Invitation To Gold: The Status of the Championship Match at Luchini

July 30th, 2023 at Luchini Naptown All Pro crowns its first-ever champion of its own but the road to get there has been a story told by 6 individuals, soon to become 7. Let us take you on the journey of how we’re getting to where we’re going on the 30th

The Match: Succession Scramble

NAP is debuting a brand new match type to determine our first in-house champion, one that takes inspiration from the championship scramble, the royal rumble, and War Games that we’re calling The Succession Scramble. The rules are as follows

All 6-Competitors will be placed in an order determined by the NAP board of directors
2 competitors start off in the ring and battle it out
Every 2 minutes a new competitor makes their entrance into the match. The later you enter into the match, the less damage you’re in theory able to take
The order continues until all 6 competitors have entered the field of battle when at that point the competitors are eligible to be pinned or submitted thus eliminating them from the match
This process continues until there’s one competitor left remaining who will be crowned the winner and the first champion of Naptown All Pro

The Tankman Situation

Calvin Tankman has more or less been the ace of Naptown All Pro since its inception last April. Tankman, one of the founding 4 members of NAP, main-evented our first show, was the champion of our first title defense, and has only ever taken one fall in NAP’s history which came at the hands of Isaiah Broner. He has the 4th most matches in NAP history the caliber of which is unmatched, he’s a no-brainer to be included in the match to crown a champion of Naptown All Pro and considering his goals to truly put Indianapolis back on the map as a standout wrestling town it’s an honor he’d be looking forward to immensely

And yet, he will not be in the title match on July 30th,

In his quest to become one of the most dominant champions across the independent scene, Tankman has taken the move to Glory Pro Wrestling in St Louis where at their last show he beat Camaro Jackson to win the Crown Of Glory Championship, the top singles prize in Glory Pro. In doing so he has committed himself to a select number of defenses and appearances and the first of such appearances takes place on Sunday, July 30th… the same day as Luchini. NAP officials recognize all of what Tankman is trying to accomplish both in and out of NAP.

We support his decision to continue spreading the good word of Indianapolis Pro Wrestling out in St. Louis. He will keep his envelope to be used for a championship opportunity that can be redeemed for a future title shot (the match must be announced in advance, this is not a cash-in opportunity)

As far as the 6th and final spot in the match goes, NAP officials are weighing their options and attempting to determine what the best move is. There will be a surprise replacement after that evaluation who will be revealed at a later time.

The Broner Situation

At June 11th’s Already Chose event Isaiah Broner and Joseline Navarro came to the ring for their scheduled tag team match against Mikey Banker & Jet Jaghori of The Delinquents. As they both made their way into the ring Isaiah Broer flashed a white envelope insinuating that he had been invited to the championship match at Luchini. This shocked most of the crowd in attendance which was the norm as they had been surprised at the following 3 entrant announcements but to the watchful eye you can see that it also surprised NAP staff members Xery Highlife and J-Rose.

Postmatch NAP Officials looked over Broner’s envelope and determined that it was legit but that’s all we received from the higher-ups. No word past that on the initial confused look but we suspect there’s far more to this situation than what meets the eye, especially considering that Broner has only won 2 matches in his time in NAP. The most impressive of these 2 wins was a victory over Calvin Tankman at February’s New Heart Design event and the other from our 2nd ever show in which he beat Lazarus in a No DQ match, Lazarus himself being a last-minute replacement for Jody Himself who was himself a replacement for Hoodfoot Mo Atlas.

The remaining 3

Alice Crowley

Alice has had 8 matches in NAP at a record of 5-3 with a singles match record of 4-2. She’s the literal hometown girl coming up in the far eastside neighborhoods of Indianapolis where the large majority of NAP shows are held and with a big win over Sandra Moone in our first-ever show in addition to being on a 4-match winning streak with one of those wins being a victory over NAP founder Hoodfoot Mo Atlas she more than deserves to be in this match.

At this coming Sunday’s Great Midwestern Trendkill she was scheduled to face Darian Bengston who she tied with for Breakout Star of the Year in The 2023 NAP Awards but had to pull off due to other obligations yet unknown to NAP. That raises the question with her mind elsewhere is she truly prepared to win this title

Darian Bengston

Bengston has wrestled the 2nd most matches all-time in the history of Naptown All Pro just behind Shawn Kemp & Chase Holliday with a record of 7-3 and 6-1 in 1v1 matches, by far the most impressive in all of NAP. He comes into the month of July fresh off of 2 straight wins against standout Sandra Moone and a handpicked opponent in a debuting Adam Priest while having the challenge of wrestling another handpicked debut opponent in fellow Nightmare Factory Academy graduate Dillon McQueen. Bengston has endeared himself to both NAP management and fans alike seeing NAP truly as the land of possibility and using Indianapolis Wrestling as his second home while still reaching back and giving opportunities to others from his native southeast scene.

A fan favorite with stats to back it up who doesn’t love the potential of Darian as the champion of NAP?

Trey Shaw

Trey Shaw at least on paper is the least qualified competitor in this match

He does have some things in his favor like being a Triangle Contingency finalist from our debut doubleheader but outside of that he has a record of 4-9, 3-4 in singles competition which is one of the worst among the 6 competitors. For all intents and purposes, he shouldn’t be in this match and yet he is for a specific reason.

At November 2022’s November To Surrender event Trey was put in an unfortunate situation where he was essentially held up for his submissions-only grudge match vs Kai Fayden until he put something on the line of note and the something he decided on was his Black Wrestlers Matter Championship shot. Trey was gifted this shot at the previous month’s NAP Dreams & Nightmares event by BWM management, but because of injury the then-champion couldn’t make it and so he held on to that shot. If he lost this match vs Kai he would forfeit the title opportunity which he did due to interference from Kai’s NOBODY co-horts.

Ultimately it led Trey down a path where he wasn’t seen in NAP again until May 2023 with all of his time and energy focused on Kai. At the May doubleheader he defeated NOBODY in the afternoon with the help of the Original Sins and in the evening rid himself of Kai Fayden once and for all. In that time the BWM Championship has changed hands to NAP alumni Myron Reed but with Myron’s schedule being what it is we don’t know when Trey could have received his shot. NAP officials instead as a make good for all the trouble they had put him through by not making things right with Kai from the start decided to gift Trey this title opportunity instead.

Now with a chance to make everything right can Trey capitalize?

Shawn Kemp

If Trey is underqualified then Shawn Kemp (real legal name) shouldn’t be in the building. Kemp is 7-5 in NAP but the majority of those are tag efforts in singles competition until this past show Kemp was 0-4 with his first singles win coming a full year+ from when the promotion started but it’s the type of win that matters.

NAP officials had determined that whoever won the match between the 4-founders (Kemp, Hoodfoot, Holliday, & Tankman) would get a spot in the title match on July 30th, the one exception being Calvin Tankman who was already guaranteed a spot but if he were to have won the spot would of went to an outside star. NAP officials were combining through the rosters of AEW, MLW, and Impact to see who all could be brought to Indianapolis but all that work was for naught as Kemp shocked the world and won the Founders 4-way.

Now with his ticket punched and Tankman out to St. Louis, it’s on Kemp, the lone founder in the match to try and back up this win with another and bring home the title for a company he helped create.