B8UCA Epopmania VII

Epopmania VII was a PPV event (lol) presented by the Board 8 User Contest Association on February 22, 2015. It was the 7th event in the Epopmania chronology, and was one of the highest-voted cards in B8UCA history, drawing nearly 50 votes.

There were 10 matches on the event's card. The main event was DpOblivion defending his Undisputed Heavyweight Championship against UCA Rumble winner Stevie3V. Prominently-featured matches on the undercard included: Whiskey Nick vs. Korayashi in a #1 contendership DEATHMATCH, XIII_rocks facing Jakyl25 in a match dubbed "Creators Collide"; eaedwards6400 vs. Solioxrz362 for the MELEE MAYHEM title, a MELEE MAYHEM rules match between Apollo_Phoenix and Maniac64; a 6-man tag-team match for the tag titles between "Moment of Zen" (eddv, Strife2 and LuigiLorenzo) vs. "The Empire of Silence" (StifledSilence, Shaduln and meche313); and a Money in the Bank Ladder and Tables match, for both the Money in the Bank briefcase and the Master of Taybles title.

Main Events
The main event of the show was DpOblivion vs. Stevie3V for the Undisputed UCA title. In the Ultimatum tournament final two months before Epopmania, Dp took Shaduln to a tie. Both men were offered an Ultimatum, with the one taking the Ultimatum releasing their claim on the tournament and the one who did not receiving the original Ultimatum prize - a shot at the Undisputed Title at the UCA Rumble. Shad took the Ultimatum, allowing DP to face Korayashi for the title. Thanks to a last-minute vote by Whiskey_Nick, DP won the title at Day 1 of the UCA Rumble event. This allowed him to main-event Epopmania VII against the UCA Rumble winner.

Prior to the UCA Rumble, Stevie3V debuted a new side of himself - Stevie the Pooh. This bear-esque persona quickly became a fan-favourite in UCA and ensured his popularity soared to new heights. Stevie carried this momentum into a great potential entry spot, #34, in the UCA Rumble, and was able to win it - last eliminating Pokalicious to secure victory. This confirmed that Stevie would receive his first ever Undisputed Championship match in the main event of Epopmania VII.

During the build to the match, Stevie outlined his desire to win the Undisputed Title so he could secure "all the honey [he] want[s]!". seeing DP as an obstacle preventing him from accessing said honey. Meanwhile, DP struggled to prepare since he was under constant attack by Whiskey_Nick. This continued until DP attempted to placate Nick with the offer of an Undisputed Title match. Kora's pre-match assault on Nick forced Nick to change focus, though, and DP was able to full prepare for the biggest match of his career.

Sub-Main Events
The first of the two sub-main events was Whiskey_Nick vs. Korayashi in a DEATHMATCH TO THE DEATH MATCH. At the UCA Rumble, Korayashi was closing in on a tied match with DP, which would mean he retained the championship. However, Whiskey_Nick - having long since retired from UCA - went into business for himself, voting last-minute for DP in order to try and parlay the controversy into a match in the main event of Epopmania. Nick then began a series of assaults on DP, in order

to provoke the champion into granting him a title match. DP eventually acquiesced, granting Nick a title match set for the 2/9/15 episode of Ruin. Before the match, however, a vengeful Korayashi launched a bloody assault on Nick, costing him the title match he had worked so hard for. Nick was forced to change direction, seeking revenge on Korayashi for what had happened. The following night on Combat, Nick challenged Korayashi to a match in which the "only thing equal to Epop - life" would be on the line. It would be the first ever #1 contendership Deathmatch to the Death Match, where the winner would be the next challenger for the title and the loser would be literally killed. Korayashi agreed and the historic match was set.

