PWG: Free Admission (Just Kidding)

[Pseudonym]

[QUOTE]History In May 2003, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla announced its first show that would take place on July 26. The promotion released an online press release announcing the show's main event that would feature what would have been the first match to take place between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. PWG announced more matches in the weeks leading up to their debut event, featuring a mix of well known independent wrestlers and many local Southern California stars. Due to injuries and booking conflicts, the card ended up being changed several times. Samoa Joe was unable to compete in the promotion's debut show because of an injury he suffered in a match with Paul London at a Ring Of Honor event a few weeks earlier. He ended up being replaced by Frankie Kazarian. Over the next few months, PWG's popularity began to grow among the Southern California wrestling community and was considered the top independent promotion in California. Despite running six shows in its first year, PWG was voted "Promotion Of The Year" in the 2003 SoCalUncensored.com Year End Awards. PWG's DVD commentary, which features Excalibur, Disco Machine, and on occasion TARO, along with various comedy skits won over many fans along with storylines between Adam Pearce and Frankie Kazarian for the PWG World Championship, and the Super Dragon vs. Joey Ryan rivalry. Along with putting local wrestlers in many of their storylines, PWG also brought in many out of town talent that weren't booked on other local shows. During its first year, PWG brought in wrestlers such as AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Homicide, Chris Hero, Brian Kendrick, Colt Cabana, and many others. In July of 2004, PWG moved to the Hollywood/Los Feliz Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. The first show in the new building saw AJ Styles take on Rocky Romero, CM Punk vs. Super Dragon, Samoa Joe & Ricky Reyes vs. Bryan Danielson & Christopher Daniels, and a loser leaves town, steel cage match between Adam Pearce and Frankie Kazarian where Adam Pearce ended up losing the match and left PWG. After this event, PWG would run at the Hollywood/Los Feliz JCC for the next two years, and was nicknamed "The Sweatbox" by its fans due to the heat that the building would generate during warm nights. PWG's popularity continued to grow in the Southern California area, and across the world thanks to PWG distributing their own DVDs on their website, and through various reviews posted on many popular internet wrestling message boards. As PWG went on, their normal attendance numbers would begin to grow from 150-200 fans a show, to 250-500 in a span of two years. In April of 2005, PWG ran its first All Star Weekend shows during the weekend of WrestleMania 21 and drew their biggest crowds at the time. PWG booked several stars such as AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Jamie Noble, Chris Sabin, Jonny Storm, Kendo Kashin, Samoa Joe, and many other TNA and ROH stars to participate in the weekend's events. In September 2005, PWG ran the first annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament, featuring AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, James Gibson, Super Dragon, Kevin Steen, El Generico, and several others. Chris Bosh would end up winning the tournament by defeating AJ Styles in the finals. In February of 2006, PWG held two shows in Europe. The first event was held in Essen, Germany. The second show was held the night after the Essen event in Kent, England. Both shows featured the majority of PWG's regular roster, along with several European wrestlers. In July of 2006, PWG announced that they would be leaving the JCC due to the gym being turned into a gymnastics training center for young children. The final match in the building saw Joey Ryan defend the PWG World Championship against B-Boy in a steel cage match. PWG would go on to run in Reseda, California for the next few months at the local American Legion post. In February of 2007, PWG moved to the Van Nuys Armory, which is located a few minutes away from the Reseda venue, where PWG continues to run at to this day. In March of 2007, PWG's Commissioner Of Food & Beverage Excalibur stripped El Generico & Quicksilver of the PWG World Tag Team Championship when Quicksilver was unable to compete because of a class two concussion he suffered during a match with Davey Richards & Roderick Strong. Later on, PWG announced a two night event that will be taking place on May 19 & May 20 in West Hills, California to crown new PWG World Tag Team Champions. On May 3, 2007 PWG released a statement via the PWG Message Board at PWG's official site and announced that they will no longer be working with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. The press release stated that TNA Wrestling presented Pro Wrestling Guerrilla with a contract that would prevent TNA Wrestling employees from appearing on DVDs sold through or distributed by any third parties. Because this would include long-time partner Highspots.com, as of May 3, 2007, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla had severed all ties with TNA Wrestling. Because of this, PWG will no longer be booking wrestlers who have appeared on previous PWG events. This meant that Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin would be pulled from the DDT4 Tournament on May 19 and 20. Frankie Kazarian, another TNA wrestler who was a major part of PWG's history (as well as being their first champion), will also no longer be able to compete for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. PWG also stated that they had booked Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Low Ki, and Christopher Daniels on upcoming events, but because of the circumstances PWG had no choice but to pull them from their events. PWG also mentioned that they looked into several solutions, they every possible solution, from opting out of our contract with Highspots.com, self distribution of events featuring TNA Wrestling employees, to releasing DVDs without the matches of TNA Wrestling employees through Highspots.com. Each solution, except one, was either financially irresponsible, meant higher costs for the fans, or would greatly compromise the quality of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as a whole. [/QUOTE] Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is one of the most unique promotions in the wrestling world today. It's also one of my favorites. And, starting this Thursday, August 1st, PWG Guitar Riff will begin it's run as a one-hour weekly show, leading up to the bigger shows each month. But before this, Giant Size Annual #4 will occur. And the card for that show is as follows. [CENTER][IMG]http://www.prowrestlingguerrilla.com/images/pwg_site_800x600_17.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is a promotion that the like of which, will never be seen. Again. By you. Unless. You. Watch Giant Size Annual #4. Do it. Now. - Excalibur

[shipshirt]

Awesome. I regularly attend PWG shows here in LA...I'm thrilled that you're keeping the flavor (and roster!) of what PWG truly is. Good luck!