[9.0] "I'm not going to forget this event for the rest of my life. As a lifelong wrestling fan and someone who has attended a LOT of live wrestling, it was always a dream to attend a PWG event. Especially a BOLA if I could. Being from Scotland this was not very easy but during the planning for my semester abroad in California, PWG announced this show in January and I just had to go. I stayed up until like 5am just so I could buy tickets. The funny thing is, I was in California like a few days before saying to my roomates "hey, I'm going to L.A., see ya on monday." Now I was up in NorCal, about a 90 minute drive away from Sacramento so... quite a while away from L.A. Being the resourceful young student that I was, I booked a greyhound and endured a nine hour, cramped bus ride all the way down to L.A. If you've ever rode a greyhound bus you know it's full of the lowest members of society. It was... an experience. It was all worth it once I arrived though. These were also the first wrestling shows that I had attended since 2020 thanks to the COVID pandemic and man, it felt so good to be alongside wrestling fans again. I waited out in line and met an older guy named Alex who pretty much took me under his wing from the get go. He appreciated my story and the fact I was a student living in America for the first time, days in, at my first ever PWG show. Dude bought me merch, dinner, drinks and was just a great friend to enjoy wrestling with. I felt bad the entire time but he insisted. I'll never forget the hospitality he and his friends showed me over these two days and I am still in contact with him a little. I know these two nights aren't considered some of the best BOLA's and I kinda missed out on PWG's peak but these two shows really mean the world to me. What a time."

[8.0] "Post-surgery recovery is a good moment to watch wrestling shows and to catch up with PWG shows. Overall, it was a pretty great first-round show. Very solid bouts, at least, and some hidden gems in various styles as well. For sure, Bandido vs. Bailey rocked pretty hard. The highlight of the night, yeah."

[8.0] "Aramis vs Rey Horus ***; Blake Christian vs Wheeler Yuta ****; Buddy Matthews vs Jonah ***1/2; Daniel Garcia vs Kevin Blackwood ***3/4; Lio Rush vs Jack Cartwheel ***1/2; Black Taurus vs JD Drake ***1/2; Alex Shelley vs Lee Moriarty ***1/2; Bandido vs Mike Bailey ****1/4. Overall a great show filled with very good and interesting matchups."

[8.0] "First day of this BOLA is killer. Great main event, the rest is always good to see and nothing more to add."

[7.0] "Battle Of Los Angeles is the main tournament in the world of small promotions and big fans of fast and bright wrestling gather here and they get it in full. Let's go through the winners. Aramis worked out the standard match and saved his strength for the next round. Wheeler Yuta is doing great and this is clearly his year of progress, he is a big favorite. Buddy Matthews, as the most powerful participant, can count on a confident victory. Daniel Garcia surprised me for the first time and his serious attitude makes me happy. Lio Rush takes place as always thanks to the feline style and his dexterity is clearly useful to him. Black Taurus is the dark horse of the whole match, he can win, so easily and be eliminated in the next round. Alex Shelley is experienced and he knows how to go through tournaments like no one else, I would like his well-deserved victory if he continues to try very hard. Mike Bailey is the bright star of the whole year, after his absence from the US stage, he returned and again works as cool as in the best years. As a result, a good day of wrestling! PWGS make this day even better."

[7.0] "First round of 2022 BOLA had a lot of 'good-but-not-great' matches, but at this show from top to bottom, it was a show that had a little bit of everything. If you're cherry-picking, watch the Main Event. Aramis vs. Rey Horus was my second favorite MOTN, but that can be said for every other match if it happens to be your favorite style of pro-wrestling."

[5.0] "Pretty underwhelming show, with most matches being decent but bland, and only one being somewhat worth checking out. Horus vs Aramis was a bunch of generic and occasionally overly contrived lucha exchanges, though they still had alright technique and hit a few cool spots. ***. Yuta vs Christian was competent but pretty generic. Yuta had some good grappling work but was pretty stale apart from that, while Christian just hit all his usual mega-indy spots, all of which were quite athletic but again very generic and occasionally overly weak-looking. They had decent chemistry but didn't produce anything too interesting from it. ***. Jonah vs Matthews was another alright match. Their chemistry wasn't great, and they didn't produce anything too exciting, but Matthews was smooth, athletic, and explosive enough to keep the match interesting. Jonah was boring as always, with only a few mildly impactful strikes but otherwise looking annoyingly weak, slow, and sloppy. Quite overkill at the end. ***. Garcia vs Blackwood was the usual melodramatic 'worked-shoot' style match that Garcia always has. His forced character was really annoying, and his offence wasn't even aggressive or impactful enough to back it up. Blackwood was pretty much a non-entity, aside from a few stiff strikes. Their chemistry and pacing was decent, and some of their grappling and strike trades were okay, but their bigger exchanges/spots and their character work always felt pretty forced and underwhelming. ***. Rush vs Cartwheel was yet another merely alright match. They had a bunch of decently athletic and acrobatic exchanges back and forth, but also some annoyingly over-contrived spots, especially whenever they had to mirror each other while going 50/50. ***. Taurus vs Drake should have been a big powerhouse battle, but instead it was pretty basic and bland. They mostly just spammed strikes and hit a few dives. Drake's extended control period was very bland, and Taurus wasn't a compelling face-in-peril in response. Taurus' lucha stunts were good but sadly very rare, while Drake's own were pretty sloppy and clearly just done for the sake of cheap crowd pops because "omg that BIG guy can FLY? ! " . At least Taurus won. **3/4. Shelley vs Moriarty was a full-on technical battle and quite good. Shelley's work was all very competent and clean although quite basic, whereas Moriarty's work was far more creative and slick. Shelley's control work was, again, competent but bland, though I at least liked his hand-targeting. Moriarty's babyface-selling and fiery comeback were both good, and I liked his leg-targeting at the same time. Both sold their worked-over body parts well and hit some creative trades and counters based around them. ***1/4. Bailey vs Bandido was a very stereotypically forced 'epic' in the typical mega indy style. Lots of non-stop action and athleticism, but no proper pacing or psychology to hold any of it together. Mindless excitement and nothing more. ***1/4 - ***1/2"

[10.0] "A great show with 4 great matches and the rest of the matches being good, it was super fun, I really enjoy PWG and this was one of the memorable events."

[8.0] "Very good show for the night 1 of the first BOLA in three years, highly recommended event honestly. - Aramis vs. Rey Horus (***1/2) - Wheeler Yuta vs. Blake Christian (***3/4) - Buddy Matthews vs. JONAH (***1/2) - Daniel Garcia vs. Kevin Blackwood (****) - Lio Rush vs. Jack Cartwheel (***1/2) - Black Taurus vs. JD Drake (***3/4) - Alex Shelley vs. Lee Moriarty (***1/2) - Mike Bailey vs. Bandido (****1/2). A tremendous piece of indy wrestling right here."