NNW
Friday, April 29,2005
Sanford, Florida
The show begins with some words spoken about Chris Candido, which was followed by a ten-bell salute.
Match 1 – WiKiD & Mace defeated the Heartbreak Express via disqualification.
The match began with the Heartbreak Express working the crowd (surprise, surprise). Sanford is the type of crowd that the HBE thrive on. There was really nothing to this match. I’m normally marking out for HBE matches, but this one did nothing for me. Their opponents consisted of a green highflyer (WiKiD) and a guy that didn’t even look like a wrestler (Mace). The hot tag was rather awkward as WiKiD had Phil Davis down, but he went to the top rope for a highspot rather than make the tag as he ran right passed his partner. After Phil Davis kicked out of his pinfall attempt, then WiKiD went for the hot tag. I guess you can just chalk that up to inexperience in the ring. Baddboy hits the ring with his Italian flag, and Sean Davis hits his opponent over the back with the flag for the DQ.
Match 2 – Deathrow Jethrow defeated Rip Malibu.
Rip Malibu came out, and he was over as usual in NNW. This was the first time in a while that I’d seen some improvement in Malibu’s progress. He seemed to digress for a bit over the last few weeks, but he definitely showed a lot of improvement over this weekend. Deathrow Jethrow was, well Deathrow Jethrow. Jethrow went over with the Downward Spiral. I’m not a big fan of Jethrow, so I took this match for what it was worth.
Match 3 – Snow defeated Flatline.
This was your typical Snow squash match. This Flatline was a different guy than the one that usually works the gimmick. I believe that the guy that worked the Flatline gimmick at this show is one of Bonez’s students, but I don’t know that for sure. Being how it was a squash match, it was kind of hard to tell how this kid looked, but I’m sure I’ll see him some other place sometime soon. Snow defeated him with his Donkey Punch. Truthfully, it was rather boring.
Match 4 – Scott Hotshot w/Ipuna defeated Legion “Freakin” Cage.
We started out with Cage cutting a surprisingly decent promo. Cage is still fairly new to the Florida Wrestling scene, but I have become more and more impressed with him each time I see him. The only complaint is that I’ve been hearing about this female valet that he has that does Molly-Go-‘Rounds off of the top rope to the outside, but she’s never been with him at any show that I have seen him at. He stalled big time in this match that led to the crowd chanting, “Do your Job!” I think it’s safe to say that with the way he had them worked up that he was in deed doing his job. Unfortunately I missed the actual match, as I had to handle a private matter at this time. I do know that Hotshot went over, but I can’t tell you how or how the match looked.
Intermission
Match 5 – Jerrelle Clark defeated Roderick Strong.
This was a very good match. With Strong’s backbreakers and vicious chops and Clark’s highspots, then this is probably what you would have expected from these two. This was definitely on a different level than the first 3 matches. It’d be interesting to find out how often these guys have worked each other because they looked extremely comfortable with each other in the ring. Strong had Clark up for a powerbomb, but Clark countered it into a huracanrana for the win. Following the match, Strong attacked Clark from behind, which brought out Sedrick Strong for the save. This isn’t the end between the Strong’s as they eventually meet back up in the main event.
Match 6 – NNW Tag Team Champions Barney Rumble & Demetric Malloy defeated Baddboy & Snow to retain their titles.
I’m not exactly sure what happened to Baddboy’s partner, but he had a mystery tag partner, which turned out to be Snow. Snow comes out holding a bag with the tag titles in it, which belong to Rumble and Malloy. I’ve missed the last few NNW shows, so I’m all confused with this angle as Rumble and Malloy were heels last time I had seen them, and the titles weren’t stolen. Apparently Rumble and Malloy made a face turn as the tag champs, and Snow must have stolen the belts. The ending of this match was blown as Snow went to clothesline Rumble who was being held by Baddboy, but Rumble moved a bit too soon and Snow still followed through with the clothesline to Baddboy. Rumble tried to turn it into a German suplex, but the timing was way off. Following the match, the baby faces beat down on Baddboy, the heel. I’m not sure why this happened because it really didn’t make sense. After the Baddboy beat down, Snow decided to turn on Baddboy by beating him outside of the ring.
Match 7 – NNW Cruiserweight Champion Naphtali defeated Dagon Briggs w/Seven in a submission match to retain his title.
