2009 Battle of Los Angeles - Nov 20 & 21!

[JAG]

Im tempted to post my bracket now. I had Sabin and Strong in a first found match. Usually when i make my bracket i am nowhere close to the actual bracket. I was hoping to see Gatson face off against someone outside of the so cal scene in the first round. I was not expecting him nor LTP to advance past the first round. Hopefully Gatson wins the first round and then face someone from outside so cal. A Gatson vs. Sabin match sounds really interesting to me. Looking forward to more matches being announced tonight.

As for a replacement if Kevin Steen or anyone else doesnt wrestle I would have to suggest Johnny Goodtime, Charles Mercury, or one of the Cutler Bros. Basically anyone minus CK from those qualifying 4-way matches. CK is improving just isnt at the PWG level yet. Ryan Taylor is really deserving of a shot at PWG. BOLA isnt the place for him yet. He deserves a match on his own right, not as a pencil in replacement. Hopefully Ryan Taylor is a new talent that can get thrown into the PWG mix in 2010.

[Ebessan]

I'd be all for debuting Ryan Taylor during BOLA weekend, just not in BOLA itself.

Part of me hopes the replacement is a DG talent. SHINGO/Omega would be insanity.

[TigerDriver98]

and to correct TigerDriver on something, I believe last year's BOLA had no changes at all

Well technically, PAC was announced as being in the 2008 BOLA. Then of course after all the date changes, didn't end up in the tournament. Aside from that though, it didn't have any changes.

Hopefully Ryan Taylor is a new talent that can get thrown into the PWG mix in 2010.

Yeah, BOLA wouldn't be the right time to debut him, nor would the Wrestle reunion show. But he definitely deserves a shot at the next regular PWG show.

Here is another replacement idea: Scorpio Sky. I miss that guy on the shows.

[PWG_Silverback]

We spoke with Kevin Steen today and he stated he will be competing in the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles and is very much looking forward to the tournament. He also appreciates you vultures already picking at his bones before he is dead.

New matches update coming later today.

[TIOjon]

We spoke with Kevin Steen today and he stated he will be competing in the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles and is very much looking forward to the tournament. He also appreciates you vultures already picking at his bones before he is dead.

New matches update coming later today.

[deadmandevilman]

We spoke with Kevin Steen today and he stated he will be competing in the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles and is very much looking forward to the tournament. He also appreciates you vultures already picking at his bones before he is dead.

New matches update coming later today.

hilarious.

[TigerDriver98]

Good news, looking forward to seeing Steen again.

Speculating on potential replacements is always fun though, like I was just about to mention the fact that Paul London is no longer on that Hulk Hogan tour during BOLA for example...

[BOLA4ever]

Good news, looking forward to seeing Steen again.

Speculating on potential replacements is always fun though, like I was just about to mention the fact that Paul London is no longer on that Hulk Hogan tour during BOLA for example...

WOA REALLY dam i think its too late to replace any of the participants even thought i want matt jackson out

[BOLA4ever]

Lost vs LTP shuld be a good opener
Dream Match!!!!!!!
Aries vs Kendrick shuld be a show stealer wonder how this wuld work they are both heels

[onlxn]

Interesting.

I gotta be honest: I think Aries vs. Spanky in the first round is a mistake. I'm sure it'll be a dynamite match (even though it's heel vs. heel), but why job either guy out on Night One? One of them is the current ROH champ and maybe the most charismatic performer on the indies... the other has the biggest mainstream name of any guy in the tourney and is also one of the more charismatic performer on the indies. Why not carry both of these guys over to Night Two, to give a big extra win to someone? Either would be great in the eight-man, but so would pretty much everyone in this tourney, including Nick and Brandon Gatson.

I dunno. I guess the thought process is that you need some big matches for Night One. But it just seems odd to match up two of your biggest names in the first round when two of the bottom-ranked guys in the tourney are also facing each other. It doesn't make sense kayfabe-wise, it weakens the path for the eventual winner, it sucks drama out of Night Two by eliminating a big name, and it doesn't really add much to the eight-man, which will be stellar no matter who they throw in it.

Would people really be less amped about this show if they changed Aries/Spanky, Gatson/Nick and Scott/LTP to Aries/LTP, Scott/Nick and Gatson/Spanky? All three matches are fresh, it makes at least a little sense in terms of tournament seeding, the face/heel alignments are stronger, the local guys all get a good rub by facing big names, the eight-man gets three awesome sprint guys, and you have Aries, Scott and Spanky all advancing to the second round. All three of those guys are over, great workers, big figures and could at least plausibly win. Why advance Gatson or Nick over one of them?

Sorry to carp... the tourney will be great however they structure it. I just think it's a mistake to pair off top guys in the first round. It's not worth weakening Night Two to try to beef up Night One. Night One will work regardless.

