PWX Taking it’s aspirations to new Highs in 2014- Full Review January Triple Shot

PWX kicked off the new year very ambitiously with a show at Tremont Music Hall followed by a concert from former WWE Divas Champion,TNA Knockouts champion and current Country music star Mickie James. The always excellent talent roster from PWX, mixed with ROH and some of the best indy talents in the world knocked it out of the park as usual. This show did feel rushed with the pending concert but as you will see on PWX TV in the Charlotte area or in the Triad beginning in February, PWX matches always deliver! Note: You can also check out The Xperience: PWX TV episodes for FREE at http://www.pwxprowrestling.com each Wednesday or Thursday the week after they’ve aired. Aside from the rushed feel of the show,the matches were put together nicely from top to bottom and PWX fans as always were treated to an excellent mixture of in ring action. Fan favorite “Cauliflower” Chase Brown started the year on the right foot with a win over Georgia based Shaun Tempers. Chase has been gaining momentum with the PWX fan base but hasn’t had much luck in the win/loss column until the debut show of the year. The Catch Wrestling phenom who claims he can “ride any man straight to hell” proved himself in a good showing here and the fans continue to support Chase as he climbs the ladder in PWX. Next the fans were treated to a showcase between the departing Davey Richards and another Georgia standout Kyle Matthews. Matthews scored a massive coupe in his PWX debut pinning Adam Page and looked equally as impressive in a losing effort at Tremont to Davey. Richards left it all in the ring for what could’ve been his final weekend in a PWX ring and scored the submission win tapping Matthews to a Texas Cloverleaf.

Perhaps, no one is on a bigger roll in PWX than “Mr Standing 450” Rich Swann. Swann won a 4 way the previous month to become #1 contender to the PWX championship, but Swann took on the challenge of 1/2 of the ROH tag champions rEDragon in Kyle O’Reilly. This for me stood above all the rest as Match of the night. O’Reilly & Swann went at it for nearly 20 mins, exchanging hold after hold but in the end Swann picked up the huge victory ahead of his biggest match to date in Premiere Wrestling Xperience.

8 of the most cheered and hated men in PWX collided next as Los Ben Dejos, Rios & Cruz continued their long feud with tag champions Worst Case Scenario Ethan Case & Elijah Evans IV. Cruz & Rios enlisted the help of the newly formed “Mighty Cocksmen” Zane Riley & Lance Lude and WCS’ talent manager THE Tommy Thomas did some talent scouting with ITV champion “Mr Elite” Drew Myers and rounded out his team with Craig Huffman. This was a wild one from the start as is always the case with this cast of characters. In the end Los Ben Dejos, Riley & Huffman got a measure of revenge picking up the win. It was then announced at February’s Rise of a Champion Anniversiary weekend, Cruz & Rios would get another shot at the PWX tag team titles but this time THE Tommy Thomas must be part of the match and if he is pinned, Case & Evans WILL lose those coveted PWX tag team titles.

Speaking of those tag titles, the history is long between “The Southern Savior” John Skyler and “Manscout” Jake Manning. Since being put together by random draw last year in the “Hunt for Gold” tag tournament these two can not and perhaps DO not want to see eye to eye. Manning defended the titles while Skyler was on a tour of the UK, but soon after his return The Southern Savior betrayed Manning and their feud rages on. This time each man chose a partner to join them, Skyler brought in ROH superstar “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin and The Manscout countered with an odd choice in “Mr Wrestling” Kevin Steen. The match was fairly even and a bit odd as Steen & Manning seemed to enjoy being partners but Steen does not play well with others and after a miscommunication with Jake, Mr Wrestling hit a package piledriver on his partner allowing Skyler & Elgin to pick up the win.

