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Brand New Belt, Brand New Champ...And Brand New Champ...And Two-Time Champ.

Posted: Nov 22nd 2012 By: CMBurnham

Tennis can be said to be a very tiresome sport, as the sole purpose seems to circulate around lobbing a ball from one side of the court to the other and then back again. Rinse and repeat.

The ComPro Heavyweight Title seems to be doing its best tennis ball impression, as it bounced back and forth amongst 5 men in the course of a month and a half. And in almost all those title changes, controversy ensued.

October 1st saw Brandon Walker defend the ComPro Title against Brian Lakewood. This was at a fundraiser for Memorial High School, where Lakewood works as a football coach, so the home field advantage was obviously his. Lakewood pushed the champion hard, assaulting him with multiple high impact moves. But the end of the match came almost out of nowhere as Lakewood rolled Walker up in a small package and referee Chance Snodgrass counted 3. Before Snodgrass could announce the winner, Walker's anger took over and he knocked Snodgrass out. But Lakewood impaled Walker with a DDT and stood proud in the middle of the ring. Ring announcer C. M. Burnham told the crowd that it appeared there was a new champion. And that was indeed the appearance, but not quite the end of the situation.

Walker filed an immediate protest with ComPro Commissioner Mike Iles, citing that Lakewood's shoulders were actually the ones touching the mat in the pin. And video footage revealed that this may indeed have been the case...but that if so, Walker's shoulders were ALSO on the mat. Iles deliberated on this situation for over a month, but at the November 11th event in Owasso, he had no choice, but to announce to the crowd that the title was being held up. Given the high contention for the title and the number of people vying for it, instead of holding a tournament, he settled on a 6-Pack Elimination match for ComPro's 6th anniversary event on November 17th in Tulsa.

One of the people who was supposed to participate in that match was 2-time ComPro Champion Tim Rockwell, but he was attacked backstage at the Owasso event by Dutch Hagen and rendered unable to compete. So Mike Iles now had an additional problem on his hands: who would be a suitable replacement for Rockwell?

That answer was revealed, as well as the other 5 competitors, when the time for the main event arrived this past Saturday. Mike Iles came to the ring and revealed a brand new ComPro Heavyweight Title belt. And then the contestants began to file to the ring: Michael York, the holder of the Any Time/ Any Title briefcase; Brandon Walker, the last person to clearly be the ComPro Champion; Dutch Hagen; the man who many believed cost Tim Rockwell the ComPro Title and a former ComPro Champion; Tim Rockwell, who feuded with Rockwell and Walker for the title during the first half of 2012; Brian Lakewood, the man who last possessed the belt and was recognised as champion....

....and then, in a surprise announcement that sent Hagen and his manager into a near conniption, the return of former ComPro Champion, "Mr. Endurance" Sugar Shane Morbid, who replaced Rockwell in the match!

The rules were simple. Two men started, the other four stood on the outside of the ring waiting to be tagged in. When a contestant was eliminated, anyone could step in and take his place. The issues were deep: CRD and York had an issue, Hagen and Morbid had a long-standing issue, Lakewood & Walker wanted what each believed to be their title back, plus Walker still didn't care for the Devil. So not matter who was in the ring, bad things were going to happen. The first elimination was a bit of a surprise as Lakewood hit the Implant DDT on Dutch Hagen, forcing him out of contention. UWE Champion Brandon Walker put Lakewood out with a Uranagi Suplex, gaining a bit of revenge for the match at Memorial and moving a step closer to once again being a dual champion. Richard Pierce reappeared shortly after that, causing referee Mark Wilson to be distracted and Dutch Hagen was able to slide back into the ring and hit Shane Morbid with Pierce's golf club. Michael York was then able to score the pin on Morbid and the match was down to 3.

After much struggling, The Canadian Red Devil was able to catch Walker in a Sunset Flip and put him away. But Walker wouldn't go quietly, dragging the Devil outside of the ring and throwing him into the annouce table, scattering Burnham, co-ring annoucer Claire Watson, the new title belt, the ring bell and various other bits of important material all the way over to the ring entrance area. This left the Devil almost unconscious on the outside and Mark Wilson made the 10-count. Normally, a title could not change hands on a Countout, but since the title was vacant, York's victory resulted in him winning the Heavyweight Title. Wilson called for the bell, but before Burnham or Watson could retrieve it, Commissioner Iles appeared.

Iles took the microphone and told York that he had indeed won the match, but that he was not content to allow the 6th anniversary show to end with a Countout in the main event. So he was ordering York to immediately defend the title against the Devil in a No DQ Match. York took right to this, as he and the Devil went outside and into the crowd, scattering chairs and fans with their brawling. Irish whips into sections of the crowd and bodyslams on steel were all part of that No DQ environment. When the two men finally made it back into the ring, York grabbed the Devil by the throat and prepared to give him a chokeslam, but the Devil reversed it and turned into a Crippler Crossface. York was forced to tap out and finally, after years of being the loyal mid-card guy who never got the big break, The Canadian Red Devil stood as the ComPro Heavyweight Champion.

The fans were thrilled and it seemed that even Michael York was touched, as he stood in the ring and raised the Devil's hand in seeming appreciation. Btu as he did so, he turned Devil away from Ignition, who was lurking on the outside of the ring. And Igntion slid in, hitting the Devil in the back with the Any Time/Any Title briefcase. York then handed the briefcase to Mark Wilson, who once again called for the bell. York had finally cashed in on this opportunity and one devestating chokeslam later, Michael York could say that he had won the ComPro title twice in one day.

The Canadian Red Devil never even got to put the title belt around his waist.

Mike Iles had to stand by and watch this. Furious though he was, there was nothing illegal about anything that York and Ignition did after York cashed in the briefcase. But Iles announced that York would be making a title defence against the Canadian Red Devil on December 15th in Sperry. One of those two men will walk away with the greatest early Christmas present they've had. The other will taste defeat (and possibly coal) and their holiday spirits may be crushed.