October 21st, 2017

Opening Match:  Jonah Rock vs. Adam Brooks
Brooks charges at the opening bell with a corner dropkick and snaps off a hurricanrana.  He lands a fosbury flop to the floor.  Back in, Rock connects with a few chops and hits a rolling senton.  Brooks responds with a leg lariat and a basement dropkick.  He adds a reverse hurricanrana and both men are down.  Rock elevates Brooks into a german suplex.  Brooks blocks a charge with an enzuigiri but misses a moonsault.  Rock connects with a yakuza kick and hits a sit-out powerbomb for a nearfall.  Brooks moves out of the way of a frog splash and hits a codebreaker.  He adds a nice tornado DDT for a two count.  Rock blocks a swantan with knees and connects with a lariat.  Brooks shoves the referee into the ropes to crotch Rock on the top rope.  Rock blocks a top-rope hurricanrana, hits a super liger bomb, and follows with a brainbuster for the win at 10:43.  This was a fine showcase for Rock and Brooks, but it felt like a collection of moves at times and I had a difficult time getting invested in the action.  The crowd came alive for the bigger moments, though, and in that sense they delivered a decent opener.  **½

Match #2:  The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) vs. Mark Haskins and Morgan Webster
Webster finds creative ways to get Nick to do mannerisms that might land him a cease and desist letter.  Webster and Haskins offer the Bucks a “too sweet.”  That sends the Bucks into a blind rage.  Webster and Haskins apply stereo octopus stretches and force the Bucks to “too sweet” each other.  Nick runs up the ropes and dropkicks Webster while landing a crossbody onto Haskins.  The Bucks land stereo dives to the floor.  Back in, they isolate Webster.  The crowd goes crazy for a sequence where they gradually increase the number of boots in the corner that they shove Webster’s face into.  Haskins eventually gets the tag and cleans house with strikes.  Matt hits an insane facebuster on Morgan onto the apron.  Nick goes crazy with superkicks and german suplexes Haskins onto the apron.  Matt synchs in a sharpshooter on Haskins and Nick hits a slingshot facebuster while he’s in the hold.  Haskins is able to reach the bottom rope.  Webster puts his helmet on to block superkicks and connects with a double lariat.  Haskins and Webster apply stereo submissions but the Bucks power out of them.  Haskins and Matt lock in stereo sharpshooters and talk trash to each other.  Everyone trades submission attempts.  Haskins hits a tombstone on Matt for a nearfall.  Nick superkicks Haskins and the Bucks follow with the Meltzer Driver.  The Bucks apply stereo sharpshooters for the victory at 17:44.  The way the Bucks wrestled this match is great evidence that they are just on another level right now as far as tag team wrestling is concerned.  Haskins and Webster made for a great makeshift team as well.  The wrestling itself was terrific and the antics actually added to the action.  Finally, the finish paying off the numerous sharpshooter attempts was a great touch.  There is nothing to complain about here.  ***¾

Match #3:  Marty Scurll vs. Joey Janela
Scurll calls Janela a spot monkey who belongs in the backyard.  Oh man.  They wrestle to a stalemate as Janela periodically defends backyard wrestling.  Janela whiffs on a dive attempt and crashes to the floor.  Scurll throws a chair at him and takes over back in the ring.  Janela comes back with a running knee strike from the apron.  He follows with more offense at ringside.  Back in, Janela connects with a diving uppercut.  They exchange superkicks.  Scurll tries a rollup while using the ropes for leverage but the referee catches him.  He then gets caught holding the rights.  The referee shoves Scurll into a rollup from Janela for a nearfall.  Janela hits a package piledriver but finds knees on a swantan attempt.  Scurll connects with a superkick from the apron.  They trade forearms and fall to the floor.  Scurll throws some chairs into the ring.  He puts Janela’s fingers in between two chairs and kicks the chairs.  Scurll military presses Janela into a pyramid of chairs and applies the chickenwing for the win at 14:12.  Something was missing from this one for me.  Scurll insulting Janela was intriguing early on, but the rest of the match didn’t reflect the added intensity that those insults should have brought.  Janela’s matches in PWG have all felt very similar for some reason.  **¾

