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St-Pierre’s PWG Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock & Roll) Review

May 27, 2017 | Posted by Jake St-Pierre
Young Bucks NJPW ROH Matt Jackson PWF Nick jackson Image Credit: ROH
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St-Pierre’s PWG Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock & Roll) Review  

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @JakeStPierre411.

PWG rolled into 2017 on their best behavior, firing out of the gates with Only Kings Understand Each Other. We saw a very successful debut from Lio Rush, more greatness from Trent?, the usual wackiness from the Superkliq, and a big angle at the end of the show with Best Friends reuniting to face the onslaught of the LDRS – Zack Sabre Jr and Marty Scurll. PWG fires right back a month later with the show I’m reviewing today, a card that looks utterly stunning on paper. PWG is one of the rare promotions that simply doesn’t disappoint, and given even more new debuts and a glowing review from Dave Meltzer, PWG hops right back on the path…

We are TAPED from the American Legion in Reseda, CA.

Your hosts are Excalibur and the gang.

Brian Cage vs. Sami Callihan vs. Keith Lee
This odd little menagerie of talent comes together due to an Adam Cole injury, as this was previously just set to be a singles match between the debuting Lee and stalwart Brian Cage. Sami Callihan was given a choice to insert himself in any match he pleased, so he chose to hop out early and attempt to spoil Keith Lee’s debut. At this point, readers of my reviews have probably heard the name Keith Lee, another one of Ring of Honor’s gloriously inane misfires. Since leaving ROH, he’s started with EVOLVE and been thrust into the spotlight immediately, which reaps its rewards quickly as he makes his PWG debut here tonight. We all know who Sami and Cage are, so let’s get moving.

Sami pump kicks Keith Lee before the bell, but Keith pops right back up and catches a rolling Brian Cage with a crazy leapfrog dropkick. Sami makes the mistake of bitchslapping the big guy, so Lee cross chops him in the corner. Cage joins the fracas right after Sami starts getting ahold of the debutant, but Sami slithers under Cage and gets both big men sat down in the corner for some running Facewashes in the corner. Sami hits a Frankensteiner of all things, but Brian Cage pulls one off instead… SO KEITH LEE HITS A STEP-UP RANA TO TOP THEM~! Both Cage and Sami are a bit flabbergasted, but they team up to bowl him over with tandem Pump Kicks. Sami hits a Tope Suicida, but Cage goes right back at him with a Tope Con Hilo! Cage and Sami just trade dives at a million miles an hour, until the crowd wills Lee to a HUGE TOPE CON HILO~! Lee tries to get Sami back for kicking him the face earlier, but Sami pops right up and defiantly trades strikes with him. Sami escapes a powerbomb and boots Lee from the apron, sending the big man onto a chair. He runs all the way around the ring to build up a head of steam for a cannonball that sends Lee through the chair. Cage tries to make his way back in, but Sami hits him with a step-up Tornado DDT on the floor. Sami tries to escape a Cage powerbomb, but turns around into an apron powerbomb from Keith Lee. Cage superkicks Lee to the floor, and CAGE HITS AN ORIHARA MOONSAULT! Cage hits the Fucking Machine Superplex to Sami, but Sami kicks out at 2 as Keith Lee staggers about to the apron. Cage tries the Superplex on Keith, and Sami helps him for a double Fucking Machine Superplex! Cage and Sami take a break from their teamwork to trade strikes in the center of the ring, ending with Sami hitting Cage with a rebound lariat. Keith Lee gets back to his feet, and catches Sami in midair and tosses him back with a scary Belly-to-Belly before TOSSING CAGE THE SAME WAY. Jesus Christ. He turns his focus to Sami and heads up to the second rope to try and “squish” Sami, but Callihan pops up and hits him with a big Death Valley Driver for a two count. Lee catches a running Sami with a DISGUSTING pop-up Samoan Powerslam… but CAGE BACKFLIPS OUT OF A CHOKESLAM! F5 FROM CAGE ON LEE~! SAMI BREAKS IT UP! Sami backs Cage into the corner for another Pump Kick, but Cage clubs him on the second rope and hits the Cheeky Nandos Kick, before hitting an Electric Chair Drop. Lee GIVES CAGE A POP-UP LIGERBOMB! CAGE KICKS OUT! This is madness. Lee goes up to the second again, but Sami stops him once more… only to be knocked down to the mat for a MOONSAULT THAT MISSES! SAMI KILLS HIM WITH A DESTROYER! CAGE BREAKS THE PIN! BUCKLE BOMB ON SAMI! YOSHI TONIC FROM SAMI! RIGHT INTO THE STRETCH MUFFLER! ROLLED INTO A CRADLE! POWERBOMB RIGHT INTO WEAPON X~! This is unbelievable. Cage hits Lee with a discus lariat, and DOES THE DEAL with a Falcon Arrow… and he wins with it! No one kicks out of the Falcon Arrow! Brian Cage picks up the win in a nutty 15 minutes. **** This was an unabashed, unashamed spotfest… and my word, was it all the better for it. They didn’t go out there with some silly feeling out process or comedy; all three men knew exactly what the crowd was looking for, and gave it to them on a silver platter. Sure, some of it was sloppy. It’s a Brian Cage match, let’s be real here. But even with the requisite sloppiness, all three men did such a fabulous job of playing their respective roles that it really doesn’t matter at the end of it all. I’d venture to guess I’m being a bit generous with my snowflake rating, but let us not act like it’s undeserved. This match – for what it was, mind you – was absolutely perfect. It did everything it needed to and did it exquisitely. Sami Callihan was the plucky small guy, using his speed and tenacity to try and overcome the “lumbering” presence of two men who could have murdered him at the drop of a hat. Brian Cage was the muscle of the match really, pulling off his usual crazy feats of strength and having some awesome little exchanges with Keith Lee in the process. And Keith Lee was basically a hybrid of both men, using a combination of inhuman quickness and gargantuan stature to pull off some magnificent athletic feats. I’m not going to tell you this was some sort of psychological masterpiece, bubbling underneath the guise of a spotfest. This was just balls to the wall madness from bell-to-bell, and it’s been a long time since a match like this came off so well in so many different ways. Also, who can’t completely love a PWG match that ends with a Falcon Arrow?

