Tag: BOLA

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PWG BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2023 [Night 1 & 2 Review] – Appreciation.

NIGHT 1

–First Round–

–Masha Slamovich vs. Alex Shelley – 3-3.25/5 – Good heel work from Alex. Masha had a good crowd backing and not intimidated, won on a cradle reversal of Shelley’s Emerald Flowsion.

image from @RobBishopSD

–Bryan Keith vs. SB KENTo – 3.5+/5 – Match slowly rolled into something real strong. Keith’s hard-hitting debut impressed in the place of injured Lio Rush. SB KENTo will be back.

image from @RobBishopSD

–Komander vs. Latigo – 3.25-3.5/5 – If you love rope-walking, then I’ve got the match for you! Latigo is a solid Lucha heel. Komander is a great Lucha babyface and won with his 2nd or 3rd shooting star SOMETHING of the match.

image from @RobBishopSD

–Jordynne Grace vs. Jonathan Gresham – 3.5/5 – Fun and heartwarming hubby vs. wife match. Grace had the power and Gresham had the Grace. Wife wins.

–Shun Skywalker vs. Aramis – 2.25/5 – One of the few not-so-good PWG matches in recent memory. The force was not with Skywalker here as he looked slow, plodding and didn’t do much. Neither connected with the crowd.

image from @RobBishopSD

–Konosuke Takeshita vs. Michael Oku – 4.25-4.5/5 – One of the more emotional exchanges you’ll see in a first round tournament match. Takeshita is the definition of Rising Sun and Oku has all the goods for a young kid. LOVED THIS.

image from @RobBishopSD

–Titus Alexander vs. Daniel Garcia – 3.75-4/5 – A DQ in PWG is as rare as a 5-star match in WWE. Garcia is the ultimate heel in this promotion– he even wanted to take my NJPW merch that a friend sold me. Red Death is right; he said fuck it and swiped good ol’ Titus in the domepiece. This was a brilliant way of getting the champ out of the tournament and set-up something extra special for Night 2.

image from @RobBishopSD

–Bandido vs. Black Taurus vs. El Hijo del Vikingo – 4.25+/5 – A tale of 2 matches: Despite a horrific injury on a stacked chair apron spot to Vikingo (and later we find out Bandido with an injured neck), these lucha kings attempted almost everything of what little we have NOT YET seen before… and, for that, should be lauded. But the injuries… Hell, I thought it was kayfabe since ‘Dido attempted to bring the Viking Kid back into the ring by the face while being ushered by PWG employees to the back. At this brief moment, Vikingo seemed fairly fine-ish and conscious. While he wasn’t able to return on Day 2, El Hijo del Vikingo will DEFINITELY be among the most requested to return, and Bandido is arguably the indy fed’s biggest star. Black Taurus might just be the most underrated guy in PWG. In all, this was awesome.

Matches = 3.5-3.75/5
Entertainment = 4/5

Overall = 3.75/5 Pabst Blue Ribbons.

Not every match wowed – or even hit – but an overall excellent first night with a little bit of everything for everybody.

NIGHT 2

–Second Round–

–Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Jordynne Grace – 3.25/5 – The first of 4 matches for Speedball. I joked that whoever booked this match (be it Dragon or Excalibur) must be a big-time X-Men fan with Speedball vs. the Juggernaut. Solid stuff, with some gruesome finger-bending spots from Grace. She provided the power, while Bailey provided the strikes.

–Konosuke Takeshita vs. Titus Alexander – 3.5/5 – I thought Titus was going to get his ass beat again, but he leveled up in this one with a ton of great looking Germans and other power O. But Takeshita had the fighting spirit and finally hit the jumping knee after many attempts.

–Bryan Keith vs. Masha Slamovich – 3.25/5 – This was physical. A little long, but it got really awesome at the end. Crowd into both talents with back ‘n forth chants.

image courtesy of @cozysuperkick

–Komander vs. Bandido – 3.5/5 – What I thought was a “passing of the torch” was more so an upset due to injury. Word has it that Bandido may have made it to the finals but suffered a neck injury – which is strangely but brilliantly used in an angle in the beginning of the match. I guess he figured he had to “go heel” for a moment to put over his friend (who hit yet another ropewalk shooting star). Lots of awesome spots but a few misses, too, with a strange pinfall mishap towards the finish. We’ll need these two to run this one back.

–Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Shun Skywalker – 3.75+/5 – After a subpar performance on Night 1 (with murmurs of Shun saving himself for a big Dragon Gate match), Mr. Skywalker really brought the Force to Speedball. He got over big time, and it didn’t hurt to go against the MVP of the Night. Although Shun has one of the worst outfits in wrestling, looking more like a WWE 2K CAW someone spent way too long creating, I really dug him after this one. Bailey won via double knee shooting star press.

–Special Lucha Libre Showcase–

–Latigo & Black Taurus vs. Aramis & Rey Horus – 4/5 – “This is Lucha! Lucha Libre!”. Crowd was super hot for this one with lots of insane spots. Seeing Horus (who put on a few covid kilos) was nice and he performed great. Aramis also made up for a poor Night 1. Black Taurus is just the greatest, taking a zillion bumps on the horns, while Latigo got more reaction tonight than Saturday.

–Semi Finals–

–Konsuke Takeshita vs. Komander – 3.25-3.5/5 – Awkward match-up but both guys did a lot in the 5-minutes they had – similar to KAIRI and Tam Nakano from Wrestle Kingdom. Takeshita won via backslide to keep Komander strong.

–Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Bryan Keith – 4-4.25/5 – Super hard-hitting. Bailey’s fingers were dead, but he still found a way. Houston’s Bryan Keith was mega impressive this weekend and easily the breakout star of the tournament.

