Break It Down: PWG Against The Grain

Against The Grain on October 4th, 2009.

Opening Match: 2009 Battle of Los Angeles Qualifier: Brandon Cutler vs. Brandon Gatson vs. Malachi Jackson vs. Johnny Goodtime
Cutler clotheslines Goodtime out of the ring before the opening bell. He sends Gatson out as well only to be dumped to the floor by Jackson. Jackson follows out with a corkscrew dive. Back in, Jackson comes off the top with a nice armdrag on Cutler but gets dumped to the outside. Goodtime and Gatson team up to take out Cutler but quickly come to blows. Cutler takes out his three opponents, clotheslining Gatson on the apron and hitting a guillotine leg drop on Goodtime. Goodtime comes back with a slingshot dropkick on Cutler. Gatson catches Goodtime with a boston crab in the ropes. Cutler adds a dropkick but falls victim to a springboard frog splash from Jackson. Goodtime lands a springboard moonsault to the outside onto Jackson and Cutler. Gatson follows with a space flying tiger drop. In the ring, Goodtime hits a flying double stomp on Gatson but Cutler catches him with a lungblower. Jackson lands a shooting star press on Cutler but Gatson breaks up the pin attempt. Jackson goes for a crossbody but Gatson reverses it in midair to qualify for BOLA 2009 at 6:47. That was about the most action you could possibly pack into a seven minute match. PWG has definitely found something special in their local talent and the best part is that everyone is over with the fan base. The finish was absolutely stunning and Gatson is a great choice for BOLA. **¾

Match #2: Kenny King vs. Davey Richards
This is King’s debut in PWG. These two have had a feud in FIP, but those DVDs will probably be released in 2013. Richards connects with a kick but King comes back with a bitch slap. King snaps off some armdrags and adds some chops. Richards takes over after some stiff kicks. He catches King coming off the top with a dropkick. They trade punches and King hits a spin kick. He follows with a cartwheel kick and a blue thunder bomb. Richards is kicked to the outside but is able to block a dive. He lands a missile dropkick along with his handspring kick. Richards hits the Alarm Clock followed by a german suplex for a nearfall. King answers with a spinning uranagi. Richards dodges shotgun knees but King gets his knees up on a shooting star press attempt. Richards locks in a texas cloverleaf for the win at 15:06. This was a major disappointment. King had to go out there and win the fans over, yet he didn’t work in any of his impressive offense except a few kicks. They even got sloppy at times which is odd because they have worked together before. I’m unsure if we’ll ever see King again in PWG after this performance. With all of that said, there was some good action at times. However, they didn’t have the quality match that they needed to. **

Match #3: Scott Lost vs. Joey Ryan
Lost tries a Superman Spear from the opening bell but Ryan blocks it with knees. Ryan starts going to work on Lost’s left shoulder in an attempt to negate the Superman Spear. Lost gets in an inadvertent low blow and follows with shots to the face. They go to the outside where a woman verbally berates Lost. Back in, Lost works in his judo throw and hits a Superman Spear. Ryan connects with a superkick and sends Lost to the floor with a hurricanrana. He follows out with an elbow suicida. In the ring, Ryan catches Lost with a powerslam. After a series of reversals, Lost hits a flatliner. Ryan dodges a kick and hits a pumphandle suplex. He gets caught with an ace crusher and Lost hits a superplex. Ryan blocks the Big Fat Kill and hits a spear along with a powerbomb. He goes back to the shoulder with a submission hold but Lost makes the ropes. Lost is able to hit the Big Fat Kill for the victory at 12:54. There are a lot of little things that make this match worth watching. These are former long-time tag team partners and they show their familiarity with each other during the whole match. The crowd is really starting to get behind Lost and we’ll see how he progresses through BOLA. Smartly worked match that topped my expectations. ***

Match #4: Brian Kendrick vs. Roderick Strong
Kendrick tries his best to dodge Strong’s offense early on. They go to the mat where they trade control. Kendrick just does the little things as a heel, such as using Rick Knox for leverage to get to the ropes and break up a submission. Strong finally lands a chop in the corner. He rams Kendrick into the ringpost and throws him into some chairs. Kendrick blocks another chop with a chair and starts working over Strong’s right arm. There’s a point where Strong is trying to protect is arm in the corner, so Kendrick just kicks him in the face. Strong catches him with a powerslam followed by a gourdbuster and a backbreaker. He hits another powerslam but Kendrick drop toe holds him into the turnbuckles. Kendrick connects with some kicks along with a DDT. Strong catches him up top with a superplex. He lays in some chops but walks into a boot. Strong avoids sliced bread and hits a backbreaker followed by a yakuza kick and a tiger driver for the win at 15:14. This match started out well with Kendrick trying his hardest to avoid any high-impact moves from Strong. He was also good at working over Strong’s right arm. However, Strong had no problem using his right arm after he made his comeback and his selling was barely visible. The finishing stretch was fine but it didn’t feature as many electric exchanges as I expected. It was still a solid match, just under my expectations. ***

