A.J. Styles Return to the independent circuit (2003-2005) When did he return to the independent circuit? On March 14, Styles returned to International Wrestling Cartel (IWC) Did he leave it again in 2005? On April 1, 2005, Styles returned to PWG,
What is PWG?
What is PWG?
On March 14, Styles returned to International Wrestling Cartel (IWC) and successfully challenged IWC Super Indy Champion Super Hentai for the title. On April 13, Styles defended the title in a rematch against Hentai, but the match ended in a no contest, meaning Styles retained the title. On May 10, Styles vacated the title. On August 23, Styles unsuccessfully challenged new Super Indy Champion Colt Cabana after the match ended at a twenty-minute time limit draw, meaning Cabana retained the title. On December 12 at IWC: Call to Arms, Styles would once again challenge Cabana for the title, but again was unsuccessful. On April 12, Styles debuted in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), competing at the promotions 3rd Best of the Best event. Styles teamed with Jason Cross to face Jay Briscoe and Jimmy Rave, in a losing effort. On July 20, at CZW: Deja Vu II, Styles successfully defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Rave.  On September 12, Styles debuted in Maximum Pro Wrestling (MXPW), successfully challenging MXPW Television Champion Chris Sabin and Christopher Daniels in a three-way match for the title. On October 4, Styles debuted in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), unsuccessfully challenging PWG Champion Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels for the title. On November 7, Styles returned to IWA: Mid-South to take part in the promotions annual Ted Petty Invitational, which saw Styles defeating Todd Sexton is his first round match. The following night, he defeated Jerry Lynn in the quarter-finals, but later that night would be eliminated by Danny Daniels in the semi-finals. On March 20, 2004, Styles returned to IWC, entering the promotions Super Indy Survivor Showdown tournament. Styles' first match in the tournament was in the semi-finals due to unknown reasons, in which he defeated CM Punk. Later that night, Styles faced IWC Super Indy Champion Colt Cabana in the final in a winning effort, capturing the title. On April 17, Styles successfully defended the title against Homicide, and on May 8 he did so again against Christopher Daniels.  On September 17, Styles returned to IWA: Mid-South, entering the promotions 2004 Ted Petty Invitational. Styles defeated Jimmy Rave in his first round match. The following night, Styles defeated Matt Sydal in the quarter finals. Later that night, Styles defeated Arik Cannon in the semi-finals, as well as defeating Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe in the final to win the 2004 Ted Petty Invitational. On October 21, Styles won the vacant IWA: Mid-South Heavyweight Championship, defeating Chris Sabin, Christopher Daniels and Petey Williams in a four-way dance match. Two days later on October 23, Styles lost the title to CM Punk.  On April 1, 2005, Styles returned to PWG, defeating Samoa Joe in a PWG Championship number one contender match at the promotion's All-Star Weekend - Day 1. The following night on Day 2 of All-Star Weekend, Styles successfully challenged Super Dragon for the title. Styles defended the title until August 6 at Zombies Shouldn't Run, where he lost it to Kevin Steen. On September 3, Styles entered the 2005 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, but was defeated in the finals by Chris Bosh. CANNOTANSWER
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The PWG World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) professional wrestling promotion. It was first introduced in 2003 as the PWG Championship. The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition.

History 
The title became known under its current name in February 2006, when PWG had a two-event European Vacation tour stopping in Essen, Germany and Orpington, England. The title has also been defended in Japan in the Dragon Gate promotion, as well as in the United Kingdom in 1PW and again on PWG's European Vacation II tour in Paris, France, Portsmouth, England and Essen, Germany. The title was later defended by Chris Hero in Queensland, Australia on two occasions.

Reigns 

The inaugural champion was Frankie Kazarian, who won the championship by defeating Joey Ryan in the finals of a sixteen man tournament on August 30, 2003, at PWG's Bad Ass Mother 3000 – Stage 2 event. At 538 days, Adam Cole's only reign is the longest in the title's history. Bryan Danielson is the shortest reigning champion in history by vacating it immediately after winning it for the second time. Kevin Steen holds the record for most reigns, with 3. Bandido is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Jeff Cobb on December 20, 2019 to win the title. Overall, there have been 31 reigns among 24 different wrestlers.

References

External links 
 PWG World Championship reign history

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla championships
World professional wrestling championships The PWG World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship owned and copyrighted by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). The championship was created and debuted on August 30, 2003, at PWG's Bad Ass Mother 3000 – Stage 2 event. Originally called the PWG Championship, the title was renamed to the PWG World Championship in February 2006 after the title was defended outside the United States for the first and second time—that month, then-champion Joey Ryan defeated Emil Sitoci in Essen, Germany at European Vacation – Germany and Jonny Storm in Orpington, England at European Vacation – England.

The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. All reigns are won at live events, which are released on DVD. The inaugural champion was Frankie Kazarian, whom PWG recognized to have become the champion after defeating Ryan in the finals of a 16-man tournament on August 30, 2003, at PWG's Bad Ass Mother 3000 – Stage 2 event. As of  , Kevin Steen holds the record for most reigns, with three. Adam Cole's only reign at 538 days is the longest in the title's history. PWG publishes a list of successful championship defenses for each champion on their official website (though this section of the website has not been updated in a few years). As of  , Ryan has the most defenses, with 19, while Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega have the least, with 0.

