I wrote a tribute to him on Facebook:
Here is the link of any of you have it, I didn't make it private:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/not ... 2075017538 A Tribute To The Professional - Scott Lost
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Yesterday, it was announced that one of my personal favorite wrestlers, in this business of wrestling we know as PRO, has decided to make it his exit. After July 30th of this year, Scott Epperson, known in the wrestling world as '"The Professional" Scott Lost' will never step into the ring again.
A wrestler who added nothing but pure wrestling goodness to any show he was featured on, and a 5-Time Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Tag Team Champion, Scott Lost will always be remembered
by his fans as an incredibly amazing talent. The man could do it all in the ring. His timing was second to none. Never once did he ever seem lost or seem to be questioning his next move in that ring. He did everything with precision and finesse, and being that his monicker was "The Professional", he was just that in every respect. The man was a perfect example of what a pro-wrestler should be: He had ability. He had faith in himself. He had the charisma. He could make anyone look good. And He has a top-tope elbow drop that would make Shawn Michaels weep with envy. No Joke, it's the prettiest, most textbook Top Rope Elbow Drop. Ever.
When I saw Scott Lost on a card for a PWG show, I always knew that match was going to stand-out, and chances of it being one of, if not THE best match of the night were very likely. From his tag team showdowns with fellow partners Chris Bosh and Joey Ryan, to his stand-out singles' performances against the best the business had to offer, Scott Lost was a very versatile wrestler. As a fellow fan of his said at one time: "Scott Lost is a man who gets things. I watched him walk out to the ring and was taken aback by the look in his eyes. This isn't a guy coming out for the opener, or a guy looking around the building, it's a guy coming out for a fight, a fight that matters to him."....I couldn't have said it better myself, and this was just in description to his opening tag match at PWG's "99" last year.
Let me just take you all through a walk of how I just happened to become one of the biggest fans of Scott Lost. Ever...
*ROH and PWG's BOLA 2007*
2006 was a turning point for me as a wrestling fan. I had witnessed two matches from Ring Of Honor (KENTA Vs Low Ki and Kobashi Vs. Samoa Joe) on the internet and was immediately impressed with the pure wrestling that this "Independent Wrestling" had to offer. Then I bought a best-of DVD for Samoa Joe, and then saw what, in my opinion, is the greatest example of tag team wrestling to ever grace the squared circle: Do Fixer (Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, and Genki Horiguchi) Vs. Blood Generation
(CIMA, Naruki Doi, and Masato Yoshino) from Ring Of Honor's Supercard of Honor. I was immediately hooked on the whole idea behind Independent Wrestling, and my interest in the products on national television started to wane. Unfortunately, I still wasn't sold on the idea
of going on the internet to pay for these whole shows. More or less, I was still more dedicated to putting my dollar towards something Vince McMahon was selling me, even if I didn't realize what a waste of money it was. Looking back, 40 dollars for a shitty PPV (with maybe 1 or 2 KEEPER matches) was
seeming less and less appealing, and my friend, Adrian Gomez (Who lives in Texas, sadly), immediately came at me with this trailer:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3vkpu ... ideo_sportI had heard of and seen El Generico (just one music video that blew my mind), CIMA, Chris Hero, Nigel McGuinness, Dragon Kid, and Danielson, but MAN, all of these other guys looked AWESOME! After showing me this video, Adrian told me that this tournament especially was considered, top-to-bottom, to be THE GREATEST tournament in the history of the Pro Graps.
It was Christmas of 2007 that I decided that, come hell or high water, I was going to buy all three nights of that show, and on Christmas Day, I was going to watch the entire thing with my friend Markeem.
I remember before I got the show, I saw this match on YouTube featuring Scott Lost and Chris Bosh going up against Human Tornado and El Generico for the PWG Tag Titles. Being that it was
the first time I had seen ANY OF THESE GUYS IN A MATCH, I was blown away by it all. I was expecting there to be sloppiness, fuck-ups, and all that mess that most indy wrestling is known for
(and was also drilled into my head by my fellow WWE-Fanboy, Travis), but there was none of that mess. All I saw was pure, unadulterated tag team goodness, and I was especially impressed
by Generico and Lost (who performed a DOUBLE SHARPSHOOTER, stacking Generico and Tornado on top of one another!). Things were looking good, and BOLA 2007 couldn't come fast enough.
