ZAH
"Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Sells Out" According to ZAH: A special written review of 9-hour best-of PWG dvd!!
By ZAH
Aug 22, 2008 - 8:06 AM

So Big Vision Entertainment  dropped me this awesome 3-disc 9-hour set of PWG's best matches awhile back. And it just so happens I had the time to review ALL NINE HOURS. So without further adu, here's my thoughts:

DISC ONE

This took place in 2004 in front of about 50 people (if that). I gotta say, though, that these two guys put on a great show. And that's the thing about these matches that I enjoy so much: the best wrestlers will put out a solid effort regardless of whether or not there are 50 people or 5,000. Much like musicians, for them it's all about the art and what they love doing. This match started of slow, but definitely picked up near the end. These two men wrestled to a 30-minute draw...which was even more impressive considering the attendance that actually watched the match. An interesting way to kick things off.

Taking place in July of 2004, this was an example of the emergence of Punk as a great all-around performer. Regardless of his profound enjoyment of using the "f" word as a means to gain heat, this was an extremely entertaining match...especially with the commentary turned off as you truly get a feel for the "indie experience". With less than two minutes remaining in the 30-minute match, Punk missed a Shining Wizard and Dragon took advantage to hit a Supernatural Driver for the win.

This was a steel cage match with defending PWG champion Pearce (circa July 2004) starting things by mouthing off to everybody in attendance, the referee, Kazarian, and even the home viewing audience. The heat for this match was off the charts as both men took things outside before returning inside of the cage and having a pretty decent battle for the title. In the end, Kaz hit three piledrivers to become the new PWG champion.

A little too many "flippy-flop" moves for my taste, but that was Evans' style back in '04 (he's a lot better at being an overall wrestler today). You wouldn't think that Evans would blow up so quickly where he's so tiny and all...but Daniels wrestled rings around him and looked ready to wrestle another hour. Still...you can't not like a match between the Fallen Angel and the Prince of Parkton if you're an indie fan. Nice back and forth action with Daniels getting the nod with the Best Moonsault Ever.

Dragon was PWG champion when this match was taped back in '05, and this took place in front of about 100-200 of the quietest people I've ever seen. The only time they'd make noise is when Joe did one of his signature moves or there was a power move used that got the crowd excited. Other than that, it was a "sit on our hands" type of crowd...which was kinda weird for a main event. But that seems to be par for the course with L.A. crowds watching PWG. This was one of those cases where if there was a hotter crowd and better camerawork, this would have been an awesome match. As it stands, it was still really good up until the finish where Dragon beat the count back into the ring and won by count-out.

This was from November 2006, and could probably be compared to any of the other great matches these two have had over the years. While this may have been wrestled at a slightly slower speed than, say, ROH or TNA...this was still a great match and definitely the best of the dvd thus far. At the end of the day, Styles reversed a Muscle Buster into a Styles Clash for the 1-2-3.

This match took place in 2005 when Styles was PWG champion and Gibson (aka Jamie Noble) had a lot to prove to both himself and to his ex/future employers, WWE. Gibson is widely believed to have been wrestling at the top of his game during this time period, receiving critical praise for his work in PWG and ROH as some of the best of his entire career. This match could certainly be used to make that argument, as it is one of the best matches I've ever seen Gibson in. Great pacing, great psychology, great physicality, and great execution. Styles reversed a sunset flip attempt into a Styles Clash (amazing move to see) to retain his title in a great match.

DISC TWO

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I am totally unfamiliar with Quick Silver and have seen very little of Scorpio Sky during his mask-wearing days, so this 2005 tag match was certainly intriguing to me, especially considering it was a mask vs. title no DQ match for Arrogance's PWG tag titles. The first part of the match was wrestled on the ground by both teams, with hold after hold and counter after counter by all four men...leading me to believe that all four men can "go". Although, as the match went on, it was easy to see that Lost and Sky were the stars. Great tag match (Sky and Silver, in particular, had a lot of innovative double-team moves). After a chair-shot to the head took Silver out of the match, Sky was left to battle the champions on his own. And living up to their name, it was the champions' own arrogance that cost them the match and the titles. Being the sore losers that they were, though, they ended up un-masking Sky anyway.

