2/7 NWA Anarchy Report

Courtesy of Larry Goodman:

NWA Anarchy ran their bimonthly television taping at the NWA Arena in Cornelia Saturday night. It was a good show in front of what was, by Anarchy standards, a strangely subdued crowd.

With 190 in the house, I would venture to say there’s never been a quieter crowd of that size at an Anarchy show. It’s a curious thing. They’re watching. They’re engaged. What they’re not doing is getting emotionally invested. It’s more of a wait-and-see approach. The transitional nature of the storylines accounts for part of it but not all. They’re not seeing enough stars.

Crowd response aside, last night’s taping should make for two solid hours of TV. Match quality was fine. The stories are starting to jell. There was a major storyline development in the form of a stretcher job by the indomitable Mikal Judas at the hands of Kimo. They did well in area that’s been a little lacking – running angles that specifically hype the next show.

Hayden Young & Bo Newsome & Caleb Konley beat Bobby Shields & Robert Beverly & John Kronica in 6:38. job guys were imports from NWA East. Depending on your frame of reference, Shields looked like a young Tommy Rogers or son of Randy the Ram - a good look in any case. The other guys pretty much sucked. They forgot their task was to make the Anarchy guys look like gold. Konley facially has a bit of a James Storm thing going. He hit a nice double flying lariat early. Bo took the heat. Kronica used Mike Knox’s finisher for a near fall. Why? Finish saw Konley level Beverly with an ax kick and Young followed with a spectacular Flying Squirrel for the pin.

On the WrestleVision, we saw Johnson conduct a backstage interview with Seth Delay aka De Ladies Man aka Seth Delay Mignon. Delay said he had the hands of steel (steel in his hand is more like it). “Like a bad economy, it’s a punch you just cannot escape, baby.” Alan Funk showed up in his “Funkster” character. Delay didn’t know how to take this. Either did the crowd. Delay bumped knuckles with JJ, who sold it like he broke one.

{2} Todd Sexton beat T.K. Cross via DQ in 5:43. Sexton usually takes a cerebral approach to his matches, so even when they don’t get heat, at least they’re interesting. After a rude dumped to the floor, Sexton got a near fall with a short arm lariat and blasted Cross with headbutts. Cross ducked a short arm lariat and countered with spinning neckbreaker. Cross broke into a Japanese Strong Style routine. He hit a bridging dragon suplex that got zero reaction. Sexton superkicked Cross and went into Randy Orton mode with the Sexecution (running knee to the cranium). Sexton pulled Cross up at two and set up for another head shot. Slim J hit the ring for the save.

Sexton gave Slim hell for his lack of restraint - “Way to be the pro.” I had no problem despising Sexton in this angle.

Jeff Lewis and his protégé Mike Moseley entered and were immediately attacked by “Merciless” Don Matthews. Matthews was handing them their asses until the odds became too much. Hollywood Brunettes (Kyle Matthews & Andrew Alexander) made the save. Or so it appeared. Instead, they tried to break Don’s knees. It turned into a 4-on-1 annihilation with Lewis having the honor of laying Don out with a spinning neckbreaker. Nice surprise, but they’re missing the boat by not breaking Kyle out as a babyface singles wrestler.

(3) Seth Delay beat Alan Funk in 4:06. Thanks to Delay, this was the single best thing that’s happened for Funk since his arrival in Anarchy. Delay sold huge for Funk’s offense, taking no less than seven knockdown chops. His chest was beet red. The crowd popped for Funk’s spinning facebuster. The beating continued until Delay put Funk’s lights out with a knuck shot when debuting ref Jeff McGowan wasn’t looking.

(4) Azrael (with The Reverend) beat Billy Buck to retain the Young Lion’s Title in 4:13. Azrael is the freaking man. It’s that demented twist he’s put on the Young Lion’s Title. Instead of a league dominated by little guys flying around doing pretty aerial moves, Son of Satan has made it his personal ass kicking division. Buck was the perfect guy for this spot – a pastel cowboy sell monkey. Azrael destroyed Buck with chops and a running knee to the face. Azrael blocked Buck’s vaunted bionic elbows. Buck finally started to come back and went for the Samoan Drop, but Azrael countered with the Ted Bundy, and that was all she wrote. Good stuff.

(5) Mikal Judas & Shadow Jackson beat Jeremy Vain & Mr. Rob Adonis in 10:12. Big pops for Jackson and Judas. First time around, Vain cowered when Jackson threatened with the bionic elbow. Second time around, he got nailed. Judas looked invincible. Adonis was able to get the advantage on Jackson. Jackson came back with chops and jumped up to the second rope. Adonis picked him off with an enzuigiri. Impressive move by the big man. Adonis continued to punish Jackson with power moves. Judas ran wild with the hot tag. He brought Vain in the hardway and destroyed the heels 1 on 2. Finish was an awesome version of El Crucifijo (Border Toss) by Judas. He tossed Vain halfway across the ring easy. This match worked like a charm. Total domination by Judas. And so it should be, if he’s the top guy on the babyface side. Vain did his usual awesome bumping and selling. After the match, Adonis got tired of carrying Vain out and dragged his lifeless body up the ramp by his arms.

