A look forward to the Battle of Los Angeles



When it comes to wrestling usually the month of April is one of the biggest in the year, everything seems to happen around that time. But this year, to me at least, September is becoming one hell of a big month for wrestling. We get Night of Champions, we see who wins the Bound for Glory and we get the main event set for Bound for Glory, Ring of Honor have a iPPV, CZW have their annual Chris Ca$h memorial (which will see Masada vs. El Generico). But to me the 2 biggest events will be Chikara's King of Trios (expect a preview of that) and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Battle of Los Angeles. On a side note my birthday is this month as well so it's a pretty big month for me.
So the Battle of Los Angeles is an annual tournament held in PWG and has always resulted in one of the best weekends of the year when it comes to ring work, the last one I saw was 2010 and that tournament was amazing. So before I start the preview I want to let you know that on Youtube you will find promos from pretty much everyone for the tournament most on PWG's channel but some on the wrestlers very own channel. Also the line up for Night 1 is the only matches announced so far so I can't preview Night 2.

Adam Cole vs. El Generico: Generico has been a part of 8 of these tournaments and has been one of PWG's top guys, for good reason as he's one of the best out there. Generico won the last years tournament and has been World & Tag champs (at the same time) so he's one of the favourites. Cole on the other hand has not done that much in PWG but is one of the up and comers in wrestling, he is great in the ring and will be a money maker in the business. So we could see a upset but in my view Generico will win because I think on Night 2 we'll get a Tag title match and since Kyle O'Reily is also on the show we could see Super Smash Bros vs. Future Shock.
Winner: El Generico

Michael Elgin vs. Davey Richards: A rematch of a 5 star match earlier this year. Elgin only debuted in PWG at Death to All but Metal (a show earlier this year) with a lose to Willie Mack and then he beat Sami Callihan, both very impressive showings. Davey is pretty well known already, he's held all the titles and some big ones outside the company. Davey has won lots of tournaments including winning the Super 8 and BOLA both in 2006. Hopefully Tony Kozina won't be there so he'd compete and not run off with the money. Anyways this match will likely be fantastic. This could go either way but I think much like the previous match it makes more sense for Davey, who has been a PWG guy for years, to go over and move on.
Winner: Davey Richards

Ricochet vs. PWG World Champ Kevin Steen: Ricochet has improved so much over the past couple of years, he recently main evented the Death to All but Metal so against El Generico in an incredible match it told such a great and simple story, highly recommend that show as well as that match. But he's going against PWG's main guy in Steen. Since the end of 2010 Steen has done everything in PWG. He entered last years BOLA as PWG champ losing in the finals, he would lose the PWG title to Generico but rebound by winning the tag titles with Super Dragon and then winning back the PWG title making him hold all the titles, literally when Dragon would leave. Steen has to win here especially since he's a key part in a 3 way title program at the moment (which I'll get too). When it comes to the match I expect some comedy in this but it will break down into a great match, I recently wrote about Steen and how his actual wrestling ability is overlooked. It should be noted that the title is not on the line during the tournament, it has been in the past.
Winner: Kevin Steen

Eddie Edwards vs. Kyle O'Reilly: I'm not going to argue that these two are good wrestlers but they're probably 2 of the blandest wrestlers out there. I expect this to be good but I really am not bothered, it's amazing to think that Eddie was an ROH champ and now is pretty much forgotten about. When it comes to PWG both these guys haven't done much at all, Eddie has been brought in on and off while Kyle has been teaming with Cole more than anything else. Now that is a team with a lot of up side and a team ROH should of kept together instead of break up. Like I said earlier I see Future Shock challenging for the Tag titles on Night 2 so Eddie is winning this.
Winner: Eddie Edwards

Sami Callihan vs. Willie Mack: Willie Mack was the story of a fan in the PWG crowd who got to do his dream and is now a wrestler. He's made quite the impact in his short time and has been apart of some great matches in PWG. Sami is probably one of my favourite wrestlers at the moment, a great promo and just incredible in the ring. His PWG career hasn't been long or that kind to him having lost every match he's in. This will likely happen again for one reason, Willie Mack is a key figure in the PWG title picture. At the last show Mack challenged Steen for the title and ending up losing after Brian Cage interfered and attacked both men when the ref was down. So I see Mack moving on and getting far as well.
Winner: Willie Mack

