This year emanating from the suave and stylish American Legion Post #308, out in Reseda, CA (home of The Karate Kid), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s annual Battle Of Los Angeles tournament is usually one of the highlights of the indie calendar, with previous winners including Low Ki, CIMA, and Davey Richards. Adding more spice to this year’s event was the announcement that – following the departure of champion Bryan Danielson (after the briefest of reigns) for pastures new – the winner would be going home as the new Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Heavyweight Champion.

Having missed night one – I am but a penniless IP writer with only so much free time – and having never before been to Reseda (except in my dreams: “Sweep the leg, Michael!”) I left my home in Orange County some three hours before the event was due to start, got caught in hellish LA traffic on the 5, encountered the scene of a major accident on the 101, and then accidentally parked in what appeared to be in the barrio before finally finding the venue with about twenty minutes to spare.

The lines outside were disorganized but civil, and I immediately felt the camaraderie – notably absent from WWE events and slightly strangled at TNA – of the fringe fan; roughly two parts pride to one part smarky superiority. Inside, I was surprised by the size of the venue, which was quite literally a ring with six rows of chairs on each side, restrooms and a bar tucked away in three of the hall’s four corners, the commentators and production guys seated on a stage at the rear. Most of those present appeared to be used to this arrangement, grabbing seats and drinks with a minimum of fuss, despite the lack of space. To get to the restroom, you literally had to walk the same ringside path as the performers, which later presented Austin Aries with an opportunity he apparently couldn’t pass up.

With everyone seated, ring announcer Jon Ian welcomed everybody, explained a ‘fan code of conduct’ that was received in good humor by the audience, and then introduced lead commentator Excalibur, who proceeded to show us the heavyweight title and let us know that the non-tournament matches would be a six-man tag featuring Colt Cabana, Jerome “LTP” Robinson, and Johnny Goodtime taking on Austin Aries and The Cutler Brothers, and a tag team title match where champions The Young Bucks would take on Kevin Steen and El Generico.

With the introductions out of the way, we were all set for action.

Joey Ryan vs. Bryan Kendrick
The first match of the quarter finals opened with a comedy segment where Ryan (who emerged from the back to the theme from Magnum) told the crowd that he had prepared for Kendrick’s relentless anger by spending the day at Disneyland. He then informed Kendrick that he had brought a gift, and presented him with a pair of Mickey Mouse ears engraved with Brian‘s name, prompting a chant of “Mickey Kendrick” from the fans.

I should note, at this point, that it appears to be a point of etiquette with the PWG fans to make a chant out of everything. I’ll note the best ones as we go on, but it was pretty much constant, as was the banter between the performers and the crowd, which was one of the things that made it such a cool experience.

Kendrick tolerated Ryan’s schtick, and even seemed to be enjoying himself for a while there, but then his smile disappeared and he gave the popular Ryan a stomping that kickstarted the match, a decent encounter that ended when Ryan put Kendrick away with a couple of superkicks to advance to the semis.

Kenny Omega vs. Scott Lost
Two of the pre-tournament favorites clashed in one of the better bouts of the evening in front of a divided crowd. No comedy here. Omega advanced after hitting the spectacular Croyt’s Wrath (an electric chair drop into a bridged German suplex).

Alex Shelley vs. Brandon Gatson
The ever-popular Shelley and talented PWG newcomer Brandon Gatson assembled a tight contest that told a great story, with Gatson playing the rookie embarrassing the veteran early on until Shelley took control in between brief flurries of offense from his opponent which included a breathtaking Sasuke Special (where Gatson cartwheeled across the ring before backflipping over the top rope onto Shelley). Just when Alex appeared poised to put his opponent away, however, Gatson flipped him onto his back and pinned him with a reverse bridge.

Roderick Strong vs. The Human Tornado
Unfortunately for The Human Tornado, Gatson’s performance against a more established opponent wasn’t repeated, and though he got some offense in on Strong, he never looked like doing anything more than falling victim to a vicious Sick Kick.

