Greetingsfrom the NWA Arena in Cornelia, Georgia, where men are men, and the women and children scream their freaking heads off. Stories and angles were the order of the day at NWA Anarchy’s first television taping since Fright Night ’07. And everything worked, especially the blockbuster break up the three time NWA Anarchy tag champs, the Urban Assault Squad. No post-big show let down here. Last night’s show drew 200 despite running against the same local fair that kicked ass on them last year.
Bill Behrens opened with a 10 bell salute for indie wrestler Sean Evans, a non-smoker who died of lung cancer on October 1. Former Wildside television announcer Steven Prazak described Evans as “one of wrestling’s hopelessly nice guys and one of its most nimble and accommodating, if unheralded, performers.” BB illustrated by telling about the time Evans saved Christopher Sampson from a potentially fatal head first dive into the railing during a match at the NWA Arena.
(1) Salvatore Rinauro beat Tony Santarelli in 8:52. For pure technical execution, this was the best match of the night. It would have fit right in at the Ted Petty. Strong heat as well. Fans were up for the return of Rinauro, especially against a tool like Santarelli. At 2:45, Santarelli gave Rinauro a painful noogie and posted his shoulder. He shredded Rinauro’s shoulder with a variation on the chickenwing crossface and a freaky version of the Gori Especial. When Santarelli applies a hold, it looks like the real deal. A very underrated wrestler. Rinauro managed to protect his shoulder long enough to make a comeback. Enzuigiri for a near fall. Santarelli overpowered Rinauro and got back to work on the shoulder. But Rinauro avoided a basement dropkick, and Santarelli’s crotch rebounded off the bottom rope. That took the starch out of him. Rinauro hit his turnbuckle-assisted Pele kick for another near fall. Rinauro went up top, but Santarelli stunned him with a tornado kick and hit a fallaway slam. They traded heavy blows. Rinauro ducked under one of Santarelli’s bombs and rolled him up for the pin. Santarelli had a fit.
Jeff Lewis entered the ring to a tremendous ovation. Lewis had a HUGE bandage on his forehead to cover the laceration he suffered in the First Blood match at Fright Night.
Attorney/Agent Jeff G. Bailey was shown on the WRESTLEVISION. Well, we heard his voice at least. Bailey said Kory Chavis split Lewis’ head like a melon to where he was covered in blood all the way down to his boots (true). Bailey said he might take care of Lewis himself, but why bother with small potatoes? He said Chavis was lounging on the beach with the bonus money he got nearly making Lewis bleed to death. Bailey advised Lewis to disappear before Chavis came back to take his very life.
Lewis unveiled a twisted, sadomasochistic edge to his persona. He ripped the bandage off and pounded his forehead until the blood was flowing like a river, leaving his face was covered in crimson. Lewis said the NWA Elite had awakened something that was sleeping inside of him. They had created a monster.
“Kory Chavis, when I get my hands on you. It will be YOUR…FINAL…CURTAIN.”
(2) Anger Alliance (Brodie Chase & Brandon Phoenix & Don Matthews) beat Billy Buck & Derrick Driver & Steven Walters in 7:25. Alliance wasn’t in a mood to sell. Works for me. It would have been a sin to give these guys much offense. Buck was on fire at the start. Things went rapidly downhill from there. Phoenix teed off on Walters, who did a corkscrew bump on a missed enzuigiri. The Alliance destroyed Driver with their signature moves, a head and arm suplex by Phoenix, a pumphandle neckbreaker by Chase and a BFK by Matthews. Alliance wasn’t feeling it when it came time to feed for Buck’s hot tag. Matthews pinned Driver with The Lariat. Alliance acted like one big, happy family. Chase did a Flair strut on the way out.
(3) Todd Sexton submitted Chris King with a cross armbreaker at 3:51. Sexton wrestled “Technician” style to lull King into lowering his guard. Sexton then bitch slapped King on the break and gave him a beating. Sexton let King have it with some stiff running kicks to the mouth before locking in the submission.
Sexton addressed the chant for Wes Grissom. He said Grissom got what he deserved at Fright Night. “It’s punks like him that make the business hard for the rest of us.” Grissom came out. The fans love this kid. Grissom demanded a match on the spot. Sexton said no and walked off. Grissom isn’t the kind of babyface that attacks a guy when his back is turned, even a two-faced jerk like Sexton, so he was left with no outlet for his rage and frankly looked a little silly.
