Report by Brian Reznick
If this was the final PWG show in Reseda, they went out with a very good show that really picked up as it went on. This was not an all-time classic PWG show or anything, but it was very good.
Before the first match, Excalibur did his normal intro. He said that they are in the same position they were last month: they don’t know if this is their final show in Reseda, but it could be. Some fans cheered the chance of coming back, and booed when he mentioned the Globe, but they were in the minority.
– Tyler Bateman defeated Adam Brown
Brown was a late replacement for Trevor Lee. Pre-show, Excalibur mentioned Lee was hurt and wished he could be here but that he hated each and every one of us.
Bateman and Brown did a decent to good match, but I’d say that it’s below PWG standards. The crowd popped early for Brown. The reaction for Bateman was interesting, he was much more over for ASW. He got some boos, but also got more silence than I expected. They had some good striking and Brown did a good dive.
Bateman has some good forearms and elbows, but he threw a punching sequence late that did not look good. This lost the crowd a bit, Bateman won with a spinning tombstone. People did “please come back” for Brown, but not as much as I’ve heard before.
– Rey Horus defeated Jake Atlas
Atlas had quite a bit of heat, which I did not expect. The match was good, lots of fun lucha liver sequences. Atlas did a springboard to the floor, that looked kind of like a twisted bliss, where he might have landed really hard, but I couldn’t see the actual landing. Horus looked great, winning with a really great looking DDT off the ropes.
– Bandido defeated Robbie Eagles
This was a great match. I liked Bandido-Horus better, but people around me liked this one better. I am not going to do the high flying spots justice in this. Tons of dives and high spots. Bandido is over huge.
He won with a crazy spot out of the corner. Not sure how to describe this. He sat on the buckle, got Eagles in the torture rack position, and then gave him an inverted Michinoku driver into the ring for the pin. Crowd went nuts for both guys, throwing enough money into the ring to fill two pitchers and a baseball hat.
– Adam Brooks defeated Keith Lee
Really good match. Keith Lee is so great and works a big guy vs little guy match really well. Early story of the match was Lee no selling Brooks offense and overpowering him. Brooks did an eye gouge out of a test of strength spot where he faked going for the
test of strength, got a little bit of heat, but quickly got flattened by a great shoulder tackle from Lee.
Brooks came back with quick offense and cheap heel stuff. Crowd reacted well to Brooks. Finish came when Lee tried to get Brooks up for his jackhammer/powerslam, Brooks grabbed Justin (to crazy heat), low blowed Lee when Justin got turned around, and hit a swanton off the top.
Lee gave a nice promo into intermission.
– Jonah Rock defeated Timothy Thatcher
Tons of heat for Jonah. Thatcher got good reactions, but Jonah being the big heel was the story of the crowd responses. Lots of hard strikes and good submission spots from Thatcher. They brawled in the crowd in an area that I couldn’t see and Thatcher must have gotten murdered by a chair shot, because his back looked gross later.
The most memorable sequence for me was a great fight over a superplex. Thatcher had Jonah on the turnbuckle and kept fighting for the superplex. Jonah would knock him back down to the mat, and Thatcher kept jumping up from the mat and fighting for the superplex.
Third time ended up being the charm and he Jonah up and over for a great near fall. Jonah ended up winning with a frog splash to a chorus of boos.
– Matt Riddle defeated David Starr
Great technical match. This is one of those where every move and reversal made sense and built on top of each other. Great showing for Starr working heel, his matches in PWG have gotten better and better, and Riddle is always great. Riddle’s chest started bleeding from chops midway through.
Riddle hit his tombstone for a near fall. He ended up winning with a Gotch style tombstone off the second turnbuckle. Great reaction for both guys after the match.
– WALTER defeated Sammy Guevara to retain the PWG title
I loved the hell out of this match. This was my favorite match, but I’m guessing other people like Bandido-Eagles most.
Here’s the story of this match: WALTER wants to chop Sammy, Sammy wants to kick WALTER in the knee, and WALTER succeeded most so he won. Such a simple idea and so well told. Sammy avoided chops for a little while before finally getting flattened by won. Then he kicked WALTER in the knee as WALTER tried to chase him out of the ring. WALTER had an ugly bruise on his knee and Sammy’s chest was a disaster.
WALTER chopped him all around the outside of the ring. Sammy got the edge back by working the knee and hit some great high flying offense. Match ended when WALTER got Sammy by one wrist and flattened him with a chop. WALTER held onto the wrist, repeatedly struck him down then pulled him up one more time and killed him with a huge clothesline for the win.
After the match, WALTER tried to shake Sammy’s hand, but Sammy flipped him off and walked out.