home now, Bandido wins BOLA (Yes!,) the other two finalists were Jonathan Gresham and David Starr. 2 more signings today for a total of 5 this weekend. I will post more of a recap tomorrow after my medical appointment.
Amazing work! Just looking at some of the unreleased names involved in BOLA has me dreaming of who you might have spoken with. Looking forward to your recap. They're always something I look forward to after the events you attend.
OK, here is more of a recap from BOLA Night 3 last night
Before BOLA I checked out of my hotel where I was staying at in downtown Los Angeles and went across the street at LA Live to have lunch at Shaquiille O'Neal's restaurant Shaquille's. I ordered the Kobe Burger which was awesome with its kobe (Japanese meat) beef as the burger. I then went to the Yard House at LA Live for a few beers because they had more TVs to watch football until it was time to go to the Globe Theater a few blocks away for BOLA Night 3.
Round 2 matches Dragon Lee defeated Jake Atlas.
A great match to open Night 3. Again, Jake Atlas is one of the top names that either AEW or the WWE should be looking at.
Bandido defeated Brody King
2 of my favorites. This was a lucha style match as Brody's original trainer taught him the lucha style.
Jonathan Gresham defeated A-Kid
Another really good match, and one you can now basically only see in PWG as Gresham last week said online that he has a signed an exclusive ROH contract and PWG is one of the few other feds that ROH allows their contracted talent to work at.
Joey Janela defeated Fenix
Janela won when he shifted Fenix's mask to cover his eyes and then hit him with a superkick.
Darby Allin defeated Pentagon Jr.
A little surprised about this result, but definitely not complaining as Allin is one of my personal favorite AEW wrestlers.
David Starr defeated PWG World Champion Jeff Cobb
This match definitely surprised me a little too as, even though the brackets are blind after the first round of the tournament, I did not expect the PWG World Champion to lose in the second round. Starr advanced after giving Cobb a title smash.
non-tournament tag matchDark Order defeated Rey Horus and Aramis.
This weekend was my first time seeing Aramis live (at least that I remember) and I was really impressed. Originally this was supposed to be a match between Aussie Open and the Dark Order and possibly for the PWG World Tag Team Championship if Aussie Open had defeated PWG World Tag Team Champions The Rascalz on Friday. But they had to change the lineup around as Mark Davis badly hurt his knee while doing warmups in the ring before Friday's show and he reportedly will be out for awhile.
Round 3/Semi-Finals matchesJonathan Gresham defeated Joey Janela to advance to the finals.
Gresham was reportedly ill during this tournament this weekend, but I could not tell that. An awesome weekend at PWG for Gresham.
Janela afterward said goodbye as he is one of the AEW wrestlers who has an exclusive contract once AEW starts their TV show.
Bandido defeated Dragon Lee to advance to the finals.
Absolutely a must see match!
David Starr defeated Darby Allin to advance to the finals.
Allin became the last AEW wrestler eliminated in BOLA. I did not see him but I was told Tony Khan was in attendance for this show again (I did see Tony Khan at PWG's Anniversary show last month.)
10 man non-tournament tag matchOrange Cassidy, Jungle Boy, Artemis Spencer, Caveman Ugg, and Paris Da Silva defeated Tony Deppen, Black Taurus, Kyle Fletcher, Mick Moretti, and Lucky Kid.
As usual, this annual tag match at BOLA (mostly involving wrestlers who lost in the first round on Nights 1 and 2) was heavy on comedy but I like this year's version of this match match much more so than previous years. When Paris Da Silva first appeared for this match,I did not know who he was in terms of wrestling yet he looked familiar to me. I asked Alex who he was and Alex told me "ring crew" and then I remembered he was one of the guys stacking chairs with me on Friday night after Night 2 so I was amazed to see him in the ring doing moves such as a perfectly timed 630 cutter (it might have been a 450 cutter or something else- I would need to rewatch the match- but he did great in this match.)
It turns out Paris Da Silva is a notable wrestler from Australia and every year there are a number of Australian wrestlers who volunteer as ring crew for BOLA hoping to get a chance to get their foot in the door at PWG. For example, Da Silva got an opportunity this year after a spot opened in this tag match when Mark Davis got hurt (moving Rey Horus and Aramis to the Dark Order match) and Laredo Kid could not make it. And for the past two years, Mick Moretti was one of the Australians working as ring crew during BOLA weekend and this year he got a spot in BOLA. Also, Caveman Ugg- whose Round 1 match was Thursday and not Friday- was part of the ring crew on Friday night, but I did not recognize him at the time as I had only seen him wrestle once- GCW on Mania weekend- and he was obviously not dressed and acting as his Caveman Ugg persona while tearing down the ring after the show.
Finals of BOLA Bandido defeated Jonathan Gresham and David Starr
- Gresham eliminated Starr due to referee stoppage
- Bandido eliminated Gresham, but it looked at times as if Gresham was going to win it. Rick Knox is such a great referee. I first thought it might be over when Knox started to call for the bell for another referee stoppage for Gresham only for Bandido to manage to continue the match. Very thrilled about Bandido winning BOLA. Bandido is one of my favorite wrestlers and definitely one of the top rising stars in wrestling today.
- Afterward, as usual, I helped my friend Alex stack the chairs as he is my friend and my ride home to Las Vegas and the quicker he gets done then the quicker we get to start our 4 1/2 to 5 hour drive. Plus I really don't want to wait outside the Globe Theater at around Midnight (on Friday night we saw someone spray painting the front of one of the stores near the Globe Theater right after we left.) The Australian wrestlers serving as the ring crew helped us out again. I did not know about PWG annually using Australian wrestlers as the ring crew for BOLA until last night, so I remember on Friday thinking wow where did PWG get this new ring crew lol as they were great in how hard they worked and the chairs got stacked much quicker than usual. As I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread, AEW's referee Aubrey (who I heard also helped with the set up on Thursday) also helped stack the chairs on Friday night and she was great too. She directed alot of the work and said things like "10 more chairs and we're drinking beers" which meant we were almost done.
There was at least one name I really wanted to talk to but did not get a chance, but I was really happy with the 5 signings I made for the game at BOLA this past weekend. Without giving anything away at least 1 of them was Australian (and that does not give anything away as there were by my count at least 6 Australian wrestlers without cards there this weekend.
) BOLA is my favorite wrestling event to attend every year and that was again the case this year. Night 3 was Show #49 of 2019 for me and also PWG Show #75 for me. Unfortunately, PWG Show #76 for me won't be for awhile as, after staying late to help out with the chairs after the other fans had left, I heard the date for the next PWG show. I won't say when it is as that is not my news to announce, but it does conflict with an upcoming overseas trip for me.
Now that BOLA 2019 has ended I am now looking forward to ROH's annual Death Before Dishonor weekend in Las Vegas which starts this Friday.
) BOLA is my favorite wrestling event to attend every year and that was again the case this year. Night 3 was Show #49 of 2019 for me and also PWG Show #75 for me. Unfortunately, PWG Show #76 for me won't be for awhile as, after staying late to help out with the chairs after the other fans had left, I heard the date for the next PWG show. I won't say when it is as that is not my news to announce, but it does conflict with an upcoming overseas trip for me. 