Absolutely solid show. They can't and did no wrong at F&S. Good sized crowd too, much to my surprise. And for once, I made it on time to F&S...
Tony Stradlin defeated "The Future" Frankie Kazarian Good matchup with the two, with Stradlin getting the mega push to the moon in PWG. Frankie doesn't lose clean though, as Arrogance finds a way to interject themselves in the match. Frankie now moves on to feud with Arrogance, as they ditched Frankie and the now defunct First Family. Stradlin now has three huge wins over Christopher Daniels, Colt Cabana, and now Frankie Kazarian.
Ricky Reyes defeated Roderick Strong
Really good hard hitting matchup from the two, with the crowd easily behind Reyes. Strong showed off a couple of his trademark backbreakers, including the traditional backbreaker! Keepin it old school. Reyes was delivering some real nasty kicks (karate body blows!) on Strong, which had the crowd wincing in pain. Strong was a virtual unknown going into "All Nude Revue", but after the match, he won the respect of the SoCal fans.
Top Gun Talwar/Hook Bomberry/Zokre/Phoenix Star defeated The Ballard Bros/Ronin/The Human Tornado
This is my runner-up for match of the night, mainly because I thought the finish was such a tease, but very very well done. Very smart. With Hook's intensity level increasing ten-fold, him tagging up with Top Gun makes perfect sense. Throwing in huge fan favorites Los Luchas doesn't hurt either! I was really diggin that 4 man team. The Ballards hockey brawling schtick was funny as always, as they threw their gloves off before the match and were about to go berzerk, until Ronin and Tornado had to keep them in check. I must note that Tornado was working the entire match with a sling on his injured arm, which had me calling for a cross-arm breaker all night. That's like taping up your ribs if they're injured! Bad move! Use your brain! But nobody opted for my advice initially, as Tornado was outsmarting Top Gun with the injury, which churned out some big, big comedy spots. Ballards went back to their roots and went LUCHA LUCHA LUCHA!! with Zokre and Phoenix Star, in which they blended fairly well. Finish saw Tornado hit Top Gun with the Dragon Punch aka Shoryuken ala Street Fighter II, which sent Top Gun flying out to the ring. Everyone was on the outside now, which saw Tornado getting ready for his trademark suicide tope con hello! *waves* Tornado arrogantly threw his sling off his bad arm, which saw Hook slide right in and capitalize on the vulnerable arm and take him down with an fujiwara armbar submission for the win. Ingenious finish. Everyone looked good in this match.
"The Next" Alex Shelley defeated El Generico
People were saying this would be a "styles clash", but these two proved everyone wrong! Those unfamiliar with Alex Shelley saw that his strong suit is technical wrestling, as he proved to Generico and us SoCal fans that he is no slouch on the mat. Generico couldn't keep up on the technical side of things, so he outdid Shelley when it came to the aerial offense. Good matchup from the two. The crowd absolutely loves Generico. Both Shelley and Strong got receptive responses after their matches. Looks like SoCal approves of Generation Next (they're defunct now, right? I don't keep up with my ROH as much as I'd like to).
"Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels defeated "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen
Again, this may be sound repetitive, but another good match from "All Nude Revue". Steen's high impact spots were kept to a minimum in this match (compared to his CZW stuff) but Steen was still able to show off his talents in the ring. Steen's random one-liners are always hillarious. And what more can you say about the Fallen Angel? The man has accomplished everything there is to accomplish in indy wrestling. So with a reputation like that, you know he delivered in the ring with Steen. After the match, Steen got on the mic and challenged Daniels to a rematch, and wanting to include Generico into the mix. You know, kill two birds with one stone. But interim commisioner Disco Machine did Steen one better, and added "the Phenomenal" AJ Styles to the match, setting an impressive-on-paper 4 way dance at the next show.