The main event saw the reformation of 7OH!4 PWX Champion “The Midnight Son” Caleb Konley and Cedric Alexander. The most popular tag team in PWX reformed to take on the recently formed Country Jacked Adam Page & Corey Hollis. This was not a happy reunion for Konley & Alexander as they could not get on the same page and coupled with the recent momentum Country Jacked is having, Page & Hollis picked up a huge tag team victory as Page pinned the PWX champion, Konley’s first loss in quite some time. After the match Alexander tried to talk to his longtime friend and partner but Konley wanted none of it and left the ring with his PWX championship. As seen on PWX TV, 7OH!4 will face off on night 1 of Rise of a Champion February 15th for the PWX title with the winner facing off with “Stronger than Death” Matt Hardy the next night in Winston Salem.

#1MansOpinion: From the opening match and a big win for “Cauliflower” Chase Brown, to the excellent showcase matches from Kyle Matthews, Davey Richards, Rich Swann, & Kyle O’Reilly, to the wild melees of the 8 man tag and Pick Your Partner showdowns, leading up to a huge win and the possible end of 7OH!4 PWX had an excellent opening show for the new year. Even with the rushed feel of some of the matches, it all flowed nicely and PWX is never at a loss for in ring talent. This was admittedly the weakest show of the weekend but by PWX standards this show still was great fun and only the precursor to a PHENOMENAL (no pun intended) first triple shot weekend for the Premiere Wrestling Xperience.

Overall Show Rating: 7/10

Quick Results:

“Cauliflower” Chase Brown beat “The Temptation” Shaun Tempers with an inside cradle.

Davey Richards forced Kyle Matthews to submit to the Texas cloverleaf in an excellent match.

# 1 Contender to the PWX championship Rich Swann defeated Kyle O’ Reilly with a pin reversal out of a triangle choke.

Los Ben Dejos, Zane Riley & Lance Lude beat PWX Tag Champs Worst Case Scenario, TV Champ Mr Elite Drew Myers & Craig Huffman when Zane pinned Elite with a “Belushi Driver”

“The Southern Savior” John Skyler & Michael Elgin beat “Manscout” Jake Manning & Kevin Steen when Skyler pinned Manning after Elgin hit both men with a dual fall away slam. Prior to the finish, Elgin ran Jake into Steen, who responded by package pile driving his partner The ManScout.

Country Jacked( Adam Page & Corey Hollis) beat 7OH!4 (Caleb Konley & Cedric Alexander) when page pinned PWX champ Konley after a miscommunication between 7OH!4 the two partners had words after & the PWX champ left his partner alone in the ring to end the show.

PWX Taken By Force
January 18, 2014
Hickory Metro Convention Center
Hickory, NC

Note: Unfortunately, this was my second PWX show missed in as many years and I missed THE WRONG SHOW!! Luckily, my brother Travis was there to live tweet all the action from Hickory and has been nice enough to give his perspective on what may have very well stole a packed debut weekend for Premiere Wrestling Xperience.

As has become common place for Hickory, the fans packed in to witness the second night of the big pwx triple shot weekend. From the beginning of the show I could tell that this was going to be a hot crazy crowd as they were letting the wrestlers hear it from the opening bell.

The opening match saw the PWX ITV champion “Mr Elite” Drew Myers team up with PWX Newcomer Shaun Tempers to take on the team of “Cauliflower” Chase Brown and Steven “The Fever” Walters. It was a bit slow of a match but both teams looked good. A few good minutes of action between Myers and Brown (two of the most under rated wrestlers in pwx in my opinion) including Myers picking up the win for his team with a bridging German suplex.

Next up was Ring of Honors Kyle O Reilly taking on Kyle Matthews. This match may very well be my match of the night or a close second. It was as good of a traditional submission based technical match that I’ve ever seen at PWX. It went back and forth the entire match, Matthews working the leg and back and O Reilly working the arm. Incredibly Matthews forced O Reilly to submit to a royal octopus hold to gain the win.

PWX world tag team champions Worse Case Scenario (Ethan Case & Elijah Evans IV) with their talent representative THE Tommy Thomas teamed with “Southern Savior” John Skyler to take on Los Ben Dejos and Lance Lude. This match was fast paced high flying action for the first half of the match including an amazing triple tope by Cruz, Rios, and Lude. The champions and Skyler tried to slow the action by turning there concentration towards double team moves and cutting off the ring. It was not meant to be as Cruz caught Evans with a springboard 450 splash to give his team the win.

