THE TOURNAMENT TO END ALL TOURNAMENTS: Bracket XXII (Matches 169-176)

Pat O'Connor VS The Tonga Kid (aka Tama)

There's a DVD called The History Of The World Heavyweight Championship which has a two out of three falls match from 1961 between Pat O'Connor and Buddy Rogers for the NWA World Title.  This was the best match on the entire collection.  I've never been much of a fan of matches prior to Wrestlemania III before that, but watching this bout showed me the brilliant ring psychology at work, and the sheer skills of the two men involved.  Rogers cut such a great heel promo at the end of it.  Point is, Pat O'Connor was awesome as fuck.  And though The Tonga Kid is the older brother of Rikishi and Umaga, he didn't really do much during his career, so O'Connor would be able to outwrestle him, I feel.  Pat in 7:45.

Chris Sabin VS Davari

Davari became really good in TNA, throwing a stranglehold on the X-Division for awhile.  However, Chris Sabin has won the X-Division title seven times and had a forgettable three week stint as world champion.  Sabin gets the edge in what would be a classic.

Raymond Rougeau VS The Berzerker

If it was Jaques Rougeau, maybe he could take The Berzerker, but Ray has no chance.  This motherfucker is crazy, and an "All-American [French Canadian] Boy [30-something man at the time the song was written]" best get out the way.  Huss huss in short order.

Lash LeRoux VS Jesse Dalton (No, not ODB. Ray Gordy; aka Jesse from Jesse & Festus)

The fact I had to go to such great lengths to explain who Jesse was goes to show how useless he kinda was.  Lash LeRoux was at least halfway decent.  The Red One in about five minutes.

New Jack VS Gene Kiniski

What.  The.  FUCK.  THIS is the mind-blowing combination I was looking for when I made these crazy brackets.  Gene Kiniski came within a whisker of winning ALL THREE world championships in the 1960' (he beat Gagne for the AWA title in '61, beat Thez for the NWA title in '66, and in '64 alleges to have pinned Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF title at MSG, but only got a two count; he still walked out with the belt, claiming he was the "real" champion).  That's three of the best of all time, and he took gold off two of them in the same decade when they all had seven year title reigns.

Okay, now contrast that with New Jack, the man who has flat knuckles from "Hittin' Bitches", has four justifiable homicides on his record (that's on the real), would beat you with any object he could find and was always jumping off a fucking balcony through four or five tables just to murder your ass, all while Dr. Dre & Ice Cube's "Natural Born Killa" plays on a loop during the 20-minute blood bath.  (Trust me, even if there's no speakers in a 10-mile radius, the song would permeate from the fucking earth.  It's like that.)

Okay, BOOK THAT MATCH.  A man who has one of the most impressive resumes in wrestling history against a guy who simply does not give a fuck.  The only way this can end (since the first round is just straight one-on-one no-gimmick matches) is Kiniski winning by disqualification.  Oh, best believe, the guy wrestled as a heel NWA champion, so he'd have no problem returning fire on New Jack, but New Jack would flip the fuck out first and use some kinda international object to prematurely end the match.

Alex "The Pug" Porteau VS Consequences Creed (aka Xavier Woods)

"The Pug" was a mat wrestling machine, but Creed could get it done on both sides of the ball, on the mat and in the air.  Plus, what the fuck kinda nickname is "Pug" anyway?

Scotty Riggs VS Rob Terry

The Big Brit's gonna send this American Male air mail special to Jobbsville, population Scotty Riggs.

"Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig VS Konnan

Hey, Konnan was underrated as a mofo, but we're talking Mr. Perfect here.  Two-time Intercontinental champion back when that meant something and AWA World Champion in the 80's (when...admittedly that meant less).  These two probably had a few go-rounds in WCW circa 1998 (if I remember correctly, The West Texas Rednecks were beefing with The Philthy Animals & The No Limit Soldiers (yes, Master P), so yeah, they had to have fought at some point), and I can't really see Konnan coming out on top clean.  So yeah, expect this to go twelve to thirteen crisp minutes, with both men showing they still got it.


RECAP:

Pat O'Connor defeats The Tonga Kid
Chris Sabin defeats Davari
The Berzerker defeats Raymond Rougeau
Lash LeRoux defeats Jesse
Gene Kiniski defeats New Jack (sadly)
Consequences Creed defeats Alex Porteau
Rob Terry defeats Scotty Riggs
Mr. Perfect defeats Konnan

Come on back for brackets XXIII!