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As soon as the graphic came up to tell me what the next match was, I immediately got excited. Even back in 2005, wrestlers like Generico and Richards were really good wrestlers who were only a year or two away from being excellent. Joey Ryan, in particular, had a TON of heat and must have recently turned heel. Again, this was a match that was made even more intriguing without the commentary because you got to hear the fans and who they really appreciated in the ring: Generico = monster babyface and Super Dragon = not quite the over babyface you'd think. After a solid 15+ minute wrestling/spot clinic, Dragon hit a wicked Supernatural Driver on Davey Richards for the win and a crowd appreciative "PWG" chant.

Having not seen much of Steen until his ROH debut with El Generico, I was definitely anticipating this match to see what he was like in December '05. This match started off as a stiff chair-fueled hardcore brawl that didn't make its way to the ring for about fifteen minutes. This was, basically, two guys just beating the ever-loving fuck out of each other. The violence only seemed to escalate as it went on, as if each shot made the other person angrier so things got stiffer and stiffer. Wow...just an incredibly violent hardcore match. Although Steen somehow kicked out of a double footstomp off the top rope onto his HEAD which was placed on a steel chair...which was followed by Dragon somehow kicking out of a package piledriver onto a pile of chairs (a drawback of indie wrestling, I suppose), the end finally came with a Supernatural Driver onto thumbtacks AND barbwire while Steen had his arms handcuffed behind his back. OH MY F*CKING GOD.

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From 2006, this match took place when there was still such a faction as Generation Next. I'm certainly getting my fill of Super Dragon on this dvd, that's for sure. It was nice to see him working strictly heel, though. This match was worked in a classic sense where Evans got the piss beat out of him by both Dragon and Richards until he finally made the hot tag to Strong. Of course, Strong then immediately got the tar kicked out of him so the "hot tag" didn't do jack (ha! See what I did there?). After about 10 minutes of heel domination, the match finally picked up some steam as Strong and Evans began hitting some high spots. When all said and done, it was a double back-cracker that helped Dragon and Richards retain their tag titles. Very entertaining match.

At this point in 2006, Ryan had become PWG champion and was well on his way to doing the wacky 70's-inspired gimmick that he does today. This was a cage match for the PWG title. I haven't seen a whole lot of B-Boy (a little bit in ROH, JAPW, and WSX), but I've seen enough to know that he can work...so that bodes well for this match. In a sign of what to expect, I immediately noticed that there were chairs and a ladder already inside the cage...so at least there wouldn't be any surprises, I guess. Now I don't know what Ryan did to piss off the PWG crowd so much, but they were chanting "We want blood" and "Die Joey die" early on. There really wasn't much to this match other than audience/Joey hatred and mucho use of chairs and the ladder as a weapon. They did some high spots but they just looked "indy-riffic" and sloppy. Thankfully a ton of people interfered and helped the match garner a bit more heat. In what I would consider the worst match of the dvd so far (and that's saying a lot since I'm over 5 ½ hours into it), Ryan used an ether-soaked cloth to finally win the match.

Where this took place only two years ago in September 2006, I can only imagine just how good this could be if it took place today. Luckily, this was a very entertaining match and didn't disappoint me at all. They went back and forth and the crowd, while quiet most of the time, really popped for the right spots and the near-falls. I'm still surprised that Los Angeles can only get 100-200 people at a time for an indie show displaying talent of this caliber...but that just seems to be PWG's base audience. The final few minutes were tremendous, with the crowd going nuts and false finishes that actually had me excited. The end finally came with CIMA hitting two Schweins (i.e. belly-to-belly piledrivers) on Generico for the pinfall victory.

We are now over 3 hours into the 2nd dvd and I'm thoroughly impressed thus far. I thought the last match would be it for the 2nd dvd...but thankfully I'm wrong. I've only seen PAC a couple of times but I know he's a small, spotfest guy...so this should be an entertaining match with Generico able to go spot for spot with the best of them. As expected, Generico was a bumping machine for PAC early on, until he slowed things down (!!) and controlled the match with punches and kicks. Let me just say that I love watching Generico bump. He's probably the most entertaining bumper since Curt Hennig was in his prime...simply amazing to watch. It's a little over-the-top, but not quite too much. The false finishes in this match had me poppin' out of my chair. A "this is awesome" chant started twice and was well deserved. Amazing stuff that finally ended with Generico's Yakuza kick/turnbuckle brainbuster combo. Wow...awesome match.

