Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has announced the first four entrants in this year’s Battle of Los Angeles. Three of the competitors will be making their PWG debut, and all four will be appearing in their first BOLA tournament.
Flamita, Keith Lee, WALTER, and Travis Banks were the first four entrants announced via PWG’s Twitter account. Flamita, WALTER, and Banks will be wrestling in PWG for the first time. In recent years, the tournament has totaled 24 participants.
Flamita is an independent wrestler in Mexico who also works for Dragon Gate. He wrestled in AAA for a number of years as well before departing last year amid controversy over him using the Octagon name.
The Austrian-born WALTER wrestles for the wXw promotion in Germany, and gained some more recognition earlier this year through his performances in their annual 16 Carat Gold tournament.
Lee, who has been a regular for EVOLVE after leaving ROH, has been gaining notoriety on the independent scene this year with a number of amazing performances against the likes of Ricochet and Donovan Dijak. Banks (who is from New Zealand) has been rising similarly fast and has become one of the top stars on the UK indie scene.
This year’s Battle of Los Angeles is slated to take place on September 1-3 in Reseda, California.
These were some of the best matches of the year in the U.S. It’s really a shame this wasn’t streamed live and people will have to wait for the DVD release, because people would be raving about almost every match on the show. This was better than even day two of BOLA last year, which was the best PWG show I’d seen.
– Dalton Castle defeated Tommaso Ciampa, who subbed for Jack Gallagher who had a flight issue.
Ciampa did some WWE star big moves (Superman punch, Pedigree) but couldn’t finish Castle, who won with the Bang-a-Rang. Excellent bout. Super hard hitting and Castle did a great job building his delayed German suplex spot.
– Mark Andrews defeated Pete Dunne with a reverse hurricanrana off the top rope and shooting star press.
It’s amazing how good Andrews is in this environment. Dunne made a super impression. Tons of crazy counters. I thought Andrews kicking out of three tombstone piledrivers was a bit much but other than that this was up there with the best U.S. matches this year.
– Cody Rhodes defeated Sami Callihan after hitting Cross Rhodes.
Rhodes came out in specially made PWG BOLA trunks to endear himself to everyone. You could see this was a guy who had something to prove and he pretty much did. A hard hitting great match, nonstop action, Rhodes even did a double springboard plancha. His wife did the ring announcing calling him the star that left them in the dust.
– Fenix & Penatgon Jr. defeated Chris Hero & Tommy End when Fenix pinned End after a springboard 450.
I know several people who thought this was the best match of the weekend which speaks volumes when you consider how spectacular tonight’s main event was. Hero did this great Lucha Libre high spot early like he was a 170 pound acrobatic style guy. Fenix came out dressed up like Pentagon and he was super over with constant chants. In the move of the weekend, he stood up on Pentagon’s shoulders near the ropes and did a super high moonsault out of the ring onto both of them.
– Trevor Lee defeated Kamaitachi with a fisherman buster.
Lee got easy heel heat being announced as TNA Superstar Trevor Lee. The big move was Kamaitachi doing a senton off the top rope to the floor.
– Mark Haskins defeated Cedric Alexander with an armbar in an excellent match.
I was very impressed with how Haskins transitioned into a sharpshooter at one point and other cool reversals. Excellent match.
– Kyle O’Reilly defeated Matt Riddle when Riddle essentially pinned himself while having a submission on O’Reilly.
Excellent grappling style match. Riddle got the “please come back” chants. Everyone raves about Riddle for good reason. I know he’s got the issue with failing pot tests in UFC years ago which caused WWE not to sign him yet, but whether it’s New Japan or TNA, they should be on the phone with him yesterday because he has the potential to be one of the biggest stars in the business. He has incredible natural charisma.
– Will Ospreay, Ricochet & Matt Sydal defeated The Young Bucks & Adam Cole when the members of the winning team did simultaneous shooting star presses on all three members of the losing team.
You would expect a lot given who was in this match but it blew away any expectations. It had great spots, super heat, great timing with one exception and the last few minutes were mind blowing. Essentially you have the most physically talented wrestlers in the world on one side working with a team that knows this audience perfectly and all did everything under the sun.
Sydal & Ricochet topped the Meltzer Driver. The place was chanting five star match when it was over. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a tag team match this good.
The show started at about 9:25 p.m local time. I don’t want to overuse the superlatives but with the exception of Matt Sydal vs. John Hennigan (Mundo), every match was either really good, to great, to fantastic. And Sydal vs. Hennigan was a good match as well.
There was a weird sense of disappointment because the losers don’t advance. The crowd for the most part wanted both guys to win in almost every match.
– Marty Scurll defeated Pentagon Jr. by reversing out of the package piledriver into a chicken wing via submission.
The bottom rope broke during this match but it didn’t play a part in anything. It did slow the show down because it took a while to fix it. Very good.
– Ricochet defeated Jeff Cobb in a fantastic match.
Both brought out the best in each other with flying vs. power. The difference in Cobb from even a few months ago is very noticeable. Ricochet won with the Tour of the Islands into an inside cradle.
– John Hennigan defeated Matt Sydal with a standing shooting star press and the End of the World.
Hennigan was one of the guys who really badly wanted to work PWG.
– Will Ospreay defeated Fenix with the spinning kick and Oscutter.
Fantastic match with things probably never done before inside a pro wrestling ring. Ospreay did his space flying tiger drop and Fenix did a crazy spinning dive. The highlight was a Spanish fly off the top rope where both landed on their feet. Pretty much everyone was blown away by this match.
– Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tommy End with the octopus submission.
Excellent match. Very different from most Sabre matches as it was more a fight than technical wrestling. Lots of “Thank you Tommy” chants since everyone knows he’s leaving for WWE and this was his last PWG show.
– Chris Hero defeated Jushin Liger with a series of spinning elbows.
Also very good, excellent by the end. They played up the size difference. Liger was the most over wrestler by far on the show and Hero had to play heel because there was no other way. This was the best Liger singles match I can recall in a long time. Perfect timing.
– The Young Bucks & Adam Cole defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys (ReDragon)
The Boys ended up being Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly. For about 15 minutes, they played like they were The Boys, hitting like wimps and just getting beaten up with Castle doing the offense. Then they took off their Boys’ masks and made comebacks, although Fish lost the mask several times before that spot.
It was largely comedy but very good. The crowd was very into it. The finish saw a double Meltzer Driver on Fish & Castle and Matt pinned Fish.
