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R.I.P. SRPW: Jan 3, 2003-Aug 4, 2006

Posted: Aug 6th 2006 By: CMBurnham

Steel Rage Pro Wrestling ended it's 3+ years of existence Friday night when P.I.N.K. Nation defeated Team SRPW in a 10-man War Games style match.

SRPW should have suspected things were going to go badly when Luc Lapointe (who was on Team SRPW) and Beau Dalton (who was a member of P.I.N.K. Nation) teamed up in AACW to take the Tag Team Titles from Trailer Park Trash. Plots were already in place to bring about the end of SRPW from the inside, but SRPW owner Sarah Harmon and other members of Team SRPW were none the wiser.

Team SRPW tried to gain a psychological edge before the match when AACW Mid-American Light Heavyweight Champion Dexter Hardaway attacked SRPW X Division Champion Ray Martinez , tied him up in the ring and demanded that he be reinstated. After taking 2 stunners, Ray gave in to the demands. Dexter then announced the surprise 5th member of Team SRPW: former SRPW Hardcore Champion Big Daddy Moore. But all of this was for naught, as P.I.N.K. Nation replaced Paul Linam with former SRPW Champion Shane Morbid and the sides entered battle.

The match was bloody and violent. Held under War Games-style rules, each team entered 1 member at a time at 2 minute intervals. After all members of both teams were in the cage, eliminations could begin. Ray Martinez was so confident about his victory that he began to try and take the ring apart while the match was going on, perhaps so he could more quickly leave for Cancun as he had announced he would do after winning.

And that confidence in victory wasn't misplaced. Ultimately, the match came down to SRPW Tag Team Champion Beau Dalton representing P.I.N.K. Nation and Luc Lapointe & Dexter Hardaway, representing Team SRPW. It looked like an easy win for SRPW, when Luc attacked Dexter. Joining with Beau, the 2 of them tied Dexter to the side of the cage, reminiscent of the way Raven was tied to the cage by Tommy Dreamer in ECW. Beau than applied a standing arm-bar to Luc, who "tapped out" and P.I.N.K. Nation was victorious.

Many former SRPW personalities turned out for this show to show their support for the company. NWA Oklahoma & IZW Cruiserweight Champion John O'Malley, who had held the SRPW Hardcore Title back in 2003 & 2004, competed in a Triple Threat Match against Cade Sydal and K. C. Brandon Bishop & Mitch Carter wrestled each other in their last match in the Tulsa area. Former SRPW Women's Champion Leather was seen in the locker room. And 2 former SRPW ring announcers were present. In the stands was Rick Vyper, who will be beginning a new morning DJ job in Missouri soon. And Slimy Sam Slither, ring announcer for SRPW in 2003, returned to contribute one last time before the main event.

At the time of its closing, it was the longest regularly run federation continually owned by the same person in the state of Oklahoma. With its passing, the Tulsa area is without a regularly run wrestling federation for the first time in almost 10 years.