DEXCON Dakila and Baka Gaijin Quick Reviews

Over the last week SEA Wrestling sat down to take in two recent shows from DEXCON Wrestling: Dakila, their second main show of the year held back in May, and the very recent Baka Gaijin + Friends Manila event from August.

We cover both fantastic shows in a slightly extended version of how they will appear in Wrestlestreams in Issue 6 of SEA Wrestling Magazine this December! The main features of the matches are highlighted, but if you want to know who won, you better watch for yourself!

DEXCON Dakila

Held back on 18 May, DEXCON Dakila was the second event this year from the Philippines’ super show provider. Once again filled with stars from all over the world, including New Japan’s El Phantasmo and current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr, the anticipation was high for the follow-up to the excellent Wrestlestorm 2.

The show opened with a more personal tone, with no intro video and a personal introduction from Jeula the ring announcer, showing more of her personality. She talked about the different bottled water prices between the matchmakers Miguel and Linus for a boo/cheers moment, setting up one of the key storyline threads that continues to weave through DEXCON and World Underground Wrestling.

The opening match for the SPW Southeast Asian Championship between Da Butcherman, Isaiah Valencia, Ken Cifer, and Jomar saw the opponents run through different one-on-one pairings, with power moves being the main form of offence in this hard-hitting opener of main event quality.

Next up was one of the two best matches of the night when Nigel San Jose took Malaysia’s Emman Azman to the limit in a fine example of pure wrestling. There were no weapons, no outside dives—just good solid wrestling that told a fantastic story using technical holds, intercepted with moments of drama and dancing. Being in the second match on a show where the opener got people pumped and with a stacked card above can be difficult, but these two pulled off something really special.

Up next was the big 8-man tag seeing El Katipunero, Joey Rosas, Joya, and Patricia Ligaia take on Aaron Liwanag, Crystal, Danny Zamora, and Solomon Liwanag. This was a fun spot-filled brawl mixing wrestling and comedy, with Joya getting the big win in the end.

MSG (Chelsea Marie & Ravena) vs Jack N’Cheese had a fun beginning with a sexy dance-off between Marie and CBK before running through a traditional tag match into an exciting ending and emotional post-match speech, with Cheeseburger Kid talking about being born in Manila and how proud he was to wrestle in his homeland.

The shenanigans were followed by a straight-up grappling clinic between Robin Sane and Saint John Martin, which kept the patron saint of shoot style in his element until Sane escaped the mat grappling, hit an awesome coast-to-coast, and brought things into his aerial element through the latter half of the match.

The Pusong Pinoy Title match was the semi-main event of the night, starting with an energizing live performance of “Miles Miles Baby,” Miles Karu’s custom theme for the night. The match itself was a classic yet dramatic three-way which made you feel like Maxx could lose his title at any point.

The main event, Jake De Leon & Zack Sabre Jr vs El Phantasmo & Fabio Makisig, was everything that could be hoped for by those in attendance, with a mix of vicious strikes, painful holds, and climactic drama giving the fans even more from the all-star tag match than they could’ve possibly expected. While the New Japan stars brought their A-game, it was the two local competitors who really stole the show. Makisig and De Leon know each other so well and never hold anything back, building to a climactic finish.

Bell to bell, Dakila was an event that held nothing back. Every match was appropriately placed, told a great story, and offered up something different from everything else on the card. That might sound like an obvious thing that any professional wrestling show should do, but in practice it isn’t often the case. It’s clear, based on the massive support generated for their follow-up events in August, that fans had a great time and were clamouring for more following this Pinoy wrestling spectacular.

You can watch Dakila and all previous Dexcon shows on Triller TV

Baka Gaijin + Friends Manila

For those unaware, Baka Gaijin is a series of bar wrestling events held in Japan and run by DDT’s Chris Brookes. There are no rings, only mats, with fans very close to the matches.

As part of the Peks Man weekend on 22–24 August, Baka Gaijin + Friends Manila was the first one to be held outside Japan and featured Schadenfreude International, Dr Gore, and many of the local Pinoy wrestlers, none of whom are afraid of wrestling on hard judo-style mats. Although only an hour long on video, the event was an all-night affair mixed with music and good times for those who attended live.

The first match we get to see is Patricia Ligaia & Dr Gore vs Robin Sane & Crystal. This was a full-on costume party, with both Sane and Crystal wearing anime cosplay (sorry, I’m not sure from what show), while Dr Gore was in his “black” attire and Patricia—as Gothricia—wore some recently “borrowed” gear from Yappy. What started out as almost a friendly comedy match with ounces of cosplay and silliness, including a laugh-out-loud moment where Sane asked Ligaia to look at the camera and then clunked her on the head with a tray, ended up turning into a dramatic, amped-up tag team war with a fantastic competitive sprint to the finish. Sane also chased Dr Gore with an apple, bringing the idiomatic saying to life.

Nigel San Jose vs Danny Zamora vs SJM started with a similar comedy vibe, with all three in costume (including Nigel as a hotdog), but as the costumes and the smiles fell away it was replaced by a heavy array of strikes and kicks that saw the crowd get fully behind SJM.

Fabio Makisig and El Katipunero threw the comedy out the door and gave the fans an absolute mat classic, fully demonstrating Makisig's catch abilities. While El Katipunero held his own, this was Makisig's match and the fans were fully behind the HSSL leader all the way through.

The main event between Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) vs 2Pc Chicken Boys (Jake De Leon & Isaiah Valencia) was a sinister mix of comedy, strong style, and hardcore wrestling that brought the entire DEXCON roster into the mix at times. Things started off hard and saw some of the stiffest chops this side of Japan being administered by both sides before things took a lighter turn with the obligatory elastic band ping from the balcony by Brookes, audience members being invited to stand on JDL’s back by Schadenfreude International, squeaky chicken toys used as weapons, and multiple roster members being thrown into Brookes—including wrestlers, Jeula, and Super P! After this things got hardcore, using some boxes for a dramatic climax to the match.

Clocking in at a watch time of around an hour, BG+F MNL is well worth a watch for something entertaining and different from your typical wrestling show.

The show is free to watch on Youtube