The Magnus Analysis – PWG All Star Weekend 4 Night 2

This is the second night of PWG’s fourth annual All Star Weekend. Again, the stars are out in full force with TNA wrestlers AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Petey Williams, Frankie Kazarian and the Motor City Machine Guns all in attendance as well as many other notable indy stars from ROH and the Midwest, plus Pac from the UK. So this should be a good follow up to the first night of action. Your commentators are again Disco Machine and Excalibur.

Match 1
Human Tornado vs Petey Williams
Tornado still has the stole PWG Title of Joey Ryan. Again, a lot like Petey’s match last night this had a lot of comedy in it, with Tornado dancing and goofing around, with Petey getting more and more frustrated by Tornado’s antics as he wanted a straight out wrestling match. While I have no problem with this match, as I found it entertaining and there was some good wrestling from both men here as well as the comedy, it seems a bit of a waste to fly in Williams only to have him in two comedy matches. But still, an entertaining opener here. Tornado won the match by rolling through on a Canadian Destroyer attempt for the three count- **1/2

After the match Petey Williams attacked Human Tornado and hat the Canadian Destroyer. He then grabbed the PWG Title, and looked like he was going to steal it, but put it on Tornado’s chest. Then Joey Ryan ran out and took the belt back.

Match 2
‘Classic’ Colt Cabana vs ‘The Fallen Angel’ Christopher Daniels
There was some messing around with Excalibur before the match got started, threatening to attack Cabana before they made up, allowing Excalibur to announce the participants. So as you could guess, there was a lot of comedy in this one, more than I was expecting, but it worked and it’s nice to see something different from Christopher Daniels every now and again. They involved the referee a good deal as well with him getting in the way and accidentally ‘attacking’ the participants in the match. There was lots of dancing as well. But at the same time there were some good European style wrestling here too. I recommend watching it with Excalibur and Disco Machine’s commentary for maximum enjoyment. They slightly botched the ending with Daniels getting a schoolboy rollup which didn’t look like three, but it was- **3/4

Match 3
Arrogance (‘Photogenic’ Chris Bosh and ‘The Professional’ Scott Lost) vs ‘The Future’ Frankie Kazarian and M-Dogg 20
This is the first time Kazarian and M-Dogg have teamed, and personally it feels a bit of a randomly thrown together team for me. A decent match, but not all that special or memorable, and that’s pretty much what I expected. Much of the match was Arrogance isolating M-Dogg from his corner and working over him before the hot tag to Kazarian, then they did all their big spots (with M-Dogg not selling the beating he took at all) before the finish. After a few near falls, and a lot of aggression from Kazarian, he would be the one to be pinned following Arrogance’s double team finisher, a Northern Lights Suplex by Lost over the knee of Bosh- **1/4

Scorpio Sky comes out with more of a thuggish look and cuts a promo mocking Homicide’s gangsta lifestyle.

Match 4
‘The Notorious 187’ Homicide vs Scorpio Sky
Homicide was far than pleased with Scorpio’s mocking of him before the match and goes all out aggressive on him from the opening bell and smashing him with a chair. And this match had a lot of brawling in it, with a fair usage of chairs throughout, but there was a lot of good wrestling here as well. However it wasn’t quite on the level that I was expecting. Scorpio Sky got the surprise win when he stopped Homicide from hitting the Cop Killa on Jade Chung, before he rolled up Homicide for three- **3/4

Match 5
Rocky Romero vs ‘The Phenomenal’ AJ Styles
These two had an excellent match on one of the first PWG shows I saw, The Reason For The Season, back in 2004, and I’ve been anticipating the rematch. These two again had an excellent match here, and they click so well together. This would be due to their similar styles, as both men used a lot of submission holds and hard hitting strikes. AJ also used several high flying and high impact moves, while Romero basically kept this on the mat while also throwing some hard kicks and strikes. Romero’s work over the arm in particular was brilliant, and AJ actually sold the injury although not consistently. Overall I highly enjoyed this match and it was easily my favourite match on the show up to this point. AJ Styles was able to escape an armlock and hit the Styles Clash to get the three count and the win- ***1/2