TJ Perkins vs. Joey Ryan: It's amazing what putting someone in a feud with a woman can do to your career. The last BOLA I saw (2010) had Joey Ryan winning the thing and now he's just a footnote on shows, which is sad. Joey has done everything in PWG, one of the longest reigning World champs, in fact he made it a World title, and was a tag champ a few times. TJ is a really talented guy but he's never got that run anywhere, he's someone that can put on great matches but no one gets behind and pushes. You could go either way here, you could have Joey win to help build him back up to where he was in the company or have TJ win to help build him up for future shows. I personally am going with TJ as you could get more out of him for the future, you've done everything you can with Joey in PWG as you should have since he's part owner and has been there since the beginning.
Winner: TJ Perkins

B-Boy vs. Brian Cage: I've already gone over the Title situation and how Cage is involved but there's a bit more. Cage challenged Steen at Death to All but Metal and Steen barely beat him, rolling him up when Cage went to pin him after hitting a rolling lariat. Cage came off as a big deal that night. B-Boy only returned to PWG a couple of shows before this, he had an incredible match against Drake Younger at the last PWG show, which was expected as those 2 mesh so well. But to me it's pretty much set that Cage will win. I don't see how he couldn't.
Winner: Brian Cage

Roderick Strong vs. Drake Younger: I think this will be a war. Drake only debuted at the last show against B-Boy and he's very Mick Foley-ish in terms of him doing insane bumps during his matches that will likely hurt him in the long run. Strong is a killer striker and Drake will take it in spades. These 2 have faced off in IWA Mid South in a great match years ago both have improved so this should be great. What I couldn't believe is watching Drake in PWG he's really changed his gear and looks like a wrestler and not a death match guy. I'd also like to say that Strong is very much like Eddie Edwards a former ROH World champ but has become pretty forgottable, amazing to think how that's come about and shows how bad ROH has become really. When it comes to a winner I think Strong is a logical choice, you don't lose anything with Drake losing in the first round and it'll probably be kinder to his body knowing how far he'd go in his matches.
Winner: Roderick Strong

Possible Finals-Willie Mack vs. Brian Cage: Every PWG fan is pretty much thinking the same here that this will be the finals. With the winner of BOLA getting a title shot in the future and both men being picked as the next champions by the fans I think this would help decide. What I see happening is this, in the semi-finals we'd get Steen against one of these guys, I'm thinking Mack, and have him eliminate Steen and then lose in the finals. You could then do a 3 way if you wanted and you keep the loser of the finals strong by the fact he beat the champ. For me Cage is winning the entire thing. But hey this is wrestling the fact we see it coming means it probably won't happen just to prove we were wrong, that's the story of wrestling it seems these days.

There's my preview. Lets see if I'm right. Regardless I expect this to be one fantastic weekend of wrestling and a must see tournament.

War is no Game son. But the title suggests it is.

As wrestling fans we’ve all grown to gain a fondness for the War Games steel cage match. It’s still a match that is asked to be brought back in today’s wrestling, even though it is but I’ll get there. Before I look into the good and bad of the match here’s a little history of the match.

Dusty Rhodes created the idea of this match back in 1987. The concept is not all that straight forward. There are 2 teams, usually of 4 men, 1 man from each starts the match. After 5 minutes a new man, usually from the heel team, joins the match and they rotate every 2 minutes until everyone is in. When that happens the infamous “match beyond begins” during which the match can only end by submit or surrender. The match debuted at the Great American Bash 1987 and 2 would be held in that month during the Great American Bash tour. This would see the Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes & Paul Ellering beat the 4 Horsemen with JJ (in the first match) and War Machine (in the last). The matches went over so well that 2 more would be held over the rest of the year and in 1988, during one tour from June 26^th till August 6^th a total of 11 War Games matches where held usually seeing the 4 Horsemen lose to babyfaces such as Lex Luger, Sting, Road Warriors, Dusty and more. I can only assume that the company sensed some overkill as in 1989 they went back to 2 matches but that changed again. In 1990 no War Games was held but in 1991 at Wrestlewar Dave Meltzer gave the match between the Horsemen against Brian Pillman, Sting & the Steiners a 5 star rating. This would be followed with 5 more matches being held that year during the summer.

