Saturday, May 18, 2019

PWG: 200 Review

PWG: 200
Los Angeles, California
March 1st, 2019



The 200th PWG show celebration.

PWG World Champion - Jeff Cobb
PWG World Tag Team Champions - The Rascals (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz)
Commentators - Excalibur & Rick Knox

As of this writing, I'm a solid year behind on reviews, but got my hands on this early so I decided to go ahead and dive into it!

1) Jake Atlas vs. Jungle Boy vs. Trey Miguel

Trey Miguel is debuting and Atlas & Jungle Boy are still cutting their teeth, but all three men rocked it here. This reminded me a lot of the highly regarded Trevor Lee/Cedric Alexander/Andrew Everett three way from Mystery Vortex II in 2014. Just three fresh guys going out to make an impression and doing so very successfully. Crazy multi-man matches are a PWG tradition so this was a great way to kick off a show like this. Jungle Boy wins with a crucifix bomb on Trey Miguel. Sad he only has a few more appearances before going full time for AEW.

Match rating - ***1/2

2) Puma King vs. Laredo Kid

Friday, May 3, 2019

PWG: Neon Knights Review

Neon Knights
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