CREDIT: Wrestlinfan4eva

A show that featured the SoCal debuts of Matt Stryker, who is IMO one of the best technical wrestlers in the US today, and IWA-MS Heavyweight champion Danny Daniels, who is one of the best mat workers, was one I couldn't miss. APW-LA put on a good show (not like the last one) with an emotional retirement from a "Gigolo" and a hot main event that was simply awesome and is for sure a Match of the Month contender. A few minor roadblocks were thrown at me, but I conquered them.

I arrived at the building 7 minutes after 8, thinking a match had just finished, to see Steve Pain and Infernal in the ring with Lil' CHolo just entering. Cholo said some things to the 2 about not having matches tonight, so he decided for the 3 to have a match.

This was a real good opener. Beginning was fast paced with the 3 trying to land their moves on each other. Then, of course, your triple team moves were involved. Dives to the outside, followed by pin attempts and more sweet moves. Ending came when Infernal was thrown the outside, Cholo then nailed Pain with a one of his finishers that I can't really describe.

WTF? All of a sudden some familiar music hit that I haven't heard in a long time, Pogo The Clown came out and of course destroyed the 2 (Cholo left before he could be attacked). once again, WTF?

Vennis DeMarco (AKA Vennis The Mennis) wnet up against Billy Blade. Blade used his lethal kicks on DeMarco. Ending came when DeMarco hit Blade with if I remember correctly, a somewhat of a front face Pump Handle Slam. Match was OK, but after following a nice opener you couldn't think much. Should have been the opener.

"Faint" by LP hit and a guy I have never seen before came out (His name was Dana Lee). Slymm was his opponent. Match was fun, a David vs. Goliath match with Slymm dominating. Slymm hit his finisher (The one where he has them in position for a Fallaway slam, then swings them over into a Rock Bottom) for the duke.

After the match, Dynamite D was gonna interview Slymm, but Adam Pearce (and Mr. Vanderpyle) came out. Pearce told Slymm to get out of the ring, then told him again (this time in "Gangster" slang). Pearce then slapped Slymm which caused him to attack him. Slymm then went after Vanderpyle and was going to swing, but Pearce, who got out of the ring right before, brought a chair into the ring and blasyed Slymm with it before fleeing the scene.

Joey Ryan came out after and was set to take on Excalibur. Disco Machine's theme hit and he came out, along with Excalibur, who was in a wheelchair! Disco tolled Ryan that he severely handicapped Excalibur after he hit him with a chair while he was flying over the top rope from the last show. Disco then asked Excalibur if he can wrestle Joey for him, Excalibur, in a mentally challenged voice, said yes. Through out this match I was laughing really hard at the way Excalibur looked and what he did. I thoguht I was gonna die. The match it self good, some back and forth action from the 2. Ending came after Joey speared referee Rick Knox. Disco nailed the choken-breaker, but no ref to make the count. Joey managed to get up and attacked the Disco one. Joey positioned him on the top rope and hit the Duff Drop (2nd rope Neckbreaker) and we all thought Joey would go for the pin, instead, he brought in a chair and the handicapped Excalibur into the ring. Joey was gonna hit a Piledriver on Excalibur, but some how Excalibur regained his healthy self and hit a TIGERRRRRRR DRIVERRRRRRRRRRR '85 on Joey. Disco made the pin for the 3.

Scorpio Sky and Scott Lost was a real good matchup. The 2 went at it back and forth. The ending saw Scorp hit the Final Solution on Lost, but he kicked out! Lost got up and nailed Scorp with his own finisher! Scorp kicked out! Scorp then rolled up Scott for the duke (I may be wrong on the finish so don't bitch at me). NEW APW-LA Lightweight Champion! Sky now holds the Rev Pro and APW-LA Light/Junior weight titles, congrats to him on that! It was kind of weird that Scorp won, I mean it just came out of no where. Good match!

