Post by EWAPublicity on Sept 8, 2003 21:49:22 GMT -5
Eastern Wrestling Alliance
Knights of Columbus Hall
Southbridge, MA
9/5/03
Attendance:142
Antonio Thomas pinned Chi Chi Cruz...Larry Huntley, Sonny Roselli and Legion Cage beat Jim Nastic, Ref Paul Hazard and Ring Crew Member Dan...EWA Tag Team Title tournament Semi-Finals: Brian Black and Mini beat Kid Mikazi and ZR Xtreme...EWA Tag Team Title tournament Semi-Finals: Cueball and "Flash" Nick McKenna beat Eddie Edwards and Adam Hastey...Adam Booker and Frankie Armadillo battled to a Double Disqualification with Billy Kryptonite and Kid Krazy...Luis Ortiz pinned Chris Hamrick...EWA Tag Team Title Tournament Finals: Cueball and "Flash" Nick McKenna defeated Brian Black and Mini...Maverick Wild beat Dr. Heresy to win the EWA Heavyweight Championship.
www.ewaprowrestling.com
Event Report:
EWA (Eastern Wrestling Alliance)
Knights of Columbus Hall, Southbridge, MA
September 5, 2003
RT: Roel Torres, Professional Bluffer
CT: Chris Tomkinson, Gives bad directions to tourists
RT: We all have our defining moments. The parts of our lives we will always remember. The moments in time we will never forget. These quick bursts of memorable activity provide some punctuation to the routine of our daily existence. On Friday night, in the world of northeast indy wrestling, the EWA took an epic step in their history, as they ended their months-long sabbatical and celebrated a successful re-launch with one of their strongest cards ever.
After countless logistical changes, the new EWA is a genetically re-constructed beast running around with a new set of arms, a new set of legs, but the same heart pumping blood through its veins. They’ve gone through ownership changes. They’ve been forced to change the buildings they run. They’ve moved away from the city and state of Portland, Maine, which had served as their unofficial homebase territory for years. But the roster of talent remains largely intact, and the philosophy of strong efforts by good workers in well-booked matches remains the same.
After being asked to vacate the Pilsudski Polish Club, the fed has identified The Knights of Columbus Hall as their new home. It’s a shame, because their previous location was better suited for wrestling. The new building is smaller, has a low ceiling that inhibits spots from the top rope, has a much smaller video screen for viewing taped promos, and has the air conditioning cranked up to keep the penguins comfortable. But even taking those minor complaints into consideration, it was really nice to see wrestling back in the town of Southbridge.
Even before the first match started, crazy lucha action broke out at ringside as Tanya Cornell took an unscripted senton into the people selling raffle tickets to the front row. Everyone seemed fine, and nobody was hurt. After a sweet intro video of EWA highlights, our ring announcer Rich Palladino introduced the first match. (Random aside: I couldn’t believe the level of ring announcer talent gathered in the building. Between Rich, Bobby Cruise, and Tommy D, we had a virtual all-star team of New England announcers. It was more than a little shocking, to be honest.)
CT: Well, we got off to a rousing start, as I write in my notes: "EWA 5/2/03." Apparently, it’s still May in my head. I have many problems.
Despite the discrepancy in what day it was, this past Friday was the EWA’s big return to monthly shows after a summerlong hiatus. They really sunk a lot of time & effort into promoting the show and into getting new faces out to the shows, including a real, live TV ad. Wow. This was also their debut at their new home, the Knights of Columbus Hall. Nice enough place, but the low ceiling seemed to threaten some of the top rope stuff. But everyone was able to work around that pretty well.
The turnout was really good, showing that the hard-sell of the show worked. Pretty much, all of the seats were filled, and there were lots of people there who were unfamiliar with the promotion (and who I hadn’t seen before). One guy even bought a Hardcore Institute T-Shirt, despite the fact that a) he didn’t know who they were and b) they’re a stable that disbanded like a year ago. But Merch Sales is Merch Sales, right?
