KITN vs. 🤯

KITN

SPOILER: Click to show

A Royal Legacy

20 Years of Queens of American Wrestling

In the spring of 2001, a pivotal moment in wrestling history happened. Not the purchase of WCW by the WWF, but a few weeks prior. Early on March 5, 2001, Trish Stratus was told by Vince McMahon that she would strip down to her underwear on national television, crawl on her knees, and bark like a dog while crying. Having spent several months being put in skimpy outfits and pretending to have a sexual affair with a man more than twice her age (her boss), Trish put her foot down. She refused to do the angle and simply flew back home. The WWF sued Trish for breach of contract and, as an independent contractor, Trish got a lawyer and counter-sued the WWF for its treatment of her and its environment of sexual harassment (a suit given further credibility by Rena Mero and Rita Marie Chatterton being willing to testify against Vince McMahon). With the eyes of the world on him as the only wrestling promoter in business and ratings and buyrates already starting to decline heavily decline by the summer, Vince McMahon cut his losses and settled with Patricia Anne Stratigeas out of court for an undisclosed, but reportedly large, sum of money.

Still wanting a career in wrestling that wasn’t defined by Vince McMahon and not seeing many opportunities in America, Trish flew to Japan to train in the GAEA Japan dojos, working matches for GAEA and AJW, and making connections with the Joshi wrestlers. Struck by inspiration on her return to the states, Stratigeas decided to do something daring. With the help of Joanie Laurer and additional financial backing from an unnamed Canadian 3rd party who also had an ax to grind against Vince McMahon, Stratigeas founded Queens of American Wrestling, the first all-female since WOW had folded the year before, and one of the very first in America to treat the women’s wrestlers as seriously as men’s wrestlers were treated. The rest, as they say, is history. Own a piece of history with this multi-box set, highlighting some of the greatest and most significant matches in QAW history.

Volume 1

Trish Stratigeas vs. “The Wonder” Joanie Laurer

From Hear Us Roar (Saturday, March 16, 2002)

The first main event of the first-ever Queens of American Wrestling event was as important as any main event would come to be in the promotion’s history. Not just for the newborn promotion itself but for the women involved. For Trish Stratus, it was her first match in front of American fans in nearly a year and her first proper match in the US in almost two. For Joanie, it was her first match period since November, after she’d essentially found herself exiled from the WWF. This was their baby, their show. The rest of the women on the show had done their best, but if the two owners couldn’t deliver in the main event, it could doom their dream before it even began. Both women fought with something to prove: to the wrestling industry, to the fans, and to themselves. Trish brought her speed, athleticism, and the skills she’d picked up in her time in Japan against Joanie’s toughness, raw power, and experience. For nearly twenty-five minutes, they left it all in the ring and brought the crowd to a foot-stomping, barricade-shaking fever pitch. The finish came when Joanie countered the Stratieg-faction and stuck Trish on the top rope before bringing her crashing down to Earth with a spectacular top-rope Powerbomb. The fans gave a standing ovation as Joanie was declared the winner. Queens of American Wrestling was officially born on this night.

Trish Stratigeas: “Oh man, this match…”

Joanie Laurer: “Twenty years later, I still get goosebumps thinking about this, honestly.”

Trish: “Me too! Because, you know, you, me, and [redacted], we put a lot of money behind this! We put our reputations on this.”

Joanie: “If this show didn’t hit, weeee would have been in trouble.”

(Both laugh)

Trish: “And all the women all night had been killing it, but we’d been in the industry long enough to know that a bad main event can take the goodwill of a whole card.”

Joanie: “Honestly, that match? That was the match I had always wanted to have. I mean, I loved all the girls I worked with when I was in the WWF, but the way those matches were laid out… just embarrassing, really, most of the time. But then I saw the matches you were sending me-”

Trish: “I was a little worried you’d think I was crazy, just sending you that letter and a box full of VHS’s like that.”

Joanie: “No, no! It made something really click for me, it made me realize that was the kind of match I wanted to have. And you tagged me a couple of times during the match-”

Trish: “Which I am still sorry about.”

Joanie: “I always tell you that you don’t have to be. Because that was… that was the first time where I’d been hit a little harder in a match and it wasn’t because someone was trying to tell me I didn’t belong in the ring or that they felt like having a match with me was beneath them. It felt like respect. And I just… this whole company’s our baby. I don’t know what I’d be doing, or where I’d be, if I didn’t have this, and this support network we built here, and your friendship.”

Trish: “Joanie, come on, you’re gonna make me cry.”

(Both women laugh, then get up from their chairs and hug.)

