Kick yourself if you missed it live! Here are the complete results from New England Championship Wrestling’s IRON 8 Championship Tournament, held Saturday night, May 10, 2014, a night that will go down in NECW history as one of the greatest nights of action the promotion has ever presented.
At the beginning of the night, now former NECW Heavyweight Champion, Slyck Wagner Brown came out with NECW General Manager Paul Richard to officially surrender the title. Many of the wrestlers came out to the entranceway, and the crowd cheered for SWB and chanted “Thank you Wagner!” With the title now officially declared vacant, the winner of the IRON 8 Championship would not only take home the trophy, but also become the new NECW Heavyweight Champion.
The opening match was the first match in the first round of the IRON 8 Championship Tournament. Todo Loco got the best of the returning “Sensational” Scott Levesque, who is in the best physical condition of his career. Levesque attacked Todo Loco after the match was over.
The second opening round match saw a rematch from this past February, when Damien Wayne lost the DAWG Heavyweight Championship to Dirty Money. While no title was on the line in this bout, Damien Wayne got some revenge, getting the victory by using the ropes, in what was a great back and forth match up.
The third opening round match saw a stunning upset, as two time NECW Heavyweight Champion, Sean Burke was caught off guard and rolled into a pinning combination by Brad Hollister. The Beverly crowd was shocked by the result of this match, though Burke had a back injury going into the bout. In a great display of good sportsmanship, Burke congratulated Hollister at the end of the match and raised his hand in victory.
In the final opening round match, Antonio Thomas and Jay Freddie tore the house down with a phenomenal battle that went 20 plus minutes. Thomas scored the victory in what he described in a post match in ring interview as the toughest match of his career. Jay Freddie wowed the NECW crowd in his debut appearance, even though he failed to advance in the tournament.
In a special Champion’s Challenge Mixed Tag Team Match, NECW Television Champion, “The Masshole” Mike McCarthy and Triple W Champion, Mistress Belmont scored a convincing fall over the tandem of “The One Man Thrill Ride” Jimmy Preston and Davienne, who substituted for Alexxis Nevaeh. This was a particularly rugged battle that showed a much improved Davienne, who took a great deal of punishment, particularly from McCarthy, which shocked the fans in attendance.
From there it was the IRON 8 final, a four way, 45 minute Iron Man Match, that was high octane athletic wrestling at its best. This was a grueling battle with many, many high points, displaying the talent of each man in the tournament. Each man was tied with one fall at the end of the 45 minute time period, at which point, a sudden death overtime was called. In another shocking upset, about three minutes into the overtime period, Brad Hollister, who was last to score a fall in regulation time, pinned Antonio Thomas to win the 2014 IRON 8 Championship and become the new NECW Heavyweight Champion! A big celebration took place in the ring and in the audience post match. All in all, the 2014 IRON Championship was a fantastic night of action that every fan in attendance raved about.
Post IRON 8 Notes: While every man’s performance in the IRON 8 was notable, this was perhaps Antonio Thomas’ finest hour. Between his opening round win over Jay Freddie and the near 50 minute IRON 8 final, Thomas delivered full tilt, action packed, high energy wrestling for over 70 minutes. It was the longest duration of wrestling by a single competitor in IRON 8 history. The victory by 21 year old Brad Hollister marks his first professional championship victory. Todo Loco and Damien Wayne, both outstanding in their matches, were in it until the every end. NECW plans to release the 2014 IRON 8 Championship on DVD coming soon.