PWG From Out Of Nowhere Review

A new era begins in PWG!

PWG From Out Of Nowhere

Reseda, California 2/27/15

With Ring of Honor pulling their contracted talents (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, & Michael Elgin) from appearing in PWG, it signaled the end of an era. With that, came the opportunity for PWG to inject some fresh faces into the promotion. They didn’t disappoint, as we have a number of talents making their PWG debut at the promotion’s first event of 2015!

1.) Biff Busick vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey: ****

The show kicks off with Biff Busick taking on the debuting “Speedball” Mike Bailey, who has made appearances in places like CZW, Beyond Wrestling, and other promotions across the Northeast & Canada. He’s also faced Busick a few times before. This match certainly didn’t disappoint. This was a freaking great. What an opening match! Busick’s popularity in Reseda continues to rise, while Bailey definitely won the crowd over with his performance. If you’ve never seen Mike Bailey before, you need to. Some of the things he can pull off inside a wrestling ring are just incredible. In the end, however, Busick would pick up the victory.

2.) Cedric Alexander vs. “Sicilian Psychopath” Tommaso Ciampa: ***1/2

Up next we have a battle of ROH stars. While it wasn’t quite as good as the opening match, this was still a very good match. Really solid action from both guys, as you would expect. In the end, Alexander would get the win after hitting the Lumbar Check.

3.) Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?) vs. The Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds & John Silver): ***

The Beaver Boys mainly make their home in CZW, though they’ve recently started to branch out to other promotions. Reynolds & Silver are making their debut against Chuck Taylor & Trent?, aka Best Friends. As you may have guessed, this quickly turned into a comedy match. Most of it surrounded Reynolds pretending to ejaculate on Trent?, and then wiping up the “cum” on a rag, and then fighting over the rag. There was good action in here, but I really wasn’t into the fake ejaculation stuff, as far as comedy stuff goes. It was a fun match, though some may have liked it a tad more than me. It did its job, I suppose.

4.) ACH vs. AR Fox: ***1/4

Here we have a battle of high flyers! When these two are teaming up, they’re known as The African American Wolves. Another pretty solid match. It was entertaining for what it was, though based on reactions I’ve seen from a lot of other people, AR Fox’s stock has seemingly gone down in the last year. He’s still a fun high flyer to watch, but I guess people are getting tired of him…probably because he really hasn’t changed all that much. Still, as I said, the match was entertaining. ACH broke out his Stone Cold shtick again, which was pretty fun. In the end, ACH would get the win with a bridging German Suplex, which he’s won a few matches with on occasion on ROH.

5.) Chris Hero vs. Drew Gulak: ***3/4

I had my concerns about Drew Gulak when I first heard he was coming into PWG, as I wasn’t sure if his style would fit in this company, in front of those fans. However, if there’s anyone who can help him out in that regard, it’s Chris Hero. This was a very good match. It had everything from hard strikes to really nice counters, and everything in between. I think this was probably Gulak’s best PWG outing to date. With that said, he still fell to Chris Hero, who put him away with a brutal jumping piledriver.

6.) Ricochet vs. Matt Sydal: ****1/4

These two had a match back at Evolve 32 for the Open The Freedom Gate Title. However, Sydal was just coming off of a long layoff, and was still getting used to things on the independent scene again. Now, Sydal is at full strength. As you would expect, this was a pretty great match! I thought these guys meshed really well together, and it showed in the quality of the match they produced. Lots of amazing action from both guys. In the end, Ricochet would pick over the win over Matt Sydal.

7.) The Monster Mafia (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs. The Young Bucks: ****1/4

In what was probably the most anticipated debut of the night, The Monster Mafia of Ethan Page & Josh Alexander make their (some say long overdue) debut in PWG, and they’re taking on The Young Bucks. Another really great match on this show! As you would expect, The Young Bucks were awesome, but The Monster Mafia looked very impressive in this match. They certainly won over the crowd as well. A particular note is that Dave Meltzer was in attendance, and you knew The Young Bucks were going to be working extra hard. The match ended with The Young Bucks blowing a kiss to Dave Meltzer before hitting The Meltzer Driver for the win.

8.) PWG World Title – Roderick Strong vs. Trevor Lee: ****

It’s been a really interesting ride for Trevor Lee in PWG. It was around this time last year that he made his PWG debut, and now he’s in the Main Event challenging for the World Title. While this wasn’t quite as good as the previous two matches, it was still a pretty great Main Event. Roderick Strong is an incredible athlete, and Trevor Lee really showed a lot against the PWG World Champion. Lots of cool action in this one. Eventually, after a really hard fought affair, Strong would get the victory, retaining the PWG World Title.

Overall: 8.75/10

Many people were wondering how PWG would look after the exodus of contracted Ring of Honor talent. I think it’s fair to say that, so far, they’ve put some of that doubt to rest. A really good show from PWG. Mike Bailey, The Beaver Boys, Drew Gulak, & The Monster Mafia all got a chance to shine in their own unique way. Of course, we had a ton of quality matches, with the final three matches really standing out. A strong (no pun intended) start to 2015 for PWG.