When the lineups were announced for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s All Star Weekend 13, there was a lot of talk about night one being somewhat of a weak card, even to the point where it was the first PWG show to not instantly sellout in years. While the lineup didn’t have the star power some shows had, I was pretty confident going in that the in-ring work would be great. I was wrong. It was better than great and the show was probably the best non-BOLA show of the year so far.
Flash Morgan Webster over Brian Cage [10’40]
Brian Cage was a last minute replacement for Travis Banks who couldn’t make it due to visa issues. They really played up Cage’s size advantage in this with Webster having to use his quickness and more high risk offense to counter Cage’s power offense. I thought they did an excellent job telling that story with Webster doing an excellent job selling Cage’s offense and Cage really dominating him. Cage went for a powerslam and Webster rolled him up. This was excellent. Cage has really had a fantastic month in Southern California between PCW, Bar, DCW, CWFH, and PWG.
Rating: *** 3/4
Mark Haskins over Adam Brooks by submission [18’17]
This was Adam Brooks’ PWG debut. He has a ton of natural charisma and his in-ring work was very good. For me Haskins can be hit or miss, but I thought he was good here. Haskins won with a Sharpshooter on Brooks. This was very good but could have probably been tightened up a bit and would have been better.
Rating: *** 1/2
Joey Janela over Trevor Lee [15’06]
These guys looked like twins in the match. They had pretty much the same hair, same gear, and same size. There was some joking that Trevor Lee had come from the future to face his younger self.This was really good but I felt it was kind of backwards, with the first third really being super fast paced and lots of big spots then slowed down from there. Usually matches will build to that flurry rather than start with it. Joey Janela was able to reverse an O’Connor roll into one of his own to get the pin.
Rating: *** 1/2
Keith Lee over Jonah Rock [18’31]
This match is where the show started to take a turn from really good show to an all time classic PWG show. It’s hard to say this was a pure big man match, because both guys were doing stuff that you wouldn’t traditionally see big guys doing, but there was a ton of trading power moves in this. If there was a match that was going to break the ring, this was it. Jonah Rock has a really nice frog splash. RVD and Douglas James better look out. These guys did a spot where they both hit a cross body at the same time and collided in mid air and the sound of that collision was crazy. Jonah Rock looked great here, and Keith Lee has had such a great 2017 in PWG. Lee won with the Ground Zero. This was excellent.
Rating: ****
Sammy Guevara over Rey Horus and Flamita [13’50]
This was insane. They worked a super fast high flying match. It seemed like 50% of the match took place in the air. Sammy Guevara has really been impressive in PWG. I’ve really liked Rey Horus’ work as well. Guevara hit a 450 senton on Flamita for the pin. This was an excellent match.
Rating: **** 1/4
Ricochet over WALTER [16’15]
This was somewhat structured in the same way as the opener with the big man versus little man dynamic, but not as much. WALTER’s chops look absolutely devastating and Ricochet would just drop when hit with them. Ricochet did an incredible job selling WALTER’s offense and made it look so much more devastating. This match also did a fantastic job of setting up both of their matches on night two. When people are able to watch the video this match is pretty much the prequel to their night two matches and should be watched prior to get the full enjoyment. Ricochet was really establishing his heel work in this match and at the same time they established the brutality of WALTER’s offense. More on that in the night two review. WALTER had a sleeper on Ricochet but Ricochet managed to lean back and get a pin. On a normal year this would be a SoCal match of the year contender.
Rating: **** 1/2
Chosen Bros. (Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb) over Lucha Bros (Penta el Zero M & Rey Fenix) to win the PWG World Tag Team titles [17’39]
The Lucha Bros have not really defended the titles in PWG and it has seemed like Penta isn’t always available so I figured this is the way it was going to go. The Chosen Bros. have been great though so no complaints here. This was excellent with a ton of near falls and some really innovative offense from the Lucha Bros. It isn’t often you see stuff you’ve just never seen before, but it seems like every Lucha Bros. match there is one or two things. Riddle and Cobb both looked great in this as well. Cobb threw Fenix from the rope into a Bro To Sleep from Riddle to get the win.
Rating: ****
The last four matches of this show were incredible. We didn’t know it at the time, but as I mentioned the Ricochet and WALTER match did an awesome job of helping to make two matches on night two better as well. I didn’t mention it earlier, but the temperature in the American Legion was also nice. I heard the refs didn’t even have to wash their shirts after the show.
This was an overall excellent show, and as I mentioned probably the best non-BOLA show for 2017. It’s really worth checking out when it comes out on DVD.
The DVD is available for pre-order now from PWG and Highspots.
