LPW Resurrection

Resurrection was a professional e-wrestling pay-per-view produced by Lords of Pain Wrestling (LPW), presented by its Insanity brand. The event took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan during the 13.5 cycle on March 23, 2009. The event marked LPW's first appearance in Japan.

The event was booked by Wevv Mang, who won the Winner Takes All tournament at Honor Roll and was awarded to head both Insanity and Inferno pay-per-views. Notable for being an international traveler, Mang moved the event to Tokyo for a foreign-field-advantage when he challenged X for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship. X's manipulation of several stars came to fruition when Pen helped his cause, but it was Eddie B.'s interference that indirectly cost Mang the title when he superkicked the referee before Mang could be declared the winner. Frustrated by the turn of events, Mang was caught using a chair and was disqualified, thus culminating in a successful title defense for X.

In other notable matches, Ash Strife defeated cYnical in a Straight Jacket match, the MWA (RaTo and Tromboner Man) defeated Sudden Death (Black Ada and Son of Shockey) in an Iron Man Tag Team match to retain the LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Championship, The Rabbi defeated Pen to retain the LPW Transatlantic Championship, and Hatchet Ryda defeated Psych Ward teammates Blackwell and Andy Savana to retain the LPW Hardcore Championship.

Background
At Altered Reality IV, the Insanity brand was handily defeated by Inferno for brand supremacy, losing its "flagship" status for the first time. Wishing to re-establish its dominance after such an embarrassing series of defeats, Insanity was hopeful to resurrect the brand in the upcoming year. Things took a turn when LPW began to bleed money due to the global economic crisis of 2008. Forced to take immediate action, the Board of Directors hired a mysterious businessman known as The Boss to shore up company profits as its new CEO and Inferno General Manager. His first act was controversially appointing the inexperienced Little Red Riding Hood to be Insanity's new General Manager. The curious promotion of Little Red created much controversy, but The Boss reassured critics that she embodied everything that Insanity should stand for, and was confident that her outside-the-box thinking would resurrect the flagging brand. With a new regime in place, LPW re-drafted its entire roster between the promotion's two brands at Homecoming.

Fueled by her hated of cYnical's past manipulation of her and Krimson Mask into winning the LPW World Heavyweight Championship, Little Red booked X|X to face cYnical for the title at Honor Roll. Also at this time, Little Red and The Boss announced a tournament called Winner Takes All, in which the winner would be given full booking control over Insanity and Inferno's upcoming pay-per-views, entitled Resurrection and Take No Prisoners respectively. The final would be competed in a eight-man Four Corners Elimination match, in which Wevv Mang and Inferno's fast-rising rookie Eddie B. were favored to win.

At Honor Roll, Eddie approched Mang before their match and 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 at Resurrection. Eddie had been stalking X ever since he was eliminated by him at Redemption during their Inferno Seven match. Mang agreed to the offer, and would go on to Win It All after Eddie assisted Mang to last eliminate Mass Chaos. Later that night, X defeated cYnical to win the LPW World Heavyweight Championship.

With full booking control for the pay-per-view, Mang was now put in a difficult position. Should he go back on his word and challenge X for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship? Or should he give the opportunity to Eddie like he had agreed to? At the conclusion of Insanity LIVE from Waikiki Beach, Mang confronted X and announced that he would agree to his own word made years ago and challenge for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship against X. In addition, the notable international traveler Mang would move the event to Tokyo to give himself a home-away-from-home field advantage against X.

Preliminary matches
Set in the Tokyo Dome, Resurrection opened with a large samurai-themed entrance where Flow performed their single "Rising Dragon" in front of 90,000 Japanese fans.

