Taking a look at Bar Wrestling 15: Don’t Hassle Me I’m Local on July 25th, 2018, featuring Scorpio Sky vs. Eli Everfly, Willie Mack vs. P.J. Black, and Violence Unlimited vs. PPRay.
To watch Bar Wrestling 15: Don’t Hassle Me I’m Local, check out Bar Wrestling on Pivotshare or the Highspots Wrestling Network.
This was Bar Wrestling’s first event at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. It’s small, dark, dingy, and looks better on video than most venues in SoCal.
Scorpio Sky vs. Eli Everfly
This was a fun sprint to open the show. Eli would bust out some high flying offense, while Sky would base for Eli. Aside from one miscue that resulted in a sloppy spot, both guys had a really good performance. Sky would get the win after hitting a TKO on Eli. As I said, this was a fun sprint. I’d really like to see another match between Sky and Eli in the future.
Rating: **3/4 (I’d rate this higher if the match were longer, but I feel this is the best I could give it considering the time it got.)
Luchasaurus & Super Panda vs. The Rocknes Monsters (Kevin Martenson and Johnny Yuma)
I didn’t like this match. It wasn’t really well structured, and the spots felt extremely contrived. Yuma might be the most useless worker in pro wrestling. He doesn’t really add quality to matches he’s in. He’s just something Kevin Martenson can throw around, and he’s not very good at that either. Luchasaurus and Super Panda had a good showcase of what they could do, but their performance wasn’t strong enough to make this entertaining. The Rocknes Monsters got the win. Once again, I didn’t like this match.
Rating: *1/4
Joey Ryan vs. Eric Watts
If you’ve seen a Joey Ryan match, you know what to expect here. Joey did his usual lollipop schtick, and he tried to get Watts to touch his dick. Watts would refuse, and the match story would revolve around Joey trying to get him to touch it. Joey was eventually able to get Watts to touch his dick, leading to Joey doing his dick move. There were more shenanigans throughout the match, including a ref bump. Watts would win after hitting a sit-out Chokeslam on Joey. This match was what it was. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. The worst part about it (aside from the shit commentary) was that the comedy wasn’t funny, so I guess that’s a positive in a way?
Rating: **
Taya Valkyrie vs. Kris Wolf
There was a huge discrepancy in this match between these two in terms of work quality. Kris Wolf had a solid performance, while Taya came off as sloppy and lethargic. Her selling was also pretty bad as usual. It was obvious that Kris Wolf was on another level as a performer. The highlight of this match was seeing a fan in a blue shirt slap a pice of bologna on some bald guy’s head. Taya got the win in a poor match. Kris Wolf is entertaining. That’s the best thing I can say about this match.
Rating: *1/2
Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tyler Bateman) vs PPRay of H.A.T.E (Ray Rosas & Peter Avalon)
Before the match officially began, Ray and Bateman exchanged punches in the middle of the ring. This would end up with Ray and Peter getting knocked out by Brody and Bateman. After they recovered, Ray and Peter hit Violence Unlimited with low blows. Peter would then hit a dive off of Ray’s back onto Violence Unlimited outside of the ring.
Once the match began, this turned into a basic tag team match where Peter and Ray worked over Bateman for heat. During the match, Kevin Condron and Louden Noxious rambled about wrestling etiquette because the referee shook Louden’s hand too hard before the show. It really took away from the match. Brody eventually got the hot tag from Bateman, and the two would get some offense in on Ray and Peter. The final stretch would see both teams hitting various spots on each other. Violence Unlimited would get the win after a Rolling Elbow/German Suplex combo, which looked pretty cool. The first part of the match was kinda boring, but things picked up well in the end. This was solid, but not great.
Rating: **3/4
Willie Mack vs. P.J. Black
The match started off with some fast paced action. Eventually P.J. Black slowed down the pace of the match to get some heat. It really wasn’t intriguing and dragged things down. Willie eventually made a comeback after hitting an Exploder Suplex. Kevin Condron made stupid noises on commentary and did a shitty Stone Cold Steve Austin impression during Willie’s comeback segment. For a guy who accused a referee of trying to get himself over, he sure is guilty of doing just that on commentary at the expense of workers in the ring. Back to the match. The action would pick up in the closing moments with both guys getting offense on each other. Willie Mack would eventually get the win after hitting a Frog Splash on P.J. Black. This was a solid match, but nothing worth going out of your way to see.
Rating: **3/4
Final Thoughts
This was one of the weaker Bar Wrestling shows in the promotion’s history. The commentary was bad as usual when Condron is calling the action. He’s got the worst comedic timing and takes away from matches way too much. I know Southern California has pretty awful commentators across the area, but he and Louden might be the absolute worst in the area.
The new venue Bar Wrestling ran at looked really small and dark, but it looked better on video than the legion hall in Baldwin Park. Some improvements to the lighting could be made, but the smaller atmosphere comes across better on video than it does at the Baldwin Park venue.
As for the matches, this was not one of the better Bar Wrestling shows in terms of in-ring quality. The opener, PPRay/Violence Unlimited, and the main event were all very solid, but nothing on the card stood out. Unless you’re really into the workers on this show or just want to watch every Bar show ever, I wouldn’t recommend this show unless you have some time to kill.
