411’s Buy or Sell 08.31.07: Austin Aries, “Photogenic” Chris Bosh, Is BOLA the Biggest Event of the Year?, and more!
Posted by Samuel Berman on 08.31.2007
The 411 staff continues to preview this weekend’s Battle of Los Angeles Tournament with a trip out to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as Bayani Domingo battles Matt Adamson in a special Super-Sized Edition!
Welcome everyone to WEEK TWENTY of BUY or SELL. For those of you who haven't been with us since the beginning, here's the Reader's Digest version of what this column is all about. BUY or SELL is very much like 411's long-running Fact or Fiction column. The main difference is that BUY or SELL focuses on topics like the U.S. Independent scene, Lucha Libre, Japanese Wrestling and pretty much anything else that isn't mainstream wrestling, WWE and or TNA. This allows for these areas to get a bit more press and for you, our loyal readers, to learn even more about the sport of professional wrestling.
Week Twenty's Match-Up:
Truth B Told author Bayani Domingo vs. Destiny's Matt Adamson!
This year will mark the first time that a non-PWG regular will win the Battle of Los Angeles Tournament.
Bayani Domingo: SELL. To me you go with either El Generico, PAC, or possibly Roderick Strong as the winners of the tournament. In either case all of these guys can now be considered "regulars" since they've been on pretty much every show this year. The only guys who could even stand a chance as "non-regulars" would be Nigel, CIMA, and now a real darkhorse in Jimmy Rave. Provided of course that this is the start of Jimmy's long time commitment to PWG. While I'm secretly hoping for CIMA to win, I doubt it will happen because this year the winner just HAS to win the World Title and hold it for a significant length of time for the tournament to mean anything and I doubt CIMA or even Nigel can guarantee their booking for that long.
While some might consider PAC and Strong as semi-regulars, I think they've had enough shows under their belts to warrant ‘regular' status. Besides, if the question was "Local SoCal Regular" winning the tournament then the answer would still be SELL because of the guys in the tourney only 3 are even SoCal guys now. Joey, Lost, and Human Tornado, and I don't think PWG would be foolish enough to keep giving the local guys another win, not after BoLA has now replaced TPI, the Jeff Peterson Cup, and "The Best of the Best" as the most prominent tournament on the Indy scene.
Matt Adamson : SELL . I agree with Bayani that it will at the very least be a semi-regular PWG guy who wins this thing. Why would they want to spend money and time to promote something that doesn't somewhat belong to them, that's bad business and PWG usually isn't in the business of bad business. It's like paying big money for an imported beer when you have a wide variety of local microbrews at your disposal.
1 for 1.
With a rash of retirements by PWG regulars in 2007 (Disco Machine, Chris Bosh, Quicksilver), PWG is losing its traditional Southern California feeling and needs to concentrate on developing a new crop of local talent.
Bayani Domingo : BUY. Right now PWG has about a dozen guys on the roster who live locally in SoCal: Joey Ryan, Super Dragon, Rocky Romero, TJ Perkins, Scott Lost, Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson, Scorpio Sky, Ronin, Top Gun Talwar, Bino Gambino, and The Youngbucks. Of those 4 of them own the company and all of them have been booked prominently on the card. Only Rocky Romero really stands out as a guy who could sustain any push he was given as everyone else are either
jerking the curtain at shows or merely mid-carders used to fill out the rest of the show. With ‘Arrogance' gone and ‘The Dynasty' down to 4 members, one of which is a valet, PWG needs to start looking for local talent they can push as legitimate ‘stars' in case they can't afford to keep booking top level talent. There has even been talk of opening up a wrestling school and I would be fully behind that idea.
