Monster Jam World Finals 16

Monster Jam World Finals 16 was held on March 26-28 2015 in Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. This was the first World Finals with multiple versions of certain trucks (three Grave Digger trucks, three Max-D trucks, and two Monster Energy trucks are in the line up) with the Fox Sports 1 and More Monster Jam Tours. Bounty Hunter celebrates his 20th anniversary as well.

Surprisingly, Monster Jam World Finals 16 was panned by Monster Jam fans, some claiming it to be one of the worst monster truck events in history, due to its controversial freestyle track containing almost no cars or vans at all, as well as its poor fan judging.

Young Guns Shootout Line-Up

 * 1) Coty Saucier- Monster Energy (Would later run as a Ford F-150)
 * 2) Scott Liddycoat- Dragon
 * 3) Bailey Shea Williams- Scooby Doo  (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 4) Becky McDonough- El Toro Loco (Yellow)
 * 5) Dalton Millican- Blue Thunder (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 6) BJ Johnson- Mohawk Warrior
 * 7) JP Ruggiero- El Diablo
 * 8) Cynthia Gauthier- Monster Mutt Dalmatian (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 9) Brianna Mahon- Madusa (White) (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 10) JR McNeal- Xtermigator
 * 11) Steven Sims- Hooked
 * 12) Andrew Peckham- The Patriot (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 13) Colt Stephens- New Earth Authority (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 14) Steven Thompson- Hurricane Force (Young Guns Shootout debut)
 * 15) Travis Groth- Trouble Maker
 * 16) Derick Anson- Heavy Hitter

Line Up
1. Tom Meents- Max D (Normal)

2. Dennis Anderson- Grave Digger (Normal)

3. Todd LeDuc- Metal Mulisha

4. Adam Anderson- Grave Digger the Legend

5. Mikey Vaters- Overkill Evolution

6. Ryan Anderson- Son Uva Digger

7. Candice Jolly- Monster Mutt Dalmatian

8. Scott Buetow- Team Hot Wheels Firestorm

9. Jimmy Creten- Bounty Hunter 20th Anniversary

10. Cam McQueen- Northern Nightmare

11. Alex Blackwell- Captain's Curse

12. George Balhan- Mohawk Warrior

13. Frank Krmel- Fox Sports 1 Cleatus

14. Rod Schmidt- Monster Mutt Rottweiler

15. Neil Elliott- Max D (FS1 Series Champion) (Red Max-D)

16. Damon Bradshaw- Monster Energy (Escalade) (FS1 Series Runner Up)

17. Dustin Brown- Monster Mutt (FS1 Series Third Place) (World Finals debut)

18. Charlie Pauken- Grave Digger (FS1 Series Fourth Place) (Green Body)

19. Morgan Kane- Max D (More Monster Jam Champion) (Golden Throwback Body) (World Finals debut)

20. Colton Eichelberger- Grave Digger (More Monster Jam Runner Up) (Purple body) (World Finals debut)

21. Nicole Johnson- Scooby Doo

22. Linsey Weenk- Lucas Oil Crusader

23. Lee O'Donnell- Zombie Hunter

24. Bari Musawwir- Zombie

25. Marc McDonald- El Toro Loco (Black)

26. Chad Fortune- Soldier Fortune

27. Avenger- Jim Koehler (White)

28. Stone Crusher- Steve Sims

29. Titan- Donald Epidendio (Chrome Yellow)

30. Barbarian-Devin Jones

31. Doom's Day- Pablo Huffaker (Determined later to be the unknown driver).

32. Monster Energy- Coty Saucier (Young Guns Shootout Champion) (Ford F-150) (World Finals debut)

Round 1:
Monster Energy vs. Hurricane Force

Blue Thunder (Broke) vs. El Diablo

Scooby Doo vs. Hooked

Dragon vs. The Patriot

El Toro Loco vs. Xtermigator

Trouble Maker vs. New Earth Authority

Mohawk Warrior vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian

Heavy Hitter vs. Madusa

Round 2:
Monster Energy vs. El Diablo

Scooby Doo vs. The Patriot

Xtermigator vs. New Earth Authority

Heavy Hitter vs. Mohawk Warrior (Crash)

