THC climbs ladder to victory
Avillain was revealed, a hero proved he could fly, and an old cowboy returned to make a statement as Pure Power Wrestling’s “TLC” event brought a very packed Fritz Sick Centre to its feet.
The event, the first after a month off for PPW, featured an easy frontrunner for PPW match of the year as Cyanide took one last stab at reclaiming the Cruiserweight title from current champion Travis “The Heat” Copeland. The match was a first-of-its-kind for PPW — a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match.
As to be expected, things went sideways almost immediately. Cyanide made an early bid to put the match away by blindsiding Copeland and scampering up the ladder, only to be chopped down with a chair shot. The two exchanged blows without either gaining the true upper hand until Copeland wrapped a chair around Cyanide’s neck and hit him with a Twist of Fate. In the process, Cyanide’s mask was pulled off, and he was cut in the process.
Cyanide’s manager, “The Black Heart” Vinnie Valentine, said he was disgusted with how the match went down.
“This match was a gong show from the very beginning,” he said, chalking up the loss of Cyanide’s mask to antics intentionally perpetrated by THC.
“The mask? Really, THC?” he asked. “I thought you were a legit wrestler, but obviously you aren’t. You’ll look at any little thing to get to my man, Cyanide.”
It wasn’t until Copeland pulled set up a 14-foot ladder outside the ring and then used it to hurl himself and Cyanide through a table that THC was able to buy enough time to retrieve his title and win the match.
“This match was postponed by one month, and it gave me an extra month to prepare,” said Copeland. “I’ve beaten Cyanide multiple times, and I think I came to this match more prepared than he did.
“As we say here in Pure Power Wrestling — and the Cruiserweight division especially — nobody hits harder than THC. Right there, finishing off Cyanide, I think that just proved it.”
Afterward, Copeland said he knew as soon as he climbed the ladder he was likely going to injure them both.
“I knew as soon as I looked down into the ring that it was going to hurt,” he said. “But it was going to hurt him more, and there was no way he was going to be getting up from that.
“I hit him with a Falcon Arrow. I hit him with a Twist of Fate. I body slammed him onto a chair. I went crashing into him multiple times, but it was never enough to put Cyanide down.
“When I went off that 14-foot ladder, it was because I knew it was going to take something insane to keep Cyanide down.”
It is unclear at the moment whether Cyanide will go back under the mask, after having shown his face to the world.
“We are undecided about that,” Valentine said. “But we are smart people, and we think things through. We don’t make rash judgments on things like that. So we’ll take our time and we’ll let the fans know if and when we are ready. We do things on our time, and our time only.
“Nothing stops Valentine, and nothing stops Cyanide. We are IT. Just watch for the red balloons.”
Copeland denied he intentionally unmasked Cyanide. “When I wrapped that chair around his head, and I went to give him the Twist of Fate, his mask came off because I damnnear popped his head off,” he said. “So it happened. Boo-freakin’-hoo.”
Following the match, Copeland was blindsided by a man many long-time Lethbridge wrestling fans will remember from the days of Power Zone Wrestling — “Cowboy” Bryn Watts.
“About eight or nine years ago, we were rivals,” said Copeland. “We were on opposite sides of the fence, and we were both shooting for the Power Zone Heavyweight Championship. I’m very familiar with him. And I’ve seen him lingering around in the audience the past few months.
“For him to get involved and blindside me — that’s Cowboy. He is one fearsome Cowboy. So we’re going to see what happens.”
In the undercard, Jumpin’ Josh was outsmarted and beaten by Kato; “The Big Sexy Beast” Bradley Graham overpowered “The Red Rocker” T.S. Cutler; “The Tattooed Terminator” Massive Damage superplexed “The Headline” Shaun Martens into oblivion; Sydney Steele was awarded a victory over “The All-American” Steve Rivers after interference from Cyanide resulted in him taking a chair shot; and “Cougar Meat” Kyle Sebastian scored a win against The Irishman after clubbing him with the Heavyweight championship belt and then landing a plus-size Pantydropper to finish him off.
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