New Generation Wrestling
Gainesville, FL
Saturday, June 12, 2004

Match 1 - Barney Rumble defeated Jaison Moore.
I really don’t know too much about Jaison Moore, but he looked pretty good in this match. He bumps and sells really well, and he’s got a decent cruiserweight look to him. This match really surprised me, and for one reason only. Barney Rumble normally does 5,342,235 variations of the suplex, but I only remember him doing two the entire match. Rumble did do a good job working the crowd, though. Rumble went for a pin and Moore kicked out. Rumble began to berate the ref and then asked him, “Can’t you count? Where did you go to school? UF?” The show was walking distance from the campus of the University of Florida, so naturally the crowd booed. During the match the referee was distracted, leaving Rumble the opportunity to pull brass knuckles from his pockets and hitting Moore for the win. It was an ok match. Rumble got the crowd into it and Moore really impressed. It was an ok way to start the show.

Match 2 - “Untouchable” Leon Scott and Dagon Briggs w/ Se7en went to a 15 minute time limit draw.
Leon Scott versus Dagon Briggs is a feud that has carried over into several promotions. They were former tag team partners, and they recently had their breakup. It’s rare to see the same angle carry over into various promotions because most bookers want to create their own angles. I’m glad that this feud has carried over because I’ve gotten the opportunity to see these two work each other a few times, and it has resulted in some good matches. Because of this, I don’t know that these guys are capable of having a bad match together. Scott came out, minus his valet Tiziana, and worked the crowd a bit. Scott has got some of the best facial expressions in the business, and I think that’s very important. He can draw great heel heat on his facials, alone. Briggs, along with Se7en, came out to a nice response from the crowd. Briggs is coming off of a trip to Memphis, where he wrestled Raven on TNA’s Xplosion show. This match came down to the final minute, where we saw a few false finishes. They began to exchange punches on the mat when the time limit expired. The ring announcer announced the time limit draw, but someone in the crowd called for three more minutes and the rest of the crowd followed. What followed was something unprecedented. They actually gave us three more minutes. Wow, a promotion that actually listens to their fans. I wonder if this will catch on? Well, we got the three more minutes and it resulted in another time limit draw. The commish booked a submission match between the two for their show in August.

Match 3 - Scott Hotshot defeated Vordell Walker 2 falls to 1 in their Best 2 Out of 3 Falls match.
This match was supposed to be Scott Hotshot versus BoneZ the Cutthroat, but they said that BoneZ wasn’t in the building. Vordell Walker was his replacement. For those of you that don’t know about him, Walker looks to be a prized wrestler of the future. I have a feeling many of the wrestling fans to the Northeast will become familiar with him in near time. The crowd loved him, and I believe that this was the first time he worked for NGW. To be fair, Scott Hotshot is a pretty good wrestler himself. He’s got a decent look and could help some cruiserweight divisions in Florida. Anyway, Walker hit his normal spots including his standing moonsault and spinning heel kick from the top rope, and Hotshot appeared to hit many of his spots also. The first fall went to Scott Hotshot when he hit Walker with an inverted DDT. Approximately 10-15 seconds later, Walker rolled up Hotshot for a 1-2-3 to even the pinfalls at one apiece. Hotshot gained the victory when he gave Walker a school boy as the lights in the building went out. I’m not sure if that was a work or not. It seemed too coincidental that the lights would go out at that point, but Hotshot didn’t seem too happy with the finish.

Match 4 - Phi Delta Slam defeated Ricky Romeo & Angel of Darkness
This match was supposed to pit Phi Delta Slam against the Latin Lovers tag team of Ricky Romeo and Rico Casanova. For those of you who don’t know, Casanova recently spent some time in the hospital because of health problems related to his kidneys. I’ve been told that he is out of the hospital and back at home resting. Here’s to a speedy recovery for Rico Casanova. Casanova’s replacement for the match was Angel of Darkness. Romeo got some great heel heat by working his sleazy Latin guy gimmick. I can call him that because I am one myself. Well, a Latin guy anyway, I don‘t know about the sleazy part. It was good to see NGW use him properly because he does this gimmick really well. I’ve seen Romeo in promotions where he doesn’t get to work this gimmick. Phi Delta Slam (PDS), along with Kubiak, appear to be the top babyfaces in NGW as the crowd popped really hard the second they stepped out from the back. This match saw very few wrestling intertwined with comedy which wasn’t bad because the crowd was eating it up. We saw PDS mocking Romeo and Angel of Darkness for being Latin and Japanese, respectively. They also used a paddle on Angel of Darkness and then had Romeo rub his ass to make it feel better. Believe it or not, this was a wrestling match, and it did have a finish. PDS hit an inverted fireman’s carry/neck breaker combo on Romeo for the win.

Match 5 - Kubiak w/ Mojo of 100.5 the Buzz defeated Rick the Reaper w/Leigh Scott of 100.5 the Buzz in a Texas Bullrope Match
I don’t know anything about the deejays, but they seemed to be over with the crowd. Kubiak is also over with the crowd, as he is the top babyface in NGW. Match starts off with the Reaper attacking Kubiak, and then the ref places the bullrope around each wrestler’s wrist. After a few shots of the cowbell to the head and some color done by both men, the straps on the bullrope become undone and they continue the match without placing the rope back on their wrists. It was really confusing because the whole point of the rope is so that your opponent can’t run away from you. Also, in a bullrope match, aren’t you supposed to touch all four corners of the ring to gain the win? This match ended with Kubiak giving the Reaper a splash from the second rope and pinning him. Hey, I may be wrong. I’m not a “gimmick match” kind of guy, so I’m not sure if that is the rule or not. By the way, there was a ref bump, and one of the radio personalities made the count for him. It was a really fast 3 count and seemed awkward, seeing how Kubiak was baby in this match. Immediately following the match, Wade Bass (I believe that’s his name) made a run-in and attacked Kubiak, along with the help of Scott and the Reaper. BoneZ the Cutthroat made the save setting up the next match. I wonder if BoneZ is hurt because he didn’t wrestle on the show. The only thing that was said was that he had just arrived at the building.

Match 6 - BoneZ & Kubiak & Mojo versus Rick the Reaper & Wade Bass & Leigh Scott ends in a No Contest.
This was an impromptu match that was suggested by BoneZ the Cutthroat after he made the save for Kubiak, who was getting beat down by Rick the Reaper and Wade Bass. They brawled for a few minutes, but then the heels left the ring and the same match was booked by the commissioner for their August show.

Final Thoughts
-- The show only had 6 matches, so it was really short. It was nice, though, to see these guys go a little longer than they normally do. Leon Scott versus Dagon Briggs was good, as was Vordell Walker versus Scott Hotshot. I look forward to seeing Jaison Moore work again. He looks like he could have a lot of potential on the Florida indy scene.

-- I was surprised by the lack of attendance by college age people. They were walking distance from UF, so I expected a large UF crowd. It was mostly older adults with kids sprinkled in between. However, NGW does seem to be more geared towards a family atmosphere, so maybe not having college students in attendance was their original plan.

-- This isn’t one of the bigger promotions in Florida, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. In all honesty, I had a really good time because the promotion is really fan friendly, and I’ve found that to be really rare around here. They’re not going to be putting any promotion out business anytime soon and I think they realize that, but that’s what makes their show good. They just have a good time and give people some good wrestling. The show did have some really good workers, so you can’t go wrong by booking decent talent. I’ll be back for their August show. Hopefully, they’ll have more matches and a larger crowd.

Will Rivera