Dark Pegasus Video Review: Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla: Bad-Ass Mother 3000 (Stage Two)

PWG: Bad Ass Mother 3000 (Stage Two) by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 The tournament to crown a champion continues. August 30, 2003 From City of Industry, Calif. Opening Match, PWG Title Tournament, Quarterfinals: Frankie Kazarian vs. B-BoyLil Cholo. B-Boy is a scratch, so Lil Cholo replaces him in the tournament. Cholo actually provides a better matchup for Kazarian anyway, going toe-to-toe with his quick maneuvers. Kazarian catches him with a chinlock drop. Cholo fights out of the Wave of the Future and the katahajime. His sloppy flying headscissors nearly breaks his neck, though. He fights out of a second katahajime, but a third try gets the submission at 5:39. The time keeper jumped the gun quite a bit on the submission. Cholo gave it a good run, hitting several spots before Kazarian finally woke up and finished it off. It was just a squash, though. *1/2 PWG Title Tournament, Quarterfinals: Christopher Daniels vs. Nosawa (w/Paul T.). So I guess Paul T. is Nosawa’s regular manager. Nosawa acts like a putz, so Daniels jumps him at the bell. Fast start as Nosawa goes all Baby Muta on him with a dropkick to the knee and the Shining Wizard. Yeah, but Muta builds up *to* that, not from it. Nosawa actually delivers Daniels an ass-kicking, and he does it with actual kicks – something he’s good at! He runs right into an STO, though. Daniels Blue Thunder Bomb gets two. He mistimes a leapfrog, though, and Nosawa hits him with the Michinoku Driver! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Nosawa goes for the Shining Wizard, but Daniels blocks it. Nosawa backdrops out of Angel’s Wings and calls for the Octopus for the win. Daniels backdrops out of that, though, and hits Angel’s Wings for the win at 6:54. Not a bad match since Nosawa stuck to what he knew and they kept it short. **1/2 PWG Title Tournament, Quarterfinals: Joey Ryan vs. Adam Pearce (w/C. Edward Vander Pyle). These two would go on to become NWA stablemates in the latter half of the decade. The fans actually make Pearce break character with their heckling. Pearce goes total Southern heel, haphazardly running into Ryan’s offense, complaining about hair-pulling, and faking an injury. Joey backs off and gets hit with an enzuigiri to turn the tide. Pearce locks in the figure-four. Joey pulls to the ropes and hits his own enzuigiri. I guess the upper hand is on the other foot! Joey gets two off a powerslam but runs right into a spinebuster. Pearce is like all Four Horsemen in one. They fight on the top rope, and Joey counters to a huracanrana (landing on his head). SUPERKICK! ONE, TWO, THR-Vander Pyle pulls the ref out. Remember the days when that was a DQ? Joey goes for a flying forearm but takes the ref out by accident. Vander Pyle tosses Pearce’s other belt in the ring, but it backfires. Vander Pyle eats a superkick from Ryan. Pearce tries his own, but it hits the ref. Ryan nails Pearce with the belt as a new ref comes in, and that’s all she wrote as Joey gets the pin at 12:31. I was not much familiar with Ryan’s babyface work prior to starting these shows. He’s actually quite adept at playing both roles. Good finish to the match too. ***1/4 After the match, Pearce claims his foot was on the bottom rope. He wants a rematch. PWG Title Tournament, Quarterfinals: Colt Cabana vs. Super Dragon. Dragon picks a fight with a fan. Random guy? Blood enemy? Who knows with Dragon. Colt gets the fans on his side early but then goes full heel when the bell rings, attacking Dragon from behind. Dragon fights back on the floor. Back in, Colt gets pissed at the ref for not counting a rollup fast enough. Colt with the sleeper, and he tries to sing Dragon to sleep. Dragon sends him to the floor and follows with a rolling suicida. Don’t see the rolling version through the ropes as much anymore. Back in again, Colt slips out of an inverted facelock and hits the Hog Log for two. He makes the mistake of calling out his next more, and Dragon is able to block. Dragon jumps right into Colt’s arms and gets slammed for two. He slips out of the Colt. 45, though, and lariats Cabana down. Fans call for the Psycho Driver, but Dragon goes up instead. Colt catches him, and they fight, but Dragon shoves him off. Springboard spinning wheel kick gets two for Dragon, and the Dragon Suplex finally sends Colt packing at 13:14. I’m not a big fan of this Colt as he seems to so desperately want to play to the crowd, and yet he has to be the heel. It just doesn’t work. Dragon was more reactive during the match, but he worked in much of his moveset. It works for me. **3/4 Hardkore Kidd comes out – in his mask. He objects to being put into a match with the other losers of the first round. He rips “Commissioner Paul Teabagger” for making the match. Well, there’s no reason to bring his politics into this. Kidd explains that he thought last night’s match would be under lucha rules – 2/3 falls. Frustrated, he says he wants someone who doesn’t come up to his belly button. He gets Hook Bomberry instead. Al Katrazz and Apollo Khan run in, so we get. Hardkore Kidd & Al Katrazz vs. Hook Bomberry & Apollo Khan. And the crowd goes mild. Lots of headlocks. Hook tries to liven things up with a dropkick before… going back to the headlock. Kidd crotches him on the top rope, though. Hook plays face-in-peril as the match just bogs down even more than it was. Khan gets the hot tag after what seems like an eternity of chinlocks and headlocks. Khan