PWG BOLA 2014

PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 1- 8/29/14

This was my first ever PWG show. I remember getting the invite and actually being on the fence about whether I wanted to fly out to LA for 3 days. Especially just days before I was ready to leave for Mexico City for 2 weeks. Yes, I was an idiot. Thankfully I came to my senses, accepted the invite & the rest is history because I never wanted to miss another live PWG show. I remember walking into the building for the first time and being shocked at how small it actually was and wondering how they were gonna squeeze all those fans lined up outside into this small place. I also remember how overdressed I was because once everyone filed in it was INSANELY HOT and I was dripping in sweat before the matches even began.

TJP vs Bobby Fish: I didn't even remember until I looked up results that AR Fox was scheduled for this match but got replaced by Bobby Fish due to injury. But then it jogged my memory and I did recall one guy I was sitting with saying it was so obvious the replacement would lose that he was probably actually going to win and I got all worried because I was so into TJP. Thankfully TJP won and you can actually see me on video as the only guy in my section standing up and clapping. This match was awesome! That finish was super slick.

Roderick Strong vs Biff Busick: This was not the Roddy performance he had been usually delivering in PWG and I'm not sure what the deal was. Maybe he was saving it up the final night? Maybe it was Biff's fault? I just remember being let down a bit by the end of this.

Cedric Alexander vs Trevor Lee: This was another one where maybe my expectations were too high going in. They had a really good match but I think I was expecting some way crazier spots. The outside-in armdrag by Trevor was a really cool spot I'm sure surpirsed nobody has swiped. Trevor was one of my favorites to win the entire tournament at this stage.

Ricochet/Rich Swann vs Chris Daniels/Frankie Kazarian vs Candice LaRae/Joey Ryan: Now this was the PWG craziness I came for! Tons of crazy shit in this match as you can see in the video. Candice is perfect for a match like this and was easily the most over person in the match. The winners were never in doubt considering who was getting a title shot the following night.

Michael Elgin vs Tommaso Ciampa: A war! Definitely the best first round match of the night. They had this one striking exchange that was to die for and had the crowd explode. Ciampa escaping the corner Falcon Arrow to hit his power bomb onto the knees was a crazy spot! Great nearfalls at the end. This was some good matchmaking! There was also a spot mid-way through the match where Ciampa gives Elgin a DVD into the corner and comes up short which appears to destroy the board under the ring so that corner was very iffy for the rest of the show. Surprised Elgin was okay.

AJ Styles vs Brian Myers: Yeah... well... this. LOL One of the more infamous PWG matches since you don't often see actual bad matches in PWG and this was definitely a bad match! I think Myers had left WWE and was out to prove he could hang so naturally he was back in WWE months later. He brought nothing to the table. It's a shame a rare AJ indy match (at the time) was wasted on him. The culmination of this debacle was the finish being a top rope Styles Clash where Myers appeared to have zero clue how to take it so AJ had to force him into position and dropped him due to that. They bumbled into a new finish but crowd was done with this. Post-match Myers blew a second Styles Clash which got edited off the video and then they showed AJ finally giving it to him properly. Poor AJ then had to get to airport as he flew all the way back to where I came from - Toronto - to get driven to a show a couple hours away. He worked that show and then flew all the way back for Night 3 here. That's rough!

Kyle O'Reilly vs Drew Gulak: Not my type of match. It wasn't bad obviously... in fact some people had it ****+. I just wasn't into the faux shoot stuff and headbutts that don't look spectacular but clearly hurt so... what's the point of pro wrestling again? I would not rewatch this.

Kenny Omega/Chuck Taylor/Zack Sabre Jr. vs Adam Cole/Young Bucks: Another person missing the weekend with an injury was Trent so I presume he was supposed to be here instead of Zack although I can't actually remember if that is 100% true. It just makes sense based on the teams. Or maybe Kenny was the sub? I don't recall... but what I do recall is this was the match of the night and my first though after the final three count was HOLY FUCK ROB WHY DID YOU EVEN CONSIDER NOT COMING? Just an absolutely incredible match with crazy spots like Kenny getting double superkicked in mid-air while trying a dive, the Cole brainbuster onto his knee combined with a double superkick, the entire finishing sequence... I can go on all day. Trent got involved at the end after Rick Knox was taken out by a Zack Sabre Jr dive... yes... A ZACK SABRE JR DIVE! The perfect ending that really makes no sense (Trent counting a pin?) but sends the crowd home beyond happy so you don't question it because this is the point of wrestling you see - it's absurd!

