Ross Report - 1/6/20

Heading into Super Brawl XIX, I don't know if anyone knew quite what to expect with the Free-For-All Match. It's a tough thing to break from almost 20 years of history and tradition, but listening to the EWA Universe after the fact, it sounds as if it was a resounding success!

Before we get to all the ins-and-outs, twists-and-turns of the main event though, let's cover the rest of our 19th annual Super Brawl extravaganza! We kicked off with a stirring rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" from Chicago's own Liz Phair, one that put goosebumps on this old Okie's arms. And the thrills didn't let up from there as we moved onto the eagerly-anticipated debut of "The Mighty Don't Kneel," an exciting tag team recently signed from Australia. Shane Haste and Buddy Silva have all the tools to go right to the top of the tag team division and they had to prove their pedigree against some former champions in the shape of "The Vaudevillains." This was the first time we've seen Aiden English and Simon Gotch in action since they lost the gold back in April, and it's fair to say that they perhaps weren't quite as prepared for their opponents as they would have liked. As such, "TMDK" picked up what could arguably be described as a huge upset victory in their debut on the grandest stage of them all, immediately announcing their arrival to the EWA Universe in a big way!

We briefly cut backstage, where Chad Gable was making his final preparations ahead of his scheduled match with "PCO," yet before he could head to the ring, Gable suddenly found himself face-to-face with Brock Lesnar! Under normal circumstances, that might be a bad thing...but in this instance, Lesnar gave Gable a late Christmas present by essentially exchanging opportunities with the former Olympian. That meant "The American Alpha" would later take place Lesnar's place in the Free-For-All Match while Brock would get the opponent he really wanted, the reanimated corpse of Pierre Carl Oullete! And just to make matters even more exciting, we received word via the broadcast team that this "match" had now been made No Holds Barred, paving the way for an absolute war between two behemoths with a ton of a bad blood between them! Neither Lesnar nor "PCO" held anything back in this one, using exposed concrete, a steel chair, and plenty of tables to dish out the kind of punishment that would have annihilated most other opponents. Ultimately though, the efforts of Shelly de la Muerte to once again use fire against Brock Lesnar ended up backfiring, as "The Beast" hit two F-5's in a row before lighting the gas-covered table Shelly's "French Canadian Frankenstein" had previously set-up, finally putting "PCO" through it with a third and final F-5! What a win for Lesnar, albeit one that no doubt took a lot out of the former three-time World Heavyweight Champion. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if we see both Lesnar and "PCO" take some kind of hiatus to recover from this brutal encounter!

I can't help but be excited at the prospect of Kay Lee Ray joining the women's division. The Scottish grappler has a fearsome reputation in her homeland and all over Europe, and she'll surely bring a unique energy to the division going forwards.

Speaking of the women's scene, what a championship match we witnessed between Becky Lynch and the defending champion Sasha Banks! While Lynch found this opportunity via the backdoor, she certainly gave it everything she had to make the most of it! "The Queen Slayer" was ferocious in her efforts to dethrone Banks, yet credit where it's due, "The Boss" proved she's no slouch either. After battling JoJo for the past several months over the title and the true identity of Bradley, Banks has become a much-hardened competitor who isn't averse to doing whatever necessary to pull out the win, even if that includes taking out Winter at ringside! When it came down to that exhilarating finishing sequence though, it looked for sure as if Lynch had finally captured the prize that's eluded her over the past year and a half as she caught Sasha flush with the Straight Fireball knee strike. However, after collapsing on top of Sasha Banks in sheer exhaustion, the Women's Champion suddenly surprised her opponent with a desperation crucifix pin from out of nowhere to somehow retain the gold! Some might call it a lucky escape for "The Boss," but either way, her celebrations would soon be short-lived when "The Dominion" made an appearance for the first time since All Hallows' Evil! I suspect it was no coincidence that Charlotte Flair and Lacey Evans waited until after the match was over and both competitors had expended the majority of their energy, allowing this dastardly duo to strike! Becky was quickly subdued by Evans while Flair then focused on Banks, eventually applying a figure four around the ring post before Lacey took the top section of the steel stairs and DROVE them into Sasha's knee! I've tried speaking to our crack medical team for an update on Sasha's condition following that disgusting assault, but we're yet to hear how bad the damage was or how much ring time she might miss. One thing's for sure though, and that's that "The Queen" has emphatically put herself back in the championship radar! And that's one match I can't wait to see!

