Brody King won a four way elimination match final over Styker, Super Beast, and Ju Dizz to with the 2016 APW Young Lions Cup presented by Gold Rush Pro Wrestling in Northern California. Brody King, who was trained at Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy and made his debut in late 2015, became the first wrestler to come out of Southern California to win the tournament.
The tournament has undergone a variety of formats since its inception in 2008, but annually features some of the top young talent from the western United States. Previous winners include Will Roberts, Marcus Lewis, and Jeff Cobb among others. In 2015 the tournament featured three eventual Southern California Rookie of the Year nominees in Thunder Rosa, Max X, and eventual winner Douglas James, along with Ruby Raze. This year’s tournament included not only Brody King, who is a likely 2016 Southern California Rookie of the Year nominee, and Ju Dizz, who was nominated for Rookie of the Year last year, but also D’Marco Wilson and Dicky Maier from Southern California.
The tournament is also considered to be good exposure for area wrestling schools, as they will announce what schools the wrestlers came out of as well. Santino Bros. has been very succesful in the tournament as not only did Brody King win this year, Douglas James and Ruby Raze finished second and third last year while both were representing the school.
The tournament was held in Pacifica, CA at Gold Rush Pro Wrestling’s Gold Mine.
