Pro Wrestling Guerrilla All-Star Weekend 8: NIGHT TWO

For as much as I despise the use of such vulgar terminology, I was, for all intents and purposes, a virgin to the world of indy pro wrestling. I'd seen videos, sure. I'd followed wrestlers and done my research. But, like anything beautiful in this world, one truly cannot understand or appreciate that majesty until experienced first hand. Last night, I spent a wild night with PWG, and it's a night that I'll never forget.

It's true, the American Legion Hall is not the prettiest girl in the world, nor is Reseda the ideal city I'd like to spend copious amounts of time in. I waited out in the cold, then was packed into a humid building literally rubbing shoulders with fellow wrestling fans mere feet away from a weathered ring. This was something new to me. Yet, mere minutes into the opening bell, I felt right at home.

Let me attempt to take you on a journey down the card with me.

• It Begins: Excalibur opens up the show. He tells the crowd that there have been changes to the card, but the crowd's biggest concern, that Low Ki was scratched, is addressed when Excalibur announces that Ki is in the building. It probably goes without saying that the audience approved.

• Brian Cage vs. Kenny King: Chuck Taylor accompanies Cage to the ring. Apparently, old Chucky T's the man who was scratched from the card as he pulled his groin at Night One. Did this prevent Chuck from regularly interfering with his "brother's" match against Kenny King? Hell no, and Chuck was as much fun to watch as the match itself. This was a solid opener which brought the humor, and some good technical spots. It didn't have the same big spots as matches later in the card, but King and Cage both got great responses. Cage got either his nose or mouth busted open at some point near the finish, as when King hit his finish and Cage hit the canvas, he was bleeding a good amount. Awesome opener.

• Nightmare Violence Connection vs. RockNES Monsters: It's Akira Tozawa's last night on the west coast before he heads back to Dragon Gate, and him and Kevin Steen are ready to kick in some skulls. Unfortunately, so are RockNES and they get the jump on the NVC. This match, only two into the card, set the bar RIDICULOUSLY high. In short, all four dudes beat the shit out of one another. Tozawa showed off his trademark tenacity and intensity, and the crowd was loving it.

• I'm just getting into the NWA Hollywood, and despite being regulars of that promotion, I've not seen RockNES wrestle until last night. And I must admit, I was impressed by both their ability to deal out exciting offense and to take ridiculously hard strikes and bumps. Highlight of the match had Steen Package Piledrive-ing Johnny Yuma onto the apron for the finish. Yes... he dropped a man on his head onto the apron. It was pretty gnarly-looking. Anyway, after some good sportsmanship, Steen is attempting to thank Tozawa for his awesome-ness, the Young Bucks do a run-in and attack Steen and Tozawa, but are saved by Hero. Again, thanks to the card shuffling, Hero challenges Tozawa to a singles match later in the show. The audience loved that they would get to see one more match from Tozawa.

• Willie Mack vs. Ricochet: With Chris Hero taking on Ricochet, he unfortunately couldn't take on Willie Mack (which admittedly made me a sad panda). However, Ricochet didn't have someone to wrestle with Chuck Taylor's groin and whatnot, so HEY, let's have these two go at it. This was just an extremely solid match. Obviously, with the last match what it was, this had a lot to try and top which it didn't quite do. However, Willie Mack is super over with the crowd, and there were a couple super surprising spots here. Two that stick out are a standing shooting star press by Mack and (almost unbelievably) a standing 630 senton by Ricochet. Both these dudes are bound for greatness, and I will keep being a huge Willie Mack fan as his skills just keep improving.

• Dynasty vs. The Cutlers: This was another big "HEY, NWA DUDES! SWEET!" match for me, as Joey Ryan (one of my favorites) teams up with Scorpio Sky to take on the Cutler brothers. Now, I don't know much about the Cutlers, but I think their heel gimmick really is great. To an audience that regularly engages in profanity, dudes who don't take condone that behavior are great. Even so, the audience was pretty well split on who they were rooting for. This was a more traditionally paced tag match than the NVC/RockNES match, but it was tons of fun. The Cutlers are as athletic as they come, Sky is exciting as all hell, and Ryan is so sound in just about everything he does. He even speared the Cutlers off the apron and into the front row not once, but twice during the match, not to mention delivering something that can only be described as the "Fuck-plex". Just some more fun stuff here.