Io Shirai vs. "Legit" Leyla Hirsch

From QAW Eruption (Wednesday, October 9, 2019)

QAW’s Shockwave Championship was an important cornerstone of the company’s identity. Similar to TNA’s X-Division Championship or Stardom’s High Speed championship, it was defined by exciting, high-speed, frenetic action. Famous Shockwave champions included Athena, Sasha Mercedes, April Lee, and [redacted]. Since her debut as a full-time roster member in 2018, Io Shirai quickly made herself synonymous with the division. With a daredevil style and explosive moveset, including a beautiful moonsault, Io was six months into her inaugural reign as Shockwave champion. So no one really expected anything from her match with recently-debuted undercard wrestler Leyla Hirsch, who had less than a dozen matches for the company under her belt at that point. The expectation was that Io would simply hit her cool moves and run right through Leyla in a matter of minutes. But the match kept going on, and Leyla kept kicking out. And Leyla started to fight back, hammering Io with strikes and throwing her across the ring with suplexes. While Io was able to maintain control, it was a control she was losing the longer the match went, and the crowd (and Twitter) came alive as they realized they were seeing something special. After ten minutes, the time limit expired, but a rookie had just gone toe-to-toe with a woman recognized as one of the best in the world. She might not have won, but it was clear that Leyla Hirsch was a star in the making.

Leyla Hirsch: “You know something, I’ve… actually never watched that match back before this. I’ve watched the rematches about a hundred times, but never that first match we had. There’s something with the way the crowd builds up the longer the match goes on, how it just feels like they know it’s something special.”

Masami Odate (Io Shirai): “I was very interested in how this match would work when they first told me about it. In Japan, we don’t really do something like this with newer wrestlers, so it was definitely a new experience. I was wondering- I don’t say this to be mean- I wondered how much I’d have to work to make you look good.”

Leyla: “Hey, no, I get it. I’d only been wrestling for about a year at that point.”

Masami: “But that’s just it, I didn’t have to work very hard at all. You were incredibly talented, even then.”

Leyla: “Oh, stop.”

Masami: “No, I mean it! I underestimated your ability but you more than carried your own.”

Leyla: “Well, this match really jump-started my whole career. So you don’t owe me any apology or anything, I promise. Again, I can’t thank you enough.”

Io: “I’m happy to share such an important match with you.”

“The Queen of Spades” Shayna Baszler vs. “Mighty” Nora Greenwald ©

QAW World’s Championship Match

From A Cold Day In Hell (Saturday, December 16, 2017)

In 2017, Nora Greenwald was in her third reign as World’s Champion. Since making her debut in 2005, Nora had been the exciting incoming rebel, the self-righteous egomaniac, and had won the title from Sasha Mercedes as a beloved veteran. But her run as champion was about to come crashing into a roadblock in the form of the debuting Shayna Baszler. Baszler debuted in the Summer of 2017 and had not lost a single match going into the title match. “The Queen of Spades” had smashed her way through the competition with her combination of striking and her extensive catch wrestling background, collecting limbs like trophies, and seemed poised to do the same to the champion. But Nora Greenwald proved that you don’t become a three-time World’s Champion in QAW without being tough. She fought with everything she had and at times looked like she might even do the impossible. But in the end, Baszler forced Greenwald to tap out to a Kimura lock and stood over the bloodied veteran with the title held high to begin her own era of dominance.

Nora Greenwald: “I know how this going to sound, but I wanna thank you.”

Shayna Baszler: (Laughs) “What?”

Nora: “No, really! I never got the chance to before and I wanted to thank you.”

Shayna: “Wait, do you remember a different match than me or something?”

Nora: “A lot of wrestlers in that position, where the match is designed for them to steamroll their opponent and look like a killer, they could use that as an excuse to take liberties or really lay it in, but that’s… well, that’s probably the gentlest I’ve ever been suplexed.”

(Both laugh)

Shayna: “Of course, I mean, of course I was going to protect you. Really, if anything, I’m the one who should thank you, it takes a lot to not have the ego where you’d be willing to let yourself be in a position to get steamrolled like that.”

Nora: “Oh, no, you don’t have to thank me for anything like that. The last thing I ever wanted to be was one of those wrestlers who holds onto her spot too long and becomes insecure about her image, always needing to look strong-”

Shayna: “Definitely not describing anyone you used to work with.”

(Both laugh)

Nora: “I was getting near the end of my full-time run anyway and I was happy to give my credibility and my connection with the fans, pay it forward to make someone.”

Shayna: “Well, you definitely made me in this match, and I’ll always be very grateful for that.”

Aja Kong vs. "Flying Angel" Manami Toyota

From Hear Us Roar 2 (Saturday, March 15, 2003)

To help celebrate the first anniversary of QAW, Trish Stratigeas knew she would need a unique match to be a draw and to hook in potential new fans, to give them something different and expand the product. So she turned to some connections she’d made during the time she’d spent in Japan over the last two years and brought two Joshi legends to be a part of the show in Aja Kong and Manami Toyota. It was Aja Kong’s first match in America in almost a decade and Toyota’s first-ever appearance in the United States, facing off for only the second time in their entire careers. Even with how the QAW fanbase had grown used to a much more intense style of women’s wrestling, these two raised the bar even higher with a level of violence and explosiveness that shocked the crowd as much as it wowed them. In the end, only one of these two icons could come out victorious, and it was Aja Kong punching her ticket with a trio of Uraken Spinning Backfists to take Toyota down and punch her ticket to a match the following month with QAW World’s Champion Joanie Laurer.