Bandido is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Jeff Cobb on December 20, 2019, to win the title. Overall, there have been 31 reigns among 24 different wrestlers and three vacancies. Low Ki, Bryan Danielson, and Davey Richards, all of whom vacated the championship, are the only people to have not been defeated for the championship.

Title history

Names

Reigns

Combined reigns 

As of  , .

References 
 General
 
 

 Specific

External links 
 Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.com

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla championships
PWG World Championship Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Southern California. It is owned and operated by wrestlers themselves, having been created by Disco Machine, Excalibur, Scott Lost, Joey Ryan, Super Dragon, and Top Gun Talwar. Since then, Disco, Talwar and Lost have retired and left the company. Since 2007, Excalibur has been the head play-by-play commentator, with a rotation of wrestlers on color commentary.

The promotion debuted on July 26, 2003, and is known for its unique mixes of humor and pro wrestling as well as their over the top press releases and show titles, such as "Kee_ The _ee Out of Our _ool!", "Free Admission (Just Kidding)", "Straight to DVD" and "From Parts Well Known". In 2016, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter called PWG "the best wrestling in North America".

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla commonly runs shows every month, which are then usually sold via DVD and Blu-ray. The promotion's flagship event - The Battle of Los Angeles - is held annually between August and September. The BOLA tournament has attracted numerous famous wrestlers since its inception, including Adam Cole, AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Brian Cage, Bryan Danielson, Candice LeRae, Chris Hero, Christopher Daniels, Claudio Castagnoli, Colt Cabana, Drew Galloway, El Generico, Johnny Gargano, Jeff Cobb, Kenny Omega, Kevin Steen, Kyle O'Reilly, Pentagon Jr., Rey Fenix, Ricochet, Roderick Strong, Tommaso Ciampa, Tyler Black, Will Ospreay, The Young Bucks, and Zack Sabre Jr.

Co-owners Excalibur and Super Dragon are responsible for all behind-the-scenes details: Excalibur is a graphic designer and creates website and DVD cover artwork; Super Dragon has been the sole booker since 2010, along with editing shows and composing YouTube previews.

History

2003 
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 A.J. 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.

Despite only running six shows in its first year, PWG was voted "Promotion Of The Year" in the 2003 SoCalUncensored.com Year End Awards. 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 A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Homicide, Chris Hero, Brian Kendrick, and Colt Cabana.

2004–2006 
In July 2004, PWG moved to the Hollywood/Los Feliz Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. The first show in the new building saw A.J. Styles take on Rocky Romero, CM Punk versus Super Dragon, Samoa Joe and Ricky Reyes versus Bryan Danielson and 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 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 A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, James Gibson, 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 A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, James Gibson, Super Dragon, Kevin Steen, El Generico, and several others. Chris Bosh would end up winning the tournament by defeating A.J. Styles in the finals.

In February 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 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 2007, PWG moved to the Van Nuys Armory, which is located a few minutes away from the Reseda venue.

2007–2009 
In March 2007, PWG's Commissioner of Food and Beverage Excalibur stripped Cape Fear (El Generico and 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 and Roderick Strong. A tournament entitled the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament, or DDT4, was held on May 19 and 20 at the Burbank Armory to crown new tag team champions, with Roderick Strong and PAC emerging the victors against the Briscoe Brothers in the tournament finals.

On May 3, 2007, PWG released a statement via the PWG Message Board at PWG's official site announcing they would no longer be working with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) after TNA presented them with a contract that would prevent contracted TNA wrestlers from appearing on DVDs sold through any third parties, including PWG's long-time partner Highspots.com. PWG stated that after looking at several solutions, including ending their contract with Highspots, releasing their DVD solely through their website, and removing all matches featuring TNA wrestlers from their home releases, they made the decision to end their relationship with TNA and thus were no longer able to book TNA wrestlers. This resulted in the loss of Frankie Kazarian, the first holder of the PWG World Championship, The Motor City Machine Guns of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, who were already booked to compete in the tournament for the vacated PWG World Tag Team Championship, and Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, Low Ki, and Christopher Daniels, all of whom had been booked to appear on upcoming shows.

PWG celebrated their fourth anniversary with a show on July 29, 2007 at the Burbank Armory in Burbank. The event was scheduled to have The Briscoe Brothers on the card, but the team did not appear at the event which caused the card to be changed. The show ended up seeing Bryan Danielson defeat Necro Butcher in a Street Fight, Kevin Steen and El Generico defeat Roderick Strong and PAC for the PWG World Tag Team Championship, and Bryan Danielson defeat El Generico to become the new PWG World Champion after issuing a challenge to him that ended up leading to an impromptu match to close the show. The show drew 500 fans, which tied the record for the largest live crowd to witness a PWG event. The show also made Southern California wrestling history, as five matches from the event were ranked in the Top 5 of the SoCalUncensored.com's monthly rankings, an accomplishment no other promotion had been able to achieve.

