by No Holds Bard
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Eight bouts. Eight winners (including one tag team). Two surprises. Main event: two champions. Mystery opponents, jobs on the line, open challenges, grudge matches, triple-threats, tag team mayhem, and champions versus champions. This was tonight’s Battle Ground Pro show in a nutshell. A hard, gritty nutshell, tightly packing in one crazy nut of a night that was collectively known as “The Brawl in Newhall.” Giving a name to a show is one thing… living up to it is another. Oh yes, and Poison drummer Rikki Rockett showed up as well. For what would seem like an endless night of violence (from within the ring and without—you people know what I mean), no one would have expected BiG Pro to begin the night with a classy move by giving a ten-bell salute to the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11 five years ago and to the soldiers who have died in an unjust war (“unjust war” are my words, not Ben Tomas’, Jason Bennett’s, or anyone else from BiG Pro), but that’s exactly what they did. It was almost a simultaneous pre-show eulogy for the heap of bodies that would be fervently decimated later on that evening. It was beginning to sound like a Battle Ground already.
As far as wrestling goes, the night kicked off with the introduction of Infernal, the newly crowned BiG Pro Lucha Libre Champion. Coming off his victory over Li’l Cholo last month to win the title with the help of “The Role Model” Preston Scott and Scott’s personal bodyguard, Ray “Boom-Boom” Murrillo, Infernal was as smug and cocky as ever as he made his way around the ring, taunting and poking fun at several audience members. He came up to me with my pad and pen in hand and said, “Don’t forget to mention that I’m the shit!” So I said, “Okay” and wrote down in big letters “Infernal is the SHIT” so I wouldn’t forget. The referee Rick Knox finally told him to get his ass in the ring. Infernal laid down an open challenge to anyone in the locker room who thought they had what it took to take Infernal’s title. With Cholo already booked in a match later that evening, who else could have stepped up to the plate except for “Marvelous” Markus Riot, the young high-flying daredevil. The men stared each other down in the ring until the first blow was thrown by Riot in the shape of an open palm across the face. At this Infernal became enraged but his anger was met with a hurricanrana by young Riot. Infernal rolled outside but still could not escape Riot’s deluge of punishment as Riot flipped over the top rope landing on Infernal. But there is a reason Infernal is the Lucha Libre Champion and that showed once he dodged one of Riot’s dropkicks and met him with several chops to the chest. When Riot would attempt to mount an offense, Infernal dished out a sick clothesline, causing Riot to flip over 180 degrees. Infernal administered a nice Liontamer submission hold into a camel clutch. Soon enough he resorted to his devious ways by positioning Riot, face down, with his crotch wrapped around a ring post while he tugged on his legs from the outside. As referee Rick Knox came out to break it up, Infernal just ignored him. Finally giving it up, Infernal entered the ring, followed by Knox, only for Infernal to return outside and once again pull Riot into the ring post. Riot would later make an attempt at a comeback but was thwarted by a powerbomb from Infernal. Letting Riot bathe in pain for a while Infernal once again went to the crowd to find amusement, taunting several of the BiG Pro patrons. But with Infernal’s back turned, Markus Riot mounted the top turnbuckle, and just as Infernal turned around Riot nailed him with a swinging DDT. The rest of the match had a few slow moments, which seemed a bit unusual for these two, but they each did have a few great spots. The match ended when Ray “Boom-Boom” Murrillo, Preston Scott’s personal bodyguard, showed up to distract the ref as Preston Scott came out with a chain wrapped around his fist and knocked out Markus Riot for Infernal to get the pin.
Winner: Battle Ground Pro Lucha Libre Champion Infernal over “Marvelous” Markus Riot via pinfall.
