PWG: The 2nd Annual Bicentennial Birthday Extravaganza – Night One
July 9, 2005
Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood/Los Feliz JCC

The current PWG Champs were as follows:
PWG Champion: AJ Styles (4/2/2005)
PWG Tag Team Champions: Chris Bosh & Scott Lost (10/9/2004)

Your hosts are Excalibur and Disco Machine.

• Davey Richards vs. Shannon Ballard
  

This is Davey’s fourth match in PWG. He made a big splash (literally, he won with an SSP) at the first night of the All Star Weekend show back in April, but has not been to the pay window since. Richards shows off his amateur wrestling background to start. Once that’s done, he works an armbar for a while. Ballard tries to chop Davey to get him to stop, but that proves to be the wrong move. Richards flicks him off and chops back only to miss a corner charge and run his shoulder into the post. On the floor, Ballard delivers a shoulderbreaker. Not sure how that’s supposed to inflict more pain unless you say that the floor has no give unlike the ring, but whatever. Ballard then throws Davey over the top rope while our hosts discuss the over-the-top-rope DQ rule used in the NWA in years gone by. PWG Commissioner SoCal Val would not have any of that. Anyways, Ballard counters a sunset flip and tries a cross armbreaker. It’s almost like he’s working the arm by accident. They head back to the floor where Ballard can’t spike Davey’s shoulder into the ringpost, but instead settles for a drop toehold that sends him face-first into the post. Richards makes it back into the ring as Ballard works a few Crippler Crossfaces in. Much like the chops we saw earlier, Ballard kicks Davey to get him to MAN UP with Kawada Kicks! Buzzsaw kick gets two. Armbreaker DDT stuns Richards for another shot at the Crippler Crossface. No submission there. Richards fights back with an enziguri and begins to get that FIGHTING SPIRIT again no-selling Ballard. He drops Ballard with a DDT and delivers the running forearm in the corner followed by the huge lariat for 1-2-NO! Richards calls for the SSP. Even though Ballard is clearly standing up, he tries the SSP anyway for some reason. Once he hits the mat, Ballard is right in there for the Crippler Crossface. Richards reaches the ropes, but charges into an exploder suplex into the corner for 1-2-NO! Backslide gets two, but Richards escapes and grabs Ballard for the DR DRIVER for 1-2-3! (12:59) Good showing from both guys. You can already see some of that promise in Davey Richards with all that fire and determination as the third coming of Dynamite Kid. **½

• Los Luchas vs. Gunning for Hookers (w/Luscious)
  

Los Luchas are Phoenix Star and Zokre and Gunning for Hookers are better known as Top Gun Talwar and Hook Bomberry. The valet for GFH has one name given by the announcer and another by Excalibur. Whoever she is, she is quite attractive. Bomberry and Star begin things doing their lucha counter-for-counter nonsense. They finally make some contact as Bomberry hits a dropkick. Phoenix fires back with a sitout spinebuster off the shoulders for two. Pretty impressive. In comes Zokre and Talwar. Here is where it gets silly. They do a comedy routine where they go through the same series of moves and then take turns as each man has the advantage. Bomberry delivers a back suplex and knocks Phoenix off the apron before covering Zokre for two. Back to Talwar, he turns this back into a comedy match by mimicking Kamala and trying to pin Zokre while he’s lying on his stomach. Luscious gets involved a little bit here as she chokes Zokre in the ropes. Zokre continues to *your* luchadore-in-peril until he drills Bomberry with a flying DDT out of the corner. Nice. HOT TAG TO PHOENIX! They clean house on HookGun, but it’s Zokre taking a big chance and diving out on top of them. Meanwhile, Luscious surprises Phoenix who is still in the ring with a spinning heel kick! SHADES OF SAVIO VEGA! Back in, Phoenix Starr crotches himself on the top rope. Talwar tries to capitalize and hits CHIPOTLE for 1-2-NO! Now everyone hits their finishes and earns nearfalls. Out goes Bomberry, Zokre launches Talwar into a SPEAR by Phoenix! Now Bomberry is back inside. Zokre applies a Rito Romero Special on Bomberry, but Phoenix then picks him up for the Reverse Angle Slam onto Zokre’s knees. After all that, Zokre pins Talwar with a sunset flip for the win. (12:01) Looks like his tights ripped too in exactly the wrong place. It’s a Ric Flair moment, IF YOU WEELLLL. Things were going well all the way up to the end. To finish after all that action with a sunset flip is truly retarded. *½

