NWA Sunray

Big Ass Anniversary Blast

Palm Bay, FL

August 7, 2004

-- The show starts off with a promo from Lou Spectre with the Blackheart. Spectre cuts the promo where he belittles Melbourne even though we are in Palm Bay, Florida. Bad News Bullock comes out and says that he's the baddest dog in NWA Sunrise. Hmm, does anyone know where they are at today? It's NWA SUNRAY, not SUNRISE.

Match 1 - Kahagas defeated Preston James

Kahagas comes out and jumps on the turnbuckle and spits mist into the air. In the 5-6 months that I have been in Florida, Kahagas has changed his look almost completely. I'm still debating whether or not I like the new Kahagas better. Truth be told, I think I'm leaning towards the old one. Anyway, James gets the crowd into it. They are pretty hot for this first match. The ref yells for the bell to ring. Oops, there is no bell to ring. They bang on what looks to be a trashcan lid to start the match. We get a bunch of armdrags from the two, but Kahagas eventually starts working over James by continually choking him. He chokes him with his hands. He gives him chops to the throat. He chokes him with his wrist tape. James gets his comeback by hitting a powerslam and a back body drop. This leads to some waistlock reversals that James turns into a roll-up for a 2 count. For some odd reason, the ref turns away and Kahagas spits mist into James' eyes. Why did the ref turn away? There was no reason for him to do so. Something better could have been done than to have the ref turn for no apparent reason to give Kahagas an opportunity to spit his mist. Kahagas hits James with a decent looking Michinoku Driver for the win.

Match 2 - Double Deuce w/Cannon defeated Fahrenheit 420

Double Deuce come out and Marcus Dillon cuts his usual promo. He says that he's happy to be wrestling in (Enter obscure city that is obviously not the city that we are in). Frankie Capone whispers something in his ear and Dillon says "We love you Palm Bay!" This was funny the first time he did this, but it's gotten to the point where we've seen it everywhere that Double Deuce wrestles. Now instead of using the trashcan lid, they are banging on a pole with a socket wrench. Anyway, match gets under way and Double Deuce get the early advantage when Dillon kicks David Mercury as he's running the ropes. They work over Mercury and keep doing the "heel fake tag". Double Deuce love doing this. I just think Frankie Capone likes to clap. Mercury makes the tag to Stash, and Double Deuce does some fake tagging with him. Dillon spits on Mercury and Capone chokes Stash on the second rope as the ref attempts to keep Mercury out of the ring. Capone gets into the ring and hits a stiff looking DDT on Stash that has Mercury come in to make the save. Stash eventually gets a hot tag to Mercury which, of course, leads to the end of the match. Cannon ends up getting into the ring and looks to superkick Mercury, but he drops down to avoid the kick. Dillon is standing on the other side of Mercury and it appeared that he was supposed to take the superkick when Mercury ducked. Cannon, I think, realized that he wasn't going to reach Dillon, so he just didn't follow through with the kick. It looked really awkward because Cannon ended up being in the ring for no reason at all. Dillon hits a spear on Mercury and Cannon holds Stash from making the save for the finish. After the match, Frankie Capone cuts a promo that drew enormous amounts of heel heat. I was surprised by it, and it almost looked like he was too. He essentially set up an upcoming feud with the Market Crashers or the Vandalz. He called them both out. During his promo, the ring announcer got on the ring apron to enter the ring. Capone was in the middle of his promo and yelled for him to get out of "his ring". The ring announcer pretty much laughs in Capone's face as he gets off the ring apron. Yeah, way to kill the promo that he was cutting.

Match 3 - Kubiak defeated Snow and Super Destroyer #8 w/Lou Spectre in a loser leaves NWA Sunray match. Snow is gone from NWA Sunray.

