BEFORE THE MATCHES
----I had the pleasure of heading back to the NEW arena in West Memphis, TN for my next to last “Arena Report” of the year. As I walked backstage I noticed an improvement over what is considered Ken Wayne’s office. But, there was so much video equipment in that little room it looked like a small TV studio. If I am remembering correctly there was like 6 monitors with everything set up for switching cameras and such. I have no knowledge of TV technical terms and such, so all I can say is - it looks like a lot of TV “stuff” back there. LOL
----The first person I ran into was my old pal Brian Thompson and then had the chance to sit down to talk with Eric Wayne. Wayne and I had talked a few days earlier about the incident that happened here the week before with Wayne hitting Scott Fury in the mouth. Fury lost a tooth and apparently swallowed a lot of blood. Unfortunately Fury was not there, but what I could gather first from Wayne and the whole crew, Wayne did apologize many times to Fury. [That is all you can do in a situation like this] Fury had only a drop of blood hit the canvas and rest he swallowed, which wasn’t good. Wayne felt like Fury was coherent enough to finish the bout. He felt he did make a mistake “because of my inexperience” by not just taking Fury into a hold and slowing down the bout a bit. He did stomp him in the face after the kick, but I am told it wasn’t as stiff as originally reported. Fury and Wayne were seen after the show talking and laughing, so all was good. This was the same story I got from four people that were there during the incident, so Dustin Starr’s “World of Wrestling” blog story was almost completely false other than Wayne did kick Fury in the face. In Starr’s defense though, he did state he was not there and was going on hearsay. Eric also made a statement on the Kayfabe Message Board. You may CLICK HERE and read it.
THE MATCHES
----Derrick King/Greg Anthony defeated Matt Justyce/El Chupacabra. Chupacabra did a move off the turnbuckle that looked good, but he was outshined by all three of the other guys. Justyce was “on” and he wasn’t in the ring with his regular trainee crew. He also had a new cool robe – Apollo Creed would have been proud. Good solid bout with nice exchanges. Anthony did a flying side kick to Matt. A series from Justyce had him do two leapfrogs following by a sweet dropkick. DK came out with a dropkick of his own. DK used his infamous elbow stomp. Finish had hit Chupacabra with a sloppy sitdown powerbomb for the win. [**1/2]
----Eric Wayne beat Greg King JR. Good solid match as expect from both guys coming from the school. King got a HUGE pop when he came out and Wayne is a heel in front of this crowd. Good move for move – hold or hold stuff. It seemed as if King got more of the bout. King also has a sweet dropkick. King put Wayne in a figure four that looked good. Finish had Wayne set up for the boot to the face in the corner [what he did to Fury] – King moved and Wayne went flying into the corner. King then missed a move into the corner with Wayne rolling him over into a german suplex. [***]
----Kid Nikels beat Bryon Willcott with the “Nikels pickle 2” submission. This was the same submission he beat Derrick King with. Another good solid match. Willcott is a big man and is not as clumsy as you would suspect from a guy his size. Both guys did smart things not to make the match just a cliché big man vs big man match. Willcott does a British accent and had my kids rolling when he made reference to some guy in the crowd being from “Twilight”. Nikels had Willcott in an arm bar and he said, “Ease up a scuttch”, which got a laugh from the crowd. Finish came out of nowhere with Willcott tapping. Willcott pushed Downtown Bruno after the match and then Bruno suspended him. Angle being that NEW will not tolerate that done to officials. [**3/4]
NOTES
----Probably about 70 people in the building…Referee Downtown Bruno [wearing a Power Pro Wrestling shirt] and crew were told that as soon as something happens like the Fury incident, then the ref is to make a judgment about continuing the bout. If it is a busted lip, then all is good. If someone gets their tooth knocked out or there is excessive blood – the bout is to be stopped…Place looked like a TV studio from the old days with new curtains and the announcer’s desk sit up from the floor…Live interviews were done before the matches backstage before the workers exited the curtains. All the interviews were really good with DK/TGB having the best one. Surprise?? Wayne actually said something about kicking King’s teeth down his throat. Chupacabra, the Luchador, spoke English, which made even my kids wonder and say, “I thought Luchadors spoke Spanish?”…I think I would have acknowledged Willcott going to the WWE, instead of the pushing DT Bruno down gimmick. It would have made Nikels even look stronger. He has beat two time wrestler of the year – Derrick King and WWE developmental guy – Bryon Willcott…When I ask Willcott if he was going to drop the RWA title the next night, he said [in old school fashion], “I am going to try not to..” LOL Willcott was super nice guy and had a great attitude backstage. Best wishes to him in Florida and WWE!! He still owes me a Diet Coke and a cheeseburger!!... Chupacabra literally means "goat sucker"!! LOL No kidding – CLICK HERE – and look!!
