Pro Wrestling Guerrilla – Scared Straight Live Report: 3.07.08

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla: Scared Straight
Friday March 7, 2008, Reseda, CA. Start time: 8:20 pm
Approximate Attendance: 200 – 225

1. DDT4 Qualifier Round Robin Series
TJ Perkins & Hook Bomberry defeats Scorpio Sky & Ronin – DQ via “Foreign Object” on Ronin

Opening match featured the “face” team of Sky/Ronin versus the now fully “heel” team of TJ/Hook. Throughout the match TJ was working more and more aggressively as he was beginning to cut a few more corners and teased a “heel turn”. Decent little match as all of these guys were familiar with each other having worked together in a lot of SoCal feds. Plenty of back and forth including your standard roll-ups and tag formulas. TJ Hooker began working over Sky’s leg towards the middle of the match, but that didn’t actually play into the finish. Ronin had Hook in a DVD position and a ref bump took out the new rookie referee (we’ll call him “Big Country”). Ronin finally hit the DVD but with the ref out TJ snuck a chair in and threw it to Ronin and woke up the ref. Seeing the chair in Ronin’s hand and hook laid out on the canvas he called for the DQ. TJ Perkins has finally turned heel in PWG. TJ Hooker advance in the tournament. Decent opener, but nothing spectacular. **

2. Claudio Castagnoli defeats Roderick Strong – Pinfall via Ricola Bomb

Good match was started off with Claudio playing cowardly heel for the most part. Basically a stiff slugfest that you’d expect from both men as Strong worked over Claudio with several stiff chops and backbreakers off the bat. Claudio fired back with European Uppercuts and worked over Strong’s chest. The stalling in the first part of the match hurt the pace a bit but 3 or 4 minutes in things started picking up and it became a serious contest without Claudio trying any true heel tactics. Finish came after a few Ricola Bomb tries were reversed and Dub-C finally hit it in the middle of the ring for a clean pin. Poor Strong lost his title match to Tornado in last show’s Triple Threat and now lost cleanly to HT’s underling. Good hard hitting match, but the crowd wasn’t quite as hot for it as you’d think, probably due to it being a Friday show. ***

3. DDT4 Qualifier Round Robin Series
Youngbucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) No Contest – Run in by TJ/Hook

Entertaining match as it seemed to be very lucha-centric with a couple dozen arm drag variations and several long chain wrestling sequences. Basically a very spotty match with each team trying to hit as many moves and one-up the other team as possible. Some very innovative spots and it seemed both teams were trying their best to out shine their opponents. Finish came when Matt and Phoenix Star both climbed the turnbuckles and hit simultaneous 450 splashes to each other’s partners for a double pin attempt. At this point I don’t think anyone knew who was legal. TJ and Hook ran in to break up both pin attempts and the match was thrown out. The thought being that since all 4 teams were tied in the points standing that a no-contest would leave TJ/Hooker ahead of the other teams by virtue of their win earlier in the night. A decision by the PWG commissioner and Commissioner of Food and Beverage is to be announced on Monday regarding the situation. Expect a 3-way tag match on the next show. **3/4

4. Eddie Kingston defeats Necro Butcher – Pinfall via School Boy while holding the shorts

Apparently the new “unwritten rule” in PWG is that all Necro Butcher matches are No DQ. This was a fun little brawl which started in the ring for about 30 seconds before spilling out into the crowd. Highlights include Necro giving Kingston a Tiger Driver on the stage to the venue, Kingston suplexing Necro off the stage onto a pile of chairs below, and a chokeslam from Necro on Kingston onto a pile of chairs in the ring. Finish came when Tornado stopped a 3-count by the referee by pulling him out of the ring, while Necro was distracted he was rolled up for the pin. Tornado then tried to attack Necro with a chair and it backfired when Necro chases him out of the ring and pasted Kingston with the chair shot instead. Fun mindless (and somewhat sloppy at times) brawl that further put over Necro was an unstoppable freak of nature and gave Tornado’s “crew” a 2nd win for the night. **3/4

***Intermission***

Excalibur (Commissioner of Food and Beverage) and Dino Winwood (PWG Commissioner) announced that the Briscoes WERE in fact in the building and would compete tonight and that if the Dynasty were to make it out with the belts they would be facing the team of Claudio Castagnoli and Eddie Kingston in a DDT Tag Team Tournament Qualifying match at the next show on 3/21 and that the titles WOULD be on the line.

5. PWG Tag Team Title Match
The Dynasty (Joey Ryan & Scott Lost) w/ Jade Chung defeats Mark & Jay Briscoe – Pinfall via interference allowing Joey to pin Jay

Slow start to the match that picked up quickly as Lost went toe to toe with both Briscoes. The crowd seemed a little burned out or drunk during the match as the reaction was not as strong as it could have been. Both teams exchanged advantages early on until the Briscoes began dominating. No interference or distractions from Jade during the match. Approximately 18 Superkicks were hit during the match and there seemed to be a few miscommunications during the middle part of the match. Briscoes went for the spring board doomsday device twice, finally connecting the second time when the ref was distracted and Kingston/Claudio ran in and while Claudio was distracting the referee Kingston hit Jay with a Backdrop Driver and pulled Joey over to cover him. The ref actually saw part of this happen but counted the pinfall anyways. Clearly “Big Country” needs more seasoning. Good match that had a few awkward spots but was fast paced and hard hitting. The ending made sense, but the obvious referee error of being in position to see the interference hurt a bit. ***1/4

** Promo** – Kingston took the mic and said the reason they helped The Dynasty is so that they could get their title shot at the next show. They basically guaranteed victory going into DDT 4 as Kingston jawed with several fans at ringside and insulted the West Coast, the fans, and the Lakers.

6. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Title Match
Human Tornado defeats Jack Evans – Pinfall via Dat N***a Dead

Jack began the assault at the sound of the bell as the back story was that Tornado was the one that actually broke Jack’s face in Dragon Gate a month ago. The match was fairly high flying but consisted mainly of both men trying to kick each other in the face. Tornado worked over several kicks, stomps, and rakes to Jack’s face as he tried to counter with his own foot based offense. Fairly clean match considering and it was a good give and take until the end when after several face plant manuvers Tornado hit Jack with his “Dat N***a Dead” finisher. After the match Tornado continued to assault Evans with kicks to the face and stomps until Necro ran in to make the save and knock out Tornado with a straight punch to the face. Entertaining match with good chemistry between the men, but annoying crowd hurt the “heat” a bit. ***

Final Thoughts: Above average show, but no one match stood out as MotN and both title matches and Strong/Claudio were all fairly even. This was perhaps one of the most storyline-centric PWG shows in a while and it involved more run-ins and screwjobs than any show in the past year. Several angles and stories were advanced including Necro being feared by Tornado’s crew, Kingston/Claudio being established as a tag team and with a purpose other than backing up Tornado, TJ Perkins FINALLY turning heel and getting a direction, as well as keeping the Briscoes strong going into DDT 4 and possibly establishing The Dynasty as a “face” team going up against a more “heelish” team in King/CC. I would have to say that the current Reseda venue PWG is using is probably the worst they have had since I started watching 3 years ago. I’m not sure how the crowd will come over on DVD, but the show featured some very annoying fans and chants. A mild thumbs up show wise as the storylines dominated a lot of the in-ring action. However, Joey Ryan and Eddie Kingston did come out and provide some commentary along side Excalibur during matches so the DVD might be worth it if you enjoy the PWG commentary. Overall show rating: **3/4