PWG: 2007 Battle of Los Angeles Night Two Review

2007 Battle Of Los Angeles - Night Two 

September 1st, 2007

PWG World Champion - Bryan Danielson

PWG World Tag Team Champion - Kevin Steen & El Generico

Commentary - Excalibur, Bryce Remsburg, & Dino Winwood 

So yes, this is random, but I still have a lot of old shows to catch up on and for some reason I reviewed Night One and Night Three of this tournament, but not Night Two so yeahhhhh. Time to fill that void.

1) TJ Perkins & Ronin vs. Karl Anderson & Bino Gambino 

This wasn’t anything special aside from it being cool to see good brother Karl Anderson and young TJP. Ronin has always been a semi bright spot in these PWG local matches. He is ok here and hits an AWESOME Death Valley Driver on Bino for the win. 

Match rating - *3/4

2) CIMA vs. Human Tornado (w/ Candice LeRae) 

Really and truly feel like I’ve seen this match and honestly this whole show but cannot find where I reviewed it if I did so fuck it ima keep going. Human Tornado is someone you’ve probably seen me mention in other reviews as a talent I’m so sad wasn’t able to hang around into PWG’s peak because he undoubtedly would be a star somewhere right now. So talented and so much personality. CIMA is a goat and this match is a lot of fun. CIMA accidentally sliding drop kicks Candice at ringside early on, Tornado hits an insane dive over the top rope and over the railing into the crowd on CIMA which leads to the finishing run. They trade moves, CIMA allows Candice to hit a flying drop kick on Tornado as revenge for him treating her like shit. This leads to CIMA hitting the iconoclasm and the SCHWEIN for the win. 

Match rating - ***

Tornado acts as if he’s gonna be nice to Candice after the match as he shakes her hand and hugs her only to attack her and stomp her out. Candice :((((( Tornado leaves and comes back and hits her with DND, he goes to lock her in a submission aND CHRIS HERO WITH THE SAVEEEEE FUCK. Chills on that one, not gonna lie. The Hero/Tornado feud is one of my favorite things. OH FUCK THEY START BRAWLING AG RINGSIDE GOD DAMN. Crowd is hype and I am too this fucking rules. Great pull apart that I wasn’t expecting. Hero is such an innocent baby face at this point lol. So much sympathy in his face as he checks on Candice and takes her to the back.

3) Shingo Takagi vs. Scott Lost (w/ Jade Chung)

Now this, my friends, is the match I’m most excited about on this card. Shingo is an all time favorite of mine, mostly thanks to my discovery of him in PWG, and his 2007 was filled with amazing matches. Scott Lost is another talent like Human Tornado that deserved so much more out of pro wrestling. None the less, back to this match. It wasn't quite on the level I hoped, but it was solid for what it was. First portion was whatever, but the action was good near the end, Shingo wins to advance. 

Match rating - **3/4

4) Kevin Steen vs. Necro Butcher

"Corn is his favorite food." -Bryce Remsburg

This was interesting. You’d probably expect a straight up brawl considering Steen is a brawler by nature and Necro is a death match legend however instead Steen targeted the leg/knee of Necro and tried to make it a wrestling match. Necro makes a comeback and smacks Steen up with an awesome lariat and some punches before pinning him wITH AN OCONNOR ROLL.

Match rating - **1/2

5) Nigel McGuiness vs. Davey Richards

There was a time where I enjoyed Davey Richards matches, but 2020 is not that time, even in retrospective. But I actually kinda liked this. They do some shenanigans early on with Nigel getting a kiss from his girlfriend at ringside to heal the hand Davey was working on, Davey then goes to ask for a kiss following a low blow and she obviously declined and Nigel pulled Davey’s tights down from behind his back baring his ass for all of California to see. They get back in the ring and settle into an honestly awesome final 8-9 minutes. Amazing Nigel lariats and a Tower of London. Good selling & bumping from Davey, god I love Nigel. Fuck. He wins, maybe my fav match on the show so far?

Match rating - ***

6) El Generico vs. Tony Kozina 

OLE OLE OLE OLE OLEEEE. Kozina has been showing out against all the PWG regulars in shows leading up to this match. This was another pretty fun outing for him with him clearly trying to impress. Having Generico as an opponent in PWG is as good of an opportunity as you’ll get. Some crazy little spots down the stretch and close falls for Kozina, but in the end Generico puts it away with the BRAINBUSTAAA. 

Match rating - **3/4

7) Dragon Kid vs. Susumu Yokosuka 

DRAGON GATE SHOWCASE. Exchanging of holds and mat work to start, Dragon Kid speeds things up and goes for a 818 and gets the crowd on their feet for a round of applause. He cuts Yokosuka off on his way back in the ring and starts taking it slow on him with chops and a drop kick or two. It’s not long before the first insane head bump of the match as Yokosuka hits a spring board lariat onto Dragon Kid who is on the apron and his head smacks the hardest part of the ring. Love love love this match so far. Yokosuka works over Dragon Kid with a stretch hold and starts focusing on the head and neck following that bump. This goes on for a few minutes. Nice pop for Kid finally getting separation with a back body drop followed by a head scissors sending Yokosuka to the floor and a hurricanrana on the floor to follow that hellll yeah let’s go!! They start heading towards the finishing run here. Yokosuka hits an exploder off the top rope for a near fall. They go into too much insane shit to call from here but I was straight gasping at my computer. To me, that says a lot for a match that happened 13 years ago on a lower level indie (at the time). The Dragon Gate guys were really something special in this time period and their performances in the US will always be a major nostalgia buzz for me. I’m glad I took the time to check out this show solely for this match. It’s no MOTY contender or epic, but god damn is it not so much fun. Great main event to close the show. Dragon Kid advances !! 

Match rating - ***3/4