Before intermission came James Choi came out and started to blast Cholo. Cholo came out and Choi was still talking crap. Choi said look what he (Cholo) did to him (Choi had a bandaged on his neck and his arm in a cast). Choi said he still wanted to fight Cholo in their scheduled dog collar match. Cholo was leaving an Choi attacked him with a dog chain. He continued his assault before Refs and security were able to brake it up.

Coming back from intermission, Steve Rizzano came out. He gave a very emotional speech. He mentioned that he had problems with his spine (If I remember, he had 3 herniated disc in his back) as well as some other things. Some wrestlers came out from the back and stood on the ring before Rizzano announced his retirement. Fans were standing up and applaudingRizzano, thanking him for his hard work.

After that emotional speech, "The Brow" came out to face Frankie Kazarian. This was a good match. Stryker was good, but not what I saw on the ROH tapes. The beginning of the match consisted of 5 minutes of show boating! WTF? Kazarian hit the Wave Of The Future of the 3.

Danny Daniels vs. Adam Pearce was a real good match, straight wrestling with only 1 dive added into the mix. Before the match began a fan kept on shouting things at Vanderpyle and Pearce. Pearce got the mic and told him if he shouted "Toll trime" again he was gonna leave, he continued; so Pearce and 'Pyle left. They then returned and 'Pyle got upset at the fan and wanted to start something with him (like all mangers do)> We then see a horrible, horrible sight when 'Pyle takes off all his clothing covering his chest *shudders*. The match was gonig kind of slow in the beginning, but picked up in no time. Crowd was into it, cheering Daniels on and booing Pearce. Ending was real good with Daniels almost getting near falls. Pearce managed to get up and distract the refree before he hit Daniles in the jews. Peacre hit a Piledriver and it looked like we might see a new IWA-MS Champ, but after the refs hand was about to hit the mat for the 3 Slymm came out and got revenge on Pearce. Pearce was able to flee outside. Daniles got on the mic and said he didn't come out here for a countout; he finished it off by saying its not over yet. We might see Daniels agaqin, YAY!

Main event was just awesome. Definetly a match of the month contender. Beginning was fast paced, Dragon tried to take out Grimes, but couldn't get the job done. Match broke out to the floor with Grimes dominating; hitting a running powerbomb (not dropping Dragon on the floor) into one of the walls. Match went outside the building where I thoguht Grimes would do a high risk move off the U-Haul. Back into the building. 1 thing I will mention here is Dragon trying to German Suplex Grimes, but couldn't get him over as Grimes landed on Dragon's chest onto the floor, SICK! SD then put Grimes on a table outside, he climbed up to the top turnbuckle and hit a senton. After more sweet ass action Grimes was about to finish off Dragon before Pearce came out and attacked him. This led to Team Chsimo coming out and attacking Pearce, then Grimes. Grimes battled them off before Dragon was able to get a roll up for the win. Grimes then challenged Dragon next week in Oakland for APW's Halloween Hell. Dragon flipped off Grimes while leaving.

Tape is definetly worth getting. We already know Grimes is a good mat worker, but if you want to see more of his non-deathmatch work this is the tpae to see. As I close for now I want to say I wanna see Grimes/Dragon 2!

10/18/03

APW-LA made a decent showing with "Halloween Hell" on the 18th. The first half of the show was somewhat slow, but by the fourth match and through to the brutal main event, things picked up and got much better.

APW-LA's Hardcore Hell , 10/18/03 in Newhall, CA
Attendance: Around 100

Lil Cholo over Steve Pain and Infernal
This was a pretty good opener that had some very innovative three-man moves. I liked that there wasn't really a point where one guy was dead while the other two fought, and it kept the three-way fresh and exciting. At one point Cholo hit a nice T-Bone suplex on Steve Pain that sent him into Infernal who was set up in a Tree of Woe and the spot looked great. Cholo ended up finishing it off with a version of the Vertabreaker on Steve Pain. After this, Pogo came in and proceeded to destroy Pain, Infernal, & Silver Tyger for reasons I won't even try to comprehend and it was just generally a pointless segment in my eyes.

