The MECCA ChallengeThe MECCA Challenge is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, broadcast annually in April by the professional wrestling promotion MECCA. It is considered the company's annual marquee event, and boasts some of its highest attendance and biggest matches throughout its history. The first event took place on April 30, 2005, from the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The event derived its name from the eponymous match which takes place yearly on the card. |
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HistoryBy early 2005, MECCA was off and running. Its flagship show, Go Time was airing on local stations throughout the Midwest and they successfully transitioned into RCW's PPV spot in February and held their first bi-monthly special event in March. All of these events were leading toward the first annual MECCA Challenge, which was built as the company's marquee event. The MECCA Challenge, the eponymous match of the event, was created as a way to settle the most bitter feuds with modified rules that gave the participants more leeway. Closed fists and chokes were allowed, but outside interference or foreign objects were prohibited. There would also be no rope breaks, which meant the ropes were in play for all participants. The only way to win would be by knockout or submission. The MECCA ChallengeBackgroundThe MECCA Challenge was the second pay-per-view broadcast live by MECCA. It took place at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio, on April 30, 2005. The event was released on DVD via the MECCA website several weeks later. Its theme song was "Bpth Eyes Closed" by Soul Casket. When the company began, Nykk quickly developed a rivalry with fellow Midwest wrestler CM Punk, who had made a name for himself in Ring of Honor, among other places. They met on the second episode of Go Time, with Nykk picking up the win. Punk could not let this go, and set out to destroy Nykk. First, he used his protege Eddie Crowe, the brother of Jay Crowe, as a tool to turn Nykk's lifelong friends The Pyro Twins against him. Along with Trent Acid, they formed the group SELF and made Nykk's life miserable. When MECCA authority Katie Piehl announced the creation of the MECCA Championship, which would go to the winner of a five-man Round Robin Title Challenge, Nykk and Punk were two of the contenders named. After Melee, their match-up was the only one left in the tournament and both men were tied with a 2-1 record, which meant their match would decide the first champion. They were signed to compete in the main event at the MECCA Challenge and their match would be held under MECCA Challenge rules. On the very first episode of Go Time, Lisa Letty was awarded the MECCA Ladies' Championsip after a Turmoil Match. After the match, she was attacked by the woman she defeated, her mentor LuFisto. LuFisto had grown jealous of just how good her protege had gotten in a short time, and set out to win the title from her. In a non-title match, a masked woman helped out LuFisto and was eventually unmasked as former WWE diva Gail Kim. LuFisto proclaimed their alliance The Dangerous Liaison. Despite this, Lisa managed to retain her title against LuFisto at Bloody Valentine and against Kim at Melee. Desperate to beat Lisa, LuFisto challenged her to one more title match at the MECCA Challenge, proposing that it be in her kind of match, a Hardcore Match. The next week on Go Time, Lisa accepted the challenge. The International Invitational Tag Team Tournament to decide the MECCA Tag Team Championship would also come to a head at the MECCA Challenge. The UK Wrecking Crew were undefeated in the tournament, having won the upper brackets. However, one of the teams representing the United States, Reckless Abandon had won their way back into contention by winning the lower brackets. The two teams were set to meet on April 30 with the tag titles at stake. Results
The MECCA Challenge IIBackgroundThe MECCA Challenge II was the seventh pay-per-view produced by MECCA and broadcast live on all major cable companies. It once again emanated from the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio, and took place on April 29, 2006. Its theme song was "Lullabye" by Soul Casket. In early 2006, Kevin Stone was on a tear as MECCA Champion and it looked as though no one could stop him. But a young blue chipper named Eddie Crowe was ready to try. On the February 22 episode of Go Time, he won a Supernova Spectacle for the right to face the champion at the MECCA Challenge. He and Stone clashed many times over the next two months, such as an incident where Stone claimed he could beat any two men Eddie sent against him. Eddie chose Nykk and Delirious to face the champ in a Handicap Match. During the match, Delirious hit several of Eddie's moves, leading to Stone's defeat. He unmasked after the match to reveal it was Eddie all along. However, this backfired on Eddie two weeks later when Stone was caught in the back, circled by many Delirii. Stone punched one of them out, guessing correctly which one was Eddie under a mask, and beat him down until officials intervened. In 2005, The UK Wrecking Crew and The Pyro Twins met in the finals of the International Invitational