PWG October 21st Preview
In another effort to bring more content to SCU’s main page and to kill my boredom since there’s nothing interesting on TV right now, I’m going to take a look at the lineup for this Saturday’s Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show in La Habra and give my thoughts on the matches. With PWG coming off their 2nd BOLA weekend in September, the first show to follow up the huge weekend was nowhere up to par with what BOLA had to offer, which was pretty obvious since it’s extremely tough for a promotion to follow up with an outstanding show. PWG had to deal with changing the date of their last show and were not able to use some key talent due to other bookings. This time, PWG looks like they’re bouncing back from that with a show that has potential to be one of the best shows to take place this year and have booked one match that could be one of the most important matches in SoCal this year.
Ronin vs. Shingo Takagi
No, this isn’t the match I was talking about(I’ll get into detail about that match later). Ronin has been having some good matches lately since becoming a singles wrestler in the promotion. His matches with Nemesis and Davey Richards were pretty good matches, and he had a surprisingly fun match with the debuting Chasyn Rance. This time Ronin will face another wrestler who will be making his PWG debut, Shingo Takagi. I have never seen Shingo wrestle before, but I do know that he is from the Dragon Gate promotion in Japan and has appeared in such promotions as Ring Of Honor and ROH’s sister promotion Full Impact Pro. From what I hear, Shingo is a pretty hard hitting wrestler. So based on what I’ve heard, this will probably be a pretty stiff match.
Prediction: Shingo Takagi. Since Shingo is from Dragon Gate, I can see him going over in this match.
Scorpio Sky vs. Matt Sydal
Last week, another promotion in the Chicago area had been claiming that Matt Sydal was going to be appearing at their event that was taking place on the same day as PWG. A few days later, the promotion announced that Sydal will not be wrestling on the event and will be at PWG instead. I’m really happy that Matt will be on the west coast on Saturday, as he’s been involved in some of the PWG’s most exciting matches this year. Scorpio Sky has recently been involved in a feud with Frankie Kazarian, but due to TNA having a fan fest the night before their biggest PPV, it looks like that feud will be put on hold for this show. Even though it looks like the feud wont continue at this show, I’m a lot more excited over Sky taking on Sydal. Their styles very similar and it could lead to a really fun high flying match.
Prediction: I can see Scorpio Sky getting the win in this one.
Rocky Romero vs. TJ Perkins: The Rubber Match
Romero and Perkins have had two singles matches against eachother in PWG. The first one took place at PWG’s “Don’t Call It The O.C.” in May with Rocky getting the victory(and becoming the 2nd best match in May on SCU’s rankings) and TJ getting the win in their rematch at “Self-Titled” a few weeks ago. Their first match was considered the best match on the “Don’t Call It The O.C.” show by many. Their second match really wasn’t as great as their first though in my mind. It’s great to see this match happen atleast one more time.
Prediction: Very tough call to make when trying to figure out who is going to win here. TJ Perkins will probably get the win here.
Chris Bosh vs. The Human Tornado
Chris Bosh and Human Tornado have a long history together. Both trained at the same school and have been involved in many matches together. While they have faced off against eachother in singles matches in other promotions(one of which involved Tornado doing a Tope Con Hilo onto Chris Bosh and some random fan sitting at ringside), they have never faced off in a singles match in PWG. Even though Tornado got the win over Joey Ryan at the last PWG show, he is not getting a rematch for the PWG World Title because of some legal action taken by Joey. Instead, he’ll have to settle for Joey’s fellow Dynasty member Chris Bosh. Tornado and Bosh both have a lot of history with eachother in PWG that involves Tornado beating Bosh for the PWG World Tag Team Titles last year(with El Generico and Bosh with Scott Lost) and Bosh attacking Tornado’s valet Candice LaRae. This match should be filled with some pretty nice highflying stuff and some good headroppy fun along with some comedy mixed in. This could be the show stealer in my mind.
Prediction: Tornado is going to be the winner here in my mind. If not, I could see something with Joey Ryan getting involved in the match somehow and costing Tornado the win.
