Zen Arcade Reviews: PWG Kurt RussellReunion III

We are TAPED from El Segundo, CA. This is PWG third WrestleReunion show and we have a bunch of Dragon Gate talent present, plus a MINI~! We are in for a treat. 

Our hosts are Excalibur and Colt Cabana. I burnt this on a DVD, so that could explain why it’s nearly impossible to hear Colt Cabana. But then again, Excalibur comes through clearly so who knows. 

Fightin’ Taylor Boys vs. Chris Kadillak & Famous B
The indyriffic Kadillak and B get another match here against Brian Cage-Taylor and Ryan Taylor. I’m seriously just waiting until WWE picks up Cage again. He would thrive there nowadays. What’s better than a guy who looks like he does and can wrestle too?

Ryan and Kadillak start with a GENERIC INDY STANDOFF~! Famous B and Brian come in and Cage bails out before Famous B can do anything major. B gets hot with a running moonsault press to the outside. Cage flapjacks B on Ryan’s knees as Ryan tags in. That gets a two count. Brian tags back in and hits a nice delayed vertical on Famous B, soon after locking in a Steiner Recliner. Chris Kadillak is only a few inches taller than the top rope. Yikes. Kadillak comes in and cleans house, getting a two count on some flippy face hater. SHOOTING STAR CANNONBALL! Awesome move. Brian hits a SICK deadlift Superplex on Kadillak! Kadillak recovers but ends up on Brian’s shoulders on the outside, so Ryan hits a TOPÈ SUICIDA on him. Sweet. CACTUS FLOWER PILEDRIVER! That gets the academic pinfall in 10 minutes. **3/4 An energetic opener that accomplished exactly what it was supposed to.

Jimmy Susumu vs. BxB Hulk
Apparently BxB is all dark now so instead of dressing like a drag queen, he looks like a Japanese emo kid. I’ve never seen Susumu before. 

Excalibur explains that Susumu lost a naming match and therefore was renamed Jimmy Susumu, since Jimmy means ‘idiot’ in Japanese apparently. He was formerly Susumu Yokosuka. We start off with some regular chain wrestling and Hulk eats a Kitchen Sink knee. Hulk hits a disgusting bicycle stomp to the back of Jimmy’s head, which draws a pop. Hulk drops Susumu with a sweet spinning heel kick and goes to work on him with a Liontamer/Half Crab. Jimmy catches Hulk in midair and hits an Exploder and hits another Exploder into the corner for a 2 count. Hulk recovers and nails a reverse STO, but Jimmy meets him on the top rope and hits an Avalance Exploder. Hulk one ups him with a springboard legline for a close 2 count. Pumphandle Slam! CLOSE NEARFALL! JUMBO TSURUTA LARIATS! HULK KICKS OUT! A double underhook piledriver thing gets the win in 13 minutes. ***1/4 I wasn’t sure about this match in the early going, but they got going down the stretch and put out a good little exhibition.

The Young Bucks vs. Davey Richards and Harry Smith
The former DH Smith is substituting for Eddie Edwards, who had a staph infection. I’ve always felt he was very underrated and never got a fair shake in WWE. He’s young so they can always hire him back. The Bucks still get on my nerves. It’s a shame how much they try to force their crappy heel act. 

Nick bitchslaps Davey early, so Davey puts in an armbar. He tags in Smith, who works on the arm as well. Harry hits a SWEET delayed vertical suplex that gets to a count of 40. Matt tags in finally and goes to work on Davey in the corner. Nick comes in and works on Davey’s arm and does a good job of preventing him from tagging in Harry Smith. Davey drops both Jackson brothers and tags in Smith, who cleans house. He and Davey hit a Bulldog Powerslam/diving headbutt for two. Davey does a lap around the ring, kicking some bitches. Davey puts Nick in an ankle lock and vines it! Davey takes a VICIOUS reverse rana and eats Early Onset Alzheimer’s! The ref is distracted and Nick hits a low blow on Davey. More Bang For Your Buck gets the win in 13 minutes. *** Good tag match, but it seemed like they were holding back more than they should have. I want to see what Harry Smith can do in a bigger match though, so hopefully PWG snags him up for a Reseda show down the line.

Willie Mack vs. Naruki Doi
Willie Mack was on the up and up here, defending his turf against Dragon Gate’s Doi. 