The next bout was the first round of a tag team tournament to crown the first ever Battle Ground Pro Tag Team Champions. This match was initially advertised as a four-corner elimination match, but as it ended we realized that this was not so. The first round consisted of The Stepfamily (The Stepfather and The Redheaded Stepchild w/”Drunk” Uncle Ronnie) vs. Midnight Dynamite (Johnny Paradise and Charles Mercury) vs. The Awesome Plague and Crayz w/Commissioner Bennett and was also supposed to have King Faviano and The Unholy, but due to unfortunate circumstances that ring announcer Ben Tomas described as a problem crossing the Mexican border, they were unable to compete in the match tonight. So, instead, it became a three-way tag match. The match started off with Plague and Mercury, and Mercury getting the brunt end of Plague’s brute strength, going down to the mat quite a few times. Yes, there is a reason they call him Awesome. Johnny Paradise entered to try and save his partner but Plague took them both out. And Plague only displayed another reason they call him Awesome as he hoisted Charles Mercury up and body-pressed him over his head. With both members of Dynamite out of the way, Stepfather entered the ring and took his turn at Plague, wanting a test of strength out of him. Plague faked and eye-raked Stepfather. An upset Stepfather nailed Plague with a powerful clothesline. Then as Plague rose to pose his old-school physique, Stepfather just kicked him down and delivered a nice body slam. Crayz then decided to take a shot at Stepfather, but Stepfather just slapped him around like a redheaded stepchild. Not HIS redheaded stepchild… well, you get the idea. Stepfather whipped up an inverted atomic drop on Crayz and followed up with some old-school Dusty Rhodes elbows to the head. After this all I remember is that Crayz tagged Charles Mercury and Stepfather tagged Stepchild and Mercury got Stepchild in a headlock and then tagged Johnny Paradise in but it became a mess after that. Too much stuff going on in the ring for me to take legible notes so I just said fuck it. After the mess subsided Stepchild and Mercury remained as the legal competitors. Paradise and Plague each had their rounds with Stepchild, just wailing on him, until he was finally able to tag Stepfather back in while Plague tagged in Crayz. Stepfather manhandled Crayz as Foob Dogg made his way out to the ring. Bennett saw him and ran away, telling Plague to take care of it. Plague ran Foob to the back, leaving Crayz alone in the ring with Stepfather. Both members of Midnight Dynamite were outside the ring arguing with Bennett, which I could not really hear, though it sounded something like Bennett telling them that they weren’t doing their job and doing what they were supposed to by eliminating The Stepfamily from the title picture. But of course, as Plague was in the back and as Midnight Dynamite had their backs turned, Stepfather rolls up Crayz for the pin.
Winners: The Stepfamily (The Stepfather and The Redheaded Stepchild w/”Drunk” Uncle Ronnie) over Midnight Dynamite (Johnny Paradise and Charles Mercury) and The Awesome Plague and Crayz w/Commissioner Bennett via pinfall to advance in the tournament.
Paradise and Mercury got upset and entered the ring to argue with the ref and with The Stepfamily while Plague made his way back. Plague and Crayz just beat the shit out of everyone in the ring while Bennett held back Uncle Ronnie, and when the three of them left to the back, Midnight Dynamite rose to attack The Stepfamily as well. The Stepfamily received a warm ovation, however, after they slowly came to and wobbled to the back. After Plague and Crayz had left I thought it was still elimination when Midnight Dynamite stayed in the ring, but they left the ring and went to the back as well and I guess it was over. I had picked M.D. to win the tag titles! So it was a bit upsetting that they lost their chance because of Crayz getting pinned and because the elimination stipulation must have got lost.