cleans house, and the little guys hit the Midnight’s old high/low. Stereo submissions, but Adam Pearce runs in, piledrives Apollo, and puts Kidd on top at 11:49. Brutally boring. Hook’s effort slightly redeemed it, but not much. 3/4* PWG Title Tournament, Semifinals: Frankie Kazarian vs. Christopher Daniels. This will depend on what kind of mood Daniels is in. If he just wants to cash a paycheck, this could be brutal. Lots of mat wrestling to start before Kazarian plays the “cool” card with the crowd. Daniels tries to outdo him with a series of suplexes to play to the adoring fans. Kazarian fights out of a cravat but gets clotheslined. I’m begging for this match to start telling some kind of story, but here Daniels is just some bald dude as opposed to Ring of Honor where he was allowed to be the lynchpin heel. Kazarian comes back with a running bicycle kick to turn the tide. He catches Daniels with a Crucifix Ocean Cyclone Suplex for two, but Daniels goes to the eyes and drags him down into the Koji Clutch. BEST. MOONSAULT. EVER! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Kazarian slips out of the Angel’s Wings and counters to the katahajime. Daniels SWEEPS THE LEG to get out of it, but Kazarian catches him with the Wave of the Future at 13:51. Picked up near the end after they got into the idea of having a match rather than a collection of moves. **3/4 PWG Title Tournament, Semifinals: Joey Ryan vs. Super Dragon. Dragon gives Joey no respect and slaps away his handshake offer. Ryan takes him to the mat and winds up in the guard position. Dragon slaps him around and backs off. Back to the mat, Joey slips out of a cross armlock and counters to a keylock. This leads to rolling around on the mat in lieu of actual counters. It looks more like two kids scuffling on a playground. Joey makes the ropes. The rope is base! The rope is base! Dragon locks in a leg-scissor Full Nelson and then a side leglock. Dude. Consistency. Joey Kidmans out of a powerbomb attempt and awkwardly pump-handle slams Dragon into the the turnbuckle. Joey with ROLLING GERMANS into a Northern Lights. That gets two. Dragon knocks Ryan back and hits him with a senton. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Dragon’s crawl to the pin was a sad attempt at epicness. In fact, I could say that about the whole match. It’s not like they’re not trying, but with no real storyline developing, there isn’t much of a journey for the fans – hence their snarky commentary from the fringes. On the plus side, the wrestlers are willing to die for our entertainment as proven by Joey Ryan blocking something off the top and hitting a swinging neckbreaker from the top rope to the floor! Back in, that’s enough to get the win at 22:05. This had a lot of cool moves, but I just couldn’t get into it beyond admiring it as a series of moves. They were good moves. I’ll give them that. **3/4 Scorpio Sky, Disco Machine & M-Dogg 20 vs. TARO, Scott Lost & Tony Kozina. Before the match, Scorpio claims that TARO is a cheater because he has an impregnable button on the front of his costume. TARO grabs the rulebook and finds a passage that says otherwise. It’s just like Leviticus! Sky attacks, but TARO defends himself with the mighty, mighty button. Many armdrags and flips ensue. In the case of Matt Cross, they happen at the same time. Disco nearly breaks TARO’s neck on a powerslam into the turnbuckle. Fans are really into TARO. Lost plays face-in-peril for a while. Waaaaaaay telegraphed trainwreck series. In fact, the five-minute stretch after Lost gets the hot tag is amateurish beyond belief. Lost redeems it a bit with a sick corner superkick. Finishers abound, and Kozina drops Disco with an Ocean Cyclone Suplex. Lost adds an elbow off the top, and Lost, TARO & Kozina pick up the win at 16:10. Horribly contrived spots. It was one step up from Tough Enough. Lost and Kozina looked good, though. ** Vacant PWG Heavyweight Title: Frankie Kazarian vs. Joey Ryan. Joey comes in with taped ribs, but Frankie is a hell of a guy, so he just tries to wrestle straight up. Joey suplexes him from the ring to the floor. Back in, Kazarian has had enough and spears Joey in the ribs. That sets up kicks to the back and the football sled shoulders in the corner. The crowd is really (ironically) getting on Kazarian for his work on the ribs. Kazarian drops Joey with an Electric Chair Drop for two. Ryan isn’t putting up much of a defense. Kazarian hits a corner dropkick for two. Ryan finally wakes up and blocks the Flux Capacitor. That sets up a sunset bomb. ROLLING GERMANS! Kazarian counters to the katahajime, but Ryan Bret-counters up the ropes for two. Ryan blocks the Wave of the Future and hits a superkick. Kazarian blocks a pump-handle… something and hits the Wave of the Future for two. Nice leaping thrust kick from Kazarian, and an even nicer counter from the tree-of-woe into an Ace Crusher. Joey dropkicks Kazarian out of the air off a springboard attempt, but Kazarian takes him up top and hits a sloppy Flux Capacitor for the win at 11:40. The fans’ narcissism really hurt this match as their cheering was mostly ironic. The match itself was pretty good, and it would probably be better had they booked a better tournament. ***

The 411: As much as WrestleMania IV is mocked for its length and bad booking decisions, at least it has a story. This just felt thrown together with a bunch of matches placed in front of a foregone conclusion. The fans didn't do the show any favors either. Thumbs down.
Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]