[2015-08-28-PWG-Battle of Los Angeles 2015: Day One] Will Osprey vs Mark Andrews

[Phil Schneider]

This first round placed guys together who had worked each before or worked similar styles. It hurt a little on the dream match aspect of a tourney like this, but it did allow new guys to avoid awkwardness and show their stuff. This was a total blast, both guys are hitting very high difficulty flips and arm drags, I know my man Robert Bihari must have been losing his shit live, Andrews especially was just contorting his body in mid air with a variety of crazy takedowns, reminded of a taller Mascarita 2000, including one of the prettiest springboard ranas I have ever seen. Osprey was also really fast, and got crazy height on everything he did, his twirling kick looked like something out of a wire kung fu movie. Exactly the kind of opening round tourney debut showcase match you want to see.

[shoe]

It was a fun high spot oriented match. It had a lot of holy shit moments. It lacked a backbone of a story for me. I think this is the future of the business so I better be prepared for this style.

[WingedEagle]

Really enjoyed this and the British flyers in general. Their flying almost a stickiness to it, if that makes sense. Thought they did a good job letting this breathe as much as this kind of match can.

[Childs]

I straight up disliked this, and I've watched it twice now. Felt like a training session more than a match. They're athletic guys no doubt but all their big spots seemed too cutesy by half. And there was nary a control section in sight. I'm just too cranky for this kind of wrestling these days. At least they didn't fall into the PWG trap of overstaying their welcome.

[Grimmas]

I disliked this too. Maybe if i watched this in isolation I might had enjoyed it, but in the middle of that PWG show it sucked. There was so much useless nearfalls and high spots that nothing had meaning.

 

This match did stand out a little from the rest of the show thanks to Ospreay's really cool superkick variations. There was some cool spots and all, but Night 1 of BOLA was a putrid show through my eyes.

[Childs]

I agree about Night 1 but thought Night 2 was a big improvement and a legit excellent show.

[shoe]

It's amazing how much better night 2 was in comparison to night 1. Night 1 was so one dimensional.

[Ship Canal]

As a Brit who regularly attends Rev Pro shows it was great to hear the "OOSSS-SPRAAAYYY, OSSS-SPRRAAAAYY OSSPRAAAAY OOOOOHHH SPRRAAAAYYYY" chant has crossed the pond.

I thought this was a neat little high spot fest here that was perfect for the audience. Insane reversal mid air into a DDT from Andrews. STOP TELLING THE AUDIENCE TO "COMMEEE ONNN!" ANDREWS. This isn't my favourite style of match but its a ton of fun. Two reverse 'rana's just after that spot was used in the previous match meant they lost a lot of impact for me. Oh, and Ospreay completely shitcans selling his legs. He ALWAYS does this. I like him, but its so distracting. I can well understand the criticisms of those above: this isn't really a pro wrestling match to me, its acrobatics, but I can appreciate that too so long as I don't overdose on it. I found this far less egregious than the Inner City Machine Guns vs Evans/Angelico match on the same night, but perhaps that's because I have more invested in these guys as I watch one of them regularly in two different home based promotions and was sort of willing them to do well despite neither performing in a style that is my favourite.

3 PWL out of 5