The SoCal Great American Bash Tour 2007 Tournament Report
by Adam Crites

The month of July...Summer time...traditionally the time of year that sees the biggest non-Qualifier event of the West Coast held in San Diego at the Comic Con International - The Western States Heritage Championship!

This year however, I decided that I needed a break from running events at the Con, and so wasn’t going to do anything in July.  Then through a series of events, e-mails and happenstance...it was decided to go ahead and do the WSHC...but in a very different format.

Starting 3 months ago, we doubled our efforts and doubled the number of stores where we were holding events.  It was determined that we would do the WSHC as a series of events, that would see the crowning of 2 different store champions...who would then face off in a 2-Out-Of-3 Falls Match to set a new overall champion.

And in keeping with the old NWA tradition, we decided to call this event “SoCal Great American Bash Tour 2007!!!”

We also decided, as we frequently do with events on the west coast, that all entry fees from the events would be donated for charity when all was said and done.

So, we set dates, picked the formats and players began planning their decks...

A lot of prizes were set up for players to get just for showing up. Among these were –
1 random Topps WWE Dog Tag;
1 Random Promo card;
1 Pack of 4 random Raw Deal rares & 1 Classic WWE/WWF/WCW trading card;
And of course the “everyone gets one” Tournament Kit card.

+ July 7, 2007 +
Tour Stop #1 - WTCShopzone.com, located inside Frank & Son in the City of Industry...

9 players stepped up to the plate in an attempt to both claim the store champion title and to get their seat in the big finals.  Among our 9, we saw 2 long retired players emerge from the shadows and shake of the ring rust to battle it out against some of the up & comers =
Crystal Crites : Team Angle
Eric Shapiro : The People’s Team
Nick Chavez : Big Freakin’ Machine
Ryan Henry : Your Freaking Hero
Vick Babikian : The Hurri-Friends
Elyse Frederick : Mickie James
Noobs Do0shy McDo0shebag : Paul Heyman
Albert Rubio : Mr.Kennedy
Adam Crites : Hall ‘n’ Nash

With 9 players, we played 4 rounds and cut to a Top 4 :
...Albert...Vick...Nick...Elyse...
2 top contenders and 2 shockers...it is going to be interesting...
The semifinals featured =
Albert w/Mr.Kennedy defeated Elyse w/Mickie James
Vick w/The Hurri-Friends defeated Nick w/BFM

And the finals saw =
Vick w/The Hurri-Friends defeat Albert w/Mr.Kennedy.

So, our first store championship truly saw VICK-A-MANIA run wild!!!  Vick would advance as the WTCShopzone.com Store Champion and try to lay claim to the big gold belt.

What did Vick get for his efforts? Among other stuff there was –
1 Uncle Sam Hat, 1 WTCShopzone.com Champion Shirt, 1 WWE Hall Of Fame Coin, 1 PPV VHS Tape, 3 Only One Solution – Revolution, 3 Right On Target, 1 Complete Set of Movie Prize Cards, 1 Sabu, 1 CM Punk, 1 Test, 1 Sandman, 1 Revolution Intercontinental Belt, and 1 Revolution Heavyweight Championship Belt!

Don’t feel bad for Albert…he picked up some cool stuff for his efforts –
1 USA Bandana, 1 SUPER RARE Raw Deal WrestleMania Demo Deck (either Rock or Stone Cold), 1 PPV VHS Tape, 1 WWE Superstar Shirt, 4 Movie Prize Cards, 1 Divine Intervention, 1 WWE Spinner Belt, 1 CM Punk and 1 Sabu!

And everyone through the #8 finisher did well…

But who would Vick face?  One week later, we would have the answer.

+ July 15, 2007 +
Tour Stop #2 - Shuffle & Cut Games in Rancho Cucamonga.

12 players arrived on this Sunday to try and attach their name to the S&C Championship and the right to face off against “Mr.Armenia” Vick Babikian...
“The Money Man” Eric Shapiro : Stephanie McMahon
Micah Brown : Shelton Benjamin
“WSHC Defending Champion” Albert Rubio : Mr.Kennedy
Martin “The Limo” Gray III : Big Freakin’ Machine
Noobs Do0shy McDo0shebag : Edge
“X-Division Champ” Ryan Henry : Your Freaking Hero
“#1 In California” Dan Zipper : Mr.Pay-Per-View
Aaron Forstner : The People’s Champ
“The WCW” Anthony Escobar : DeGeneration X
“Manager Of Champions” Tony Vela : Bobby Heenan
“The SoCal Love Machine” Gopal Young : Roddy Piper
and returning from retirement...Justin Meyers : Three Minute Warning

12 players...4 rounds...a Top 4.  Who would emerge triumph, only to have to turn around and fight as many as 3 more matches?

At the end of 4 rounds, and a LOT of math work, we had these 4 Top Contenders :
...Albert...Do0shy...Anthony...Dan...

Our semifinals featured =
Albert’s Mr.Kennedy defeated Anthony’s DX
Do0shy’s Edge defeated Dan’s Mr.PPV

And our finals saw....our defending champion Albert Rubio law claim to the title of Shuffle & Cut Store Champion...earning him the right to advance to the “Champion vs Champion” match.

