|
Post by EWA.com on Aug 3, 2018 8:20:49 GMT
The History of SUPERBRAWL has stood as the pinnacle of EWA's stages since the company's inception in 2001. No matter how much has changed in professional wrestling, the wrestlers, the styles, the matches, the very rules themselves, SuperBrawl has remained the same since the original event in November 2001. Countless classics have taken place on these historic nights. There was the Money in the Bank match at SuperBrawl V won by eventual Triple Crown Champion Goldust. There was the epic encounter between Hall of Famers Harry Smith and Randy Orton at SuperBrawl 7, which many still consider one of the greatest matches of all time. And then, there's the Main Event. A few variations have been made from year to year, but they always end up going right back to the original formula. Some SuperBrawls have 4 men per team, some have had 5, one event had a steel cage surrounding the ring, three had 5 teams, but they are all played by the same rules. Several men enter, and only one team walks out victorious. Let's have a look back at our past SuperBrawl Champions: YEAR | DETAILS
|
---|
2001 | TEAM Y2J Chris Jericho, The Rock, Faarooq & Bradshaw
| 2002 | TEAM Y2J Chris Jericho (2), Big Show, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall
| 2003 | TEAM AFFLICTION Steve Austin, Randy Orton, Undertaker & Kane
| 2004 | TEAM RKO Randy Orton (2), Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett, Charlie Haas & Mark Jindrak
| 2005 | TEAM HORSEMEN Triple H, Chris Benoit, Muhammad Hassan & Sonjay Dutt
| 2006 | TEAM CABINET John Bradshaw Layfield (2), René Duprée, Sylvan Grenier & Christian Cage
| 2007 | TEAM STORM Lance Storm, William Regal, Alex Shelley, Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer
| 2008 | TEAM JACOBS Jimmy Jacobs, Chris Jericho (3) & Lance Storm (2)
| 2009 | TEAM LEGEND Harry Smith, Bryan Danielson, Randy Orton (3) & Steve Austin (2)
| 2010 | TEAM ZAIBATSU Masato Tanaka, The Brian Kendrick, Evan Bourne, AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels
| 2011 | TEAM GENESIS René Duprée (2), Matt Hardy, Goldust & Shane Helms
| 2012 | TEAM VEGAS CONNECTION Val Venis, Cody Rhodes, Diamond Dallas Page & Kevin Nash (2)
| 2013 | TEAM CORINO Steve Corino, Al Snow, Kurt Angle & Richie Steamboat
| 2014 | TEAM EXILE Richard Blood (2), Teddy Hart, Eddie Kingston & Al Snow (2)
| 2015 | TEAM RATED-R Edge, Brad Maddox, Kane (2) & Pentagon Jr.
| 2016 | TEAM DEMISE Samuel Shaw, Brock Lesnar, Damien Sandow & Santino Marella
| 2017 | TEAM GALLAGHER Jack Gallagher, Brent Albright, Finn Bálor, David Flair & Carmella | 2018 | TEAM SHAMROCK Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Braun Strowman & Santino Marella (2) | 2019 | FREE-FOR-ALL MJF, Harper, Jack Gallagher (2), Braun Strowman (2), Honky Tonk Man & Santino Marella (3) | 2020 | TEAM MONARCH Jeremy Wyatt, Bray Wyatt, One-Eye Lorcan & Kazuchika Okada | 2021 | TEAM JERICHO Chris Jericho (4), Shannon Moore & Jimmy Havoc | 2022 | TEAM FLAIR Charlotte Flair, Sefa Fatu, Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso | 2023 | TEAM RHODES Cody Rhodes (2), Heath Slater, Colby Corino & Jeff Jarrett (2) |
SUPERBRAWL TRIVIA- 15 men have won multiple SuperBrawl matches: Chris Jericho, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Randy Orton, Steve Austin, Lance Storm, René Duprée, Kevin Nash, Al Snow, Richard Blood, Kane, Santino Marella, Braun Strowman, Jack Gallagher, Cody Rhodes and Jeff Jarrett. Among them, Chris Jericho has won the most overall with four SuperBrawl victories, while also being Captain on three of those occasions.
- For many years, Randy Orton was the only man to enter SuperBrawl as World Champion and leave with his title intact, but that all changed at SuperBrawl XVI when Samuel Shaw finally broke the "Champion's Curse" to do the same! In 2021, Chris Jericho added himself to that list as well after leading his team to the win, and most recently in 2023, Cody Rhodes also managed to do the same!
- Likewise, only a handful of teams have successfully defended the Tag Team Championships in the SuperBrawl Match, those being the APA of Farooq and Bradshaw, the Vegas Connection of DDP and Kevin Nash, and the duo of Santino Marella and Damien Sandow! That is, until Santino Marella managed to defend them a second time with new partner Braun Strowman as part of SuperBrawl XVIII! It's worth noting that The Honky Tonk Man also managed to defend his half of the titles during the Free-For-All at SuperBrawl XIX, yet his partner wasn't quite so lucky!
