Views from the Hawke’s Nest: PWG Card Subject to Change (2005)

January 22, 2005
Los Angeles, California

I bought this mp4 from Highspots. It did not contain a commentary track. That made me sad.

January 22, 2005
Los Angeles, California

Paul T couldn’t be there tonight, so he’s named Disco Machine the Junior Executive Vice President Commissioner in Training for the evening.

The Ballard Brothers & Ronin VS. Topgun Talwar & Excalibur & Supa Badd
Ronin was worked over for a while. He eventually tagged out, and the both Ballard Brothers tagged in. They managed to isolate Excalibur, and he then got worked over for a while. The Ballards threatened to use a hockey stick on Excalibur, but Talwar and Supa Badd just ran in and made the save. Get control of this, Rick Knox! One of the Ballards was worked over for a while until he tagged out to Ronin. The teams went back and forth for way too long. Excalibur hit Ronin with a Spider German, but then the Ballards attacked Excalibur. More stuff happened. Topgun accidentally hit Excalibur with a lariat. The Ballards then gave Excalibur a reverse FU: 1…2…3

Excalibur attacked Disco Machine and Topgun after the show. Disco suspended Excalibur from the next show.

This was a mess. It was just a bunch of stuff happening with no rhyme or reason. This is a far cry from the hot openers with local talent that would become standard for PWG years later.
Match Rating: *

Colt Cabana vs. Tony Stradlin
They did a lot of mat stuff at the start with Colt mixing in some of his usual tricks and whatnot. The early story was that Stradlin was incredibly game for all of this. Colt managed to get control of the match for a bit, but Stradlin made a really fun comeback. He got a nearfall with a running knee. They went back and forth. Colt got a nearfall with a neckbreaker, but Stradlin fired back with a Trouble in Paradise. Colt went for the Colt 45, but Stradlin reversed it into a fruit roll-up: 1…2…3!

This was a ton of fun and really well-worked. Cabana in 2005 wrestled with a much greater sense of trying to win, and he’s far more interesting as a result. Stradlin signed a developmental deal with WWE shortly after this, but he got released before ever making it to WWE television.
Match Rating: **3/4

The Human Tornado vs. B-Boy
Tornado hit a Pimp Slap early, which pissed B-Boy off. And again. B-Boy came back with a headbutt. B-Boy was in control for a while. B-Boy dropped Tornado on his head a few times. The crowd really rally behind Tornado. Tornado managed to hit a Yakuza, but B-Boy then dropped him on his head with a German. Tornado finally started a proper comeback, but his left arm was injured. His comeback was kind of meh, which is a shame because the heat segment was really strong. B-Boy came back with some strikes, a Shining Wizard, and a 2K1 Driver: 1…2…3

B-Boy put Tornado over after the match.

Wow, this was pretty much a complete squash. B-Boy genuinely looked fantastic here, and that may be the first real compliment I have ever paid Mr. Boy. The match was as good as it could be considering there was no real comeback.
Match Rating: **1/2

The Havana Pitbulls (Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes) vs. The Aerial Express (Quicksilver & Scorpio Sky)
The match started as a big brawl. I forgot that Sky used to wear a mask. Sky and Reyes ended up on the ring, but Romero and Quicksilver continued to brawl on the floor for a bit. A tag team professional wrestling match eventually broke out. Reyes was worked over for a while. Reyes eventually hit a bunch of suplexes and then tagged out to Romero. Romero made a comeback. Romero went for a sunset flip pin, but Sky sat down and held onto the ropes: 1…2…3!

The Aerial Express are now the number one contenders for the tag titles.

I did not really enjoy this at all. The brawling was flat, there was a long heat segment, and the payoff to all of that was really unsatisfying.
Match Rating: ½*

Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero
There was a fair amount of tomfoolery early on based on Hero out-wrestling Dragon and Dragon not being able to do Hero-like rolls. Then they traded a lot of holds. Hero got control of the match after Dragon’s left leg got hung up in the ropes. Hero did hit a kneeDT, which is always something I appreciate. Hero was working over the injured leg for a while. Dragon eventually made a comeback and did not sell his knee whatsoever. Hero cut him off and went right back after the knee. Dragon made another comeback, and once again, did not sell the knee at all. What the fuck, Dragon? Dragon hit a superplex, but then Hero came back with a Cloverleaf. Dragon made the ropes. They traded Airplane Spins. Dragon still refuses to sell the knee. They traded small packages. Hero eventually couldn’t escape, and Dragon won. Bryan was so dizzy that he fell to the floor when he tried to celebrate. I suppose his knee could have given out to.

I feel confident in saying that this was one of the worst matches of Bryan Danielson’s career. The great majority of the match was based on Hero working over Bryan’s knee, and Bryan just flat-out refused to sell the knee. I genuinely could not believe my eyes. On top of that, it went for 20+ minutes for absolutely no reason. Some of the comedy worked in the match at least.
Match Rating: *

Arrogance© (Scott Lost & Chris Bosh) vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) [PWG Tag Team Championship Match]
I honestly have no idea which Los Luchas is Phoenix and which is Zokre. Since there is no commentary, I cannot even figure it out. I heard one of them call the other “Phoenix” though, and I’m just going to operate under the assumption that I heard that correctly. Los Luchas ran through Arrogance to start the match. Phoenix Star was eventually cut off and worked over for a while. The match broke down into a brawl on the floor. Then, the match went back to being Phoenix Star getting worked over. He hit a poor dropkick on Arrogance, and then tagged to Zokre. Zokre made a comeback. The back and forth action commenced. Zokre hit a great Asai Moonsault. Bosh eventually hit Star with a screwdriver: 1…2…3

This match was pretty sloppy and disjointed, but they managed to pull off enough cool stuff to entertain me mildly.
Match Rating: **1/2

Frankie Kazarian came out after the match. He told Arrogance they could either hang with him or Valentina. Not both. Arrogance inspect Valentina’s crotch. Then they inspected Kaz. They chose Kaz. Valentina then low blowed Kaz. Arrogance followed that up with a beatdown. This was awful in almost every single way.

Super Dragon© vs. Homicide [PWG World Heavyweight Championship]
I feel like these two would bring out the worst in each other.

Not much of note happened until Dragon hit a tope suicida. I have low standards for “of note.” They brawled on the floor a bunch after that. They got back in the ring, and Homicide hit a tornado DDT. Homicide was in control for a bit after that for a while. Dragon finally caught Homicide with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to get back in the match. Dragon got a nearfall with the Curb Stomp. Homicide no-sold a German and hit the tope con hello. Homicide got a STF, but Dragon made the ropes. Homicide was still in control after that. Homicide hit an Ace Crusher for a nearfall. Dragon came back with a diving elbow out of nowhere. They avoided each other’s finishers until Dragon hit the Psycho Driver II out of nowhere: 1…2…3

I enjoyed parts of this match more than I expected, but it was not especially interesting. The match was neither substantive nor crazy enough to make up for that.
Match Rating: **

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The 411: This show was definitely the worst PWG that I have ever seen. I bought this for $1.99 at Highspots, and I got ripped off. You know it's a bad show when Bryan fucking Danielson had a near DUD of a match.
Final Score:  1.5   [ Extremely Horrendous ]