Top Rope Productions History of..... |
Sportsfest has been a tradition in Allentown for several years, but recently became a part of WXW as well. Every year in July, Allentown hosts Sportsfest: its biggest sports festival for the local residents of Allentown and all around, to come and compete in many outdoor sporting events... from street hockey, to basketball, to water sports, and even Scotish games. Then in 1998, Top Rope Productions (the parent company of WXW) and the city of Allentown worked together to bring Professional Wrestling to the largest event in the city of Allentown: SPORTSFEST....... The first annual Sportsfest for WXW was an important one. At Sportsfest 1998, WXW needed to make a big impact; being that this is its first major supercard. So WXW's CEO and founder Afa "the Wild Samoan" needed some really big names for this really big event. Without hesitation, Afa contacted his nephew: WWF superstar The Rock. The Rock also brought along with him Mankind, Owen Hart and D Lo Brown. Plus stars such as Doink the Clown, King Kong Bundy, and the Bushwackers appeared at the show as well. Sportsfest 1999 continued the tradition, as the Samoans (Headshrinker Samu and LA Smooth) took on Bad Crew in a Steel Cage grudge match. This feud has been going on for long and finally reached the boiling point at Sportsfest. The Samoans defeated Bad Crew in the Steel Cage, and the losers had to leave the town! Some other names on the card were Gillberg, Tony Atlas, Tito Santana and Doink the Clown. Perhaps the most shocking event in WXW's history occured at Sportsfest 2000. Headshrinker Samu and LA Smooth beat Hungarian Barbarian and Big Dick Dudley in an incredible tag match, which ended up outside more than inside the ring. However the big suprise came after the win, when Samu later turned on his brother LA Smooth, as well as the rest of his family... then shocked everyone by joining Team Xtreme, the anti-WXW group! Doink the Clown returned for the third year in a row, and Tony Atlas was there again as well. Sportsfest 2001 wasn't without excitement either. During this year of "invasions", some of the former stars of ECW decided to pull an invasion of their own on WXW. Some stars from the now defunct promotion of ECW included Mikey Whipwreck, Crowbar (Devon Strom), Little Guido, the Sandman, and Tommy Dreamer. However their attack on WXW failed as they were all beaten by the stars of WXW! In the main event, Samu and Mana beat the Sandman and Tommy Dreamer, thus ending their invasion attempt and WXW remained strong! Plus Superfly appeared once more and Doink was there for the fourth straight year! Sportsfest 2002 once again gave the fans the best action in wrestling. Sugaa battled Malachi in a hardcore match that ended with Sugaa diving off the top rope, out of the ring onto Malachi. But Malachi was not on the ground. Instead he was on top of two flaming tables! And that was not the only hot action of the night. After Gangrel's match with Rikishi, Gangrel decided the night would not end too early and he viciously attacked Rikishi to the point where he was bleeding horribly. Bautista also interfered in the match, but the entire Samoan Family (Samu, L.A., Island Boys, Afa Jr, Tonga Kid, and Afa the Wild Samoan) came to the rescue of Rikishi. Other stars on the show were Kamala, Crowbar and The Sandman. Sportsfest 2003 made history, just as the previous ones have. All titles were on the line, but this time 2 of them would be decided in Battle Royales. The first was for the WXW Womens Title, with Cindy Rogers walking away the winner. But the second came as a last minute suprise. After Afa Jr announced his retirement from WXW, there had to be a new champion crown immediately, since this is WXW's biggest show of the year! The decision was a Batttle Royale and the winner was Xtreme Billy Dream. Several big names competed on the show including: Samu, Tito Santana, Pitbull Gary Wolfe, Virgil, Jamal (a.k.a. Ekmo) and Nikolai Volkolf. Sportsfest 2004 is remembered as a big "family reunion" of the Samoan Anoa'i family. Samoan Storm Afa Jr returned and was reunited with older brother Samu and cousin Rosey as a tag team. Reno also returned and teamed with cousin L.A. Smooth. Anoa'i relative Tonga Sumo (a.k.a. Tonga Kid) made an appearance. But "family loyalty" was definitely proven when former Wild Samoan student and current WWE Superstar Bautista suprised everyone with a post-match rescue of fellow WSTC student and now "once-again" WXW Champion Mana. Other big names this year were: Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, Don Muraco and Doink (who now appeared for his fifth Sportsfest!) |