Match #5: 2009 Battle of Los Angeles Qualifier: Dustin Cutler vs. Charles Mercury vs. Jerome Robinson vs. Shane Haste
Haste dropkicks Cutler to the floor and sends Robinson out as well. Mercury blocks a dive from Cutler with a dropkick and hits his springboard knee drop. Robinson hits some dropkicks but slips on a springboard attempt. Cutler lays him out with a flatliner and Mercury wants an alliance. They shake hands and go to work on their opponents. Robinson runs up Mercury and flips into a pele kick on Cutler. He follows with a hesitation dropkick in the corner on Mercury. Haste catches Robinson with a nice corner cannonball along with a powerbomb. Mercury lands a moonsault on Haste and follows with a sloppy DDT. Robinson dropsaults Cutler and Mercury to the floor. Haste catches him with an overhead throw and hits a spinning uranagi on Mercury. He connects with a Go 2 Sleep on Cutler but falls victim to a 619 from Robinson. Robinson lays Haste out with a spike piledriver of sorts to qualify for BOLA 2009 at 7:10. Unlike the opener, the local talent simply looked average here. The two botched spots threw the match off and disconnected the crowd until the finish. Additionally, they basically were content to just trade moves while the opener featured much more fluid action. *¾

Match #6: El Generico vs. Chris Hero
The crowd is still pretty split on Hero. Generico snaps off a few armdrags, frustrating Hero. Hero takes Generico down to the mat and mocks him. Generico answers with more armdrags but Hero comes back with some of his own and adds a flash kick. Generico hits a hurricanrana on the floor but falls victim to a senton back in the ring. Hero hits a powerslam along with another senton. He ties Generico up in a wacky submission and turns it into a pin attempt. Hero blocks a leg lariat and goes for a quick rollup, something he’s been doing often throughout the match. Generico tries a rollup to no avail and gets kicked in the face. He finally finds an opening by running up the ropes and hitting a tornado DDT. Hero finally throws his first elbow. He is lured to the outside and Generico follows out with a dive. Back in, Generico lands a flying crossbody followed by a blue thunder bomb. Hero blocks a charge and hits a cravate neckbreaker. He gets Generico up in an electric chair and just slams him down. Hero misses a moonsault and Generico connects with two yakuza kicks followed by a half nelson suplex for a two count. Generico blocks a roaring elbow but Hero plants him with the Hero’s Welcome for the win at 19:00. Hero definitely changed up his style and it was refreshing to see that. As much as some of the fans like to boo him, he showed here just how versatile he can be. Generico is a good opponent to showcase fresh offense against as he takes a beating so well. This was an extremely solid match and I actually think they could have taken it to another level if they added on a few minutes. Nevertheless, I liked what I saw from Hero and everything clicked here. ***½

Match #7: PWG World Tag Team Titles: Matt and Nick Jackson © vs. Kenny Omega and Chuck Taylor
The Young Bucks give Rick Knox some money before the match. The Men of Low Moral Fiber respond with Canadian coins, but Knox wants no part of them. Taylor gets the better of Matt to start. Nick knocks Omega off the apron and the Young Bucks work over Taylor. A fan throws a water bottle in the ring and the crowd is stunned. Nick accidentally double stomps Matt and Omega tags in. Nick catches him with an armdrag but Omega slaps on a side headlock. The MOLMF gain control of the match by taking over on Nick. Omega uses his hand as a chainsaw to inflict some serious damage. Taylor throws a grenade at a little boy at ringside to a big pop. He is backed into the wrong corner and the Young Bucks isolate him. Taylor hits a belly-to-belly suplex on Matt and makes the hot tag. Omega lands a flying crossbody on Nick followed by a hurricanrana. He connects with his stop enzuigiri on Matt. Taylor lands a springboard moonsault on Nick, allowing Omega to hit a dragon suplex on Matt. Matt dodges the Hadouken hits a facebuster on Omega along with a superkick from Nick. Taylor tags in with a missile dropkick on Nick and gets Matt in a pin attempt for a nearfall. He hits Sole Food on Matt and Omega adds a leaping facebuster for a two count. Matt powerbombs Omega into Nick’s knees. Nick dives onto Taylor on the floor while Matt catches Omega with an ace crusher for a nearfall. Omega falls victim to a slingshot facebuster. Taylor catches Nick with Sole Food on the apron. Matt lands a dive to the outside onto Taylor and Omega follows out with a moonsault. Back in, Omega and Matt trade forearms. Everyone trades superkicks and Omega hits Matt with the Hadouken for a two count. Matt counters Croyt’s Wrath into a rollup for a nearfall. Omega gets his knees up on a More Bang for Your Buck attempt and hits Croyt’s Wrath on Matt. Taylor adds an omega driver but Nick pulls Rick Knox out of the ring. Taylor dives to the outside onto Nick. Omega goes for another Hadouken but Matt is too weak to stand up. Matt rolls up Omega while holding the ropes to retain the titles at 23:12. This was a crazy match, as expected. The beginning portion of the match was fun just due to the antics of everyone involved. Let’s be honest, the real value of this contest comes from all of the insane nearfalls down the finishing stretch. Both teams are well-adept at generating suspense and they really made this match feel epic. This was on-route to being tied for my PWG match of the year until the finish. I understand what they were going for, but ending this match with a rollup was not the right call. It would have been just as dastardly if the Young Bucks kicked Omega low and hit More Bang for Your Buck. The finish aside, do yourself a favor and check out this match. ****

Omega gets on the microphone and calls the Young Bucks out on their cheating ways. He says that the Young Bucks won’t be holding the titles much longer and Taylor calls the ending to the match bullshit. Omega finishes by saying that the crowd makes him feel like being a good guy every once and awhile.

The 411: Against The Grain is another solid show in a long line of them this year for PWG. Ryan and Lost surprise with a smartly worked encounter while Strong and Kendrick provide a solid match despite my higher expectations for it. The double main event brings more quality with Hero showcasing his new style in a fresh performance and what follows is an insane tag team title match that is only held back by its weak finish. This show may be forgotten as it’s between the awesome Guerre Sans Frontieres and BOLA, but don’t sleep on it. There’s more than enough good stuff here to give a recommendation.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]