A great show that gives me all the happy memories since it was my first live PWG show. I couldn't even believe there were two more nights to come of this madness!

(MV: Mae "Sometimes I Can't Make It Aloen" & "Brink Of Disaster")

Music Video


PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2 - 8/30/14 

I came dressed lighter! It was still boiling hot! No wonder this place cleaned up on beer sales.

Candice LaRae vs Rich Swann: A fact I didn't remember is that this was Trent's spot and Candice stepped in. This time I was sure the replacement was winning as to not make it so predictable the sub always loses and I was right! The first spot of this match is Swann slapping the FUCK out of Candice and I popped. I like face/heel dynamics in my match so that pretty much established it right away. Of course that gif probably didn't do Swann much good down the road. There was also a sick spin kick as Candice charged him in the corner at one point. Candice is the best at intergender wrestling was so this was good.

Chuck Taylor vs Johnny Gargano: My vivid memory from this match is a spot where Gargano goes for a tope suicida only for Taylor to catch him and give him a release suplex onto the apron... except Gargano completely missed the apron and just fell hard on his shoulder on the floor in front of my friend Mark who was horrified. LOL Anyone who says Chuck can't work needs to watch this match. It was great! They had this amazing corner exchange of knees & superkicks. Checking cagematch I see this didn't even get into the recommended territory which I find shocking.

Ricochet vs Chris Sabin: Whereas I see this got the recommended tag on cagematch and am perplexed because this was a totally fine match but nothing I would go back and watch because it was so great. Ricochet did a lot of power stuff rather than flying. It was good but not at the level of the previous two matches.

Biff Busick & Drew Gulak vs Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly: A very non-Bihari match! They got 20 minutes to work a solid tag with groundwork and strikes. I am sure the people who enjoy this style much more than me loved it. After seeing the 3 way tag & trios from night 1 I couldn't get my brain into the mode to enjoy this very much.

Chris Hero vs Matt Sydal: This was full of cool moments where Sydal would try something (like his standing moonsault) and Chris would catch him right into the cravat. A very good big man/little man match with a surprise ending as I think most had Chris pegged to advance. I certainly did.

Adam Cole vs Zack Sabre Jr.: AMAZING! So many cool counters and moves out of nowhere. Crowd was red hot for Zack and wanting to see Cole lose. I'm not sure how many actually thought it would happen since Cole moving on seemed logical as he was a top guy and Zack was the guest star in for the weekend. I nearly died when Zack did his standing armbar and Cole countered right into the brainbuster onto the knee! The finish was absolutely incredible with Zack trapping Cole's legs and getting the three count as the place EXPLODED! Best singles of round one this year by far.

ACH vs Kenny Omega: It's kind of incredible to think back to getting the chance to see Kenny when he was just another dude in this tournament, probably less popular than many of the other competitors and nowhere near what he is today. This was a really good match but of course everyone remembers is as Rock vs Austin. I guess earlier they had seen this fan who was in attendance wearing a Stone Cold sleeveless jacket and decided to incorporate it into the match. ACH grabbed it late in thematch and started doing Austin spots. As he went for the Stunner, Omega blocked it and started doing Rock punches and went for the Rock Bottom. After a series of exchanges ACH finally hit the Stunner and the crowd was NUCLEAR! My first moment of being at PWG live and getting "oh... yes... this is the perfect wrestling atmosphere". Grown men losing their minds at two guys cosplaying a famous rivalry. To be honest I'm not sure why this hasn't caught on more to this day. Seems like the easiest way to get a huge reaction & amuse yourself if you aren't going 100% on the night. Not to say these guys weren't going 100%... ACH was a madman in this match. He took a sick bump for Kenny's kick into the corner and on the hadoken to set up the finish. This is is exactly the type of match you should your friend you want to get into PWG.

