This CHAOS COLUMN is a recap of PWG Battle of Los Angeles Tournament 2013 at the American Legion Post #308, Reseda. Both shows drew excellent crowds, with the 2nd night being a full capacity crowd. The action and excitement of the 2nd night should draw positive vibes from WWE Superstar William Regal, who was scouting talent.
NIGHT 1 – 8/30/13
ROUND 1 MATCHES
1 – Kevin Steen p. Chuck Taylor with the Package Piledriver in a strong opener mixed with comedy that was capped with both men doing moves on one of the fans’ San Francisco Giants baseball cap. Given that the Giants are on or near the bottom of the NL West (as of 9/1), looking up at the Dodgers, isn’t that ironic?
2 – Brian Cage p. Tommaso Ciampa with a 3-move finisher that was capped with the Discus Lariat. Scary moment when Brian Cage took a nasty bump from a Tommaso powerbomb onto the floor, if not the chairs and the floor, which got the crowd real quiet. Brian showed a lot of heart to not only continue competing, but get the win, too.
3 – Johnny Gargano made Willie Mack tapout to the GargaNO Escape–a Crippler Crossface submission hold with a Headlock instead of the Crossface.
4 – Roderick Strong p. AR Fox with the DBR Backbreaker.
5 – Drake Younger p. Joey Ryan with the Drake’s Landing. If their previous match at the first Quintessential Pro show Last April was anything, they doubled-it by substituting bags of thumbtacks for a bag of hard candy, and a bag of lego’s. Drake hit his finisher onto the pile of lego’s for the pin, and the head security personnel tossed those hard candy’s onto the fans to clean up the ring.
6 – ACH p. Anthony Nese with the Fisherman’s DDT. Nese was able to finish the match despite hurting his knee after a Suicide Dive onto ACH, and onto the floor.
7 – Kyle O’Reilly made Trent Baretta tapout to the Cross Armbreaker submission, to cap his “5-Move Combo of Doom”.
SM – Michael Elgin p. Rich Swann with the Powerbomb to the Corner, into the Bama Bomb. To me, this one narrowly beats the Roddy/AR Fox match for the best first round match of this year’s tournament.
NON-TOURNAMENT MATCH #1
M – PWG Heavyweight Champion Adam Cole & PWG Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) def. T.J. Perkins & Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov & Rocky Romero). Great tag team action ended with The Young Bucks finishing the Superkick Party with a Double-Superkick to TJP into Cole’s Florida Keys. This may’ve been TJP’s last PWG match before he joins TNA.
NIGHT 2 – 8/31/13
ROUND 2
1 – Drake Younger p. Brian Cage with a Small Package Reversal Rollup, countering the Delayed Vertical Suplex. A short, but effective match, considering Cage probably wasn’t 100%.
2 – Johnny Gargano made Kevin Steen tapout to the 3rd GargaNO Escape submission, countering the Package Piledriver.
3 – Michael Elgin made Roderick Strong tapout to the Crippler Crossface submission.
4 – Kyle O’Reilly made ACH tapout to the Triangle Chokehold, probably with an Armbreaker mixed in there too, and he did it countering a top rope move from ACH. Best 2nd round match of the tournament in my books.
NON-TOURNAMENT MATCH #2
5 – Joey Ryan, Trent Baretta, & Chuck Taylor def. Willie Mack, Tommaso Ciampa, & B-Boy (who subbed for the injured Anthony Nese). Plenty of comedy in this one mixed with some very serious wrestling. Anthony Nese actually took over officiating the match when Referee Rick Knox took a bump as a result of Chuck “detonating a grenade in the ring”. Scary moment came when Chuck Taylor went for an Over-the-Ropes Dive, only for his left leg to get tangled up between the ropes! More cluster spots followed, but then Chuck Taylor somehow stopped Tommaso Ciampa from powerbombing Joey Ryan onto some chairs and the floor–that allowed Brian Cage to come in, do his own powerbomb on Ciampa, and let Chuck Taylor–despite that bad knee–hit the Awful Waffle on B-Boy for the pin.
SEMIFINALS
6 – Michael Elgin p. Johnny Gargano with a Top Rope Powerbomb.
7 – Kyle O’Reilly made Drake Younger tapout to the Guillontine Chokehold. Better of the 2 semifinal matches to me, although all four semifinalists didn’t let up a single inch.
NON-TOURNAMENT MATCH #3
SM – Adam Cole & The Young Bucks def. Candice LeRae, AR Fox, & Rich Swann. Candice took all kinds of punishment in this match–and she was just one-week removed from her hardcore match with rival Hudson Envy at the AWS show. AR Fox & Rich Swann did all they could, but both of them were victimized by the Superkick Party. The champs hit their Double-Superkick/Florida Keys combo on Candice, with Cole scoring the pin.
M – BoLA FINAL: Kyle O’Reilly made Michael Elgin tapout to the Triangle Chokehold to win the tournament. Adam Cole came out after the trophy presentation, giving his congratulations…”to the 2nd best member of Future Shock!”. This is when it got really chaotic. First, The Young Bucks hit the ring to ambush Kyle O’Reilly, then Candice LeRae tried to make the save, but got Triple-Superkicked! Joey Ryan comes out, telling the champs that “only he could hit Candice”, and he got Superkicked for hitting the champs! Referee Rick Knox comes in to try to make the save next, but he gets taken out–BY A KEVIN STEEN PACKAGE PILEDRIVER! Kevin repeated the finisher…ON CANDICE…all the while smashing up the trophy–a vow he made the previous night! That essentially “cleared the back”, as everyone else hit the ring to send Steen & the champs to the back. Kyle then recovered, and gave a closing speech to end the show.
Talk about “shock and awe”! Who knows what will happen between now and the next show on October 19–“Bound for Glory” Eve, especially in light of the last segments of night 2. Kyle O’Reilly definitely made his case for the PWG title, as he has been riding a hot streak in the promotion. Tough choice for match of the weekend, but I’ll give it to the Kyle O’Reilly/ACH 2nd round match, followed by the Gargano/Steen 2nd round match. Out of the 2 “newcomers”, I felt ACH gave a better showing than Tommaso Ciampa did, and I would like to see him and “Adrenaline RUSH” partner Tadarius Thomas team up for the 2014 DDT4 tournament.
PWG Battle of Los Angeles Tournament American Legion Post #308, Reseda