PWG - Where are they now?

Rewind to July 2003 and a new promotion forms in California which, to the knowledge of nobody at the show, is about to change the American wrestling scene.

When you think Pro Wrestling Guerrilla you think Battle of Los Angeles, you think a unique mix of comedy and pro wrestling and an all-star archive of talents.

In the decade and a half the likes of Christopher Daniels, CM Punk, Chris Hero, Bryan Danielson, PAC, and more recently Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, and Keith Lee have gone PWG regulars to national superstars.

Their debut PWG show in the Frank and Sons Arena was put on in front of a crowd of just 214 people and nobody there that night could have predicted what was to come, for either the company or its first stars.

In this feature we’ll take a look at six wrestlers from that famous night in California and see how their careers panned out*

AJ Styles

Arguably the biggest name on this list, AJ was already well on his way to becoming Mr TNA when he faced Frankie Kazarian in the main event of PWG’s first ever show. The Phenomenal One spent 12 years in the company now known as Impact before heading to Japan.

Over in the Far East AJ enjoyed an incredible rise and eventually became leader of the Bullet Club. When they turned on him, replacing him with Kenny Omega, Styles headed to WWE.

He may not have always been used to his full potential in Vince McMahon’s company but even now he’s considered one of the best wrestlers in the world.

Topgun Talwar

Known as one of the six owners of PWG within the famed 'PWG Six'. Topgun was on the losing side in his PWG debut, a six-person tag team match which included Charles Mercury, Sara Del Rey, Supa Badd, Ryan Drago and Zokre.

He became a stalwart in PWG up until 2007 and later retired from wrestling entirely in 2011.

His career highlight was winning the Revpro Mexican Lucha Libre Title defeating Chris Bosh in California in December 2014.

Excalibur

One of the more recognisable names on this list and another of the 'PWG Six', Excalibur is the current play-by-play and colour commentator on AEW's Dynamite.

Excalibur faced and defeated Chris Bosh in a 4min 50 contest on that first ever show.

Back in 2003, he was in his early 20s and just starting out his career. He went on to become PWG Tag Team Champion with Super Dragon - another founder member of PWG in 2004.

For those DDT lovers out there, who can forget his Ironman Heavymetalweight win too?

Sara Del Rey

Not long after her debut in Japan in 2002, Del Rey debuted for PWG in the aforementioned tag match which featured Topgun Talwar.

She only went on to wrestle one more time for PWG but is most known for her time on the independents with Shimmer, Chikara, and Ring of Honor.

Del Rey became the first-ever female trainer in the WWE Performance Center and is currently being referred to her real name Sara Amato.

Scorpio Sky

Scorpio Sky is a well-traveled wrestler who made a name for himself featuring all over the independents over the last two decades.

On that famous night at the Frank and Sons Arena, a young Sky made his debut tagging with Quicksilver defeating Shane & Shannon 'The Ballard Brothers'.

Career highlights include being ROH World Tag Team Champion & Six Man Tag Team Champions with Frankie Kazarian & Christopher Daniels as SCU.

He also held the AEW Tag Title with Kazarian between October 2019 and January 2020 (83 days) and recently had a strong contest with Darby Allin for the TNT title.

He will team up with Ethan Page to face Darby Allin and Sting tonight at Double or Nothing

Frankie Kazarian

As mentioned above Kazarian has been a multiple time tag champion and was part of the main event of the debut show losing to AJ Styles in 11mins 42 seconds.

Frankie was spotted by PWG from UPW where he was often found freestyle rapping with his close friends John Cena and Samoa Joe, who used to ride together in 2002.

At the time of the debut show, he was employed by TNA and went on to win a tournament to become the first ever PWG Champion in 2003. He held it until February 2004 being defeated by Adam Pearce.

Kaz has enjoyed a long and successful career and also played the Suicide character in TNA between 2008-2010.

Thanks for reading!

*Card via Cagematch

This article was written by Sam Virgoe, you can follow him on Twitter @vigrko