Erika Shishido (Aja Kong) [Subtitled]: “When we arrived in America, we asked Trish-chan what kind of match we should have.”

Manami Toyota [Subtitled]: “We’d watched a bit of QAW but we still weren’t sure what the US fans would expect from us. She told us ‘Have the match you want to have. A lot of these people have been watching your matches-’”

Erika: “Illegally! Some of those fans owed me money!”

(Both laugh)



Manami: “So when she told us to have our match, I was very excited, because we’d only wrestled once before. I’d really wanted to wrestle you again!”



Erika: “So did I! But it wasn’t just something for the American fans, either. At the time, things were looking bad for AJW and GAEA Japan, so we weren’t sure what the future was going to be.”



Manami: “We didn’t know about Stardom, TJPW, Sendai Girls, Ice Ribbon, all these other promotions that were going to spring up. So we were hoping that if we could help QAW grow, help get it some attention in Japan, then girls who wanted to become wrestlers would have somewhere to wrestle.”



Erika: “Exactly! So we were doing it for Trish-Chan, yeah… but we were doing it for ourselves, too. We made sure to really go all out.”



Manami: “I’m very proud of the match we had. Even if I felt the welt on my head from the trash can shot for a week.”

Sara Del Ray vs. Nattie Neidhart

From Hear Us Roar (Saturday, March 16, 2002)

The first-ever match in QAW history was arguably one of its most important. At a time when most wrestling fans in the US had mostly seen women’s wrestling as more or less a step above softcore porn and even with names like the former Trish Stratus and Chyna at the top of the card, they still weren’t really sure what to expect. From the opening bell, Sara Del Rey and Nattie Neidhart showed them. While the crowd started off a bit cold and confused by their intense grappling, from the first hard chop and the first stiff forearm, the crowd started to come alive. Over twelve minutes, the two women still very much in the rookie stage of their careers won the audience over and got them on their feet. The crowd went wild as Sara Del Rey claimed the first victory in QAW and started a rivalry that would carry through the first six years of the promotion’s history.

Sara Amato: “We were getting ready before the show and Trish came up to us, basically right before people started coming in, and told us how important this match was. ‘It’s riding on you, we need you two to sell this place.’ So, no pressure or anything. Yeah, Natalya and I had a hell of a match, we pushed each other. People say I wrestled with a chip on my shoulder those first couple years and you’re [bleep]damn right I did. Natalya had the name, she had the connections, I had something to prove, I felt like I had something to prove pretty much the whole time we were in the company together, I feel like I’ve got something to prove now. See how I’m here, and she’s not? I’m doing this sit-down by myself. Why? Because she left, when they needed us, when I needed her, to step up and take over because it was our time, and soon as New York came calling for her, she left. I stayed, she went to go be a superstar, to go be with ‘family.’ [Bleep] off.”

Producer: “Actually- um- Natalya is doing interviews for her other matches on the DVD, she just… didn’t want to do this with you.”

Sara: “Are you serious? [Bleep]ing typical. We’re done here. Get that out of my face.”

Jazz © vs. Mickie James

QAW World’s Championship Match

Last Woman Standing Match

From Sizzling Summer Showdown (Saturday, July 23, 2005)

In all of QAW history, there are few women who were as dominant as Jazz, and in 2005, there was nobody else who came close. Becoming the first woman to ever win the QAW World’s Championship twice, her first reign had lasted for eight months and her second run was closing in on a year. The only person to challenge Jazz’s dominance was Joanie Laurer, the woman to end her first reign, and with Laurer away from the company to film her part in a movie, it seemed unlikely that anyone would have the strength or physicality to take the title from Jazz. But one woman had the heart. The story of Mickie and Jazz actually started before Jazz even began her second reign as champion. On the episode of Eruption before Jazz was going to challenge then-champion Trish Stratigeas, she had a match with Mickie James that went just over three minutes. Nothing out of the ordinary except that Mickie lasted a surprisingly long time in the Bitch Clamp before tapping out and that Jazz kicked her in the head after the match. Three months into Jazz’s title reign, while Jazz was preparing for a match with [redacted], they had another match on Eruption that lasted nearly twice as long and had Mickie get a long two-count with the Mickie-DT. Again, after Jazz won (this time with the Jazz Stinger), she attacked Mickie after the match. Six months into Jazz’s reign, Mickie James defeated Tara in a #1 contendership match to get her first World’s Championship match at February’s “Love Is A Battlefield”. Though she didn’t win, James became the first woman to kick out of the Jazz Stinger and when Jazz attempted to attack her after the match, Laree finally fought back and the pair had to be separated by the locker room. Jazz put Laree on the shelf for four months after an attack in the parking lot where she slammed James’s knee repeatedly in a car door, though Mickie would come back to win the Gateway to Glory gauntlet match at the “Golden Summer” PPV in June. With the pair constantly attacking each other on Eruption, the match was made a Last Woman Standing match. Both women beat the absolute hell out of each other for nearly half an hour, and, after a superplex through a stack of tables, Mickie James’s indomitable will finally won out over Jazz’s power as she managed to just barely beat the other woman to a ten-count. Though she could barely stand on her own two feet, Mickie could hold her head high as World’s Champion.

