Commentators: Excalibur, Austin Aries, Chris Hero, Chuck Taylor, Rick Knox, & Joey RyanExcalibur is in the ring to start the show and begins running down the card when The Young Bucks hit the ring. They protest their first round match which sees them face each other and try to get themselves counted out. Rick Knox won't have it and the match gets underway. Excalibur goes up to the stage to join Austin Aries on commentary and just as he does so DOUBLE SUPERKICK TO RICK KNOX! Double DQ is called by Patrick Hernandez and The Bucks are going to get off easy after all. Or so they thought! The Cutler Brothers come from behind the curtain and confront them which leads to the first actual match of the evening!
1) The Young Bucks vs. The Cutler Bros
If you've ever seen these two teams face off, you know this was great. They always seem to find a way to not make their matches feel repetitive. This match in particular was extremely different from the others as they delivered some awe inspiring counters that I'd never seen before. They had counters for each other's counters for each other's counters. It was unbelievable. The crowd was fired up the entire time and rightfully so considering this was just a month after these two teams were involved the classic three way Guerrilla Warfare match at SEVEN with El Generico & Paul London. None the less, The Cutlers pick up their first ever pinfall victory over The Young Bucks in a great opener.
Match rating - ***1/2
2) Brandon Gatson vs. Ryan Taylor
2010 was a big year for locals in PWG and here we have two of them on showcase. This is Gatson's second BOLA appearance after he shocked everyone by advancing to the semi-finals in 2009 and gaining a huge victory over Alex Shelley in the process. He put on a solid performance as he & Taylor both hit some cool stuff and went hard, but it unfortunately was nothing more than that. It felt somewhat disjointed however not to the point that you couldn't enjoy it so I can't complain too much about this. And after all, Ryan Taylor hit one of the best & most high impact dives I've ever seen Reseda as plowed through chairs and nearly landed behind the curtain.
Match rating - **1/2
3) Chuck Taylor vs. Joey Ryan
I figured this would be an oddly enjoyable bout and it was just that. I'm a massive Chuckie T mark so it probably comes as no surprise. They argued over some happenings on Twitter which ended with Chuck yelling that he was gonna unfollow Joey. The funny antics, the action, and the commentary from Chris Hero & Excalibur made for a nice little match.
Match rating - **3/4
4) Roderick Strong vs. Paul London
"HYBRID PENIS!" chants rang through Reseda as Roddy & Paul London delivered one of the most awkward matches I've ever seen in PWG which is saying something. I can't even begin to describe the antics we saw here, I'll just say that they were hilarious and if you're a fan of this kind of stuff that PWG does, you'll love it. After 10 minutes or so of feeling out (in more ways than one), they eventually got down to business. This nearly reached the 30 minute time limit which may seem like it went a bit long and while it did, there were only a few dull moments in which I lost interest. They kept it diverse by doing comedy and also doing straight up wrestling so it's pretty easy to remain invested although if a few minutes were cut off this may have broke three stars. Either way, bottom line is it's a fun match.
Match rating - **3/4
5) Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricochet
It's a returning powerhouse facing a debuting highflyer and boy was this fucking awesome. It was amazing to see this match considering it's historical significance. It was the match in which Claudio reached that next level in PWG as he would end up winning the World Title a few months after and it was also the night that Ricochet, a man who is still tearing it up in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla to this day in 2015, made his impactful debut. Claudio's strength brought the audience to it's feet and Ricochet's mindblowing displays of agility did the same. A perfect mesh of styles albeit unexpected. Awesome match!
Match rating - ***3/4
6) Austin Aries vs. Rocky Romero
Aries starts off the match by grabbing the mic telling all the fans, even those chanting his name, to keep their damn mouths shut. Well then. This was a good straight up pro wrestling contest with a nice mix of seriousness and comedy. Both guys played their role well with Aries getting a fair amount of heat. They had a dance off early on that Aries broke up by jumping Rocky after mocking his "Azucar" dance & catchphrase. The wrestling was basic, but well done with both men going back to their respective gameplans throughout the match as Aries targeted the leg of Romero while Romero targeted the arm of Aries with repeated cross arm breaker attempts.
Match rating - ***
7) Brian Cage vs. Brandon Bonham
This is early in Cage's PWG career and late in Bonham's. Unfortunately, that didn't make for a good match up. Dragon put alot of faith in these two by putting them so high on the card however it just didn't deliver for me. I never got invested in it and it felt like they were just hitting stuff to try and get a reaction. Bonham wins with two canadian destroyers. Cool finish, that's about it though.
Match rating - **
8) El Generico vs. Akira Tozawa
Along with Claudio/Ricochet, this was the sole reason I bought this DVD. Dream match alert! And to top it off, Chuck Taylor was on commentary with Excalibur for this which made this even more enjoyable. This didn't end up being the MOTY candidate that I expected it to be although it was a good match. These two had never faced off before so there were a few slip ups which was odd because it's rare to see that from either man, but they recovered nicely each time. There were a number of head drops and stuff that's become signature for both Generico & Tozawa. It was alot of fun. It just sucks because the finish was botched as the ref didn't count to three when he was supposed to so Tozawa had to hit a second bridging german suplex. Once again, he recovered extremely nicely by tucking the arms the second time around so Generico couldn't kick out.
Match rating - ***1/4
9) Chris Hero vs. Christopher Daniels
The Fallen Angel picked up where he left off the last time he was in Reseda by getting into with some fans. Just four years prior to this, he could be seen going off on a fan on the stage after his match with Colt Cabana. Either Daniels is a great heel or he just can't get along with the fans in SoCal. This was a pretty aggressive match with Hero throwing Daniels around early to show that he could more than hang with him. The matwork continued to be hard hitting however it wasn't a very intriguing match until the final 6-7 minutes in which they really turned up the heat. We saw some sweet counters before Hero locked in a dragon sleeper to put Daniels away. Nothing out of this world, but still a solid main event.
Match rating - ***
Overall thoughts: With past & future BOLA's setting such high bars, this had alot to live up to and while it's no where near the best we've seen from the Battle of Los Angeles, it's still an enjoyable night of wrestling. As I often say, if you're a fan of PWG and a few things on this card interest you, I'd say its worth a look. It's only $5 on Highspots right now so that's definitely a deal to seek out if you're interested. Super Dragon said in a Q&A that this was his least favorite BOLA and while I can probably agree, Claudio/Ricochet on this night, and Hero/Tozawa on the second night were two of the best PWG matches of 2010 so it wasn't all bad.
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