Pro Wrestling Guerilla presents "Permanent Vacation/Card Subject to Change 2"
February 4, 2006
Los Angeles, California
350 Fans
With Optional Commentary by Disco Machine and Excalibur

Ronin, Nemesis, and Disco Machine vs. TJ Perkins, Bino Gambino, and Fergal Devitt

Bino Gambino is subject to a bunch of offense by Ronin and Nemesis, with Nemesis hitting a nice swinging neckbreaker while Ronin puts the "stretch" back in Stretch Plum. TJ Perkins eventually comes in to make the save, but even he is isolated and worked down for a while. After Disco Machine chokeslams Bino Gambino, we get our obligatory opening match cluster-****, and it all ends when Nemesis hits what is basically a Wrist Clutch Shock Treatment to get the win.

Analysis: The insightful, at-times hilarious commentary by Disco Machine and Excalibur helped to smooth over some of this match's bland spots. To be completely honest, this feels like the same old review I do for the same old opening-round match that I've been reviewing for what feels like a long, long time. The only big difference is the people involved, because it doesn't get much more cookie-cutter than this. It had a good cluster-**** to end it, though, I'll say that much. This match will fulfill your obligatory needs, but aside from that, you know how it is. **½

"The Russian Hooligan" Alex Koslov vs. "Classic" Colt Cabana"

Cabana keeps making fun of Koslov, resulting in Koslov stretching him hard with a surfboard hold across the ropes. Some general stiffness is interspersed with moments of comedy that vary in length; Cabana manages to hit a lariat for 2¾. After a big thrust kick and an Avalanche Splash, Koslov ends up getting rolled up and pinned by Cabana.

Analysis: Another standard match that I didn't like but didn't hate. It's just…meh. I can't even say all that much about it. There was some alright comedy moments here and there, but this thing basically defines "status quo". I've always liked Colt Cabana, but I've yet to see anything really impressive out of Koslov. You won't lose any sleep skipping this one. Still…if you don't, you'll get something to satiate yourself with…but that's about it. **½

Dark and Lovely (Scorpio Sky and Human Tornado) vs. Cape Fear ("The Generic Luchador" El Generico and Quicksilver)

After Human Tornado refuses to fight El Generico, Scorpio Sky gets tagged in and continues to indulge in his narcissistic ways. Tornado and Generico do eventually go at it with each other, but the now-separated Two Skinny Black Guys spend most of their time countering each other's moves. Sky and Quicksilver, the former Aerial Express, do much of the same when they tangle up. Scorpio Sky keeps getting "distracted" and won't let Human Tornado tag him in: first Scorpio is too busy drinking water, and then he begins doing toe-touches. There's a prolonged melee, with numerous crowd dives and some scattered false finishes. Human Tornado ends up blasting Generico with This **** Be Dead, and when he tries to roll over and pin Generico, Sky rolls him out of the ring, pins Generico himself, and gets the win.

Analysis: I like the whole "two halves of two different tag teams against their partners" story of the match, since it led to a lot of good, clever wrestling in-between some clever character development. Cape Fear was showing all kinds of unity and was the more well-adjusted of the two teams in regards to taking on their former partners, but Sky's self-love and overt heel character had the usually-energetic Human Tornado looking a lot more sullen and unwilling to go along with Scorpio. The match was basically filled with numerous "every-man-for-himself" scenarios; with team members opting to hit their opponents instead of fighting each other and big crowd dives to opponents-even if their partners got clipped too- being the highlight. This is a big step in the right direction, and leagues better than the previous two matches. ***¼

Excalibur vs. Top Gun Talwar

Excalibur gets a hurricanrana from Tits McGhee, who happens to be Talwar's "wife" and blowup doll, before having his face rammed into Tits, eventually followed with Top Gun Talwar biting Excalibur's backside. Talwar doesn't joke around much longer, though, as he gets in a harsh Sitout Spinebuster to Excalibur, onto the bottom turnbuckle. Talwar then hits a very nice Tornado DDT- he stands near the middle of the second rope on the outside before spring-boarding himself in- but can only get a count of 2½. Excalibur manages to rock Talwar with a Heart Punch to get the pinfall victory.

