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ALL-STAR WEEKEND 13: NIGHT 1

October 20, 2017

Adam Brooks . . . endears himself to the city of Reseda!

Trevor Lee . . . gives the alleged “Bad Boy” from New Jersey a Carolina-style ass kicking!

Ricochet . . . proves that anyone who pigeonholes him as nothing more than a flippy spot machine are dead wrong.

BRIAN CAGE vs. FLASH MORGAN WEBSTER

Despite a couple of exposing moments, like the early arm drags that Cage had no business going along with, this plays out and tells its ‘Size and Strength versus Speed and Agility’ story nicely. Cage bumps Flash around with ease, including three huge Germans that turn him inside out. Flash uses his agility to escape big moves like the powerbomb and F-5, but he gets too ambitious when he tries to do something of his own, like the backslide that Cage counters into a powerbomb, and gets himself back in trouble. He finds an easy way to hurt Cage, by ringing his bell with his jumping knee and a big headbutt, and takes advantage of him being stunned to pull off a reverse rana, and give himself a chance. Cage recovers and looks to finish him off after a big lariat and powerbomb, but Flash gets a surprise counter to the Screwdriver and cradles him for the upset. This obviously wasn’t going to be anything great due to the limitations of what Flash can believably do to Cage, but, they stretched the limitations about as far as they could.

ADAM BROOKS vs. MARK HASKINS

Brooks may not be much of a worker, if this is any indication, but, damn if he doesn’t do everything possible to make the PWG crowd hate his guts. Aside from a few flashy spots, like the Canadian Destroyer on the apron, and some passable arm selling, he doesn’t do much to stand out with his work. But he doesn’t need to. Brooks just acts like as much of a dick as possible, and lets Haskins win the crowd over with spots like the Star Armbar and the roll through on the mat into a fireman’s carry slam. This went a bit too long, and probably should have ended with Brooks winning after the foul, but, Haskins recovering and tapping him out was a nice comeuppance for Brooks.

TREVOR LEE vs. JOEY JANELA

Forget Janela. Trevor Lee ought to have the “Bad Boy” nickname. This match is a total clinic on how awesome of a heel that Lee is. He starts things off by jumping Janela at the bell, and then he does every jerk thing he can think of in order to stop him from making a comeback. Trevor will hide behind the ref, go to the eyes, and even straight up outsmart Janela by letting him run himself into Trevor’s big kick on the apron. When he’s in control Trevor is a total dick, doing things like kicking the middle rope so that Janela gets crotched, and biel throwing him into the corner. Janela isn’t useless or anything, but, aside from the dives and the quick go-behind into the modified German into the corner, there isn’t much to see from him that couldn’t be seen from anyone else on the PWG roster. He doesn’t get many chances to look good, but Trevor is nice enough to sell big when he does, especially after the up-kick and the superkick. They have a few smooth sequences like Trevor’s roll-through on Janela’s rana, and the figure-four sequence is probably their best one, and it’s not the usual ‘heel puts on the hold and then babyface rolls over and then the hold gets broken’ sequence. The finish is nice, with Trevor’s underhandedness backfiring on him. He tries to pull the tights on the O’Connor roll, and pulls himself into a reversal that gets the pin. It would have been nice to see a little more from Janela, considering how hot the crowd was for him, but, if anything, that’s another point in Trevor’s favor, for keeping the fans from seeing what they wanted. ***

KEITH LEE vs. JONAH ROCK

The only description for this match is that it’s a super heavyweight’s answer to a junior spotfest. A lot of things they do make for great visuals, like Jonah’s pinball bump from the pounce, Jonah’s frog splash, and their should tackle sequence. But, that’s the only context that it matters in. There are a couple of smart moments here, like Jonah working over the midsection for a spell, and when he goes for broke with the frog splash, he makes sure to do a senton first, so that Keith stays put. Jonah’s escapes of the Ground Zero are another welcome sight, and, when the frog splash didn’t do the trick, he tries to ring Keith’s bell in order to hit something else to keep him down. And, after Jonah had kept avoiding it, it was nice to see Lee outsmart him, and let Jonah jump himself into position for the Ground Zero. So, no, it’s not a waste of time or anything, but, it’s definitely a case of the match being about style rather than story.