The first match of the night was a five-man Hardcore Gauntlet to determine the number one contender to the LPW Hardcore Championship. Shock was introduced first, and eliminated Kafu after hitting Lightning Strikes with a hockey stick. The third entrant in the match was Saint Steve, who received assistance from his Cult teammate Kafu in stuffing Communion wafers into the mouth of Shock. Upset about the unfair advantage, Joey Sosa came out early as the fourth entrant and evened the playing field. The Cult was able to fend off Sosa's help, with Saint Steve climbing the top turnbuckle to hit the finishing blow on Shock. But Sosa was able to trip Steve, where he fell into a Thunder Clap from Shock for his elimination. Fatigued from his previous bouts, Sosa was able to lock in the Babylon Lock to force Shock to submit. The final entrant was Killswitch, who came out with an elaborate Goldberg-like entrance with a Canadian Mountie escort. Towards the conclusion, Sosa had Killswitch in the Winged Bull, but Killswitch elbowed out of it and zapped Sosa with a cattle prod he pulled from one of his escorts. Killswitch pinned Sosa to earn his Hardcore Championship match.

A backstage segment was featured next, which involved Wevv Mang and Mr. Wang taking up residence in the "Genie" Manager's office of Little Red Riding Hood. As the man in charge for the night, Mang addressed his disapproval with how Insanity was being handled in light of the global economy crisis, his dealings with Eddie B., and how a victory over X for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship might be enough to right the company in the right direction.

Following the segment was the LPW Transatlantic Championship match, with The Rabbi defending the title against Pen. The match started off with a chain of takedowns, holds, and counters, with Rabbi getting the better of the French Canadian Sensation. Despite being a fan favorite his entire career, Pen countered Rabbi's offense with not one, but two low blows to slow down the Hebrew Hammer's attack. With the boos mounting, Pen grabbed a steel chair and was ready to hit Rabbi until a change of heart made him hand the chair to the referee. When Rabbi charged, Pen grabbed the chair back and swung. Rabbi managed to duck, then hit The Blessing DDT to retain the LPW Transatlantic Championship.

Backstage, Jonathan Crotchman interviewed Killswitch. With his partner Daniel Oakley being forced to retire, Killswitch tossed away his contract for a shot at the LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Championship, which was scooped up by someone off camera. In a second segment, Pen snapped at Joey Sosa for trying to be supportive, telling the rookie that he couldn't hold his jockstrap after throwing it at Sosa then slapping it out of his hands.

The next match was a Tag Team match by order of Wevv Mang, as Krimson Mask and Villiano 187 took on Genocide and the debutting Dr. Wagner. Mang booked the match to settle the ongoing feud between Villiano and Genocide, where Genocide vowed to unmask Villiano. Krimson Mask used his power to dominate the match early on, squashing Genocide in the turnbuckle. The high-flying maneuvers of Wagner helped to save his mentor on several occasions, first from Mask and later on Villiano. A brawl erupted between Villiano and Genocide, causing the referee to lose control of the match. During the melee, Genocide tried to nail Krimson Mask with a steel chair while he sized up Wagner to finish him with The End, but Villiano was able to cut Genocide off by knocking him over the top rope. Krimson Mask powerslammed Wagner into the turnbuckle and earn the pinfall victory. After the match, Villiano tried to unmask Genocide, but was unsuccessful.

All three members of the Psych Ward battled next, as Hatchet Ryda defended the LPW Hardcore Championship against stablemates Blackwell and Andy Savana in a Hardcore Triple Threat match. Despite mutual respect between Hatchet and Blackwell, Savana's alcohol addiction and jealousy of Hatchet's success led him to crack a beer bottle over Hatchet's skull to start the match. After Savana slammed Blackwell into the steel ringpost, Savana leaped off the announce table while Hatchet had already springboarded himself off the top rope. They collided in mid-air with Hatchet's stronger momentum allowing him to hit a tornado Witching Hour right through the Japanese announce table. With Savana unable to continue, Blackwell brought out the Bearded Lady and lawndarted Hatchet into her ass. Despite the oddness, Hatchet caught Blackwell with a superkick, then pulled out a Monopoly game and set it on Blackwell's face, grabbing a steel chair and hitting him with a top rope Atomic Arabian Facebuster for the deciding pinfall.

