"Showtime" Robby Royce Defeated Mentallo
Won: July 28th, 2005 - PCW's Boiling Point! - The LID Nightclub - Winnipeg, Mb
Lost: December 1st, 2005
How: Lost to Rawskillz in a Triple Threat Match involving AWA World Champion Steve Corino
Length: 126 days (14th longest)
PCW fans celebrated Mentallo's long-awaited ascension to the Heavyweight Championship, a feat which made him the only man to that point who had won the PCW Heavyweight, PCW Junior, PCW Canadian & PCW Tag Team titles - the first Grand Slam Champion!
But the former champion, "Showtime" Robby Royce, was not about to go quietly! Buoyed by his "Elite Squad" - Canadian Champion Antonio Scorpio & Tag Team Champions Rawskillz & Donny Dicaprio - Royce still wielded significant power and he declared war on PCW.
Mentallo's reign began, perhaps, more impressively than anyone else's had. In subsequent week's, he defeated "Elite Squad" members Rawskillz and Antonio Scorpio in singles matches and then teamed with Kenny Omega & Chris Raine to defeated Skillz, Dicaprio & Scorpio in a Six Man Tag.
The Elite might have waged an intense war but they were routinely losing the battles to the exceptional Mentallo. But Royce had a few tricks up his sleeve. On March 31st 2005, he was threatened with suspension due to his continual interference. His response, shockingly, was to announce he was quitting PCW effective immediately.
But things were never as simple as they seemed.
The following week, Royce attended PCW's live event at the LID Nightclub as a paying customer, sitting in the crowd and heckling throughout. Finally, the PCW Champion could take no more and he and Royce engaged in a wild brawl. It was finally broken up by officials and security escorted Royce out of the building as he yelled threats of a lawsuit or police action.
On April 14th, PCW announced the first ever Premier Cup tournament, featuring two X-Division Superstars, Chris Sabin & The Amazing Red, would take place in June. Coincidentally, Royce returned and revealed he had a new contract. But PCW's Director Shallcross explained Royce had threatened to sue the company and the venue as a result of his "assault" at the hands of the PCW Heavyweight Champion. Shallcross accused Royce of orchestrating the entire thing just to gain preferred contractual terms.
Royce countered that PCW had begged him to return because he was the only man with experience facing X-Division wrestlers and they needed him to add legitimacy to the Premier Cup Tournament. He claimed his new contract guaranteed him a PCW Championship match but Shallcross pointed out it only guaranteed him an opportunity to earn a title shot.
On April 21st, Royce teamed with Scorpio to face PCW Heavyweight Champion Mentallo & Kenny Omega and should Royce's team win, he'd become number one contender. Royce's team did win, but with help from Mike Angels & "Priceless" Chad Tatum - Tag Sciences Faculty - who joined the Elite Squad.
As number one contender, Royce received his championship match against Mentallo the following week. But due to the constant interference by the Elite, PCW ordered it to be a Lumberjack Match. That prevented the brazen attacks by Royce's cohorts and he was defeated by Mentallo.
On May 5th, PCW held a series of qualifying matches to determine entrants to the Premier Cup Tournament. Elite Squad members Antonio Scorpio & Robby Royce won their matches to qualify. Rawskillz, however, lost his match to young Cisco Satanico. And PCW Champion Mentallo defeated Kenny Omega to qualify.
The wily veteran Royce had a new plan for industry domination and it began on May 12th. On that night, PCW held a special tribute to Top Rope Championship Wrestling (TRCW). It was a very unique development as TRCW had been PCW's main rival throughout 2002 (The War of '02) but in many ways, without TRCW, there would have been no PCW.
It was TRCW that first brought wrestling to The LID Nightclub in 2001 and created a new University-aged audience for indy wrestling in Winnipeg. The promoter, "Beautiful" Bobby Jay had hired Mike Davidson and made him event host and Creative Director. Andrew Shallcross first trained to be a wrestler with TRCW's academy and its where he met Davidson. When Bobby fired Mike, he and Shallcross partnered to start PCW, scooping the LID Nightclub and the majority of the TRCW roster.