Following that interesting show of disarray came the grudge match everyone (at least I) was waiting for. And that was Joey Harder vs. Brandon Nitro. A little bit of back-story: Back in May these two fierce competitors squared off in a triple-threat match that included “Wholesome” J.T. Hyatt. The undefeated Harder was a force to be reckoned with, however, and took the victory in that match after Nitro suffered a laceration on the eyebrow after taking a sick dive outside the ring onto the floor and was assisted to the back. Then last month these three dueled it out in yet another three-way dance, this time with Nitro back in full health. Nitro had a mighty big chip on his shoulder in the form of one Joey Harder and took out all of his frustration on him that night. However, Nitro suffered another loss at the hands of Harder who knocked him out with a table, letting Hyatt get the pin. So this time it was personal. Instead of charging in the ring to tackle Harder as he did last month, Nitro seemed to have more of a game face on as he entered the battleground to survey his adversary. And THEN he ran in to attack Harder. Nitro wailed on him, causing him to roll to the outside and lamented before the audience. Nevertheless, Harder had some sadistic plans in mind as he re-entered the ring and began what would be a total subjugation of Brandon Nitro. Beginning with several shoulder blocks, Joey Harder established his intentions of working the arm of Nitro. On the ground Harder had control of Nitro, but Nitro made some feeble attempts at reversing the hold like rolling on his side to get Harder’s shoulders to the mat, but Harder wouldn’t have any of that. Nitro had a date with pain as Harder tossed him outside to the ground floor. Harder wanted his friend to get lucky on his date so he helped Nitro get around any base he could by thrusting him into several different ring posts, shoulder first. It looked as if Nitro would certainly score. However, Nitro had different plans as he attempted to mount an offense by executing a Lou Thesz press on Harder once the two men got back into the ring. Harder tried turning it around but Nitro came back with a neckbreaker and followed through with a Russian leg sweep. He went for a pin but Harder kicked out. Nitro then discharged a forceful superkick, went for the pin, but Harder had the spatial intelligence to lift his leg up on the rope to break the count. Nitro struggled with his several failed attempts and tried giving chops to his opponent, but Harder finally had enough and pulled out a sick Tiger Driver shoulder breaker. Half-dead, Nitro attempted a wristlock on Harder, but Harder just got pissed off and got Nitro into an inescapable armbar that caused Nitro to feverishly tap out.
Winner: Joey Harder over Brandon Nitro via submission.
After the match Joey Harder stood toe to toe with Brandon Nitro and offered his hand. When Nitro stood there and contemplated his decision, Harder took the liberty of beating the shit out of him some more. Harder took Nitro outside, grabbed some duct tape off the ticket table, taped up Nitro to the ring post right in front of me, grabbed a chair and just pummeled Nitro’s injured shoulder. Not just once, or twice, but several times, until all three referees on duty rushed out to stop the madman Joey Harder.
After the massacre ceased and the scent of pain fully filtered throughout the cool air in the building, Commissioner Jason Bennett made his way out to address the fans with some important information. He announced that the next show would take place on October the 14th and also announced who the fourth team would be in next month’s round for the Tag Team Titles tournament. Already billed for the match have been The Ballard Brothers, The Young Bucks (Slick Nick and Mr. Instant Replay), and Devilishly Sexy (Diablo and “Sexy” Sonny Samson). The fourth team, he announced, would be none other than… The Awesome Plague and Crayz! Getting a second chance, Bennett’s minions will have another chance at getting in the title picture. Then came Foob Dogg. Bennett talked about the history between he and Foob and reminded everyone of the stipulation of this next match between Foob and Bennett’s own mystery opponent. To recap: Back in March Foob Dogg took a victory over one of Bennett’s minions, Crayz, who had Phenomenal Phil in his corner. The next show in May was supposed to see Foob take on Phil, but Foob came to the arena without an opponent and so Bennett appeared with The Awesome Plague to wipe the canvass with Foob and send him packing. At the following show in June Foob arrived at the arena as a patron who paid for his ticket to get in the building. During Plague’s match with Sexy Chino, Bennett and Plague noticed Foob was sitting ringside and took offense to it. It wound up costing Plague the match, but the two men got into it right there on the spot—not just that time, but during the intermission as well—and Foob took quite a beating. A disgruntled Bennett announced that Foob would take on Plague in August. So August rolled around and Bennett made the match a stipulation with Foob’s job on the line. If Foob lost, he’d be out of BiG Pro forever. And Foob lost, but not without being able to get his hands on Bennett during the match. At this Bennett told Foob he wouldn’t be kicked out just yet because he wanted to exact revenge on Foob for putting his hands on him. So at this month’s show Foob would take on an opponent of Bennett’s choosing, and this stipulation was set in stone: If Foob loses, he’s gone from BiG Pro forever. But if… IF he wins, he is granted a lifetime contract at BiG Pro, AND, per request of Foob Dogg, five minutes alone in the ring with Bennett.
