PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night Two Results 8.29.15

We are equally as sold out as last night, and once again, Tara from TNA fame is here in the crowd. Our ring announcer is another guest, but not Melissa Santos. For this, I wept.

First match up is Rich Swann vs. “Party” Marty Scurll and he attacks Swann before the bell before hitting a suicide dive into the crowd. Scurll controlled most of the match with Swann fighting back to create hope here and there. Crowd was really into Scurll despite his playing the heel. Hot opener that the crowd loved. Scurll destroyed Swann’s hand, so Swann used the other hand to flip him the bird…and Scurll destroyed that finger as well. Finish came after Scurll hit a combo of suplexes before finishing with a Crossface Chickenwing around 11:25. Much smoother opener than last night.

Next up is the battle of tag partners, Jack Evans vs. Angélico. Evans cuts a pretty aggressive promo to start against Angélico touting his Hart Dungeon credentials. They do some cruiserweight-style technical wrestling while Evans continues to talk a lot of shit (and to be honest, it’s really entertaining). The crowd boos him and he threatens to whip everyone’s ass after the show. Much like Pentagón Jr. last night, Evans takes a second to chug some beer from a fan midmatch, and then proceeds to fight like Jackie Chan as the Drunken Master, dodging literally everything, then Evans went for an outside dive and overjumped Angélico by a long shot (intentionally). This is why you don’t drink and wrestle, kids! Jack Evans appeared to hurt his ACL after attempting a springboard move (can’t tell you what he was going for because he simply dropped back into the ring. It must not have been too bad because later he hit a 630 onto Angélico, who got the knees up. Angélico then ruled the match as Evans tried to fight back. Evans tried reversing into several pin attempts and then sounded disheartened that he can’t put Angélico away…but this Reseda. This is the home of The Karate Kid Ralph Macchio (I don’t know if that’s actually true, but I wouldn’t be surprised). He then finishes Angélico with a KK Crane Kick (complete with theatrics) at 17:20. After the match, Evans cuts a promo (part-shoot?) about us cheering him in person, but he reads message boards, and we can kiss his ass. But he still loves Angélico.

Third match of the night is Timothy Thatcher vs. Chris Hero. This should be physical, to say the least. Hero is having a lot of fun getting in the face of his haters, despite this being a very 50/50 crowd. Lots of technical exchanges to start. This turned into a very intense exchange of strikes, much like I expected. The guy next to me despises Hero, which I can’t tell if that makes me like this more or less, but it’s certainly bringing me joy whenever Hero is on offense. Hero gives up on a strike exchange to hit what’s essentially a snap piledriver that looked pretty nasty. Not much later, he went for another one but Thatcher tried to weigh him down, so he went Gotch on him to honor Cesaro, but Thatcher back dropped him over and grabbed an ankle lock. Down the stretch, Hero went crazy with elbows, and then tried to hit the Hangman’s elbow but was met with a brutal headbutt for a nearfall. Hero hit a tombstone on Thatcher, and then a Hero’s Welcome to pick up the win at 18 minutes. Really good match, and the disappointment on the face of the guy sitting next to me made it that much better. Great match. Best one so far.

The final encounter before intermission is the Lucha Underground showcase match of Drago & Pentagón, Jr. vs. Fénix & Aerostar. Pentagón gets the biggest pop on his entrance. Drago and Aerostar started the match. Things picked up a lot more when Pentagón and Fénix tagged in. This is exactly the type tag you would find in Lucha Underground (go figure, right?). Pentagón unzipped Aerostar’s top, somebody in the crowd whistled as though it was sexy (kinda was), and then proceeded to chop the shit out of him. The crowd wanted another, and chanted something in Spanish that sounded a lot like “Bruno Mars,” but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you what it was (I’m very white). Pentagón did the coolest move I’ve ever seen live — he put Fénix in a Gory Special, and Drago helped set Aerostar in position for Pentagón to Packaged Piledriver him, and he then did that with a simultaneous Gory Bomb on Fénix. Lots of finishes proceeded, including a splash off of Fénixes shoulders off the top from the middle rope (so he was pretty much at eye level with the light fixtures). Aerostar hit a backstabber on Pentagón and Fénix hit a Fénix Driver on Drago to finish off the match at 15:40. Amazing match; I highly recommend checking the show out for this for sure.

Intermission

Full disclosure: during intermission, I told Chris Hero about my neighbor booing him incessantly throughout his match, and how that made his victory that much better for me. Hero jokingly told me to relay the message that he suck his dick, which I did, and it was taken good-heartedly. Wrestling is fun, you guys. Right?