The second sub-main event was XIII_rocks vs. Jakyl25 in a match dubbed "Creators Collide". At Ultimatum, XIII tied with DP in the semi-final round. He had said he would not take any Ultimatums, but when Dr_Football offered XIII the opponent of his choosing at Epopmania, XIII accepted instantly. Until the night after the UCA Rumble, it was unclear what XIII's plan was. That night, XIII announced that he would use Epopmania VII as a chance to cement his legacy as the "best UCAer ever". He challenged Jakyl25 - the man who many believe made UCA what it is today - to a match, who accepted. XIII believed that winning this match would ensure there was no doubting his position as the best of all time, in and out of the ring. Jakyl, for his part, sought to take XIII down a peg because of his disdain for XIII's policies. He cited XIII's "insecurity", criticising the fact that XIII was actually a legitimate competitor in the ring because it created a "conflict of interest". Jakyl was able to repeatedly spook and psych out XIII in the buildup to the match, at one point scaring XIII into almost cancelling the match. However, XIII stayed the course, wanting immortality and the chance to "consign Jakyl to the history books as the man that was second best to [him] at everything."

Undercard
The premier match on the undercard was the match between the top two superstars of 2014, Solioxrz362 and eaedwards6400, for the MELEE MAYHEM title. Solio enjoyed one of the best years by a single superstar ever in 2014 when he was able to win King of the Board, the Undisputed Championship twice and a succession of undercard titles. He was crowned Superstar of the Year at the 2014 Spammies, with eaedwards finishing in second place.

Solio had sought to continue this momentum into 2015, starting with the UCA Rumble. Solio put in one of the greatest performances of the night, lasting from entry 21 all the way until the final three, but he was eliminated in the closing stages by MELEE MAYHEM champion eaedwards.

It was eventually revealed that eaed had done so out of jealousy over Solio's success; eaed would not allow Solio to enjoy the success at Epopmania that eaed had enjoyed the previous year. Solio responded by placing eaed in a series of trails on Eruption - these consisted of difficult matches, generally multi-man or handicap affairs. It was eventually decided that they would meet at Epopmania VII for eaedwards' MELEE MAYHEM title.

Heavily promoted in addition was the 6-man tag-team match between the Empire of Silence - comprised of StifledSilence, Shaduln and meche313, and Moment of Zen, comprised of Eddv, Strife2 and LuigiLorenzo.

The Empire of Silence had become a dominant team over the preceeding months, but the addition of Strife2 to the Badass Team of Badassitude led to a change in attitude for the team and improved performances. Eventually, eddv and Strife earned a tag-team title match at the UCA Rumble against Shaduln and StifledSilence, and they were successful.

However, one of the prizes Shaduln won when he took the Ultimatum 3 weeks previously was a tag-team title rematch clause, and he used it immediately after the UCA Rumble. It was quickly decided that the stakes would be raised for their Epopmania rematch, with other stable members meche and Luigi being added.

Several months before Epopmania, the self-proclaimed MASTER OF MAYHEM and 6-time MELEE MAYHEM champion Maniac64 took Apollo Phoenix under his wing as a protege. Eventually, Apollo rebelled, and this led to Maniac's tag-team partner eaedwards challenging and defeating Apollo for the MELEE MAYHEM title.

Apollo's rage at Maniac for ensuring this situation led to a match between the two at Epopmania. It was quickly decided that this match would take place under MELEE MAYHEM rules.

Additionally, the two men challenged each other with progressively more difficult matches during the build to test each other's readiness, and on one occasion Maniac was invited onto Apollo's talk show - the Launching Pad - only for Apollo to blow up the set with Maniac on it. Fortunately Maniac was OK, allowing the Epopmania match to go ahead.

Also on the card was a special match that combined both the tables and ladder stipulations, for the prize of Money in the Bank and the title of Master of Taybles. This match featured Sir Chris, ZeroSignal620, Steinershocker, Master of Taybles Dr_Football, JONALEON1 and TheKnightOfNee. Football was entered into the match automatically as compensation for putting his Taybles Title on the line.

GTM and Pokalicious had been going back and forth for months, repeatedly saying either #downwithPoka or #downwithGTM. Poka laid down the challenge for them to face off at Epopmania - in the first ever hashtags match.

