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| Ivan Saldajeno |
MAKATI--Ralph Imabayashi got an early Christmas present on Saturday night: the PWR title.
Imabayashi pulled a huge stunner in the main event of PWR's Terminus event by ending Bryan Leo's reign as the champion at the IAcademy Auditorium.
Imabayashi, one of the talents that came out of PWR's "Bootcamp" program, banked on his willpower to beat Leo, one of the promotion's charter members, and sending shockwaves to the PWR community, for the top prize.
Both fighters slugged and even slapped it out at the start of the match until Imabayashi got some momentum going which spilled even to Leo's Royal Flush stablemates when Imabayashi jumped from the top rope to Leo, John Sebastian, and Scarlett, knocking the latter out.
Leo, however, got some second wind and used his championship experience on Imabayashi.
But playing the rest of his match without the boost from Sebastian and Scarlett took a toll on Leo's title defense hopes as Imabayashi pounced him in the end, sealing the win with his finisher and the pinfall.
Imabayashi became only the third PWR wrestler to win the coveted championship, but a title defense against no less than the first winner of the belt beckons next year.
A titular showdown between Imabayashi and Jake De Leon became likely when the latter won an eight-man match dubbed as "Path of Gold", earlier Saturday night.
After the win, De Leon publicly addressed that he wanted to get the PWR championship back to him.
He won the inaugural title against Bombay Suarez last May but only held it for a few minutes when Leo immediately cashed in his title shot deal and beat De Leon to get the belt.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
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