–BOLA Special 10-Man Tag–

–JAS (Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia, Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, Sammy Guevara) vs. Jon Gresham, Player Uno, Michael Oku, SB KENTo, & Kevin Blackwood – IT DOESN’T MATTER/5 – WHAT THE HELL!!! The JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY is in The Globe! I don’t remember the crowd going this crazy since Super Dragon’s last return. OK– this was bigger, and holy damn the GOAT Chris Jericho actually wrestled, and took bumps from some indie guys for 20 fuckin’ minutes. This was extra special – and ENTIRELY unexpected!! It kicked off with an awesome intro/swerve from PWG Champ Danny Garcia, with Angelo Parker and Daddy Magic a 2.0 blast, Sammy got the most heat of the Night, the ladies looked fly and Anna Jay had a great moment with Uno (another surprise but..), and Hager REALLY likes his hat! It was nice to see Oku and Blackwood working with Y2K for a bit in the match, too. How do you even rate this? (And, yes, they brought back the slow-mo shit from Classic PWG.. that would have Corny smashing all the kitchenware in his house). To quote Excalibur, this was “UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!”

–Finals–

image courtesy of @cozysuperkick

–Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Konosuke Takeshita – 4.5/5 – The best match of the weekend, but, boy, did these two stallions have an uphill battle to climb. Imagine having to follow CHRIS FUCKIN JERICHO IN PWG? They kinda did it. No, they definitely did it, and it took nearly 30-minutes to do it, but DO they DID. At the very end was a crazy scary top rope brainbuster on the buckle from Konosuke to Speedball, but he recovered. And Bailey bounced back enough to finish with the shooting star double knee and Flamingo driver. The soft spoken Canadian also had a GREAT speech at the end, and this was definitely one of the more emotional moments in PWG history. As if having 9 matches in 3 days at the last WrestleMania weekend wasn’t enough, Bailey finished the DAY with 4 wins, averaging roughly “4 stars” for each of them. Dude is relentless, and Takeshita is the next big thing from Japan. Both these fucking guys.

image courtesy of @cozysuperkick

Matches = 3.75/5
Entertainment = 4.75/5

Overall = 4.25/5 Santa Monia IPA’s.

While the first half of Night 2 started off a little underwhelming, business picked up when Bailey wrestled Shun and the rest is history. An incredible AEW surprise for the “Loser’s Ball” (not so on this Appreciation Day!), and an even better main event than even last year’s barn-burner between Bailey and Garcia. Kudos to all the talent, the refs (Rick Knox! Knox! Knox!, White/Red/Gold Shoes Justin Borden, AEDub’s Stephon Smith!), the amazing ringside photography of Mikey, Jess and the gang, ring announcer Christian Cole (who has never been more exuberant!), and, of course, our liaison in all this madness, Excalibur. Until next time.

-Travis Moody

Thank you Sex Luger (@RobBishopSD) & Cozy Superkick (@cozysuperkick) for the images.

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PWG BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2022 [Review]: Red Death Redemption.

Following a two-year hiatus, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla‘s famed Battle of Los Angeles tournament has returned. Instead of the traditional three nights, we got two– both to a rambunctious, sold-out Globe Theater crowd in downtown LA.

Here’s a quick re-cap and mini-review of all the weekend action.

NIGHT ONE

First Round

Aramis v Rey Horus – 3.5/5 >>> Fun, smoother-than-usual lucha opener with an awesome top rope Blue Thunderbomb finish.

Wheeler Yuta v Blake Christian – 3.5/5 >>> Nice debut for Wheeler with Blake showcasing his high spot prowess and improved mat work. This was a replacement match for David Richards vs. Jonathan Gresham, and they did their thing!

Buddy Matthews v JONAH – 3.25/5 >>> Fun WWE parody match that would prelude a great BOLA narrative for Buddy with a chair curb stomp finish. This one had rock/paper/scissors and some cheeky homages to (the same night WWE Royal Rumble‘s) Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns.

Daniel Garcia v Kevin Blackwood – 3.75/5 >>> Snug strikes, strong suplexes and tight submissions that set the stage for what was to come. Both guys looked great and worked well right away. Garcia proved he wasn’t fucking around with that apron piledriver!

Lio Rush v Jack Cartwheel – 3.5/5 >>> Super speed, selling and athletic chemistry. Crowd loved/hated Lio, but he wins via signature frogsplash.

Black Taurus v JD Drake – 3.5-3.75/5 >>> Fairly sensational big hoss match with hard slaps and surprising big man flips. (Will SOMEONE buy some merch off Drake, dammit?)

Alex Shelley v Lee Moriarty – 3.25-3.5/5 >>> A better match if you knew all the “master vs teacher” easter eggs going in and have a deeper appreciation for baby v heel counter-grappling. A little slower than everything else on the card, but still pretty damned good.

Main Event: “Speedball” Mike Bailey v Bandido – 4.5-4.75/5 >>> This early MOTY candidate is an also arguable candidate for Best — at least Top 3 — PWG Match At The Globe. I’m not kidding. Crowd went insane for both guys, but especially Speedball. They worked damn near flawless together. Expect a PWG title match for the rematch later in the year.

Night 1 Overall = 3.75/5 Santa Monica IPA’s.

Front to back, one of the most consistently strong PWG events I’ve been to in the past 5 years. Dragon did a bang-up job booking the first round with zero downers, and finding the right chemistry for each match-up. The main event was an instant classic.

NIGHT TWO

Round 2

Black Taurus v Aramis – 4/5 >>> Blow-away lucha opener that had everybody in the Globe rockin’. Insane high spots over and over and over. Even a pinfall miscommunication was easily overlooked with how dynamite this was!

Daniel Garcia v Alex Shelley – 3.5/5 >>> Awesome heel v heel psychology that also allowed “Red Death” to gain some babyface sympathy along the way, with the crowd often calling Shelley “Sabin”.

Lio Rush v Buddy Mathews – 3.25-3.5/5 >>> Difficult to rate a match that ended via injury and DQ… That said, Lio’s selling was incredible in the early going, while Buddy cut a terrific heel promo leading up to it — turning on the fans — and worked strong as a baddie until Lio’s shoulder injury (following a buckle bomb and curb stomp). Well, this one had two things you hardly ever see in PWG—promos and DQ’s, with this being just the 3rd Pro Wrestling Guerilla match to end in such a fashion since 2010.

“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Wheeler Yuta – 3.5/5 >>> Yuta is super smooth, while Speedball sold like a million bucks. I wish Yuta would show this much charisma in AEW!

