Ring Warriors sent out the following:

Ring Warriors announces tournament named after founder; Retires Bahamas heavyweight championship

Fort Lauderdale, FL – Tomorrow, Thursday, November 27th, is not only Thanksgiving in the U.S., but it marks the 15th anniversary of the passing of Yasuhiro Kojima, better known to the wrestling community and its fans as Hiro Matsuda, a former World Junior Heavyweight Champion and the founder of Ring Warriors.

To celebrate Matsuda’s legacy, Ring Warriors Chief Operations Officer and Executive Producer Larry Brannon today announced that when Ring Warriors resumes television production after the first of the year, there will be a multi-week tournament that will play out on television called “The Matsuda Cup” to crown its first International Champion.

Along with the new title, Brannon announced that the Bahamas heavyweight championship, currently held by Alex Chamberlain, would be retired.

“Our footprint is rapidly expanding from being, primarily, a Florida and Bahamas based company to becoming a global brand thanks to the places where our television show has and will be seen,” said Brannon. “Rather than just changing the name of the title, we thought it would be best to retire one and start fresh with another.”

But what happens to reigning champ Chamberlain?

Brannon said to be fair, Chamberlain would receive the number one seed in the tournament. When asked who else would be participating, Brannon said he expects that former champion “The Dark Child” Chance Prophet would be seeded along with such challengers as the “Simply Tremendous Dude” Chaz, “The King of Old School” Steve Corino, “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce and others.

“This tournament will be open to just about anyone except for the current Ring Warriors Grand Champion ‘The Marquee’ Bruce Santee,” said Brannon. “Although we have yet to decide on the exact number of participants, I expect we’ll see a number of returning stars like Tyson Tomko, Q.T. Marshall, Chase Stevens, Cassidy Riley, Jessy Sorensen and J.D. Maverick in there, along with some new faces for television like Wes Brisco and Luke Hawx. Could you imagine if we added former world champions The Almighty Sheik and Tokyo Monster Kahagas to that field along with the 7-foot 300-plus pound Giant Titan?”

Brannon said exact details of the tournament would be announced as soon as television taping dates are finalized.

For more information and to connect with Ring Warriors, visit them at facebook.com/ringwarriors