“Are You Adequately Prepared to Rock” has been the best Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show that I have seen (although I have yet to see the Bad Ass Mother 3000). Everything about the show was great. And if there were any flaws at all with the show, those flaws would be just me nitpicking.
Some thoughts…
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The venue for this show was awesome. I can’t believe people were actually
scared to go to this show, because they thought the show was in a bad neighborhood. Much to my surprise, this venue was actually in a very nice neighborhood. The venue itself was just as nice, if not, one of the better Indy wrestling venues here in SoCal. Good to hear that PWG is gonna be using this venue again.
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The opening angle to setup Joey Ryan vs. Adam Pearce was done very well.
The singing before their actual match was even better, as it definitely served its purpose.
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Where was the ring bell?
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The opening six-man was a fun match. I think the PWG crowd needs to
see what Zokre and Phoenix Star can do together, because I don’t think all are aware of what these two are capable of. Not everyone goes to Rev Pro shows. Mr. Excitement deserves a better slot on the card. Top Gun Talwar is hilarious. WHAT! AHHHHHHHHHH! The opener could have been shorter though.
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Lil’ Cholo is very over with the crowd. I still feel he needs to get
back into the wifebeater, in true Cholo fashion.
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Both Excalibur and Chris Bosh did a fine job showing the intensity between
the two, ever since the first PWG show. I liked how Bosh leveled Excalibur
with a deadly lariat of his own. Nicely done. Excalibur getting the win over
Quicksilver via Tiger Driver 98’ helps further escalate the feud between Bosh and the Rev Pro new school against the mouthpiece of Team Chismo.
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Scorpio Sky vs. Hook Bomberry was good match. The two work very well
with each other. I haven’t seen Bomberry work in awhile, and his work has definitely been improving. I hope Hook continues to get bookings in SoCal. Of course, I’m not going to discredit the Rev Pro Jr. Heavyweight Champ. Fresh off his first East Coast booking, Scorpio Sky did not miss a step with Hook. Scorpio Sky is turning a lot of people’s heads. He is already one of the top guys in Rev Pro, but before you know it, he will also be one of the top guys out here in SoCal. Very good match that did not disappoint.
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It rarely happens, but I always love these East Coast vs. West Coast
battles. It was great to see the Briscoe’s live for the first time. I’ve been
following their careers since their Combat Zone Wrestling days, and these guys have always been fun to watch. You know what’s crazy though? Jay Briscoe (the one with the beard) is only 19 and Marc Briscoe is 18. That’s absolutely insane! These kids are great now, but imagine the skill level when they have 10 years under their belt. I love watching these guys. And props to PWG for putting the Briscoes up against two of SoCal’s best, B-Boy and Super Dragon. People have been wanting to see this dream match for a very long time, myself included. This was one of the sole reasons why I even came out to this show.
This match was just frigging phenomenal. I loved every minute of it. Marc
took an absolute beating. And in true “big brother” fashion, Jay came in and saved his ass on a few occasions. I loved the interaction between Jay and Dragon. The stiffness was definitely there, as all four combatants are known to be heavy hitters. While the finish to this match wasn’t as hot as the Jardi/Bobby vs. Dragon/B-Boy finish in March at APW LA, it was still a good finish, with Dragon hitting the Arm Trap Psycho Driver on Jay with B-Boy preventing the save from Marc by hitting a Shining Wizard, which Marc sold like a fucking champ. I never realized how well Marc Briscoe sells his opponents moves. Marc also made Dragon’s lariat look absolutely devastating. Nobody has made Dragon’s lariat look that deadly in a long time. I want to say that I haven’t seen a Dragon lariat sold like that since the Glory Era of Rev Pro in 2001. More reason to love the Briscoes.
It’s also ironic that Dragon chose to use the Arm Trap Psycho Driver on Jay
Briscoe, while Marc Briscoe’s finisher is an Arm Trap Burning Hammer.
Really awesome match from the four. Definitely one of the matches of the night. Quite possibly one of the matches of the month. Heck, maybe even match of the year? All four combatants displayed so much intensity in the ring, which drew in the fans right from the get go. I’m glad I got to see this match live. I’d love to see a rematch from the four. If anyone on the East Coast is reading this, pick up this show on tape or DVD just for this match. Hopefully, the Briscoe’s will be back in SoCal sometime in the near future.
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Pinoy Boy and Vito Thomaselli put on a really good match as well, in
an unadvertised bout. Pinoy Boy has improved so much since the last time I saw him, and he’s also been hitting the weight room. He’s not at superfreak status just yet, but you can obviously tell that he’s been hitting the weights. His in-game has been looking really good too. I guess that’s what happens when you rep the New Japan LA Dojo, and wrestle out in Mexico for CMLL as one of the Havana Pitbulls. Pinoy Boy’s career in in-ring game is definitely on the rise. Vito Thomaselli looked really good in this too. I’m not surprised when some people label him as PWI’s ace. Vito reminds has that Trent Acid demeanor, but is certainly a better wrestler than the Backseat Boy. I thought it was over when Vito hit a really smooth Death Valley Driver, but Pinoy Boy kicked out and scored the pinfall with a rollup out of nowhere. I guess I’ll see the Thomaselli uber-finish another time. Good call on PWG’s part in bringing on both Pinoy Boy and Thomaselli in a surprise added attraction. Really good match.