After that WCW would begin to hold the match just once a year. The 1992 match between Sting’s Squadron and the Dangerous Alliance would gain another 5 star rating. The match was officially moved to Fall Brawl in 1993 and not many were worth mentioning, they were however a great addition to the NWO/WCW feud in 1996 & 1997. While the match was always something of a draw for the company they would gain the need to change the match in 1998, making it 3 teams (WCW, NWO & Wolfpac) of 3 and deciding that the match could end whenever by pinfall. Oh and only 1 person would win and they would win a WCW title match. It was a wreck and one of the worst matches ever but it’s a must watch because of how bad it is. Diamond Dallas Page won by pinning Stevie Ray. I would like to say this was the last WCW War Games but in 2000 they held another on Nitro, the match was held in the Triple cage that WCW had in 2000 and was in a movie you know, it saw Team Russo against Team WCW (I guess) but much like the last one it couldn’t be simple especially since Russo was booking it. The WCW title, which Kevin Nash held, was hung at the top and the match ended when one person left the bottom cage with the belt. After doing an entire match with Nash teasing that he’d turn on Team Russo he ultimately stayed and retained the title. Again it was awful but worth watching because of it. That would be the official death of the War Games on the big stage.

Of course the match wouldn’t die out and many independent companies would pick up the concept, which some changes. Combat Zone Wrestling would put add the concept to their annual Cage of Death match. Number 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11 would all be held under War Games rules however all but 7 added an elimination theme where touching the fall or being beaten would eliminate them. The Cage of Death would be held in another company, Ring of Honor held the match to end the ROH vs. CZW feud but this wouldn’t be ROH’s only War Games type match. They would hold Steel Cage Warfare in 2005 and in 2008, while the 2005 one was a highlight in ROH’s history the 2008 one was very forgettable. Another company which picked up the match as an annual event would be NWA Wildside, I don’t know much about the company but I do know they held War Games every year.

Some companies would put on the match as a one off. The short lived Major League Wrestling also held a match with the Extreme Horsemen vs. The Funkin’ Army. Another one off was IWA Mid-South holding a 3 Team War Games seeing Team IWA vs. Team Fannin vs. Team NWA for control of the company, having 5 men on each team this would have to be the biggest War Games ever held. XPW and ECW would also hold war games matches during their histories.

While you may have missed those matches that I mentioned another “Main stream” company has picked up the concept. TNA wrestling have held the War Games style match on a regular basis first doing it during the weekly PPV era. But it would become more noticeable when TNA created the Lockdown PPV and the Lethal Lockdown was born, the match was pretty much the exact same except when the final entrant came in a roof would lower with weapons attached and it could end with pinfall. Every year at Lockdown a Lethal Lockdown match would occur with mixed reviews coming out of them.

So there’s the history of the match. Now let’s look into the match itself. Usually you can expect to see blood during the match, when you go back and watch these matches you can see that they are some of the bloodiest in the history of the business. That really adds to the effect of the match and showcases how brutal it is and it’s portrayed that way. But what really adds to the match is the constant excitement you feel while watching, seeing who comes into the match next and some of the dangerous spots really adds to the match. I think what helps in its appeal is that we don’t see it, it’s a rarity for this match to happen. Even looking around the indies as well as the main stream companies at best you’ll see it 3 times in a year so it gives off that special feeling when it comes. However there is a problem and that mainly being that the match won’t end until everyone is in, now while some companies have changed that with the elimination rule the bulk of the time you’ll see the original match concept occur. And the reason it’s a problem is that the general feeling of “I don’t know when this could end” which is a great addition when watching a match isn’t there, we know that we have to sit through 20-30 minutes until we can possibly see it end.

So have we attached a special meaning to something that doesn’t deserve it. In my view no. The War Games match has given us a lot of great matches and has become iconic over the years. The match would still work and does still work in today’s wrestling world. We’re attached it as we relate the match to some of our best and worst memories as fans. So that’s my point of view and to reward you for reading like with my last blog with a match added on. I’m going to attach a 5 star match with Sting’s Squadron vs. the Dangerous Alliance.