Don't get me wrong because there is still good Indy talent that is underutilized in the lower card right now. The Youngbucks are capable young wrestlers for the tag division that is on life support and Rocky Romero is a good push away from being an acceptable main event level guy, at least by the live audience's standards. It seems like PWG has a bad history of pushing their local talent to the mid-card or even upper mid-card only to drop them for no reason. Scorpio Sky, Ronin, and TJ are prime examples. I've looked around the Indy scene and right now there are only 1 or maybe 2 guys left who isn't already in PWG who might even stand a chance in the ring with some of the top level talents. And I'm even being generous.
My hope is eventually they open their eyes to the possibility of booking some SHIMMER talent like Cheer Leader Melissa or Sara Del Rey, but that seems like a long shot. Right now PWG has the opportunity to push Lost, TJ (after a personality injection or heel turn), Sky, and Rocky as legitimate contenders, but right now their reliance on outside Indy talent may be their downfall. At some point the well may run dry as TNA or the "e" starts snatching more of them up...then we're left with Top Gun winning BoLA '09. Then of course selling his "Wild card match" for some coke and a hooker in a bear costume.
Matt Adamson : BUY . I agree with Bayani about the wrestling school idea and the search for local talent. PWG has a following and they don't need to keep overcrowding their roster with guys from the opposite coast. I don't think there is anything that has bummed me out more about PWG than the retirement or "semi-retirement" of much of their original crew. These guys are still young and still involved in the company in a large capacity, why not still wrestle? I loved watching all those guys go and my favorite moments from PWG all involve them. The fat that they have gone so far from their SoCal heritage bothers me because it's the single reason why PWG stood out for me. Who are these guys? They are so good, why haven't I heard of them before? Those are the kind of things I thought the first time I saw PWG. Now I just see the same guys across the continent which makes PWG blend in far too well. This has allowed for Chikara to pull out of the pack and stand out, which is great for them, but I'd honestly rather see Excalibur & Quicksilver vs. Top Gun Talwar & Disco Machine than Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. PAC & Jack Evans. I find the SoCal talent to be the drawing point for PWG.
2 for 2.
Replacing Chris Bosh and Rocky Romero with Necro Butcher and Austin Aries has helped to increase the tournament's prestige.
Bayani Domingo : BUY . I'm saying that as an outsider looking in because Bosh and Rocky meant more to PWG and their fans over the past years than Aries and Necro. But no one is going to refund their tickets because they're off the tournament, a few more people more buy a few tickets and a few more DVD's might get sold so with a heavy heart I cal this a "buy". Right now even without Danielson this field is stacked with all manner of wrestlers. The sad thing is, this is one AmDrag away from being the best field EVER for a tournament, but as it stands it's still in the Top 3 in my opinion. Rocky and Bosh were probably going to be first round casualties anyways, and by the looks of it Aries and Necro might not fare much better, but the first round match up of Aries vs Strong is definitely a few notches above the expectations for Bosh/Strong and Necro vs Steen is going to be nothing less than brutal. Like it or lump it, Aries and Necro bring in a few more dozen or possibly hundred fans that might have been on the fence about this tournament a few weeks ago.
Matt Adamson : BUY . It's funny to even consider Necro Butcher with prestige. If he hadn't spent that time in ROH, this would be entirely riding and the shoulders of Aries and it would have fallen off and died. Being how things turned out Butcher proved himself to be a hard worker that is capable of a very good brawl style match and I appreciate that about him. Both of them are known internationally which adds prestigew that Bosh didn't have and Romero had little of. If you want to talk about adding those two retaining my personal interest. Let's just say I was disappointed.
3 for 3.
With "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson unable to compete in the tournament, PWG should have worked to find a more high-profile replacement than Tony Kozina.
