PROJECT X Breakdown

## ISSUE TWO: Breakdown of the First Round

The first round of the PROJECT X tournament has finally reached it's end. Over four weeks, we saw amazing action from 32 of the company's top superstars. The first round went pretty predictably - that isn't bad to say. Top four seeds Apollo Crews, Cesaro, Tommy End, and Drago all advanced to the round of 16. For every match, the higher ranking seed won, except for Dalton Castle vs Kota Ibushi, where Castle pulled the upset out on the number five seed Kota Ibushi. Several RRW superstars such as Tyson Kidd, Eric Young, Seiya Sanada, and Jack Evans made their debuts - all in losing efforts surprisingly. We now lay out our official predictions for these featured second round matches.

### BREAKDOWN AWARDS

BEST MATCH: Apollo Crews vs Cien Almas

BEST PERFORMANCE: KUSHIDA returns from inactivity and taps out Cody Rhodes in a great match

BIGGEST UPSET: Dalton Castle defeated Kota Ibushi

BIGGEST HEARTBREAK: Jack Gallagher is eliminated in the first round

"YOU DESERVE IT": Kurt Angle continues his amazing streak of dominant performances

SECOND CHANCE: Kane finds a second chance after advancing to the second round

### PREDICTIONS FOR ROUND OF 16

Tyler Breeze (10) vs Apollo Crews (1)

Although Tyler Breeze had an impressive win over Seiya Sanada, Apollo Crews is on another level right now. The vicious Intercontinental Champion put away rising Chaos star Cien Almas with ease. Although Tyler Breeze will give Crews a fight that he may very well win, all signs right now point towards Crews having a decisive victory over Tyler Breeze.

Alex Shelley (11) vs Chris Sabin (7)

Chris Sabin has a much more impressive resume than Alex Shelley. Sabin has held the X-Division Championship eight times and has held a World Championship before. Sabin is an established singles star while Alex Shelley has yet to prove that. However, historically in their one and only encounter, Alex Shelley beat Chris Sabin. Going by the facts we have, we predict Alex Shelley to win this one again.

Trevor Lee (20) vs TJ Perkins (25)

This match between two of Uprising's rising stars is a hard one to call. Trevor Lee and his partner Andrew Everett have been a part of some convicing wins on Uprising lately, but TJ Perkins has never failed to prove his worth either. With a strong first round win over the formidable Jack Swagger, we predict that Perkins will be able to knock off the more tag team oriented Trevor Lee.

Kurt Angle (6) vs Tyson Kidd (17)

Seasoned veteran yet RRW newbie Tyson Kidd made a nice debut against Rob Van Dam and beat him one-two-three to advance to the round of 16. Kurt Angle too has been on a head of steam, being a part of dominant performances for the past two months on Chaos, then again last time on PROJECT X when he put away Eric Young. Kurt Angle has too much momentum for Tyson Kidd to stop, so we predict Angle to win.

Cesaro (2) vs Will Ospreay (9)

Cesaro has been one of the strongest and dominant superstars who has consistently been a force to reckon with. Will Ospreay has a ton of potential but struggles to make it count when it’s needed. Cesaro has the size advantage, although Ospreay has as much speed as Cesaro does strength. However Cesaro is more than capable of catching up to Ospreay, so we predict he takes the win

Kane (23) vs KUSHIDA (14)

Why the fuck is Kane in this tournament? Why has he made it to the round of 16? Why does it seem like he’s going to make it to the quarterfinals? KUSHIDA has had a head of steam but even then, Kane has the advantage of sheer size. KUSHIDA is great, but we don’t think he has what it’ll take to beat Kane, so the win goes to Kane.

Alberto del Rio (15) vs Dalton Castle (22)

Dalton Castle and Alberto del Rio were both in stagnation before winning their respective round of 32 matches. Now, they both look like top 5 candidates to possibly win the whole thing! We’ll give the win to Del Rio here, only because he had a more dominating performance, BUT, it could be argued that Dalton Castle had the more challenging opponent to face in the form of Kota Ibushi.

Drago (4) vs Tommy End (3)

This is the marquee match of the second round, no doubt. Two of the hottest rising stars in the company going head to head. Who has more to prove - the new debut of Uprising? Or the newly signed Tommy End, former developmental champion? The striking vs grapple offense will come to a head in the second round, but we think that Drago has that little extra something that’ll get him the win.

NEW SEEDING:

We decided to give seeding another try (Just for fun. The other seeding remains official.)

