The ECWA Super 8 Tournament is the marquee event of independent promotion East Coast Wrestling Association’s year. It’s an eight-man, single elimination tournament focused on the best and brightest junior heavyweights on the indies. Some greats you may notice from TNA, IMPACT, and even WWE—and now AEW—have competed in the tournament. Hell, some have even won it.
The ECWA Super 8 Tournament Is a Show Where Future Stars Are Born
I got into the Super 8 Tournament in the late 90s after hearing about wrestlers such as Reckless Youth and Christopher Daniels competing in it.
Daniels would winner of the 1998 and 2004 tournament and joins the company of former WWE, ROH, and PWG star Paul London in 2003, TNA alumni and WWE producer Petey Williams in 2005, former ROH and PWG champion and TNA alumni Davey Richards in 2006, and Jerry Lynn in 2007.
You also had Xavier Woods who defeated Tomasso Ciampa in 2010 only for Ciampa to beat Adam Cole in the 2011 finals. A more recent talent who has made a name for himself with MLW is Richard Holliday.
The tournament’s pedigree is extensive.
One Indy Honor Bryan Danielson Missed
The tournament is a noticeable omission from the trophy case of current AEW star Bryan Danielson. He competed in the 2001 tournament—the first one I got on tape—and his run is a snapshot of early 2000s indy wrestling.
First, he had a sprinty, somewhat spotty match against fellow HBK student Spanky—Brian Kendrick. This is Young American Dragon, Bryan Danielson, folks. This is AmDrag when he still had heavy lucha libre influences in his style. I mean, during the Spanky quarter-final, he bust out a moonsault to the outside!
He would reverse Spanky’s Slice Bread #2 and fold him with Dragon Suplex—then bridge over into the Cattle Mutilation. It was a mix of all that was fun with 00s indy wrestling: wild dives to the outside, quick chain wrestling, flashy moves, and bodies getting folded like origami.
His semi-final would see him take on east coast indy veteran Reckless Youth. This was a cool, fast-paced technical match that borrowed heavily from World of Sport with some of the holds and the flow of the match. It wasn’t a slow grueling technical match but one that burned out stamina quickly.
These two were countering everything the other had and using their opponent’s own momentum against them. It’s a fun bout and one that kept the pace of AmDrag’s first match.
He would go on to beat Reckless Youth after a desperation armbreaker from the turnbuckles and floating over into his Cattle Mutilation submission.
The finals saw Bryan Danielson run into east coast rising star Low Ki. I’d say Low Ki was the odds on favorite as he was a known quantity in ECWA at the time. From the feeling out period, you knew this going to be a good one. It featured everything you’d expect from the indies at this period—except for the extreme wrestling.
You’ve got some vintage New Japan and UWFi-inspired mat work, wacky high flying, and some hard strikes. Also, the match built up to the bigger, desperate stuff. It didn’t just bombard you with spot, spot, spot, head drop. That’s fine for shorter bout this one had room to grove and that approach would’ve burned out some fans.
In a final effort to put Low Ki away, Danielson calls for the elbow shot. Low Ki ducks it, captures him and drops him with a low angle Ki Krusher ‘99. I mean this guy just popped it out of nowhere, very little set up required.
To make sure AmDrag was done and dusted, he slapped on his Dragon Clutch hold for the submission victory. It was an exciting bout where Bryan Danielson came close to winning a couple of times. He was giving Low Ki a run for his money!
Check out that match below:
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