RSPW Dream Tournament: Round Three!

With the impending WWE Raw King of the Ring tournament coming soon, we turn our attention to the third round of the RSPW Dream Tournament, with talent that would be pretty much unbeatable against the current WWE King of the Ring roster. However, due to even numbers of voters and some extremely close match-ups, the story of the tournament has so far been an insane number of draws. Nonetheless, here are the second-round results and the third-round match-ups for voting.

Here are instructions on how to participate:

In honor of the old PWI fantasy tournaments, I now present Round 3 of
the RSPW dream tournament. Basically, this is a dream tournament of
the greatest wrestlers of the modern era, with the match winners in
each round decided by YOU, the VOTERS of this newsgroup. Voting is to
be done publicly and transparently in response to this message -- no
email. No double voting via socks -- this is an honour system, and
you will only be scamming yourself by corrupting the tournament.
Deadline for third-round-matches voting will be a week or so from
now. So, without further ado, here are the third-round match-ups:

Match 1:
Non-Match Double-Bye
There is no opponent for the first half of this match bracket due to two draws all the way back in the first round: Bret Hart drew with Roddy Piper, and Kevin Nash drew with Kerry Von Erich. The winner of the second-round match-up of Big Show vs. Shawn Michaels was set to get a bye to the fourth round. However, Big Show did much better against Michaels than Giant Gonzalez did in the first round, drawing with Michaels (3-3). Therefore, there is no match here for the third round.

Match 2:
Non-Match Double-Bye
Again, a non-match. This is due to two draws in round 2: Vader drew with Booker T (3-3), and Andre the Giant drew with the Rock (3-3). The draws are getting out of control!

Match 3:
Ric Flair vs. Great Muta
Finally, an actual match to vote on! Due to the extreme number of double-eliminations, the results of the remaining matches take on increased importance, as the winner here, for example, could easily go on to win the whole tournament. Flair and Muta had surprisingly dominant victories in round 2, compared to the many other close match-ups in round 2 that ended up as draws. Flair follows his first-round victory over now-TNA-champ Samoa Joe with a decisive second-round victory over Rob Van Dam (5-1). Muta followed a very strong first-round victory over Randy Orton with what some would consider an upset, a (4-2) victory over the Undertaker. I believe Flair vs. Muta actually happened on the WCW "Iron-Man" tournament pay-per-view years ago. I think Flair won, if I remember correctly. Flair seems to have been benefitting from Flair-retirement-nostalgia on RSPW. Then again, Muta has done incredibly well in this tournament so far and could very well win it with such momentum. We will see...

Match 4:
Non-Match Double-Bye
Sting drew with Sabu and Sid Vicious drew with Goldust in the first round, such that the winner of Tatsumi Fujinami and Mick Foley was to get a bye all the way into the fourth round. But wouldn't you know it, Fujinami and Foley drew in the second round (3-3), making this a non-match as well.

Match 5:
Steve Austin vs. Edge
Austin cruised by Jerry Lawler in an easy first-round win, but the same could not be said about his second round win over Terry Funk (4-2). Edge has only wrestled once so far in the tournament, with a slightly competitive victory over Jeff Hardy, followed by a second-round bye. Austin-Edge: can't remember if it ever happened in WWE, but it probably did, probably with an Austin victory. Edge is a much bigger star now, but Austin is debatably the biggest star ever. It should be an interesting match-up.

Match 6:
Randy Savage vs. Kurt Angle
Talk about a great modern match-up that never happened, but should have (and maybe still could, TNA, are you listening out there???) Savage dominated Batista in the first round, then got a slightly competitive victory over Dusty Rhodes in the second round (4-2), mirroring Savage's edge over Rhodes in their real-life WWE feud. Angle's only win so far was his first-round decisive win over Bam Bam Bigelow, followed by a second-round bye. This should be a good match, as well.

Match 7:
Jake Roberts vs. Ted Dibiase
Ah yes, it doesn't get any more 80's wrestling than this! Jake the Snake is a real RSPW favorite. He easily defeated current-WWE-top-star John Cena in the very first round, followed by a huge win over Rick Rude in the second round (5-1), probably with the DDT. Dibiase won over Masa Chono in the first round (in a technical classic, perhaps?), but had to have had one of the biggest upsets in the tournament so far in the second round by DECISIVELY upsetting Bill Goldberg (5-1). The only explanations I can think of are: (a) Dibiase outclasses Goldberg with mat wrestling, (b) Dibiase cheats, uses an evil twin referee, etc., or (c) Dibiase "pays off" Goldberg to lose. Oh, the memories of 80's WWE this brings back! Since Roberts' win over Cena could be considered another huge upset, maybe this should be considered the battle of the upset kings in this tournament? I actually think this match happened at one of the Wrestlemanias and ended up as some sort of no-contest. Maybe we'll see how it should have been booked, via this tournament?

Match 8:
Non-Match, Curt Hennig gets a bye to the next round.
"Mr. Perfect" will be noted as the luckiest wrestler in the tournament. He easily defeated the Sandman in the first round, whom many would consider to be one of the easiest opponents in the tournament. Then, Hennig got an automatic bye into the third round, thanks to the shocking draw between American Dragon and Ultimate Warrior. Now, Hennig has gotten a second straight automatic bye into the fourth round, thanks to the draw between Chris Jericho and Hulk Hogan (3-3). You may remember that the WWE match between Hogan and Jericho did not feature a decisive finish. Will Hennig win the entire tournament with a single first-round win over one of the easiest opponents? That would be absolutely...well, if you're a Curt Hennig fan, you can complete that phrase!

LET THE VOTING BEGIN!

- Flash

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