- Since it's introduction in 2009, five men have managed to successfully defend the National Title at SuperBrawl, those being The Brian Kendrick, Teddy Hart, Eddie Kingston, Shannon Moore and Powerhouse Hobbs!
- Chris Jericho has made the most SuperBrawl appearances, having competed in 10 of the 23 events, as well as making the most appearances as Captain (4)!
- Only 3 SuperBrawl events did not have the Tag Team Championship up for grabs: 2006, 2008 and 2013!
- The World Heavyweight/Triple Crown/Grand Slam Championship is the only belt to have been on the line at every SuperBrawl event. (Although technically, the International Championship has been at stake at every event as well, since being unified into the Triple Crown title in 2005.) At SuperBrawl XVIII however, history was made when the gold was also defended just over an hour before the main event when Brock Lesnar retained against Ken Shamrock in a brutal Lion's Den Match!
- From 2006 to 2008, SuperBrawl featured one member of the winning team who did not win a championship. Instead, they were named #1 contender for the Triple Crown Championship.
- For many years, SuperBrawl VI was the smallest in history with only 13 participants after Team B-KO with Chris Benoit and Randy Orton lost two of their teammates prior to the event. However, SuperBrawl XXI and SuperBrawl XXIII would eventually break that record with just 12 participants each!
- The largest SuperBrawl matches have consisted of 20 men, which has been done nine times. 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2010 featured 4 teams of 5 men, while 2005, 2011, 2020 and 2022 all featured 5 teams of 4 participants. The 2019 event was a beast completely unto itself, however, in that it scrapped the team concept altogether, becoming a Free-For-All Match were titles were up for grabs on an individual basis, as well as special spot-prizes!
- SuperBrawl VIII was unique in the fact that the winning team did not win all the championships, which had been customary up to that point. Captain Jimmy Jacobs of the winning team was the only one who won a title, the Triple Crown Championship. Similarly, SuperBrawl XX saw NO member of the victorious Team Monarch walk out with a championship due to the distinct rules of the match, with each team member instead earning future title opportunities to be decided by their Captain, Jeremy Wyatt!
- SuperBrawl X celebrated ten years of SuperBrawl craziness by going old school, War Games style! That meant two rings were set up side by side and a specially constructed steel cage complete with roof came down over the top of them, trapping all of the participants inside albeit for one door for people to enter/exit, leading to one of the most exciting SuperBrawl's in EWA history!
- SuperBrawl XIII showed how important the use of an Alternate can be when Team Corino swapped Richie Steamboat in place of CM Punk and won the event, becoming the first team to win SuperBrawl with that last minute change! The only other time that's happened came at SuperBrawl XVII, when Brent Albright took the place of Drew McIntyre, despite not technically being an Alternate to begin with!
- History was made at SuperBrawl XVII when, for the first time ever, the Women's Championship was on the line in the match, as well as the World, National and Tag Team Titles! In a surprise twist though, defending champion Reby Sky was subbed out at the last minute for Nia Jax, meaning she lost the gold without even taking part in the SuperBrawl Match!
- Charlotte Flair would have better luck in 2022 though, with The Opportunity not just walking into the match as the defending Women's Champion, but also the first ever female Team Captain! It was history in the making in multiple ways as Flair would also go on to lead her team to victory, retaining her gold while also earning The Usos the Tag Titles and Sefa Fatu the World Heavyweight Championship! And when Sefa was eliminated from the match without scoring any eliminations himself, The Problem also made history of a different kind by becoming the first ever World Champion in EWA history to win the biggest prize in the game without pinning or submitting anyone to do so!
- SuperBrawl celebrated a historic 20 year milestone in 2020, and as part of that, the rules of the match were tweaked in two major ways! The first saw participants entering in five minute intervals rather than whenever an elimination occurred, meaning that they could be tagged into the match to replace their teammates! On top of that though, an element was borrowed from the previous year's Free-For-All Match where each championship had to be individually defended within the match, even including both halves of the EWA Tag Team Titles! That presented a unique situation where Kevin Owens and Al Snow pinned Jungle Boy and Shawn Spears respectively to become Tag Team Champions, DDP eliminated "Hangman" Adam Page to win the Television Championship, Eddie Kingston defeated Okada to retain the National Title, and Jamie Noble became a two-time World Champion when he pinned Buff Bagwell!
