Guerrilla Reviewfare: PWG DDT4 2013

We’re finally here, 2013’s first show and El Generico’s final show. After so many years on the independent scene, it’s surreal to think that Generico is heading to the ‘E, but that shows what hard work and talent can do for you. The cherry on top is what promises to be a consistently awesome tournament. I love this promotion.

First Round Match: The Young Bucks vs. The Inner-City Machine Guns (Rich Swann & Ricochet)
Not a much better way to open the show than this, huh? So many flips…

The Bucks Pearl Harbor the Machine Guns, interrupting a lively “Inner-City” chant from the Reseda crowd. Swann and Ricochet get the upperhand with double missiles dropkicks and STEREO CORKSCREW PLANCHAS! Matt Jackson takes an ass-kicking for the time being, including a beautiful dropkick from Swann. Matt tags his brother in, and Swann nearly gets the upperhand over him until Matt blasts him with a superkick. Some guy in the crowd yells “COME ON DJANGO” to Rich Swann! HAHAHA. That’s great. Nick Jackson USES A LASER POINTER TO BLIND SWANN and hits him with it. It’s not often you can say “I’ve never seen that before” in wrestling, but this is one of those occasions. Swann gets tired of being objectified because of race and guts Matt with a kick and a Fameasser. Ricochet gets the hot tag and goes Kentucky all over everybody’s ass. Ricochet O’Connor Rolls Matt into a superkick from Swann, but Swann gets caught and SUPERKICKED TO DEATH by Matt. Ricochet plasters Nick with a roundhouse, but MATT DECKS HIM WITH A SUPERKICK! TWISTING ROUNDHOUSE FROM SWANN! SPRINGBOARD FROG SPLASH FROM MATT ONTO SWANN! NEARFALL! DOUBLE BACKWARDS SOMERSAULT CUTTER FROM SWANN! DOUBLE SSP FROM THE MACHINE GUNS! Christ almighty. Swann super ranas Matt onto Nick, and RICOCHET DIVES OVER THE RINGPOST ONTO NICK~! Swann’s Standing 450 meets knees, and Matt cradles him for the win in a wild 13 minutes. ***3/4 Talk about starting things off with a bang, jeez. I find myself enjoying Rich Swann more when he’s in a tag team, because I don’t think he’s quite there as a singles wrestler yet. The dude is young, so he has all the potential in the world. It’s a spotfest really, and I’d be willing to wager that the Bucks could probably work this in their sleep, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t great. Hell of a way to start things off.

First Round Match for the PWG World Tag Titles: Super Smash Brothers (c) vs. The Unbreakable Fucking Machines
Hey, don’t get uppity at me about swearing…that’s the team’s name, guys. Excalibur announced that the titles would be defended in every match of the tournament, so if the Machines win here, then they win the belts and have to defend it in the semifinals.

Surprisingly, Stupefied gets the upperhand during the opening lockup. He gets a little too cocky, and he gets mauled in a test of strength. Sami Callihan says “He eats babies, we know that, so why would you wanna do a test of strength with Brian Cage?” on commentary. Score one for Sami. Elgin comes in and wants a test of strength, so Stupefied knees him right in the face. Uno blind tags himself in before Elgin can murder Stupefied, and he fires off a hurricanrana of all things. Cage tags in, but the SSB chuck both he and Elgin outside for a moonsault plancha from Stupefied! Elgin gets BOTH SMASH BROTHERS UP FOR A DOUBLE ALABAMA SLAM~! Jesus. Cage gets Stupefied up and CURLS him, and just tosses him over like he was nothing. Elgin starts off a delayed Vertical CASUALLY SWITCHES off with Cage! Christ Almighty. Elgin drops Stupefied for a 2 count after another switcheroo, and Stupefied takes advantage of some down time and nails a double moonsault kick on the Machines! Uno tags in and DIVES OUT WITH A TOPE SUICIDA! Stupefied picks up Cage and drops him with a backbreaker! Uno apparently separates his shoulder and tries to get a fan to pop it back into place, but no dice. Elgin comes in to save Cage from some trouble, but Stupefied drops him in the corner and a badly hurt Player Uno helps with the Get Over Here Exploder! Uno can’t get the strength for Fatality, so Elgin finishes Stupefied with an Elgin Bomb to win the tag titles and advance in 14 minutes. ***1/4 Wholly entertaining match and all, but this match died 1,000 deaths after Uno messed up his shoulder. God bless him, he tried to do something with it, but it was gone. Everything leading up to it was really good though and even if Stupefied is a bit small, it’s still awesome to see both Elgin and Cage throw him around like the babies that Brian Cage (allegedly) eats. Good stuff.

