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PWG BOLA 2018 Review

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla presents their annual Battle Of Los Angeles tournament, BOLA 2018 Night 1 held on September 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA

2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Rey Horus vs. Adam Brooks **1/2 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Flamita vs. Puma King **** 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match CIMA vs. Jody Fleisch ***1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Bandido vs. T-Hawk **** 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match “Bad Boy” Joey Janela vs. “The Product” David Starr ****1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Brody King vs. PCO **1/2 Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) vs. Ilja Dragunov & Shingo Takagi ****1/4+

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla presents their annual Battle Of Los Angeles tournament, BOLA 2018 Night 2 held on September 15, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA2018

Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Trevor Lee vs. Marko Stunt ***1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Jonah Rock vs. Sammy Guevara ***1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Robbie Eagles vs. DJZ ***1/2 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Jeff Cobb vs. Darby Allin ***1/2+ 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match Shingo Takagi vs. Ilja Dragunov ****1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles First Round Match WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher ****1/4 #STRONGHEARTS (CIMA, Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) vs. Bandido, Flamita, & Rey Horus ****

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla presents their annual Battle Of Los Angeles tournament, BOLA 2018 Night 3 held on September 16, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA

2018 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter Finals Match Trevor Lee vs. Brody King ***1/2 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter Finals Match Jeff Cobb vs. Rey Horus ***1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter Finals Match Shingo Takagi vs. Robbie Eagles **** 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter Finals Match Joey Janela vs. CIMA ***1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter Finals Match WALTER vs. Jonah Rock *** 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Quarter Finals Match Bandido vs. Flamita **** PWG Tag Team Championship The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) vs. The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix) **** 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Semi-Finals Match Jeff Cobb vs. Trevor Lee N/A 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Semi-Finals Match Bandido vs. Joey Janela **** 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Semi-Finals Match Shingo Takagi vs. WALTER ****1/4 Dan Barry, Darby Allin, Jody Fleisch, PCO & Puma King vs. Adam Brooks, David Starr, DJ Z, T-Hawk & Timothy Thatcher ***1/4 2018 Battle of Los Angeles Finals Elimination Match Jeff Cobb vs. Bandido vs. Shingo Takagi ****1/2+

Photos: Mikey Nolan Photography

I thought this was an excellent BOLA, which I enjoyed considerably more than the 2017 tournament. Whilst there were some pretty dumb kick-outs of big moves which shouldn't really be kicked out of, there was nothing as mind-blowingly stupid as some of last years; most notably Joey Janela’s preposterous kick-out of a Burning Hammer onto a chair (which infuriated me so much it caused me to turn off the tournament all together and not return to it for months), or Donovan Dijak kicking at one from a Keith Lee Moonsault in one of the most overrated matches I think I've ever seen in all of my days as a wrestling fan. But I digress, I enjoyed the 2018 tourney much more. The three shows were all very enjoyable and easy to sit through. The third day is usually a chore, just because of the number of matches, but this years was easier than most. Mainly because everything was kept relatively brief. The star of this thing was without doubt Bandido, who is a star on the rise within the independent wrestling scene. He wasn't involved in one match below ****, and he was made to look like a superstar in the finals, which were the best thing of the whole tournament.

Highlights from the first night included; Flamita’s win over Puma King in a very enjoyable lucha outing, Jody Fleisch and CIMA turning the clocks back to 2002 was very entertaining, Bandido and T-Hawk had a great match together in what would be the masked man’s first of many excellent BOLA outings. David Starr’s loss to Joey Janela was an incredibly stiff war, which was the best tourney match of the show, and the hard-hitting main event of WALTER and Thatcher taking on Shingo and Ilja Dragunov was an exceptional doubles clash. Everyone looked great in this, and WALTER and Dragunov lit each other up again, just like in there phenomenal 2017 16 Carat final in wXw. There were some missteps, namely the opener of Rey Horus and Adam Brooks going a ridiculously long 23 minutes (or something like this, either way it felt like 40), for no Earthly reason whatsoever. It did pick up by the end, but it was just a reinforcement that the match only needed to be 10 minutes. And PCO and Brody King had a terrifyingly sloppy brawl in which the veteran nearly killed himself, and his opponent, a couple of times.

