1) Roderick Strong vs. Joey Ryan - Quarter Final Round Match
Joey Ryan used cheap tactics to advance to this round on Night 1 where he defeated Chris Hero & he tried to do the same here as Jade Chung at ringside got involved on several occassions. It didn't phase Roddy however as he took the fight to Joey Ryan in this action packed opening match up. This one only went around 9 minutes, but it never slowed down and thus was a pretty entertaining way to get the show going.
Match rating - **3/4
2) Alex Shelley vs. Matt Sydal - Quarter Final Round Match
Now, THIS is the good stuff! The opener was decent, but it's nothing compared to this match between Alex Shelley and Matt Sydal. Things started out technical however it soon turned into a battle of one upsmanship as Shelley & Sydal threw everything they had at each other. Counter after counter, near fall after near fall, this match had me on the edge of my seat. The most jaw dropping moment came at the end where Sydal went for a shooting star press only for Shelley to catch him in mid-air with an ace crusher. Shelley follows it up with a tiger suplex and his finisher to put away Sydal. Awesome match!
Match rating - ****
3) Claudio Castagnoli vs. PAC - Quarter Final Round Match
Who knew two men that are complete opposites would work so well together? Claudio is the hardhitting swiss power house while PAC is the fast paced british highflyer yet the two styles meshed extremely well together here and made for a unique match. There are so many innovative and jaw dropping exchanges here that I won't even try to name them all. The action here was so fluid and the match was built up perfectly. This was my third time watching this match as I previously saw it on PWG Sells Out Volume 3 and it has certainly gotten better with time. After this viewing, I've come to the conclusion that this one deserves a higher rating than I gave it last time simply because of how the match was structured and how innovative some of the things they did here were. Fantastic match and the best bout of the evening in my opinion.
Match rating - ****1/4
4) CIMA vs. Shingo
From the opening bell these two went at it full speed. The action never slowed down and while it was entertaining, I think it barred this one from being as amazing as it could have been. They had a great sequence full of big moves and nearfalls, but just as things were heating up, CIMA gets the pin. None the less, very fun, high impact match!
Match rating - ***1/2
5) Nigel McGuinness vs. Necro Butcher
Only in PWG will you get a match this odd. Nigel and Necro are the definition of polar opposites which made for an odd style match. Necro started the bout by attacking Nigel in the entrance way and throwing chairs in the ring. This whole match was basically a brawl with a few cool moments such as Nigel and Necro trading vicious lariats. Nigel picks up the win with a suplex on two chairs.
Match rating - **1/2
6) El Generico vs. Dragon Kid
These two squared off on Night 1 in a barnburner tag team contest so I was really excited to see them go at it again here. This was just as good as their tag team contest with both guys giving their all. There were alot of nearfalls and several breathtaking moments such as Dragon Kid going for some sort of ace crusher off the apron however his leg caught the top rope so he took the brunt of the move as well by landing right on his head. Great match.
Match rating - ***1/4
7) Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong
Alex Shelley is on fire during this tournament. He's already delivered two outstanding matches and he continued that trend here. It shouldn't have surprised me because he's facing a guy in Roddy who rarely has a bad match so this was a recipe for success from the beginning. Yet another great match from Shelley with Roddy delivering his best performance in the tournament thus far.
Match rating - ***3/4
8) CIMA vs. PAC
This one started off way differently than I expected as we saw PAC try to ground CIMA. I figured it would be the other way around considering that CIMA is the veteran here, but PAC showed the wisdom in his young years by doing what I expected CIMA to do. CIMA would fight back though and we got a crazy good final few minutes with big moves and near falls that will make you mark out. Extremely entertaining Dragon Gate style stuff.
Match rating - ***1/2
9) El Generico vs. Nigel McGuinness
I recently watched this match on the El Generico DVD that PWG released in 2012 so I was interested to see how it would be on the second viewing. Thankfully, it was just as good as the first time around, in fact I enjoyed it more than I did the first time. If I remember correctly, it was very late at night when I watched this match on the Generico DVD so that could be why I didn't enjoy it as much the first go round. I gave this one ***1/4 last time, but I'm gonna bump it to ***1/2 after seeing it for a second time. Very good match.
Match rating - ***1/2
10) Tyler Black, Kevin Steen, Chris Hero, Jack Evans, Doug Williams & Susumu Yokosuka (w/ Candice LeRae) vs. Austin Aries, Karl Anderson, Human Tornado, Scott Lost, Jimmy Rave, & Davey Richards (w/ Jade Chung)
This was the definition of a star studded match. And to think that all 12 of these men were eliminated in Round 1 of the tournament just goes to show how stacked the line up was. None the less, these guys really put together an entertaining multi-man match here. As soon as I saw Kevin Steen take off Jack Evans doo-rag and put it on his head before doing a spinaranoo of his own, I was sold. After an array of dives, Human Tornado goes after Candice LeRae only for Chris Hero to roll him up and get the victory for his team. Great booking there by PWG as Hero and Tornado were just beginning to feud at the time and this added more fuel to the fire. Fun match.
Match rating - ***
11) CIMA vs. El Generico vs. Roderick Strong - Elimination Match
The action here was off the charts from the opening bell. I forgot this was an elimination match about halfway through so when CIMA pinned Generico after a vicious move on the apron, I thought this match was over. None the less, the bout continued and CIMA had one hell of an exchange with Roderick Strong before picking up the victory with his finishing manuever. Great match to close out an awesome tournament.
Match rating - ***3/4
After the match, PWG World Champion Bryan Danielson comes to the ring and shakes CIMA's hand. The two men had a MOTY candidate 30 minute draw earlier in 2007 so when Danielson pointed at CIMA then the belt and said "One more time", the crowd popped big time. Bryan leaves and CIMA celebrates with typhoon stablemates Matt Sydal, Dragon Kid, & Susumu Yokosuka before leading the crowd in a "P DUB G!" chant. CIMA says he and all the Dragon Gate guys will be back as soon as possible.
Overall thoughts: Until PWG hit it's real stride with BOLA in 2012 and the years following it, this was widely regarded as THE best Battle of Los Angeles tournament of all time and it's easy to see why. For one, to have all these talents under one roof in the same night was just unbelievable. This entire three night tournament was fantastic. It was basically a who's who of wrestler outside of WWE. You had ROH's finest, Dragon Gate Japan's finest, and PWG's finest all fighting for the BOLA trophy. Ironically enough, the best two matches on this show came second and third on the card. Claudio/PAC and Shelley/Sydal are worth the price of this DVD alone, in my opinion. Add that in with Shelley/Strong and the finals and you have a must see event. All the Dragon Gate style matches here such as CIMA/Shingo and CIMA/PAC are all fun, but get repetitive at times. The only real dud here is Nigel/Necro, but it's made up for with Nigel having an excellent match with Generico in the semi-finals. And to top it all off, the multi-man tag is something worth watching solely because you'll likely NEVER see all those particular talent in a ring together again. It's crazy to see it and think where they all are now. So, with all that being said, this is an event I'd recommend checking out.
Thanks for reading and be sure to follow me on Twitter @EthanPWT along with this blog @ThePWTruth!
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