Young Bucks vs Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian: These guys had a hell of a job following that previous match and honestly I think they did it with flying colors but over time it has gotten lost in the lore of Rock vs Austin. I honestly thought by the end of the weekend this was in the top three but nobody will listen to me! These guys just work so well together and they didn't waste any time by starting off right away with the highspots and going for 20 minutes. There was a scary Spanish Fly by Kazarian who barely made the flip over. Nick took a nasty slingshot DDT to the floor right onto his tailbone. There were the usual great superkick out of nowhere spots. Really just a great match leading to the end and the debut... of the... MELTZER DRIVER! Often incorrectly confused with the Indytaker which is just a springboard spike tombstone. This was the springboard somersault spike tombstone. You can see me on video just standing up with my hands on head like WHAT DID I JUST SEE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? An incredible moment. Going behind the curtain - I had seen them working out the match but had no idea this was coming because you don't practice this stuff. You just calculate the distance and go for it in the moment. So they did... and they nailed it! Excalibur & Chuck Taylor lost their ever loving minds on commentary! A perfect end to the evening.

BOLA Night 2 has a rep for always being the best night and I can definitely say without hesitation this topped Night 1.

(MV: Anberlin "Glass To The Arson" & "Change The World"

Music Video


PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 3 - 8/31/14

Johnny Gargano vs Candice LaRae: A couple that wrestles each other stays together? You would have never guessed Gargano was her boyfriend the way he was tossing her around here! There was a great spot I wish we'd see more often where Gargano counters a top rope rana by just dropping Candice right on the top turnbuckle. I'll admit I was worried Candice would advance... not a big fan of the intergender dynamic here. Thankfully Gargano went over in a hot opener.

Ricochet vs TJ Perkins: What a great pairing! Perkins was my boy on night 1 but I couldn't cheer for him here since I wanted Ricochet to go far. They had some awesome exchanges. Ricochet showed off his underrated strength at one point by muscling up Perkins into a fireman's carry from an awkward position. Second straight match that went 10 minutes which is perfect for opening round of a long night.

Michael Elgin vs Trevor Lee: Unfortunately I was sitting with someone who spoiled this result as the match began. I won't name names! But I can read faces! So I knew Trevor was going over which made the nearfalls slightly less climactic. Still a great match though as Trevor was one of the MVP's of the night. Elgin took some awesome bumps for all Trevor's moves too.

Matt Sydal vs Kenny Omega: Another great pairing! I remember Kenyn being over but not super over like these days obviously. I don't think many gave Sydal a chance of winning but the nearfalls got nice reactions. They tried this one crazy spot where Omega was going for the One Wing Angel and Sydal was supposed to stomp him out of it but they kinda fucked it up which is understandable.

AJ Styles vs Roderick Strong: God bless AJ... after all that travel he still brought his A game and put on an incredible performance in this one. This was the result everyone was curious about obviously since AJ was IWGP Champ so you knew he wasn't getting pinned but I don't think anyone thought he was winning the tournament either. Roddy was a beast here tossing AJ around. Some of his combo spots were fucking brilliant. The AJ counter into the asai DDT was tremendous. You had the ref bump as expected, the title getting involved & then the DQ so Roddy gets to move on but AJ doesn't actually lose. To be honest with 2020 eyes even seeing NJPW agreed to their guy taking a DQ loss is surprising but I'm thinking PWG was still under the radar since it hadn't been invaded by Meltzer yet.

Kyle O'Reilly vs Zack Sabre Jr.: So the honest truth? I didn't like this live. Following all those previous matches this was worked sooooooooo slow and combined with the heat in the building and length of the show so far it was one of those matches you were just waiting for to end. But watching it back I definitely appreciated it much more. These guys are naturals against each other obviously. Kyle was either gonna win the tournament or drop a match to someone who would be his next challenger and Zack's time was not yet so Kyle submitted him clean in the longest match of the opening round. Some had this as the match of the night.

ACH/Chris Sabin/Brian Myers vs Adam Cole/Young Bucks: Back from intermission with a six man tag - just the way I like it! No time wasted as both teams hit triple dive spots early on. ACH did the crowd surfing and got superkicked in mid-air which was CRAAAAAAAAAAAAZY! Myers sorta stayed out of the way but the little he did was better than the AJ match and he ate some superkicks really well. ACH teased doing his Stone Cold shtick again but it didn't happen. Mount Rushmore went over in a really quick match but Bucks did all their stuff so no complaints.