Semi Finals:
Monster Energy vs. The Patriot

New Earth Authority vs. Heavy Hitter

Championship Race:
Monster Energy vs. New Earth Authority

Young Guns Shootout Encore
The Young Guns Shootout Encore featured all of the Young Guns Shootout competitors except for Monster Energy, Mohawk Warrior, and Heavy Hitter doing donuts. Afterwards, N.E.A. and El Diablo did simultaneous back flips.

Round 1
Metal Mulisha vs Overkill Evolution

Grave Digger (Eichelberger) vs Max-D (Kane)

Doom's Day vs Monster Mutt Dalmatian

Captain's Curse vs Max-D (Meents)

Grave Digger the Legend vs Cleatus

Lucas Oil Crusader vs Zombie

Grave Digger (Anderson) vs Monster Mutt

Max-D (Elliot) vs Avenger

Monster Energy (Saucier) vs Scooby Doo

Northern Nightmare vs Bounty Hunter 20th Anniversary

Grave Digger (Paulken) vs Zombie Hunter

El Toro Loco vs Barbarian

Son-Uva Digger vs Team Hot Wheels Firestorm

Mohawk Warrior vs Monster Mutt Rottweiler

Soldier Fortune vs Titan

Monster Energy (Bradshaw) vs Stone Crusher

Round 2
Metal Mulisha vs Grave Digger (Eichelberger)

Doom's Day vs Max-D (Meents)

Lucas Oil Crusader vs Grave Digger the Legend

Monster Mutt vs Max-D (Elliot)

Monster Energy (Saucier) vs Bounty Hunter 20th Annicersary

Grave Digger (Paulken) vs El Toro Loco

Son-Uva Digger vs Monster Mutt Rottweiler

Soldier Fortune vs Monster Energy (Bradshaw)

Round 3/Quarter-Finals
Metal Mulisha vs Max-D (Meents)

Lucas Oil Crusader vs Monster Mutt

Monster Energy (Saucier) vs El Toro Loco

Son-Uva Digger vs Monster Energy (Bradshaw)

Semi-Finals
Metal Mulisha vs Monster Mutt

Son-Uva Digger vs Monster Energy (Saucier) (Red Lighted)

Championship Race
Metal Mulisha vs Son-Uva Digger

Racing Encore
The racing encore featured some of the Young Guns Shootout Competitors on the track with Son-Uva Digger and Metal Mulisha while Dragon, a blue N.E.A. Police and a red El Toro Loco hit a jump one after another.

Freestyle
Overkill Evolution- 33.5 Son-Uva Digger- 31.5

Grave Digger (Paulken)- 30.5

Max-D (Meents)- 30.5

Grave Digger the Legend- 30

Monster Energy (Saucier)- 29.5

El Toro Loco- 29

Metal Mulisha- 28.5 Monster Energy (Bradshaw)- 27.5

Max-D (Kane)- 26.5

Lucas Oil Crusader- 26

Max-D (Elliot)- 24.5

Titan- 24.5

Monster Mutt Rottweiler- 23

Avenger- 22

Monster Mutt- 22

Grave Digger (Eichelberger)- 21.5

Soldier Fortune- 20

Monster Mutt Dalmatian- 20

Cleatus- 17

Captain's Curse- 15.5

Zombie Hunter- 14.5

Stone Crusher- 14

Grave Digger (Anderson)- 14.5

Bounty Hunter 20th Anniversary- 13

Team Hot Wheels Firestorm- 13

Zombie- 12

Northern Nightmare- 11.5

Mohawk Warrior- 8.5

Scooby Doo- 7

Barbarian- 6.5

Doom's Day- 6

Freestyle Encore
The freestyle encore had three different Zombie monster trucks sit on one side of the track, with two of those jumping at three more Zombie monster trucks, where one as positioned on a jump and the other two crashed into it. All six Zombie trucks had different paint jobs, hairstyles, arms, and some Zombies had fake people on them. The truck Drivers were Jon Zimmer, Lupe Soza, Carl Van Horn, Sean Duhon, Bari Musawwir, and Chuck Werner.(source from Sean Duhon).