Albert and Do0shy picked up a lot of the same prizes that tour stop #1 did, with just a different Hall of Fame coin for Albert and Demo deck for Do0shy.

During this time, we also handed out our annual “Player Awards”...
Best Record (combined events) went to Ryan Henry
Worst Record (combined events) unfortunately went to Eric Shapiro
but on the upside, MVP also went to Eric (he came out of retirement, brought another player out of retirement, made the drive from Santa Barbara 2 weekends in a row, and played out the games even with the losing record)

Then, while the semi & finals were going, we started our annual side event for those not involved in the main event - The King Of The Ring!
9 Players tried to lay claim to the crown =
Martin Gray III : Big Freakin’ Machine
Dan Zipper : Vince McMahon
Micah Brown : Eddie Guerrero
Tony Vela : Vince McMahon
Justin Myers : Mr.Kennedy
Aaron Forstner : The People’s Champ
Gopal Young : Roddy Piper
Eric Shapiro : Roddy Piper
Vick Babikian : Mr.Kennedy

A double countout between Gopal and Martin eliminated our semifinals, so the finals came down to Aaron’s TPC vs. Vick’s Mr.Kennedy...

And we crowned our new King....MISTER BABIKIAN...BABIKIAN!

Would this be a portent of things to come in the “Champion vs Champion” match?

Would the outcome of the week befores match in City of Industry be repeated?  Would Vick’s return to the game continue with the claiming of this title?  Or could Albert, having slogged though a tough field the same day, retain his crown and be the first time ever 2-Time Western States Heritage Champion?

After a one hour break, we head into our 2-Out-Of-3 Falls Match for the Western States Heritage Championship!

Fall #1 - All Axxess
Vick w/The Hurri-Friends defeated Albert w/Mr.Kennedy
Notes - Vick had pretty good control of this match, making use of mass recursion to take the win.

Vick (1-0)  Albert (0-1)

Fall #2 - Afterburn
Albert w/Sgt. Slaughter defeated Vick w/The Hurri-Friends
Notes - Walking into this one, we all thought Albert was pretty well dead.  However, he managed to keep throwing his submissions and got through his maintain to run Vick right on down and even us up.

So we are all tied up at 1 Fall apiece - Vick (1-1) & Albert (1-1)

That means it all comes down to the newest format in Raw Deal...
Fall # 3 - Revolution Draft
Each player was allowed to name 3 starter decks.  A flip of the coin determined who got to chose first, then 5 booster packs from Revolution and Revolution 2 were laid out, and again players made alternating picks.  They then had approximately 30 minutes to build a total Revolution deck.

And we saw...Vick w/Revolution Batista faced off against Albert w/Revolution Triple H...

And in one of the most exciting, back-and-forth matches in West Coast history that saw control and the lead switch more times than someone having a seizure holding a remote control with a loose channel changer...

RUBIO WINS!  RUBIO WINS! RUBIO WINS! ALBERT RUBIO RETAINS HIS TITLE!

Albert Rubio becomes the first ever Two Time, Two Time Western States Heritage Champion!

For his efforts and coming close, Vick was rewarded with a lot of stuff including –
1 Special Customized Complete Battle Bag, 1 PPV VHS Tape, 1 RAW Deck Tin, 1 COMPLETE PLAY set for Christy Hemme - ALL AUTOGRAPHED, 1 Autographed photo from Rob Van Dam during his time in ECW, 1 Your Town Promo, 1 Vince McMahon, Guest Ringside Announcer, 1 Divine Intervention, 1 WWE Spinner Belt, and 1 Revolution US Title Belt!

And Albert? Well, he did pretty well for himself, taking home (in addition to his Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat) for playing a ton of stuff that consisted of the following, plus some othet stuff added at the last minute –
1 Western States Heritage Championship Shirt, 1 Western States Heritage Championship Trophy Card, 2 PPV VHS Tapes, 1 SmackDown! Deck Tin, 1 COMPLETE PLAY set for Rob Van Dam - ALL AUTOGRAPHED, 1 WrestleMania XX Deck Tin, 1 Complete set of Movie Prize Cards, Including The 2 Promo Cards, 3 Only One Solution – Revolution, 3 Right On Target, 1 Your Town Promo, 1 New Breed Unleashed Promo, 1 Revolution Judgment Day Promo, 1 Rumblings Promo, 1 Vince McMahon, Guest Ringside Announcer, 1 Divine Intervention, 1 WWE Spinner Belt, 1 CM Punk, 1 Test, 1 Sandman, 1 Sabu, 1 Kevin Thorn, 1 Terry Funk, 1 Tommy Dreamer, 1 Balls Mahoney, 1 Revolution Intercontinental Belt, 1 Revolution US Title Belt, 1 Revolution WWE Championship Belt, and 1 Revolution Heavyweight Championship Belt!

For those who are curious what it took for these 2 men to compete in such a brutal series of falls...here are their respective decks for the All Axxess & Afterburn formats

SoCal GAB '07 photos