The 23rd Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup Tournament took place
Saturday night in Joppa, MD. There was no intermission
tonight, and the show started at 7:30 p.m. Even with no
intermission, the finals of the Shamrock Cup didn't start
until just after 10 p.m.
In the first match, MCW Tag Team Champions Capital
Punishment (Tim Spriggs & Spencer Slade) defended their
titles against The Hype (Myron Malone & Khaz Lee). Big AC
and Cash Carter were ringside in support of the champions
and were quite active in their interference. At one point,
Big AC and Spencer Slade pulled referee Jason Tano out of
the ring to prevent a 3-count. The ref was out on the floor
ringside. Cash Carter took one of the tag team belts into
the ring and handed it to Spriggs as he stood behind a
member of The Hype holding them up. Before Spriggs could do
anything, Ken Dixon came to the ring, hit Spriggs with a low
blow from behind, and then clocked Cash Carter with the
belt. Senior MCW Referee Mike Kehner came to the ring, and
after a couple of near falls back and forth for each team,
The Hype won the match to become the new MCW Tag Team
Champions. After the match, Malone and Lee came out to the
barriers, sat on separate corners, and led the fans in
chants. They then exited through the crowd, high-fiving fans
as they left.
Qualifying Matches
After that match, the Shamrock Cup Qualifiers started. Up
first was Brandon Scott against LSG. It was a hard-fought
match, and LSG notched the win as he grabbed the ropes with
Scott underneath him for the pin. In the next qualifying
match, Alex Divine punched his ticket to the finals by
defeating Jet Black. Myles Hawkins defeated Dustin Waller in
the fourth qualifier. Ichiban got the win over Fancy Ryan
Clancy (who replaced the injured Jordan Oliver) in the fifth
qualifying match.
The final qualifying match featured The Mecca (Brian
Johnson) against Chris Slade. Mecca did his usual pre-match
rant—he's always great on the microphone. The match went
back and forth with Mecca looking to exploit his advantage a
few times in ways that are normal for him—bending the rules
and doing things like taking the turnbuckle pad off to use
the exposed turnbuckle to throw an opponent against. Sunday
night, multiple times when he was about to do something to
break the rules, Hellfire McGuire popped up on the video
screen to chide him not to do it. Finally, McGuire came out
to the stage, which was distraction enough for Slade to get
the win.
A Surprise Return
After that, Tony Macko came to the ring along with other
members of the Dolomac Dojo. He complained about not being
given the chance to participate in the Shamrock Cup. As he
rambled on, music hit and graphics for "Velveteen Dream"
showed up on the screen. He is a former WWE star who started
at MCW. I'll have more on his appearance later.
Other Matches
The next match pitted Joe Keys against Kekoa. Keys had his
toadies, the Hustlers, at ringside, and they did what they
could to interfere. Keys ultimately got the win.
A tag team match after that pitted the Ace of Space Academy
(MSG & Colton Charles) against the Zukkos. Ace of Space
Academy got the win over Ryan and Ronnie Zukko.
The next match was Demarcus Kane (w/Gia Scott) defending the
MCW Heavyweight Championship against Kaun. This was a very
physical match. At one point, Kaun was out on the floor,
walked around, and grabbed Gia Scott by the hair into the
ring, enraging Kane. He went after Kaun in the ring, and
Scott escaped back to the floor. Later, Joe Keys and the
Hustlers came out to interfere and started working over both
competitors. A double disqualification ended the match, with
Kane retaining. Keys paraded around the ring holding the
belt over his head. After that, Keys brought a plastic chair
from ringside into the ring and attempted to sit down on it,
but it collapsed under his weight, dropping him on his
derriere. This would appear to set up a future feud between
Keys and Kane.
Shamrock Cup Finals
The final of the Shamrock Cup was a six-man elimination
match with LSG, Alex Divine, Ichiban, Myles Hawkins, Chris
Slade, and defending champion Miami Mike Walker (w/Hellfire
McGuire). Before the match, fans were going back and forth
chanting for Hawkins and Walker. The pair were the first two
to start out in the ring. Chris Slade was the first
competitor eliminated after being pinned by Myles Hawkins.
After that, Alex Divine pinned Hawkins. After Hawkins
refused to shake hands with Divine, it appeared he was
leaving the ring, but he turned around and started beating
up Divine. Divine was weakened by the beating to the point
that LSG got an easy pin to eliminate him. Look for Hawkins
and Divine to be in a program together in the future.
There was a commotion at ringside after that when someone
came from the crowd and started beating up Hellfire McGuire
and then Miami Mike. This person was bald, clean-shaven, and
wearing one of the new Miami Mike t-shirts. He moved around
at ringside just like Mecca, and when he got into the ring,
it was obvious that it really was Mecca, who had shaved his
beard off after his match with Chris Slade. (More on Mecca
and disguises later.) Mecca vs. Miami Mike appears to be
another future storyline for MCW. LSG got another pin
against a weakened opponent and eliminated Miami Mike
Walker.
At this point, it was down to the final two competitors—
Ichiban and LSG. The other two members of Ace of Space
Academy ran in and attacked Ichiban. Most of the locker room
ran out to try to clear Ace of Space from the ring. The
brawling spilled out to ringside and was still flaring up
when MCW General Manager Phil Stamper walked out on stage on
crutches (after he had surgery to repair a torn ACL within
the past couple of weeks). He ordered everyone but LSG and
Ichiban out of the ring and ringside. The match continued,
and after a few minutes of hard fighting, Ichiban won.
