PWG Matt Rushmore Review

Future Shock Explodes!!

PWG Matt Rushmore

Reseda, California 10/19/13

The show kicks off with Excalibur in the ring, but he is interrupted by Mount Rushmore. They litter the ring with empty beer cans and say that "Global Warming is a work", among other things. Excalibur calls them out for disrespecting Kyle O'Reilly, Joey Ryan, and recycling. He makes the Bucks' match against Joey Ryan & Candice LaRae for the titles with Rick Knox as referee. The Bucks threaten to superkick Excalibur but are stopped by Steen who says he'll have their back on commentary. Adam Cole bashed Kyle O'Reilly before they leave. So weird to see an in-ring promo open a PWG Show.

1.) “Pretty” Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas vs. B-Boy & Willie Mack: ***

Pretty much exactly the kind of opener you would expect from PWG. It features a lot of high flying and a lot of Avalon (now more well known as Norv Fernum in TNA) & Rosas getting thrown around. The match really picked out down the stretch and definitely had it's moments.

2.) Kevin Steen vs. ACH: ***1/4

Steen was wearing tassels in tribute to The Young Bucks. These two just had a match in ROH a few weeks prior at Charm City Challenge. I honestly think their ROH match was better. ACH got some offense in, but this was definitely a Steen dominated match, which one might expect. I just feel like it was missing something.

Steen gives ACH a few more Package Piledrivers after the match. Just brutal.

3.) AR Fox & Rich Swann vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?): ***1/2

A very interesting pairing of Dragon Gate USA/Evolve guys here. This was actually a pretty good tag match. Fox & Swann were their usual high flying selves and the Best Friends pairing of Taylor & Trent? was actually quite entertaining to watch. The only thing going against it was that it was a little long (almost 20 minutes). Best Friends get the win.

4.) Fatal Four-Way – Brian Cage vs. “Sicilian Psychopath” Tommaso Ciampa vs. Anthony Nese vs. Drake Younger: ***1/2

They shoot right out of the get from the get go and things get really crazy. At one point Younger did a Moonsault off the top rope to the floor and actually hit one of the hanging ceiling lights, taking it out! Just a wild, crazy and out of control four-way that didn't overstay it's welcome (it was only 12 minutes which actually working in it's favor). Drake Younger would pick up the win here.

5.) Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong: ****

I believe this is a first time match-up. Another dream match by PWG (Thank You!). This was really great, but I was kinda surprised that this wasn't any better. The fact that it, to a degree, underwhelmed but was still a **** match showed just how good Gargano & Strong are. Gargano would get the victory.

6.) PWG World Tag Team Titles – The Young Bucks vs. Joey Ryan & Candice LaRae: ****1/4

At the start of the show, this was changed to a match with the titles on the line. This was pretty short for a PWG Tag Title Match, but it was definitely the Match of the Night. The people in Reseda LOVE Candice LaRae, and she & Joey Ryan put up really good fight against The Young Bucks. Just a ton of great action here, though in the end, The Young Bucks would retain.

7.) PWG World Title – Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly: ****

O'Reilly got this title shot as a result of winning the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles. A really good World Title Match here. I feel like O'Reilly & Cole have this weird chemistry when they're opponents. Their matches are generally good, sometimes (like here and at ROH Best in the World 2012) great, but are never really amazing. Still, this was a great main event, though the ending featured a ton of interference from the rest of Mount Rushmore, leading to Cole retaining the title.

After the match, Mount Rushmore beats down O'Reilly until the rest of the roster comes out and send Mount Rushmore packing. Johnny Gargano takes the mic. He puts over the PWG crowd and demands that he get a title shot at Cole on the next show. Kyle O'Reilly, in turns, says that after Gargano "takes out that pussy", he wants the first title shot, which Gargano agrees to.

Overall: 8.25/10

This was probably one of the more lackluster showings from PWG in 2013, but one again, the fact that this show was still pretty good just further shows how great of a promotion PWG is. Gargano/Strong and the two title matches were definitely the highlights of this one, and the undercard was very solid as well. On the whole, it wasn't PWG's best showing of 2013, but it was definitely very consistent and still very good.