Battle of Los Angeles (professional wrestling)

The Battle of Los Angeles tournament is an annual independent wrestling tournament in North America, run and promoted by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. It is the flagship event of PWG. Over the years, the tournament has featured numerous notable wrestlers such as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling stars A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels, future WWE world champions Kevin Steen, Bryan Danielson, Tyler Black and Drew Galloway, future AEW world champion Kenny Omega and future Impact world champions Brian Cage, Pentagón Jr., Chris Sabin, Rich Swann, Sami Callihan, John Hennigan, Austin Aries and Eddie Edwards.

WWW prowrestlingguerrilla.com

The tournament setup

The number of participants have often changed over the years. In the first year of the Battle of Los Angeles, there were sixteen participants, with eight opening round matches, four quarterfinal matches, two semifinal matches, and a final. In 2006 the tournament was expanded to 24 participants, which caused the addition of another eight person bracket and created three semifinals matches and an elimination three-way final match. In 2008 the tournament returned to its 16-man format. In 2011, the tournament was completely revamped, taking place for the first time as a one night tournament with only eight participants. In 2014, the tournament reverted to a 24-man format held over three nights. The first two nights are all first-round matches, while the third night contains the quarter-finals and semi-finals before culminating in a three-way match. In 2022, the tournament was reduced to sixteen participants.
All nights also feature non-tournament special attractions, which are usually tag-team matches involving tournament participants from other nights or eliminated wrestlers. Titles are also occasionally defended on these events.
The tournament winner is awarded a title shot for the PWG World Championship. The champion himself often participates in the tournament and if some other wrestler wins the tournament then he is entitled to a title shot. So far, no champion has won the tournament. There have been a few instances where the winner did not receive a title shot. For example, the 2006 winner Davey Richards cashed in on a PWG World Tag Team Championship opportunity instead of challenging for the World Championship. The 2007 winner CIMA did not invoke his title shot while the 2008 winner Low Ki left PWG immediately after winning the tournament due to signing with WWE. The 2009 tournament was itself contested for the vacant PWG World Championship.

Winners, dates, venues and main events

Year	Tournament winner	Times won	Date	Runner-up	City	Venue	Main Event	Ref.
2005	Chris Bosh	1		AJ Styles	Los Angeles, California	Hollywood-Los Feliz Jewish Community Center	Kevin Steen vs. Super Dragon in the first round of the 2005 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2005	Chris Bosh	1		AJ Styles	Los Angeles, California	Hollywood-Los Feliz Jewish Community Center	AJ Styles vs. Chris Bosh in the 2005 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2006	Davey Richards	1		CIMA	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	B-Boy, Excalibur, Homicide and Human Tornado vs. Petey Williams and The Dynasty
2006	Davey Richards	1		CIMA	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Necro Butcher vs. Super Dragon in a No Disqualification match in the first round of the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2006	Davey Richards	1		CIMA	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	CIMA vs. Davey Richards in the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2007	CIMA	1		El Generico and Roderick Strong	Burbank, California	Burbank Armory	El Generico and Kevin Steen vs. Dragon Kid and Susumu Yokosuka for the PWG World Tag Team Championship
2007	CIMA	1		El Generico and Roderick Strong	Burbank, California	Burbank Armory	Dragon Kid vs. Susumu Yokosuka in the first round of the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2007	CIMA	1		El Generico and Roderick Strong	Burbank, California	Burbank Armory	CIMA vs. El Generico vs. Roderick Strong in a three-way elimination match in the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2008	Low Ki	1		Chris Hero	Burbank, California	Burbank Armory	Chris Hero vs. Necro Butcher in a No Disqualification match in the first round of the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2008	Low Ki	1		Chris Hero	Burbank, California	Burbank Armory	Chris Hero vs. Low Ki in the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2009	Kenny Omega	1		Roderick Strong	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Alex Shelley vs. El Generico in the first round of the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2009	Kenny Omega	1		Roderick Strong	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Kenny Omega vs. Roderick Strong in the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final for the vacant PWG World Championship
2010	Joey Ryan	1		Chris Hero	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Chris Hero vs. Christopher Daniels in the first round of the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2010	Joey Ryan	1		Chris Hero	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Chris Hero vs. Joey Ryan in the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2011	El Generico	1		Kevin Steen	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Kevin Steen vs. El Generico in the 2011 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2012	Adam Cole	1		Michael Elgin	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Davey Richards vs. Michael Elgin in the first round of the 2012 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2012	Adam Cole	1		Michael Elgin	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin in the 2012 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2013	Kyle O'Reilly	1		Michael Elgin	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Adam Cole and The Young Bucks vs. Forever Hooligans and T.J. Perkins
2013	Kyle O'Reilly	1		Michael Elgin	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Kyle O'Reilly vs. Michael Elgin in the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2014	Ricochet	1		Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Men of Low Moral Fiber and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mount Rushmore
2014	Ricochet	1		Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	The Young Bucks vs. Bad Influence
2014	Ricochet	1		Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong vs. Ricochet in a three-way match in the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2015	Zack Sabre Jr.	1		Chris Hero and Mike Bailey	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Mount Rushmore 2.0 vs. Euro Trash
2015	Zack Sabre Jr.	1		Chris Hero and Mike Bailey	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Mount Rushmore 2.0 vs. Andrew Everett, Biff Busick and Trevor Lee
2015	Zack Sabre Jr.	1		Chris Hero and Mike Bailey	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Chris Hero vs. Mike Bailey vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a three-way elimination match in the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2016	Marty Scurll	1		Trevor Lee and Will Ospreay	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Mount Rushmore 2.0 vs. Bobby Fish, Dalton Castle and Kyle O'Reilly
2016	Marty Scurll	1		Trevor Lee and Will Ospreay	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Will Ospreay vs. Mount Rushmore 2.0
2016	Marty Scurll	1		Trevor Lee and Will Ospreay	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Marty Scurll vs. Trevor Lee vs. Will Ospreay in a three-way elimination match in the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2017	Ricochet	2		Jeff Cobb and Keith Lee	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Ricochet vs. Flamita in the first round of the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2017	Ricochet	2		Jeff Cobb and Keith Lee	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	The Elite vs. Flamita, Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix
2017	Ricochet	2		Jeff Cobb and Keith Lee	Reseda, Los Angeles, California	American Legion Post #308	Jeff Cobb vs. Keith Lee vs. Ricochet in a three-way elimination match in the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2018	Jeff Cobb	1		Bandido and Shingo Takagi	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Ringkampf vs. Ilja Dragunov and Shingo Takagi
2018	Jeff Cobb	1		Bandido and Shingo Takagi	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Bandido, Flamita and Rey Horus vs. CIMA and The Rascalz
2018	Jeff Cobb	1		Bandido and Shingo Takagi	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Bandido vs. Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi in a three-way elimination match in the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2019	Bandido	1		David Starr and Jonathan Gresham	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Lucha Brothers vs. MexaBlood
2019	Bandido	1		David Starr and Jonathan Gresham	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Daisuke Sekimoto and Jonathan Gresham vs. King's Hawaiian
2019	Bandido	1		David Starr and Jonathan Gresham	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Bandido vs. David Starr vs. Jonathan Gresham in the 2019 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2022	Daniel Garcia	1		Mike Bailey	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Bandido vs. Mike Bailey in the first round of the 2022 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2022	Daniel Garcia	1		Mike Bailey	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Daniel Garcia vs. Mike Bailey in the 2022 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2023	Mike Bailey	1		Konosuke Takeshita	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Bandido vs. Black Taurus vs. El Hijo del Vikingo in a Three-way match in the first round of the 2023 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
2023	Mike Bailey	1		Konosuke Takeshita	Los Angeles, California	Globe Theatre	Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mike Bailey in the 2023 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final