Analysis: This particular match could best be described as an at-times entertaining mix of comedy and hard shots. Both the comedic and stiff aspects of the match could've been done better, but I admit to liking what I saw. The interaction of Tits McGhee was nice, the Heart Punch was clever, and both men were good for what they were, as Excalibur was a slightly-generic dickhead heel while Talwar was a slightly-generic slightly-crazy face. It wasn't that heated or that good of a match, but it'll mostly entertain you. **¾

Pro Wrestling Guerilla Tag Team Championships Match: Super Dragon and Davey Richards © vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star and Zokre)

Super Dragon nearly comes to blows with a fan, allowing Los Luchas to blindside both Dragon and Richards with a double-dive out of the ring. Los Luchas are on fire as everyone brawls with each other, with Phoenix Star and Super Dragon fighting into the crowd while Zokre and Richards stiff each other. The cluster-**** ends soon, though, and Super Dragon manages to wrap up Zokre in a Leg Full Nelson. Davey Richards comes in and basically shoot-kicks Zokre in the face, legitimately knocking him out. Phoenix Star comes in to check on his partner before getting jumped by Super Dragon. To make matters worse, Phoenix Star nearly gets KO'd as well when he takes a sickening neck-bump from a D.R. Driver, with Zokre all the while not moving. Davey Richards arrogantly and angrily pins Zokre with the heel of his foot, getting the win.

Following the match, Zokre is taken away on a stretcher while PWG staff fills the ring. Super Dragon takes the opportunity to attack Dino Winwood, and a gigantic brawl ensues, complete with Richards joining in and Chris Hero coming down to ringside to try (and failing to) break up the fight. Dino Winwood angrily announces a Kings of Wrestling vs. Dragon and Davey match, and gets Hero and Claudio Castagnoli to agree to team up after promising each of them a five dollar increase for wrestling mixed in with a free dinner. After all that, Super Dragon taunts the fans and won't leave the ring, prompting Davey to angrily grab a microphone and question Dragon's logic. Dragon grabs the mic long enough to hit Davey with it, and the two come very close to fighting- Richards even drags Super Dragon back into the ring when he tries to leave- before Super Dragon heads to the backstage area, Davey in tow after saying "that ****ing hurt".

Analysis: What was shaping up as a match that could have potentially taken Match of the Night by a wide margin became one of the most surreal moments of the night. Although the camera angle didn't accurately get the best shot of Davey's kick, you could tell it was really dangerous and completely shoot-style: it had no "snap" at all, all you heard was the dull "thud" of bone hitting cranium. The really surreal thing about the match wasn't just Zokre being knocked out; it was how Super Dragon, Davey Richards, and Phoenix Star were able to work that into the match so well that you truly believed that everything after the match was really happening, as well. The brawl between Super Dragon, Davey Richards, and Dino Winwood felt real… Claudio and Hero agreeing to team up felt real… and Dragon and Davey nearly dissolving their successful tag team felt really, really real. And for that, this match deserves a lot of praise. What could've been the biggest match of the night ended up being the one that established some very firm, very interesting storylines. ***

"The Future" Frankie Kazarian vs. "The Professional" Scott Lost

Both men start out the match very briskly, and before long they're busting out signature moves, like Lost hitting a flying lariat and Kazarian getting in a Slingshot DDT. Lost suplexes Kazarian over the top rope, causing both men to tumble outside, but Kazarian ends up hitting a desperation Wave of the Future on Lost, hitting Lost completely by surprise and allowing Kazarian to pick up the win.

Analysis: Weird finish aside, this was a good match: it had lots of athleticism, fluid moves, clever pacing, etc. It felt really basic at times, really heated at others, so it loses some points for having no middle-ground; it was either good and fast or boring and slow. Honestly, it's exactly what you would expect between these two: it's a bit standard and not done so well at times, but as a whole it's an enjoyable PWG match. ***

Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Heavyweight Championship: "The Technical Wizard" Joey Ryan © vs. "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen vs. "The Phenomenal" A.J. Styles vs. "Photogenic" Chris Bosh

