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Blame New Canada for the end of the Oklahoma Triple Crown

Posted: Mar 21st 2007 By: CMBurnham

2006 was the year of gold for Rocco Valentino as he formed the Oklahoma Triple Crown, combining the ComPro Championship (which he was awarded on August 23) with the NWA Oklahoma Title (which he took from John O'Malley on August 25) and completing it with the FCW title (which he won from Michael York in a Title-vs-Title match on October 7). On October 28, Rocco replaced the NWA Oklahoma Title (which he had lost back to O'Malley) with the NWA Universal Title and a stronger, more prestigious Oklahoma Triple Crown was in place, one which would lead Rocco to the #1 position in the Oklafan Top 50. For almost 5 months, Rocco sat on top of these 3 federations as champion, but the only way to go when you're on top is down and Rocco crashed Saturday in a resounding thud, losing 2 of his 3 precious pieces of gold.

The Compound Pro Wrestling webmaster posted a question to the fans about a week prior to the St. Patrick's Day event asking them what matches they would like to see. After a post requesting that he defend his ComPro Title, Rocco responded that he would be glad to defend, but needed a fair determination as to who would ge a title shot. So a poll was put up naming AACW Tag Team Champion AWOL, The Canadian Red Devil, and Romero Contreras as the top 3 contenders for the title shot. As of Saturday morning, votes between AWOL & Devil were tied, so Rocco did the only fair thing: he put up both the ComPro AND FCW Titles in a single fall match. Rocco thought that this much gold could be distracting to the 2 Canadian cohorts and they would end up fighting each other for who got to be top dog. And that seemed to be the case as initial cooperation devolved into oneupsmanship and it looked like Rocco only needed to wait for the appropriate moment to roll one of them up and get the pin. But, as both Canadian grapplers were outside the ring with referee Tommy 3 Count, The Canadian Luchadore made a surprise appearance and DDT'd Rocco. He then scooted out of the ring and watched as his former New Canada co-horts got back in and BOTH covered Rocco for the pin. AWOL claimed the ComPro Title and the Devil took the FCW title as the Luchadore reentered the ring and New Canada stood tall one more time in ComPro. That didn't last long as Rocco's fellow Compound Varsity members, Romero Contreras & NWA Universal X Division Champion Justin Lee came to Rocco's aide and, after a little coaxing from Rocco, ring announcer Mike Iles made a 6-man tag main event: The Compound Varsity vs. New Canada.

With the sides even and with New Canada not having teamed together since October (when they lost a "Losing Team Must Break Up" match to members of The P.I.N.K. Nation), New Canada did not fair so well and, while they were able to isolate Justin Lee for a while, a tag to Rocco and a modified Tope con Hilo resulted in Rocco pinning the Luchadore and gaining a measure of revenge for his earlier loss.

Unfortunately for Rocco, that loss didn't regain him any titles and now he's left with only the NWA Universal Title around his waist. Even that may not last long as he will be defending that against Mark Sterling in April and, if he can come out as champion there, he'll go on to take on the one man who he has yet to face in a 1-on-1 match since coming back to Oklahoma: Brent Albright. Albright, who recently made a statement saying he was interested in pursuing the NWA World title, was present at the St. Patrick's Day event at Will Rogers, scouting his opponent for the eventual match that he hopes will gain him his first Oklahoma gold in 3 1/2 years.