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A Tale Of Two Tournaments!

Posted: Jun 22nd 2022 By: CMBurnham

Twenty years ago in August, Justin Lee entered the Southern States Super 8 Tournament held in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. It was the first tournament he participated in and with victories over talent such as Outcast (better known today as Duke Swellington, but then the OCW Light Heavyweight Champion), Krow (better known today as Niles Plonk) and Johnny Rage, Justin was able to win the tournament. It was a victory that he held very precious to his time in wrestling and unfortunately ,the only tournament of its kind that he was victorious in.

Until now.

In 2005 and 2006, Justin participated in the Chris Candido Cup tournament, but never made it past the semi-finals. It seemed that, try as he might, replicating the success of 2002 was never going to be possible. But now, twenty years after that first victory, Lee can add his name to the short list of those who have won the Ryder Herring Memorial Cup Tournament.

An annual event for WFC, the Ryder Cup has been a showcase of several future WFC Champions such as Sam Stackhouse, Dimitri Alexandrov and current WFC Champion Luke Langley. Winning the tournament comes with prestige on its own, but also with the promise of a WFC Hometown Heroes Title opportunity sometime in the future. Which gives Justin the chance to fulfill a dream he couldn't get done last year.

The entire reason Justin Lee came out of retirement in 2020 was because then WFC Hometown Heroes Champion Tim Rockwell goaded him into it. Rockwell and Lee had major feuds, both singles and with their respective tag team partners, from around 2007 through 2011. And Rockwell wanted to prove that he could defeat Lee, even though Lee's wins in that series far outweighed his losses. Lee was never able to defeat Rockwell for the HTH title and the pair eventually patched up their differences. But Lee enjoyed being in the ring again. It was different than it had been his first time. He was more mature. He could look at himself as a leader in the locker room and a coach to several of the young wrestlers. And that role was very ironic given the way this tournament played itself out.

Justin opened the tournament with a victory over Caballero Cartel member Cruze. This was a classic display of power and size vs speed and agility and Cruze dominated much of the contest, thanks in part to the participation of his manager Stevie Caballero. Cruze capitalised with a solid muscle buster, but went for a second one and Lee slithered down the back and executed an O'Connor role to move on to the semi-finals.

Lee's 2nd-round opponent was someone he was very familiar with: Richie Adams. Adams and Lee had been in ComPro together, though Adams was very new at the time. This was a much more seasoned and experienced Adams, fresh off his run as WFC Prime Champion. But again, the experience edge still lay with Justin, especially when dealing with someone who wrestled in a similar style. Adams went to the top for a knee strike, but Justin connected with the 55-MPH-Superkick, followed by another O'Connor roll to make it to the finals.

The finals was where the true gravity of the situation sank in and Justin stood across the ring from one of his prize students: WAH Champion Dan Webber. Webber had fought through both members of HaVen, CPW Champion Tommy Dean and WFC Prime Champion Duke Cornell, to get the finals. In many ways, Webber's presence in the finals was similar to Justin's in the finals of the Southern States Super 8. Weber was young hungry, highly accomplished for his age and experience and a win in this match could propell him the way it did Lee twenty years before. The natural belief would be that one or both men might hold back due to the relationship between them and both knew they could not afford that. They had to go all out. They had to give everything they had because this was single elimination and to fall short at this level because they didn't give it their all would have been a massive disappointment. Justin continued to use the speed and agility as much as he could, though it was obvious that due to many factors (fatigue from 2 previous matches, heat, possibly age) he was not as quick as he had been earlier. Webber focused more on setting Lee up for a submission, targeting the leg and ankle with the Ankle Lock and the back with the Olympic Slam. And it looked like it was all over when Webber caught Lee in the sleeper. But Justin had just enough to flip himself backwards despite being pulled down to the mat, pinning Webber's shoulders to the mat for the 3-count.

It is common to look back with nostalgia over the accomplishments of the past, but now Justin Lee has a current accomplishment to set side-by-side with the other. Two trophies. Two victories. And a good likelihood that he can add a WFC title to his long resume of accomplishments. If Lee was thinking about calling it quits soon, he may want to rethink that as it certainly seems like his career might just be taking off again.