Break It Down: PWG 2009 Battle of Los Angeles – Night One

Night One of the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles on November 20th, 2009.

Opening Match: Brandon and Dustin Cutler vs. Malachi Jackson and Ryan Taylor
The Cutlers try to charge before the bell but get lured to the outside. Taylor misses a plancha and Malachi gets pushed off the top rope. Back in, The Cutlers hit a shoulder block on Taylor. Malachi lands a standing shooting star press on Brandon. The Cutlers take over with some double teaming. Dustin probably does the coolest move I’ve ever seen…he throws Taylor up in the air and catches him with a behind-the-back low blow on the way down. Taylor is isolated until he rolls under a clothesline and makes the tag. Malachi lands a double crossbody followed by a dive to the floor on Dustin. He enters the ring with a flying hurricanrana on Brandon. Dustin catches Malachi with a backbreaker-flatliner combination. Taylor takes out Dustin with a dive to the outside. Meanwhile, Malachi hits a stunner on Brandon but falls victim to a guillotine leg drop. Taylor lays out Dustin with a tiger suplex and catches Brandon with a backcracker. Malachi follows with a shooting star press on Brandon for a nearfall. Dustin and Taylor have an exchange. Brandon recovers and the Cutlers catch Taylor with a spike tombstone for the win at 8:43. More solid action from the PWG locals (I’m assuming that they’re local). They went out and put on an energetic opener without doing too much. It got the crowd into the show without taking any steam away from the BOLA tournament matches. Malachi appears to be improving and the Cutlers are too unique to not be noticed. **½

Match #2: Block A First Round: Scott Lost vs. Jerome Robinson
Lost connects with a stiff kick to start. Robinson comes back with a headscissors and adds a handspring crossbody. He dropkicks Lost to the floor and tries to fake a dive, but Lost stops him anyway. In the ring, Robinson is beat down. He tries to stage a comeback but Lost cuts it short with his double stomp in the corner. Robinson finds an opening with a springboard leg drop. Lost avoids a 619 and connects with a sole kick. He misses a spinning round kick and Robinson is now able to hit a 619. They go back and forth with reversals. Lost misses another spinning round kick but is able to sweep Robinson’s legs. Lost connects with the Big Fat Kill for the victory at 7:43. They weren’t as fluid as I thought they would be, but there were numerous quality exchanges throughout. I think Robinson will grow a lot as a professional wrestler in 2010 and I hope PWG books him against opponents he can learn from. I also want to note that the finish featured the best Big Fat Kill I’ve ever seen. Lost looked like he had just killed the antagonist in an epic karate movie. **¼

Match #3: Block D First Round: Human Tornado vs. Matt Jackson
Matt plays a good heel early on, opting to use the ropes to break an armbar instead of flipping out of it. Tornado snaps off a few armdrags and connects with a dropkick in the corner. Matt mocks Tornado by copying his shuffling kicks. Of course, Tornado isn’t affected by the low blow and responds with a pimp slap. He follows with shuffling kicks of his own in the corner. Matt elbows Tornado off the top rope and to the floor. Nick Jackson gets some shots in on the outside and throws Tornado back into the ring. Matt controls until Tornado connects with a yakuza kick along with a corner dropkick. Tornado follows with a springboard senton and locks in a dragon sleeper. Matt makes the ropes. He blocks a charge but misses a springboard ace crusher. Tornado hits a tornado DDT but finds knees on a swantan. Matt connects with a superkick followed by a german suplex. He comes off the top with an ace crusher but gets caught with a true death valley driver for a two count. Tornado back drops Matt on the apron but Nick stops a dive to the floor. The Young Bucks start to team up. Matt connects with a baseball slide and Nick goes for a dive…BUT RICK KNOX STOPS HIM WITH A CLOTHESLINE!!! Tornado recovers and lays out Matt with the DND for the win at 14:12. This match was uncharacteristically sloppy at points. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this match was very entertaining and smartly worked. Matt showed tremendous heel qualities throughout. If there was ever a doubt as to whether the Young Bucks could assume the role of great heels, it should be erased. The finish was also beautifully setup. There was a huge pop when Rick Knox got involved back at Express Written Consent and the crowd’s reaction was great here as well. There’s a lot of fun to be had by watching this contest. ***

