AWS held their last show of 2017, “Again No Presents for Christmas: Final Battle“, on December 2nd. The promotion has had a really strong 2017 so far, and with this show being part of a three show weekend with RISE it was stacked with some of the top names in women’s wrestling, it looked like the trend would continue.
The venue was packed and it was reported the show was sold out. It looked to be around 350 in the building. What was interesting was there were a lot of different people than were there the night before for RISE. Maybe about half the crowd was different.
Joey Ryan over Twisted Tate [4’30]
I had never seen Twisted Tate before, but he is a lion. This was a quick, pure comedy match. At one point Tate poured out a bag of Dum-Dum lollipops and then tried to bite Joey in the crotch, leading to Joey flipping Tate onto the lollipops. This was followed by the Sweet Tooth Music and Joey got the pin. The ref had issues with the count, leading Joey to flip him with his penis as well. Joey is great, and while this was entertaining it was short and not a lot here that hasn’t been seen before.
Rating: **
H.A.T.E (Ray Rosas & Peter Avalon) over SoCal Crazy & Mariachi Loco to win the AWS Tag Team Titles [8’12]
The match started with Peter doing a flip over the ring post onto SoCal Crazy and Mariachi Loco and never really slowed down from there. This was a really good fast paced match. H.A.T.E got the pin when Ray removed Crazy’s mask and got the pin as Crazy tried to cover his face.
Rating: *** 1/4
Cheerleader Melissa, Mercedes Martinez, & Priscilla Kelly over Delilah Doom, Deonna Purrazzo, & Laurel Van Ness [13’06]
Delilah Doom has so much charisma and fire in the ring. Chelsea Green’s Laurel Van Ness gimmick is great too. The Laurel Van Ness storyline along with the Hardys were the two best things in Impact over the last few years. This was a lot of fun. Delilah took a lot of punishment this weekend, and the finish of this saw her take a double team jumping curb stomp from the top rope.
Rating: ** 3/4
Aerial Monroe wins a battle royal [11’08]
The setup was that there would be a battle royal, and when it got down to two wrestlers it would turn into a regular match. Not all of the wrestlers were announced, so I didn’t get all of the names, put participants included Savannah Evans, Derby Doll, Lacey Lane, Aerial Monroe, Jewels Malone, Maritza Janett, Willow Nightengale, Penelope Ford, Kikyo, Pizza Cat, Hyan, and Trixie Tash. The last two were Aerial Monroe and Willow Nightengale. Both wrestlers look like they are going to be really good. Aerial’s match with Nicole Savoy on the RISE show the night before was one of the better matches on that show. Aerial picked up the win and was awarded a RISE contract and return trip to AWS.
Jake Atlas over B-Boy [16’37]
This was excellent. It is amazing to think Jake Atlas has only been wrestling about a year. B-Boy has quietly been having another great year as well. He constantly has good match after good match to the point I think it’s just being taken for granted. There was some great storytelling in this with the rookie trying to prove themselves against the veteran, and the veteran who wasn’t about to give in. The crowd was super hot for this and they even got the “fight forever” chant. This was the best AWS match in 2017, and in a normal year would be a strong SoCal match of the year candidate. Jake did a crazy looking handstand on the rope into a DDT to get the win. Great match.
Rating: **** 1/2
Team PAWG (Lufisto & Jordynne Grace) over Ruby Raze & Sage Sin [13’48]
This was pretty hard hitting, and it appeared at one point Sage really tagged LuFisto good. Lufisto is one of those wrestlers where I can’t really remember ever seeing her in a bad match. This was overall good, but a bit disjointed at times. Team PAWG hit the ATM on Sage to get the pin.
Rating: ** 1/2
Brody King over Papadon [15’55]
The crowd couldn’t agree on how to pronounce gyro, so it settled on a “Greek yougurt sucks” chant directed at Papadon. This was really good. There was a crazy spot where Papadon was on the outside and Brody went for a dive and Papadon got out of the way. This caused Brody to tope right into a sea of empty chairs. Brody finally won after a Michinoku Driver. I saw someone recently say that they thought Brody was going to break out in 2018 like Keith Lee did in 2017. I can see it.
Rating: *** 1/2
Toni Storm over Dust to retain the SWA title [7’21]
I can’t believe Dust doesn’t get more hype than she does. When RISE was in Southern California at the beginning of the year she was really impressive but was somewhat lacking in in-ring personality. She has really improved in that department over the year and really developed her character well. Toni Storm had three good matches over the weekend. I wish this would have gotten more time, but it was good. Toni hit the Strong Zero for the pin.
Rating: ***
Shotzi Blackheart over Rosemary [9’57]
At the start of the match Rosemary didn’t seem interested in wrestling, and even left. When Shotzi went after her there was a loud bang and Rosemary came back out with a chair. Shotzi got a fair amount of offense in, but Rosemary dominated the match. Shotzi got a quick roll up for the win.
Rating: ** 1/2
Tyler Bateman over Tito Escondido to win the AWS Heavyweight title [15’18]
This was billed as a “falls count anywhere in South Gate” match. There was some joking before it started that maybe they’d brawl down the block until they got to Lynwood invalidating any results. The match started with Tito beating Tyler with a cane. There was some brawling outside the ring, but despite it being falls count anywhere it was mostly kept inside. Surprisingly there was no outside interference in the match either. This was pretty good but the pacing was a little off. When Tito hit his finisher there wasn’t a ton of reaction for the 2 count as no one expected it to be the finish because of the way it was setup. Bateman ended up hitting 3 Death from Aboves to get the pin.
Rating: *** 1/4
Kris Wolf over Nicole Savoy to win the AWS Women’s title [6’53]
This started with Nicole Savoy throwing a Pokeball at Kris in an attempt to catch her. Kris Wolf has a ton of natural charisma. Nicole Savoy really makes every move she does look good. This was pretty solid but really short. The offense was pretty even with neither wrestler really holding the advantage over the other for long. There wasn’t a lot of build up during the match and the finish came pretty much out of nowhere. I don’t think anyone was expecting the title change and it got a nice reaction.
Rating: ** 1/4
AWS had another really good show for their last event of 2017. The promotion has had a fantastic year, maybe one of the best in its history. There wasn’t a single show all year that was bad, or even average. The run really started when they came back from their hiatus in late 2016. The promotion also brought a lot of unique matchups to the area, and unique shows where no two shows really seemed the same.
AWS will be back on January 27th with 2 shows. Ivelisse will be making her debut with the promotion.