Fans response to the encore was mixed to negative. Fans criticized, the idea of having trucks drive right over and crush each-other, its short duration (as all of the trucks broke or crashed rather early in the encore), as well as the stadium's lighting during the encore. Although fans appreciated its intended setting, they also complained that it made the encore rather difficult to see and has even raised safety concerns regarding poor visibility of the track.



Criticisms
World Finals 16 ended up being one of the most panned events in monster truck history. Several fans thought the event was exceedingly boring, disappointing, and biased, especially in comparison to previous Monster Jam World Finals. Its freestyle course received significant criticism for lacking almost any crush cars or vans (there were only 4 cars in a small pile in the corner of the track), or any kind of major obstacle, and for being built exclusively out of dirt ramps, which many fans found significantly more boring. Fans accused the event of solely focusing on major airtime and backflips instead of crushing cars. The freestyle track also proved to be very difficult one, as more than half (more than 16) of the trucks crashed early in their runs. Its poor fan judging was equally as controversial with fans; many claimed that several runs were over-scored and under-scored (for example, many fans, despite praising Mikey Vater's freestyle in Overkill Evolution, felt that Charlie Pauken's Grave Digger or Neil Elliot's Max-D should have won instead of Overkill Evolution). Fans showed mixed to negative reactions to the show's freestyle encore. There has also been some criticism over the multiple entrees of certain trucks, although it has been reduced due to the different color schemes of the trucks. On the other hand, many fans praised the golden Max-D livery, the one driven by Morgan Kane, due to it's nostalgic resemblance to Tom Meent's old Goldberg and Team Meents trucks.

Strange Coincidences with the World Finals 5/6 (2004/2005)
The World Finals 15/16 shares many oddly coincidental similarities with the World Finals that happened exactly a decade before it's self. For example. In the First years (2004 and 2014), a Grave Digger truck would win Racing (Grave Digger and GD the legend), and a truck starting with M would win Freestyle (Madusa and Metal Mulisha). Then, excactly the next year (2005/2015), those trucks that previously won Freestyle would win only Racing, and an Independent truck that had not previously won any championship would win the Freestyle Title. This happened exactly 10 years apart.

2004- (Grave Digger racing) (Madusa freestyle), 2005- (Madusa racing) (Bounty Hunter freestyle),

2014-(Grave Digger The Legend racing) (Metal Mulisha freestyle), 2015- (Metal Mulisha racing) (Overkill Evolution freestyle).

Pit Party (Non-Competing trucks)
Arachnaphobia The Last Ride

Backwards Bob

Big Bully

Big Chief

BKT Ride Truck

Black Stallion

Destroyer

Double Trouble

Enforcer

Extinguisher

The Felon

Freedom Keeper

Grave Digger 11

Hitman

Hooligan

Ice Cream Man

Jester

Knucklehead

Lethal Weapon

McGruff

Mega Bite

Midnight Rider

Mighty Monster Bus

Monster Patrol (Phelps)

Nasty Boy

Nitro Menace

Obsessed

Obsession

Outlaw

Park Patrol

Play'n For Keeps

Quad Chaos

Rat Attack

Razin Kane

River Rat

Sheer Insanity

Shocker

Sniper (Turner) (Planned, and seen on roster, but was not completed in time for event, so it was not seen)

Spike Unleashed

Storm Damage

Survivor

T-Wrecks

Terminator

Thumper

Thunder Chicken

Time Flys

TNT

Unnamed & Untamed

Wheels of Freedom

Wild Flower

Wild Thang