SoCal Pro held their fan appreciation night on June 23rd with a free show at their new wrestling school. This was actually the 3rd time they’ve held shows at their new school in San Marcos. The place was packed and was standing room only. They had one of the large commercial doors open to the back, with people sitting outside as well as chairs and bleachers inside. I’d estimate there was around 100 people at the show.
The show was hosted by Kady Maddox, who has been training at SoCal Pro’s school, and has been doing backstage interviews at Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. She also manages Ricky Mandel in Maverick Pro (and other promotions) as Lacey Von Porter. You could tell there was a little nervousness at first, but I thought she did a really good job announcing and came across really professional.
Snake over Motros Jungle [5’49]
Motros Jungle had brand new gear that looked pretty good. Overall this was a pretty basic match, and Snake looked a little shaky at times, but it was OK as an opener.
SoCal Crazy over Kitana Vera to retain the AWS Light Heavyweight title [11’29]
This was billed as an inter-promotional, inter-gender, inter-marital match. There was a lot of fun interaction playing off the fact that Crazy and Vera are real life husband and wife. Before the match Vera mentioned she was going to beat Crazy “like he doesn’t do the dishes.” SoCal Crazy also mentioned that he already bought a hotel room “to stay in tonight.” They had a pretty fun match. At one point Crazy delivered a really hard chop that I think made most of the audience pretty uncomfortable. Vera quickly countered with a Twist of Fate however. This was pretty even with a lot of near falls that had the crowd was really hot for. Crazy eventually won with a senton bomb.
“Uptown” Andy Brown over Hunter Freeman [10’49]
Hunter Freeman was originally supposed to face Douglas James, then Tyler Bateman when James was off the show. Apparently Bateman wasn’t able to make it either, and Andy Brown was in. Kady Maddox mentioned this was Andy Brown’s return to the promotion. He and Adrian Quest actually held the SoCal Pro tag-titles for a bit last year. I thought this was really good and did a good job of showcasing both wrestlers. I don’t think it is really a secret how good Andy Brown is anymore. Hunter Freeman is pretty under rated, and hopefully with him working more singles matches he’ll start to break out more. There was lots of back and forth action in this, but Brown eventually won with a knee strike to the head.
Ryan Kidd over Adrian Quest to retain the SoCal Pro Golden State title [11’35]
This was the first ever singles meeting between these two, which seems somewhat crazy since they work a lot of the same promotions and there is almost no way they were going to have a bad match. They ended up having a really good match. The speed they were going at early on in the match was fantastic. Really fast paced. Ryan Kidd really started focusing on Quest’s left leg, delivering kick after kick to it. Quest did a great job selling the leg for the rest of the match. He would deliver spinning kicks to Kidd and would just collapse due to the leg. He did his 630 and sold the leg on the flip and the landing. Ryan Kidd looked great in this too. Ryan Kidd won with a brainbuster. Hopefully there is a rematch in the future in front of a bigger audience. I’d rate the match at *** 3/4. Really good stuff.
Ju Dizz & Drake Phillips over Dark Usagi & Dirty Doug [12’29]
SoCal Pro has a weekly show on Facebook that the buildup to this match was happening on. I haven’t watched the show, so I’m not sure on the back story here. This was my first time seeing Drake Phillips. I’m not sure if he is a student fresh out of SoCal Pro’s school or has any previous matches, but he looked pretty solid in the match. He showed a lot of charisma and has a good look to him. There were some interactions that seemed to be off, and his selling was suspect at times, but overall a really solid performance. He played the face in peril most of the match with Usagi and Doug beating him down. Eventually he got the tag on Ju Dizz who came in and cleaned house. Ju Dizz showed a ton of intensity as usual. I thought Usagi and Doug did good here too. This was fun and I’m sure a nice reward for fans who are watching the Facebook show.
After the match Ju Dizz cut a promo mentioning that this was fan appreciation night and that Mike Camden wasn’t there. He said that is because “Mike Camden doesn’t appreciate you.” This was a really good promo to setup his match with Mike Camden on SoCal Pro’s July 8th show. It is being billed as a best of three series, with Ju Dizz having already won the first one.
Anthony Idol over Mikey O’Shea to retain the SoCal Pro Heavyweight title [10’57]
After the bell rung O’Shea was still joking with the crowd and Idol was in his corner with a look of pure hatred and disgust on his face towards O’Shea’s antics. Once they locked up Idol controlled most of the match. There was a ref bump, and O’Shea was able to get a pin on Idol, but the ref was still out and unable to count. Idol then hit O’Shea with a chain, hit the Idol Overdrive on O’Shea, and a backup ref made the three count.
Overall this was a fun, quick show from SoCal Pro. The total show lasted just under two hours. The intimate atmosphere really made for a hot crowd throughout the night. Ryan Kidd versus Adrian Quest is worth checking out the video for.
SoCal Pro’s next show in on July 8th at the Oceanside Boys and Girls Club in Oceanside. Anthony Idol defends his title versus Brian Cage and Ju Dizz and Mike Camden will have their second match in their best of three series.
Great review. I really wish I could have made this. We are living in the age of #Idolfornia.