Over the last few years, night two of the Battle of Los Angeles has normally ended up going down as the best night of the tournament. With night 1 being so strong this year, it was going to be hard to surpass it. Amazingly enough it did, putting the show among the best in PWG history.
Without Legion Larry and a much smoother process to enter then in Reseda, once again the show was able to start right on time. Christian Cole, who accidently started to call WALTER the Ring of Honor champion the night before, was welcomed to the ring with an “ROH” chant. This was followed by Excalibur’s normal introduction and the show was underway.
2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Trevor Lee over Marko Stunt [9’11]
This was a battle of replacements. Trevor Lee was replacing Matt Riddle who signed with WWE, and Marko Stunt was replacing Chris Brookes who was out with an injury. Stunt has really been in the right place at the right time lately. Lee has the most PWG experience of anyone in the tournament while obviously this was Stunt’s debut. The match started with Lee cutting a promo asking who Stunt was and if he was Super Dragon’s kid. Stunt got on the mic and listed off things he’s old enough to do, including fucking Trevor Lee’s mom. They did a great big man-little man match. Lee tossed Stunt around, with Stunt getting in hope spots here and there, but eventually Lee was too much for him. Lee hit a double stomp for the win. Stunt got a pretty loud please come back chant.
Rating: *** 1/2
2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Jonah Rock over Sammy Guevara [12’14]
Both Rock and Guevara get a lot of heel heat in PWG, but at least for this match the crowd turned Rock face. This was another big man-little man match, but was more even than the opener. Guevara became the first person to do a dive off the balcony when he hit a moonsault off it. I’m surprised it took four shows for someone to do it. Overall this was good. Rock won with a guillotine choke.
Rating: *** 1/4
2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Robbie Eagles over DJZ [11’54]
This was DJZ’s PWG debut while Eagles has been somewhat of a regular this year. While Bandido is clearly the newcomer of the year in PWG, Eagles has been consistently great as well. I wondered if DJZ would have his sound effects in PWG, and he did. Both are great flyers and they had some pretty nice sequences in this and there were a few moments they didn’t quite seem to be on the same page. Still, I thought this was really good and would like to see DJZ back in PWG as there are so many good matchups for him. Eagles won by submission.
Rating: *** ½
It’s worth noting that during the third match there started to be an issue with the lighting and at first they announced an intermission after, but then some of the lighting that went out came back on and they canceled that intermission. Apparently someone got wasted and puked over the side of a couch and there were wires behind it, which caused some of the lighting to go out. Pretty gross.
2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Jeff Cobb over Darby Allin [9’57]
This is where the show took a turn from good to great. The story of the match was Cobb just tossing Allin around while Allin was willing to sacrifice his body to try and get an advantage on Cobb. Allin took a tremendous beating from Cobb and just kept coming back to the point where while most everyone assumed Cobb would win, but now were hoping for an upset. This was really the third big man-little man type match on the show, but it was on a different level than the other two. Cobb caught Allin on the outside of the ropes and with Cobb on the second ropes did a deadlift German Suplex of Allin back into the ring. Rob Naylor said he thought this was the best match of the tournament up to this point. I liked the main on night 1 better, but this was fantastic.
Rating: **** 1/2
2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
Shingo Takagi over Ilja Dragunov [16’20]
After the main event on night 1 this was the match I was looking forward to the most on night 2. I wasn’t disappointed. Dragunov’s chest was still destroyed from the night before which really added to the impact of every chop. They built this match well and the brutality of it was amazing. Dragunov is probably the MVP of the first two nights. This was amazing. Takagi hit two straight Made in Japans to get the win.
Rating: **** 1/2
2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match
WALTER over Timothy Thatcher [18’05]
Well, the brutality of the last match was topped right away. This started off slow but as it went on the pace and violence of it just kept increasing. The two were just beating the hell out of each other, and it was great. This was also the longest match of the night, but it never felt like it dragged at all. WALTER won with a savage looking lariat. This was another fantastic match.
Rating: **** 1/2
CIMA & The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) over Bandido, Flamita, & Rey Horus. [11’49]
It is amazing that after all these years wrestlers are still coming up with stuff in matches that had never been done before. I don’t even mean variations of existing moves, just brand new stuff. This match was amazing. There was so much craziness in it that people couldn’t believe it only went 12 minutes. Describing the match could never do it justice. There was one sequence however where CIMA is on all fours and Wentz runs up his back and does a dive to the outside, followed immediately by Xavier doing a Sasuke Special over CIMA to the crowd outside. The finish saw Bandido being propped up and CIMA hitting a Meteora on him, then all three wrestlers covered him for the pin. No one wanted to leave after the match as the crowd gave them a standing ovation and took turns chanting all six wrestler’s names. This wasn’t just a showcase off all these wrestlers, it was a showcase of what is possible in wrestling.
Rating: **** ¾
Overall this was an amazing show with the main event being one of those go out of your way to see matches. After the first two nights Brody King, Joey Janela, Flamita, Bandido, CIMA, Rey Horus, Trevor Lee, WALTER, Robbie Eagles, Shingo Takagi, Jonah Rock, and Jeff Cobb are still in the tournament, making for some really great matchup possibilities.
