By Silverback, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Staff Writer
Shadow Moses Island, CA – With two of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s biggest events of the year separated by only one week, the Board of Directors felt it pertinent to make each event really stand out. After all, if one appears to be significantly better than the other, it is safe to assume that one event will be significantly better attended than the other. With a killer lineup already announced for Speed of Sound (taking place Friday, August 28), there was a lot of pressure to make the event on Friday, September 4 stand out. Fortunately, the marketing geniuses here at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla did exactly that in three easy steps:First, a name everyone can get behind. Since the majority of the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla audience are college educated working professionals, age 39-50, who like to travel abroad in their leisure time (according to the last demographic survey we took), we felt it safe to name the event Guerre Sans Frontières. Please, try not to spill any espresso on your baguette while you chuckle at the layers of creativity.
Second, assemble a talented and diverse locker room of wrestlers that fans want to see. Check.
Third, with the aforementioned locker room, create a lineup that fans want to see. To wit:
Six-Man Tag Team Never-In-Your-Wildest-Dreams Match
Brian Kendrick & The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs. CIMA & Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)
— WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN
Singles Match
Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson vs. “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson
— Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson has spent approximately 46 of the last 52 weeks in Japan, wrestling full time for New Japan Pro Wrestling. When he’s not wrestling, he’s at the gym, or training at the dojo. When Karl Anderson comes back to the United States, it’s like a vacation. He enjoys visiting with his friends and family in Pipestone, MN, and spending time at the beaches of Southern California. Sure, it’s great to see the family and all that, but Karl Anderson’s true love is the beach, (and the scantily-clad women that come with it). How can “Machine Gun” possibly maximize the time he spends in Southern California in a way that his friends and family would find acceptable? Tell them it’s work related!
“Oh, yeah, sorry, I’d LOVE to see you guys, but Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is having two shows a week a part, and they NEED me at both of them! You guys understand, right? I’ll see you guys next time I’m back in the States!”
While Karl Anderson will spend the intervening seven days between Speed of Sound and Guerre Sans Frontières in the sun, covered in oil, sipping Mojitos, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson will be training. There is no off season for Bryan Danielson. Every moment of his life is spent maximizing his potential, whether it’s through rigorous physical activity, or sharpening his mental acuity. Sure, he loves to have fun, too, but you don’t become “the Best in the World” by asking cocktail waitresses if you can see what’s underneath their sarong. While Karl Anderson is dreaming of his vacation in sunny California, Bryan Danielson is planning on sending “Machine Gun” back to Japan battered and broken, a message to anyone that thinks they are “the Best in the World.”
Singles Match
Naruki Doi vs. Scott Lost
— Despite the fact that Scott Lost was defeated by Alex Shelley at Threemendous II, he came perilously close to defeating Shelley on numerous occasions. But Scott’s real defining moment was during Joey Ryan‘s Guerrilla Warfare match with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Champion Chris Hero. Repeatedly throughout the match, Joey glanced at the curtain, hoping to see Scott coming to his aid, or simply just as an extra set of hands to clubber Chris Hero with. Though Joey didn’t discuss any of this with Scott, he assumed his long-time partner would be there. However, Scott Lost left shortly after intermission that night, and the statement was clear: Don’t take me for granted anymore; I’m my own man now.
Focused on raising his stature in the singles division of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Scott Lost hopes to follow the same career trajectory of Naruki Doi in Dragon Gate. Doi, who has had great success as a tag team wrestler, is currently the Open the Dream Gate champion, which is the top singles prize Dragon Gate has to offer. However, to reach this point in his career, Doi had to overcome the stigma of being known primarily as a tag team wrestler, and did so by winning the King of Gate tournament. Replace the tournament with the Battle of Los Angeles, and replace the title with the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Championship, and you may have just seen Scott Lost’s game plan for the foreseeable future.
Scott Lost’s journey to the top has already started, but a victory over Naruki Doi at Guerre Sans Frontières could not only catapult Scott up the ladder in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, but raise his international standing as well. Naruki Doi, on the other hand, has reached the top, and must do everything in his power to stay there. While the Open the Dream Gate Championship is not up for grabs on September 4, it makes this match no less important. In order the cement his status as one of the top singles wrestlers in the world, Doi must face every challenge and defeat every adversary, no matter the stakes.
Singles Match
Joey Ryan vs. Shingo Takagi
— When Shingo Takagi spent nearly a year in America as on a professional wrestling learning excursion, he had the opportunity to wrestle in numerous locations, and face numerous opponents, that Japanese wrestlers typically would not be able to. When he finally returned to Japan in early 2007, Shingo was a changed man. He took the best that Japanese and American professional wrestling had to offer and combined it into a fast-paced, hard-hitting style that has served him exceptionally well ever since. Shingo even returned to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla for the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles, where his Japanese-American fusion helped him reach the Quarter Final round. Upon his return to Southern California, Shingo was reminded of a very strange individual he had met during his travels. This man was unlike any that Shingo had met before, certainly not like anyone in Japan, and apparently unique in America, as well. This man was Joey Ryan.
While Shingo strove to take the best aspects of American professional wrestling and distill it into a formula that, when combined with the best aspects of the Japanese style, was unstoppable. But when he would watch Joey Ryan, Shingo saw a wrestler that embraced the worst aspects of professional wrestling in general, and was successful! On the very same night that Shingo made his Pro Wrestling Guerrilla debut, Joey Ryan defended his World Championship for the seventeenth time! Sure, Shingo has been successful with his combination of the Japanese and American styles, but could he have been more successful if he followed in Joey Ryan’s footsteps, instead?
On Friday, September 4 at Guerre Sans Frontières, Shingo Takagi, Joey Ryan, and professional wrestling fans around the world will find out just whose style really is the best.
Tag Team Match
The Cutler Brothers (Brandon & Dustin Cutler) vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)
Singles Match
Candice LeRae vs. Christina Von Eerie
Plus Johnny Goodtime, Charles Mercury, Jerome “LTP” Robinson, and more!
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Guerre Sans Frontières takes place Friday, September 4, 2009, at 8:00 PM at American Legion Post #308 in Reseda, CA. American Legion Post #308 is located at 7338 Canby Ave., Reseda, CA 91335. Front Row tickets are $25, and General Admission tickets are $20. Tickets are available for purchase online at the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Event Tickets page. Any remaining and will be available at the door. For more information, please visit http://www.prowrestlingguerrilla.com. Video recording devices are not permitted. Card subject to change.