Carlene Moore-Begnaud (Jazz): “Okay, tell them what you told me the day of the match.”

Mickie James: “Oh, Carly, come on, don’t do this!”

Carlene: “Do you know what this crazy woman said to me? She’s about to have the biggest win of her career in front of thousands of people, in Virginia??”

Mickie: “Now, look-”

Carlene: “She told me ‘I think you should win. I think I’m going to go talk to Trish and try to get the finish changed’. And I told you right to your face, ‘You do that, and as soon as we walk through that curtain, I’m gonna kick your ass for real’.”

(Both laugh)

Mickie: “Okay, okay, in my defense, at the time, I thought it would have been so good! It would have given you so much heat to build up for the next challenger, and I still would have looked good-”

Carlene: “There wasn’t a next challenger, you dummy! This was for you! It had been building for months, really a whole year when you look at it! The crowd was hot, they were ready for you to win.”

Mickie: “It was just… it was a lot for me to process. I mean, I was only 25, and I had a hard time convincing myself I deserved it.”

Carlene: “Well, you did. And I promise you, if I had thought you didn't, I would have told Trish. But you did, and you worked your ass off to get to that level, and you should be proud of it.”

Mickie: “I was. I am. …Sometimes I still wish we hadn’t wanted to use thumbtacks, though.”

Carlene: “I still don’t know why they gave us a bag of tacks that damn big! We were sitting in the trainer’s office getting them picked out of us for a damn hour!”

“Wrestling Goddess” Athena vs. “Platinum” Sasha Mercedes vs. “The HBIC” Tara vs. Jessie McKay

Golden Opportunity Ladder Match

From May Madness (Saturday, May 31, 2014)

While there had been several ladder matches in QAW history, there hadn’t been an attempt at a chaotic, spot-filled ladder match in the style of WWE’s Money in the Bank match before this year. All four women brought their A-game to what would become a hallmark match type in QAW. There were the career rivals Athena and Sasha willing to take insane risks and throw caution to the wind, the crafty veteran Tara using whatever weapons or violently underhanded were available to her to try and get a shot at reaching the mountaintop once again, and the beloved underdog Jessie McKay who many fans couldn’t even believe had even gotten into the match. Women jumped off of ladders, went through tables, were hit with chairs, fought, and bled for a raucous Vegas crowd. In the end, against all odds, it was Jessie McKay who climbed the ladder and unhooked the golden briefcase, holding it over her head with tears in her eyes.

Jessie McKay: “So I’m just going to ask, was anyone else… scared going into this match?”

Lisa Marie Varon (Tara): “Nope.”

Mercedes Varnado (Sasha Mercedes): “Girl, please.”

Adrienne Reese (Athena): “Look, I started in CZW…”

Jessie: “Jeez. Well now I feel silly!”

(The other three laugh)

Lisa: “I’m kidding! I was [bleep]ing terrified!”

Mercedes: “Any time you have a match like this, it’s scary.”

Adrienne: “Especially with it being the first one, you don’t wanna mess it up.”

Jessie: “Yes, thank you! But looking back at it now? Pfft! What was I so worried about? I could do a hundred of those ladder matches!”

Mercedes: “Let’s not get crazy now.”

Lisa: “Yeah, maybe you could do a hundred of those ladder matches.”

Adrienne: “Once a year is plenty. Especially once they added two more girls to the match the year after.”

Jessie: “Oh, you know what I mean!”

(All four laugh)

Adrienne: “So what I heard, and I have no idea if this is true, but I heard that when they were figuring out which of us was gonna win, they just wrote all our names on an old “Twister” color wheel and spun it.”

Jessie: “Shut up!”

Lisa: “You’re kidding!”

Mercedes: “Well that makes sense.”

Lisa: “What?!”

Mercedes: “The only way I wasn’t going over is if it was just a random chance.”

Jessie: “Oh, very funny.”

Mercedes: “Come on, you know I was happy for you!”

Lisa: “Everyone was happy for you.”

Jessie: “It felt like I was dreaming when they told me. I guess it’s why I took so many crazy bumps like that, I just wanted to prove I deserved it.”

Adrienne: “It was so funny going online and looking at everyone’s reaction to it because everyone expected me and Mercedes to bump like maniacs, that’s our whole thing.”

Mercedes: “And every third tweet was just ‘What the hell is Jessie doing? Why is she doing this to herself?!’”

Lisa: “I asked the same question and I was in the damn match with you!”

Jessie: “In hindsight, maybe I didn’t need to go so crazy-”

Lisa: “Hindsight as in the next morning when you texted me that you couldn’t get out of your bed at the hotel?”

Jessie: “...Yes.”

