Project: Wrestling Guerrilla – End of the Road

It was a wild ride through the Southern California territory for Project: Wrestling Guerilla, and now we find ourselves at the end. I knew I wanted to put something of a cap on the mini-series, so I figured I would put a few things here in an epilogue, to sort out how I really feel about Pro Wrestling Guerilla now, for good or for ill.

I’ve assembled this into a few categories.

Stars of Reseda

I’d like to start by giving some flowers to the wrestlers who were the delights of the series.

• Chuck Taylor: My personal MVP of Reseda. Whether it was a goofy opening match or the actual goddamn main event, my love for Chuckie T only grew by seeing him in this environment. He was funny without feeling like he was begging for laughs, while showing a strong wrestling acumen that allowed both the comedy and the matches to hit. I loved the guy coming in, and this series only secured his place in my heart.
• Kevin Steen: As I mentioned in the couple of shows featuring him that I covered, Steen was not a guy that I completely “got” on the indies. Even in WWE, Kevin never quite tipped his way into “love” for me, settling into “really like” territory. I’m pleased to say that, seeing him here in an environment that he truly embraced and which embraced him back, I better understood not only his appeal, but how great he really is. No matter the name, Kev succeeds at the little things that make a character feel real, while tweaking his style ever-so-slightly to get the most out of his opponent in practically any situation. Add to that the excellent chapters in the Fight Forever War with Generico and I was a happy camper when Steen showed up.
• Chris Hero: Hero is someone that I’ve seen plenty of times, but I’ve always felt like I haven’t seen enough of him to form a true opinion on whether I like him or love him. I still feel that way at the end here, but I also feel emboldened to seek out more of him, because what I saw would often be my favorite part of a show. Whether it was the tall, lithe Hero of KOW, or the big bully character of the mid-2010’s, I always knew Hero was thinking (much like Steen) how to sell a match, opponent, or move through the little things. An errant curse, a shift in body language, or a facial expression told me that he has a mind for wrestling unlike others he worked with and I can’t wait to see more.
• Trevor Lee: It was a nice little journey to see Lee go from wet-behind-the-ears relative rookie into the character he adopted into the 2010s, which helped me to understand where his charisma as Cameron Grimes came from. An always-entertaining wrestler made even better with context.
• Willie Mack: Once more I ask, what the hell happened?! Early 2010’s Willie Mack was such a joy to watch because of his size and athleticism and it seemed a sure thing that he’d be a feature of shows to come, whether in PWG or elsewhere. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be so, but we’ll always have his fun performances here.
• AR Fox: A guy that I now know enough to know that he’s underrated. It’s awesome that Fox is still going today and that, unlike someone like Willie Mack, there’s still opportunities to see his terrific high-flying and personality shine through well after he made his mark as a youngster in PWG.
• The Ones I Already Knew Were Good (El Generico/Claudio Castagnoli/Candice LeRae/Roderick Strong/WALTER/Zack Sabre Jr/Keith Lee): This lot were the people that I liked going into watching the shows and who basically held up their end along the way. My estimation neither improved nor diminished and I was generally happy to see them in any aspect.

Fallen Stars

Just as there were those who made a show much more bearable, there were a few that I just never jibed with. I won’t go into great detail here, but I do want to make my feelings known.

• Brian Cage: This fuckin’ guy. I read someone on Twitter recently saying something to the effect that Cage is the favorite wrestler of your buddy who barely watches wrestling. He can be acceptable to even good in an opener, but if you ask him to try and hang with anyone remotely better than him, his shortcomings as a performer come into clear view; namely, the GMSI mentality that he claims to this day is not just a gimmick, but a clear description of how he approaches any match. It’s clearly still working for him today, but it’ll mean that you’ll never mistake him for somebody who puts thought or meaning into what he does.
• Kyle O’Reilly: What a blemish this was for someone I used to like unreservedly. Similar to Cage, putting Kyle in situations where he has to try and be a contemporary of wrestlers who are just out-and-out better than him is a surefire way to expose the fact that he does not have very good instincts when it comes to telling a story in the ring. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a bit of love for Kyle thanks to his better matches elsewhere and his penchant for comedy, but he’s no longer the sure bet I once thought he was.
• The Ones Better Off In WWE (Ricochet/Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa): Speaking of bad instincts. Not to play into the smark stereotype, but these guys are right where they belong now, in a place where attention to detail, cleverness, and rewarding an audience for paying attention no longer matters if the money is green enough. Good on ’em, make that paper, but you can definitely see in their work in this series (similar to Kyle) that their work doesn’t quite hold up against the clear frontrunners they shared the ring with.
• Davey Richards: This was another magic-killer akin to Kyle, but in a much weirder and more sour way. After starting off with my favorite match of the whole series, Davey’s worst self came into view in a different way to someone like Kyle O’Reilly. Instead of giving in to a more laissez-faire approach to storytelling, Davey instead seemed to get high on his own supply and start acting like he’s as good as people at the time (including me) thought he was. It became off-putting very swiftly to see him throw his weight around in his few matches and snuff out any chance for his opponent to make something for themselves on his account, a stark contrast to more giving opponents (or at least, those better at hiding their true intentions) like a Chris Hero. Simply put, I began to see why everybody thought (thinks?) Davey is an asshole.
• All Those Ones: You know who and why.