Venice DeMarco over Billy Blade [11:07]
After a hot opener, this match was pretty flat. It was also a heel vs. heel so that didn't do much for crowd reaction either. Things didn't really pick up until Blade's valet (I didn't catch her name) got involved, and then it became an issue of how the girl's presence would play out. There was some solid ring-work but the crowd didn't seem into it at all. DeMarco finished things with something almost like a DVD into a Falcon Arrow type maneuver.

Babi Slymm over Dana Lee [4:37]
This match was a squash but it sure was fun to watch. Slymm had a great time toying with Lee and the crowd enjoyed Lee's futility. The quick match had some good crisp work from both guys (even though Lee only ever really scored a drop-kick or two) and Slymm finished things with a whirling urinage from a fall-away position. After the match, Dynamite D was attempting to interview Slymm when Pearce came out and told Slymm to get out. This led to a brief scuffle in whcih Pearce hit Slymm with one of the stiffest chair shots I've ever heard. Overall, a fun little segment that set up for later in the evening.

Disco Machine over Joey Ryan [13:30]
This was supposed to be Joey/Excalibur, but as Disco explained to the crowd, Ex was knocked retarded by the chair shot from last show. Disco took Ex's place and we had our match. I have to say that I almost feel bad for Joey and Disco because the crowd had a hard time paying attention to the match with Excalbur's handi-capped antics. The good majority of the people that could see him were crying with laughter. That said, Disco and Joey still worked a nice match with good specifics like Joey following up a Suplex Series from Disco with one of his own, but he finished it with a super-plex instead. After accidentally bumped the ref, he was laid out by Disco's choke-slam on the knee. No ref to make the count, so the guys continued. Joey ended up laying out Disco with his Duff Drop and then instead of going for the win, thought he would further cripple the already retarded Excalibur. As Joey tried to plant him on the chair, Excalibur miraculously recovered and delivered a deadly Tiger Driver onto the chair. After rousing the ref, Excalibur regressed to his mentally handicapped state in his wheel-chair as Disco picked up the duke.

Scorpio Sky over Scott Lost to win the APW-LA Lightweight Championship [10:23]
Wow, this was the best match of the first half of the night, and definitely one of the best of the night. Lost and Scorpio started hot and kept the intensity up during the whole match. I have always been impressed by Scorpio's truly innovative offense and tonight was no different as he pulled off some very pretty pins and other moves. For the majority of the match, Sky kept trying to apply his triangle choke and Lost kept finding ways to get out of it. During mid-match, Sky hit a great diving senton bomb to the outside that the fans appreciated greatly. After the final-solution and subsequent kick outs from both ben, Sky reversed Lost's attempt at the Vertabreaker 2 and rolled him up in a small package to become the new APW-LA Lightweight champ. Props to Sky for now having two straps.

James Choi came out asked Cholo for their dog-collar match, despite Choi's injuires. Cholo came out and refused to fight Choi in his injured condition. Choi then proceeded to choke out Cholo with a chain as secuirty pretty much stood there for a good five minutes. After a lengthy beat-down, secuitry and referees finally managed to restrain Choi and get him to the back.

After intermission, there was a 10-toll count for Stu Hart.

Next, Steve Rizanno came out and delivered a very powerful retirment speech. While I haven't ever really seen the guy in-ring, you have to respect his contributions to the business and you could tell that this was not easy for him. It was cool to see some of the guys come out and line the ring during his farewell.

Somewhere around here, they needed to kill some time so the ring-announcer pointed out Big Schwag, Dynamite D, and Bo Cooper. Something I don't understand is that although Cooper is the APW-CC champ, he wasn't on the APW-LA card, even though he was there.

