PWG Untitled II DVD Review

On October 17th, Pro Wrestling Guerilla set out to follow up on this year’s wildly successful Battle of Los Angeles tournament, as they put on Untitled II.

Advertised for this show was Roderick Strong getting his PWG World Championship shot against Kyle O’Reilly, World’s Cutest Tag Team putting their title on the line against Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano, Trevor Lee in another match against a former PWG World Champion, and the PWG debut of Uhaa Nation.

It’s time to break down the action.

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Biff Busick

This was a weird match to watch. Both men are so similar in look, in style, and in gear, that it made it hard to tell which guy was which at different points during the match. Even Excalibur and guest commentator Rick Knox confused the two a few times.

The most noteworthy spot in this match was when Busick went to do a dive over the top rope onto Ciampa, but Ciampa picked up a chair and launched it at Busick, who was in mid-air. It was a ridiculous spot that drew a huge reaction from the crowd.

Ciampa walked out the winner of this one, but Busick continued to endear himself to the PWG crowd with another awesome performance.

Bobby Fish vs. Cedric Alexander

Pretty solid match.

Fish and Alexander did some chain wrestling, but they played with striking for the most part. Fish, who studies in MMA, is a great striker, and Alexander tried to go toe-to-toe with him, which made for a pretty good story during the match.

In the end, Alexander’s agility helped him pick up the victory, but it was Fish, a newcomer like Busick, who stole the show in this one.

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Brian Cage vs. Uhaa Nation

I’ve heard a lot about Nation recently, but it’s not often that somebody can live up to that much hype.

Nation is not just anybody.

Putting Nation with Cage in his first PWG match was a brilliant move because they match up so well together; they’re both physical freaks, they have insane strength, and they can still pull off insane moves of agility.

It was a great debut for Nation, but, “Brian Cage…is a f—ing macine,” as Excalibur would say, and he got the win in his return from injury.

I’m not the biggest Cage fan, but he was great here, and Nation was fantastic. This was a show-stealing performance by both men.

World’s Cutest Tag Team vs. Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano

Joey Ryan started the match against Taylor, but it wasn’t long before the crowd was chanting for Candice LeRae, to the tune of “I Want Candy.”

LeRae tagged in, hit an assisted-body slam with Ryan, then went for the Ballsplex, but Taylor countered it and started yelling in disgust that LeRae had touched him inappropriately. So Taylor did the only thing he could do, he tagged out to Gargano, who happens to be LeRae’s real-life boyfriend.

LeRae and Gargano squared off to “This is awkward” chants, but they spent the next few minutes putting on a couple of great, very smooth sequences that made Taylor jump off the apron because even he needed a breather.

World’s Cutest Tag Team continues to be the second-most over team in PWG, as they put another great match to defend their title. LeRae got the win for her team, when she hit Taylor with a Ballsplex, then followed up with a reverse hurricanrana.

Adam Cole vs. Trevor Lee

Lee is a star.

Cole is the single-most over man in PWG, maybe in all of independent wrestling, and he was beat in this match by Lee, while the crowd loved every second of it.

Lee’s moveset is very interesting and innovative, and at the impressive age of 21, he has an extremely bright future. In just his seventh PWG match, Lee picks up his fourth win, and his second over a former PWG World Champion.

Also of note in this match: Cole is a candidate for best heel in all of wrestling, and he seemingly never fails to deliver, no matter who is opponent is.

The Young Bucks vs. A. R. Fox and ACH

The match started with stereo superkicks from Fox and ACH to Matt and Nick Jackson before the bell even rang. What followed after the bell rang was pure insanity, but we’ve come to expect that from any match The Young Bucks are in.

To be fair, Fox was probably the star of this match, as he was on the receiving end of a few crazy spots. For example, when he went for a springboard move, but once he connected to the top rope, he took a huge superkick from Nick, then took a really rough bump to the apron, then the floor.

Fox also pulled out one of his trademark jumps over the corner turnbuckle, where he gets incredible height and distance without assisting himself at all, landing on Matt, who was out there trying to take a breather.

This awesome, awesome match ended with The Young Bucks getting the win when they used a combo of Kevin Steen’s Package Piledriver and a superkick.

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong for the PWG World Championship

While not the best match on the show, it was what it needed to be.

After all that Strong has done to O’Reilly in his quest to capture the world title, this match started with O’Reilly finally getting his revenge, until Strong was able to turn the tables.

Strong continued his past beatdowns over O’Reilly and, at times, appeared on his way to finally capturing the PWG World Championship for the first time in his career. However, O’Reilly got back into it, before a dynamic back-and-forth gave plenty of false finishes.

In the end, O’Reilly was ready to finish Strong off. Strong was in the corner, and he sidestepped a charging O’Reilly, while also pulling the referee into O’Reilly’s path. O’Reilly took out the referee, then walked right into a backbreaker from Strong. Referee Rick Knox came running out, but he did not get there fast enough for Strong, and O’Reilly kicked out in two.

O’Reilly would go on to lock in a triangle choke hold for the win.

After the match, Strong would come back in the ring and attack O’Reilly, then Knox. O’Reilly would roll out of the way, but Knox wasn’t so lucky. Strong setup a group of chairs and proceed to pick up Knox for a suplex, but threw him back-first onto the chairs. Strong would then leave, as O’Reilly and others would come to check on Knox.

I honestly found this match to be a little disappointing, because I really like Strong, and I’m a huge fan of O’Reilly, and I expected more. However, the fact that it was the third- or fourth-best match on the show is a product of the stacked card PWG presents, not the match itself.

Overall Impression

It just wasn’t the best show that PWG has done. While 11 surprised a lot of people heading into BOLA, Untitled II was unable to do the same thing coming out of PWG’s biggest weekend.

Still, if you haven’t seen PWG before, this would be a good show to watch. While the action wasn’t always at it’s finest, the storytelling was great, and it was a microcosm of what’s made LeRae and O’Reilly the stars that they are, and Lee the star he is becoming. It also showed what has made Cole the first true heel in PWG in a long time, and how Strong has found his way into joining Cole in that class.

My one true knock on this show was that it was short, running at exactly 2:04, but that’s something that can be overlooked if you make the most out of that time.

So, while it wasn’t a traditional, non-stop action PWG show, it still managed to keep some of PWG’s best stories running in the right direction, as they head into their next show on December 12th.

Have you seen Untitled II yet? If so, what did you think? If not, are you going to check it out? Let us know in the comments section below.

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