After Night 1 came Night 2, and on the third match, Scott Lost went up against an unfamiliar Dragon Gate star to me, SHINGO. These two proceeded to tear it up in that ring, and the match was very scientific and stood out to me as one of the best matches of the whole tournament. Lost and SHINGO just blended seemlessly, and Lost's timing and precision, as I have mentioned, was prevalent and only helped serve both competitors. Plus, the way he took/sold a Uranage Tazplex was a thing of beauty. From his roll-through to the limping of his body, I knew immediately that the man could sell. It was here that I not only became a huge fan of SHINGO, but that I also realized that Scott Lost was one of PWG's standout home-grown stars. I looked forward to seeing more of him, for sure, and I got JUST THAT on Night 3, where he participated in the big 6-on-6 Loser's tag match. At one point, Lost straight-up murdered Jack Evans with a beautiful kick, and then sprung-up and threw a STREAMER FOR HIMSELF (in case you are not aware, any time a wrestler is heralded as one of the greats, streamers are respectively thrown for them by the fans at the beginning of a match), to which the crowd responded by standing up and applauding him. I loved it.
*2008: PWG Sells Out*
Around the summer of 2008, I had yet to purchase anything else from PWG, and hell, I still really didn't follow the product like that. Fortunately for me, though, I knew they were releasing a 3-Disc Best-Of DVD set, entitled "PWG Sells Out". I constantly checked everywhere, from SUNCOAST to FYE to Best Buy, on the daily, and still, nothing. About a week later, I went to go hunt down some Best-Of DVD's that ROH had apparently released into stores, and when I finally got to SUNCOAST in White Marsh Mall (here in Baltimore County, MD), I saw that they not only had the ROH DVD's, but that they ALSO had PWG's "Sells Out" DVD, and it was only 10 dollars!!! $40+ later, and I was on my way home with pure wrestling goodness. I told anyone who cared, which meant only my friend Adrian. He told me "Dude, you are going to be in a wrestling EUPHORIA with the ammount of quality wrestling you possess".
Man, was he ever right. I sat there that entire weekend, boozed up and smoked out (had the entire weekend off), soaking all of it in with a smile on my face. Moving on to Disc 2 of the PWG set, Excalibur gave me some nice hype on how this disc was going to mostly feature PWG's home-grown stars, and I knew immediately what that meant: More Scott Lost.
Soon enough, I witnessed Scott Lost and Chris Bosh going up against Scorpio Skyy and an unknown American Luchadore by the name of Quicksilver, and the match was going to be for Lost/Bosh's tag team titles, with another stipulation being that if Arrogance (Lost and Bosh's Team Name) were to win, Skyy and Silver would have to unmask. This match was flawless, with Lost taking some brutal stuff from Quicksilver and Skyy. The man never once slipped up in that ring, and never ever seemed lost at what to do next. Scott Lost reacts to situations in a Pro Wrestling ring just as I would react to an intense platforming segment in a Mario Game. Scott Lost just has "it", and "it" is something that very, very few Pro Wrestlers have. From turning one of the most beautiful spears ever into a bridged pin, to
taking a spike head-bump from QuickSilver's Silver Slice maneuver, the man impressed me to no end. Later on the DVD, Lost wrestled in a 4-on-4 tag match, and I swear, this one fan in attendance just kept randomly shouting "The PROFESSIONAL" at him. Instead of bothering him, though, this only seemed to motivate him, and the tag match turned into a classic (and to be fair, everyone did their fair share of great work in this match...except Ricky Reyes. Nothing that guy does stands out.)
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla was fast becoming my favorite promotion in the world.
