Pro Wrestling Revolution Live Report 10/27/18

Tim Livingston Reporting:


Pro Wrestling Revolution Road Report – 10/27/18

I made a day out of my trek to east San Jose to see LA Park at a high school gymnasium, getting matcha soft serve at Matcha Café Maiko in San Francisco and finishing my scenic trip down Skyline Blvd with a pizza cheesesteak at Amato’s in west San Jose. I still remember Delco’s when I was working with the Blue Jays in Florida and it’s difficult to find a good cheesesteak anywhere out here; Amato’s is basically the only place to go in the bay area for your cheesesteak needs.

Pro Wrestling Revolution has been around for over a decade and does a good job with its presentation. My first exposure to them was going down with Eric to a high school gym in the Mission District in SF to see Timothy Thatcher literally carry Blue Demon, Jr. to a very good match years ago, and they have a good following with the Latin fans in the Bay Area. The gym had the entrance across from one section of the bleachers with a ramp (short version of the old WCW ramp) and a full lighting setup that made it look pro. Gym was pretty dang full, probably 750-1000 in total. Sartorial choices were of the Bullet Club variety if they weren’t lucha-themed shirts. PWR is always good for bringing in a big name or two, and bringing in LA Park in 2018 certainly qualifies, along with Silver King (with his mask) in the semi-main. No-brainer $15 ticket here.

Card was subject to change here as it looked like Misterioso was unable to make the show which set a domino effect all the way down the card.

Show began with La Migra interrupting the Mexican National Anthem to cut a promo on how they’re gonna send Park and Damian 666 back over the wall and the Lucha Horsemen were gonna take the tag titles. It’s cheap heat, but damn it, it was good heat. Colt Stevens was looking jacked here, as was former Phoenix Pro Wrestling champ JR Kratos. You also had Sparky Ballard out in his suspenders looking like guero Tirantes (referee hate became a theme throughout the show). But it set the tone, got the crowd off to a hot start, and allowed the show to grow from there.

Cu Cuy/Grappler III/Fuerza Azteca vs. Mariachi Jr./Pantera Jr./Ultra Hashi

Fun opener that did a lot of basic stuff well to build off the promo. Hashi is basically a mini, billed at 120 and if he’s any taller than 5 feet, he’s lying. Cu Cuy is only a few inches taller than Hashi but weighs nearly 300 pounds. Does well moving around for all of Hashi’s armdrags, and has great fat boy offense, including a running splash that looks like it crushed poor Hashi. Grappler is Rik Luxury (the ¼ pound during the intro gave it away) and he gets some cool stuff in as he always does. The other three were kinda non-descript, with the tecnicos trying all types of armdrags but not landing them in the most graceful of ways. Pantera’s big high spot was him doing a pescado onto everyone for the stretch run, leaving it down to Hashi and Cu Cuy for the finish, where Hashi gets the win with a crossbody off the top. Kids were doing his pose to him as he left the ring post-match, which is basically everything you want out of the fan experience for an opener.

Ultimo Panda vs. “The Flying Lion” Marcus Lewis

Lewis wasn’t on the original card so I’m guessing he’s the Misterioso sub as he lives in San Jose, which is cool because I love watching him work. Panda is, of course, Vincenzo Massaro working under the hood, and he comes out to Gangnam Style and is over with the kids. Comedy stylings to start out as they get to do the ol’ “Panda gets tired running the ropes sequence” bit, but when it breaks down into a 50/50 match, it gets fun. Panda using his size against Marcus, Marcus using his speed and his strikes, and then some good nearfalls down the stretch. Marcus even gets sat on attempting a sunset flip. Panda wins with his FFF variation with him seated on the top rope, which Marcus bumps big on for the finish. Then they do the Gangnam Style dance together afterwards. Crowd has been hot all night and on that kick, they’re 2-for-2.

