Mantell Shines, Presley Flies

MOONSHINE MANTELL walked in to Dripping Springs and faced his biggest championship challenge yet. He left still holding the Lions Pride Sports Title.

With The Brand’s creative producer, CHASE PARADISE, banned from ringside, Mantell went it alone against both the returning two-time Lions Pride Sports Champion MIKE DELL and former 360 Champion NATE JOLLY in a match made at the top of The Chute Out event by General Manager AARON PRESLEY.

Dell was returning after a five-month recovery from ACL surgery and looked better than ever. Jolly suffered a ruptured ear drum the previous month in a title match against Mantell, and came out fired up. Dell and Jolly teamed up at times against Moonshine, but all three men unleashed their trademark offense on each other. In the end, Dell landed his Dellbow drop onto Jolly, only for Mantell to sneak in, remove Dell from the ring and pin Jolly. Without help from The Brand, Moonshine solidified himself as The Pride’s top competitor.

Surprisingly, Presley was also in action, and the GM pulled off a death-defying move. Earlier in the evening, BRENT MCKENZIE answered The Dark Circus’s open challenge. STEWY THE CANNIBAL CLOWN was disqualified when THE RINGMASTER intervened in the match. Presley had apparently had enough of The Circus’s antics, and decided to take matters into his own hands, booking a no DQ tag match involving himself and McKenzie. The task seemed even more daunting, though, because of 500-pounds of THE MOUNTAIN under the mind control of The Ringmaster.

The violent encounter had a truly wild finish. Under orders from The Ringmaster, The Mountain provided a powder. Unfortunately for The Dark Circus, it went into Stewy’s face. The blinded clown goozled Ringmaster, chokeslammed him and made a cover on his own man. Presley fooled Stewy by slapping the mat three times. Still blinded and thinking he was the winner, Stewy celebrated his way into an End of the Line from McKenzie.

The Ringmaster was incapacitated and unable to give The Mountain orders, so the big man simply stood at ringside as a table and massive ladder were set up in the ring. In a throwback his only other match in The Pride, Presley ascended the ladder and crashed down on Stewy as he was sprawed unconscious on the table. A legitimate three count later, and The Dark Circus was silenced in Hays County as the crowd roared.