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…