This was the first show I had been to in quite awhile, and really the attraction of this show for me was the semi-main event. The first indy wrestling show that I ever went to was a CCW show in Vista, CA that featured a ladder match between B-Boy and Jason Redondo. Having never seen indy wrestling before that day, I was blown away by the whole show, and that match in particular. In a ways that match created a monster, because if it would have been bad or boring, there would be no SoCalUNCENSORED.com here today. So when I saw that match was on the card I had to go.The show was held at the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club, which I had been to for a CCW show maybe nine or ten years ago, and remember it being a fairly decent venue. I didn’t realize the show was going to be held outside on the soccer field however, as that CCW show so many years ago was inside the venue. It was a fairly brisk night, but luckily I had brought my jacket, so it wasn’t really that big of a deal. In the summer time I’m sure the soccer field is a great place for the show as it is well lit and can hold plenty of seats.
One of the things I noticed about the crowd is there was a decent number of people wearing CCW shirts and several people I have not seen at a show since the days of CCW. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, CCW stood for California Championship Wrestling and was a promotion that ran primarily in the North County area of San Diego. It was fairly popular in the San Diego area and drew what would be considered very good crowds for most non-lucha indy promotions today. The promotion folded in 2001, which makes the number of CCW shirts and fans somewhat surprising. I’m not sure if this is normal for SoCal Pro, or the word got out on a rematch of a classic from CCW that brought the old fans out, but it’s clear that hyping a rematch of a ten-year old match that there is no video of, no build up to in the promotion, as B-Boy was making his SoCal Pro debut, worked.
Now, on to the show itself.
Johnny Goodtime over Johnny Paradise
I can’t remember the last show I was at with so many wrestlers named Johnny. I think Johnny Webb was originally booked for this match, so it was good to see they kept with the Johnny versus Johnny theme. This was a fairly average match. Goodtime looks like he has lots of promise and the match overall did its job of getting the crowd into the show.
Tommy Wilson & Cool Imagery (Hector Canales & Ricky Mandel) over Todd Chandler & The Ballard Brothers (Shane & Shannon Ballard) with Trina Michaels
The match started with the Ballards, Michaels, and Chandler coming out and cutting a promo. Michaels was wearing a San Francisco Giants jersey and did the standard heel move of putting down the local team. The match itself was a pretty fun match with lots of comedy spots. For being fairly new to wrestling overall Michaels did a really good job as valet to the heel team. She sold moves with her facial expressions well and managed to get heat from the crowd without distracting from the match. She took a bump and got knocked out late in the match, which caused the ref to take her to the back because of her injuries. While the ref was away there were several pin attempts by the face team, but no ref to count the pin. It didn’t matter though as Tommy Wilson hit Todd Chandler with a superkick and the ref came back out and counted the pin.
After the match Wilson cut a promo asking Cool Imagery for a title match at the May 23rd show. They asked who his partner would be and he told them he had someone in mind and would let them know after he asked that person. They agreed and shook hands.
Johnny Yuma over Chimaera
This was a no DQ match, yet the ref kept trying to keep the wrestlers in the ring and stop them from using weapons. The crowd was really into the match for the most part and both wrestlers did a pretty decent job. There was a little bit of brawling in the audience towards the start of the match, but it mainly took place in the ring. At one point a trash can was brought out, but it didn’t even make it into the ring as Yuma did a baseball slide into when Chimaera had it on the outside of the ring. A section of the guard rails was setup in the corner of the ring and the match ended when Chimaera was put through it on Yuma got the pin. Overall it was a pretty good match and the match of the night up to that point.
B-Boy over Jason Redondo
This match followed an intermission. This was a really good match that could have been a lot better. For most of the match Redondo worked over B-Boy’s back, and B-Boy was really selling his back being hurt. B-Boy would get a little bit of offense in, then Redondo would regain control and work the back some more. Redondo seemed a little off at times and some moves were somewhat sloppy, but overall he did pretty good. B-Boy is a potential hall-of-famer and really wrestled like one for the first portion of the match. Where the match lost some points was toward the end when B-Boy stopped selling the back and took over the match. He did go back to selling it after the match, but in my opinion it takes away from the story of the match and defeats the purpose of even constantly working the back for most of the match. B-Boy hit the Shinning Wizard and got the pin. I’d rate the match the second best overall on the show, following only the main event.
SoCal Crazy over Scott Lost to retain the SoCal Pro Heavyweight title
I thought this was the best match on the show. The story of the match was that SoCal Crazy knew he couldn’t go move for move with Scott Lost, so he needed to use his quickness to his advantage and keep the match at a fast pace, with Scott Lost trying to out wrestle Crazy and slow the match down. Both wrestlers did a great job and if there was any real downside to the match it’s that it didn’t go longer. SoCal Crazy got the pin with a roll up.
After the match Redondo, Todd Chandler, and the Ballards came out and attacked SoCal Crazy and were trying to demask him when Tommy Wilson came out for the save. Afterwards, Wilson asked SoCal Crazy to be his tag partner next month and Crazy agreed. Cool Imagery came out and they all shook hands and the show ended.
Overall it was a pretty good show with no bad matches on the card. There were no blow away matches on the show, but the main event could easily be a match of the month contender. SoCal Pro will be running May 2nd in Riverside and on May 23rd in Oceanside again. Check the upcoming events section for more info on both shows.