Match 6
Ronin vs ‘The Anarchist’ Arik Cannon
This match did little for me. I’m a fan of Arik Cannon, but Ronin is simply not the best opponent for him, and I think that he deserves another tryout against someone he could work a good match with. The match was decent and nothing more, with some hard hitting moves from both men, but the crowd were quiet and nothing stood out about this, and it was probably the worst match of the night. It didn’t help that the commentary was out of sync with the action, something that I thought PWG would have noticed before releasing the DVD. Ronin eventually won to keep up his gimmick of beating outside talent via pinfall after the Death Valley Driver- **

Match 7
‘The Man That Gravity Forgot’ Pac vs ‘The Generic Luchador’ El Generico
I have massive expectations for this match since it was voted PWG MOTY for 2006. There was some solid wrestling early on before we saw the high flying begin, and Pac was more than able to show far more in this match than he could the previous night. The crowd had been largely dead up to this point, but this match woke them up in a hurry, as Generico and Pac just did insane moves that made you wonder how the hell they did that. Generico did all of his usual moves, but they just seemed to have that bit more impact, and Pac really reminds me of Jack Evans in the way he takes moves to the point where he makes his opponent look like a killer. It just kept getting better and better as they kept doing bigger and better moves, as the crowd rose to their feet. Generico finally got the three count with the Top Rope Brainbuster. While I wouldn’t call it a MOTY candidate, I will say that it was one insane spectacle and a must see match, and the best match of the weekend- ****1/4

El Generico shakes Pac’s hand after the match as the fans chant “Please Come Back”

Joey Ryan cuts a promo, first of all shouting down some fans in the crowd. A ‘fan’ runs into the ring and attacks Joey Ryan, and the fan unmasks to reveal another mask, and it’s Quicksilver.

Match 8
PWG Championship Match- Joey ‘Magnum’ Ryan (c) vs Quicksilver
I’ll admit that while I am a Joey Ryan fan, I’ve not been a fan of this title reign, and every match just feels the same. Quicksilver’s ‘quick’ attack didn’t work out too well, as Ryan was soon able to gain control of the match, using all of his usual cheating moves as well as going after Quicksilver’s mask. After a small Quicksilver fightback, Joey Ryan threw him into a load of chairs, then after trying to throw him into them again Quicksilver hat a messy Spinebuster onto the floor. Joey has a real sadistic streak now to go alongside the cheating, and I like it. Joey Ryan then unmasks Quicksilver, and when El Generico goes out to help Joey Ryan throws him into the chairs, but Quicksilver has Generico’s blue mask on. Then The Dynasty come out and attack Quicksilver, hiding him under the ring while Chris Bosh comes out dressed as Quicksilver, and the referee counts to two before realising that it is Chris Bosh. While the ref removes The Dynasty, Human Tornado attacks Joey Ryan, then Quicksilver gets two. After several near falls, Ryan finally gets three with a Superkick assisted by a steel chair. While it was a mess it was an entertaining mess and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would- ***

Joey Ryan cuts a promo saying that he’s tired of being disrespected and will soon have been PWG Champion for a year, then claims that he won’t lose the belt but the next challenger will be next in line for a moustache ride.

Match 9
PWG Tag Team Title Match- The No Remorse Corps (Roderick Strong and Davey Richards) (c) vs The Kings Of Wrestling (Chris Hero and ‘Double C’ Claudio Castagnoli) vs The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) vs Super Dragon and ‘The New Age Punisher’ B-Boy
This match had a bit of everything: great mat wrestling, hard hitting strikes, innovative high flying, high impact moves, brawling and just about everything else. So in many way this was much like an ROH Tag Team Scramble with four strong teams, and as a result it worked really well and turned out to be a great main event match. It had all the usual multi-man spots, like the chain of submission holds, and the KOW trying to stop a move by one wrestler only to lead to another move on one of them. Adequate time was also given to allow all eight men to shine. Claudio does a 100 second Stalling Suplex on Richards that beats his old record of 90 seconds on Mike Quackenbush in CZW. Everyone got their signature moves in towards the end, before Super Dragon and B-Boy regained their titles when Dragon pinned Richards after the Psycho Driver. What was the point of them losing the belts in the first place?- ***1/2

The 411: This show had the best match of the weekend in Pac vs El Generico, a truly awesome high flying match. The tag team main event was also very good. But overall I would say due to the distinct averageness of the rest of the card that the first night of action was overall better than this. Still, this is a must see show for the Pac/Generico match alone. Highly recommended.
Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]