The Chosen Bros vs. Ohio Is 4 Killers
The former Irish Airborne made quite the impression a month previously at Only Kings alongside stablemate Sami Callihan, but this month they get a chance to properly break out as a tag team against two of the premier names of the independent scene. Cobb and Riddle have proved in their short stint as a team that they gel incredibly well together, and it’ll be interesting to see how these two wildly different units match up together.

Riddle and Dave Crist start things off, and Riddle has the upperhand in the grappling department as one would surmise. Dave tags in his brother, which prompts Riddle to tag in his partner as well, so it’s Jake Crist vs. Jeff Cobb. Jake gets chucked around effortlessly by the much larger Cobb, in pretty spectacular fashion. Dave tags in after his brother’s incredibly unsuccessful turn with the Olympian, and he looks like he’s going to meet the same fate until he’s able to drop Cobb with a dropkick. Jake tags back in, but gets chucked into the wrong corner when he foolishly attempts a suplex. Riddle tags back in and throws Jake around himself with the deadlift Gutwrenches, right into a nasty Doctor Bomb. Jake dodges a Stinger Splash, and OI4K is able to use some teamwork to finally get an upperhand. Dave makes the mistake of trying to chop with Riddle, who fights back with some even nastier ones of his own, but again the tag team prowess of the Crists helps them through… only for Riddle to effortlessly bring Jake up for a Fisherman’s Buster. Cobb gets the hot tag and goes nutty, hitting Dave with a HUGE POP-UP BACKDROP DRIVER~! One huge Riddle senton nearly gets the Chosen Bros the win. The Crists again use some frenetic teamwork to nullify Cobb, hitting a cool looking double team senton to his back. Dave tries to choke Cobb out, so Cobb just backbumps with the older Crist on his back… but Dave keeps the choke on! Cobb finds the ropes, so Jake tags in and boots Riddle off the apron before going back to Cobb, who uses that momentary recovery to hit Jake with a Belly-to-Belly. Riddle finally gets the tag, and he runs wild on both members of OI4K, hitting Dave with a Bro To Sleep right into a German for a 2 count! He tries another BTS on Dave, but Dave dropkicks both Chosen Bros out of the ring for a huge Asai Moonsault/Spaceman combo! OI4K isolates Riddle in the ring and HITS A SUPERPLEX/POWERBOMB! Cobb breaks the pin up, and we get Superkicks and Headbutts all around! HUGE WALK-UP ACE CRUSHER FROM DAVE ON COBB! Cobb kicks out. They look for a Tombstone/Double Stomp, but the Bros HIT A LAWN DART/BICYCLE KNEE ON JAKE! TOUR OF THE ISLANDS! BROMISSION! The Chosen Bros get the win in 16 minutes. ***1/2 There were some incredibly fun moments in this match, only slightly let down by a too-generous time allowance and some standing around from the Crist Brothers down the stretch that hurt the flow of the match. One of the main draws of their style should be that they can go a mile a minute with no stopping, but when time freezes searching for the next spot, it kind of kills the purpose. Luckily these are small complaints at best, and the match as a whole still came out a totally entertaining sprint. Jeff Cobb especially had a wonderful performance with the smaller Crist Brothers, using their smaller stature to its full potential and really coming off as the star of the match despite his partner’s reliable greatness. His strength being a match-shifting component was foiled quite well by Dave and Jake needing to team up to even put a dent in Cobb’s momentum, so they even had a bit of psychology working for them. So hey, despite a few small nitpicks, this match did its job and lived up to its on-paper expectations.