*2008 Christmas Sale*
Around Christmas of 2008, my always reliable friend, Adrian, sent me a link to PWG's site, telling me of this insane Christmas sale they were putting on. The deal was as so: Any 5 PWG DVD's for $40. Hell, I remember the page even saying "Besides BOLA 2008, go nuts on everything!". I did just that, and was able to get around 160 bucks worth of their DVD's from this sale. Most, if not ALL of the DVD's featured Scott Lost. This was just what I needed, and the days of watching WWE religiously became non-existent. To me it was just ridiculous...Why pay 40 bucks for some lousy PPV (with, like i said, maybe 1 or 2 matches that would even be considered "keepers" when I can buy, say, PWG's Life/During Wartimes for 7-8 bucks, and continuously watch it's fantastic card over and over?!
I saw many a Scott Lost match during this time...From his three-way tag with Joey Ryan against the Young Bucks and Miyawaki and KAZMA (in which he performs the most absolutely SICK spinning wheel/butterfly kick to Miyawaki i'v ever seen), to his destruction of the Super Dragon at Enchantment Under the Sea with Chris Bosh, All the way to his awesome showing at PWG's 2008 Battle of Los Angeles against Joey Ryan and Chris Hero, Scott Lost became an instant favorite of mine. For all times.
*2009 and Beyond*
From then on, I went out of my way to purchase PWG DVD's whenever I could, whether it be at a Dragon Gate show in philly, to an ROH TV taping. I always found a way to put aside 40 or so bucks before a show, JUST so I could get me some more Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and Scott Lost, I want to
thank YOU for being the primary reason I go out of my way to do such a thing.
I started following everything the company did, always checking their website to see when the next card was going to be announced, always checking to see what Scott Lost was gonna do next. Main Eventing with Paul London?! I'M THERE! Wrestling Alex Shelley at Threemendous 2?! Fuck yeah! Tearing it up with Tornado at Guerres Sans Frontieres in one of the best undercard matches you'll ever see?! You Know it. Storming through the 2009 BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES?! Well, ALMOST!
Hell, this past Christmas, I bought even MORE PWG DVD's from their awesome sale, and I now have around 60 of their shows, which is, I believe, a little more than half of their entire available library.
I will now go over his standard Info, moveset, and what, to me, are Scott Lost's most stand-out matches:
Ring name - Scott Lost
Nickname - The Professional
Billed height - 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Billed weight - 185 lb (84 kg)
Born - June 8, 1980 (1980-06-08) (age 30 as of this writing)
Hometown - Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
Resides - San Diego, California, U.S.
Trained by - Mike Bell
Tom Howard]
Samoa Joe
Debut - 2000
Ring Entrance Theme - Jay-Z's "Moment of Clarity"
Moveset:
* Finishing moves
o Big Fat Kill (Reverse roundhouse kick to the head of a seated or kneeling opponent)
o Breaking Point (Back to back double underhook piledriver)
o Lost in Space (Diving elbow drop)
o Sharpshooter
o Superplex
* Signature moves
o Backbreaker rack dropped into a modified rib breaker
o Butterfly Effect (Double underhook facebuster)
o Cutter, sometimes onto the ring apron
o Gutbuster
o Head and arm suplex
o Moonsault
o Multiple kick variations
+ Dropsault
+ Enzuigiri
+ Jumping corkscrew roundhouse
+ Lost Cause (Super to a cornered opponent)[1]
o Northern lights suplex
o Senton bomb
o Side slam, sometimes lifted and dropped into a modified gutbuster
o Superman Spear (Diving spear, sometimes to a cornered opponent)
* With Chris Bosh
o Finishing moves
+ Maximum Bosh by Bosh followed by a spinebuster by Lost
+ Northern lights suplex by Lost into a pendulum backbreaker by Bosh
o Signature moves
+ Cutter by Lost into an over the knee gutbuster by Bosh
* With Joey Ryan
o Finishing moves
+ Extinction Agenda (Backbreaker hold (Ryan) / Diving elbow drop (Lost) combination)[30]
+ Ryan throws an opponent off the top turnbuckle to Lost, who hits a mid-air cutter[31]
o Signature moves
+ Reverse thrown inverted Death Valley driver by Lost into a sitout facebuster by Ryan
+ Double superkick
Favorite Matches:
Vs. Davey Richards (PWG's Horror Business, 2006) - The single-greatest match on this show, and it had me saying "Where the FUCK did THIS match come from?!". Richards, before being known as one of the kings in the independent wrestling scene, was fresh off of his BOLA 2006 victory, and him and Lost put on a masterpiece of a singles match. These two just gelled, and it proved why Scott Lost deserved to always be in the top spots on PWG's cards, even if that didn't ALWAYS happen.