Semi Finals

Daniel Garcia v Black Taurus – 3.75/5 >>> Another banger, with Taurus gettin’ the babyface love and Garcia growing into even more of a killer; Red Death stepped out of the Black Death with tons of fearless resilience.

“Speedball” Mike Bailey v Buddy Mathews – N/A/5 >>> Quick roll-up victory for Bailey after Buddy took the place of Lio and Pillmanized Bailey’s injured ankle; awesome storytelling that really pushed the Night 2 crowd into second gear!

Jonah, Kevin Blackwood, Rey Horus, & Blake Christian v Bandido, JD Drake, Jack Cartwheel, & Lee Moriarty – it doesn’t matter/5 >>> The annual “Loser’s Ball” BOLA tradition with high spots galore and fun comedy moments. Hell, Blake had a TV remote that would literally pause the action. Jack almost killed Blackwood late in the match — in a bad way — after almost killing everybody — in a good way — with a crazy balcony spot. JD Drake had his most fun dealing with Jonah. Rey & Bandido mixed it up once again, while Lee and Horus looked to have the most fun overall (Rey would hiptoss, well, everyone — until the Ref Justin hiptossed his ass on the attempt!). While not without its messy moments, this 8-manner was a fun, much needed break before the finale. Rating this would.. not be cool.

Finals

Daniel Garcia v “Speedball” Mike Bailey – 4.25-4.5/5 >>> The first BOLA singles main event since 2013 was a great Days of Future Past match-up that had it all: extremely stiff strikes and especially kicks from Bailey, who used a zillion variations (crane, windmill, spinning, crescent, karate, kung-fu, etc.); innovative drivers, punishing, rolling knee-crushers (almost literally); outstanding ring psychology, mat work, selling, shit-talking, aaand… I really wanted Speedball to use the theme to Cobra Kai as his entrance song (instead of “Brass Monkey”). In the end, it was lengthier and not as mind-blowing front to back as Speedball v Bandido, but close. A fitting end to a wonderful weekend.

Night 2 Overall = 3.75/5 Biergarten Blonde Brews.

BOLA 2022 mostly wound up how I had envisioned, minus the injury to Lio, which was a shame seeing how much heat his match with Buddy had, and how terrific Rush was in BOLA leading up to the “205 Live” rematch. Shame we’ll never know how he and Speedball woulda panned out, but let’s pray for Lio’s sake that it’s sooner than later.

Garcia made himself a true star in this tournament, and begin his tournament winning promo with a striking sentiment (and I paraphrase): “PWG is back… Independent professional wrestling is back”. And for this weekend, it certainly was. The buzz in The Globe certainly felt better than it had since the Covid-era began. The entire weekend event went without a bad match, or at least none that felt the need to have light tubes, barbed wire and tacks. While I kid, it’s good to feel that familiar buzz again from attending PWG.

-Travis Moody

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PWG BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2019 [BOLA Night 3 Review]: Rage Against The Machine.

–BOLA – 2nd Round: Dragon Lee vs. Jake Atlas – I remember not too long back.. maybe a year ago, maybe less.. when some PWG hardcores were callin’ for Jake’s head. He underperformed, botched many spots, and just had a difficult time getting over in the promotion. Who’s this flamboyant clown? Now, at the Battle of Los Angeles of all places, he’s had arguably two of the best — if not the two best — matches of the tournament. Talk about a rising star; the “Daniel Bryan babyface” level of reaction he received last night was evident of that.. Atlas and Dragon Lee had a certified banger, too. While not quite up to the instant classic Jake had the night before with Jungle Boy, it wasn’t too far behind. Atlas brought back an array of flashy moves (cartwheels and all) with Lee doing his natural flying thing, spewing out moonsaults, an apron rana and assorted flip dives. They both exchanged a gazillion Germans, stinging chops and more counter wrestling before Dragon won via his signature padless knee. What a match! – 4.25/5

–BOLA – 2nd Round: Bandido vs. Brody King – Something cool: Bandido challenged Brody to a Lucha style match, seeing how the King was trained in the style. Something not cool: There were a good number of botches in the match, glaring mistakes you wouldn’t otherwise see from these two (a missed armdrag and Toyota Roll that just didn’t work). I blame it on them trying to have a Lucha match. Still, Brody is awesome though and certainly wowed with his agility, while Bandido’s strength for a small Lucha guy is unparalled. Despite the mistakes, they still had a good one and Bandido — despite being a finalist one year ago — may have pulled off one of the bigger upsets. I know quite a few, including yours truly, who thought Brody was going all the way. – 3-3.25/5

–BOLA – 2nd Round: Jonathan Gresham vs. A-Kid – At intermission, a pair of hardcore PWG fans raved about this match, going so far as to call it the best in the tournament. I don’t agree, but it was definitely very good, solidly technical and wound up feeling like a real fight. While I would’ve liked to have seen this shave a few minutes off, it was def the best performance of the two at this point. Gresham destroyed A-Kid’s knee before his Octopus stretch barrage of blows led to a ref stoppage. – 3.5-3.75/5

–BOLA – 2nd Round: Joey Janela vs. Rey Fenix – All Elite Wrestling Presents BOLA 2019, Round One. This was pretty good, and great match placement.. seeing how the crowd would get tired at this point but you’ve got a bunch of AEW stars coming out having their battles. Janela’s hardcore matches are among some of my favorite at both PWG and AEW the past few years, and he’s had a few solid non-hardcore matches too, but this wasn’t one of them. He’d turn Fenix’ mask before a superkick put the lucha away. Despite the starpower, overall this was good– not great. – 3/5

–BOLA – 2nd Round: Darby Allin vs. Penta El Zero M – Penta lessened the Cero Miedo’s to only 4 (or maybe 5), so if you’re ripping back shots of Jose Cuervo for every Cero Miedo, you won’t be nearly as sick as imagined. Antics aside, Penta did a great job elevating Darby to the next round, and putting the spotlight on him. This was real fun, especially when they brought in Hornswoggle’s ladder for a pair of spots; a piledriver absolutely killed Allin before the term “Stepladder Destroyer” became a thing. Yeah, nobody should kick out of this shit. In the end, Darby twisted up Penta with his signature figure-four cradle that followed a Code Red. – 3.25/5

