Guerrilla Reviewfare: PWG Mystery Vortex 7

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It’s been a very long time since I reviewed PWG. It’s hard to say what made me stop, but I know there are a few reasons why the product hasn’t appealed as much to me. One, and it’s quite dumb, but part of me felt like something in PWG died when it left the American Legion. It’s no fault of PWG’s since they were all but forced out of their longtime home, but the place had so much history and charm attached to it. Moving the show to a swank concert venue in LA is perhaps the only time in independent wrestling where improving the show for everyone involved felt like a step backwards. Sure, you had air conditioning, better lighting, and a building that wasn’t falling apart. But fuck, the Globe Theatre wasn’t where Jushin Liger put his thumb in a guy’s ass, was it?

And from the many times I’ve attempted to resurrect the reviews, I’ve just noticed that I didn’t enjoy the wrestling as much. Many of the wrestlers brought in by PWG didn’t do much for me and if we’re being honest, I don’t have much interest in watching wrestling I don’t like. It’s not like any of it was terrible, but I have a hilarious tendency to be apathetic about just about everything. I mean, I don’t get paid to do any of this, ya know? Why annoy myself in my own home?

But this felt like a good place to – at least attempt to – dive back into the promotion that formed so much of my wrestling fandom over the last decade. This show takes place nearly two years after PWG’s latest offering The Makings of a Varsity Athlete, where Bandido finally slayed the dragon and won the PWG World Title from longtime champ Jeff Cobb. However, before he could defend his title at the ill-fated KOBE event, the world decided to be a little silly and ruin everyone’s lives for 18 months. Not much better is PWG’s tag champs The Rascalz heading to WWE during the pandemic hiatus, leaving the dormant PWG without two of their top guys when they returned.

Beyond just PWG’s vaccuum, wrestling has completely changed. AEW has managed to shift itself into a competitive #2 company. WWE has begun imploding in on itself like a dying star, but way less beautiful. The indies – which were already in bad form thanks to WWE’s talent hoarding – were decimated by the pandemic and the Speaking Out movement that happened during it. Heck, one of PWG’s founders was outed in that movement, making some of those 2011-2012 locals matches a lot weirder than they were at the time. Not to mention, one of their uppercard fixtures in David Starr was the Einstein that seemed to kick it all off with his insane Vince Russo shades of grey justification about literal SA.

But with all that said, you have to go into this new “era” of PWG’s existence with hope. WWE has regressed to 2004 in how it looks at talent, meaning upwards of 80 people as of this writing have been released from their WWE deals. It’s undoubtedly a callous and horrible way to treat talent you spent so long trying to hoard to hold onto a monopoly no one wanted, but you can’t deny it’s a boon for the fledgling independent scene. I mean, even if you take out the releases, it can’t be said how much of a relief it has to be for Super Dragon to be able to pick from the AEW roster to fill out his shows. That alone makes PWG’s shows much more appealing. Then you add on released stalwarts like Keith Lee (who had one of the best runs in PWG history), Jonah Rock, Lio Rush, Biff Busick, and Malakai Black; there’s endless prospects for a company that I was burning out on when it came to talent.

It’s not like we’d know who actually would show up in this return, considering PWG did the most… well, PWG thing ever and decided to return from an 18 month hiatus with a Mystery Vortex show. It’s held some of the best shows in PWG history like the inaugural event, some of the best surprise debuts like its 2014 follow-up, and it’s hard to think PWG wouldn’t want to return with a bang with its 7th edition of the show. So to keep true to the bit, I won’t even go down the card! I’m actually quite excited though, so hopefully I can actually do a regular series again.

Jack Cartwheel vs. Tony Deppen
If there was ever a match you would commission to start a Pro Wrestling Guerrilla event, this one would be it shot-for-shot. It had all the needed trademarks to fit right in with the style, and there were things it did even better than a lot of matches this style do. While I can hardly sit here and tell you that this was some psychological epic, I can say that they worked the opening minutes of this match with a surprising nuance. Jack Cartwheel has the most on-the-nose stage name perhaps in wrestling history, and Tony Deppen made sure to scout that and keep it at bay. Jack’s fluid, gymnastics-esque style really played a good foil, but there were times when Deppen had him figured out immediately and used it to his advantage. That story didn’t engulf the match, but I appreciate the effort and execution either way.

