James Shaw will be the next challenger for Travis Banks’ IPW Championship, and the two men have come up with what they believe is “The Ultimate Match” for the title.
Banks said he would move on from former champ Vinny Dunn after reclaiming the IPW Championship from “Te Tahi” at The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
“I don’t think he [Dunn] deserves another shot, so I’m going to go one better, give it to someone I think deserves it more than anyone else,” Banks told IPW’s Ben Kettell. “I want to give a shot to James Shaw, I think he’s earned it and I think he’s ready to go.”
Shaw then joined the interview to accept Banks’ challenge, and begin brainstorming just how the title should be defended.
“We should have The Ultimate Match, because I just had a Last Man Standing … I think we can do one better than that, let’s think of The Ultimate Match,” Shaw said.
After putting their heads together, Banks and Shaw have come up with a 30-Minute Iron Man Match—with a twist.
As with a traditional Iron Man Match, the first 20 minutes of the bout will see pinfalls, submissions, disqualifications and potentially count-outs in play. However, once 20 minutes have passed, the final 10 minutes of the match will be contested with no disqualifications, opening up a range of possibilities.
Also at The Ultimate Prize, Britenay will defend her newly-won interim IPW Women’s Championship against Olivia Shaw, the woman she beat for the belt.
Olivia’s demeanour changed during her match with Britenay at The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, and a more sinister side of Shaw began to appear.
“I hate you, Britenay,” Olivia screamed at her opponent in the heat of the moment en route to being defeated with the Extreme Makeover.
Will Olivia head into March’s event with a cooler head, or could Britenay’s first title defence be one of IPW’s most heated matches of the year?
IPW The Ultimate Prize takes places on March 22 at the Lynfield Recreation Centre in Auckland.