Everyone was psyched with anticipation as Foob made his way out to the ring. Bennett told everyone that his mystery opponent was someone who had won all kinds of titles in SoCal, been in all kinds of tournaments, so on and so forth. This surely would be an obstacle of difficulty for Foob Dogg. And so it was. Out came former Battle Ground Pro Heavyweight Champion “The Professional” Scott Lost with his beautiful valet Jade Chung. Back in January Lost defeated The Human Tornado, Al Katrazz, and The Awesome Plague in a four-way to determine the first ever BiG Pro Champion. At the following show in March Lost suffered an injury in the Super 8 Tournament and decided to stay home and rest so Bennett stripped him of the title. But now Lost was back, and not to go after the title he never lost, but to end the career of one Foob Dogg. The match began with a classic elbow-collar tie-up that left Lost overpowered by the huge man from Guam. Lost attempted a few running shoulder blocks but just couldn’t knock the big man down. Suddenly a big boot from Lost finally caused Foob to collapse. As Lost attempted to work on him, Foob returned with an elbow drop and a snap suplex. Foob stayed on top of the competition with a nice Salto suplex and a splash in the corner. Jade Chung tried to distract Foob several times, at one point using the umbrella that Lost came out with to try and trip the big man as he ran against the ropes. Lost was finally able to come back however as he got Foob caught up on the ropes, laying with his stomach over the middle rope, head inside the ring as Lost delivered a dropkick. But no matter what he did, Lost was unable to get a pin on Foob. He even tried a camel clutch on the big man, a T-bone gut-buster, an elbow off the top rope, a leg-scissor submission, and finally a sleeper hold, which saw Foob nearly pass out before answering the referee’s count of three. Foob rose to his feet and powered out of the sleeper with elbows to the gut. Lost ran the ropes to try knocking him down again, but Foob caught him in a Samoan drop. Out of breath, Foob lay on the mat with Lost down as well. The ref counted and finally the two men rose as Foob caught Lost with a sidewalk slam and then a T-bone suplex. When things began to look bleak for Scott Lost, out came Jason Bennett. Bennett pulled referee Rick Knox out of the ring to distract him as Jade Chung threw in the umbrella to Scott Lost, who was lying on the mat. Foob saw this, and instead he picked up the umbrella and nailed Lost with it. Foob tossed the foreign object away and went for the pin, Knox got back in the ring and counted, but Lost kicked out. Scott Lost tried to make one last attempt at taking the big man out and hit an elbow drop from the top rope and made a near pin but Foob kicked out. Jade Chung tried to distract Rick Knox this time as Bennett snuck into the ring. Lost held Foob in a full nelson so that Bennett could kick him square in the nuts, but Foob moved and Lost took the painful blow. And just as Lost got Foob in an Irish whip against the ropes, Foob reversed it and Bennett went to pull the leg of Foob and grabbed Scott’s foot instead. Lost turned to Bennett with surprise as Foob rolled him up from behind and got the 1-2-3.
Winner: Foob Dogg over “The Professional” Scott Lost w/Jade Chung via pinfall.
Suffice it to say that Bennett was livid and had a hysterical bitch fit. Foob got a standing ovation (one of the biggest of the night) and Bennett just stood there crying, until Foob got closer to him, Bennett would see him, shriek, and run away. Foob got on the microphone and told Bennett that he didn’t want his five minutes with him just yet, but he wanted to savor every second of it and told Bennett he had a whole month to look forward to it.
