The Furious Flashbacks – PWG All Star Weekend V Night One

The Furious Flashbacks – PWG All Star Weekend V Night One

Kikutaro outcomedies Colt Cabana, Low Ki outkicks Davey Richards and a chap from the Northeast of England challenges for the title

The last time I reviewed a PWG show a reader, I forget who (apologies), emailed me to say I shouldn’t just do the BOLA tournaments and should actually stop off to check out some of their shows in between. Specifically they recommended All Star Weekend 5. This show. So I bought a copy…and promptly retired from doing tape reviews. During my time off from reviewing I actually watched this show and loved it. Before I even get underway I’d suggest that any Indy wrestling fan who doesn’t own this show should go and buy it immediately. That said lets get down to the action…

April 7th 2007.

We’re in Van Nuys, California. Hosts are Excalibur & Disco Machine.

PROMO TIME Dino Winwood and Food & Beverage Commissioner Excalibur open the show. Excalibur apologies for some absentees and says Mama Talwar couldn’t make it this evening and “took the food out of your mouths”. Ironically wind in the Windy City has prevented Colt Cabana from making the show this evening. A suitable replacement has been found.

Disco Machine v NOSAWA

I know I said this show is awesome and all but you can skip this one. Not that either wrestler sucks, despite what I’ve said about NOSAWA beforehand, and this isn’t terrible but it’s a level below the rest of the show. Excalibur makes fun of NOSAWA’s lack of common sense (for being a Juggalo) on commentary while NOSAWA mocks Disco’s dancing. A combination of goofy comedy and stiff striking allows NOSAWA to generally control. Disco’s defence comes mostly from dancing and the odd use of the ropes. They try some counters but NOSAWA doesn’t have the technique to apply the Crossface and finish it strong. NOSAWA hits a few low blows but spends too long mocking Disco so he’s caught in the Hatebreaker for the loss. **. Competent, by and large, if superfluous opener.

Rocky Romero v Roderick Strong

Their opening sequence is incredible. They go from switches and counters into stiff kicking without stopping for a breath. FULL TILT BOOGIE! Romero tries some lucha, which normally irks me, only for Strong to just block it all. CHOPS! Romero NO SELLS and kicks the hell out of Strong’s leg. Both these guys work so hard to get this over. I expect that from Strong, who’s a phenomenal performer, but Romero really steps it up to match him. Strong is chopping EVEN HARDER than usual because of the earlier no selling. NO SELL THAT! Strong uses his freaky retard strength to pick Romero up off the mat and press slam him into the barrier. He made Romero look like a midget there. Freakish power. Not content with that Strong pulls out the Oriental Crossbow around the ring post, which is awesome. Romero starts using his speed, which is normally a disaster for him as he’s better as a striker but here he can’t compete in any other way. Strong gets a little sloppy and is almost caught in an armbreaker. Receipt for that is evil; Strong ties Romero up in the ropes and then bails for an unprotected kick to the head. If I were Rocky Romero, I’d be giving up around this point. But Romero has a focus and looks to get the cross armbreaker again. Not only is it a submission attempt but should hopefully reduce Strong’s ability to do all his moves; chops, backbreakers and power moves. All the things that usually count against Romero actually work here. Any time he goes to the ropes Strong just isn’t prepared for it. Strong is too strong to get caught in the cross armbreaker again but that’s Romero’s best chance of winning. Strong continues his abuse until Romero counters the Gibson Driver into a heel hook. Romero seems to find fresh energy from nowhere and keeps on coming like the Energiser Bunny. Strong levels him with the flying Yakuza Kick for 2. Crowd thought that was the finish because it hit so hard. Strong decides he needs something insane to finish and goes up top only for Romero to cross armbreaker him down into the submission. ***3/4. Great match only slightly hurt by inconsistent selling but that’s a minor issue. The countering and striking were top notch. If Romero was this good all the time he’d be a legitimate contender for major Indy honours.

