New England Championship Wrestling presented it’s 6th Annual IRON 8 Championship Tournament, Saturday night, May 30th at the National Guard Armory in Quincy, MA. A large and enthusiastic crowd witnessed what will go down as one of the greatest events in NECW history.
To begin the night, all eight tournament competitors came to the ring for opening introductions and pictures with the Championship Trophy.
In the opening first round contest, “The Real Deal” Brandon Locke countered “The Heat” Kris Pyro’s Code Red attempt with The Locke Down in 11:47 to win the match and advance to the IRON 8 Final.
In the second opening round match, Antonio “The Promise” Thomas defeated “The Natural” Scott Osbourne in 10:37. Osbourne had Thomas locked in a full nelson, but Thomas was able to use the leverage of the ring ropes to push Osbourne over and score a bridging pin fall.
The third IRON 8 contest saw rookie Davey Loomis facing off with veteran and former 2 time NECW Heavyweight Champion, Maverick Wild. Maverick was able to scramble out of Loomis’ belly-to-belly suplex and hit the rolling prawn hold to pin Loomis at 7:52.
In a special Pat’s Pit Segment, Handsome Johnny and Sammi Lane came out to confront Pat “The Brat” Piper. Handsome Johnny tried to goad Piper into letting him take over the Pat’s Pit segment July 11 at RED WHITE & BRUISED, but Piper would have nothing to do with that and kicked them out of “his ring”.
The final first round IRON 8 match up saw former WWE World Tag Team Champion, Kenny Doane face off with former NECW Heavyweight Champion, Slyck Wagner Brown. The two tore into each other, but Kenny was able to hit his top rope leg drop on Slyck for the pinfall victory at the 14:45 mark to advance to the finals.
After intermission, the legendary Harley Race was welcomed to ringside to a well-deserved standing ovation to do commentary for the second half of the event.
The mixed tag team grudge match initially looked to not be happening. “The Golden Greek” Alex Arion, Mistress Belmont and Sean Gorman showed footage on the video screen from NECW TV where Arion had hit NECW Triple Crown Champion “Enforcer” Max Bauer with a car stating Bauer was done. Bauer’s scheduled partner for the night, Alexxis Nevaeh, came to the ring intending to wrestle both Arion and Belmont alone. A few minutes into the match, Bauer did come to the ring, obviously suffering the effects of being hit by Arion’s car. Bauer and Alexxis seemed to have the match well in hand, when ref Rob Teutel turned his attention away from Arion and Gorman. As Belmont and Alexxis battled, Gorman slid Arion a chair. Arion bashed the injured leg of Bauer and placed him in a half crab submission. Bauer fought until he eventually passed out due to the pain. Alex Arion and Mistress Belmont won the mixed tag by implied submission.
After the match, Alex returned to the ring and again battered the leg of the Triple Crown Champion. He brought Bauer to the corner outside the ring and placed him in a figure four around the ring post. Arion refused to break the hold despite the intervention of officials. Suddenly, the crowd roared as Harley Race got up from the announcer’s table and grabbed a metal chair threatening to bash Arion if he didn’t break the hold. Arion realizing Race was dead serious, scrambled away allowing attendants to eventually get Max to the dressing room for medical attention.
As ring announcer Chris Norman prepared to announce the main event, the opening sounds of the new reigning NECW Television Champion, “Superstar” Ryan Matthews’ ring music hit. Matthews made his way to the ring, and after whispering in the ear of Norman, the NECW ring announcer informed the fans that Matthews was “STILL NECW Television Champion”. Matthews paraded around the ring and then out of the arena.
In the IRON 8 Championship Final, the 45-minute Iron man match took place between “The Real Deal” Brandon Locke, Antonio “The Promise” Thomas, Maverick Wild, and Kenny Doane. The four men kept a breakneck pace throughout the match proving they all truly had amazing skill and stamina. As the match progressed, the high impact style took a physical toll on all of the men. Maverick Wild received a huge laceration on his forehead, yet continued to compete despite losing a fair amount of blood. With one minute left in the match, Thomas ducked a clothesline by Locke, sending “The Real Deal” face first into the ropes and staggering back into a backslide to score the first and only fall of the match. With just seconds left, Locke hit Thomas with his Locke Down maneuver and fell on top of him. Referee, Rich Bass began to count the pin fall, but the buzzer sounded signaling that the 45 minute time limit had expired. Antonio Thomas finally lived up to his original promise and became the 6th IRON 8 Champion.
After the match, Harley Race awarded the championship trophy to Thomas, who was then congratulated by Doane. (Wild was receiving medical attention at this point) Brandon Locke looked disappointed, but finally shook the hand of Thomas and hugged him eliciting a huge cheer from the crowd, only to silence them by dropping “The Promise” on his face. Locke began an assault on the new IRON 8 Champion and then smashed and stomped the championship trophy into pieces before hitting another Locke Down on Thomas.
As Thomas later recovered and saw what had happened to the trophy, he exited the armory screaming for Locke.
Pictures from the event are available here.
NECW returns to live action on Saturday night, July 11 at the Armory in Quincy for RED, WHITE & BRUISED. Tickets for this event are on sale now at NECWwrestling.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006.