Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
We kick the show off with Ronin & TJ Perkins taking on Bino Gambino & Karl Anderson in a non-tournament tag match. In a strange bit of booking, Ronin had lost in the first round of the 2006 BOLA tournament and had immediately dedicated himself 100% to winning the 2007 tournament. He went undefeated from then on with wins over SHINGO, Super Dragon, Scott Lost, and TJ Perkins before finally losing to Joey Ryan via questionable means and then a second match to Kevin Steen the next night. He came back by beating Human Tornado and then Topgun Talwar, but apparently it was not enough to get him in the tournament and he wound up working a non-tournament tag match instead. Weird that losing two matches in a year would disqualify him from competing in the tournament, but here he is and, after TJ took a beating for most of the match, Ronin came in and cleaned house and put Gambino away with a Death Valley Driver.
On to the tournament matches, as former PWG Champion Human Tornado takes on CIMA, who made it all the way to the finals of BOLA 2006. After chasing Joey Ryan for the better part of 2006, Tornado had finally beaten him for the PWG Title early in 2007 and then lost it to El Generico in his first title defense. Ever since then, Tornado had been blatantly abusing his manager Candice LeRae, everything from verbally right on down to pulling her in front of him to absorb attacks from other wrestlers and outright smacking her in the face himself. Here, he tries pimping Candice out to CIMA, but instead winds up on the receiving end of an ass kicking that he only breaks by again using Candice as a human shield. Candice finally got her revenge late in the match with a missile dropkick on Tornado, and CIMA capitalized by hitting the Schwein on Tornado for the win.
Tornado, ever the gentleman, gave Candice a hug after the match...and then suckerpunched her and put the boots to her before hitting TND, a move whose full name I won't print here due to its non-PC nature. He went to leave, then came back and gave her TND again and then put her in the Crippler Crossface, which got a huge gasp from the crowd since this was just two months after Chris Benoit had his little newsworthy event. Chris Hero came out to make the save and told Tornado he was going to kick his ass.
The next first round match saw Scott Lost of the Dynasty taking on SHINGO, representing Dragon Gate. These are probably two of my favorite independent wrestlers around, I think Lost is one of the most talented guys I've seen over the last decade and it's really too bad he ended up retiring and never got a shot in the big time because he was so good and so smooth with everything he did that it's a shame he never got to the next level, though I do respect him for knowing when to get out. SHINGO is hands down the best talent on the Dragon Gate roster, and you get great results when you put him in there with a guy like Lost who can really go. SHINGO dominated with power based offense, and Lost turned the tables thanks to the interference of his manager Jade Chung, but SHINGO ducked a superkick and hit the Last Falconry to advance.
Next up was Kevin Steen, also a former PWG Champion, taking on the Necro Butcher, and I've seen these guys wrestle at least a dozen times and they are not at all shy about beating the ever loving crap out of each other. These are two big, tough guys who can dish out a beating and take one as well, sometimes to the point where it gets a little cringe-inducing to watch. Steen spent much of the match working over Necro's knee, and then they went toe to toe until Necro Butcher shocked and awed the hell out of everyone by pinning Steen with an O'Connor Roll of all things to score the upset win and advance.
Now we move on to the match I was most looking forward to in the first round, as Nigel McGuinness faced Davey Richards, a former multi-time PWG Tag Team Champion and the winner of the 2006 Battle Of Los Angeles. Richards is looking to repeat as the winner of BOLA, but first will have to go through McGuinness just to get past the first round. Even though both men have been major players in Ring Of Honor, they never wrestled in a singles match there, and I don't believe they've ever faced off in a tag match either. It's too bad the match never happened even though it probably would have if Davey had gotten a big singles push sooner, or Nigel had stuck around a little longer, but all is well because we're getting it here, albeit on Davey's home turf.
This match was awesome and everything I would have expected out of a big time ROH main event. Davey opened up early on with all his hard-hitting strikes, but Nigel managed to frustrate the hell out of him by simply blocking all the strikes and dominating him with his own offense. It was interesting to watch Davey, who had been such a buzzsaw in PWG, being completely controlled by Nigel to the point where he almost looked like he couldn't compete. Davey finally caught an advantage and smartly started working over Nigel's arm to prevent him from hitting any lariats, but Nigel fought through the pain and tore through Davey with the rebound lariat to get the win and eliminate the 2006 champion in the first round. Terrific match, easily the best of the first round, and well booked so that the only way the 2006 champion could have possibly been eliminated this early in the competition was by putting him in a match like this.
We move on to El Generico taking on Tony Kozina, which seemed like a really one sided match because, for as solid a worker as Tony Kozina is, he's always been booked as a journeyman wrestler who has good matches and then loses, while Generico is a former PWG Champion and a current PWG Tag Team Champion. Because of that, they sort of blindsided us by turning this into one of the more entertaining matches of the first round. Even though Generico was the clear favorite, they teased Kozina scoring a major upset multiple times, at one point hooking Generico for a small package, and also nearly beating him off a top rope Frankensteiner to the floor. This was much more competitive than you would have expected, but Generico came back and hit the brainbuster to advance.
This brings us to the final match of the first round, as Susumu Yokosuka takes on Dragon Kid. These two were partners the night before as they unsuccessfully challenged Kevin Steen & El Generico for the PWG Tag Team Title, and now they're opponents as both seek to become the 2007 Battle Of Los Angeles Champion. Standard Dragon Gate style, big man vs little man match where Yokosuka hit Dragon Kid with all his hardest-hitting offense, but Dragon Kid survives everything and reverses a top rope Splash Mountain attempt into a top rope Frankensteiner, then hits the Rey Mysterio hurricanrana into a cradle for the win.
* * *
After two nights of action, the first round of the 2007 Battle Of Los Angeles is officially over. The 12 men who made it through are:
Block A: Joey Ryan, Roderick Strong, Matt Sydal, Alex Shelley
Block B: Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, CIMA, SHINGO
Block C: Necro Butcher, Nigel McGuinness, El Generico, Dragon Kid
We'll pick this up tomorrow as one of these men fights through three more rounds and claims the title of Battle Of Los Angeles 2007 Champion!
You can get information on ordering this and other Pro Wrestling Guerrilla releases from our friends at www.highspots.com.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
