When it comes to wrestling usually the month of April is one of the biggest in the year, everything seems to happen around that time. But this year, to me at least, September is becoming one hell of a big month for wrestling. We get Night of Champions, we see who wins the Bound for Glory and we get the main event set for Bound for Glory, Ring of Honor have a iPPV, CZW have their annual Chris Ca$h memorial (which will see Masada vs. El Generico). But to me the 2 biggest events will be Chikara's King of Trios (expect a preview of that) and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Battle of Los Angeles. On a side note my birthday is this month as well so it's a pretty big month for me.
So the Battle of Los Angeles is an annual tournament held in PWG and has always resulted in one of the best weekends of the year when it comes to ring work, the last one I saw was 2010 and that tournament was amazing. So before I start the preview I want to let you know that on Youtube you will find promos from pretty much everyone for the tournament most on PWG's channel but some on the wrestlers very own channel. Also the line up for Night 1 is the only matches announced so far so I can't preview Night 2.
Adam Cole vs. El Generico: Generico has been a part of 8 of these tournaments and has been one of PWG's top guys, for good reason as he's one of the best out there. Generico won the last years tournament and has been World & Tag champs (at the same time) so he's one of the favourites. Cole on the other hand has not done that much in PWG but is one of the up and comers in wrestling, he is great in the ring and will be a money maker in the business. So we could see a upset but in my view Generico will win because I think on Night 2 we'll get a Tag title match and since Kyle O'Reily is also on the show we could see Super Smash Bros vs. Future Shock.
Winner: El Generico
Michael Elgin vs. Davey Richards: A rematch of a 5 star match earlier this year. Elgin only debuted in PWG at Death to All but Metal (a show earlier this year) with a lose to Willie Mack and then he beat Sami Callihan, both very impressive showings. Davey is pretty well known already, he's held all the titles and some big ones outside the company. Davey has won lots of tournaments including winning the Super 8 and BOLA both in 2006. Hopefully Tony Kozina won't be there so he'd compete and not run off with the money. Anyways this match will likely be fantastic. This could go either way but I think much like the previous match it makes more sense for Davey, who has been a PWG guy for years, to go over and move on.
Winner: Davey Richards
Ricochet vs. PWG World Champ Kevin Steen: Ricochet has improved so much over the past couple of years, he recently main evented the Death to All but Metal so against El Generico in an incredible match it told such a great and simple story, highly recommend that show as well as that match. But he's going against PWG's main guy in Steen. Since the end of 2010 Steen has done everything in PWG. He entered last years BOLA as PWG champ losing in the finals, he would lose the PWG title to Generico but rebound by winning the tag titles with Super Dragon and then winning back the PWG title making him hold all the titles, literally when Dragon would leave. Steen has to win here especially since he's a key part in a 3 way title program at the moment (which I'll get too). When it comes to the match I expect some comedy in this but it will break down into a great match, I recently wrote about Steen and how his actual wrestling ability is overlooked. It should be noted that the title is not on the line during the tournament, it has been in the past.
Winner: Kevin Steen
Eddie Edwards vs. Kyle O'Reilly: I'm not going to argue that these two are good wrestlers but they're probably 2 of the blandest wrestlers out there. I expect this to be good but I really am not bothered, it's amazing to think that Eddie was an ROH champ and now is pretty much forgotten about. When it comes to PWG both these guys haven't done much at all, Eddie has been brought in on and off while Kyle has been teaming with Cole more than anything else. Now that is a team with a lot of up side and a team ROH should of kept together instead of break up. Like I said earlier I see Future Shock challenging for the Tag titles on Night 2 so Eddie is winning this.
Winner: Eddie Edwards
Sami Callihan vs. Willie Mack: Willie Mack was the story of a fan in the PWG crowd who got to do his dream and is now a wrestler. He's made quite the impact in his short time and has been apart of some great matches in PWG. Sami is probably one of my favourite wrestlers at the moment, a great promo and just incredible in the ring. His PWG career hasn't been long or that kind to him having lost every match he's in. This will likely happen again for one reason, Willie Mack is a key figure in the PWG title picture. At the last show Mack challenged Steen for the title and ending up losing after Brian Cage interfered and attacked both men when the ref was down. So I see Mack moving on and getting far as well.
Winner: Willie Mack
TJ Perkins vs. Joey Ryan: It's amazing what putting someone in a feud with a woman can do to your career. The last BOLA I saw (2010) had Joey Ryan winning the thing and now he's just a footnote on shows, which is sad. Joey has done everything in PWG, one of the longest reigning World champs, in fact he made it a World title, and was a tag champ a few times. TJ is a really talented guy but he's never got that run anywhere, he's someone that can put on great matches but no one gets behind and pushes. You could go either way here, you could have Joey win to help build him back up to where he was in the company or have TJ win to help build him up for future shows. I personally am going with TJ as you could get more out of him for the future, you've done everything you can with Joey in PWG as you should have since he's part owner and has been there since the beginning.
Winner: TJ Perkins
B-Boy vs. Brian Cage: I've already gone over the Title situation and how Cage is involved but there's a bit more. Cage challenged Steen at Death to All but Metal and Steen barely beat him, rolling him up when Cage went to pin him after hitting a rolling lariat. Cage came off as a big deal that night. B-Boy only returned to PWG a couple of shows before this, he had an incredible match against Drake Younger at the last PWG show, which was expected as those 2 mesh so well. But to me it's pretty much set that Cage will win. I don't see how he couldn't.
Winner: Brian Cage
Roderick Strong vs. Drake Younger: I think this will be a war. Drake only debuted at the last show against B-Boy and he's very Mick Foley-ish in terms of him doing insane bumps during his matches that will likely hurt him in the long run. Strong is a killer striker and Drake will take it in spades. These 2 have faced off in IWA Mid South in a great match years ago both have improved so this should be great. What I couldn't believe is watching Drake in PWG he's really changed his gear and looks like a wrestler and not a death match guy. I'd also like to say that Strong is very much like Eddie Edwards a former ROH World champ but has become pretty forgottable, amazing to think how that's come about and shows how bad ROH has become really. When it comes to a winner I think Strong is a logical choice, you don't lose anything with Drake losing in the first round and it'll probably be kinder to his body knowing how far he'd go in his matches.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Possible Finals-Willie Mack vs. Brian Cage: Every PWG fan is pretty much thinking the same here that this will be the finals. With the winner of BOLA getting a title shot in the future and both men being picked as the next champions by the fans I think this would help decide. What I see happening is this, in the semi-finals we'd get Steen against one of these guys, I'm thinking Mack, and have him eliminate Steen and then lose in the finals. You could then do a 3 way if you wanted and you keep the loser of the finals strong by the fact he beat the champ. For me Cage is winning the entire thing. But hey this is wrestling the fact we see it coming means it probably won't happen just to prove we were wrong, that's the story of wrestling it seems these days.
There's my preview. Lets see if I'm right. Regardless I expect this to be one fantastic weekend of wrestling and a must see tournament.
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