Trevor Lee vs. Lio Rush
Lio had a pretty successful debut last month against Ricochet, so it was only right that he started to become a regular presence in Reseda given his style. Trevor is… well, Trevor so he’s always got something to offer. That’s my intro for this. Sorry.

Trevor jumps Lio before the bell, but Rush’s speed is much too prevalent for Lee to keep that advantage. Lio sends him out of the ring with a Rana, and pulls a Jay Lethal with a couple Tope Suicidas. Lio goes up top as Lee gets back into the ring, but Trevor rolls away to try and find some peace at the opposite apron. Lio tries springboarding, but Trevor elbows him out of the air and PK’s him from the apron, right before a big Deadlift German that gets him his first real two count of the match. Trevor MURDERS Lio with one of the nastiest corners I’ve ever seen a man take, knocking Lio all the way to the floor as Trevor taunts inside. Lio starts coming back though, flipping out of a German Suplex and hitting the Tajiri back elbow. Flying Clothesline scores for Lio, but it only gets a nearfall. Lio dodges the bug Mushroom Stomp, but Trevor reassesses and hits it finally for a nearfall of his own. Lee looks for God’s Last Gift, but Lio rolls out and bounces back with a forearm to the face. Lee responds with a barrage of lifters, but LIO CATCHES HIM RUNNING WITH A C4! Lee manages to kick out before hitting the Spinning Crossbody! Lio counters God’s Last Gift into a spinning DDT! Lio hits a spinning back kick on Lee, so Trevor holds onto Rick Knox so he can give Lio a low blow! GERMAN COUNTERED INTO A REVERSE RANA! SLIDING ENZUIGIRI! A Lio Frog Splash is countered with knees and a Small Package… but LIO WINS WITH A CRADLE! That’s it in 14 minutes. ***1/2 A totally rock solid sprint, with both men playing their roles exceptionally and working a perfectly paced bout for what they were trying to accomplish. Lio Rush took a huge beating, with Trevor throwing him around at will and giving the crowd something to work with once Lio finally willed himself up to a comeback. The finishing stretch was delightfully nutty too, and worked to a satisfying crescendo that also served to give us a somewhat surprising win despite the low-key nature of the actual pinfall itself. It’s nothing that’s going to change the world of wrestling, but for its place on the card, it’s hard to say that they could have done anything more to make this a success.