Tag Team Tournament. The UKWC came out on top, but recognized the Pyro Twins as their biggest threat. Nathans and Fletcher would go on to win the tournament and the MECCA Tag Team Championship. The Pyro Twins sought a rematch, even going so far as to blow up the UKWC's tournament trophy, but Nathans and Fletcher dodged them at every chance while still playing mind games with them. The Pyro Twins retaliated by costing the UKWC the tag belts, though Nathans and Fletcher quickly won them back. In turn, they joined Eddie Crowe's new version of SELF after the departure of CM Punk, only to turn on Eddie at the first opportunity and put him out of action. They even went so far as to get a restraining order against the Pyro Twins, hiring their own security force called the Grenadiers to prevent Jay and Dusty from being able to touch them. Jay and Dusty eventually got them in a six-man tag match at Melee in early 2006, teaming with Eddie against the UKWC and Kevin Stone. However, Jay and Dusty ended the night with a taste of their own medicine, being lit on fire by Stone and the UKWC. When they were ready to return to action, Katie Piehl booked them against the UKWC for the tag titles at the MECCA Challenge on April 29. In early 2006, Nykk was in the midst of a feud with Charlie Haas. Haas had beaten Nykk at Snowed In, and Nykk returned the favor by teaming with Lisa Letty against Haas and Mrs. Jackie at Bloody Valentine and getting the win. But Nykk wanted Haas one on one again, and they were slated to meet at the MECCA Challenge in its eponymous match. But a few weeks before the show, Haas showed up on WWE Monday Night Raw, revealing he had signed another contract with them despite having committed to future MECCA dates. The match at the MECCA Challenge became not just about being the better wrestler, but company pride was on the line as well, with Nykk wanting to prove that anyone from their company could stack up to the WWE roster. Results
The MECCA Challenge IIIBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 28, 2007, and was presented by MECCA. It emanated from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York. The event theme song was "Weapon of Choice" by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. In early 2007, the pro wrestling loyalists of MECCA were at war with the sports entertainment-oriented group The David Caldwell Project for control of MECCA's future direction. One of the company's best wrestlers, Bryan Danielson had betrayed MECCA and sided with company co-owner David Caldwell. Caldwell and his group caused problems for Katie Piehl and MECCA's wrestlers all throughout the winter, but things were coming to a head at the MECCA Challenge. Piehl challenged Caldwell to an Ultimate MECCA Challenge Match for complete control of the company, and Caldwell agreed. His David Caldwell Project would go up against Katie's team of Kevin Stone, Low Ki, Tag Team Champions The Killer Kanines, and Nykk, the team captain. Caldwell's contingent consisted of Danielson, Huh, Jamie Chan, and The CDT. A couple of weeks before the event, Caldwell suspended Nykk for two weeks for failing to notify MECCA of his leave of absence back in the fall. In order to make sure he was able to compete at the event, Katie Piehl agreed to sign over power to Nykk for one night only. On the April 25 episode of Go Time, The David Caldwell Project won a Best of Three Series against Team MECCA to be the team to send a man in first during the Ultimate MECCA Challenge. Throughout his near one year reign as MECCA Champion, Eddie Crowe's toughest challenge and the one man he had never been able to beat was Ronin Fox. They first met for the title on the June 7, 2006 episode of Go Time, where Eddie was disqualified due to interference from his brother Jay Crowe. Fox was able to win another shot at the belt and met Eddie once again at Scared Stiff later that year, but the match was thrown out due to interference from The Pyro Twins, The UK Wrecking Crew, and Fox's brother Cynric. However, Fox would go on to win the Six Man Apocalypse match at Bloody Valentine, earning him a shot at the World Champion at the MECCA Challenge III. The tournament finals of the Women's World Cup would also be held at the MECCA Challenge. Representing Canada would be Gail Kim. After losing in the first round of the upper brackets to Japan's Mariko Yoshida, Kim fought her way back through the lower brackets, beating the USA's Sara Del Rey in the finals. Meanwhile, the Ireland representative Rebecca Knox was the winner of the upper brackets, last eliminating Del Rey in the finals. Kim and Knox were signed to meet at the MECCA Challenge with the Women's World Cup trophy on the line. But they were not the only ladies who were slated to see action. After trying for several weeks to win the MECCA Ladies' Championship from Shadow, Kelly Schweickart succeeded on the February 14, 2007 episode of Go Time when she won a Triangle Match, pinning LuFisto to win. Incensed at the loss and refusing to call it such due to not being pinned, Shadow wanted a rematch with Kelly for the belt. After pinning Kelly in a tag team match on the March 28 edition of Go Time, she was granted her title rematch at the MECCA Challenge.