–BOLA – 2nd Round: David Starr vs. Jeff Cobb – As far as ring psychology, this may have been the best match of the entire weekend. David Starr hasn’t done much here in PWG, having a great match with Matt Riddle and a hell of a contest with Gresham and a whole bunch of stinkers. His run here hasn’t been the best. But that all ended with a great story here. As he picked on AEW’s Aubrey Edwards — the first woman to ever ref a PWG match(!!) — repeatedly pushing Gearl Hebner and even took a swing at her, before she got fed up enough to shove Starr down hard to the mat. That wound up backfiring though, when Aub’s got a little too close to the action and Starr caught Cobb with a strike of his own strap. He’d finish off the champ with a heavy lariat, moving him onto the semifinal. I love the booking here. Cobb’s loss doesn’t weaken him due to the bullshit and Starr gets his future rematch. Bravo. – 3.5/5

–Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson) vs. Rey Horus & Aramis. – I don’t know if it was the sugar free redbull or the fact I got to get my head straight from intermission, but I had about 6 or 7 zingers that just had the crowd around me laughing. I mean, the Dork Odor’s Evil Uno does look like the nameless/faceless end boss from WCW vs. The World, and all four of these men should have come down the aisle to Whiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow”, among other such stupid things. It was no laughing matter in the ring though, as the newly formed lucha team-up of Horus and the 19-year old Aramis had no problem covering for Aussie Open (due to Dunkzilla’s torn quad), and they wound up involved in arguably the best tag-match of the weekend. The Dark Order are actually quite a great team, but they got nowhere near the reaction this time as they did at the recent Anniversary show; maybe it’s the way the former Super Smash Bros have been received in AEW. Still, both guys were fantastic and beat the scrappy, impressive luchas with a variety of outstanding double team moves leading to the Fatality finish. – 3.5-3.75/5

–BOLA – Semi Finals: Jonathan Gresham vs. Joey Janela – Solid 8-minute match that saw Janela’s pile of chairs backfire with Joey taking an Octopus suplex on top of them before giving way to the Octopus stretch. Good, but forgettable. – 3.25/5

–BOLA – Semi Finals: Bandido vs. Dragon Lee – Crazy, wild match. But were you expecting something less? Two of the best lucha guys on the planet had a hell of a match, many say the match of the tournament, if not PWG singles MOTY. While I wasn’t as into it as the opener (drinking 5 beers before a 5-hour show can do that to you), both shared some wild power moves (torture rack GTS, apron powerbomb, spanish fly, Mexican destroyer, etc.), before an array of memorable spots. And my fuckin’ lord did Bandido’s top rope moonsault onto Dragon on the outside nearly hit the balcony. Christ. Bandido finished the 2018 King of the Indies winner with a springboard german suplex into a pinning german suplex. Awesome stuff. – 4.25-4.5/5

–BOLA – Semi Finals: David Starr vs. Darby Allin – While there were no squashes in this year’s BOLA, many of us were practically waiting for one (see Cobb vs. Lee last year) and this was the closest thing to it. Starr and Allin still went 5+. The result also capped off the hilarious removal of all AEW talent from BOLA. Guess they all got their swansong with tonight’s tournament, now, eh?  Before Starr moved onto the finals (as he predicted) via lariat, he caught a Coffin Drop into his sig shoulderbreaker. Hell of a spot. – 3/5

–Caveman Ugg, Orange Cassidy, Jungle Boy, Artemis Spencer, & Paris DeSilva vs. Mick Moretti, Lucky Kid, Tony Deppen, Black Taurus, & Kyle Fletcher – This began as one of the absolute dumbest and shittiest matches I had ever seen live.. for about 5-7 minutes until things got wild, got funny, got wild funny and just killed shit for the next eighteen. I actually had no idea this went 25 until I went over the results just before this review. That’s kudos to 8 of BOLA‘s “job squad”, with Fletcher hopping in due to Aussie Open being replaced in the tag and PWG newcomer Paris DeSilva also taking up the other spot from Rey or Aramis. At first glance, Paris is a joke. This little shit is almost smaller than Marko Stunt. But HOLY FUCK did this guy do things, none wilder than a shooting star DDT. Yes, read that again. Not surprisingly, this also became the Orange Cassidy show, and at one point every one of his teammates got in on the fun and donned the shades. But nothin’ was wilder than OC leapin’ “Freshly Squeezed” from the balcony on top of them all!!! The fucker landed without a scratch, sunglasses still on the moneymaker, to boot. If that wasn’t enough, the match also witnessed a Caveman vs. a Bull, 10 million dives, incredible character work, a funny Lucky Kid and always nutty Tony Deppen. Even Arty Spencer who looked kinda guck in his match with Gresham in the first round was an immediatr stand-out. This 10-man mayhem thing wound up a Gaga Classic. Bar none. – 3.75/5 (Comedy/High-Spots = 4.75/5, Wrestling/Logic = 2… who cares!!!)

–BOLA – Finals: Bandido vs. David Starr vs. Jonathan Gresham – I really loved David Starr in this match. And since I mentioned earlier that — going by the New Japan a.k.a. realistic/normal booking — David, having beaten Cobb earlier in the night, didn’t need to win BOLA to get a title shot, his removal at the 15-minute mark of the 23+ total wound up the right decision. Unlike Shingo, who was sort of an afterthought in last year’s BOLA finals (not going nearly as long as Starr), David’s personality dominated the Finale’s first portion. He got over in the loss, despite the pummeling he took from Gresham. Now this built the Octopus into a powerhouse, having his back against the wall against last year’s finalist Bandido. They’d go another nine in very good, albeit unspectacular fashion. But that’s OK. Bandido hit the 21-Plex to get the win, and overcame several submission attempts and nearfalls that had the mostly pro-Bandido crowd gasping. If you take a look back at the young lucha’s last year and half of PWG dominance, no one deserved this trophy more. – 3.75/5 (Triple Threat = 4/5, Gresham vs. Bandido = 3.5/5)

Matches = 3.5/5
Entertainment = 4/5

Overall = 3.75/5 Bibles.

