Northeast Wrestling Results 10.18.14 – Waterbury, Connecticut

Credit: Nick Knowledge & PWInsider

I attended the Northeast Wrestling (NEW) show, titled “Autumn Ambush”, from Crosby High School in Waterbury, CT on 10/18. The promotion drew a near capacity crowd (I’d say there were well over 1,000 people there), made up mainly of grade school children. In fact, there was an entire school bus full of children that drove into the building’s parking lot earlier in the afternoon. Most likely they were there early for the autograph session that included WWE Hall of Fame legends Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat & Booker T.

The show had a scheduled bell time of 7pm, but as indy promotions will often do, the show actually began around 7:30pm.

1. Ron Zombie/Mikey Webb/Bandido Jr. (substituting for Randy Shawn) b. Lukas Sharp/Chris & Anthony Battle when Zombie pinned one of the Battle Bros. (8:10) after a jumping DDT. This was a hot crowd from the start, mainly due to the energetic children in the crowd. Zombie is a local favorite & was easily over person in the match. Bandido Jr. has been on the rise for some time, obviously putting much needed time in the gym. I’d certainly say he was the workhorse of the match, hitting several nice highspots throughout.

2. Big Jym Anderson (with “Showtime ”Stevie Stamos) b. “All Good” Anthony Greene (2:30) after a choke-slam. This was essentially a squash match with Anderson playing a Mr. Hughes-type role.

Before the next match, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat came out to address the crowd & talked about how in November he will be celebrating his 40th anniversary in the wrestling business. Steamboat looked to be in fantastic shape & in great spirits as well.

3. Brian Anthony b. Bull Dredd (5:58) after punching him out with a chain. They had a ringside brawl before the bell rang that lasted about as long as the match did.

4. Monster BC (with Booker T) b. Warbeard Hanson (with “Showtime” Stevie Stamos) in 7:28 with a big splash off the ropes. The former Brodus Clay was scheduled to face TNA wrestler Robbie E., but for whatever reason was replaced by Hanson. There were never any explanations given by the ring announcer for the substitutions & changes made to the card.

5. Mark Shurman & Velvet Sky b. “Manscout” Jake Manning & Dan De Man in a mixed tag team match in 9:10 when Shurman pinned Dan after a spinebuster slam. This was originally scheduled to be a singles match between Shurman & Manning. A comedy match, especially with the antics of Manning, that the kids in the crowd really got a kick out of.

6. Jimmy Preston b. Cedric Alexander in 12:50 after a botched low blow spot & TKO. Alexander did a pretty good job of keeping the match interested. Preston seemed better on the mic than on the mat. He cut a decent prematch promo on the crowd mentioning how out of shape they were. He went on to point out that there was a guy in the crowd who had such a sunken chest that he could eat a bowl of cereal out of it. Since Preston is set to face Matt Taven for the NEW title at the next show on 11/1, I wasn’t exactly surprised that he went over here on Alexander. I was just disappointed in how the finish came off.

7. Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy) b. Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) (17:21). They played pre-taped promos before & during the show from both teams. The Young Bucks, during the match & in the pretape, played the young upstart, cocky heels. On the flip side, Matt & Jeff Hardy were the confident, experienced faces, although Matt Hardy did show a tinge of his heel persona from ROH in the pretape promo. The Young Bucks didn’t receive much of a reaction other than a smattering of boos. There was a small vocal group of Young Bucks fans, but they were drowned out by the majority of Hardy Boyz fans. Matt & Nick Jackson are tremendous heels & worked the crowd real well. They laid out Jeff Hardy outside the ring with chair shots & Matt Hardy had to fight from underneath.

Jeff in the meantime hid under the ring until his legs showed sticking out from underneath the ring. When the Young Bucks went to grab him, Jeff reappeared under the Willow gimmick & attacked both of the Jackson’s with a chair. The Young Bucks eventually laid out Willow & Jeff later reappeared as himself again. The finish of the match saw both Hardy Boyz knocking Matt Jackson out of the ring & then hitting their Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb combo for the winning pin on Nick Jackson. This sent the fans home happy with the Young Bucks vowing revenge.

Though the show didn’t start until nearly 7:30pm, it ended at about 9:50pm, just before 10pm. I ended up purchasing the 8/2/14 show on DVD that featured the very first Hardy Boyz-Young Bucks match. I have to say I thought it was a nice touch that NEW sells their DVDs for only $10 each. Overall, it was a fun show in which I knew what to expect going into it.