Scott Lost vs. Davey Richards
At BOLA, Davey Richards wanted a chance to get revenge on The Dynasty and wanted a shot at the PWG World Tag Team Titles with Super Dragon on October 7th. However, because of PWG moving their day a show earlier, Davey would not be able to attend as he was booked for an ROH show that night. With Dragon winning the Tag Titles with B-Boy, Davey will just have to settle for taking on Scott Lost in a singles match. Scott and Davey faced off before in April of this year at the ECWA Super 8 tournament in the first round where Davey defeated Scott in what many fans called the match of the night. This match will be a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Davey and Scott’s encounters in various tag matches this year. At this point, I can see Davey getting revenge on various members of The Dynasty after what they did to him and Super Dragon in May and then Davey being the man who takes the PWG World Title from Joey.
Prediction: As I just said, I think Davey is going to be the man who takes the title from Joey, so I’m going to go with him here.
PWG World Championship Match: Joey Ryan (c) vs. El Generico
This match will be the fourth time Joey and Generico have faced off against eachother in a singles contest, and the previous three matches were all won by Joey Ryan. One of the matches was a PWG World Title match, in Philadelphia at CZW’s Cage Of Death in December 2005. Lately, Joey has come close to losing the title and it seems like he’s going to be losing the belt anytime soon. El Generico has become one of the most loved wrestlers by PWG fans, and he always comes in as the crowd favorite. While he might be the crowd favorite, he doesn’t have the best win/loss record when it comes to singles matches. Although he did have an impressive showing at this year’s BOLA. The crowd should go nuts for this match, with Generico being the favorite and Joey getting tons of hate. I’m really excited to see this match, as not only will the crowd be behind Generico 100%, but it’s also between the two front runners for SoCal WOTY in my mind.
Prediction: As I said in my preview of Scott vs. Davey, I see Davey being the next champ. As much as I like Generico, I don’t think he’s the right guy to put the belt on right now. Joey will win by cheating somehow.
PWG World Tag Team Championship Match: Super Dragon & B-Boy (c) vs. The Briscoe Brothers(Jay & Mark Briscoe) vs. The Kings Of Wrestling(Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli)
When I was talking about the match that could be the most important match to take place this year in SoCal, I was talking about this match, and for two big reasons. One, The Briscoes will face off against Super Dragon & B-Boy, three years after both teams had one of the best tag matches in recent SoCal history. Two, The Kings Of Wrestling. Last Saturday, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli won the CZW Tag Team Titles, and with that win they became what many fans are calling the Triple Crown Tag Champions. Along with the CZW belts, they’re also the current CHIKARA Campeones De Parejas and the current Ring Of Honor World Tag Team Champions. The Briscoes and The KOW come into this match as two of the best tag teams on the US indy wrestling scene, and Super Dragon and B-Boy come into this match as one of greatest tag teams in recent SoCal history. The last time PWG had a three way tag match invovled 3 out of the 6 wrestlers who are going to be in this match, and that match at BOLA weekend was ranked as the #3 best match for the month of September on SCU’s monthly rankings. Several fans on various boards are predicting that the Kings Of Wrestling will walk away as the Grand Slam champions on October 21st, but if Dragon and B-Boy retain, the PWG World Tag Titles will get a huge boost in credibilty as they would be going over the former ROH Tag Team Champs and the current ROH/CZW/CHIKARA Tag Champs. No matter who wins, this match will be really amazing in my mind and could be the best tag match SoCal or even the US sees this year.
Prediction: Super Dragon and B-Boy retaining is my prediction. It’s way too soon for them to drop the titles. Plus The KOW wouldn’t be the ideal team to hold the PWG Tag Titles since they’re now working for ROH full time, along with The Briscoes.
“Horror Business” will be taking place at The Gym At The Park in La Habra Heights located at 1885 Hacienda Rd this Saturday. Tickets are $20 at the door and the show starts at 8:00PM.
If you’re looking for something to do during the afternoon before PWG and want to check out more of what SoCal has to offer, check out AWS’ show at Frank ‘N’ Sons in City of Industry, CA that will be taking place at 1:15PM. The venue is located at 19649 San Jose Ave in City Of Industry, CA, which is only a 15 minutes away from the Gym At The Park. The show will feature PWG World Champ Joey Ryan and fellow Dynasty member Scott Lost will be on the show, along with Lucha Libre legend Mil Mascaras, a cage match between Lil’ Cholo and Lionheart, and a mini tournament to crown the new NWA Heritage Champion. Advance tickets cost $15, and day of show tickets cost $18.
Also, seeing as Raw and Smackdown are going to be airing from SoCal this week, I’ll try to review both shows for the site.
