BRM Reviews PWG DDT4 2014

[Big Red Machine]

PWG DDT4 2014 (1/31/2014)- Reseda, CA

DDT4 2014 FIRST ROUND MATCH: RockNES Monsters vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?)- 6.75/10
Great opener. BEST FINISH EVER.

DDT4 2014 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Unbreakable F’n Machines (Brian Cage & Michael Elgin) vs. PPRay (“Pretty” Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas)- 6.5/10
I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but they really had me pulling for PPRay to pull off the upset.

DDT4 2014 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae vs. Cole Steen Cole- 7.25/10
Despite what the name of their team might suggest, this was not a handicap match. Adam Cole has not been cloned.
Cole and Steen did the classic HBK & Diesel pose that Jacobs & Whitmer used to be so fond of copying. Then Joey and Candice jumped them from behind to start the match because they really stink at being babyfaces. Joey has been a terrible influence on Candice.
The match was great (in large part thanks to Candice’s Steamboat-esque selling), but the wrong team went over. The Bucks are the tag champs so everyone knows that Cole & Steen won’t win. On the other hand, you have Candice LeRae, who is one of the most over babyfaces in company, and has been for about two straight years. She is feuding with Cole and his stable, and was supposed to have a world title shot last month at All-Star Weekend X before Hero’s return forced a shuffling of the card. Why not have Candice pin Cole and give Candice the title shot you were going to give her anyway, but with a real reason for it this time?
I’m not saying that you need to put the belt on Candice (although I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to it), but the time is definitely right for Candice to at least get a shot at the PWG World Title. This is a major opportunity, and it feels like PWG is completely ignoring it.

DDT4 2014 FIRST ROUND MATCH: The African-American Wolves (A.R. Fox & ACH) vs. The Martin Luther Kings of Wrestling (AKA Malcolm D-Generation X) (Rich Swann & Ricochet)- 8.25/10
The announcers (Chris Hero & Excalibur) had a conversation that started with Excalibur informing Hero that “if you like black guys who do a lot of flips, the indies are in a golden age.” After some more comments, they hit upon the probable reason for the increase in flippy black men independent wrestling over the past few years: “these are the children of 2 Cold Scorpio.”
This match was exactly what you would expect. LOTS of flips, LOTS of crazy flying stuff. Awesome action, but not much substance besides that. Still lots of fun to watch.

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. ADAM THORNSTOWE- 5.75/10
A great showing for Thornstowe in his PWG debut. He really won the crowd over by simply not backing down from Ciampa despite Ciampa’s reputation for… how I can I put this?... murderizing people.

DDT4 2014 SEMIFINAL MATCH: Cole Steen Cole vs. Best Friends- 6.25/10
Cole was upset that Chuck & Trent? were better friends than he and Steen were, so he went backstage. Steen followed him, and when they came back out, they were wearing matching gear (don’t worry. Cole was the one wearing a smaller version Steen’s gear). Then they destroyed the Best Friends’ secret weapon! This made me (and the crowd) very unhappy.
They brawled in the crowd a lot, which was hard to see on the DVD. The crowd was 100% behind Best Friends, though, so they popped huge for the finish, which saw Candice come out and distract Cole, resulting in Steen, who was waiting for Cole’s help to hit a double-team move, getting rolled up.

DDT4 2014 SEMIFINAL MATCH: The Unbreakable F’n Machines vs. Rich Swann & Ricochet- 7.75/10
Ricochet played babyface in peril, then he and Swann worked over Elgin’s head by kicking it a lot.

WINNER BECOMES #1 CONTENDER TO THE PWG WORLD TITLE: Drake Younger vs. Chris Hero vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Kyle O’Reilly- 8.5/10
Some great four way spots in the beginning that didn’t feel forced the way these sometimes do. Then everyone’s head and neck got worked over and they just did awesome stuff.

DDT4 2014 FINALS- 6.75/10
Very short for a big tournament finals (about ten minutes), but all action.

Overall, an awesome show from PWG. I just wish the main event had delivered a bit more.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Chris Hero (after Steen stepped on Candice’s hair and pulled her up)- “In any moral establishment, that would called domestic violence.”
Seeing as how Hero spent a good year of his life in PWG protecting Candice from a woman-beater, you would think he would be familiar enough with these things to know that it’s not domestic violence unless you live in the same house. Hence “DOMESTIC.”

[cero2k]

DDT4 2014 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae vs. Cole Steen Cole- 7.25/10
Despite what the name of their team might suggest, this was not a handicap match. Adam Cole has not been cloned.
Cole and Steen did the classic HBK & Diesel pose that Jacobs & Whitmer used to be so fond of copying. Then Joey and Candice jumped them from behind to start the match because they really stink at being babyfaces. Joey has been a terrible influence on Candice.
The match was great (in large part thanks to Candice’s Steamboat-esque selling), but the wrong team went over. The Bucks are the tag champs so everyone knows that Cole & Steen won’t win. On the other hand, you have Candice LeRae, who is one of the most over babyfaces in company, and has been for about two straight years. She is feuding with Cole and his stable, and was supposed to have a world title shot last month at All-Star Weekend X before Hero’s return forced a shuffling of the card. Why not have Candice pin Cole and give Candice the title shot you were going to give her anyway, but with a real reason for it this time.
I’m saying that you need to put the belt on Candice (I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to it, though), but the time is definitely right for Candice to at least get a shot at the PWG World Title. This is a major opportunity, and it feels like PWG is completely ignoring it.

I thought the same thing, that Candice should have pinned Cole, but then i noticed that the 4 way was for the no 1 contendership of the title, and before the rumor came up that Drake was hired by WWE, my thought was that Mt Rushmore would lose all the titles at Mystery Vortex II, so that would leave Candice vs Drake which wouldn't be a good idea to follow up his title win.

