PWG: Head Like A Cole Review

1) Trevor Lee vs. Keith Lee

The battle of the Lee's! It sounds appealing, but is honestly so skippable. Some good taunting by Trevor early on before this thing falls into stale territory. This is where my comment about this show having such mixed reviews comes into play. I saw some people give this the same rating I am, whereas some said Trevor Lee was the only good thing about this. To me, that's an outrageous climb considering the only thing I enjoyed about this Keith Lee's few shining moments. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, though so onward we go. Couple hot minutes near the end that ALMOST made up for the boring first half/mid portion. Keith Lee wins therefore I leave with a decent taste in my mouth. It's crazy how Trevor Lee went from the person I was most excited to see on PWG shows to more of a malcontent.

Match rating - **1/2

2) ReDragon (Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs. Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb & Matt Riddle)

NOW WE'RE TALKIN. Grappling at it's finest here with four men who do it better than arguably anyone else in the world. Nice stalemates to start between all four men, O'Reilly pairing off with Cobb and Fish pairing off with Riddle. Both teams do some isolation work and showcase their true tag team skills before things sorta break down. The Fish/Riddle work from early on leads to some intense work between the two that leaves Fish bleeding the hard way from his left (I think) eye. That turns up the intensity level even higher for the closing sequence of high power moves with both teams busting out everything to gain the victory. In the end, the Chosen Bros get the big win with the Bro to Sleep on Bobby Fish. They remain undefeated.

Match rating - ***1/2

3) Michael Elgin vs. Shane Strickland

Basic fun little big man vs spotty smaller guy here. A lot of people hate on Strickland, but to me they just take stuff too seriously. This was about as easy on the eyes as you can get. Strickland does flips and Elgin does power moves. It doesn't go too long and its straight & to the point. I'll take that over a drawn out opener like Lee/Lee earlier with no specific story that just goes long to hit the 15 minute mark and for no other reason, any day of the week. Elgin lays down Strickland with the Elgin bomb and walks out with the victory.

Match rating - **3/4

4) Adam Cole vs. Sami Callihan

The Panama City Playboy gets the streamer treatment and a massive ovation as this is his last PWG show before heading off to NXT. Five and a half years after debuting in Reseda, taking the promotion by storm with a long reign as World Champion, Cole is making his exit. And what better opponent than career-long rival, Sami Callihan? These two started in pro wrestling together back in CZW and brought their rivalry over to PWG in 2012-2013 in a series of bouts that ended with a 60 minute Iron Man Match at "Is Your Body Ready?" in June of 2013 for the PWG World Championship. This wasn't quite the same as any of the other meetings though as there was no bullshitting around. The two had a long staredown at the beginning of the match only for things to explode into a brawl filled with chair spots and stiff blows. In the end, Cole falls to his arch rival after getting caught in a cradle pinning combination. After the match, Cole gets one last "Adam Cole Bay Bay" before bowing out. Thanks for the memories, Adam.

Match rating - ***1/4

5) Mark Haskins vs. Lio Rush

I'm not quite sure why this is so high on the card considering there's no real backstory and neither of these guys have brought anything too notable out since debuting in PWG, but none the less, we are here and it's a decent little showcase for both men. Definitely better than the opener and Elgin/Strickland. Not much to talk about, though. Rush wins with a frog splash.

Match rating - ***

6) Penta El Zero M & Fenix (c) vs. The Young Bucks - PWG World Tag Team Championship Match

These two teams were involved in my pick for PWG Match of the Year thus far back in March in a three way tag match that saw the Lucha Bros win the titles. So, I'm pretty stoked for this and I'll say right out of the gate that it definitely delivered. It's not on the level of the aforementioned bout, but it's definitely a fine counterpart. Just these two teams doing their thing flawlessly in front of a hot crowd eating up every second. Penta & Fenix continue to break out new double team moves that I've yet to see from them in Reseda and The Bucks continue being the best at what they do. To most people's surprise, Penta & Fenix retain here after a crazy match.

Match rating - ****

7) Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs. Trent? - PWG World Championship Match

The Bucks & The Lucha Bros got the crowd warmed up nicely for this main event and boy, was it a barnburner. This feud between ZSJ & Chuck has brought us some awesome stuff so far and this was no different. This match got set up from that amazing tag match a few months back where Trent pinned ZSJ, earning the Best Friends a big victory. So going into this, ZSJ seems slightly vulnerable considering he HAS been pinned by Trent during this reign before. And them starting the match with Trent going for the same move that put ZSJ away and seeing the champion escape quickly & frantically to the outside makes it even more believable. Everything about this ruled. ZSJ is being a dick and torturing Trent. They do a lot of teasing and building towards stuff. Everything meant something. ZSJ's work on Trent's leg was a story that continued coming up through the very last second of the match when Trent went for a second crunchie and couldn't hold the weight. This was just fantastic stuff with a hot finishing stretch. ZSJ retains by tying Trent up in a precarious position following the failed crunchie attempt.