Shane Strickland vs. Dezmond Xavier
Another set of debuts in a long line of them for PWG’s 2017, with Shane Strickland (Lucha Underground’s Killshot) and CZW star Dezmond Xavier being the next in line. For the sake of honesty, I’ve personally never been a fan of Strickland as he’s always struck me as an AR Fox clone, really only having flips and spots to his name in lieu of legitmately impressive offense. He just looks so light in everything he does that it’s hard to get invested. I’ve seen bits and pieces of Xavier mostly in his team Scarlet and Graves with Zachary Wentz, but for all intents and purposes I’m coming in blind. So who’s to say what’ll happen? Can’t say it’s fair for me to make up my dumb little mind just yet.

Strickland uses a handshake to try and spur some offense in the earlygoing, but Xavier keeps up with him every step of the way. Strickland does some sort of wackadoo no-sell to a Hurricanrana that I legitimately can’t wrap my head around for several different reasons. More neat flips and we’re at a standoff. Strickland hits a rolling Ace Crusher in the ring for the first real bit of offense in the match, and he uses that as a launching pad for the heat. Dezmond makes a comeback attempt with a running punt and an awesome standing corkscrew moonsault that gets a two count. Xavier heads up top and tries an avalanche Reverse Rana, but Strickland flips out of it and hits an Ace Crusher to a kneeling Xavier instead. Strickland hits a hanging DDT after crotching Xavier on the second rope in a neat spot, but only gets 2. Xavier dodges a double stomp from the top and hits a 619 around the ringpost, followed by a big Sasuke Special. Strickland dodges a 450, but rolls RIGHT INTO A GERMAN SUPLEX! That was a dope counter. Xavier follows with a Pele Kick that gets a 2 count. XAVIER WITH A STANDING DRAGONRANA~! Strickland kicks out after that ridiculousness. Strickland responds with a DVD on the apron before heading up top for a nasty Double Stomp for a two count. Strickland counters a Reverse Rana into some wacky Rubix Cube variant for the win in 12 minutes. ** You know, I’ve enjoyed my fair amount of incomprehensible spotfests during the time I’ve reviewed PWG, but something about this one just rubbed me the wrong way. That’s not to say this match was a failure, because if we’re looking at it objectively, it simply was not. The crowd loved the crazy stuff these two men pulled out, and as such I can only rate this match so low before it will become hard for you take me seriously… provided you somehow do already. But I do have a few major qualms with this match, to the point where some of the fundamental parts of it detracted from the proceedings. First off, this was 12 minutes of almost zero sense of narrative or structure. It felt like an M-Dogg 20 match from 2003 with all the ridiculous posturing and pointless moves they threw out there, even down to the (admittedly awesome) flipping Frankensteiner. One could argue that they were simply playing the hits to get themselves over, and that’s an argument I’d listen to because the crowd played along most of the way through. But me personally? I thought they wrestled a match as subtle as a brick on the small of my back, and instead of using that to their advantage like a Will Ospreay match would, they seemed blissfully unaware of how little anything meant and as such, the match quickly turned into a parody. Nothing had purpose, and it felt like something I could cook up on the exhibition mode of WWE 2K17 with a little bit of practice. These two men are undoubtedly incredible athletes and did some really cool stuff, but this was just the worst of current high-flying indy wrestling wrapped up into a thankfully concise 12 minute package. You really see just how great guys like Ospreay and Ricochet are when you see a match like this. So unfortunately, I remain highly underwhelmed by anything Shane Strickland has done and while Xavier was easily the more impressive of the two, his effort didn’t make me feel compelled to seek him out further. A rare miss for PWG.

Leaders of the New School vs. Best Friends
I came as close as one can to squealing like a schoolgirl when this match was announced. Mainly because I find Chuck Taylor and Trent? to be a fabulous tag team, better than the much more active Roppongi Vice duo that Trent wrestles in with Rocky Romero. They’ve had some phenomenal PWG matches against the Young Bucks and Dojo Bros specifically, and have a chemistry so entertaining that it turned into a show on Highspots. Their opponents here, Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre Jr, went full heel on Chuckie T at the end of last month’s show, only to be thwarted by Trent who rushed in to save his Best Friend. So despite their delightfully violent war at last year’s THIRTEEN, Dustin and Greg reunite for a big co-main event spot against their biggest rivals in PWG.

