Pro Wrestling Guerilla
DDT4 2015
May 22, 2015
American Legion Post #308 – Reseda, California
Photos: Mikey Nolan Photography
Another year, another Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament. Otherwise known as DDT4, the tag team tournament is back for its ninth year (if you’re interested in coverage from last year’s event, I reviewed it here). The past two shows of 2015 (February’s Out of Nowhere and April’s Don’t Sweat the Technique) have established several new teams in Reseda, making this a pretty intriguing event. Also, the tag champs, the World’s Cutest Tag Team will be involved and defending their titles adds a nice wrinkle. Only the Young Bucks have managed to go wire-to-wire with the belts in DDT4.
The Beaver Boys vs. Team Tremendous
Team Tremendous are a pair of buddy cops. Seen in CZW, ICW, XWA, Evolve, among other promotions Detective Dan Barry and Detective Bill Carr are making their debut in PWG tonight. Their brand of wrestling comedy should fit in nicely as an undercard jobber tag team in Reseda. While I’ve never been a fan of their work, Team Tremendous had a good enough showing here, getting over, primarily with their big movez. The match evolved from a slow rolling comedy match into a mild domination by the cops on John Silver of the Beaver Boys. The finish has them hitting their electric chair-sliced bread finisher they call ‘Book’em Dan-O’ before Alex Reynolds runs in and gets a rollup pin for the win. A decnt introduction for the new guys and I’d expect them to get booked here again. **3/4
Inner City Machine Guns vs. Biff Busick & Drew Gulak
You couldn’t pair together two more contrasting tag teams. Biff is all stiff intensity. Gulak is a catch-as-catch-can grappler. The Machine Guns are a pair of high flyers. It made for a strong dichotomy throughout the entire match. A bit slow to warm and at times, sloppy, by mid-match, things kicked into high gear with Busick and the Machine Guns keeping the pace brisk. Eventually, Inner City’s experience prevail as they keep Busick at bay while they work over Gulak. Swan hits a second rope 450 on Gulak for the win. I was fully invested by the end of the match when at times, early on, it wasn’t looking so great. ***1/2
“Speedball” Mike Bailey & Matt Sydal vs. Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett
Chris Sabin wasn initially scheduled to join his LoveGun partner, Matt Sydal, but an injury kept him from participating. Enter Mike Bailey as the last minute replacement and LoveBall is born. Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett are no strangers to one another. The two have had their fair share of battles on the East Coast in the CFW, CZW, among others. Pairing the together in PWG is a smart move as there is a world of opportunities with the surge of tag talent now in the promotion. The match was all action from bell-to-bell with little to no downtime. Sydal was the man early on, holding the match together until it became a token PWG melee. During the fracus is where Lee and Speedball really popped off the screen with several callbacks to their match at Don’t Sweat The Technique and some added bumps that popped the crowd. The match maintained a hot pace and strong intensity until the finale, with Lee and Everett pulling off the win after a botched finish, that I guess was supposed to be a catapulting 630 senton. It looked great, it just missed. ***1/4
PWG World Tag Team Championship – World’s Cutest Tag Team (c) vs. Monster Mafia
The match starts off with some fantastic misogynistic heelishness by Ethan Page. He is ruthless about it in a way I haven’t seen done with Candice yet in this ring. The match was your token WCTT match in every single way until Roderick Strong runs in and destroys Candice with an End of Heartache, surely setting up a match at a future event. Joey Ryan would attempt to save the day with an indisposed Candice, but falls short. The Mafia finishes Joey off and the Monster Mafia are your new tag team champions and move on in the tournament. The World’s Cutest Tag Team schtick had run its course long ago, so getting the titles off of them was a wise choice. The finish gives everyone involved something to do at future events, but the match itself was something I’ve seen several times already. **3/4
PWG World Tag Team Championship – Monster Mafia (c) vs. The Beaver Boys
After a lengthy intermission, the Mafia is back to defend their newly won tag team titles in a semi-final match. This was a match that was destined to happen eventually in PWG as these two pairs were on the same path and were due to converge sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, this was not what I was expecting from these two teams. It was a short, clunky affair early on and despite a few hot moments during the final stretch, it finished flat with a screwed up three count. The Beaver Boys win after hitting Ethan Page with a title belt while the Rick Knox’s back was turned. It just wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination and you could tell the crowd was fading at this point. *1/2
