Oddity Wrestling Alliance held their final show of 2016 on November 19th at Border X Brewing in San Diego. Originally the show was set to take place at the World beat Center in San Diego’s Balboa park, which had been OWA’s home for some time, but with the World beat Center raising the cost of rent after the show was scheduled, the choice was made to move the show to Border X brewing less than a week before the scheduled date.
The move didn’t seem to hurt the attendance, as the seating was pretty full and quite a few people were standing around. One issue with the switch however was that the show took place on Border X Brewing’s outside patio, and the ring was poorly lit to start the show. As it got darker it only got worse. People on one side of the ring were having a very difficult time seeing and some even moved to the bar area on the opposite side just so they could see the action better. Lights were purchased during the show and two spotlights were put up at intermission that really improved the viewing experience for the second half.
Jack Evans was scheduled to be in the main event, but I was told he was not allowed on his flight for some reason and he was being replaced in the main by Oracle.
Eli Everfly over Jacob Diez, Biagio Crescenzo, and Alonzo Alvarez in an elimination match [19’18]
They made sure to mention that this was Jacob Diez’ final match several times on commentary. There was some confusion before the match started as the wrong entrance music played and no one came. It must have taken 10 plus minutes for all four guys to get to the ring. Once the match actually started, Jacob Diez left the ring area and went to the back leaving the other three to wrestle. There was a lot of good stuff in this. Eli Everfly sure takes some crazy bumps. At one point he got thrown into the corner where the guard rails met, and the lady in the row behind me actually screamed. Eventually Diez returned to the ring and quicly eliminated an already beaten Alonzo Alvarez and then rolled up Biagio and held his tights for the pin. On commentary it was mentioned that Diez has been suffering from concussions, but that now he is looking to give other concussions. Eli won the match with an armbar. This was a really good match. There were lots of incredible highspots and the entire match was fast paced and crisp. After the match Eli Everfly and Diez hugged in the ring, then Eli left to allow Diez to get a proper sendoff.
Ryan Kidd over Puma King and Aeroboy to win the OWA U.S. title [10’06]
This match was for Aeroboy’s OWA U.S. title. Like the prior match this was also elimination style. The ground around the ring was just a hard parking lot, but despite that everyone in this was going crazy with tope suicidas. It’s always a worry when a bigger name luchador is brought in for U.S. indy shows that they are only there to collect a paycheck, but Puma King went all out in this. All three guys looked really good, but I thought Ryan Kidd stole the match. I am not used to Ryan Kidd working heel, but he did an excellent job of turning the crowd against him. Aeroboy is pretty underrated too. He had a really good match with Flamita in OWA a few months ago. Puma King eliminated Aeroboy with a powerbomb. Ryan Kidd hit his standing Spanish fly on Puma King, but he kicked out. Puma King got Kidd with the same powerbomb that took out Aeroboy but Kidd got a foot on the rope. When the ref wasn’t looking Kidd hit a lowblow on Puma King and rolled him up for the pin. The crowd was pretty hot after that and Kidd was getting lots of boos. This was another really good match.
Ruby Raze over Ray Lyn [9’21]
These two are actually going to be partners at the next Sabotage show in February. This was another good match. Ray Lyn shows a ton of fire when she wrestles. Definitely a good addition to the women’s wrestling scene in SoCal. Prior to the show someone was raving to me about her match the night before at WOW too. Raze controlled most of the match and had some nice looking offense. Ray Lyn did manage to get a decent amount of offense in though. They seemed to work pretty stiff and Raze looked to take a pretty hard shot in the mouth at one point. Raze won after hitting the spear. Post match she demanded her title match with Datura, as Raze is the number one contender. Apparently no one can find Datura though. Good match.
Donnie Suarez and Hurcan are the last 2 in a gauntlet match and go to a no contest when there is a double pin. Dragox, Anthony Idol, Seraphim, and Fidel Bravo were all eliminated [17’07]
This was the first match after intermission, and the first match that had good lighting. This was a gauntlet match, where a new wrestler would enter every two minutes. The order of entry was Donnie Suarez, Huracan, Fidel Bravo, Seraphim, Dragox, then lastly Anthony Idol. Idol is a lot bigger than everyone else, and when he finally entered everyone jumped him, but he managed to overpower everyone and send them flying. Idol eliminated Dragox first with a Falcon Arrow. Then everyone left jumped on Idol to pin him. Seraphim had his mask ripped off by Huracan, and Hurcan rolled him up while he was trying to cover his face. Donnie Suarez then eliminated Fidel Bravo with a modified brain buster. The match was really good up till the finish, which saw a double pin and both wrestlers thinking they had won. The crowd didn’t like this result.
Freakshow (Tyler Bateman & Brody King) over PBR (Ryan Walker & Hunter Freeman) [9’15]
This was billed as an interpromotional match between OWA and SoCal Pro. PBR are the SoCal Pro tag team champions, but the titles were not on the line. Freakshow had Raze with them, but PBR did not have Ashley Grace. I really dig Bateman and King as Freakshow with the facepaint they wear. They look pretty terrifying with it. The match was surprising in that they worked a lucha style for a good portion of the match. Brody had some really nice lucha arm drags. This was some pretty good stuff.
Inframundo over Bestia 666 and Oracle to retain the OWA International title [7’50]
Before the match they had Rey Fenix out who was there to sign autographs. Bestia 666 came out and cut a promo on Rey Fenix, causing Fenix to get in the ring. It seemed that they were setting up a singles match between Rey Fenix and Bestia 666, but it looks like FCW, who has been publicly feuding with OWA, announced they would have Rey Fenix versus Bestia 666 on their February show.
The match itself was good. Oracle had hurt his ankle the week before at PCW but it didn’t seem to have any effect on him at all. He really matched up well with both guys. This was a pretty good match, but on the short side. Rey Fenix came back out and took out Bestia allowing Inframundo to hit a piledriver and get the win to retain.
I also want to mention this was OWA’s anniversary show and they inducted Black Mamba as the first member in their hall of fame. Konnan, Nicho el Millionaro, and Damian 666 were all in the audience.
Lighting issues aside, this was a really good show. While there weren’t any matches that would be considered match of the year contenders, every match on the show was good to really good. The show was solid top to bottom. The venue had a pretty cool atmosphere to it, as well as a decent beer selection and some pretty good food. They are going to be remodeling the patio area of Border X Brewing as well, which should make for a better experience for watching wrestling in the future. San Diego used to be somewhat of a wasteland when it came to indy wrestling, but right now there is four (five if you count Super Awesome Showdown, which I haven’t seen) promotions that are putting on good shows that are different than the others. OWA will be returning to Border X Brewing in February with “Apocolypto.”
