PWG All Star Weekend Night 1 Gradutational Review!

[Samoa JOWNED~!]

Exactly a year after it happened, I watch and review it. Fate, you are so kind.

Match 1: SBS & Los Luchas Vs. Hook Bomberry, Top Gun Talwar, Ronin & Davey Richards
So Cal Val is #5 on the Mexican number plate!

Standard PWG opening multi-man man, with less comedy actually. At least this match has a reason for happening though. Hook did his stuff. Ronin did his stuff, Top Gun did his stuff + owning Alex Shelley AND Scott Steiner, Davey Richards didn’t do nearly enough of his stuff, Ex did his stuff, Disco did his stuff and Los Luchas did their fun stuff. So, everyone strutted their funky stuff, basically. Ronin is better than people give him credit for, shame he does a lot of unnecessary things.

Match 2: ‘The Future’ Chris Sabin Vs. ‘The Technical Valedictorian’ Chris Hero
It’s the battle of the Chris’s taking place right in my living room’s TV, how proud I am! But who else could be included in this? Chris Jericho? Chris Benoit? Chris Candido? Chris Masters? CHRIStian Cage? CHRISty Hemme? CHRIStina Aguilera even? I don’t know why are we even having this discussion, as there’s no-one better than CHRIS Kanyon!!!

This was a match that some would love, and some would hate. I do neither, as I’m cool. ‘Wats da matta u’ some might say to me, or only Tracey Smothers, but there is nothing the matter with me at all. I liked a lot of the neck work by Sabin that followed onto the arm work by Hero, it was innovative, believable and worked into their move sets well, especially Hero’s arm work. About 15 minutes for a Chris Hero match is ideal, I have decided, as he tends to get sloppy and lose direction if it goes longer. And seeing as this was about 15 minutes, it didn’t fall apart, shame Super Dragon hasn’t figured this out too though.

‘Trooper’ Patrick Hernandez endangers tsunamis!


More to come....

[Samoa JOWNED~!]

Match 3: Petey Williams Vs. Jonny Storm
The fit and even phitt birds love PWG!

Decent-ish match, about what I expected and the best you could get out of these in in that time, which was more than enough to bring out something good. Williams’ neglect to sell and his overall sloppy execution on even the simplest moves hurt the match, but Storm brought some fun stuff to the table as always. Williams just seemed lost at times, the guy has no ring presence. He needs his matches laid out in advance, he can’t think on his feet.

Pocket Pool > Wrestling!

Match 4: The Havana Pitbulls Vs. Puma & ‘Dragon Soldier B‘ Kendo KaShin
One thing that made this match so enjoyable was the great mix of styles, it made for an interesting dynamic. Lucha, puro, US indy, strong style; all applied and more even. Liked the story of The Pitbulls using their excessive tag-team experience to single out the weak link in Puma, and KaShin was more impressive here than in the whole of the ROH BOTASJT. His pacing was a little off though, he just seemed to rely on uppercuts and random submissions, but he didn’t get much time in the ring, as he’s a silly soldier.

Also, are Puma and Romero brothers or even the same person, maybe clones? Seriously, they’re so alike in the ring, just the way they jumpingly float around looking for an opening to thrust a kick in. It’s awesome, and so are they. I’d love to see a singles match between the 2, it’d be like watching 2 mirrors fighting minus the glass shed. They both had some lovely submissions and reversals together, as well as Reyes adding a harder touch to it. The top rope diving headbutt into a cravat was godlike.

Match 5: American Dragon Vs. James Gibson
The power of the beard prevails!

Holy jamoly, this was an outstanding wrestling match, full of whatdoyamacallits! They did a great job of establishing Dragon as the heel numerous times throughout the match, it’s always hard when you get caught up in the moment that these things can pass you by, so to keep doing them was a smart idea. As always, Gibson’s selling was top notch, and Dragon’s facial expressions were excellent. The timing was spot on, and the match progressed really well and built to a finish, in which was very fun indeed. Perhaps it would havr benefited from some working over a body part extensively by Dragon rather than it being mostly back and forth action, bit I ain’t picky. The crowd were really into this, both wrestlers have amazing crowd connection, they executed this match flawlessly.


Even more to come....

[IWSfan4life]

Dragon/Gibson really let me down as per usual for AmDrag, but Sabin/Hero was tremendous. Showed me Sabin does have some mat skill that he hasn't shown in TNA, along with extra potential.

-Jason

[Samoa JOWNED~!]

2 week holiday at my Dad’s + boredom = this DVD being watched!

Match 6: The Arial Express & Frankie Kazarian Vs. Arrogance & Joey Ryan
Chris Bosh loves to PWN people on April 1st!

