LPW Honor Roll (2009)

Honor Roll was a professional e-wrestling supercard and achievement awards show produced by Lords of Pain Wrestling (LPW), presented by its Insanity and Inferno brands. The event took place during the 13.3 cycle on January 18, 2009, at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California.

Nine e-wrestling matches took place, with five pre-show matches. All seven LPW championships were defended. The supercard featured two main event bouts for each brand. The Insanity main event was for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship where X defeated defending champion cYnical to win his second World title. The Inferno brand presented a Fatal Four-Way match, which saw NPD defeat Drew Michaels, Ash Strife, and Eric Scorpio in a Fatal-Four way match to win the title.

In addition, Honor Roll recognized its top performers in eleven categories for outstanding achievements in the promotion. White Falcon won the coveted LPW Wrestler of the Year, beating out Krimson Mask, Drew Michaels, cYnical, and Mass Chaos for the honor.

Wevv Mang won the Winner Takes All tournament when he defeated seven other LPW superstars in a Eight-Man Four Corners Elimination match. The win earned Mang an opportunity to head both Insanity and Inferno's upcoming pay-per-views, Resurrection and Take No Prisoners respectively.

In other matches, Eddie B. defeated White Falcon to retain the LPW Western States Heritage Championship, The Rabbi defeated Daniel Oakley to win the vacant LPW Transatlantic Championship, the MWA successfully defended the LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Championship over the Psych Ward's Andy Savana and Blackwell, Hatchet Ryda defeated Villiano 187 to retain the LPW Hardcore Championship, and Jude Maxwell ended Mass Chaos' 15-month reign as LPW Television Champion when he won a Scramble match.

Background
Because of the global economic crisis of 2008, liquidity for LPW quickly diminished, forcing the promotion to near-bankruptcy. The Board of Directors heuristically hired a shadowed and mysterious businessman as its Chief Executive Officer to shore up company profits. Wishing to remain anonymous, The Boss as he called himself, assumed the responsibilities of General Manager of the Inferno brand, while controversially appointing the inexperienced Little Red Riding Hood to be Insanity's new General Manager. Hoping to spark renewed interest in the product, LPW re-drafted its entire roster between the promotion's two brands at Homecoming. Inferno's Drew Michaels and Insanity's cYnical, who reigned as LPW International Heavyweight Champion and LPW World Heavyweight Champion respectively, were drafted by the opposite brands only to see both General Managers trade them back to their original brands.

The main feud on the Insanity brand was between cYnical and X, with the two feuding over the LPW World Heavyweight Championship. On her first night as GM at Insanity LIVE from San Antonio, a number of Insanity superstars insisted Little Red that they should be the number one contender. Instead, Little Red agreed to give the Championship opportunity to whoever would win at a game of musical chairs, which X won after laying out Tromboner Man and Pen with his trademark black chair. On the following LPW Insanity LIVE X-Mas Special, Little Red wanted cYnical and X to exchange gifts, calling it "Pick Your Present". As his gift, X picked his stalking Inferno LPW Cleansed Champion, Eddie B., who was close to finishing off a bleeding cYnical until X came out and announced that the match was First Blood, ending Eddie's chance of clean victory over cYnical. As his present, cYnical picked Krimson Mask to fight X, but X tried to make a getaway until being intercepted by Eddie and cYnical.

The predominant feud on the Inferno brand was between LPW International Heavyweight Champion Drew Michaels against Eric Scorpio and NPD, both of whom attacked Michaels at Inferno 13.1. Surprisingly, Michaels granted both of them a title shot at Inferno 13.2, but also invoked a champion's clause to also include Insanity's Ash Strife, to make their championship match a Fatal Four-Way.

Year in Review
In preparation for Honor Roll, LPW presented a special telecast of LPW Year in Review (2008). The show reviewed eight matches from 2008 with color commentators SoL and Robert Lillehammer hosting.

The show also featured four LPW Achievement Awards that related to the year. cYnical against Krimson Mask won Feud of the Year with 41% of the vote, cYnical winning the LPW World Heavyweight Championship after defeating Krimson Mask in a Japanese Death match at Dead Man's Hand won Moment of the Year, Altered Reality IV was given recognition as Show of the Year, and the first-ever DeathCube match from EndGame narrowly won Match of the Year.

