Dark Pegasus Video Review: Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla: Are You Adequately Prepared to Rock?

PWG: Are You Adequately Prepared to Rock? by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 Title reference: The Simpsons (S12:E14) “New Kids on the Blecch.” October 4, 2003 From Los Angeles, Calif. Your hosts are Excalibur, Disco Machine and Super Dragon. Paul T comes out to warm up the crowd as the announcers speculate on the Jewishness of various wrestling celebrities. Adam Pearce and C. Edward Vander Pyle come out to lobby Paul regarding the PWG Title Tournament injustice that was Pearce vs. Joey Ryan. Pearce turns his rage on TARO for no real reason. That brings out TARO for some innuendo. Pearce beats TARO with a belt, bringing out Joey Ryan. I’ll assume this sets up a rematch for later tonight. Yep. Further, I’ll assume that the winner will get a title shot down the road. Opening Match: TARO, Mr. Excitement & Phoenix Star vs. Zokre, Top Gun Talwar & Lil’ Cholo. Phoenix Star vs. Zokre. Hmm. Works for me. The announcers make up a drinking game for the repetitive lucha style – armdrags and wheelbarrow scissors tend to be quite the staple. For every five racist comments they make, the announcers actually do get in something clever. That wasn’t it. I’m just saying. Constructing a story about Phoenix Star being a voyeur because he’s standing on the apron watching his partners doubleteam Talwar funny, though. Zokre and Star, not surprisingly, do the most interesting sequence. Highspots follow. Mr. Excitement double-crosses Cholo but winds up in the Texas Cloverleaf. Finishers follow as the announcers pretend to do the commentary drunk from all the lucha moves. TARO eventually gets the win with a springboard huracanrana on Zokre (16:00). If you’ve seen one lucha spotfest, you’ve seen them all. Zokre and Phoenix Star had good chemistry, though. ** Disco Machine & Excalibur vs. Quicksilver & Chris Bosh. Good action in this one. The heels attack from behind and hit dives to the floor. Excalibur and Machine return with a Fujiwara Armbar/Crossface doubleteam on Bosh. Bosh nails Excalibur with a sick lariat. Excalibur nails Quicksilver with his own lariat and finishes with the Tiger Driver DDT at 5:28. They packed quite a bit into a small amount of time, and it thankfully wasn’t all flash. **1/2 Hook Bomberry vs. Scorpio Sky. Hook gets in an argument with a fan before the match. Bomberry is kind of like Little Guido in that he’s very small and lean but a pretty good shoot fighter (although I wouldn’t put him anywhere near Guido). Sky is actually pretty crisp… or at least he’s average and everyone else on the roster makes him look better by comparison. He takes a hard whip into the corner, though, and Hook goes to work on the back. Sky tries to hulk up but catches a backdrop driver. A trio of slams and an elbowdrop get two for Hook. Sky puts on the breaks off a corner whip, though, and dropkicks him to turn the tide. Sky hits a TKO and drags him down into Triangle Choke. Sky takes too long on top, though, and Hook crotches him. That sets up a dropkick to the back. Boston Crab! It’s about time he actually tried to pay that back work off. The only other time was right next to the ropes, which is really stupid when you think about it. Sky makes the ropes and blocks a double ax-handle. He floats over into a Dragon Sleeper, but Hook is in the ropes. Sky blocks an O’Connor Roll and dropkicks Hook in the face. That sets up the Argle Bargle from Sky at 11:30. The most professional match so far on the card, mostly because they didn’t do anything really stupid. Hook worked the back and worked it well, but Sky just overwhelmed him. **3/4 The Briscoe Bros. vs. Super Dragon & B-Boy. Speaking of doing stupid things, it’s the Briscoes in 2003. Someone’s coconut is getting cracked. Lots of mat wrestling to start. Dragon stomps on Mark and hits a Kappou Kick in the corner. A Curbstomp follows. B-Boy tags in to spell Dragon and hits a nice spinebuster. That sets up an inverted figure-four, but Jay makes the save. Dragon comes back and adds a leg-scissor Full Nelson. They’re just dismantling Mark, and it’s still early! Mark hits a desperation crossbody and tags in Jay. The dynamic shifts as Jay goes Antebellum on everyone’s ass. The Briscoes go heel, isolating B-Boy. B-Boy rolls out of the way of a moonsault, though, and drops Jay with a Fisherman’s Buster. Dragon gets the hot tag and stiffly cleans house. Nice spot as he dropkicks off Mark into a senton on Jay. That sets up a rolling suicida to the floor. B-Boy adds a splash on Jay! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! B-Boy and Jay slug it out until Mark and Dragon return. Dragon ends Mark with a clothesline but takes a big boot to the mush. Mark recovers with the springboard Ace Crusher, setting up the Springboard Doomsday Device on B-Boy. Dragon breaks up the count, though. Dragon drops Mark on his melon with locomotion suplexes and a sickening sitout powerbomb on the turnbuckle. Jay breaks up the STF and hits a Death Valley Driver for two. B-Boy reverses the Cutthroat Driver to a Sitout Fisherman’s Buster. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! SCREWDRIVER! