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PWG GUITARMAGEDDON II - ARMORYGEDDON DVD REVIEW: HUMAN TORNADO MAKES HIS FIRST DEFENSE OF THE PWG TITLE AGAINST KEVIN STEEN, STRONG & RICHARDS CHALLENGE GENERICO & QUICKSILVER FOR TAG GOLD, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI BATTLES CHRIS BOSH, AND MORE

By Stuart Carapola on 2011-04-15 10:00:00
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla makes their debut in the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys with this event, which featured Human Tornado making his first defense of his newly-won PWG Title against former champion Kevin Steen. The former champion, Joey Ryan, also had his eye on regaining his title, but would first have to get through Frankie Kazarian in a contender's match. The PWG Tag Team Title would also be on the line in the show's main event as Roderick Strong & Davey Richards would challenge Caped Fear to try and regain the title they only held for one day. On to the review...

PWG Guitarmageddon II - Armorygeddon: 2/10/2007 in Van Nuys, California

We kick the show off with Scott Lost taking on Ronin, and Lost cut a promo before the match congratulating Ronin on his winning streak and offering him a spot in the Dynasty since they now have a spot open. Ronin goes to take the mic from Lost and is met with a leaping enziguiri from Lost, who says he's changed his mind. The match is underway and starts out on the floor with Lost going after Ronin only to get destroyed with chops and backpedal around ringside. Lost heads back in but doesn't meet with any better luck in there, continuing to absorb hard strikes and a series of suplexes. Ronin had actually gone on a pretty impressive winning streak over the last year, including wins over SHINGO and Super Dragon, and had gone from Generic undercard masked guy to serious player in just a year. Jade Chung grabbed Ronin's foot from the floor and allowed Lost to take control and try to bring Ronin down with wear down holds. Lost hit a real nice move by suplexing Ronin in from the apron, but climbed up to the second rope to do it, but Ronin quickly came back with a stiff pop-up forearm and began his comeback. Ronin went for a running lariat, but Lost hit a chestbreaker and an Ace Crusher and then followed right up with a Shawn Michaels-style top rope elbow, but only got 2. Ronin hit a twisting suplex and hooked both legs, but only got 2. He charged Lost in the corner but ate a superkick, and then Lost hit the Superman charge and another superkick for 2. Ronin killed Lost with a hard clothesline and went for the DVD, Lost blocked but Ronin rolled him up with a stack and got the win. Good opener.

Next up was Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson taking on Disco Machine, leading to one of those frequent unique situations where Disco does commentary on his own match. Funny opening sequence where Anderson was trying to wrestle Disco, but Disco would literally disco dance his way out of holds to frustrate Anderson. Disco dumped Anderson to the floor and there was suddenly this mad rush where everybody cleared out of their front row seats, including one guy who picked his kid up and carried him out of the way. It was a good plan, because Disco followed Anderson out with a dive but seemed to lose his footing and barely made it. They headed back in the ring where Anderson took control with a nice slingshot clothesline and a leg lariat. Anderson can really move for such a big guy, but then follows that up with a Goldberg-type spear. He hesitates too long though, and Disco springboards off Anderson's back and gets a sunset flip for 2 and then charges him in the corner, but Anderson hits a drop toehold into the bottom turnbuckle and goes up top. He takes way too much time and misses the back senton and Disco goes for the chokeslam, but Anderson rolls through and gets a snap powerslam for 2. Anderson misses a dropkick into the corner and Disco hits a flying bodypress for 2. He tries the chokeslam again but Anderson fights him off and then KILLS Disco with a spinebuster and goes right into a Boston Crab that nearly bends Disco in half, and Disco quickly taps out to give Anderson the win. Anderson looked really impressive here, I'm looking forward to seeing more of him on future shows.

We move on to Frankie Kazarian taking on Joey Ryan in Ryan's first match since losing the PWG Title to Human Tornado. He cuts a prematch promo talking about how he had a 130 degree temperature but still got in the ring to defend his title, and demanded that PWG Commissioner Dino Winwood come out to explain why he's wrestling Kazarian instead of getting his rematch. Dino comes right out and says he wants to keep the title as far away from Joey as he can, and he doesn't need to explain anything to Joey because he's not the champion and he's not calling the shots. Dino goes on to proclaim that the Dynasty is barred from ringside and if they show their faces during this match, THEY'RE FIIIIIIIIIRED! Joey takes this in stride and cuts a promo on Kazarian, saying that they go back a long way and have been dominating the Southern California independent scene, but Joey's on MTV with Wrestling Society X while Kazarian's lucky to get a spot on Impact. He then quotes another of Frankie's former training partners who's making a lot more money than he is by telling Kazarian that "You can't see me...unless you tune in to MTV on Tuesday nights." Joey knows how to push those buttons, doesn't he?

