The Battle of Los Angeles tournament (the BOLA) is an annual independent wrestling tournament in North America, run and promoted by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Over the years, the tournament has attracted numerous famous independent wrestlers from A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels to Bryan Danielson.
Contents
The tournament setup
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. Since 2014, the tournament has 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- and semi-finals before culminating in a three-way match for the championship. All nights also feature non-tournament special attractions, which are usually tag-team matches involving tournament participants from other nights or eliminated wrestlers.
Tournament winners
2005
The first annual Battle of Los Angeles was held on September 3 and 4, 2005, in Los Angeles, California.
2006
The 2006 BOLA was held on September 1, September 2 and September 3, 2006 in Reseda, California. The tournament saw the PWG returns of The Briscoe Brothers, after no-showing a number of events, and Super Dragon, who had been injured by the Dynasty earlier in the year.
Alex Koslov was originally scheduled to take part in the tournament, but was replaced by Austin Aries, after going on a six-month learning excursion to Mexico. After no-showing Threemendous a month earlier, Jay and Mark Briscoe were taken out of the tournament and replaced by Bryan Danielson and Dragon Kid, respectively. However, Danielson separated his shoulder on August 26 in a Ring of Honor match against Colt Cabana and was therefore taken out of the tournament and replaced by Disco Machine.
The 2006 BOLA saw the introduction of wrestlers from Dragon Gate, which was represented by three regulars (Cima, Genki Horiguchi and Dragon Kid), and finished the tournament with a combined 5-3 record.
Finals: Davey Richards defeated Cima‡ via pinfall in 13:42 to win the 2006 BOLA
* = This was a No Disqualification match
† = Kazarian was attacked by the Dynasty allowing Super Dragon to get a bye to the next round
‡ = Super Dragon was attacked backstage by the Dynasty before his final match taking him out of the tournament
2007
The 2007 BOLA was held on August 31, September 1 and September 2, 2007 in Burbank, California. The event suffered many losses leading up to it including PWG World Champion Bryan Danielson suffering an eye injury, former World Champion Super Dragon pulling himself from the event and former BOLA winner Chris Bosh announcing his retirement out of nowhere. They were replaced by TNA wrestler Alex Shelley, local worker Tony Kozina and the Necro Butcher. At Giant-Size Annual #4 the month before the event Austin Aries defeated Rocky Romero to take his spot in BOLA.
Finals: Cima defeated Roderick Strong and El Generico via pinfall in 13:17 in an elimination three-way match to win the 2007 BOLA
2008
The fourth annual BOLA was held on November 1 and November 2, 2008 in Burbank, California. The tournament was set to follow the 24 man format of the previous two and take place on the weekend of August 30 and 31, but PWG management was unable to book the talent they wished to for the event and decided to move the event and drop the entrants down to 16. On October 16 PWG announced that 17 participants will be in the tournament, this occurred because the two PWG commissioners (Excalibur and Dino Winwood) couldn't come to a conclusion on who would be the final entrant, which led to one first round match being a three-way dance.
* = This match was a three-way dance also involving Nick Jackson
† = This was a No Disqualification match
2009
The fifth annual BOLA was held on November 20 and November 21, 2009, in Reseda, California. Due to Bryan Danielson winning the PWG World Championship in his farewell match and afterwards vacating it, this year's would also become the new World Champion. The first round of the tournament consisted of eight one-on-one matches between 16 wrestlers. Local newcomers Brandon Gatson and Jerome Robinson earned their spots in the tournament by winning separate four-way matches at PWG's Against the Grain on October 2. Chris Sabin was scheduled to take part in the tournament, but was forced to pull out due to a neck injury. He was replaced by another local newcomer Johnny Goodtime.
2010
The sixth annual BOLA was held on September 4 and 5, 2010, in Reseda, California. The tournament included 18 participants, up from previous two years.
2011
The seventh annual BOLA took place on August 20, 2011, in Reseda, California. For the first time, the entire tournament was held over one night with only eight participants.
2012
The eighth annual BOLA took place on September 1 and 2, 2012, in Reseda, California. Initially, on July 22, the tournament was announced as taking place in one night with twelve participants, however, the following day it was expanded to two nights with four more wrestlers added, when another event scheduled for the Reseda venue was cancelled.
2013
The ninth annual BOLA took place on August 30 and 31, 2013, in Reseda, California. Davey Richards was originally announced for the tournament, but later pulled out.
2014
The tenth annual BOLA took place on August 29, 30 and 31, 2014, in Reseda, California. Taking place over three nights for the first time in seven years, the tournament featured 24 participants. AR Fox and Trent? were originally announced for the tournament, but on August 6 PWG announced that they would have to pull out due to injuries. They were replaced by Bobby Fish and Candice LeRae, respectively. On the first day of the tournament, it was announced T.J. Perkins would be replacing an injured Brian Cage.
Finals: Ricochet defeated Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong via pinfall to win the 2014 BOLA
2015
The eleventh annual BOLA took place on August 28, 29 and 30, 2015, in Reseda, California.
Finals: Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Chris Hero and Mike Bailey in an elimination three-way match to win the 2015 BOLA
2016
The twelfth annual BOLA took place on September 2, 3 and 4, 2016, in Reseda, California. Adam Cole was originally announced for the tournament, but he later removed himself and was replaced by Cedric Alexander. Jack Gallagher was originally announced for the tournament, but could not make the show due to travel issues and was replaced by Tommaso Ciampa.
Finals: Marty Scurll defeated Trevor Lee and Will Ospreay in an elimination three-way match to win the 2016 BOLA