The Magnus Analysis – PWG All Star Weekend 4 Night 1

This is the fourth annual All Star Weekend, held towards the end of 2006, and I have heard considerably better things about this weekend than from the disappointing third one. There are a load more stars here, including several names from TNA as well as a few stars from around the world, and your usual PWG favourites

Your commentating team for this event is Disco Machine and Excalibur, and Excalibur is also doing ring announcing.

Match 1
‘Classic’ Colt Cabana vs Petey Williams
Basically a comedy match, with Cabana up to all of his usual antics. Cabana used a lot of European style mat wrestling, which he incorporated into his comedy, while Petey was the frustrated heel trying to wrestle a straight up match but being constantly outdone, and he started using some cheating tactics later on in the match. I thought the highlight was Petey doing his spot in the corner where he stands on Cabana’s crotch and sing the national anthem, countered by Cabana doing the same thing but singing 99 bottle of beer on the wall instead. But overall a good little opening match that was lots of fun and got the fans into the show. Cabana made Petey tap to a Reverse Boston Crab- **3/4

Match 2
Ronin vs M-Dogg 20
My least favourite match of the night. These two just didn’t seem to click with each other, as M-Dogg 20 is not good enough to cover up Ronin’s weaknesses, as Ronin is simply not that good in the ring other than a few decent power moves, and lacks charisma. Not to mention there were some botches and sloppy moments that hurt things. But at times there was some decent stuff, and the crowd were hot so that helped things. Ronin won this to continue his winning streak when he hat M-Dogg with a Death Valley Driver- **

Match 3
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) vs Do It For Her (Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black)
I believe this was before Jacobs and Black were known as Do It For Her, so this may be their first match as a team before WSX (I’m almost certainly wrong). A really strong tag team match, as these two teams work well together (obviously Jacobs and Shelley have a lot of experience with each other). There was a lot of crisp mat wrestling, with DIFH keeping us on the mat with the superior team. There were also a good deal of high risk, high flying moves from all four men, as well as some strong double team moves from both teams. And the match was overall built very well and just got better and better, not having a single dull moment, and there were some big near falls at the end. The MCMG were able to win this match when Shelley pinned Black after the Sliced Bread #2 following an amazing sequence of double team moves. Just an excellent, exciting tag match, and these two teams are so awesome- ***3/4

Match 4
Homicide vs Christopher Daniels
A pretty good match between two TNA competitors, but not an excellent match, and for me these two didn’t click to the extent where they could have that sort of match. There was lots of brawling around ringside which was what I wouldn’t expect (well, I wouldn’t expect it from Daniels), but the match slowed down in the ring with Daniels and Homicide working at a methodical pace, and both men got in all their usual spots. In many ways I feel it would have been better if it was 5-10 minutes shorter, and while what they did was good, there was nothing there to take it to the next level. Homicide got the pinfall with a pinning combination where he appeared to use Daniels’s trunks to get an advantage- **3/4

After the match Daniels cuts a promo saying he’s unhappy with what just happened. , but thanks the fans for supporting him, then literally owns a fan who was heckling him.

Match 5
‘The Phenomenal’ AJ Styles vs ‘The Man That Gravity Forgot’ Pac
The fans don’t have any idea who Pac is coming into this match, but they soon learn who he is by the end thanks to his dazzling high flying moves. This match was great, with Styles working a slower pace than usual and hitting hard, plus locking in a lot of submissions, trying to beat some respect into the newcomer Pac, while Pac flew around the ring, showing off his amazing high flying offense. Styles however also busted out his usual array of high flying moves. Pac sold like crazy for AJ’s offense and made him look like a beast at times. The match overall was very good, but not the outstanding match you’d expect them to have, but still great stuff. Styles won this with the Styles Clash after Pac missed something insane of the top rope- ***1/2

Match 6
PWG Tag Team Title Match- B-Boy and Super Dragon (c) vs No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Roderick Strong)
OK, before you complain, yes I know they weren’t called the No Remorse Corps back then, but I’m still using the name in my review anyway. This has a meeting of former partners in Super Dragon and Davey Richards, who have issues since Dragon chose B-Boy over him to go after the Tag Team Titles. This match was hard hitting, and I enjoyed it due to that intensity and because they had the sort of match that I expected them to have. I loved the comparison Excalibur made with Richards and Strong being similar to the British Bulldogs (with Strong in Davey Boy Smith’s role and Richards in Dynamite Kid’s role). So there were lots of Forearms, Chops and head-dropping moves, but also some very solid matwork through a good range of submissions. The match was good overall, with my only issue being that it was just a bit too long in the middle for my liking, as the heelish working over Richards just seemed to go on forever, and there were one or two sloppy spots near the end. We got new champs here as Richards pinned Dragon with the Shooting Star Press- ***1/4

Match 7
Samoa Joe vs Rocky Romero
I remember these two having a great, underrated match in ROH in 2004, so I’m looking forward to this one. We ended up having a great, hard hitting match, with Rocky being able to match Joe strike for strike. Joe was very much throwing Romero around the ring, putting his size advantage to use, as well as locking in submissions, while Romero used his quickness, pulling out some lucha offense as well as his usual array of kicks and submissions. Romero was almost in the underdog role here, which is unusual for him seeing as he such a natural heel, but it worked very well here. And while the match wasn’t perfect by any means, due to a few sloppy spots, it was overall a great, well worked match. Joe eventually won it with the Muscle Buster- ***1/2

Joey Ryan cuts a pre-match promo about how Human Tornado stole his PWG Title and that he is not Championship material, and that he will take it back soon.

Match 8
Quicksilver, Frankie Kazarian, El Generico and Human Tornado vs The Dynasty (Joey ‘Magnum’ Ryan, ‘Photogenic’ Chris Bosh, ‘The Professional’ Scott Lost and Scorpio Sky) w/Jade Chung
A good main event tag with eight of PWG’s best homebred talents (well, Generico isn’t homebred but has been on practically every show for 2+ years. The match had a short feeling out process before The Dynasty worked over Quicksilver with every form of cheating they could use, and up to the hot tag felt like an old school tag match. Once the hot tag was made, the PWG team took turns to beat up Joey Ryan, before performing each other’s signature corner moves on all members of the Dynasty in complete synchronicity. After that it was all spots with everyone doing their signature moves (including one of the sickest Hurracarana’s I’ve ever seen, by Quicksilver on Scott Lost), and there were a lot of botches, but it was entertaining stuff. Quicksilver would pin Ryan with a Reverse Hurracarana Piledriver. A fun main event despite some sloppiness- ***

The 411: Overall this is a very good show worthy of the All Star Weekend name, far bettering the third set of events. There's nothing MOTY worthy but only one match was below **3/4 so that's pretty good. The MCMG/DIFH tag was the best match, followed by Styles/Pac and Joe/Romero. This show's an easy high recommendation
Final Score:  8.8   [ Very Good ]