When Bobby made the decision to close down TRCW, he held a final event with a 50 man Rumble for the TRCW Heavyweight Championship, a match Bobby won.
May 12th was the fourth anniversary of TRCW's debut at the LID and PCW felt it was only fair to honor the promotion that arguably set the stage for their own inception. As part of the tribute, Bobby decided to come out of retirement to defend the TRCW Championship against Royce. With the help of the Elite Squad, Royce won the match and the title.
The Elite Squad proceeded to assault Bobby. The special tribute event had attracted many former TRCW wrestlers to the LID that night and one of them was TJ Bratt. As he watched the attack on his friend Bobby, he fumed. Finally, he hit the ring himself and, along with Mentallo, saved Bobby from further damage. Bratt was irate and demanded the opportunity to team with Mentallo to challenge Elite members, Rawskillz & Dicapro for their PCW Tag Team Championship.
However, Bratt was true to form and violently turned on Mentallo, uniting with the Elite Squad. The locker room emptied of PCW talent trying to stave off the Elite. When popular duo "Adorable" David Dixon & "Gigolo" JP Kaos ran in, Kaos turned on his partner and alligned with his former Team Impact ally Royce, joining the Elite.
It was a wild scene as more and more people emptied from the locker room but the Elite numbers also grew as former Royce friends and allies reunited with him. When the smoke cleared, the entire PCW roster, including Director Shallcross, was left laying in the ring.
Royce then produced the Impact Championship Wrestling (ICW) Heavyweight Championship belt, reminding fans that he was the current title holder. ICW had formed in the wake of TRCW's demise and promoted live events for about a year. Royce was the champion when they stopped running regular events.
He now held up both the TRCW & ICW Championships and claimed he would "Unify the wrestling business under one champion, me!" And proclaimed "PCW is dead!"
A week later, Royce addressed the PCW audience again and acted like he was the top guy in the company. He pointed out that Mentallo might be the PCW Heavyweight Champion, but he had two belts! And he claimed he's soon regain the PCW title as well. He also disparaged Omega, pointing out that Kenny had not even qualified for the Premier Cup tournament. Royce called him "a loser who's been treading water for a year."
Of course, fellow Elite Squad member Rawskillz had also failed to qualify for the Premier Cup and expressed his outrage over that fact. He and Omega faced each other for a shot at Mentallo and the PCW Championship, but the contest ended in a draw. That put Mentallo in the near-impossible position of defending the title in a triple threat match against both of them!
Remarkably, Mentallo once again prevailed.
By May 26th, there were two final spots in the Premier Cup tournament to fill - the WildCard spot and the spot held by Chris Raine, who had abruptly quit to join Davidson's AWE (Action Wrestling Entertainment). Commissioner Manos order a match between Omega & Skillz to fill Raine's position, a match won by Omega.
As tremendous as the matches with Omega and Mentallo had been, the previously hated Skillz was rapidly gaining respect from the fans. The entire roster was given one last opportunity to quality for the Premier Cup, in the WildCard Rumble. The first two entrants were Royce & Skillz, a development that thrilled Royce. He explained the Elite Squad strategy of combining their forces to eliminate everyone else but the fans loudly encouraged them to fight!
And fight they did as Skillz was determined to take full advantage of this last opportunity to enter the inaugural Premier Cup! Eventually, both Skillz & Royce survived the Rumble and were the final two participants. And Skillz claimed the final spot in the Premier Cup by eliminating his Elite Squad ally.
May 26th was also historic for another reason, and it was a shocker. Shallcross introduced to the crowd, Canadian Wrestling Federation (CWF) owner and President of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Ernie Todd! Jaws dropped as Todd entered the ring and shook Shallcross' hand. They two men had not shared a ring since the short-lived "CWF Invasion" of PCW during the "Unrest of '03". That violent invasion had ended when then-CWF Champion Kenny Omega defeated then-PCW Champion Rawskillz to unify the titles and end the war.
