The Steal The Spotlight match (originally titled the “Steal The Spotlight Showdown”) is a special match typically held once per year in the American Wrestling Alliance. It is usually an elimination tag team match where there can be only one survivor who will receive a contract for a future match of their choice. The stipulations have changed over time as the promotion has evolved.
The original event was held at the very first SuperClash on November 26th, 2009 in the Dallas Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas and was a five on five elimination match. In this inaugural match, the “sole survivor” rule was not yet present and any number of survivors would get the contract. However, at this time, the contract was strictly for non-title matches which had to be announced ahead of time and could not be used as an “anywhere, anytime” type of surprise. The first match saw the team of Werewolf Gregorson, Vladimir Velikov, Baron Von Klauss, Shane Taylor, and MAMMOTH Mizusawa take on Clayton Shaw, Aaron Anderson, Bailey Fitzgerald, Corey Lawson, and Vernon Riley. Taylor and Mizusawa were declared the winners when Mizusawa pinned Lawson following a big splash.
2010’s edition at SuperClash II was rechristened the Steal The Spotlight Showcase and was again a five-on-five matchup that saw Marcus Broussard, Johnny Sone, Raphael Rhodes, Scott Mayhem, and Eric Preston taking on MAMMOTH Mizusawa, Adrian Freeman, “Playboy” Johnny Casanova, “Gentleman” Jack Holland, and Wade Kennedy. This year introduced the rule that only one competitor could win the match – a rule that would not have an effect on this battle as Mizusawa won the contract for the second year in a row when he pinned Rhodes to become the sole survivor.
SuperClash III in 2011 at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi continued the tradition of the five-on-five elimination showdown when Raphael Rhodes, Pedro Perez, Skywalker Jones, Marcus Broussard, and Bruno Verhoeven took on Nick Anton, Jeff Jagger, Dick Bass, Sultan Adam Sharif, and “Hotshot” Stevie Scott. Sharif was the sole survivor when he forced Broussard to submit to a reverse Boston Crab.
The match remained a five-on-five challenge in 2012 at SuperClash IV in Los Angeles with a squad consisting of November, Rick Marley, Travis Lynch, Chris Staley, and Hannibal Carver taking on Alphonse Green, Grant Stone, Nenshou, Terry Shane, and Skywalker Jones. November was this year’s sole survivor when he countered a Jones Shooting Star Press attempt, turning it into a cradle and walking away with the victory.
SuperClash V, however, saw a big change to the format with four teams of five involved for the first time. This saw Team Liquid Courage (Nenshou, Ricky Lane, Callum Mahoney, MAMMOTH Maximus, and Hannibal Carver) taking on Team AWA (Juan Vasquez, Supreme Wright, Kolya Sudakov, Jim Watkins, and Sweet Daddy Williams) against Team Blue (Eric Preston, William Craven, the Bishop Boys, and Demetrius Lake) versus Tony Sunn, Gibson Hayes, Devon Case, Willie Hammer, and Rick Marley. This chaotic battle saw Supreme Wright outlast all the others and pick up the much-cherished contract when he used Fat Tuesday on Demetrius Lake to win the match… and later surprised the world with a same night cash-in of the contract to defeat Dave Bryant to become the new World Champion.
In 2014 at SuperClash VI, we were back to the traditional five-on-five… or so we thought… but the last second addition of Skywalker Jones as his own one-man team shifted the game once more as Jones took on the team of Derrick Williams, Callum Mahoney, Bobby O’Connor, Sultan Azam Sharif, and Supernova as well as the team of Cain Jackson, Terry Shane, Joshua Barnes, Calisto Dufresne, and Johnny Detson. In the end, Detson and Dufresne managed to get to the end which meant they had to fight each other for sole survivor status and Detson used his Black Beauty glove to perfection, knocking the Ladykiller flat and winning the contract.
SuperClash VII in Houston in 2015 saw another change to the Steal The Spotlight world. On that night, the team of Callum Mahoney, Kerry Kendrick, Victor Von Braun, Skywalker Jones, and Rex Summers met the team of Cesar Hernandez, Willie Hammer, Jordan Ohara, Caspian Abaran, and Derrick Williams. Summers added his name to the record books by spiking Williams with the Heat Check DDT to win the contract… only to later learn that the new AWA executive, Emerson Gellar, had decided to “shake things up” by having the Steal The Spotlight contract be defended if it wasn’t cashed in.
Summers would go on to lose the contract without ever cashing it in, dropping it to The Gladiator at Memorial Day Mayhem 2016. The Gladiator on the other hand immediately cashed it in, challenging Johnny Detson for the title. He ultimately would come up short in his challenge. Shortly after, Gellar announced that a series of elimination matches would be held during the 2016 European Tour, an event that saw Juan Vasquez emerge as the sole survivor and contract holder on August 27. Vasquez would challenge Jack Lynch with his newly-won contract a couple of weeks later and win the World Title from him.
SuperClash VIII would see another unusual take on the Steal The Spotlight concept as Gellar would declare this year’s match to be a multi-man ladder match involving Riley Hunter, Larry Wallace, Rex Summers, Manzo Kawajiri, Lee Connors, Jayden Jericho, Whaititi, Callum Mahoney, and Jackson Hunter. This wild spectacle shockingly ended with Jackson Hunter – a retired wrestler-turned-manager at this point – winning the contract which he would use to devastating impact several months later.
In 2017, the Steal The Spotlight match would return to its elimination tag format with two teams of six going at it… but this time, it featured the stars of the AWA’s Women’s Division when Team Davis (Laura Davis, Cinder, Harley Hamilton, Ayako Fujiwara, Donna Martinelli, and Lauryn Rage) took on Team Bailey (Michelle Bailey, Skylar Swift, Trish Wallace, Kylie Kujawa, Margarita Flores, and Kelly Kowalski.) The match would come down to Hamilton and Cinder, friends and tag team partners, but instead of honoring the tradition of the match and fighting it out, Hamilton laid down for Cinder and allowed her partner to get the victory.