Northeast Championship 2006
2007 World Championship Qualifier #8
Neutral Ground, New York City, October 7, 2006
by Barron Vangor Toth
Raw Deal co-designer

Half-sleeping on the train barreling its way to New York City—I never got to sleep the night before, having booked a student for my poker coaching business without double-checking the calendar—I furrowed my brow at the four women sitting across the aisle from me as they discussed their political ideology fraught with nonsensical notions. One noticed me listening to their conversation and was about to say something when I decided to do as “Fight Club” taught us all—let it slide—and buried my head back into my rereading of David Eggers’ underrated (as all Eggers’ work is) “You Shall Know Our Velocity!” Not even clueless passengers and looming exhaustion would dip into the well of exuberance knowing an exiting day of Raw Dealing was upon me with one of the biggest qualifiers of the season.

One hour and one cab ride later I was in front of Neutral Ground New York looking up at the banner I’ve seen many times. The same banner about fifty players were watching before I arrived—and now they wanted to know why they couldn’t get in the building. “It’s five of nine, fellas,” I said. “Give it some time…”

About 9:15am Tony arrived, walking right past the building. I watched him as he took a dozen steps in the other direction—if he’s going for coffee and donuts I’ll gore him into a building—before he whirled around, laughing. “Just kidding, Barron,” he said. “I can’t let everyone up as the other guys in the store are going to be late and it’s just me. But you and Tom and whoever else is helping you are welcome to come on up.”

Speaking of helping out, I want to thank everyone who pitched in from time to time throughout the day—you know who you are—but I want to give special thanks to Tom McKelvey who not only made this event possible, but flew in just for it, flying back to Wisconsin the next day. 100+ man events like this, Wizard World Philly, Origins, and Gen Con only run as smooth as they do because of Tom. I’d also like to thank two of his crew who helped more than anyone else: Tommy DeWitt and Mike Tyminsky. Great job, fellas, much appreciated!

A little before 10am another employee showed so Tony let all the Raw Dealers stream on through. Tom McKelvey and I took sign-ups as quick as we could and by 11am, 108 people had registered and were sitting down for the first of six Swiss rounds, cutting to a top 32. Here are the Superstar breakdowns:

5x

Eugene
Mr. Pay-Per-View
Randy Orton

4x

Big Freak’n Machine
Carlito
Ken Kennedy
Rob Van Dam
The People’s Champ

3x

Andre the Giant
Doink
DX
Junkyard Dog
Mickie James
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Sgt. Slaughter
The Spirit Squad
The Ultimate Survivor

2x

Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Booker T
Edge
Jake “the Snake”
JBL
John Cena
Lashley
Lita
Shane o’ Mac
Stacy Keibler
Victoria

1x

Chavo Guerrero
Chris Jericho
Eric Bischoff
Funaki
Kane
Kurt Angle
Matt Hardy
Mitch
MNM
Rey Mysterio
Ric Flair
Shawn Michaels
Teddy Long
The Immortal One
The Largest Athlete
The Leader of the Peepulation
“The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase
The Undertaker
The Rock
Torrie Wilson
Triple H
Vince McMahon
Viscera
Your Freak’n Hero

Having 50+ Superstars out of 100+ people is an incredible display of diversity, especially when you consider no Superstar had more than 5 copies represented in the field. It’s one of the many reasons I’ve seen that the Great American Bash metagame is more balanced (and more fun) than previous eras in Raw Deal. My fellow co-designer Mike Foley and I always try to improve the game—Michelangelos chipping away at David—and, looking at it six years from its first release (seven years after it all started) it keeps looking better and better. And it will look better still in two months with Raw Deal Revolution.

Some of the best players in the world were in attendance, including Raw Deal World Champion James Kandziolka, 2004 Wizard World Philly Champion Andrew Trebing, 2006 Last Chance Champion John Macek, 2005 Wizard World Philly Champion Clark Luskin, 2005 Northeast Champion / the original hero of netdeckers Steve Resk, not to mention other top players who haven’t made it to the World Championships (yet!) like Blair Thompson, Justin Cantor, and Dave Fogle. Plus players were treated by the appearance of not one but two players already qualified for the 2007 World Championships: 2006 Wizard World Philly Champ Anthony Lurty and 2005-06 Origins Afterburn Champion maRk laRoche. After six rounds, who were the top 32?

Undefeated:

World Champion James Kandziolka (Andre the Giant)
Zack Sporen (Shane o’ Mac)

One Loss:

Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy)
Jonathon Alvarado (Stacy Keibler)
Justin Cantor (Big Freak’n Machine)
Pat Eshgy (Rob Van Dam)
Cody Hipp (The Ultimate Survivor)
Steve LaFlame (Mickie James)
2005 Wizard World Philly Champion Clark Luskin (Bobby “The Brain” Heenan)
Taylor Sherridan (Mr. Pay-Per-View)
Andrew Snyder (Teddy Long)

The Rest:

