Card of the Year 2011? PWG Eight A Preview By Shaun Nichols

Although the card won't win any awards for the most creative title of a wrestling show, the 8th Anniversary could actually be a better show than the stellar PWG DDT4 2011 show which Ken Drabek looked at recently. By the way I've seen the DDT4 show and it really is a great show especially if you hanker for the days when tag team wrestling mattered.

Anyway back to PWG Eight, the show will take place on July 23rd and is a ridiculously stacked card. Here's whats in store.

Claudio Castognoli vs Davey Richards (PWG World Title)
This is interesting for a couple of reasons, firstly Davey was the PWG World Champion before Claudio but had the title vacated due to increasing his Japanese commitments and not being able to make the PWG dates so in the eyes of many fans until Claudio defeats him there will be a feeling that Claudio is an interim champion merely keeping the gold warm until Davey could make his return. With that been said Davey as only made two appearances for PWG since being stripped of the title, losing to Low Ki at Kurt Russellunion 2 in January and losing in the semi finals at DDT4 with Eddie Edwards to the Young Bucks. So as he done enough to deserve this opportunity? Davey could be celebrating a great few weeks by capturing both the ROH and PWG titles in the space of a few weeks and truly becoming the 'Best in the World'.

Young Bucks vs CIMA & Kevin Steen (Non Title)
A dream tag match if there ever was one, the Young Bucks have recently established themselves as the kings of the PWG tag team division by winning their second DDT4 tournament and then taking it further by defeating El Generico & Ricochet to regain the tag titles. Since then they enjoyed two massive wins at the All Star Weekend against firstly the RockNes Monsters and then the following night against Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. Here though they face a completely different test, Kevin Steen will no doubt be looking for revenge after losing in the final of DDT4 (with cult hero Akira Tozawa) and who better to partner than another DG star in CIMA. This will be CIMA's first PWG appearance since September 2009 and it will be interesting to say the least if he'll be in usual babyface mode or in his new heel Blood Warriors persona.

Chris Hero vs Low Ki
Both men really need a win to get back into World Title contention after both men lost to Claudio at the recent All Star Weekend. Chris Hero will also want to get revenge on Low Ki for defeating him in the final of Battle of Los Angeles 2008 (the one thing that Hero constantly mentions in his PWG promos is how he needs to win the BOLA tournament). Low Ki then left for the WWE so Hero never got his revenge even though Hero was PWG World Champion during 2008/09 he is still resents the fact that he did not get his win back over Low Ki and will be going all out to get it and get 2011 back on track.

El Generico & Ricochet vs Alex Shelley & Roderick Strong
The ROH 'Generation Next Reunion Tour' continues with Shelley teaming with Strong. The PWG fans always go crazy for Shelley and it's always nice to see Strong wrestling without having Truth Martini stood at ringside. Their opponents really do need a win as they lost the tag titles to the Bucks, when Ricochet subbed for Paul London. Then things got even worse when they lost to Steen and Tozawa at the next show. Unless PWG plans to turn either Generico or Ricochet then I can only see this high flying team picking up their first PWG win.

PAC vs Kevin Steen
You have to feel for 'Mr Wrestling' who is working double duty on this show. This is another dream re-match after they wrestled back in February 2007 in a match where PWG newcomer PAC upset the established Steen. PAC of course is a far more rounded performer than he was in 2007 and will want to exhibit all his skills in this re-match. Interestingly Kevin Steen is a massive fan of PAC and pushed for PAC to get more bookings in the US so I'm sure both guys will be doing their best to steal the show.

The Rest of the Card

The Dynasty vs RockNes Monsters - Not sure what happened here as The Dynasty were originally going to get a tag title match against the Bucks until CIMA was announced. PWG seem to have decided that it's time to give Joey Ryan something different to do after he won BOLA 2010 but lost his World Ttile match against Claudio. Yuma & Goodtime are pretty fun but I can't see them beating The Dynasty here.

Brian Cage-Taylor vs Brandon Gatson - This will be probably a perfectly fine 10 minute match but from a match perspective seems the poor relative compared to the other offerings to come later on in the card. I like the idea of the 'Fighting Taylor Boys' as a group but they definitely need Chucky Taylor out there to make it work.

Peter Avalon vs Ryan Taylor - Taylor will be going for revenge after Avalon eliminated him from the Joey Ryan Invitational Gauntlet at DDT4. Avalon is great as an annoying heel that takes really good bumps but the fans have been conditioned not to take his offence seriously. He keeps losing to Candice La Rae as an example of this, so you'd think that at least one Taylor will get a tick in the win column.