5-Star Match Reviews: Bandido vs. Dragon Lee – PWG BOLA 2019

Whether we want to admit it or not, Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) has played an important part in shaping the modern wrestling landscape in North America.

This small and “unique” indy federation out of California was instrumental in helping many of today’s biggest stars either get their foot in the door or bring them to something of a larger stage. Central to PWG’s importance in this ‘wrestler builder’ project has been the Battle Of Los Angeles, which is PWG’s premier annual tournament with a unique format. It’s split over three night, one for each bracket of eight participants, with the winners of each facing off in a three-way elimination match on the final night. Wrestlers from all over the independent world flock to PWG in the hopes of winning the tournament and making a big name for themselves.

Although the style of wrestling put on by PWG leaves a lot to be desired and is DEFINITELY an acquired taste, BOLA’s results speak for themselves. The tournament has featured a bevy of participants over the past two decades including AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, Kevin Owens, El Generico, Kenny Omega, Claudio Castagnoli, Tyler Black, both Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Drew Galloway, and many others. Previous winners include Generico, Omega, Ricochet, Zack Sabre, Jr., Kyle O’Reilly, and Adam Cole.

While it’d be hard to compare BOLA to King of the Ring, the Champion Carnival, or the G1 Climax, this PWG tournament has served as an important stepping stone for wrestlers on the American indies looking to move upwards and onwards to bigger things. And that’s what these lucha libres hoped to achieve in the 2019 edition of the tournament.

The Story

Bandido was the favorite to win the three-night tournament and had a pretty strong showing for on the first two nights. Though he was on the losing side in a tag match on night one he wasn’t the one who took the fall. On night two he defeated Puma King to win the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, for what that’s worth. He was looking strong as he made his way up the ladder, but he found a pretty hard stop in Dragon Lee.

Both guys were around the same age and size but Bandido had three more years’ worth of experience wrestling all over the world. It was unwise to discount Dragon Lee as he was already making just as big of a name for himself from his matches all over the world as well. If there was anyone that could pull off a surprise win it was Lee, but could be beat the tournament favorite and one of the biggest stars in lucha at the time?

The Match

This took place on September 22, 2019.

Both guys hug to start things off and then do a quick pose. Lee knees Bandido in the gut but Bandido returns in kind. Bandido charges to the opposite ropes but Lee hits a big running dropkick that sends Bandido to the floor. Lee follows with a suicide dive into a spear (not sure if Excalibur is accurate when he calls it a topé suicida) and then back in the ring he lands a deadlift bridging German suplex for a two-count.

Lee charges from the opposite corner but Bandido dodges and sets him up on the apron. Lee blocks with a kick and starts climbing a turnbuckle but Bandido answers with a kick of his own. Bandido kicks Lee again and climbs to the top turnbuckle. Lee just stands there staring upwards and then breaks Bandido’s fall as he lands a quabrada/moonsault press from the top rope to the floor.

Back in the ring Bandido hits a Code Red for two. Lee reverses a corner whip and does the Tetsuya Naito leg sweep/springboard basement dropkick combo followed by a running basement dropkick. He does the LiJ pose in the ring but the crowd chants Bandido’s name instead. In response, Lee goes for the running over-the-ropes jumping headscissor but Bandido catches him and hits a powerbomb on the apron.

Bandido ascends a turnbuckle in preparation for some reverse dive and Lee gets up and moves as smoothly as before that powerbomb. They struggle in the corner and somehow manage to setup a diving double stomp from the top rope onto the apron and then back to the floor.

The ref begins his twenty ring-out count and both guys make it in at nineteen with Lee clutching one of his knees. They do the kneeling forearm exchange and fight to their feet as the crowd remains firmly behind Bandido. Lee hits a bicycle knee strike and charges off the ropes but Bandido counters with an Atlantida backbreaker into a roundhouse kick. Bandido rushes the ropes but Lee sidesteps and hits a release German which Bandido no-sells. A kick exchange is followed with a poisoned Frankensteiner by Lee and a standing Spanish Fly by Bandido. Both men go down and the crowd jump to their feet.

The crowd chants “lucha libre” as Lee charges at Bandido in a corner. Bandido goes for a counter enzuigiri but Lee catches his foot and deadlifts him into a suplex position, only for Bandido to escape. We get a short dramatic pose-down and then Bandido hits a corner enzuigiri. Then both men balance on the top rope and Bandido picks Lee up and hits a top-rope blockbuster/fallaway powerslam moonsault-type thing…for a one-count. And not only does Dragon Lee kick out at one, he hulks up at one. He charges but Bandido counters with a corner step-up enzuigiri. Bandido goes for some follow-up move but Lee counters out of nowhere with something apparently called desnucadora. One, two, Bandido survives.

Lee charges again but runs into a pop-up kneelift. Bandido charges for a Kenny Omega-style V-Trigger but Lee counters with a wheelbarrow into a sunset flip for a two-count. Lee lands a kneelift and goes for a Last Ride Powerbomb. Bandido counters that with a Canadian Destroyer. After “selling exhaustion” Bandido lands a convoluted German suplex apparently called the 21-plex and then rolls over for another bridging German to get the three-count and advance to the tournament final.

Winner after 11:53: Bandido

Review

This was a disappointing match that didn’t have all that much to offer. It was twelve minutes of rudderless chaos that one can find on any weekly episode of AEW programming. It was just move after move with barely any selling or significant assigned to one particular action or another. They tried to sell it as modern lucha (even the crowd tried to call it such) but that would be an insult to actual luchadors. This came across as a ridiculous live action video game exchange of maneuvers without even the cartoonish surrealism or extra animation. I don’t know how they did it but both guys managed to come across as animated and empty at the same time.

There isn’t even all that much historic value or wow factor to it because there wasn’t anything exceptional about it. Everything seen and done here was either done before or out-done later. The double stomp, poisoned rana, Canadian Destroyer, and convoluted versions of the German suplex have all been done to death. They could’ve had some special value but they didn’t since both these guys opted to no-sell basically everything. They treated the match as a collection of convoluted spots and sequences without any consideration of flow or pacing from one to the other. Nothing had any consequence aside and the impact was just bedazzlement for its own sake without creating anything of substance. As a result, what we were left with is an empty display of flash and noise, like a haphazard fireworks display done on a low-tier holiday just for the sake of getting an excuse to blow something up.

Final Rating: **1/2

There were some cool moves and displays of acrobatics here but by and large this isn’t worth revisiting or even considering as some kind of game-changing epic. It was just a my-turn-your-turn seesaw exchange that didn’t lend itself to be taken seriously. It couldn’t even be called an exhibition of lucha libre because I’ve seen those kinds of matches and there tends to be much more nail-biting tension in those, especially in the high-stakes ones.

But if you are interested in seeing a nonsensical MOVEZ exchange involving at least one masked wrestler then you’re probably better off watching Dragon Lee’s matches with either Hiromu from NJPW’s The New Beginning 2017 or his match with Will Ospreay from Dominion 2019. At least those accomplished something and left the viewer with a sense of satisfaction; this match was a forgettable display that only gets any sort of acknowledgment because it made some list somewhere on the internet undeservingly.

Thanks for reading.