The Magnus Analysis- PWG 44 Ways To Kill You With A Pimeto

Your optional commentary team for this event are Disco Machine and Excalibur, and I didn’t especially enjoy them on this show (I don’t know why, but Excalibur just sounded uncomfortable, maybe it was lack of commentary experience).

Before the match, Top Gun Talwar cuts a promo asking whether Quicksilver is with their group or not (at this point there was a big divide between two groups in PWG, although I don’t know if this storyline was really still going at this point). Quicksilver shows he isn’t on their team and walks out.

Match 1
Six Man Tag Mayhem- Supa Badd, Human Tornado and Disco Machine vs Top Gun Talwar, Charles Mercury and Chris Bosh
This wasn’t a bad opener, and did a good enough job of getting the crowd into the show. But it’s clear to see that a lot of the wrestlers here aren’t what they would be later on, as there are sloppy spots and some that don’t even connect at all. But there was some good wrestling and some comedy as well. However, if this is a match between rival groups then why would they start doing comedy? That took a lot away from the match for me, even if it was quite solid. The match was won by Disco’s team when Supa Badd pinned Charles Mercury with a Chokebreaker across Disco Machine’s knee- *3/4

After the match, Disco cut a promo saying that his three opponents had a lot of potential, but need a leader, so Disco offered to lead them to the top. They accepted, and this lead to them teaming together on a few shows before that idea soon disappeared (when Chris Bosh formed Arrogance with Scott Lost and Mercury and Talwar fell into the lower midcard with Disco).

Match 2
Northwest vs New Japan- ‘Tornado’ Tony Kozina vs Puma
For those of you who haven’t heard of Kozina, think of him like a hybrid of Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, only with far less skill (that’s compared to them, he is a good wrestler). I enjoyed this bout, it was very solid if a little unspectacular since these two are two wrestlers you’d not really see as being among the best. But they are both good enough to have a fun match with each other without being too sloppy, and I felt they both clicked and had a good high flying style of match. The bout wasn’t quite as impressive on the mat, it felt a bit sloppy when they exchanged holds, but when they were flying around the ring it was a lot better. Puma won this match with the Tiger Suplex- **1/4

Adam Pearce comes out with Hardcore Kidd before the match and cuts a promo, first ripping on the crowd (where he literally owns a fan in the audience in a verbal exchange), then talks about the situation with Frankie Kazarian and Babi Slymm (yes, the title picture in PWG wasn’t especially great early on, the only wrestler I particularly like of those three is Kazarian), and tells Hardcore Kidd to take out Frankie Kazarian tonight.

Match 3
Number One Contenders Match- ‘The Future’ Frankie Kazarian vs Hardcore Kidd
Hardcore Kidd is former WWE and WSX competitor Aaron ‘Jesus’ Aguilera, he went by this name before joining WWE. It’s kind of ironic that both of these men joined WWE and left in pretty quick fashion a few months in (although for different reasons). Solid enough match at times, but sloppy in others, and it didn’t seem like these two had a lot of chemistry. Frankie seemed a bit off tonight as well. Ironically, it did ultimately feel like it was a WWE lower card bout (only with less rest holds). Adam Pearce ran in to interfere near the end, and Kazarian dives onto him. This causes Kazarian to take a chair shot from Hardcore Kidd for a near fall. Hardcore Kidd goes for an Arabian Facebuster, but misses and Kazarian rolls him up for three. That finish was predictable and stupid, and the match was not very good- *1/4

Match 4
New Japan Dojo Rivalry- Ricky Reyes vs Bobby Quance
Bobby Quance was one of California’s top prospects until he decided to join the army, a shame since he would have been in ROH by now if he’d not gone. I felt this bout was pretty good, with Quance looking really impressive and Reyes showing some skill here (even though he was still a tag specialist at this point in time). It was also a good contrast of styles with Quance wrestling a fast paced, high flying style, while Reyes used power and mat based wrestling to try and ground Quance. Reyes would win the bout with a Fishermans Buster. The first really good match of the night- **3/4

After the match, Reyes tries to attack Quance, but Puma comes out to stop him. He then (very predictably) turns on Quance by hitting a Superkick. They beat him down two on one, before referee’s come out to stop him.

