses me, but he's not a bad wrestler, he's just not my preference. Anyways, this was an OK match, however it was for the PWG tag titles so it made it a little interesting. Roderick Strong interfered late in the match and man, the crowd ate it up. He ran in the ring, hit Joey Ryan and Candice Lerae with sick kicks and then gave Candice Lerae an End of Heartache. Monster Mafia pick up the win and become the new PWG tag team champs. Also Ethan Page shoves Candice Lerae's face right up his bare ass at the start of the match. That was fun.
Match Rating: ***
Match 5: Monster Mafia vs Beaver Boys - Semi Final Round Match for the PWG Tag Team Championships
I really wasn't feeling this match either. They brawled on the outside at the beginning but there wasn't much to this match. Monster Mafia's style just doesn't mesh well with the Beaver Boys and even the WCTT for that matter. Beaver Boys pick up the win and become the new PWG Tag Team Champions. Eh.
Match Rating: **1/2
Match 6: Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee vs Inner City Machine Guns - Semi Final Round Match
This match had those camera issues I mentioned earlier in the review which sucks cause I really wanted to see this match but it didn't take away from the match. I mean Andrew Everett, Trevor Lee, Ricochet and Rich Swann were in it, so it can't be bad, right? right. Anyways, this was a high flying match as you'd expect from these two teams. Before the match, they had a little dance off and Trevor Lee's dance was hilarious and Ricochet did the carlton so that's always fun. These 2 teams worked very well together and it wasn't as good as Lee/Everett vs Bailey/Sydal but still a fun match. A cool spot in this match was when Rich Swann was on the outside and Trevor Lee dove over the corner rope and landed on him and then Ricochet did the same seconds after onto Lee so that was cool. Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee pick up the win and advance to the finals to face Beaver Boys for the PWG tag team titles.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Match 7: Johnny Gargano vs TJ Perkins
This was originally supposed to Mike Bailey vs Johnny Gargano but with Bailey replacing Sabin, they had to find a new opponent for Gargano and that opponent was TJ Perkins. This match was a nice little mat based match, really nothing much to it. They were under time constraints due to some issues so it didn't get that much time but it was ok. Could have been a lot more given they had more time. Solid technical match.
Match Rating: ***
Match 8: Roderick Strong vs Brian Cage vs Chris Hero for the PWG World Championship
This was a pretty fun match, Very stiff which is no surprise. My only problem is that the match didn't feel like a triple threat match. At times it just felt like it was Strong vs Hero or Strong vs Cage and so on but still a good match. Roderick Strong hits a bunch of sick kicks at the end, pinning Cage to earn the victory and retain the PWG championship.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Match 9: Beaver Boys vs. Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett for the PWG Tag Team Championships
First off, let me say that if anyone doesn't think PWG can tell stories in the ring and that all they are is just "spot monkeys" than they need to watch this match. So let me tell you why I love this match so much. I love matches that tell stories and bring out personalities in wrestlers and this match did just that. It wasn't an amazing in ring match but it was very good and the story these teams told made it even better. As you may know, Andrew Everett got injured last year, tearing his ACL, and he got it completely replaced. So the Beaver Boys came into this match as the heels and right from the get go, John Silver targeted Everett's leg where he got his ACL replaced. Silver grabbed a chair and hit Everett's leg behind the referee's back causing Trevor Lee to get visibly upset, yelling "WHAT THE FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK!" numerous times at the ref. The Beaver Boys got massive "YOU GUYS ARE ASSHOLES" chants so they got great heat during this match. Andrew Everett did an AMAZING job at selling it. During the match, he went to run the ropes and just fell down, selling the leg injury. He eventually got the hot tag on Trevor Lee and the crowd went wild. I honestly can't remember how the victory happened but Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett ended up getting the victory becoming the new PWG Tag Team Champions and winners of the 2015 DDT4 tournament. With the time constraints, the DVD ended almost immediately after they won so sadly, you didn't get to see them celebrate or even cut a promo.
Match Rating: ****
Overall Thoughts: This tournament was pretty underwhelming, The camera issues in 4 of the matches really bothered me and this just didn't feel like your typical amazing PWG show. The time constraints didn't help either, but if you're big fan of Trevor Lee (which I've gone on record saying he's my favorite Indy wrestler right now not counting ROH guys) or Andrew Everett, than you will like this show cause all 3 of their matches were the best of the night. I'll give it a thumbs up for that reason alone, plus the shows are only 15$ and they are usually worth it regardless. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
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