It’s a Pier Six Brawl to open up, and the Best Friends try stereo Piledrivers… only for the LDRS to bail and stew on the outside as their opponents stand tall. The LDRS just walk to the back in lieu of actually fighting, so Chuck and Trent follow them to the locker room to bring them back to the ring for double 10 Punches… that the LDRS foil with double eye rakes! Things finally slow down as Chuck and Trent take control, with Greg hitting the devastating slingshot boot-scrape followed by the Tope Atomico from Chuckie! The LDRS use some underhanded tactics to take back their control, as Marty superkicks Trent from the apron after disposing of Chuckie T. Both Best Friends have chairs thrown at their face on the floor before Zack takes Trent back in the ring for some nasty submission work. Both Marty and Zack try to work over Trent’s arm, continuing to use their underhanded ways to keep Chuckie T away from his partner. Zack whips Trent into the corner for a textbook Shawn Michaels flip, but he eats a nasty lariat when he tries to follow up. Trent has an opportunity to get to his best friend, but the LDRS again fuck him out of a tag he desperately needs. Marty hits Trent with a superplex for a two count before the LDRS again have their way with Trent, hitting a disgusting dropkick/Michinoku Driver on him. Marty tries to powerbomb Chuckie off of the apron, but Dustin is able to resist again… only for a running Zack to knock him all the way to the bar. The LDRS again hit Trent with the Dropkick/Michinoku Driver, this time from the middle rope for a close nearfall. Chuckie is able to hit Marty with the step-up DDT, BEFORE HITTING ZACK WITH THE DUDEBUSTER! Here comes Chuckie T! He hits Marty with a missile dropkick, followed by a Violence Party on both men! He suplexes Marty onto Zack in the corner before dropping Marty with a sweet Uranage. Chuckie takes both of the LDRS pretty handily by himself for the time being, but eats a double Just Kidding Superkick… only to fire back with a double lariat! He and Trent hit the Lawn Dart/Ace Crusher on Marty before chucking Zack out with him to the floor. They throw a chair at Chuck when he tries to dive, but Trent follows right up with a big Tope Con Hilo! Marty tries to Chickenwing Chuck out of a Best Friends hug, and we have stereo submissions as Zack puts Trent in a Triangle! They both are able to make it to the ropes. The LDRS isolate Chuck in the ring, Zack hitting a step-up 540 Kick, followed by a brainbuster, PK, Lifter, and another PK on Trent for a huge nearfall! Chuckie tags in Trent and the Best Friends are able to hit stereo Piledrivers, but the stereo pin gets a stereo nearfall. AWFUL WAFFLE COUNTERED INTO A TRIANGLE ON CHUCK! CHICKENWING ON TRENT! CHUCK POWERBOMBS ZACK ON TRENT TO BREAK UP THE CHICKENWING! Chuckie and Marty throw palm strikes in the center of the ring, but Marty snaps Chuck’s fingers… COUNTERED INTO SOLE FOOD! That was a brilliant counter. They brawl to the back, leaving Trent and Zack alone in the ring together. HUGE PALM STRIKE from Trent earns a stomp to the arm from an angry PWG Champ. They rise and trade strikes until Trent counters a cross armbreaker into a cradle for a nearfall. RUNNING UPPERCUT COUNTERED A CRADLE PILEDRIVER! TRENT PINS ZACK! Best Friends pick up the win in 23 minutes. **** I think longtime followers of my reviews (as well as my Twitter feed) can quite easily ascertain how far my love of the Best Friends goes, but don’t quite understand why. Sure, their Highspots show is hilarious. They both have two of the best Twitter accounts in wrestling, and are just generally entertaining dudes in everything they do. But it all boils down to the fact that when you put them together as a tag team, they’re utterly tremendous. They were damn near perfect as the sympathetic, revenge-fueled babyface team in this match… only matched by the equally great performance of Marty Scurll and Zack Sabre Jr as complete and total bastard heels with scary cohesion as a unit. The crowd had contempt in their hearts for everything the LDRS did, and it only grew more intense as they did everything in their power to make sure Trent never found his partner for the hot tag. The heat segment in this match was just fabulous, as Trent is legitimately one of the best sellers/bumpers in pro wrestling today. He takes a shit-kicking like no one’s business, and there aren’t many other guys that can deliver a beating quite like Marty and Zack. They twisted him every which way, cheated just to be dicks, and overall made Trent’s life hell for a solid 10 minutes. And the best part? It never once even threatened to get boring. The LDRS pulled out all the dastardly heel tag team tricks, making sure the referee never saw tags, distracting the ref so they could illegally double team their opponent, etc. And it all worked to perfection. I love how they used all 23 minutes, working through different stages rather than just doing moves to fill the time. You were meant to concentrate on all the different exchanges, mostly proved by the surprisingly great ending of Trent and Zack duking it out alone. Every part of this match was just wonderful, and we’d be looking at a Match of the Year contender with just a little bit more intensity and excitement down the stretch. But as it is, it’s one of the most all-around entertaining tag matches you’ll see in PWG, mostly due to its off-the-charts psychology.

