NECW

[Guest DeputyHawk]

from www.necwwrestling.com

 

February 14, 2005

 

Ru Starr, Sabotage Win Gold at NECW's MELTDOWN

 

A near sellout crowd witnessed a night of intense battles and historic events this past Saturday night at the Framingham Civic League as New England Championship Wrestling presented MELTDOWN.

 

The opener was a six man tag team elimiation match as Pat Masters and RAVE (Kristian Frost & Zack Statik) took on "The Pinnacle" Paul Lombardi and D-Unit (Doug Summers & Rocco Abruzzi).  The climax of the match came with Pat Masters, Paul Lombardi and Rocco Abruzzi remaining in the bout.  Masters beat Paul Lombardi with a roll-up, but Abruzzi followed up, pinning the exhausted Masters after a side slam.

 

In a special "Bling On a Pole Match", "El Boricua" Danny Diaz took on "The Egomaniac" Johnny Idol who had stolen Borcua's ring gear two months earlier.  Prior to the start of the match, "The Egomaniac" Johnny Idol noticed "Sweet" Scott Ashworth, who is set to be joining NECW shortly, in the crowd.  Idol berated Ashworth saying he wasn't good enough to be in NECW, then proceeded to attack Boricua.  Idol was relentless and had the match won, when he began to taunt Ashworth again.  This time, Ashworth went after Idol and knocked him off the ropes, giving Boricua time to recover and retrieve his gear from the top of the pole.

 

In women's action, Mercedes Martinez scored a controversial victory over the self-proclaimed "Uncrowned NECW Women's Champion" Violet Flame.  The turning point in the match was Violet attempting to pin Mercedes with her feet on the ropes.  The referee caught it and the match continued, but Martinez began to use aggressive tactics she had never shown in NECW before.  Martinez scored the victory over Violet Flame, but used her feet on the ropes to do so.  The referee did not see Martinez's feet on the ropes, so the decision stands.

 

Sabotage won the NECW Tag Team Championship for an unprecedented third time in another controversial bout.  After the vicious fireball attack by D.C. Dillinger on Dan Freitas, PRIDE's ability to defend the titles was a question mark going into the night.  After Sabotage was introduced, NECW President, Sheldon Goldberg came to the ring with the tag team title belts.  Goldberg then berated Sabotage and told them that he was cancelling the match, but D.C. Dillinger argued, saying that Sabotage had a valid contract for a title match and PRIDE had to make a mandatory title defense against them or be awarded the titles by forfeit.  Before Goldberg could respond, PRIDE's music started and Brian Nunes came out alone to battle both Dillinger and Edwards.  Nunes held his own for a while, but was eventually cut down by Eddie Edwards and both he and Dillinger began grinding down Nunes.  At that point, Dan Freitas came out with a bandaged eye, followed by his girlfriend, Haley Skye, who begged Frietas to stay out of the match.  Freitas would hear nothing of it and Nunes was able to muster up enough to tag his partner into the match.  Freitas put up a game fight, but referee Rich Bass finally stopped the match, after Dillinger began tearing at Freitas' bandage and the eye area began bleeding.

 

Next up was the World Premiere of D-Unit's new entrance video.  Doug Summers began to brag to the audience about how great their video was.  He and Rocco bruzzi brought folding chairs and popcorn into the ring and then invited the entire NECW locker room out to ringside to watch the video.  The tape played but someone switched the tape and what the audience saw was a hilarious spoof of D-Unit.  You can watch this video now, by clicking here.

 

The first semi-final match of the NECW Television Title Tournament was up next with "The Golden Greek" Alex Arion scheduled to face his brother "Big Guns" Frankie Arion.  Last week, NECW officials were informed that Frankie had suffered a fractured ankle, but were giving Frankie the chance to be medically cleared for his match in the tournament.  Frankie came out on crutches and confronted Alex, but NECW President, Sheldon Goldberg came out and said that especially after the earlier incident with Dan Freitas, he was not allowing Frankie to wrestle. NECW officials and "Brutal" Bob Evans came out to try and break things up, but Alex Arion ended up attacking Frankie from behind.  Evans and Arion began to mix it up and a battle ensuded between the two.  Evans said he wanted Arion in a match.  Sheldon Goldberg sanction the bout and the referee rang the bell.  Evans and Arion, who have a long and bitter history as rivals in the past, seemed to rekindle their feud as they brawled all over the Civic League.  Both men were disqualified, and Alex Arion was eliminated from the TV Title Tournament.

 

The next bout, which was originally scheduled as a semi-final bout in the tournament, would then become the final.  NECW President, Sheldon Goldberg introduced special guest Les Thatcher, who would present the new championship belt to the winner.

 

In what was now the final match of the tournament, Ru Starr took on "Miracle" Mike Bennett in a rematch from last month.  Before the match began, Michael Sain came out and brutally attacked Bennett as revenge for Sain getting himself counted out in a quarterfinal bout with Bennett seen on NECW TV.  Officials finally got Sain to the back and restored order, while the already beaten down Bennett got into the ring and the match with Ru Starr began.  Bennett managed to recover and took the battle to "The Professional," but in the end Ru Starr was too much for "The Miracle" and Starr became the first ever NECW Television Champion.

 

Scheduled next was the Slamtech Rookie Challenge, with Slamtech students Andy Burke and Drew Donaldson set to face each other.  Before the match began, two masked men came out and intrduced themselves as Execution (Bonebreaker and Skullkrusher), an internationally famous tag team, who were demanding a spot on the card.  They made fun of Burke and Donaldson and challenged them to a tag team match.  The rookies accepted and took the battle to Execution.  The masked men dominted the bout, but got too confident and Burke rolled up Bonebreaker to score the upset win.

 

In the main event, NECW Heavyweight Champion, "Revolution" Chris Venom collided with the powerhouse, Kevin Landry accomapnied by Alex Crowley.  Venom took the fight to the muscular Landry and a see-saw battle ensued.  Landry knocked Venom out of the ring using the NECW Championship Belt and managed to score a win over Venom via countout.  Alex Crowley put the belt around Landry's waist and declared himself the NECW Heavyweight Champion.  Crowley and Landry then left with the belt.  The title cannot change hands on a countout and the belt was later returned to Venom who appealed to NECW officials and demanded a rematch.

 

NECW officials have approved that match when the promotion returns to Framingham on Saturday night, March 19th.

 

New England Championship Wrestling will be presenting two big events in March.  The MARCH BADNESS Tour begins with a return to Plainfield, CT at the Town Hall on Saturday night, March 12th with a 7 PM bell time.  Tickets will be on sale next week at all Strawberries locations and the Better Value Supermarket in Plainfield.

 

NECW returns to Framingham at the Civic League on Saturday night, March 19th at 7 PM.  This night will feature a rematch for the NECW Heavyweight Championship between "Revolution" Chris Venom and Kevin Landry.  Tickets for this event will be available next week at all Strawberries locations.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

This was a decent-at-best show, with the best match being Starr/Bennett (and I'm not a fan of either man). Of course, the highlight of the show was chatting it up with Mercedes during the premiere of D-Unit's video, talking to El Boricua during intermission, and Sabotage bringing the heel awesomeness.

 

Hopefully, the 3/19 Framingham show will have Sabotage and PRIDE instead of the 3/12 show, since Framingham is, well, NECW's hometown now (if I'm not mistaken, their largest crowds are in Framingham, and their best shows throughout '04 were in Framingham). I'm SO looking forward to that match, because PRIDE went from generic heel tag team #12 to being pretty damn solid, and Sabotage has always rocked (and DC Dillinger is actually starting to get a whole lot better in the ring than he was just a few months ago).