Day one's results were as follows:
Match One:The team of Rollin' 2 Deep, Cadillac Calli$$ and Wildcard, defeated the team of Twist and his surprise partner, Blitzkreig 2 (Who was that masked man? He reminded me of someone I have seen in a Pinnacle ring before, but can't place my finger on it.) ...
Match Two:Disco Fury and "the Canadian Superstar" Seth Knight defeated Alastor Dagon and Draven Vargas, to advance in to round two...
Before match three, Dave "the Reason" Hollenbeck came out to address the crowd, and inform his fans that due to his ankle still being injured, he wouldn't be participating in the tourney. Therefore, Nelson Creed was to replace him as Davey Richards partner. Hollenbeck was then cut off by Skag Rollins, who didn't have a partner for his match vs. the Stampede Bulldogs. He went on about how he was the "Reason" the fans really came to the show, and talked Hollenbeck into being his partner for the fans sake. More on that after...
Match Three: The team of T.J. Wilson and Harry "Bulldog" Smith (the indy superstar, and son of the late, great British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith), better known as the Stampede Bulldogs defeated Skag Rollins and Dave "the Reason" Hollenbeck after Hollenbeck passed out due to the pain from his already injured ankle. Therefore the Bulldogs advanced to the next round...
After the match, Skag's true colors came through, and he attacked Dave Hollenbeck while he was down and hurt. It Turns out that Skag wasn't interested in the grApple Cup at all. He just used the fans to sucker their Pinnacle champ in and injure him further before their title match in December.
Match Four: CAden Matthews and Aaron Bolo defeated the deam of G-Shock and Dash Venture
Match Five: "The Ideal Reflection" Christopher Ryseck and "Gentleman" George Michael defeated Lt. Freedom and northest favorite, Little Nasty Boy to advance in the tourney...
Match Six: Davey Richards and Nelson Creed defeated Hoss Tull and Nick Scully to advance.
Match Seven: Laramie Lexow and his mystery partner defeated the Suicide Kings to advance, and conclude the first round... By the way , Lexow's mystery partner, was none other than , international star,and former AWA-Pinnacle champion Jack Evans (whom by the way, just returned from wrestling on a tour of Italy)...
There was some travel problems with some wrestlers who were supposed to be on the show, so there was an empty slot on the brackets for round two, so there was a battle royal featuring all the teams who lost their first round matches. The Suicide Kings made short work of the rest of the teams in the battle royal , and it looked as though they were gonna get the open spot in the bracket, until....Diafullah the Butcher made his return and eliminated Chris Del Sol, of the Suicide Kings...Therefore the last eam in round two: Matt Farmer and Diafullah the Butcher...
Day two of the grApple Cup kicked off with Rollin 2 Deep defeating Caden Matthews and Aaron Bolo. I must mention that they didn't get the win on their own though. Christopher Ryseck came out and distracted Caden, and a brawl between the two ensued, leaving Bolo on his own, to lose the match to R2D...This looks to be the beginning of a hell of a fued between Caden and Ryseck...
The rest of round two is as follows...
Davey Richards and Nelson Creed defeated the Disco Knights (Disco Fury and Seth Knight)...The Stampede Bulldogs defeated Christiopher Ryseck and George Michael...Laramie Lexow and Jack Evans defeated the Odd tag team of "Suicide King" Matt Farmer and Diafullah the Butcher...
In the semi-finals:
Rollin 2 Deep defeated Davey Richards and Nelson Creed, but not without the help of the Disco Knights and a chairshot...In the other semi-final match, The Stampede Bulldogs, who were winning over the fans more after each round, defeated Lexow and Evans...
The Bulldogs went on the pretty much dominate Rollin 2 Deep in the finals to become the first ever grApple Cup tournament champions. I was highly impressed by the team of Harry Smith and TJ Wilson. I hadn't the opportunity to see them wrestle yet, let alone see them wrestle in person, but had see their great credentials as international stars, and connections to the great Hart family (Harry is the son of the late Davey Boy Smith, a Hart family in-law, as I mentioned earlier). In their first round match they didn't get much crowd reaction, but eventually by the last round they were fan favorites at the Havoc Haven, which is usually a tough crowd.
This was another great show put on by Cecil, the promoter of AWA-Pinnacle. I wish Pinnacle the best of luck in the future and hope to see the grApple Cup get bigger and better every year. With line-ups like in this years tourney, there is no reason the grApple Cup shouldn't grow into one of the premier events in independant wrestling , and pro wrestling in general. For all the wrestling fans reading this in the northwest, you better make it a point to get out to the Pinnacle shows before it becomes too hot of a ticket and starts selling out every show. Keep on checking back with us in our event listings, and over at the Pinnacle site to get updates on their future events...Until next time, KEEP SUPPORTING INDY WRESTLING!!!