Up next “Manscout” Jake Manning tried to get a measure of revenge against the man who turned on him the night before in Kevin Steen. This match was everything the last match wasn’t, which isn’t a bad thing. It started with Steen giving Manning everything he had in the ring but not being able to get a pinfall. The action spilled to the outside where both men brawled all over the Hickory Convention Center. Manning got the upper hand and chased Steen back into the ring. He even hit a huge piledriver that would have got the pin if not for John Skyler distracting the referee. Manning turned his attention to Skyler which allowed Steen to hit a package piledriver for the win.

The next match saw Davey Richards in one of his last PWX appearances taking on Corey Hollis of Country Jacked. This is one of the many must see matches from this event. It was the best I’ve ever seen Davey look in PWX. He wasn’t holding anything back in this match and he was even a little relaxed as far as his
Usually serious attitude goes. These two went nearly 20 minutes including some of the loudest chops I’ve ever heard. Corey Hollis has improved so much in the last 2 years that I’ve seen him wrestle and he definitely deserves to be a top guy in PWX. Richards thought he was in control when he locked on the Texas cloverleaf but Hollis surprised him with a rollup to get the pin in a fantastic contest.

After intermission it was time for the PWX Dream match series with “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin trying to be the one to finally defeat Cedric Alexander. This match is probably my match of the night by the smallest of margins. These two hit everything in there arsenal to try and win this match. It was an incredible hard hitting match that has to be seen. Cedric Alexander should be on his way up in whatever he decides to do. He is one of the best in any wrestling promotion in my opinion. Elgin looked to have Alexander’s number and hit a brutal buckle bomb. However, Alexander countered with a quick double leg roll up before Elgin could follow up with his spinning powerbomb. Just a great performance from both guys.

The next match saw the tag team of Zane Riley and Amanda Rodriguez versus Luke “Doc” Gallows and Amber O Neal. This match was mostly comedy but I felt it was done right. It was unlike anything else on the show and all 4 participants were invested in it which made it click. That combined with seeing Doc throw around a big guy in Riley made it a fun match. O Neal pinned Rodriguez with an X Factor to pick up the win.

In the main event Caleb Konley defended the PWX World championship versus number one contender Rich Swann. This was by far my favorite Konley match I’ve ever seen. He and Swann matched each other move for move and it was an incredible match. It was in the ring, out of the ring, high flying and grinding all wrapped into one match. There was a brutal looking spot where Konley half and half suplexed Swann from the ring apron to the floor which appeared to bloody up both men. The finish came with Swann tapping out to Konleys Oh face submission. I am not a fan of this move or any submission where your opponent can’t physically tap but this seemed like the perfect ending for the match these two men just had.

#1OTHERMansOpinion: To sum this event up, it was pretty much incredible from bell to bell. Every match fit in its place and there was something for everyone. Technical, high spot, brawling, comedy, hard hitting or whatever your preference is, there is something on this card for you. It was for me the best PWX event in the last year but again that’s just my opinion. You should judge for yourself and help
support PWX and independent wrestling in general by going to these shows and buying these DVDs. Its as close to the wrestling you grew up on as you’ll ever find which is the biggest compliment I can think to give– Travis Polk

Overall Show Rating: 9.5/10

“Phenomenal Debut”
1-19-14
Ziggy’s
Winston Salem, NC

On Sunday January 20th, the last night of PWX’s very first triple shot weekend, The Premiere Wrestling Xperience debuted at Ziggy’s in Winston Salem. What adebut it was! Over 500 fans attended ‘Phenomenal Debut’ sponsored by WrestleCade headlined by former Impact Wrestling triple crown winner AJ Styles facing Cedric Alexander in the Dream Match Series. These two over delivered but more on that later, let’s take a full look at the aptly named ‘Phenomenal Debut’ of PWX in Winston Salem.

The night kicked off with the return of crowd favorite Lodi to PWX. Lodi got the crowd going from the start with his energetic, and always extended entrance. The former Flock member faced off with PWX regular & ROH Top Prospect contender Andrew Everett. This was a clash of different styles and while Everett was able to give Lodi a fight, the youngster couldn’t get his full aerial offense rolling and Lodi hit a DDT picking up a big win in his PWX return.