First Round Match: Dojo Bros. vs. Future Shock
All of these guys have tangled at one time or another and all of their respective matches were pretty great, so this combination ought to produce something awesome.

Cole gives Roddy a clean break, but earns a BLISTERING chop with a “SUCK MY DICK RODDY”. Cole comes back in after running away, and undoes his tights to make Roddy suck his dick, but Roddy CHOPS HIM IN THE DICK. Kyle comes in, but Cole calls a timeout and yells at Roddy for what he just did. A wrestling match threatens to break out between Kyle O’Reilly and Eddie Edwards, and it resumes after Cole refuses to tag in. After a few moments, Cole decides to tag in but like an old pro, he’s still selling his dick. Cole tags out after a scare with Roddy, and Future Shock finally starts to build up a stream of momentum with a couple of double teams. Strong catches O’Reilly with a backbreaker, and Eddie comes in to clean house. This match is a bit dull so far, sans the dick chopping. Eddie gets a nearfall on a backpack chinbreaker. Cole superkicks Roddy on the apron and nearly wins the match with a partner-assisted German, but no dice. Roddy dodges Total Elimination and knees O’Reilly’s face off, and Eddie DESTROYS Cole with a lariat off of a Strong gutbuster. Cole counters out of a brainbuster, and drops Roddy limp with a roundhouse/knee brainbuster. Total Elimination connects, but Eddie breaks up the pinfall. Cole enzi’s Eddie out of the ring and follows up with a Tope Suicida! He comes back into an Orange Crush Backbreaker from Roddy and a Double Stomp from Eddie! O’Reilly breaks up the pinfall! KAMIKAZE SUPLEX TO O’REILLY FROM EDDIE EDWARDS! Cole hits Roderick Strong with the belt and picks up the win in 18 minutes. ***1/2 I’m sure glad that this picked up towards the end, because everything before (that didn’t have to do with dick chopping, I might add) that was really disappointing. It seemed disjointed and off to me, plus the crowd was a little quieter than I thought they would be. Everything in the last 5 minutes or so was awesome, and proof that not everything has to be so batshit insane that it ruins the crowd.

First Round Match: The Briscoe Brothers vs. Kevin Steen and El Generico
Well talk about coming full circle, huh? Hard to believe that the Briscoes pretty much made Steen and Generico six years ago in ROH and now they’re wrestling one of El Generico’s last matches on the independent scene. I hope the Briscoes get more than 10 minutes to show their stuff too, because they haven’t gotten a chance to really kill it in a match in forever. Thank God Super Dragon got Generico back on the show too.

Steen wants nothing to do with Generico, hardly even looking at him. Steen shoves Generico out of the ring because he wants to go first. Gotta love him. Jay and Steen don’t do much to start things off, so Generico and Mark come in, and a Redneck kung-fu pose scares the shit out of the Generic Luchador. Mark dodges a leg sweep and nails a Froggy Bow after an uneventful tag to his older brother. Generico shoves Steen out of the way of trouble, which allows Steen to begrudgingly legdrop Jay in the back of the head. The reluctant teamwork costs Steenerico as Jay gets loose and tags his brother in for some Redneck Kung-Fu and a pair of head-drop Exploders! A Razor’s Edge/Neckbreaker gets a nearfall for the Briscoes, and Generico responds with a Tiger Suplex ’85 for 2. Jay can’t get Steen up for a Jay Driller, and he nearly makes Generico crack Steen with a Yakuza Kick. Generico counters a Doomsday Device by Victory Rolling Jay and getting a surprise pin in…11 minutes. Grrr. *** That was pretty much the first 11 minutes of a classic 25 minute tag match. I didn’t want them to go 25 because this crowd doesn’t need to be burnt out, but I was a little bummed by how short the Briscoes’ (few) matches are in PWG. I’m not quite sure PWG gets their money’s worth by flying a high-profile tag team out from all the way across the country and paying them to work an 11 minute match, but I’m not Super Dragon and my opinion ultimately doesn’t matter. If you take away my disappointment, this was still a super fun match and if I want to see these guys tear the house down, I’ll watch some of their 2007 feud. It accomplished what it needed to.

Quarterfinal Match for the PWG World Tag Titles: The Unbreakable Fucking Machines (c) vs. The Young Bucks
This dynamic ought to rule something fierce.