(4) Slim J & Adrian Hawkins beat Devils Rejects (Shaun Tempers & Azael with “Reverend” Dan Wilson) via DQ at 7:38 due to interference by the Hollywood Brunettes. The pop for J and Hawkins was an ear splitter. J gets the kids going like nobody else on the roster, and they were hot for him the entire match. J and Hawkins beat up on Tempers. Hawkins used a nice bridging reverse chinlock. He has really turned the corner to where he’s wrestling with a lot more confidence. Rejects doubled up on Hawkins. Azrael did a number on him from a full mount. Hawkins did a leapfrog into a hangman neckbreaker to set up the hot tag. J was a one man wrecking crew. He hit a double falling reverse DDT on the Rejects, but Andrew Alexander & Kyle Matthews attacked Hawkins for the DQ.
Rejects were fixing to use Wilson’s Staff of Righteousness on J when Awesome Attraction came to the rescue. Great pop for the save. The highlight here was Hayden Young doing an stellar version of The Worm.
Greg Hunter presented Urban Assault Squad (Shadow Jackson & Nemesis) with the giant-size trophy for winning the 2007 Mysterious Benefactor Memorial Tag Team Tournament. The place went wild for UAS as always. They had video package just for the occasion. The feel good moment came to an abrupt end when Nemesis brained Jackson with the trophy. Nemesis’ expression turned cold and dark. Once wasn’t enough. Twice wasn’t either. The third shot made a sick clunking sound on Jackson’s forehead. Nemesis’ Jackson bled heavily. Nemesis busted up the trophy and jabbed the statue part into Jackson’s forehead. Security hit the ring. Jackson decked two of them and continued to work Jackson over with the statue. Fans chanted “security sucks.” Can’t really blame them. It was a bad visual. Counting security, the refs, and BB, there were 10 guys out there. All with their thumbs inserted into their rectums. Anarchy owner Jerry Palmer confronted Nemesis about his bad behavior, but remorse isn’t part of the dude’s vocabulary. A truly awesome angle.
Wow. The scorecard for the first post-Fright Night hour of TV reads four programs advanced, two blood angles and one major turn.
During the intermission, BB gave away six pairs of tickets ($45 seats) for TNA’s Bound For Glory at Gwinnett Civic Center.
(5) Mikal Judas destroyed Talent & Money (J. T. Talent & Andrew Pendleton III) in 1:55.
Talent & & back jumped Judas and took him down with a double team. Judas got up like it was nothing. Carnage ensued. The end came with one El Crucifijo (Border Toss) apiece for Talent and Pendleton. An impressive squash.
Judas spoke for the first time in NWA Anarchy. “Shatter, I’m coming for you…may God have mercy on your soul.” Judas exited through the front door.
The fans welcomed the return of “Krazy K” Kirby Mack to the NWA Arena. Hunter talked about how Mack had suffered a life-threatening collapsed lung that required surgery. The Brunettes interrupted. “Who might you be?” said Mack. Alexander said Brunettes were the injury specialists and they were going to add Mack to their list. But Seth Delay had Mack’s back leading to…
(6) Kirby Mack & Seth Delay beat Hollywood Brunettes (Kyle Matthews & Andrew Alexander) via DQ in 9:13. Crowd was hot for the team of Mack and Delay. They did a nice old school spot where they took turns clapping Matthew around the ears. Mack was in good form, as he handled Brunettes one against two. The tide turned at the 4 minute mark when Delay went to the top and Alexander upended him. Delay took heat. Alexander tossed him crotch first onto the middle rope. He won’t be De Ladies man for long after moves like that. It was both men down and big time heat for K’s tag. K smoked Alexander with a corner backstabber. K then hit the OverDoSe on Matthews, but Alexander broke up the pin. Delay was taken of the picture, and Brunettes beat on Mack until referee Ken Wallace was forced to call for the bell.
Brunettes weren’t done. They gave Mack the Sheeney’s Curse (gutbuster/top rope double stomp combo) and were setting up for seconds when Hawkins made the save.
(7) Melissa Coates squashed Derek Ryze in 5:37. Crowd was split and didn’t give Coates the usual dose of “she’s a man” heat. Ryze is a small guy from the Carolinas. He was barely taller than Coates, who is 5-4. He did fine, but this was his first appearance at the NWA Arena, so the crowd had nothing for him, and there’s going to be an element of babyface pull for a woman wrestling a man. Coates has added two new power moves to her arsenal, a gutwrench and a pumphandle slam. Coates pinned Ryze with the Facelift.