Preshow excitement: Ref Holyoke Joe showed off his Hulk Hogan tattoo as "Eye of the Tiger" played over the PA, a noted cameraperson (who will remain nameless) took a massive spill on the floor that almosed wiped out the 50/50 Raffle Folks, and someone who may have been Sumie Sakai showed up. I didn’t have my glasses on, but I’ll pretend it was her. And if it WAS her, I don’t need to pretend anything except that I’m the King of Tarnopia.
Onto the Show Itself:
CT: The lights go out, and the EWA-Tron plays the super swank EWA Highlight Video. I’ve seen this before, and it’s really, really well done. It sets a nice professional tone for the show, and really gets me rockin’ and inspired for some rasslin’. My only complaint is that the video was projected on a side of the Hall where most of the crowd had to look through the ring and the ropes to see it. But that’s understandable Growing Pains (You can make your own Growing Pains joke, right? Just say something about Kirk Cameron.) of starting in a new place.
Then our ring announcer for the evening "Slim" Rich Palladino comes out and intros the commentators for the show: Zero-One USA Ring Announcer Bobby Cruise (really, that was him in Japan) and former Hardcore Institute leader Dr. Everett Payne (really, someone bought a HCI T-Shirt). Cruise and Payne are a good team, able to be entertaining without taking away from what’s going on in the ring.
MATCH 1) Chi Chi Cruz v. Antonio Thomas
RT: Wow. This is the strongest opener I’ve seen in a long time. Both of these guys are young, athletic, and talented. They both have excellent charisma, and work very believable matches. And yes, they both have kickpads.
They began the match with the "climb the turnbuckles" spot to draw appropriate face and heel reactions. After the crowd was engaged, they locked up with a nice overhead wristlock sequence, including a full bridge. They exchanged headlock takeovers trying to establish control. Thomas showed some good coordination when Cruz went to monkey flip him, and he landed on his feet. This would be a recurring theme for the match. Cruz managed to go on offense when he yanked Thomas backwards and planted both knees into his back.
They continued with the lower back psychology when Cruz wrapped Thomas into a hammerlock then dropped him into a backbreaker. Cruz was in total control, but lost his concentration and started arguing with the ref, Holyoke Joe. Holyoke got fed up, and pushed the heel into a roll-up pinning attempt for a near fall. Cruz started to dominate again, and demonstrated his contempt when he went for the pin with an arrogant Rodin cover (Yeah, I studied Art History. Is that a problem?)
Cruz hit a dangerous-looking standing floatover scorpion deathdrop. He went for the kill with his Northern Lights suplex combo sequence, but Thomas managed to reverse the momentum with a sudden Last Rites, and the impact was enough to get the pinfall. Excellent opener. Supposedly, Cruz has moved back to the New England area, so hopefully that means we’ll see much more of him in the future. Needless to say, a feud between him and Thomas would be choice.
CT: Funny moment early on, as Palladino announces the match as "One Fall, Twenty Minutes" and a guy behind me is like "Oh, NO!" He was outraged, possibly at the 20 minute limit or possibly, just possibly, at the fact that it wasn’t a 20 fall match. His fears were quickly put to rest, as these guys just went out there and had an incredible match. Two of the best Eastern workers you never hear about just tore the house down with their state-of-the art stuff. And there was structure to the match—not just spot, spot, spot. Cruz played heel (with his always great Eddy Guerrero/Cheech Marin Spanish accent), and Thomas was the fiery Babyface. When a woman in the crowd screamed that "Antonio is hot!," Cruz took over and asked her "Who’s hot now?" and blew her a kiss. Cruz is A#1 and the best.
Lots of great nearfalls (including a swweeeet Hammerlock/Backbreaker combo by Cruz), and Thomas makes his patented Hottest Comeback in New England. One thing to note about Thomas is that he uses tight forearms instead of punches in these situations. Nothing weakens a comeback quicker than weak punches. Thomas must realize that his aren’t up to the same level as his other stuff, so he goes with the forearms (which look great). Small things like that make a worker look that much better. Finish was Cruz going for a rolling Northern Lights into his Fireman’s Carry Neckbreaker, but Thomas reversing out into a Smashmouth-type move. Both guys looked great, everything flowed and made sense, and even the innovative moves were based around solid basics (which I loooove). Simply put: one of the best indy matches I’ve seen this year. Oh, and Thomas’ music is 50 Cent. C’mon, how can you not love hearing that when a guy wins??
