This is the first show for APW LA, since changing it's name from GSCW and officialy teaming up with Roland Alexander's All Pro Wrestling. The attendance was a little down from the last couple shows, which can be attributed to no Sabu, who was there two shows ago, and possibly Kaos bringing in a few people last show to see him outside of XPW. Plus the NorCal versus SoCal angle had a lot of buzz going for it, but that was killed off.

The show started with Hardkore Kidd, El Jefe, and Adam Pearce coming out. They did a drawing of all the workers names to see who would get a title shot tonight, and Pearce won. Hardkore Kidd was upset Pearce would take the shot and he and El Jefe jumped Pearce. Pearce versus Hardkore Kidd was set for later in the night.

Gallinero 4 & Infernal over Silver Tyger & Quicksilver [7'33]
This was a really strong fast paced opener. Gallinero and Quicksilver both worked earlier in the day at the AWS show and neither looked particularly good there, but both were on here. Silver Tyger is really progressing. I remember about a year ago people would say that Silver Tyger is good for a couple minutes of the match but then he falls apart after that, but that has certainly changed. Infernal also looked good in the match. The openers job is to get the crowd into the show, and this match really did a great job of that, especially since it was about 90 degrees in the building and maybe a third of the crowd had already watched three hours of wrestling at AWS earlier in the day.

Next up was one of the most pointless angles in wrestling history, as Blade, known to the police as BJ Darden and known to inmates at the state penitentiary as "bitch", got in the ring and started a promo on promoter Henry Luna. That brought out Dave Getz and they had some sort of inaudible back and forth, which brought out Dynamite D who wants to be commissioner. Some stuff happened, the crowd chanted "this is pointless" and "boring" and James Watkins ran out and choked out Blade. Henry Luna came out, he got a few "You sold out chants", and told D they'd discuss it in the back, obviously due to seeing the crowds absolute hate for this angle.

Bo Cooper over Billy Blade [6'53]
If you are unfamiliar with some of the wrestlers on this show, Billy Blade isn't the same person as the previously mentioned Blade, who spent over a year in jail getting traded around like a Mookie Wilson baseball card. Billy Blade is a pretty decent worker who is also the promoter for APW Central Coast. I think Bo is a very underrated worker too. The match itself was solid, except it had one major flaw to it. A couple of shows ago when Joey Ryan faced Bo Cooper the match was clearly aimed at pushing Bo as a huge monster, actually that's how Bo has been booked since he started in the promotion. Therefore it makes no sense at all for Bo and Billy Blade to work a match where Billy Blade is giving Bo Cooper arm drags and such. All that work of building Bo as a monster goes down the drain in one match. A lot of times there's more to a match than the in-ring work, like the story behind it and the ongoing story in the promotion. Plus it's plain unrealistic for a guy Billy Blade's size to be over powering a guy like Bo Cooper. The match was technically sound, it just lacked in sense.

Disco Machine over Melissa by submission [6'35]
Melissa came out and complained about not having a match, so out comes Disco Machine, and now she has one. I thought this was a pretty decent match, but one problem I had with it was Disco seemed to be going to light on Melissa. When he wrestled Nikki (Sara Del Ray), he didn't hold back at all, but with Melissa you could really tell he was. Melissa however didn't hold back and her strikes didn't come off as weak and she'd actually follow through on a clothesline. It could be argued that in storyline Disco is reluctant to hit a girl, but then why was he so stiff on Nikki. If they are going to book intergender matches the female wrestlers should take the same punishment, and I've seen Melissa take it before. Other than that minor nitpick it was still a fun match.

Scorpio Sky over Chris Bosh [7'37]
A really good match. Both of these guys are really coming along. Sky is already becoming one of the top guys around. Within a year people will be talking about him on the same level as B-Boy, Super Dragon, etc. Chris Bosh has looked real impressive every time I've seen him and he's a real strong contender for rookie of the year, though it's a little early to start talking about that. Normally when you have two guys with their experience level in a match, it really leans towards the spotty side, but this match incorporated a lot of psychology into it and Scorpio has really improved on his transitions. I'd like to see a match with these two a year from now just to see how far they progress.