|
|
|
Post by EWA.com on Aug 3, 2018 8:29:58 GMT
KING OF THE RING WINNERS YEAR | SUPERSTAR | DETAILS
|
---|
2002
| SHANE HELMS | The first man to ever win the King of the Ring tournament, Shane Helms set the standard that others would have to follow when he pinned Rhyno in an exciting final, utilizing his unique mix of speed and agility to take down the Man Beast and put his name in the history books! It was a win that made the future Hall of Famer a bona fide superstar in the eyes of the fans and his peers alike, and within a year, Shane would go on to capture the EWA World Heavyweight Championship and continue being an integral part of the EWA's formulative years! | 2003 | RANDY ORTON | Randy Orton's list of accomplishments during his EWA career is as impressive as anybodies, if not more so...but some say it was winning the King of the Ring in 2003 that helped launch the Legend Killer into the pro wrestling stratosphere! Using his cunning and wiles to defeat Sean O'Haire in the finals, Orton would go on to have reigns as both EWA World Champion and Triple Crown Champion, not to mention one of the most intense rivalries in the history of the promotion between himself and Harry Smith! | 2004 | STEVIE RICHARDS | Only three men in history have ever managed to reach two King of the Ring finals, but the first to do so is the deranged and devious psychotic sociopath, Stevie Richards! Stevie might not have been the popular choice when he beat Charlie Haas in an epic battle for the crown, but that was something he was very much used too, especially when he went on to capture the World Championship from fellow former King Randy Orton in the months after his King of the Ring victory! | 2005 | HARRY SMITH | It was a final contested between two of the EWA's youngest and most promising superstars as Harry Smith battled René Duprée for the 2005 King of the Ring, but in the end, it was Harry Smith who emerged victorious! Harry would go on to become the first man to hold the unified World, International and Euro-American titles, now and forever known as the Triple Crown Championship, but it was his victory over René Duprée that started the young powerhouse on his road to legendary status! | 2006 | CHRIS BENOIT | Don't be fooled, folks. Chris Benoit may have been the first King of the Ring winner not to go on and capture the World or Triple Crown Title, but that doesn't mean he didn't come damn close! Indeed, some say 2006 was the summer of Benoit, with his highly praised feud with Batista taking the EWA to the next level and adding even more prestige to the Triple Crown Championship following his victory over JBL to capture the King of the Ring crown! This is the Chris Benoit we'll always remember! | 2007 | ANDREW MARTIN | Having only been a part of the EWA roster for a handful of weeks prior to the 2007 tournament, Andrew Martin surprised many when he came from out of no-where to dominate the competition and join the elite group of King of the Ring winners! To do so, Martin did whatever he had to do to defeat Stevie Richards in his second final appearance, giving Martin the momentum to go on and defeat Mr. Kennedy for the Triple Crown Title the following month and put his name in the history books! | 2008 | JIMMY JACOBS | Turning on Hulk Hogan and forming the insidious Age of the Fall, Jimmy Jacobs rode a rollercoaster of momentum to work his way through a special Round Robin version of the tournament, finally overcoming the Necro Butcher in one of the most extremely physical finals in EWA history to capture the crown! And following his success, Jimmy would then go on to captain the winning team at Super Brawl VIII, taking the Triple Crown Title and proving that it's not the fight in the dog that matters...it's how stone cold crazy he is! | 2009 | SHANE DOUGLAS | The Franchise was at his lowest ebb...he'd run up a long losing streak and was even on the verge of quitting the EWA and pro wrestling altogether. That is, until Paul Heyman got in his former employee's ear, building up a new sense of belief that had been shattered in the months prior, seeing Douglas emerge victorious in three brutal matches all in one night, finally beating Chris Hero and Steve Blackman to take the 2009 King of the Ring and getting back into the groove! | 2010 | THE ROCK | It was the joint biggest King of the Ring tournament in EWA history. 24 men started but in the end, only one man could walk out with the crown...and that man was The Rock! Winning a Fatal Fourway, then defeating Chris Jericho, he made it to the final against Adam Bomb and The Miz, in a match that took it's toll on all three competitors...but ultimately, The Rock took the crown! | 2011 | RENÉ DUPRÉE | Duprée returned to the EWA in 2011 drug-addled and a danger to himself and his fellow wrestlers. However, in triumphant fashion, René would clean up his act and get sober before going on a tear in the 2011 King of the Ring tournament, culminating in an epic Elimination Chamber final over Mosh, DDP, Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan and Paulton Burchill to become the first man to win both the KoTR AND the Triple Crown Title in one night! | 2012 | KURT ANGLE | Reverting back to a classic bracket format, Kurt Angle overcame AJ Styles, Crimson, Nicholas Magnus, and Mike Sanders en route to claiming the EWA throne. His demands that people take notice of the Scourge might have been met, but more importantly for Angle, it solidified the fact