Following on from the previous two years, there was a LW title 6-pack challenge. After qualifying matches and executive decisions, it was decided that the challengers to ScareChan's title would be MegamanX, ProphetProfit, ZaziGuado, Luster Soldier and the winner of a mini-tournament to take place on the Epopmania VII pre-show.

Finally, at the UCA Rumble, newcomer Greengravy put in an excellent performance, finishing 4th having entered at #20. He also eliminated one of the stars of the match, Intermediate Champion TheSultanOfSlam. The gravy train soon acquired a significant cult following from a variety of UCA vets, allowing gravy to build momentum and begin to put together a series of creditable victories.

After weeks of proving himself worthy of an IM title match, it was decided that gravy would face off with Sultan at Epopmania VII for the Intermediate Title, with the series of wins he put together in the weeks leading up to Epopmania proving that he was indeed worthy of bypassing the LW division entirely and moving straight to an IM title challenge. To escalate things further Sultan beat down gravy on an episode of Combat, and this led an angry gravy to challenge Sultan into raising the stakes. Sultan agreed and it was thus decided that this would be the first ever "Steel Chairs on Poles" match,

In addition, a pre-show was set up, as with the previous two years. This predominantly featured interviews and a run-down of the main card's featured matches. However, a mini-tournament also took place to decide both the jester and the final spot in the LW title match. It was decided that Corrik would face Boko and Sir Cobain would face Regaro Ukiera.

Aftermath
After tearing Nick's heart out at Epopmania and seeing his dead carcass tied to an electric chair and fried, Korayashi went somewhat insane. This insanity did not deter him, however, and at Pandemonium he was able to defeat Stevie3V for the Undisputed Title. Sir Chris chose this moment to cash in his Money in the Bank contract, successfully winning the title - and rebounding from a loss to Steiner in a hardcore match earlier in the night.

DpOblivion, meanwhile, laid out an open challenge for an ironman match at Pandemonium and this was taken by ZeroSignal620. DP beat ZSig, but ZSig also owned a win over Sir Chris, the new champion. This complicated chain-reaction of results led to an Elimination Chamber match at MOUNTAIN OF MAYHEM between Stevie3V, Steinershocker, Korayashi, DpOblivion, ZeroSignal620 and Sir Chris, which Kora won, meaning he was able to take back the Undisputed Championship.

After defeating Jakyl at Epopmania, XIII announced he was resigning his position as admin of the company, feeling he had peaked, and handing the reigns to Solio. He then announced his intention to cement his legacy further in UCA by continuing to win championships and accolades - starting by reclaiming the tag-team titles at Pandemonium. Though XIII and partner Maniac (rebounding from a tough loss to Apollo at Mania) fell just short of beating eddv and LuigiLorenzo for the titles at Pandemonium in a Mud Cage match, they were able to win a rematch the following week, making XIII a 9-time tag-team champion.

The Empire of Silence wished to recruit new talent, starting with meche's former tag-team partner ScareChan. Scare resented the Empire for "taking" meche from him, but agreed to fight meche at Pandemonium, even with the stipulation that if he lost he would be forced to join the Empire. He did in fact lose their boxing match, making the Empire stronger than ever.

The MELEE title took several bizarre twists after Epopmania. Dr_Football, having fallen just short in the MitB ladder match, earned a title shot. Apollo_Phoenix's win over Maniac at Epopmania earned him a title shot, and StifledSilence earned a title shot as well. This led to 3 people gunning for Solio's new title at Epopmania, but Solio retained in the XIII-style blindfold match. He did not, however, elect to cash in his title for a title shot at MOUNTAIN OF MAYHEM.

After gravy's shocking upset win over TheSultanOfSlam, Sultan demanded and eventually earned a rematch with gravy at Pandemonium, this time in a HELL IN A CELL match. Though the match was very competitive and close, gravy just about pulled off the victory to retain the IM title and legitimize his championship reign. The reign would end up being of record length.