Special SCU war correspondent Sleazy E here with a report from PCW’s “Clear the Way“.
When PCW first came out I was a little unsure about them. I never heard anything good about the Sheik and I heard something about the people behind 3PW in Philly being involved and I don’t remember that being any good and sort of a joke. They ran a couple shows and I would check the results here on SCU and shrug my shoulders and say to myself “it looks like they are having some good matches but I’m not sure about these guys.” I think it was their 3rd or 4th show when Steve Bryant wrote a review of the show that won me over. [Editor’s note: Third show] Thank you for taking one for the team. The matches they were putting together were too good to ignore. I was out of the country during their “Title Wave” show but I promptly bought GA tickets for “Clear the Way” and waited in anticipation for the show.
The venue was hot and smelled like wrestling fans. At the show they announced they will be moving to a new venue in January with beer and A/C. Beer is nice. A/C sometimes just blows the funk around but I guess it is better to be in funk at a decent temperature. The show started pretty much on time. They announced it as a sell out. There were empty seats here and there but that could be people who decided to stand or ticket buyers who didn’t show up. It wasn’t packed like PWG show though. A lot more breathing room. I’m using the quick results from the site for the review. I took no notes so forgive any mistakes.
Fatu over Douglas James
This was pretty much a squash match on Douglas James. Fatu showed some nice offense. Douglas James had a few moments but those were generally undercut by Fatu no-selling everything. Fatu’s Samoan drop was really great looking. I mean it is a Samoan drop, but it is a good looking Samoan drop. I guess if you are Samoan having a bad looking Samoan drop would be embarrassing. Fatu hit a moonsault for the win. **
Alexander Hammerstone over Kevin Martenson
Every time I watch Championship Wrestling from Hollywood Hammerstone is always one of the more impressive wrestlers. Having the restraints of a TV show taken off him he is even better. I want to add a girl sitting near me told her boyfriend/husband she would let Hammerstone fuck her “raw dog” and the guy replied “I’m sure he could do better.” That had nothing to do with the match but I thought seeing a relationship end at a wrestling show was funny. Martenson was using his technical skill to overcome Hammerstone’s power. Hammerstone went for what looked like a suplex and turned it into a flatliner for the pin. I thought this was a really good match. *** 1/4
Willie Mack over Ryan Taylor
Willie Mack was super over. Every time I see Willie Mack wrestle I wonder why isn’t this guy in NXT or something. I know he is in Lucha Underground but he deserves more. Ryan Taylor and Peter Avalon are the two most under rated wrestlers in Southern California. Both wrestlers had a lot of good offense in this. Willie Mack hit a stunner then a piledriver to get the pin. Great match. ****
Keepers of the Faith (Dom Vitalli & Gabriel Gallo) vs. Brody King & Ricky the Activist went to a no contest
Apparently Brody and Ricky the Activist did really good at a pre-show seminar to be given the chance to wrestle on the show and they got the PCW tag-team champions. First time seeing KOTF. I thought they were pretty good. Brody King looked really good too. Ricky was OK. Certainly not as bad as that Botchamania episode he starred in. The Sheik and Fatu came out took KOTF out of the ring then made Brody turn on his partner. Brody joined the Sheik and Fatu’s faction. Kevin Sullivan is the Taskmaster too. I hope this is the new Dungeon of Doom with all the ridiculous gimmicks. Want to add I’m a big fan of Caesar Black. No rating.
Jeff Cobb over Scorpio Sky
This was the match I was looking forward to the most and it did not disappoint. I haven’t seen a bad match from either one of these guys all year long. When this match ended I was actually glad the venue didn’t sell beer because I got to watch it sober. PCW should put this match on YouTube just to sell their product. I can’t say enough good things about this match. Cobb won with the Tour of the Islands. Great match. **** 1/2
Mr. 450 over Oraculo to retain the PCW Light Heavyweight title
I’m not going to rate this match because there was a distraction during it and I missed a part of it. I was going to talk about it but I decided not to. If the people who were involved are reading this please don’t go to anymore shows. The parts of the match I saw were OK. Mr. 450 won with a dragon suplex. Just kidding. He won with a 450 splash.
Rob Van Dam over Pentagon Jr. to win the PCW Heavyweight title
I was nervous for this because a lot of times former WWE guys just do their big spots and don’t put a lot of effort into their matches on indy shows. I actually saw RVD in PWG around 5 years ago maybe and it was a 6 man and he was pretty much only tagged in to do his signature spots while other wrestlers did the heavy work. I will give him credit in this that he showed up and he and Pentagon had a decent match. He still did all his signature spots but it wasn’t like he just went from spot to spot. Pentagon got a lot in too. Still, this wasn’t a great match by any means. I don’t know the reason for putting the title on RVD as it isn’t like he needs it to get over and Pentagon is probably going to have better matches at this point in time but whatever. It isn’t like RVD is some slouch. RVD hit the 5 star splash for the victory. ** 1/2
I really enjoyed my first PCW show. I hope the move to Fridays for them is temporary as I’m not fighting traffic on a week night to get there but I would certainly go again. I would recommend buying this show on DVD when it comes out. It had some really good matches including a match of the year candidate.
Editors note: Here is Shawn Scoville and Kevin Gill’s thoughts on the show as well.
