If you’re on this blog, you’re a fan of the Professional Grappling Federation (PGF). I’m working on one or two more PGF Season 2 blog posts as a previews for the upcoming season. I’m going to try to get back my old journalism mojo and see if I can write something to get some traction as a guest post in more mainstream media outlets – the PGF is too good not to go big, but it needs more publicity.
Regardless, after I spent hours yesterday going down the rabbit hole of cyberstalking all the competitors – getting info about them and watching all the matches I could on YouTube, Facebook, UFC Fight Pass, and FloGrappling, I finally hit the rack. I woke up to a nice little surprise – a PGF season 2 preview video. As every PGF product, it was very well done. It’s one minute and eight seconds of anticipation build-up for the season. Of course, I’m responsible for at least five of the 195 views of the video as of the publishing of this post and will probably watch it dozens more times before the first episode of the season drops.
Well, I have to get ready for work, but I thought I’d do a little breakdown of the video:
It opens to some competitor introductions like we had for the hype videos for the tournament from season 1. First, we see Hunter Colvin, then Matt “Mane-less” Elkins (got tired of the hair in his face I guess), then Sam Barbosa flashing the 10 for 10th Planet. Next, we see a more candid shot of Elijah “the Bad Guy” Carlton walking out in some sort of match intro flashing the double birds – already setting himself up to continue the heel role.
Then, we get some competition snippets. Matt Elkins showing some wrestling against Kemoy Anderson. Jake Elkins working for the takedown against Randy Roden (this should be a great wrestling matchup as both were D1 wrestlers). What looks like Randy Roden going for a double leg, but Sam Barbosa locking up a guillotine and wrapping up with his legs (alternatively it could be Barbosa went for the guillotine and Roden was just arching his head back as a defense similar to how to stay safe when executing a double-leg). Joshua Gibbs goes rolling for a leg lock against Mega Mike Johnson. Justin Williams trying for a leg lock against Hunter Colvin but Colvin masterfully defending and taking Williams’ back.
Next, we get some b roll from events off the mats. We see Kemoy Anderson and Matt Elkins receiving massage therapy – a nod to the whole season being taped over less than one week. We see some team building for the contestants with the whole lot of competitors balancing a platform on one log fulcrum. Then we see them having to work as a team to get each one through an elevated web (we were doing that leadership exercise more than 20 years ago in my college’s honors leadership course). Next up is a little down time in the hot tub for Mega Mike Johnson and Zack Snyder. Some ropes course action happens next. And more competition in the form of paintball (I’m up, he sees me, I’m down guys). It looks like Barbosa got banged up in the shin during paintball. Then we have Elkins brothers leading the way to BMAC’s favorite restaurant – Chilis. Matt Elkins apparently has problems seeing curbs.
Back to grappling footage with Mega Mike Johnson attacking Evan Stapler’s guard, but Stapler bothering his head as BMAC recommends. Then we see Red team competitor on the ground, looks to be Zach Snyder by the hair. Is he distraught because of a loss or because of an injury? Looks like it might be Sam Barbosa from the blue team coming close to him on the mat in a similar fashion to a competitor who is sorry for injuring their opponent during a match.
The video closes with an epic roll call shot with the Red and Blue teams facing off while facing the camera.
The level of competition in the PGF jumped a lot for this season. Between the quality of competition and the outstanding production value BMAC and Conscious Keelan always bring – we should all be very excited for this season.
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