Monster Jam World Finals 18

Monster Jam World Finals 18 was held on March 23-25, 2017 at the Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, NV.

This was the first World Finals where both Dennis Anderson and Tom Meents will not be competing, as they are both unable to compete due to injuries. They will still be present at the event, however, as honored guests. This would be Jim Koehler's best World Finals yet. It was his best night of racing ever as he made it to the semi-finals in his all new truck. He did well in freestyle and finished 3rd. There also was a record number of red lights this year, eliminating top contenders from the racing bracket.

Young Guns Shootout Line-Up (being refered to as the Double Down Showdown)

 * 1) Grave Digger  - Krysten Anderson (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 2) Blue Thunder - Matt Cody (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 3) Zombie - Ami Houde (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 4) Alien Invasion - Bernard Lyght (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 5) Pirate's Curse - Camden Murphy (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 6) Max-D 7 - Jared Eichelberger
 * 7) Monster Mutt Dalmatian - Cynthia Gauthier
 * 8) El Toro Loco (Red) - Mark List (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 9) El Toro Loco (Red) - Kayla Blood
 * 10) Earth Shaker - Tristan England (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 11) Scooby Doo - Bailey Shea Williams
 * 12) Stinger - Zane Rettew (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 13) Jester - Matt Pagliarulo (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 14) Rage - Cory Rummell (Double Down Showdown Debut)
 * 15) Obsessed - Eric Swanson
 * 16) Saigon Shaker - Ryan Disharoon

Line-Up (as of March 16th)

 * 1) Adam Anderson - Grave Digger #32C7pxbp5UwAAw3td.jpg large.jpg
 * 2) Morgan Kane - Grave Digger #33
 * 3) Jim Koehler - Avenger
 * 4) Cam McQueen - Northern Nightmare
 * 5) Jimmy Creten - Bounty Hunter
 * 6) Mikey Vaters - Overkill Evolution
 * 7) Charlie Pauken - Monster Mutt
 * 8) Ryan Anderson - Son-Uva Digger
 * 9) Coty Saucier - Monster Energy (Ford)
 * 10) Neil Elliott - Max-D #6
 * 11) Scott Buetow - Team Hot Wheels Firestorm (Grafitti)Mjwf thurs 0015.jpg
 * 12) Marc McDonald - El Toro Loco
 * 13) Candice Jolly - Monster Mutt Dalmatian
 * 14) Jon Zimmer - Dragon
 * 15) BJ Johnson - Gas Monkey Garage
 * 16) Brianna Mahon - Scooby Doo!
 * 17) Matt Buyten - Metal Mulisha (World Finals Debut)
 * 18) Bari Musawwir - Zombie
 * 19) Chad Fortune - Soldier Fortune
 * 20) Lee O'Donnell - VP Racing Fuels The Mad Scientist
 * 21) Colton Eichelberger - Max-D #5
 * 22) Colt Stephens - FS1 Cleatus (World Finals Debut)
 * 23) Rosalee Ramer - Wild Flower (World Finals Debut)
 * 24) Bryce Kenny - Great Clips Mohawk Warrior (World Finals Debut)
 * 25) Becky McDonough - El Toro Loco (World Finals Debut)
 * 26) Buddy Tompkins - Razin' Kane (World Finals Debut)
 * 27) Randy Brown- Grave Digger #29 (Arena Tour #4 Champion)
 * 28) Linsey Weenk - Lucas Oil Crusader (Fox Sports 1 Points Series East Champion)
 * 29) Todd LeDuc - Monster Energy (Cadillac) (Fox Sports 1 Points Series West Champion)
 * 30) Tyler Menninga - Grave Digger 23 (East Coast More Monster Jam Champion) (World Finals Debut)
 * 31) Alex Blackwell - Megalodon
 * 32) Tristan England - Earth Shaker (Double Down Showdown Champion) (World Finals Debut)

Round 1:
Max-D vs. Pirate's Curse (Pirate's Curse crossed the line first but red lighted. Max-D would advance on.)

Obsessed vs. Scooby Doo!

Saigon Shaker (Crash)  vs. Grave Digger Rage vs. El Toro Loco (Kayla)

Zombie vs. El Toro Loco (List)

Blue Thunder  vs. Jester (NOTE: Blue Thunder wins, but is unable to continue due to damage: Jester advances instead). Earth Shaker vs. Alien Invasion

Monster Mutt Dalmatian vs. Stinger

Round 2:
Saigon Shaker vs. EL Toro Loco (Kayla) Max-D vs. Obsessed

Earth Shaker vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian (Crash)

Jester vs. El Toro Loco (List)

Semi Finals:
El Toro Loco (List) vs. Earth Shaker

Obsessed vs. Saigon Shaker

Championship Race:
Earth Shaker vs. Obsessed (Crash)

Double Down Showdown Encore
All DDS competitors come out to do donuts. Unlike the previous years, this time the trucks would have fireworks at the tailgate of their trucks.