that he's the outright leader of the group, not to be outshone by his stablemates Regal and Mosh, who also happened to be former Triple Crown Champions. | 2013 | CODY RHODES | 2013 saw a classic 8-man tournament spread over several weeks that resulted in Cody Rhodes defeating Brent Albright and then Kevin Steen, before finally toppling Tomko at the King of the Ring pay per view itself to secure the coveted crown! Due to injuries and other distractions, Cody would have to wait nearly a year before taking his due singles shot at the EWA World Championship, just coming up short in an incredible battle with Diamond Dallas Page! | 2014 | SHELTON BENJAMIN | GM Harry Smith put together a King of the Ring with a difference in 2014, comprising of young stars looking to make an impact on the EWA landscape and only one established veteran in Mr Anderson. In the end, Shelton Benjamin went through Tyson Kidd, Mankind and heated rival Garett Bischoff to take the crown, completing the transformation from a poor kid who couldn't buy a win at the start of the year into a genuine EWA superstar by the end of 2014! | 2015 | EDGE | For years, Edge had barely competed, relegated to the role of Kevin Steen's running buddy. However, when his former partner returned to the EWA in mid-2015 after a year's absence, Edge followed suit, the two violently clashing in the tournament as Edge secured the victory and proved himself the better man! The Rated R Superstar would then go on to meet Pentagon Jr in the finals, defeating the masked man to complete this dream comeback! | 2016 | FINN BÁLOR | After winning the 2016 Lethal Lottery, Finn Bálor had his work cut out if was going to win King of the Ring as well! Despite the odds being against him, Bálor defeated Adam Cole and Marty Jannetty to move onto the final, where he'd find himself against Matt Hardy! The two had met in in-ring competition a month prior and history repeated itself here as The Demon King became the first man to win Lethal Lottery and King of the Ring in the same year! This was also the start of the new tradition for the King to get the first World Title shot of the new year and the last before a new King is crowned! | 2017 | AL SNOW | Who'd have thunk it? After over a decade in the EWA and numerous championships, Al Snow finally hit the big time in 2017 by defeating Matt Hardy, Jack Gallagher and Yoshihiro Tajiri all in one night to become King of the Ring and earn the first shot at the World Heavyweight Title of 2018! All hail King Snow! | 2018 | PCO | The 2018 King of the Ring tournament was one of the most competitive in EWA history, coming down to Fit Finlay vs Gabriel on one side of the bracket and Ricochet vs "The French-Canadian Frankenstein" on the other. Thanks to the guidance of Father James Mitchell, it would be PCO who overcame Ricochet and then Gabriel to walk out with the crown and a guaranteed shot at the World Championship! | 2019 | THE REAPER | After falling short in last year's final, the man known as Gabriel sold his soul to The Horde and became The Reaper. As such, the 2019 almost became a mission of redemption for the former National Champion, as he breezed past Jon Moxley, then had a tougher test against Tommaso Ciampa, before having to be at his absolute best to defeat Tom Lawlor to make it to the finals for the second year running. This time there was no mistake however, as The Reaper defeated MJF to secure his place in EWA history! | 2020 | SANTOS ESCOBAR | Outside of his native Mexico, Santos Escobar was a virtual unknown when he arrived in the EWA in late 2020, but wins over Danhausen, Bray Wyatt, Marc Mero and Santino Marella quickly changed that! And upon being crowned the 19th King of the Ring, the self-styled "Emperor of Lucha Libre" has already taken a major step in proving the superiority of that style of wrestling to American audiences, while also earning a SuperBrawl Captain's spot and the first one-on-one title match of 2021 as well! | 2021 | SANTINO MARELLA | It's been a long time coming but The Italian Stallion finally achieved his goal of being crowned King of the Ring, the 20th in EWA history! Santino's journey to the throne was far from easy, yet he somehow found a way to beat THE Brian Kendrick as well as two undefeated superstars in Vladimir Kozlov and then Dak Draper to put his name in the record books once again, making him the first superstar in EWA history to win King of the Ring, Civil War, Lethal Lottery and SuperBrawl! | 2022 | SEFA FATU | The King of the Ring has often been a launchpad for superstars in their rookie year, and in 2022, the tournament has now launched Sefa Fatu into the wrestling stratosphere! With a first round win over Dragon Lee, the self-styled "Problem" then defeated Matt Cardona and social media sensation Logan Paul in the same night to walk away with the crown! And sure enough, he'd use that momentum to claim SuperBrawl victory the following month, along with the World Championship! | 2023 | ROMAN REIGNS | For nearly 20 years, no man has ever managed to win Civil War and King of the Ring in the same calendar year, but 2023 would see Roman Reigns smash his way into the record books! First The Hound of Justice defeated Bo Dallas, then Eddie Kingston, before finally toppling the second generation superstar Colby Corino in a blood-soaked final, proving once again why the Anoa'i dynasty is a cut above the rest! | 2024 | COLBY CORINO | For the second year running, Colby Corino fought his way to the King of the Ring finals, beating Wes Lee and Jeff Hardy on the way to a match against Dante Chen. And this time around, The Last Bastion of Professional Wrestling was able to get the job done and achieve an accolade even his legendary father was never able to win, albeit under controversial circumstances thanks to the interference of Von Wagner, still raging over being handed his first pinfall loss by Chen earlier in the evening! Still, take nothing away from Colby, who takes one step closer to cementing his own EWA legacy! |
