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The 8-Ball 04.19.12: Top 8 Wrestling Tournaments

April 19, 2012 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the 8-Ball. I am your party host Ryan Byers, and we’re coming off of two solid weeks of covering professional wrestlers’ forays into the world of music, which was a fun diversion from the often-taken-too-seriously world of professional wrestling. This week, though, we’re going back to pure, man-on-man professional wrestling action with our new topic.

You’ll see the topic beyond the logo . . .

Top 8 Pro Wrestling Tournaments

Though we often lose sight of this fact given WWE’s forays into music, movies, video games, and other frivolous pursuits, professional wrestling is, at its core, a simulated sport. Virtually every major sport in the world decides who the best of the best is through use of one or more tournaments, so it only makes sense that wrestling would follow suit in its scripted sport world. Over the years, pro wrestling tournaments have provided some classic matches and moments to fans around the world, whether it’s a one-night single elimination competition on free television or whether it’s a several week round robin battle held over the course of numerous shows.

This week, we count down the eight best tournaments in professional wrestling history . . . and I’m talking about real tournaments, too. None of that worked “Pat Patterson in Rio de Janeiro” stuff.

8. WWE Gold Rush 2005

WWF/WWE has never really been all that big on tournaments. Yeah, they had the King of the Ring for a few years and they’ve filled a championship here and there with a tourney, but, if you compare them to major promotions in Japan and Mexico or even TNA, the tournaments aren’t as frequent and they often aren’t as of high a quality. However, every now and then the company will pull something surprising out of its hat, and that’s exactly what happened when they held the Gold Rush tournament during May 2005. The eight man, single elimination tournament was held over the course of three weeks and featured seven incredibly strong in-ring performers such as Edge, Christian, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, HHH, Chris Benoit, and Shawn Michaels. The eighth man in the tournament, Kane, would appear to be a bit of a weak link on paper, but, in reality, the Big Red Machine had his working shoes on this month and probably had the most consistent three weeks of his career in terms of in-ring performances during this tournament.

Perhaps just as important as the competitors was the amount of time that each tournament match got. Virtually all of them were ten minutes in length or longer, so the crew all had an opportunity to display their talents. The matchups were also well-chosen, as Jericho and Edge clashed in a rare-for-the-time matchup, HBK and Benjamin got to have a veteran vs. up-and-comer battle, and Benoit and HHH resumed their rivalry from a year before in round one. This built to a heated Edge-Michaels match as well as Benoit doing a spectacular carry job with Kane in round two, with the whole thing being capped off by an Edge/Kane final which was far better than I ever would have imagined it being and did a good job playing off the rivalry between the two men, in which Kane was essentially acting as a surrogate for Matt Hardy in the worked version of the Edge/Hardy/Lita love triangle. The tournament provided more than just great in-ring action, though. It was also memorable because it was key in elevating Edge. By this point, the man from Toronto had already won his first Money in the Bank briefcase, but allowing him to win the tournament in addition to MITB solidified his status, as it gave him three successive singles wins over three guys who were big players.

All in all, I would call this a tournament that is unfortunately underrated in the annals of history and worth looking up if you want to relive some good, solid wrestling from a largely forgettable period of WWE history.

7. IWA Japan King of the Deathmatch 1995

Sometimes, the mythology that surrounds an event makes it much bigger, much more important, and much more influential than it otherwise would have had any right to be. That’s exactly what happened with the King of the Deathmatch tournament promoted by IWA Japan in 1995.

The tournament was covered in Mick Foley’s first biography, Have a Nice Day, and clips of it were shown during Foley’s sit-down interviews with Jim Ross on Monday Night Raw. That level of exposure, compounded by a preexisting buzz on the early wrestling discussion forums of internet, sent IWC fans to RF Video and other tape traders in droves to pick up second and even third generation copies of the show, which was properly titled Kawasaki Dream. And, when those tapes came in and got viewed, there were a fair number of fans who were quite disappointed. Why were they disappointed? Because, frankly, the matches aren’t that great if you strip away the hype surrounding the show. This makes sense if you consider the fact that three of the bigger names involved were the ancient Tiger Jeet Singh, who wasn’t even good when he was younger; a post-O.D. Terry Gordy, who lumbered around the ring like a shell of his former self; and an indifferent Leatherface, who had a gimmick so over that he just needed to worry about doing his entrance in order to justify his paychecks. Foley, alongside Japanese wrestlers Shoji Nakamaki and Hiroshi Ono, tried their best to work hard and save the tournament, but most of the wrestling remained flat, with far more laying around and selling than action . . . and with action so bland that it didn’t keep you buzzing through the extended bouts of selling. Even the final match between Foley and Terry Funk, the one which got airtime on Raw and was glorified more than any other, is frankly completely dull aside from a couple of explosions.