For most World Champions heading into Super Brawl, you find yourself relying on the team you picked to help get you to victory. For Marty Scurll though, this was a whole new ball game, with the Free-For-All rules opening up a whole new world of possibilities for either retaining or losing the title! To "The Villain's" credit though, he was ready to face the challenge head-on and prove himself at the biggest event of the year!

That brings us to the big one...the first ever Free-For-All scramble, where five superstars started the match and "The Honky Tonk Man's" half of the Tag Team Titles was in play from the get-go! I can't say I'm surprised that "Honky" tried cheapshotting Tom Lawlor to score an early pinfall in the name of protecting his championship, before taking the cowardly way out by trying to hide under the ring! Of course, one of the more interesting aspects of this match was the introduction of "Bonus Awards" and "Challenges" which added a whole new element to proceedings. That meant when Chad Gable came in and eventually scored the first elimination on former World Champion Ken Shamrock, he found himself with a guaranteed shot at the National Title on our first pay-per-view event of 2020! I guess you can partially blame Shamrock's bad night on his brother Frank being in a somewhat "tipsy" state, leading to a bit of miscommunication when they tried working together. It's fair to say though that much of the early goings in the match was dominated by Braun Strowman, with "The Monster Among Men" proving a tough nut to crack as he mowed through the competition with seeming ease, soon eliminating Cody Hall from the match. However, the duo of Brady Pierce and Tom Lawlor did manage to slow Strowman down at one point, only to have Frank Shamrock try to join them. When they refused his help though, Shamrock took out Lawlor and tried to do the same to Pierce, only to end up getting planted with a Bi-Polar DDT to score Brady an elimination, as well as the "Bonus Award" of a Tag Team Championship match on this week's SLAM!

The ring soon started filling up at this point, but as soon as it was announced that for the next five minutes an elimination would be worth $20,000, that really upped the ante! Indeed, with Braun Strowman turning the tables on Lawlor and Pierce, driving Brady onto his partner with a huge running powerslam, "The Honky Tonk Man" would sneak back into the ring to cover the MMA veteran and earn a generous donation to his bank account, as well as retaining his half of the Tag Titles in the process! Alas, he soon found himself wiped out by the imposing Braun Strowman, only for Harper to join the fray, finally giving "The Monster Among Men" an opponent his own size! And what a brawl that turned out to be, taking them out into ringside where Harper would eventually spear Braun through the timekeeper's barricade, temporarily leaving the pair of them down! Meanwhile, Buh Buh Ray Dudley found himself the center of attention as the only champion still vulnerable in the match, with Chad Gable and Jack Gallagher forgoing hostilities for a while to try and take Bubbs out! They couldn't stay on the same page for long though, allowing Jon Moxley to try and capitalize, only to get caught with a Buh Buh Bomb and nearly eliminated himself! With everyone else down though, Buh Buh soon found himself face-to-face with his old enemy "MJF," picking up their rivalry where they left off a couple of months ago! Just when "MJF" started gaining the upper hand though, Tim Storm came out as the next competitor, obviously having a bone to pick with "The Top 1%er" after costing him both King of the Ring glory and the World Championship in the last month! "The Perfect Storm" ended up chasing Friedman through the crowd and out of sight, as the action kept coming thick and fast inside the ring. My old pal Jerry Lawler was out next, with "The Honky Tonk Man" offering to lay down to help his partner retain his half of the Tag Titles as well, only to have it broken up by Buh Buh Ray! The tables soon turned as a spike piledriver from the Memphis legends put the National Title in a precarious position, only to get broken up by the other competitors still in the match!

