APW Los Angeles – August 16, 2003
It seems like it’s been quite some time since APW LA last ran, which I guess it has having been about two and a half months between shows. Attendance was down about 50 people from the last show, drawing around 125, which can be attributed to four factors in my opinion. First the X-Games were running at the same time in Los Angeles, second going so long between shows is killing their momentum, thirdly the Northern California fans didn’t show up like they had in the past, and fourth the recent backlash from fans (and others) against APW and Roland Alexander for various things.The X Games aren’t going to run every Saturday forever, so that isn’t going to be a long term problem for APW LA, and the Northern California fans could probably easily be brought back by organizing another “APW Express” trip, though the appeal of seeing an LA show in Los Angeles may have partially worn off for a lot of those fans. The length of time between shows seems to be going in the wrong direction at this point, and if you lose the hype, it’s hard to generate it to the point where the shows become can’t miss again. For every fan that comes and sees a great show, there’s the chance he’ll tell someone, or bring someone, and waiting months between shows there’s the chance they’ll just forget or the show won’t seem to be the big deal it was after the last one. APW LA was almost at the point where they outgrew their building, but at the current rate it’s not going to be an issue.
The fourth problem, and the one I’m sure will be downplayed the most by people involved with the promotion, is the negative stigma APW has received over time, and especially lately. With the two main things people are bashing APW and Alexander for right now, the Brian Ong death and Aaron Proctor getting fired from his job, there is a lot of speculation and rumor involved, and people on both sides twisting things to their version of reality that it’s not really worth going over here, as the real story will be available in due time (for the mean time you can read all the different sides on the message board). What I do know is that people are using APW as an excuse not to go to the shows. I talked to at least five people who had been to previous APW LA or GSCW shows who stated they would never go again because of APW or Roland. I’m sure those five weren’t the only ones who felt that way. One person who was at the show even told me he wasn’t going to go because of Roland Alexander, but decided that “the promotion will lose money if I go or not, so it doesn’t matter if I boycott”. This problem is really an unsolvable one for the promotion, with the exception of breaking away from APW whenever their contract runs out.
The last issue also leads to the question of what has Henry Luna or GSCW has gained from being associated with APW? I don’t know the details of their contract, but if it includes monetary compensation for Luna, that is the only positive that I see at this point. Other promotions have booked APW wrestlers, so they haven’t gained wrestlers that can’t be seen anywhere else. Show quality has stayed about level, though I would say August 16th’s show was among their better shows. The exposure of the promotion hasn’t increased, and in fact if you look at the numbers attendance has dropped steadily. And now people are using the APW name as a reason for not going to the shows. Maybe I’m missing something somewhere, but the positives, if there, certainly aren’t obvious.
Anyway, onto the show itself.
Billy Blade over Charles Mercury [10’12]
I thought this was a pretty decent match. Charles Mercury will probably get a rookie of the year nomination this year and Blade is a lot better than people give him credit for. The one thing about Blade however is his gimmick. Aside for regular fans of APW Central Coast, then CWA, most people don’t know that he was Gangrel’s tag team partner there, and instead see him as a Gangrel ripoff. Outside of APW CC he should probably do more to distinguish himself from being a Gangrel “ripoff”, and only do the gimmick in APW CC. Imagine if there was a Rock clone running around SoCal. I guess I just feel the gimmick stops people from noticing his skills as a wrestler. The crowd never really got much into the match, and there was a few spots that some miscommunication was obvious, but it was still a decent match.
B-Boy over James Choi to win the APW Internet title [18’03]
I thought this was a really good match. In the past I haven’t thought much of Choi, but I thought he looked solid in this match, especially with having a hurt wrist. The heat for this match was pretty unbelievable, as the crowd really wanted B-Boy to win the title. B-Boy got the win and James Choi threw a fit afterwards and didn’t shake hands with B-Boy. The scoundrel.
Lil’ Cholo over Scorpio Sky [10’09]
It’s too bad this match had to follow the last one, as the crowd needed a breather and this is where they took it. It was a good match, in fact there wasn’t a bad match on the show, it was just stuck in a bad slot.
Super Dragon & Excalibur versus Joey Ryan & Scott Lost go to a no contest due to interference from Hardkore Inc. [25’05]
Awesome match. This match was seriously on the way to being a real match of the year contender till the end, but I’ll get to that in a minute. This was an excellent match, with X-Foundation clearly as the heels, though at one point Joey Ryan really won the crowd over with his fighting spirit. Ryan and Lost were going toe to toe with Dragon and Excalibur the entire match, with both teams taking tons of punishment. At one point Dragon and Excalibur went to dive to the outside, but Lost and Ryan had chairs ready for them and hit them as they went through the ropes. Excalibur kept going and landed straight on his head. The action kept going and going, and what seemed to be the finishing sequence went on at least ten minutes. Then Hardkore Kidd and Adam Pearce came out and attacked Dragon and Excalibur.
