From Jeff Richards: WORK RATE GOOD but BOOKING BORDERS on HORRID NEWLAND (NC) -- A return to Rock Gym in Avery County this past Sa...
WORK RATE GOOD but BOOKING BORDERS on HORRID
NEWLAND (NC) -- A return to Rock Gym in Avery County this past Saturday (3/19) should have been the hot ticket in town. North American Wrestling Alliance (NAWA) has been riding a wave of success recently, but then suddenly only 55-60 people showed up. This was with Ricky Morton, the Washington Bullets, Geter, and a battle royal all scheduled. NAWA Heavyweight Champion Adam James was advertised to be in Newland but had no match listed.
The Highspots/RINGS school guys again saved the day by filling spots and starting to get pushes. Even though George South Sr. was not in attendance, he would have been proud of his trainees' success on this night. His niece was hopeful of being the ring announcer again, but long-time favorite "Luscious" Lance Starr filled in ably. The show was taped for DVD release by myself and Dan Parris.
"Mountain Madness Round Two" continued the succession of battle royals to determine a Western Carolina Champion. The dust has cleared with two of these cluster messes over and still no victory by the group's most popular worker. It is apparent that this belt will be contested among mid-carders. Refusing to work these battle royals include Morton, Deon Johnson, Geter, Bullets, James Drake and Shane Williams to name a few.
Looking good on paper is one thing. Some of the matches that have been booked in NAWA seem to flip guys from face to heel without explanation and bury talents. Individuals who should be going over are getting side-stepped and eventually will take other bookings. It is the nature of the beast, I guess, but could be corrected, and fans will reward that when they notice change.
1) The Washington Bullets (Jon & Trey Williams) defeated BFD (Brian Blaze & Geter) in 13:09. With a 6.5 hour drive looming ahead, the foursome was allowed to work and leave. No doubt, this was the best match (RATING: 2 stars), but fans were not awake yet. Promoter Jason Freeman could not get the Bullets' music to play for more than 15 seconds at a time. A double chokeslam early on the Williams brothers saw them scurry from Geter's grasp. Blaze tagged in and took the heat. Geter hot-tagged and belly suplexed Jon sideways. Williams later pushed Blaze on top of Geter, breaking up a cover of Trey. The Bullets double-teamed Geter, but the PCW Heavyweight Champion kicked out. Geter rallied with a double lariat. A plancha by Trey took out Geter, leaving Jon to pin Blaze illegally.
2) Big Time Ya (Yahya Abdur Razzaq) upset PWX' #1 contender Mason Maddox (Aaron Ritchie) in 12:04. Both men are well-conditioned athletes, as you can tell trainer South is putting them through the ringer. There were tons of near falls in the first four minutes. Ya worked heel; Maddox was favored by the fans. Mason was way too early on a dropkick. A bearhug slowed down Maddox until he small-packaged his way out. MM's high flying bodypress was good for a two count. Five minutes were remaining in the 15 minute time limit. Maddox connected on a codebreaker, and Ian Payne (Brown) came down for the distraction. Ya snuck up behind with a schoolboy and put all his weight on Maddox. Post-match: Payne left Maddox laying to add further insult. RATING: 1 3/4 stars
3) "Magic" Myles Long (James Clontz) pinned Little Donnie (Jamie Mayfield) in 7:32. Donnie, a member of the popular "Burke County Boys," heeled here. Long did this magic trick with a flaming rose. He threw the rose out to a female friend, but it was intercepted by the man sitting next to her. Donnie soared on a dropkick. A crossface by Donnie had fans imploring Long to break free. Donnie missed an awkward-looking elbowdrop. Long threw playing cards at him and then nailed Don with a superkick. RATING: 1 star
4) Payne & Movie Myk downed "Dangerous" Donnie Webb & Porkchop Cash Jr. (w/"Downtown" Digger Brown) in 12:42. This was a well booked upset, as it was unexpected and put some parity in with the tag teams. The heels are all part of this "Hollywood Heat" faction which still is referred to as "The Powah" (along with Ya). Cash brings a scrub brush to the ring that he probably should consider using before brawling. Myk layeth the verbal smackdown on Donnie before failing to knock Webb off his feet. Fans were out of their seats while Cash was getting double-teamed. Webb procured the hot tag. He clotheslined the heels a couple of times before being cut off. Once off his feet, Webb fell victim to Myk's top rope frog splash. Boy, did he bounce farther than RVD did in his entire career. Major upset? Yes! This was the first pinfall loss for Webb since NAWA returned to regular running. RATING: 3/4 of a star
Still no intermission. With a 7 pm start, it was now 8:15, and a poorly scheduled promo with James Drake, the "New Age Enforcer," was next. Drake rambled out to "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart. People literally got up and visited the concession area to buy....popcorn.
Note to editor Larry Goodman: Drake is not as "flabby" anymore. The acoustics were so bad Drake sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher ("wah wah wah wah").