First match out of the intermission is Tommy End vs. Drew Gulak. This oughtta be good. We start with some wwwwrrrrrreeeEEESSSSTLING! And then we continue with some. Very technical match with End’s sick strikes sprinkled in for good measure. An elbow strike ends the match in End’s favor, somewhat abruptly, just under 12 minutes into the match. Very physical, concise match. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Next match on the card is a debuting Drew Galloway vs. Reseda favorite “Speedball” Mike Bailey. The crowd sings “Brass Monkey” along with Bailey’s theme music before chanting his name. Galloway towers over Bailey and makes light of him until a flurry of chest kicks against the ropes wakes him up. Galloway responds with a loud “Fuck you!” and it’s on. Drew dominated, playing a classic David vs. Goliath formula. At one point he hit Sheamus’ Beats of the Bodhrán on Bailey, to a nice chorus of boos. There was an unbelievable nearfall when Speedball teased his Shooting Star knees to a Tree of Woe-hung Galloway, but Drew flung himself up into a belly to belly superplex, then hit a flying big boot (basically Roddy’s Sick Kick). Galloway then proceeded to one-up it by kicking out of Bailey’s Shooting Star Knees when he was on all fours. Amazing moment. They then continues to trade nearfalls until Bailey jackknifed through a Future Shock DDT attempt to pick up a surprise 3-count around 12:30 into the match. Great atmosphere for this one. This was my first time seeing Galloway since he’s been let go from WWE outside a couple matches in TNA, and he really impressed the whole crowd. They hugged after the match and the crowd chanted “Please come back” to Galloway and I agree. Good stuff.

The last tournament match of the night (and the match I’ve most been looking forward to seeing this weekend) is Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Ricochet. Ricochet entered to a Duke Silver song (Nick Offerman’s character Ron Swanson’s alter ego in Parks & Recreation), which prompted a “Li’l Sebastian (Rest in peace)” chant once the math actually started, just in case you check out the DVD and are incredibly confused. The opening 11 minutes of the match can only be defined as “technical wizardry.” Ricochet gets Sabre down with a spinebuster, the turns him so that he’s facing the hard camera. People’s Moonsault is caught in midair with a Triangle Choke. The crowd goes nuts as the guy in front of me laments that Ricochet has muscle definition around his spine that he’s never seen on a human before, yet he (the guy in front of me) is 100 lbs overweight and will never have any muscle definition. He has consistently been the funniest part of my night. Sabre kicks out of a 630 Senton. Sabre catches Ricochet in several submission attempts (Cross armbreakers and triangle chokes), and then they do a reversal sequence that ends with Sabre stacking Ricochet with a bridging pin for a pinfall victory around 23 minutes. Amazing match, and so far the best match of the weekend.

And now, the match I probably won’t be able to cover as well because I’ll be watching out for my own well-being, the six-man Guerrilla Warfare match of Mt. Rushmore 2.0 (Super Dragon & The Young Bucks) vs. Biff Busick, Andrew Everett, & Trevor Lee. Yeah, this starts in the crowd, so I’m just going to type what I can. Nick Jackson hits Trevor Lee with a Too Sweet foam finger that he sells like it hurt a lot…and it turns out it’s because he was holding a wrench inside! More weapon-filled chaos, and Rushmore is firmly in control. Trash cans, chairs, a ladder, ref abuse all happen until Everett turns the tide with a leap over Excalibur from behind onto Rushmore. Some crazy moments later, Super Dragon catches a picture-perfect Shooting Star Press from Everett with an Ace Crusher. The faces rally until the heels hit a double Melzter Driver/dropkick-to-Senton combo. The Bucks get their thumbtack boots out, and Knox is out to break it up! He rallies and ends it with a tope con hilo! Eventually the Bucks successfully connect with shots with boots to wipe Everett and Lee out of the match. Biff is splayed across a chair, and the Bucks hit a double thumbtack-boot superkick on him, and Super Dragon flies off the top to curb stomp Busick, then hoists him up for a Psycho Driver with a Meltzer flip assist from Nick to finish the faces at 16:30. This match was a blast from start to finish.

After the match, Excalibur called their win bullshit and declared war on them, saying he won’t rest until they’re in the ground (if that’s the case, recruit Triple H, eh?). Excalibur then asked “Who should be on my team?” and chants from Hero, to Bosh, to Tozawa broke out. Rushmore came back out and took out Excalibur with a double superkick and a Psycho Driver. Chris Hero stood up from commentary and charged the ring, and the heels retreated to the back. He then started to cut a promo, but a fan aggressively told him he sucked. Hero left the ring to get in his face, and Rushmore came back out and attacked Hero. I’m loving this angle, and I’m glad the heels are being kept so strong; whoever vanquishes them will likely get a huge rub.

I’d say tonight was better than last night by a pretty good margin. Definitely check this out when you can!

Two down, one to go!

Quick results
Marty Scurll defeated Rich Swann
Jack Evans defeated Angélico
Chris Hero defeated Timothy Thatcher
Fénix & Aerostar defeated Drago & Pentagón, Jr.
Tommy End defeated Drew Gulak
“Speedball” Mike Bailey defeated Drew Galloway
Zack Sabre, Jr. defeated Ricochet
Mt. Rushmore defeated Biff Busick, Trevor Lee, & Andrew Everett in a Guerrilla Warfare match