Bayani Domingo : SELL . Who was left really? Its not like PWG has Ted Turner funding them and besides, it's a mere week away, what top level talent wasn't already going to be booked at least a week or two in advance prior to finding out Danielson took a beatdown the likes of which hasn't been seen since a tray of white castle sliders faced off against Bobby Dempsey?? The choices they had left fell to either Ronin, Scorpio Sky, or Karl Anderson if they stayed local or perhaps a CZW guy. I personally was rooting for a return by B-Boy, but alas that was not to be. I think PWG did try, but in the end anyone they got was not going to make up for Danielson being gone and instead of spending money on a guy who might not be able to commit to all 3 days they went with a known commodity. I'd love however for Adamson to come up with a list of guys he felt could have come close to Danielson that didn't involve another flight from Japan. PWG was in a tough spot and although Kozina isn't that flashy or a "name", at least he'll bust his ass. I guess this all comes down to the question of if anyone could have filled Danielson's shoes, even just a little bit and the answer....is no.
Matt Adamson : SELL . I honestly have very little to add that Bayani didn't already cover (I submit, you've won this battle Domingo... but not the war). Who could have possibly done justice to Dragon's spot that is actually available and affordable. I'd say a clear "nobody" and because of that they brought in a guy who will probably surprise a few. As for Bayani's challenge, PLAYBOY BUDDY ROSE!!!!! I'd have marked my pants for that, but alas, he is old, retired and running a wrestling school with Col. Debeers. Not that he would have performed in the ring at anywhere near the level of Danielson, but personally, I would have probably died of a heart attack from the ensuing mark out that would have transpired had The Playboy decided to take another run in the ring. The guy has more charisma than most of the indy rosters in America combined. Yes I said it and I'm holding my ground. But the real answer to the question is that Kozina is a perfect replacement, and I'm pleased with it.
4 for 4.
SWITCH~!
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has booked the best matches of the tournament in the first round because there will not be enough time on the third night for any of the later round contests to be of significant length.
Matt Adamson : SELL . What I find the most amazing about this is that this tournament is so packed (in my opinion) with talent that there are so many matches to be had that are so solid. The reason for the overcrowded quality in the first round is because it helps eliminate some of the bigger names and showcase some of the lesser knowns in later rounds and I think it's brilliant. If all the best matches were saved for the later rounds, all the guys who don't need the push would be left and all the guys that might be perfect to give that extra shove at BOLA would be left out in the cold right off. That's bad business in my opinion. They've done the right thing for the right reason and Super Dragon vs. El Generico and Jack Evans vs. PAC isn't going to make the later rounds any worse off. There are plenty of fantastic match possibilities for the later rounds.
Bayani Domingo : BUY . Look, I have just as much hope for the later rounds as anyone, but the fact is that the finalists have to work 3 matches on Night 3 and it doesn't bode well for the match quality. One of the PWG MOTYC was a later round match up between Generico and CIMA so there is hope, but I've been to the last 2 tournaments and the finals have been just okay to decent in terms of quality, mainly because of the physical limitations placed on the wrestlers by working that much in the matter of a few hours. I think the first round was booked to sell the tournament because most of the match ups looks great. Susu/DK being my personal favorite, I think each first round match goes 20 mins. or so which each next round being subsequently shorter, this is as much to protect the wrestlers as it is to keep them healthy enough to even make the finals. If last year's Jack/SuDrag match was any indication, just making it healthy into the next round is tough enough. While there are still some great matches lined up for later in the 2nd and 3rd rounds you have to think the best matches will be in the first round while everyone is still fresh and has plenty of time to work. Besides, not every great "BoLA Push" works out for the winner the way you might think it would.
4 for 5.
PWG would have been better off booking this year's tournament with 16 participants rather than the traditional 24.
Matt Adamson : SELL . I don't understand why this would even be an issue. I think the way this tournament is going to be run is brilliant and it makes for a heck of a lot more interesting matchups than some 16 man single elimination boredom. PWG has done a great job of changing the standard and mixing things up from what everybody else is doing since the very beginning and I'd hate for them to change that now.
