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| SHOW REPORTS |
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| September 20, 2008
NWA Anarchy rebounded from a mediocre show two weeks ago with one of their best tapings of 2008 last night at the NWA Television Arena in Cornelia. It was much needed shot of momentum as the promotion gears up for two major shows with little breathing room in between. This was indeed made for TV – well-crafted, smooth-flowing, tightly-booked and economical. The finishes were a major strength. It was a contrast to the recent tapings that had gotten flabby due to too many matches and too many guys being booked. I think also think, in general, they're better off when the shows run closer to 2:30 than 3 hours. Attendance was 135. That was down from 175 a year ago. There was a night time Georgia football game to contend with, as well as the spotty availability of gas due to Hurricane Ike. The economy sucks. Take your pick. When wrestling is hot, none of that seems to matter, and when it’s not, you can be giving tickets away and still not draw. NWA Owner Jerry Palmer opened the show with news that things with baby Griffin were looking good. Palmer announced Fright Night ’08 would take place on November 1, and he was in the mood for something violent, a touch bloody and whole lot crazy. Color commentator John Johnson was backstage with Jeremy Vain and Rob Adonis. Vain lectured Adonis about his role- making Vain the champion. It had nothing to do with Adonis and everything to do with Jeremy. Vain was going to show Adonis how it was done. The camera tracked Vain through the dressing room area crowded with wrestlers until he came upon the NWA Anarchy Tag Team Champions, New Wave. Vain told Steven Walters those were nice belts and punked him out. Adonis kicked ass on everyone in sight. Some serious carnage. This was one of the best backstage segments Anarchy has ever done. The action moved to the ring. New Wave was about to hit the Unskinny Bop on Vain, when Adonis played spoiler. He then laid out both members of New Wave with his finisher. Between the backstage and the in ring, Adonis came across at another level than he ever has before. Vain said that’s how you get attention. (1) J. T. Talent beat Malachi in 5:40. Amazingly, this was Talent’s first singles match in building, and he’s more than ready to break out of the glut of midcard tag team specialists. Talent’s look, facials, ringwork and overall ring presence have dramatically improved over the last 6 months. This reminded me of a WWE TV match, not in a bad way though. Malachi got an impressive flurry of offense before Talent hit a release german suplex to take over. Crowd got behind Malachi. Talent hit a corner lariat into a flatliner for a near fall. Malachi’s comeback was too vanilla to really heat up the crowd. Malachi had Talent in trouble after a flatliner variation of his own, so Talent pulled ref Jacob Ashworth in front of him and used the distraction to pin Malachi with the tights AND his feet on the ropes. Very smooth finish. (2) The Technicians (Bob E & Tyler Smith) beat Hollywood Brunettes (Kyle Matthews & Andrew Alexander) in 9:23 when Alexander submitted to Smith’s cross armbreaker. This was only match where the concept was shaky. Technicians ambushed the Brunettes and re-injured Alexander’s arm. Technicians repeated the same ref-as-shield spot from the finish of match #1 to get the advantage on Matthews. Technicians worked on Matthews gut forever. Matthews made it to his corner a couple of times but no Alexander to tag. Instead, Alexander stayed at ringside the entire time selling his arm with two refs ministering to him. That was a bit much. Alexander finally overcame the pain to take the tag, and Technicians had to sell for his one-armed house cleaning. That was also a bit much. Smith used a crossarmbreaker to force Alexander tap. I can get with a hard babyface push for the Brunettes, but this made Technicians look like such weak chickenshit chumps. I guess that's the idea. In any case, the finish fit the story. When that's the only thing to complain about, you know it was a damn good show. Brodie Chase came out alone. He said Melissa Coates was absent because Jerry Palmer was jealous of him. He described Melissa as a delicate flower, a morsel to be enjoyed by a real man, not some paper owner. Chase said he was going to take on two women and they better be good looking and know their role. (3) Brodie Chase beat Christy Turner & Crystal Rose in 7:04. Crowd was as hot for this as they were all night. They popped for huge every time one of the women mounted some offense and really brought the hate for Chase. The women in the crowd especially. They chanted “Whiplash” at Turner. That’s the name she’s used in APW. Chase was a complete dick. He was not the least bit above administering physical punishment. Chase got Turner in waistlock and got fresh with her, so she mule kicked him in the nuts. The women managed to get Chase off his feet with a trip-lariat combo for a double pin near fall. Turner gave Chase a monkey flip. Chase did some dirty dancing, so she slapped his face. Chase started to manhandle her, but Turner went through the legs for a tag. Enough with the fun and games. Finish was a stack pin after a pumphandle neckbreaker on Crystal and a Thunderfire Powerbomb on Turner. Palmer came to ringside and stared a hole through Chase. (4) Slim J and Adrian Hawkins were the co-winners of the Young Lion’s Mega Rumble in 10:35. I’m a fan of Bill Behrens booking of these Mega Rumbles and this was one of his best. 13 guys and it still had lots of focused spots, and it never got clusterish, and they got it done in under 11 minutes without resorting to gratuitous, random eliminations. Eliminations were by pinfall, submission or over the top rope. Slim J started and got the first bigtime babyface pop of the night. He worked some MMA spots with Anthony Henry. Darkness was next in. Henry and Darkness doubled up on J. Kareem Abdul Jamar was next. Darkness took advantage of his length with this cool Cattle Mutilation on Jamar, who was in a seated position. Bo Newsome dumped both of them. J made Henry tap to rear naked choke. It was down to J and Newsome. Chip Day entered on fire. He took J out with an assisted Pele. Kyle Matthews entered to make it four babyfaces. Matthews knocked Newsome silly and destroyed Day with a slingshot double stomp. Alexander was announced as being unable to compete. They did this great three way spot where Matthews reversed J’s Anger Management with a Victory Roll, and Day hit a top rope Thesz Press on Matthews. They set up a flying reverse DDT/electric chair combo for J. I think Day was the victim. This was as good as Day has ever looked in an Anarchy ring. Matt Sells was next. Matthews, Day and Newsome were all thrown out here, so it was back down to Sells and J. Ryan Michaels entered and The Franchise tried to double team J. T.K. Cross entered to a big pop from the bleachers. Cross pinned Michaels with a bridging northern lights. J pinned Sells. That left J and Cross trading forearms. Hawkins was the final entrant. He nonchalantly pulled the ropes down to dump Cross without bothering to enter the ring. Awesome finish. The execution in this match was uniformly good. It elevated the entire Young Lion’s division, and it was sorely in need of elevation. Postmatch, J gave Hawkins an earful. Hawkins clubbed J from behind and left him laying with Liger Bomb. Hawkins and J will battle for the Young Lion’s Cup at Fright Night. (5) Shaun Tempers (with The Reverend) beat Sal Rinauro in 10:46. Signaling that this is a new day, The Reverend and Tempers eschewed the back door entrance in favor using the ramp like everyone else. Reverend invited TV Champion Truitt Fields out to get close up view from the announcer’s booth. Sal hit a nice springboard twisting dropkick early, but when he ventured onto the apron, Tempers swept his leg to take control. Tempers did a number on Rinauro’s low back. Lots of forearms shots to the kidneys. Tempers ducked an enzuigiri and dropped an elbow to Rinauro’s back for two. The crowd chanted for Sal, who hit a flying knee for a double down. Comeback time. Rinauro countered a Tiger Driver with a rolling reverse. Tempers tried for a superplex, but Rinauro countered with a swinging neckbreaker off the top rope for a near fall. Tempers hit a bridging northern lights suplex for two. Tempers avoided Rinauro’s Pele kick and ended it with a pumphandle uranage –a souped up variation of the champ’s finisher- I love it. Tempers blew off Fields’ attempt to congratulate him. Tempers’ bad ass attitude rules. Greg Hunter, ring announcer/play-by-play announcer extraordinaire, directed our attention the WrestleVision screen where Chad Parham and Seth Delay were on view. Parham had fond memories of what they did to Ace Rockwell and Luke Hawx two weeks ago. Delay suggested that they needed tag team theme music, matching gear or a double