[Whoblehwah]

Aries v. Kendrik! =O

I kinda agree that it sucks that its happening on night 1, but man do i wanna see this match.

[Htornado]

Interesting.

I gotta be honest: I think Aries vs. Spanky in the first round is a mistake. I'm sure it'll be a dynamite match (even though it's heel vs. heel), but why job either guy out on Night One? One of them is the current ROH champ and maybe the most charismatic performer on the indies... the other has the biggest mainstream name of any guy in the tourney and is also one of the more charismatic performer on the indies. Why not carry both of these guys over to Night Two, to give a big extra win to someone? Either would be great in the eight-man, but so would pretty much everyone in this tourney, including Nick and Brandon Gatson.

I dunno. I guess the thought process is that you need some big matches for Night One. But it just seems odd to match up two of your biggest names in the first round when two of the bottom-ranked guys in the tourney are also facing each other. It doesn't make sense kayfabe-wise, it weakens the path for the eventual winner, it sucks drama out of Night Two by eliminating a big name, and it doesn't really add much to the eight-man, which will be stellar no matter who they throw in it.

Would people really be less amped about this show if they changed Aries/Spanky, Gatson/Nick and Scott/LTP to Aries/LTP, Scott/Nick and Gatson/Spanky? All three matches are fresh, it makes at least a little sense in terms of tournament seeding, the face/heel alignments are stronger, the local guys all get a good rub by facing big names, the eight-man gets three awesome sprint guys, and you have Aries, Scott and Spanky all advancing to the second round. All three of those guys are over, great workers, big figures and could at least plausibly win. Why advance Gatson or Nick over one of them?


Sorry to carp... the tourney will be great however they structure it. I just think it's a mistake to pair off top guys in the first round. It's not worth weakening Night Two to try to beef up Night One. Night One will work regardless.

Agreed. That's exactly what I was going to say. I'm also puzzled as to why PWG put Scott Lost, Brian Kendrick, and Kenny Omega in Block A and Block B. Most members of this board predicted a finals match-up consisting of two of those three guys. Now because of the way PWG booked it, that can't happen. It also seems painfully obvious that Roderick Strong is going to be in the finals.......again.

[BOLA4ever]

[Agreed. That's exactly what I was going to say. I'm also puzzled as to why PWG put Scott Lost, Brian Kendrick, and Kenny Omega in Block A and Block B. Most members of this board predicted a finals match-up consisting of two of those three guys. Now because of the way PWG booked it, that can't happen. It also seems painfully obvious that Roderick Strong is going to be in the finals.......again.[/quote]
unless its shelley vs matt jackson it wuld most prolly be Sabin vs Shelley

[Kamikaze]

Interesting.

I gotta be honest: I think Aries vs. Spanky in the first round is a mistake. I'm sure it'll be a dynamite match (even though it's heel vs. heel), but why job either guy out on Night One? One of them is the current ROH champ and maybe the most charismatic performer on the indies... the other has the biggest mainstream name of any guy in the tourney and is also one of the more charismatic performer on the indies. Why not carry both of these guys over to Night Two, to give a big extra win to someone? Either would be great in the eight-man, but so would pretty much everyone in this tourney, including Nick and Brandon Gatson.

I dunno. I guess the thought process is that you need some big matches for Night One. But it just seems odd to match up two of your biggest names in the first round when two of the bottom-ranked guys in the tourney are also facing each other. It doesn't make sense kayfabe-wise, it weakens the path for the eventual winner, it sucks drama out of Night Two by eliminating a big name, and it doesn't really add much to the eight-man, which will be stellar no matter who they throw in it.

Would people really be less amped about this show if they changed Aries/Spanky, Gatson/Nick and Scott/LTP to Aries/LTP, Scott/Nick and Gatson/Spanky? All three matches are fresh, it makes at least a little sense in terms of tournament seeding, the face/heel alignments are stronger, the local guys all get a good rub by facing big names, the eight-man gets three awesome sprint guys, and you have Aries, Scott and Spanky all advancing to the second round. All three of those guys are over, great workers, big figures and could at least plausibly win. Why advance Gatson or Nick over one of them?

Sorry to carp... the tourney will be great however they structure it. I just think it's a mistake to pair off top guys in the first round. It's not worth weakening Night Two to try to beef up Night One. Night One will work regardless.

Aries really isn't a big name in PWG, though. The crowd doesn't care much for him, and he rarely gives a memorable performance. I think the last great match I saw him in was his match with Nigel at BOLA 08, and before that nothing comes to mind. Plus I'd much rather have a guy like Brandon Gatson in the second round, as that will boost his stock a little and hopefully give him a star making match with someone like El Generico. Plus we all know Aries won't be winning the tournament.