Match #4:  Zack Sabre Jr. vs. WALTER
WALTER muscles Sabre around the ring to start.  They battle over a test of strength and Sabre is impressively able to carry WALTER’s body weight.  WALTER runs through some kicks and sends Sabre to the floor with a shoulder tackle.  He punishes Sabre with numerous chops around ringside.  Sabre fires back with kicks but WALTER military presses him back into the ring.  WALTER starts going crazy with chops.  Sabre is FIRED UP!  The crowd is certainly responding to the increased intensity.  WALTER repeatedly stomps Sabre in the corner and hits a german suplex.  He adds a butterfly suplex for a nearfall.  WALTER connects with a shotgun dropkick and a lariat but Sabre won’t stay down.  Sabre connects with a penalty kick to create some space.  He charges but WALTER boots him away.  Sabre applies a triangle choke but WALTER powerbombs out of the hold.  WALTER hits a huge butterfly suplex.  They exchange slaps and WALTER locks in a sleeper hold for the victory at 20:04.  We’ve seen from Sabre’s EVOLVE matches against Chris Hero that his approach to wrestling larger opponents is to outsmart and outlast them.  WALTER came into this match after a tough loss to Ricochet last night and was more determined than ever.  The story pretty much told itself, but what really put this contest over the top was their intensity.  They weren’t engaging in human chess; rather, they were trying to inflict as much damage as possible.  This one is worth seeking out if you’re a fan of either wrestler.  ****

Match #5:  Matt Sydal vs. Rey Horus vs. Trent
Trent hits a double shoulder block to show that he is a ~heavyweight~.  Sydal and Horus take him out with dropkicks and then trade counters.  Trent interrupts their exchange with a double clothesline.  Sydal suplexes Horus into apply an indian deathlock on Trent.  Horus breaks up the hold.  They do an awkward spot where the referee stops counting Trent’s pin so that Sydal can land a standing moonsault.  The crowd has been fairly quiet here.  Trent plants Sydal with a tornado DDT.  Horus hurricanranas Trent onto the floor.  Sydal lands a moonsault onto both of them from the top rope.  In the ring, Trent hits a superplex on Sydal.  Horus DDTs Trent for a nearfall.  Sydal hits a snapmare driver on Horus.  Trent double stomps Sydal in the corner and all three men are down.  Sydal hits a vertebreaker on Trent but finds knees on a shooting star press attempt.  Trent connects with a bicycle knee on Sydal and hits a cradle piledriver for a two count.  Horus spears them off the apron and into the crowd.  Back in, everyone trades strikes.  Horus wheelbarrow slams Sydal off the top rope.  Trent hits the Dudebuster on Horus but Sydal breaks up his pin attempt with a shooting star press.  Trent hits the Dudebuster on Sydal for the win at 16:59.  The three-way structure did them no favors and seventeen minutes felt egregiously long for what they were attempting.  They slowed things down a bit in comparison to the three-way from Night 1, but nothing was really built to, even down the stretch.  There were also a few moments of mistiming that hurt the action’s flow.  I would imagine that a singles match between any combination of these three would have worked out much better.  **½

Match #6:  PWG World Title: Chuck Taylor © vs. Ricochet
Ricochet dropkicks Taylor to the floor and celebrates.  Ricochet connects with a series of stomps in the corner and the crowd does not like him.  Taylor back drops him and hits a back suplex.  Ricochet finds an opening to work over the left leg.  Taylor blocks a standing moonsault with knees and hits a michinoku driver.  Ricochet lands a standing shooting star press.  Taylor responds with Sole Food but finds himself in a reverse indian deathlock.  He’s able to reach the bottom rope.  Taylor hits an overhead superplex along with a falcon arrow.  Ricochet inadvertently takes out Rick Knox.  Taylor rolls up Ricochet for more than three but there’s no one to count.  Ricochet delivers a low blow and hits Taylor with the belt.  A new referee counts the pinfall but Knox restarts the match.  Ricochet applies a sharpshooter but Taylor is able to reach the bottom rope.  Ricochet lands a 63 senton but Taylor rolls out of the ring.  At ringside, Ricochet uses chairs to attack Taylor’s left leg.  Taylor shoves Ricochet off the top rope and into the crowd.  He undoes the top rope and yells “jump off the top rope now, [expletive].”  Taylor chokes Ricochet with the top rope.  Ricochet lands a 450 splash off the middle rope for a nearfall.  Taylor hits the Awful Waffle out of nowhere for a two count.  They exchange strikes and Ricochet sneaks in another low blow.  Ricochet connects with the Benadryller for a nearfall.  Ricochet hits a flatliner to become the new PWG World Champion at 31:00.  I sincerely do wonder if I’m in the minority by not loving this match.  I was struggling to find anything overly interesting happening until Taylor loosened the top rope.  Not only would it restrict Ricochet’s offense, but when he started choking Ricochet with the rope, it mirrored what Sabre did to him in September.  Thirty-one minutes here felt long for the sake of being long.  I don’t know.  I certainly want to leave open the very real possibility that you enjoy this contest much more than I did, but I could not find enough reasons to ever want to rewatch this one.  **½

-Show Grade: B-
You Need to See: Sabre/WALTER
You’d Enjoy Watching: Bucks/Haskins+Webster
You Should Avoid:

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