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| Courtesy of Chris Kadillak (BTW I'm more handsome in person.) |
The Stats
I wrestled 77 matches this year. That's 11 more matches than last year. The most matches I wrestled in one month was 10 in June. I wrestled for 16 different companies but 8 of them were debuts. The most matches I wrestled for one company was 15 for NWA Hollywood. I won 3 championships this year, 2 more than last year. I was in 2 Ladder Matches and 1 Table Match. I also dislocated my left shoulder and tore the meniscus in my left knee.I left the year with a impressive 25-49-3 record. So in other words...I suck. Anyway, out of all the 77 matches this year I was able to narrow it down to the top eleven matches. It was tough but I'm happy with the list. These matches were selected due to a number of different factor but ultimately it came down to which matches were my personal favorites.
Honorable Mention: This match between me and Nick Madrid barely miss the cut.
Now that we're all warmed up without further ado, I present....
Ray Rosas' Top Eleven Matches of 2011
# 11 (6/17/2011) Match #135: Alternative Wrestling Show - AWS Lightweight Championship
vs. Sindarin (c)
When AWS made it's return in the Summer, I made my debut and challenged the Lightweight Champion Sindarin. It was a really fun match, one of the few matches I've had fun while I was wrestling it. I'm also proud of this match because we had a good American style wrestling match in front of the Florence and Main Lucha Libre fans and got a good reaction. Sindarin is criminally underrated. As far as I know, there is no video footage and very few photos of this match. Shame.
w/ Lucha Machine (c) vs. The RockNES Monsters
This was the Silver Heart Radicalz biggest challenge of the year. At times, I felt as a team we weren't ready for the Monsters. I'm glad I was wrong. 3 out of the 4 of us in that match were beat up from the night before but it didn't stop us from having a super fun match. For us and the fans. There's something about New Wave that brings out the best in Lucha Machine. He was all business that day. This match restored my confidence in our floundering tag team. I really enjoyed the light-hearted nature in this match.
# 9 (12/4/2011) Match #169: NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood
vs. SoCal Crazy
SoCal Crazy and I have had a few brief altercations. I touched on it a little bit in this BLOG. The match itself was as good as everyone expected to be if not better. I was really antsy for this match because my knee was really hurting that day for some reason. Plus, we were so late on the 18+ plus match card, I was worried the crowd would be too worn out for our match.
Luckily for us, the crowd came alive. I got knocked a little loopy when SoCal dove onto me on the outside. It didn't derail the match. It was good back and forth contest and I was able to bust out some new tricks. Like my new Go To Hell finishing maneuver. Look out for it in the next couple of weeks.
vs. Johnny Yuma
This was one of those matches where when I walked back through the curtain I was extremely happy with the work we left in the ring. Yuma and I both left with black eyes after this match...his was much worse than mine. It was kind of a throw away match because there was no build or heat behind it but the chemistry was there and everything flowed well. I'm still waiting to see if it will ever air. It was cut from the program due to time contraints. Shame again.
# 7 (9/23/2011) Match #159: Insane Wrestling League - IWL Heavyweight Championship
vs. Chris Kadillak vs. Paul London (c)
You can purchase this match as well as the entire show HERE.
# 6 (7/10/2011) Match #143: NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood - Hair vs. Hair
w/ Rico Dynamite and Peter Avalon vs. Ryan Taylor, Famous B, Jarek Matthews
The stakes couldn't be any higher than hair vs. hair. It was a good solid feud that led to a great match. This was a match that had so many variables that pushed it from amazing to epic. So many stories and rivalries were intertwined in one match. You have six very different personalities and styles going at it for almost 30 mins. (And I was in there for most of it.) I loved the drama and suspense of the elimination rules. But in the end the villians were defeated. Classic Story.
# 5 (7/15/2011) Match #144: Insane Wrestling League - Table Match
vs. Chris Kadillak
Every match I've had with Chris Kadillak in IWL was one of my favorites. But this Table Match was by far the best of the entire series. We really tried to think outside the box and I thought we were pretty clever. People always tell me, "No wonder you're alway hurt. You do matches like this." Don't get me wrong, everything hurt but it got people to pay attention and take notice. But more on that later...
# 4 (5/28/2011) Match #129: Legion Championship Wrestling - Ladder Match
w/ Lucha Machine vs. Order 66
I've already blogged about this match. (That you can read HERE.) The match had a nice, long feud and great build-up. The match was the perfect blow off for one of the hottest feuds in LCW. It was also the match where I dislocated my shoulder and ended up a bloddy mess.
# 3 (10/22/02011) Match #162: Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
w/ Peter Avalon and Freddy Bravo vs. Candice LaRae, Famous B and Chris Kadillak
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. This was my biggest debut of the year and probably my highest profile match of the year. I'm grateful that I was able to debut with some of my close friends. And people all around bought that DVD and watched me and my friends do our thing in the ring that night. It was one of the most nerve-racking nights ever. We really lucked out that we debuted on this show. It was an awesome show with an amazing main event (That blew my mind) and the epic return of Super Dragon. You can purchase it HERE.
w/ Chris Kadillak vs. The Young Bucks (c)
I really have to thank IWL for making this match. It was this match that pretty much got me and Kadillak to PWG. This happens to be my girlfriends favorite match. I was really worried going into this matchbut when it was all said and done, I left more confident. Going in, I wasn't sure if I was ready to take on a team of that caliber. We also had the special challenge of having a complicated story to build the match around. We were able to get the point across and have a great match. This will be one of my favorites for a long time.
# 1 (9/11/2011) Match #156: NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood - NWA International Television Championship
vs. Scorpio Sky (c)
It was close call to make between this match and The Young Bucks match but this one barely edges it out. for two reasons. First, because this was a one on one match, I had no one to rely on but myself. And Secondly, it was against Scorpio Sky. A guy I considered not only the best in our area but one of the best in our sport. Period. I saw this as a major test for myself as a wrestler/performer/entertainer. If this would have been my last match ever I would have been fine with it because I had such satisfaction. A rare feeling for me. This match is also one night after I tore the meniscus in my left knee. You'll notice the brace. In any case, I still feel this is the best match of my career so far and it will be very hard to top.
Like I said earlier, 2011 was a hell of a year. I'm really looking foward to see what happens in 2012. I'm predicting big things for not only me but the entire Southern California area. Thanks to all the fans who came out and watched me wrestle and thanks to a lot of the guys I've been in the ring with, who pushed me to a different level everytime. Let's make 2012 a year we won't forget. Happy New Year.
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| @RayRosas |
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