1. Apollo Crews
2. Tommy End
3. Drago
4. Kurt Angle
5. Alberto del Rio
6. Dalton Castle
7. Tyson Kidd
8. Chris Sabin
9. Kane
10. Tyler Breeze
11. TJ Perkins
12. Alex Shelley
13. Will Ospreay
14. KUSHIDA
15. Cesaro
16. Trevor Lee

## ISSUE ONE: Seeding the Competitors

The expert analysts at RRW.com have taken it upon themselves to rank the competitors of the Project X tournament. While the tournament itself is random, this edition of the "PROJECT X Breakdown" will 'simulate' the tournament based on our predictions and seeding.

32. Rey Mysterio                                16. Cien Almas

31. Viktor                                           15. Alberto del Rio

30. Jack Evans                                   14. KUSHIDA

29. Jack Swagger                                13. Drew Gulak

28. Rob Van Dam                                 12. Eric Young

27. ACH                                               11. Alex Shelley

26. Seiya Sanada                                 10. Tyler Breeze

25. TJ Perkins                                       9. Will Ospreay

24. Matt Sydal                                       8. Andrew Everett

23. Kane                                               7. Chris Sabin

22. Dalton Castle                                   6. Kurt Angle

21. Jack Gallagher                                 5. Kota Ibushi

20. Trevor Lee                                       4. Drago

19. Cedric Alexander                              3. Tommy End

18. Cody Rhodes                                   2. Cesaro

17. Tyson Kidd                                      1. Apollo Crews

### **ROUND OF 32**

Which makes the tournament round of 32 look like this. Our predicted winners are **bolded**...

**Apollo Crews** vs Rey Mysterio

**Cesaro** vs Viktor

**Tommy End** vs Jack Evans

**Drago** vs Jack Swagger

**Kota Ibushi** vs Rob Van Dam

**Kurt Angle** vs ACH

**Chris Sabin** vs Seiya Sanada

**Andrew Everett** vs TJ Perkins

Will Ospreay vs **Matt Sydal**

Tyler Breeze vs **Kane**

**Alex Shelley** vs Dalton Castle

**Eric Young** vs Jack Gallagher

**Drew Gulak** vs Trevor Lee

KUSHIDA vs **Cedric Alexander**

Alberto del Rio vs **Cody Rhodes**

Cien Almas vs **Tyson Kidd**

Mostly standard victories here for the higher ranking seeds. We'll expect upsets in the form of OPW's Matt Sydal taking advantage of Will Ospreay's recent underperformances to advance to the round of 16. Kane should be able to put away Tyler Breeze, and the last three match-ups of KUSHIDA/Alexander, ADR/Rhodes, and Almas/Kidd are situational - but we're expecting the lower seeds to win there.

### **ROUND OF 16**

1 will face the winner of #16 vs #17, #2 faces the winner of #15 vs #18 and so on...

**Apollo Crews** vs Tyson Kidd

**Cesaro** vs Cody Rhodes

**Tommy End** vs Cedric Alexander

**Drago** vs Drew Gulak

Kota Ibushi vs **Eric Young**

Kurt Angle vs **Alex Shelley**

**Chris Sabin** vs Kane

**Andrew Everett** vs Matt Sydal

Again a sweep for the top 4 seeds. However, we predict that Eric Young will be able to put away the higher ranking Kota Ibushi. Alex Shelley vs Kurt Angle is unpredictable but we'd bet good money on the Chaos World Tag Team Champions (and former multiple time X-Division champions) Shelley and Sabin to put away the veterans Angle and Kane respectively.

### **QUARTERFINALS**

**Apollo Crews** vs Andrew Everett

Cesasro vs **Chris Sabin**

**Tommy End** vs Alex Shelley

**Drago** vs Eric Young

Again, seeds #1, 3, and 4 win their matches. However, Chris Sabin may have the veteran insight in the X-Division match style neede to put away Cesaro.

### **SEMIFINALS**

Apollo Crews vs **Drago**

**Chris Sabin** vs Tommy End

There always lies a certain complacency when being champion - not wanting to risk too much for what you already have. We predict Apollo Crews has a lot less to lose than Drago, which will give Drago the extra edge needed to put away the IC Champ. Meanwhile Sabin's veteran experience will come into play once again when he defeats Tommy End.

### **FINALS**

**Drago** vs Chris Sabin

Drago will have the bonus momentum from beating Crews, and will ride on that to put away Sabin to win PROJECT X.

CATCH US BACK FOR ISSUE 2!