New England Championship Wrestling returned to the National Guard Armory in Quincy, MA this past Saturday night, February 16, in front of a standing room only crowd for GENESIS 7: BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.The opening contest was the finals of the tournament to crown new NECW Tag Team Champions, the team of “Rocket” Fred Curry, Jr. and Chase Del Monte defeated Bryce Andrews and Vain Valentino to win the titles following a tandem Samoan drop – top rope neck breaker combo.
The second match was a grudge match between DC Dillinger accompanied by Sean Gorman and “The Golden Greek” Alex Arion. Arion picked up the win with a schoolboy roll up on Dillinger. After the match, DC attacked “The Golden Greek”, crashing his head through a metal chair. As Dillinger prepared to wind up and hit Arion with another chair to the head, Arion’s younger sister ran to the ring from the crowd and covered her brother begging DC not to hurt Alex. Dillinger was telling her to beg for her brother. Finally DC committed the disgusting act of grabbing the young lady by her hair and slapping her across the face before being reprimanded and sent to the back by NECW President, Sheldon Goldberg.
The next match was for the NECW Television Title with the added stipulation that the title could change hands on a disqualification. Handsome Johnny defeated the champion “The Real Deal” Brandon Locke by disqualification to win the title. In what would be the closing moments of the match, Handsome Johnny tried to make it look like Locke hit him with the TV Championship Belt. Referee Rob Teutel was not fooled and took the belt to give it back to the ringside table. As his back was turned, Handsome pulled out a black spray can and went to spray it in the eyes of Locke. “The Real Deal” stopped Johnny and grabbed the can nailing him with it just as Teutel turned back around. The match was stopped and awarded to Handsome Johnny, who becomes the new NECW Television Champion.
“The Future Superstar” Ryan Matthews then came to the ring bragging that this year would be the first of many successful “Future Superstar Genesis Challenges”. Last year he lost “on a fluke” to Ebony Blade, but this year would be different. The challenge was answered by “Nightmare” Nick Steel. Steel submitted Matthews in less than 10 seconds for the win. Matthews rebutted saying he wasn’t ready and “hadn’t even gotten his shirt off”. The two locked up and Steel countered directly into another submission hold, leading to a second tap out in less than 20 seconds this time. Matthews stated that Steel had done something he wasn’t ready for, but he was ready now and would make no excuses. Matthew attacked Steel and began to forearm him to the back. Steel soon countered into a third submission hold for his third submission win in under 2 minutes total.
The last match of the first half of action was another heated rivalry as “The Infamous” Bobby Fish took on “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards with Sean Gorman in an “Unsanctioned Match”. The rules were simple. The referee was only involved in the match to count the pin fall or submission in the bout. It was another phenomenal back and forth battle between these two. In the end, Edwards managed to steal a pin on Fish, with some assistance of Sean Gorman and a handful of Fish’s trunks to gain the victory.
First up after the break was another of the grudge matches on the show. Antonio “The Promise” Thomas faced off with former NECW Triple Crown Champion “Straight Edge” Brian Fury. Great match on both sides of this one. The finish saw Fury climb to the top turnbuckle to deliver a superplex on Thomas. As the two crashed to the ground, Thomas was able to cradle the legs of Fury so that both men were pinned. Thomas threw up his shoulder before the final three count to score the pin fall and the victory.
In a violent Dog Collar match, former NECW Triple Crown Champion “The Human Nightmare” Evan Siks took on former NECW Heavyweight Champion Michael Sain in the culmination of their 6-month feud. Sain battered and bloodied Siks early in the match. Siks would eventually come back splitting the head of Sain wide open. Sain delivered two of his Straight Jacket Drivers to Siks, who somehow managed to barely kick out. “Nightmare” Nick Steel came to the ring and began to act as a corner man for Evan. Evan countered a third attempt at a Straight Jacket Driver into a kata-hajime. Sain refused to tap out. Siks adjusted the submission a few times with no luck and looked to Steel for advice. “The Human Nightmare” cinched the hold tighter with the assistance of the chain to finally get the win when Sain could no longer answer the referee and had passed out. It took Sain nearly 5 minutes to recover and make it from the ring after the match.
In a special World Women’s Wrestling feature bout, the Portuguese Princess Ariel faced off with one half of the Soul Sistas, Luscious Latasha. Ariel made fairly short work of Latasha with the Dariel (Ace Crusher). Note: post match a fan jumped in to the ring to hug and congratulate Ariel and had to be removed by event management.
In the main event of the evening, “The Battle of the Giants”, NECW Triple Crown Champion “Big” Rick Fuller defended against top contender and winner of the TOXIC WALTZ, Max Bauer. Before the match, Fuller’s manager Brian Cairo promised the fans he would not lay a hand on Max Bauer. In the closing moments of the match, Bauer hoisted Fuller up into his finishing fall-away face slam. Senior Official Rich Bass was knocked to the ground in the process. Cairo entered the ring and pulled Fuller from the hold. Second later, Bauer was able to try the move again, but Antonio Thomas returned to the ring and blasted Bauer with a chair. As the ref recovered and crawled to count Fuller’s pin on Bauer, Thomas jumped back in the ring and blasted Fuller with the chair. Bass saw this and disqualified Bauer for outside interference. “The Promise” stood over both men gloating that he was the true champion of NECW.
As Fuller rolled out of the ring and Thomas left the ringside area, Bauer recovered. He grabbed Brian Cairo and delivered his finished to the manager, much to the delight of the crowd.
NECW returns to live action on Saturday night, March 29 at the National Guard Armory in Quincy, MA for MARCH BADNESS. Tickets are available at all FYE locations, K.C.’s Sports Cards, 33 Temple Street in Quincy Center and online at www.NECWwrestling.com.