• Joey Ryan vs. Mr. Excitement
  

Mr. Excitement is Puerto Rican and looks to be about 15-20 years behind the times. Joey Ryan is wearing some Hunter Hearst Helmsley tights for whatever reason. He looks ridiculous. Excitement is a HOUSE OF FIRE to start laying in a ton of elbows in different variations. Joey hits the floor and draws Excitement around the ring only to nail him when he gets back inside. OLD SCHOOL. He slows things down a bit. They each deliver a back suplex of their own. Excitement fights back with a butterfly suplex and maneuvers right into a front choke sleeper. Joey makes the ropes in time though. Excitement wants his Exploder Suplex in the corner, but Ryan elbows back and delivers an overhead suplex to escape. Joey ends a slugfest with an inverted atomic drop and follows up with a Northern Lights Suplex for two. He wants the DUFF DROP, but Excitement wants the SUPER EXPLODER. Joey shoves him off and misses a moonsault, which stuns him into the CORNER EXPLODER SUPLEX. Cover, 1-2-NO! Clearly he doesn’t have a lot of different moves in his arsenal, Excitement gives Joey another Exploder in the corner. Out comes Arrogance. While the ref is busy with Bosh, Lost superkicks Excitement. That only gets a nearfall. Now they try to KO him with a tag title belt. That doesn’t exactly work either. They give Excitement their finisher, which will definitely give Joey the win. (9:50) Oddly enough, Mr. Excitement isn’t all that exciting. *½

• Petey Williams vs. Ricky Reyes
  

Excalibur and Disco think these two are so evenly matched, they expect a time-limit draw. We shall see. Reyes works an arm wringer a bunch in the early happenings. Petey armdrags Reyes to the floor though and delivers the slingshot headscissors to the floor. Back in, that gets only a one-count. Now Reyes gets serious with a big forearm shot and the kitchen sink. He kicks Petey in the shoulder blades and pulls back on the arms while planting a knee into the spine. Petey escapes and fires back an enziguri to mount his comeback. He delivers a missile dropkick to the back and signals for the CANADIAN DESTROYER. Too bad for the crowd as Reyes backdrops out, but Petey rolls through and locks in the Sharpshooter. Reyes makes the ropes though. A fan hands Petey one of those small Canadian flags you could put on your desk, but the ref takes it away. Reyes catches Petey for a catapult, but Williams catches himself on the middle rope. He tries a crossbody, but Reyes ducks and picks up Williams for the Spider Bomb for 1-2-NO! Another try at the Spider Bomb, but Petey counters into a DDT. Williams misses a flying headbutt. Reyes wants La Majistral cradle, but Petey rolls through into the Sharpshooter again. Reyes kicks him away and delivers a suplex of sorts. With Petey out on his feet, Reyes grabs him from behind for a Dragon Sleeper. Oh, but Petey reaches the ropes. They fight up top, which ends with Reyes delivers a Swinging Reverse DDT to the mat. That gets two, but Reyes goes right to the DRAGON SLEEPER BODYSCISSORS to get the tapout. (13:16) Big win for Reyes over the TNA star. Good, exciting match and so far best of the night. ***¼

• Super Dragon, Human Tornado & El Generico vs. Disco Machine, Excalibur & Kevin Steen – Elimination Match
  

In a kind-of-funny bit that runs off and on throughout the match, Excalibur and Disco Machine imitate Milwaukee Brewers network commentators to make this appear more like the “live” commentary we are accustomed to in other federations. Sometimes they remember to stick with it, other times they forget. This is a big grudge match as Disco Machine most recently turned on Super Dragon at the last show. Fancy headlocks and armbars to start between Disco and Generico. Looks like next we’ll get Tornado and Steen, but Steen ducks out because Tornado REALLY wants to get his hands on him. In comes Excalibur instead. This leads to a triple-team beatdown on Tornado while our masked friends try to break this up. Once Tornado is down, Steen tags in. Unfortunately, he’s gets caught on the wrong side of town. Tag to Generico, Steen blocks a tornado DDT with European uppercuts and chops. Disco Machine tags in and takes a vicious TRIPLE-TEAM double-stomp by Dragon while he’s lying on Generico’s knees. Dragon applies one of his nasty shoulder submissions and screws around with Steen and Excalibur. This goes on for a few minutes. Steen gets a tag and whips Tornado around by his afro. He comes back with Jive Soul Bro, but then Dragon and Generico take it a step further by stomping on Steen’s balls some more. A lot more, really. Steen stops Tornado though with a nice backbreaker and tags Excalibur. Tornado becomes *your* face-in-peril for a bit now. Steen applies Dragon’s crazy shoulder submission hold on Tornado just to piss off Dragon. Tornado makes a last ditch effort trying Stratusfaction on Steen by kicking off Excalibur and Disco. He makes the hot tag to Generico, but he’s quickly cooled off and beaten down. SBS continue to disrespect Generico while pissing off his tag partners. Now the deadly Super Dragon gets the big tag. He destroys Disco and calls for the Curb Stomp, but Excalibur breaks it up. Tornado helps out Dragon and they clean house for some SURROUND SOUND SOMERSAULT PLANCHAS! You see, because there is three of them. Once the guys start heading back into the ring one-by-one, we see a long line of finishers and nearfalls. The high spot comes when Excalibur delivers the SPIDER GERMAN SUPLEX to Super Dragon and right after he drops Dragon, Generico hits him with the SOMERSAULT COAST TO COAST. Tornado tries to take on SBS by himself since the other two have been taken out, but they give him what for and the CHOKEBREAKER by Disco gets the 1-2-3 to eliminate Tornado at 25:10.