Now it came time for Li’l Cholo to get his own revenge on “The Role Model” Preston Scott, who showed up with his own personal bodyguard, Ray “Boom-Boom” Murrillo. Last month Cholo lost his BiG Pro Lucha Libre Title to Infernal in a Mask vs. Title stipulation match because of Preston Scott’s interference. So Preston Scott and “Boom-Boom” came out. Preston danced around the ring and stopped at nearly every side of the ring just to taunt the audience. His T-shirt this month said “Taste The Preston Goodness” on the back of it. I shouted, “Just like Campbell’s, Preston!” So, Preston waited in the ring and stared at the entrance curtain as “Boom-Boom” stood outside near where I sat by the building entrance. As Cholo’s music played, Preston waited forever for Cholo to come out, but to everyone’s surprise (and “Boom-Boom’s”) Cholo came in the main entrance behind “Boom-Boom” and shoved him into the ring post. Cholo jumped in the ring and just wailed on Preston. But perhaps Cholo made too much of an impact on “Boom-Boom” because all that “Boom-Boom” did was interfere and cause Preston to gain the upper hand on Cholo, executing a spinebuster. Preston set up Cholo in the corner of the ring and got a running kick square in his face. Cholo fell to the corner and Preston followed with a face wash a la Samoa Joe. Preston hit a back suplex and caught a sleeper hold on Cholo before attempting another face wash. But this time Cholo countered it. He went for a backslide pin, but Preston kicked out. So Cholo decided to gain momentum by perfectly executing a Three Amigos triple-suplex a la Eddie Guerrero. Cholo pointed to the sky in salute to one of his heroes as Preston went for a running kick on him. Cholo moved and Preston kicked referee Tony Cutlip on accident. Cholo hit an ace crusher on Preston and went for the pin but there was no referee to answer it. “Boom-Boom” saw this as an opportune time to get in the ring and attack Cholo. But as “Boom-Boom” got in the ring, out came Markus Riot from the back who snuck up on the top turnbuckle. Right as “Boom-Boom” turned around he got hit with a flying dropkick. Riot knocked down Preston Scott, the referee finally came to, and Cholo got the pin.
Winner: Li’l Cholo over “The Role Model” Preston Scott w/Ray “Boom-Boom” Murrillo via pinfall.
I thought there would be an intermission after this match, but instead referee Ben Tomas introduced “The Rock Superstar” Kaos with his valet, Jezebel, to the ring. Kaos came out and ripped on Newhall like he did last month and said how much he wanted to beat the shit out of Bo Cooper and take the BiG Pro Title back to Hollywood, which he also did last week. He said last month it was The Stepfather, and this month it’d be Hook Bomberry, but soon enough he’d get his hands on Bo. And so Hook Bomberry came out.
The match began with a classic elbow-collar tie-up. Kaos slammed Hook down, but Hook came right back, knocking Kaos to his knees. Hook ran against the ropes and dropkicked Kaos right in the temple. Jezebel grabbed the foot of Hook as he went near the ropes, and as he turned to her Kaos took advantage. Hook was on the ground with Kaos’ shin dug deep into his throat. It was a blatantly illegal choke but Kaos just argued with the referee. Then when Kaos gets up to distract the ref even more so, Jezebel grabbed Hook’s head and choked him across the bottom rope. Then, as if you thought all that Kaos had in his move set was a choke, he choked Hook again! Kaos delivered a clothesline and went to the mat for a few more rest holds. Hook just couldn’t take the beating anymore and returned with a flurry of clotheslines on Kaos. He mounted Kaos in the top turnbuckle for a ten-count of punches. Then he hit a spinning suplex and called for his finisher, the Michinoku driver. Kaos reversed it into a Russian leg sweep. He went up on the top turnbuckle and went for a frog splash but missed. Hook then hit an enzeguiri and finally hit his Michinoku driver. As he went for the pin Jezebel distracted referee Rick Knox. When he realized there was no count being made, Hook got up to meet Jezebel who was standing on the apron. Hook just decked her in the face, but when he turned around, Kaos came from out of nowhere from the top turnbuckle and hit his Blockbuster finisher. Kaos got the pin.
Winner: “The Rock Superstar” Kaos w/Jezebel over Hook Bomberry via pinfall.
After the match Ben Tomas got in the ring and announced that there would be no intermission because they were running behind on time. I had to piss! Too many beers! Anyway, this was the second-to-last match: Disco Machine vs. The Human Tornado vs. “Wholesome” J.T. Hyatt in a triple-threat match. Hyatt, who has been in nothing but three-way matches in Battle Ground, came out to deafening applause. Disco, who plays a heel, got his boos, but the loveable Tornado tried everything to get the crowd going by dancing with the fans and walking through the audience, but no one really did anything. It was pretty sad.