Kazarian responds with aplomb by attacking Joey, taking him out to ringside and tossing him through a section of chairs, then continues to beat him up in the ring. Joey fakes a knee injury on a leapfrog, but Kazarian's not having it, hitting a dropkick and a leg lariat. Kazarian is so aggressive that referee Rick Knox gets between them and Joey comes from behind and shoves him into Kazarian, causing them to crack heads. Joey goes right after Kazarian with more shots to the head and gets an abdominal stretch, but Kazarian gets out and goes for a sunset flip and ends up pulling Joey's tights down and exposes his thong, and he wrestles for the next two minutes or so with his ass hanging out. Joey recovers and pulls his tights back up and then misses a superkick, but hits a Northern Lights suplex for 2. Joey hits a Gibson Driver for 2 and goes for second one, but Kazarian slips out and hits the Wave Of The Future, but hesitates too long before going for the cover and only gets 2. Kazarian misses a leg lariat and crotches himself on the top rope, opening himself up for a superkick from Joey that sends him tumbling out to the floor. Joey tries a spear through the ropes but Kazarian dodges and hits the Jerry Lynn guillotine legdrop and slingshot DDT. Karl Anderson comes wandering back out to ringside and gets up on the apron, but Joey rams Kazarian into him and tries an O'Connor Roll, and Kazarian holds onto the ropes and lays Joey out with a superkick. Anderson gets into the ring and goes face to face arguing with Kazarian, allowing Joey to lowblow Kazarian and small package him for the win. Finish came off awkwardly and you knew somebody who wasn't officially a member of the Dynasty was going to get involved as soon as Dino barred the Dynasty from ringside, but was otherwise a solid match.

Next up is a staple of PWG shows, the lucha-style six man tag where you get six random guys to just go spot-spot-spot-spot-spot to see who can pop the crowd the most. Today's lucky contestants are TJ Perkins, Zokre & Phoenix Star taking on Super Dragon, Bino Gambino, and Rocky Romero. I'm not going to bother doing play-by-play here because if you've seen one of these matches you've seen them all, though it is always fun to watch Romero and Perkins go at it, they trained together at the New Japan dojo and always have a good martial arts/submissions-based exchange whenever they get in the ring. They do a nice spot where TJ hits a rapid series of kicks to send Romero to the floor, then Romero comes back in and kicks the crap out of Perkins and then tags in Super Dragon to dish out more heavy punishment. They quickly go back to the usual until Romero and Perkins get back in later on and have another go at it. They did do a nice spot toward the end where Gambino monkeyflipped Zokre into a powerbomb from Super Dragon, but the referee was out of position and Zokre hit an inverted Frankensteiner for the surprise upset win. I may be off a bit on my timeline, but I think Super Dragon was starting to wind down by this point and that's probably why he's been losing so many matches.

We're at the halfway point, and it's time for Claudio Castagnoli to face the onslaught of "Photogenic" Chris Bosh. This was shortly after Claudio's WWE deal was rescinded and he ended up staying on the indies after all, totally screwing the original incarnation of the Kings Of Wrestling in the process. Claudio easily overpowered Bosh early on, throwing him around and bowling him over with shoulderblocks. Bosh tried outmaneuvering Claudio with armdrags but Claudio nearly killed him with a release German suplex and then they went out to the floor where Claudio beat him up some more with European uppercuts and ramming him into the wall, then hiptossing him through a section of chairs. They went back in the ring where they fans pelted him with "HEY!" cheers, which was always a good way to throw Claudio off his game in those days. He responded by continuing to destroy Bosh with power moves, and Bosh tried firing back at Claudio but Claudio drilled him with a back elbow and Bosh goes down again. This has been all Claudio so far, but finally Bosh backdrops Claudio to the ring apron and then hits a tornado DDT onto the apron. They head back into the ring and go toe-to-toe with Bosh coming out on top and then hitting a flying headscissors, he tried a monkey flip but Claudio landed on his feet and slipped to the outside. Bosh was not to be deterred, hitting a dive through the ropes into a tornado DDT on the floor. Back in they go, and Claudio hits a springboard European uppercut for 2 and the pop-up European uppercut also only gets 2. Claudio goes for the Waterslide, but Bosh slips out and punches Claudio in the groin, then hits a clothesline into a backbreaker for 2. Claudio counters with a kneelift into a double ax, then hits the Waterslide and only gets 2. Claudio puts Bosh up top, but Bosh sunset flips Claudio off the top into a powerbomb and then hits a Saito suplex. Bosh with a back suplex into a backbreaker and that still only gets 2. Bosh goes for the Screwdriver, Claudio counters out and goes for the Ricola Bomb, Bosh escapes that and they fight over a rollup with Bosh getting a bridging O'Connor Roll for the win. Great match, Bosh may not be the greatest worker in the world but he's got this uncanny ability to make his matches interesting by doing stuff you wouldn't expect him to be able to pull off.

The title matches are up next on Page 2!


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