Super Destroyer #8 comes out and immediately starts humping the ring posts. For those of you not familiar with foreshadowing, this is going to be a comedy match. We see lots of biting of the knuckles from #8 and Snow. I only noticed about a minute or two into the match that this is a 3 way where you have to tag in the third person. I'm not sure if this makes a 3 way match better or not. I'm still not a fan of either way. To me, it makes no sense to tag out knowing that you have no chance of winning from being on the ring apron. I know people are going to say that "Well, it gives your opponents a chance to beat themselves up to give you an opportunity to wrestle beaten guys", but wouldn't that be the way a heel thinks? Two of the three wrestlers in this match are faces. A face wouldn't need help in his matches. Ok, I'm done ranting now. Kubiak begins to knee #8 in the balls, and then he applies a sharpshooter to him. Somehow #8 makes his way to the concession stand and brings a slice of pizza and bags of chips to the ring. He offers them to Snow, but he wants none of it. Kubiak is interested in the food, and I believe he and Snow begin arguing over it. Out of nowhere, the referee grabs the pizza, leaves the ring and begins to eat it. I thought this was rather hilarious. Back in the ring, we get some more ridiculousness when #8 begins biting Kubiak in the balls. Yes, I just said he was biting Kubiak in the balls. For our finish, we get #8 handcuffed to top rope by Snow. Snow is left in the corner and #8 runs into him with a headbutt. Snow falls over and Kubiak hits him with a splash for the pin. I was hoping that #8 would lose this match so that the wrestler under the mask could wrestle Sunray shows as his usual gimmick. As far as I know, this is the only promotion he uses the #8 gimmick.

Match 4 - Naphtali defeated O.G. Scarface w/Ana Mosity

This match wasn't originally on the card, but it helped tremendously as I thought the show was lacking, considering that this was their one year anniversary show. O.G. Scarface comes out in what I consider the sweetest looking entrance jacket on the Florida indie scene. Naphtali comes out, but he didn't get the crowd reaction that he normally gets. I wonder if that had anything to do with not being advertised for the show. I don't know, but they begin to do the usual "heel stand on second rope to hear crowd boo, face stand on second rope to hear crowd cheer." Ok, now the crowd is into Naphtali. Early in the match, we see O.G. jump off of a chair and clothesline Naphtali over the top rope. O.G. gets back into the ring so that he can jump off of the chair and dive onto Naphtali outside of the ring. They managed to level some lady sitting ringside who looked extremely pissed off about being hit. This had to be her first indie wrestling show because most people know that when a wrestler is laying on the floor in front of you and the other one is setting the chair in place so that he can jump off of it and onto the other wrestler, it is now time to hightail it out of the way. The action heads back into the ring where Naphtali hits a series of moves that include a nice looking brainbuster, his patented Garvin Stomp and a somersault senton onto O.G. A bunch of kids sitting ringside move out of the way like most people would when 2 guys are flying your way. Back into the ring, O.G. hits a spinning heel kick on Naphtali, but Naphtali ends up hitting him with a clothesline in the corner followed up by a big lariat. This usually sets up Naphtali's DVD onto a DVD. He did it, but it didn't get the pop that it does when he wrestles for NWA Florida. I'm sure it has everything to do with the casual fans that Sunray draws not knowing what a Death Valley Driver is, and then not even knowing that it's known as a DVD. Ana makes her way into the ring and distracts Naphtali. O.G. hits his finisher, I believe, on Naphtali, but he kicks out. Naphtali reverses O.G. into the corner and he ends up hitting Ana in the corner. I don't know that there is any valet on the Florida indie scene that takes more bumps than Ana. It's crazy some of the bumps I've seen here take in the short time I have been here. Naphtali finishes off O.G. with a Shining Wizard. After the match, Naphtali hits Ana with Shining Wizard of her own. The Shining Wizard on O.G. looked to be one of the best that I've seen from Naphtali. Apparently, the one to Ana looked even better. I don't know though because I missed it as I was writing down the results of this match.

Intermission

Match 5 - Bruce Steele defeated Mideon

Mideon is announced as just that. I thought he would be wrestling under his real name, Dennis Knight. Bruce Steele comes out, and I'm immediately disappointed because I hate when Steele works as a face. He's such a natural heel. Here is this imposing force who looks like a walking building, and they have him coming out shaking hands with the kids. He should be out scaring kids and making them have nightmares about him. Whenever we get a match that features a former Fed wrestler, it's always going to be the same thing. Mideon stalls. He smacks Steele in the face. He stalls some more. He singles for a test of strength. He stalls again. We finally get the test of strength which leads to a rest hold from Mideon which essentially is some more stalling. Mideon ends up choking Steele virtually the entire match. It turns into a kick, punch, choke kind of match. Mideon starts choking Steele with a chair outside of the ring, but Steele begins to fight back. As they are in the middle of the ring, Steele gets a small package on Mideon for the win. After the match, Mideon attacks Steele but only to have Steele hit his Big Dump finisher on him. I'm not sure what anyone else's take on this match was, but I thought Mideon was way off on this night. With the exception of Bruce Steele having to work as a face, he was fine with me. I wasn't a fan of the match itself, though.