Night two was even better with every match ranging from really good to excellent, with the last four matches in particular, all being great, but completely different to each other. Trevor Lee advanced over dinky Marko Stunt in a fun little match, Jonah Rock pinned Sammy Guevara in another good showing, and Robbie Eagles got the win over DJZ in an entertaining high flyer. Then things got really good as Jeff Cobb seemingly tried to kill poor Darby Allin in a thoroughly enjoyable bump fest. The Olympian threw Allin around like he was a literal rag doll, and Darby bumped like a madman for everything. After making a spirited comeback, Darby was put away when Cobb high his own version of the Kota Ibushi deadlift German Suplex. Great stuff here. Shingo Takagi, who also looked incredible throughout this thing, and who also had nothing but **** matches, defeated his tag partner from the night before, Ilja Dragunov, in an excellent, hard-hitting match with the Last Falconry. Ringkampf collided next with PWG Champion WALTER’s stiff lariat induced win over tag partner Timothy Thatcher. This was another excellent, tough, mat based outing. WALTER’s chops and kicks are something else. And the main event, which saw CIMA’s STRONGHEARTS victorious over the Lucha team of Bandido, Flamita and Horus, was a wild 11 minute high spot festival, and a great way to end the show.

The finals night was probably the best of the three, it must be said. Lee advanced over King in a very good outing, Cobb defeated Rey Horus in another fun little-guy-bumps-all-over-for-big-guy contest, and Shingo went to the semis after pinning Robbie Eagles in an excellent match. Joey Janela somewhat surprisingly went over CIMA, in a match that stretched believability (would you believe the Janela kicked out of pretty much every big move CIMA has ever had? I know, who’d have thought?), but was no less fun, WALTER pinned Jonah Rock in a decent, but short, battle of the big men, and Bandido advanced over tag partner Flamita in a great high flying encounter, as you'd expect. The PWG Tag Title Match between The Rascalz and The Lucha Brothers, was another excellent sprint. This too was a little short (11 minutes), but it never outstayed its welcome. The BOLA semis commenced with Jeff Cobb squashing Trevor Lee in 14 seconds, Bandido pinning Joey Janela with a Moonsaulting Powerslam into a stack of chairs to win a crazy match-up, and Shingo’s surprise win over WALTER in an intense hard-hitter. The prerequisite comedy 8 man featuring the first round losers was its usual fun self, which then led us into the fantastic final round. Cobb, Bandido and Shingo had a tremendous 3-way elimination match, which was by far the best thing on any of these shows. In fact, I’d probably even go so far as to say this was the best BOLA final since the Low Ki/Chris Hero one in 2008. Bandido got rid of Shingo early with his Powerslam Moonsault thing, then he and Cobb had an absolutely killer singles match. They kicked out of everything as the Globe Theatre went crazy for everything, and it was great. Now I know this seems hypocritical of me, but with this being the final, the stakes were high enough, that it really enhanced the drama. It looked like Bandido was going to pull the miracle win out, hitting his amazing Handspiring German and even Cobb’s own Tour Of The Islands on the big man for super believable near falls. It wasn't to be, however, as Cobb was just too much to handle, and put him away after a top rope Tour Of The Islands, followed by a regular version to win the trophy. This was a superstar making performance from both men, but especially Bandido, who looked incredible here.

All in all, this years BOLA is well worth checking out. It was consistently entertaining and featured some truly incredible action. Now if I must say something negative, its in the presentation of the product. I love PWG, and I know it has its own ‘grungey’ aesthetic, but this is 2018/2019 and the one hard cam, one hand-held camera at ringside set up is frustratingly minor league, as a viewer. Especially in this day and age where promotions like AAW have tremendous production values for an indy promotion. I mean everyone has progressed beyond looking like 2004 ROH, yet PWG haven't. Even if they are in a fancy new venue. But yes, this aside, I’d recommend you check these shows out.

NDT

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