DDT4 2014 FINALS- 6.75/10
Very short for a big tournament finals (about ten minutes), but all action.

this. but it's usually the case, O'Reilly vs Elgin at BOLA was also quite shorter and slower than semi finals

[Big Red Machine]

DDT4 2014 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae vs. Cole Steen Cole- 7.25/10
Despite what the name of their team might suggest, this was not a handicap match. Adam Cole has not been cloned.
Cole and Steen did the classic HBK & Diesel pose that Jacobs & Whitmer used to be so fond of copying. Then Joey and Candice jumped them from behind to start the match because they really stink at being babyfaces. Joey has been a terrible influence on Candice.
The match was great (in large part thanks to Candice’s Steamboat-esque selling), but the wrong team went over. The Bucks are the tag champs so everyone knows that Cole & Steen won’t win. On the other hand, you have Candice LeRae, who is one of the most over babyfaces in company, and has been for about two straight years. She is feuding with Cole and his stable, and was supposed to have a world title shot last month at All-Star Weekend X before Hero’s return forced a shuffling of the card. Why not have Candice pin Cole and give Candice the title shot you were going to give her anyway, but with a real reason for it this time.
I’m saying that you need to put the belt on Candice (I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to it, though), but the time is definitely right for Candice to at least get a shot at the PWG World Title. This is a major opportunity, and it feels like PWG is completely ignoring it.

I thought the same thing, that Candice should have pinned Cole, but then i noticed that the 4 way was for the no 1 contendership of the title, and before the rumor came up that Drake was hired by WWE, my thought was that Mt Rushmore would lose all the titles at Mystery Vortex II, so that would leave Candice vs Drake which wouldn't be a good idea to follow up his title win.

But the card's not a mystery. We know that the Bucks are defending the tag titles against Best Friends and that Cole is defending against Drake.
And just because Cole already has one challenger coming up doesn't mean that there can't be a second one waiting for him for the next show. If Drake is going to WWE, they shouldn't put the title on him. They did it for Dragon but 1) Dragon's contributions to PWG were a lot more than Drake's, and 2) PWG didn't have a super-hot heel champion with a bunch of contenders chasing him at the time. They should do what they did with Sami: give him a big goodbye match and title shot, but don't have him win.
I don't know how many more shows PWG is planning on running between now and the anniversary show, but it's probably not more than one or two. Have Cole beat Drake clean at Mystery Vortex II (Drake is leaving, after all), and have Steen beat up on Candice in a singles match. have Candince go over via roll-up, then have her get beaten down by Mt. Rushmore as the babyfaces who try to help get their asses kicked (maybe do an angle where Joey gets handcuffed the ropes and forced to watch the beatdown). Announce Candice vs. Cole for the show in the spring and have Cole win via copious interference, setting up a cage match at the anniversary show where Candice goes over (if they have a second show between Mystery Vortex II and the anniversary show, have Joey step up and challenge Cole in a street fight, in which he gets screwed because of Mt. Rushmore interference, then end the show with another big brawl that results in Candice getting the best of Cole and stealing the belt, forcing Cole to agree to the cage match).

DDT4 2014 FINALS- 6.75/10
Very short for a big tournament finals (about ten minutes), but all action.

this. but it's usually the case, O'Reilly vs Elgin at BOLA was also quite shorter and slower than semi finals

Yeah, but I'm sure that went more than just ten minutes.

[cero2k]

I thought the same thing, that Candice should have pinned Cole, but then i noticed that the 4 way was for the no 1 contendership of the title, and before the rumor came up that Drake was hired by WWE, my thought was that Mt Rushmore would lose all the titles at Mystery Vortex II, so that would leave Candice vs Drake which wouldn't be a good idea to follow up his title win.

But the card's not a mystery. We know that the Bucks are defending the tag titles against Best Friends and that Cole is defending against Drake.
And just because Cole already has one challenger coming up doesn't mean that there can't be a second one waiting for him for the next show. If Drake is going to WWE, they shouldn't put the title on him. They did it for Dragon but 1) Dragon's contributions to PWG were a lot more than Drake's, and 2) PWG didn't have a super-hot heel champion with a bunch of contenders chasing him at the time. They should do what they did with Sami: give him a big goodbye match and title shot, but don't have him win.
I don't know how many more shows PWG is planning on running between now and the anniversary show, but it's probably not more than one or two. Have Cole beat Drake clean at Mystery Vortex II (Drake is leaving, after all), and have Steen beat up on Candice in a singles match. have Candince go over via roll-up, then have her get beaten down by Mt. Rushmore as the babyfaces who try to help get their asses kicked (maybe do an angle where Joey gets handcuffed the ropes and forced to watch the beatdown). Announce Candice vs. Cole for the show in the spring and have Cole win via copious interference, setting up a cage match at the anniversary show where Candice goes over (if they have a second show between Mystery Vortex II and the anniversary show, have Joey step up and challenge Cole in a street fight, in which he gets screwed because of Mt. Rushmore interference, then end the show with another big brawl that results in Candice getting the best of Cole and stealing the belt, forcing Cole to agree to the cage match).

it's not that the card is a mystery. at the point Drake wins in DDT4, he still hadn't signed with WWE, so i think that PWG was gonna go and give him the title at MVII, and Best Friends would take the Tag titles. and i think this was the plan until it was announced that Drake signed. If PWG had known that Drake would signed, i'm sure either Candice would get the title shot, or O'Reilly for MVII. I say they just teased Candice and Adam for a future feud, but not necessarily with the title on the line.

Also, i don't think PWG would ever do a cage match, have they ever done one before?

[Big Red Machine]

Also, i don't think PWG would ever do a cage match, have they ever done one before?

The Hero vs. Tornado blow-off