Yet, there was at least some segment of the professional wrestling fanbase that the show caught on with. The tape continued to sell well in its bootleg format, so much so that Big Vision Entertainment decided that it would buy the rights and release an authorized DVD version for the United States in the late 2000’s. The tournament kept people talking, so much so that virtually every promotion that has based itself around deathmatch wrestling has attempted a similar tournament of ultra-violence. And, believe it or not, people who haven’t seen the tournament STILL talk about it with a degree of reverence, as though it is something historical when, in reality, it was a so-so night of wrestling produced by a flash in the pan promotion that practically went from drawing 15,000 people to drawing 700 people overnight.

So, despite the wrestling not being that great, the IWA King of the Deathmatch sneaks on to the list because there is SOMETHING about the show which has allowed it to become the stuff of legend, something that is still talked about today with hushed reverence in the right circles.

6. The Crockett Cup 1987

I know that it’s a bit of an internet cliché to complain about the demise of tag team wrestling, but, dammit, it used to be a really fun part of the “sport,” and there’s no reason that it couldn’t be utilized today exactly like it used to be twenty-five years ago.

And, if you want to make the argument that tag team wrestling is fun, one of the best examples out there is the 1987 version of the Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup, colloquially known as the Crockett Cup. The Cup, which was a twenty-four team, single elimination tournament, was held for three years in the 1980s, and, of the three, the 1987 version is the best of the lot. It featured a wide variety of talent from across the NWA, including power teams like the Russians, finesse teams like Lazertron (Hector Guerrero) and Jimmy Valiant, and mat-based teams like Tim Horner and Mike Rotudna. It also featured some pretty damn big stars, including Lex Luger and Tully Blanchard, the Midnight Express, the Roadwarriors, the Giant Baba, and the eventual winners, the Super Powers of Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Kolkoff. With a lineup like that – which also included many other talented teams not listed here – it was difficult if not impossible to have a bad tournament.

Better yet was the fact that it appeared that the folks who booked this event put a lot of thought into how the brackets would play out in order to produce the most entertaining tournament possible. At this point, even though they were the biggest stars on the show, Dusty and Nikita weren’t exactly the best pure wrestlers, so they got a path to the finals that featured a ton of talent who would complement them, including Horner/Rotunda, Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude, and the Midnights. Meanwhile, the Luger/Blanchard team that would face the Superpowers in the finals got the “heel advantage” of an easier path to the end of the tournament, going up against undercard teams like the MOD Squad and the Armstrong family as well as the resident Japanese team. The matches were still well done, but, to fans, Luger and Blanchard had an easier go of it despite their quality performances. Those two paths formed a very solid core around which one of the most entertaining tournaments in professional wrestling history could be booked.

Oh, and before somebody yells at me for not mentioning it: Yes, the Mulkeys were there, too. Mulkeymania, brother!

5. CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix 2006

There are probably a few people out there who are ready to make threats on my life for including the Crockett Cup and something from CHIKARA on the same list, let alone ranking the CHIKARA entry ahead of the NWA entry . . . but, please, before you get angry, hear me out. If you’re not a CHIKARA fan and can put away any preconceived notions you might have about how awful it is that pro wrestlers throw invisible grenades or cast magical spells on each other, you’ll probably be very entertained by the 2006 installment of the Tag World Grand Prix. In fact, that’s what happened to me. This is the event that lead to me following CHIKARA regularly . . . and I don’t think that it’s difficult to understand why.

For me, professional wrestling has almost always been about diversity. Watching one style of wrestling and one style alone was fine and dandy when I first got in to pro graps, but, as time wore on, I needed a bit of variety. And, if you’re looking for variety, there are few wrestling events in history which give you more of it than the Tag World Grand Prix. You want deathmatch wrestlers? You’ve got Necro Butcher, Mickie Knuckles, and Ian Rotten. You want high flyers? You’ve got KUDO and MIKAMI from DDT. You want a striker? You’ve got Yoshiaki Yago. You want European style wrestling? You’ve got Chris Hero. You want traditional puroresu? You’ve got Osamu Nishimura and Katsushi Takemura. You want old school southern heels? You’ve got the Heartbreak Express and Larry Sweeney. You want Dragon Gate style? You’ve got Milano Collection A.T. and Skayde. You want joshi? You’ve got Sumie Sakai and Ranmaru. You want comedy? You’ve got Dragon Dragon and Darkness Crabtree. Aside from a true power wrestler, it’s hard to find a style of wrestling that ISN’T represented here.

