Views from the Hawke’s Nest: PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2 2007

September 1, 2007
Burbank, CA

Commentators: Excalibur, Dino Winwood, & Bryce Remsburg

Ronin & TJ Perkins vs. Bino Gambino & Karl Anderson
TJP vs. Anderson would have been infinitely more interesting than this match (and several of the BOLA tournament matches). TJP was eventually isolated and then worked over. Ronin eventually made a hot tag. The teams went back and forth. Movez. I’ve perfected the art of recapping indie matches. Ronin hit Gambino with a DVD: 1…2…3

For the sake of comparison, this match had a better structure than the opening tag match on Night One, but this was far less fun. A singles match between TJP and Anderson would have been preferable.
Match Rating: **

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
CIMA vs. Human Tornado (w/ Candice LeRae)
Human Tornado was verbally and physically assaulting Candice. CIMA attacked him. CIMA hates wife beaters. CIMA was just running through Tornado. At one point he went for a violent baseball slide, but Tornado pulled Candice into the way. CIMA nailed her with the kick. Tornado then attacked a distraught CIMA, and got the advantage. Tornado was in control for a while. FUCKKKKKK. Tornado sent CIMA into the crowd and then hit a massive tope con hello into the crowd. CIMA went to super back suplex Tornado, but it also caused Candice to be superplexed in an inadvertent Tower of Doom. Tornado dropped CIMA on his head a couple of times and then hit a corkscrew splash for a nearfall. CIMA got Candice to give him a missile dropkick. CIMA then hit a superkick and Schwein: 1…2…3!

Tornado made nice with Candice, but then he attacked her a lot. He made to walk to the back, but he ran back and just did more damage. Chris Hero finally made the save.

This was probably slightly better than any match on Night One. This whole weekend has a ceiling because of the environment, but these two did quite well given the atmosphere. The Candice/Tornado stuff is very weird and makes me uncomfortable in ways that I don’t need pro wrestling to make me. That’s what HBO, AMC, and FX are for.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Shingo Takagi vs. Scott Lost (w/ Jade Chung)
Shingo was in control until Lost caught him with a kick to the groin. Lost worked him over for a while until Shingo caught a middle rope dive and hit a suplex. They traded strikes. They went back and forth. Shingo hit a gutwrench bomb and then the Pumping Bomber: 1…2…NO! Lost came back with a Dynamite suplex to the floor. Back in the ring, Shingo caught him with Last Falconry: 1…2…3!

Wow, night two of the tournament is off to a swell start. They did a basic indie match, but it worked for sure. Shingo was and is so goddamn good.
Match Rating: ***1/4

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Kevin Steen vs. The Necro Butcher
Steen wanted to wrestle. Necro did not. Steen cut Necro off by going after his injured knee. Necro finally came back with a huge lariat. He then avoided a figure four by punching Steen a lot. He then caught Steen with an O’Connor Roll: 1…2…3…?

This was surprisingly lame. I didn’t mind the short length, but I would have hoped for a crazier brawl to have happened as a result. Instead, the majority of the match was limb work that did not have a payoff.
Match Rating: *

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Davey Richards vs. Nigel McGuinness
This was Nigel’s debut in PWG. Davey had won the 2006 BOLA. He was booed here. I’m not sure what was going on with his character.

They did some stuff and things. Nigel went for the rebound lariat, but Davey avoided it. Davey kicked Nigel’s hand, and he then got a kiss from a lady in the crowd. It was Nigel’s girlfriend apparently. Davey then got kicked in the crotch. He then asked the same lady for a kiss on the crotch. She refused, and Nigel pulled down Davey’s pants. Davey proceeded to wrestle with his pants pulled down. Nigel was mostly in control. Davey came back and hit a tope con hello. Davey got a kimura, but Nigel came back with a big lariat. He hit another massive lariat for a nearfall. Davey went for the SSP, but Nigel avoided it. Davey then ate The Tower of London. Davey saved himself with the ropes. Davey then ate a diving lariat and a rebound lariat: 1…2…3!

This was another very enjoyable match. PWG is a place where “super serial” wrestlers can let their hair down so to speak, and it can lead to very amusing results. While it would have been fine if this match tried to be as epic as it could have been, I had zero problem with the more gaga-heavy approach they took. Thumbs up for sure.
Match Rating: ***1/4

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
El Generico vs. Tony Kozina
This is a rather uninspired matchup on paper.

Konia got control and worked Generico over. The match was, in fact, very uninspired. Generico hit an Arabaian Press Moonsault. They did some stuff in the ring. They botched a fancy, springboard tornado DDT. It looked cool until the botch at least. Kozina took Generico to the floor with a hurricanrana in a genuinely creative way. It was the first notable thing of the match. Kozina avoided a Yakuza and got a good nearfall with a schoolboy. Generico came back with a brainbuster out of nowhere: 1…2…3

The last two or three minutes saved this from being incredibly weak sauce. Instead, it was a weak sauce match with a fun two or three minutes at the end~! Haha, I am hilarious. Much like Jimmy Rave and Necro Butcher, Tony Kozina did not need to be in this tournament.
Match Rating: **1/4

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Susumu Yokosuka vs. Dragon Kid
I’m not really a big fan of Dragon Gate vs. Dragon Gate matches happening in PWG when those guys fly over. There’s too many other potential matchups that can rarely happen which should be taken advantage of.

Kid had the early advantage, but Yokosuka finally cut him off with a big lariat that dropped Kid on the apron. Yokosuka was in control after that. Kid eventually came back with a headscissors and a hurricanrana to the floor. Back in the ring, Kid got Cristo. Yokosuka escaped, but Kid hit a stunner. Yokosuka came back with a super exploder for a nearfall. He then called for the Jumbo No Kachi, but Kid blocked it and hit a crucifix driver for a nearfall. Yokosuka came back with a DVD. JUMBO NO KACHI! He followed it up with Mugen: 1…2…NO! Kid went for a Hurricanrana, but Yokosuka reversed it into World Liner: 1…2…NO! Kid reversed a super Razor’s Edge into a hurricanra and then hit a satellite DDT! DRAGONRANA: 1…2…3!

At the risk of sounding repetitive, this match was fun but never reached the next level you might expect given the talent in the ring. The match also went longer than it necessarily needed to, but they saved all their best exchanges for down the stretch at least. I was also happy with who advanced in the tournament.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Thanks everybody for reading! You can send feedback to my Twitter or to my email address: [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my own wrestling website, FreeProWrestling.com. Check out a full/organized list of all the wrestling show reviews I’ve done at 411mania.

Check out some of your favorite PWG wrestlers in free matches!
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Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Super Dragon & Excalibur
Claudio Castagnoli (Antonio Cesaro) vs. Kevin Steen
El Generico vs. Chris Hero
The Young Bucks & Petey Williams vs. Paul London, Brian Kendrick, & Jay Lethal
The Young Bucks vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli
Low Ki vs. Super Dragon
Johnny Gargano vs. Eddie Edwards
Akira Tozawa vs. Johnny Gargano
Ricochet vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Arik Cannon
Chris Hero vs. CM Punk
Bryan Danielson vs. Drake Younger
Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Cage
AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Colt Cabana
Akira Tozawa vs. Zack Sabre, Jr.
Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly
ACH vs. AR Fox

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The 411: Much like Night 1, this show has four good matches and four skippable matches. Also like Night 1, I enjoyed enough to give it a slightly positive recommendation. Onto Night 3!
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]