PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 1 Results 8.28.15 – Reseda, California

Results courtesy of Michael Ornelas:

We are incredibly sold out. Standing room only ticket buyers line the wall. Victoria of Stevie Richards fame is here in the crowd.

Melissa Santos gets a huge pop as a surprise ring announcer, and Chuck Taylor out pops that by coming out to commentary.

Opening match is Brian Cage vs. Aerostar. Both men get great big pops to start. Since we’re in Reseda, I’m going to go ahead and just let you assume everyone gets a big pop unless otherwise noted. Cage worked the power spots that we’ve all come to know and love (elevated apron superplex a la Cesaro, a stalling vertical suplex held for a count of 60, etc.) while Aerostar provided some great dives, including a Falling Star to the floor. He botched several spots, most notably, but didn’t take the crowd out of it too badly. Cage finishes around 7 minutes in with a sick-looking vertical suplex dropped into sit out piledriver.

Next up is Andrew Everett vs. Biff Busick. This should be a fun mix of styles. Match with comedy trying to show each other up with various acrobatic feats with the crowd booing Everett’s very impressive stunts, and cheering a basic forward roll by Busick. Everett controls early with high spots, including a springboard shooting star press to the outside for which Victoria has to look away because she looks genuinely nervous. The match ended up being fairly technical with Everett’s high flying peppered in. The match ended when Everett went for a springboard shooting star from the apron to Biff inside, who countered by catching it with a European Uppercut after the rotation, then hitting a half and half suplex before finishing him with a running European Uppercut around 14:25.

Third match is Mark Andrews vs. Will Ospreay, which is a PWG debut for both men (and personally, my first time seeing either man wrestle, so I’m looking forward to it). Lots of amazing chain wrestling here with cool acrobatic counters I’ve never seen before. Both men greatly impressed, and the closing stretch had some really fun teases before Ospreay picked up the win with an inverted 450 Splash in 10:45 or so. Really good stuff. Seems like the crowd would welcome them back in a heartbeat.

Last match before intermission is Angélico & Jack Evans vs. The Inner City Machine Guns (Ricochet & Rich Swann). The ICMG makes me wish entrances were shown on PWG DVDs because it’s always a blast with everyone singing “All Night Long” by Lionel Richie. They get Melissa Santos to shimmy with gem which was glorious because she’s smoking hot in person (and on TV, as I’m sure you already know). Angélico looks like if Paul Rudd and Dean Ambrose had a baby, and put on AJ Styles’ tights. There’s a little bit of wrestling before Ricochet break dances to challenge Jack Evans to a dance off. He tags in and accepts, and admittedly wins that war. Swann tags in and dances as well before botching a dance move, essentially bumping like a DDT, and Evans capitalizes with an attack, and we’re finally into some wrestling (not that I’m complaining — it’s been gloriously entertaining so far). Both teams alternated heat segments, and I think the fact that it’s 97 degrees and there’s a lot of sweat in the ring is causing a little less crispness to the wrestling tonight overall. Fun match overall — Jack Evans pinned Rich Swann after a 630 Senton after about 20:20 of action.

-Intermission-

First match back is Trent? vs. Trevor Lee, my personal choice to win the tournament. He’s been treated like a star this year, and this would be a great way to cement that. Match starts with intense posturing for control until Trent? takes it early. Back and forth match, but after a German suplex on the apron to Trent?, Trevor holds the control. Trent? makes a pretty valiant comeback before Trevor puts him away with a Small Package Driver at about 14:25. After the match, Chuck Taylor comes out to give Trent? some water and a big “Best Friends” chant breaks out. Then Chuck leaves after they hug. It’s the little things…

Sixth match of the night is Drago vs. Pentagón Jr., which gets a huge reaction upon their entrances. Jr. threatens Melissa Santos which causes Drago to attack him to make the save, and we’re off to the races. This match is exactly what you’d expect — Lucha libre mixed with a Reseda atmosphere including outside dives. At one point, Pentagón downed a fan’s pitcher of beer. Drago did the super-est of super hurricanranas. Match ended with Pentagón Jr. drilling Drago with a Packaged Piledriver around 11:20. Great seeing them in PWG, and they were super over. Match was a little sloppy, but that didn’t really matter.

Our final tournament match of the night before our six man main event is Fénix vs. Matt Sydal. This is the best match on paper, so hopefully it delivers. Both men are treated like heroes in their entrances and shake hands to start. They do some truly great technical chain wrestling to start. It seems like they’re keeping things completely grounded, including teasing some dives but getting back in before the opponent can do it. I don’t know if you can get blue balls from not seeing a tope, but the crowd is pretty close to finding out. Sydal works the leg for awhile before we get our first high flying move of the match (about 10 minutes in) — a springboard missile dropkick from Fénix. Fénix slips on a springboard double stomp but it still hits, technically. Match continues to stay grounded for a bit until Fénix hits a huge corkscrew splash to the outside (before which, Victoria, who was right by the potential landing site kept yelling “holy fuck” as she had arguably no escape options (she was fine though). The crowd went nuts for a nearfall off a springboard Spanish Fly off the top. Sydal finishes a few moments later with the Shooting Star Press around 20 minutes. Definitely the best match of the night so far.

Last up is the main event of Eurotrash (Zack Sabre, Jr., Tommy End, and “Party” Marty Scurll) vs. Mount Rushmore 2.0 (Roddy Strong & The Young Bucks). Pop of the night probably goes to Sabre’s entrance. Mount Rushmore enters to Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix. Cheap shot from Matt Jackson before the bell incenses ZSJ. Melissa Santos goes for introductions during a dueling crowd chant and Strong takes her to task for it, cutting a great heel promo. He then throws the mic at her before she continues. Strong avoids Sabre to start by tagging out immediately. Lots of action, but needless to say, everyone got their hands on everyone. Great moment where Sabre and Scurll interlocked the Bucks’ legs together and flipped them over into a two man camel clutch (as seen in the attached picture). Scurll got worked over by all three men. Eventually, Nick and Scurll were both down and did the SummerSlam Taker/Brock simultaneous sit-up and laugh spot. Then a bunch of Taker signature spots were done by the Bucks on Scurll. Finally Scurll tagged out and Sabre twisted Nick into a pretzel and used his technical wizardry to fight off both Matt and Nick. Tommy End got tagged in and got to run wild with some sick strikes before the match broke down and everyone got their shit in. Match came down to Roddy and Sabre for awhile before Roddy threw Rick Knox in the way of a charge and then gave a low blow to Sabre before Rushmore went nuts with chair shots. Really cool nearfall where Roddy threw Nick up like he would for End of Heartache but transitioned to a 450 on Sabre. End and Scurll made the save, so we then got a double Meltzer Driver on End and Scurll. Sabre is the only one left along with Rushmore, who are all spitting on him. He comes alive and slaps the shit out of all of them until they hit a double superkick/high knee on him. Sick kick from Strong and then End of Heartache finishes around 29 minutes. Phenomenal main event, and match of the night. The crowd applauds Eurotrash’s efforts to close the show.

Quick results:

Brian Cage defeated Aerostar
Biff Busick defeated Andrew Everett
Will Ospreay defeated Mark Andrews
Jack Evans & Angélico defeated The Inner City Machine Guns
Trevor Lee defeated Trent?
Pentagón Jr. defeated Drago
Matt Sydal defeated Fénix
Mount Rushmore defeated Eurotrash