The crowd was down from the January 18 Hart Legacy Wrestling show in the same building; ringside sections were full, but there were plenty of empty seats in the bleachers. If I had to guess I'd put it in the 800-900 range. They used the same pink turnbuckled Highspots ring as last time. The show will air on iPPV Saturday night at nextgenerationwrestling.tv, save for three opening pre-show matches.
1. Bobby Sharp defeated Brady Malibu and Scotley Crue in a triple-threat match to retain his CNWA (another area indy fed) title. Short match with a lot of comedy, Sharp won with a fisherman's suplex. For reasons unexplained the referee was Steve Rivers, a veteran local worker who broke in with Chris Jericho and Lance Storm in the early '90s. Rivers attacked Sharp after the match; never trust a referee wearing American flag sweat pants.
2. Evan Adams & Big Jess Youngblood & Kat Von Heez defeated Cam!!!kaze & Alex Plexis & Nicole Matthews in a six-person mixed tag. Youngblood replaced the advertised Chasyn Rance, of Florida indy fame; no reason was given for the switch. Youngblood is a big guy who decimated Plexis with a stiff clothesline at one point. The three faces did simultaneous pescados. Pretty decent match, Adams is an athletic local worker who received an AAA tryout last year. He scored the pin after a variation of Teddy Hart's Hart Attack.
3. The New Karachi Vice (Johnny Devine & Wavell Starr) beat TNT ("Dynamite" Dan Myers & Pete Powers.) As per last month's angle, the Karachi Vice now consists of a white guy and a Native Canadian. They were accompanied by the Great Gama and Abu Wizal from the original '80s Stampede heel stable. Myers was seconded by his fiancée "The Dynamite Doll" (Bronwyne Billington, daughter of the Dynamite Kid.) Entertaining match. Myers and Powers did consecutive dives and each came perilously close to landing on their head. Devine won the match with an O'Connor roll. Post-match promo saw the Vice welcome two new additions: Sonjay Dutt and, believe it or not, Necro Butcher, hereby christened "Ayatollah" Necro Singh.
The iPPV broadcast kicked off with the obligatory Teddy Hart promo. Accompanying Teddy were four female valets dubbed "The Hart Honeys" (one of whom was his wife Fay) and two white Persian cats. Whatever you want to say about Teddy, the man does know how to enter a room. He introduced "NGW commissioner" Konnan, who brought out the new promotion's championship belt, which Teddy pointed out was rush-ordered from Reggie Parks. Konnan explained the peculiar world title tournament in which three fatal four-way matches would produce two winners each, leading to a "suicide six-way" to crown a champion.
4. Teddy Hart and John Morrison advanced over Nick and Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks. Teddy hit a big top rope Asai moonsault to the floor early on, followed by his customary selling of a knee injury, allowing Morrison to face the Bucks for several minutes. The Bucks worked together and used several of their trademark double-team spots. Teddy eventually re-entered the fray and hit a top rope diving DDT on both Jackson brothers. Teddy hit several big moves and pinned one of the Bucks, then Morrison eliminated the other after Starship Pain. Fun match with lots of athletic spots.
5. Jack Evans and Samuray del Sol advanced over Flip Kendrick and Sonjay Dutt. Unlike the previous match the four wrestlers tagged in and out. Dutt played the lone heel and didn't do much in the way of flying, but the other three are among the best high-flyers in the world. Plenty of big moves, but the match never really gelled and there were plenty of awkward spots, the most glaring of which saw referee Wayne Hart - who clearly struggled to keep up with the pace - accidentally count Evans' shoulders down. Evans stayed down for a couple minutes, then rejoined the match as if nothing had happened. Kendrick hit a crazy top rope springboard tornillo dive, but also completely overshot a shooting star senton to eliminate Dutt. I believe it was Samuray that eventually eliminated Kendrick. A disappointment considering the talent involved.
6. Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Cage advanced over Kevin Nash and Trent Barreta. Davey Jr. came out holding a bulldog dubbed "Matilda Jr." Nash was originally scheduled to appear in a non-wrestling capacity, but wound up taking the place of Davey Richards, whose flight was apparently cancelled due to snow in St. Louis. Barreta replaced Jay Lethal, who was announced as having a concussion. Nash got a monster pop and did a few of his trademark spots (side suplex, Snake Eyes, big boot, etc.), then spent the latter part of the match lying in the corner selling a knee injury. Harry did manage to get him into the Sharpshooter at one point. Cage eliminated Barreta, who later returned with a chair and took out Cage, who was subsequently counted out. Nash, still selling the knee injury, grabbed the mic and righted the situation by forfeiting his spot in the finals to Cage, then laying Barreta out with the Jackknife. Not a great match, but at least they came up with a clever way to keep Nash out of the six-way - where he would have stuck out like a sore thumb - that didn't involve him doing a job.
7. The Tattooed Terminators (Massive Damage & Darren "The Bomb" Dalton) defeated The Karachi Vice (Necro Butcher & Heavy Metal) and The Young Bucks in a three-way "Stampede Death Match." The storyline was that Konnan added the Young Bucks to the match as punishment for giving him trouble backstage. They mostly just stayed out of the way, even hiding under the ring at one point, while the other four had a pretty standard hardcore match. The Terminators were accompanied by a biker introduced as "The Angel of Death" (not to be confused with the mid-'80s Stampede character played by the late David Sheldon.) I'm sure somebody could explain his presence on the show, but then they'd literally have to kill me. Both Necro and Damage bled, stabbing each other with scissors at one point. Lots of brawling in the crowd, a few chairshots, Necro did a running Death Valley Driver through a table. A ladder was brought out, but nothing much was done with it. The Terminators powerbombed Heavy Metal (Edmonton worker, not the AAA guy) through a table for the win. Pretty generic stuff, Necro didn't do much of note and it was apparent the Young Bucks really didn't want to be involved.
8. John Morrison won a six-way elimination match over Samuray del Sol, Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Cage to win the NGW World Title. They tagged in and out to start. Nice spot with Harry catching Samuray's springboard and holding him in the delayed vertical suplex. Harry actually tried to climb the ropes with him and turn it into a superplex, but didn't quite make it. Eventually the match degenerated into a brawl around ringside, allowing Teddy and Jack to showcase their usual spots. Teddy brought the ladder back out and used it to bridge the apron and guard rail, then proceeded to give Jack a Canadian Destroyer through it. Jack was counted out and had to be carried to the back, hopefully just selling, but it was a nasty-looking bump. More brawling on the floor followed by Teddy once again scaling the entranceway for a huge dive, after which he limped around ringside while the referee counted him out. Teddy threw a tantrum over the decision, which seemed odd considering that he had just watched the referee make the count and made no attempt to enter the ring. Pretty weird, and the crowd hated it. The match settled back into a four-way with the remaining participants. Lots of good stuff. Cage moves around well for a big guy and did some nice power moves. He was eliminated by Samuray after a nifty inverted dragon rana of sorts. Samuray also hit his amazing variation of Mascara Dorada's Brillo Dorada. It came down to Morrison versus Samuray, who worked a series of acrobatic sequences before Morrison won with a somewhat off-target Starship Pain. Rather than celebrate his title victory Morrison inexplicably attacked the referee, then Teddy re-entered and did the same. It didn't seem to be designed as a heel turn, just two babyfaces beating up a referee with no provocation. As far as spotfests go it wasn't quite up to the level of the previous month's main event, but very entertaining nonetheless.
Post-match promo consisted of Teddy challenging Morrison to defend the title against he and Jack Evans at the April 12 return date. He also made my night by promising to bring in AAA's Fenix, one of the most spectacular young high-flyers in Mexico.
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