Night 3 of BOLA 2019 was awesome. It had a lot to live up to with 2018’s classic final night of the Battle of Los Angeles, the first one ever at The Globe Theatre, and despite the immense talent shift in PWG (and all over the world in countless promotions), they did an outstanding job this year. The booking was fantastic. For a while I had all the big guys in there, then all the luchas, then it wound up David Starr and a pair of ROH guys. Still, it was the right move. While Gresham looks to be sticking with ROH only in the near future, both Bandido and Starr don’t seem to be going away from PWG anytime soon and their inevitable confrontation is something that nowww most of us want to see. Throw in Cobb and his matches with King and Starr and a possible redemption story for Bandido with Cobb and we’ve got some top main events coming to Pro Wrestling Guerilla.

The influx of bizarre and ultra talented GCW and new overseas talent has also softened the blow of guys leaving for NXT (and now AEW), and if this was the last time we saw the Lucha Bros, Janela, Allin and Dragon Lee in this tournament then at least they went out in style. The Rascalz and Dark Order seem destined for a PWG Tag Title classic, and keep your eye out on Jake Atlas, who had to be the biggest breakout star of the tournament. To me, no one else came close to stealing the show besides the reigning MVP, of course, Joe the Sleeping Drunk.

-Travis Moody

Special thanks to El Magico @kureijibunny on Twitter for the dope featured image!

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PWG BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2019 [BOLA Night 2 Review]: LA Kings.

Courtesy of @socaluncensored

–Joey Janela vs. Mick Moretti – I know nothing about Mick Moretti, but damn was he fun to watch. It’s not easy to explain his style, but he was wild, had a unique character and had a mix of brawling, aggressive wrestling and submission tactics to go along with it. And he spits FLAMES! The refs really aren’t sure how to handle questionable antics in this tournament and that only makes it more fun. It’s clear Janela is a huge draw in PWG and his influx of GCW talent is more proof of that. Despite a weak superkick finish (really wish Joey would put an end to it and stick to the spinning package piledriver), this was a real fun opener that had a bit of everything. Crowd loved it and I enjoyed it too. – 3.25/5

–Jake Atlas vs. Jungle Boy – We really weren’t prepared for this. Point blank, Jake Atlas and Jungle Boy went out there and had a bonafied classic. Not only was this an instant BOLA classic match, this may well go down as an all-time great PWG match. In the very least, it’s the best one-on-one PWG match since Dijak/Lee (or Sabre Jr/WALTER). Bold, but fuck it. Now, this gem of a performance may not have been a shock to the hardcores who’ve been following this rivalry from the King of the Indies to their war at APW; but, for the rest of the PWG fans who’ve witnessed great potential and hints of greatness from the two, this FIRST ROUND MATCH BANGER was likely a total, most pleasant surprise. Atlas and JB went into second gear and never looked back, going into third gear.. and fourth and never stopped. Perhaps the moment I realized this thing was special arrived when Jake seamlessly went from tornado driver to a vicious PK into a standing moonsault. I counted 3, maybe 4 innovative spots in this match. Can you say Tiger Clash? Or, Styles Driver? Yup. Jungle Boy did that. And, shit, if there were any match were I shoulda penned down the spots ala Uncle Dave, this was it. Before an incredible series of jaw-dropping false finishes, they took it to the crowd with JB even flipping off a stand next to the rear bar. I could go on and on, but you should just buy the BOLA 2019 Blu Ray for this match. Atlas won via a wild tornado swirling LGB-DDT. – 4.75+/5

Rey Fenix vs. Aramis – Second best match of the night, and thank F’n GodHatesGeeks that these were the two to follow what was just witnessed. Anyone else would have felt wasted. Aramis had a long promo after the match, speaking on his difficult road to PWG and expressing much gratitude for the BOLA spot. He was great. Fenix is clearly one of the BITW, if arguably not the most skilled lucha star in the business. They had a lot to live up to but the crowd remained hot throughout. Fenix won via second muscle buster attempt. – 3.75-4/5

–The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) vs. A-Kid & Kyle Fletcher – This match had the unfortunate circumstance of a Mark Davis injury, forcing A-Kid into the non-title tag team fray. While A-Kid, from a worker standpoint, is an upgrade over Dunkzilla, his replacing severely lowered the stakes, and made the outcome far more predictable. The match went on way too long and only really got explosive once The Rascalz found that amazing double-team synergy, leading to the Hot Fire Flame (assisted moonsault) finish. In the end, this was fine. – 3/5

–Bandido vs. Puma King – This was originally supposed to be PWG Superstar Bandido versus the breakout Laredo Kid, but Kid (yes, another f’n Kid; this is starting to be like all the Lil’s in rap music for Dynamite Kid’s sakes), suffered from a Reality TV show booking. As someone who’s had their taste of “true/trash TV”, be careful out there, Laredo. As for the match, it was sincerely over– while not nearly the best thing of the night, it was good, had its moments, and an unexpected exchange — and 3-second exchange again — of the DDT Heavymetal Ironman a.k.a. “24/7” Championship. Only thing missing from all of this was Enes Kanter and Lil’ Jimmy. ‘Dido moves on. – 3.25/5

–Penta El Zero M vs. Tony Deppen – This was a strange, albeit entertaining match. A troll fan behind commented that Penta got over with his “80 Cero Miedo’s” and I can’t disagree. As I mentioned in my review of Night 1 yesterday, it’s a bit much. I say this as a huge Pentagon mark. Also, Penta ribbed Deppen — who began the match as a heel, I guess? — when Tony’s chop exchanges were softer, but whose fighting spirit cut into the boo’s later on. Well, not only does Penta have “body armor” (a quote from Deppen directly), I noticed he kept turning away everytime Tony went for the chop. Pretty lame. Aside from all of that, this was a fun match with two crazy characters and some impactful moves, when they decided to do them. Deppen works hard. – 3/5