Nick takes the brunt of the ass-kicking in the early-going, but the Machines don’t spare his younger brother either as Nick takes a backbreaker/elbow from the Champs. Matt comes in and manages to get an upperhand on Cage for a bit by working on his leg. Matt spits in Michael Elgin’s face, and I have no doubt that that’ll bite him in the ass later. Elgin finally tags in and cleans house, dropping both Bucks with a Samoan Drop and a Last Call! Cage drops Matt with an Argentine Neckbreaker, and Elgin comes down with a corkscrew senton! Nick plants Cage down with a slingshot X-Factor, but Elgin catches a moonsault and rams him into the ringpost! Cage tries to keep up the momentum with an Electric Chair Drop, but he falls to corkscrew cutter from Matt. Elgin eats Nick’s foot after Matt counters a Buckle Bomb, but Cage runs through a double superkick and destroys them with a lariat! DOUBLE BACKDROP DRIVER FROM ELGIN! AIR RAID CRASH ON MATT! That gets a nearfall. Cage looks for a Fucking Machine suplex, but Nick low blows him and stops that in its tracks. The Machines hit STEREO DEADLIFT GERMAN SUPLEXES! STEREO SUPERPLEXES! STEREO NEARFALLS! Elgin plasters Matt with a backfist and looks for a Buckle Bomb, but Nick ROLLS ELGIN UP and the Young Bucks win the tag titles and a spot in the finals in 17 minutes. ***1/2 They wrestled about as good a match as they could if the Bucks were going to be saved up for the finals. The leg work on Brian Cage went nowhere in terms of how it affected anything in the match, but kudos to Cage for selling it the whole way through. TNA really screwed up when they picked that hack Jay Bradley over him, but oh well. The Bucks looked like they were going through the motions and this was a noticeable downgrade from the opener, but the Machines held up their end and more, which put this one over the top for me. This tournament hasn’t lived up to the hype for me, though. Maybe my standards are too high.

Quarterfinal Match: Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Future Shock
After a phenomenal match between Adam Cole and Kevin Steen at Mystery Vortex, I expect this to at least be heated in that regard. We all know what this tournament is building up to though.

Steen immediately heads after the World Champ, and crotches him on the ringpost outside. Order is somewhat restored in the ring as Steen happily bites Adam Cole in the face. Cole eventually gets himself out of trouble and tags in O’Reilly, who threatens to get sleazy but misses a kneedrop. Cole tags in and sings El Generico’s theme song, with modified lyrics hinting that Generico may be homosexual. Steen nearly tags Generico in, but O’Reilly sweeps him off. Steen headbutts Cole in his dick, and here comes Generico! Generico takes O’Reilly down with a Blue Thunder Bomb after Steen decimates Cole with a powerbomb on the apron! O’Reilly plants Generico on his head with a backdrop driver, but only gets a two count. O’Reilly catches a Yakuza Kick and hits a double team lungblower with Cole! Cole follows up with a wheelbarrow backbreaker! Steen dives in for a last second save. Cole hits Generico with a superkick, but STEEN HITS ONE ON HIM! CANNONBALL ON O’REILLY! PACKAGE PILEDRIVER…BRAINBUSTER! Kevin Steen and El Generico move onto the finals in 9 minutes. ***1/2 Weirdly, the second best match of the show is the shortest as well. This was basically non-stop action and the dynamic between Kevin Steen and Adam Cole carried any kind of slow spot (as short and far between as they were) that the two teams had. Steen and Generico also had an amazing dynamic, but when you’ve been nearly attached at the hip for 8 and 1/2 years, you have great chemistry in your sleep. This was fantastic stuff for 9 minutes, and now we have a Steenerico vs. Young Bucks final…

B-Boy vs. Willie Mack
This is here to break the monotony of the tag matches, and it should be good for some mindless entertainment. I don’t think I like Willie Mack’s blonde hair yet, though.