QUEEN OF THE RING WINNERS YEAR | SUPERSTAR | DETAILS
|
---|
2018
| CARMELLA | The first ever Queen of the Ring tournament started in late 2017, but when women were invited to partake in SuperBrawl for the first time, the finals postponed indefinitely. Carmella and Rosemary would finally have their match on SLAM! in April 2018, only for it to be thrown out when Rosemary blinded Carmella with yellow mist! However, the Princess of Staten Island would return from her injuries to face Rosemary in a Blindfold match at Civil War to not only win the crown but retain her Women's Championship at the same time! | 2020 | ALIYAH | After three years, the Queen of the Ring returned in early 2021 with a stacked line-up! 16 talented women competed for the coveted crown, with even reigning Women's Champion Sasha Banks throwing her name into the hat! After some tough wins over ODB, Jade Cargill and Christina Von Eerie, it would be The Boujee Bratz would emerged victorious, defeating Banks in the finals to secure a shot at the Women's Title! Aliyah capitalized on that the following month at MonAnarchy to start her second championship reign! | 2021 | TAYA VALKYRIE | While Aliyah's victory was technically a holdover from 2020, Taya Valkyrie would be crowned the official Queen of the Ring in 2021 when La Wera Loca managed to defeat Nattie Neidhart and Alexa Bliss to take her place upon the throne! And what made this even more remarkable was the fact that it was her very first night in the E-Wrestling Alliance, instantly putting herself on the map! However, Taya's joy would prove short-lived when Aliyah made her shocking return after several months to crash the celebrations! | 2023 | TONI STORM | The Queen of the Ring returned with aplomb in 2023 as six women fought it out for the crown! After two initial triple threat matches, the finals were set between Tam Nakanao and Toni Storm, who even pinned the reigning Women's Champion to earn her spot, but a vicious backstage assault by her rival Asuka meant Tam was unable to compete! As such, Commissioner Christian Cage made a second chance match between the three other beaten semi-finalists, with Chelsea Green emerging victorious to book her place in the finals. However, it would be Toni Storm who picked up the career-making victory, launching the Aussie Asskicker into the EWA stratosphere! | 2024 | JACY JAYNE | It's a testament to how much of a star-making tournament the Queen of the Ring is that Jacy Jayne can make her in-ring debut 7 nights beforehand and then go on to win the whole shebang! Yet that's exactly what Lady Rock did, having to overcome a tough first round opponent in Kayden Carter before then battling a game Io Shirai in the semi-finals! However, Jayne was able to make it to the main event and overcome an equally impressive Ash By Elegance to immediately announce her arrival to the EWA Universe in a major way! |
|
|
|
Post by EWA.com on Aug 3, 2018 8:42:03 GMT
The History of It's almost as inevitable as the sun setting or the tide retreating...in the EWA, it's only a matter of time before CIVIL WAR breaks out once again! Over the course of the EWA's history, Civil War has taken place 17 times: in 2004, 2005, 2007, and then annually from 2009 onwards. But whilst Civil War might not have always been the annual tradition that King of the Ring or Super Brawl are, whenever it has erupted across the EWA landscape, it has always proven to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable events on our calendar! And with so many world class athletes entering the contest over the years, all vying for that championship opportunity that awaits the victor, you wouldn't expect anything less! Since its inception in 2004, the rules have varied slightly, but the essence of Civil War has always remained the same. Some matches have featured more participants than others...in some matches, there could only be four men in the ring at any given time, with each elimination bringing out a new entrant...some matches saw eliminations not just by throwing opponents over the top rope, but via pinfall and submission...but essentially, what it all boils down to is that familiar Royal Rumble-style match made famous in other promotions and perfected by the EWA. And no matter how many men enter the fray, how many can fill the ring at any given moment, and just how eliminations are decided, there will always be one man left at the end of the day who will emerge victorious! Well, almost always, as we'll see... Indeed, many men have thrown themselves into the thick of Civil War, but only a handful have triumphed. Let's have a look back at our past men's Civil War Winners: YEAR | SUPERSTAR | DETAILS
|
---|