The match started with Tornado and Hyatt locking up. Disco held his arms out to enter the elbow-collar tie-up but had no one to spar with. Tornado and Hyatt break the tie-up and then look at Disco who just dances there. Then the three men simultaneously go for another tie-up but Disco just winds up waiting there again for a hook up but Tornado and Hyatt are tied up. They break their tie-up once more and then look at Disco who is just dancing. Tornado and Hyatt shared the same idea, and that was to go after Disco. So they both kicked him, hit a double dropkick, knocking Disco outside, and then proceed to go at each other once more. Tornado got knocked to the outside and Disco entered to get on Hyatt. Disco hit a fisherman’s suplex and Tornado made his way back into the ring. The three of them did this hilarious spot involving Irish whips into the corner turnbuckle. First Hyatt got thrown into the turnbuckle by Tornado. Then Disco would whip Tornado into Hyatt, but Hyatt moved and Tornado got the brunt end of it. Then Disco would fly into Tornado, and then Hyatt followed. Tornado would move and Hyatt would be tossed into the corner, and Tornado would make his way into Hyatt, but Hyatt moved. This happened quite a few times and everyone felt sorry for Tornado who kept getting hit but couldn’t hit anyone himself. Then, in another great spot, Hyatt made an over-the-top-rope dive outside the ring right on Disco and Tornado. Tornado sat outside to rest as Hyatt hit a sidewalk slam on Disco in the ring. Disco came back, however, with his signature double-suplex into a facebuster. Tornado came back on Disco, mounting him in the corner turnbuckle in the German suplex position. Hyatt came back and grabbed Tornado in the same position and hit a sick double German suplex. Tornado rolled out of the ring to sit in the audience right next to J.T. Hyatt’s friends. That wasn’t pretty. The match ended when Tornado got Hyatt sitting up in the corner turnbuckle. Disco took advantage by pushing Tornado face-first into Hyatt’s crotch, then rolling up Tornado for the pin.
Winner: Disco Machine defeated The Human Tornado and “Wholesome” J.T. Hyatt in a triple-threat match by pinning The Human Tornado.
After the match Tornado got pissed off. He got on the microphone and just started yelling and cursing. He exited the ring, found an aluminum trashcan, took the trash bag out, and brought the can into the ring. He turned it upside down over Hyatt’s head, went up top and landed a double knee stomp on him. It was sick. Tornado then began kicking Hyatt’s head with the trashcan still over it. Disco saw that Tornado was going a little nuts and tried to stop him. But then both guys just started kicking the shit out of Hyatt. Tornado got back on the microphone and was pissed off, claiming that Hyatt was a nobody, and he told Jason Bennett that, if he could hear him, he wanted Hyatt at the next show.
Then it was time for the main event. After several bodies had been laid waste on the battleground—bodies in the form of J.T. Hyatt, Brandon Nitro, The Stepfamily and others—it was time for one more body to contend and undertake the battleground, and that body was of the PWG World Heavyweight Champion, “The Technical Wizard” Joey Ryan. His obstacle this evening was in the form of the Battle Ground Pro Heavyweight Champion, “Brawlin’” Bo Cooper with only the BiG Pro Title on the line, courtesy of Commissioner Bennett’s stipulation and personal vendetta against his arch nemesis Cooper. This was the first ever Champion vs. Champion bout in Battle Ground and it was an endeavor neither man probably wanted to venture into, for both men were top-notch competitors in their own right and knew that their opponents wouldn’t give each other any leeway in this battle. This would also be only the second time that Joey Ryan would be in a singles main event title match since winning the PWG Title back in December of last year.