There's a giant cluster-**** to start out: Styles manhandles Ryan outside the ring while Bosh and Steen punch each other inside the ring. A.J. dusts off the back-stand/hurricanrana combo, followed by A.J. and Steen stiffing each other. At one point, Styles kicks Steen in the calves, prompting Steen to shout "why would you do that?!" before poking Steen in the eyes. Steen then kicks Styles in the calves… Styles answers with a poke to the eye. A bit later, Kevin Steen nails some elbows to Joey Ryan before Ryan nails a KO-level superkick to Steen, but when Ryan tries the same maneuver on Chris Bosh, Bosh hits the Lion****. Bosh manages to knock Joey Ryan out of the ring with a press, which also carries himself out of the ring, and Styles hits the no-ropes suicide somersault senton he's known to do. Unlike Styles, though, Steen isn't known for doing too many crazy flips, so it's a big mark-out moment when Steen hits a somersault senton off the third rope and into the crowd of Styles, Ryan, and Bosh. A.J. Styles tries to superplex Steen but Joey Ryan shakes the ropes, resulting in Styles taking a nasty bump to the outside and the ref going to check on him. With the referee preoccupied with Styles, Joey Ryan brings a chair into the match and gets a good, clean shot to Bosh before Steen grapples for position with the chair, eventually managing to send Ryan to the outside and taking possession of the chair. Of course, the referee turns around and sees Steen with it, and immediately disqualifies him. While the referee argues with Kevin Steen, Joey Ryan sneaks the chair back in, hits Bosh with it again throws it away, and then pins Bosh, effectively eliminating two men in under a minute.

Now that it's just down to Styles/Ryan, Styles hits his suplex-to-neckbreaker spot before blasting Ryan with a deadweight Release German Suplex, literally and quite simply grunting, lifting Ryan without any support, and dumping him on his upper shoulder/neck. The PWG Champion tries to bring in a chair once again, but the ref struggles with him for it, and A.J. attempts another deadweight German Suplex. What follows is very sick to describe, so let's first examine what likely should have happened: for all intents and purposes, the finishing segment was supposed to have A.J. Styles German Suplex Joey Ryan while Ryan was still holding the chair, resulting in the chair flying back and under Ryan, so both Ryan and Styles would be hurt by the chair. What happens is this: Styles doesn't get a wide enough angle into his throw, and ends up collapsing onto the crown of his head. This, in turn, causes Styles to let go of Ryan sooner than expected, so he goes neck-first into the chair. In essence, Ryan nearly breaks his neck over a chair while Styles has a botch that looked like a miniature version of the tragic accident that ended Hayabusa's career. Ryan has enough sense left in him to drape an arm across Styles, and he gets the win.

Analysis: An incredibly epic match with a cringe-inducing finish. Neither A.J. nor Ryan seemed the worse for wear even after such a potentially dangerous spot, so it actually became a fantastic way to end what had been a very heated four-way match. Nothing was ever too hard to follow, and everyone had their own unique reason for being in this match, which only added to the feeling of this four-way being all-important: Bosh was motivated by revenge, Ryan wanted to keep his belt at all costs, Steen wanted more gold and badly, and Styles was there because he's always near the main event and stood just as much a chance of winning as everyone else. Add to that some fantastic action, and you have a match that had me loving most of it. This match combines everything you know and enjoy about all four men involved, but (unfortunately) with what I saw as a poorly-handled stipulation. The eliminations simply occurred too fast, and were designed only to get Ryan heat. Eliminating both Kevin Steen and Chris Bosh in under a minute was a cheap way to garner hatred, and it's a bit insulting to them and us that two hugely-over top-contenders for the championship would be eliminated so quickly and meaninglessly. Even despite that, I came away thinking that this match built credibility for the PWG Heavyweight belt, so I'm glad to see it. ***½

Pro Wrestling Guerilla Tag Team Championships Match: Super Dragon and Davey Richards © vs. The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and "Double C" Claudio Castagnoli)

Aside from some good chain wrestling (and you know you expected as much) the main story for a good one-fourth of the match is that Dragon and Davey are still having a lot of communication problems, while Hero and Claudio have buried the hatchet even though they had a match with each other as recently as "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'". Both Hero and Claudio stay on their toes even though both teams are evenly-matched, but it's Super Dragon and Davey Richards that pose the biggest threat to losing their titles: they shove each other out of the ring, slap each other in the face to tag out, and all number of things that generally leads to the Kings of Wrestling having a strict advantage simply because they're able to function as a unit. Super Dragon and Davey Richards are eventually forced to set aside their difference on the count of them getting their asses kicked, and they soon begin firing back with multiple stiff shots and lots of kicks, narrowing the gap between who's the worse for wear. Chris Hero and Davey Richards agree to kick (Davey) and chop (Hero) each other, then both do so, once. Davey readies another kick, but steals one out of Super Dragon's playbook and pokes Hero in the eye. Claudio is able to get a measure of revenge for his tag partner, though, as he's able to hoist Davey up for a Stalling Suplex and hold him in the air for over a minute before dropping him down. Super Dragon comes in off a desperation tag and works over Claudio, but the honeymoon is soon over, since Super Dragon and Davey Richards go right back to slapping each other in the guise of tagging each other in.