Yeah, he also likes to do some contrived moves as some would say, but I think they’re great, I always give a nice pop for them. But the match, it was similar to the tag match at EPWM in what they wanted to accomplish and do with the match, only given more time and turning out better. Isolating Kazarian and working over him like a government mule to coincide with his feud with the arrogant boys, and each man got a healthy amount of time to show off their skills. Even a tower-of-doom spot was used, as well as a Flex Capacitor (Half Spanish Fly) to the outside onto everyone in the match including Dino and the referee, cool. That really helped the match come alive of sorts after Kazarian’s singled out beating that felt rather monotonous.

There’s only one way to describe this match; Jeezy creezy on a cross rising a motorcycle through the Nevada desert!

Match 7: TNA X Division Title - Christopher Daniels© Vs. Alex Shelley
I never approve of title’s outside of that company they’re taking place in being defended in that very company, as it’s obvious who’s going to win, especially with it’s TNA, and Alex Shelley at the time wasn’t even in TNA, and Daniels had just won the title. It doesn’t give any more meaning to the match, if anything it takes away from it significantly.

But still, these 2 bucking bucks managed to bet a good match out that really surprised me, as their styles wouldn’t typically mesh together, but they did here, so awesome. They put over Shelley’s superior mat techniques without harming Daniels too much, and both men’s execution was very smooth. Shelley did a couple of little thing that probably went unnoticed but it brought the believability up.

Alex Shelley stole Ric Knox’s hair, the bald faced liar! BUT, hair from where..?

After match encounter between Daniels and Chris Hero, consisting of Daniels putting over himself, and hero putting over...Daniels as well, sets up their mach at Night 2 for the X Div title. Yipee!

Match 8: #1 Contenders Match For The PWG Title - Samoa Joe Vs. AJ Styles
Joe is in another one of these? Shocking.

This was intended to be the first ever PWG main event some 22/32 months ago, but it’s only happening now. Well, in PWG that is, and it was worth the wait. I thought it wasn’t quite as good as their Sacrifice match, but it topped all their other encounters. And this after I didn’t think either man could regain their freshness and unpredictability after so much overexposure in TNA, mainly against each other too. They used the ‘AJ miraculously does such and such a move to Joe despite him being 5347lbs’ too early, but it did play out later, so at least they had a reason for doing so. AJ’s selling, especially his facials, with the way he looked dazed and out of it like he’d just toked on a nice bong, were actually convincing. Meh, it probably was real, but who cares? Joe’s timing was notably good, and everything just seemed to work. Except Joe killed 30 people, but that doesn’t matter. Oh yeah, and AJ’s springboard fuck up that was unfortunate didn’t do as much damage as I thought it would have.

MOTN, fo sho. Given everything it needed to be exactly what it was.

Match 9: PWG Title - Super Dragon© Vs. Kevin Steen Vs. El Generico
Super Dragon’s mask is actually a his face!

This followed the usual triple threat formula, which technically isn’t very good in psychology terms, but worked well here considering all 3 men’s styles. In these matches, there is always the reliance on bumps and the fact that the three opponents can never remain the focal point the entire match, with the average triple threats often commonly resorting to one wrestler out of the picture for a long time. And in this, it was Dragon, which was best, as I regard him as the weakest wrestler out of the 3. In this match, it struck me as to what Generico is; not a Luchadore at all! Also, a really underrated wrestler, he’s more than the comedy. He bumps amazingly well for everyone, has tons of variety, sells best he can despite the mask, has some great high flying spotty things and, is, hilarious! He has a whole big bag of tricks! Shame his gimmick overshadows his talent most of the time, a darn shame. I wonder how long he can run with this gimmick without it getting stale or boring, but I think he can make it go for a long time, it’s super over. I bought his shirt, so he must be good. OLE!

And I hate to say it, but Excalibur was pretty bad on commentary here, he continually got things mixed up, more so than usual. Can’t have been a good thing for first time viewers. But still, a fantastic end to a fantastic show![/cliché review ending]

Bananna Extras
As per usual, lots of people putting themselves and their matches over and nothing else, although the last was pretty god damn funny. Styles making fun of Dragon wearing a mask and not being from Japan, and then Steen pretending that Styles is his friend, and proclaiming that he hates Super Dragon (Nice way to further their SD ½ feud and not entirely give it away). He’s gonna sue PWG because he stood in sh*t, and he’ll sue Excalibur, just because he’s not nice and wears a stupid mask. Puma and KaShin trying to suplex each other down the stairs was cool too.

Overall
This was PWG’s biggest show, with their biggest crowd, most stacked line-up and hyped card, and it was what is should and deserved to be; their best show to date by KILOMETRES! An all star show, such an apt name. Every match served its purpose and felt important/different/one of its own in it’s own special way, but they all blended together effectively to produce 3 hours of PWG goodness!

2005 Show Rankings:
1. All Star Weekend: Night 1 - Los Angeles, CA 04.01.05
2. Card Subject To Change - Los Angeles, CA 01.22.05
3. All Nude Revue - City Of Industry, CA 02.12.05
4. Ernest P. Worrell Memorial Show - City Of Industry, CA 03.12.05