by Caleb Seltzer
New England Championship Wrestling celebrated it’s 10th anniversary with two big events at the National Guard Armory in Quincy, MA on Saturday night, August 7 and Sunday afternoon, August 8.
Saturday Night, August 7th, was night one of the BIRTHDAY BASH 10 celebration.
DC Dillinger got the party started and the Quincy crowd on their feet, calling himself “Mr. Birthday Bash” for the special occasion. “Real Natural’s” music hit and out came “The Rock God” Brett Adams to a chorus of boos. After Adams insulted the audience, he informed everyone that Scott Osbourne was unable to eliminate D.C Dillinger from NECW competition with his backstage assult two weeks ago, he fired him from Real Natural and allowed the NECW front office to terminate his contract effective immediately. Adams promised there would be a new member of Real Natural and that he would be introduced later in the evening. Adams then welcomed to the ring an “old friend” of Dillinger, “The Manager of Champions” Sean Gorman. Gorman said Adams gave him a call asking him for help in taking out Dillinger, and he knew exactly who could get the job done. Gorman went on to introduce Dillinger to his opponent…his former tag team partner and best friend….”Die Hard” Eddie Edwards! Edwards claimed that he got a call from Gorman who convinced him to catch a late flight from Japan to make it to Birthday Bash in order to defeat Dillinger and achieve the one thing he was never able to …become NECW Triple Crown Champion. Edwards apologized for what was forthcoming…and pounced on his best friend… DC managed to survive the amazing hard-hitting of Edwards to win the match by pinfall. After the match, the Quincy faithful gave both men an ovation for a tremendous opening match. Dillinger offered his friend a handshake, Edwards turns his back and proceeded to exit the arena, as a furious Brett Adams stormed to the ring. With Adams setting the diversion, Julian Starr came through the crowd, jumped the rail and started beating down Dillinger in the ring. Edwards returned to the ring to fight off Starr and Adams. Dillinger rose to his feet while Edwards extended his hand, and the two embraced in the ring to a standing ovation. Sean Gorman entered the ring and it looked like a complete “Sabotage” reunion…until Dillinger and Edwards embraced Gorman with a double clothesline that sent their former manager to the floor and the Quincy crowd into a frenzy!
In the next match The G3 Network – “Sensational” Scott Levesque and “Gorgeous” Gino Giovanni, with Sammi Lane – defeated “Handsome” Johnny Hayes in a handicap match following a a double DDT.
Next up was “Pat’s Pit” with Pat “The Brat” Piper. Piper welcomed everyone to the BASH and said he’s in such a celebratory mood, that he feels like doing an Irish jig. He asks if anyone in the crowd wanted to join him in the ring and dance. Piper picks out a little boy who is helped over the rail and into the ring. Piper instructs the kid to do his best jig to his theme music…and the boy proceeded to bring the crowd to its feet with an amazing dancing display. Just as an impressed Piper was about to dance, “The Rock God” Brett Adams and NECW Triple Crown Champion “The Real Deal” Brandon Locke returned to ringside and started to insult the little boy’s looks. Adams paused, and identified the boy as color commentator Joe Matterazzo’s son. He then proceeded to berate the youngster, until dad took off the headset and entered the ring. Adams and Locke began insulting Matterazzo and his entire family who were sitting at ringside, which made Matterazzo take off his jacket with intention to defend his son and his family. Matterazzo charged Locke, and was spinebustered to the canvas, dislocating his shoulder. Rican Havoc and D.C Dillinger ran down to the ring to clean house and help Joe to the back.
In a mixed tag team match, NECW BREAKTHROUGH BASH Winner “Iron” Ray Kejimura & World Women’s Wrestling Champion Mistress Belmont, without Sean Gorman were scheduled to face off with “The Payne Train” Alex Payne & Alexxis Nevaeh. Payne came to the ring and let the fans know that he had been injured by the G3 Network and was unable to compete. NECW allowed him to pick his replacement, and so he was proud to announce the guy that he felt was the real MVP of the BREAKTHROUGH BASH tournament, Vinny Marseglia. The team of Marseglia & Nevaeh were victorious when Marseglia scored the pin on Kejimura after Belmont and Nevaeh brawled to the back.
