MCW Shamrock Cup Results from 7/13
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.
Tag Team Titles Change Hands
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.
Here’s my preview of the event:
MCW's next event is Dynamo Runs the Show, on August 10 in Joppa, MD. This is a memorial show for Brandon Holman, with the proceeds going to a scholarship fund in his memory.
