Hear the Guerrilla Roar
Every year, one of the pre-eminent promotions, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, puts on a spectacular 3-day event called The Battle of Los Angeles, where some of the top indy performers in the world battle it out for top honors, and the card for this year is nothing short of phenomenal. The first night alone is pretty much a wrestling geek's dream come true.
I mean last night's show included Dalton Castle, Chris Hero, Zack Sabre, Jr., Will Ospreay, Marty Scrull, Adam Cole, The Young Bucks, Matt Freakin' Sydal, and John Hennigan. Jesus! (No, Jesus didn't show up, but he might look like Adam Cole if he did... who knows?)
You can count on PWG to deliver the goods. Their shows are outstanding.
There are so many promotions in Southern California. I was pretty entrenched for a while, but I became disillusioned by the number of promotions who were just playing it safe... trying to be WWE Lite... and some were bargain basement, but there was one promotion you could always count on and that was and still is PWG.
I can't help but think that there are so many promotions in Southern California now that you don't know who to support, and in my previous blog called Everybody Wants to Rule the World, I talk about challenging promotions to figure out their brand and make sure that they know their audience. Maybe it's time to take a look at some of the promotions around Southern California and maybe suggest that some of the smaller promotions might want to come together to really create something as extraordinary as PWG.
Hollywood is the Entertainment Capital of the World. Or so they say (what is with this crappy Summer Movie season?!) Southern California should a premiere destination spot for pro wrestling. This is where people should be saying "Shit!! Did you just see that?!"
PWG delivers time and time again, but it's not PWG's responsibility to carry the whole area. Quality competition can elevate everyone. I mean, did you just see the Cruiserweight Classic? Wrestling can be that good anywhere. It's a choice.
I hope that the Socal Promotions "Smarten Up", look at what's working and what's not working, make some course corrections, and rise to new heights in 2017.