Knights of Columbus Hall
Southbridge, MA
9/5/03
Attendance:142
Antonio Thomas pinned Chi Chi Cruz...Larry Huntley, Sonny Roselli and Legion Cage beat Jim Nastic, Ref Paul Hazard and Ring Crew Member Dan...EWA Tag Team Title tournament Semi-Finals: Brian Black and Mini beat Kid Mikazi and ZR Xtreme...EWA Tag Team Title tournament Semi-Finals: Cueball and "Flash" Nick McKenna beat Eddie Edwards and Adam Hastey...Adam Booker and Frankie Armadillo battled to a Double Disqualification with Billy Kryptonite and Kid Krazy...Luis Ortiz pinned Chris Hamrick...EWA Tag Team Title Tournament Finals: Cueball and "Flash" Nick McKenna defeated Brian Black and Mini...Maverick Wild beat Dr. Heresy to win the EWA Heavyweight Championship.
www.ewaprowrestling.com
Event Report:
EWA (Eastern Wrestling Alliance)
Knights of Columbus Hall, Southbridge, MA
September 5, 2003
RT: Roel Torres, Professional Bluffer
CT: Chris Tomkinson, Gives bad directions to tourists
RT: We all have our defining moments. The parts of our lives we will always remember. The moments in time we will never forget. These quick bursts of memorable activity provide some punctuation to the routine of our daily existence. On Friday night, in the world of northeast indy wrestling, the EWA took an epic step in their history, as they ended their months-long sabbatical and celebrated a successful re-launch with one of their strongest cards ever.
After countless logistical changes, the new EWA is a genetically re-constructed beast running around with a new set of arms, a new set of legs, but the same heart pumping blood through its veins. They’ve gone through ownership changes. They’ve been forced to change the buildings they run. They’ve moved away from the city and state of Portland, Maine, which had served as their unofficial homebase territory for years. But the roster of talent remains largely intact, and the philosophy of strong efforts by good workers in well-booked matches remains the same.
After being asked to vacate the Pilsudski Polish Club, the fed has identified The Knights of Columbus Hall as their new home. It’s a shame, because their previous location was better suited for wrestling. The new building is smaller, has a low ceiling that inhibits spots from the top rope, has a much smaller video screen for viewing taped promos, and has the air conditioning cranked up to keep the penguins comfortable. But even taking those minor complaints into consideration, it was really nice to see wrestling back in the town of Southbridge.
Even before the first match started, crazy lucha action broke out at ringside as Tanya Cornell took an unscripted senton into the people selling raffle tickets to the front row. Everyone seemed fine, and nobody was hurt. After a sweet intro video of EWA highlights, our ring announcer Rich Palladino introduced the first match. (Random aside: I couldn’t believe the level of ring announcer talent gathered in the building. Between Rich, Bobby Cruise, and Tommy D, we had a virtual all-star team of New England announcers. It was more than a little shocking, to be honest.)
CT: Well, we got off to a rousing start, as I write in my notes: "EWA 5/2/03." Apparently, it’s still May in my head. I have many problems.
Despite the discrepancy in what day it was, this past Friday was the EWA’s big return to monthly shows after a summerlong hiatus. They really sunk a lot of time & effort into promoting the show and into getting new faces out to the shows, including a real, live TV ad. Wow. This was also their debut at their new home, the Knights of Columbus Hall. Nice enough place, but the low ceiling seemed to threaten some of the top rope stuff. But everyone was able to work around that pretty well.
The turnout was really good, showing that the hard-sell of the show worked. Pretty much, all of the seats were filled, and there were lots of people there who were unfamiliar with the promotion (and who I hadn’t seen before). One guy even bought a Hardcore Institute T-Shirt, despite the fact that a) he didn’t know who they were and b) they’re a stable that disbanded like a year ago. But Merch Sales is Merch Sales, right?
Preshow excitement: Ref Holyoke Joe showed off his Hulk Hogan tattoo as "Eye of the Tiger" played over the PA, a noted cameraperson (who will remain nameless) took a massive spill on the floor that almosed wiped out the 50/50 Raffle Folks, and someone who may have been Sumie Sakai showed up. I didn’t have my glasses on, but I’ll pretend it was her. And if it WAS her, I don’t need to pretend anything except that I’m the King of Tarnopia.