Generico tries to wake up Dragon so he doesn’t get counted out. Of course they make it back inside the ring in time. Generico hits Disco with the Ole Kick, followed by the Tiger Suplex ’85, followed by the Tiger Suplex by Dragon. That takes care of Disco for now. Excalibur eats a Curb Stomp by Dragon, but Disco stops the pin. Now Generico takes three different finishers ending with the TIGER DRIVER ’98 by Excalibur to send him to the showers at 29:43.

It’s now SBS against Super Dragon. TIGER DRIVER ’98 and the PACKAGE PILEDRIVER to Dragon. They dog pile him to get the final pinfall. (32:10) Afterwards, Generico tries to make a save and fails. Just as things couldn’t get worse for Super Dragon, Steen gives him a 450 Splash. The PWG Six sure do get a TON of time on these shows. ***¼

• TNA X-Division Champion Christopher Daniels vs. Chris Sabin
  

Feeling out process to start with wristlocks and the like. With Sabin gaining an early advantage, Daniels threatens to leave the arena by walking back through the curtain. When the crowd starts calling him a pussy, he comes back to finish the match. Back to the wristlocks and such. After some Curry Man dancing, they go to the floor where Sabin’s head bounces off the apron. Back in, Sabin returns to the armbar. Daniels shoves off a tornado DDT and then hiptosses Sabin over the top rope to the floor. They fight a little bit in the PWG chairs as the two women in the building scurry away. Back in, Daniels cranks on the neck quite a lot. Sabin tries to mount a comeback, but gets caught with a Death Valley Driver for 1-2-NO! BME misses and Sabin wins a slugfest. Big dropkick off the ropes connects for Sabin and now he stomps a mudhole in Daniels. Tornado DDT gets two. Running Ligerbomb gets 1-2-NO! Sabin tries the CRADLE SHOCK, but Daniels pulls the ref into Sabin and sneaks a rollup with a handful of tights for the win. (15:29) Good not great match between these two. These two really had an AMAZING 2005. Never saw one bad match from either one of these guys. **½

• PWG Tag Team Champions Arrogance vs. Aerial Xpress (w/Dino Winwood) – Titles vs. Masks
  