Mike Acharya (Randy Orton)
Roger Ballou Jr. (Victoria)
Arthur Continelli (The People’s Champ)
Jackson Crockett (Lashley)
Joe Fezza (Junkyard Dog)
Chris Frek (Your Freak’n Hero)
Chad Gropack (Eugene)
Steve Hicks (The Immortal One)
Mike Knight (The Spirit Squad)
Mike Lashinsky (JBL)
Kenny Latham (John Cena)
2006 Last Chance Champion John Macek (Doink)
Michael Mannion (Mitch)
Nelson Ortega (DX)
John Schnurr (MNM)
Jeff Scott (“Rowdy” Roddy Piper)
Andre Segarra (Carlito)
Sam Stanton (Viscera)
Rob Tapp (Vince McMahon)
Blair Thompson (Leader of the Peepulation)
2004 Wizard World Philly Champion Andrew Trebing (Rey Mysterio)

TOP 32 RESULTS

Mike Acharya (Randy Orton) defeated Steve LaFlame (Mickie James)
Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy) defeated Roger Ballou Jr. (Victoria)
Jonathon Alvarado (Stacy Keibler) defeated Arthur Continelli (The People’s Champ)
Jackson Crockett (Lashley) defeated Taylor Sherridan (Mr. Pay-Per-View)
Chad Gropack (Eugene) defeated Joe Fezza (Junkyard Dog)
World Champion James Kandziolka (Andre the Giant) defeated Chris Frek (Your Freak’n Hero)
Steve Hicks (The Immortal One) defeated Pat Eshgy (Rob Van Dam)
Mike Lashinsky (JBL) defeated Mike Knight (The Spirit Squad)
2005 Wizard World Philly Champion Clark Luskin (Bobby “The Brain” Heenan) defeated Nelson Ortega (DX)
John Schnurr (MNM) defeated Justin Cantor (Big Freak’n Machine)
Jeff Scott (“Rowdy” Roddy Piper) defeated Kenny Latham (John Cena)
Andre Segarra (Carlito) defeated Blair Thompson (Leader of the Peepulation)
Andrew Snyder (Teddy Long) defeated Michael Mannion (Mitch)
Sam Stanton (Viscera) defeated Zack Sporen (Shane o’ Mac)
Rob Tapp (Vince McMahon) defeated Cody Hipp (The Ultimate Survivor)
2004 Wizard World Philly Champion Andrew Trebing (Rey Mysterio) defeated 2006 Last Chance Champion John Macek (Doink)

TOP 16 RESULTS

Mike Acharya (Randy Orton) defeated Jonathon Alvarado (Stacy Keibler)
Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy) defeated John Schnurr (MNM)
World Champion James Kandziolka (Andre the Giant) defeated Jackson Crockett (Lashley)
Mike Lashinsky (JBL) defeated Andre Segarra (Carlito)
2005 Wizard World Philly Champion Clark Luskin (Bobby “The Brain” Heenan) defeated Steve Hicks (The Immortal One)
Jeff Scott (“Rowdy” Roddy Piper) defeated Rob Tapp (Vince McMahon)
Andrew Snyder (Teddy Long) defeated Sam Stanton (Viscera)
2004 Wizard World Philly Champion Andrew Trebing (Rey Mysterio) defeated Chad Gropack (Eugene)

QUARTERFINAL RESULTS

Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy) defeated Jeff Scott (“Rowdy” Roddy Piper)
World Champion James Kandziolka (Andre the Giant) defeated Mike Acharya (Randy Orton)
Andrew Snyder (Teddy Long) defeated Mike Lashinsky (JBL)
Battle of Previous Wizard World Philly Champs: 2004’s Andrew Trebing (Rey Mysterio) defeated 2005’s Clark Luskin (Bobby “The Brain” Heenan)

SEMIFINAL RESULTS

Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy) defeated Andrew Snyder (Teddy Long)
Wizard World Philly 2004 Rematch, tying it up 1-1: World Champion James Kandziolka (Andre the Giant) defeated 2004 Wizard World Philly Champion Andrew Trebing (Rey Mysterio)

FINALS

World Champion James Kandziolka (Andre the Giant) vs. Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy)

Even with Andre being a poor match-up for Enver due to the lack of a Pre-match, he was able to weed out “Obey” via his “Mic” and then activate “White Wedding” in order to eliminate Andre’s ability on the first turn. Enver then proceeded to unleash a flurry of maneuvers, decimating James’ Arsenal. However, a timely “Activate” got James back in the game and he turned the tide with a slew of Multi F:0 Heat maneuvers (due to “Sizzlin’ Clothesline”) to eventually bridge into bigger and bigger Heat maneuvers. After some back and forth, Enver was simply overwhelmed and fell to the World Champion.

2nd Place: Enver Ahmeti (Ken Kennedy)

1st Place … and new Northeast Champion
The current Canadian Champion
And the current World Champion
JAMES KANDZIOLKA
(Andre the Giant)

James joins two-time UK Champ Rob Maslen, Wizard World Philly Champ Anthony Lurty, Origins All Axxess Champ Anthony Ogden, Origins Afterburn Champ maRk laRoche, Gen Con All Axxess Champ Will Alessi, Gen Con Afterburn Champ Mike Bauman, and DragonCon Champ Ric Pittman in what is the first eight (of sixteen) competitors in the 2007 World Championships at WrestleMania 23 in 8-Mile Detroit this Spring. Who will comprise the second half of the field? We’ll find out in the coming months!

NEXT

"photos courtesy of Zach Levy"