Grudge Match Tournament of Champions
The Grudge Match Tournament of Champions is an annual event at the Grudge Match website, in which contestants who have already won Grudge Matches in the previous year return to compete amongst themselves for the Grudge Match Bowl.
Nominations
A few months before the Tournament of Champions, visitors to the Grudge Match website are prompted to nominate their favorites out of all Grudge Match winners of the previous year. Some rules apply:
- Only winners of the year's Grudge Matches are eligible; no losers.
- In case of Grudge Matches ending in a tie, both contestants are eligible together (however, no tied match contestants have yet participated in Tournaments of Champions).
- If the most votes went to "Both Mangled and Killed" (or the equivalent thereof) in a Grudge Match, neither contestant is eligible for the Tournament.
- Characters who have previously won Tournaments of Champions cannot participate in future Tournaments. However, characters who have lost previous Tournaments are still eligible.
- No more than eight competitors can be nominated for by a single person.
After two weeks, the nominations close and the eight contestants who have received the most votes will be inserted into the scenario of the next Tournament of Champions. The nomination vote totals are not revealed until the voting is closed on the Tournament, to avoid giving characters unfair advantages. Only one Tournament (TOC II) has completed in the same order of the nomination vote totals. If there is a tie in the number of votes for the eighth competitor, the tie will be broken by the Grudge Staff, based on how well the characters would fit the scenario.
Tournaments of Champions unfold exactly like regular Grudge Matches, except that there is no commentary, to keep the Grudge Match Staff from having to write 8-way commentary (which they actually have twice, on non-Tournament 8-way matches) and to allow viewers with more creative leeway in their responses. In Tournaments of Champions, vote-stuffing is often high and responses tend to be more involved and intricate than usual.
The Tournaments
TOC I: Escape from the Death Star
The first retroactive tournament. A retro-themed adventure to escape from the Death Star and its staff, but most Grudge Fans knew that there was only one choice to win.
Competitors:
- Mr. T
- MacGyver
- The Death Star with Imperial Stormtroopers
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- The Terminator (evil version)
- Hannibal Lecter
- A Rottweiler
- Khan Noonien Singh
TOC II: The Bachelorette
Perhaps the least of the tournaments, the paucity of "battle-ready" competitors necessitated a softer premise, that of attempting to win the heart of former Grudge Match loser Snow White.
Competitors:
- Chewbacca
- John McClane, from Die Hard
- The Grim Reaper
- Bart Simpson
- C. Montgomery Burns
- The Borg
- Midgets
- The Tasmanian Devil
TOC III: HalTron
The last retroactive tournament. The competitors fight to survive on the Game Grid from the movie Tron, in which HAL 9000 has imprisoned them. Rumor has it that Groundskeeper Willie's last-place finish was the result of the Braveheart Jihad's revenge.
Competitors:
- Indiana Jones
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Homer Simpson
- The Ghostbusters
- Dogbert
- Aliens (Xenomorphs), from Alien
- HAL 9000
- Groundskeeper Willie
TOC IV: Rumble in D.C.
The first tournament. The competitors meet in a cataclysmic melee in Washington D.C., for the newly-introduced Grudge Bowl (which reportedly resembles a toilet bowl). By far the most lavish Grudge Match introduction, this scenario begins with the death of headliner Ricky Martin and grandiose introductions to each competitor.
Competitors: (in order of vote totals, most votes [i.e. the winner] first)
- The cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000
- Death
- Boba Fett
- English Soccer Hooligans
- The Men in Black
- Godzilla
- King Arthur and his knights (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
- Spock
V: Survivor!
The second tournament. Eager to try new things, the Grudge Staff placed the bizarre assortment of characters in the then-phenomenal reality TV hit Survivor. Despite the ordered structure of The Game Show, it was obvious that this tournament would be as unbridled and anarchic as any Grudge Match.
Competitors:
- Yoda
- The Tick
- Darth Maul
- The Blues Brothers
- Batman (as played by Michael Keaton)
- Q (James Bond) (tie)
- Dilbert (tie)
- Duke Nukem
These eight are referred to in the scenario but were eliminated from the game:
- Kids of Springfield
- Carrie White
- Rats
- George Lucas
- Ferris Bueller
- Krusty the Clown
- Joel Schumacher
- The inhabitants of Animal House
TOC VI: The Running Man
Grudge Match moved into the realm of the action movie with this scenario based on the film The Running Man. Seven convicted criminals were pursued by the stalkers (the X-Men, in this case), and only one would make it to the end.
Competitors:
- Jackie Chan
- Hobbes the tiger (from Calvin and Hobbes)
- X-Men
- Emperor Palpatine
- Dr. Evil
- Stephen Hawking
- Mad Max
- The Joker
TOC VII: Return to D.C.
A return to the same locale as TOC IV (right down to ritual slaughter of a pop singer, this time former Grudge Match champions Christina Aguilera and *NSYNC), this time with President George W. Bush taking matters into his own hands by entering The U.S. Army as competitors.
Competitors:
- U.S.A.
- Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes
- Cookie Monster
- Moses
- The Terminator (good version)
- Marvin the Paranoid Android
- Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter
- Austin Powers
TOC VIII: Death to Carrot Top
To date the last tournament. After Scrappy-Doo and Jar Jar Binks were eliminated by Both Mangled and Killed, prop comic Carrot Top revealed himself to be the true evil behind the match. The competitors battled and raced to be the one to eliminate him.
Competitors:
- Gandalf the Grey
- Han Solo
- James Bond (as played by Sean Connery)
- Bender Bending Rodriguez
- Bugs Bunny
- Mario
- The cast of The Muppet Show
- The Spaceballs
Special Tournaments
Second-Chance Tournament: Rollerball
The first and to date only 10-way tournament. A frenzied game of Rollerball was staged between these Grudge-Match losers. It was his victory in this tournament that allowed Calvin to participate in TOC VII.
Competitors:
- Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes
- Spider-Man
- Bruce Lee
- Lara Croft
- William Wallace
- The INCredible Hulk
- John Wayne
- Jason Voorhees
- Xena: Warrior Princess
- Steve Austin, The Six million Dollar Man
Tournament of Tournament of Champions Champions: Forget Paris
The fight to settle it all. The eight former Grudge Match Tournament of Champions victors were placed in a ferocious battle to determine the champion of all time - and destroy the city of Paris while they were at it. Yoda became the Ultimate Champion here.
Competitors:
- Yoda
- Gandalf the Grey
- Mr. T
- MST3K
- U.S.A.
- Indiana Jones
- Jackie Chan
- Chewbacca