----Blaine Devine beat Oz in the opening bout. Real good solid bout and was the best thing on the card up to the featured match. Oz [doing a gay gimmick] was the most over babyface until Jason Reed stepped out . [**3/4]
----Hardcore Yow won the NBW High Risk title in a 5-way. Good finish, but match was horrible. Rockin Randy looked real good!! [DUD]
----Sarge O’Reilly beat Shannon Lee in a good solid bout. Lee came out with Jason the Brain and Brain ended up with O’Reilly as a babyface after the match with Sarge putting over XOW. Sarge got a good reaction. Never give Lee a mic – NEVER!! [**1/2]
----Eric Wayne over Brad Badd and Mark Justice in a 3-way. [I think Eric won.] Not a great bout, but not good either. Everyone looked good with what they did. Justice is always solid and Wayne did well. Bradd has a great body and looks good, but does need some work. [**1/2]
----Cody Melton/Derrick King beat Kid Nikels/Jason Reed to win the NBW Tag Team titles in a good match. Whether you like DK backstage or not – he NEVER has a bad match and this was just solid for everyone. Nikels replaced Big Red. Great finish building for the actual pin which had DK pinning Nikels after a superkick. DK/Melton stayed out waayyyy too long after the match, which is apparently their gimmick, but Jeff McDonald was visibly unhappy with them, since this was a big show and everything was timed.
----Chris Rocker beat Jeremy Moore by submission to win the NBW Title. I would put this match right up with the other top two matches. Just a brawl, but it was done real well. Rocker, [as I said in the 120 days of 2010 piece, is the most underrated worker during the RRO years in this area!], bled buckets and got the crowd into it. Moore is a great heel and fans really do not like him. He comes off great as a “spoiled brat” type of guy and his look continues to improve each time I see him. Moore put Rocker in an ankle submission with Rocker reversing it for the win. [***1/2]
----Jay Lethal beat Matt Riviera in solid bout. For those that have question about people that work either TNA or WWE, then you should have been watching this match. All the boys that want to MAKE IT – take lessons from this guy [Lethal] – in the ring and out of the ring. Riviera did a good spill on the mic [but it was getting late] and then Lethal came back with some good stuff doing his “Macho Man” and Flair gimmick. Crowd was into every move of the match from the shine to the heat to the comeback. Textbook match almost completely flawless. [***1/2]
NOTES
----About 130 in the building. It had to be a disappointment [having Lethal and Jimi Jamison from Survivor on the show] [http://www.jimijamison.com/], but overall the show was decent…I had about a 30 minute discussion with DK on the state of the business and the web site before the matches. It was really something that I wished I could have recorded to let everyone listen to it…Billy Russ is one of the most professional people I know in the wrestling business. A first class guy!! He is over with me!!...Speaking of professional. Jay Lethal asked to not be in a dressing room alone and to dress out with the boys. He was just super backstage – being friendly with everyone. It was funny watching him have a mark out moment backstage when Jimi Jamison sang “Eye of the Tiger.”…Some heat backstage with DK involving a ref. Half of the dressing room saying DK was at fault and others saying Troy . DK apparently grabbed the ref’s niece in the crowd, which apparently scared her. Then the ref attacked him in the crowd. The little girl’s family were not upset at all about it, but some of the workers were upset at DK. But, some were upset with the ref and at one point I thought Rocker was going to whip the ref’s ass. LOL…Eric Wayne has improved his body a bit also - around 200 lbs and solid...Justice and the Kid have a fun gimmick going with T-shirts an such with the saying, “Ain’t that a SOB.” Seriously, everyone needs a lesson in gimmicks in this area!!...Melton is improved tons and heard a few people putting him over....After the main event, Lethal got on the mic to tell a story on when he worked smaller arenas like this when he first started in the business. He said that the promoters would bring in “tv stars” and put them in their own dressing room and he would never get to meet his heroes. He said he promised himself he would never do that. He also said that he also would stay outside at the ring as long as there were fans that wanted photos and autographs. He said at least 30 minutes and maybe longer. First class act.