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The Ballards defeated the X-Foundation in a battle of the piano keys.
Before the match, one of the Ballards played the Halloween theme (please correct me if I’m wrong). The X-Foundation decided to one up them, as Funky Billy Kim played a song with a fist, in which I don’t know the title to, but any 4 year old can play it. It’s blatantly obvious that the Ballards have been hitting the weight room hard. The Ballards have a 37 pack of abs combined. Funky Billy Kim looks to be hitting the weight room too, as he is looking to be in good ring shape as well. Finish saw one of the Ballard’s slap on the spinning back rack submission into a Flatliner for the win. Good match from the four.
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As I said before, the heat for Joey Ryan vs. Adam Pearce was great.
C. Edward Vanderpyle got on the mic to sing to crowd, which opted for the crowd to ignite in a huge “Joey” chant. Joey Ryan then came to the ring with FIRE IN HIS EYES! SLOWLY WALKING TO THE RING! AND THE STRAPS WERE DOWN! HE MEANS BUSINESS! Both guys were very intense in the ring. Pearce would lay the beatdown onto the Technical Wizard and would shout out, “Where’s the Joey Ryan Fan now, huh?!” Joey Ryan Fan quickly shouted back, “I’m right here bitch!” Good match from the two. I wish I saw their Bad Ass 3000 match to compare, but I’ll be doing a DVD review when I get a copy of that show. I liked how Joey would take
out two birds with one stone, by getting Vanderpyle in the mix and laying him out as well. Finish saw Disco Machine and Excalibur come out to ringside to distract everyone, as Super Dragon came from behind and hit Joey Ryan with the Super Natural Driver (Psycho Driver 2001) showing retribution from the Bad Ass Mother Semi-Finals. You would think that Adam Pearce would capitalize on this opportunity by taking the pinfall. Pearce covered Joey, only to pull his head up for a two-count. Pearce then hit Joey with a brutal piledriver for the win, which gave Pearce the #1 Contenders slot against the PWG champ.
This now then “sorta” splits up the PWG Brass, which may lead up to two new separate feds, Guerrilla Wolfpac and Guerrilla Hollywood. OK, maybe not. But I do smell an X-Foundation/Team Chismo feud coming up in the near future, which would give the SoCal fans plenty of great matches. The singles, tags, and six-man possibilities are plenty.
– The PWG Main Event was awesome. Of course the Main Event was gonna be awesome, you’ve got three of the country’s top tier wrestlers in one match. Everyone in the crowd was expecting this to be great, and great it was. This match was one of the matches of the night, and easily a contender for match of the month as well. A lot of people don’t like three way dances, but this three way was done very well. The action was flowing at a rapid pace, never a dull moment in the ring. The crowd was split three ways, as everyone was getting their name chanted. A lot of new innovative spots and sequences were also done as well, keeping this three way dance fresh. Finish saw Daniels in position for the Styles Clash while Frankie hit his Wave of the Future faceplant on to AJ, taking out both guys at the same time, giving Frankie the pinfall over Daniels. Really smooth finish that I liked a lot. PWG made a mighty fine decision in deciding to bring out AJ Styles to SoCal on a (hopefully) regular basis. And good to see PWG bringing in Daniels back to a SoCal ring. Daniels is local and resides in SoCal. I’m surprised that other SoCal promoters aren’t utilizing
the Fallen Angel.
Overall, not a bad match on the show. Every match on the show was either good or great. The venue was great as well, and it’s good to know that PWG will be coming back to this venue for future shows. Some things PWG will need are a ring bell and a concession stand. If PWG continues to run monthly, PWG will become the top fed out here in SoCal. I shouldn’t even be saying that, as I myself try not to look at our scene as a bunch of different federations, but as a whole. PWG just adds plenty of great, memorable matches to our scene.
I sensed a stronger camaraderie amongst all the SoCal fans that night. No
hostility or animosity was sensed at all within the building, at least not in
my eyes. Henry Luna and Aaron Proctor can coexist within the same building and both be mature about their past handlings. The Rev Pro kids were there to lend a helping hand to PWG (well it was a Rev Pro ring. Duh Scrub duh). I got to see a lot of old faces that I haven’t seen in awhile, and I got to meet a lot of new people as well. A good time was had by all in Happyland! In a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane!
The SoCal Indy wrestling scene is so underrated. It’s Indy wrestling’s best
kept secret. A secret that none of us should be keeping anymore. I want to
encourage each and everyone one of you to tell a friend about this hidden gem known as SoCal Indy wrestling. If you know someone into mainstream wrestling, let them know what’s going on locally. Who knows, they might get hooked, and then they’ll start telling their friends, and then maybe, just maybe, people will come to the realization that really great wrestling does not always have to hail from Philadelphia, PA.
Scrub
Word of the day: definitely
scrub@socaluncensored.com
