Pro Wrestling Guerrilla ‘It’s a Gift…and a Curse’ Report 4.05.08

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla: It’s a gift…and a curse
American Legion Hall, Reseda, CA
Bell Time: 8:40, Attendance: 175-200 (Approx)

1. Kitty World Order Debut:
Hello Kitty Defeats Kuromi, Pinfall via Roll-up
– Clearly one of the most odd matches in PWG since the “Tuxedo Match” between Joey Ryan and Top Gun Talwar, this match featured two grown men in tights with Hello Kitty/Kuromi masks on. Hello Kitty wore a pink singlet and a Pink mask with a Pink bow on it. Instead of going for a comedy match it was a fairly serious lucha style match up with Kuromi actually swearing at the crowd for extra “heel heat”. While the match was like watching a strange AAA match on Galavision it was passable, consisting mainly of roll-ups and reversals. It appeared that Hello Kitty and perhaps the other men were both Japanese. *hint hint* No idea if this will be a semi-regular occurrence, but the crowd seemed to be fairly into the match in spots. *1/2

2. NEMESIS Defeats Bino Gambino, Pinfall via roll-up
– Bino came out and cut a promo claiming that if he didn’t get a win he would never wrestle in a PWG ring again. So naturally he lost. A good match that probably should have opened the show as both men have improved since their last semi-regular run in PWG. Plenty of counters and mat work, it had came off as fairly lucha-style match. Close three count came when NEMESIS hit his “Shock Treatment” style finisher but Bino got his foot on the ropes. Bino hit a few moves and hit a ‘Lionsault’ for a pin attempt and went for a pinfall when NEMESIS rolled him up for a pinfall. No idea whether Bino really is gone from PWG or not. Solid match-up that got the crowd back after an odd opening match. ***

Dino Winwood comes out to announce that Eddie Kingston had “No-Showed” and as a result ‘The Dynasty” was now entered into the DDT4 tournament. This brought out Joey Ryan who claimed he and Lost didn’t want the Handicap match against Claudio. Joey then called out Super Dragon to face him right then and there after the vicious Psycho Driver he gave Jade Chung at the last show. After Dragon didn’t come out Joey joined commentary.

3. Berth into DDT4 Tag Tournament Match
Scorpio Sky/Ronin Defeats TJ Perkins/Hook Bomberry, pinfall via Chair shot
Your basic Heel/Face match up involving several tag team moves out of both teams and the “Heels” working over Sky’s leg. Finish of the match came when the ref was bumped off a missed clothesline from TJ. TJ then tried the old “Eddie Guerrero” move of falling down after throwing the chair at Ronin, but the ref was still out. As TJ attempted to wake up the ref Ronin picked up the chair and knocked out TJ for the cover and pinfall. Good match, but not as great as all 4 men were capable of based on their past series. This basically made the whole qualifying round robin series a bit pointless. **1/2

4. Scott Lost Defeats Claudio Castagnoli, Pinfall via Superplex (yes…Superlex)
– Very competitive match-up was mainly dominated by Claudio early in the contest. Claudio dominated with strength and several European uppercuts from every angle. Lost countered with his speed and several kicks. Match came to a surprising finish when Lost hit a Superplex on Claudio, landed on him and covered him for the pinfall. **3/4

Super Dragon ran out from the back after the match and hit Lost with a Barry White Driver. Joey Ryan ran into the ring to confront Dragon as he left to the back. Joey kept calling out Dragon as he was attending to Lost and helping him to the back. Suddenly Super Dragon came out again from the back with a Fire Extinguisher and attacks Joey, leading to…

Unofficial Impromptu Street Fight
This wasn’t an official match as the referees tried breaking this up but both men brawled all around the venue as well as outside in the parking lot. It was hard to tell what was going on, but this was basically an unsanctioned street brawl which involved several chairs, the wooden floor, the stage, and a wooden table. Your basic “Guerrilla Warfare Match” but without the pinfall attempts. The fight stopped after Super Dragon put Joey through a table off the stage with a Psycho Driver.

**Intermission**

5. Brandon Bonham Defeats “Slick” Nick Jackson, Pinfall via Rewind Hurricanrana
– Surprisingly good match-up as this was only the second match for Bonham in PWG and Slick Nick’s first single match. Very fast paced match that progressed from spot to spot, highlighted by several dives out of the ring, kicks from Bonham, and high impact moves from Nick. Several “New Guy” chants for Bonham as he seems to have gotten a bit of a following. Finish came as Bonham attempted a corner float over which Nick seemed to have countered and stopped until Bonham spun around and hit a tornado reverse hurricanrana for the pin. Very entertaining match from both men. ***1/4

6. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) Defeats Tokyo GU-REN-TAI (NOSAWA & Mazada), Pinfall via double Swanton Bombs.
– The theme of this entire card seemed to be “Lucha” and this was no exception. Very entertaining match as both teams brought some very interesting and varied offense as a clash of styles and cultures. GU-REN-TAI worked heels and hit several “low blows” to the Luchas while accusing them of being the offenders. Several innovative and high impact double teams highlighted this match as it proved that the Luchas move than deserved to win the Robin Series. Several near falls were broken up the finish came when Zokre hit a double heel stomp to the heads of both men and each Lucha hit a springboard swanton on their opponents. It was great to see an international match like this as it’s rare to see Japanese wrestlers come over for smaller PWG shows. You know…two Japanese guys…on the same show as Hello Kitty. *wink wink*. ***1/2

7. Roderick Strong Defeats Chris Hero w/ Candice LaRae, Pinfall via Gibson Driver.
– This was one of the stiffest matches in some time as both men relied on chops and kicks to pummel their opponent. A very strike-centric match which also featured several counters and Strong working “heel” by using Candice as a shield. A back and forth match with no clue as to who was going to take the pinfall although it was clear that the crowd was very vocally backing Hero. Around 20 minutes into the match Claudio ran out and distracted Hero while leveling him with a vicious European Uppercut. The ref didn’t throw out the match but threw Claudio out of ringside. Strong capitalized by hitting a Gibson/Tiger Driver on Hero for the pin. The crowd seemed stunned and after Claudio rolled Candice into the ring and went after her. This strategy backfired as Hero hit the “Hero’s Welcome” on him and tossed him out of the ring. Hero then cut a promo on how this loss didn’t matter and he would be the one to beat Hero for the title after all his attempts to humiliate and beat him. Seemed like a weird promo since Hero SHOULD have already been #1 contender after pinning Tornado last week in the tag match, which was a precedence set during Joey’s title reign when Frankie Kazarian pinned him. Also the match was billed as both men staking claim to the #1 contendership and a loss here really should hurt Hero. Regardless a very hard hitting match and easy MoTN. ****

Next PWG show is tentatively slated for May 17th and 18th, DDT4 Tag Tournament. Dino Winwood announced that the teams should be announced sometime on Sunday at www.prowrestlingguerrilla.com.