(All four laugh)

The Dynamic Duo (“Queen Spider” April Lee and “The Hugger” Davina Rose ©) vs. BritWres Princesses (Britani Knight and Becky Knox)

QAW World’s Tag Team Championship Match

From Queen’s Landing (Saturday, June 22, 2013)

When the Queens of American Wrestling crossed the pond for their very first show in the United Kingdom, there was really no other match to main event than Britani Knight and Becky Knox fighting for the World’s Tag Team Championship. Since debuting in 2011, the pair quickly won over crowds with their infectious energy and the chemistry of sisters. After two years of working up through the tag team division, the two finally earned a championship match and were coming to England with plenty of momentum. They’d just have to overcome QAW’s new Dynamic Duo to do it. April Lee made waves in QAW practically from her debut in 2011. Though she’d spent some time on the independents, she was almost entirely a product of the QAW Dojo, lovingly referred to by those who survived it as “The Queens’ Dungeon.” Her smooth and adaptable in-ring style was complemented by her charisma and promos that quickly made her a favorite with the crowds. In only two years, April had already become a three-time Shockwave champion, having come out on top of a back-and-forth series with [redacted]. During her chase for the gold, April introduced Davina Rose to the QAW fanbase as a Dojo trainee she’d had her eye on. Davina’s bubbly personality and explosive energy in matches made her a natural pairing with April and the two quickly developed a sister-like bond of their own en route to capturing the tag titles from The New-Age Goddesses (Athena and Sasha Mercedes) three months prior to the trip to England. With April skipping across the pond as a double champion and Davina riding high right alongside her, they were coming into the championship match with plenty of momentum. Something would have to give. As the English would say, the four went hell for leather, whether their feet were on the mat or they were flying off the top rope. They fought with urgency and passion, feeding off the energy of the crowd, and showing exciting tandem offense. The crowd roared their loudest when the BritWres Princesses wrapped their enemies up in dual submissions: April Lee in the Scorpion Crosslock and Davina Rose in the Dis-Arm-Her. Victory came when Davina tapped out (though, notably, April did not) and the venue shook with cheers. Britani and Becky hugged and wept with joy while in the background, April comforted her protégé with a telling look in her eyes.

(These comments were recorded before Saraya announced her in-ring return on the last Eruption of 2022.)

Saraya-Jade Bevis (Britani Knight): “You know, we just got done watching that match back, I still don’t know how we did some of the spots we did.”

April Mendez (April Lee): “Or why. There was just… something in the air that night.”

Rebecca Quin (Becky Knox): “There was something in the water is what it was.”

(All four laugh.)

Pamela Martinez (Davina Rose): “But yeah, I’m so glad we did every crazy thing we did in that match. Like, I’d always wanted to have a tag match that was like the Guns and the Briscoes in TNA, or The Bucks and Beer Money basically everywhere. Just something that totally steals the show.”

April: “They call that a ‘banger’ these days, right? That’s what the kids say?”

Rebecca: “Oh, God, don’t say it like that. Don’t make us sound old, for God’s sake.”

Saraya-Jade: (Laughs) “I know what you mean, though, it meant so much to have that match, to have that as something to hang my hat on for my career, because it was the first time that people on the internet, with all their review blogs and everything, finally noticed the tag division.”

Rebecca: “Yes! And they’d go back and watch these older matches with all these other teams and go ‘Oh, wow, there’s this stuff we weren’t really paying attention to before, how did we not take this seriously?’”

April: “A whole damn women’s wrestling promotion and sometimes it still felt like getting the recognition we worked for was pulling teeth.”

Pamela: “Oh don’t get me started. But it also raised the bar for the tag division going forward. I had [redacted] come up to me last week and talk about how that match made them want to become wrestlers! Like, how cool is that?!”

April: “Yeah, it’s cool, but you’re making us feel old again.”

(All four laugh)

Rebecca: “Honestly, if I could go back into my 2013 body, run this whole match back, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was pretty much perfect.”

Saraya-Jade: “Not even the Backdrop Driver Pam gave you?”

Rebecca: “...Okay, one thing.”

pi

SPOILER: Click to show

😈 David Hasselhoff's Hoss Off 😈
very proudly presents a
👹 Ragin' Gaijin Puroresu 👹
production inspired by
World's Strongest Tag
Determination League
世界最強タッグ決定リーグ戦
R.I.P. Pro Wrestling's ~HOT TAG!~
BattleBout Royal Gauntlet Series
🔥💀🪦💀🔥 🆚 🔥💀🪦💀🔥

R.I.P. Pro Wrestling's HOT TAG! BattleBout Royal Gauntlet Series is a round-robin tournament for ultimate tag team glory. Teams are awarded 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss.

Because there are no disqualifications or count-outs in a BattleBout, the only way to draw is if both teams battle until expiration of the 20-minute time limit. There is no overtime.