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! B-Boy hits Jay with the Shining Wizard to set up the Psycho Driver at 19:30. If you like the Briscoes’ old All-Japan-meets-CZW style of tag wrestling, you’ll love this. Lots of brutal strikes and head-droppy goodness along with the usual last-second nearfalls. ***3/4 Pinoy Boy vs. Vito Thomaselli. Pinoy Boy would go on to become Puma or TJ Perkins, whichever you prefer. Thomaselli has been around the indie circuit for a while. Both guys are really young here, but they got skills. Nice stalemate sequence early. TJ does botch a front-flip counter to a hiptoss, though. Weird thing: a lot of their offense comes off missed clotheslines. They get a bit too cute with the reversals, but thankfully Thomaselli gains a clear advantage with a dropkick against the ropes. He busts out Cattle Mutilation and turns him over for two. Pinoy blocks a charge and hits a tope con hilo. Back in, Pinoy avoids a charge and hits a springboard tornado DDT. Nice! ONE, TWO, THR-hand on the ropes. Facewash from Pinoy, but Thomaselli pops up and drops him with a half-nelson suplex. Crossbody from Pinoy, but Thomaselli rolls through for two. Death Valley Driver from Thomaselli,but Pinoy rolls to the apron. Back in, Thomaselli goes for a Victory Roll, but Pinoy squats down Owen-style to pick up the hardfought win at 11:40. Though they were a little green in their storytelling with too much exhibition counter-wrestling early on, the execution was top-notch. **1/2 The X-Foundation vs. The Ballard Bros.. The Ballards come out with a Canadian flag to much heat, but one of them stops by the piano on the stage and plays the theme from Halloween for a face turn. Joey Ryan is wrestling later, so this is the Billy Kim/Scott Lost version of the Foundation. The two teams start in the ring but brawl up to the stage and fight near the piano. Lost hits his Superman Spear in the corner, but Kim winds up in peril. The Ballards do the heel shtick fairly well. It’s like someone cloned Jerry Lynn and spliced in Rougeau DNA. Lost gets the hot tag and hits one of the Ballards with a Diamond Cutter. The X Foundation goes for the Demolition Decapitation, but the Ballards break it up and hit a press facebuster. Lost makes the save, and the X Foundation hits the Decapitation. The ref gets distracted by Lost, though, and one of the Ballards hits a Blue Thunder Bomb on Kim. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Kim and Shannon brawl on the floor while Shane hits Lost with a swinging Flatliner to pick up the win at 14:05. The Ballards are much like the Killer Bees in that I enjoy watching them, but I just can’t get into them because they have that perennial midcard gimmick. **1/2 Adam Pearce (w/C. Edward Vander Pyle) vs. Joey Ryan. IT’S TIME TO PLAY THE FEUD! Joey brings the fisticuffs right away. Pearce can’t take the heat and has to bail. Ryan follows him out and goes for a suplex on the floor, but Pearce drops him on his face. Back in, Pearce drops a flying elbow for two. Pearce takes over until getting crotched on the top rope. Vander Pyle tries to help, but Joey catches him and huracanranas Pearce onto his own manager. Epic babyface stuff here. Ryan sends Pearce into Vander Pyle again and hits a belly-to-belly on Pearce for two. Pearce stops the momentum with a backbreaker and locks in a Boston Crab – then an STF. Joey makes the ropes and tosses Pearce into Vander Pyle a third time. Super Dragon comes out of nowhere to hit the Psycho Driver on Ryan behind the ref’s back. Pearce crawls back in for the pin. ONE, TWO, THR-Pearce hauls him up. Piledriver, and now Pearce gets the pin at 10:45. Good storytelling in this one as both guys fit their roles perfectly, Pearce as the old-school heel and Ryan as the fired-up Sting-style babyface. *** PWG Heavyweight Title: Frankie Kazarian vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels. Styles opened the promotion with a win over Kazarian in the main event, and Kazarian narrowly beat Daniels in the PWG Title tournament. Not sure if Daniels and Styles have ever wrestled before. Yes, that was sarcasm. Although in 2003, they had not yet become attached at the hip. The challengers dump Kazarian to the floor and agree to team up against, him, but AJ double-crosses Daniels. Cyclical violence follows. Kazarian’s shotgun dropkick is pretty sick. AJ breaks up Last Rites, but Kazarian breaks up the Styles Clash. They all take dives to the floor. Back in, Kazarian takes them both on. Kazarian slips out of a powerbomb and hits AJ with a somersault guillotine legdrop. Daniels recovers and hits a DDT/Flatliner combo for two on both guys. AJ breaks up Last Rites again, this time with a Quebrada DDT. Daniels gets two off a Blue Thunder Powerbomb. Best Moonsault Ever misses, though. Kazarian tries to attack but eats Angel’s Wings. AJ saves and goes for the Styles Clash, but Kazarian sneaks up and hits AJ with the Wave of the Future in midmove. He covers Daniels and retains at 13:30. Awesome finish! If you liked the X-Division in its first four years, you’ll like this. It had the usual Rube-Goldbergian spots, which are a thing of beauty when they’re well executed. There were a few spots where they looked like they couldn’t get out of each other’s way, but they weren’t overtly noticeable. Kazarian looked right at home with the other two. ***1/2 In the back, Christopher Daniels says he’s not done challenging for the title because he didn’t get beat by Kazarian. AJ Styles says he didn’t lose, so he wants a rematch. He reminds people that, as NWA Champion, he’s not used to losing. A humble Kazarian thanks them both for all their influence and guidance… then he starts bragging on himself.

The 411: Ah, much better. The local talent is noticeably more amateurish than the imports, but you go to war with the army you got. This is the first show where it felt like they were forming a cohesive narrative around a core group of guys. Granted, a lot of the matches have a sameness to them thanks to everyone (outside of Adam Pearce) having a similar style, but the in-ring action was solidly entertaining this time out. Thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]