Phoenix Rising: Grand Ascension VI Finals Night Results

"There's certainly been a little bit of speculation on just what the match for Night 3 is going to be. But by the fact that you're hearing from me... you can at least guess one-half of the equation.

For a long time, I felt like I needed to step aside. My time was over, I've done all I needed to do, there was no sense in me taking up time better given to younger, more athletic, rising stars over a man that's lost more than just a step over a career that's spanned three decades. Evergreen, though... somehow, Evergreen's become the site of a career revival for me, fighting alongside Argent, becoming Evergreen Tag Team Champions, and tearing things up like I was twenty years younger again.

But there's something that's been in the back of my mind for a few months now. A certain challenge that I feel like I have no choice but to issue. When it comes to the career of a wrestling giant... you're lucky if you ever meet someone else the same size, someone capable of looking you in the eye and giving you a real fight on equal ground. There's never been another giant anywhere I've worked. People come close... even right now, Logan Axelrod's a titan among the rest of the roster, not to mention the demon trio... but none of them are quite there. None of them can stand in front of me and have people see us as 'equals'.

When it comes right down to it... there's only one man in the world today that can do that much. He knows it. I know it. The rest of the world should know it as well. An unstoppable force, a monster among monsters, an apocalyptic engine of destruction.

And I have never desired a match more than this one.

I know the sort of person you are. I know that you won't allow anyone to tell you otherwise. You'll accept this challenge. Monday night. Night 3 of the Grand Ascension. Come to the ring alone. That is my only demand.

It's high time the two of us crossed paths and shook the world to its core. Binak Tonorian... versus Colossus Rhodes."

"Heh, maybe I need to rethink things a bit? Don't get me wrong. I enjoy fights where I'm pushed to the edge. But between that match with Rafael where he just barely squeaked by by almost givin' me a damn concussion, and this last match, maybe I'm not really showing my killer instinct? Ah, whatever. A win's a win, and with that I'm right back on track. The way I see it, I've beat 2 of the other 4 people crowded up top of A Block. Besos couldn't stop me, and Mercedes Ortega couldn't stop me, and I still got another 4 matches to go to wrap things up in my favor. You can say it's anybody's race to win, but pure and simple, it's my race to win.

"And I hope everyone watchin' that last match in the back knows that if I get you in my 'Made In Japan,' they're gonna be puttin' a tag on your toe when they drag you outta the ring. I don't care who I'm up against next - the lucha guy, the Indian lady, the guy who can't keep his mouth shut, the freaky Amazon bitch - I'll put all y'all down! Count on it."

Listalva Anne Heyward def. Katherine White
El Evergringo def. Aishwarya Dhawan
Amazon Kid def. Sung Moon
Rafael Gallego def. Besos
Selisha def. Mascara Avispa to retain the Pacific Northwest Championship
Riccardo De Luca def. Natasha Clover
Mercedes Ortega def. Todd Colton
Kaito Arai def. Rebecca Andrews
Laura Tate def. Jerome Harris

Bonus Evergreen Tag Match: The Bingo Hall Mutants def. The Sheridan Brothers

We might just be getting a resurgence from Queen Anne before all is said and done, though with how tough the competition in Block B is going to be going forward, she'll have to stay sharp over the last three nights. Katherine gave this one a good fight, but couldn't keep up in the end.


Evergringo typically has about one legitimately solid match in him a month, and this might've been it. He erupted out of the gate and never let up, silencing the L-Pro rookie and making it abundantly clear that the rest of the block underestimates him at their peril.


Sung Moon just can't get any traction, falling short against Amazon Kid here, who was very much on top of his game, landing multiple Safari Splashes en route to a very impressive win.


A very, very competitive match that saw both sides trying to outdo the other in any way possible... but in the end, Rafael came out just that little bit ahead, scoring a flash rollup to take the win and stay on track at the head of the block.


What more is there to say here? This match was absolutely spectacular from start to finish, with two of Phoenix Rising's finest squaring off for the Pacific Northwest Championship... and the fact that neither is a homegrown talent didn't hinder things one bit. Selisha won out in the submission battle, but a rematch between these two could easily go the other way without any doubt. Still, Selisha remains champion for at least another two weeks... with Victor Kintelas in line to challenge during the Ascension finals.


