Bart Kapitzke gets assaulted with a chair, Adam Pearce assaults Vanderpyle, and Sexy Sonny Samson assaults our senses by threatening to get naked. Click below for more details. I have been back in Southern California for a grand total of five weeks, and I’ve already seen more wrestling shows than I have in the past 4 months. The Battle of Los Angeles will rank as one of the greatest live experiences of my life- seeing the Dragon Gate wrestlers in person, ducking out of the way of the chaos of the 3way tag title match and Super Dragon/Necro Butcher, and watching possibly the wackiest 8-man tag match in PWG history.
While I am very much a PWG diehard, one of the other promotions I was really looking forward to seeing again was AWS. Living up to their “Alternative” name, AWS provides a nice change of pace on the SoCal wrestling scene- a family-oriented promotion with heavy emphasis on the local talent and their characters/gimmicks, and some quality storylines. AWS also features some wrestlers who don’t appear in PWG who I rank among my favorites, such as Charles Mercury and Sexy Chino. So, after missing the previous event, I was more than happy to make the 1-hour drive to the Frank and Son Arena for “Prelude to a Slaughterhouse.” Fellow SCU writer Paul Newberry was also at the show with me, but came down with strep throat and was unable to contribute to this review.
The crowd at first glance was fairly small (roughly 45-50), which really didn’t surprise me since AWS has focused all of their promotion on their October 21st show, which features Mil Mascaras and Lionheart vs. Lil’ Cholo in a steel cage. However, by the time the bell rang, more people had flowed in and the attendance was up to around 75.
The first announcement was that Joey Ryan was not able to make it to the show (also very far from a shock, as he had a date in Arizona listed on his MySpace, and not AWS.) A table and two very nice-looking chairs were in the ring, which mean that Cholo and Lionheart were due to come to the ring for a CONTRACT SIGNING! Lionheart entered with two associates, rocking a purple suit (a look I really, really wish I could pull off) and is now known as the “Mocha Fudge Phenomenon.” He of course initially refused to sign the contract, baiting the crowd into “Lionheart sucks” and “Cholo” chants. I was really impressed with Lionheart’s promo delivery here- it was smooth and confident, and proved he can be a bankable main event player with AWS. Finally, Lionheart put his name on the dottted line, and punctuated it by spitting at Cholo. Cholo DOVE over the table and pounced on the champion, only to catch a beatdown from Lionheart and Adam Pearce. Tommy Wilson made the save, setting up the modified tag match for later in the afternoon.
Los Luchas vs. Shawn Riddick and Peter Goodman
DMITRI RETURNS! Anyway, I was really excited to see Los Luchas, a perpetually under-appreciated team who turn out quality matches with the right opponents. Unfortunately, Riddick and Goodman were not “the right opponents,” as it was an enormous styles clash between the Luchas and the UPW grads. The match started off strangely, as the heels immediately took control rather than the standard opening offense for the good guys. Los Luchas actually controlled most of the middle portion, with Zokre even hitting the chinlock. After that, Goodman and Riddick did manage to work over Phoenix Star for a while before the inevitable hot tag. Unfortunately, during the final moment of the match, it became incredibly clear Riddick and Goodman had no clue how to take the Luchas’ “big” offense, totally messing up their end of the backdrop/spear combo. The Luchas eventually put the match away with their tandem springboard dive finish to end a very awkward match.
Paul Tracey (c) vs. “Iceman” Webster Dauphiney for the NWA British Commonwealth Title
Since arriving in SoCal, NWA British Commonwealth title matches have been a welcome addition to AWS and Inoki Dojo cards, as the titleholders have all been quality wrestlers that provided good matches. First, there was the amazingly talented Fergal Devitt (who sadly got scooped up by New Japan before he could make much of an impact in SoCal), the eccentric Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson, the prodigy Alex Koslov, the underrated Justin White, and now newcomer Paul Tracey. Facing longtime veteran “Iceman” Webster Dauphiney, I had high hopes for Tracey, and I was initially impressed by the mat exchanges he and the Iceman had – aggressive and logical holds and reversals that led to pinfall and submission predicaments. Tracey also showed flashes of solid heel work throughout the match. However, toward the latter half of the contest things started to fall apart, with both wrestlers looking a little gassed out, moving slower and delivering weak offense on each other. Tracey ended up taking the match out of nowhere with an overly (maybe needlessly) elaborate pumphandle into a fallaway slam.
Babi Slymm vs. Sexy Sonny Samson
I’d only heard of Sonny Samson through HRW card announcements…and boy, was he not what I expected (then again, I didn’t expect him there at all, since this was supposed to be Slymm vs. Romero). This really (and I mean REALLY) wasn’t any good- five minutes of generic “flamboyant and cowardly heel” schtick and stalling followed by some slow and uninteresting exchanges. I DID, though, pop for Samson’s sudden outburst of “who wants to see me naked?” Following 10 minutes of, well, nothing (and it felt like 20) Slymm took it home with a lame-looking shoulderblock that hit mostly air. It’s really too bad, because I was looking forward to Slymm vs. Romero and thought it could have been a very good encounter between two very different wrestlers, and this, as I said, was not.