(6) Malachi beat Adrian Hawkins in 5 minutes. If it was July, you could have heard the crickets chirping. Match was fine. Malachi went high impact with a gutwrench and a german suplex early. Hawkins dropped Malachi face first on the top turnbuckle out of a modified Gori Special. Hawkins focused his attack on Malachi’s shoulder. Malachi hit a snap power slam and went up top while selling the shoulder. Hawkins met him with a superplex. With both men flat on their backs mid-ring, Ref Dee Byers ruled that Malachi got a shoulder up and Hawkins did not.

Johnson was backstage with Shaun Tempers. Tempers said his scheduled tag partner, Truitt Fields had a family emergency (This was legit. Fields’ grandfather is gravely ill) and introduced Newsome as his replacement. Tempers left firing up like Tommy Rich. Newsome looked up to find the freaky Skirra Corvus sitting on the rafters.

{7) Shaun Tempers & Bo Newsome beat The Technicians (Bobby Moore & Tyler Smith) in 4:46. Tempers’ babyface turn is taking. He was talking a blue streak throughout the match. Technicians did some innovative stuff working on Newsome’s gut. Newsome did a nice back flip over the top of Smith to make the hot tag. Tempers destroyed the Techs with fists of fire and hit a northern lights suplex on Smith. Moore intervened. The Techs set up the Hart Attack, but Newsome cut Moore off with a dropkick and Tempers pinned Smith with a spinning hangman neckbreaker. Same story as most of the show – a good match that had little heat.

Attorney/Agent Jeff G. Bailey entered the ring with Kimo and NWA National Champion Shatter. The show instantly jumped to higher plane. Both men have totally major league looks. Bailey talked about the heritage of Shatter’s NWA National Title, mentioning Dusty Rhodes, Tully Blanchard, Nikita Koloff, Ted DeBiase and Tommy Rich as former champions. Bailey said Judas caught Kimo by surprise the last two times by coming out with the lights off. “Kimo is the hand of doom towering above your head.” Bailey invited Judas to meet Kimo face-to-face. He said there would be no hocus pocus, and ordered Shatter to step aside. Judas came out. They stood toe-to-toe. Judas pulled off Kimo’s head piece and they started going at it. Judas goozled Kimo. Kimo delivered a karate thrust to the throat. Kimo goozled Judas. They each had the other guy by the throat. Kimo started to sink to the mat. Bailey yelled, “Get ‘em.” Shatter cracked Judas across the back of the head with the title belt. While Shatter held Judas, Kimo reeled off a rapid fire series of martial arts blows. Kimo finished with a stiff thrust to throat. Judas went down face first. Bailey said Judas was dead and did his evil cackling laugh. A crew of Anarchy folks came out to tend to Judas including owner Jerry Palmer, Bill Behrens, Rockwell, Tempers and Jackson. Rockwell stopped long enough to eyeball Kimo. When they turned Judas over, he was bleeding from the mouth. They solemnly loaded Judas onto a backboard and carried him out. Best segment of the show. Head and shoulder above everything else, really, because it was such great theater. With larger than life characters like this group, suspension of disbelief is no problem.

{8) Ace Rockwell beat Brodie Chase in 7:13. Chase attacked Rockwell before the bell. Chase got a call from above to do the strut. He stepped on Rockwell’s back. Rockwell roared back, staggering Chase with lariats and taking him down with a flying shoulder block. Rockwell mocked Chase’s strut and stepped on his nuts. Rest of the match was Chase punishing Rockwell with power moves. Rockwell escaped from Chase’s pumphandle neckbreaker and hit the Aces High out of nowhere for the pin. As a top level babyface, Rockwell needed to go over stronger against a midcard heel.

Rockwell said what happened to Judas was crap. He said he had been on that end and left laying by Kimo. Rockwell issued a challenge for 2/21: Rockwell & Fields vs. Kimo & Shatter. His talking was fine, but the crowd was scary dead for a Rockwell promo.

(9) Talent & Money (JT Talent & Drew Pendleton) beat NWA Anarchy Champions New Wave (Steven Walters & Derrick Driver) via DQ in 3:24. Over before it really got going. They didn’t wait for the bell to start fighting. It quickly turned into big time heat on Walters. Pendleton exploded a chair shot across Walters’ back. Driver went into a rage and wouldn’t get out of the ring resulting in a DQ by referee Wes Grissom. The finish caught fans by surprise. They understandably didn’t want to do too much, because it was a set up for 2/21, but this was too short to even wet appetites. It didn’t help that Kevin Marx announced New Wave as the winners.

Palmer came out. He said the ref was just doing his job and it was his fault, because he should have known better. Palmer made a no DQ rematch for 2/21.

NOTES: Shatter will be in California for the NWA Showcase tapings on 3/14-15…To clarify the status of Shatter’s status with WWE, he is not under contract at this time...Kyle Matthews’ match versus Shane Matthews in Portland, Tn aired on the January 21 NWA Main Event TV show…Melissa Coates worked the World 1 South show in Ellaville last night…Adonis, Matthews, Hawkins and Sal Rinauro are all scheduled for the Great Championship Wrestling event in Phenix City, Al on 2/12. It’s a fundraiser for Maegan Johnson…Joe Dombrowski from NWA East worked as color commentator…APW has their next supershow – “Friday the 13th” – next Friday night in Royston with Delay(c) vs. Slim for the Southern States title on top along Vain vs. Jackson, a Ty Cobb Street Fight: Matthews vs. John Carnage, and a Country Whipping Match.