Frankie Kazarian over Matt Stryker [14:06]
These two guys produced a fun match that was driven primarily by charisma and fan-interaction. The two took their time getting things going with constant bantering that got the crowd hot. Some very nice technical work from Stryker as he worked various upper body submissions on Frankie. At one point, Frankie kipped-up out of a sub and hit a mule-kick in one fluid motion that was incredible. These guys worked fairly stiff with each other, as evidenced by a really nasty Un-prettier by Stryker. After a series of reversals in the corner, Frankie planted Stryker with his Wave of the Future to get the victory.

Danny Daniels over Adam Pearce by Count-Out to retain the IWA-MS Heavyweight Championship
To start off, Adam Pearce is ridiculously under-rated in my mind. He doesn't gernerate much hype on-line but every match I have ever seen him in has been remarkable. He didn't disappoint tonight as Pearce and Daniels worked a really charged match that had the crowd all over Pearce and Vanderpyle. At one point, Vanderpyle got hot enough to lose his shirt in a sight that will unfortunately always be burned onto my eyes. Funny stuff nonetheless. And as well, according to Vanderpyle, I suck. Moving back to the in-ring action, Pearce completely and totally dominated Daniels. They chopped the bejesus out of one another and other really stiff work. Pearce worked a funny spot with the female ref that lead to him getting slapped and allowing Daniels to go on the offensive, hitting a nice flatliner and an equally gross Kryptonite Krunch onto his knee. After bumping Pearce and Vanderpyle simultaneously to the floor, Daniels hit a good flip-splash to the outside. Back in the ring, Pearce hit a low-blow and a nice pile-driver that would have seen a new champ had Babi Slymm not come out to interrupt things. Slymm and Pearce than battled to the outside, getting Pearce counted out. Post match, Daniels said that he wants more than a count-out victory and we'll see him and the Scrap Daddy one more time. In my book, that's a great thing.

Super Dragon over Vic Grimes in a No-DQ, Falls Count Anywhere Match to become the #1 Contender to the APW-LA Heavyweight Title [18:11]
WOW. I'll admit that at first I was skeptical about how a match between these two would work out, but they proceeded to put on a brutal show that took them all over the venue. Dragon started off quick by just beating the hell out of Grimes with stiff forearms and other strikes. After a good five minutes of Dragon whooping the shit out of him, Grimes finally hit an alley-oop to slow Dragons onslaught. They then powedered and Vic threw Dragon through some chairs. After picking him up, he whipped him into a cement column, then proceeded to powerbomb him into the column whcih earned a "Holy Shit" from the crwod. The two then moved out the front door and worked around to the side, with Grimes absolutely owning Dragon. At one point, he almost killed a girl in the stands as he planted Dragons face in the door right next to her. Once inside, Dragon tried to hit a German Suplex to the floor, but couldn't get Grimes over his head, and thus he took the whole thing on himself. Poor Dragon, that had to hurt. After taking Grimes down wtih a suplex onto the floor, Dragon set up Grimes on a table. Dragon then proceeded to hit his infamous Senton off the top-rope through the table which was simply amazing. He got great height and it looked like Vic was dead. After rolling Grimes back in the ring, Dragon hit his pattented foot-stomp from each of the three ropes. Grimes went back onto the offensive and put Dragon into the corner from which he proceeded to deliver a gruesome headbutt to Dragon's bowls, earning a "No More Babies" chant. Things continued and Dragon ended up catching Vic with his spring-board spinning heel kick to the back of the head that had Scrub marking out like a little girl. Pearce then ran in and roughed up both men before Team Chizmo made the save. After trying to rough up Grimes and getting bombed for their troubles, Dragon rolled up Grimes out of nowhere to win the #1 contendership.

All in all, it was a fun show but the small crowd definitely hurt the matches from being as hot as they could be. Though I enjoyed myself and it was a good show, the other Newhall shows that I've seen were better. I can't wait till I belive it was December 5th to see the next show, as they are some good storylines leading in.