Pre-show
Before the event aired live in prime time, five pre-show matches took place during daytime television. In the first match, a refocused Trey Spruance defeated Bobino after hitting a Fire Thunder Driver. Backstage, Super Houdini was found knocked out with his mask stolen. With Houdini unable to compete in the next match, newcomers "Rockstar" Joe Michaels defeated Shock after catching a hint from Shock's manager Aiden Irving. Michaels caught Shock with the Heat Wave while he was leaping in mid-air. After the match, Michaels was assigned to Inferno while Shock went to Insanity.

In other matches, Chris K. defeated Pig-E to settle their on-going feud. Sudden Death (Black Ada and Son of Shockey) continued their impressive streak, defeating Eddie Green and Saint Steve (with Kafudamaha) in a tag team match. In the pre-show main event, Killswitch defeated Genocide after forcing him to tap to the Short Circuit.

Preliminary matches
With the world-famous Hollywood sign as a backdrop in the nighttime sky, Honor Roll officially began at the Hollywood Bowl with LPW's favorite laureate musician, Tromboner Man, leading the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to play a rendition of Honor Roll's official theme song, "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor.

The first match that aired live was a LPW Western States Heritage Championship rematch between new champion Eddie B. and former champion White Falcon. In a fast-paced action-packed match, Falcon hit the White Light and went for the cover. But Eddie got his foot on the bottom rope for a rope break, and managed to plant Falcon with "Welcome to Minneapolis, Motherfucker!" to even the match's momentum. Eddie B. placed White Falcon on the top turnbuckle for a superplex, but Falcon punched out of it, and set him up for the Roman Cross. Eddie got out of it and missed a Lowered Expectations superkick, but rebounded with the "Good Night" Lariat to successfully retain the title. After the match, Pen and Big B. Brown presented the 2008 LPW Rookie of the Year to Eddie B., who won with 76% of the vote.

In the second match of the evening, the Psych Ward's Hatchet Ryda defended the LPW Hardcore Championship against LPW Hall of Famer, Villiano 187, who earned the title shot after winning a scavenger hunt at LPW Insanity LIVE X-Mas Special, in which the goal was to Lou the midget, which Villiano successfully did. The match started out quick, with Villiano seizing the early advantage with a chair shot and stapling Hatchet's face with a staple-gun. Hatchet regained the momentum, bowling a strike inside Villiano's groin area. The fight went backstage, where the masked Villiano was viciously attacked by Genocide, who had the masks of Super Houdini and Super Stallion notched on his belt. As Genocide tried to untie Vil's mask, Hatchet knocked out Genocide with a 2' by 4', then hit the Witching Hour on Villiano for the three-count. Back on the Hollywood Bowl stage, Drew Michaels and Sara St. James presented LPW Most Improved of the Year, which was won by Mass Chaos with 53% of the total vote.

The next match of the evening saw Mass Chaos defend the LPW Television Championship against seven opponents in a Royal Rumble-like Scramble match. Sean Jensen and Big B. Brown started things off, with Andrew Carpenter quickly running down as the third entrant with a lit torch, but was soon eliminated after Jensen connected with "My Foot, Your Face" to get the pinfall. The fourth entrant was Bloodrose, but the LPW legend was found backstage having been attacked by the psychotic Jude Maxwell. While Brown was close to being eliminated, Cash Flo sprinted to the rescue, saving his tag team partner. While Flo and Brown began to dominate the ring, Mass Chaos arrived to a huge ovation, hitting the Final Disarray to eliminate Bloodrose, who had tried to compete while injured. Jude Maxwell was the seventh entrant, eliminating Cash Flo after knocking him off the top rope. Jeff Watson arrived as the final entrant, just before Jensen knocked out Brown with help from the other three to toss out the 500-pounder. With four men left, Watson hit the Cyclone Drop on Chaos, but before getting the pin, a sex tape of Watson's wife, Maria, was shown on the HDtron to distract him. Bewildered at the tape, Maxwell came from behind and eliminated Watson with the Helter Skelter. As Jensen tried to go for a third "My Foot, Your Face", Chaos reversed the move into a Final Disarray to eliminate Jensen. Down to the final two, Maxwell countered the champion with the Glass Onion to end Chaos' 15-month reign as Television Champion. After the match, Chaos awarded the title to Maxwell, who took the title and bolted backstage.

