Between 250-300 packed the American Legion Post #308 in Reseda, California for a Friday night of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla action. It was noticed early that PWG Commissioner Dino Winwood was not present. Sitting in on live commentary with PWG Commissioner of Food and Beverage Excalibur during the first match was referee Rick Knox before TARO filled in for the rest of the show. Show started twenty minutes late, but then that's usually the case with most indy shows actually.
1. Brandon Bonham vs. Nemesis
Nemesis was a familiar face to PWG fans for the past two years. He began teaming regularly with Disco Machine before hooking up on a nearly permanent basis with his lucha brothers Los Luchas. This was his first show back since October. Brandon Bonham, not exactly sure if the spelling of his last name was correct, had been wrestling around six-seven years in Minnesota and had just moved to Southern California five months ago. Nemesis was obviously getting the cheers early on, but then Brandon started really showing off his great talent and aerial displays that immediately won him the approval of the fans that lasted through the remainder of the match. Chants of "New Guy!" rang out as the match progressed. And what a good match it turned into. Both men went back and forth with some hot action before Brandon scored a big win with a Senton Bomb in his PWG debut. In about a year's time he could be a top tier player in the promotion.
Winner: Brandon Bonham
2. Candice LaRae vs. LuFisto
The second "official" womens match in PWG and Candice found herself going up against one of the baddest women around. LuFisto had developed quite a reputation in North America for being a hardcore chick who could go punch for punch with the men, including well sought after encounter with Necro Butcher. LuFisto wasted no time getting violently physical on Candice and both men descended very quickly into a brawl without ever really having a wrestling match. The girls went punch for punch with the fans getting quite excited with each passing minute. They put togehter a darn good match and it came to an end when LuFisto hit a flying crossbody off the top rope only for Candice to roll through the momentum and score the pin.
Winner: Candice LaRae
After the match, PWG World Heavyweight Champion Human Tornado and Claudio Castagnoli came out looking to mess with Candice. Only Chris Hero immediately cut them off before they could get started, allowing Candice to make a quick escape. Soon enough, it was just Hero and Claudio and the bell rang for a match to get underway.
3. Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli
So Eddie Kingston couldn't make it to town. That's okay as Hero and Claudio made up for his absence with a pretty cool brawl between the former partners. This was the third encounter between the two in a PWG ring, the first time it had any sort of storyline importance behind it. Hero had a piece of his trunks covering his left leg, obviously trying to mask the cast he was wearing for his still injured knee. Nonetheless, the two really go all out in putting on a performance for the fans. It probably wasn't their best one-on-one encounter, but it was still really good given how it related to the Hero-Tornado feud. Hero reversed out of a Claudio finisher with a roll up for the win.
Winner: Chris Hero
After the match, Tornado came out to jump Hero. Candice attempted to make the save only to get cut off by LuFisto. Seeing this caused Hero to hulk up as he went ballistic and chased the villains out of the ring. Hero and Candice leave on their own two feet.
The Dynasty arrive to the ring for the title match, only Kingston didn't show up while Claudio just wrestled. Joey, sporting a pink neckerchief to match his shorts, mentioned dropping a MySpace message to Dino about what the deal was, only to find no reply. "Not only that, I checked my sent folder and the son of a bitch did read my message but didn't reply!" So he sent a text message to Excalibur, who replied that he had his own problems since he was now going to do commentary with TARO. In the end, Joey sent an e-mail to everyone in the PWG locker room with an open challenge to any two wrestlers to face them for the titles. El Generico answered first. Joey asked Generico what the hell he wrote in his reply because it read Spanish and even after translating that it read gibberish. Generico pointed to the entrance way, but it was a distraction so his partner could sneak attack through the crowd.
KEVIN STEEN!!!
4. PWG World Tag Team Championship
The Dynasty (Joey Ryan and Scott Lost) w/ Jade Chung vs. El Generico and Kevin Steen
Right from the get go, everyone was going nuts as Kevin Steen had returned to Southern California since the Battle of Los Angeles. He was on the European Vacation II tour, but remained closer to Canada and the North East wrestling scene so he could be with his newborn child for the first few months of his life. Four great talents in the ring and the fans were not disappointed as they treated us to just a great match from start to finish. The faces would have control of the match then the Dynasty would isolate Generico until he made the hot tag. The false finishes at this point were just incredible as literally every fan in the place were going nuts for each kick out. The four then knock each other out with super kicks, or in Generico's case the running boot. As they're lying about on the mat and the floor, SUPER DRAGON came out and attacked Jade! He tossed her into the middle of the ring where he just murdered her with the Psycho Driver and left. For storyline purposes, it was probably out of frustration for him and Davey Richards being stripped of the belts. Scott carried Jade to the back, but it left Joey open for him to be taken out first with Steen's Package Piledriver then rolling him into a Generico Brainbuster for the win and a title change. The American Legion Post exploded. Steen got on the mic and said how good it felt to be back home in PWG as the two celebrated their victory into intermission.
