After a great night one, PWG’s All Star Weekend 14 night two had a lot to live up to. On paper the lineup wasn’t quite as strong, with no Young Bucks and no Jeff Cobb, but there were still a few really interesting match ups. Plus, at All Star Weekend 13 last year, the card that seemed to get less attention turned out to be the better show.
The doors opened early and the show started right on time at 8:00 p.m. Excalibur repeated the news from the day before, that May might not be the last PWG show in Reseda, which got a somewhat mixed reaction.
Trevor Lee over Flash Morgan Webster [10’51]
Trevor Lee attacked Webster to start, and cut a promo while continuing to beat Webster down. Lee had a ton of heel heat. They pretty much did a standard babyface versus heel match here. Both wrestlers looked really good. Lee won with a modified Orange Crush.
Rating: *** 1/2
Joey Janela over Robbie Eagles [14’36]
Robbie Eagles didn’t really get to showcase a lot of what he could do on night one, but more than made up for it here. Half way into the match, Janela Tombstoned Eagles on the ring apron, immediately picked him up, then Tombstoned him again to the floor (or a chair, I couldn’t see from my vantage point). Eagles was out on the outside and the ref counted to 19 before he got back in. Janela immediately hit him with another piledriver when he rolled back into the ring, but Eagles kicked out at two. From that point on they really went at a quick pace. The crowd was going crazy for the last five minutes of this. Janela won with a brainbuster from the top rope. This was excellent. Eagles got the “please come back” chants.
Rating: **** 1/4
Sammy Guevara over Taiji Ishimori [9’02]
Sammy Guevara had a ton of heat. He plays the cocky arrogant kid so well. Ishimori looked really good again, though he slipped on a springboard dropkick and may have been hurt, as he had a little bit of a limp after. Guevara hit an amazing dive over the ringpost onto Ishimori on the outside. Guevara won with a Shooting Star Press. This was really good.
Rating: *** 3/4
After the match Guevara was looking for a mic, and when he couldn’t find one he grabbed a chair and sat in the middle of the ring. When he finally got a mic he said he’s “not wrestling in PWG again until he gets a title shot.” The crowd sang “hey hey good bye.”
The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) over Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tyler Bateman) to retain the PWG Tag Team titles [13’19]
Violence Unlimited got the polar opposites of their night one opponents for night two. Bateman got a huge ovation and a “Tyler Bateman” chant when he got in the ring. The story of this match was Violence Unlimited trying to overpower the Rascalz, and the Rascalz using their speed and a lot of crazy double team moves to counter them. Despite the difference in styles, these teams worked really well together. There were a few parts towards the end that weren’t as crisp as the rest of the match that kept it from being better, but it was still an excellent match. Brody King is going to have a huge breakout year. When these DVDs come out he’s going to be getting booked everywhere (though he is already on his way to that). The Rascalz won with their assisted moonsault.
Rating: **** 1/4
Bandido over Rey Horus [12’01]
I, like a lot of people thought this match might steal the show. It didn’t disappoint. This was pretty much a crazy showcase of what both guys could do, and it felt like 50% of the match took place in the air. There were tons of crazy spots in this. Both wrestlers were fantastic. I can’t even really describe the finish other than saying it was a top rope fall away slam. It felt like Bandido was in the air like 15 seconds on that move.
Rating: **** 1/2
Matt Riddle over Timothy Thatcher [11’33]
The first half of the match was a lot of mat based wrestling then they kind of went to more of a striking competition. Following the previous match didn’t do them any favors with the crowd either. This was still pretty good though. Riddle won with the Bromission.
Rating: *** 1/2
WALTER over Keith Lee and Jonah Rock to win the PWG World Heavyweight title [13’24]
This was great. Early on they kept teasing WALTER chopping Lee, but Lee would somehow evade all the chops. When he finally did hit a chop, the crowd exploded. There was a lot of power moves in the match, and I’m surprised the ring held up. All three wrestlers looked great. I think this was Jonah Rock’s best performance in PWG so far. WALTER hit his top rope splash on Lee, but Lee kicked out at one. WALTER immediately hit a huge lariat on Lee and pinned him to win the title.
Rating: **** 1/2
After the match Lee cut a promo, that really came off like a good bye, telling WALTER to be the champion time didn’t allow him to be. Dave Meltzer reported awhile back that Keith Lee is going to WWE, so there’s a good chance this was a good bye.
Next Sammy Guevara came out, got in WALTER’s face and slapped him. WALTER destroyed Guevara with a huge chop. I’d expect to see WALTER versus Guevara at the next show.
I felt overall night two was a little better than night one, though I thought Violence Unlimited versus Ring Kampf on night one was the match of the weekend. At least on a pure match quality basis, PWG continues to have arguably the best wrestling in the world. For the weekend I had 8 out of 14 matches at four stars or better. PWG has been on a pretty incredible roll since BOLA last year.
Both night one and night two are worth getting on DVD and PWG is already taking pre-orders now.