The MECCA Challenge IVBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 26, 2008, from the Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. At Ignition at the start of 2008, Nykk stopped the downward spiral of The House of Lords when he won the MECCA World Heavyweight Championship from Bryan Danielson, bringing it back into the fold. Try as she might, MECCA executor Katie Piehl could not get the title off of him, and Nykk tightened his grip by unifying the title with the RCW Championship at Bloody Valentine. However, later in the night was the Six Man Apocalypse match, which was won by Anubis, earning him a title shot at the MECCA Challenge. Anubis had been on a roll recently, and Nykk quickly realized how big a threat he was. For weeks, he sent his guys against Anubis in attempt to wear him down and distract him before their big title match. But Anubis wasn't having any of it, as he teamed with Austin Lee to defeat Nykk and Ronin Fox on the April 23 episode of Go Time. In December 2007, after losing a Best of Five Series to Katie Piehl's MECCA loyalists, Nykk decided to consolidate the House of Lords, which involved firing a number of members. One who was let go was Cynric, brother of Ronin Fox. Cynric didn't take kindly to this, and attacked Nykk over the course of several weeks until Nykk and Fox finally got the jump on him in January. Fox severed his ties with his brother once and for all by caving his skull in with a chair and reaffirming his loyalty to the House of Lords. As a result, Cynric sought a match with his brother and they met in their hometown of Dayton at Bloody Valentine in February. Fox won the match after it turned into a fight, but he was still not satisfied. In front of their own mother, who was at ringside, Fox severely injured Cynric's neck in an attack so brutal that even Nykk had to restrain his tag team partner. Cynric appeared on the March 5 episode of Go Time to challenge Fox to a MECCA Challenge match at the MECCA Challenge, which Fox accepted. On the April 2 episode, Cynric announced his retirement as a wrestler and that his match at the MECCA Challenge would be his last. In the fall of 2007, The Briscoes made their MECCA debut by immediately going after the top tag team in the company, The Pyro Twins. The Briscoes' statement is that they were here to be Tag Team Champions, and in doing so made enemies of the Pyro Twins and the House of Lords. The Briscoes quickly rose through the ranks with impressive wins, but lost their initial encounter with the Pyro Twins at Scared Stiff. The feud continued at No Regrets in a Three Way Dance for the Tag Team Titles also involving champions Matt Sydal and Delirious, and at End of the Line where they teamed with Daizee Haze against the Pyro Twins and Lisa Letty, but the Briscoes failed to beat the Pyro Twins or win the belts. Nykk and Ronin Fox would go on to win the titles from Sydal and Delirious, and the Briscoes' attention shifted to them. However, they failed to beat Nykk and Fox for the titles because of interference from the Pyro Twins, leading to another match at Ignition. The Briscoes finally managed to beat their rivals, and on the February 27 episode of Go Time, pinned Nykk and Fox to win the tag titles. Now it was the Pyro Twins chasing after the Briscoes for a title shot. They won that shot in a Tag Team Gauntlet at Melee. The rubber match was quickly signed between the Briscoes and the Pyro Twins for the MECCA Challenge, with the titles on the line.