From there, it devolved into quite the tremendous little match. From almost moment one, it was clear the kind of great athlete Jack Cartwheel really is. Yeah, the dude’s name is his thing, but I was pleasantly surprised with how polished his overall game is. The way he adds these special flourishes to dives that you’d otherwise see a million times on any given indy show. How he uses said cartwheels to actually act as a method of footwork and movement. He’s really one of the more unique guys to come down the pike of this “uber-athlete” indy guys, and I think he has quite the shelf life if he continues to improve on what’s already an interesting foundation. Tony Deppen’s ability to play off of that foundation and keep the match grounded only drove this match to higher heights, and it made for a great way to re-enter the PWG world. ***1/2

JD Drake vs. Brody King
This one isn’t going to win any Match of the Year awards, but if you looked at the billing and imagined what a match between these two would look like for 10 minutes, it’s exactly what ran through your head. JD Drake is one of those guys in AEW that unfortunately hasn’t gotten much of a spotlight, but if you see him in places like PWG and EVOLVE, you immediately understand his charm. He’s not going to do any corkscrew moonsaults, but he is going to give you a rock solid fight. He has a great sense of timing, and he uses that Steen-esque physique to really put some gravitas behind his work.

Brody King is Brody King and I shouldn’t have to give much of an introduction for a guy that should be making a zillion dollars somewhere. I’ve straight up never seen the guy have a bad match, and as much of a bummer it is to see what’s happening to ROH, it hopefully means he lands a hell of a deal with someone outside of it. His music rules too, for what it’s worth. I loved how he and JD started to lockup, but they just decided “fuck it” and beat each other up for a hilariously long time. They even had a super entertaining crowd brawling segment, something I will not say very often. But that’s the kind of match you were looking for out of these guys, and it worked like a charm. They didn’t overstay their welcome, worked to their strengths, and went home when they needed to. It just so helps that it was a really fun match, if not completely alien to the one that came before it. But that’s PWG’s charm, isn’t it? ***1/2

Arez vs. Demonic Flamita
God bless Arez, but I don’t imagine many PWG bookings in the near future for him. I actually thought he made a decent first impression, though. He looks kind of like Rey Fenix got his tattoos in a kitchen and couldn’t afford the mask after, but he actually looked pretty neat aesthetically. It felt grungy, but not in a sleazy indy kind of way. I even thought he looked swell during the opening stanza, with some really innovative rope work and a distinctive style. But then it came time for Arez to do real moves and put a coherent match together, and the guy was trying to write checks his feet couldn’t cash. It’s not that he was rotten or even bad, but his rope-intensive repertoire fell flat on its face here and at points, it’s a miracle that Arez himself managed not to.

If you’re an older ROH fan, you might remember the period when Chris Hero’s character consisted of nothing but flipping around and being a goober. It was pretty good stuff, especially with Larry Sweeney in tow. You’d think that might work in PWG, but the unfortunate asterisk to put on it is that Arez was doing it without a shred of irony. There was a sequence in the corner where he did this, and it looked like a Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 Create-a-Finisher, but made when the person doing it was three edibles in. I’m not the biggest fan of Flamita as a singles guy, but it was clear we had two very different classes of worker in the ring here. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of ambition or effort, and Arez has enough tools to suggest that he may still end up being solid, but he didn’t quite have the juice for that here. **

Jonathan Gresham vs. Lee Moriarty
One thing you can usually count on when watching Jonathan Gresham wrestle is that you aren’t going to see a match like it for the rest of the show. One thing you can also count on is that Jonathan Gresham will likely wrestle the best match of the night, just as he has in just about every PWG appearance I’ve seen him make. He’s one of those guys that won’t surprise you in terms of how he approaches a match, but that doesn’t mean he gets stale or formulaic. Gresham works his unique style with such flair and conviction that there’s never a dull moment, and when the action speeds up, it’s always done with such intelligence and thought that you feel rewarded for sticking with the action.

Another on the long list of specialties Gresham has is making his size a complete non-entity. It’s not a secret that the dude is shorter than your average cat, but it makes no difference. You never watch him and think “wow, this seems a little weird.” He has honed in on a style that not only makes sense for him, but completely takes his stature out of the question if “suspending disbelief” is a problem for you. He is a fabulous technical wrestler and no matter what you look like, he’s going to inflict pain on you because he does it just as well as anyone does anything. A Muggsy Bogues of wrestling in some ways, relying on explosivity and technique, and ultimately succeeding with earnest. It’s likely old hat to see Gresham compared to Zack Sabre Jr., but a side-by-side I don’t see enough is how incredible they are at taking size out of the equation while maintaining logic and credibility the entire way through.