Human Tornado w/Candace LaRae v Claudio Castagnoli

H-Tizzle apologies to Candace for smacking her around on the last show then PIMP SLAPS THE SHIT OUT OF HER. He warns her next time she fucks up it’ll be worse. Tornado offers Claudio the Ho in exchange for a count out. Tornado then uses the valet by throwing her into Claudio and when CC catches up throwing her into the ring post as a distraction. Tornado has been to the Curt Hennig/Shawn Michaels school of heel overselling and backflips the European Uppercut. Claudio takes to torturing Tornado on the mat where he has a massive technical advantage. Tornado is a fantastic personality but some of his in-ring needs work. His lucha moves aren’t as clean as they could be but then you don’t get many luchadores with his height. The moves aren’t really designed for anyone over 6ft. Tornado is living the gimmick and uses Candace as a weapon again; throwing her over the top onto Claudio. Using her unmentionables to get a better grip. Tornado slows it down only for LUCHA-CLAUDIO to run the buckles and headscissor him off the top rope. WOW! More overselling from Tornado follows as Claudio runs through some power offence. Claudio breaks out freakish strength by blocking a tornado DDT, throwing him up in the air and then nailing him with the Uppercut on the way down. Amazing. Tornado tries to work in spots without telling Claudio when they’re coming, which makes things awkward. Claudio responds with the bicycle kick. Candace gets the interference. PIMP SLAP and the roll up with tights finishes. ***. Everything Claudio brought was pure gold. Tornado was hit and miss. I love the character, which is near perfect but his in-ring is unpredictable…in a bad way.

Kikutaro v Matt Classic

Matt Classic is Colt Cabana’s replacement, which if you’ve missed the gag is Cabana under a mask with a old timey wrestler gimmick. Kikutaro is the former Ebessan so this is pure comedy. Classic claims Kikutaro’s attire is “an illegal wrestling outfit”. Kikutaro slips into the referee’s role to get into Classic and the ref’s heads. They briefly run some old school counters until Kikutaro baits Classic into an arm wrestling contest before kicking him in the head. He then starts fucking with the ref by faking covers. “Haha, you stupid” and the ref kicks him over. IRON CLAW! Kikutaro bails blaming jetlag, which leads to a foot-chase and Classic gets booted in the nuts coming back in the ring. Ref gets one too. Kikutaro brings the Flair love before being overpowered again. AIRPLANE SPIN! Classic explores the ropes but finds the second one a little high. And the bottom rope. So he opts for a standing splash instead. Classic pins FIVE TIMES because he can’t believe Kikutaro kicks out. Excalibur goes off on a tangent about how many Shining Wizard’s appeared in the Gotch-Hackenschmidt match of 1911. “Then Babe Ruth smoked a cigar and hit a woman”. BEARHUG! “Like a crocodile shaking a gazelle”. Kikutaro goes low, Classic goes low and then Kikutaro goes low on the ref and everyone falls over. “Argh, my balls” – Kikutaro. Classic with a scoop slam, which would finish but the ref has ball ache. The protesting Classic is then pushed over and schoolboyed by Kikutaro for the finish. ***1/2. A nice change of pace and a hilarious match. I’ve seen Kikutaro do better comedy matches but the combination of his comedy and Classic’s gimmick worked extremely well.

