On various occasions in
professional wrestling a
single-elimination
tournament of varying
match types are held, often to determine a
championship or
number-one contendership therein. It has been known for promotions
to use title tournament that are fictitious in nature (that is, the
title may have been simply awarded under the pretext of winning a
tournament elsewhere) - notable ones include the tournaments that
established the
WWE Championship,
the
WWE
Intercontinental Championship, and the
WWE United States
Championship (the latter when it was the NWA United States
Championship).
In tournaments with a fixed bracket, a multiple-disqualification or
a multiple-countout eliminates all parties involved, and those who
are slated to face the winner of such a match simply partakes in a
match with one less opponent (or simply does not wrestle, if no
opponents remain). Tournaments, however, rarely have a final match
where only one such finalist remain, with no others qualifying for
the final round.
Tournaments may employ a single match type throughout, or may vary
match by match or round by round.
Notable tournaments
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
- King of the Ring' is a World Wrestling Entertainment
event held annually in June from 1985 to
2002 (with interruptions in 1990 and 1992). The weeks leading
to the tournament are often filled with qualifying matches, while
only the semifinal and final rounds (and occasionally the
quarterfinal round) making it to the actual King of the
Ring card. The tournament (but not the event) made its return
in April 2006 where all the matches would
be contested as part of the SmackDown! brand.
- The Brawl For All was a shoot (unscripted) contest
held in the World Wrestling Federation that took place from
June 29 to August
24, 1998.
- At the WWF's Survivor Series 1998 pay-per-view, a fourteen-man
tournament billed as Deadly Game was held to decide a new
champion for the vacant WWF
Championship. The Rock won the
tournament and the WWF Championship.
- This was an eight-man tournament to determine a number one
contender for the WWE Championship
at WrestleMania. Held in 2005 and 2006
a few months before that year's WrestleMania.
- This was a seven Diva tournament to
decide who would win the Woman's Championship, which was left
vacant at the 2006 Unforgiven,
when Trish Stratus won the title, but
retired the next night. Lita defeated
Mickie James in a Diva
Lumberjack match at the 2006
Cyber Sunday.
- This eight-man tournament was to crown the first WWE United
States Champion. Eddie Guerrero won,
defeating Chris Benoit in the
finals.
- A fourteen-man tournament was held at this event for the vacant
WWF Championship. The first round actually only had twelve
competitors, but Hulk Hogan and André the Giant were sent right to the
quarterfinals, making this a fourteen-man tournament. Randy Savage won the tournament and the WWF
Championship.
- A sixteen-man tournament held in November 1985.
- An eight man tournament used to determine the #1 contender for
the World Heavyweight Championship following Backlash .
World Championship Wrestling
- A WCW tournament
was held where multiple Cruiserweight Tag Teams fought in an
eight-team tournament for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team
Championships.
- In the NWA/WCW era (which precedes the title's WWE era
mentioned above), there had been 9 tournaments to fill the title
vacancy (not counting the fictitious "tournament" in early 1975
that enabled Harley Race to be billed as
the first champion). All the tournaments were single-elimination.
The finals have been as follows:
- The Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was an
invitational tag team tournament.
- A series of tournaments where wrestlers competed for Bunkhouse
points which would allow them to qualify for the Bunkhouse stampede
finals.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
- A memorial TNA
tag team tournament was held in 2005 in memory for Chris Candido, which featured teams consisting
of one established veteran and one young rookie, representing
Candido's veteran status at a young age and his commitment to
working with and helping younger wrestlers.
- This was a Hardcore
tournament featured in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where a
wrestler must build over 10 points and be 2 points above
the opponent to win the match. Points are awarded for using a
weapon (1 point), and putting an opponent though a table (5
points).
- This was a TNA tournament for the X-Cup, featuring
X Division superstars from around the
world. Super X-Cup Tournaments have been held in
2003 and 2005 .
- This was a TNA tournament-like event, first seen in 2004, where
two four-man teams have 4 singles matches, 2 tag team matches, and
one 8-man tag elimination. The singles matches are worth 1 point,
the tag teams are worth 2 and the Elimination is worth 4. To win
you must have the most points. The Tournament would later become
the World X-Cup.
- With a point based system like the America's
X-Cup, the World X-Cup would see four
teams enter at the same time competing in a variety of matches;
firstly a Gauntlet Battle Royal, where the last two
remaining would earn a point for their team and would compete
against each other for a further two points, next tag team matches
for two points, following this a ladder
match where a member from each team would compete for three
points. from her the team with the lowest score would be removed
allowing one member from each team to compete in an Ultimate X match for the final 3 points.
- This setup starts with a reverse battle royal with 18 wrestlers
trying to be among the first seven to get into the ring over the
top rope. Those seven then compete with traditional TNA battle
royal rules to determine tournament seeding. The final two in the
ring go to pin or submission with the winner getting a bye into the
tournament final. The other six compete in singles matches with the
winners facing each other in a three-way match with the winner
facing the wrestler who received the bye.
Combat Zone Wrestling
- This is a tournament held in the Combat Zone Wrestling promotion. The
annual Best of The Best was originally a junior heavyweight
tournament, which in 2005 was repurposed as an all weight
tournament.
- This is CZW's version of the King of the Deathmatch, 8 superstars
start out, each match has a extreme
variation.
Ring of Honor
- This was a Ring of Honor
tournament held in 2003. Matt Stryker came out as the winner.
- Ring of Honor held this one-night
tournament in 2004, 2005,
2006, and 2007 with the
winners being Bryan Danielson,
Roderick Strong, Delirious, and Chris Hero respectively.
- This tournament was held in 2002 to crown
ROH's first champion. Low Ki emerged victorious.
- In February 2004, A.J. Styles won this
tournament to become the first Pure Champion.
Other promotions
- This is an annual tournament held by the East Coast Wrestling
Association. The eight man tournament is known for
jump-starting the careers of many indy wrestlers, often booking
veterans (ex. Billy Kidman) and
relatively unknown wrestlers (ex. Eric
Matlock) alike.
- On June 30, 2003,
Ross Jordan won a tournament to become
Frontier Wrestling
Alliance's first flyweight
champion.
- Exclusive to the UWA,
the Grand Prix tournament starts out with eight wrestlers, the
winner gets a UWA Canadian
Championship shot at a future event.
- This is an eight-man tournament with extreme violence. Each
match has an extreme variation. Most famous tournaments based on
this include the IWA JAPAN 1995 King Of The Death, and CZW's Tournament Of Death. Also the IWA
Mid South holds an annual KOTDM featuring sixteen men.
- World Tag Team Tournament
- This
was an American Wrestling
Association tournament for their AWA World Tag Team
Championships in Rochester, Minnesota
on October 1, 1989.
- Since 2000, ECCW has held an annual tournament called the ECCW
Pacific Cup, considered to be the Canadian equivalent of such
American tournaments as the East Coast Wrestling Association's
Super 8 Tournament. The first edition of the tournament took place
on November 24, 2000 in New Westminster, with Asian Cougar
defeating Havoc and Tony Kozina in the final; beginning with the
2002 edition (it was not held in 2001), the event was moved closer
to the start of the year and alternated between Surrey and
Vancouver in later years. As well, in 2004 ECCW held the first, and
so far only, tag version of the Pacific Cup.
See also
Wikis
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