Backstage, the shadowy LPW CEO and Inferno General Manager The Boss was confronted by Inferno's LPW International Heavyweight Champion and locker-room leader, Drew Michaels. With Michaels upset about several decisions administered by The Boss, the mysterious businessman leveled with Michaels that LPW's financial situation was weakening due to the economy. The Boss admitted that for LPW to survive, he was shopping the promotion to suitors. With Michaels fuming about the possibility of being bought out, The Boss finished by telling Michaels, "I need the face of this brand to live up to his responsibilities, so I can live up to mine".

LPW legends "Sick" Nick and Satisfaction presented the Achievement Award for LPW Most Popular of the Year, which was won by the MWA (Tromboner Man and RaTo) with 46% of the total vote. The next match was the tournament final of "The Exciting Adventures of the LPW Transatlantic Championship", pitting The Rabbi against Daniel Oakley. Before the match, Insanity General Manager Little Red said the match would be contested under "Simon Says" Rules, or as she called it, "Little Red Says". During the match, the match stipulations would be changed at Little Red's commands. After a Falls Count Anywhere match was changed to a standard match, Rabbi caught Oakley leaping from the top rope, then powerbombing him three times for the Messughanator, making Rabbi the first-ever multi-time Transatlantic Champion. Backstage, Sean Jensen was confronted by Mass Chaos and The Misfits. Impressed by Jensen's efforts in their TV Scramble match, Chaos gave Jensen a Misfits shirt and spot in the legendary stable, which Jensen accepted.

The fifth match billed as a Cleansed by Blood triple threat match, was between Al, Styxx, and Ultramarcus to decide a number one contender to the LPW Western States Heritage Championship. With the managerial services of Janine, Ultramarcus was able to take advantage in the early stages of the match, using a variety of weapons to beat his opponents. But Styxx yanked Janine's arm at ringside, with Ultramarcus retaliating. As Ultramarcus helped Janine, Al hit the Hit Stick spear on Janine to drop the famed manager. Al then drove Ultramarcus through a table with the CSP (Crack, Snapple, Pop) to gain the pinfall. On the stage of the Hollywood Bowl, Takeover returned to LPW television for the first time in over two and a half years, presenting LPW Most Hated of the Year much to the chagrin of the fans. The award was won by X|X with 35% of the vote. Rather than make an appearance, his winning speech was read by Takeover, which read "CYW" (Consider Yourself Warned). The lights went out, and when they came back on, Takeover was left laying with X standing over him with his trademark steel chair in hand.

Backstage, Eddie B. confronted Wevv Mang before their Winner Takes All match to decide the General Manager for Insanity and Inferno's upcoming pay-per-views, Resurrection and Take No Prisoners, respectively. Eddie tried to appeal to Mang's business sense by offering himself as an "insurance policy" if one of them were to be eliminated in their match, just as long as he could get his hands on X.

In the next match, the MWA's Tromboner Man and RaTo defended the LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Championship against the Psych Ward's Andy Savana and Blackwell. Despite the MWA's 18-month dominance of the tag team division, the Psych Ward dominated much of the match by separating RaTo from Tromboner Man. While Savana went for a high-risk move, he saw Tromboner Man laughing. Savana asked, "What are you laughing at?", which Tromboner Man responded, "Your Face". The burn allowed RaTo enough time to hit Savana with Sliced Bread #2, then get a hot tag Tromboner Man. Towards the end, double-teamed Blackwell to hit the Madcore Bomb for a successful title defense. After the match, Showstoppa and Marty presented Promo Writer of the Year to Krimson Mask, who won with 70% of the vote.

Backstage, Sheepster barged into The Boss's office while he was consoling backstage reporter Sara St. James, who he was forced to release. The Boss informed him Sheepster that his match against Vendetta was cancelled for the night, due to his late arrival. Afterwards, Ultramarcus and Janine came in the office, in which The Boss fired Janine as his manager and offered her a position as Inferno's newest backstage correspondent.

Main event matches
The next match was the Winner Takes All final between Wevv Mang, Eddie B., Mass Chaos, the Psych Ward's Hatchet Ryda and Andy Savana, Styxx, Big B. Brown, and the midget Lou. The match would be contested in an eight-man Four Corners Elimination match, with four men in the ring at one time, with the remaining men in the corners awaiting tag-outs. The winner would be given the unique opportunity to run both Insanity and Inferno's upcoming pay-per-views, Resurrection and Take No Prisoners, respectively.