team finisher. Parham wasn’t feeling any of that, so Delay suggested a team name – PG Rated. Parham countered with The Dynamic Duo. “Like Batman and Robin?” said Delay. Very entertaining stuff. (6) The Dynamic Duo (Chad Parham & Seth Delay) beat Outlaw & Norris in 6:23. Delay came down the ramp doing a Bushwhacker walk. Outlaw and Norris are the tag team champions in SAW where they are known as Tribal Nation. They looked so much better in basic black gear and out of that lame Native American gimmick. Since when do black guy and a white guy make an Indian team? Outlaw’s performance was astounding. I’ve never cared for his work in SA, but he was over like a MFer with the Anarchy fans, and that rarely happens with newcomers. He was getting pops for all of his power moves and stiff chops. It didn’t hurt he was working with two heels that are great when it comes to bumping and selling. Norris took the heat. He vaulted a backdrop to make the tag. Outlaw hit a combo bulldog-lariat combo on Dynamic Duo. Delay used the knucks on Outlaw when ref Ken Wallace wasn’t looking. Parham pinned Outlaw with a piledriver. A win-win situation for sure. “Merciless” Don Matthews cut the passion-filled promo of his Anarchy life. Star pop for Matthews intro. Matthews said Jeff Lewis represented everything he hated in a human being. Lewis acted like he was doing the fans a favor to appear in Cornelia. To Matthews, it was privilege. Matthews said Lewis tastes ran to eating calamari(?) in a French restaurant, whereas he liked tailgating at a Georgia football game. Lewis preferred to sip champagne and watch foreign films, while he preferred a Zebco 33 and a six pack. Matthews said “The Feature Presentation” was looking at the Future Presentation. ”I’ve got a math problem. My right arm and your neck equals 1-2-3. Jeff Lewis, EXPECT NO MERCY.” (7) Ace Rockwell beat Jessco Blue in 3:03. Blue looked every bit the part of filthy hillbilly. He attacked like a wild man, but he couldn’t hang with Rockwell in a wrestling match, so Blue resorted to a loaded boot. Crowd was hot for Ace to make the comeback. Finish saw Rockwell catch Blue’s high boot attempt and hit the Aces High. Attorney Jeff G. Bailey brought Kimo out to the ring. Kimo was impervious to Rockwell’s blows. Rockwell went for a high crossbody that Kimo turned into a Samoan Drop. A barrage of martial arts strikes sent Kimo down in a heap. At this point, the crowd recognized Rockwell was in deep shit. Bailey entered the ring and calmly took off his suit coat and tie. Bailey tightened the tie around Rockwell’s throat while Kimo took dead aim with a karate blow to the esophagus. Rockwell started bleeding from the mouth. The crowd chanted for Palmer. Instead, Slim J pulled Rockwell out of the ring (just as Rockwell had done for Don Juan at the previous show). Bailey told Slim J he was next. The blood was running all down Rockwell’s chest as J dragged him up the ramp. (8) Devil’s Rejects (Iceberg & Azrael with The Reverend) defeated Shadow Jackson & Mikal Judas in 12:23 when Iceberg pinned Jackson. Jackson entered to the usual Shadowmania chants, but I think Judas’ entrance got a bigger pop. Rejects were licking their wounds after both got leveled by Judas’ Mafia kick. Iceberg gave Jackson a drop toehold into Azrael’s knee to start the heat. Body of the match saw Rejects cut off Jackson’s air supply, while Judas paced the apron like a caged lion. When Judas couldn’t stand it any more, Rejects capitalized with chicanery behind the back of referee Brent Wiley. Jackson caught Rejects with a double bionic elbow but still no tag. Judas accidentally spit the red mist into Jackson’s eyes, and Iceberg then pinned Jackson. Postmatch, Iceberg busted the Reverend’s staff across the back of Judas. Rejects duct taped Judas to the ring ropes. The Reverend said there was only on group of face-painted freaks in Anarchy and poured water on Judas’ head to remove his paint. Jackson hit the ring with a chair for the save. Judas and Jackson had a staredown in the ring. NOTES: Fright Night ’08 will take place on 11/1…The Elite Pro Wrestling Training Camp with Les Thatcher has been rescheduled for 3/23/09 in Cornelia…Ace Rockwell was the special guest for the Top Rope Kids Club…It should be noted that The Franchise remains undefeated in tag team competition in Anarchy…Palmer announced that all the DVDs at the gimmick table with the exception of Hostile Environment ’08 were being reduced to $10 to make way for new merchandise. |