The MECCA Challenge VBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 25, 2009. As it was the fifth annual event, it returned to the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The event theme song was "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" by The Offspring, who also performed at the event itself. In the spring of 2009, Anubis was approaching one year as champion. He had beaten every challenger put in front of him, and what's more, his shoulders had not been pinned to the mat and had not been made to submit in any kind of match since he won the title. But at Bloody Valentine, his opponent for the MECCA Challenge was set when Eddie Crowe won the Six Man Apocalypse match. Crowe had been champion for over a year previously and held the longevity record. His goal was to win back the title and keep Anubis from surpassing his record. On the April 8 episode of Go Time, Crowe became the first man to pin Anubis's shoulders to the mat in a year when he beat him in a tag team match. Anubis was incensed, but Eddie once again put him down for an unofficial three count after the champion's match the next week. At Melee, the last match in the Round Robin Faction War took place as The House of Lords and Epsilon Epsilon Epsilon fought it out to break their tie and decide who would go on to face The Consulate at the MECCA Challenge, and who would have to split up their faction. EEE came out the victors, and they would meet the Consulate in a ten-man elimination tag match at the MECCA Challenge with guaranteed title shots on the line to the members of the winning side. The House of Lords was forced to split up, and on the March 25 episode of Go Time, Nykk, Ronin Fox, and The Pyro Twins met in the ring to celebrate the end of an era. However, Nykk and Fox suddenly turned on the MECCA Tag Team Champions, brutally attacking their lifelong friends. Two weeks later, Nykk and Fox revealed they were calling themselves The Creation, and set about getting a tag team title shot against the Pyro Twins. The match was eventually signed for the MECCA Challenge in all four men's hometowns of Dayton. At Ignition the history-making Ladies' Title reign of Naomi Leach came to an end at the hands of Sara Del Rey. Naomi wanted her belt back, and didn't have to wait long for another shot. Due to having the best female win/loss record of 2008, she got her rematch with Del Rey on Go Time: Championship Edition on February 4. Both women's tempers got the best of them and they brawled to a double count-out. Del Rey tried to move on with her title reign, but Leach was persistent. MECCA executor Katie Piehl decided to sign one more match between the two. It would take place at the MECCA Challenge for the title and would be held under MECCA Challenge rules, the first female match to do so.
The MECCA Challenge VIBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was held in Chicago, Illinois, at the Odeum Expo Center. It was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 24, 2010. In early 2010, Jamie Chan had left The Consulate, breaking out on his own and ending the nearly two year World Title reign of Anubis. However, his former manager Prince Nana wouldn't let him go, insisting that he honor their contract, which expired in February. Chan accepted this and also accepted a tag title match on Go Time: Championship Edition with his former partner Alan Mayse. But Mayse attacked Chan as they made their entrance, beating him down to the point he needed help out of the arena. Nana announced his intention to come after Chan's MECCA World Championship. Mayse then won the annual Six-Man Melee match at Six-Man Melee, guaranteeing him a title match at The MECCA Challenge VI. The Consulate constantly tried to take Chan out, but he was helped by Consulate enemies Eddie Crowe and Davey Richards. They faced off against Mayse, The Wild Wolf and Are$ at Kick Start in a Boston Massacre, but lost when Mayse made Richards tap out. Robbie Reno and Ryan Andrews had once been the best of friends, co-founders of the wrestling fraternity of Epsilon Epsilon Epsilon and tag team partners. But that changed when Ryan was injured and Robbie dissolved EEE without consulting him. Andrews returned at End of the Line in a tag team match against Robbie, pinning him to win. They met one on one at Six-Man Melee, with Ryan getting the win after using a chair to his advantage. Reno returned the favor at Kick Start with a win, and MECCA authority Katie Piehl decided to book them in a MECCA Challenge match to settle the score. But the rules would be modified to where there would be weapons hanging from four poles in each corner, and the participants would be allowed to use those weapons if they could get to them. Anubis and Austin Lee had been feuding with Nykk and Ronin Fox separately for years, but never as a team. That changed when Anubis and Lee won the tag belts from The Pyro Twins at Kick Start. Nykk and Fox wanted the titles they once held back, and Fox fought Lee to a no-contest a couple of weeks later when Nykk and Anubis got involved. A title match was booked for the MECCA Challenge between the two teams.