In one of the most brutal and ruthless matches in NECW history, the NECW Television Champion “The Heat” Kris Pyro defended the title against his former friend and tag team partner “The King of New York” Davey Cash in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match. The match ultimately ended when Cash knocked out Pyro with a steel chair shot onto a table balanced on a camera platform and climbed up to the top of the 20-foot steel NECW-Tron staging structure. “The King of New York” leaped off with a “Superfly-like” Splash and crashed onto Pyro going through the table and platform! Both men were rendered unconcious and referee Rich Bass put an end to the match declaring neither was able to continue. As a result of the no contest, Pyro remains the NECW Television Champion.
After an intermission break to clean up after the TLC match, “Kingpin” Brian Milonas and “The Enforcer” Max Bauer faced off in a No Disqualification, No Countout grudge match. For the first time in years, Bauer met his physical equal in the ring. Milonas scored the win via pinfall with a near 400-pound springboard crossbody. After the match, Milonas attempted to end Bauer’s career and to collect Brett Adams’ $10,000 bounty with an “Earthquake” running squash onto a steel chair, Bauer protected himself at the last second by bringing the chair up between Milonas’ legs during his landing. Bauer subsequently then gave Milonas two chair shots to the head and a “Bauer Bomb” for good measure. This feud is far from over.
In a match for the NECW Tag Team Championship, the champions Rican Havoc (Jose Perez & Don Vega) defeated “The Talent” T.J Richter & Mr. Munroe with Mr. Mini-roe with a double team maneuver to retain the titles.
In the main event for the NECW Triple Crown Championship, “The Real Deal” Brandon Locke with “The Rock God” Brett Adams defended his title against the Puerto Rican star Ryan Bisbal with Ivy in his corner. In what ended up being one of the best title defenses in recent NECW history, Bisbal came close several times to capturing the title. Brandon Locke finally was able to secure the win and retain the title by pinning Bisbal after a 2nd Locke-down slam.
On Sunday Afternoon, August 8th, World Women’s Wrestling returned to the National Guard Armory for the second day of the 10th Anniversary BIRTHDAY BASH 10 celebration.
In the opening contest, Taeler Hendrix, fresh off of tough losses to two of the top women wrestlers in the world, returned to WWW/NECW competition with a pinfall victory over Kimaya with a spin kick.
The next match featured two of the WWW stars from outside of the New England region as former Soul Sistah Jana faced off with the Valley Girl, Roxie Cotton. Before the match Roxie was trying to get Jana to dance with her, like in her Soul Sista days, but Jana retorted with an assault, Cotton came back with tremendous offensive moves, but ultimately Jana turned to a familiar tactic, grabbing a chain stashed in her top, to knock out Roxie for the win.
The final match of the first portion of the day was a special challenge ladies tag. “The Portuguese Princess” Ariel returned to WWW, the company she helped gain popularity and credibility in its premiere years, tagged with the G3 Network’s Sammi Lane. They faced off with two women making their official WWW event debuts as Puerto Rico’s own IVY tagged with a new talented wrestler named Mercedes in her very first professional match. Mercedes listened to her veteran partner and that helped lead to IVY and Mercedes scoring the win as IVY pinned Sammi for the victory. This was one of the best women’s tag matches in NECW’s ten year history.
After the NECW TV Taping portion of the event, the stage was set for the huge main event. For the first time in NECW and WWW history, two women would do battle in a steel cage to decide the World Women’s Wrestling Championship, as defending champion Mistress Belmont, accompanied by Sean Gorman, faced off with former champion Alexxis Nevaeh. The match began outside the cage as the two ladies brawled through the crowd and finally into the cage. Alexxis showed an aggressive side many were shocked by, throwing Belmont face first into the cage numerous times and lacerating her head. Both women took a ton of punishment. Finally, as Belmont attempted to crawl for the door and Alexxis attempted to go over the top of the cage, the race for the gold was on. As Alexxis swung over the top of the cage, she intentionally kicked the cage door, which swung right into the head of Belmont, sending her sprawling backward and allowing Alexxis to win the match and the WWW Championship for an unprecedented third time. After the match Sean Gorman attempted to ruin Nevaeh’s moment, but was ceremoniously also thrown face first into the steel cage. The fans in attendance stood on their feet celebrating the new champion’s win and the close of an amazing 10th anniversary spectacular.