Marty Scurll attacks both Best Friends after the match with low blows. He throws several chairs in the ring and beckons Zack in, setting up a chair bridge to powerbomb Chuck Taylor through. Marty takes the mic and challenges Chuckie T to a one on one match, and Chuckie accepts on the condition that it be a Reseda Street Fight!

PWG Tag Titles: The Young Bucks © vs. Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix
This is the first time we’ll have seen the Lucha Brothers since their spectacular performances at the 2016 BOLA tournament, and the first time we’ll have seen the former Pentagon Jr’s even more spectacularly awful name change due to AAA’s totally competent management style. But hey, it’s less letters to type during the play-by-play so who am I to complain really? Ricochet and Matt Sydal team for the first time since Sydal’s drug arrest in Japan, a much better use for Sydal since he managed to make PETE DUNNE bland back in December. And The Young Bucks round off what – on paper – should be a spotfest to end all spotfests. This one got damn near close to a five star rating from Big Dave, but you never can fully trust a star rating that isn’t your own, ya know? But like I said, this has all the makings of a classic on paper.

This match is a Tornado Tag match to boot, so attempting to type out something resembling a play-by-play is probably an exercise in futility. Nick starts off taking down both Penta and Ricochet with an armdrag/headscissor combo, but Penta knocks both men down with Slingblades. His brother comes in to save him from Matt Sydal… and this is already pretty much impossible to call with any sort of accuracy. Sydal hits a Slice/Jawbreaker combo on Matt Jackson and Fenix respectively before putting a Muta Lock on Matt. Penta KILLS Sydal’s leg with a running punt to break it, and Everyone misses flips! SEXTUPLE DROPKICKS~! SUPERKICKS ON RICOCHET AND SYDAL! That leaves both teams of brothers in the ring with each other, and they have Cero Miedo/Suck It battles! The Bucks are angry at being foiled at their own game, so they go under the ring and pull out FENIX AND PENTAGON MASKS! Penta and Fenix put on the Bucks’ ring jackets and do their taunt WITH the Suck Its! This is madness. SYDAL AND RICOCHET COME IN WITH MASKS AND JACKETS~! This is the damndest thing I’ve ever seen. DOUBLE SPACEMAN DIVES~! Ricochet and Sydal are in control after that insanity, hitting a Moonsault/SSP combo on Nick for a two count. Penta and Fenix take Ricochet out with a Superkick Sandwich, and killing Sydal with a barrage of Lungblowers. PENTA CASADORA FACEBUSTERS FENIX INTO A SPLASH~! The Bucks break up the pin before I can even register just what the hell that was. Matt propels his brother into a Frankensteiner that knocks Fenix out of the ring, and they hit Sydal with the headscissor/dropkick combo. I’m really glad no one reads these sections of my reviews. Sydal reverses a Penta brainbuster into a Rana, and his brother eats a superkick from the Bucks… who superkick Ricochet out of midair! SYDAL KILLS FENIX WITH A LEAPING FRANKENSTEINER FROM THE FLOOR TO THE APRON! PENTA HITS NICK WITH A PACKAGE PILEDRIVER ON THE APRON! RICOCHET HITS PENTA WITH A FUCKING DESTROYER ON THE APRON! SPRINGBOARD DDT ON THE APRON FROM MATT!!! You can’t be serious. The Bucks have Sydal alone in the ring, but miss double superkicks. Ricochet hits Penta with a Reverse Rana, but Penta rolls through and crumbles him with a superkick! Orihara Moonsault scores from Sydal onto everybody, and it’s one-upped by a Tornillo from Rey Fenix. DOUBLE JUMP TOPE CON HILO FROM NICK JACKSON! Ricochet HANDSPRINGS out of an X Factor and HITS A DOUBLE JUMP SHOOTING STAR that hits the light! He runs into a Matt Jackson superkick though, and the older Jackson brother goes up top… and escapes a Matt Sydal super rana. He Buckle Bombs Ricochet into his partner, and the Bucks hit a Double Stomp/Dominator on Sydal ala DojoBros. Fenix superkicks Nick to break up a pinfall, but Matt catches him on an Apron Moonsault and attempts to Meltzer Drive him on the floor, but Penta breaks it with a Superkick. Fenix gets on his brother’s shoulders… BUT RICOCHET HITS A SPRINGBOARD CUTTER ON FENIX BEFORE HE CAN DIVE! METEORA ON PENTA! 