2004 | EDGE | Entered: 24th of 25 Eliminations: 1 Success: Edge's three year dream to be crowned World Champion culminated, as he would go on to defeat the man he eliminated to win Civil War, then Champ Sean Waltman, the next month at Anarchy! | 2005 | KURT ANGLE | Entered: 19th out of 19 Eliminations: 1 Success: Angle would go on to battle Sting for the World Championship the following month at Aggression, eventually losing out in an Ultimate Submission Match to the Icon. | 2007 | BIG SHOW & TOMMY DREAMER | Entered: Dreamer - 4th out of 22, Big Show - 22nd out of 22 Eliminations: Dreamer - 5, Big Show - 1 Success: The Big Show retired soon after, whilst Tommy Dreamer led the XWA for several months, eventually unsuccessfully cashing in his Triple Crown Title opportunity against Lance Storm at Ready 2 Rumble in early 2008. | 2009 | WILLIAM REGAL | Entered: 60th out of 60 Eliminations: 3 Success: Regal would go on to capture the Triple Crown Title on the following Warzone, utilizing the first ever anywhere/any time Civil War contract to defeat Jimmy Jacobs for the gold. | 2010 | CM PUNK | Entered: 25th out of 30 Eliminations: 3 Success: After being given a title shot against Steve Blackman that ended up in a crazy draw, Punk would join forces with the Lethal Weapon for several months. However, it was all a ruse on Punk's part, which saw him finally turn on Blackman and take the Triple Crown Title at Kessen! | 2011 | THE ROCK | Entered: 17th out of 30 Eliminations: 4 Success: The Rock became the first man in history to win Super Brawl, King of The Ring, AND Civil War when he last eliminated Shawn Michaels to win the rumble...and then cashing in after Masato Tanaka had successfully defended the Triple Crown Title in a grueling Elimination Chamber! | 2012 | STEVE CORINO | Entered: 7th out of 45 Eliminations: 5 Success: The King of Old School was an outside bet at best heading into Civil War...but with the aid of his new Extreme Horsemen faction and a healthy slice of luck, Steve Corino emerged victorious! He'd go on to win the Grand Slam Title the following month, but at the cost of Paulton Burchill targetting his family! | 2013 | VAL VENIS | Entered: 30th out of 30 Eliminations: 2 Success: Winning Civil War was one thing, but Val Venis was hell bent on proving why he was the best wrestler in the world. That's why he challenged Kurt Angle to 2 out of 3 Falls Match at King of the Ring 2013, with both men running a gauntlet of foes on every show in the run-up to the PPV. Alas, Angle was just able to retain his championship under controversial circumstances courtesy of a double pinfall! | 2014 | KEN ANDERSON | Entered: 17th out of 35 Eliminations: 6 Success: One month after his Civil War victory, Mr Anderson would cash in his shot at the High Tension pay per view, challenging Steve Corino in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match for the Grand Slam Championship. Just when it looked like the Asshole was going to win the gold, heated rival Val Venis turned out the lights and cost Anderson the victory! | 2015 | CODY RHODES | Entered: 18th out of 40 Eliminations: 1 Success: Rhodes became only the second man to have won Super Brawl, King of The Ring and Civil War, yet refused to cash his shot at the title all year until doing so on the final SLAM! before Super Brawl, looking to steal a Captain's spot. Alas, Rhodes fell to Brock Lesnar and was denied the gold! | 2016 | KEN ANDERSON | Entered: 25th out of 30 Eliminations: 2 Success: Mr Anderson became the first man ever to become a two-time Civil War winner, taking out Al Snow and Bubba Ray Dudley to do so! He also became the first Winner in four years to successfully cash in the Anytime, Anyplace Contract and win the World Heavyweight Title! | 2017 | SANTINO MARELLA | Entered: 20th out of 30 Eliminations: 3 Success: Perhaps the most unexpected Civil War victor in EWA history, Santino Marella proved that this is match that can be won by anyone on any given day! While he wouldn't transition that win into a World Title victory, it would see Santino go on to be a record-setting National Champion! | 2018 | BROCK LESNAR | Entered: 6th out of 30 Eliminations: 12 Success: The Beast made history by not only breaking JBL's long-held record for most eliminations in a single match, but also by winning the first Civil War in which the World Title was being defended, even eliminating reigning champion Jack Gallagher to do so! | 2019 | MARTY SCURLL | Entered: 40th out of 40 Eliminations: 1 Success: The Horde dominated the 2019 Civil War, allowing Marty Scurll to swoop in and dump the number one entrant Finlay to win the match! Scurll would then shock the world by successfully cashing in his title shot on the newly crowned World Champion Brock Lesnar a month later at Spring Scramble! | 2020 | JAMIE NOBLE | Entered: 8th out of 40 Eliminations: 2 Success: After money woes brought him back to the world of professional wrestling, The Redneck Messiah threw himself in the Civil War to earn the biggest payday of his career...and a huge opportunity for the top prize in the E-Wrestling Alliance, which he'd successfully cash in at Red, White & Bruised! | 2021 | ADAM PAGE | Entered: 16th out of 30 Eliminations: 2 Success: Hangman Page had a rough start to the year, struggling to buy a win as his alcoholism threatened to get the better of him, yet he turned his life around and picked up the biggest victory of his career by winning the 2021 Civil War! Furthermore, he'd go on to cash in against last year's winner Jamie Noble to win the gold at Red, White & Bruised! | 2022 | AL SNOW | Entered: 29th out of 30 Eliminations: 1 Success: After 14 attempts, The Snowman has finally managed to