July 3rd, 2006.
NWA: New England Wrestling debuted tonight at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, ME. The show drew about 2,000 fans, many of whom were excited about seeing The Rock.
D'Lo Brown and Tajiri beat Doug and Danny Basham around the seven minute mark. The crowd was hot for Brown and Tajiri and gave the Basham some good heat (since they were the first heels out).
Shark Boy beat Gregory Helms in a comedy match. The kids in the audience LOVED Shark Boy.
Spartacus called out Mick Foley, still outraged over his treatment at River Rumble. Foley responded to Spartacus's invitation, but was jumped by Tommy Dreamer on his way to the ring. This lead to...
Mick Foley beat Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore match at about the fifteen minute mark. They did the usual brawling around ringside routine, and beat each other up with trash can lids and the like.
John Bradshaw Layfield beat Chris Sabin in about seven minutes. Sabin almost picked up the win at several points, by JBL overpowered him in the end.
Ron Killings and Chris Chetti beat Trevor Murdoch and Ace Steel in a solid tag match, though the crowd was pretty dead for it. Killings put Steel away with the scissors kick around the eight minute mark.
Edge came out and cut a promo boasting about how he drove Christian Cage away from NEW at the Great American Bash. Edge said with Christian gone, he can now concentrate on his own career. Edge drew massive heat for this segment.
NEW Tag Team Champions America's Most Wanted beat Team 3D to retain the titles after a good twenty minute match. The crowd was really hot for this one, but AMW cheated to win. After the match, Team 3D managed to put AMW through some tables.
Brian Kendrick beat Rene Dupree with the Sliced Bread #2 in a short match.
NWA World Champion The Rock and Big Show beat NEW World Champion Chris Jericho and Sonny Siaki in a hot fifteen minute match. Rock and Jericho tore the house down when they were in the ring together, it was a really special atmosphere. Rock ended up hitting the Rock Bottom on Siaki for the victory, with Jericho purposefully not making the save.
Overall it was a fun show, the fans had a great time, and I hope they come back soon!
July 9th, 2006
New England Wrestling made their official debut at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in Hampton, NH this afternoon in a matinee house show. Attendance was about 1,700, short of a sell-out, but enough to make the house feel rocking since the Ballroom only holds about 2,100 overall.
James Gibson defeated Shawn Daivari in a really solid match around the nine minute mark. Daivari had cut a prematch promo trashing New England fans, and America in general, so the crowd was solidly behind Gibson.
The Basham Brothers beat J.R. Ryder and JC Ice in a needlessly long tag team match, which the crowd excremented on.
NEW Tag Team Champions America's Most Wanted beat Team 3D by disqualification when Brother Ray put James Storm through a table. The crowd was solidly behind Team 3D, and cheered when they stole the tag titles and refused to hand them back to the referee.
The Big Show destroyed Gregory Helms in a squash match. After the match, Big Show cut a promo similar to the one he did on Saturday Night, promising to do the same to Chris Jericho at 32 Flavors of Pain.
Eric Bischoff came out to the ring, shilling the River Rumble dvd, available exclusively at NEW events and on NEW.com. Bischoff then stated that he was "wasting his time" since New Hampshire folks are too poor to buy nice things. John Cena then made a surprise appearance, catching Bischoff with an F-U. This brought out John Bradshaw Layfield, which lead to...
John Cena beat JBL with the F-U at 15:00. The crowd was solidly behind fellow New Englander, Cena. The match was nothing to write home about, but it was hot, which made up for the lack of good wrestling.
Ron "The Truth" Killings and Shark Boy beat Rene Dupree and Andrew Martin. Shark Boy was once again very over with the kids in the audience, and a lot of the teenagers really got into Killings. This was a fun, clean match.
Tommy Dreamer beat Justin Credible in a short hardcore match. Dreamer destroyed Credible with a kendo stick and bloodied him up pretty badly.
Chris Sabin and Johnny Devine beat D'Lo Brown and Tajiri when Scott D'Amore made a surprise appearance and helped Devine beat Tajiri. Sabin didn't look happy about what happened, but Devine and D'Amore were overjoyed.
NWA World Champion The Rock came out and did a promo. He put himself over as the champion of the entire National Wrestling Alliance and how this championship win has meant more to him than any previous title. This brings out NEW Champion, Chris Jericho, who continues to whine about how he is being held down. Edge runs in to attack The Rock, but Rhino cuts him off, leading to...
The Rock and Rhino beat Chris Jericho and Edge at 20:00. This was an awesome match, which the crowd got into in a huge way. Chris Jericho tried walking out on Edge during the match, but Big Show cut him off at the curtains and intimidated him into continuing with the match. The finish came when Rock hit the Rock Bottom on Edge for the pinfall victory.
August 1st 2006
NEW made their official debut at Arms Park in Manchester, NH. This was an outdoor show, though tickets were sold, make no mistake, this was not a free show.
Ron Killings and James Gibson beat Rene Dupree and Doug Basham at 8:33 when Killings hit Dupree with the flying scissors kick. The crowd was very hot for this match.
Tommy Dreamer defeated Justin Credible in a hardcore match at 10:33. The violence kept the crowd into this match, as Credible didn't receive much of a reaction.
NEW Tag Team Champions America's Most Wanted beat D'Lo Brown and Tajiri at 20:33 when AMW hit the death sentence on Tajiri. The crowd was very hot for this match too, and chanted "bullshit" when AMW won.
Shark Boy defeated Xavier with a roll-up at 3:54. The crowd loved Shark Boy, but they didn't know who Xavier was.
Team 3D defeated Edge and Rob Van Dam by hitting the 3D on Edge at 13:56. Once again, the crowd was into this match in a very big way.
Rhino defeated Sonny Siaki at 7:32 with the GORE! The crowd was kind of burned out by this point, but they were happy when Rhino won.
NWA World Champion The Rock defeated Chris Jericho to retain his title at 18:53. Jericho's NEW title was not on the line. There was a special atmosphere in the air for this bout, with the crowd split in support of both guys. The Rock was lucky to get away with the NWA title.
What a great time this show was. There were about 6,000 fans in attendance and they seemed really proud to have NEW in their area.