A late, short look at this past Saturday’s SoCal Pro “Redemption” in Oceanside. This was SoCal Pro’s last show at the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club for 2016. The main event was scheduled to be Tommy Wilson, who the Rumble in Oceanside to get a title shot, challenging Mike Camden for the SoCal Pro Heavyweight title. Tommy Wilson has actually held the title five times previously.
I ended up getting to the show while the pre-show match was taking place due to some unforeseen traffic. The attendance seemed to be a little down, but that was likely due to the biggest UFC show of the year and PCW’s show happening at the same time.
Pre-Show Match
Joey Barone over Commando
Dark Usagi over Adrian Quest [7’44]
This was OK. It really seemed like they weren’t on the same page at points and there were some disjointed segments in the match. Adrian Quest had some nice offense but overall this was average at best.
Ryan Kidd over Fidel Bravo [9’52]
Ryan Kidd had new gear including a mask though in the intro video they showed him maskless. This was a really good match. Ryan Kidd did Marty Scurll’s finger snap spot in the match, but it didn’t seem as loud as when Scurll does it. Fidel had a lot of nice looking offense in this. Ryan Kidd eventually won with a standing Spanish Fly into a suplex.
PBR (Hunter Freeman & Ryan Walker) vs. Anchors Away (David E. Jones & Ryan Stone) goes to a double count-out. PBR retain the SoCal Pro Tag Team titles [7’23]
PBR was set to face a mystery team. The mystery team turned out to be Anchors Away making their return after a two year absence. David E. Jones cut a really good pre-match promo with a lot of intensity before the match. He called Ashley Grace, who is PBR’s valet in SoCal Pro, a “bitch” and that was too much for PBR and caused them to attack Anchors Away. This was a pretty fun but somewhat short match. PBR has been pretty good and Anchors Away had been one of the top tag-teams in SoCal for years. Nothing in the match would tell you they hadn’t wrestled in so long, everything looked pretty crisp, though there was a lot of brawling. It ended in a double count out and it looks like they are setting up a no count-out, no DQ match for a future show.
Anthony Idol over SoCal Crazy [9’01]
This was pretty even match. SoCal Crazy was matching his technical skill and lucha based offense against Idol’s power. This was pretty good stuff. Anthony Idol won with the Falcon Arrow.
Ricky Mandel over Motros Jungle and Dirty Doug to win the SoCal Pro Golden State title [6’56]
This was originally scheduled to be a tag-match with Ju Dizz teaming with Motros Jungle against Dirty Doug and Mandel but Ju Dizz came out in a sling and said he was injured. Dirty Doug said he was willing to put his title on the line, which brought out Mandel who said he wanted his shot. Dirty Doug wasn’t happy about that, but the official held him to his word. Dirty Doug has an undefeated streak in SoCal Pro. For the most part this was the standard one guy gets knocked out of the ring while the other fight and then the third guy rotates in and another goes out. This was a pretty short match, and Mandel pinned Motros Jungle so Dirty Doug can say his streak is intact.
Mike Camden over Tommy Wilson to retain the SoCal Pro Heavyweight title [23’33]
I really enjoyed this match. There was a lot of back and forth action to start out. Mike Camden has really progressed throughout the year. He has always been technically sound but he has shown a lot more emotion in his matches. It came across as very believable that he legit had a grudge against Wilson and was looking to settle a score. There was a ref bump which lead to a run in by Ricky Mandel. That caused Motros Jungle to hit the ring, followed by PBR, Anchors Away, and then finally Ashley Grace. Ashley hit a huracanrana off the top rope onto Tommy Wilson. Eventually the ring was cleared and the ref was back up. Mike Camden hit a top rope suplex on Tommy Wilson and got the win. This was a really fun match with some pretty good wrestling and mix of chaos in the middle.
Overall I thought this was a pretty fun quick show. The show lasted just about two hours. They did a good job at setting up some future matches with the show as well, with PBR looking to feud with Anchors Away, Dirty Doug and Ju Dizz likely feuding with Mandel, and maybe even Tommy Wilson and Ashley Grace (After I started writing this Tommy Wilson challenged Ashley Grace on Twitter to a match where if she wins he will wear a dress). SoCal Pro said they will be back in Oceanside in January, but no date has been announced yet.
SoCal Pro shows are always a blast. Traditional professional wrestling just how I like it. I do not make it down there often enough, but they are definitely my favorite Cali fed that isn’t owned by Jesse!