achieve his dream of winning Civil War! Granted, it took a new attitude and some subterfuge to get the job done, but if ever the ends justified the means, this was it! And ultimately, it was a victory which would lead Al to win the EWA World Title at long last! | 2023 | ROMAN REIGNS | Entered: 28th out of 30 Eliminations: 2 Success: Roman Reigns shocked the world, and his cousins, when he returned after a lengthy absence to defy Team Taz and walk out of Civil War with a guaranteed title opportunity! However, he was unable to convert that into a title victory upon cashing in against his cousin Sefa Fatu! | 2024 | KEVIN NASH | Entered: 22nd out of 30 Eliminations: 4 Success: We hadn't seen much of Big Sexy in the run-up to Civil War, but Kevin Nash proved he's still got it when he scored the joint most eliminations to add another accolade to his résumé! And what makes his win more interesting is the fact his fellow Vegas Connection Enterprises member, Val Venis, just won the World Championship as well! |
CIVIL WAR TRIVIA- Nine out of 18 men's Civil War Matches have featured 30 participants, those being the 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Matches! The rest have always had a varied number, with 25 men going to war in 2004, before we then had the smallest Civil War in history taking place in 2005 with just 19 entrants, followed by what was originally supposed to be a 20 man Civil War in 2007, that eventually rose to 22 thanks to the surprise inclusions of Shane McMahon and eventual co-winner, the Big Show. Then there was a MONSTER-sized Civil War in 2009 that saw almost double the scheduled 30 entrants, with 60 warriors in all coming out of the woodwork to take part in the contest! Coming up a close second was the 2012 Match which featured 45 competitors, while the 2015, 2019 and 2020 events all saw 40 superstars battling it out for Civil War glory!
- As you'd expect, the later someone enters a match, the greater advantage it creates. 10 of the 18 men to have won Civil War have done so by entering within the final third of the match, and seven of those from either the last or second-to-last spot!
- The four main exceptions to that rule though are Tommy Dreamer, who in 2007 started as the fourth man in the ring before incredibly co-winning the event with the Big Show! Likewise, Steve Corino, who entered the 2012 match at what turned out to be lucky number seven! Elsewhere, Brock Lesnar won the 2018 Civil War with a dominant display from the number six spot! And most recently of all, Jamie Noble walked out the winner of the 2020 Civil War after entering at number eight! Meanwhile, The Rock, Mr Anderson (the first time), Cody Rhodes, Santino Marella and Adam Page have all won from around the midway point!
- For almost a decade, the most eliminations in one Civil War Match belonged to JBL with 9 during the 2009 event. However, things changed in 2018 when Brock Lesnar smashed Layfield's record to eliminate 12 men on his way to victory! That in turn saw The Beast leap up the all-time rankings to put him level with Al Snow for the record of most number of overall eliminations, at least until Al racked up several more in the last couple of years, currently standing at 30 to Lesnar's 23!
- Likewise, the record for most Civil War appearances also belongs to Al Snow with 14 so far, having been in every match from 2009 onwards! Colt Cabana is the next closest after appearing in every Civil War since 2009 except for the 2012, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022 events! After making it to the final four in 2009, 2014, 2016, 2019 and again in 2020, Al Snow FINALLY got his long overdue victory in 2022!
- Whilst the winner of Civil War might earn a championship opportunity for their troubles, that shot has been successfully cashed in just nine times before! In 2004, Edge would face Sean Waltman the following month at Anarchy to capture the then-World Title, whilst in 2009, William Regal would surprise Jimmy Jacobs after a tough match on Warzone and a beatdown via The Scourge to steal the Triple Crown Championship! In 2010, CM Punk held onto his contract for many months whilst fooling Steve Blackman into thinking he was an ally, finally capturing the Triple Crown Title at Kessen! In 2011, The Rock cashed in his opportunity after Masato Tanaka had defended the gold inside a GRUELING Elimination Chamber Match that he was in right from the opening bell, taking advantage of his weakened state to finally end Tanaka's lengthy reign! In 2012, Steve Corino took the Grand Slam Championship from Paulton Burchill the month after his Civil War win, and Mr Anderson successfully cashed in his shot within a month of Civil War victory as well, taking the World Heavyweight Title from Jeff Hardy in 2016! Marty Scurll took a page out of William Regal and The Rock's book by surprising Brock Lesnar moments after The Beast had captured the World Championship for a third time, shocking the world in 2019! Jamie Noble would defeat Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the greatest prize in the sport at the 2020 edition of Red, White & Bruised, only to then be on the other end of the equation one year later when "Hangman" Adam Page cashed in on him at that same event! And last but not least, while Al Snow's first attempt to make the most of his contract ended in a no contest, he made the most of a fourway King of the Mountain match the following month to finally win the big one!
