Barrie Wrestling unveils first bracket in ambitious and extensive All Ontario Cup tournament that will crown Ontario’s best wrestler
The Covid-19 pandemic has effectively shut down pro wrestling in Ontario for over a year now with a few exceptions. Beginning March 17, 2020, restrictions went into place that prevented live pro wrestling events to be held with only one or two small windows that allowed some very limited live events. In order to find ways to get talent in action, and to provide content for wrestling fans, pro wrestlers and promoters in the Canadian province have had to get creative. One of the most creative solutions that have come along yet is Barrie Wrestling’s All Ontario Cup tournament.
The All Ontario Cup tournament is an expansive, 30-competitor tournament featuring the province’s top indie wrestlers. The winner will receive the All Ontario Cup trophy and will then have bragging rights to being Ontario’s best indie wrestler. Along with crowning Ontario’s best wrestler, it will also give wrestlers and other important staff in the pro wrestling industry in the province an opportunity to return to work.
Barrie Wrestling, the promotion organizing the massive tournament, unveiled the first bracket of the four bracket tournament yesterday. You can take a look at that bracket below.
At a certain level of donation tier, donors were able to name one of the blocks on the bracket. The bracket that was revealed yesterday by Barrie Wrestling was the Countedout7.com bracket. The four matches announced from the Countedout7.com group so far are as follows:
Jessie V vs. Hotstepper Macrae Martin
John Greed vs. Junior Benito
Vaughn Vertigo vs. Stratos Fear
Mark Wheeler vs. Young Myles
This bracket, as you would expect when it comes to a tournament of this magnitude, is pretty stacked. The first match pits current Border Town Pro Wrestling (Fort Erie, Ontario) Adrenaline Division Champion Jessie V against the agile, dancer turned wrestler Hotstepper Macrae Martin. The group’s second match sees 19 year old hot prospect Junior Benito take on current New School Wrestling (Mississauga, Ontario) tag team champion John Greed. The group’s third match is sure to be a high energy, fast-paced affair as former Barrie Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and one half of Canada’s most successful tag teams, Fight or Flight, Vaughn Vertigo, goes one on with former Superkick’d (Toronto, Ontario) Champion and a man who has had some tag team success of his own as well in Superkick’d with bracket mate Jessie V, Stratos Fear. The brackets fourth match is a showdown between two of Ontario’s top champions today as Mark Wheeler, who, according to Cagematch, is holding three singles titles at the moment including the Barrie Wrestling Heavyweight Championship, the A1 (Hamilton, Ontario) Alpha Male Championship and the New School Wrestling Internet Championship, takes on the current Superkick’d Champion, Young Myles. While the talent level on this side of the tournament is high, the favorites in our opinion to emerge from this bracket into the semifinals are Mark Wheeler, or if he can’t make it past his tough first round opponent Young Myles, Vaughn Vertigo.
Barrie Wrestling is planning to release the tournament to paying customers only and none of the action will be available for free on YouTube. The promotion is funding the event through an Indiegogo campaign where those that donate are essentially paying for a ticket to watch the tournament, similar to a fan paying to attend a live show. All of the funds raised as part of the campaign will go toward paying the talent and staff that will be participating in the event.
Sources from Barrie Wrestling have indicated to WrestleMap that even if Covid-19 restrictions were to ease up or tighten again, the organization and planned execution of the tournament will not be effected and they will move forward with the plan at hand. The promotion has been very tight-lipped as to when and how the video of the event will be released. No dates have been provided as of yet (the company is planning to unveil them on their own soon) and they wouldn’t tip their hand when asked if the tournament will be released as one video or broken into different brackets and rounds, although the Indiegogo page indicates that there will be multiple videos.
This one is a can’t miss for fans of Canadian and Ontario pro wrestling. It’s very rare to have the opportunity to watch all of a region’s best wrestlers gather together for the same event and wrestling fans that sign up to back this tournament are in for a real treat. The lowest donation tier, which gives you access to all video and every match of the All Ontario Cup tournament, is only $10 Canadian (and $8 American!) and you can visit the Indiegogo page, donate, and reserve your access to the tournament by clicking here. For future bracket group releases and other updates regarding the All Ontario Cup, be sure to give Barrie Wrestling a follow on their Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages!