The MECCA Challenge VIIBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was held in Chicago, Illinois, at the UIC Pavilion. It was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 30, 2011. In early 2011, Jimmy Jacobs and The Absence of Light still held MECCA in the palm of its hand. Jacobs held the MECCA World Championship and refused to defend it, and MECCA could do nothing about it. Though Jamie Chan won the right to face Jacobs for the title at the MECCA Challenge by winning the Six-Man Melee match, Jacobs still refused to defend the title, even going so far as to string Chan along by saying he could have a shot if he beat Jimmy Rave at Kick Start. Jacobs ended up costing Chan the match, and thought he had safely made their MECCA Challenge match non-title. However, Chan wasn't giving up so easily. He attempted to blackmail Jacobs by trying to hang him off the ropes, but Rave thwarted Chan's efforts. Chan then threatened severely injure one of his cronies if he didn't get the match, but Jacobs didn't care and didn't bother to save Torea. Jacobs encouraged Chan to fall to the darkness and hurt Torea. Chan realized what he was becoming, and let Torea go. He apologized to the fans, saying that Jacobs had won and their match would have to be non-title. Three days before the MECCA Challenge, however, Jacobs was making his nominal title defense against one of his faceless entities to keep in line with MECCA's "one defense per calendar month" rule. But Chan crashed the title defense by disguising himself as a faceless entity, and cleared the ring. This left Jacobs without a title defense for the month, and he was finally forced to accept the challenge and put the belt on the line at the MECCA Challenge. For months, Nykk and The Wild Wolf had been in engaged in a war of attrition. It started with Nykk trying to end Wolf's career in December, and Wolf came back only for Nykk to get the better of him on two occasions. In their Anything Goes match at Kick Start, Nykk brought back the move that he had used to try and cripple others in the past, the Aurora Driver. The ref stopped the match after Nykk hit the move, but Nykk wasn't done. Miraculously, Wolf was able to fight back and ended up putting himself and Nykk through two tables at ringside, causing them both to be stretchered out of the arena. Nykk returned to work on the March 23 edition of Go Time Nykk told Wolf he had his full attention now. He wanted Wolf in one more match at the MECCA Challenge, and he wanted Wolf's career on the line. Wolf came out and accepted as long as Nykk's career was on the line as well, but he didn't want a regular match. He wanted to beat Nykk in the match that he pioneered, the MECCA Challenge match. Nykk accepted the challenge. At Six-Man Melee, Marcus Kavian would end Ryan Andrews's reign as Toughman Champion. They would trade the belt back and forth, with Kavian ending up as the champion as of the March 18 edition of Rundown. Due to the way they brawled all over the arena during the match, Andrews decided to challenge Kavian to one more rematch and wanted a Falls Count Anywhere match. After a successful title defense the following week, Kavian accepted the challenge.
The MECCA Challenge VIIIBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was held in Richmond, Virginia, at the Siegel Center. It was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 28, 2012. In early 2012, Austin Lee found himself back in the fans' good graces. He would capitalize on this momentum by winning the Six-Man Melee Match in February, earning a shot at the MECCA World Championship at the MECCA Challenge VIII. But Austin's momentum was halted after a match with Low Ki, where he passed out after being kicked in the head too many times. Reigning World Champion Eddie Crowe capitalized the next week in a six-man tag by taking it to Austin's head and causing him to pass out on the apron. Austin's well being was called into question just days before he headed into the main event of the MECCA Challenge. In February 2012, Nykk was the manager of World Champion Eddie Crowe, and also added his longtime friends The Pyro Twins to his stable, forming The Circle of Trust, being bound by either familial ties or friendship. Nykk targeted one more individual for this group, Eddie and Jay Crowe's brother in law Gary Kopp. But Kopp was part of High Def and had no interest in joining up. Nykk continued to pursue him, even sending the Pyro Twins to help him in retaining the MECCA World Tag Team Championship at Six-Man Melee. When that backfired and Kopp and Jack Evans lost the belts, Kopp was even more adamant about not joining. He and Evans returned the favor at Kick Start, costing the Pyro Twins their match. Nykk regarded Kopp as a lost cause, and challenged High Def to face the Pyro Twins at the MECCA Challenge. The challenge was quickly accepted. Drake Younger had tried numerous times to regain the MECCA Toughman Championship since losing it to Jimmy Rave in November 2011. He got Rave to agree to put it on the line one more time in his kind of match at Kick Start with the caveat that if Rave got the clean win that Younger would no longer pursue him for a title shot. Rave ended up defeating Younger in a Pit Fighter's Paradise Match, but thanks to his partner Ryan Andrews interfering with the use of a kendo stick. Younger attacked Rave and Andrews on the March 28 episode of Go Time with a kendo stick in retaliation, stealing the belt in the process. The next week, Rave demanded the belt back, and Younger said that he had possession of it since Rave didn't live up to his end at Kick Start. But he would give it back if Rave would put it up one more time in the MECCA Challenge Match, a match where there would be no interference allowed. Andrews had the idea for Younger to face him in a Kendo Stick on a Pole Match the following week. If Younger won, he would get his match at the MECCA Challenge. If he lost, he would be banned from challenging Rave for the title again. Younger agreed, and defeated Andrews on April 11, despite interference from Rave, to earn one more shot at the title at the MECCA Challenge VIII.