Postmatch, Coates received a boquet of flower and a card from a secret admirer. She reacted with disgust and threw the flowers at ring announcer Eddie Rich.
(8) Truitt Fields pinned the former champion Jeremy Vain (with Rob Adonis) at 9:02 in his first defense of the NWA Anarchy Television Title. Vain said the 10 minute time limit was unfair, because when he was champion he had to “go 15 minutes with a Marine.” The crowd exploded for Fields. I was told the sustained heat for Vain/Fields at Fright Night was incredible. Vain has some strange ideas about fairness. As Fields tried to enter, Vain blasted him off the apron, rammed his gut into the post and rolled him back inside. Harold James called for the bell, and Vain immediately covered for a two count. Fans wanted an instant comeback and they got one, but Fields crashed and burned on a high crossbody. Vain did wicked things to Field’s solar plexus. Some great facial expression by Fields here. Fields got his knees up on a middle rope splash. That brought Adonis up onto the apron. Palmer intervened with a leather strap and chased Adonis to the back. A full-fledged Fields comeback built to a flying bodypress, but Vain rolled through for a near fall. Not to be denied, Fields caught Vain with the Killing Fields for the win.
Bailey entered the ring with the NWA Anarchy Heavyweight Champion, Shatter. Bailey said Fright Night was a walk in the park for his one man walking genocide. Bailey positioned himself as a benevolent version of Michael Vick. The dogs that couldn’t fight got drowned or hung, and as much Judas deserved a similar fate, Bailey settled for seeing him discarded like rubbish by the Universal Soldier. Bailey said Shatter declined to take the night off and called for anyone from the back that had the guts. Iceberg (accompanied by Wilson) came out to confront Shatter. A gibroni ran out. Iceberg wasted him before he even made the ring. Security must have grown some nuts during the intermission, as they got in between Shatter and Berg. The crowd chanted “let them fight.” Bailey got Shatter to back off and Abomination came out. Judas played spoiler. A-bomb went for the Tree Slam, but Judas blinded him with the red mist and sent him through the ropes with the KICK OF DEATH.
BB came out to make the match for 10/20: Shatter & Abomination vs. the unholy alliance of Judas and Iceberg. Judas and Iceberg glared at each other. Judas headed for the front door, pausing in the bleacher for a pose that figures to be the closing shot for television.
Hour number two also did a great job of furthering storylines, especially the big feud on top. And I do mean big. Anarchy is a cruiserweight league no more. Fields got off to a hot start as the TV champ. The key thing is how well he does without Vain as his primary foe. A World’s Prettiest/Brunettes program should produce good matches, and it will be interesting to see how the tag champs, Awesome Attraction, figure into it.
For photos by Blake Arledge go to http://www.ringsidephotos.net.
NOTES: Additional matches set for the next taping on 10/20 include Devils Rejects (Bentley, Tempers & Azrael) vs Awesome Attraction & Slim J, Brunettes vs. World’s Prettiest (Delay & Hawkins) with Texas Tornado rules, Fields defending the TV title against Adam Roberts, and
Grissom & King vs Talent & Money…Georgia Wrestling Promotion returns to Waleska Ball Park on 10/13 with Brunettes (c) (with Bailey) vs. Regular Guys. If Guy lose they must split up, Tempers (with Wilson) vs. J vs. Hawkins (with Amy Allure) vs. Big Head Hanson for the number one seed in the upcoming heavyweight title tournament, and a mixed tag grudge match: Kory Chavis & Manager Aaron Voight vs. Jackson & Palmer. GWP debuts at their new indoor venue in Jasper on 11/24…APW has a big show scheduled for Halloween, “Nightmare on Cherry Street” on 10/2 6 with Jackson (c) vs. Abomination for the heavyweight title, Matthews & Vain (c) vs. King & Buck in a no DQ for the tag titles, and Hawkins vs. Talent…Thomas Simpson has an OMEGA show scheduled for 11/16…MAXW returns to the Williamston Municipal Center on 11/10…Former NWA Wildside Junior Heavyweight Champion, Jeremy Lopez runs his own travel agency out of Corpus Christi.