Willie wastes no time in getting things going, but B-Boy weathers the early storm and hits an STO on the apron. He teases throwing Willie into the first row, but instead he flips the crowd off and rolls Mack back into the ring to boos. Willie catches B-Boy in the temple with a forearm, and this crowd could not care any less right now. Mack continues his stream of momentum with a combination of suplex, but when he looks for a tope suicida to top it all off, B-Boy BRAINS Willie with a chair to the face. Mack wades through that and takes B-Boy down with a Samoan Drop, but B-Boy comes right back with a diving DDT for a nearfall. B-Boy looks for a Shining Wizard, but Mack counters into a reverse STO for 2. B-Boy’s not too fazed, because he SWEEPS MACK ON HIS FUCKING HEAD IN THE CORNER~! JESUS CHRIST ON A CRUTCH. That’s just B-Boy being a dick. B-Boy’s Face Eraser earns a no-sell from Mack, who still falls to a lariat after B-Boy dodges a slingshot dropkick in the corner. They get up to their knees and eventually their feet as they trade elbows, but Willie comes out on top after he counters a Roaring Elbow into a Chocolate Thunder Bomb for the three count in 9 minutes. **3/4 How Willie Mack’s neck is even intact is beyond me. This was a pretty solid match, but unspectacular is the best word to generalize this when Willie Mack wasn’t being murdered. It’s a 9 minute exhibition when it comes down to it, something we’ve seen before from both of these men countless times.

Knockout or Submission Only: Sami Callihan vs. Drake Younger
There are going to be a lot of unnecessary bumps in this match, but it wouldn’t be a Drake Younger match without them. The Knockout is basically Last Man Standing or a basic UFC stoppage I would imagine. This is the second match of a best of three series, and Sami is up 1-0.

Sami sends Drake staggering with a headbutt before the bell rings, and he follows up with two Sid-esque powerbombs. Heat Seeking Missile scores for Callihan, and he follows that up with a powerbomb onto the ringpost. Drake’s like no bitch and drops Sami with a Michinoku Driver on the apron. Drake makes Terminator Hands Man flinch by nearly falling off of the ring apron. HA. They go up to the stage, where Drake decides he wants to talk about how sunny California is…Sami makes him pay WITH A DEATH VALLEY DRIVER OFF THE STAGE ONTO THE CHAIRS~! Drake gets up at 9 and throws a few chairs in, BRAINING Sami with them. Thank Jesus they’re plastic. Drake sends Sami through a chair with a backbreaker! Drake sets a chair on it’s side, and the “Oh shit” gasps echo through the American Legion. Drake slams Sami on it and goes up top, but throws him down onto it! Sami wraps Drake’s leg in a chair AND PILLMANIZES HIM WITH ANOTHER ONE! Younger breaks it up with more chair shots. I repeat, thank Jesus these are plastic because they’re just swinging with reckless abandon. Drake now sets a chair unfolded on its front, but SAMI MURDERS HIM WITH AN EXPLODER THROUGH IT! This is mindless violence, but I goddamn love it. Callihan goes back to the leg with a Stretch Muffler, but Drake counters into a chair assisted crossface thing. Drake goes out and gets a traffic cone, and ATOMIC DROPS SAMI ON IT! Sami powers out of a Camel Clutch and drops him onto a pile of chairs! Sami tells Drake to quit, but gets a middle finger, and that EARNS DRAKE A BRAINING WITH A CHAIR! Too bad, ’cause Drake Younger doesn’t give a FUCK. HEADBUTT FROM DRAKE! REPEATED ELBOWS! SAMI IS OUT! Drake Younger ties the series up in 16 minutes. **** I have no rational justification as to why, but I loved this. Not a lot of purists will enjoy this and it’s understandable so have your opinion. But come on, you’ve got to at least get some kind of perverse entertainment out of this. The unprotected chair shots were a bit over the top, but it’s not like cheap plastic is going to end a dude’s wrestling career. Surprisingly, Drake actually sold his bad leg for a lot of the match, but I wasn’t looking for psychology here. I was looking for two fearless wrestlers to leave it all in the ring (and outside of it), and I got it in spades. In my opinion, Drake Younger has only had one match under four stars in PWG thus far, which is insane. He’s not the most technically savvy guy in the world, but damn is he entertaining.

DDT4 2013 Finals for the PWG World Tag Titles: The Young Bucks (c) vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico
The whole tournament was building up to this, and everything comes full circle again. The Young Bucks beat Steenerico in the match that lead to Kevin Steen turning on El Generico, a rivalry that still hasn’t subsided over three years later. These four also had one of PWG’s best matches on Night 2 of the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles, and it really was a classic. This promises to be the best match of the night, if three years ago had anything to say about it.