Now it's Claudio's turn for a "hot tag" moment, tagging in Hero who quickly gives Yakuza Kicks for all. After that the match basically devolves into chaos, with numerous nearfalls, a couple scattered crowd dives, and Super Dragon even nailing the Kawada Kicks, complete with an Axe Kick finish. Super Dragon manages to find time to bust out the Badunkadunk, but only gets 2¾ for it. Davey then locks Hero into what is basically a Cattle Mutilation with Hero sitting instead of lying on his belly, which looked cool as hell. Super Dragon doesn't fare a whole lot better than Hero, though, as he's soon planted with a Backdrop Driver. Davey manages to somehow kick out of the Hero's Welcome, then he and Super Dragon kill Claudio Castagnoli with a huge Avalanche Lungblower/Powerbomb double-team maneuver. Somehow, Claudio finds a way to kick out of it, surprising the hell out of his opponents when he kicks out at 2¾. Super Dragon hits the Tope Con Hilo to Hero to take him out of the equation once and for all, then Davey Richards hits a Shooting Star Press to Claudio, finally and successfully putting Claudio down for the three-count and retaining the titles after almost an hour of wrestling.

Analysis: If this isn't one of P.W.G.'s best matches of 2006, I shudder to think what else didn't make the cut. There was so much sheer intensity and drama that I consider this match one of the best: a truly excellent match that proved that the sum is greater than the parts of the whole, even though the individual parts were pretty fantastic to begin with. It's everything you could've ever hoped for…it's Hero and Claudio against Dragon and Richards. It sounds appealing, and it lives up to all the hype you'll mentally build around it. Hero and Claudio are chain-wrestling experts, with Dragon really holding his own and Davey looking, admittedly, a bit confused. When they got into their groove, though, this was an amazing blend of non-stop stiffness, constant storytelling, and a surprising-yet-not-completely-unexpected aura that left you begging to see more. The real irony of the thing is that this match wasn't even supposed to take place. But it did, and rest assured, it was damn good. ***¾

Final Thoughts: Again, we get no Extra's to round out the set. Two reviews later, though, I guess I'm getting back into the groove of things: having no extra content is beginning to phase me less and less. To be honest, though, I'm content without any extras mainly because this was a fantastic showing by P.W.G. in the face of constant adversity. To make a long story short, this card was a booker's worst nightmare: matches were cancelled, people that weren't supposed to wrestle ended up doing so to save face, a man was legitimately knocked out, and the arena itself was triple-booked with other events, prompting a later starting time. Hell, I respect P.W.G. simply for having the balls to continue the show in the face of so many unexpected changes. So it's not rocket science in regards to why the name of this show was altered: ironically, this card was subject to massive change.

But in the vein of "what we got" as opposed to "what we didn't", you're still getting a standard P.W.G. show spiced up with two fantastic matches that you're sure to love. Everything besides the Elimination Match and the second Tag Titles match was good on various levels, but some of it was a bit too average for my tastes. It's not like I'd rather skip everything except the two matches…it's just that some of the other matches besides the last two don't make all that compelling of an argument to not skip them. Still, if you're looking for a few decent matches to pass the time, you'll get it. If you're looking for a good mix, you'll get that too. You'll even get some fantastic showings. But if you're looking for a super-stacked mega-show like B.O.L.A., I'm afraid you'll be moderately disappointed with the lack of really important, compelling matches. Still, the two that were are sure not to disappoint. Regardless of everything else, it'll be hard to think up any reason to disregard the last two matches, because they're both excellent and well worth a watching.

In the end, what could've been an utter disaster ended up being a show that had so much polish it felt like it was the original plan and not the subject of constant last-minute changes. I respect P.W.G. for continuing the show, but I respect them even more for putting on a good show. Make no mistake about it: this show is good. I was originally going to add a fourth of a point based on the whole "booker's nightmare turned into solid event" thing… but in truth, that may merit plenty of praise on my end, but I don't think that, as a whole, it's worth an extra fourth. You could even say that I'm glad I'm withholding the extra fourth, as it proves that I have enough faith in P.W.G. to not be astounded that they turned a potential stinker into a pleasant watching. Still, I reached that decision by a very small margin. Regardless of the final rating, you won't feel any worse for ordering this show. Pick it up if you can, and enjoy what you know you're going to enjoy.

Overall Rating for Pro Wrestling Guerilla's "Permanent Vacation/Card Subject to Change 2": ***¼