Wrestling / Pro Wrestling Guerilla

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) is a Professional Wrestling federation based in and around Los Angeles, California. If CHIKARA is TV-Y7, and WWE is TV-PG, PWG at some point in each show will hit TV-MA.

Established back in 2003, the company was founded by six wrestlers from California. As of 2019, it's still run by six wrestlers based in California (though not the same six). PWG shows are primarily notable for being ensemble shows with a massive de-emphasis on storylines and more focus on work-rate and matches between superbly talented wrestlers, culminating with the annual 24-man Battle for Los Angeles tournament, which often attracts massive crowds and massive independant stars to face off for it.

The promotion recognises two championships:

• PWG World Heavyweight Champion: Daniel Garcia since May 1, 2022
• PWG World Tag Team Champions: The Kings Of The Black Throne (Brody King and Malakai Black) since September 26, 2021

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Tropes Associated with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla:

• Action Girl: Candice LeRae, and how.
• Acrofatic: California's own potbellied Willie Mack, unsurprisingly.
• Armed Legs: The Young Bucks armed theirs by stomping in piles of thumbtacks.
• Author Appeal: Someone in PWG's management absolutely loves the band Barbarian Overlords, because their songs have been used as backing tracks to the previews and DVDs for some time now.
• Captain Ersatz: The Human Tornado is one to Dolemite, though the wrestlers in PWG are somewhat more likely to pay attention to his actual misdoings rather than try to frame him.
• Christmas Episode: Astonishing X-Mas, which did not actually occur on Christmas but close enough.
• Crazy Consumption: Kevin Steen devouring a paper fan during a title defense against Brian Cage because "Ole"(which he associates with El Generico) was written on it.
• Crossover: On October 28, 2007, they held PWG/wXw European Vacation II: Germany, a cross-promotional event with Westside Xtreme Wrestling at the Musikpalette in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. They were also one of the hapless organizations to be invaded by Age Of The Fall, which started in Ring of Honor. They used to have a working relationship with TNA too, but that went sour over some issue with Highspots.com.
• Crowd Chant: Usually the name of the promotion, as American fans are wont to do ever since ECW got big.
• Crowd Song: Buzzing for/from The Swarm! (its confusing)
• Disco Dan: Disco Machine and The Human Tornado.
• Facial Markings: Demus 3:16 and Stalker Ichikawa.
• Force Feeding: The Young Bucks force fed Joey Ryan thumbtacks. This was partially because they accidentally switched their thumbtack bag with a bag of gummy bears, but then they tried to kick the tacks down his throat when he wouldn't swallow.
• Groin Attack: During the World's Cutest Tag Team/Young Bucks hardcore match, Candice ballsplexed one of the Bucks into the turnbuckle, dropped a handful of thumbtacks down his pants, and then ballsplexed him again... into the remaining thumbtacks.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A non-lethal version: during their hardcore match with the Young Bucks, Candice (who was bleeding and barely able to stand) crawled back into the ring and stood in front of Joey, who was barely conscious and was about to be superkicked by one of the Bucks, who was wearing a shoe with thumbtacks glued to the sole. The resulting kick left blood everywhere.
• Killer Gorilla: Nemsis, the resident killer gorilla man.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Brian Cage called himself "Mr. get his shit in." A common complaint about Pro Wrestling Guerrilla being its wrestlers seemed more concerned about "getting their shit in" than shit making sense.
• Loser Leaves Town: Kevin Steen just barely avoided being deported back to CZW.
• Masked Luchador: Chiva Kid has a goat mask, horns and all. Also, Hallowicked, Delirious, The Hurricane, Jushin Thunder Liger, Player Uno, Player Dos, El Generico, Nemesis, El Blazer, Super Dragon and Dragon Kid.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: London And Kendrick-Joey Ryan-Willie Mack.
• Maniac Tongue: Roderick Strong when he turns on Kyle O'Reily after failing to win the PWG Championship, Delirious a lot.
• One-Steve Limit: Adam Cole, Adam Page, Adam Pearce and Adam Thornstowe. Eddie Kingston and Eddie Edwards. Arik Cannon and Arik Royal. Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Jacobs, Jimmy Kagetora, Jimmy Rave, Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Wang Yang. Jay Bradley, Jay Briscoe and Jay Lethal. Jake Crist, Jake Manning and Jake Roberts. Dave Crist and Dave Finlay. Davey Richards and Davey Boy Smith Jr. And it goes on and on, if you didn't get that they don't follow this trope at all.
• Papa Wolf: Kevin Steen gave Excalibur three package pile drivers for calling his son ugly…then had his son pin Excalibur.
• Power Stable:
  • Mount Rushmore (Adam Cole, Kevin Steen and The Young Bucks)
    • Mount Rushmore 2.0 (The Young Bucks, Roderick Strong, and Super Dragon)
  • Also, the multi promotional stable BLKOUT has made rounds here.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Brendan Michael Thomas when teaming with "The Portuguese Princess Ariel" in 2 Pretty In Pink.
• Rule of Three: The Threemendous Anthology which started with as the 3rd anniversary show and is held every three years.
• Shout-Out
  • Several to Kurt Russell. On January 24 and 25, 2004, they held the Tango & Cash Invitational, a tournament to crown the inaugural PWG World Tag Team Champions. Starting in 2011, one of their annual events is titled Kurt Russellreunion.
  • To Back to the Future as well. The March 7, 2004 show was 88 Miles Per Hour! and the May 20, 2006 show was Enchantment Under The Sea
  • The February 24, 2007 show was titled Holy Diver Down, combining Ronnie James Dio and Van Halen.
  • Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae, The Worlds Cutest Tag Team
  • AR Fox and ACH, The African American Wolves
  • Rich Swann and Ricochet, The Inner City Machine Guns (Though they started in Dragon Gate)
• The Quiet One: B-Boy doesn't like to talk. When he does start talking a lot, it means he's depressed.
• The Resenter: Downplayed. Chris Hero only lost two matches in 15 months as World Champion. After he lost to Low Ki, Low Ki was called by and left for WWE. Next year he lost to Bryan Danielson, who was also called by and left for WWE before Hero could get a rematch. So Chris Hero started altering his style based on his two losses, losses to opponent who weren't around anymore instead of sticking with what worked otherwise, leading to more losses.
• The Show Must Go On: By the finals for the 2008 Battle Of Los Angeles'', Low Ki and Chris Hero had to compete with only the top rope attached to the ring, as the other two had been damaged.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Before the start of a match between Adam Cole and Cedric Alexander, Cole got the announcer to read a note he'd written, stating that he'd beat the hell out of ACH- he meant, Alexander. The crowd started a 'That was racist!' chant, and the announcer went on to read the rest of the note, which said that in the event of a 'That was racist!' chant, the crowd could collectively suck Cole's dick.
  • And then Cedric Alexander drop-kicked Cole in the face.^note  According to an AMA, Cole said that part of the reason Cedric was willing to be a part of that segment was A.) because he understood what Cole was getting at and, perhaps most importantly, B.) Cole let him kick him in the head as hard as he wanted.
• The Worf Effect: Roderick Strong was aware of this trope and got tired of being the measuring stick newcomers to Pro Wrestling Guerilla were held against.
• Tournament Arc: Battle of Los Angeles and DDT4 (short for Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament) are two of their biggest events of the year.