Match 6 - NWA Sunray Cruiserweight champion David Babylon defeated Sedrick Strong to retain his title.

On the advertised card, this was the match that I was looking forward to, and it did not disappoint. Babylon gets his usual baby face pop, and Sedrick comes out and draws some enormous amounts of heel heat. You got to love any wrestler that threatens to backhand a kid at ringside screaming at him. We start off with some nice chain wrestling. Strong ends up outside of the ring, and Babylon goes to the ring apron and hits a 'rana to the ringside floor. Strong eventually makes his way up to his feet but only to be posted by Babylon. Back in the ring we get a big boot miss from Strong that Babylon turns into a backbreaker. Strong also hit Babylon with an STO onto his knee. Strong gets Babylon up for a Splash Mountain but tried to turn it into a neckbreaker instead. However, it didn't look clean as he ended up hooking Babylon's arm rather than his neck. Now we see some back and forth action as Babylon hits a sweet Gory Special on Strong. That was one of the best looking Gory Specials I have ever seen. Babylon gets whipped into the corner and he jumps onto the second rope to turn around and hit a cross body block on Strong. The only problem is that Strong hit him with a spear. Next we get a series of nice looking spots that include a reverse 'rana from Babylon, a sunset flip into the Nagata Lock #2 from Strong and a beautiful spinning head scissors into a crossface from Babylon. The transition from the sunset flip into the Nagata Lock #2 was really crisp, as was the spinning head scissors into the crossface from Babylon. The finish of the match sees a bunch of waistlock reversals that Babylon turns into a roll-up. He has a hand full of tights as the ref counts to 3. Or did he??? It actually sounded like he had counted to 4 or 5. I'm not sure why, but it definitely sounded like more than a three count. This was definitely my match of the night even though I didn't really care for the roll-up finish. I can't believe how good both of these guys have gotten. Following the match, Blare Rogers came out and offered Babylon a spot in his Firm. In short, Babylon turned him down and he was then jumped by the Firm. This will be important for later on in the night.

Match 7 - The Blackheart w/Lou Spectre defeated Bad Dog Bullock via DQ.

Well, the show was slow, for the most part, up until the previous Babylon/Strong match. Now they could have ran with that momentum and finished the show strong or they could drop the ball by having the next match suck. Get ready for the suckiness to begin. OK, here is my problem with the next match. After you read this you will understand my bitterness for this match. The Blackheart and Bad Dog Bullock are in the ring. They ring the bell (Or should I say the pole?). The Blackheart attacks Bullock who powders. Blackheart follows and they begin brawling outside the ring. OK, just remember that the bell has been rung and they were inside of the ring to start the match. Blackheart is attacking Bullock with a chair. We look at the ref who is standing outside of the ring watching the entire thing. He doesn't signal for a disqualification. It's at this time that the entire crowd starts asking if this is a hardcore match. No one knew what was going on. We thought we got an official answer from the Blackheart because he started using a chain to choke and punch Bullock. OK, now remember the chain was used. It is important later. Blackheart starts throwing Bullock everywhere. He slams a trashcan into his back and runs him into walls. They make their way around the ring towards me. The Blackheart throws Bullock into the crowd which completely drills this lady sitting in front of us. The Blackheart keeps choking Bullock and punching him with the chain. Now, they finally make their way into the ring. There is no bell rung after they are in the ring AGAIN. They begin fighting again when Bullock grabs the chain and punches the Blackheart in the face. The ref apparently wasn't supposed to see this because he made a half ass attempt to turn away during the punch. At this point is when I start having a heart attack because I know exactly what they are about to do. They are about to insult the intelligence of all wrestling fans. Bullock hits the Blackheart who falls down. Bullock goes to pin him. As the pin is being made, the Blackheart picks up the chain and places it in Bullock's tights. The ref counts to 3. After the pin, the Blackheart informs the ref that Bullock has the chain in his tights. The ref checks the tights, and sure enough he has them there. The ref disqualifies Bullock for using the chain. OK, let me summarize this for you. They rang the bell with both men in the ring. They leave the ring and have a hardcore match for about 8 minutes. They return to the ring with no bell being rung and Bullock gets disqualified for using the chain that the Blackheart used for the entire match. Wow, I can't believe that this just happened. I think I lost brain cells having watched that take place. This was absolutely horrible.

