Day 3 has been long hyped as the “best day of World Domination,” and has produced some veritable classics in the past, but after this year’s success of Day 1 and 2, it would have been near impossible to hit that height.

The event was packed with VIPs (too many to list here, so check our Instagram feed for pictures) and was held at Aria, the same club where Thursday’s press conference went down. It was a (mostly) covered rooftop patio, but no one would’ve realized it wasn’t completely covered if it hadn’t started raining on one side of the ring. The format was typical GZ, with battlers in the centre of a crowd. With all the camera, speaker and electrical wires snaking through puddles, it’s a small miracle no one was electrocuted.

The five battles on the card featured some of the most promising Ground Zero up-and-comers (check our extensive coverage of the 2013 GZGP if you’ve been sleeping on Toronto) going up against some low profile international opponents.

Unfortunately the main theme of the night was choking, but there were still glimmers of potential from most of the guys and a couple of breakout performances as well.

ILLITE MC VS KINAZE

This GT-era style battle between Toronto’s Kinaze and South Africa’s Illite MC consisted mostly of comedic race angles and outlandish gun bars. Here’s a line from Kinaze that basically sums it up: “I’ll kill more people in your hood than Malaria.”

Kinaze started things off and was getting laughs by the end of his first but Illite had the confidence and some haymakers to convince four of the judges, despite freestyling most of his third. His “Who the fuck wants to pop a molly with Mahatma Ghandi?” was by far the most quoted line of the event.

With more VIPs than fans in the building it was like pulling teeth to get a reaction from all but Lush, whose NO2 reaction game was on point.

Kudos to both MCs for pronouncing each others’ names correctly too. (E-leet and Kai-naize, for the record.)

LEXX LUTHOR VS KRYPLE

Lexx definitely seems poised as the next rising star, with Poison Pen, PH, Luciano Crakk, Tycoon Tax and others all repping his corner. It was actually so crowded around the ring for this main event that I wasn’t able to jockey for a front row spot. From the back I heard some great lines from Lexx including: “This morning I woke up in a trap like a Saw movie.”

Lexx has is nearing his 20th battle and his experience and ring presence help him paint a picture of a guy who is 100% battle rapper with lines like: “I’ve battled better rappers than you at bus stops drunk in Brooklyn alone.”

Apparently he “drank windex” at one point, but I didn’t catch it. In any case, a couple more big wins and people will be calling for him to battle Madness.

My pen ran out out ink as I was jotting down one of Kryple’s bars, so all I got from him was “I get #dough and choke you out like Homer and his kid.”

N-POSE VS PEDRO

Here’s another battle that could’ve really popped off in a different context. Detroit’s N-Pose has shown a ton of potential in his two GZ battles and he definitely put in work and was well prepared for WD4, but his Terminator mask and theatrics were a little much for the laid-back vibe of the crowd.

Pedro slipped and stumbled through his first two rounds, but his third was such ether that he completely took the momentum away from N-Pose, who didn’t let the silence shake him too much and coasted through to catch all five judges’ votes.

Oh, and to whichever league wants to set it up first: N-Pose vs Nov would be a great battle.

NOTEZ VS SCREEM

Team Homi’s Screem had built up some decent hype on the forums around his WD4 appearance with a prediction blog dismissing about half of battlers on the event’s card. He then choked badly.

He did have some of the best nameflips of the night “I’ll hold Notez up like ’30 pages of rhymes in this mothafucka’ ” and “I’ll shoot Notez in the face and put the writing on the wall.” His bars and presence had potential to take this win if he’d gotten his material out.

Notez made it to the venue despite (the usual) repeated threats he’d no-show and having lost his voice. He addressed his $1,000 GZGP loss to Wize Guy (who was in the building) menacingly and brought his typical divisive combination of vivid violent imagery and gutter slang.

Him and Realiztic had been hinting about some sort of antics all weekend and after what they pulled against Wize Guy and Yung Casper, most people assumed the worst. How Notez “puts his dawg on” is worth a look.

NONSTOP VS MIKE PIPES

This battle, between two almost complete unknowns, didn’t draw as much of a crowd to the ring. Nonstop was invited to WD4 on the strength of his performance on the Winnipeg stop of the KOTD cross-Canada tour.

Nonstop’s voice was so shot it was tough to make out his bars beyond the front row, but he still managed to land a couple, notably: “He’s such a bitch I feel like I’ll get booked for a domestic” and “I’ll put this Kiwi in a bag like a produce section.”

Pipes, from New Zealand, came out of the gate with high energy but when his first few lines didn’t hit it seemed to throw him off. At one point he asked the crowd to show him some love, but even that failed to get a reaction. It wasn’t until he got disrespectful (“You can all suck my Kiwi dick”) that things picked up. It was likely this reversal that brought him as far as a 3-2 loss.

FREESTYLE TOURNAMENT

The 16-man freestyle tourney had a combination of both known and unknown faces, including notable entrants Cortez, PH, Purpose, (a very drunk) Deffinition, Mista Conspiracy, Kryple, Pedro and Bishop Brigante, who went on to win the whole thing. Organik commented: “It’s taken me five fucking years to get Bishop to battle.” Kingfly, Avocado and merch-dude Jamie Howell judged.

A few fun matchups along the way:

Mista Conspiracy beating Deffinition in OT
Pedro beating Kryple in a battle to redeem their losses from earlier in the night
Purpose beating Pedro
Purpose beating Cortez
Bishop beating PH

The finale between Purpose and Bishop was tight and could’ve gone either way, depending on preference. Purpose out-freestyled him, but Bishop turned on the aggression on a “I’m ya Uncle” tip to end his second round and sway Kingfly’s deciding vote.

After the club cleared out and the crowd outside thinned, all that was left was Kingfly, the Swedish journalist covering the event for Whoa.nu and Rone, getting the fourth and final pocketcheck of the weekend.

We asked Rone what happened immediately after the cops let him go with a warning:

Check the Day 3 Free-Per-View here and the Day 1/2 PPV here.

Versetracker collected Twitter updates from Day 3, see them here.

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TOBB’s WD4 content:
-Everything you missed at WD4 (Day 1)
-Everything you missed at WD4 (Day 2)
-Everything you missed at WD4 (Day 3)
-Final thoughts on WD4
-Overheard at WD4
-Top quotes from the WD4 press conference
-TOBB’s (mildly hilarious) WD4 predictions
-Q&A: Pat Stay speaks on his Arcane battle
-Who should come to WD4?