Plus, in addition to a variety of professional wrestling styles being put together in quality matches, you’ve got a ton of memorable moments crammed into this tournament, including the CHIKARA debuts of the Colony and Hydra, C.P. Munk unmasking as Necro Butcher, Team FIST eliminating Mr. Zero, J.J. Dillon managing the Northstar Express, and, to top it all off, the Kings of Wrestling of Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli becoming the first ever CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas. Even though the venues are a little bit sketchy and even though there are less than 100 people in the crowd at every evening of the tournament, the performances and the booking still make this feel like an endearing, big league style event that can win you over and make you a fan.

4. WWF King of the Ring 1993

More often than not, having a quality tournament depends on the collective performances of several wrestlers. However, there have been a small number of occasions throughout history in which a tournament has been MADE by the performance of only one man, as the individual wrestler is so hot that he carries the rest of the field on his back and into the annals of history.

Such is the case with the 1993 King of the Ring, which is incredibly entertaining and well-remembered almost exclusively because of the performance of Bret “The Hitman” Hart. During the eight man, single elimination tournament, the Hitman had a series of three matches against Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow which was so well executed that Hart almost single-handedly turned the King of the Ring into a viable pay per view for the next decade and a concept that WWE still trots out from time to time when they need a means of elevating an up-and-coming wrestler. Nowhere was the pride that Hart takes in his craft more evident than it was here, as he clearly went out of his way to make sure that each of his three matches was something different, something that would not be repetitive and would give a new twist on the genre to the audience every time that the bell rang. Plus, in addition to the quality in-ring action, the tournament gets some additional credit because it built to the “coronation ceremony” angle between Hart and Jerry “The King” Lawler, which touched off one of the most surprisingly heated and compelling rivalries of the 1990s.

And, really, the quality of Hart’s performance is made all the more spectacular by the fact that it made this tournament legendary when the rest of the brackets were really not spectacular at all. Though Bigelow tried his best, he was stuck in a matchup against “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, which, thanks to Bigelow’s efforts, wound up serviceable though completely unmemorable. Perfect was put into an even less enviable position, as he had to bump all over the ring in order to get something worthwhile out of a nearly immobile Curtis Hughes. And don’t even get me started on the snoozefest that was the Tatanka/Lex Luger time limit draw, which resulted in Hart’s bout with Perfect being the only semi-final matchup on the show.

So, hats off to Bret Hart, who almost single-handedly made the 1993 King of the Ring into one of the best tournaments in professional wrestling history.

3. AJW Five Star Top Woman 1994


Though there aren’t many people who talk about it on websites like this one, there was a period of time in the 1980s and the 1990s when the best in-ring performers in all of professional wrestling were not American and were not even men. During the glory days of joshi puroresu in Japan, a group of young ladies put on a series of matches with offense, pacing, and psychology virtually all of which was significantly ahead of its time.

These women were drawing cards as well, and this was on full display on November 20, 1994, when a show promoted by All Japan Women was able to draw 32,500 fans and a $4 million (yes, million) gate to the Tokyo Dome for a show called “Big Egg Wrestling Universe.” Though it featured a variety of matches, including amateur wrestling matches, kickboxing matches, midget matches, and even a guest appearance by then-WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze, the big draw on the Big Egg was a one night, single elimination tournament featuring eight of the top female wrestlers in the world. It was called the “Five Star Top Woman Tournament,” perhaps the most fitting name for a professional wrestling event in the history of the sport. Manami Toyota, Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto, Kyoko Inoue, and Dynamite Kansai, all of them among my favorite professional wrestlers from any era or any style, were all among the entrants in the first round. The three women who rounded out the field, though not quite on the same level, were also not slouches, namely Combat Toyota, Yumiko Hotta, and Eagle Sawai. Put them all together, and you’ve got an eight person, seven match tournament during which it was going to be almost impossible to have a bad match and during which multiple promotions were represented in order to add to the “dream match” feel.

And, sometimes, in professional wrestling (or all sports, for that matter), the emotion is just as important as the technical prowess, if not moreso. Though you get some great action throughout the opening round of the tournament, the final, which takes place between Aja Kong and Akira Hokuto, is literally the single most emotional worked match that I have seen outside of Ric Flair’s retirement bout against Shawn Michaels. If you watch the whole tournament and then watch that finale, I defy you to not get massive goosebumps, as the two women play off of each other perfectly and create one hell of an atmosphere.

There are still copies of this show, both on DVD and VHS, floating around the internet in English-speaking circles, and you should definitely hunt it down if you’ve not seen it before.