5) "Terrific" Tony Benge, Deon Johnson & Ricky Morton were victorious over NAWA tag champs Golden Gladiators & Bryan Montgomery in 11:48. There is not much terrific about Tony, but he did serve as Gladiator #3 on the March 5th card in Drexel, NC. Morton participated in a special Q&A session prior to this show starting. Gladiators (Freeman & Mark Henderson) were missing their manager, J. Thurston Cogdell III, fired at the last Drexel show. Montgomery has formed the Hardliners in NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling with Jeff Connelly. Neither Johnson nor Morton took a bump. Montgomery hit a codebreaker on Benge, allowing the Gladiators to take over. #1 almost did not get Benge over on a butterfly suplex. It was funny watching Benge kicking his legs to try & add momentum to the takeover. #2 missed a bronco buster which gave Benge time to tag Johnson. It turned immediately to a six-way. After a mid-ring collision, a triple schoolboy ensued, as there were schoolboys all around. RATING: 1 1/2 stars Can we have intermission now? At 8:50 pm, in-ring action resumed.
6) Ya captured the "Mountain Madness Round Two" battle royal win in 13:08, advancing to a one-night tournament on 6/4/16. The quartet of battle royals will determine four competitors who then will vie for the inaugural Western Carolina Championship. Cash Jr. won the first battle royal on 3/5 in Drexel. However, due to a lack of participants, guess who came out first to be in this second battle royal? Already qualified for the tournament, Cash risked injury to participate in this event as well. This was contested as a Royal Rumble with grapplers arriving every 60 seconds (or whenever Starr remembered to count down the next guy). Cash Jr. started with Gladiator #2 (Freeman) followed by Benge, Little Donnie, Myk, Maddox, Gladiator #1 (Henderson), Ya, Montgomery, Webb, Long & Payne. Highlights: Nice dropkick from Glad #2 on Cash; Myk ran into the goal post on his way in; right after saying "Let's go, people," Maddox was flung from the ring; 400 lb. Webb was pushed backwards over the top rope by Powah members. Order of elimination: Benge at 2:20.... Maddox at 5:46.... Gladiator #2 at 6:12.... Myk at 8:17.... Montgomery at 9:15.... Gladiator #1 at 9:35.... Cash at 10:00.... Webb at 11:00,,,, Little Donnie at 12:31. That left Ya, Payne & Long. Ya became the winner by dumping both Payne & Long at the end. No RATING
7) Drake pinned "King" Shane Williams (w/Queen Taylor) in 11:51 to solidify his position as #1 contender to the NAWA throne. Fans were chanting "Porky" @ Drake; maybe they were his Facebook haters. The match started while Super Porky Jr. was outside milking his heat. Referee Mark Foley counted to ten while Drake was moving in super slow speed. Once both men were in the same ring, Williams threw some armdrags but could not bodyslam Drake. The King hit a dropkick for just one count. Williams teased the piledriver, but Drake rolled outside. Back inside, there was a two count for Drake's shining kenke kick. Drake's high angle belly-to-belly suplex was much better than Geter's earlier. Williams finally got his foe up for a bodyslam and near fall. After his patented fistdrop, Williams scored the three count, but Foley had missed Drake's foot on the ropes. Match was restarted. Drake tried to pin Williams illegally, but Foley saw a foot on the ropes again. Fool me twice, shame on Foley -- Drake reversed a small package and was in the ropes when a three count was re-registered. There was such a stunned silence that you could not even hear crickets outside chirping. **Total count: five heels went over in seven matches. Three of the finishes involved using the ringropes for leverage.** Post-match: Drake seemingly left but came back to kiss Taylor. The Queen slapped the Enforcer, and Drake took a piledriver for his manhandling of Williams' wife. RATING: 1 3/4 stars
NOTES: NAWA returns to Drexel on April 2nd with Adam James, Drake, BCB, South, Johnson and a four-way elimination match for the tag titles. Gladiators will defend vs. Rob Killjoy/Tracer X, Bullets & Big F'n Deal....The return date to Newland was announced as April 30th with the NAWA debut of Bunkhouse Buck (Jimmy Golden).... Williams captured the huge AML Wrestling Championship belt from Papadon on February 26th and will feud more with Vordell Walker....Long had a couple of spots that were omitted for various reasons with Amanda Rodriguez at the Aggression Wrestling show in Gibsonville, NC. There was a spanking spot which would have gotten over huge with the crowd, but it was nixed. A kiss did not happen either. Long recalled a verbal confrontation in the locker room that evening (3/11/16) where Malia Hosaka went off on a wrestler for knocking Dean Malenko....Referee Foley is set to travel to Dallas, TX in a couple of weeks for WrestleMania 32....The Delta Squad originally was advertised but not missed (except at battle royal time).
ANALYSIS: It feels like Georgia Wrestling History is beating the drum here, but a booker with current ring experience, knowledge, etc. needs to apply. After we critiqued the January 30th AML show in Winston-Salem, NC, at the very next event Williams was put over for the belt. It may not be popular to tell promotions what they sometimes cannot see, but in the end they live to run another day. Newland is not the hub of today's modern entertainment, sporting events, etc. When NAWA comes to town, these citizens should turn out in droves. Running against free NCAA "March Madness" is not the wisest choice of dates, but it kept me wondering what happened between shows 1 & 2. Why was there not more word of mouth spread about how good the product was? January 30th was seven weeks ago, plenty of time for folks there to be missing the newest, hottest show in town. Battle royals on top or near the top certainly don't have the drawing power they once had. However, still there is a dire need to bring/recruit/import a fresh, thought-provoking booker to expand on NAWA's talent base soon.
.jpg)