Vs. Alex Shelley (PWG's Astonishing X-Mas, 2005) - One of the greatest openers in PWG's history, this match was long, scientific, and never slowed down. Two of the greatest technical wrestlers going at it in the opener of your show is always a great way to get the fans into your show, especially if they were first-timers.
With Chris Bosh Vs. Scorpio Skyy and Quicksilver - Mask Vs. Titles (PWG's Second Bicentennial Anniversary Show, Night 1) - I'v spoken of this match already. Not enough good can be said about it,
and I highly suggest anyone pick up the show this is on, or the "SELLS OUT" DVD, just for this match. Both teams delivered, and it still stands out to me as one of the most respected tag matches PWG ever saw. The ending was dramatic, beautiful, and in the end, everyone came out looking great. Look for that Superman SPEAR into the bridging pin. It's a thing of beauty.
With Joey Ryan and Karl "The Machine Gun" Anderson (The DYNASTY INTERNATIONAL!@) Vs. The Young Bucks and Paul London (PWG's Express Written Consent, 2009) - This was London's return match
back from the WWE, and what better way to have him come back then to put him in the ring with 5 of PWG's very best. This turned into one of the most entertaining main events I have ever seen. Even Paul London showing several signs of ring rust couldn't even bring this match down. This match had some of the most amazing action and pace during the last half, and Lost stole the show for me. His "fuck you"'s towards London (even performing his Dropsault a tad better than good ole' Paul), his awesome Ace Crusher on the ring Apron, to his absolutely jaw-dropping head-drop from Nick Jackson's Spike Hurracanrana, all helped make this match THAT MORE special. Not only that, but he took the pinfall after one of the most un-kick-out-able combinations of high flying moves i'v ever seen. I also believe it is this match where he came up with a new move for himself: when he gets thrown into the corner, the opponent charges him and he reverses it by just jumping up and stomping their chest into the ground. It's pretty badass.
See this match.
Vs. SHINGO (PWG's Battle of Los Angeles 2007) - As good of an undercard tournament match as you'll ever find, this was Strong-Style Vs. Technical in the purest sense, with Lost even showing great heel work, as he tends to do (in spades, at that). I mean shit, the guy reverses a leap frog into the most stylish low-blow you'll ever come across. And for that, you have to respect him. If you can't, we can't be friends.
Vs. Bryan Danielson (PWG's Gentle Art Of Making Enemies, 2009) - INTENSE. That is the one word to describe this match, for The American Dragon and Scott Lost put on a classic on this night. These two tore into eachother, and it just never slowed down. This was straight-up violent, with Lost and Danielson pulling out all stops to put eachother away. My stand-out spot? Probably how Lost SUPERMAN SPEARED HIMSELF INTO DRAGON, jumping over about 4-5 chairs in the process.
The man flew.
Vs. Scorpio Skyy - I-Quit Match (PWG's Chanukah Chaos (Shhh, the C's Are Silent!), 2005) - My absolute favorite singles match with Scott Lost ever. These two took the standard I-Quit formula, didn't add any nonsense to it (and, in fact, kept the nonsense that is found in most I-Quit matches to a minimum), and absolutely hit a grand slam in the main event. This was violent, innovative, and had a fantastic ending. This, along with Super Dragon and Kevin Steen's Guerrilla Warfare a week later, are perfect examples of how you end a feud PROPERLY. Not many people are good enough to pull something like this off, but God Dammit, Scott Lost and Scorpio Skyy ARE that good.
