This past Saturday night, another sold out house was on hand at the National Guard Armory in Quincy , MA as New England Championship Wrestling presented MARCH BADNESS.
The show began with pre-recorded comments from Antonio “The Promise” Thomas addressing the injury which kept him out of the night’s main event. Manager Brian Cairo came to the ring to complain that NECW Triple Crown Champion Rick Fuller and he had spent the last six weeks scouting “The Promise” and that although they did not agree that Fuller should have to defend the title, someone would be a victim of the “Chop Doctor”.
It was announced to the fans that the winner of the number one contender’s match between Max Bauer and “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards would face Fuller for the championship later in the night.
In the opening contest, “The Golden Greek” Alex Arion, with his sister Elektra in his corner, defeated “Future Superstar” Ryan Matthews with a top rope splash to kick off MARCH BADNESS.
“The Talent” TJ Richter, who hasn’t been seen or heard from in months, stormed the ring complaining that he was the forgotten man of NECW. After being the first NECW Unified Television Champion, he was essentially left off NECW agendas. A surprise return then came, as former NECW Heavyweight, Iron 8 and Tag Team Champion “Revolution” Chris Venom came out and said if anyone was forgotten it was him. Venom then stated that he wasn’t one to complain and if NECW brass would sanction it, he offered Richter a chance to prove his claims of being one of the best in a one-on-one match. NECW Co-Owner Kyle Storm agreed to sanction the match and it would occur later in the night.
In a match of top contenders with the winner going on to face NECW Triple Crown Champion “Big” Rick Fuller, “Big” Max Bauer faced off with “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards, accompanied by Sean Gorman. Both men pulled out all the stops in a classic match that will very likely be on NECW Best of 2008 DVD. Bauer hit his Torture Rack Face Buster to win the match and the title shot.
WWW Star, Sammi Lane came to the ring and announced that she was a huge fan of Jason Blade and NECW was giving her the opportunity to be ringside for his match.
NECW Television Champion Handsome Johnny then came to the ring on crutches to announce he was injured and couldn’t wrestle Blade this evening, but NECW had given him two options: forfeit the title or name someone as his replacement in the match. He announced he had cut a deal and his replacement would be Scott Osbourne.
In the TV Title match, Champion Handsome Johnny attempted to interfere using one of his crutches, when Sammi Lane jumped up to stop him. She was then inadvertently knocked off the apron and to the floor as Blade dropkicked Osbourne and hit him with a powerslam-type maneuver. Upon realizing Sammi appeared to be injured, Blade slid out of the ring to check on her. A sunset flip back into the ring scored Jason Blade the victory over Osbourne. The distraction proved timely however and cost Blade the TV Title. The fall occurred in 10 minutes 9 seconds, with the title only being on the line in the first 10 minutes of a TV Title contest. Whle Blade was the victor in the match, still TV Champion… Handsome Johnny.
The fourth match of the night was the open challenge for the NECW Tag Team Championship. New champions, “Rocket” Fred Curry Jr. and Chase Del Monte came to the ring to await the answer of who would take the open challenge. PRIDE (Dan Freitas and Brian Nunes), the first team to simultaneously hold the NECW, PWF, and Mayhem Tag Titles before the companies merged, made a surprise return to NECW. Curry & Del Monte came out on top with their Samoan Drop-Corkscrew neck-breaker finisher, but were shocked post-match when Freitas and Nunes attacked them after the match.
Next up was the special challenge between “The Talent” TJ Richter and “Revolution” Chris Venom. Richter scored a tainted ropes-assisted pin to steal the win. The crowd was VERY unhappy at Venom being robbed.
In a special Pat’s Pit segment, Pat “The Brat” Piper brought out his guests Sean Gorman and DC Dillinger. Dillinger did not accompany Gorman who stated that the “Daddy Cat” would not offer any sort of answers to the fans of NECW for his actions the previous month, when he assaulted Elektra Arion. Piper and Gorman began firing off verbally at each other spurning a “fight” chant from the Quincy faithful. As it looked like that fight would occur, DC Dillinger and Eddie Edwards came to the ring. Dillinger bragged about his actions. This led to NECW President Sheldon Goldberg coming to the ring and suspending Dillinger for 30 Days without pay. Alex Arion then ran to the ring to attack Dillinger, who high-tailed it from the area. Arion instead battered Eddie Edwards until NECW Security and officials could get “Die Hard” away from the ring and an enraged “Golden Greek”.
In a World Women’s Wrestling Championship match, “The Portuguese Princess” Ariel with her agent Brendan Michael Thomas defended against former champion Lexxus. Lexxus looked to have the match won after hitting the guillotine drop, but BMT jumped on the apron only to be clocked by the former champ. This gave Ariel the brief distraction to schoolgirl Lexxus for the pinfall and retain the title.
Team Nightmare (Evan Siks and Nick Steel) defeated Vain Valentino and Nick “Bloodstone” Amaral by submission after a follow and release German Suplex by Steel and a Rings of Saturn-like submission by Siks.
In the main event for the NECW Triple Crown Championship, “Big” Rick Fuller with Brian Cairo successfully defended against “Big” Max Bauer. The match was not without controversy. NECW Senior Official Rich Bass was knocked out as Bauer nailed Fuller with the Torture Rack-Face Buster and had the champion covered for close to a 10-count pin fall. Brian Cairo climbed into the ring planning to knock out Bauer with the Triple Crown Championship Belt. Bauer cut him off and set him up for his finisher. Fuller grabbed the belt and clocked Bauer. As Bass came to, he saw Fuller pinning Bauer and counted the fall for Fuller to retain.
NECW returns to Quincy on Saturday night, April 26 at 7 PM for SPRING BREAKDOWN. Tickets are now on sale at all FYE locations, K.C.’s Sports Cards, 133 Temple Street in Quincy Center and online at www.NECWwrestling.com.