Match 8 - The Vandalz defeated the Firm w/Blare Rogers

OK, following that last fiasco, I had to get back into the mood because I was looking forward to seeing the Vandalz work. I've seen them on MXPW television but never in person. Just as I suspected from MXPW, the Vandalz may very well be the most over wrestlers in the state of Florida. The pop they received was ridiculous. Little kids screaming their lungs out. Girls screaming their lungs out. The Vandalz came out and danced with the kids and girls in attendance. What's funny about the Vandalz is that it's three of them and they do this hip hop type gimmick. They come out to Lil' Flip's Game Over, call themselves the V-Unit (parody of the G-Unit) and one of them even wears pink. The only problem is that only one of them actually looks comfortable dancing around like that. Tommy Vandal, the one in pink, seems to be the only one to really embrace their gimmick. The other two either have no rhythm or hate the gimmick. They just seem extremely uncomfortable. None the less, the crowd loves them which is unfortunate for me because the people in front of me are all standing up during the match. I do miss some of the action in the beginning. Once I do get a vantage point, the Firm are all out of the ring, so the Vandalz go to the air. We get two topes and a plancha from the Vandalz. Back in the ring, the Firm begin to work on Ricky Vandal as Johnny Vandal is run into a wall outside the ring by Machete. Johnny Vandal eventually makes it back to the ring but only to get tagged in and then beaten down by the Firm. Tommy Vandal ends up getting the hot tag from Johnny Vandal. Now everyone is in the ring. Here we get a powerbomb, spinebuster, spear and super kick. Now everybody is down. Rogers is outside getting powder ready to throw when David Babylon comes out to push the powder in Machete's eyes. The Vandalz hit a super kick/leg sweep combo on Machete for the finish. After the match, the Vandalz and Babylon dance in the ring and invite all the kids in to dance around. I guess that's OK until you have that one kid who decides to take bumps. That took place about 45 seconds into their party in the ring.

Final Thoughts

Save for a few bright spots on the card, I didn't really care too much for this show. Perhaps it wasn't too many negatives, but they were big enough ones to overshadow anything that was good with the show. How the Blackheart/Bullock match could have been so poorly booked is beyond me. I don't know who's fault it is, but that wasn't a good moment. The crowd was totally confused about what was going on. I couldn't get a read on some of the Sunray officials seated at the sound table, but the promoter seemed to be slightly annoyed by what happened. I don't know, maybe it's just me. It's little things that were done that bother me the most. Not having a bell is not good. Having the ring announcer laugh at Frankie Capone as he is cutting a decent promo kills all heat he is generating. Don't believe me? Then explain why the crowd chuckled at that point as Capone was screaming at the top of his lungs when just seconds ago they were screaming back at him. Little things like one of the security guards acting like he's going to retaliate because Sedrick Strong acted like he was going to hit him. Sedrick Strong is a heel and was walking around acting like he was going to smack everybody. It looks bad when you have the security guy acting like he's going to smack Sedrick Strong back and then laughing about it after Sedrick heads back through the curtain. As for the good parts, the Babylon/Strong match was excellent. I think I could watch these guys wrestle each other every time and not get bored with it. Naphtali/O.G. Scarface was also enjoyable. The 3 way loser leaves town match was no wrestling clinic but it served its purpose of being a comedic spot. Some of it was a little ridiculous to me, but the crowd ate it up and that's all that matters. The Vandalz are so over it's not even funny. It's crazy that they even have a following that shows up to all of their matches. That's rare in the Florida indie scene to have a cult following like they do. They scream V-Unit and make a "V" with their hands and the place sounds like it's going to fall down.

Will Rivera

wriv25@yahoo.com