Upon the conclusion of the HOT TAG! BattleBout Royal Gauntlet Series, the team with the most points is declared overall victor and crowned R.I.P. Pro Wrestling ~ULTIMATE TAG KINGS!~

!!!~ FINAL NIGHT ~!!!
It's TIME to DO or DIE

~HOT TAG!~
BattleBout #5
BROTHERS of
DESTRUCTION
The Undertaker
& Kane
🆚
LEGION
of DOOM
Hawk &
Animal
🔥💀🪦💀🔥
X×x×x×x×x×X

~HOT TAG!~
BattleBout #4
STEINER Bros.
Rick & Scott
🆚
CAN-AM
EXPRESS
Phil Lafon &
Doug Furnas
🔥💀🪦💀🔥
X×x×x×x×x×X

~HOT TAG!~
BattleBout #3
BULLISH &
BULLSHIT
Bully Ray &
John Layfield
🆚
DENOMINATION
of DOMINATION
Reverend D-Von
& Ron Simmons
🔥💀🪦💀🔥
X×x×x×x×x×X

~HOT TAG!~
BattleBout #2
FIRE & ICE
Scott Norton
& Ice Train
🆚
FREEZE
or BURN
Mark Henry &
Gary Albright
🔥💀🪦💀🔥
X×x×x×x×x×X

~HOT TAG!~
BattleBout #1
MIRACLE of
VIOLENCE
Steve Williams
& Terry Gordy
🆚
DEAD MEN
WALKING
Elias &
Boogs
🔥💀🪦💀🔥
X×x×x×x×x×X

Tag Team (Partners)	Cumulative Point Total
Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker & Kane)	15
Legion of Doom (Hawk & Animal)	15
Miracle of Violence (Williams & Gordy)	15
Can-Am Express (Lafon & Furnas)	6
Fire & Ice (Norton & Ice Train)	6
Freeze or Burn (Henry & Albright)	6
Steiners (Rick & Scott)	6
Bullish & Bullshit (JBL & Bully Ray)	4
Dead Men Walking (Elias & Boogs)	4
Denom. of Domination (Ron & D-Von)	4

News & Notes:

Heading into the final night of this year's HOT TAG! BattleBout Royal Gauntlet Series, the 10 teams competing to become the Ultimate Tag Kings of R.I.P. Pro Wrestling find themselves in an unprecedented predicament as unlikely as it is unbelievable.

Standings at the moment comprise concurrent ties for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place. The final night has been dubbed "It's Time to Do or Die" because results of these final high-stakes BattleBouts will not only separate winners and losers but also conclusively determine an overall victor.

There is currently a 3-way tie for 1st place with 15 points apiece for the Legion of Doom (a.k.a. Road Warriors), Brothers of Destruction, and last year's overall victor Miracle of Violence (f.k.a. Miracle Violence Connection)— all of whom are undefeated up to this point in the series.

Miracle of Violence (MOV) are the odds-on favorite to claim overall victory and thereby make history by becoming the first-ever back-to-back Ultimate Tag Kings, as they're slated to face the comparatively unseasoned Dead Men Walking (DMW) on the final night. Consensus is that the MOV/DMW BattleBout will be a squash and nothing more than a formality before MOV are inevitably crowned as two-time kings.

The Legion of Doom (LOD) and Brothers of Destruction (BOD), meanwhile, are fated to meet in a titanic collision of unstoppable forces and immovable objects on the final night. Both teams have defeated every other team in their path... except for MOV, whom they both battled to time-limit draws. Speculation is that the epic LOD/BOD BattleBout will go until the time limit expires, especially given how equally matched both teams are. If this occurs, LOD & BOD will finish deadlocked for 2nd place and MOV will claim the crown (after presumably defeating DMW).

If the LOD/BOD BattleBout doesn't end in a time-limit draw, there will be an impromptu wrestle-off pitting the winners against MOV (again presuming MOV defeats DMW) at the end of the evening to determine the true kings of R.I.P. Pro Wrestling's tag scene.

The current tie for 2nd place will ultimately be a four-way free-for-all for 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th place between the Steiner Brothers, Can-Am Express, Fire & Ice and new team Freeze or Burn. They all head into the final night with 6 points and chips on their shoulders.

The Steiners & Can-Am Express (CAX) are set to wrestle in their first-ever meeting. Similar to the LOD/BOD BattleBout, Steiners/CAX will be another dream match finally come true. Both teams represent the perfect fusion of power, technical prowess, and surprising high-flying. Both teams have scored wins over DMW and Bullish & Bullshit (B&B). The Steiners scored a win against their former WCW rivals Fire & Ice (F&I), but then they later lost to Freeze or Burn (FOB). CAX, meanwhile, defeated FOB but lost to F&I.

FOB formed in response to the hype over F&I as the next big thing on the tag scene. Mark Henry argues he was a hotter rookie prospect than Ice Train ever was, and Gary Albright argues he was a bigger attraction in Japan than Scott Norton ever was. The World's Strongest Man & Master of the Suplex bonded over the massive chips on their even more massive shoulders, and they gelled instantly as a team created almost exclusively as a counterpoint to F&I.

Meanwhile, F&I have mostly refused to engage. Instead of trading verbal barbs in promos, F&I have done their "talking" through their actions in the ring. They share wins with FOB over the Denomination of Domination (DOD) and DMW. FOB scored an arguable upset over the Steiners whereas F&I's victory over CAX was much more closely contested. Depending on the winners of the FOB/F&I and Steiners/CAX BattleBouts, the tiebreakers will hinge on the specifics of who has already defeated whom prior to the final night.