PWR Jr. Heavyweight Title: Bestia 666 © vs. Vapor

Vapor is sometimes PPW hand and DDT hand Royce Isaacs, who’s worked the gimmick in a few spots in California and it’s a good look, kind of like Bane but not on the gas. Bestia is Bestia and I kinda figured he might phone it in here, but they really go at it for a good 12 minutes or so. Vapor controls and hits a bodyslam on the hardwood before leering out into the crowd (I can’t undersell how much the crowd went after the rudos during this show). Also counters a slam into a nice Island Driver variant for a near fall. Bestia eventually comes back and hits a DVD on the apron before retaining, which is the only finish of the match I can’t seem to remember offhand. I remember liking the stretch run, but the finish didn’t stick with me. Odd.

PWR Tag Team Titles – Jungle Boy and Prostipirugolfo © vs. Lucha Horsemen

The Horsemen are Papo Esco and Arkady, with Esco’s tights literally saying “Fat Boy” on them as if they’re booking this show specifically for me. He hits a chokebreaker on the referee during their entrance so that Sparky HAS to be the referee, as he’s the only other guy who could do it, but the champs jump them before the bell to take advantage. This was the Jungle Boy show, as he was flying around and hitting his offense really crisp (along with good basing from Esco and Arkady), and then plays a good face in peril before Prosti gets caught for the longer section. When he gets the hot tag, he takes it up even another notch, clearing the ring and hitting a nice tope to the hard camera side. Of course, the match is full of Sparky shenanigans with either slow counts or not counting or derisively pointing out who the legal man was. That did lead to the finish, where a distraction by Sparky leads to a foul and a quick count pinfall and there’s new champs. For the shenanigans, at least it played into the finish. Jungle Boy was fantastic in this, though, and he seems to be getting a good run in the bay area and with good reason. Slight of build, but he can go. Also of note is the fan next to me continuing to razz Sparky throughout the match, offering him and Esco to eat some chicken nuggets. Popped some of the folks around me, but he did it literally the entire match, which got annoying pretty quickly with me. We get it: Fat guys like fast food.

Silver King vs. El Hijo de LA Park

King comes out wearing the mask, which I was a bit confused about because I remember him without his mask way more than with it. This is where they lost me with the ref stuff, as King and Parkcito take turns trying to coerce him to hit the other one, only for both of them to gang up on him and chop him down. Some matwork to start, where I hope King would work more maestro stuff than try and go 50/50, but Parkcito can go and they trade some nice holds. King starts trying to lay in the strikes but most of them whiff, sadly. Parkcito hits a tremendous tope that pushes King right up against the guardrail. King rudos it up during the second half and unties the mask which leads to him whipping the mask off on a charge and rolling Parkcito up for the win. I have this feeling it might have come off better on tape. Might be worth a second look if I can find it out there.

Cole Stevens/JR Kratos vs. LA Park/Damian 666

Place comes absolutely unglued for Park, who plays the chair as a guitar on his way down the ramp and just absolutely oozes charisma from every pore, posing on the chair in the ring and looking like the legend he is. There isn’t too much structure early on (spots were easily visibly called here) but the chaos adds to it, especially with Sparky having been involved in the shenanigans earlier on. Kratos mauling on Park is a good visual, and Damian is cool just brawling with Stevens wherever he can. Sparky gets run off (complete with going through the crowd to escape Park), which leads to the ref from the previous match coming in and becoming a part of the match AGAIN (kinda tired at this point), but he at least bumps huge on a corner charge and goes back to doing his job. Park’s belt gets involved and everyone gets whipped with it, with the ref taking the most punishment, of course. Park and Damian hit stereo topes right in front of me which makes my year. After a big miscommunication spot, Park grabs the chair, hits Kratos with it, and spears him for the pin. Folks throw money into the ring afterwards and Park acts like he’s ready to Chippendales it up for even more. He then gets on the mic and cuts a promo thanking folks for coming out to support the show (even with his “terrible fucking English” as he put it). Fun, chaotic brawl that was completely charisma driven and held up by everyone just going for it with the molten crowd, a great way to end the show.

I mean, it’s LA Park in 2018 working a high school gym in Northern California; I’ve now seen both him and PCO in the flesh in high school gyms this year and they both come off as huge presences even in that setting. Pretty sure him being there galvanized the entire card because this was good top to bottom. Nobody wanted to go out there and have a stinker with Park ready to show everyone why he’s the man, and it paid off. Well worth trying to find if the tape shows up somewhere.