Midnight Dynamite (Charles Mercury and Johnny Paradise) (c) vs. Bump ‘n Grind (Bo Cooper and Sexy Chino) for the AWS Tag Team Titles
Mercury and Paradise have quietly evolved into one of the best tag teams in Southern California, two guys who, to use a tired cliche, accentuate each others’ strengths and hide their weaknesses. Their chemistry as a team was on display here, as they did a really nice job of working over Sexy Chino, cutting off the ring and cheapshotting Bo Cooper whenever possible. Bo cleaned house once he got the tag- I’m always impressed by how mobile he is for a guy his size, and his big moves always look devastating. I felt horrible though, because of the way the match ended. There was obviously supposed to be a dramatic moment where Chino jumped off of Cooper’s shoulders with a flying splash for the pin…except Chino slipped off and fell. They improvised something for the 1-2-3 and new champions. It’s tough to find two more deserving guys, as both Chino and Cooper have always worked hard to little recognition, and it was a nice feel-good moment, I just felt terrible the finish didn’t work out.
The Plague/Rocky Romero/TJ Perkins vs. The Young Bucks (Slick Nick and Mr. Instant Replay)/Tommy Williams
This match was a nice surprise, as neither TJ nor Tommy Williams were announced for the show, and I was glad Rocky was actually at the show instead of missing it like I feared. TJ and Tommy opened with a nice fast mat exchange, but it quickly became the Plague Show, and man did he ever look impressive destroying the Young Bucks. He just killed them with big move after big move. One particular sequence I liked was where Plague bench-pressed one of the Bucks five times before dropping him, charged him in the corner, hit him with a HUGE overhead release belly to belly, then NIPPED UP. It was really freakin’ cool. Eventually the hot tag was made (with Tommy Williams strangely staying on the apron and leaving the Bucks to fend for themselves when the match broke down) and Nick and MIR tried to use Rock ‘N Roll Express tactics to take Plague down, to no avail. Eventually, Plague isolated one of them and tapped him out with the Torture Rack. The Plague is one bad dude, maaan…and he just might be the most underrated talent in SoCal.
Human Tornado vs. Al Katrazz (c) for the AWS Heavyweight Title
I’ve never been a big fan of Al Katrazz honestly – I mean there’s nothing wrong with the guy, he’s just kinda…there to me you know? He’s never done anything that’s stuck out in my mind, so I didn’t really have high hopes for this match. However, it turned out to be a lot of fun, with some really solid psychology. Katrazz kept attempting his chokeslam finisher, and Tornado kept finding ways to counter it, eventually using a Triangle Armbar to neutralize the move and possibly get a submission. There were a few hot nearfalls, and when Tornado countered a chokeslam attempt with a second Triangle Armbar, I thought for a short moment there would be a new champion, before the expected Vanderpyle DQ happened. Minus the cheap finish, I’d say this gets MOTN honors for the show.
Following the DQ, the heels went to beat on Tornado , drawing out various AWS staff, including Bart himself. Bart immediately took a full unprotected chair shot to the head, making every wrestler who’s ever covered up look like a huge wuss. He was helped to the back by some of the wrestlers, and then it was main event time.
Lil’ Cholo/Tommy Wilson vs. Lionheart/Adam Pearce
This was your pretty standard “tag main event’ formula, done well. The heels eventually isolated Tommy Wilson (who did a nice job selling the beating) and targeted his leg, even breaking out the classic Figure Four Leglock. I really enjoyed the final minutes of the match, with Cholo busting out a double stomp through a table on the floor to Lionheart, and the old school talcum powder to the face finish, which allowed Wilson to roll up Pearce for the three count. Post-match, Vanderpyle berates Pearce for not winning a match all year (something I didn’t even think about, but actually is true) and he’s sick of Pearce making him look bad when all his other charges make him look good. Pearce decked Pyle to a loud pop, leading to a locker room-clearing brawl that the good guys won. Really great way to end the show, and I’m interested in seeing what Pearce can do as a babyface in AWS.
Final Thoughts:
This is the 4th AWS show I have attended, and in terms of overall quality I’ve gotta rank this one at #3, well behind Super Bart Shuffle and Total War, but slightly ahead of Best of the West – BOTW had a better MOTN (Koslov/Drago), but this show featured some well-presented storyline advancement, which in the long run is more important to a wrestling company.
AWS, in my opinion, has been hurt pretty badly by talent departures, such as Koslov leaving to train in Mexico until March, Lil’ Nate no longer appearing (where did he go?) and the PWG stars not being there as frequently as they have in the past- but the booking is still as strong as ever, and they use everyone on the roster so well (Cooper, Lionheart, Chino and Mercury are real hidden gems) that the shows are still a very fun time. While I can’t make the next event due to other commitments, it’s one of AWS’ most loaded shows in a while and I definitely recommend that SoCal fans give it a shot before they head out to PWG. I’ve done the AWS/PWG doubleshot twice already and it’s made for a tremendously fun Saturday.
Also, check out the Alternative Wrestling Shop while you’re at Frank and Son…there’s currently a $2 VHS sale going on and it features some really neat finds if you dig hard enough.
For more information on AWS and Halloween Slaughterhouse III on October 21st, visit http:www.alternativewrestlingshow.com