The MECCA Challenge IXBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was held in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Gwinnett Center. It was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 27, 2013. In early 2013, the alliance formed between The Circle of Trust and The Near Future quickly crumbled when Eddie Crowe won the Six-Man Melee Match and refused to honor the agreement the factions had to not challenge for one another's titles and made his position known by attackng World Champion Marcus Kavian. The Near Future was quick to fight back, and the two factions met in an eight-man tag at Kick Start, with Eddie pinning Kavian to win the match. The feud between the Circle of Trust and the Near Future raged on, but all eyes were on the main event of the MECCA Challenge IX, where Eddie would challenge Kavian for the MECCA World Championship. With all bets off between the Circle of Trust and the Near Future, that meant that Aaron Glover and Terrence Bolton were free to pursue the MECCA World Tag Team Championship, which was won by The Pyro Twins at Six-Man Melee. Glover and Bolton made the official challenge for a title match at the MECCA Challenge on the April 3 episode of Go Time, but the Pyro Twins' manager Nykk refused. MECCA Authority Cynric felt they deserved an opportunity regardless, and put them in a Four Corners number one contenders' match on April 17. Bolton and Glover won the match, ensuring their title shot at the MECCA Challenge IX. Brian Kendrick returned to MECCA in order to help his old friend Low Ki, but it wasn't long before Ki turned on him, not appreciating Kendrick's oddball personality and carefree attitude and blaming him for his own personal failures. They began costing one another matches, and their own match at Six-Man Melee ended indecisively. They went on to compete in the Six-Man Melee Match, with Kendrick eliminating Ki, and Ki coming back to cost Kendrick the win at the end of the match. Seeing that they were going to continue to tear one another apart, Cynric decided to put them in the ultimate problem solver, the MECCA Challenge Match at the MECCA Challenge IX. Adding to the pot, he decreed that whoever won the match would become number one contender to the World Championship, regardless of their presence on the Contender Star. Kendrick and Ki eagerly agreed to the match and the opportunity to both settle their feud and to get a shot at the MECCA World Title.
The MECCA Challenge XBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was held in Dayton, Ohio, at the Ervin J. Nutter Center. It was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 26, 2014. In February, Marcus Kavian emerged victorious in the Six-Man Melee Match, earning a shot at the MECCA World Championship in the main event of the MECCA Challenge X. Torea was the current champion, and despite feuding in the past, the former members of Bloodlust were now on good terms. They tried their best to not fall prey to letting their title match get personal, despite many others in MECCA attempting to drive them apart. They tested one another by picking one another's opponents on Go Time and both emerged victorious from the other's test. Their friendship also didn't stop them from trying to gain the psychological edge, as Kavian confronted Torea just three days before their title match. He offered a handshake, with Torea faking a strike with the belt and telling his old friend that he would have had him, and he wasn't holding back come the MECCA Challenge IX. After losing faction supremacy to The Near Future back in December, The Circle of Trust seemed to lose faith in The Pyro Twins. Nykk in particular seemed to blame them for the loss, and he convinced Eddie Crowe and Gary Kopp to take his side, despite them being Jay Crowe's brother and brother in law, respectively. Nykk finally struck at Six-Man Melee, costing the Pyro Twins their match for the MECCA World Tag Team Championship. When Jay Crowe and Dusty Schneble went after Nykk, they were blindsided by Eddie and Kopp, who nearly broke Dusty's hand and put Jay through a flaming table. Eddie and Kopp would go on to win the tag titles, but the Pyro Twins were soon back in action and demanding vengeance. They went on a winning streak, and MECCA Authority Cynric granted them a shot at the Circle of Trust's titles at the MECCA Challenge X. After the Near Future won their war against the Circle of Trust, they were targeted by Fenris, who had waited for the right time to strike as revenge against the men he felt responsible