The relationship between Todd and Shallcross had been so acrimonious, no one could imagine a scenario where they'd ever share the same building, let alone shake hands. But PCW had made a business deal with the NWA and, as President, Todd was there to announce the formation of a new championship - the NWA Canadian X Division Championship! The Premier Cup would not just be for a beautiful trophy and bragging rights, it would also crown the first ever champion.
On June 2nd, at PCW's Premier Cup: X-Raided, Kenny Omega defeated Cisco Satanico, Chris Sabin & The Amazing Red en route to winning the tournament, the trophy and becoming the first ever NWA Canadian X Division Champion! Both Royce, the ICW & TRCW Champion, and Mentallo, the PCW Champion had narrow first round losses to world-renowned superstars Sabin & Red, respectively.
Prior to the main event match between Omega and Red, an irate Royce had placed a chair in the ring, sat down and said he wasn't leaving and that the main event was cancelled. As fans boo'ed vociferously, fellow Elite Squad member Rawskillz confronted him. He expressed pride in the tournament and pointed out that it was a great opportunity for his close friend Omega. He asked Royce to leave the ring. Royce refused. Skillz told Royce to leave the ring or he'd make him. Royce still refused. Finally, Rawskillz attacked, beat up Royce and tossed him from the ring to a standing ovation!
The following week, Royce defeated Skillz in a Fans Bring The Weapons match and demanded a title shot against Mentallo. PCW's Director Shallcross refused, calling Royce an "asshole". Royce, Kaos & Kinkade then assaulted him, sending him to the hospital.
PCW then announced their 4th Annual "Beat The Summer Heat" event would feature TNA X Division Champion "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels and AWA World Heavyweight Champion Steve Corino! As part of the deal to sign Corino, the "King of Old School" demanded a match against Royce.
On April 21st 2001, Royce had defeated Corino for the NWA North American Championship but had vacated the title in July when he left the CWF (NWA Affiliate) to join TRCW. Corino had been angry to lose out on the opportunity to avenge the loss when he returned months later for the rematch.
Royce was happy to oblige and challenge for the AWA World Championship, but one week before the event, he threatened to no-show if he did not get a shot at Mentallo's PCW Championship. PCW had little choice but to comply and Mentallo also insisted, wanting to end the challenge of Royce once and for all.
But days beforehand, Mentallo had defended the title in a Fatal Four Way against Omega, Rawskillz & Scorpio - an incredibly taxing match. But as he had repeatedly done throughout his exceptional reign, Mentallo over-came the odds and was victorious. Though he would never admit it, one has to question whether he was 100% healthy from that match when he stepped in the ring with Royce.
It was an historic contest when the two met on July 28th as Mentallo put his PCW Heavyweight Championship on the line against Royce and his TRCW & ICW Championship. It was the match Royce had long fought for with all the accolades on the line.
On this night, Royce finally defeated Mentallo. As he help aloft the PCW title along with the TRCW & ICW titles, he declared himself the "Unified Heavyweight Champion".
The prologue to the story is, one week later Mentallo challenged Christopher Daniels for the TNA World's X Divison Championship, narrowly losing, while Royce engaged in one of the most bloody brawls of all time in his match with Corino for the AWA World's Heavyweight Championship.
Royce lost the match, evening his career record against Corino to 1-1, but delivered such damage to the champion, his AWA title defense days later in Pennsylvania was stopped by the commission due to blood loss from the wounds Royce had inflicted.
Royce continued to label himself the Unified Heavyweight Champion and demanded another AWA World's Championship match against Corino. He'd get his opportunity by the end of the year but in a match involving a man who rapidly became the most popular competitor in the company - Rawskillz!
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