Vs. Scorpio Skyy (After School Special, 2005) - Scientific Wrestling 101. Before one said I-Quit, they both had to have a straight-up singles match. This match is filled with Intensity, creative reversals, and just an absolutely great story. This only made the feud even better, and given the controversial ending, it lead to the I-Quit match that made both men PWG Main Event Staples in my eyes.
Vs. Joey Ryan - Ladder Match to Determine the Sole Possessor of the PWG Tag Titles (PWG's The Next Show, 2004) - These two always have kickass matches with eachother, and this time it was no different. Lost and Ryan put on a great, intense ladder match, and I don't wanna spoil it for you, but Lost does one of the most absolutely most beautiful spots i'v ever seen in a ladder match. You have to see it to believe it. It's beautiful, breathtaking, and picture-perfect in execution.
Vs. Alex Shelley (Threemendous 2, 2009) - The first singles match of the night on Threemendous 2 was a doozy, and Alex Shelley and Scott Lost Upped their performance from 2005 and delivered a mat classic. At one point, Lost fucks up, for the first time in my memory, the around-the-ring-post dropkick. Being the PROFESSIONAL that he is, though, he continued on, shrugged to the crowd, as if to say "hey,
it can happen", and continued on in one of the better singles matches you'll ever see on ANY UNDERCARD, ANYWHERE.
With the Cutler Bros. Vs Los Luchas and Scorpio Skyy (PWG's "99") - This is a match where Scott Lost will stand out. I'm just gonna copy and paste a man's description of his performance in this match. His name is Folby:
"My associate is a big fan of Scott Lost but nothing stuck with me from the last show, so he couldn't have been too impressive, right? WRONG. Stop fucking assuming things about Scott Lost, you're making a fool of yourself. Scott Lost is a man who gets things. I watched him walk out to the ring and was taken aback by the look in his eyes. This isn't a guy coming out for the opener, or a guy looking around the building, it's a guy coming out for a fight, a fight that matters to him. He stayed like that the whole match, focusing on his opponents or the referee. I watched him, waiting for him to slip up, start doing that thing where he starts tracking position in the ring and thinking about where the next dive is going, but he never did. He's really good at the details, leaning back for leverage when he hooks the leg, or pulling the arm in before he pins someone. OH ALSO HE MURDERS FOOLS. He broke up a pin by stomping on the back of someone's head, his suplexes hang in the air before he slams people around, and he obliterated one of Los Luchas with a DDT. Lost wins with a simple kick to the face. "
Couldn't have said it better myself.
A Tribute Video to Scott Lost:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZllmguw ... EqmMmVvMXU...You know what, screw it. Scott Lost has great-to-amazing matches all the time, and any time you see him on a show, just watch one of his matches. The guy is a straight-up WRESTLER, and he BRINGS IT! I have yet to see any of his stuff from the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles and beyond (he apparently had a fantastic match with kenny Omega at BOLA 2009, and a kickass match with Akira Tozawa at their last show), but i'm sure i'll be just as impressed with him as I always am.
The man helped build an entire company, obliterated Super Dragon along with the Dynasty, and helped bring Balance to Indy Wrestling. Ok, maybe not that, but you get the picture.
On July 30th, Scott Lost will be having his retirement match against his greatest opponent - Scorpio Skyy. Skyy helped Chris Bosh put on the singles match of the year in 2008, and him and Lost are surely going to
have one of the stand-out contests of that show. It will hopefully be the main event, and by God, these two deserve it. For all that he has done in that ring, Scott Lost deserves to go out like a champion, for he has a HEART OF A CHAMPION, so sayeth Excalibur.
Thank you, Scott Lost.
Thank you for helping to make me a true believer in Independent Pro Wrestling.
Thank you for standing out amongst the rest.
Thank you for making Super Dragon tap out to the Sharpshooter.
Thank you for making me say "OH SHIT!" countless times over.
Thank you for being The Professional.
You were the Ace of PWG.
You were Scott Lost.
-Cameron Fowler