Some chain wrestling to begin. Doi pulls Mack’s hair and Mack yells, “Get off my ‘fro!” in an animated fashion, earning a star on his own. Doi takes control of Mack after getting his arm worked on a bit. Doi works on Willie’s leg and plays to the crowd like a champ. He gets frustrated at the lack of “Doi” chants. He’s a visitor, show some fucking respect El Segundo. Just kidding. Willie makes a comeback and gets an Atomic Leg Drop for a two count and a standing moonsault press for another two count. Doi hits an AWESOME senton to Mack, who’s hung on the middle rope. Mack comes back with an Exploder but only gets a nearfall. Mack reverses some move with a nice sit-out spinebuster and hits his slingshot dropkick for a close two count. SUPERPLEX FROM DOI! LEAP OF FAITH ELBOW THREE TIMES! Mack kicks out WITH AUTHORITY. Chocolate Thunder Bomb gets the duke (that’s not a black/poop joke) in 12 minutes. ***1/4 The action in the ring was great, but they had a really bad crowd to feed off of. The high rating is probably just my bias for Willie Mack and his “chocolate heart” as Colt Cabana puts it.

Candice LeRae, Mascarita Dorada, B-Boy, & Cedric Alexander vs. DEMUS 316, Joey Ryan, Peter Avalon, & Ray Rosas
Dorada is the midget and DEMUS is the guy that he’s feuding with, I guess. Joey Ryan is still awesome and Candice is still gorgeous. And that’s just fine with me.

Cedric and Rosas start and do a bit of chain wrestling. Cedric hits a dropkick after a few Dos-I-dos. Avalon tags in and pisses B-Boy off, so B-Boy tags in. B-Boy knocks Avalon RETARDED with a face eraser. Dorada and DEMUS tag in and DEMUS THROWS DORADA LIKE A SACK OF POTATOES! Does bullying exist in Mexico? ‘Cause DEMUS is being a cock to Dorada. Dorada gets his redemption with a BEAUTIFUL spinning headscissors. By spinning, I mean he spun for about 5 seconds. Joey Ryan and Candice tag in, and Joey is being a total cock to her. BOOBPLEX ON CANDICE’S HEAD! Peter Avalon tags and teabags her because he’s PETER FUCKING AVALON that’s why. DEMUS tags in and bites her hand and her stomach. How someone hasn’t motorboated her yet is just beyond me. Joey Ryan tags in and takes advantage of poor Candice some more. Candice pulls Joey’s trunks down and it’s a FULL MOON IN EL SEGUNDO!~! Dorada comes back in and eats a Dominator from DEMUS, but hits a SWEET middle rope Asai Moonsault! Dorada comes back in and meets DEMUS again, getting a sunset bomb for 2. INSANE SPINNY FLIPPY HEADSCISSORS HOLY JESUS! HURRICANRANA OFF THE TOP ROPE ON DEMUS ON THE FLOOR! Candice hits a Ballplex on Ryan and then A SICK MIDDLE ROPE REVERSE RANA! B-Boy hits the Shining Wizard and Candice gets the pin after a moonsault in 16 minutes. ***3/4 While Mascarita Dorada was a MACHINE in this match and contributed to its most exciting moments, everyone else did really well and put together an awesome spotfest, per the course of these PWG multi-person tags.

CIMA & Ricochet vs. The RockNES Monsters
I’ve only seen CIMA a limited number of times, so we’ll see if I pick up anything new here. 

The Monsters ‘Pearl Harbor’ the Blood Warriors, starting hot to get the advantage. Ricochet is torn apart by their double teams early, but he gets to CIMA and the tide shifts momentarily until Goodtime takes control and tags Yuma. CIMA does a humorous impersonation of Johnny Yuma, wearing his fallen bandana and playing air-guitar and drums. The Blood Warriors isolate Yuma, even putting him in an Indian Deathlock. Before CIMA can lean back on it, Goodtime comes in and stops. But Goodtime is stupid, so he dropkicks CIMA and CIMA falls back. Yuma screams, “What the hell Johnny?!” and goes back to being beaten on by the Warriors. This is a pretty funny match, as CIMA and Ricochet just fuck with the RockNES’ incessantly. Yuma begins to make a comeback, dropping Ricochet on his head with a DDT. Goodtime tags in and the Monsters do a bunch of cool double teams before Goodtime enters by himself. GOODTIME HITS THE MUSHROOM STOMP! TOPÈ CON HILO OVER THE RINGPOST ON CIMA! That was crazy. Yuma tags in and gets a close 2 count on a Neckbreaker/Chest Stomp combo. This match is awesome but this crowd–to be blunt–fucking sucks. Ricochet gets a two count off of a Lungblower/Shooting Star Combo. KNEE COMBO IN THE CORNER! 630 FROM RICOCHET! YUMA MAKES THE SAVE! Yikes, that was a nearfall if I ever saw one. Ricochet buys himself some time with a couple of enzuigiris on Yuma, but Goodtime hits a huge reverse Rana! Falcon Arrow from Goodtime! Backpack Cannonball from the Monsters gets them the win in 20 minutes. **** I won’t let the crowd screw up my rating here, because this match was simply tremendous from bell-to-bell. Johnny Yuma was an absolute pro at taking an ass kicking here and the Blood Warriors were even better at giving it. This was an excellent tag match wasted on a piss poor crowd.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Roderick Strong
Roddy wasn’t doing much in PWG at this point but it’s not like he was setting the world on fire anywhere else either. I have never heard of Mochizuki so we’ll see how he fares. 