Joey Ryan entered the battleground to many in the audience who laughed at his gimmick. He made his way around the ring, posing off his title and his physique (including his spectacular display of body hair). He got in the ring and got on the microphone and told everyone how great he was. He said that the question wouldn’t be whether or not Bo Cooper could beat him, rather it would be, “Who wants a Mustache Ride?” Then the Bo chants started. Cooper came out to deafening applause like always. He told the audience, “He may have a mustache, but I’m rude, crude and tattooed!” When Bo got in the ring Joey got out and seemed pretty hesitant to get back in when Bo was ready for the match to begin. Nevertheless, the match began with a classic elbow-collar tie-up with Bo overpowering Joey, knocking him to the mat. Some fans stood at the bar window and one fan offered Bo a beer. Bo kindly accepted and took a big swig before handing it back to the fan. Joey took a nasty clothesline and seemingly never was able to recover. Bo tossed Joey to the outside over his shoulder and then Bo made his way out after Joey, but Joey got back in right away. When Bo followed suit Joey raked his eyes to many boos from the audience. Bo got pissed off and tossed Joey out once again. This time Bo was able to capitalize. Bo told us all to move, and we all got out of our seats as he hurled Joey into the first three rows of chairs. It took a while for Joey to get back up, but when he did he grabbed a chair and, for whatever reason, when referee Rick Knox’s back was turned, Joey plowed it through Bo’s back. When the two men got back in the ring, Joey mounted a small offense as he made his way around each of the four corner turnbuckles hitting Bo with a double ax-handle off the top rope. Joey was successful three times, until he went to the fourth and final corner where Bo leapt up on the turnbuckle and delivered a spectacular arm drag to Joey, flinging him back into the middle of the ring. Joey crawled into the opposite corner; sitting there trying to catch a second wind, but Bo knew just what to do. He shouted, “Who wants a ‘Brawlin’’ Bo Cooper ride?” He ran and sat right on Joey in a Bronco Buster type of butt-splash. After this move I kind of forgot about writing down any notes and just focused on the match, so I don’t remember what happened next, but towards the end of the match Bo called for his Spicoli driver. When he hit Joey with it and went for the pin out came “The Rock Superstar” Kaos to interrupt the count. Knox threw out the match and awarded it to Cooper.
Winner: Battle Ground Pro Heavyweight Champion, “Brawlin’” Bo Cooper over PWG World Heavyweight Champion, “The Technical Wizard” Joey Ryan via disqualification to retain the title.
After Kaos broke the count and attempted to attack Bo, Bo shot up an knocked Kaos to the mat, at which point a very large man ran into the ring from the main entrance and stood behind Bo, waiting for him to turn around. And when Bo turned around, he faced the wrath of yet another man who had only one goal; that man was “The Hardkore Kidd” Aaron Aguilera, and his goal: to destroy “Brawlin’” Bo Cooper. Kaos retrieved a table from under the ring and set it up inside. Jason Bennett and Jezebel stood outside to witness the carnage about to take place. Aguilera placed Bo on the table as Kaos went up top to execute a frog splash through Bo and through the table. As Kaos and Aguilera kicked the shit out of Bo, out came Li’l Cholo with a chair to the rescue. Cholo pulled Cooper to the outside as Aguilera stood inside with the microphone, proclaiming that he was the King of Newhall. He tried to tell Cholo that they were family since they had been brought up together in professional wrestling, but Cholo wouldn’t have any of it. So Aguilera made the proposition right there, that he and Kaos would team up to face Cooper and Cholo at the next show. And so the match was set.
The next show will be on Saturday, October 14th, and already on the card for that show will be: “The Hardkore Kidd” Aaron Aguilera and “The Rock Superstar” Kaos vs. “Brawlin’” Bo Cooper and Li’l Cholo, “The Role Model” Preston Scott vs. “Marvelous” Markus Riot in a street fight, “Wholesome” J.T. Hyatt vs. The Human Tornado, and Foob Dogg gets his five minutes alone in the ring with Commissioner Jason Bennett. Plus the second round of the tag team tournament to crown the first ever Battle Ground Pro Tag Team Champions, and that includes The Ballard Brothers (Shannon and Shane Ballard), The Young Bucks (Slick Nick and Mr. Instant Replay), Devilishly Sexy (Diablo and “Sexy” Sonny Samson), and The Awesome Plague and Crayz getting their second chance thanks to Bennett. This match has also been billed as a four-way elimination match but we’ll see what happens.
