Battle of Los Angeles (professional wrestling)

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

For other uses, see Battle of Los Angeles (disambiguation).
Battle of Los Angeles
PromotionsPro Wrestling Guerrilla
First event2005
Event gimmickAnnual single elimination tournament

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 September 3, 2005 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 [1][2]
September 4, 2005 AJ Styles vs. Chris Bosh in the 2005 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2006 Davey Richards 1 September 1, 2006 CIMA Reseda, Los Angeles, California American Legion Post #308 B-Boy, Excalibur, Homicide and Human Tornado vs. Petey Williams and The Dynasty (Chris Bosh, Joey Ryan and Scott Lost) [3]
September 2, 2006 Necro Butcher vs. Super Dragon in a No Disqualification match in the first round of the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles tournament
September 3, 2006 CIMA vs. Davey Richards in the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final
2007 CIMA 1 August 31, 2007 El Generico and Roderick Strong Burbank, California Burbank Armory El Generico and Kevin Steen (c) vs. Dragon Kid and Susumu Yokosuka for the PWG World Tag Team Championship [4]
September 1, 2007 Dragon Kid vs. Susumu Yokosuka in the first round of the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles tournament [5]
September 2, 2007 CIMA vs. El Generico vs. Roderick Strong in a three-way elimination match in the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [6]
2008 Low Ki 1 November 1, 2008 Chris Hero Chris Hero vs. Necro Butcher in a No Disqualification match in the first round of the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles tournament [7]
November 2, 2008 Chris Hero vs. Low Ki in the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [8]
2009 Kenny Omega 1 November 20, 2009 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 [9]
November 21, 2009 Kenny Omega vs. Roderick Strong in the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final for the vacant PWG World Championship [10]
2010 Joey Ryan 1 September 4, 2010 Chris Hero Chris Hero vs. Christopher Daniels in the first round of the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles tournament [11]
September 5, 2010 Chris Hero vs. Joey Ryan in the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [12]
2011 El Generico 1 August 20, 2011 Kevin Steen Kevin Steen vs. El Generico in the 2011 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [13]
2012 Adam Cole 1 September 1, 2012 Michael Elgin Davey Richards vs. Michael Elgin in the first round of the 2012 Battle of Los Angeles tournament [14]
September 2, 2012 Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin in the 2012 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [15]
2013 Kyle O'Reilly 1 August 30, 2013 Michael Elgin Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) vs. Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) and T.J. Perkins [16]
August 31, 2013 Kyle O'Reilly vs. Michael Elgin in the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [17]
2014 Ricochet 1 August 29, 2014 Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong Men of Low Moral Fiber (Chuck Taylor and Kenny Omega) and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mount Rushmore (Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) [18]
August 30, 2014 The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) vs. Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) [19]
August 31, 2014 Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong vs. Ricochet in a three-way match in the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [20]
2015 Zack Sabre Jr. 1 August 28, 2015 Chris Hero and Mike Bailey Mount Rushmore 2.0 (The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) and Roderick Strong) vs. Euro Trash (Marty Scurll, Tommy End and Zack Sabre Jr.) [21]
August 29, 2015 Mount Rushmore 2.0 (The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) and Super Dragon) vs. Andrew Everett, Biff Busick and Trevor Lee [22]
August 30, 2015 Chris Hero vs. Mike Bailey vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a three-way elimination match in the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [23]
2016 Marty Scurll 1 September 2, 2016 Trevor Lee and Will Ospreay Mount Rushmore 2.0 (Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) vs. Bobby Fish, Dalton Castle and Kyle O'Reilly [24]
September 3, 2016 Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Will Ospreay vs. Mount Rushmore 2.0 (Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) [25]
September 4, 2016 Marty Scurll vs. Trevor Lee vs. Will Ospreay in a three-way elimination match in the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [26]
2017 Ricochet 2 September 1, 2017 Jeff Cobb and Keith Lee Ricochet vs. Flamita in the first round of the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament [27]
September 2, 2017 The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) vs. Flamita, Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix [28]
September 3, 2017 Jeff Cobb vs. Keith Lee vs. Ricochet in a three-way elimination match in the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [29]
2018 Jeff Cobb 1 September 14, 2018 Bandido and Shingo Takagi Los Angeles, California Globe Theatre Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher and WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov and Shingo Takagi [30]
September 15, 2018 Bandido, Flamita and Rey Horus vs. CIMA and The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz) [31]
September 16, 2018 Bandido vs. Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi in a three-way elimination match in the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [32]
2019 Bandido 1 September 20, 2019 David Starr and Jonathan Gresham Lucha Brothers (PENTA EL 0M and Rey Fenix) vs. MexaBlood (Bandido and Flamita) [33]
September 21, 2019 Daisuke Sekimoto and Jonathan Gresham vs. King's Hawaiian (Brody King and Jeff Cobb) [34]
September 22, 2019 Bandido vs. David Starr vs. Jonathan Gresham in the 2019 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [35]
2022 Daniel Garcia 1 January 29, 2022 Mike Bailey Bandido vs. Mike Bailey in the first round of the 2022 Battle of Los Angeles tournament [36]
January 30, 2022 Daniel Garcia vs. Mike Bailey in the 2022 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [37]
2023 Mike Bailey 1 January 7, 2023 Konosuke Takeshita 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 [38]
January 8, 2023 Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mike Bailey in the 2023 Battle of Los Angeles tournament final [39]

Championship match for winner
  – Championship victory
  – Championship match loss
  – Did not receive title match
# 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 (Chris Bosh and Scott Lost) 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 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.

References
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