Riccardo's basically being ordered to tone it the hell down. Urgh.


Mercedes Ortega may very well be the surprise of the tournament thus far. She's held her own against every single opponent she's faced, and with only a single loss thus far to her name (against the powerhouse Jerome Harris), it's looking more and more likely that she might just make her way to the final... but can she keep it up? She had to score a flash pin over Todd Colton here after enduring nearly everything he had to throw at her...


Rebecca Andrews threw everything into this match. Trying to knock off the undefeated Sakura Pro star, she put every bit of effort into trying to keep him down, but it just wasn't enough in the end, and Kaito would land a Tigerdriver that transitioned into the Cloverleaf, forcing the submission but leaving Rebecca looking incredibly tough in the process.


Laura Tate might just be an unstoppable beast. Her one stumbling block against Mercedes Ortega could be easily forgotten by now, as she's been absolutely destructive since... but can she keep that rolling against her last three opponents, each of which have some major technical ability?


They asked for a bonus match from Evergreen. Mercy was clearly feeling all kinds of vindictive despite the Sheridans losing their last match as well, but clearly it wasn't enough to lose to Oakland's Most Metal... she had to throw the Bingo Hall Mutants at them.

You all know how that ended without even looking at the pic.

Jerome Harris def. El Evergringo
Katherine White def. Natasha Clover
Aishwarya Dhawan def. Rafael Gallego
Sung Moon def. Listalva Anne Heyward
Heather Wild def. Y-Pac to retain the Academy Championship
Laura Tate def. Todd Colton
Amazon Kid def. Rebecca Andrews
Mercedes Ortega def. Besos
Kaito Arai def. Riccardo De Luca
Bonus: Victoria Fox def. Xiu Mei Li

Well, Evergringo certainly tried to hold out, but his late strategy of trying to go to the outside and get the upper hand that way only wound up backfiring horrifically, with Jerome Harris staying firmly in control before crushing Evergringo with MADE IN JAPAN back in the ring.


Natasha came roaring out of the gate, but never quite sealed it, with Katherine White fighting back into a huge comeback that culminated in a diving senton to score the victory.


Aishwarya Dhawan is finally on the board, and in a big way, as she finally put all the pieces together of her brutal moveset to crush Rafael Gallego and finally get rid of that 0 in the wins column.


Sung Moon was the only other wrestler in the tournament without a win to her name yet... and clearly, she wanted to change that immediately, as she went all-out on Listalva and landed a crushing knee strike to score the win.


Heather Wild refused to let her second reign with the Academy Championship end as quickly as her first one did. That said, Y-Pac definitely made this one a fight, but Heather simply had more in the tank this time around. Next in line is Josie Wilde... Heather's own tag team partner. But will Josie be willing to take that step, much like Jessica Kimblee has done before her?


Laura Tate continues to be a monster in the ring. With only a single loss to Mercedes Ortega, Laura's been a wrecking ball ever since and refused to give an inch to anyone... not even Todd Colton here, who just couldn't get out of the starting gates.


This was a sprint. Short, yes, but action-packed from start to finish, with Rebecca trying to bring the Kid down with the Go To Sleep, only for him to just come right back, eventually landing a standing High Fly Flow to bring Rebecca down for the win.


Probably the best match of the night, with Besos and Mercedes going all-out to steal the show. Mercedes, however, has consistently been one of the best in the tournament, and it was no different here, as she ultimately scored big with a facebuster and snapped Besos up for the pin.


Riccardo didn't need to bring it down that much. Kaito simply steamrolled him and that's the end of Riccardo's undefeated run.


We got an extra match that saw the return of Xiu Mei Li to the ring in a tune-up match, before her proper return next month. We saw plenty of new offense from Xiu, but Victoria Fox came out ahead in the end after landing a vicious Spear to score the pin.

Natasha Clover def. Sung Moon
Laura Tate def. Besos (but it doesn't matter)
Listalva Anne Heyward def. Rebecca Andrews
El Evergringo def. Todd Colton
Rey de la Carne won the battle royal
Riccardo De Luca def. Katherine White
Rafael Gallego def. Mercedes Ortega
Kaito Arai def. Amazon Kid
Jerome Harris def. Aishwarya Dhawan
Bonus: Kojiro Burai def. Markos Andreas

Despite the fact that both Natasha and Sung Moon are way, way out of the running in Block B, they didn't show it in this opener, which immediately set the tone as one of the best matches of the tournament. This one was intense, and Natasha threw everything she had into one last Spear to pick up the win.