–David Starr vs. Orange Cassidy – Cassidy is a mega-star. We had an ultra hilarious intro, where Starr said he’d only be announced with his traditionally classic long intro in the BOLA Finals.. when he’s in the Finals. Since he won, and many claimed he upset Freshly Squeezed here, it’s a solid bet we’ll see that. Instead, Cassidy was the one who had the extra lengthy introduction– a complete mockery of Starr. After the usual hands-in-pockets shenanigans (Orange had a second pair of shades after The Product cracked his initial frames), The OC went full speed and wowed the crowd with his amazing lucha level agility. Then he took the heat for a long time, maybe too long. And just as he got real serious, David finally put him away with a lariat and not one of his best. Good final stretch, fun gaga, way too long an affair. – 2.75/5

–Jonathan Gresham & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Jeff Cobb & Brody King – In short, this was the Sekimoto Show. The crowd absolutely adored the Big Japan Legend and rightfully so. He was so charismatic, so larger-than-life (literally!!), and such a joy to watch. The guy is a lovable monster and we marks owe our pureso gratitude. But, really, Brody King was the breakout star in this main event and not only for his vast in-ring improvement. King was hilarious! His apron tag position commentary had the audience chuckling, making many references to the previous night’s main event, his Villain Enterprise mates Marty and PCO, and just stuff about Cobb. Yeah, they went at it too. I see a PWG Championship match in the near future, which makes me think we’re gonna see him and Cobb real soon. King/Fenix or Bandido/Starr BOLA Finals? I can’t be too far off. As for last night, I feared the slower pacing and submission-led tag main event would turn fans off, but it didn’t. Many fans I spoke to after the event loved the match and thought it was among the best. Definitely a far cry from the big man main event at last year’s BOLA, but without a doubt a very good one to finish off Friday. Arigatō, Sekimoto! – 3.5-3.75/5

Overall = 3.5/5 Bibles.

Travis Moody
@TravMoody

While not as strong overall as Night 1 match to match, the second night of the Battle of Los Angeles saw easily the best match of the tournament so far and maybe the finest singles match at Pro Wrestling Guerilla in 2019. Where Thursday had more hardcore elements, Friday definitely felt more comedic. There was still a shit ton of good-to-great wrestling though, with absolutely no stinkers on Night Two (unless you really hate Cassidy’s gimmick). And I don’t know about you, but I’m glad I got a breather today before the epic next-to-final round madness takes place at the Globe tomorrow.

See you then.

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PWG BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2019 [BOLA Night 1 Review]: Blood Battle.

A-Kid vs. Lucky Kid – The PWG directors failed at not bringing in either Billy Kidman or Sean Waltman (the former 1-2-3 Kid) in for special guest ref. But I digress. The streak of hot openers continues, and this Kids Only battle was just as hot for the hilarious crowd-belting puns as it was for the action. The brilliance? These Kids wrestled the match like it was Kane vs. Big Show-meets-Melanko vs. Saturn, and it pleasantly got over. There was a lot of good selling, not a whole lot of high-flying, surprisingly, and great facial reactions. The match went a bit too long and took a bit to get going, but, in the end, the crowd was invested. Spoiler alert: A.. kid won. – 3.25-3.5/5

–Brody King vs. Caveman Ugg – Real fun big hoss match that had more daring spots than the Junior Heavyweight opener. It was wild. Not everything was smooth, but Killian Dane’s “little” bro Ugg got over quickly and King — a favorite to take it all — moved around like a 300 pounder who punched a brick block with a questionmark on it. To win, Super Brody destroyed Ugg with signature Gonzo Bomb. R.I.P. Bedrock. – 3.25/5

–Dragon Lee vs. Rey Horus – Horus has new music and it slaps. Not sure why, but the crowd was beggin’ Lee to take off his baseball shirt. Alright. He did and stopped “Naito-ing” around, not only showing off his impressive physique but going 2x faster rope-to-rop. This was a fast, fun lucha match and Horus is definitely one of the most underrated guys out there. I kinda wish he won and got the (much-needed) rub, and this maybe woulda felt next level. Still, it had everything you want in a first round match-up. After a pair of slick false finishes, Lee put Rey away with a second padless running knee. – 3.5/5

–Joey Janela and Alex Zayne vs. Blake Christian and Tony Deppen – Game Changer tag. While Janela puts out arguably the best WrestleMania Weekend shows every year with his annual Spring Break series, I just never became a huge fan of GCW. That said, a majority of the 600+ at The Globe last night ate this up. It was a car-crash of a match, an unannounced tornado tag where HFS high spots were a plenty. “The Sauce” Alex Zayne has a little Jeff Hardy in him, from his purple hair/industrial metal good looks to his moonsault-off-Joey’s-back onto the floor daredevil behavior. That spot finished with Janela wiping someone out with a DVD on tha apron. While Deppen is an absolute mad-man, raging all over the rink with incredible facials and sheer intensity, it didn’t take the crowd to take eyes to Blake Christian. This man has HOPS!! He got real high and had a certain bounce to him that wins dunk contests. The wildest spot, maybe, was a top rope springboard double foot stomp to the floor. It was too bonkers to describe. This match had zero logic, zero story and nor was it supposed to. Oh and the “200 pound” Joey was mostly great tonight as the match’s power guy (all the “Lulz”), hitting a tornado package piledriver that got great pop. This trainwreck served its purpose and profoundly did so. – 3.5/5

–Darby Allin vs. Black Taurus – Holy fuck, Black Tauruuuuus is awesome. At first glance he looks like one of those gimmick lucha guys from the WCW Nitro days. Also, had this match been in a other month it could have very well took place at Universal Horror Nights. Just sayin’. Well, this wound up a nightmare for Taurus, who broke out at PWG’s unbelieveable 20th Anniversary 6-man. All Elite’s Allin is only getting better by the match, and at this point felt like easily the strongest thing on the show. I absolutely loved that Darby attempted a second coffin drop after getting caught in the first one. That’s one way to tell a story. But the story here was how fuckin’ athletic and amazingly agile Taurus was for a bull his stature. He had a surplus of eye-popping springboard/top rope running moves and it was wild. Now, someone bring Tito back outta retirement so “El Matador” can finally get the opponent he deserves. (Allin won via figure four cradle, after goating Taurus). Great match. – 4/5