Kevin Steen v Jack Evans

Jack showcases some balancing moves so Steen kicks him over. HAHA. The match sees Jack confusing Steen by flipping around him to counter everything. Steen combines power and cheating to take over. It’s a straightforward story made more interesting by two factors. Jack Evans being able to do ridiculous offence quickly enough for it to work. Also Steen being such a jerk that when he does hammer Jack with a clothesline or chop it really forces the crowd to support him as the underdog. Jack shouts “BOOM, CALIFORNIA”, which Excalibur laughs at, and cartwheels right into a head-drop German suplex. BOOM! Steen is such a jerk he poses for a photo while choking Jack on the ropes. He could have actually been disqualified waiting for the flash. Wonderful. Jack combines flips with kicks to great effect, which is a step up from the earlier flips to avoid stuff. Jack Evans is using his moves more effectively these days. Jack is so amazing that he pops off incredible moves every 10 seconds or so. Like double jumping into a flying rana or hitting a standing corkscrew splash. His moveset is out of this world and now he’s taken to making stuff useful rather than showy he’s even better. He tries another move to the floor but gets caught and powerbombed into the apron. Not content with that Steen adds a powerbomb into the chairs. There are issues with how little Jack sells these enormous high spots and he’s soon back hitting reverse rana’s and heading up top. Steen catches him though, which could be a side effect of the injuries, and hits the PACKAGE PILEDRIVER…for 2. PACKAGE SUPLEX INTO THE BUCKLES for the win. Steen pulled Evans up after the Package Piledriver in case you were concerned he might have kicked out. ***1/4. Some of the spots were out of this world but Jack Evans has certain issues he needs to work through. I appreciate his moveset has become more effective but here he desperately needed to sell the bigger spots in order to get over how devastating they were. I guess he did, in a way, because he was slower getting to the ropes at the end but it needs to be slightly more obvious. Like when Bret Hart would limp clean across the ring so you knew his leg was hurt. There are pantomime elements to wrestling that you sometimes need to exaggerate. Even if you’re a flippy guy.

Chris Bosh/Joey Ryan/Scott Lost/Karl Anderson w/Jade Chung v Frankie Kazarian/TJ Perkins/Ronin/Top Gun Talwar

I must admit I skipped this on first viewing. Lots of PWG regulars of varying ability involved. Anderson and Talwar run an invisible gun segment, which owes a lot of understanding Talwar’s coked up nutjob gimmick. Bosh knocks Ronin over and asks the crowd is the length of the selling is getting awkward yet. They fuck up one running spot, then squeak through a second and Ronin has no idea what his limitations are, which is incredibly frustrating. Bosh ran that whole segment without taking his hat off. Kaz throws the ref into Ryan and the ref gets a sunset flip. Kaz counts the pin and Referee Rick Knox is declared the winner.

Back to reality as the referee can’t win a match. Lost & Perkins run some slightly awkward spots at speed. I appreciate them going full tilt but occasionally someone was standing there waiting for something to happen. I’m sure they’ll both improve in time. If they don’t they’re still good enough to be on the show, just not main eventing. Talwar goes around biting nipples. Good lord. Bosh won’t even tag in! The Dynasty run heat on Perkins, which works because he’s small and a good underdog. Shame Lost & Bosh mess up a double team. Bosh is a fine example of a company pushing a guy before he was ready. Kazarian is noticeably better than everyone else and brings the best spots. Terrible finishers sequence kicks in. Tower of Doom follows. Anderson takes advantage with a Jackhammer on Perkins for 2. Having survived that Bosh attacks with a poor backbreaker and the pin is too close to the ropes. COCK PUNCH ON KAZ! Structure has gone out of the window. Kaz kicks Bosh IN THE FACE. Jade interferes to stop him winning. Talwar takes a double team from Bosh & Lost for the defeat. *3/4. Some really ropey spots in this one. Predictable and clichéd Indy multiple person spots, blown spots and stupid spots. Kazarian got some nice stuff in and the referee taking the win early on was funny but there wasn’t enough focus and the match just felt like a waste of time.