FLAMITA vs. REY HORUS vs. SAMMY GUEVARA

How else do they follow the big man’s spotfest than with the junior’s spotfest? The timing, the body control, and the athleticism all allow for some breathtaking visuals. But, again, there’s no other context to anything they do. Sammy adds some personality to the mix by being the heel, but that only takes them so far. Add in the usual tropes of three-way match like the dual submission spot and the sequence where Horus gets consecutive near falls on both Sammy and Flamita, because that spot apparently has to be worked into every three-way match. It’s nice to see Sammy winning, seeing as he was essentially in a handicap match by being the only heel, but the finish isn’t anything deeper than him hitting Flamita with the 630 a split second before Horus could break it up.

RICOCHET vs. WALTER

Take the opener and have it be worked roughly 1,000 times smarter, and this is the result. It helps that their size difference isn’t as pronounced as Cage and Flash, so it looks more believable to see Ricochet working over WALTER. Ricochet smartly takes goes after the leg to take the big man down, and then continues his onslaught by staying on the knee, as well as using various strikes, like kicks and stomps to hurt him. The nice thing from WALTER is that his comebacks and offense aren’t simply predicated on his size, he’s doesn’t just take over on Ricochet because he’s bigger and he can. He outsmarts him, like when Ricochet tries for dives and gets caught, or outwrestles him, like sidestepping Ricochet and getting the sleeper, or blocking the forearm shot and transitioning into the butterfly suplex. WALTER is also good about selling the knee throughout. The really cool moment comes when Ricochet tries a dropkick that doesn’t really phase WALTER, and WALTER comes back and levels him with a SUWA-style Jon Woo, and sells the effects of the move on his bad knee.

Some won’t like the fact that WALTER’s missed chop that hits the post isn’t a huge moment that has permanent effects on the match. But, it had its purpose. Before that, WALTER had been able to prevent Ricochet from using his flying, but with him more concerned about his hand, it gives Ricochet the opening to hit a big dive to the floor, and then roll him in and get a near fall from his springboard 450. I didn’t really care for they way they treated Ricochet fouling WALTER to escape the sleeper. He’d already tried rope breaks and kicking the bad leg, and Ricochet had already shown that he wasn’t afraid to fight a little dirty. So, they did a fine job of making it seem like Ricochet was out of options. But, considering the finish, there was no reason for WALTER to suck it up and keep the hold on. It’d have been just as easy for him to fall backwards, with the hold still on, and let Ricochet do his cradle counter for the pin. But, that one issue aside, this is still a great performance from both of them, and a great example of Ricochet being a much more well-rounded performer than he’s given credit for. ***½

Aside from being a title change, there isn’t much about this match that’s notable from their work. It’s just another spotfest, with precious little in the way or story or structure. The only moments that seem believable are when Riddle and Cobb are able to escape and counter the package piledriver, since an olympian and a former pro fighter should be able to get ahead by outwrestling the opposition. But, even that gets mucked up when Riddle gets spiked with it by Fenix, along with Penta adding a diving stomp for added momentum, and Riddle kicks out on his own rather than getting saved by Cobb. One of the first big moments was some double teaming on Riddle that ended with a diving stomp from Penta for a near fall. Instead of using that go into a control segment on Riddle with the champions focusing on the ribs and building up to Cobb tagging in, the next spot sees Riddle counter the piledriver to take over, and then hit a senton before tagging in Cobb. That’s how this match goes. There’s a chance to take the match in an interesting direction, but, they just ignore it.

Overall, this isn’t that much different from the Keith Lee/Jonah Rock affair, or the three-way match. And, these four should be capable of a whole lot better. The spots and dives create some great visuals, especially Fenix’s hang time on the dive to the floor with the boost from Penta. But, there’s just no reason why they couldn’t have done what Ricochet and WALTER did, and told a genuine story and done something to make those dives and spots mean something.

Conclusion: Even with a disappointing main event, it’s still a fun show, and that’s pretty much all that you can ask from PWG. The only thing that I’d categorize as “bad” would be Haskins/Brooks, and even that has redeeming qualities.