Match rating - ****1/4

PWG: Game Over, Man! Review

PWG World Champion - Zack Sabre Jr
PWG World Tag Team Champions - Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero M
Commentators - Excalibur, Chuck Taylor & Rick Knox

April 21st, 2017

1) Rey Fenix vs. Lio Rush
Fenix comes to the ring with his newly won PWG World Tag Team Championship. I guess Penta wasn't available tonight so Fenix is in singles action against Lio Rush and lorda mercy I was stoked for this. Two of the quickest guys to come around in recent years going at it in front of the hottest crowd? Triple yes. Anyway, this was definitely a treat to watch, Fenix & Rush played it smart by not going all out as if it were a top of the card match, which sorta disappointed me only because we may never see these two go at it again with Rush headed to WWE, but this was a suffice one time encounter and a perfect opener. My favorite Rush match since his debut in Reseda. He hit a damn spanish fly to the floor for christ sake!

Match rating - ***1/2

2) Adam Cole vs. Matthew Riddle
 
"Matthew Riddle going by the name on his birth certificate tonight, but of course, Adam Cole not going by his real name which is fat piece of shit." -Excalibur

Adam Cole is back, ladies. After a month off due to some sort of injury which caused him to miss Nice Boys and his match against Sami Callihan, the Panama City Playboy steps in the ring with more cockiness than ever. He mocked Riddle in every way shape or form, even making MMA jokes. It was good shit and made for an exciting vibe for the whole match. Once again, much like Rush/Fenix, this was one of those good while it lasted matches that never fully kicked into extremely high gear, suffice without a doubt, however.

Match rating - ***1/4

3) Jeff Cobb vs. Keith Lee
"Take your bets now on whether or not the ring survives this match." -Chuck Taylor
Chuck said it best, y'all. This was exactly what you would expect from Cobb & Lee - a slugfest. However, it did continue the trend of the night with it never really going into big match overdrive like you expect from PWG. It came pretty close though with these just two monsters throwing each other around in multiple unreal displays. I hope we see Cobb & Lee lock horns again because I feel like this is just a taste of what they can do. This was also the first time we've seen Keith Lee get to show his personality in PWG and it ruled.

Match rating - ***1/2

4) Kyle O'Reilly vs. Michael Elgin
Rematch from the finals of the 2013 BOLA tournament here and it's crazy to see the difference in where each guy is in their career from then to now. This was honestly really akin to their 2013 match except without the high stakes vibe and the fact that the crowd here actually was more into Elgin than O'Reilly, or so it seemed. The stiffness was equal or better than their 2013 encounter which makes sense considering both men's time in Japan and boy, it showed here. Just a straight slugfest with Kyle targeting Elgin's shoulder which they played off well. But in the end, Elgin planted O'Reilly with a buckle bomb and a sit out powerbomb to get the three count.

Match rating - ***1/4

5) The Young Bucks vs. War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe)
I've never been a huge War Machine fan so I was immediately kinda uninterested in this and considering the YB's just had one of their best matches this year last month in Reseda, it was hard to get invested in this. It started sorta slow and basic then built into a pretty heated final half with some nice sequences that actually pulled me into things. Bucks pick up a rebound victory after losing their tag titles at the last show.

Match rating - ***

6) Zack Sabre Jr vs. Dick Togo - Non Title Match
DICK IS BACK. Tonight is cool because the last time Dick was here, his opponent was EL GENERICO. AND the last time there was a Reseda Street Fight, it was between Chuck Taylor andddddd EL GENERICO. OLE BITCH. But yeah.  Dick's last PWG appearance was late 2011 when he challenged Generico for the PWG World Title in a HELLUVA match, no pun intended. That was more of a dream match between two fan favorites whereas this is Dick coming into a non title match with the top heel in the fed, currently. So the setting and outlay of the match was completely different. Zack was short, sweet, and dickish. This wasn't full of spots, it was all about portraying Zack as the asshole cheapskate World Champion. He worked over Togo's legs and took every opening to brutalize the veteran. It was a pretty stiff match, with Togo firing back with nothing but brute force to try to counteract Sabre's attack. The finish was brilliant as Zack pinned Togo with a Gedo Clutch as a double fuck you considering Togo & Gedo used to team together. Sabre with the cheap victory.

Match rating - ***1/4

7) Chuck Taylor vs. Marty Scurll - Reseda Street Fight
 
"I'm gonna kill this guy for real. MURDER!" -Chuck Taylor

Scurll with the villanious pre-match promo. Chuckie with the babyface fire. WE ARE LIVE, LADIES. This wasn't an overly brutal match and Chuck didn't damn near kill Marty like he did Generico back in 09 however this was certainly awesome. We saw Marty throw Chuck off the stage through a double chair pyramid, some ladder spots, a number of piledrivers, and thumbtack play. The closing moments to this match were some all time great, vintage PWG moments as Knox got laid out, so Justin came down. As Justin runs down to try to ref this thing, Chuck threw powder in Scurll's eyes and Scurll thought Justin was Chuck and popped fingers on both of his hands. Chuck then bodyslammed Scurll into thumbtacks and that man was BLEEDING. BUTTTTT JUSTIN CAN'T COUNT BC HIS FINGERS. The look on Justin Borden's face and his fingers all cramped up was the most priceless thing I've seen in a long time. The finish to the match itself was the icing on the cake with Chuckie going for the chicken wing on Scurll only to get dropped backfirst into the tacks and POP BACK UP AND LOCK IT IN AGAIN forcing Scurll to finally tap! Great main event.

Match rating - ****