I know the reason for doing the run in was to get heat for Hardkore Kidd and Pearce, but if there are two guys who don’t need to generate heat this way it’s them. Also there is a difference between getting heat on wrestlers, and getting heat on the bookers. This is the second show in a row a really great match had a screwy end, thus screwing the fans out of a match that could have even been better than it was. There would have been no difference heat wise had Hardkore Inc. came out after the match. Not to mention that because of the ending to this match, two straight matches had no real finish (though the next match’s end made a lot more sense logic wise and didn’t take as much away from the match as this run in did). Most indy fans go to shows to see matches, and the angles, while important are secondary. I hate to use Japanese examples, due to the difference in how American fans are brought up, but All Japan became one of the most successful promotions in the world doing mostly clean finishes. If you keep screwing fans out of match finishes, eventually they will expect it and not show up, or completely turn on the product like a lot of XPW’s fans did. Anyway, it was a fantastic match, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a strong match of the month contender, but the lack of the finish really hurt it. It’s the promoters job to tell fans what they want to see, but at the same time it’s the promoters job to not book in such a way that will make fans mad at the promotion.
Post match Hardkore Inc. cut a promo, which leads to Henry Luna coming out and saying something on the mike that came out pretty much inaudible, but the gist of it was that Adam Pearce was going to wrestle, and if he gets beat the opponent will face Hardkore Kidd next show. Then Vic Grimes comes out to a huge pop.
Vic Grimes over Adam Pearce by DQ [15’07]
This was another really good match. I hear a lot of people say that Vic Grimes is good for his size, but I don’t know, he’s pretty good overall. If you include everything a wrestler should have, workrate, mike skill, and a look, I’d say Adam Pearce might be the best wrestler in the indies right now. They teased putting Pearce through this plastic table, but Hardkore Kidd ran in, getting Pearce DQ’d, and since Grimes won he gets a shot at Hardkore Kidd on the next show.
B-Boy over Sonjay Dutt to retain the APW Internet title [17’18]
I thought this match was a little under whelming. It was a good match, but not “wow, good thing they flew this guy in” good. Dutt didn’t get much of a reaction at the show, as even among CZW guys he’s not among the best known. Dutt was bleeding from the nose in the match after taking a stiff shot from B-Boy, and it seemed to put things out of whack a little. Dutt did do some nice spots however, and there was nothing really messed up in the match. Not as good as B-Boy and Choi by far. After the match Choi attacked B-Boy.
Frankie Kazarian over Colt Cabana [14’27]
This was a really good match. I was surprised with how much charisma Colt has live. It just doesn’t come off on tape like seeing him live. Frankie was on as normal. This match was pretty much straight American style, but done to near perfection. I hope Colt and Adam Pearce meet up in the PWG title tournament later this month. Anyway, after the match Colt gave a speech really putting over APW LA, saying how he passed up Ring of Honor to work APW LA. A really good end to the night.
All in all it was one of APW LA’s better shows. I don’t think they’ve had a bad show since they left the Marketplace. There’s no question that APW LA is the top promotion in SoCal right now, at least based on quality of the shows.
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I was going to do a review of last weeks Rev Pro show, but I was really pressed for time and was unable too. However I would like to touch on the angle with Rising Son a bit. At the end of last week’s Rev Pro show Rising Son ran in and hit Scorpio Sky with a chair, posed, then ran out the front door. A lot of people have been asking about what was a shoot, and what was a work. There were some who even thought the chair shot might be a shoot, though I have no idea why Scorpio would sell a legit chair shot to his back like he did.
Rev Pro in the past has done very believable angles where very few people were in on it, such as the time Ultra Taro Jr. retired, but then during his retirement turned on Disco Machine and became TARO. If the entire Rising Son thing was a work, it was very well planned and very few people were in on it.
People involved still say it was a shoot until about a month after Rising Son attacking Scorpio Sky during a match, when Sky did a dive into the audience, though all the signs point to that being part of the work, even though no one will admit it.
A few months ago Rising Son did a post match shoot on Scorpio and Rev Pro, where the cameras were turned off and people were trying to get him out of the ring, Rising Son announced he was done with wrestling, though he did say he wouldn’t say he was never coming back. Most people involved with the promotion feel this was a work also, though at the time before more and more people were clued in, it was believed to be legit.
After that Scorpio Sky did an interview on Revolution Pro’s site, trashing Rising Son. That then lead to Rising Son, who wasn’t wearing his mask at the time, attacking Sky at the show. Then of course the run in last week.
If the entire thing was a work, Revolution Pro did an excellent job of protecting the angle, but may have over protected it, because it was lost on a lot of the audience. Most people didn’t get the Rising Son shoot, as Rev Pro never talked about it, then the Scorpio Sky interview was only posted on their website, which doesn’t get the traffic needed to really put across the angle for the worked fight. If it wasn’t a work, then Rev Pro did a good thing by getting both sides to work together.
Before Rising Son “retired”, his matches had really been suffering in work, and freshness. Now he is fresh again, and has a ready made fresh opponent setup with Scorpio Sky, and also Quicksilver, Zokre, and the rest of the new blood in Rev Pro, plus hopefully he is fully healed from injuries that were building up, and will revert to 2001 form.
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EWF and FMLL will be doing another joint show on August 30th at Playa Papagallos in San Bernardino. Steve Masters verus Misterioso and Los Chivos versus Kiss & Kiss Jr. are the top two matches.
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We should have some more interviews up on the site in the next few weeks.
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I’ll be back next week with a preview of the PWG tournament, and to talk about SoCal’s premiere tournament, the Revolution J.
-Steve
