7/31 Pro Wrestling Guerilla: Rock star attends a show featuring Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Bryan Danielson, Davey Richards, Chris Hero, The Young Bucks, El Generico, Roderick Strong, and more

Pro Wrestling Guerilla
Reseda, Calif.
Report by Dot Net Member Jay Starr

Great night at PWG Threemendous II. It was a packed house in the ever classy Resada, CA. I brought a friend who has never watched wrestling, not even at Hulkamania's height, and Billy Corgan was sitting behind us. Also, the crowd was buzzing that Brian Kendrick had been seen arriving with the Motor City Machine Guns.

1. The Cutler Brothers and Charles Mercury defeated Brandon Gatson, Johnny Goodtime, and Jerome 'LTP' Robinson. All six wrestlers were new to me, as I'm not nearly as Indy educated as I need to be. Great match to kick things off with lots of near falls, high spots, and crowd action. The Cutler Brothers have a generic 'Major Brothers' look to them, but went well enough in the ring. LTP was especially amazing to watch- extremely short and fast, with a lot of great high spots. He's got a lot of great Eric Young baby face potential.

2. Alex Shelly defeated Scott Lost. Surprisingly, Alex worked most of the match on the mat. My buddy had listened to me hype the Motor City Machine Guns as high flyers for 20 minutes at Arby's (which ended up being a bad idea. The Arby's, I mean) and Alex has the nerve to give us good fundamentals with a great 'working the arm' story with Lost. Scott wasn't quit on the same page as Alex and it hurt the match.

3. Bryan Danielson defeated Chris Sabin. My first time seeing Danielson work. Great match with a lot of good back and forth, including an amazing intense kick trading session. It was interesting seeing Sabin slowly switch to heel tactics on the fly, as the crowd turned on him in favor of Bryan.

4. Chuck Taylor defeated Colt Cabana. Colt is brilliant in the ring. If the WWE wants comedy, take the money they pay Santino and the leprechaun and put Colt back on the roster. A surprising amount of dry humping jokes in this match which somehow never got old. Chuck Taylor was fantastic as the cowardly heel, complete with girl screams. He won with a surprise roll up. Usually TNA and WWE comedy matches just irritate me, but this was genuinely entertaining.

5. Roderick Strong defeated Davey Richards. Both of these guys have ‘it.’ Second favorite match of the night. Great work by both gentlemen. Davey Richards is going places. He's got a good WWE look and a very intense move set.

6. 2 Skinny Black Guys (Human Tornado and El Generico) defeated The Young Bucks. Match of the night. First of all, let it be known that Human Tornado came out to 'I'm on a Boat' by Lonely Island. El Generico is more over than Jeff Hardy in these parts, and the Young Bucks discovered the perfect way to generate instant heel heat: use 'Mmmbop' for your entrance theme.

Fast paced, great near falls. The Bucks were getting some MNM chants, and I'd agree that they need to lose the animal fur Johnny Nitro look. It doesn't really fit them. H.T. wasn't a spot monkey like I expected, but I've only seen his WSX stuff. A standing room only crowd on their feet all shouting the words to 'I'm on a Boat' in celebration with the Black Guys was my favorite moment at a live wrestling show, as was the chant 'lets go Black Guys.' Apparently some positive things happened because of Obama's beer summit after all.

7. Chris Hero defeated Joey Ryan to retain the PWG title. The main event was a hardcore match, and it seemed to drag in places, but it had already been a long night. Hero played the heel, and pulls great heat. Your usual hardcore spots - hit with a chair, go through a table, hey, what are you doing with that trash can, ouch. Cool part of the match involved Hero wrapping Joey Ryan with a chain and basically keeping him on a leash. Ryan is a solid worker with a good look, and the crowd was behind him, but mainly because they hated Hero. I’m not the biggest hardcore fan in the world, so I’m looking forward to seeing Ryan work a regular match.

Notes: I’d say if PWG’s live shows have any weakness right now, its lack of storyline during the show. On the website, there are great, well written breakdowns on the history and angles leading up to matches, but I’d like to have some more of that inserted into the actual show. They'll be back at the end of August with the return of Brian Kendrick, and the following week with Dragon Gate. My non wrestling fan buddy wants to go back, which is about the highest praise you can get.