On April 20, 2018 PWG held night one of their fourteenth All Star Weekend. With the promotion’s announcement that they would be leaving the American Legion in Reseda, this was also set to be the last time The Young Bucks would wrestle in the venue, as they aren’t on night two or the May 25 that was scheduled as the last show in Reseda. So they thought.
When the show started, Excalibur came to the ring and said he had some news. Not good news or bad news, weird news. He explained that when they arrived they were told the sale of the building hasn’t gone through yet, and they may be able to run additional shows there. Then again they may not. So May 25 may or may not be the last PWG show in Reseda. Excalibur said to “treat every show like it is the last show there.”
Rey Horus over Trevor Lee [11’39]
Trevor Lee came out and talked about being an Impact superstar, and how rich he was because of that. He also vowed to win the PWG championship at the Legion Hall. Lee was in control for most of the early part of the match. Rey Horus was able to recover and the match was pretty even. Both wrestlers looked great. I think most people were expecting Lee to win, and there were quite a few near falls for him. Horus got a roll through cradle from the top to take the win. This was great with tons of crowd heat. It was pretty much everything you want in an opener.
Rating: ****
Taiji Ishimori over Bandido [13’41]
This was a fantastic styles clash, with Taiji Ishimori being a lot more technical and Bandido working more of a high spot offense. This was a back and forth match that really never slowed down. Bandido is so impressive, with a lot of really innovative offense. Ishimori won with an implant DDT onto his knees. This was a fantastic. After the DVDs of these shows are out, Bandido is going to be a huge star on the indies.
Rating: **** 1/2
Ring Kampf (Walter & Timothy Thatcher) over Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tyler Bateman) [19’29]
I somewhat felt bad that these guys had to follow the previous match, but they really delivered something special. The match started with Bateman and Thatcher, and when they tagged out and King and WALTER squared off the building was electric. The reaction of the stuff between WALTER and King reminded me of the BOLA a few years ago where Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle squared off in the ten-man match and everyone wanted to see a full match between the two. Bateman looked good in this, but he was definitely taking more offense than anyone else in the match. There was a point where Thatcher was trying to suplex Bateman, and Bateman was hitting him in the left leg to try and stop it. It didn’t work, and Bateman got suplexed anyway, but Bateman kept hitting that left leg throughout the match. Little things like that always help take a match to another level. WALTER got King to submit with a rear naked choke. This was my match of the night and should be a SoCal match of the year candidate.
Rating: **** 3/4
Sammy Guevara over Robbie Eagles and Flash Morgan Webster [13’11]
This was good but suffered from its position on the card, having to follow the three previous matches. Sammy Guevara is doing great heel work in PWG. I’m not sure if he’s doing the same cocky routine everywhere, but it is great and the crowd has really turned on him. Both Eagles and Webster looked good in this too, though Eagles didn’t get much of a chance to showcase what he could do. Guevara hit both guys with a shooting star press for the win.
Rating: *** 1/2
Jonah Rock over Joey Janela [11’18]
This was good, but with Jonah Rock in a title match the next night some of the drama was missing as no one expected him to lose. They actually played this pretty even, and Janela got quite a bit of offense in. The ring broke late in the match after a superplex. Jonah Rock won with the frog splash.
Rating: *** 1/4
Keith Lee over Hangman Adam Page in a non-title match [21’25]
Hangman Page removed his vest at the start of the match, and instantly the crowd reacted to the fact that his back was much whiter than the rest of his body. Even Keith Lee started cracking up. There were “tan your back” chants then the crowd sang the “bask in his glory” chant but instead it was “bask in the sun.” Some were wondering if he just fell asleep on the beach, but to me the difference in color would have taken multiple tannings. Page tweeted after the show he ran out of spray tan and didn’t think anyone would notice. In spite of the tanning mishap, they had a really good match. There was one scary spot where it looked like Lee landed on his neck on a piledriver, but Page kept working his neck after to cover it. Lee got the win with the Ground Zero.
Rating: *** 3/4
The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) over The Chosen Bros (Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) to win the PWG World Tag Team titles [18’26]
As expected the Young Bucks got a huge ovation to start, and even got streamers. This was terrific. Everyone got to showcase what they could do. One thing that really makes the Young Bucks so great is their timing. They do everything so quick and almost always in the perfect position at the right time for whatever they are trying to do. The Rascalz tried to hit their assisted moonsault finisher at one point, and the Bucks superkicked Wentz out of the air mid-moonsault. Cobb and Riddle looked great too. The Bucks superkicked the ref, Justin Borden, then took out Jeremy Marcus, the backup ref. This lead Rick Knox to make his return (he broke his collarbone during the filming of Lucha Underground season four). He took the Bucks out with a superkick, and both Rascalz managed to pin Cobb to get the win.
Rating: **** 1/2
Afterwards the Young Bucks cut a promo about how the American Legion Hall in Reseda is their favorite venue and they’ve had a lot of their favorite matches there.
Overall it was a great show, with the first three matches and the main event all being excellent and worth going out of your way to see. All Star Weekend night one really set a high bar for night two.