- For a long time, Sean Waltman was the only World/Triple Crown Champion to participate in a Civil War match, doing so fresh after defending the gold against Chris Benoit and Triple H moments before the contest. That all changed at the 2018 Civil War however, when not only did reigning World Champion Jack Gallagher enter the match, but he was also forced to defend his championship in it as well! Needless to say, that didn't go well for The Extraordinary Gentleman, especially after starting from the number one spot! Then there was MJF, who declared there were no worthy challengers to his championship, so he entered himself into the 2020 Civil War (albeit without putting his title on the line), eventually finding himself the last man eliminated! And lastly, reigning World Champion Jamie Noble declared his intent to enter the 2021 Civil War, only to have The Honky Tonk Man attack him during his entrance to deny Noble his chance! In the women's match, Aliyah is currently the only reigning Women's Champion to enter the match in the 2022 version, albeit only to find herself quickly eliminated! However, 2023 also saw reigning Women's Champion Charlotte Flair enter the men's Civil War, creating another historic moment for The Queen!
- It's been alluded to already, but 2007's Civil War saw perhaps the most controversial finish of all fifteen Civil War matches. Down to the final two participants of Tommy Dreamer and Christopher Daniels, the EWA faithful were stunned by the surprise inclusion of the Big Show, a man who had until then been competing in rival promotion, Ring of Honor! The finish saw Dreamer and Show topple out of the ring at the exact same time, with video replays and fan testimony unable to decide who's feet touched the floor first...and as such, both men were awarded the victory! However, they quickly decided that two men could not hold onto that one Civil War contract and a winner-takes-all much was decided upon for the following month's Pay-Per-View, Unleashed...only for Big Show to be forced into retirement before any match could take place, leaving Dreamer the sole Civil War winner!
- To date, there have been five women's Civil War matches, with the first coming in 2012! That one featured just 10 participants, but since the match returned in 2020, we've seen 20 competitors in 2020 and 2021 and 15 in the 2022 and 2023 versions, all vying to put their names in the history books! So far, Charlotte Flair and Daizee Haze share the record for the most total number of eliminations with 6, whereas Ember Moon and Isis The Amazon share the most eliminations in a single match with 5! Let's take a look back at our past women's Civil War Winners:
YEAR | SUPERSTAR | DETAILS
|
---|
2012 | AWESOME KONG | Entered: 10th of 10 Eliminations: 2 Success: In the first ever women's Civil War, Awesome Kong drew the pick of the bunch by entering the match last, scoring two eliminations to walk out with the win! She'd then successfully cash in her title opportunity the following month at Summer Stampede to win her third Women's Title! | 2020 | ALIYAH | Entered: 18th out of 20 Eliminations: 2 Success: After a hiatus of 8 years, the women's Civil War returned! Instead of the winner receiving a future title shot though, they'd win the vacant Women's Championship after Sasha Banks had to relinquish the gold due to injury! Aliyah would pick up the win and the gold, going on to hold the title for 133 days by hook and crook! | 2021 | EMBER MOON | Entered: 8th out of 20 Eliminations: 5 Success: Ember Moon's much-vaunted return to the EWA didn't get off to the start she'd hoped for, but while she may have been a dark horse coming into Civil War, The Villainess would show just what she's capable of, scoring the most eliminations on her way to the biggest win of her career and a future title opportunity! | 2022 | RHEA RIPLEY | Entered: 10th out of 15 Eliminations: 3 Success: Rhea Ripley has dominated the early months of 2022, racking up win after win against all opponents! She'd carry that momentum with her into the women's Civil War Match to walk out with a guaranteed shot at Aliyah's Women's Title! | 2023 | SASHA BANKS | Entered: 15th out of 15 Eliminations: 1 Success: After walking away from the EWA for over a year to find herself in Japan, Sasha Banks made her shocking return as the final entrant for the 2023 Civil War, eliminating Isis The Amazon to finally earn a one-on-one match with her old friend/rival, Charlotte Flair! | 2024 | SARAYA | Entered: 10th out of 15 Eliminations: 2 Success: One year after Insurrexxxtion officially formed at Civil War, the newly-revamped group would secure the sweet taste of victory when Saraya won the Rumble in spite of a valiant effort by Kairi Sane! |
|
|