Round 1:


Monster Energy (Saucier) vs. Mohawk Warrior

El Toro Loco (Mcdonald) vs. The Mad Scientist (red lights race: disqualified)

Monster Mutt (red lights race: disqualified) vs. Grave Digger (Menninga)

Grave Digger (Kane) vs. Northern Nightmare

Gas Monkey Garage vs. Razin Kane Team Hot Wheels Firestorm vs. Metal Mulisha

Megalodon vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian

Grave Digger (Anderson) vs. Lucas Oil Crusader

Max-D (Elliott) vs. Soldier Fortune

Zombie vs. Avenger

Dragon (red lights race: disqualifed) vs. Overkill Evolution Monster Energy (Leduc) vs. Scooby Doo!

Fox Sports 1 Cleatus vs. Wild Flower

Max-D (Eichelberger) vs. El Toro Loco (McDonough) (crash) (NOTE: Mcdonough wins, but due to her crash, she is unable to return due to truck damage. Eichelberger advances).

Earth Shaker vs. Grave Digger (Brown)

Son Uva Digger vs. Bounty Hunter

Round 2:
El Toro Loco (Mcdonald) vs. Monster Energy (Saucier)

Grave Digger (Menninga) vs. Grave Digger (Kane)

Team Hot Wheels Firestorm vs. Gas Monkey Garage

Lucas Oil Crusader vs. Megalodon

Avenger vs. Max-D (Elliot)

Overkill Evolution vs. Monster Energy (Leduc)

Grave Digger (Brown) vs. Son Uva Digger

Max-D (Eichelberger) vs. Fox Sports 1 Cleatus

Quarter Finals:
Grave Digger (Menninga) vs. Monster Energy (Saucier) (Red Lights, disqualified)

Gas Monkey Garage vs. Megalodon

Overkill Evolution vs Avenger

Son-Uva Digger vs. Max-D (Eichelberger)

Semi Finals:
Grave Digger (Menninga) vs. Gas Monkey Garage

Avenger vs. Son-Uva Digger

Championship Race:
Grave Digger (Menninga) vs. Son-Uva Digger

Racing Encore
All racing competitors come out and line the track. The Monster Jam 25th Anniversary truck came out, and circled the track, before doing a backflip over Son-Uva Digger. Then, all Young Guns, and other Displays came out onto the track.

Freestyle

 * 1) The Mad Scientist (Frontflip)- 9.355
 * 2) Max D (Elliott)-(Reverse Backflip) 9.316
 * 3) Avenger- 9.240
 * 4) Northern Nightmare(Corkscrew)- 9.000
 * 5) Team Hot Wheels Firestorm- 8.786
 * 6) Grave Digger (Kane)- 8.193
 * 7) Wild Flower(Corkscrew)- 8.155
 * 8) Great Clips Mohawk Warrior- 8.100
 * 9) Son-Uva Digger- 8.043
 * 10) FS1 Cleatus- 7.864
 * 11) Grave Digger (Brown)- 7.800
 * 12) Monster Energy (LeDuc)- 7.500
 * 13) Grave Digger (Anderson)- 7.390
 * 14) Scooby Doo- 7.268
 * 15) Zombie- 7.166
 * 16) El Toro Loco (McDonald)- 7.163
 * 17) Grave Digger (Menninga)- 7.105
 * 18) Bounty Hunter- 7.098
 * 19) Metal Mulisha- 7.094
 * 20) El Toro Loco (McDonough)- 7.073
 * 21) Earth Shaker- 6.888
 * 22) Monster Energy (Saucier)- 6.814
 * 23) Megalodon- 6.799
 * 24) Lucas Oil Crusader- 6.675
 * 25) Overkill Evolution- 6.591
 * 26) Dragon- 6.289
 * 27) Max D (Eichelberger)- 6.186
 * 28) Monster Mutt Dalmatian- 6.143
 * 29) Razin Kane- 5.800
 * 30) Monster Mutt-5.217
 * 31) Soldier Fortune- 4.448
 * 32) Gas Monkey Garage- 4.341

Freestyle Encore
Grave Digger 35th Anniversary.

Other Rewards
These awards were given out on the night of March 24th 2017, before the racing competition began.


 * Rising Star of the Year: Matt Pagliarulo/Jester
 * Stadium Freestyle of the Year: Todd Leduc/Monster Energy
 * Rookie of the Year: Camden Murphy: Pirate's Curse
 * Stadium Wheelie of the Year: Kelvin Ramer, Time Fly's
 * Arena Wheelie of the Year: Tyler Menninga, Grave Digger
 * Donut of the Year: Tom Meents, Max-D
 * Arena Freestyle of the Year: Alex Blackwell, Megalodon
 * Stadium Freestyle of the Year: Todd LeDuc, Monster Energy
 * Crash Madness: Dave Radzierez, Xtreme Diesel
 * Save of the Year: Kelvin Ramer, Time Fly's
 * Wow Factor: Chuck Werner, El Toro Loco
 * Extreme Air: Jim Koehler, Avenger

Reception
World Finals 18 has been generally well received and has been seen as a vast improvement over previous World Finals, particularly the last two years. The track this year has been praised for its increased use of crush cars and for adding a bus, as well as the addition of a water fountain. Other praised aspects include its exciting Double Down racing event, racing encore, and freestyle encore. Koehler's Avenger paint scheme and the new Hotwheels paint scheme were also praised.