Championship match for winner

#	Winner	Event	Year	Championship match
1	Chris Bosh	After School Special	2005	Bosh challenged Kevin Steen for the PWG Championship but lost via disqualification. Bosh received another opportunity for the title against Steen in a Three-Way Dance, also involving AJ Styles but lost again.
2	Davey Richards	All Star Weekend IV - Night 1	2006	Instead of challenging for the PWG World Championship, Richards opted to challenge Arrogance for the PWG World Tag Team Championship alongside Super Dragon at Self-Titled but failed to show up. Dragon instead teamed with B-Boy to defeat Arrogance. Richards got his title opportunity at All Star Weekend IV by teaming with Roderick Strong to defeat Dragon and B-Boy for the titles.
3	CIMA	N/A	2007	After winning the tournament, CIMA left PWG to compete in his home promotion Dragon Gate in Japan and returned to PWG in 2008.
4	Low Ki	N/A	2008	After winning the tournament, Low Ki left PWG due to signing a developmental contract with WWE and did not return to the promotion until 2011.
5	Joey Ryan	Card Subject To Change III	2010	Ryan successfully defended his title shot against Candice LeRae at the 2011 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament. Ryan challenged Claudio Castagnoli for the PWG World Championship at Card Subject To Change III but lost.
6	El Generico	Steen Wolf	2011	Generico defeated Kevin Steen in a ladder match to win the PWG World Championship.
7	Adam Cole	[PWG PWG Mystery Vortex I\|Mystery Vortex I\|Mystery Vortex]	2012	Cole defeated Kevin Steen in a Guerrilla Warfare to win the PWG World Championship.
8	Kyle O'Reilly	Matt Rushmore	2013	O'Reilly challenged Adam Cole for the PWG World Championship but lost.
9	Ricochet	Black Cole Sun	2014	Ricochet challenged Kyle O'Reilly for the PWG World Championship but lost.
10	Zack Sabre Jr.	All Star Weekend 12 - Night 2	2015	Sabre defeated Roderick Strong to win the PWG World Championship.
11	Marty Scurll	Mystery Vortex IV	2016	Scurll challenged Zack Sabre Jr. for the PWG World Championship but lost.
12	Ricochet	All Star Weekend 13 - Night 2	2017	Ricochet defeated Chuck Taylor to win the PWG World Championship.
13	Jeff Cobb	Smokey and the Bandido	2018	Cobb defeated WALTER to win the PWG World Championship.
14	Bandido	Makings of a Varsity Athlete	2019	Bandido defeated Jeff Cobb to win the PWG World Championship.
15	Daniel Garcia	Delivering The Goods	2022	Garcia defeated Bandido to win the PWG World Championship.
16	Mike Bailey	Twenty: Mystery Vortex	2023	Bailey lost to Daniel Garcia in an Iron Man match for the PWG World Championship.

The 2009 Battle of Los Angeles winner did not receive a title match as the tournament itself was for the vacant PWG World Championship. Kenny Omega defeated Roderick Strong in the tournament final to win the vacant title.