This match doesn't matter. None of it matters. Laura Tate's attitude throughout the tournament has been completely unacceptable, and so she's been removed from the final week. This match wasn't much better than any of her others. Straight up... something's going to change, or even AFW isn't going to put up with it anymore.


Back to the good stuff, and Queen Anne threw her best at Rebecca Andrews... make no mistake, though, this was hard-fought and Lis had to put all of her effort into the win here, taking Rebecca down with an Axe Kick.


This just ruined Todd Colton's entire day. Still barely in the running after Laura's removal, Todd had to beat El Evergringo to keep his hopes alive. He could not do that, failing to put the luchador away, and getting hit with a Destroyer, an ultimate insult towards him as Evergringo picked up a tremendous upset victory.


Arthur Wright seemingly went out of his way to upset every single person in the ring and every single person watching the match. Breaking up spots, blocking spectacular moves, generally acting in a way that almost seemed intentional to draw the ire of everyone around him. Obviously, then, he didn't end up winning this match, getting powerbombed by Rey de la Carne, then also getting smacked around by Nick MacLeod before he could even leave the ring... unfortunately for Nick, this distraction allowed Rey to line up a huge springboard Meteora, and he'd follow that up in typical Rey fashion to score the win.


Riccardo De Luca has definitely eased off a bit, and this match probably shows it better than his devastating loss to Kaito Arai on Monday. Make no mistake, he's certainly miles ahead of Katherine White, but he didn't completely steamroll this one, allowing her to hold on for a good bit before he landed a huge 450 Splash for the win.


Thanks to Laura Tate's removal from the bracket, this would be Rafael Gallego's last official match in the tournament. And he absolutely made the most of it... coming up huge against one of the block frontrunners in Mercedes Ortega, these two fought with everything in their arsenals until Rafael snapped off one of his biggest signatures for the victory.


Can anyone stop Kaito Arai? Still undefeated at 6-0 now, he nevertheless had to work for this one against Amazon Kid, who gave it his all in trying to keep up a wild, fast pace. But Kaito overcame it... and a huge Frankensteiner off the top rope finally sealed it, giving Kaito firm control over Block B's destiny. Can he finish out with the sweep on Monday?


We've finally gotten a look at what Aishwarya Dhawan is really capable of this week, and this match might've been her best thus far. Sure, she didn't come up with the win, but this was an absolute brawl, maybe one of the hardest-hitting matches of the entire tournament... but at the end of the night, Jerome Harris, given new life with Laura's removal, might be in line to win Block A.


We got a look at a brand-new signing to Phoenix Rising... and, perhaps to the dismay of some, he's joined up with Pure Gold straight out of the gate. Kojiro Burai didn't overplay his hand in this one against Markos Andreas, but we got a definite sense of what he can do... devastating kicks and a sharp pace that forces his opponents to keep up or be thrown down. A brutal kick to the back of the head sealed a victory for the newcomer... and Pure Gold might be more dangerous than ever before.

"So someone got caught peeing in the boss's coffee, huh. Can't say it's great to hear that someone ended up getting kicked outta this tournament, but it is what it is.

"Don't even think about putting an asterisk next to my name, though. Or for anyone else vying for the top. I'm in the spot I'm at right now 'cause I'm still in a whole different league from everyone else, with or without Laura Tate's name in the lineup. And right now, I only have one thing blocking my way to where I belong, in the finals of this whole tournament - and that's you, Todd.

"Mister 'Best in the World' himself, Todd Colton. You run your mouth back there non-stop, or so I heard. God knows you got plenty of excuses to spit up this year, not that I really care to hear 'em. All I know is... You talk too much. Now, way I see it, you got two solutions to this problem of yours: you can keep your mouth shut and come at me like a man, or you can keep runnin' your mouth. And if you do that, well, I guess I'll fix that issue for you - I'd like to see you try and talk shit with your jaw wired shut. Welp - see ya in the ring, pal."