DISC THREE

This match took place in January 2007, so the disc is really progressing (thankfully). Ryan is still PWG champion, and he's still the most hated guy in the company. Just to ensure he gets a ton of heat, his pre-match promo included, "Tornado, I'm going to own you like it's 1860." Ouch. This wasn't anything special...just a bunch of hardcore spots involving chairs, tables, trash cans, a ladder, and some thumbtacks. I was hoping for a bit more from these two. The highlight, however, was Tornado giving Ryan a Canadian Destroyer off of a stage and through a table. The end came when Tornado gave Ryan a Pounce into a pile of thumbtacks, hit a DDT into that pile of thumbtacks, and then a side fisherman's suplex (I think) onto the thumbtacks for the 1-2-3 to become the new PWG champion.

This immediately looked to be a tremendous clash of styles, as Steen is more of a power guy and PAC is the flippy-floppy guy. But then I figured that this '07 match must be good or else it wouldn't be on the dvd. And while not spectacular, this was still a very entertaining match. Steen, while he doesn't have the look of a superstar, has all the in-ring skills and natural charisma to make a match fun to watch. The end came with the normal flurry of false finishes that had the crowd on their feet jumping up and down with excitement. Once all was said and done, an amazing corkscrew shooting star press from PAC spelled the end for Steen.

From April of last year, this match was very intriguing to me. Japanese vs. British styles...with both men able to fly...this should be good. And as I was watching, I was beginning to wonder whether or not PAC had any front teeth. Either that or he's got one horrible smile. But then again, he's British...they don't brush their teeth anyway. Anyway, while Hayashi can fly he was very content to display his extensive ground/submission attack, which was quite entertaining. During the course of the match, PAC blew away the crowds...as he is prone to do as his offense is incredibly entertaining to watch. "The Man That Gravity Forgot" couldn't overcome a tombstone piledriver and a "final cut" as Hayashi won this very good battle.

From May '07, I just knew this would be one hell of a match. As I watched this match, I quickly realized that I had seen it before and, unless I'm mistaken, I even considered it as a legitimate contender for Match of the Year. Plain and simple: these two men put on a wrestling clinic. From beginning to end, this was just awesome to watch. 30 minutes simply wasn't enough time for these two men and they battled to an incredibly fought draw. Just a tremendous match.

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Going by the matches I've seen of PAC on this dvd and from what I already know of Roderick Strong and the Briscoes, this was looking to be a great contest. As expected, this was a fantastic tag match. Not much more to say than that, really...all four guys worked their asses off in front of about 100 people, which just goes to show how much all four love what they do. I will say, though, that even though PAC is a spotfest guy, he's absolutely an exciting spotfest artist. It's tremendously entertaining to watch him. In the end, the Briscoes did the job as Mark tapped out to the Stronghold...making Strong and PAC the new PWG tag team champions, much to the delight of the jumping up and down crowd. Great match.

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As soon as I saw the names attached to the next match, I got all giddy inside. This should be just as exciting, if not moreso, than the previous tag team match. This was doubly great because it was during Steen's "I'm a heel, you're not" routine with Generico so he was mouthing off to Generico during the whole match. What a great gimmick. After an incredible match, it was the Steen package piledriver/Generico brainbuster combo that won the PWG tag titles for the challengers. Lots of fun here.

The story of this match was that Danielson was beaten and bloody from an earlier match, and Generico was completely winded from just winning the tag team titles...so the crowd was absolutely stoked to see this match as they thought it wasn't going to happen. I just sat back and marveled at these two tremendous athletes. And yes...this match was as good as you'd think it was. Hot crowd...awesome moves...emotion and storyline. Great stuff. Danielson then added another title to his already huge collection by making Generico tap to Cattle Mutilation and winning the PWG title. All in all...a great way to finish up this incredible 9-hour 3-disc set.

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The bottom line is that for $19.98, this is simply one of the best all-around wrestling dvd's I can remember seeing for that price. If you love Ring of Honor and don't care about production values, this set is absolutely for you. I can't recommend it enough. I mean c'mon people...NINE HOURS!!!

You can purchase the dvd here: http://www.bigvisionentertainment.com/store/wrestling/PWGsellsout.php