This was the point where alliances were being formed, with Gallagher and Gable opting to work together to try and combat "Honky" and "The King," while Jon Moxley would soon be joined by Tommaso Ciampa. It was that latter pairing that proved most successful, having been hand-picked for the match alongside Harper and the mysterious Cara Noir by Gabriel in order to protect Marty Scurll's World Championship. That didn't mean they couldn't try to win other titles though, as they trapped Lawler in a double submission to try and capture his half of the Tag Team Championships! Yet before "The King" could tap, "MJF" and Tim Storm returned to the ring, where Storm was inadvertently broke up the submission attempt! Ciampa and Moxley made him pay for that and then took down "The Salt of the Earth" for good measure, right as they found themselves rejoined by a groggy Harper, still recovering from that barricade collision. It looked for all the world like Gabriel's masterplan was unfolding before our eyes as Cara Noir started to make his entrance...only to suffer a heinous assault at the hands of Pete Dunne and a steel chair, who was clearly getting a measure of revenge against Gabriel by taking out his chosen one! In that confusion, "MJF" then rolled up Ciampa to earn the right to hire or fire any wrestler of his choosing before slipping out of the ring, with Ciampa inexplicably blaming his old rival Harper for his elimination! "The Goatsman" wasn't taking any of that though, damn near knocking Tommaso's head off with a Truckstop lariat before then eliminating Jon Moxley when he tried turning on him! Meanwhile, with Cara Noir unfit to enter the match, Buff Bagwell made a surprising appearance, begging to take his place. EWA producer Dean Malenko grudgingly gave him the go-ahead, not that it did much good as Buff immediately found himself nearly clotheslined out of his boots the moment he stepped through the ropes, giving Harper his second elimination in quick succession!

Things didn't get much chance to settle here, as a new "Challenge" was set, stipulating that pinfalls counted anywhere for the next five minutes, causing the action to spill all over ringside yet again! That was soon followed by the announcement that the next elimination would earn a "unique opportunity" on the last SLAM! in January, adding even more intrigue! In the meantime, Brian Pillman Jr. joined the fray and came in like a house on fire, showing once again why EWA management have such high hopes for the second generation superstar. Soon enough, Santino Marella would make his first in-ring appearance for almost half a year as well, right as the falls count anywhere stipulation ended and weapons became legal for the next five minutes instead! "Honky Tonk Man" and "The King" looked to take advantage of that by bashing Tim Storm with a chair, only to have Pillman save the middle school teacher and deny Lawler the chance to retain his title! As Lawler and Pillman got into it though, Storm surprised "Honky" with a roll-up to earn the "unique opportunity," which I guess we'll have to wait until January 26th to find all about! By this stage though, the final entrant entered the match as Marty Scurll, holding the prize that everyone wanted! As you can imagine, with three titles still up for grabs, things quickly broke down with a succession of rapid-fire pin attempts and plenty of weapon-usage before the five minute period expired! Not only that, but we saw alliances fall apart as well, with "MJF" even attempting to roll Jerry Lawler up at one point, despite "The King" drafting him to watch his back! We'd get our next elimination soon enough though as Jack Gallagher trapped Brian Pillman Jr in that tricky Windsor Knot to send him packing! He'd soon be joined on the long walk to the back by Jerry Lawler, who got caught with a jack-knife pin by Santino Marella, meaning the "Italian Stallion" is now one-half of the Tag Team Champions alongside "The Honky Tonk Man!" It also puts him in the history books as a three-time Super Brawl winner along with Randy Orton and Chris Jericho as well, something I doubt anyone expected, least of all "The King!" No doubt we'll see how Santino gels with "Honky" when the new champs defend their titles against Brady Pierce and a partner of his choosing next week!

As shocking as that was though, my jaw dropped when it was announced the next elimination would crown a new TV Champion! The Television Title has been inactive for over a decade since it was unified with the Hardcore Championship to form the National Title! I'm excited to see it back though, as the man who wasn't even supposed to be in the Free-For-All Match managed to nail Santino Marella with a Chaos Theory to pick up his first piece of EWA gold, on top of his shot at the National Title earned earlier in the contest! Talk about a coming out party for this talented young grappler! And speaking of the National Title, Buh Buh Ray's efforts to retain his Natty soon came undone as Jack Gallagher surprised the man from Dudleyville with a backslide for the three count! An unfortunate end to Buh Buh's impressive reign, but an incredible showing from "The Extraordinary Gentleman" in his first EWA match for over 18 months! The twists and turns weren't over though, as we were suddenly introduced to our first "Curse" of the contest, with Chad Gable's newly won TV Title becoming active in the match! To complicate matters even further, we had our next challenge announced shortly after, with over-the-top-rope eliminations being brought into the mix! That suited "The Monster Among Men" right down to a tee, as he saw "MJF," Jack Gallagher and Chad Gable trying to toss one another out of the ring before trying to take out the three of them! While Friedman somehow survived, Strowman did send both Gallagher and Gable packing, meaning Braun captured the Television Title in the process! Tim Storm would soon suffer a similar fate at the gigantic hands of Strowman, with the ring finally beginning to clear, leaving us with Braun, "MJF," Harper and the World Champion Marty Scurll! However, in a shocking turn of events, "The Salt of the Earth" surprised Strowman seconds before the five minute period expired, knocking him over the ropes to eliminate the big man from the match before he even knew what hit him! Still, at least Strowman can take some satisfaction by having not one, but two prizes for his efforts, having captured gold and earned the most eliminations, thereby guaranteeing him the last spot in the 2020 Civil War Match!