Joey Ryan over Lil' Cholo [9'41]
This was really an off match for these two. Both guys are normally really good and work together well, but this match was a real mess at times. Most of the blame appeared to be on Joey, who I'm guessing was a little shaken still from his match with Bigg Babi Slymm the night before, as he didn't look to be himself at AWS earlier in the day too.

Scott Lost over Excalibur to retain the APW LA Lightweight title [10'20]
I thought this was an excellent match. The only thing that could have made it better would be more explosions, and a possible appearance by Mecha-Godzilla. Scott won thanks to some interference by Joey Ryan. These guys really worked well together and it was a terrific match.

Hardkore Kidd over Adam Pearce to retain the APW LA Heavyweight title [7'01]
This was another great match. It started out as Hardkore Kidd's best match in GSCW/APW LA. Pearce is just so intense in his matches. I didn't care a lot for the finish, but at least it did have a purpose behind it, and keeps Pearce and Hardkore Kidd together as a team. I still would like to see a match between these two somewhere down the line.

B-Boy over Super Dragon, Bobby Quance, and Jardi Frantz [29'35]
-Super Dragon was eliminated by Jardi Frantz at 25'03
-Jardi Frantz eliminated by Bobby Quance at 25'52
-Bobby Quance eliminated by B-Boy at 29'53
This was as expected the match of the night, but it was far from perfect. The tag match featuring the same four on the last show was better, as was B-Boy versus Jardi Frantz a few shows ago. One thing that always gets me about elimination matches is when they break up other people's pins. Why would you stop someone from getting eliminated? There was a lot of submission moves in the match also, but none ever built to anything. Still the match was innovative at times and at one point B-Boy went for the shinning wizard on Dragon and Dragon was able to roll back and turn it into a half crab, which came off real well. It's probably time to start pushing these guys off in different directions, rather than burning everyone out on matches between these guys. Super Dragon and Rising Son wrestled so much in 2001 that I don't think anyone wants to see that match again still to this day.

Overall a very good show, but I think it came up short of the last two GSCW shows. I think one of the main things APW LA needs to work on is cutting down the promos, as the fans at the shows obviously care much more about the actual in-ring work, and a lot of their angles throughout their history have really fallen flat. And the other thing is consistency with their characters, such as Bo Cooper going from being a monster to getting tossed around by Billy Blade, although that might not be on the bookers.

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The Rock is scheduled to be at WWE Raw in San Diego tonight, and Kurt Angle should be making his return to WWE Smackdown Tuesday night in Anaheim. If anyone reading is going to either show and wants to send in a report, especially of the dark matches featuring regular SoCal guys, please feel free.

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FUSION is supposed to be running three shows in June, and we should have the lineups and venues up in the next day or so. They'll be running in Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and Indio.

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We are looking for EWF results from City of Industry on May 31st and Bakersfield on June 1st if anyone has them. Please send them to results@socaluncensored.com.

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WPW will be running a "Best of the West" tournament on Saturday July 19th at the Anaheim Indoor Marketplace (most likely indoors which is actually a nice venue). The show is supposed to feature top wrestlers from all over the West Coast.

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WCWA's next show is most likely going to take place on July 25th at the VFW in Lemon Grove.

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If you haven't had a chance yet, be sure to pick up a copy of the second issue of SCRAP Magazine. This is really a fantastic magazine that is a great thing for the SoCal scene. Rick Knox does a real top notch job with it. For ordering info contact Rick Knox at whoknox@pacbell.net.

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With the site still being worked on, and the 2003 SCU Road Trip coming up this week, there will be a little delay between Steve's Views. They should be back to being weekly by mid-June.

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Starting Wednesday the 4th up until Sunday the 8th send all reports, columns, and whatever else to Scrub@socaluncensored.com as I'll be in Las Vegas for the UFC show.

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Right now the plan for my next column is another SoCal history piece, but this time the history of the SoCal internet wrestling scene, unless something else comes up that pushes that to the back burner. I think it's something important to look at because over the last five years the Internet has probably done more for, and more to shape SoCal than any other territory in indy wrestling.

-Steve