None of this is to take away from the equally great performance from the debuting Lee Moriarty; it was just a different kind of performance. He was relegated to selling almost the whole way through, which can drown lesser workers if their game is solely reliant on explosive offense. Some guys can only get over if they get their shit in, which is hardly a knock, because PWG is the correct environment for that. But Moriarty sold with such aplomb that he not only made Jonathan Gresham look like a total badass, but he made himself look like one in a completely different manner. And I’m not talking just about how many times he held his arm and grimaced. I’m talking about how expertly timed the comebacks were, where he’d give you just enough fire to remember he’s a fighter too, only for the superior grappler to continue torturing him. He was more than happy to strike with Gresham and attack his arm too, and while he got far there, he just didn’t have the leg up enough to make it work. He got beaten thoroughly in a lot of ways, but he did not look weak or lesser for it. That’s what great selling can do for someone, and Lee Moriarty was clearly aware of it.

If I had to nitpick – and I have to, because I could obviously wrestle this match with my eyes closed – I’d say that the match went a little long, as it’s difficult in many instances for a match to go 24 minutes in PWG and thrive because of it. I think they made it work in spite of the length, but in the bigger picture I think you could have had something legitimately special with a few minutes shaved off. The crowd likely would have been a little bit more into the finishing stretch if that was the case, but as I said, it’s a nitpick and a pretty small one. Overall, you really cannot ask for much more in your technical wrestling, and again Jonathan Gresham shows his immense psychological acumen. It just helps that Lee Moriarty was a perfect foil for it, and it’s pretty clear why AEW picked him up. ****

The Lil Rascalz (Myron Reed & Trey Miguel) vs. Aramis & Rey Horus
If there was a poster for “generic independent wrestling in 2021”, I’m afraid to say this match would be one of my first submissions for it. To be clear, it’s not because these guys aren’t talented or good at their jobs. I think they all have definite appeals and the crowd (mostly) stayed with them. But there was nothing in this match that gives me any reason to think better wrestlers couldn’t blow this out of the water on any given night, given the fact that at any given moment, they were move-for-move mimicking those wrestlers.

I hate to sound like an old-timer, but it just screams bush league when guys on any sort of notable platform take recognizable moves from better guys on higher platforms. You can take moves and modify them. It happens constantly, and there were some legitimately creative spots within this match. That Swanton/Pedigree thing Reed and Miguel did was impressive, as was Aramis’ 720 DDT. Trey Miguel’s Paige Turner/Muta Lock combo was really cool, too. But that same Trey Miguel doing a Cheeky Nandos kick with no irony or modification reeks of a lack of personality and originality.

I watch Will Ospreay matches and I’m as close to no one as it gets. What do you gain by making a signature move of his “yours” without any actual change or personal flourish? The audience won’t think of you when you do it, because you’re not the established name who made that move significant in your little zeitgeist. Which is forgivable, unless you do it void of the zest and timing that makes the original such a treat. Then you have the Lil Rascalz doing the Young Bucks’ facebuster/splash double team, Aramis doing that Gory Special GTS thing I’ve seen about a thousand indy guys do, and even the same damn standoff spot Arez and Flamita did two matches earlier. People have seen the Young Bucks do that move in PWG rings. People have seen Will Ospreay do his move in PWG rings. Wrestling is about making yourself distinct and special, and aping maneuvers on such a scale makes you a warm body at best, and a geek with basic creative bankruptcy at worst.

Second off, there wasn’t a lick of cohesion to this match and it showed big by the end. I’m not talking huge, long epic storylines either. Just a general clip, pace, anything to get from one point to the next. It’s not like I don’t love me a spotfest. This was just “my turn/your turn” until a finishing sequence that a 2001 CZW match featuring Ruckus would wince at, where Aramis literally lost Myron Reed in the crowd trying a dive and had to wait a whole 5-10 seconds for the dude to get into place. Which is bad enough, but poor Rey Horus is standing on the top rope with his crotch in poorer Trey Miguel’s face waiting for the cartoon to end so they can go home. This all felt like four dudes trying to replicate a Rascalz/MSK match and failing because they don’t have the innovation or creativity to capture that magic. Which sucks, since it’s clear these guys are all fine athletes and 100% have something to offer in a wrestling match. I am just of the opinion that they need to pivot from this strategy in order to please me, the only wrestling fan that matters. *1/2