As for "MJF" though, the chicanery didn't stop there as he called on his "Dynasty" associates Richard Holliday and Alex Hammerstone for help! The three of them took out the Ref and then went to town on Marty Scurll, yet "The Villain" fought back with everything he had, shaking of Holliday and Hammerstone to make it a one-on-one fight once again, eventually putting "MJF" down with the Cradle DDT, followed by a piledriver, before then cinching in the dreaded Crossface Chickenwing! Friedman couldn't withstand that onslaught as the Ref signaled it was over, only for Marty to realize too late that it wasn't the actual official at all but rather Richard Holliday! "The Villain" was understandably pissed at that, unceremoniously taking Holliday out before almost getting surprised by an "MJF" roll-up, only to have Harper save the day! However, that turned out to be a bad thing for the World Champion as Harper caught Scurll with a wicked Gator Roll to secure arguably the biggest upset of the match, meaning "The Goatsman" now sits atop the EWA mountain! That's right, Harper is your NEW World Heavyweight Champion after pinning Marty Scurll, shooting the Baton Rogue native into the wrestling stratosphere! Still, just because he'd won the title, that didn't mean Harper had won the Free-For-All itself! He still had "MJF" to take care of, easier said than done with "The Dynasty" determined to keep getting involved! Thankfully, security were finally able to remove Holliday and Hammerstone from ringside, and it came down to the two superstars it was always meant to! Incredibly, "MJF" just about survived the same move that put Marty Scurll away after just about getting a rope break in the nick of time. For as much criticism as he gets (and deservedly so, if you ask me), there's no doubt that Maxwell Jacob Friedman is both tough and talented when he chooses to be, even escaping a Billy Goat's Curse as well! "The Top 1%er" eventually managed to work his way into a Friedman Armbar Special on his much larger opponent, trying to force a submission of his own, but Harper used a rope break of his own to free himself! "The Goatsman" desperately tried to fight his way back into the match, looking to cap off his amazing night with the ultimate victory, but alas, it wasn't to be. Friedman slipped out of another Gator Roll to take Harper down and reapply the Friedman Armbar Special, and with nowhere to go and his championship to think of, Harper had no choice but to tap!

What an end to an unbelievable match, and an unbelievable night for that matter! Perhaps the most chaotic and unpredictable night that I've ever witnessed in all my years in this sport, and trust me, folks, that's saying something! As the dust settles though, Harper can call himself the new World Heavyweight Champion...but "MJF" holds a victory over him, and a guaranteed shot at the title somewhere down the line! On top of that, Jack Gallagher is your new National Champion, with a number one contender he became very familiar with over the course of this match! And of course, the Television Championship is back for the first time in a decade, with Braun Strowman taking the gold from Chad Gable and earning the final entry spot in the 2020 Civil War while he was at it! And to top it all off, "The Honky Tonk Man" finds himself with a brand new Tag Team Championship partner in Santino Marella, with the new champs being thrown straight into the fire when they have to defend the gold this Sunday on SLAM! Indeed, it feels like the entire EWA landscape has been shaken up and turned upside down in a way I don't think we've ever witnessed before, no doubt making 2020 the year to watch!

With all that said and done then, let's break down my top three movers and shakers, shall we?

1. Harper
2. "MJF"
3. Everyone else

What can I say? It's a total cop-out! For my money, Harper's achievement of becoming World Champion just about trumps "MJF" winning the whole shebang, but there's not a snowball's chance in hell that I could pick a single superstar for the third spot. The entire EWA roster went above and beyond at Super Brawl XIX, leaving it all on the line for the chance to put their names in the history books!

And so ends another year in the EWA, one with ups and downs and everything in-between, where we said goodbye to familiar faces and hello to new ones, where legacies were created and ended, where the old and young came together to deliver the best professional wrestling on the planet! 2019 was a banner year for the E-Wrestling Alliance, and going by the evidence of Super Brawl XIX, we're not slowing down yet! Until next time,

BOOMER SOONER!