Arrogance (Chris Bosh/Scott Lost) defeated Aerial Express (Scorpio Sky/Quicksilver)
I like how Scorpio stays intense while Quickie and Dino are always hamming it up. Possible AXP split because Quickie and Dino don't want to take it serious? Perhaps... But this match was absolutely solid, with Scorpio Sky shining above the rest of the competitors in the match. Sky near looked immaculate in the ring, not a single motion wasted, with every movement looking sharp. Pre-match shenanigans, interim commisioner Disco Machine awards them their "replacement/makeshift" PWG tag straps in the form of a couple leather belts with bananas. Bosh then decided to call PWG "bush league", no wait, "swamp league" and then went on the usual (yet hillarious) Bosh tirade. Bosh and Quick work so goddamn awesome together. Those two continue to amaze me with the shit they can do. The queceadora into the huracanrana is one thing, but somehow Quickie managed to slap on his Cristo headscissor submission (made famous by Dragon Kid) on Bosh... on the top turnbuckle! The crowd was flippin out over that! Scott Lost ended up pinning Sky with a rollup with a little help from Chris Bosh for some leverage (I could be wrong, other way around?) which pissed Sky the fuck off, to the point where he beat up referee Patrick Hernandez! He threw a drink at the downed ref, then started throwing chairs in the ring. Very intense. I thought it looked great, as rightfully so, Sky should be pissed for being robbed of the tag titles that they had within their grasp. Although a rollup with the ropes is what got the AXP the title shot, it's that same type of finish that was AXP's downfall in taking the PWG tag straps. Good stuff.
Super Dragon defeated Samoa Joe to retain the PWG championship Excellent match. Like SCW4E said, I liked this much more than their first encounter at "Ooze" (I have yet to see their Jersey All Pro match). Not as one-sided as "Ooze", with Dragon getting much more offense in, without bullying Joe. Joe made sure that he wasn't going to get bullied, and he did the usual damage to Dragon, but Dragon was a little bit more gutsier this time around firing back any chance he could. A couple high-impact dives were hit in the match from both Joe and Dragon respectively. As Dragon went for the curbstomp on Joe, Joe would manage to get out of it with a drop toe hold, which has proven to be one of the very few counters to the stomping of the curb. Eventually, Dragon finally got the legs locked again for another curb stomp, but Joe was doing his homework, and was tucking in his arms tight so Dragon couldn't execute the move... or could he? Dragon decided to improvise and grab Joe by the mouth and nose, fish hook style, then proceeded with a nasty ass curb stomp. Vicious. They were teasing the belly to belly throw over the top rope too, which I thought was cool, yet the move was not hit. Countout victories were teased throughout the night, although I couldn't see why Joe would let Dragon hang out outside the ring for a countout, because you can't win the title on a countout, but that's just me nitpicking. Dragon also hit the biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig butterfly superplex on Joe, which awed the crowd. The teasing of the OG Psycho Driver was great. And then when Dragon finally hit it, F&S went apeshit. Joe got in alot of his signature stuff in too, including the bootscrapes in the corner, and the high STO in the corner. Finish saw Joe roll out of the ring after the Psycho Driver, teasing the countout win for Dragon, but Dragon chased him outside and wanted to pick him up and roll him back in the ring. Joe then got his 2nd wind and went to town on Dragon with a flurry of strikes and downed him. So now both men are down and the count his still on it's way to twenty. The crowd is getting anxious at this point to see an outcome, but at 19, Dragon shoves Joe of the way and swiftly sneaks right in for the countout victory. So now both competitors have a victory over each other via countout. Which leaves more room for the growth of this feud. Super Dragon/Samoa Joe is a money feud and PWG is making the wise choice to keep this thing going. Perhaps it'll bleed into PWG All Star Weekend? It just very well could. Although I could see why people would be bummed with the finish, the same reason people were bummed with the 1st finish at "Ooze": via countout. Justin Crast was not amused with the finish, going far enough to say that "the finish sucked". I could see why him and other fans would be bummed out about that, but I can also see why they chose to go with a countout finish. Keeping this feud open is smart. Once again, a very excellent match from the two. Better than their first encounter.
No decline in attendance, again, much to my surprise. I like seeing F&S packed. Great job PWG. Thanks for delivering SoCal fans another excellent show. Keep the momentum going for All Star Weekend!!!
credit: socaluncensored.com
-------------------------------
Looks like a good show. Good to see Shelley and Strong getting nice reactions.