PWG Neon Knights results: Best Friends collide; Riddle vs. Keith Lee

Image: SoCal Uncensored. Report submitted by reader Brian Reznick. Additional thanks to Dave Doyle and Ruby Flores.

– Adam Brooks defeated Brody King

Brooks won in 11:39 with a swanton. It was a good, short match. Brooks looked better than his previous PWG matches, and King was very over with the crowd while making his debut.

They did a few rough spots on the apron, which was a theme of the night. There were three different moments where they clearly miscommunicated or something went wrong, but they didn’t lose the crowd.

– Dalton Castle defeated Joey Janela

Castle hit the Bang-a-Rang to win in 21:29. The crowd loved both guys, and there was some good comedy based around eye poke spots by Janela. The match was a few minutes too long and lost the crowd a bit.

– Travis Banks defeated David Starr

A cradle/fisherman’s suplex off the turnbuckle ended this in 10:27. They had a good, hard-hitting match. Starr was much better here than in his PWG debut against Fred Yehi.

– Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Flip Gordon

Sabre submitted him in 15:43. This was my favorite match of the night up to this point, though a few people around me liked Banks vs. Starr better. The response for Gordon in his debut was great overall.

ZSJ took most of the match, stretching Gordon with creative submissions. They got a huge pop late when Gordon went for a standing Shooting Star Press and Sabre caught him in a triangle.

– Keith Lee defeated Matt Riddle

This was a hell of a match, with Lee using his big powerslam/jackhammer to get the pin in 18:31. Riddle’s chest was a mess coming into the match and Lee opened him up early with a huge double hand chop in the corner. The blood really increased the drama right away.

Lee landed a second rope moonsault late, but Riddle kicked out at one. Later, Riddle hit a top rope senton and Lee kicked out at two. Riddle stomped Lee down and hit another top rope senton, with Lee kicking out at one. Everyone jumped out of their seats for that.

Riddle kicked out of a powerslam/jackhammer, then Lee kicked out of the Bro to Sleep. Just a crazy, great match.

– PWG World Champion Chuck Taylor defeated Trent Barreta to retain his title

Taylor pinned Barreta with a low blow and a small package in 25:38 to retain. This was a heel turn as Barreta had the opportunity to hit Taylor with the title, but he decided not to and handed the belt to referee Rick Knox. Taylor then low-blowed and pinned Barreta when Knox turned to hand the title out of the ring.

There was good drama in the match. They did an exchange early that ended in the Best Friends hug for a pop. Much later, they did a Japanese-style forearm exchange that led to them each collapsing to their knees and falling against each other, making it look like they were doing the Best Friends hug again. It was really well done.

Barreta did a great blade job at one point, cutting himself over the eyebrow right before a stiff looking kick to the face. There were tons of piledrivers in the match: Taylor got piledriven twice on the apron, Barreta got piledriven on chairs outside, and there were multiple piledrivers in the ring. Taylor kicked out of a Dudebuster and Barreta kicked out of various piledrivers before the finish.

After the match, Taylor didn’t shake Barreta’s hand or hug him and just walked out. The crowd had already booed him and it really turned up at that point. The show then ended quickly and awkwardly, which I think made the heel turn more effective.

Overall, this was a very good show based on the excellent second half. The crowd enjoyed it and was very hot for the final two matches.