Last but not least is the 3-way tie currently for 3rd place —but ultimately for 8th, 9th & 10th— between three new teams with 4 points each: Denomination of Domination (DOD), Bullish & Bullshit (B&B), and Dead Men Walking (DMW).

DMW formed out of a shared love of the six-string, slick licks, and sicker riffs. They toyed with going by "Heavy Metal Shredders" or the "aXe-Men" as nods to their love of guitars and comic book pop culture before settling on the "Dead Men Walking" name because Elias was technically a dead man and Boogs recovered from a nasty quadriceps injury to walk again. DMW is strictly out to play spoiler on the final night because they're tired of being viewed as just a musical joke act and squash fodder for MOV.

Meanwhile, DOD and B&B, who are set to battle on the final night, comprise the remnants of the legendary Dudley Boyz and APA tag teams. The Dudleyz and APA both dissolved in advance of this year's HOT TAG! BattleBout Royal Gauntlet Series due to irreconcilable differences in their political beliefs and attitudes toward systemic racism. Bully Ray quickly repartnered with JBL as "Bullish & Bullshit", a nod to JBL's investing success and Ray's podcast hosting. Critics of JBL & Ray have alternatively been referring to them as "The Bullies".

D-Von reverted to reverend after turning to God for guidance in such dark times. The Reverend then persuaded "Pastor" Ron Simmons to join him as founding fathers of the "Denomination of Domination", a congregation of a tag team devised to display the power of black men in America when backed by the OG G-O-D.

Unfortunately, despite their combined individual experience successfully tagging as the Dudleyz and APA, B&B and DOD haven't clicked as well. With frustrations mounting after each loss up to this point in the series, both teams are on their last legs heading into the final night. Both teams have made separate but similar ""do or die"" decrees: if they lose against their former partners, then their new teams will disband. So will it be B&B or DOD splitting up after the dust settles on the final night? Or... What will happen if B&B and DOD battle each other to a time-limit draw? Tune in to find out!

🤯 is a real SOB. Between you and @ness stealing my ideas...... kind of. Though I do love your writing style and always will because it generally puts a smile on my face. The actual matches themselves seem to be lacking something but as you will see - that's going to happen in a tag series/tournament. That main event would be sick though. I would love to see LOD go up against a team of equally protected badasses and hosses and just let them beat the shit out of each other. Really not sure I get drafting the APA and Dudleys and splitting them apart to face each other. I get it's a match thats happened a ton but that was a weird move. Maybe I like it.

KITN had some fun write ups and matches. I feel like he's saving quite a bit for later on and I hate changing the names of the wrestlers. It bugs me a lot. I really don't think there are many matches I would completely skip aside from anything with Nattie. Really solid from top to bottom.

Almost another one I want to stew on as it's incredibly close and I like them both. Might throw KITN the vote in a tiebreaker for other reasons and it will be interesting to see where he goes with it in the future. Though the names thing might cost him in a different battle.

I like both concepts in theory, neither super much in execution. I ultimately voted for KITN as I felt he had more matches I wanted to watch. Five match card is also a hard sell for me.

Having the Dudley Boyz on your roster and not teaming them together in a tag team tournament is certainly a choice.

🤯

Despite not being a massive fan of tag team wrestling in general, I really like the card. The top three matches are all very exciting. I even like, maybe even love, the idea of splitting up the Dudley Boyz. D-Von and partner against Bubba Ray and partner is a lot more intriguing to me than a Dudley Boyz match. They may be the most decorated tag team in the universe, but let's be honest, they kinda suck outside of gimmick matches. Plus he's chosen great partners for Bubba and D-Von. His only error is wasting the mighty Miracle Violence Connection against the jobber team. MVC against Fire & Ice would have been the optimal card. That said, I'd still show up early to watch MVC destroy the underdogs, so maybe not such a bad call after all. But I'd definitely be visiting the bathroom during the second match.

Favourite match: Steiner Brothers vs Can-Am Express. Don't know if these teams ever did wrestle, but if they did, I need to check it out. Both teams in their primes could easily produce the greatest tag team match ever.

Onto the presentation/concept. I'll get the single negative out of the way and say that I don't get the David Hasselhoff thing. Maybe it's a joke that went over my head. Fortunately, the positives are many. Reference to the World's Strongest Tag
Determination League is a lovely treat, plus the round robin points system that he has so thoroughly described and booked tremendously. Formatting and emoji use are great. Background notes, also great. He's barely put a foot wrong.

I'm also giving points for courage and imagination, so I must once more acknowledge the ballsy decision to split up the Dudleyz, which I'm sure he knew would be unpopular. Further credit sticking to his guns by picking some personal favourites in Elias and Boogs and giving them something compelling to do.

------------------------

KITN

A very solid card from top to bottom. Unlike PI's card there's nothing that really grabs me like Steiners vs Can-Ams or Brothers of Destruction vs Legion of Doom, on the other hand there isn't a single bad match and I'd want to watch every match in this multi-box collection. Even if I don't enjoy them all, I'd want to check them all out: there's a lot of variety, a lot of different eras and styles for women's wrestling. Also the collection format gives good reason to book a bunch of gimmick matches.