The Bucks immediately jump both Steen and Generico, and it’s a Pier Six brawl already. Generico hits Matt with a woman’s purse in a chair, while ref Justin Borden is focused on trying to get Steen and Nick back into the ring. Steen crotches both Bucks on the ringpost, which allows for Generico to hit Nick with a chair. Nick slides into the ring while his brother is bludgeoned with a chair, and bides his time until he can dive off with a crossbody to both Steen and Generico. Generico and Nick stay in the ring, where Generico is dropped by three knee lifts in the corner. Order is finally achieved, and it starts with Generico playing Ricardo Morton. See what I did there? I kill me. Generico fights back for all he’s worth, but he can’t get to Steen no matter how hard he tries. Generico Exploder suplexes Matt into the corner, and he gets to Steen! Mr. Wrestling cleans house, and GENERICO DIVES OVER NICK ONTO MATT WITH A SOMERSAULT PLANCHA! Steen looks for some kind of top rope move on Nick, but Nick bites him in the face to send him down. Generico hops up and looks for a Turnbuckle Brainbuster, but Matt knocks him down. Matt tries for a missile dropkick on Steen, but Steen blocks it and he and Generico lock in double sharpshooters! FOUR SUPERKICKS ON STEEN! Generico catches a fourth from Nick, but TAKES EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S! NEARFALL! ONE MORE! ANOTHER NEARFALL! Nick dives onto Steen with a somersault plancha, and THE BUCKS HIT MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK! NEARFALL~! THEY SUPERKICK JUSTIN BORDEN! The Bucks corner Kevin Steen, who hawks a loogey in Nick’s face. YAKUZA KICK FROM GENERICO~! TURNBUCKLE BRAINBUSTER ON NICK! COVER…RICK KNOX COUNTS! MATT PULLS HIM OUT! KNOX SUPERKICKS HIM!~! ONE, TWO, THR–NO!! PACKAGE PILEDRIVER ON MATT….INTO A SMALL PACKAGE ON GENERICO! THE BUCKS STEAL IT! The Young Bucks retain their titles and win their third DDT4 in 18 minutes. ****1/4 Yeah, this was the best match of the night and probably my favorite match of 2013 so far. The Bucks looked for their barrage of superkicks to finish both Steen and Generico–paralleling their past matches–but even that didn’t work. They went to More Bang For Your Buck, but they couldn’t put Generico away with that either. The last 5-7 minutes were absolute gold and it’s the best way for Generico to go out. So what if he lost? He wrestled a low-end MOTYC on the way out and just lived up to the hype that he’s one of the best around. The Bucks are tag champs again, but who cares? This is a match that’s going to stay with me for a long time. It’s exciting, emotional, and it makes sense. Rick Knox almost saving the day, only to have to count Generico’s shoulders down was just the icing on an already fantastic cake. What a match.

Post Match: Generico and Steen are left in the ring with Knox, and Generico extends his hand to his former partner. Steen fakes him out, but comes back in and THEY EMBRACE~! The crowd goes batshit crazy, as Steen takes the mic and says that he would be nothing without Generico. He even goes out of the ring and slaps the mat as humanly hard as he can to celebrate who could be the best wrestler in the world. The locker room comes out and they all take turns thanking El Generico as the Briscoes put him on their shoulders. One of the biggest OLE! chants ever starts up as Generico noticeably starts crying. Generico takes the mic and says that the crowd deserves the truth….his name is El Generico, and he was born in Tijuana, Mexico. He has to go back to Mexico to take care of his orphans. He names off all of the orphans he has to care for, but he can’t remember some of the names. He’s super hard to understand, but he does clearly say “Wherever I go, this has been the best time of my life. This place is number one.” He says that they were his family and he gets a standing ovation and a huge ‘Thank You’ chant. “If worst comes to worst, and the plane crashes, I’ll come back.” That was probably my favorite farewell of all time. Thank you Generico. We’ll see you on the other side, amigo. Thanks for so many years of entertainment on the indy scene, but now you can show everyone else what makes you such a one-of-a-kind talent.

The 411: This show is an easy watch. You're not burnt out by the end and there aren't any actively bad matches present. However, compared to the DDT4's of 2009, 2011, and 2012, I can't help but be really disappointed by the final product. I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking, but you've got to understand just how high the expectations are for PWG nowadays. El Generico's final appearances (and The Young Bucks, I must say) carried this show and really made it fun, but it doesn't really plateau as much as Mystery Vortex did. This might have been one of those shows that you can only get the full feel of live, and since I don't live in California, I'm S.O.L. As a show, this is a fun, consistent watch, but as a PWG show, it's a little underwhelming. I need to lower my standards.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]