Favorite Show

Battle of Los Angeles 2011: Of the shows I decided to keep for myself, this one has the most lingering positivity around it. I was close to picking Black Cole Sun, but I still feel that although it’s a good card overall, there’s still enough thorns in there to make the overall memory of it not shine as brightly. BOLA 2011 has the benefit of being a one-night version of the tournament and feature enough varied matches and performances from some of the best wrestlers in the world to be a total blast to watch all the way through. After watching it, I often held the matches on the card as the high benchmark for other similar matches to clear (ie. the ideal use of the Young Bucks) and it’s the one I’m the most likely to watch in full again.

Favorite Match

El Generico vs Kevin Steen, Steen Wolf: Funny enough, from a one-match show springs THE one match. Many words have been typed online about how great Steen and Generico are together and especially about the sheer greatness of this match, including from me, so I’ll just say here that it was equal parts blood rivalry, indie spotfest, Dramatic, and fun. I’m glad to have finally seen it and even more glad to not be the low man on what is, inarguably, the best match of this series.

Do I Like PWG?

Beyond simply getting me to finally watch these damn DVDs cluttering up my shelf, I wanted to take this as a bit of a test to see if I actually even liked Pro Wrestling Guerrilla all that much. I will say, it is certainly odd to watch these shows outside of their respective times, as PWG has now become both a legacy indie brand and a signifier of someone’s age in online wrestling circles. These days, PWG feels far from the taste-maker promotion it once was, especially now that a large part of the brain trust of its biggest years are now focused more on world domination rather than territorial pissings.

I remember the times these were made in and I remember the person I was during them. To say that I’ve grown since then is no short statement, as I’d like to think we all have. In many ways, I’ve grown past the sophomoric presentation that often litters PWG’s shows, whether it’s off-color humor, dated references, or a real tokenistic and limp approach to gender parity. There’s not a lot in PWG that still appeals to me…

…but there is still something there. If I had wholesale hated my time watching these shows, I would have simply dumped them all in the garbage can, but I did still have my fun. The athletic displays, dives, and truly brain-dead spots still evoked a reaction from me most times and there was still a lot of very good professional wrestling to be found. This series not only helped me better understand some of my favorite (or purportedly favorite) wrestlers and what makes them good, but it helped me come to a clearer reckoning as to what it is I actually like about wrestling at my age today.

At the end of it all, I don’t think I’d refer to myself as a fan of PWG; however, much like my feelings at the end of watching my buddy Mike’s Super Dragon DVD, I feel that I better understand what other people still love about the good ol’ days. Like Dragon himself, it’s not totally for me, but I can still pump my fist and shout “Fuck yeah” when the spirit moves me.

What’s Next?

This series of articles proved something else to me, and that is that I now have a new way to interact with my wrestling media in a way that feels both enjoyable and transformative (in a very minor way). I have a lot of DVDs on my shelf that I’d love to watch and talk about, whether for the first time or for the umpteenth time. More specifically, there’s another stack of burned DVDs that I’m itching to tackle, but I’m not sure if a whole article series is the way that I would “cover” these. Whatever is next, you’ll hear about here and on the Twitter, @CC_PW.

If you’ve read any part of this series, thank you very much. If you enjoy my writing, please follow on Twitter and consider donating to my Ko-fi. Until next time.