There followed a ten minute intermission so everybody could use the bathroom, stretch their legs, or go outside and smoke. It was also an opportunity to get the doors open and let some air into the Legion hall, which was fast becoming unbearably hot. I can’t imagine how it must be to wrestle in those conditions. Once everybody was back in and settled, it was time for the first non-tournament match of the evening.

Colt Cabana, Jerome “LTP” Robinson, & Johnny Goodtime vs. Austin Aries & The Cutler Brothers
This – like many six-mans, especially those involving Colt Cabana – was the comedy match of the evening. The focus of the proceedings was Aries, who was one of few performers to draw actual heel heat on his way to the ring, where he bumped chests with a kid returning from the restroom and stared him down until the kid was almost cowering against the ring. Once between the ropes, he grabbed the microphone and announced that this was exactly the kind of audience he hated, “a bunch of smart mark assholes entertaining themselves.”

Of all the hyped indie performers I’ve seen in person, Aries is one of very few that has an actual presence. That isn’t to run down the other performers in PWG or anywhere else – many of these guys aren’t yet the finished product and plenty of workers have gone on to phenomenal success without possessing the elusive it factor, but something about A-Double, especially in his current heel persona, just screams star.

Accordingly, Aries worked much of the match for the heel team, providing the foil for LTP and Cabana, whose interactions provided many of the laughs.

“He’s gonna do a handstand,” yelled Cabana, as LTP held Aries in a head scissors. Then, after Aries had escaped by exactly this method: “Told you. He always does that.”

“I didn’t know!” responded LTP.

“Then buy some DVDs and learn,” said Aries, before resuming the beatdown.

One of the other things about being so close to the action is that you can hear just about everything, and several times during the course of the evening, fans had mocked the breathing of the performers by making a hissing sound. The loudest of these was directed at Aries, who – having slapped a stump puller on LTP – suddenly looked up and said, “It’s called proper breathing. In through the nose and out through the mouth.” He then demonstrated this. When the fans did it again several minutes later, Aries simply stopped wrestling and put his hands on his hips, leaving Johnny Goodtime slumped against the opposite turnbuckle as he glared at the audience. He then raised his arm, gave a hissing battle cry, and ran straight into Goodtime’s raised boot.

This of course prompted the PWG crowd to start a chant of, “Proper breathing!”

The face team took the win after LTP pinned Brandon Cutler after what looked to me like a sort of tombstone variation on the Canadian Destroyer. Any PWG/LTP fans that want to let me know just what the hell that was are welcome to comment. It looked awesome.

Kenny Omega vs. Joey Ryan
With fatigue beginning to set in, Omega and Ryan had their work cut out for them in the first match of the semi-finals. They put together another great match, with Omega again hitting Croyt’s Revenge (after a couple of successful escapes by Ryan) for the pin.

Brandon Gatson vs. Roderick Strong
Like Shelley, Strong went out of his way to make Gatson look good, and though this was a short match, it was another good one, with Strong’s power offense matched up against Gatson’s acrobatics and array of pinning combinations. Two counts galore, but Strong finally came through with another Sick Kick to advance to the final.

The Young Bucks vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico
Those folks who don’t follow ROH, Dragon Gate, or PWG might have been somewhat surprised – upon seeing what appeared to be a fake Mexican along with his grizzled and somewhat out-of-shape partner face off against a couple of pretty boys who emerged to the strains of Hanson’s MmmBop – to learn that they were about to witness the match of the night. But that’s exactly what happened.

Things kicked off with the usual mismatched tag team shenanigans between Generico and Steen, with the latter trying to calm Generico’s exuberance before focusing on the elder of the Jackson brothers, informing Matt that he was going to rape him (which wasn’t as disturbing as the “rape” chant that went up from the crowd, or the fact that Steen then took Jackson down and teabagged him on the mat). Mr. Wrestling then tagged out to Generico, and told his partner to put his dick in Jackson’s mouth. Generico’s apparent horror at this request restored some semblance of order to proceedings, and we were away.