Next up was supposed to be Kyle O'Reilly vs Roderick Strong but Roddy attacked him and suplexed him through a chair bridge.

Johnny Gargano vs Trevor Lee: THE HIDDEN GEM OF THE 2014 BOLA! This match was a fucking masterpiece in counter wrestling. Basically every spot you know these guys do... the other had a counter. Genius stuff really. Near the end of the match they do this crazy back-and-forth rope running sequence and it's hard for me to even contemplate how they remembered who was supposed to go where and when. Gargano ended up getting Trevor to tap in a legit ****3/4 match. These guys (& the next match) were helped by this year only having two semi-finals so they didn't get shorted on time.

Ricochet vs Kenny Omega: WHAT. THE. FUCK. Just a semi-final! Imagine finding out you are getting to see this on the mid-card of a show and it would only be 1 of 3 Ricochet matches in one night. And you wonder why BOLA was considered the ultimate indy tournament? This was as good as you'd expect and live I had it as the match of the night. Re-watching I'd put Johnny/Trevor & the finals above it. But the live atmosphere put this over the top. My one complaint would be Ricochet just doing a running somersault plancha in a spot where I felt he needed to do something bigger with Kenny having just done one. The biggest moment of the match was Kenny setting up for Croyt's Wrath OFF THE TOP ROPE and having trouble getting Ricochet off his shoulders. He tried once... no go. He tried twice... no go. Crowd was super hot by this point ad on the third try... he got him! And Ricochet landed on his feet! UNREAL! My nitpicky brain for cool spots has to point out Ricochet took too long standing there selling he landed on his feet so by the time Kenny got up to take the next spot the moment was kind of gone. Still an incredible visual! In a mild upset Ricochet went over and Kenny put him over after the match as well.

This is where it was announced Kyle was "taken to hospital" & Roddy was given a buy straight to the finals.

Biff Busick/Bobby Fish/Cedric Alexander/Drew Gulak/Tommaso Ciampa vs Chris Hero/Chuck Taylor/Joey Ryan/Rich Swann/Willie Mack: Ah the annual BOLA 10 man tag! My first one! Many other companies try to duplicate but none have done it so far. It's just the perfect thing to happen on a long night instead of an intermission you just get to watch 10 dudes have a blast and entertain you with their dumbest ideas! LOL This had more wrestling than we'd see in future years but still had the usual crazy fun spots. I thought Hero really stood out doing a big dive and taking everyone out with elbows at one point. Had to look up who went over and it was Hero's time which surprises me since I figured Mack would go over in his farewell. Post-match everyone hugged and we had the emotional goodbye for Mack in one of those strange but true situations where one week he's leaving forever and the next week he's looking for indy gigs after WWE passed on him due to the ever mysterious "medicals failure"... whatever that actually means. He never did make it back to PWG so at least he got his farewell one way or the other.

Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet vs Roderick Strong: The best final until 2018. In fact if not for 2018 - this was the best BOLA final of the decade. Don't argue with me! They did a perfect 3 way match with everyone always being involved and nobody standing around at any point just watching two others guys wrestle. I kinda figured Roddy wasn't winning since he already had his title shot in theory by what he did to Kyle so it made sense when he went out first. Then the final two was super tense with Ricochet coming out on top to take him the trophy in an excellent match and definitely in the top 3 of the night. My #2 but I can see it swapping with Ricochet/Kenny in other's eyes. Post-match Roddy destroyed the trophy to continue his heel tactics on the night.

All good things must come to an end! Including my first live BOLA! I remember just being overjoyed at my decision to come and laughing the entire flight home the next morning at the mere thought that I almost decided against it. I knew I'd never make that mistake again and this would end up being a yearly thing. We filmed some cool shoot interviews that weekend as well & I got to meet a lot of guys for the first time. Drew Gulak was really cool & convinced me to start attending SMASH shows here in Toronto. Rich Swann was super happy because he had secretly signed with WWE and was finally gonna make some real money. Zack was fucking hilarious post-show on the final night.

(MV: Anberlin "Autobahn", "Naive Orleans", "Cold War Transmissions" & "Godspeed")

Music Video