Bayani Domingo : SELL . I hate to say it, but less might be more in this case. 3 matches in one night for the Block Winners is insane. You could see it the last three tournaments that the guys in the finals had almost nothing left. Plus you have to worry about injuries. As much as I love the idea of 24 of the best and brightest on the Indy scene being booked over 3 nights I think you need some kind of contingency plan. Hell, book 24 wrestlers and just have the remaining in tag or singles matches and that way if you get an injury or surprise retirement you still have wrestlers left over. Going 8 matches on night 1, 4 quarter finals on night 2, a Semi-finals and finals match on night 3 would give the wrestlers enough space and still wouldn't hurt the overall tournament. Then again...maybe I'm becoming an Indy "Big Name" whore and 12 potential first round match ups is just too damn tantalizing to worry about the potential injuries or break down of match quality in the later rounds due to injury or fatigue. I wanted to call this a "Buy" because at some point 24 worthwhile participants might be hard to come up with, but hell...you always have Japan and Europe right. Okay...swerve...let's call it a Sell.
5 for 6.
The retirement of "Photogenic" Chris Bosh is the biggest loss of a regular for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla this year.
Matt Adamson : SELL. I guess it all depends on your definition of "regular". I guess he's more of a loss than Sabin, Kazarian and Shelley if you don't consider them regular. However, those three seemed to make many of the shows and Kazarian was a major part of the promotion and the loss of those three has to be above Bosh, however if you define "regular" as a guy who is a PWG first above other promotions than I'd say without a doubt that Bosh is the biggest loss. I guess you can ascertain what I define as "regular".
Bayani Domingo : SELL . I love how Adamson just pulled a G-Dubya right there and managed to answer the question without actually answering it by giving who he thought was the bigger single loss. To me Bosh is a HUGE loss on a local level, but Frankie and Sabin were also big losses. If anything I'll give the slight edge to Alex Shelley who was not only a popular singles competitor but also managed to pull Sabin from the mid-card duldrum into one of the hottest teams PWG had ever seen. Unfortunately Dixie and JJ took them away, but still I think Shelley was a slightly bigger loss than Bosh because he potentially could have done more in PWG. Bosh already had his chance at stardom and he ended up squandering his BoLA win in the first tournament and parlayed it into quite the losing streak. If nothing else I heard at least a dozen people say at one time or another that they came to see Shelley specifically. I don't remember anyone saying that for Bosh. "Lion Cock" was a big loss, but ultimately the TNA guys collectively, and even Shelley or Samoa Joe (Semi-regular that he was) individually were a bigger loss to PWG and their pocket books.
6 for 7.
The Battle of Los Angeles Tournament is currently the top yearly event in all of Independent pro wrestling.
Matt Adamson : BUY . If Ring of Honor had a clear cut obvious "biggest show of the year" every year that was consistently the best then there would be no doubt that BOLA would be #2, but ROH dropped the ball on that one and I can't honestly believe that that #1 show is supposed to be Glory By Honor, Supercard of Honor, Final Battle, or the Anniversary show. I guess it's that promotions consistency is managing their biggest shows that allows BOLA which is PWG's obvious biggest show to shine. Not only that but the international talent it brings is tremendous and it allows for all sorts to show their stuff. I guess with things as they are, BOLA is #1 in indy wrestling shows every year.
Bayani Domingo : BUY . People love tournaments. PWG is now de-facto the #2 Indy fed and with Ian forgetting to put TNA's heck in the mail the TPI has been derailed a bit. RoH hasn't had their one "Wrestlemania" type show yet and I actually thought "Final Battle" was supposed to be theirs. Either way they still manage to put on great shows, but in RoH or any other Indy fed it's hard to say, ‘If I go to one show that this fed puts on all year its going to be this one". In PWG, that show is BoLA. Besides, who wouldn't love to come to beautiful sunny Los Angeles for a nice long vacation for some top shelf wrestling? It sure as hell beats Portland.
7 for 8!
The twentieth edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 7 for 8. Stay tuned for next week when two new men will go head to head with a whole new set of topics.