I don’t think I really have to say it if you’ve read this entire thing, but the show was incredible. I’ve noticed a trend lately at Battle Ground and that’s that the shows keep getting better. From the top: Infernal is always a pleasure because he knows how to get the crowd riled up, and Riot is also a pleasure because of his high-flying moves. I know the kid probably doesn’t have enough experience yet, but he reminds me a bit of Jack Evans. I would love to see those two guys in a match, whether they’re as a tag team or facing each other. I honestly wanted Midnight Dynamite to win the tag titles, so I expected them to win the first round tournament match and it totally surprised me that they didn’t. I guess going with Stepfather and Stepchild would be good for business, but this makes me wonder about next month’s tag tourney match. I expected Dynamite to make it to the finals against The Young Bucks. This leads me to believe that the Bucks will lose next month so that these two teams can continue their feud and roll it out into next year. So that only leaves me with Plague and Crayz winning their match. It would only make sense to have such faces as The Stepfamily going against big heels in the finals. The Stepfamily is my new pick for becoming the first ever BiG Pro Tag Team Champions. The Harder/Nitro match was pretty damn good. Even though Nitro was subdued most of the match as Harder worked on his shoulder I found it to be pretty technical and entertaining, and even though Nitro tapping out to an armbar was a bit of an uneventful finish it made perfect sense and anything else would have been confusing. I definitely look forward to more matches with these two. Both of those guys never fail to satisfy.
Foob Dogg’s match with Scott Lost was incredible. I never thought I’d hear myself say such a thing, but considering that this match got some of the best reaction of the night, I have to hand it to both men—mostly to Scott Lost though. I am very familiar with Scott Lost’s wrestling abilities, and I know how well he works. Last month Foob had a pretty good match with Plague, and before that I didn’t think much of Foob’s wrestling abilities. He’s a nice guy and everything, and I’m not one to judge since these guys can do a hell of a lot more than I ever could in the ring, but Scott Lost did him a huge favor by putting him over and I’d have to consider this the Match of the Night. Not that the other matches weren’t good enough, but the way this match flowed was impeccable, and the way it got the audience going was just academic. Cholo/Preston Scott was good as well. Cholo, to me, didn’t seem to perform as well as he did against Infernal, but he wasn’t terrible by any means. Preston Scott is quickly becoming one of my favorites. His gimmick, his T-shirts, his entrance music, and his little gimpy dance get me going so well. Looking forward to his return match with Riot next month. Kaos and Hook worked pretty well together in the ring. Hook is always a pleasure and Kaos is, well… he’s Kaos. I’m interested to see whom Hook will be taking on next month. Hopefully Mikey Nicholls and/or Bobby Jo Marshall will make it back to BiG Pro.
The triple-threat killed—Tornado turning heel and working with Disco to beat the tar out of J.T. Hyatt. I met with Hyatt before the show and I knew he’d get such a huge pop, so I told him I’d give him some heat and he thought that would be great. As he held his milk I held my beer and shouted, “THIS is wholesome!” The Tornado/Hyatt match will be great, but I really want to see Tornado and Disco as a tag team. The Dancin’ Fools. They could have possibly one of the funniest comedy matches ever with Favi and Unholy. And that leaves me with Bo Cooper and Joey Ryan. I didn’t expect Bo to drop the title to Joey, but it would have been mighty interesting if he did. But it was good to see Joey outside of a PWG venue for once. The match they had was no technical marvel but it sure as hell didn’t disappoint. Joey only seemed to be a side note in what would be built up after the match was over. And I still think Joey should drop the PWG title to himself. He could promote a stellar marketing campaign that advertises how he’ll finally drop the belt, and then—SURPRISE! Another win for The Dynasty in the record books as Joey finds a way to drop the title to himself.
But anyway… always glad to see BiG Pro every month, and I am glad that finally they are getting some recognition. I want to congratulate them on their Daily News article, as well as having the most famous SoCal wrestling photographer Shane Michael Kidder there to document BiG Pro finally, and I noticed someone with a hand-held video camera, so I hope the show was also recorded. Also, BiG Pro has finally started selling merchandise in the form of show posters and pictures of Bo Cooper that Bo and the other wrestlers personally autography during intermission or after the show. This is a step up for BiG Pro and they have several more steps to go to get their name imprinted on the SoCal map. So congratulations once again and I look forward to the next show on Saturday, October 14th.
For more info: http://www.myspace.com/battlegroundpro
