Opera Cup (2020) was a
professional wrestling
Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...
tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...
produced by
Major League Wrestling
Major League Wrestling (MLW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in New Rochelle, New York. The promotion was founded in 2002 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by former WWE writer Court Bauer. The promotion markets its product as ...
(MLW), which took place at the GILT Nightclub in
Orlando, Florida
Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
. It was the second edition of the
MLW Opera Cup
The Opera Cup tournament is a professional wrestling single-elimination tournament held by Major League Wrestling (MLW). The event is a revival of the Professional Wrestling Opera House Cup, which had been last held in 1948. MLW hosted their first ...
. The event was featured in episodes of ''
Fusion'' that aired between November 25 and December 23, 2020 on
Fubo Sports Network and MLW's
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel.
Production
Background
Opera House Cup was annually held as a professional wrestling tournament for nearly fifty years in various cities in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
until 1948, when
Stu Hart
Stewart Edward Hart (May 3, 1915 – October 16, 2003) was a Canadian sport wrestling, amateur and professional wrestling, professional wrestler, wrestling Booker (professional wrestling), booker, professional wrestling promotion, promoter, and ...
won the tournament and it was discontinued. Hart kept the possession of the Opera Cup trophy since then. On July 21, 2019,
Major League Wrestling
Major League Wrestling (MLW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in New Rochelle, New York. The promotion was founded in 2002 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by former WWE writer Court Bauer. The promotion markets its product as ...
announced that it would be holding an event on December 5 at the Melrose Ballroom in
Queens, New York City
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
which would be a set of television tapings of MLW's television program ''
Fusion''. On July 24, it was reported that Stu Hart's grandson and MLW wrestler
Teddy Hart
Edward Ellsworth Annis (born February 2, 1980) is a Canadian-American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Teddy Hart. He currently wrestles on the independent circuit. He is one-half of the RCW (Real Canadian Wrestling) Tag Tea ...
would be donating an inherited "
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
heirloom" to MLW. On July 30, MLW.com announced that the family heirloom was Stu Hart's Opera Cup trophy and MLW would be bringing back the Opera Cup tournament on the December 5 supercard, naming it Opera Cup.
On December 19, 2019, it was announced on MLW's website that the tournament would be resumed in 2020. On November 19, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 edition of Opera Cup tournament would begin on the November 25 episode of ''Fusion'' and all the eight participants of the tournament were announced,
with Gino Medina, Dominic Garrini, Jordan Oliver,
El Hijo de L.A. Park
El Hijo de L.A. Park (born November 20, 1988) is a Mexican ''Lucha libre, Luchador'' ''wrestling mask, enmascarado'', or masked professional wrestling, professional wrestler. better known for his time in Major League Wrestling, MLW where he is a ...
,
King Mo Lawal, and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide wrestler
Daga named as the alternate participants in the Opera Cup.
Storylines
The card consisted of matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed
villains
A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...
,
heroes
Heroes or Héroes may refer to:
* Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good
Film
* ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama
* ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film
Gaming
* ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...
, or
less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by MLW's writers. Storylines were played out on MLW's television program ''
Fusion''.
;Quarter-finals
On November 19, the brackets of the Opera Cup tournament were revealed by MLW and the participants from the MLW roster were
A. C. H.,
Low Ki
Brandon Silvestry (born September 6, 1979) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Low Ki. He is known for his time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, TNA Wrestling, Ring of Honor and Major ...
,
Richard Holliday
Joe Zimbardi (born November 8, 1992) is an American professional wrestler best known for his tenure in Major League Wrestling, where he performed under the ring name Richard Holliday and was a former one-time MLW World Tag Team Champion. Hollida ...
,
TJP,
Tom Lawlor
Thomas Joseph Lawlor (born May 15, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, retired mixed martial artist and podcast host. He is signed to both New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was the inaugural and longest reigning NJPW Strong Openw ...
and previous year's tournament winner
Davey Boy Smith Jr. Guest entrants included
Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide
Promociones Antonio Peña, S.A. de C.V. doing business as, d/b/a Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (commonly referred to as simply AAA, pronounced "Triple A" – an abbreviation of its original name Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración de Espectáculos ...
representative
Laredo Kid
Laredo Kid (born December 30, 1986) is a Mexican ''luchador enmascarado'', or masked professional wrestler. He is signed to both Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide. In TNA, he is a former TNA Digital Media Cham ...
and
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
(NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...
representative
Rocky Romero
John Raymond Rivera (born October 28, 1982), better known by his ring name Rocky Romero (ロッキー・ロメロ, ''Rokkī Romero''), is a Cuban-American professional wrestler. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and All Elite Wrest ...
.
The first two matches of the opening round were scheduled to take on the November 25 episode of ''Fusion'' pitting Lawlor against Romero and TJP against Holliday. The second two matches of the opening round were set to take place on the December 2 episode of ''Fusion'', with the first match pitting Kid against ACH and the second match pitting Ki against Smith, a rematch from the previous year's Opera Cup.
;Semi-final
ACH, Low Ki, Richard Holliday and Tom Lawlor won their respective tournament matches and advanced to the semi-final round. The first semi-final match was set up between Ki and Holliday to take place on the December 9 episode of ''Fusion'' and the second semi-final between Lawlor and ACH was set to take place on the December 16 episode of ''Fusion''.
;Final
Low Ki and Tom Lawlor won their respective matches in the semi-final round, thus setting up the tournament final of the Opera Cup between Ki and Lawlor on the December 23 episode of ''Fusion'', won by Lawlor.
Results
Tournament brackets
The brackets of the Opera Cup were revealed by MLW on November 19, 2020.
References
External links
Major League Wrestling official website
{{MLWPPV, Opera Cup
MLW Opera Cup
2020 in professional wrestling
Professional wrestling in Orlando, Florida
November 2020 in the United States