Marko gives his review of Burning Bridges from The American Legion Post #716 in Los Alamitos CA, this past Saturday August 27th. I just gothome from a sweet Battleground Pro Wrestling show. Had such a great time that I didn’t want to leave!
OK, the ring trailer was parked behind me so I couldn’t leave, but I was having such a good time…
And it was a great card! My match of the night was a three way that was advertised – correctly – as a dream match: Famous B vs B-Boy vs “Pretty” Peter Avalon. Lots of action as you might expect. But, strangely enough, the crowd didn’t seem to know who B-Boy was, or at least what to expect of him. This was his BPW debut, but still…I guess nobody knew if he was being booked as a face or a heel. Lots of support for Famous B and heel heat for PPA. B-Boy walked away with his first BPW victory.
My second fave was Tito Escondido vs Robbie Phoenix. Match started with a lot of chain wrestling which, when done well, I’m a sucker for. And it was done well! Which is to be expected since these two know each other pretty well. Tito retained the Maximum Championship.
I don’t want to list these matches like a top ten, especially since there were only eight of them, but my third favorite was another title match – and another three way; Ray Rosas, Lucha Machine and Chris Kadillak. Again, a whole lot of action and high flying, as much as is possible with the low ceiling of the American Legion hall. The feud between the Silver Heart Radicals, at least in BPW, appears to be going to continue, if not escalate. Ray Rosas is your new Ring Warrior champion although he pinned Kadillak for the win. He apparently forgave Lucha after the win, but Lucha (aka Loucha) pie-faced Rosas. Chris appeared to be in the match – story wise – just so Ray could pin someone other than Machine. He also may have been legit hurt. Let’s hope not.
Two other matches on the card were upsets in my opinion. Sheik Khan Abadi pinned Perry von Vicious (with Matthew Theall) and Circumsexy (“Unorthodox” Levi Shapiro and “Your Girlfriend’s Favorite Wrestler” The Riv) defeated The Black Knights (Sean Black and “The Right Hand of God” Sam Knight).
And I believe there was one other match that I can’t remember, possibly a tag match with the Suburban Commandos.
There was also a Royal Rumblesque match and a Heavyweight Title match, much of it good stuff. I’ll touch on them in a moment.
There are some things I didn’t/don’t like. Don’t wanna step on anyone’s toes here but, well…
I’m really not a fan of the Danny Ramirez angle. Not the guy personally but his position as commissioner-ish type person. He doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to be – look at his promo where he announces that he’ll be the special guest referee for the Mikey Callahan/”Russian Wolf” Alexis Darevko match. I understand what the story was for: Stepdaddy steppin’ down. But I think the time has come for this angle. He’d make a great manager, maybe head of a stable, but as a crooked top guy of the fed, meh. I think it detracted from what would have otherwise been a hard fought match with no distractions. Mikey and Alexis went at it tooth and nail with Mikey retaining his championship and regaining his belt. Good on ‘em!
And I really don’t know what to say about the Battle Royal. I’m not sure who maybe half of the people in it were because the sound system needs help. I can hear it, but it sounds mostly muffled. Prolly why I don’t know who the Commandos beat. Or who they were, since it was my first time seeing them. Anyway, a rumble is its own type of match, and it had good stuff and not so good stuff, like any Battle Royal. I also couldn’t see everything because for this one I was too close – first row of course. Rico Dynamite and Joey “Magnum” Ryan were the first two in and the last two out. Literally. They went over the rope and hit the ground at the same time, pretty much right in front of me. And, yeah, it looked like they touched at the same time. Well done. Been too long since I’ve seen Joey – LA, Hollywood, Reseda – they’re a little too far for me to drive. Hope he’ll stay with BPW for a while. He also gave a nice promo before the BR, wearing a “No Way Affiliated” shirt. Funny. He and Rico are scheduled for a one on one next month for the Danny Ramirez Cup.
And that’s on September 24th at the American Legion Hall in Los Alamitos. Battleground is also expanding to South Gate at the American Legion Hall. First card there is September 10th.
Luckily, I didn’t take any notes. So, no list of the 20+ participants in the Rumble.