Match #4: Block B First Round: Colt Cabana vs. Joey Ryan
Ring of Honor has made me loathe this pairing. Hopefully the tremendous quality of recent PWG shows rubs off on them here. Cabana schools Ryan with some technical wrestling to start. Yes, I just used “school” as a verb. I hate getting repetitive with words like “hits” or “connects”. Cabana becomes a little too intense for his own good and then apologizes. Ryan snaps off a headscissors and connects with a dropkick. He follows with a powerslam and takes over. Cabana comes back with a neckbreaker and a few bionic elbows. Ryan answers with a spear but gets back dropped to the floor. Cabana wipes out on a baseball slide attempt and Ryan lands a dive to the outside. Back in, Ryan hits a flying crossbody but Cabana responds with a neckbreaker. Cabana lands a moonsault for a two count. Ryan lays him out with a powerbomb. He goes for a Mustache Ride, but Cabana just drapes him across the top turnbuckle. Cabana goes for the flying asshole but Ryan blocks it with a superkick for the victory at 10:48. This was a perfectly acceptable first round match and an improvement from their outings in ROH. They didn’t overstay their welcome and cut the comedy short after the first three minutes of the match. Considering this is arguably the most important professional wrestling tournament of the year, I’m glad Cabana was able to become serious for a change. **½

Match #5: Block D First Round: Johnny Goodtime vs. Roderick Strong
Goodtime is Chris Sabin’s last minute replacement. They start with some chain wrestling. Strong starts connecting with his chops but Goodtime fires back with a double stomp. Goodtime tries to drag Strong to the floor but ends up getting launched into the crowd. That caught more than a few people off guard. Strong slams Goodtime onto a few propped up chairs and throws him across the ring apron. Back in, Strong takes over, even chopping Goodtime back to the floor at one point. Goodtime makes a comeback with a slingshot dropkick. Strong blocks a charge and just rams Goodtime’s knees into the canvas. He connects with a leg lariat and uses Goodtime’s “power pad” to mock him. Goodtime comes back with another slingshot dropkick followed by a lungblower-backbreaker combination. Strong answers with a powerslam and a falcon arrow. They exchange forearms and Goodtime hits a german suplex. He reverses the Stronghold into a rollup for a nearfall and lands a flying double stomp. They battle on the ring apron and Strong slams him across it. Goodtime goes for a headstand move but gets kicked in the face. Dear Lord. Strong hits a backbreaker and synchs in the Stronghold for the victory at 16:54. Goodtime ended up being more than a suitable replacement for Sabin. He just went out there and showed what he could do. Not all of it was fluid but the crowd definitely reacted to it. Strong was his usual self and it was genuinely fun to watch him beat up Goodtime. In fact, everything worked out. Goodtime wrestled a solid match and raised his stock, while the Strong/Sabin match would happen in February 2010. ***¼

Match #6: Block C First Round: Brandon Gatson vs. Nick Jackson
Gatson does a backflip during his entrance and gets pegged with a superkick immediately after. That was awesome. Gatson avoids a dropkick and connects with a spin kick. He follows with an STO but Nick comes back with a slingshot facebuster. Nick takes over until Gatson blocks another slingshot facebuster with an atomic drop. Gatson hits a powerbomb along with a DDT. Nick springboard dropkicks him on the apron and lays him out with a neckbreaker. Nick lands a frog splash but Gatson responds with his handspring splash. Gatson throws Nick to the floor and follows with a space flying tiger drop…onto Matt. Nick gets back in the ring but falls victim to a slingshot ace crusher. Nick connects with some kicks but finds knees on a 450 splash. Gatson hits a sit-out side facebuster (best name I have for it) for the win at 12:15. This was along the lines of the Tornado/Matt match except not as electric. The fact remains that Gatson looked solid in the ring and the crowd was definitely behind him. However, a lot of that has to do with how good Nick was at being a heel. Goodtime may have had the better match, but I think Gatson was the right local to move past the first round. **½

