New England Championship Wrestling

Best of 2006

Description: New England Championship Wrestling is a Massachusetts-based promotion founded by Sheldon Goldberg and developed a huge following over a modest six-year existence. In 2006, the company merged with another popular New England independent wrestling promotion known as PWF Mayhem. It was at this point that the NECW product rose to an all new level with hot new angles and an energetic roster full of home-grown wrestlers overflowing with talent and ability. NECW is by far one of the most consistent and continually growing independent wrestling organizations in the entire country. This DVD features the August 19, 2006 event that marked the 6th Year Anniversary of NECW and was highlighted by three historic unification matches pitting NECW vs. PWF Mayhem in an epic confrontation.

"Big Guns" Frankie Arion (NECW Television Champion) vs. "The Talent" T.J. Richter (PWF Mayhem Jr. Champion): The winner of this unification match would be crowned the NECW Undisputed Television champion. The crowd was solidly in the corner of Frankie Arion for this match. The finish saw Frankie Arion apply a submission hold on T.J. Richter until the bell rang and Arion released the hold and celebrated his victory. Arion then realized that "Sensational" Scott Reed was the one who rung the bell, and Richter capitalized by rolling up Arion for the cheap victory ( 5.5 / 10 ). T.J. Richter was officially crowned the NECW Undisputed Television champion.

2D Edge (Pat Masters & Jose Perez) vs. Scott Reed & Kid Mikaze: I was immediately upset when the beautiful Natalia did not come out with the 2D Edge combo. I've seen Kid Mikaze in Ring of Honor, where he was treated as a glorified jobber - but I still enjoyed his work as a tag team with Jason Blade. Reed and Mikaze formed the odd-couple that you just knew wasn't going to work out. 2D Edge won the match by pinning Kid Mikaze, but the story was that Scott Reed was right there but decided not to break up the pin attempt - so I guess they were setting up a feud between those two ( 5 / 10 ).

"Straight Edge" Brian Fury vs. "The Exotic" Kristian Frost: Two up-and-comers working their way up the NECW ladder clashed in this special challenge match. Watching these two work together, you can really get a sense that both of them will play a big part in the future plans of NECW. It is only a matter of time, as they say. Brian Fury picked up the victory after some botched interference from Kristian Frost's manager T.J. Wyld ( 7 / 10 ). Good match but too short; could have gone five or ten more minutes.

4-WAY Elimination #1 Contenders Match - Eddie Edwards vs. Antonio Thomas vs. John Walters vs. Jason Blade: This was a battle of four of the most established stars of NECW. Readers might remember Antonio Thomas as one half of the WWE tag team known as the Heart Throbs. Trust me when I say, Antonio is a star on the independent circuit. "Hurricane" John Walters was apart of Ring of Honor a couple of years ago and had a pretty good run there as the ROH Pure champion. Eddie Edwards and Jason Blade are without a doubt two of New England's finest competitors. In a strange twist, after almost 20-minutes of back-and-forth actions, Eddie Edwards and Antonio Thomas were counted out of the ring, leaving Jason Blade and John Walters to battle it out in a 1-on-1 match to the finish. Blade missed a moonsault and Walters, who wrestles a "Benoit" style of match, tried unsuccessfully to finish him off with a flurry of offense. Blade fought back and nailed a flying elbow off the top rope onto Walters but only got a 2-count. Then suddenly the started exchanging near falls one after another for about three minutes with neither man able to get past the 2-count. A double clothesline sent both men to the mat while the fans chanted "This is Awesome!" to show their respect and appreciation. Both men recovered and the match continued for several more minutes until Blade pinned Walters with a small package to end a very impressive bout ( 8.5 / 10 ). John Walters will be the first challenger for the NECW Triple Crown, which will be decided in the main event unification match. Blade wanted to shake hands after the match, and after hesitating, Walters accepted the handshake, only to blindside Blade with a stiff short-arm clothesline followed by a Gory-driver. Walters then found a chair at ringside and pile-drove Blade on top of the chair!

The Wild Boys (NECW Tag Champions) vs. The Canadian Superstars (PWF Mayhem Tag Champions): The winners of this unification match would be crowned the NECW Undisputed Tag Team champions. Of course I am bound by national loyalty to cheer for the Canadian Superstars. The Wild Boys don't really look like much - they look more like the Deliverance Boys to me. Both teams were clearly passionate about wrestling a good well-paced match. The Canadian Superstars made me proud to be a Canadian when they defeated the Wild Boys and became the NECW's Undisputed Tag Team champions ( 6.5 / 10 ).

2/3 Falls WWW Title Match - Nikki Roxx (c) vs. Ariel: Just seven days previous to this event, Nikki Roxx defeated Ariel in an out-of-this-world wild-and-crazy Anything Goes match to unify the NECW and PWF Mayhem Women's championships to become the first ever WWW champion. WWW (World Women's Wrestling) is an all-female wrestling promotion that runs side-by-side with NECW. That match, by the way, was one of the best ladies wrestling matches I've ever seen. Click here to check out my review. So Birthday Bash 6 was the sight of the big rematch between Roxx and Ariel. Anybody who reads my reviews knows that Nikki Roxx has the best ass in the wrestling business, because I don't let anybody forget it! Within minutes, Ariel scored the first fall after nailing Roxx with the Dariel. Nikki fought back hard and captured the second fall to even the score. The third fall was spoiled when Tanya Lee hit the ring and attacked both girls, but she attacked Nikki Roxx first so Roxx won the match via disqualification ( 7 / 10 ). They had a pretty hot wrestling match going..

No-DQ No-Countout Must Be A Winner - D.C. Dillinger (NECW Champion) vs. Evan Siks (PWF Mayhem Champion): The winner of this match would be crowned the first ever NECW Triple Crown champion. D.C. Dillinger was accompanied by the Manager of Champions, Sean Gorman, as well as "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards. "The Human Nightmare" Evan Siks was clearly the fan-favorite here. Both men have pretty unique looks as far as pro-wrestlers go. It didn't take long for Eddie Edwards to wear out his welcome and receive his ejection notice from promoter Sheldon Goldberg. For the next ten minutes they played around with a steel chair and threw a lot of punches. Not that exciting. The intensity picked up and things got a little more interesting as they introduced a spare piece of guard rail into the match. The referee got bumped and Eddie Edwards returned to the ring only to get back-dropped onto the guard rail by Evan Siks! Siks then picked up Dillinger on his shoulders, rammed his head into the turn-buckle a couple of times and then nailed the Death Valley Driver as the referee woke up and counted the 1-2-3, giving Siks the Triple Crown ( 7.5 / 10 ). This was a tremendously significant moment for NECW and marked a important turning point in the promotions history.

Final Thoughts: If you want professional wrestling to thrive, then you must go out and support your local independent promotions. The one big thing that sets NECW apart from the rest of the independent wrestling world is that their roster is 100% home-grown. They have never had to flush money down the toilet to bring in established (sometimes washed up) wrestlers like most other companies do. It's all about pro-wrestling too, none of the soap opera b.s. that has stained the wrestling industry over the years. There is so much quality professional wrestling out there, you just have to know where to find it. This review should point you in the right direction.

You can watch exclusive episodes of NECW Television at NECW.TV or you can check out the selection of New England Championship Wrestling and World Women's Wrestling home release DVDs at www.necwwrestling.com & www.worldwomenswrestling.com.

Reviewed by Brad Dykens on November 23, 2007.