They stalemate on a tie up early. Masaaki turns Strong’s chest red early with some stiff kicks. Masaaki connects with some disgusting kicks to Roddy’s knee and hits a KNEEBREAKER ON THE APRON. Now Mochizuki is just being a dick. Mochizuki catches an enzuigiri and turns it in to an ankle lock. Strong recovers and drops Masaaki with a back Suplex for a 2 count. After a trade of strikes, Roddy connects with an Olympic Slam for a 2 count and soon after hits a vicious backbreaker on the top rope. He hits his string of moves, finishing with a Tiger Driver for a close nearfall. Mochizuki fires back, putting Roddy in the second rope and hitting a massive running knee! Massaki gets two off of a superplex. That’s like, the third wrestling move he’s done all match. And that’s not a good thing. Massaki hits two stiff roundhouses and an axe kick and gets the pin after a springboard gamengiri in 12 minutes. *3/4 Masaaki relied way too much on kicks, which made this seem like a phony karate fight. Roddy didn’t hold it together in the wrestling department either and his selling SUCKED, killing any chance they had of having a decent match. The result? A terrible ‘strong style’ match.

PAC, El Generico, & Masato Yoshino vs. Kevin Steen, Super Dragon, & Akira Tozawa
Now if you’re gonna do a WrestleReunion show, this is the main event to have on it. I expect a lot of spots from all six. I hope I’m not disappointed.

Holy crap, PAC is SHREDDED. Let’s hope he’s clean when he gets to WWE. Dragon knocks PAC off the apron and Steen says, “Looks like gravity just remembered you buddy!” HAHAHA. Awesome. Dragon starts by stiffing Generico and poking him in the eye. Moe Howard would be proud. Yoshino and Steen and predictably, Steen’s fat ass can’t keep up with him. I say that affectionately. PAC and Tozawa tag in and PAC gets the upper hand. The face team cycles in and out to dive onto Tozawa’s arm. Tozawa fires up and hits two rapid fire tope suicidas onto PAC. All hell just breaks loose on the floor afterwards. El Generico hits a tornado DDT onto Super Dragon in the crowd, but eats a powerbomb on the apron from Steen. Order gets a bit restored as Generico plays Ricky Morton. Steen and Tozawa take turns biting Generico, whether it’s in the midsection or the nose. Generico eats a HUGE chop to the side of the face. Colt Cabana: “You stop that! You cannot chop a man in the side of the face!” Man, Generico is taking a shit kicking. Generico gets a second wind and hits a rope-walk tornado DDT. He tags in Masato Yoshino. Excalibur just called PAC “PAC Lesnar.” I LOVE THIS COMPANY. PAC WITH A CORKSCREW MOONSAULT! Jesus. Steen breaks up the pinfall and hits a disgusting rope hung DDT. Super Dragon comes in and eats a half-and-half Suplex from Generico! Tozawa hits a backdrop driver on Yoshino, who eats a cannonball in the corner. Generico comes in and saves Yoshino but Super Dragon HITS A SUPER BLUE THUNDER BOMB! Whoa. Super Dragon may be fat, but any fat guy who can do that is a friend of mine. TOZAWA WITH A HUGE DEADLIFT GERMAN ON PAC! NEARFALL! Tombstone on Yoshino from Super Dragon! EXPLODER IN THE CORNER FROM GENERICO! GERMAN FROM PAC ON STEEN! Everyone is down so I can catch my breath. Holy balls. Package Piledriver into a knee from Yoshino! REVERSE RANAS FOR EVERYONE! BRAINBUSTER ON TOZAWA! BRITISH AIRWAYS FROM PAC! That gives the babyface team the win in 26 minutes. ****1/4 These six ended the show in the most exciting way possible and made this apathetic crowd go nuts multiple times. The last 10 minutes were just breathtaking with insane spots and believable nearfalls. If you’re a fan of balls-to-the-wall spotfests, track this puppy down. You will not be disappointed.

The 411: Mochizuki vs. Strong sucks a big one and nearly ruins the flow of a consistently good card, but this was still a very fun show with a spectacular main event being the cherry on top. The crowd sucked, but the action in the ring was good enough to nullify it. The consistency is there enough for me to give this a healthy recommendation but if you don't get the whole show, you've got to see the main event and the RockNES/Blood Warriors match.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]