-Jonathan Gresham vs. Artemis Spencer – This kinda sucked. The PWG faithful definitely tried real hard to get behind the talent involved, but it felt like a low percentage of the audience. Arty got a great initial ovation; he looks like a lanky Drew Gulak and did some cool things. The problem with his size and high-spot attempts is that he always looked to the crowd after hitting a spot and not transitioning into the next move ala WALTER. It made the match really drag. Arty’s kicks also looked “Miz slow”, which isn’t good. At all. Gresham is a world class wrestler, but his style isn’t exactly the best fit at PWG and better served in New Japan (that’s a pretty good thing). Overall this wasn’t horrific, and the vicious Octopus stretch submission was solid. – 2.25/5

–Jeff Cobb vs. Daisuke Sekimoto – The match many had most anticipated since its announcement. For the most part it lived up to the hype, with both big guys exchanging intense, stiff shoulder blocks and chops. The crowd ate it up. If you like Ishii matches — with high brainbusters, insane suplex work, etc. — you’re going to love this. For the most part, I adored it but the single Tour of the Islands finish felt abrupt. Lesser men than Daisuke have kicked out of one. Still, this is must-see. – 3.75/5

–Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix) vs. Mexibloods (Flamita & Bandido) – Great lucha match that’s biggest roadblock was the Classic Lucha Six-Man between the ‘Bloods & Rey Horus and Black Taurus, Laredo Kid, & Puma King from Sixteen. Hard to top a 4.75+ (many say 5) match, but these four last night nearly did. The most amazing spot of spots saw a double Spanish Fly from Fenix & Flamita off the top of their respective partner’s shoulders. Jaw dropping! There were a number of other insane moments, and before they got there, Penta had a little fun with Bandido, getting under his skin and bullying him until the Mexibloods would later make Penta pay. There was a nice touch of gaga, but not too much; we’d see a little bit of Fortnite shakes a few too many “Cero Miedo” crowd calls (but not that I wasn’t responding myself ot anything…). Above all that we’d see a catapult Destroyer, lightning fast topes, a tope con helio, a ton of springboard moonsault and slingshot dives– the whole lucha shebang. Lucha Bros took care of family business in the end, hitting their signature footstomp/package piledriver combo while Fenix flew onto the apron draped in a Mexican flag (a spot they just did at the recent NYC AAA show). Not quite a classic, but an incredible match nonetheless. – 4.25-4.5/5

Overall = 3.5/5 Biblios.

Travis Moody
@TravMoody

This was an overall real strong first night of the tournament. A great variety of matches with only one real stinker (that still wasn’t terrible). A dope main event, two other great/nearly great matches and lots of memorable spots. BOLA had a real fun night one! See you all tomorrow morning for the next report.

(Thank you @DDeMarco_ for the featured image!)

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PWG BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2018 [Night 3 Review]: Cobb’s Country.

“Monsignor” Travis Moody
@TravMoody

I should apologize for this late review of BOLA‘s Final Stage, but, straight-up: the weekend kicked my ass. And if you went all three nights, PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles likely kicked your ass too. As the weekend went on, the stages only got better — and, in many senses, the matches only got better; so imagine just how great Sunday night’s 2nd round and semi-finals went! Or, you can be kind enough to read the following thoughts on Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s single best day of 2018.

Second Round: Trevor Lee v Brody King – Another very good opener for BOLA, this time with Lee explaining that the match-up was bullshit considering the Impact Superstar had just come off the “most difficult match of [his] career” in Marko Stunt. Lee continued his weekend streak of killer comedy promos, forcing “Good Charlotte concert goer” Brody to retort full steam ahead. The much larger King had easily his best match of the tournament, and its efforts like this that explain why William Regal was in DTLA scouting the big man for NXT. Lee got the “upset” victory via flying body press. – 3.5/5

Second Round: Jeff Cobb v Rey Horus – I actually disliked the booking of this; not just the big man v small man factor, but Cobb already practically squashed Allin the night before — but in far more spectacular fashion due to Darby’s great selling. Horus is an apt luchador, and minus a match here and there (see: versus Bandito from ASW 2018), he’s much better in tags and multi-person matches (see: Night 2’s main event). If you’re going to do his match, I’d have had Rey going 100 miles an hour with Cobb trying to chase him. While Horus had his moments, the match layout didn’t do wonders when the eventual main event had the David v. Goliath angle down pat. 3/5

Second Round: Shingo Takagi v Robbie Eagles – This was a tremendous match, an international contrast of styles that worked out far better than it had any business doing so. The crowd was hot for both guys, and Eagles overcame the mistakes made from Night 1 with a near flawless effort, including some heay strikes of his own. He had no problem going toe-to-toe with the dangerous Takagi for much of the match. I loved the rear naked choke finish, as well, since Robbie was the one who tapped out DJZ the night before. Shingo made a lot of new fans tonight. 4.25/5

Second Round: Joey Janela v CIMA – With these two, you knew you’d get some comedy but thankfully CIMA shortened those antics from his first round match. This was an all-around solid affair that was only a mini letdown due to the previous banger. 3.25/5

Second Round: WALTER v Jonah Rock – The PWG Heavyweight Champ takes out a familiar face in a heavy-hitting 5-minutes. Leave it to Rock to catch heat anyway he can, this time imitating, ahem, The Rock and Roman Fucking Reigns with a Jonah Bottom, Superman Punch and failed spear attempt. WALTER agreeably put him away with a powerbomb. 3.5/5

Second Round: Bandido v Flamita – This is when the Final Stage really took off and never looked back. There’s been so many great themes this BOLA weekend and tag partner v tag partner was yet another one, as both luchas sprinted for 11-minutes in a series of RANA’s, tornado this, corkscrew that — you catch the lucha drift, with Bandito ultimately finishing off Flamita in style with a springboard German suplex. This was aweome. And it’s crazy to think this would’ve been the top one or two matches on a few of the earlier PWG’s from this year, but not on this night! 4/5

