PWG: 2014 Battle of Los Angeles Night One Review

PWG: 2014 Battle of Los Angeles Night One DVD Review

For the first time in 7 years, PWG has expanded it's annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament to three nights. An extra night of action means more competitors. Instead of the usual 16, there will be 24 entrants in this year's tournament. It's bound to be epic and I've finally got the DVD so let's get right into Night One of the most prestigious tournament in wrestling.

1) TJ Perkins vs. Bobby Fish - First Round Match
This year's tournament features an array of returns & debuts and this match is the perfect example as TJP is making his return after a year away from PWG while Bobby Fish is making his first appearance in PWG. These two have somewhat similar styles so I expected a good match up and that's just what we got. Fish got the first real advantage of the bout and began working over the knee of Perkins on the outside of the ring. Perkins would retaliate however and the two had an outstanding submission battle in the center of the ring which was probably my favorite part of the match. Well, it WAS my favorite part of the match until TJP came up with one of the most innovative pins I've ever seen as he bridged out of an ankle lock which put Fish's shoulders on the mat for the three count. Very good opening match that left me wanting to see these two face off again.

Match rating - ***1/2

2) Roderick Strong vs. Biff Busick - First Round Match
I've often referred to Roderick Strong as the gatekeeper of PWG and although Strong belittled that term in his promo after ELEVEN, this was another great example of that as Biff Busick was making his PWG debut here. I don't think there's a better opponent for a debutee in PWG than Roderick Strong because the guy simply can't have a bad match. Both of these guys hit hard

PWG: Eleven DVD Review

On July 26th, 2014, PWG celebrated it's 11th Anniversary event, aptly titled "ELEVEN". It featured Kevin Steen's farewell, the return of Frankie Kazarian, and the final chapter in the Young Bucks/Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae feud.

1) Tomasso Ciampa vs. Rocky Romero
Ciampa was at a bit of a disadvantage to start with because he had a bad case of sunburn and he didn't help himself out by missing a dive to the outside early and landing in the front row of chairs. Romero tried to take advantage of this early mistake, but Ciampa fought back in what was a very competitive contest. These two traded alot of strikes throughout the match and produced a solid opening contest. Ciampa picks up a big win over a PWG veteran, Romero.

Match rating - ***

2) ACH vs. Cedric Alexander
This was a highly anticipated match simply because of the buzz both guys have been creating as of late. The first half of this match was held at a pretty methodical pace although it had it's shining moments such as ACH crowdsurfing and Cedric hitting a dive through the turnbuckle onto ACH and nearly nailing a fan in the process. While this bout started off slow, it picked up with time and developed into the fantastic

ROH Year Four DVD Review

ROH: Year Four Review

Samoa Joe/Mick Foley confrontation
The DVD opens with a segment between Mick Foley and Samoa Joe from "It All Begins" in January of 2005. Foley claims he has an offer for Joe to go to WWE and face Triple H for the Heavyweight Title. This leads to Foley saying that Vince called him fat and various other insults. Foley asks Joe what his goal is in life and questions whether or not he could make it on the big stage. This promo exchange between the two results in a brawl. Cool segment.

1) Austin Aries (c) vs. Colt Cabana - Steel Cage Match for the ROH World Title
Aries and Cabana started off with some straight up wrestling, however both guy soon began trying to gain the advantage by using the cage as a weapon. Cabana was the first to taste the steel and began bleeding while Aries would be busted up not long after. This was a solid cage match that had several

ROH: Ring of Hardcore DVD Review

ROH: Ring of Hardcore DVD Review

1) Da Hit Squad vs. The Carnage Crew - Boston Massacre Match - Honor Invades Boston - 8/24/02
The two teams start brawling from the opening bell and barbwire is brought in after about 5 minutes of action. All four men end up bleeding courtesy of it. This was just a brawl for the most part. Not really any storytelling just four guys hitting each other with stuff. Two barb wire boards were brought into play near the end and one man from each team ended up getting put through both of them which led to the end of this match. Pretty sloppy brawl. Not much to it, but you'll be entertained.

Match rating - **3/4

2) Homicide vs. Steve Corino - Barbed Wire Match - War of the Wire - 11/29/03
I had only seen one barbed wire match prior to this and that was the infamous Terry Funk/Sabu match from ECW. Well, needless to say, this was way better than that one. Homicide and Corino told a phenomenal story here and I was on the edge of my seat the whole match. They came up with a lot of innovative ways to use the barbwire ropes against each other such as Corino hanging Homicide by his legs from the barbwire and Homicide nailing Corino with an ole kick in the corner only to get himself caught in barbwire. There was a table wrapped in barbwire that was broken when Homicide hit an exploder suplex on Corino through it. This was an amazing match that I'll never forget. The best barbed wire match I've ever seen. Classic.