The Jacksons quickly isolated Generico and worked him over with some heeled-up variations on their usual next-gen team offense, drawing heat for the eventual tag to Steen, which was where order broke down and the action kicked into high gear, with the power and brutality of Steen matched up against the quick tags and cheap tactics of the dastardly Jacksons. I’d never seen them wear the black hat before this match, and they should do it more often outside of PWG, especially Nick, who was a revelation here. The crowd was drawn into the match as the action spilled to the outside for some spots from the Young Bucks and Generico and then back into the ring for several breathtaking near falls, including a 2.9999 count rescue from Generico after Steen had fallen victim to the spectacular More Bang For Your Buck (in which a 450 splash from Nick is followed by a Moonsault from Matt), and a similar rescue from Nick after Matt took a package piledriver from Steen and a Brainbuster from Generico.

Finally, the Bucks threw a battered Generico from the ring, hit ten(!) superkicks on Steen (including one that apparently busted his nose) and scored the win.

The crowd was white-hot for the last few minutes, to the point where, during the spot where Steen and Generico slapped stereo Sharpshooters on the Jacksons, it was actually deafening. A great match.

Kenny Omega vs. Roderick Strong
The final of the 2009 Battle Of Los Angeles had a tough act to follow, and in truth it was slightly underwhelming as a contest, if only because Omega and Strong were so clearly exhausted, the heat in the building had reached ridiculous levels, and the event was creeping past the four hour mark. Nonetheless, the two men went all out, with the opening ten minutes spent brawling all over the Legion hall (with Omega hitting a Moonsault press off the announce table, which – as I mentioned earlier – was also mounted on a stage). A chant of “holy shit” from my side of the hall was promptly answered with a chant of “can’t see shit” from the other side, where the view was obscured because everyone was standing. This was then wittily answered in turn with a “should’ve sat here” chant.

The action finally returned to the ring, where Omega and Strong traded a hard-hitting mixture of strikes, suplexes, and – of course – backbreakers, including a vicious variation from Strong where he dropped Omega side backbreaker-style across the top turnbuckle. The story of the match was the finishers, which had worked in consecutive matches for both Omega and Strong. When Roderick hit the Sick Kick on Omega, though, the shoulder came up just before the three, and when Omega responded with Croyt’s Revenge, Strong somehow found the strength to kick out.

Finally, Omega hit a second Croyt’s Revenge, this time rolling through into a cradle for the three-count and the PWG Heavyweight Championship.

After the match, Omega gave a heartfelt and surprisingly modest speech in which he basically put over everybody except himself, then invited his friends The Young Bucks (Kenny is – in theory – a heel, though such things are hard to quantify unless you know the storylines) to come and celebrate with him. The Bucks proceeded to cheap shot and attack the new champion, and were joined by Kendrick for a three-on-one beating before Generico came charging out from the back to make the save. Omega and Generico (who had been in a feud prior to this) then had a tense face off that was interrupted by Colt Cabana, who had left his place at the announce table. Finally, Omega and Generico shook hands, and the three faces left the ring together.

For the permanent record, and before I say anything critical, this was the best wrestling show I’ve ever been to. Good matches, a good crowd, and some great stand-out performances made it a night to remember, and PWG have impressed themselves on my consciousness enough that I’m almost certainly going to attend the WrestleReunion show in January, and not only to see Muta.

On the critical side, the Legion hall is a great venue to see wrestlers up close and personal, but it’s so close and so hot that extended periods (like four-and-a-half hours) spent sitting in the place become very uncomfortable. Even during an extremely entertaining main event, I found myself planning my route to the exit and fresh air, and when I got outside, I found that my shirt was literally soaked with sweat and smelled like three hundred wrestling fans in a confined space. Other than that, you’re not going to enjoy this too much if you hate smart marks and the current trend in indie wrestling in general. The style displayed by the vast majority of the PWG athletes is so kick-heavy that the hard-hitting strikes began to become meaningless towards the end of the show. I literally lost count of the number of brutal kicks to the back of the head I saw on Saturday night. You’d think such a thing would never get old, but it does.

Also, if the idea of being raped by Kevin Steen troubles you…

Anyway, great show, highly recommended, buy the DVD, and for God’s sake hit them up if you’re in the LA/OC area. They’re worth it.