11/20 Pro Wrestling Guerilla "Battle of Los Angeles" tournament: First night tournament action featuring Colt Cabana, Roderick Strong, Human Tornado, Austin Aries, Brian Kendrick

Pro Wresting Guerilla
Reseda, Calif.
Report by Dot Net reader Scott Turner

This was my second time attending a PWG event. This show was definitely less filled out than the Guerre San Frontieres show that had Bryan Danielson wrestling his last match for the company, but there was still a good amount of people.

The show started out with an introduction from Excalibur where he introduced all the participants for the Battle of Los Angeles world heavyweight title tournament. Brian Kendrick smugly left the ring when all the wrestlers were asked to pose for picture to document the event generating some good heat in the process. Nothing says heat more than a group of tough looking guys calling you a "f-----."

1. Brand and Dustin Cutler defeated Malachi Jackson and Ryan Taylor. Fun standard opening match with some good spots that really got the crowd prepared for the night. I feel like every time I go to a PWG show there is always an obligatory shooting star press in the first match, oh well. My first time seeing any of these wrestlers go, and I was rather impressed with what I saw. The match ended with the Cutler Brothers hitting a sick looking double Tombstone/normal pile driver double team attack.

2. Scott Lost defeated Jerome "LTP" Robinson. Impressive hard hitting match. For everything Lost lacked in high flying and Robinson lacked in ground work, they're styles mixed together very well. Throw in the fact LTP was making some hilarious comments regarding Lost's body odor with everything else made for an entertaining match. Lost won with back roundhouse to Robinson's head.

3. Human Tornado defeated Matt Jackson. I'm all for tasteless humor, but for some reason Matt Jackson's "Kunta Kinte" name calling towards Tornado kind of seemed like too much. Not that it freaked me out or anything, just felt kind of unnecessary. The crowd was pretty much completely behind Human Tornado, and went nuts for his dancing kick routine in the corner.

4. Joey Ryan defeated Colt Cabana. A technically sound comedy match that eventually boiled down to some intense stiff action. Cabana had some hilarious lines in the match, and Ryan asking Cabana to "shoot fight" was priceless. Ryan went over with a sick looking super kick out of the corner.

5. Roderick Strong defeated Johnny Goodtime. Johnny Goodtime was a last minute replacement for Chris Sabin. I like Goodtime's work, but the potential of Strong vs. Sabin has me salivating at the mouth. Strong was as intense as he usually is, and there was some brutal in crowd brawling. The match delivered, but I don't think anyone got the sense that Goodtime was going over.


6. Brandon Gatson defeated Nick Jackson. This match was the first after a short intermission. Both guys worked really hard and delivered some good high spots that included Gatson doing a front handspring to a moonsault over the ropes to the floor. There was a really funny spot where Nick Jackson was laying into Gatson on the turnbuckle only to stop, and then continue the beating with a balloon.

7. Brian Kendrick defeated Austin Aries. Both guys came out to huge pops that quickly soured when Aries cut a promo on the crowd about how he and Kendrick didn't care about impressing everyone in attendance tonight. I never guessed that this match would've garnered "this is boring" chants, but it did, and for a good amount of time too. The match eventually picked up with Aries' trademark lunge through the ropes, and elbows, but it never really quite left second gear. I got lost in the shuffle at the end as Aries picked up the ROH belt behind a distracted referee, and made what looked to be contact with Kendrick's face only to have Kendrick score the pin fall. I know I wasn't the only one in the building disappointed with this match.

8. Kenny Omega defeated Kevin Steen. Before the match started Steen cut a promo on his legacy in PWG that turned into a bunch of homosexual innuendo. A lot of references to each wrestler performing fellatio on each other, pretty funny stuff. Omega was one of the most over wrestlers of the night, and rightfully so. Comedy aside, these guys put on an impressive competitive match. Omega won with a surprise roll up during a pin attempt from Steen after a package pile driver.

9. Alex Shelley defeated El Generico. Surprisingly this was the match of the night for me. Generico stole the show the last time I went to a PWG show when he wrestled Shingo so I guess it shouldn't be that big of a shocker. If Omega wasn't the most over wrestler of the night, Generico was. This was a gem that reminded me that Alex Shelley can really go. There was an insane super kicking spot where Shelley landed around four kicks to the head of a collapsing Generico. Shelley won with that flip over reverse cutter he does off the top rope for an impressive win.

Notes: All in all it was a very fun show that used a lot more comedy than the last few events. Nonetheless, the comedy was never a serious detriment if it wasn't welcomed, and the in ring action more then made up for it. Great show and I can't wait to go back tomorrow.