Pro Wrestling Guerrilla announced on August 31, 2018 that Travis Banks won’t be able to wrestle at the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles due to injury. He will be replaced in the tournament by Sammy Guevara.
The promotion also announced with the roster change, there would be a change in first round matchups. Banks was scheduled to face Shingo Takagi in a first round match, but now Takagi will face Ilja Dragunov. Jonah Rock, who was scheduled to face Dragunov, will now meet Guevara in the first round. Both matches will take place on night two of the tournament.
Banks had announced last week on Twitter that he had suffered a dislocated shoulder about a month ago and that it had not healed as fast as he thought it would. He stated he didn’t have a return date yet, and all appearances that he had been advertised for would have to be postponed.
Banks had made it to the semi-finals of the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles, where he was defeated by eventual winner Ricochet.
This will be the second Battle of Los Angeles for Guevara. He appeared in the 2017 edition, where he defeated Joey Janela in the opening round and lost to Jeff Cobb in the second round. He last appeared in PWG on May 25, 2018 when he unsuccessfully challenged WALTER for the PWG World Heavyweight Championship.
The 2018 Battle of Los Angeles takes place at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles on September 14 through 16. The tournament winner traditionally gets a PWG World Title match at a later date.