Favourite match: Like I said, there's no standout, but I'd probably pick Trish vs Joanie, with the way he's booked that match, it sounds pretty awesome.

The presentation and concept is absolutely brilliant, one of the best I've ever seen. Great alternate universe - check. Coming up with a plausible way to present wrestlers from different eras on the same card - check. Well-researched - check. Post-match shoot interviews - brilliant. Use of images - not spectacular but it does look professional and a lot better than mine. To sum it up, I enjoyed every word and really admire this extremely well-thought out concept.

What about the courage? Like PI, KITN made a controversial decision, changing the established name of a large chunk of the roster. However I see the logic behind it, and note that only former WWE wrestlers have had their name changed - part of this wonderful universe he's created. Besides that there's nothing particularly courageous - booking an all women's roster is different and creative but with so many great female wrestlers these days it doesn't earn any bravery points. And that's fine.

I've heaped universal praise on this card, but I'm going have to point out one "drawback", and that's presenting the outcome of the matches, I feel this gives an unfair advantage as, in my eyes, the expectation is that we present the cards only, as if we're advertising a show that hasn't happened yet. That's certainly what was in my head anyway.

However, KITN's entry is so incredible that even despite that he comfortably earns my vote. That's nothing against 🤯 who wrote a fantastic entry himself, he just happened to be up against perfection.

Tough one here. Ultimately went with 🤯 because his card is just more up my alley. PI cards usually are.

That's not a slight on KITN. The "Best Of" dvd approach and retrospective shoot interviews were the sort of clever, outside the box thinking I'm always going to appreciate. Great stuff. Chyna/Trish is my favorite match on the card. The ideal inaugural main event given the concept. Yeah, the name changes were a little annoying, but even that worked for me in a roundabout way simply because now I feel better about inventing brand new nicknames for a few wrestlers on my card  :lol:  Also popped for the WOW mention. I'd have voted for KITN over a bunch of the other cards I read today without a second thought.

Unfortunately he was up against PI. At first glance I was disappointed by PI going with a simple tag team round robin concept. I've come to expect more from the PIman. But he quickly won me back with the one-two punch of BoD/LOD and especially Steiners/Can Ams. Breaking up the Dudleys & Acolytes was weird, but it does lead to a fresh matchup, and even the alt versions of those teams work for me. Also like what he did with Albright/Henry as the bizarro world Fire & Ice. Opener has squash written all over it.

Alright, in my defense for the name-changing, in my own experience there's nothing more annoying than when someone does a fanfic where they create a new company and they DON'T change people's names, like if Bayley debuted in AEW as Bayley on Wednesday, there's no universe where she and TK don't get slapped with some sort of lawsuit. So for women like Molly Holly, Trish,and Chyna, it makes sense that their names would be changed from a legal standpoint, and with the other women on the roster, names like Sasha Banks and Paige were made BY WWE, or at least influenced by them. So in a reality where these women don't work for WWE and don't interact with the same creative staff, it would stretch credulity for me for them to still have the wrestling names they had in real life. Plus, changing up the names and personas a little allows them to feel more unique and lived-in, like it is a defined universe and not just smashing a bunch of action figures together. The only reason I didn't change Mickie James to Alexis Laree is because, well, Mickie James is her shoot name, anyway. 

That's just my two cents, I don't expect everyone to like it, but t'is what t'is.

May 11, 2022 1:55:25 GMT jTjohncenaGOAT said:

Holzhammer used that argument against me when I wrote aPw. He also told me how silly it was for Shawn Michaels to join aPw because of how much of a WWE guy he was. I’m like.. dude, it’s fan fiction. Treat it like Disney’s Frozen and let it go. The rest of his arguments were pretty sound though.

I guess that’s why I never spent too much time/energy on realistic backstories. It’s just “Oh these folx I think are cool are gonna pro wrestle each other”. I also never worried about name changing because I figured it was already asking you a lot to take the time to read my silly shit without having a cipher to figure out who the heck I’m writing about. Not a knock on you for doing it KITN that was just always my justification for NOT doing it.

Yes, it is Fan Fiction, and you don't have to put in that kind of effort and forethought (I certainly didn't). As far as I'm concerned, if you do put in the effort and create a compelling and watertight universe, that puts you ahead of the competition.

Surprisingly strong effort from @kitn here this would be a pretty big upset for him to take down pi right? I would have to give him my vote I like the non linear approach and seems like a rich well thought out universe he’s gone all in on.

 



RT from the undrafted, I'm taking Awesome Kong and ODB. 

How bout dat table Emperor?

I don't know about the Table but when I was writing my card I realised I missed a chance to pick Awesome Kong. My roster would have been that much sweeter with Awesome Kong in Bull Nakano's place, just because she's more well known, but not a huge deal. Use her well, KITN.

I will say this, if 🤯 was going against anyone other than myself, I would have voted for him. Creative concept, unique layout, and I absolutely respect the balls to draft The Dudleys and the APA and then split them up.