Is Kevin Steen the new Mick Foley?

It may seem weird but comparing Mick Foley to Kevin Steen actually makes some sense but want to give you a little retrospective on Steen first. Kevin Steen broke into wrestling in 2000 and has done a lot over his 12 year career. His first main exposure was in CZW in 2004 back then the company was beginning to use a lot more outside talent and the Canadian’s got used a lot. Steen would go on to win the, now defunct, Ironman title from Franky the Mobster and would lose it too LuFisto nearly a year later, strange how these are all Canadians. Steen has publically stated that him and then CZW owner John Zandig did not get along, Zandig has also said he didn’t like Steen. When he lost the title he would pretty much leave CZW and apart from a one off he would not come back.

After his CZW run he would get arguably his biggest break in Ring of Honor. He would debut with El Generico, a regular tag partner, and would be given a great feud from the get go. The two would feud with then ROH Tag champs the Briscoe Brothers which would produce some amazing matches. The 2 would continue to chase the titles and got to the finals of a tournament to name new champions 2008 losing to Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black. They would finally win the titles at Driven 2008 beating Jacobs & Black. Their reign would be a good one and they would go into a feud with the American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) and they would lose the titles the Wolves in a Tables match on a TV taping in April 2009. The duo would continue to team until Final Battle 2009 were after a loss to the Young Bucks Steen would turn on Generico. This is where Steen’s wrestling style would begin to change. The feud with him & Corino against Colt Cabana & Generico would go on throughout the year and would involve some brutal matches like Street fights, Last Man Standing, Chain matches, Cage matches and ended with a Fight without Honor between Steen and Generico at Final Battle 2010. That match was for Steen’s ROH career and he wouldn’t be back until Final Battle 2011. Steen won his career back by beating Steve Corino in a wild hardcore match, after that Steen seemed to wrestle more hardcore matches than straight matches. Steen would win the ROH World title from Davey Richards at Border Wars, in the rematch at Best in the World the match would be a No Holds barred match. It’s got to the point where I think Steen has become reliant on the No DQ rules and using hardcore spots, a prime example being the recent Boiling Point PPV where the match between him and Eddie Kingston was made Anything Goes minutes before for no reason, the 2 had one match in Chikara and very little interaction in ROH.

There is no question, in my mind, that Steen is great at what he does and he is a damn good wrestler but you get this feeling that, like I said, he’s becoming reliant on the hardcore/brawling style much like Mick Foley (and there you go!). Mick to me was a fantastic promo guy and was a good to great in ring performer but if you watch his body of work he replied on big spots throughout, it’s rare to see a match were he didn’t hit the ring steps badly on fell onto the bare floor from high up. Now it’s not fair to say Mick was alone there, if you look back at WWE in 1999/2000 it was very often that come a PPV it would suddenly be announced that the main event, usually involving Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind or Triple H, would suddenly be a No Holds Barred match it pretty much happened every month, but Mick would do these big spots all the time.

When you look at Foley and Steen you can see a lot of similarities, both are great on the mic, both have never been in the best shape and both are great in the ring but are relying on big and dangerous spots. Now to counteract this I wanted to point out that while in ROH Steen seems to be doing more brawling than wrestling if you were to check out Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where Steen is in his 3^rd reign as PWG champion, he puts on some incredible matches without brawling. Steen shows that he is extremely talented in the ring and doesn’t have to rely on that hardcore style to get over so I wonder why he does in ROH. My main concern is that Steen could end up like Mick if this continues and could become a physical wreck, this big spots will likely have big lasting effects. The only positive is that Steen isn’t working this style every night, like I pointed out he does do normal wrestling matches elsewhere and isn’t doing the brawling style unless it makes sense and is telling a story. Ultimately I think the answer to my question is no I don’t think Steen is becoming Mick Foley, I feel that Foley relied on the hardcore style so much while Steen doesn’t have to rely on it and if he is the next Mick Foley that's no bad thing in my book.

If you read this I thought I would treat you with one of his matches so here is Steen/Generico taking on the Briscoes in a Ladder match from ROH Man Up PPV.