Next, fans were treated to a battle of two top stars from Ring of Honor as “Unbreakable” Michael
Elgin faced Kyle O’Reilly in an outstanding match that could’ve main evented any show, ANYWHERE. Elgin & O’Reilly went back & forth with strong style action for nearly 20 minutes and personally I could’ve watched another hour at least. Several near falls & even more brutal kicks, chops, and back fists later. Elgin got the win with an buckle bomb followed by an Elgin bomb. On another stacked show, this was my MOTN, great stuff from both these incredible talents.

PWX leaves very little time to catch your breath as the next match saw Rich Swann take on Davey Richards!! Swann nearly became PWX champion the previous night in an excellent match with Caleb Konley and this was perhaps a farewell for Richards in PWX, you can catch him on Spike TV Thursday nights very soon. Best of luck to Davey on this next chapter of his career. Back to the match in Winston, Davey left it all in the ring as he had the previous nights and he and Mr. Standing 450 had a lot of fun along the way. After doling out “WolfPac” greetings to one another and a bit of a feeling out process, Swann and Richards unleashed each of their full arsenals. Swann flipped, flew & out maneuvered while Davey got his chops and various technical holds in, while doing a bit of flying himself. In the end, Richards left PWX on a successful note, hooking an inside cradle after blocking a high elevation frog splash with his knees. The American Wolf & Mr Standing 450 hugged it out after as the fans gave both men a standing ovation.

Whew! You exhausted yet? Because that was just the first 1/3 of this amazing show! We returned to action with another “Dream Partner” match in the storied feud between John Skyler & Jake Manning. Skyler brought out Kevin Steen who has also had some issues with The ManScout this weekend but it Manning went with a superhero as his partner, recruiting The Hurricane Shane Helms! This was a really enjoyable match, and surpassed my expectations. The combination of talent in the ring together was unique and worked really well. Helms & Manning made a very good tag team picking up the win as The Hurricane convinced Manning and Steen they were better together than at each other’s throats. As I’ve said before, Steen just does not play well with others as for the second of three nights he ended the night delivering a package pile driver(actually two of them) to his tag partner.

Amber O’Neal was in action next as she once again faced Amanda Rodriguez and once again “The Ice Queen” picked up the win over her less experienced foe. This time however it was Luke Gallows hitting a big boot on Amanda allowing Amber to get the win. The story here was after the match as O’Neal challenged PWX to get her some stronger competition and while they’re at it a Women’s Championship that will show she’s the best. We will keep you updated as more news comes out regarding the future of the women’s division in PWX.

THE Tommy Thomas lead his clients the PWX tag team champions The Worst Case Scenario(Ethan Case & Elijah Evans IV) to the ring to defend the titles against Los Ben Dejos(Cruz & Rios) who have been chasing the champions for three months now. Cruz & Rios have brought an exciting style to PWX since debuting with their high flying and high octane offense. WCS continues to escape with their tag titles and did so in Winston once again. Los Ben Dejos came as close to capturing the titles as they have to date but Thomas provided enough distraction for his clients to hit a double team jackhammer to remain on top of the PWX tag team mountain. Cruz & Rios will have one more shot, perhaps their last in February, and this time THE Tommy Thomas must be involved in the match and if he’s pinned his clients lose the tag titles they hold so dear.

The PWX championship was on the line to begin the final 2/3 of this Phenomenal Debut in Winston Salem as Caleb Konley defended against Luke “DOC” Gallows. It was clear from the start, this was more about Gallows booting Konley’s girlfriend earlier in the night and less about the PWX title. Konley charged the ring and he & half of the IWGP tag champions, Gallows brawled to the bar area, taking out entire sections of chairs and using any hard surface in the building to brutalize their opponent. The action returned to the ring where Gallows did all he could to punish the PWX champ but it was Konley who retained both his title and a measure of revenge getting a rolling pin out of a choke slam.