Match #7: Block B First Round: Austin Aries vs. Brian Kendrick
They banter back and forth on the mic before the opening bell. Aries brings up “future endeavors”…enough said. Aries uses Kendrick’s hair to hold onto a side headlock. Kendrick bites Aries’ finger in response. They get into an argument with Rick Knox and Kendrick takes the opportunity to sneak in an eye poke on Aries. A small child in the front row yells “this is boring” and Aries offers him a chance to enter the ring. Both men miss flying knee drops and take each other down with flying clotheslines. They both try to use the ropes for leverage to no avail. Aries hits a back suplex but his corner dropkick is blocked. He is able to connect on a second attempt. Kendrick sneaks in a low blow and Aries answers with one of his own. They exchange forearms and Kendrick gets pushed to the floor. Aries follows out with the heat seeking missile. In the ring, both men fake knee injuries. When Knox isn’t looking, Aries utilizes his ROH World Title while Kendrick uses a foreign object. They hit each other at the same time. However, Kendrick’s arm lands over Aries’ body, giving him the victory at 13:27. I understand what they were trying to do. They stayed true to their gimmicks and attempted to “out cheat” each other throughout the whole match. While they did a good job of telling that story, I wish they would have focused more on putting forth a great contest. Looking back, the cheating could have been a solid story to lead them through the early portions of the match. Then they could have picked it up and given the fans something to be excited about. The crowd was extremely mixed towards this match and I feel the same way. **¼

Match #8: Block A First Round: Kenny Omega vs. Kevin Steen
They debate who is the real “man of low moral fiber” before the match. They get into a shoving match as the opening bell rings. Omega tries a couple of shoulder blocks to no avail. He almost pulls off a suplex…but falls backwards. Omega is able to block a charge and hit his leaping facebuster. He tries for a moonsault to the floor but Steen catches him and powerbombs him on the ring apron. Steen hits his flipping leg drop and takes over. He blocks Omega’s stop enzuigiri by biting his finger. Omega comes back with a dragon suplex and hits a powerslam to a big pop. He follows with a springboard dropkick but gets spiked by a DDT. Steen hits a cannonball in the corner. He blocks Omega’s stop enzuigiri by biting his finger again. However, Omega responds by biting Steen’s nose. Omega hits a nice uranagi along with a hurricanrana. Steen answers with a powerbomb and his pumphandle neckbreaker. He finds knees on a swantan attempt and Omega hits the Hadouken for a nearfall. Steen avoids Croyt’s Wrath and hits the package piledriver. Omega reverses the pin attempt into a crucifix for the win at 12:41. Talk about a smartly worked match. Omega battled Steen’s size and power advantage throughout the whole contest. In the end, Omega was finally able to use the sheer size of Steen to his advantage by sneaking in a crucifix pin to steal the win. Their personalities meshed well together and the match itself was a lot of fun to watch. The argument could be made that they should have received more time to work with, but I’m pretty happy with the match they put on. ***¼

Match #9: Block C First Round: El Generico vs. Alex Shelley
They trade control of a wristlock to start. A great series of reversals follow. Shelley raises the intensity with a snot rocket and they begin to trade forearms. Generico sends Shelley to the floor and follows out with a dive. In the ring, Generico connects with a leg lariat but gets caught by a dragon screw leg whip in the ropes. Shelley starts to work over the left leg and takes control. Generico finds an opening to hit a tornado DDT. He follows with a michinoku driver but falls victim to a standing sliced bread. Shelley lands a frog splash and follows with a lungblower as well as an air raid crash. Generico overhead suplexes him into the turnbuckles but a yakuza kick is blocked. Both men are down. Generico hits two half nelson suplexes. Shelley blocks another yakuza kick and connects with four superkicks for a nearfall. He adds another air raid crash but Generico won’t stay down. They battle up top and Shelley hits a sliced bread for the victory at 16:43. They started out with some clean mat wrestling and an intense series of reversals. Shelley started with his body part work and he is one of the best at making me not lose interest when doing so. Most viewers will be surprised that the finishing stretch was fairly short and didn’t feature many nearfalls. Don’t let that hurt your enjoyment of this match. Both men worked hard and it’s amazing how crisp they are in the ring. Suitable main event for night one of BOLA. ***¾

The 411: Night One of the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles is a consistent show and a breeze to watch, despite its two and a half hour runtime. Half of the tournament matches clocked in at three stars or above and the PWG locals shined throughout the card. There’s nothing on this show that I would say you need to see immediately, but Generico and Shelley comes awfully close. Elsewhere, Omega and Steen offer a smartly worked contest, while Goodtime put in his best performance to date. The tournament matches here really setup a stellar-looking Night Two. There’s more than enough quality on this show to warrant a purchase and if you’re going to buy Night Two, why not just go all out?

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]