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PRO WRESTLING GUERRILLA MYSTERY VORTEX III DVD REVIEW

By Matthew Macklin on 2015-08-25 13:30:58

PWG Mystery Vortex III DVD Review

Available now at www.highspots.com.

Mystery Vortex III took place on June 26th from Reseda, California, with the theme being that no matches or talent are announced beforehand.  Everything was a surprise to the live audience.

Tommaso Ciampa defeated Johnny Gargano.  This was a fantastic back and forth wrestling match. Ciampa has lost weight since he left ROH and he has also shaved off his mohawk. Gargano always gives you a great pure wrestling match in PWG, whereas sometimes Ciampa can try too hard. Here, Ciampa was awesome. There was a lot of great chain wrestling and a nice sequence where they escaped each other's submission finishers. They brawled on the floor and Ciampa hit an Air Raid Crash on the apron. Ciampa hit more knee strikes than I can count and Gargano kicked out of Project Ciampa. Gargano had Ciampa locked in an STF version of the Gargano Escape, which looked to be it, but Ciampa escaped. The finish came when Ciampa caught a running Gargano with a modified Project Ciampa, he hit a Gordbuster into a knee strike and a normal Project Ciampa to get the win. This was an excellent way to kick off the show and one of the best PWG matches Ciampa has ever had.

The Worlds Cutest Tag Team defeated Monster Mafia.  With Josh Alexander retiring, this would be his last PWG match. The story here was that WCTT wanted revenge for Monster Mafia taking their tag titles at DDT4. This was really good with Ryan being work over until Candice got the hot tag. Mafia are such a great old school tag team and it's a shame to see Alexander retire. He and Page complimented each other really well as a team and they had all sorts of innovative tag moves. Candice took some serious punishment. Alexander German suplexed her like a rag doll at one point and she took several double team combos. There was one priceless moment with Page pulling down his trunks only to be Balls-plexed from behind by Candice. Candice pinned Alexander after she hit him with an incredible reverse hurricanrana off the top rope.

After the match the crowd chanted for Alexander and showed him huge respect. Of course Page turned on Alexander hitting him with the Spinning Dwayne. I really hope PWG bring Page back as a singles wrestler because he has been having an incredible year and is by far one of the best heels in wrestling.

Biff Busick defeated Timothy Thatcher.  This was an excellent pure technical wrestling match. Thatcher has been having an amazing break out year and this was his PWG debut. These two have met many times in Evolve and never fail to deliver. Their style is an absolute throwback, and doing that makes them standout. Busick controlled most of the match, meticulously picking apart Thatcher with stretches and holds. There was lots of striking too with uppercuts and slaps from both. At one point Biff looked like he had knocked Thatcher out with three stiff slaps. The finish came when Thatcher tried Busick's Sakotoshi into a Rear Naked Choke, but Biff reversed and locked in his own to make Thatcher submit. It was an excellent debut for Thatcher.

PWG World Championship: Roderick Strong defeated "Speedball" Mike Bailey.  This was awesome! An incredible star making performance from Mike Bailey as he took the champion to the absolute limit. Straight away Bailey almost beat Strong with a spinning kick that looked like it knocked Strong out. Strong suplexed Bailey into the apron to take control. But Bailey would make a comeback with more kicks and strike variations than I can even list and he scored some incredible near falls. Bailey really is one of the most unique pro wrestlers I have ever seen. His shooting star knee drop is a thing of beauty. Bailey looked like he had Strong beaten several times and the Reseda crowd ate it up with the whole crowd on their feet for the last few minutes. Strong finally put Bailey away with a jumping knee, a roaring elbow and two End of Heartaches. Bailey looked like a star.

Brian Cage defeated John Silver.   This was okay, something about it didn't flow well though. The take away from this match is that both men are incredibly powerful.This was Silver’s first singles match in PWG and was all about him doing incredible feats of strength on Cage. He hit a Jackhammer, a running powerslam, a deadlift German and he bridged up out of a pin and into a powerbomb, which looked incredible. Cage needs someone really good to get a good match out of him, it didn't really happen here, but it wasn't terrible. Cage won in the end with a discus lariat.

Zack Sabre, Jr defeated Chris Hero.   This was awesome. Zack Sabre, Jr is one of the finest technical wrestlers in the world today and if you haven't seen him you are really missing out on someone really special.  Hero came into this with a badly injured finger. He had sliced it opened the day before and had it heavily taped. You don't want any sort of arm or hand injury when you are in the ring with Sabre. The finger was the story of the match with Sabre working over the arm, bending and twisting it like only Sabre can. The array of arm submissions Sabre has is truly incredible. Hero of course came at Sabre with strikes by the bucket load. Hero's finger was disgusting and bled all over the place. It became a bit of a distraction and stopped Hero from being able to match Sabre with technical wrestling, so they'll have a better match without that. Sabre won when he applied Ode To Breaks and stomped Hero's head until he submitted. This was a big win for Sabre.

PWG Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks defeated Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett to become new champions.  Mystery Vortex is a show where no names or matches are announced beforehand, so Lee & Everett came to the ring and decided that they would wrestle each other as no one came out to challenge them. A couple of minutes later The Young Bucks appeared to a monster pop to make their return to PWG after a short absence. The pop was incredible and the match was great. The Bucks did all their usual tag spots and paid tribute to Kevin Owens a few times. Lee & Everett as the newer team took time to get going, but by the end of the match they looked incredible as they put together some amazing combos of moves. Everett hit a 630 and looked to have it won, but Nick Jackson pulled referee Rick Knox out of the ring and superkicked him. Just as Lee was about to put away Matt, Roderick Strong showed up and hit Lee with a Sick Kick allowing The Bucks to hit The Meltzer Driver on Lee to win back the PWG tag titles. This match was a whole lot of fun if you like crazy fast paced tag matches.

After the match we had the big angle of the show with the formation of Mount Rushmore 2.0. We had Candice & Joey run in only to be double teamed by The Bucks & Strong. As was Johnny Gargano. Just as it looked like Strong was setting up Rick Knox for something, the lights went out. When the lights came back on Super Dragon was in the ring to one of the loudest pops I've ever heard on a PWG show. The crowd thought he was there to save PWG, but he turned and joined The Bucks & Strong, hitting Psycho Drivers on everyone from Knox, to Mike Bailey and anyone else near the ring. Excalibur hit the ring and was beaten down. This was one hell of an angle, but the Psycho Driver looks completely reckless and needlessly dangerous. After this The Bucks sold Mount Rushmore 2.0 shirts off the backs of those that were fallen in the ring.

This was another top class show from PWG. As usual it comes highly recommended. It took them a long time to get this release out, but it was well worth the wait.

The show is available to order now at www.highspots.com.

Matthew Macklin operates RunningEnzuigiri.com.

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