2004 VIRGIN-ROADRUNNER TOURNAMENT

by Oberon, Boeing666 and Fiend

The 2002 Clairol Blonde/Brunette/Redhead Tournament had turned out to be such a success that its producers decided to pursue other shows after a year's hiatus, looking down other conceptual avenues in search of something that would generate the public's interest. When it was suggested that the world's most prestigious Pop and Heavy Metal divas face off in a tournament everyone thought it a terrific idea, and embarked on the profound task of contacting publicity agents and label heads in search of competitors. There was a consensus among many of the ladies who expressed interest in participating that before any one of them would accept, they demanded some assurance that prize money would actually be there at the end! In many cases that meant 'deep pockets', and for several weeks there were heated negotiations, until two renowned labels in the fields of pop and heavy metal, Virgin Records and Roadrunner Records, finally agreed to "guarantee" things. After that, events moved with astonishing swiftness as potential competitors came in droves.

After a grueling process of signups, final negotiations and auditions between both labels and various publicity agents, enough women were chosen to participate in what would become the biggest low-key event in female celeb fighting since the 2002 Clairol Tournament. The "best of the best" of the one hundred who applied were selected for two teams to be pitted against each other. The "teams" were split into two categories: "Pop," which consisted of a wider variety of musical backgrounds including pop, country and disco, and "Heavy Metal" which likewise consisted of a broader spectrum of musical backgrounds including punk, goth, metal and nu-metal. In a ceremony televised jointly on MTV and VH-1 plus Europe's SKY-TV, those hopefuls who auditioned to wrestle in the tournament were chosen based on their performance while auditioning. First round matches were selected based on similar skill and temperament. The matchups for the next round would be based on each competitor's performance in round 1, and so on, until one competitor from each camp fought it out to win the tournament for pop or metal.

The event was to be aired as a special Pay Per View program about a month later, with special celebrity guests sitting by ringside to commentate on each match. The list of commentators was impressive, including Ice T, Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys, Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy, 50 Cent, Eninem, Zakk Wylde, Rikki Rachtman, Slash, Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and The Brides of Destruction, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Juliya Chernetsky of Fuse TV, Queen Latifah, Kelly Osbourne, Kelis, etc. Most of the focus would be on the matches, and there would be interviews with the competitors as the tournament progressed. The male commentators got along well, but between the female commentators announced and some others who were to be announced the first night of the tournament, there was to be some bad blood that might lead to anything.

Below are the list of the fighters and the bouts by round.
(Click on the CITY NAME to go to the fights):