Kaz Hayashi v Alex Shelley

Can’t say I’m a big fan of either guy although I know damn well how good they both are. I just find it hard to get excited about their matches. Mat counters lead to an early and completely unnecessary Indy stand off. FANS, YOU MAY APPLAUD NOW! Shelley even gives up the dominant position in order for the stand off to happen. If he just focused on the wrestling, which he’s amazing at, Shelley would be one of the world’s finest. His mat-based destruction of Kaz that follows is a perfect demonstration of his incredible skill. Shelley even brings that pantomime that Jack Evans is lacking by selling the shit out of his arm. He switches his offence up to lucha to adjust. The arm is quickly forgotten but you could argue Kaz didn’t do too much damage. In an ‘arm for an arm’ strategy Shelley mirrors the arm work. Shelley even sets up one of those rope spots that I hate but does so in a way that doesn’t require the co-operation of his opponent. Take note, Nigel McGuinness. Kaz goes after the leg after Shelley makes a mistake and he FUCKS IT UP. Great spot where Shelley’s leg is in the barrier and then Kaz kicks the leg. OWWW. Another great spot; Shelley is hung on the rope and Kaz adds in the quebrada. They even do some tidy transitions with nice striking. Shelley stupidly tries to skin the cat and gets dropkicked to the floor. I approve! That spot has no place in a match unless it’s a battle royal or another match where you can’t touch the floor, Dean Malenko. Shelley works in some more pantomime by selling the leg as he limps the entire way across the ring. It is, by and large, RVD selling though. He limps, then hits a move, then limps. Its still better than Kaz who doesn’t sell at all. Not even when he’s dropped on his head. They go full on AJPW no selling on brainbusters and head-drop German suplexes, which is a bit silly but given Kaz’s AJPW history its not too ridiculous. Shelley then does something awesome again. He hits a jawbreaker but because he lands on his bad knee he can’t get back up and is caught with a Shining Wizard. BORDER CITY STRETCH! Shelley has also given up on selling at this point although he does briefly grab his leg on the way to a frogsplash. I appreciate the effort to keep that leg in play. Given the massive moves we’re already had its not a surprise when Shelley kicks out of the Air Raid Crash but the Final Cut puts him away. Pity Kaz couldn’t do something with all that leg time. ***1/2. Shelley brought almost everything to the dance there. If Kaz had been somewhat more consistent in his approach (drifting between AJPW, US and lucha selling/movesets) this could have been better. Shelley uses all those movesets too but in a more organic fashion. Where everything fits together and his selling is more consistent. Good match though.

Low Ki v Davey Richards

Davey spends a little bit too much time jawing with the crowd instead of focusing on the war he’s in. Ki will only go as hard as his opponent. The countering is rather polite because Davey’s anger seems focused away from the ring. He keeps bailing and the commentary is off on all sorts of tangents to try and make this more interesting than it is. More frustrating than Davey’s smack talking ways is that he doesn’t seem to recognise any of Ki’s offence. As if we’re supposed to believe that he’s never seen Ki wrestle before. Ki gently works his way into the match as Davey gets more focused on the mat counters. Davey has gone way too far in his heel status though. He sells any contact like death and keeps bailing. So Ki springboards off the top rope with a stunning plancha. Davey then oversells a bit before jawing with the fans some more. Has he been watching Jerry Lawler matches? Seriously, Lawler did that because he didn’t have any offence. He was good at that. Its what made him a draw. Davey is a great wrestler but seems to have forgotten that here. Its Ki who has to step the match up; CHOP RUSH! Springboard Gamengiri! The Standing Octopus follows and Ki has taken this match to another level, which Davey seemed unwilling to do. Davey goes in for more goofy selling before suddenly levelling Ki with a series of suplexes. If only Davey had brought that intensity earlier in the match. Davey lifts the short kicks, which serve to PISS KI OFF! STIFF STRIKING CONTEST! Ki with a pair of spinning backfists only for Davey to knee him in the ribs and Ki comes flying back with the Koppou Kick! That was more like it. Ki tries for the cartwheel but gets caught and powerbombed into the buckles. LIGERBOMB…for 2. Pace and intensity are where they should be now. SSP misses. SHOTGUN DROPKICK! Double stomp misses and Davey gets a roll up, with heel tights grab, for 2. He does the chop rush and is kicked in the head for it. Ki wants the Phoenix Splash but Davey pushes the ref into the ropes. A bit telegraphed by the ref’s positioning. They battle up top, again in somewhat contrived fashion, to set up the Tree of Woe DOUBLE STOMP. Ki is slow pinning but he could take all night because Davey is out. ***1/2. Frustrating first half almost wrecked by Davey’s insistence on being the old school Memphis heel. That tactic was abandoned in the second half of the match as they just took it to another level. It felt like they wrestled this way to set up a re-match down the line where Davey takes it more seriously and gets closer to the win.