Orange Cassidy vs. Evil Uno
In all honesty, nothing more substantial than you’d see on an AEW Dark main event, but this worked like gangbusters for the crowd and myself, which is good enough for me. One thing I always appreciate about Orange Cassidy’s schtick is that he uses his goofy slow-mo stuff to sucker in opponents for offense that actually lands, so it never feels like an insult to the audience in my estimation. Evil Uno is more than willing to work as the silly villain to bounce off of, and add that on with a good ol’ Rick Knox finish and this was prime PWG goodness, if a little redundant if you find Orange Cassidy’s gimmick to be old hat by now. **1/2

PWG World Title: Bandido (c) vs. Black Taurus
While I cannot sit here and complain about a main event with as much carnage and destruction as this, I think it’s a pretty solid display of how my tastes have changed in wrestling. It’s not as if I don’t enjoy a Bandido match, but when it comes to true main event displays, part of me needs a little bit more investment emotionally to really get over the hump. I’m a fan of wacky moves, epic falsies, and the aforementioned carnage. In many ways, this was a great match and I want my rating to reflect that. But it has a ceiling for me, no matter how well it’s executed; and this was executed about as well as could be expected, even if the finish seemed a little sudden.

What Bandido and Black Taurus did a great job of was working the obvious cat-and-mouse match in front of them, working strength vs. speed and carrying the match during some of the slower portion. Bandido having to resort to huge feats of strength of his own, pulling them out at the last second it seemed, was a fun story thread as well. It gave a little bit of a reason for these crazy top rope moves happening, which I always appreciate.

But that’s kind of all I have to say about this match, because aside from those small psychological touches and portraying how crazy some of the match got, there’s not much here to talk about. Bandido’s babyface charisma is really solid however, although it felt like Black Taurus felt ever so slightly disconnected from the match as he didn’t seem to do much aside from his admittedly splendid power moves. It was exactly what you’d want out of a PWG main event, but after seeing a psychologically deep and intricate match in Gresham vs. Moriarty, a display of moves seems a little less rewarding. It’s just a taste thing at this point, I think. Just because the promotion isn’t around anymore, it doesn’t mean I can’t evolve! Hopefully I get a little more money out of it than their wrestlers did, though. ***3/4

Post-match, we get some hot-dogging from the still-champion Bandido in the ring. He takes the microphone so he can say GOODNIGHT PEOPLE. He gives props to Black Taurus like the nice boy he is. Might be even nicer if he wrestled Travis Banks instead. Bandido wants a handshake, but Taurus doesn’t like the idea it seems, and Demonic Flamita interrupts the moment and blindsides Bandido. Taurus and Flamita beat up the champion and hit a double team Lungblower. The lights go out though and IT’S SUPER DRAGON~!

But just like his last return, he turns on the good guys! When will we learn? A curb stomp on Bandido and the world will never be the same, unless you remember Super Dragon hasn’t been seen since this, and then you kinda realize the world is the same as it always was. Brody King comes to save the day, and cleans house of the Luchadors, but Super Dragon hilariously avoids confrontation until he can give a lariat to a stunned Brody. But the lights go out AGAIN, and I’ll be damned, it’s Malakai Black. He kicks the ass of everyone in the ring until he comes face-to-face with Super Dragon, who just flips him off and saunters off. I will never, ever, ever not completely fanboy out for a Super Dragon return no matter how it ends, so this segment was wonderful to see. And even if he doesn’t wrestle this time, whatever gets me more Malakai Black in PWG, I’ll take the licks for it. Malakai takes the mic and says he’ll be back on September 26, and Brody King says wherever Black goes, he will follow. And just like that, the coolest tag team in the history of the world is formed.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

While there are a couple troughs in watching this show, I can't sit here and give it anything but a positive score on the whole. The first two matches, while as opposite as any two things can be, start the show off in excellent fashion. Jack Cartwheel is one of the more promising youngsters I've seen in a good while, and I'm never complaining about Brody King beating a fat guy up for my enjoyment. I can't give the glowing co-sign to some of the matches that followed it, but with two other matches the quality of Gresham/Moriarty and Bandido/Taurus, you're not going to feel like your time was wasted. It's two quick hours of wrestling and as long as you're not expecting one of PWG's best-ever events, you're going to come away happy.