[Ebessan]

Yeah, seriously. As revered as he may be, Aries has never amounted to much here, save for a few memorable matches.

If anything, what we, as fans, will be seeing is a solid wrestling match with great character work from 2 great heels. I can't how anyone can possibly complain about that. BOLA isn't the only time PWG can book interesting rookie/vet matches.

LTP/Lost sounds like a bundle of fun. Those guys are gonna put on a show.

[Matt Flash]

I think it's great pairing. They really cut down on the number of huge names. No DG, plenty of locals, and you have to remember: this is a PWG World Title Tournament for all intents and purposes. Aries' last match was, granted, a PWG World Title match. But I never really understood why. He beat Necro in a Necro Rules match. Who hasn't? Apart from that, he really hasn't done much to further his stock in PWG. His stock in ROH has risen dramatically. But then I always thought it was funny that Aries never broke out anywhere else. I like the guy, he's talented as hell, but he's never been given the kind of luster he has in ROH anywhere else. Accordingly, he's never been worth much in PWG. He's basically brought it to put over the guys PWG wants to get over (Steen, Davey, Strong, Nigel, Hero, etc.) and there's nothing at all wrong with that. I'm sure he'd rather be ROH Champion than anything else. His TNA run proved that quite nicely.

Local guys like Gatson and LTP, they're great to put in matches with guys like Lost and Nick Jackson. They're going to be fast paced, energetic, and give them both chances to break out in singles matches. Do they have to win? Not at all. But I do predict a Gatson upset. Lost should and will beat LTP, and that's not a knock on LTP. If the roles were switched, I'd have LTP over Jackson and Lost over Gatson. I was almost anticipating Gatson vs. LTP, akin Bonham vs. Omega in '08. But I like this pairing just as well.

Hopefully we get Shelley vs. Matt Jackson, Joey vs. Cabana and Generico vs. Tornado to fill out the tournament. Based on that, and my own bracket pairing, I've got the quarterfinals looking something like...

A- Omega vs. Lost
B- Kendrick vs. Shelley
C- Gatson vs. Joey
D- Strong vs. Generico

And that would be a pretty damn fun Quarter Finals. I'd personally love to see Gatson vs. Strong, because Strong is just so damn good at power moves, and Gatson is a great fiery babyface. And Spanky vs. Omega or Lost would be greatness.

However it shakes down, though, I'm pretty sure we'll forget about all of this once the tournament rolls around next Friday. It's going to be a great two nights of wrestling.

[DjEn3rgy21]

There are some interesting pair ups in this tournament. I can't wait. I can't even guess what's really next.

The Lost v LTP match looks great. I can imagine Scott getting vocal and talking a lot of trash about LTP during the match.

I also can't wait to see what they do with the other guys like Generico, Tornado, Cabana, Shelly, Ryan and the rest.

Less then a week to go!!! I'm fucking stoked!!!

[onlxn]

Here's the thing: even if you'd rather see Gatson in the second round than Aries, why pair things up this way? If you want to put Gatson over, why not put him over Sabin, or Steen, or Aries himself? Gatson gets no rub out of beating Nick Jackson, and vice versa.

If you want to put a young guy over, you don't seed the tournament so that he has a bizarrely easy path. You need to give him a meaningful win. Feed the guys with no chance of winning to the stars who don't need a rub... don't pit them against each other.

[Ebessan]

I'm with you on it being a better idea to feed big names to smaller ones if they're to be fed anyway, but saying Gatson wouldn't get a rub from beating Nick Jackson is absurd.

The fed knows what to do when it comes to BOLA and pushes. Last year both Bonham and (especially) Perkins shone like crazy. If both guys hadn't cut ties soon after you know they'd have received major boosts into 2009.

Also, last year Aries jobbed to Nigel in round 1. Comparing that to the scenario of Kendrick beating him, I'd gladly take the latter over the former, because at least Kendrick is a rather exclusive talent to PWG.

[Matt Flash]

Eventually I think they'll have the big name vs. small name, but "seeding" the tournament would make a much less engaging 1st round. If it was Aries vs. Gatson, just for the sake of a big name vs. small name, I don't think anyone would give Gatson a chance in hell. And probably rightfully so. Night 2 is normally fairly unpredictable, and thusly will have that energy it always does. But now they're giving matches on Night 1 that are a lot more up in the air. Not many people were begging Gatson or Jackson to get to the second round. Now one of them will, but who? They'd both serve a purpose in the second round, and they'd both be great for the Night 2 Losers Tag match. Makes it a lot harder to choose a winner, right?

Granted, you could turn that on it's head and say since no one expects either guy to get to the second round, we as the crowd will be accordingly quiet and unresponsive, but both those guys can get a reaction. I think when the time comes, they'll put peoples' fears to rest. At least I hope so.