Winners: El Generico and Kevin Steen, NEW CHAMPIONS
During Intermission, Hero came out for his usual shelling of his merchandise while a couple of us got to talk with Bonham. Intermission ended with Excalibur getting into the ring and explaining that Dino's absence was because of a Jewish holiday tradition he had to do. Excalibur then accused all of us of being terrible Jews! He then mentioned that Necro Butcher was also unable to be here as he had been cast for a part in the up-coming Mickey Rourke movie "The Wrestler." He also hinted that Kingston couldn't make it because of a court order for something. So the main event was changed and Excalibur stated that because of what happened earlier tonight, the match was now the first ever PWG Intergender Tag Team Street Fight as Chris Hero and Candice LaRae battled Human Tornado and LuFisto!
5. DDT4 Qualifyer - Four-Way Elimination Tag Team Match
Hook Bomberry and TJ Perkins vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star and Zokre) vs. Ronin and Scorpio Sky vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)
For the past three shows, the four teams had been wrestling in a series of round robin matches to determine who would get a spot in the up-coming DDT4 tag team tournament to be held most likely in May. They were all tied two points apiece going into the last show when TJ Perkins completed his heel turn and helped his partner try to cheat their way into victory. The commissioners decided upon a four-way elimination match to settle for good and all which team was going in. Fun little everyone doing something chaos until just TJ and Hook against the Young Bucks took place. This went a little longer than it should have before the hot tag was made and everyone just decided to attack each other again. TJ eliminated Scorpio by rolling him up and Hook holding his legs down for leverage. Scorpio and Ronin were out. The action continued until Los Luchas took advantage over the heels and eliminated them with a spingboard Double Senton on Hook. TJ and Hook were out, leaving Los Luchas vs. The Young Bucks. Very hot action at this point, the best all match, as they really picked it up to where the fans were going wild. All kinds of crazy action that eventually ended when Los Luchas hit their new finisher the T-Bone Suplex onto Knee Smash with a top rope variation on Matt for the win. Los Luchas were going to DDT4. Did not see that coming. A great match that picked up at the end in a big way.
Winners: Los Luchas
6. Intergender Tag Team Street Fight
Candice LaRae and Chris Hero vs. Human Tornado and LuFisto It was us the fans on the PWG Message Boards who had been wanting LuFisto in PWG because we felt she would make a great addition to the roster. In her first night with the promotion, she had been thrown into the Hero-Tornado feud as the female opposition to Candice. And we could not have asked for a better situation. The match itself was really good made better by the compelling storytelling all four had put together and the atmosphere that was in the air for the match. They wasted no time getting violent with these vicious chair and trash lid shots. They went in, out and around the ring all night and it was just a bloody mess full of fun and excitement. Cool spot was Hero hitting Tornado with a somersault placha off the stage. At one point, LuFisto went totally nuts on Candice by scratching the hell out of her forehead. She might have ripped out a scalp or two, though those could also have been extensions that were in the way of the blood and pain LuFisto was causing. Sick stuff. Many times Tornado and LuFisto would have the advantage before Hero would hulk up and fight back only to get beat down again. The finale came when every one had just knocked themselves silly into next February. Hero had hulked up and nailed LuFisto with a big time piledriver. Tornado attempted to his Hero with the Dat Nigga Dead onto a chair, but Hero reversed out and did a Carvate suplex varation scoring him and Candice the victory. Insane fun, really. May not have been the match of the night, but it carried over with the momentum that had been running all night resulting into a great match from start to finish.
Winners: Candice LaRae and Chris Hero
After the match, Claudio hit the ring and strapped Hero's wrists on the ropes with duct tape while Tornado and LuFisto had their way with Candice. Tornado nailed her with the Dat Nigga Dead and then LuFisto speared her through a table. Their roughing up the referees along the way resulted in Excalibur and TARO chasing the villains out while they needed to use keys from fans to free Hero. Hero smashed whatever object was in sight before taking the mic and proclaiming to Tornado that "This was personal. No you've made it FUCKING personal!" He vowed to attack him any time and any where be it in a match, while Tornado was on his way to a match, in the locker room, or even in the parking lot. He put Candice over as the toughest chick in professional wrestling for valiantly fighting through all the abuse she had been taking the past year, even mentioning how she leaped off a ladder that was in the ring and onto Joey on the floor way back in January 2006 to help Tornado win the PWG title the first time. After Hero carried Candice off, Excalibur proclaimed that he felt responsible for what happened to Candice tonight because he booked the match and he promised to help make it right. Ring announcer Jon Ian thanked the fans for coming and noted the next show would be back at the American Legion Post on Saturday, April 5. The only "match" announced in the epic Hello Kitty vs. Kuromi being advertised on the web site.
This was a great show from beginning to end. I'd go as far to say that it trumped Dias De Los Dangerous from four weeks ago as the best regular PWG show of the year so far. You had a fantastic tag title match, a great street fight that further advanced one of the best storylines running right now, a fun four-way elimination match, a pretty darn cool chick fight, and an impressive debut of a new guy. What more could you ask for? Definitely worth picking up the DVD when made available. {plug}
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