2. AJPW Real World Tag League 1997

New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, both of which are celebrating their fortieth year of operation in 2012, have been the undisputed kings of puroresu almost literally since the day that they opened their respective doors. From their formative years, both promotions have relied heavily on tournaments in order to tell the stories that they want to tell, whether it’s the G1 Climax, the Champions Carnival, or one of many more tourneys the companies have held over the years. Quite frankly, there have been so many epic tourneys from the two companies that I probably could have done this list while focusing exclusively on NJPW and AJPW tournaments, locking out the rest of the world. However, for the sake of diversity, I decided that when I started to put this list together that I was going to limit myself to ONE entry that was a big heavyweight tournament from New Japan or All Japan. After giving careful consideration to many options, I decided that one entry was going to go to . . .

The 1997 Real World Tag League, promoted by All Japan Pro Wrestling. AJPW started its tradition of hosting an annual round robin tag team tournament all the way back in 1977, and, twenty years later, it put on perhaps the best iteration of the event. The five legends of that era of All Japan – Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Jun Akiyama, and Akira Taue – were all represented. Kawada and Taue were in as the Holy Demon Army, Misawa and Akiyama teamed up, and Kobashi relied on his long-time partnership with current Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Permanent Raw and Smackdown General Manager Johnny “Ace” Laurinaitis. Those three talented teams in a round robin field of ten would have been more than enough for a very good tournament, but there was even more talent to be had in this field, bumping it up from “very good” to “exceptional.” Steve Williams and Gary Albright formed a team, as did Stan Hansen and Bobby Duncum, Jr. There were even some interesting outsiders entered into the tag league, with FMW providing the duo of Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki and none other than the World Wrestling Federation shipping the New Blackjacks of Barry Windham and John “Bradshaw” Leyfield out to Japan.

All of these teams, combined with a competent crew to round out the field of ten, came together to make this one hell of a tournament. Over the course of three weeks, the ten teams faced each other in every possible combination, accumulating points for their victories and building up to a final match of Kawada and Taue against Misawa and Akiyama. Looking out of this match out of context and on paper, you would most likely think that it was excellent. However, it was made even more outstanding by the fact that it was actually a REMATCH of the tournament finals from the prior year, meaning that there was all sorts of interesting history and psychology for these four men to play off of, and they did it to perfection.

Given that this tournament beat out so many others from AJPW and NJPW to get on the list, I contemplated making it number one, but there was another entry that just slightly edged it out . . .

1. Super J Cup 1994

The Super J Cup has been hosted by many different companies over the years, but the first version was promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling on April 16, 1994. The concept was simple: Assemble fourteen of the greatest junior heavyweight wrestlers from a variety of different promotions and place them into a one night, single elimination tournament where they can be the focal point of a show as opposed to their heavier counterparts. I think that most everybody was expecting that the show would work, but I have a hard time believing that anybody realized that it would work nearly as well as it did.

Six different promotions were represented. Jushin Liger, Wild Pegasus, Eddie Guerrero, El Samurai, Dean Malenko, and Shinjiro Ohtani entered the tournament on behalf of the hosting New Japan Pro Wrestling. Michinoku Pro was in the tournament and represented by its founder, Great Sasuke, as well as Super Delfin and TAKA Michinoku. Also involved were Hayabusa and Ricky Fuji, both of the upstart FMW promotion. The one representative of a foreign promotion was Negro Casas, in the brackets on behalf of CMLL. Finally, Masayoshi Motegi of the now-forgotten SPWF and Gedo of WAR entered the tournament . . . which is funny in retrospect given that Gedo is now not just a full-time member of the NJPW roster but also a long-time member of its booking team.

In addition to every wrestler in the tournament being talented and doing very well against his opponent, I have to say that this may also be one of the best-booked tournaments that I have ever seen. The matches that needed to go long and deliver definitely went long and delivered, and the show was paced well in terms of interjecting shorter (yet still well-worked) matches in between the major bouts in order to prevent the crowd from getting burnt out. The tournament was also put together in such a way that numerous individual pieces of talent were elevated beyond the position that they had at the start of the tournament. Gedo, who was essentially a persona non grata, gained traction in NJPW by making it to the semi-finals. Great Sasuke, who already had a reputation in New Japan, became an even bigger star thanks to his consecutive victories over El Samurai and Jushin Liger. And, of course, Wild Pegasus solidified his status as one of the top North American wrestlers competing in Japan when he not only delivered a legitimate five star classic in the ring against Great Sasuke in the finals but also won the whole shebang.

When I first got into the internet wrestling scene and first started poking my nose into Japanese wrestling, I was told that the 1994 Super J Cup was the show that I absolutely had to make my first purchase. I followed that advice, and I have never once regretted it. I have watched it recently, too, and it holds up incredibly well eighteen years later. If you’ve never seen this card before, whether you’re a Japanese wrestling fan or not, you owe it to yourself to watch it. If you’ve seen this card before but have let some time pass, you owe it to yourself to watch it one more time so that you can remember just how great professional wrestling can be. It truly is my favorite tournament in wrestling history.

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Ryan Byers

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