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| - Ring of Pride (RoP) is an American independent wrestling organization. It was founded in 2010 by Kris Peek and Simon Sensation, though it is presently owned solely by Sensation. RoP runs shows primarily in the Southwestern United States, in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and southern California (though shows have been run in Oklahoma, Utah and Colorado as well). RoP also has plans to run shows in Northern Mexico soon as well, likely playing off their lucha libre influences to do so. The Beginning: “We Aren’t Your Daddy’s Wrestling”Ring of Pride was formed in early 2010 when Simon Sensation and Kris Peek, both employees of the same national company at the time with Kris being a commentator and Simon being a wrestler, started laying out plans to start their own “regional” promotion in the Southwest. Sensation has previously run a promotion on a somewhat national level with his ex-wife Jenette McGraw (the Dominant Wrestling Association) and as such had enough resources and knowledge to get their plans in motion. Offices were set up in Las Vegas and Kilgore, Texas (both in Peek and Sensation’s hometowns) with each overseeing their city’s offices respectively. Staff and personnel were hired and a group of wrestlers ranging from independent stars like Jay Millar and Taco Belmont as well as nationally recognized names such as Bryan Deas, Stu-E Price, Supreme Machine, Jonathan Cage and Stephen Saint were hired. Peek and Sensation also mapped out a schedule that would allow them to run biweekly shows in various locations with many being taped and aired via an online stream on the RoP website for a show that would be called Meltdown. There would also be bi weekly supershow events held in larger venues with seating for a few thousand fans. These big shows would be taped for DVD release as RoP had inked a deal with several small time video distributors. The first Meltdown would be held on April 18, 2010 and would be headlined by Jonathan Cage taking on The Supreme Machine. The product for this show as well as Ring of Pride’s next few Meltdowns and even their first supershow, Out for Blood: King of the Mountain, would feature very risky situations and very violent, bloody matches were weapons were commonplace. Such examples of the violent nature of the product include Fritz Leiter slamming Stephen Saint through a pane of glass and Supreme Machine throwing Crazy Crazy Millar into a stage prop, causing it to fall down. Lots of light tubes and barbed wire were also used during this time. Many out of the ring moments displayed a risky nature too, such as Lucas Peek attacking Kris Peek in his office and Simon Sensation “killing” Stephen Saint by running him over after he chained him to a car. RoP Evolves: Peek Leaves, A New DirectionBefore RoP’s first supershow, it would be announced that Kris Peek had left the company and that Simon Sensation had bought out his part of the promotion. The Kilgore RoP office would be closed and merged with the Las Vegas one. The company would undergo several major changes during this period. The risky nature that was displayed during the promotion’s first few shows would be gradually faded out in favor of a more traditional style of mat wrestling, influenced by Japanese puroseau and the European style. Lucha libre elements would be injected into the product as well, as evidenced by a luchas de apuestas match between Simon Sensation and Lucas Sensation over their last names. During this time frame, Ronin would become the first Southwestern Heavyweight Champion by beating Crazy Crazy Millar, Supreme Machine, Dominic Zubrowka and Anilya Gaian in a King of the Mountain ladder match at the first RoP supershow, Out for Blood: King of the Mountain. In the weeks prior to that, Shawna Rose would capture the RoP Texas Television Championship, becoming the first female to hold gold in RoP as well as the company’s first champion. Alexander McIntyre, Ace Andrews and Terry Marvin would sign with the company around this time frame, giving RoP some star power as several of its mainstays in Dominic Zubrowka and Supreme Machine left. Andrews would capture the Texas Television Championship from Shawna Rose at Out for Blood: Revenge is a Bitch and the Southwestern Heavyweight title would bounce around like a basketball, going from Ronin to Alexander McIntyre to Dillon D’Angelo. The Syn City SyndicateDuring a Southwestern Heavyweight Championship match between Dillon D’Angelo and Alexander McIntyre at Out for Blood: Revenge is a Bitch, Terry Marvin and Ace Andrews would come to the ring and interfere in the match, costing McIntyre the title. It would become known that the two, as well as the big man Levinator, were in collusion with Simon Sensation and were known as The Syn City Syndicate. With Sensation as the lone owner in RoP, the group would run rampant, dominating most everyone in their way as Ace would retain his Texas Television title with an iron grip over such challengers as Eric Hancock (in a hrybid match mixing MMA and pro wrestling called The Bomb Shelter) and Marvin would get into and stay in contention for the Southwestern Heavyweight title. Levinator would act as the muscle for the group, feuding briefly with Stu-E Price (who was a primary target for the stable for some time). Eventually, the group would run Alexander McIntyre out of the company and target Dillon D’Angelo, who held the Southwestern Heavyweight title. The group would try repeatedly to take the title from him, but would fail each time. Rise of New Blood, WrevolutionDespite The Syn City Syndicate running rampant over the company, the duo of Jared James and Johnny Holliday would manage to capture the RoP Tag Team Championships in a match against The Children of the Night to crown the first champions. Deflar Linos, Project Kemical and Bryan Deas would emerge as top stars during this time frame as well. Going into RoP’s biggest show of the year and also their first ever venture in the internet pay per view market, Wrevolution, Dillon D’Angelo would manage to be the first person to retain the Southwestern Heavyweight title successfully and Ace Andrews would manage to retain the Texas Television title. A match would be announced for Wrevolution, however, that would promise to change the RoP landscape. Called the Chaos Chamber, it would be a three ringed, three caged match featuring six of RoP’s top stars, Deflar, Shadow, Terry Marvin, Deas, Dillon and Ace. The match would prove to be brutal and very vicious. Deas would go through the third ring’s canvas as well as get electrocuted, Shadow would get mangled in the barbed wire cage and Deflar would go through the first cage wall. In the end, Shadow….despite being one of the first two in the gauntlet styled entry of the match, would manage to pin Dillon JUST as Marvin would manage to pin Deas in ring one. Some arguments would go on as to who won, but in the end it would be decided that Shadow had won the match and was awarded the title. Marvin took exception to this and vowed revenge on Shadow. Shadow vs. Marvin, Building Toward the FutureAfter the Chaos Chamber, Terry Marvin would express his displeasure with the way the finish of it was handled. He’d threaten RoP owner Simon Sensation and even lash out at Ace Andrews, effectively ending the Syn City Syndicate. During this time as well, new stars such as DJ Clay and Anthony Royal would begin to rise through the rankings. Stu-E Price would also experience a renaissance for his career. The big story, however, would be after Shadow and Paige had gotten to the finals of a tag tournament aimed at crowning new champions (as Jared and Johnny had vacated them due to leaving the company), Paige would get kidnapped. A man known only as “Fileur” would be pegged and later revealed as the culprit. Many would chalk this up to his infatuation with Paige, but on the December 13th edition of Meltdown, Fileur would be revealed as Terry Marvin when he shoved Shadow down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair after having goaded Shadow into giving him a Southwestern Heavyweight title match. The two would partner up in the Final Clash 2010 lethal lottery inspired tournament and would meet in the finals battle royal, being the last two men in the ring, though Marvin would win. FutureRing of Pride has announced that unlike 2010 which saw a supershow held every two months, it would feature just four quarterly inter pay per views in 2011, including a March 21 show called Primer Anniversario to celebrate its first year anniversary and the return of Wrevolution. Several large, supershow-esque Meltdowns have also been scheduled throughout the year. The RoP Tag Team Championships, which have been out of commission since Jared James and Johnny Holliday vacated them, have also been announced as coming back. Ring of Pride Website (www.ringofpride.com)
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