This Chaos Column is a recap of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s “Mystery Vortex? at the American Legion Post #308, Reseda. A capacity crowd braved the wet, wintry weather that has been rolling over California for the last few days, to be among those who witness some significant events in the West Coast’s top indy promotion to close out the year. A couple of the talents scheduled to be at the show didn’t make their flight to L.A., so there were a few changes to the card.
1 – Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards def. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) when Roddy & Eddie hit a team finisher on whom I believe to be Matt Jackson. A very strong opener w/ plenty of great tag team action.
2 – Sami Callihan made Drake Younger tapout to a modified version of his Kneebreaker/Heel Hook submission. Another strong singles match that saw Drake Younger get his head busted open during the match, and the series of headbutts didn’t help much either.
* Adam Cole comes out to cut an in-ring promo, holding Kevin Steen’s PWG Championship title. Kevin Steen came to the ringside area from the commentary table w/ Excalibur, and responded w/ a surprise of his own, since the card as a whole was generally a mystery. Their title match would be……..A GUERRILLA WARFARE MATCH.
3 – The Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno & Stupefied) successfully defended the PWG Tag Team Championship, beating The RockNES Monsters (Johnny Yuma & Johnny Goodtime), who were continuing their slow heel turn. Great tag team match ended w/ SSB hitting the Fatality on Johnny Yuma, w/ Player Uno scoring the pin. Excalibur himself hit the ring after the match, telling the tag team champions that they would do one more match, a non-title match later that night against Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards.
4 – Joey Ryan did his final PWG match to wrap up his indy bookings prior to joining TNA full time, but came up short against Scorpio Sky (TNA’s Mason Andrews) when eating a Big Fat Kill/Headscissors DDT/Ace of Spades combo. Joey Ryan talked about his time w/ PWG afterwards, and said that he would plan to come back whenever his TNA schedule allows him to do so.
5 – Crazy Fatal Four-Way after intermission. Willie Mack def. T.J. Perkins, B-Boy, & Brian Cage. T.J. Perkins had Brian Cage in a STF submission, but Referee Justin Borden only saw Willie Mack hit his Spike Piledriver finisher on B-Boy for the pin.
6 – El Generico p. Rich Swann w/ the Hallula Kick into a Modified Butterfly Suplex, ending what was the 2nd best match of the card.
SM – Non-title Tag Team Match. Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong def. The Super Smash Bros when Eddie Edwards p. Stupefied w/ the Top Rope Double-Stomp, and he did plenty of those in this match. I wonder if those two earned a title shot, preferably at the 1/12/13 show back in Reseda.
M – Guerrilla Warfare Match for the PWG Championship between Kevin Steen & Adam Cole. 2 ladders, 8 chairs, an aluminum trash can, and a container of thumbtacks were used in this one. Adam Cole went through alot of painful spots–4 crotch rockets to all steel post corners of the ring, 4 powerbombs to the apron, then eating a huge slam to the stack of 8 chairs. In the end, “The Panama City Playboy” overcame all of that, hitting a huge Suplex on Steen to put him on the pile of thumbtacks, then hit a Straitjacket German Suplex for the pin, and legitimately win the PWG Championship.
Shot of the Night – PWG – 12-01-12
A very strong card to close out the year, but their “Threemendous III” show last July was my top PWG show of the year. It’ll be interesting to see how far Adam Cole will go w/ the PWG title, and there will be plenty of opponents coming his way. As for what could be ahead for the promotion w/o Joey Ryan being there regularly, it shouldn’t be that hard for someone to come forward and fill the void, especially as we approach the promotion’s 10th Anniversary show in the Summer of 2013.