Onto the Show Itself:
CT: The lights go out, and the EWA-Tron plays the super swank EWA Highlight Video. I’ve seen this before, and it’s really, really well done. It sets a nice professional tone for the show, and really gets me rockin’ and inspired for some rasslin’. My only complaint is that the video was projected on a side of the Hall where most of the crowd had to look through the ring and the ropes to see it. But that’s understandable Growing Pains (You can make your own Growing Pains joke, right? Just say something about Kirk Cameron.) of starting in a new place.
Then our ring announcer for the evening "Slim" Rich Palladino comes out and intros the commentators for the show: Zero-One USA Ring Announcer Bobby Cruise (really, that was him in Japan) and former Hardcore Institute leader Dr. Everett Payne (really, someone bought a HCI T-Shirt). Cruise and Payne are a good team, able to be entertaining without taking away from what’s going on in the ring.
MATCH 1) Chi Chi Cruz v. Antonio Thomas
RT: Wow. This is the strongest opener I’ve seen in a long time. Both of these guys are young, athletic, and talented. They both have excellent charisma, and work very believable matches. And yes, they both have kickpads.
They began the match with the "climb the turnbuckles" spot to draw appropriate face and heel reactions. After the crowd was engaged, they locked up with a nice overhead wristlock sequence, including a full bridge. They exchanged headlock takeovers trying to establish control. Thomas showed some good coordination when Cruz went to monkey flip him, and he landed on his feet. This would be a recurring theme for the match. Cruz managed to go on offense when he yanked Thomas backwards and planted both knees into his back.
They continued with the lower back psychology when Cruz wrapped Thomas into a hammerlock then dropped him into a backbreaker. Cruz was in total control, but lost his concentration and started arguing with the ref, Holyoke Joe. Holyoke got fed up, and pushed the heel into a roll-up pinning attempt for a near fall. Cruz started to dominate again, and demonstrated his contempt when he went for the pin with an arrogant Rodin cover (Yeah, I studied Art History. Is that a problem?)
Cruz hit a dangerous-looking standing floatover scorpion deathdrop. He went for the kill with his Northern Lights suplex combo sequence, but Thomas managed to reverse the momentum with a sudden Last Rites, and the impact was enough to get the pinfall. Excellent opener. Supposedly, Cruz has moved back to the New England area, so hopefully that means we’ll see much more of him in the future. Needless to say, a feud between him and Thomas would be choice.
CT: Funny moment early on, as Palladino announces the match as "One Fall, Twenty Minutes" and a guy behind me is like "Oh, NO!" He was outraged, possibly at the 20 minute limit or possibly, just possibly, at the fact that it wasn’t a 20 fall match. His fears were quickly put to rest, as these guys just went out there and had an incredible match. Two of the best Eastern workers you never hear about just tore the house down with their state-of-the art stuff. And there was structure to the match—not just spot, spot, spot. Cruz played heel (with his always great Eddy Guerrero/Cheech Marin Spanish accent), and Thomas was the fiery Babyface. When a woman in the crowd screamed that "Antonio is hot!," Cruz took over and asked her "Who’s hot now?" and blew her a kiss. Cruz is A#1 and the best.
Lots of great nearfalls (including a swweeeet Hammerlock/Backbreaker combo by Cruz), and Thomas makes his patented Hottest Comeback in New England. One thing to note about Thomas is that he uses tight forearms instead of punches in these situations. Nothing weakens a comeback quicker than weak punches. Thomas must realize that his aren’t up to the same level as his other stuff, so he goes with the forearms (which look great). Small things like that make a worker look that much better. Finish was Cruz going for a rolling Northern Lights into his Fireman’s Carry Neckbreaker, but Thomas reversing out into a Smashmouth-type move. Both guys looked great, everything flowed and made sense, and even the innovative moves were based around solid basics (which I loooove). Simply put: one of the best indy matches I’ve seen this year. Oh, and Thomas’ music is 50 Cent. C’mon, how can you not love hearing that when a guy wins??