Match 5
PWG Tag Team Title Match- Excalibur and Super Dragon (c) vs M-Dogg 20 and Josh Prohibition
This was one of the matches that attracted me to buying this DVD in the first place, a match that sounds really good on paper between two top tag teams. Anyway, this was pretty damn good, the match had good tag team wrestling, and Super Dragon shines with some very hard hitting moves, including a Double Knees to M-Dogg when he was in the Flagpole Press position. Dragon and Excalibur just excel at playing heels, even though they were fan favourites in PWG at this time, and they’re so great to watch when they wrestle like this. M-Dogg and Prohibition have very good teamwork, I’d say they are better as a team that they are separately (and maybe that’s why I’ve really enjoyed M-Dogg’s tag team matches in ROH more over his singles work). While the match I felt was really good, it did have the occasional sloppy spot, but they didn’t take away from the match a whole lot. Well, barring one badly botched spot where on the top turnbuckle, M-Dogg looks like he’s going for a Frankensteiner on Dragon, but he goes right over the top of his head and crotches himself on the turnbuckle behind Dragon. That looked scary as M-Dogg could have seriously hurt himself. Avoiding that, the match was good, with Dragon and Excalibur retaining shortly after that when Excalibur pinned M-Dogg with the Tiger Driver 98- ***1/4

Match 6
Best Of The Best vs Aerial Xpress- B-Boy vs Scorpio Sky
B-Boy was a little less well known at this time outside of his Best Of The Best 3 win, while Scorpio was still under a mask and part of the Aerial Xpress. It’s easy to see the potential that Scorpio had even at this point, his charisma shines through even under the mask, and he’s really sharp in this match. Anyway, I highly enjoyed this match, it was my favourite one of the entire night. B-Boy’s hard hitting style as well as his speed, match up with Scorpio’s fast paced high flying style really well, so they clicked. Plus almost everything was hat crisply, something that was missing from many of the matches on this event. B-Boy managed to defeat Scorpio Sky when he pinned him after a very nasty looking Cradle Tombstone Piledriver. Great stuff- ***1/2

The Ballard Brothers cut a promo basically saying that they are ‘legends’ of PWG and SoCal wrestling, and that they whether the fans say they suck or not they’ve been wrestling in South California for six years, and have won titles all across the United States. They also literally own a fan in the audience in a verbal battle, the second time that’s happened to someone on this show already.

The commissioner Paul T comes out and puts the Ballard Brothers in a number one contenders match for the PWG Tag Team Titles (why does the number one contenders match get preference on the card over the tag title match itself). But if they lose they’re banned from PWG forever.

Match 7
Losers Banned From PWG- The Ballard Brothers (Scott and Shannon Ballard) vs The X Foundation (Joey Ryan and Scott Lost)
The losers of this match are never able to wrestle in PWG again (I don’t actually know if this applies to The X-Foundation or not). For those who can’t tell the Ballards apart, Shannon is the slightly paler one, while Shane is tanned and slightly more muscley. This was solid, but not spectacular, as is really been the case with any matches these four were having at this point in time. Out of all four of the performers, Scott Lost impressed me the most, when he was in the ring he was able to keep things exciting. I’m still surprised that he’s only beginning to get the praise he deserves in the past year or so, because he’s been really good for a while now. There was also some hinting in this match at the soon to happen split of the X-Foundation, as Lost accidentally dives onto Ryan near the end. Lost pins Shannon to win the match- **1/2

Match 8
PWG Title Match- ‘Scrapiron’ Adam Pearce (c) vs Babi Slymm
I’m not a fan of either one of these two, so I wasn’t looking forward to this match, so it’s not good when this is the main event. This match just felt too slow for me, there was a good deal of stalling and that is something that I don’t like seeing in any match, especially in the main event of the show. It had it’s moments, one being Adam Pearce showing agility by doing a Homicide style dive through the ropes, and a Babi Slymm Suplex on the floor to Pearce. But most of the match saw slow mat wrestling and brawling that failed to impress me at all, and when the managers started fighting it took a lot away from the match. Not to mention there was a ref bump that saw the match go into overbooked WWE territory. It could have been a lot worse though, and at least Pearce had the personality to keep the fans interested, and Babi Slymm could play a good enough babyface to show fire in his comebacks. But it’s the worst match of the night for me anyway because of all the interference and a lousy finish. Pearce would retain the title when he pinned Slymm after a brass knuckles shot- *

After the match, the referee see’s the brass knuckles, and reverses the decision: Babi Slymm wins by DQ. Pearce tries to attack him, but Slymm gives him a Spear. Hardcore Kidd runs out and starts attacking him, but Babi Slymm’s manager (I’m unsure of his name) tries to stop the two on one attack. Pearce gives him a Piledriver. Before the two on one can continue, Frankie Kazarian runs out for the save.