Project: Wrestling Guerilla – Mystery Vortex V

SHOW TRAILER

This is it, the final show in our series, and my final PWG purchase to date. We’re not long removed from the past event, a good show followed by a travesty, so let’s see who turns up on Mystery Vortex. I’ll save the lookbacks and goodbyes for a later date, let’s do this.

David Starr vs Fred Yehi

Another unfortunate situation, as Starr is currently persona non grata in wrestling, so I’ll be brief. Starr and Yehi (in the latter’s only PWG match to date, for whatever reason) have a decent match that definitely should not have been the opener due to its more considered pace. I’m not super-familiar with Yehi and I feel this wasn’t the best intro to a guy that I’ve heard talked up, so I’ll seek him out elsewhere. Weird start to this whole thing on several levels. ***

Joey Janela vs Flash Morgan Webster

In early 2018, the pillaging of the then-hot UK territory has nearly begun, and wrestlers like Webster will soon begin their association with WWE through NXT UK. It has been interesting to see the British talent begin their introduction to American indies vis-a-vis PWG in this series, and ominous knowing what is around the corner for them. Webster and Janela have a typical flashy PWG match (one that would have been far better suited as the opener), with both hitting various suicide dives, and Webster donning his mod helmet for a running crossbody into the chairs outside. Janela gets in some big moves like a Death Valley driver on the ring apron, a package piledriver, and tops it off with a wild super brainbuster. One thing that can happen in these types of matches is overdoing the kick-outs near the end, to the point that when Janela hit said super brainbuster, I shouted “Fuck off” when Webster kick out. This is extra baffling when Janela pops right back up after that and locks in a crossface for the tap out. Not without its charms, but messy and overthought. **3/4

Rey Fenix vs Sammy Guevara

Continuing the thread of “messy but entertaining,” two current-day AEW guys bust out all the flips here, the difference being that both have a bit more physical poise to do them without killing each other…9 times out of 10. Both start out immediately with impressive dives, and Sammy gets an early near-fall with the 630. It’s all moves moves moves from there, but again, they do look pretty cool. Sammy takes a scary header off of Fenix’s trademark running hurricanrana off the ropes, but Sammy gets him back later with another 630 right on the poor guy’s knee. We get another weird, overthought finish where Sammy appears to hit a top-rope Flatliner (or get hit with a top-rope uranage) and follows up with a shooting star press for the win. While this was sloppier than the previous match, I enjoyed it more on a more visceral level. ***1/4

Keith Lee vs Zack Sabre Jr.

Two indie golden-boys meet up in a physical mismatch and it’s pretty damn good. Keith Lee is en route to winning the PWG title later in the year, while ZSJ is holding both the RevPro and EVOLVE titles at this time. As I’ve mentioned before, I just love when Zack tries to square up to someone either bigger or stronger than him, and the dynamic between he and Keith is further improved by the sheer hilarity in their physical differences. Zack tries to pick at him and open him up to submissions but, much like a certain era of the Smackdown vs Raw games, Keith is just too big for Zack to get anything going and he gets repeatedly whacked for his efforts. I adored a spot where Keith paraded around the ring with Zack futilely attempting a knee-bar on his leg, with Rick Knox on commentary likening it to playing with his nephews.

Eventually, Zack gets an opening and makes Keith’s left leg vulnerable, which is all he needs to be dangerous. Keith still gets his shots in to slow Zack’s ascent but it’s death by a thousand cuts as Zack continues to patiently wear down Keith. Zack capitalizes on some key mistakes by Keith but makes some of his own, like when Keith reverses a hanging triangle sleeper into the Spirit Bomb for a near-fall. Zack, never content to learn his lesson, continues to try and out-strike Keith, but eventually gets goaded into the Big Bang Catastrophe and Keith wins. Although Keith picked and chose when to pay attention to the knee at times, he used it to create a very fun dynamic with Zack in a pairing that I can’t imagine not delivering in some way. ***1/2

Marty Scurll vs Trent

Similar to guys like Flash Morgan Webster, Scurll will soon be on his way out of PWG; however, it will be something of a lateral move over to Ring of Honor and not to be gobbled up by Triple H’s vision, as darkly funny as that would have been. Similar to the opener, a supremely canceled guy has a decent match with a better wrestler, but this one goes on far too long to be especially enjoyable. At least the right guy won. **3/4

The Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb & Matthew Riddle) (c) vs Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) [PWG World Tag Team Championship Match]

This is the final successful title defense for the Chosen Bros, who will drop the belts in a couple of months en route to Cobb winning the PWG title for himself and Riddle eventually shipping up to New York. They face off against WALTER and Thatcher, who have been teaming together since 2016, and the former of whom will also win the PWG title this year. Admittedly for this one, my expectations were perhaps a bit too high for how this looked on paper, which is a summation of my feelings on both instances I’ve seen of Cobb and Riddle as a team.