Inner City Machine Guns vs. Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett
The last semifinal match kicked off similar to the last with both teams having an awkward feeling out process to start things off. However, once everyone got comfortable, this match really kicked it up a few notches with some pretty crisp moves and transitions into the big spots you’re used to seeing from these wrestlers. In a big upset, Lee and Everett win definitively with Everett pinning Swan after a snap hurricanrana putting Swan’s head into the mat. Solid match. ***1/4
Johnny Gargano vs. TJ Perkins
Originally scheduled to be Gargano vs. Mike Bailey, TJP comes in with the relief appearance in the first non-tournament match of night. This was also the very first Gargano-Perkins match to everyone’s knowledge (Editor’s Note: Confirmed!). It was everything you’d expect a Johnny Wrestling/TJP match to be: crisp and fluid. The Reseda crowd was a bit down, considering it was likely around midnight during the match, but Gargano and Perkins wove in and out of holds and hit all of their stuff seamlessly. Gargano works over the neck all match long and eventually transitions into the GargaNo Escape after trading submission holds. Not exactly hitting a climax is my only real criticism, but this was the highlight of the show so far, a workmanlike effort by two silky smooth workers. ***3/4
PWG World Championship – Roderick Strong (c) vs. Brian Cage vs. Chris Hero
The throwback Phoenix Suns logo on Chris Hero’s trunks got a huge pop from me. Anyway, the opening stages of this contest feature the two big guys toying with the smaller champion. At first, they bully him around a bit, but Roddy’s weaving in and out of the match set some dissent between Hero and Cage. When they get alone time, they work each other over with Strong playing the chickenshit, running in at only opportune times only to be stymied. By mid-match Hero and Cage go back and forth in bouts of oneupsmanship. The finale sees Roddy run-in, delivering a series of Sick Kick’s to Hero and Cage before Strong steals a clean pin on Brian Cage. Cage and Hero would have a fun singles match together and it is something I’d like to see after seeing their work here. The match was alright, but surely nothing that will appear on a Match of the Month list. It was mostly hurt by the lack of intrigue, as it was clearly a placeholder match, but everyone made the best of it. ***1/2
PWG World Tag Team Championship – The Beaver Boys (c) v. Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett
Both teams get to business early and it breaks down a bit before the traditional tag begins. Early on, the Beavs get the upperhand on Everett by using a cheap shot with a chair to his surgically repaired knee. They’ll work over the knee and it’ll be the focus the whole way. To Everett’s credit, he sells it like a champ and its the reason the match works as well as it does. Lee, as well, sells Everett’s knee, as he’s outraged, begging for the tag. Once the hot tag comes, the match devolves into a skirmish, with Lee taking on both of the Boys. Everett gets involved again, leading up to the big spot of the match, a 630 senton off the top for a false finish. Then the shenanigans come with the Beaver Boys attempting to win with a foreign object (the belts), but Lee rolls up Reynolds while Everett holds Silver back giving the Carolina boys the win and are your new PWG Tag Team Champions. ***1/2
Final Thoughts: As a self contained tournament event, DDT4 (2015) succeeds mildly. Nothing pops off the screen as a real must see match, nor is the story all that compelling despite three title changes in one night. It’s just a decent show that would provide a nice alternative to your token three hours of RAW on one of these hot summer nights. The introduction of some new teams, too, was a step in the right direction for PWG. You have a large influx of tag team talent that can be used in upcoming events that were quickly established over the past few events. Considering the loss of a lot of the top talent that is now tied up in ROH or Global Force, this is going to help fill out those future cards nicely. Still though, I would have liked to see more from this event. Match to match, a lot fell flat for me, even though some matches still were winners.
- The Buzz: A nice alternative to RAW
- Match of the Night: Johnny Gargano v. TJ Perkins
- Also Watch: The Beaver Boys (c) vs. Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett
Up Next: Its Mystery Vortex III: Rock and Shock the Nation! As with the previous Mystery Vortex events, there isn’t a scheduled lineup, but both have been successes. I’d say there is a strong likelihood of Roddy and Candice matching up after the shenanigans from this show. Everything else is up for debate, I suppose.