Backstage, moments before their LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Championship match, Sudden Death's Son of Shockey found out that former Miami Hurricanes teammate Jeremy Shockey had pressed charges against him in the United States after SOS attacked his mentor during the pre-show of Insanity LIVE from Waikiki Beach. As Black Ada questioned his tag team partner, Inferno's Cash Flo and Big B. Brown waltzed into the locker-room, with Cash Flo claiming that The Franchise Players were better than Sudden Death. A fight between Shockey and Cash Flo escalated with both wrestlers being pulled apart by their respective tag team partners.

Main event matches
A backstage segment followed with the vacationing Insanity General Manager Little Red Riding Hood unsuccessfully eating a plate of sushi. She was approached by psychotically bipolar Ash Strife, who was being possessed by his Crazy Ash Killa alter-ego. Scheduled in a Straight Jacket match against cYnical later in the evening, CAK wrapped his arm around Little Red hoping to gain a favor.

The fifth match of the night was the 30-minute Iron Man Tag Team match for the LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Championship, in which the MWA's Tromboner Man and RaTo put up their 19-month reign as LPW Tag Team Champions against the impressive rookie tandem, Sudden Death (Black Ada and Son of Shockey). After naming themselves LPW Tag Team of the Year during Honor Roll, Tromboner Man sneaked a peak at the ballot and saw that Sudden Death had lied during the award presentation, in which the MWA were the rightful winners. Sudden Death took exception by hitting the ESPN2 spike piledriver on Tromboner Man through the top stage. In the match, Sudden Death capitalized with the first fall, taking advantage of Tromboner Man's injury by hitting him with the ESPN2 to take a 1-0 lead. With four minutes remaining, the MWA managed to hit the Madcore Bomb on Shockey to tie the match at 1-1. With the MWA in pain, Shockey attacked the injured RaTo and finished him with the Extra Special Pwnage of the Neck (ESPN), only to see the clock expire before gaining the winning three-count. The match was declared a draw. As Tromboner Man helped RaTo to the back, Black Ada picked up a mic and convinced Tromboner Man to continue in Sudden Death overtime. Tromboner Man accepted, then dodged a Shockey charge which saw him injure his knee on the steel ringsteps. In the ring, Ada tried to hit Snake Eyes, but Tromboner Man reversed and nailed the Intonation Buster to gain the winning pinfall. With the win, it marked the sixth consecutive successful title defense for the MWA.

The sixth match was the Straight Jacket match between cYnical and Ash Strife, in which the first man to incapacitate his opponent and strap them into a straight jacket would be declared the winner. Despite having no booking power for the night, Insanity GM Little Red convinced Wevv Mang to book cYnical (her former flame) against the monstrous Strife as a "Valentine's Day gift", with the intent that Strife's psycho-alter-ego Crazy Ash Killa would break free and unmercifully decimate cYnical. Using his quickness and buzzsaw kicks, cYnical gained the early advantage in the match and brought the bigger man down to his knees after several offensive moves. When cYnical went to grab a straight jacket on the outside, he found out that Little Red had purposely made all the sizes for the straight jackets in a size small. When Little Red came out to gloat, cYnical used his wizardry to create a bigger flaming straight jacket. Seeing this, Strife attacked cYn to force the flaming straight jacket out of his grasp, allowing Little Red to run to ringside and douse the flame with a fire extinguisher. In the ring, cYnical hit a springboard chair shot to bust open Strife. At that moment, the arena's electricity began to flicker, with Crazy Ash Killa showing up on the HDtron warning cYnical that he was coming. When the lights returned, Strife's psyche was replaced by Crazy Ash Killa in the ring. CAK unleashed his fury, slamming cYnical into the ring apron, steel ringpost, and sidewalk slamming him into the steel ringsteps. Internally, Strife tried to wrestle control of himself away from CAK, but CAK was too strong. With blood pouring from both competitors, CAK managed to strap the straight jacket onto cYnical for the convincing victory.

