PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night One
PWG BOLA has gotten some great reviews, and I figured I would check it out, let see if I can get through a whole show.
Brian Cage v. Aerostar
One of my fears about this tourney was the dreaded PWG
bloat, this is a fed in the past that has had 14 minutes matches drag to 25, so
I was happy this was a compact 9 minutes. Both guys had some cool ideas, that
they only hit sometimes, I liked Cage
doing curls with Aerostar's body, and that finish hanging Steiner screwdriver
was uncalled for. Cage is good in Lucha Underground 4-Ways, and this felt like
it could have used two more guys to do some stuff in between their big spots.
If they had included Big Ryck and Drago this might have been something great.
Biff Busick v. Andrew Everett
I really enjoyed this. Busick is great as a bully against
highflyers, he has had a series of good matches against Mike Bailey and this
was in that style, Everett would hit some big time highspots inbetween Busick
muderizing him with suplexes, clotheslines and uppercuts. There were point
where it felt a little formless, but the big stuff was big. At one point
Everett went back on offense with this leaping one motion backwards rana which
was one of the prettiest highspots I have seen in a while, really shouldn’t
have been thrown out in the middle of the match. Finish run of Busick offense
looked awesome as Everett takes stuff so crazy that all of Busicks moves look
deadly.
Will Ospreay v. Mark Andrews
This first round placed guys together who had worked each
before or worked similar styles. It hurt a little on the dream match aspect of
a tourney like this, but it did allow new guys to avoid awkwardness and show
their stuff. This was a total blast, both guys are hitting very high difficulty
flips and arm drags, I know my man Robert Bihari must have been losing his shit
live, Andrews especially was just contorting his body in mid air with a variety
of crazy takedowns, reminded of a taller Mascarita 2000, including one of the
prettiest springboard ranas I have ever seen. Osprey was also really fast, and
got crazy height on everything he did, his twirling kick looked like something
out of a wire kung fu movie. Exactly the kind of opening round tourney debut
showcase match you want to see.
Jack Evans/Angelico v. Rich Swann/Ricochet
Took a while to get going, as they did a lot of dance
contest horseshit which didn’t do much for me. Had a fun finishing run,
including a great dive by Angelico, but the problem with tourneys like this is,
is that you get inured to all of the high spots, there has been a reverse rana
in every match so far, so when Rich Swann does one, it is hard to care, same
with 450s and 630s, just the same kind of spots over and over again. I liked
this fine, but I could see having a problem watching all three nights of this
tournament.
Trent ? v. Trevor Lee
Trent ? is the former Trent Barretta and an ex Chuck Taylor
partner, and he has the same junior college improv troupe approach to
wrestling. After his early shenanigans he tries to have a serious indy
wrestling match, and he isn’t particularly good at that either. We get the 43rd
reverse rana of the tourney, and some german suplexes and shit. Lee is a guy I
have liked in other matches (He had an awesome sprint with Bailey in PWG
earlier this year) but he couldn’t do much here
Pentagon Jr. v. Drago
This was a bummer, I like both guys a lot and you figure
they would have lots of experience working each other, but lots of this felt
off, and even the big spots weren’t as big or interesting as stuff that was hit
earlier in the tourney. Pentagon Jr. has a lot of charisma but this wasn’t
good.
Matt Sydal v. Fenix
This was pretty much a popcorn match, with both guys
breaking out all of their spots until there was a finish. For that type of
match it was pretty good, although nothing I will remember later (unlike the
British match earlier which was a similar style but with more pizzaz) . I liked
how Fenix brought a little extra to all of his kicks and chops, there was one
point where he toed Sydal in the eye, which was brutal looking. Sydal is good at playing the outclass veteran
who used to be able to jump as high as these kids, but now is a step slow, kind
of like a Grizzlies era Vince Carter. Still the match ending on a reverse
rana,, into a SSP after every nearly every other match on the show through out
a reverse rana as a nothing mid-match move, really hurt the finish, this show
really needed someone backstage producing this tourney.
Mt. Rushmore 2.0 (Roderick Strong/Young Bucks) v. Marty
Scrull/Zach Sabre Jr./Tommy End
This was the most PWGish match on the show. Mt. Rushmore 2.0
has some fun triple teams, and I loved ZSJ using a Breaks special as a hot tag
move, but this match just went forever. It felt like it had two or three crescendos,
and then the match would slow down with the Bucks doing shtick. It this had
seven minutes or so cut, it might have been pretty good, but I just lost interest
as it just kept going. I did think this set up Sabre Jr. v. Strong pretty well,
and made Rushmore look badass going into the next two days.
Labels: Aerostar, Andrew Everett, Angelico, Biff Busick, BOLA, Brian Cage, Drago, Fenix, Mark Andrews, Pentagon Jr., PWG, Ricochet, Roderick Strong, Tommy End, Will Ospreay, Young Bucks, Zack Sabre Jr.
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