On the flip-side, there was still some criticism to this World Finals, particularly the absence of Tom Meents and Dennis Anderson, as both were out for injury this year. The judging was still controversial this year, although it was not as harshly panned as it was the previous two years. Fans also found the Double Down encore to be rather underwhelming and criticized the track for using the same color scheme as the previous year. The use of multiple trucks, particularly the four Grave Diggers (would have been up to six had Krysten Anderson won the Doubledown Showdown and had Dennis Anderson been competing).

Trivia

 * The fastest qualifier was Coty Saucier/Monster Energy
 * Neither Tom Meents or Dennis Anderson will be competing in this World Finals as both are out due to injuries. This makes it the first World Finals without both Meents and Anderson, the first without Tom Meents and the first without Dennis Anderson since Monster Jam World Finals 4: these statistics include World Finals 0, in-which both drivers competed (in Meents' case, in Bulldozer).
 * The More Monster Jam Central and West Coast champions, Cole Venard and Justin Sipes respectively, were originally going to compete in the event, but will not attend due to unknown reasons.
 * Alex Blackwell drove Megalodon for Justin, while Randy Brown drove Grave Digger for Cole's absence
 * This is the first World Finals since Monster Jam World Finals 11 to have a fountain obstacle. This is likely for two reasons: to commemorate Avenger's 20th anniversary, as well as complaints of previous tracks lacking a fountain, causing Koehler to provide his own water feature himself.
 * This year's Young Guns Shootout (A.K.A Double Down Showdown) was the first to have a truck lose a tire (Matt Cody's Blue Thunder in Round 1 against Jester, sending Jester to the next round despite losing).
 * This was the first year two of the same truck faced off in racing: the two trucks would be Tyler Menninga and Morgan Kane in Grave Digger, with Menninga getting the win. This situation almost happened in 2015 at World Finals 16 between Damon Bradshaw and Coty Saucier's Monster Energy trucks, but Bradshaw would have technical problems, giving Saucier a pass-by victory.
 * There was a shooting in Las Vegas the same day the World Finals took place (freestyle) that caused a lock-down on the near-by Vegas strip: one person died. So far, the World Finals itself appears to be unaffected by the incident.
 * Obsessed used the truck's original body instead of the brand new Chevy C-10 he debuted a day before. This would be because of his crash in the final round of the Double Down Showdown
 * Colton Eichelberger used Tom Meents' chassis for this world finals.
 * The first ever monster truck frontflip during competition was pulled off by Lee'O Donnell, winning him the Freestyle championship. The first ever frontflip was performed by Tom Meents and Max-D, but only as an encore. On top of that, Meents did not officially land the flip, as it stuck the tailgate before the wheels. O'Donnell, however, did land it.
 * Hot Wheels would set another record by landing 4 backflips unlike his record of 3 at last year's World Finals.
 * This was the first World Finals to not use judges: instead, the audience scored the freestyles with the Judges Zone system.
 * Mad Scientist would set a record for the lowest scoring winning run due to the fact that Monster Jam used the Judges Zone website for scoring, which had a high score of only 10 instead of 40 (although from a ratio standpoint, this could be argued otherwise).

Goof

 * On Monster Jam's official website, after the final race between Anderson and Menninga they stated that "No two Team Grave Digger Drivers have ever gone head-to-head in the final round of racing at Monster Jam World Finals". However, this is false: Pablo Huffaker (a team Grave Digger driver at the time) faced Dennis Anderson in the final round of Monster Jam World Finals 5, with Anderson getting the win.

Ride Trucks
BKT

Grave Digger #11

Mighty Monster Bus

Wheels of Freedom

Displays
Airborne Ranger

Barbarian

Big Kahuna

BKT

2nd Bounty Hunter

Brutus

Carolina Crusher

Cyclops (2016)

Cyclops (restored classic)

Devastator

D'Sturbed

Enforcer

Extinguisher

"Grandma" Grave Digger

Grave Digger the Legend

Hillbilly Deluxe

Ice Cream Man

Illuminator

Iron Outlaw

Jail Bird

Joey Strong

Master of Disaster (Rettew)

Maniac

Midnight Rider

Monster Jam 25th Anniversary

Monster Patrol (Phelps)

Monster Patrol (Phelp's Ride)

New Earth Authority (N.E.A Police)

Nitro Menace

Obsession

Over Bored

Paddy Wagon (ride truck)

Play'n For Keeps

Quadzilla

Rat Attack

Reptoid

Scarlet Bandit

Stealth

2nd Team Hot Wheels Firestorm

The Law (Other)

Time Flys

T-Maxxx

T-Wrecks

Unnamed & Untamed

USA-1

War Machine

Warrior

Wild Thang

Wonder Woman

Xtreme Diesel

The Xtermigator

​Entertainment Zone
FMX

BMX

Freestyle Sport Bikes

Drifters

Gallery
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