Pro Wrestling Guerrilla “Fear” – A detailed report on Kevin Steen and Super Dragon capturing the PWG Tag Titles, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards also appear, Amazing Red vs. Roderick Strong

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Reseda, Calif. at American Legion Post #308.
By Dot Net staffer Will Pruett

The event was pretty much sold out with an almost standing room only crowd (in fact I did not have room for my legs in front of my chair, but that may have been the fault of a couple very rude girls in front of me). The show began at about 8:40 p.m.

The show opened with Excalibur (PWG’s lead commentator and authority figure) coming to the ring. After some audio issues (which were an issue throughout the night), he ditched his microphone and thanked fans for the lack of open containers in the parking lot and for coming to the show. He reminded everyone how important it is to get out of the way if a wrestler and/or object comes flying at you. Finally, he asked everyone at the show to recycle.

Kevin Steen was on commentary for the first few matches.

A new referee was introduced and the crowd tried their best to insult him. It was fairly amusing.

1. The Fighting Taylor Boys (Brian Cage-Taylor and Ryan Taylor) defeated Kenny King and T.J. Perkins. T.J. Perkins and Kenny King were originally scheduled to face off in a singles match, but about a minute in the Fighting Taylor Boys came from the back and attacked King and Perkins after a short promo (Las Luchas, who the Taylors were supposed to wrestle, were not able to make the event).

This began a tag match with King and Perkins teaming against the Taylors. This was a very exciting opening match that never overstayed its welcome. It followed the standard indie tag team formula with the match breaking down into a series of dives to the outside (which forced many fans to stand up and get out of the way quickly). The match ended with the Taylors hitting King with a double team Canadian Destroyer.

After this match there were more sound issues, which lead to Excalibur getting angry and Kevin Steen mocking his anger. This eventually lead to a “Kill Steen Kill” chant that morphed into a “Hug Steen Hug” chant.

2. Roderick Strong defeated Amazing Red. This crowd was very excited to see both of these guys, but the match was disappointing. Red looked to be missing a step or two and Strong, although he tried hard, could not pull him out of it. There were flashes of the brilliance that this matchup seemed to promise, but it never quite achieved that.

Eventually, Roderick Strong won the match with a sick looking Gibson Driver that Red was slow to get up from. After the match Red asked for a microphone and apologized for his performance, saying that he was not allowed to practice with TNA (of course the crowd took this opportunity to express an unflattering opinion about TNA).

3. “Pretty” Peter Avalon, Ray Rosas, Joey Ryan and Scorpio Sky defeated Famous B, Chris Kadillak, Candice LaRae and B-Boy. This match started with a promo that introduced long time PWG regular B-Boy as a mystery partner since Willie Mack was originally scheduled to be on the babyface team (he would appear later in the night). The crowd was very excited to see him.

This entire match was about how sleazy Ryan, Avalon, Rosas and Sky could be towards Cancice LaRae. There were a few tasteless moments as the heel men decided to execute a segment that involved a forced gangbang on LaRae. It went past the point of funny and quickly became distasteful. The crowd was supportive of it, but I wish the wrestlers were above such cheap tactics, since their wrestling ability obviously was.

This match went on a little too long and started a trend on the show of too many near-fall segments. Towards the end, it dragged with a few series of spots involving Candice LaRae. The action was solid, but it could have been about five minutes shorter and no one would have had an issue with that. The match ended when Joey Ryan pinned Candice LaRae.

4. Willie Mack defeated Chris Hero. Chris Hero’s music hit and most fans in the building thought this was yet another blunder by the awful sound technician. Then Hero walked through the curtain and the crowd went crazy. Hero looked a little out of shape, but that did not affect the quality of his performance (just the appearance of his midsection).

This was a really good match between two very exciting wrestlers. If you haven’t seen Willie Mack, watch his performances and you will be pleasantly surprised. He is crazy athletic for his build. This one was just the right length and ended with Willie Mack hitting Chris Hero with a Owen Hart on Steve Austin style Piledriver (minus the neck breaking).

After the match, Chris Hero got a microphone as said that he does not know whether he will ever be back to PWG or not, but it will always be his home.

5. RockNES Monters (Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma) defeated Future Shock (Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly). Before this match started, most of the fans around me were longing for an intermission. They were still willing to get into the match, but it was about two hours into the show and the room was very hot.

Future Shock was very over, but not near as over as the RockNES Monsters, who are Southern California regulars. This was another high flying tag match that played into the indie tag stereotype (but executed it well). The fans started to lose momentum as the match went on, but came back for the finish. Johhny Goodtime scored the win for his team with a Frogsplash.

Intermission. The building cooled off a bit (in the good way) as people filed outside. Most everyone stayed through the break, despite it already being 11:00pm when intermission ended. Chris Hero was on commentary for the rest of the show post-intermission.

6. The American Wolves (Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards) defeated Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno and Stupefied). I believe the Wolves were playing the heels in this match against the very over PWG regular tag team, Super Smash Brothers. The fans were heckling the Wolves about being in Ring of Honor and being “Sinclair property” all through the match.

This was a half-comedy, half-serious match with some solid action mixed in. The Smash Brothers worked hard to keep up with the very intense Wolves. This match locked the crowd in, but lost them in the last five minutes. This was another instance of too much of a good thing.

The drama did not build effectively and the fans were out of it by the end. Davey Richards had to verbally encourage the fans to cheer as the Wolves went for the finish, which was Eddie forcing a submission via Achilles Lock.

After the match, Richards praised to effort from the Super Smash Brothers and the Wolves shook their hands. Then Eddie Edwards did not shake the hand of Davey Richards and Davey mentioned that he would see Eddie in New York (referencing their upcoming ROH Championship match at Final Battle).

7. PWG World Champion El Generico defeated Dick Togo in a non-title match. The top of this match included a ton of stalling. The fans were into Togo and did not give their usual love to El Generico. This included singing Generico’s theme song (Olè) using Togo’s name.

This was a slow match at first that picked up in a big way down the stretch. The near falls at the end were very good and believable, but they were not as good as some earlier in the night. Once the match did pick up, Togo and Generico worked hard. The match ended when Generico hit a top rope brain-buster on Togo.

8. Kevin Steen and Super Dragon defeated The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship in a Guerrilla Warfare Match. Steen and Super Dragon received a huge ovation as they entered and The Young Bucks were booed out of the building.

This match went all over the place, with the action spilling into the fans (including getting right in front of my wife and I) and the rows of chairs basically being abolished. Trash cans, steel and plastic chairs and tables abounded as this was basically an absolute destruction of the Young Bucks.

Both of the Bucks took rough looking (and sounding) table spots to the outside of the ring. There were also some dangerous looking headshots with many of the chairs (although most seemed to be well protected). This was a brawl that the fans loved with an atmosphere that you have to see to believe. It wasn’t the best technical match of the night but it was definitely the most exciting.

Steen won the match for his team with the Package Piledriver. Great match to cap off a great night. The show ended around 12:30am.

Pruett’s Pause: This was an unbelievable show. It had its down moments (and its matches that dragged on longer than they needed to), but overall it was a great way to spend an evening. I had never been to a PWG show before and I have to say that if you live in the area and are debating about it, debate no longer. Go see Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.

I’d recommend this show to anyone. It will be released on DVD and for sale at prowrestlingguerrilla.com. Overall, I’d grade the show a solid B.