Post by the franchise on May 28, 2011 11:06:57 GMT -5
Night One
Kevin Steen vs. Willie Mack - Steen appears to have lost some weight. He's still got some heft, but most of the baggage has seemed to fallen off. A great hard hitting comedy match which featured Steen jawing the crowd. He also made fun of Mack by pointing to the front row and saying, "That's your seat there, isn't it?" (Mack was just a fan at the shows years ago). Match ends when Steen package piledrives Mack, Mack goes to the outside, Steen pulls Mack back into the ring, and Mack schoolboys Steen out of nowhere for the pin. Fine opener.
Dynasty vs. The Fightin' Taylor Boys - Match was a little sloppy with some mistimed spots, but there was some fine stuff from Scorpio Sky and Ryan Taylor. Dynasty wins after a flying knee by Sky, superkick by Joey , then a cutter by Sky for the pin. Chuck Taylor is at ringside and was furious at the fact that his family lost. He calls out Kenny King.
Chuck Taylor vs. Kenny King - Another cool comedy match from Taylor with King cracking wise at him and the crowd as well. Fine action with Chuck winning via interference from Brian Cage-Taylor and pulling the tights.
RockNES Monsters vs. Generation Me (c), PWG Tag Titles - They played a little bit with some infighting between the Young Bucks and some misunderstandings. The match itself had some mistimed spots and slop, but the action was nonstop and exciting. High spots and Wrestlemania kickouts akimbo! GenMe win via double superkick to a pin.
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. The Cutler Brothers - A fine tag match that focused on the return of Generation Next. Aries and Strong win, but are attacked by Generation Me post-match. Alex Shelley appears and runs GenMe off. Shelley suggests that Aries/Strong join up with him to REALLY reform Generation Next and take on Generation Me & a Partner of Their Choosing. The crowd loves this. Shelley puts over Eddie "Eddie Edwards" Edwards and calls him into the ring.
Alex Shelley vs. Eddie "Eddie Edwards" Edwards - Best singles match of the night with fine action. Eddie got heckled by a random woman on the outside... who was wearing a Big Show t-shirt. She was rightfully ridiculed, accepted her sussing and life went on. Edwards picked up the win after a 2K1 Bomb. After the match, Shelley made a plea to Excalibur to put together a future match between The American Wolves and the Motor City Machine Guns. The fans were chomping at the bit at the thought of it.
The Nightmare Violence Connection vs. El Genericochet - MATCH OF THE NIGHT. HANDS DOWN. Hell, it even got a "MATCH OF THE YEAR" chant. Back and forth action with Tozawa screaming, Ricochet flying and surviving, and with Steen and Generico rekindling their 2010 feud. Lots of high spots and
YOU kill moves and strikes, the biggest one in my opinion being Steen hitting a package piledriver on Ricochet on the apron. Or Tozawa hitting his slow motion German suplex on El Generico on the apron. Or Steen reversing El Generico's brainbuster into a package piledriver. Tons of Wrestlemania kickouts in this one. This match sells the DVD.
Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli (c), PWG World Title - This match had problems, but it wasn't totally the wrestlers' fault. The first five to ten minutes is grappling and mat wrestling, both men hesitating to strike each other. The Claudio hits a European uppercut and it's on. Claudio works on Hero's elbow, trying to de-weaponize it. Claudio hits the ropes for a dive to the outside and the top rope breaks. Now, the match suffers. Claudio in a fit of anger, just removes the rest of the top rope off the turnbuckles. The guys do a Battle of the Big Boots and do moves off the middle rope. It's super awkward to watch given the fact that both men are over 6'4" and it looks unbalanced and unsafe. In fact, after one such move, Hero grabs his ankle and may or may not have injured it. The guys try but there appeared to be some miscues in attempting some spots while trying to improvise around the lack of a top rope. Hero proceeds to berate Claudio. "You are just my #2!" Claudio mans up and gets a second wind. He hits a UFO on Hero in an impressive display. That's when both men go for the strike battle with Hero's elbows/boots and Claudio's Euro-uppercuts/boots. The crowd is getting tired. The match is a bit too long for its own good. Claudio retains after hitting on mega-uppercut. The crowd immediately heads for the exit after the match. I really feel bad for these guys because they had such an uphill battle from the start. They had to follow the AWESOME TAG MATCH FROM VAHALLA, the match started close to midnight so the crowd was spent, and the ropes broke. The match was too long, but I believe they just tried to save it along with trying to give folks their money's worth.