• El Generico vs. Eddie Edwards: Another contender for match of the night (aren't they all?). Generico and Edwards both have similar styles, but different mentalities in the ring. Comedy came early in the match when an audience member yelled to Generico that Edwards hated orphans, sending Generico into an enraged frenzy. However, before too long, Edwards started working Generico's knee, which eventually became the focal point of the match and Generico's downfall. A lot of back and forth made this one super unpredictable, and although it was about as long as any other match, it was so fast paced that it seemed to go by in an instant. The audience was begging Edwards to come back at match's end.

• INTERMISSION: Huffing and puffing from the heat of American Legion, not to mention the awesome in-ring action, I actually looked forward to intermission time. But first, it was time for the merch table, and who should be manning it but...

• Yep, Claudio Castagnoli was selling his merch (Generico was selling his before the show), so I snatched up on of the new glow in the dark Kings of Wrestling shirts from him (and also managed to stammer out how awesome I thought he was while I shook the man's hand). I also, literally, ran into Eddie Edwards as I was heading outside. I made sure to tell him how amazing his match was. One bottle of water later and it was time for more wrestling!

• Young Bucks vs. Aries/Strong (Tag Team Championship): As good of heels the Cutlers were earlier, you just can't beat the Jacksons for antagonizing a crowd. Coming out in full "Impact Wrestling" garb, they make sure to get the audience firmly against them. Aries and Strong turn this one goofy right away as they chase the Bucks into the bathroom and come running out shoving toilet paper down their throats. This match also featured the most impressive use of back and chest rakes I've ever seen in a wrestling bout (and were pretty damn real if the evidence on Nick Jackson's back was any indication as he writhed around a couple feet from me). The Bucks actually steal a win with a crucifix pin, leading to the only "THAT WAS BULLSHIT" chant of the night. I'm guessing that's the reaction they wanted.

• Akira Tozawa vs. Chris Hero: Quite probably the match of the night (again, debatable), this was a classic David vs. Goliath match amped up to 11. Hero plays it stiff with the strikes and keeps knocking Tozawa down, but he keeps coming back. Just when it looks like Hero's got it wrapped up, Tozawa hulks up and delivers an amazing series of suplexes to Hero. I'm impressed at Tozawa's strength AND Hero's ability to take an obscene series of bumps to the back of his head and neck. Tozawa takes it (as could be expected), and what followed was a genuinely touching/hilarious show of affection between Tozawa and the PWG crowd. Never before have I heard a "Fuck You" chant be directed as a term of endearment. I may not have really followed him super closely while he was here, but I've become a Tozawa fan forever after his showing this night. Truly spectacular.

• Claudio Castagnoli vs. Low Ki (Heavyweight Championship): Finally, it was main event time. I think everybody was still doubting that Low Ki was actually in the building because he got a pretty huge pop when he came in. Of course everybody loves Claudio (I sure do). This match is definitely more deliberate and slow-paced, typically building up to bigger spots, where other matches on the card typically had a GO GO GO attitude once the match got properly underway. That didn't stop the match from having some of the night's most memorable spots, including some of the stiffest strikes of the night (kicks and uppercuts galore). Ki had a great counter to Claudio's pop-up uppercut with a double stomp, but Claudio ended up landing it for the victory.

And thus concluded an amazing night. I quickly got outta there following the main event as, it being about midnight and me having an hour+ of driving ahead of me, I couldn't dilly dally. But still, my initial experience on the indy circuit (PWG in-particular) was overwhelmingly positive. I cannot wait to get to another show in the coming months, not to mention picking up both nights of All-Star Weekend 8 when they're released on DVD. I'm officially hooked. 10 stars out of 5!