Match rating - ****1/2

3) Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe - Steel Cage Match for the ROH World Title - At Our Best - 3/13/04
The intensity in this match was off the charts. Briscoe got busted open a few minutes in and he bled profusely throughout the match to the point that the blood began clotting. It was one of the most cringe worthy things I've ever seen in wrestling. These two beat the hell out of each other in this classic Steel Cage Match. The end came when Samoa Joe hit the muscle buster off the top rope which was just amazing to see. Awesome match. Bouts like this are what made early ROH so good and what gave the ROH Title so much prestige.

PWG: The Many Adventures of El Generico DVD Review

PWG - The Many Adventures of El Generico DVD Review

1) El Generico vs. Kevin Steen - Free Admission (Just Kidding)
This was the debut of both Steen & Generico in PWG. They were originally supposed to face The Aerial Express in a tag team match, but they didn't show so Steen & Generico ended up having to go one on one with each other. Steen seemed pretty happy about this as he went on the attack right away. Both guys were setting out to impress here as they pulled out all the stops to put on a great mid-card match. Alot of fun action here and as usual Steen was very entertaining with his trash talking throughout the match. Really good bout.

Match rating - ***1/2

2) El Generico & Quicksilver vs. Scott Lost & Chris Bosh - Beyond The Thunderdome

PWX: Live and In Demand Night 1 Review

PWX: Live & In Demand Night 1 DVD Review

My first taste of PWX came when a local wrestling show in my area aired a match that Jay Lethal and Cedric Alexander had. I was blown away by how great it was and wanted to see more of PWX which led me to buying this DVD. So let's see what this company is all about!

1) Adam Page vs. Lance Lude
I'm familiar with Page from his work in ROH so I figured this would be pretty good despite being totally unfamiliar with Lance Lude. Page got a nice reaction from the crowd while Lude didn't get much of a reaction at all. Once the commentators began talking, I learned that this was Lude's debut so that explains that lack of reaction during his entrance. This match never really got off the ground in my opinion. Every time it was about to take

Super Dragon: Destruction DVD Review

Ever since 2013, I've been hooked on PWG. I've bought over 20 of their DVD's since then and continue to buy them. So last month when they released a compilation for one of the founders/owners of the company, Super Dragon, it was a must have for me. I had only seen two Super Dragon matches before buying this DVD, but I was eager to see more bouts from the career of the man behind one of the best wrestling companies in the world, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.

This DVD features bouts from throughout Dragon's career in PWG, CZW, WXW, Revolution Pro, and GSCW. There are also a variety of opponents featured here. Some you may know include Kevin Steen, El Generico, Joey Ryan, The Young Bucks, Samoa Joe and Necro Butcher. This is bound to be an awesome DVD so let's get right into it!

1) Super Dragon vs. Bobby Quance - GSCW - December 14th, 2002
The first bout on this DVD is the SoCal Match of the Year for 2002 between Super Dragon and Bobby Quance. There are several matches on this DVD that don't take place in PWG and this is one of them. This bout took place in a company called GSCW. Alot of things here were similar to PWG though such as the fact that Rick Knox is the referee and we also get to hear Excalibur during the match, but not on commentary. Here he is managing Super Dragon and
does a good job of keeping him motivated throughout the bout as well as jawing with the fans. After a few minutes, it was clear that Dragon was a heel at this time along with Excalibur. They both did a wonderful job with their characters here. The crowd was behind Bobby Quance who I've seen compete once before in his one night only return in PWG back in 2009. This match was filled with stiff strikes including a vicious headbutt from Dragon to Quance that made me cringe. There was also a good bit of highflying such as Quance hitting a breathtaking shooting star press off the top turnbuckle onto Super Dragon & Excalibur and Dragon cutting a flip out of the ring onto Quance. This was a dramatic back and forth battle with alot of near falls. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire final 10 minutes or so. Just great stuff that is definitely MOTY worthy. Awesome start to this DVD.

Match rating - ****1/2

2) Super Dragon & B-Boy vs. Bobby Quance & Jardi Frantz - GSCW - March 29, 2003
After Dragon and Quance's epic performance, I had high expections for this match since it involved both of them. On top of that, I've seen Dragon and B-Boy team up before and they tore the house down so I was very excited. Needless to say, this lived up to expectations. Just a fantastic tag team match. This bout was selected as the 2003