Kevin Steen vs. Willie Mack - Steen appears to have lost some weight. He's still got some heft, but most of the baggage has seemed to fallen off. A great hard hitting comedy match which featured Steen jawing the crowd. He also made fun of Mack by pointing to the front row and saying, "That's your seat there, isn't it?" (Mack was just a fan at the shows years ago). Match ends when Steen package piledrives Mack, Mack goes to the outside, Steen pulls Mack back into the ring, and Mack schoolboys Steen out of nowhere for the pin. Fine opener.
Dynasty vs. The Fightin' Taylor Boys - Match was a little sloppy with some mistimed spots, but there was some fine stuff from Scorpio Sky and Ryan Taylor. Dynasty wins after a flying knee by Sky, superkick by Joey , then a cutter by Sky for the pin. Chuck Taylor is at ringside and was furious at the fact that his family lost. He calls out Kenny King.
Chuck Taylor vs. Kenny King - Another cool comedy match from Taylor with King cracking wise at him and the crowd as well. Fine action with Chuck winning via interference from Brian Cage-Taylor and pulling the tights.
RockNES Monsters vs. Generation Me (c), PWG Tag Titles - They played a little bit with some infighting between the Young Bucks and some misunderstandings. The match itself had some mistimed spots and slop, but the action was nonstop and exciting. High spots and Wrestlemania kickouts akimbo! GenMe win via double superkick to a pin.
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. The Cutler Brothers - A fine tag match that focused on the return of Generation Next. Aries and Strong win, but are attacked by Generation Me post-match. Alex Shelley appears and runs GenMe off. Shelley suggests that Aries/Strong join up with him to REALLY reform Generation Next and take on Generation Me & a Partner of Their Choosing. The crowd loves this. Shelley puts over Eddie "Eddie Edwards" Edwards and calls him into the ring.
Alex Shelley vs. Eddie "Eddie Edwards" Edwards - Best singles match of the night with fine action. Eddie got heckled by a random woman on the outside... who was wearing a Big Show t-shirt. She was rightfully ridiculed, accepted her sussing and life went on. Edwards picked up the win after a 2K1 Bomb. After the match, Shelley made a plea to Excalibur to put together a future match between The American Wolves and the Motor City Machine Guns. The fans were chomping at the bit at the thought of it.
The Nightmare Violence Connection vs. El Genericochet - MATCH OF THE NIGHT. HANDS DOWN. Hell, it even got a "MATCH OF THE YEAR" chant. Back and forth action with Tozawa screaming, Ricochet flying and surviving, and with Steen and Generico rekindling their 2010 feud. Lots of high spots and
YOU kill moves and strikes, the biggest one in my opinion being Steen hitting a package piledriver on Ricochet on the apron. Or Tozawa hitting his slow motion German suplex on El Generico on the apron. Or Steen reversing El Generico's brainbuster into a package piledriver. Tons of Wrestlemania kickouts in this one. This match sells the DVD.Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli (c), PWG World Title - This match had problems, but it wasn't totally the wrestlers' fault. The first five to ten minutes is grappling and mat wrestling, both men hesitating to strike each other. The Claudio hits a European uppercut and it's on. Claudio works on Hero's elbow, trying to de-weaponize it. Claudio hits the ropes for a dive to the outside and the top rope breaks. Now, the match suffers. Claudio in a fit of anger, just removes the rest of the top rope off the turnbuckles. The guys do a Battle of the Big Boots and do moves off the middle rope. It's super awkward to watch given the fact that both men are over 6'4" and it looks unbalanced and unsafe. In fact, after one such move, Hero grabs his ankle and may or may not have injured it. The guys try but there appeared to be some miscues in attempting some spots while trying to improvise around the lack of a top rope. Hero proceeds to berate Claudio. "You are just my #2!" Claudio mans up and gets a second wind. He hits a UFO on Hero in an impressive display. That's when both men go for the strike battle with Hero's elbows/boots and Claudio's Euro-uppercuts/boots. The crowd is getting tired. The match is a bit too long for its own good. Claudio retains after hitting on mega-uppercut. The crowd immediately heads for the exit after the match. I really feel bad for these guys because they had such an uphill battle from the start. They had to follow the AWESOME TAG MATCH FROM VAHALLA, the match started close to midnight so the crowd was spent, and the ropes broke. The match was too long, but I believe they just tried to save it along with trying to give folks their money's worth.