PWG title – El Generico (c) v Pac

I once booked Pac to appear on a show. True story. I won’t divulge his fee but it probably wouldn’t be enough to buy him lunch nowadays. Nice guy though. He does somewhat frustrate early here by doing the Indy babyface crowd clapping bit. “Cmon, everybody” *CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP. Usually if a babyface does that I’ll make a point of not clapping. Babyfaces shouldn’t be that needy. Pac made a name for himself last time he went to PWG so he got this title match out of it. I warn everyone now it’s a spot heavy match but that won’t stop me marking out when the spots start coming. They start slow and tidy with holds and counterholds. Just to demonstrate that they can wrestle. Even when Pac pops off a headscissors he slows it back down with an armlock. Pac has that explosive offence that you so rarely see. He pulls out a slingshot rana and a dropsault. Its not quite in the league of AJ Styles but its not far off. Gravity briefly forgets Pac but remembers again during a Generico backbreaker. Excalibur goes off on a wonderful tangent about Dino Winwood, oranges and segues into Quicksilver’s concussion. Pac starts going for insane moves and taking even more insane bumps. He somehow gets two rotations on a backflip before bumping a clothesline by landing on his neck at speed. Generico has generally been working the back/ribs. Pac increases the insanity by jumping onto the top rope (off the mat) and hitting a super rana. They trade on forearms, which shows they’re hard hitting as well as hitting high spots AND doing the mat work. Pac then shows off a bit with a Phoenix Splash off the middle rope. Pac goes for a predictable handspring and that leads to a great series of counters finishing in a sitout powerbomb by Generico. Then Generico telegraphs the corner Yakuza Kick so Pac gets his chance to counter into a reverse rana. Generico lands right on top of his head and ends up rolling onto his feet. He lays Pac out with the Yakuza Kick for the double knock down.

That signals the upping of the ridiculous level in the moves. Generico falls outside and Pac hits the Sasuke Special. SHOOTING STAR KNEEDROP! That is just insane. To do the move is hard enough but to hit a specific body part is so difficult. And to not hurt the other guy. And to make it look incredibly easy. As if to say “if you thought THAT was hard, check this out” he hits a DRAGONRANA! The difficulty level on this stuff is off the charts for most people. Generico nails Pac with the Yakuza Kick and the Tiger Suplex ‘85…for 2. Generico has the harder hitting moves, which should be the difference. Pac escapes the Turnbuckle Brainbuster into a version of the bodyscissors off the top and quickly adds a triple flip Phoenix Splash. That gets 2. Naturally. 720 Splash and PAC LANDS ON HIS FACE as Generico moves. Holy…the fans chant “please don’t die” because that was a flip too far. I think he legitimately knocked himself out for a couple of seconds. Generico is sympathetic; aiming to hit a brainbuster on the apron. Pac avoids it but Generico adjusts; TIGER SUPLEX ‘85 ON THE APRON!!! He’s dead, its over, there’s no way he can kick out. But he does. Unfortunately the last two big spots needed more selling. Even in NOAH when someone does a ridiculous spot like that the opponent is left lying on the floor and nearly gets counted out. Or it’s the finish. Pac is still dazed and gets murdered with the TURNBUCKLE BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAAHHH. ****1/4. I’m sure I’ll get accused of overrating here but this match is excellent. The wrestling at the start was solid, the upping of the tempo and urgency was perfectly timed and its only because they get too ridiculous and don’t bring the selling to match it that its not a higher rating. Pac unfairly gets pigeonholed as a spot monkey when that’s blatantly not the case. He can wrestle but he’s also an incredible flier, which he demonstrated here. Great main event and a hell of a way to close night one.

The 411: The consistency of the undercard is a joy to behold. Every match is strong apart from a few throwaway matches but if you focus on the strengths this is one of the best cards out there. I dug how everybody brought it here. From Rocky Romero to Jack Evans to Pac; everyone came to entertain.
Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]