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Making History pt 1: Riley Grinn wins the 2024 Ryder Herring Memorial Cup Tournament

Posted: Jun 8th 2024 By: CMBurnham

Sometimes talent surprises you in the ring. The show astonishing accomplishment at young ages. They get national attention very early in their career. All the other things that most wrestlers take months or years to do, they achieve in so much less times.

Riley Grinn was one of those people.

Grinn began training as a high school student and made his debut last year in the Freedom Rings Rumble. In that year's worth of time, Grinn went on to be voted the Oklafan.com Fresh Face of the Year, an award held by many other wrestlers who went to become tremendous stars in their own right. Grinn looked to prove himself each time he set foot in the ring, whether it was to his opponent or to his trainer, Tommy Dean. He wanted to show the fans that he could be as good or better than anyone else on any roster he was on.

And in many people's eyes, he did that. Including the eyes of History In the Making.

At the May WFC event in Broken Arrow, Grinn was seen on the video screen in the car with WFC Hometown Heroes Champion & TIW Champion Wesley Crane, another man instrumental in his training. He was passed out in the front seat and it was unclear exactly what had happened, but obviously Crane had had something to do with that.

But Grinn showed no apparent ill effects from that in June on the first of a two-night event for WFC as he was one of the entrants in the annual Ryder Herring Memorial Cup Tournament. Grinn's path to the finals saw him face off in a first round match against Cade Fite. Fite, with is amateur background in wrestling along with MMA and martial arts experience, seemed like would be favourite in the match. But Fite indulged himself too long after positioning Grinn for a piledriver, pointing to the Ryder Cup trophy and declaring to everyone that he would win it. Grinn backdropped Fite out of the piledriver possibility and then connected with a spear for the victory to advance to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals saw Grinn taking on Zac Royal. But Zac did not come to the ring by himself. WFC Prime champion Alex Royal joined him at ringside, but more interestingly, Wesley Crane came to sit in the crowd and observe. But even with that numbers advantage, Royal could not pick up the victory and once again a spear put Royal on his back as Grinn walked away with his ticket punched to the finals.

That final match would see Grinn face off against his mentor Tommy Dean. Dean had secured victories over Tyler Midas in the quarter-finals and CPW 918 Champion Cappuccino Jones in the semi-finals. But the teacher-student mentality was hard at play but Grinn kept up, matching everything that his mentor brought out. The match was very even but the main turning point occurred when the entirety of HIM (Crane, both Royals, and then-WFC Champion Tim Rockwell) came and began to surround the ring. Dean and Grinn went from opponents in the ring to standing back-to-back in preparation for whatever was about to happen and it appeared that for the first time in its existence, there might be no winner in the Ryder Cup Tournament. Grinn appeared to take the offencive, hitting the ropes to build up momentum in preparation for what appeared to be a plancha onto one of the HIM members....but instead, he turned a sudden about face and speared Tommy Dean, pinning him and winning the tournament.

And at that point, the curtain was pulled fully back on why HIM was so interested in this. Because Wesley Crane went out, grabbed the Ryder Cup trophy and presented it to Grinn, welcoming him as the latest member of HIM. Grinn had done exactly what was intended. Now, Crane did not have to worry about an unexpected cash-in from another member of the WFC roster. He had a back-up. He had control of that option. And HIM stood proudly in the ring with ALL the singles championships AND the Ryder Cup Trophy. After the obligatory photo moment, HIM turned their attention to Tommy Dean, putting their collective boots to him until current WFC Champion Thrash, Wrangler Rhett, Cappuccino Jones and Dan Webber all came to the ring to chase them off.

Sometimes people achieve greatness by hard work. Sometimes people take shortcuts. Grinn appears to have combined aspects of both. He is now a member of the top dominating faction in WFC. But he has made an enemy in his teacher, Tommy Dean. And while Dean may have taught Grinn everything Grinn knows, odds are he didn't teach Grinn everything Dean knows.