Both teams have a designated mat worker (Riddle, Thatcher) and a powerhouse (Cobb, WALTER), and we see combinations of both types throughout, and it’s generally pretty good. Interestingly, Ringkampf start off in the babyface role with Thatcher in peril before tagging out to WALTER. We also get the rare alignment shift, as Cobb gets to be babyface-in-peril after Ringkampf comes back and Riddle getting his own hot tag. The action throughout is what you’d expect from these four, but with the added modifier of it being in PWG, so it at times feels less focused or cohesive than you might get elsewhere. The Bros get the win with a Doomsday knee followed by a rocket launcher Bro 2 Sleep. Again, good and all (and not as baffling as the previous Bros match in this series), but I feel the result is not quite the sum of its parts. ***1/2

Ricochet (c) vs Chuck Taylor [Guerilla Warfare Match for the PWG World Championship]

After a disgusting display in their previous match, Ricochet and Chuck get one more shot to do it right and, thankfully, they don’t beef it.

As noted in the last review, Ricochet made a claim upon winning the belt that he was going nowhere. Fast forward only a couple of months and this is Ricochet’s final indie date before heading to WWE. Wah-wah. The Guerilla Warfare stipulation on this seems to be played up as a surprise, as Ricochet and referee Rick Knox both act surprised and confused when Excalibur says it. Both Ricochet and Chuck are largely babyfaces, but get scattered boos that remind me of their previous match that left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Ricochet jumps Chuck after his ring intro and gets to work on him with some unprotected trash can shots to the head and a Van Terminator, which is at least a spirited beginning. Chuck retaliates and produces a ladder from backstage with both guys take their turns getting tossed into it. Chuck also does a very indie-riffic spot involving creating a chair structure and suplexing Ricochet through it, but it’s a very endearing type of silly spot, so I’m okay with it. Chuck also ABSOLUTELY NAILS a running cannonball senton to the outside through a table, and it’s one of the most athletically impressive things I’ve seen either of these guys do.

Despite the cool stuff that both guys are doing, the crowd does end up flagging about 2/3rds of the way through, and seem generally less into the match the second time around (including the weird minority of people who are booing Chuck, all of whom I will die hating with my entire heart). Both guys get their big close near-falls, which leads to Chuck getting a Santa stocking of thumbtacks for a bit of extra rocket fuel (he also shoves the most prominent of his haters, because Chuck loves me and I love him). Chuck takes a couple of nasty tack bumps for his troubles, including the tacks-in-the-mouth trick, but props to Ricochet who takes a full-on 630 bump into them, which gave me sympathetic pain just watching it. Chuck takes advantage and nails a piledriver followed by the Awful Waffle for the win and his second PWG title. Like a lot of Guerilla Warfare matches before it, it’s fun and silly garbage, and is an improvement on its predecessor by virtue of having a better atmosphere (despite the aforementioned dips) and having the 100% correct winner. Chuck and Ric both take time to put each other over on the mic afterward, and although this win isn’t a patch on Chuck’s original big victory, I’m glad that I at least got to see him go home with the gold once. ***1/2

Shelf Status

I went back and forth on this one for a while, because it’s not so much a show of high and lows, but a show that exists on both sides of the middle. There’s nothing godawful in here, and the less interesting matches at least have something going for them; conversely, the matches I enjoyed were usually good-not-great, with nothing I’m necessarily clamoring to see again. I also found myself feeling that there were a couple of talents on the show that I’d be better off seeking out outside of the PWG atmosphere, either because they didn’t return (Yehi) or because the atmosphere is not a natural fit for them (Ringkampf). Ultimately, although I don’t wish it ill or regret my time with it, I’m calling this one Not Worthy because of my lack of desire to watch it again.

(This is not a sponsored article. PWG physical media is available on their website. You can also stream it digitally on High Spots Network.)

Next time, we end off Project: Wrestling Guerilla with a short piece on my takeaways from the project, for good and for ill…