PWG World Champion - Chuck Taylor (since July 7th, 2017)
PWG World Tag Team Champions - Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero M (since March 18th, 2017)
Commentators: Excalibur & Chuck Taylor
The Battle of Los Angeles has become more than just a tournament for PWG. It's literally a spectacle that culminates the best of independent wrestling and gives you a peak at who is going to be that next big star to head to WWE or NJPW. With past winners including current WWE/NXT stars like Sami Zayn & Adam Cole and current NJPW stars like Kenny Omega, the tournament holds a high level of prestige.
But for PWG itself, it's the most important part of the year and has honestly become more like the start of a new year/era each time it rolls around. For the simple fact that, you get a lot of new and returning faces, and a true glimpse as to where PWG is heading within the next year calendar year. It's like the start of a new year/season and for me, it's a perfect time to really view the landscape of PWG at the moment and for the coming year.
1) Brian Cage vs. Dezmond Xavier
"The baby blue badass, big Brian Cage." -Chuck Taylor
Brian Cage in BOLA openers has been a thing since like 2013 and it has admittedly gotten sort of old however this was an exception. Xavier has only had a few matches in PWG since debuting this year, but this was definitely his best yet. Finally seeing him against someone outside of the Callihan/CZW bunch allowed him to show some separation from the stigma a lot of those guys have. He played the perfect role in this match and neither man did too much or too little. They kept it short & sweet. Xavier taunted Cage early saying "it's BOLA 2017, I'm gonna need to see more than that" to which Cage responded with a set of frankensteiners. That really set the tone for this match. Cage muscled Xavier around, Xavier used his speed to try to tire down Cage. In the end, Xavier monkey flips Cage for the victory. Big win for him considering this is Cage's fifth BOLA tournament, having made his first appearance in the tourney in 2010.
Match rating - ***1/4
2) Marty Scurll vs. Flash Morgan Webster
This was straight up way better than I expected. Scurll cut a pre-match promo to remind everyone he's the reigning BOLA champion having won the tournament last year. He then tells Webster that he's Mr. PWG and he has five seconds to get out of his ring. This sets up the perfect babyface retaliation for Flash who headbutts Scurll and everyone thought he got a three count out of it, but Scurll's foot was on the ropes. This match starts out WHITE HOT with both men throwing caution to the wind with a lot of crowd bumps. Scurll literally throws Webster from the ring to the floor into the audience at one point. They made you think the debuting Webster really had a chance with how they built everything. Good stuff. Scurll eventually taps Flash out with the chicken wing in the center of the ring. Another great showing for a first time talent in BOLA.
Match rating - ***1/2
3) Rey Fenix vs. Rey Horus
Many people gave this the title of match of the night, but I just didn't see it. Fenix is currently one half of the tag team champions and Horus is in his second PWG appearance ever. This was certainly a notch up from Horus' debut against Sammy Guevara. They busted out a ton of crazy stuff, the only negative was that it lost it's flow on a couple occassions which is what kept me from going higher with my rating. However, this still ruled and was a pretty great lucha showcase and completely different from the previous two matches. Fenix gets the win and advances.
Match rating - ***1/2
4) The Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb & Matthew Riddle) vs. Keith Lee & Donovan Dijak
Here comes the emotions. This is Donovan Dijak's first AND final weekend in PWG before he heads to NXT, but as some of you may already know, it was a highly acclaimed weekend for him as he reportedly had two MOTY candidate contests. This being the first one and I will see that it definitely lived up to expectation although I wouldn't put the MOTY label on it BUT this still fucking ruled. Four guys beating the dog shit out of each other. Two monsters against an olympic athlete and former MMA fighter, where can you go wrong? Cobb & Riddle already have a victory over the Young Bucks since they started teaming in PWG and this match completely put them over to me because 1 - it was amazing and 2 - they won. Awesome stuff here, definitely check this one out.
Match rating - ****1/4
5) Matt Sydal vs. Penta El Zero M
The crowd really needed a breather after that last match so they were pretty quiet here despite this sorta being a dream match. Plus, Sydal & Penta were involved in the insane three way tag title match back in March so you'd think this would have a lot of hype, but it just felt like your average, solid mid card match from the two. Nothing bad albeit nothing spectacular either. Penta gets the win.
Match rating - **3/4
6) Zack Sabre Jr vs. Jonah Rock
After his classic with Chuckie T last month, ZSJ is STILL on fire as a heel despite losing the title and I fucking love it. He's taunting Jonah Rock from the get go and it's literally the best thin ever. Jonah is in his PWG debut, arguably his biggest match to date, actually, as this is his first appearance on American soil. Jonah does have some slight connection to PWG in the past though, as he was a member of TMDK in NOAH over in Japan with Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls, both of whom had one off appearances for PWG back in 2008 or so. But yeah, this was really good. Zack played cocky submission specialist like always. Jonah tried to over power him. Simple, but super solid stuff. Sabre advances.
Match rating - ***3/4
7) Ricochet vs. Flamita
"God damn unnecessary." -Chuck Taylor
This was not the mind blowing spot fest that you would expect from these two. However, that does not mean this was bad. In fact, it sorta exceeded my expectations. We got some jaw dropping fast sequences, but this was structured more like a wrestling match than a performance with it getting way more brutal than one would expect. Ricochet has really changed his game over the years and it's sick to see. Flamita is in his debut weekend here and in the main event which is CRAZY, but he is the first Dragon Gate guy to roll through Reseda since Akira Tozawa's stint. None the less, this was a great match, just not what you'd expect from a PWG main event, but I wasn't disappointed. Ricochet hit a neckbreaker on Flamita on the apron and apparently fucked up his back pretty bad. Flamita hit a 450 and somehow dislocated his finger and Knox put it back in for him thankfully cause it looked NASTY for a minute. In the end, Ricochet triumphs over Flamita in his PWG debut. Can the King become the first ever two time BOLA winner?
Match rating - ***3/4
Final thoughts: Good first night of BOLA '17. Only one must see match, but everything else is more than solid and worth a look. We got the introduction of some new talents (Webster, Flamita, & Dijak) and the solidifcation of a few others (Cobb, Riddle, & Lee) and I'm sure there will be more of this throughout the tournament which makes me stoked.
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