PWG World Tag Team Championship: The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) v Lucha Bros. (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix) – This has been on my most anticipated match list ever since the Lucha Bros took a brief LOA from Pro Wrestling Guerilla and The Rascalz went on to win the straps from the Young Bucks. It was bound to happen. Night 3 was actually the only ticket I bought from the original sale because of this match, and, boy, did it live up the hype. In a year of amazing tag matches, PWG has delivered some of the best of the year this weekend alone. Like many matches involving the four, this one opened up with some hilarity: Dezmond & Zachary not only came out to the ring donning Penta & Fenix’ masks, they aped each and every one of their signature movements and taunts, which even led to Penta, ever so comically, tagging in Wentz and Xavier tagging in Fenix! Once the inevitable happened, this was a Masters course in tag team wrestling — frantic tags, super double-teams, and pin-point spots without a botch. Following the Lucha Bros’ “thievary” of the champs’ assisted moonsault finish, The Rascalz got in their patented move for the win. A must-see match for fans of Impact Wrestling. *insert smile emoji* 4.25/5

Semi-Finals: Jeff Cobb v Trevor Lee – A surprising 14-second squash win for Cobb! – N/A

Semi-Finals: Bandido v Joey Janela – Seeing how I had these two guys in the finals, my prediction was stunted. But I’m glad it was. Watching these two battle at BOLA was like watching Sabu vs. RVD from Hardcore Heaven ’96 just without the hardcore–yet. Once I told my fellow Ringside Apostle pals that reference about halfway through the match, Bandido snatched a fan’s chair for some sit-up opponent attacks near the apron. After a series of dives, Ban would later punish the “Bad Boy” with his signature springboard German through a chair. It was, to quote Excalibur, “UNNBEELIEEVABLE!” Then Joey kicked out. The crowd was uproarious the entire way, tossing in chair after chair after chair — much like ECW in its day — to which Joey positioned near the corner with hopes of a punishing superplex. It didn’t happen and “The Magnificent Bandit” reversed the plex into his now PWG-famous flipping top rope fallaway slam through the stack. “OH MY GOOOOOOOD!” is right. 4.5/5

Semi-Finals: Shingo Takagi v WALTER – How the fuck do you follow that? Easy. With a match-up the PWG faithful have been clamoring for ever since Shingo’s announcement into BOLA; once the second round played out, our jaws dropped with the thought of what was to come. Following the crazy Triplemanía antics of the last match, WALTER v Takagi felt more like an ol’ school bare-knuckle UFC world title fight. The variety of match stylings in this BOLA has just been tremendous; stiff, strong-style, brutal, shoot… all those words are apt in attempting to try and describe these two’s straight ruthless attacks. Takagi hit the surprise lariat (a move WALTER has been putting guys away with this whole year) for the triumphant victory, which could lead to a sort of Ishii/Omega type rematch somewhere down the line. 4.25-4.5/5

10-Man Tag Special: Puma King, Dan Barry, Darby Allin, PCO, & Jody Fleisch v T-Hawk, DJZ, Timothy Thatcher, Adam Brooks, & David Starr – It was time for the shitshow, or, better yet, “The PCO Show”. The chief reason we were excited to see PCO in BOLA wasn’t even for the tournament, but for this 10-man madness. Of course, this was a clunky, nutty affair, with nothing nuttier than “Detective” Dan Barry — who replaced an unfortunately concussed Ilya Dragunov (who sent his regrets and many thanks to PWG fans in a tweet from earlier in the day) — doing his whole stick-up shtick to much of the crowd’s approval. Of course, this match meant nothing more than a chance to get many of #BOLA2018‘s first round knockouts a chance to get their shit in, with plenty of shenanigans and plenty of suicidal high-spots. How PCO didn’t wind up dead himself during this match is baffling. 3/5

Battle of Los Angeles 2018 Finals: Jeff Cobb v Shingo Takagi v Bandido – There was no way these three could top what we’ve already witnessed already, right? Wrong. For 9-minutes, PWG fans were hot for quite possibly the best Triple Threat/Trios match all year; yeah–usually only WWE does ’em, but this one was the best. Then, maybe/maybe not surprisingly, Bandido took out Takagi. You figured that Shingo wouldn’t win after he basically “won” his own BOLA by eliminating WALTER in the last round. But so sudden? As great as the first 9-minute were with fun albeit brief double-team alliances formed, one of the longest tenured, most respected (Cobb) and one of, if not the, hottest (Bandido) stars at PWG took it up another two or three notches when this went to one-on-one. The last 10-minutes of this main event were arguably the best 10-minutes of PWG action all year, a perhaps wild statement coming off the previous two night main events and all the excellence witnessed on this final day; but the false finishes were FUCKING INSANE.

I’ll even go out on a limb and say these were the most intense false finishes I’ve seen at a live professional wrestling show at least since Ishii/Omega from the G1 Special last year, complete with Cobb and Bandido kicking out of each other’s signature moves — the springboard German and Tour of the Islands. Booking-wise, Cobb makes a far more sensical next opponent for WALTER, while Bandido was on such a high Sunday that no one could really blame Super Dragon and Excalibur for pulling a “Vince” and changing the booking last minute. Thankfully for Cobb’s (and Bandido’s) sake they didn’t (WALTER already faced his small guy for the title in Sammy Guevara, and I can wait a little longer for that dynamic again). Cobb won BOLA with an incredible Tour of the Islands following an amazing TotI reversal of Bandido’s signature fallaway slam. This took my breath away. 4.75-5/5

Overall = 4/5 Bibles

Who needs Reseda? If you weren’t lucky enough to attend any of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles this year, please do go out of your way and cop that Blu Ray 3-disc package when it releases. If the scores and reviews don’t speak enough volumes, I promise that BOLA‘s Final Stage was easily the best night of PWG action all year. The other two nights were pretty damn awesome too, culminating into the most fun time I’ve ever had PWG. For me personally, The Globe Theater felt just as electric as the old Legion Hall, even with all that space and upper balconies and fans didn’t have to sweat through three shirts or ruin a New Era cap to prove it. On a side note, watching football next door right before the 4-hour show was great, even if my Patriots did shit the bed. Who didn’t shit the bed, though, were all the competitors from this weekend, and all the nutty fans who came out to support them. This is pro wrestling at its finest, and I’m damn proud to be a part of it.

-Travis Moody