for the setbacks in his career that had occurred a year before. He vowed to do what the Circle of Trust couldn't and destroy the Near Future. He started by trying to drive a wedge between Aaron Glover and Terrence Bolton, and it seemed to work. They began bickering and fighting, and even other Near Future members couldn't keep them from going at one another. Fenris perceived his task as accomplished, and went on to focus on challenging Torea for the World Title at Kick Start in a Sin City Streetfight. But during the match, Glover and Bolton hit the ring, beating down Fenris which allowed Torea to pick up the win and retain his title. The rest of the Near Future celebrated with them, showing that it was all a ruse and they were stronger than ever. On the following episode of Go Time, Glover and Bolton revealed that they talked things over with Cynric and decided that for the first time ever there would be a Three-Way MECCA Challenge at the MECCA Challenge X, when the two of them would go at it with Fenris. Feeling ganged up on, Fenris enlisted the services of Kory Chavis as his new bodyguard to battle against Glover and Bolton, but Chavis could not help him in a match where interference was strictly forbidden.
The MECCA Challenge XIBackgroundThe annual MECCA Challenge event was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Liacouras Center. It was broadcast live on pay-per-view on April 25, 2015. For months, World Champion Marcus Kavian had been avoiding the challenge of the man who beat him the year prior, Torea, going so far as to offer a bounty on him that grew to $30,000 for anyone who could put him out of action. Torea rose above every challenge, winning the Six-Man Melee match and earning a shot at Kavian's World Title at the MECCA Challenge XI. Kavian tried to put Torea out of action himself on the March 25 episode of Go Time, but Torea turned the tables, laying out Kavian, stuffing some kind of paper into his pocket, and absconding with the briefcase that contained the $30,000 bounty. The next week, MECCA Authority Cynric announced that the paper Torea had given Kavian was a memo informing him he had been fined for unprofessional conduct, a fine which coincidentally was $30,000, and that's why Torea had not been arrested for grand theft. Cynric decided he would turn over custodianship of the money to Torea, which allowed him to do with it as he wished. Torea spent the next couple of weeks antagonizing Kavian by giving away his money both to other competitors and fans. Kavian tried to get it back, but was stopped by police when trying to abscond with the briefcase. Torea decided to put up the remaining $14,000 just three days before the MECCA Challenge in a ten-man tag, saying that if anyone from the opposing side could pin him, they would get the money. Kavian was able to sneak in the pin on Torea during the match, winning back a portion of the money he had lost and giving him momentum heading into the MECCA Challenge. Ever since No Regrets, former tag team partners Alex Shelley and Brian Kendrick had been locked in a brutal feud of one-upsmanship. Shelley finally managed to put Kendrick out of action by injuring him, but Kendrick was interviewed from his home and vowed to come back, wanting to prove he was the better wrestler once and for all. He challenged Shelley to a MECCA Challenge Match at the MECCA Challenge XI, and Shelley accepted, wanting to move on from Kendrick and take his career to greater heights. They continued to antagonize one another in the following weeks, costing one another matches and brawling in the back, all while waiting for things to come to a head at the MECCA Challenge. On March 25, Serena Deeb was able to dethrone Jessicka Havok for the MECCA Ladies' World Championship in a match that saw both The Midwest Militia and other ladies of MECCA get involved. This just made the Militia even more angry and vicious, and Deeb banded together with former adversaries Melissa Flash and Athena, with the goal to put an end to the Midwest Militia for good. Havok made the challenge to the three for a Six-Woman War at the MECCA Challenge, which Deeb, Flash, and Athena accepted. In the match, two members of each side would start out with another coming in every three minutes. Once all six had entered, the match would become Anything Goes, with the first fall ending the match. The Midwest Militia knew they had to win in order to remain the dominant force in the division, while Deeb's team had to win in order to strike a critical blow to the Militia's power. |