RTGA overcomes outside interference, battle royal, rainstorm and size disadvantage to emerge as Champion of Brazzaville

RTGA Du Pouvoir Lion went into this past weekend’s Departmental Championship in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo as the reigning Champion of Brazzaville. However, leaving the weekend long event as Champion of Brazzaville would be a far more difficult task.

RTGA Du Pouvoir Lion in the week leading up to the Departmental Championship. Image courtesy of RTGA’s Instagram page.

First, some background on the Departmental Championship may be be helpful. We provided that in a previous piece where we previewed the multi-day event. Basically, the goal of the event is to crown the Champion of Brazzaville. Rather than having a one on one title match to decide that, the reigning champion is deposed of his title belt (essentially stripped of the belt) but given the same opportunity as the other competitors involved in the event to emerge victorious from the weekend long event as champion. One thing that we can clarify from our original report previewing the Departmental Championship is that during Departmental Championships and National Championships, catch fetiche and classic style pro wrestling are split up into different divisions. One Champion of Brazzaville is crowned for each style. Outside of these championships, the two styles will regularly mix in the ring between opponents practicing opposite styles.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to obtain any footage from the catch fetiche contests that took place during the Departmental Championship but we can confirm that the winner of the Departmental Championship and 2021 Champion of Brazzaville in catch fetiche style is the Siren of the Ring, Kabo Waces!

The 2021 Champion of Brazzaville in the catch fetiche style, Kabo Waces

The siren of the ring, Kabo Waces

2021 Catch Fetiche Brazzaville Champion Kabo Waces in action 

The road to this year’s Brazzaville Championship had to be achieved by following a difficult path. From what we were able to gather from the event’s layout, each wrestler would compete in a one on one singles match in the first round. A victory in the singles match was required to advance to the next leg of the championship, a battle royal. The battle royal would be fought until two wrestlers were left standing. These two wrestlers would then face off in a singles match in the championship final with the Brazzaville Championship on the line.

In his first round match, RTGA took on Ebende Molaso. But it wasn’t just Ebende Molaso that he had to fight off to advance to the battle royal. He was also forced to battle through outside interference multiple times. In the end, RTGA was able to make his opponent tap out to his Boston crab finisher that he’s used many times. We’re tempted to call that submission hold the “Brazza Crab” but just in case RTGA has another name for the hold, we’ll hold off. You can watch RTGA’s first match of the Departmental Championship against Ebende Molaso below.

RTGA’s first round opponent, Ebende Molaso

RTGA Du Pouvoir Lion vs. Ebende Molaso

Another first round match from the Departmental Championship as Lourd Biankouikila shared a clip from his first round bout to YouTube. Lourd Biankouikila would last until the final three of the semi-final battle royal before eliminating himself.

The next step in advancing closer to the Brazzaville Championship was the battle royal. The battle royal saw plenty of chaos in the ring, both from the action but also from the rain that began to pick up during the multi-competitor match. There were plenty of suplexes in this one, wrestlers were even suplexed onto each other at times. In the case of RTGA, he took a lot of punishment in this short battle royal. But all that mattered was the final outcome. RTGA remained as one of the match’s final two competitors along with Nina Chaleur after Lourd Biankouikila eliminated himself from the match. Therefore the championship final was set as Nina Chaleur and RTGA would go one on one with RTGA having an opportunity to repeat as Champion of Brazzaville.

The Departmental Championship‘s semifinal match, a battle royal between the round one winners

The rain wasn’t just limited to the battle royal and in fact, it picked up even more for the championship final between RTGA and his much larger opponent, Nina Chaleur. The rain was so bad that it forced much of the crowd on hand to either seek shelter or unfortunately miss the final. But the two wrestlers in the ring did not miss a beat. In fact, the only time the water in the ring even became a factor was just as the match was beginning when RTGA attempted to clear a large puddle that had gathered in the middle of the ring from the canvas. Both wrestlers were able to maintain stable footing and execute their offense as if they were wrestling on a dry apron in a covered arena. In the end, RTGA caught his opponent in a fisherman’s suplex with a tight cradle. The cradle was so tight that it couldn’t be broken following the match, reminiscent of the cradle that RTGA had been caught in by Congolese legend Mwimba Texas years earlier (video of which is available under the Exclusive Matches section of our site). Perhaps this was a tactic that RTGA walked out of that bout having learned from the Congolese legend.

Department Championship finalist Nina Chaleur. Photo courtesy of Nina Chaleur’s Facebook page.

Departmental Championship final between Nina Chaleur and RTGA.  This video also contains the battle royal match.

RTGA locks in his deadly Boston Crab finisher on first round opponent Ebende Molaso

RTGA Du Pouvoir Lion celebrating with his championship title belt after repeating as Champion of Brazzaville

The Departmental Championship was scheduled to run for four days this year. Unfortunately. fighting broke out between some of the crowd on hand and that combined with the inclement weather limited the event to a two day span instead of four. The fact that both RTGA and Kabo Waces were able to grind through such a difficult, condensed process on their way to a championship makes their achievement all the more impressive.

There is no word yet on when the next big event in Brazzaville or Congolese pro wrestling will take place. But we will do our best to keep an eye out and keep WrestleMap readers informed the best we can!