In February 2009, PWG made some notable wrestling news when recently WWE released Colt Cabana (Scotty Goldman) made a surprise appearance at a PWG show and wrestled for the world title merely 24 hours after his release.

In September 2009, Bryan Danielson ended the longest PWG World title reign (at the time) in PWG history when he defeated Chris Hero. After winning, Danielson forfeited the title to sign with WWE. A new champion was crowned at the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles, won by Kenny Omega.

2010–2012 
On January 30, 2010, PWG held Kurt Russellreunion, as part of WrestleReunion, in front of their biggest crowd ever and featured Jushin Thunder Liger, The Great Muta, Super Crazy and Rob Van Dam in his first U.S. independent wrestling appearance plus the reunited tag team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick all in action.

On February 27, 2010 at As the Worm Turns, Kenny Omega lost the PWG World Championship to Davey Richards. Also at the event, The Young Bucks made history by tying with Richards and former partner Super Dragon for most PWG World Tag Team Championship title defenses, with twelve.

On April 10, 2010 at Titannica, The Young Bucks defeated The Briscoe Brothers to officially set the record for most successful title defenses with thirteen. Their record-setting reign ended on May 9, 2010, when ¡Peligro Abejas! (El Generico and Paul London, (literal translation: Danger Bees!)) defeated them to become the new champions.

On July 30, 2010 at PWG's seventh anniversary show, one of the company's founders, Scott Lost, wrestled his retirement match against Scorpio Sky.

On September 13, 2010, Davey Richards vacated the title after deciding he was not going to be able to defend it due to commitments to Ring of Honor and Japan. Claudio Castagnoli won the vacant title on October 9, 2010, by defeating Chris Hero, Joey Ryan and Brandon Gatson in a four-way match.

On January 29, 2011, PWG held another show during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend, which included a special "Legends battle royal" and Jake Roberts facing Sinn Bodhi in what was billed as Roberts' retirement match. On July 23, PWG held their eighth anniversary show, during which Kevin Steen defeated Claudio Castagnoli in an impromptu match to win the PWG World Championship for the second time. On October 22, 2011, one of PWG's founders, Super Dragon, made his first appearance since May 2008, saving Kevin Steen from The Young Bucks, who had just cost him the PWG World Championship in a ladder match with El Generico. On December 10, Steen and Dragon, wrestling his return match, defeated The Young Bucks for the PWG World Tag Team Championship, starting Dragon's record-breaking sixth reign with the title. Also at the event, Japanese veteran Dick Togo wrestled his final match in the United States, losing to El Generico. On December 1, 2012, Joey Ryan, having recently signed a contract with TNA, wrestled his PWG farewell match, where he was defeated by Scorpio Sky. Ryan, however, remained a part owner of PWG and eventually returned to the promotion in August 2013, following his release from TNA.

2013–present 
On January 12, 2013, another longtime PWG wrestler, El Generico, made his final appearance for the promotion, having recently agreed to a deal with WWE. 2013 saw a multiple talented independent wrestlers debut for the promotion, with the likes of Johnny Gargano, Jay Lethal, Samuray del Sol, Trent?, ACH, Anthony Nese and Tommaso Ciampa all debuting between All Star Weekend in March and Battle of Los Angeles in August. 2013 also saw several wrestlers depart PWG for WWE's developmental territory NXT. In June, Sami Callihan and Samuray del Sol, neither of whom had spent much time in PWG, wrestled their final matches for the promotion, while in December, two longtime PWG wrestlers, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards, also made their final appearances for the promotion. Also in December, Chris Hero, who had recently been released from WWE, returned to PWG.

In August 2014, Kevin Steen, who had worked regularly for PWG since 2005, left the promotion for WWE. In an interview on WWE's official website, Steen credited PWG for getting him signed, mentioning how he was invited for a tryout after William Regal had seen one of his PWG matches.

In December 2015, PWG and ROH announced a working relationship, which would allow ROH contracted wrestlers to continue working for PWG. ROH contracted wrestlers (and former PWG World champions) Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly made their first appearances in PWG since December 2014 at All Star Weekend 11 in December 2015.

In February 2018, a purported PayPal error caused fans to order more tickets than originally allocated for the show "Time is a Flat Circle". This meant that PWG had to run the show outside of their usual home of Reseda, CA, for the first time in over six years. The show instead took place at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA.

In March 2018, PWG announced that they were leaving Reseda, CA. Although PWG officials tried to book later dates at American Legion Hall, the venue was sold and they were not allowed to book dates there past June 1. On May 25, 2018, PWG hosted their last event in Reseda titled "Bask in his Glory." (This was also the farewell event of former PWG world champion Keith Lee). Their first event of 2019 was Hand of Doom where Jeff Cobb defended the title against the departing Trevor Lee. Their next event was called Two Hundred which saw the debuts of Aussie Open, Latin American Exchange and Jonathan Gresham.

Roster

Current champions 
As of  ,

Tournaments

References

External links 

 

 
Independent professional wrestling promotions based in California
2003 establishments in California
Sports in California