The final third of PWX’s opening weekend continued with a wild and crazy 4 team tag match. Country Jacked(Corey Hollis and Adam Page) continued their roll defeating “Cauliflower” Chase Brown & Kyle Matthews, ITV champion “Mr Elite” Drew Myers & “The Temptation” Shaun Tempers and The Mighty Cocksmen (Zane Riley and Lance Lude) the match saw a lot of new teams honing their skills and an awesome suplex spot involving all 8 men. It remains to be seem which other teams will stand the test of time but after Corey Hollis pinned Lude to win the match for his team. Afterwards Country Jacked made their intentions known to be the best in PWX with a challenge to the Dojo Bros(Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong) we have since learned Eddie will not be able to make it but The Dojo Bros present: “Eddie & The Edwards” (Roderick Strong joined by Trent?) as the Rise of a Champions 9 super cards continue to get better and better.

After eight great matches to show Winston Salem what the Premiere Wrestling Xperience is all about, the stage was set for what many in attendance paid to see. “Phenomenal” AJ Styles faced “Kick 2 Kill” Cedric Alexander in Alexander’s Dream Match Series. With wins over guys like Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Jay Lethal and many others this was Cedric’s highest profile matchup to date. The crowd erupted as each man a entered the ring and stayed glued to every move throughout this nearly 30 minute clinic from two of the best talents in professional wrestling. It was a battle filled with honor as were all the previous bouts in this outstanding dream series, until Country Jacked made another impact and distracted Cedric. Alexander dispelled both Page & Hollis but when turning his attention back on
AJ, Cedric got hit with the “Styles Clash” and The Phenomenal One dealt Alexander his only loss in singles action in quite some time. PWX has release the entire main event from “Phenomenal Debut” absolutely FREE and if you’ve yet to see it, I highly recommend you click the link at the end of the column.

#1MansOpinion: Perhaps never in it’s history has PWX had a more aptly named show than “Phenomenal Debut” in Winston Salem. The core roster along with many of the top stars in all of professional wrestling showed Winston Salem what all the hype is about and that it will only get bigger and better going forward. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better night of pro wrestling than Premiere Wrestling
Xperience, and on a larger scale the build for future shows keeps you wanting more. We’ll take a full look at both nights of Rise of a Champion 9 later in the month but for now check out PWX on highspots.com VOD and DVD as well as weekly episodes of The Xperience TV show for FREE each Wednesday at http://www.pwxprowrestling.com

Overall Show Rating: 8.5/10

Quick Results

Lodi def Andrew Everett
Michael Elgin def Kyle O’Reilly with an Elgin Bomb
Davey Richards def Rich Swann with a inside cradle after blocking a frog splash with his knees. #PWX
Jake Manning & Shane Helms def John Skyler and Kevin Steen when Helms pins Skyler w/ a hurri slam
– Steen package piledrove Skyler after the match.
Amber O’Neal def Amanda Rodriguez after Doc Gallows hits Amanda with a big boot.
Amber asks PWX to bring a women’s title if they want her back
PWX Tag Titles
Worst Case Scenario Elijah Evans IV & Ethan Case def Los Ben Dejos (Jay Rios & Cruz) when Case pins Rios after a double team jackhammer
PWX Title
Caleb Konley def Doc Gallows with a rollup out of a choke slam.
4 Way tag team match
Country Jacked (Corey Hollis & Adam Page) def Lance Lude & Zane Riley/Chase Brown & Kyle Matthews/Mr. Elite Drew Myers & Shaun Tempers when Hollis pins Lude after Page hits a modified kryptonite krunch
– Country Jacked lays out a challenge to Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong, The
Dojo Bros for Rise Of A Champion in Feb Dream match Series
AJ Styles def Cedric Alexander after Country Jacked runs in causing a distraction allowing Styles to hit the Styles Clash giving Cedric Alexander his
1st loss in the Dream Series
– post match Styles says it’s no gimmick or storyline he doesn’t work for Dixie he works for the fans. Styles gives major respect to Cedric.

See The Dream Match Series Cedric Alexander vs “Pheomenal” AJ Styles FREE from www.pwxprowrestling.com