The main event of the night saw Wevv Mang book himself against defending champion X for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship, which was Mang's award for being victorious in the Winner Takes All tournament that concluded at Honor Roll, allowing him to head both Insanity and Inferno pay-per-views. With the pro-Mang Japanese crowd, X's dirty tactics were established early on with several eye rakes and illegal chokes in the corner. With X in firm control, Mang borrowed a page from the champion and raked X's eyes, hitting a low blow to even the score. Mang set-up X for Shakespeare on Ice, but X was able to push Mang into the referee and knock him out. Without an official, X grabbed his trusty black steel chair, and slammed it into Mr. Wang on the outside and Wevv Mang inside the ring, finishing with the X-Tinction before noticing there was no referee to administer a three-count. From out of the back, Pen walked out from the back with a new referee running past him to administer a near-fall two-count. X tried to go for another X-Tinction, only to be reversed into a Shakespeare on Ice by Mang. The challenger went for the pin, but Pen shocked everyone by pulling out the referee to help his thought to-be adversary. With a 2-on-1 advantage, X planted a chair under Mang and hit an X-Bomb from the top rope, but before the pinfall could be made, Inferno's Eddie B. interfered to get his hands on X for the first time since Redemption. X tried to take out his stalker, only to be on the receiving end of a Lowered Expectations superkick courtesy of Eddie. As Eddie turned away, Mang hit him with the Black Crush, looking to win the match by himself. After hitting X with another Shakespeare on Ice, Mang locked on the Persuader koji clutch. The second referee checked X's arm to see it drop three times. When the referee turned to signal to the timekeeper, Eddie hit the Lowered Expectations on the referee before Mang was a signal away from winning the championship. Frustrated at losing control of the match, Mang used X's black steel chair and hit the champion, which the first referee saw. Mang was disqualified, with the match being awarded to X.

In just a matter of a few months, X had manipulated his way to winning the LPW World Heavyweight Championship, transformed a fan favorite like Pen into his back-up, turned his stalker Eddie B. against Wevv when it mattered, then forced Wevv to snap at the wrong time.

Aftermath
At the conclusion of the Inferno pay-per-view, Take No Prisoners, Krimson Mask defeated Drew Michaels by disqualification. After the match, Krimson Mask held Michaels in the ring when The Boss made his first public appearance, revealing himself to be D. Hammond Samuels. Samuels announced that the reason he had sanctioned the Winner Takes All tournament was so the winner (Wevv Mang) would run the daily operations of LPW while he leveraged a buyout of LPW through his media conglomerate, Public Enemy Multimedia, LLC. With Michaels allowing Ash Strife into the LPW International Heavyweight Championship Fatal Four-way match at Honor Roll, full knowing Strife's mental condition with his Crazy Ash Killa (CAK) alter-ego and the bad blood between his brother Eric Scorpio, Samuels used that decision to orchestrate the blame on Michaels. After Scorpio’s death at the hands of CAK, LPW’s stock took a nosedive. With the stock at an all-time low, Samuels was able to swoop in and buyout LPW at a fraction of the original bargaining price.

At the following Insanity LIVE from Sydney telecast, the two General Managers formed an alliance, with D. Hammond Samuels teaming with Little Red's Krimson Mask to end the 22-month Tag Team Championship reign of the MWA's Tromboner Man and RaTo. The hope was to split the mega-popular team so that they could branch out as singles stars and earn more profit for Samuels and LPW. In the match, Krimson Mask and Samuels proved victorious, becoming the second LPW Undisputed World Tag Team Champions.

Also, Little Red entered every Insanity superstar into a brand-wide competition called Body Count. The premise of the competition was for the top five wrestlers who could tally the highest Body Count by the end of the cycle would face X for the LPW World Heavyweight Championship in the second-ever DeathCube Match.