Report: AEW Protected Daniel Garcia From Clean Loss At PWG Battle Of Los Angeles

All Elite Wrestling had an influence on the booking of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Battle of Los Angeles tournament. 

BoLA 2023 took place on Saturday, January 7 and Sunday, January 8 at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles. PWG World Champion and AEW talent Daniel Garcia was in action in the tournament as he faced Titus Alexander in the first round. Red Death was eliminated after he hit his opponent with the PWG World Title, causing him to be disqualified. 

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that AEW requested the dirty finish as they didn't want Garcia to lose clean at the show. AEW have close ties to PWG and the indy promotion's co-owner Excalibur is the play-by-play commentator for much of AEW's programming. 

While he was eliminated from the tournament in the first round, Garcia would wrestle again at BoLA, teaming with Jericho Appreciation Society stablemates Chris Jericho, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, and Sammy Guevara to defeat Jonathan Gresham, Kevin Blackwood, Michael Oku, Evil Uno, and SB KENTo on Sunday, January 8. The match marked Jericho's debut in PWG and he compared the promotion to ECW following the bout. 

Beyond Daniel Garcia, AEW filmed an angle following Battle of Los Angeles. Konosuke Takeshita advanced to the final of the tournament before losing to "Speedball" Mike Bailey and AEW reportedly filmed an interaction between Takeshita and Don Callis after the event.