Kenny Omega Defeated Mike Angels
Won: March 20th, 2008 - Culmination of Cool - The LID Nightclub - Winnipeg, Mb
Lost: March 10th, 2011
How: Lost to "Playboy" Will Damon
Length: 1085 days (*Longest Reign*)
Cumulative Length: 1246 days (4 reigns)
PCW's Culmination of Cool event was the end of an era, as they celebrated six years of presenting professional wrestling at the LID Nightclub and bid farewell to the iconic venue.
The building, a long standing locally-owned hotel in South Winnipeg, was about to commence a full renovation and expansion that would take a year to complete. When done, it would no longer be able to support live wrestling events.
The LID Nightclub has become known to wrestling fans as The Palladium Nightclub, when it began hosting Top Rope Championship Wrestling (TRCW) events in May 2001. It is not an understatement to say the coming together of TRCW and the Palladium changed wrestling in Manitoba forever.
Their events at the popular Palladium Nightclub drew a University-aged crowd that frequented the area, owing to its proximity to the University of Manitoba. TRCW's promoter Bobby Jay hired Mike Davidson to be Creative Director and the young Davidson began utilizing as his core talent a younger roster of wrestlers who appealed more to the desirable demographic of the University area.
Head of Security for the Palladium was Andrew Shallcross and he and Davidson quickly became close friends. Over the course of the summer of 2001, attendance and excitement increased dramatically at the Palladium. This was largely credited to both Bobby Jay, as promoter, and Davidson as Creative Director and many people acknowledged the role of Shallcross and Palladium General Manager Tom Manos in marketing TRCW to their regular weekend clientele.
TRCW on Thursday nights became a run-away success. But the relationship between Davidson & Bobby began breaking down and Bobby fired him in mid-summer. Davidson felt his vision for wrestling would be successful and began planning to start his own promotion. He was introduced to local businessman John Nguyen by Shane Madison & Will Damon, two TRCW wrestlers who worked for Nguyen during the day and felt loyalty to Davidson, believing in his vision.
Nguyen rejected Davidson's plan after their initial meeting, asking him to return when he had a more formal business plan and a regular venue to produce live events. Upon explaining this to Shallcross, the latter offered to help create an appropriate business plan and, most importantly, felt he could secure the Palladium as a regular venue for their new promotion, replacing TRCW.
Davidson and Shallcross became partners.
They worked together to create a new business plan to present to Nguyen, which they did on November 24th 2001. Nguyen was impressed and immediately agreed to provide financing. At the time, the Palladium had closed for extensive renovations and reopened in December as The Stratosphere Nightclub, a new up-scale concept venue.
Davidson & Shallcross' new promotion - Premier Championship Wrestling (PCW) - debuted at the Stratosphere on February 24th 2002 and began running weekly live events thereafter. The Stratosphere became the home venue and base of operations for PCW from that day foward.
Arguably, the high quality regular venue for their weekly live events was the single most important factor that contributed to PCW's success and longevity. When Davidson resigned from PCW in August 2003, Shallcross took over as Director and the Stratosphere closed for renovations shortly thereafter.
It re-opened in November 2003 as The LID Nightclub and continued to be the home of PCW until its closure in 2008.
It was an historic night for many reasons, not least of which was the fact it was the final wrestling event ever held at the iconic LID Nightclub! The venue, which had hosted wrestling shows since 2001 was considered by many to be the Indy wrestling mecca in Manitoba.
Previously operating as the Palladium & The Stratosphere, The LID Nightclub had helped transform the local industry from a community centre-based niche to a modern, trendy and smart business that appealed to fans of all ages, especially the decerning young adult audience.
The closing of the legendary venue and the promise of a celebration of its history in wrestling, compete with the return of many past superstars who had wrestled there, attracted the largest crowd to ever witness wrestling there.
And with the future of Premier Championship Wrestling not yet known, particular interest was paid to the showdown between PCW Champion Mike Angels and Kenny Omega.
The two men had traded the championship since January and their feud was rapidly becoming among the greatest of all time. Since returning from WWE in late 2006, Omega had been truly and completely dominated in every facet, even while Mike Angels established himself as an historically successful champion. And when Omega defeated Angels in January, it seemed the good times would continue to role for him...until a rejuvenated Angels regained the title just two weeks before this night.
The victory truly cemented the legacy of Mike Angels, a man who, in less than a year, defeated PCW's two greatest Superstars Mentallo & Omega on major shows for the PCW Championship.
Following that match, Omega immediately won the very respected Jersey All Pro Wrestling Championship, defeating the famed Low-ki by submission, providing another historic thread to this contest as it would now be Champion vs Champion
In front of a packed, standing room-only crowd, the two men once again put forth an incredible display of wrestling ability, second to none. When the smoke cleared, it was Omega who would triumph for his record-setting fourth PCW Championship and the beginning of what would become a mind-boggling 1000+ day title reign.
Angels received a rusing standing ovation, even in defeat, as he graciously handed the belt to Omega and the two men embraced in a classy demonstration of mutual respect.