450 CAUGHT BY RICOCHET! DOUBLE BENADRYLLER! SHOOTING STAR MELTZER DRIVER ON MATT! STEREO SHOOTING STAR’S EAT KNEES! SUPERKICK PARTY FROM PENTA AND FENIX! That’s how the Bucks beat the Lucha Bros at BOLA! Sydal takes down both Lucha Brothers with kicks and hits Penta with a step-up Reverse Rana! Sydal goes up top, but Fenix catches him and feeds him to Penta for a Pumphandle Driver. Tequila Shot scores for Fenix, but Ricochet breaks up the pin! Ricochet makes Penta superkick his brother and Zig Zags Penta, and he spikes Fenix with a rolling DDT! SPACEMAN DIVE FROM RICOCHET OVER THE POST ONTO THE BUCKS! POWERBOMB ONTO THE KNEE FROM PENTAGON! SWANTON FROM FENIX! RICOCHET KICKS OUT! PACKAGE PILEDRIVER/DESTROYER FROM FENIX AND PENTA! We have new champions at 20 minutes. ****1/2 The one thing about these incredible Young Bucks matches is that it’s really hard to give them decent analysis. Not because I didn’t find anything to rave about, but because what’s there to really say when you see such a ridiculous wrestling match? I mean, just watch it and you’ll see exactly what I love about it. It’s not like a technical wrestling match where I can go in-depth about a storytelling thread or limbwork, or maybe remind you of something that you missed. This match was plain and simple at the core of it. Three teams who have all had incredible matches under the PWG banner gathering together to have one of the most maniacally raucous matches you’ll see anywhere on the planet. That’s all the analysis I can give you, really. Some say that might disqualify the match from being a Match of the Year contender, but I don’t buy that. This style may have its detractors – which I don’t begrudge – but I’m not one of them. I love the way the Young Bucks work. I love the way Pentagon and Fenix work. And hell, I even love Matt Sydal and Ricochet as a team. They convened for a match that – aside from some timing issues early on – can be conceivably labeled as a high point of this polarizing spotfest style. We saw how poorly it can be done earlier in the night with Shane Strickland and Dezmond Xavier, and here we got to see the pinnacle of just how well this style can be worked when you have truly world-class talent helping. This isn’t going to make Young Bucks “haters” into fans, but it isn’t designed to. For the audience they worked for and the audience watching at home that loves this sort of wrestling, this was damn near perfect. This was a fabulous main event, really.

8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
If not for the disappointingly damp squib of Xavier vs. Strickland, this show would be one of PWG's all-time best. It packs everything awesome about PWG into one concise little package. The show isn't overly long, it's packed to the brim with some of the best wrestling you'll see anywhere on the planet, and you get to see new and fresh talent come to life right before your eyes on a regular basis. We even got an ultra-rare tag title change in a classic MOTYC main event, a feel-good finish to the match before it, and one of the most entertaining debuts in recent memory from Keith Lee in the maddening opener. What more could you want from a show really? It really has something to offer everyone. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for Nice Boys (Don't Play Rock & Roll)
legend

article topics :

PWG, Jake St-Pierre