The first elimination saw the 500-pound Brown apply a sleeper to Lou, but the Psych Ward hit double shining wizards on Brown, with Lou falling on top for the first elimination. The Psych Ward capitalized again, this time taking out the second biggest man in the match when Hatchet hit Styxx with the Witching Hour, with Savana landing a suicide dive for double measure. As Hatchet went for the pin, Lou pushed him off and pinned Styxx. Upset at Lou, Savana hit a suicide dive to eliminate him. The alliance of Wevv and Eddie B. came into play when both of them fought the Psych Ward while Chaos stayed on the apron. Eddie got trapped in a Savana Chamber of Pain and was close to tapping, but Wevv rescued him by pushing Eddie over to roll up Savana. Chaos came into the ring, hitting the Final Disarray to eliminate Hatchet Ryda. Down to three, Chaos fought the effective tandem of Wevv and Eddie until Wevv got busted open. Blinded by blood, Wevv accidently chopped Eddie's legs before he could hit the Lowered Expectations on Chaos. With the assist, Chaos hit Black Ode to the Sun to eliminate Eddie. Down to the final two, both competitors kicked out of each other's finisher. Chaos climbed the top rope, but got distracted by Eddie. Wevv recovered in time to jump to the second turnbuckle, hitting a Super Black Crush to get the pinfall and win the Winner Takes All tournament.

Sudden Death (Black Ada and Son of Shockey) presented Tag Team of the Year, which the MWA was heavily favored to win. But Sudden Death awarded themselves, claiming they had won 100% of the vote. Confused as to how Sudden Death could win an award they were never nominated for, the MWA's Tromboner Man left his conductor position from the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and tip-toed to see what the envelope said. When Tromboner Man took a look, the MWA had won the award with 75% of the vote. Rather than admit the award belonging to the MWA, Sudden Death attacked him. With RaTo sprinting to save his tag team partner, Sudden Death jumped off the stage to drive Tromboner Man through a table with an ESPN2 spike piledriver.

The next match was Inferno's Fatal Four-way match for the LPW International Heavyweight Championship, which pit defending champion Drew Michaels against the schizophrenic NPD, and former Dark Brotherhood partners Ash Strife and Eric Scorpio. When the bell rang, Scorpio blitzed his brother with a flurry of offense, but the attack triggered Strife's possessed Crazy Ash Killa alter-ego to take over. CAK annihilated his brother, hitting two Strife Strikes until ultimately ending his career when he jumped from the top rope to the steel ringsteps with a third Strife Strike, prompting the referee to eliminate Scorpio. NPD tried to hit CAK with a sceptor, which only made the Titan of Ultraviolence angry. Before NPD could be destroyed, Michaels piggy-backed CAK with a sleeper, trying to talk into his ear to bring Strife back. The risk paid off, as Strife returned, only to witness his brother being wheeled out by paramedics. Michaels regained momentum in his favor until Insanity's Krimson Mask and Little Red appeared, unprovokingly attacking Michaels. After Krimson Mask finished off Michaels with The End, NPD made the cover to end his 11-month reign as Inferno champion. Down to Strife and NPD, the evil CAK possessed Strife again until NPD pleaded for mercy. Strife returned, only for NPD to take advantage and trip him up. Using the ropes for leverage, NPD pinned Strife to win the LPW International Heavyweight Championship.

For the final award of the night, SoL and Stone presented the 2008 award for LPW Wrestler of the Year. The five finalists were cYnical, Drew Michaels, Krimson Mask, Mass Chaos, and White Falcon. Despite being last in nomination votes, White Falcon won the award with 28% of the total vote.

In the final match of the evening and Insanity main event, cYnical defended the LPW World Heavyweight Championship against X|X. After a fast-paced start to the match, X gained the advantage after successfully predicting where cYnical would roll for a top rope X-Bomb. X once again went to the top, but lost his footing. cYnical sprinted to the top rope and sunset flipped over X for a Canadian Destroyer Powerbomb, forcing X to freefall into the timekeeper's table. After several minutes, cYnical forced X into the ring and went to finish him with a cYntrifical Force, which X countered by getting his knees up. With both men injured, cYnical tried to hit a shining wizard, which X ducked. X countered with a low blow, then an X-Tinction chokeslam to pin cYnical and become the new LPW World Heavyweight Champion.