PWG All Star Weekend Night Two Review

Night Two of All Star Weekend had a tasty main event. With Ricochet having turned heel and challenged Chuck Taylor following his BOLA victory it was a question of whether he was going to get a run with the PWG Title before heading to WWE. Let’s dish out some stars.

Jonah Rock defeated Adam Brooks

With both of these men coming out of Australia, it’s perhaps no surprise that they’ve wrestled before. In saying that, most of their encounters (according to Cagematch) have been in tags and two of the three singles matches they’ve had took place in 2011. Cagematch isn’t always accurate for smaller promotions, it just suggests that this is hardly an Ospreay Scurll situation.

Despite that, they did wrestle like two men who knew each other well, with Rock giving Brooks a lot of offence. It was a classic big man vs small man encounter with the smaller guy using his pace to neutralise Rock’s musclebound attack. However, Brooks was dominating for a period and it was Jonah Rock who was struggling to get a grip on the action.

In the end, though, that pure power was too much for Brooks and Rock was able to fire up and get the win. This was a big weekend for these guys, and they both impressed. Rock is perhaps the more rounded package at the moment, but Adam Brooks showed a lot of potential. I suspect we will be seeing more of them in 2018.

Verdict: Three And A Half Stars

The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) defeated Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Haskins

Once we got past The Young Bucks shenanigans (seriously guys, we’ve all seen the boots spot, give it a break for a while), this turned into a decent tag match. Flash and Haskins seemed like a strange team, but they worked well together and pushed The Bucks into getting their working boots on. Their reversal of the Meltzer Driver was particularly fun.

It’s matches like this that remind you that Matt and Nick are fantastic. I know people love their six-man tags and fair enough. This will always be my favourite version of them. It’s got all the high-flying and superkicks that the others do, combined with a match that isn’t all about them. It’s a pleasure to watch.

Verdict: Three Stars

Marty Scurll defeated Joey Janela

Scurll seems to cut down on the shenanigans in PWG. He gets major heat in Reseda and plays up to it with every chance he gets.

In this one, he had a fun showing with one of 2017’s breakout stars. Janela scares me. The guy wrestles like a madman. The bump he took on to the top of the chairs in this one was particularly brutal. I can’t see any way that didn’t hurt like hell.

That tendency towards the insane played into the story here. Marty was trying to show Janela up as the backyard wrestler that he mocked him for being. This fired Janela up, and he got to show off that undeniable charisma. Janela’s never going to be the best wrestler, but people care about him which is half the battle. While he failed to get the win here, he had another great showing and will have proven to a few more people that backyard or not, Janela belongs.

Verdict: Three And A Half Stars

Walter defeated Zack Sabre Jr.

These two have wrestled a lot out in WXW, but I’ve never seen it (and I imagine a lot of PWG fans were in the same boat) so I was looking forward to this one.

I can’t imagine that Zack Sabre Jr. felt the same way. This was all about him trying to survive those incredible chops. (Spoiler: he couldn’t.)  Every blow seemed to be harder than the last and Zack’s chest was destroyed by it. He was being lifted off his feet by the power of Walter, and I’m not entirely sure that he was selling them. In fact, I doubt he had to do any selling at all, Walter was murdering him.

Although Sabre did get a bit of offence in. Because of his skinny frame, people tend to forget that he can stiff it out with the best of them. There were kicks and stomps in there that meant he wouldn’t be the only one needing a lie-down after this was over and done with.

This was the Walter show, though, and if he hadn’t gotten over with the PWG crowd before this match, he had by the end. He looked like a freaking monster. The pure power of the man is slightly terrifying. Perhaps more impressively, when Zack fell back on the technical stuff he was able to keep up there too. Not many people get to tap ZSJ out. If for some reason you’ve been sleeping on this guy, it’s time to stop.

Verdict: Four And A Half Stars

Trent Beretta defeated Matt Sydal and Rey Horus

Trent quietly became one of my favourite wrestlers in 2017. In this one, he got to show off his newfound heavyweight status against the two highfliers. A role that was aided by him being twice the size of them.

This was what was needed after the war that was Sabre vs Walter. Three ridiculously talented guys bouncing around the ring. Rey Horus is a joy to watch, and Sydal is always good. In between the two of them, Trent acted as the glue that kept this together. He was able to slow the action down and prevent it descending into a full-blown spotfest.

This was palate cleanser before the main event. In the grand scheme of PWG matches, it’s not going to be remembered, but I can’t imagine anyone watching it and not having fun.

Verdict: Three And A Half Stars

Ricochet defeated Chuck Taylor to win the PWG Title

This was a standout performance and a reminder that PWG can deliver story led matches when they want to. There wasn’t just one narrative to this one, there was several.

The main one was Ricochet’s desperation to get his hands on that title. This was a more aggressive and scheming Rico’ than we are used to. He wasn’t afraid to employ underhanded tactics and nearly cheated his way to the belt before the decision was overruled. The fact that the majority of this crowd was booing a guy who one of the best wrestlers in the world and generally over as hell says it all.

On the other side of the fence, we had Chuck Taylor’s attempts to keep this title. Taylor had learnt from his past, and his decision to remove the top rope (a callback to his match with Zack Sabre Jr, where Zack removed the bottom rope to prevent rope breaks) was fantastic storytelling.

Ultimately, though, this was a night where the bad guy won. Ricochet walked out there claiming to be the best and ended up proving it. It makes where PWG goes from here very interesting. Despite what he said in his post-match promo, we all know that Rico’s time on the indies is short. So who is stepping up to prove that they are better than the best?

Verdict: Four Stars

Overall Show

Another great PWG show with a little bit of everything on it. Sabre and Walter was my highlight, and it felt like Walter’s coming out party in front of an American audience. However, the whole card was at the very least decent, and the main event joined that match in being outstanding. PWG continue to do it for me. Long may it continue.