This is no-DQ as well. If the AXP lose, they also cannot get another tag titles shot. Quicksilver and Lost start this one off. Typical feeling-out process. Now we get Scorpio and Bosh. Crowd loves Scorpio. They have a very similar exchange until Bosh can’t handle Scorpio anymore and tags out. Lost sidesteps a dropkick as Scorpio falls right on his knee. He acts all “arrogant” about it, but then turns back around into a dropkick after all for two. AXP give Lost that double-team move where both guys grapevine the leg and then roll through to basically powerbomb your opponent. I’ve never seen that move given a name. Anyways, AXP maintain control for a while hitting Arrogance with a few more double-team moves. Once as Quicksilver tries a leapfrog, Lost hits the mat and picks his foot up to ruin Quicksilver’s evening. Bosh then comes in and pulls Quicksilver back onto his knee. Arrogance cuts the ring in half on Quicksilver for quite some time. Nasty Silver Slice to Lost sets up the HOT TAG TO SCORPIO! ACE OF SPADES to Bosh gets 1-2-NO! Scorpio nails Lost with the Hurricane DDT. Meanwhile, Quicksilver nails Bosh with a springboard clothesline followed by a step-up enziguri for two. While Quicksilver is in mid-wheelbarrow position on Bosh, Scorpio jumps off Quicksilver and drills Bosh with the Shining Wizard. Double-Team Famouser to Bosh gets 1-2-NO! Lost kicks Quicksilver to the floor and spears Scorpio to set up the SHARPSHOOTER. Quicksilver breaks the hold though. AXP with the Dropkick-Powerbomb combo to Lost gets 1-2-NO! Now Quicksilver and Bosh head over to the apron where Quicksilver delivers a sunset flip powerbomb to Bosh on the floor! STEREO PLANCHAS from AXP. Scorpio hits Lost, but Bosh avoids Quicksilver. While Quicksilver is up against the ringpost, Bosh swings a chair to his head, which bounces off the post as well. That winds up taking Quicksilver out for the rest of the match. Good thing Scorpio is on fire right now. He takes out Lost with a backbreaker and locks in the Dragon Sleeper on Bosh. Next thing you know, Joey Ryan appears and superkicks Scorpio away. However, Dino Winwood will not stand for this. He gets up in Joey’s face. Slaps are exchanged and Dino gives Joey a powerbomb! Crowd goes nuts, but then feels bad when Bosh destroys him with Lioncock and a superkick from Lost. A Stunner and a double-team backbreaker from Arrogance still will not put Scorpio away. Northern Lights Suplex by Lost onto a backbreaker from Bosh won’t either! But then Scorpio headscissors Bosh into the ropes to crotch Lost on the top rope for another big headscissors. FINAL ANSWER to Bosh gets 1-2-NO! Bosh comes back and catches Scorpio with the STEINER SCREWDRIVER SUPLEX! Cover, 1-2-NO!! Lost is pulling off the elbow pads now. Another double-team backbreaker and Lost wants the SHARPSHOOTER, but Scorpio pulls him into an inside cradle for the 1-2-3! (26:53) Bosh thinks they have won and hands one of the belts back over to Lost. After the bell, Arrogance and Joey Ryan play like they will show Scorpio respect, but then they pull off his mask and leave him to bleed until Mr. Excitement makes the save. Just a real fun, well done match. The crowd was really into Scorpio’s heroic effort too. In the end, Scorpio leaves with his face revealed and his head held high. ****¼

• PWG Champion AJ Styles vs. Frankie Kazarian
  

Even though Kazarian had left TNA to wrestle for WWE, he had yet to make a TV appearance and could still compete in PWG. He would make his WWE TV debut on Velocity the week after this show happened. Excalibur and Disco imagine seeing the PWG title appear on WWE TV. Bunch of headlocks to start. Kazarian avoids the best dropkick in the business only to be sent to the floor. Frankie has to take a seat after that one. Plus, a water break. On the apron, AJ flips Kazarian back inside into the STYLES CLASH. Kazarian manages to reverse out, but takes the jumping knee drop for two. From there, AJ surprises Kazarian with the kip-up headscissors that sends Kaz into the corner. Styles works the neck and nearly gets the STYLES CLASH again, but Kazarian backdrops him to the floor and dropkicks him off the apron. Back in, BACK TO THE FUTURE by Kazarian for 1-2-NO! AJ fires back with forearms, but Kaz kicks him up top. He wanted the WAVE OF THE FUTURE from the top rope, but Styles pushes him down. Kaz blocks the flying forearm, but eats the Pele Kick. Styles continues with the Hammerlock Back Suplex and the Pumphandle Gutbuster for two. Kaz though blocks a corner splash with his knees and executes a Jack Brisco rollup into his own version of the STYLES CLASH. AJ counters, but takes a dropkick to the face. Cover, 1-2-NO! Double-KO ensues. When they get back to their feet, AJ snaps Kazarian’s neck off the top rope after a suplex to the apron. On the floor, Styles catches Kaz with a Quebrada DDT. Just as AJ climbs back onto the apron to get inside the ring to break the 20-count, Kazarian jumps up and delivers the WAVE OF THE FUTURE off the apron back to the floor to cause both of them to be counted out. (21:29) The crowd does not care for that finish. You couldn’t have Kaz win the belt, but you didn’t want to see AJ pin Kazarian right before he goes to WWE, I suppose. Decent enough, just nothing too spectacular. **¾

Final Thoughts: Get this for the tag titles match if nothing else. It is worth seeing. High thumbs in the middle for night one of the second anniversary show.