Naphtali came out to the Freebirds “Badstreet” song, so I marked out a bit for it. He cut a promo saying he wanted to be a pure wrestler, so he left back to the locker room. He came back out a minute later wearing what I’m hoping becomes his permanent ring gear. He came out wearing white wrestling trunks with a lightning bolt and tassels on them. On top of the old school look, he was sporting the palest skin color I have ever seen. I’ve always been a fan of Naphtali, but I was always thrown off by his look together with his gimmick. This new look fits his gimmick perfectly. Seeing him do the Polish Hammer and the Garvin Stomp while wearing his new trunks sort of revitalized his gimmick. This match saw hilarity ensue as both guys have a tendency to use humor in their matches. This led to a funny spot when Naphtali and Seven locked up. The finish of the match was Naphtali delivering a Yakuza kick to Briggs’ arm while he was holding on to the referee, and then putting him in a triangle choke for the tap out. Following the match, Naphtali attacked the referee, which led to a 2-month suspension from NNW. It made no sense, but this was NNW’s way of having him off of the next show or two. I thought this was a good match. I would have rather seen them work a regular match rather than the submission gimmick match, but it was fine.
Match 8 – Sedrick Strong defeated NNW Overall Champion Erick Stevens in a Respect Match to become the new NNW Overall Champion.
I’ve lost count, but I believe this is the fourth NNW show in a row that these guys have faced each other in the ring. Because the referee was attacked during the last match a special guest referee was needed for this match. This really made no sense as there have been two referees all night long, and it was the other referee’s turn in the ring anyway. Well, I guess this was just a way to get Roderick Strong involved in the main event because he ended up being the special guest referee. They played up the fact that Strong is the trainer of both Sedrick Strong and Erick Stevens. This wasn’t as good as some of their previous encounters, but it was certainly good stuff. Roderick Strong ended up turning on Sedrick during the match. He was holding Sedrick from behind when Stevens went for a Lariat. Sedrick ended up moving causing Stevens to hit Roderick instead. Stevens ended up hitting Sedrick with a folding powerbomb that wasn’t in time because the time limit had expired. The crowd began chanting for 5 more minutes, so Bonez announced more time. I’m not sure why because this ended about 30 seconds after the extra time started. Stevens came into the ring to hit Sedrick with a belt shot, but Sedrick hit him with a Yakuza kick causing the belt to hit him in the face. Roderick counted to two, but then did the heel ref pause, so Sedrick grabbed his hand and followed thru with the 3 count to become the new champion.
Following the match, Stevens had to say that he respected Sedrick, as those were the rules of the match. Stevens said that he respected Sedrick, and Roderick said the same. Sedrick cut a promo saying that he respected both Stevens and Roderick, but he doesn’t respect the fans. Huh? Yep, after the crazy matches of Sedrick and Stevens beating the holy hell out of each other, the pay off to the entire angle is that they all join together. They began to disrespect NNW and its wrestlers, and they challenged anyone to enter the ring. Who would have been the logical choice to enter the ring in NNW’s defense? Perhaps, Bonez the owner would have done it? Nope. Maybe Barney Rumble, who is a staple on all NNW shows? Nope. If you said the camera guy, then you’re absolutely correct. I believe he’s another of Bonez’s students, but fans don’t know that, so all they see is the camera guy coming to NNW’s defense. On top of that, another random person off to the side came NNW’s defense. I believe he was the student that worked as Flatline tonight, but the fans don’t know that, so all they see is some random guy coming to NNW’s defense. After all of that, Rip Malibu comes out only to get beat down. This led to Bonez suspending Erick Stevens for two months and suspending Roderick Strong for a year. That’s carnie for he’s too expensive to book. The show ended with Stevens trying to rip the ring apart with his hands, and Sedrick and Roderick yelling at the fans.
Final Thoughts
This show had a couple of decent matches, but once again NNW booking overshadowed the in-ring work. It blows my mind that the pay off to the Erick Stevens/Sedrick Strong program was that they ended up joining together. That’s just ridiculous. However, the match was very enjoyable. Roderick Strong vs. Jerrelle Clark was also very good. Dagon Briggs vs. Naphtali was good, but I would have rather seen them wrestle without the submission match gimmick. The rest of the show was normal NNW stuff, which consists of Bonez’s students and Bonez’s friends all over the show. NNW appears to draw decently in Sanford, so that’s a good thing for them. I guess the only thing bad about that, though, is that a few promotions are entering the Sanford market in the next couple of months, so we could have a mini territorial war on our hands in a few months. I guess only time will tell how that turns out.
Will Rivera
Wriv25@yahoo.com
AIM – willriv22
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