Some ramblings of mine from the DVDVR board...
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Just wrapped up a viewing of PWG's "Guitarmageddon", their show from last June. Really fun show, and one of their best of '05, albeit with some weird booking affecting things on the margins.
- Arrogance vs. Gunning For Hookers was a bit of a waste of Arrogance, but given the card, a low-key outing from them made some sense. Really a nothing little match, albeit one with a couple great moments from Bosh. His early monkey-flip into a smug raised eyebrow is choice, and I laughed out loud at his reaction post-Lioncock punch -- he grabs the ref with a look of concern, as if to say, "What is this tremendous force that has come over me?" Delightful. But a nothing match.
- Puma vs. Davey Richards vs. The Human Tornado is about as good an example as you can find of a styles clash. You have Puma and Davey, who match up great together stylistically... and then you have Tornado, who's a completely different type of worker, just dozens of pages away from them. I get that they didn't want to run Puma/Davey in straight singles yet, because of their mini-feud, but damn, Tornado's presence here really hurt things. Some fun moments from each guy, but a mess overall, and nothing worth checking out.
- The real fun begins with Joey Ryan vs. Alex Shelley. Before his current mustache/molester phase, Joey had this run where he'd cheat to beat good technical workers -- Rocky, Hero, Claudio, etc. -- and then proclaim himself to be the supreme technical wrestler. It was a fun idea, but the matches never really clicked, because Joey just isn't talented enough on the mat to make that story work. He's clearly not a whiz on the mat, but he's also not emotive enough to sell being outclassed on the mat. So you'd have these matches with long stretches of generic matwork and screwjob finishes, and they just didn't really go anywhere. Except for this one, because Alex Shelley is that fuckin' good.
Starts with 10-12 minutes of Shelley just humiliating Joey on the mat. Watching this again, I actually thought this section could've been a little shorter; still, it's shitloads of fun, as it's basically Shelley showing what he can do on a mannequin. Millions of little flips, roll-ups... just awesome. Joey finally takes over by posting Shelley's shoulder and does some nice armwork; Shelley's selling is great and consistent. Shelley even guides Joey through a nice hot nearfall section, something Joey doesn't have the offense to pull off most of the time. Nice little section of traded superkicks, into a series of pin reversals, into the expected rope-assisted finish. This isn't a MOTYC or anything, but it's a fucking blast, and the best Joey Ryan match I've ever seen. I heart the Alex Shelley.
- You'd expect Aerial Express vs. Los Luchas to be really smooth and fluid, given that these four broke in together in Rev Pro, and it is. The nice thing I didn't expect was that they worked a semblance of a Southern tag, with the AXP putting a long, mildly heelish beatdown on Phoenix Star. It's a shame that Los Luchas keep wearing out their welcome with constant no-shows, because Phoenix Star is one of the great undiscovered workers out there -- he's like a slightly more high-flyin' T.J. Perkins, really that crisp and good. Zokre, on the other hand, gets more and more exposed I see him, but at least he hit his stuff pretty cleanly here. Nice match, and less spotty than you'd think.
- A.J. Styles vs. James Gibson, while the title match and probably the biggest drawing card, didn't end the show because of the SBS stuff. Anotrher match that falls into the "very good but not great" category. The match had a nice intense dynamic to it, as both of these guys play serious well -- there was a real title-match feel, which isn't something you get in PWG all that often. Everything was paced really nicely, they transitioned well -- it all worked, certainly. There just wasn't quite enough substance for it to hit that next level; as with so many A.J. matches, you can feel them spacing out their signature spots here and there. Also, the heat was hurt by A.J. putting the NWA heavyweight belt on the line beforehand, as it made the result an even more foregone conclusion. Still a fun match, and in some ways A.J.'s the only champ PWG's ever had that really had the aura of being one.
- We're then treated to a long back-and-forth setting up Joey versus Mr. Excitement for the Anniversary show. This really cracked me up. Don't get me wrong -- I like that PWG just basically turns the camera on and lets things happen. It's a nice contrast to ROH, where the editing, commentating and everything almost gets coercive in terms of telling you what to look for. Still... this was like nine minutes of hype for Joey Ryan versus Mr. Excitement. You have Excitement making these vague allusions to past moments in his career, and you can just feel DVD watchers everywhere checking the back of the case and saying, "Wait, WHO is this guy?" Excitement's actually decent on the ring, but this was slow and long and mildly pointless; not sure it needed to make the cut.
- Christopher Daniels vs. El Generico, like Styles/Gibson, actually suffered from having a high-profile belt on the line (in this case, the X-Division title) -- not that you'd expect Generico to win anyway, but it really made the whole thing feel like a waste of time. Not a bad match, though. Daniels got a lot of shit for his PWG performances over the last year; I don't think his performances were bad so much as aimed at the wrong audience. He started doing a classic stalling cocky heel shtick, and he was actually kinda good at it. Didn't go over well, though, because PWG crowds love spots, and they also love Christopher Daniels. But in this one match, it worked fine, because Generico is such a tremendous babyface that the crowd couldn't help but get on Daniels a little bit. A fine little underdog match. Generico didn't get many great nearfalls, which I actually kind of liked. PWG matches almost always feature guys getting loads of nearfalls, no matter their rank in the pecking order; Daniels is way above Generico, though, so it makes sense that Generico wouldn't threaten him all that much.
- The main was Super Dragon & Disco Machine vs. Kevin Steen & Excalibur, continuing the Dragon/Steen feud. More anticlimactic booking here, as clearly the only possible upshot of this match was Disco turning on Dragon. But the way that it was executed was awesome -- Steen and Excalibur beat the living shit out of Disco, Dragon's clearly contemptuous of Disco's struggles (even kicking him repeatedly at one point), so Disco snaps and switches. Some really great work done here, as Steen and Excalibur make great heels, and Disco shines in probably his biggest PWG match. It's friggin' amazing how Steen instantly and completely meshed with the So-Cal guys, something a lot of workers have trouble doing; it's like this pasty Canuck traded brains with Rising Son or something. As you might expect, a tad sloppy and overblown at points; still, really good match.
- The show finishes with a pointless pro-AXP promo by Dino and a really mishandled promo by the new SBS. Excalibur, Steen and Disco can all talk, but they were all stumbly and unprepared here; also seemed like Disco never quite figured out how to explain why he turned on Dragon. It really shouldn't have been included, as the match told the story so much better.
Super-fun show, with the last five matches all bringing something to the table. I'd only label it "must-see" for people who like the PWG style, as AXP/Luchas and the main are both fairly spotty and whatnot, but even for people who don't like that stuff, Joey/Shelley and AJ/Gibson might be worth a look.