NWA New Beginnings Results

Posted by Larry Csonka on 03.14.2010

The crowing of a new NEW champion!

Credit: David Houstin and Pwinsider.com

Just getting home from the NWA New Beginnings card and it was even more fun than the previous one. Crowd was significantly larger and more vocal, with a strong Hispanic contingent who lent tremendous energy to the crowd during Blue Demon Jr.'s match. I'm not great with estimates but I would say they had over 300-350 people there. Like the last show, there wasn't any brawling or high spots to the floor until the main event, though there was more heel stalling by running out of the ring. But it wasn't over done and got the heels heat.

The opening match was Caprice Coleman against Damien Wayne. Both men performed very well with the crowd really getting behind Coleman. Good opener with a good false finish before Coleman rolled up Wayne for a clean pin. Wayne then attacked Coleman after the match and left him laying in the ring.

The second match featured the NWA New Beginnings debut of Drew Haskins and his opponent, Cedric Alexander. Haskins works a "Eddie Haskell" gimmick and has terrific facial expressions. Alexander was solid last month in his losing effort against Chase Stevens and had another good match. Alexander won with a sunset flip from the middle rope. Good match. "Roughhouse" Ryan O'Reilly was up next against Ty Tyson. O'Reilly, while supposedly a heel, got a great pop from the crowd while Tyson received polite applause at best. A much more even match than expected with Tyson getting in a lot of offense and O'Reilly mixing in some scientific wrestling with his brawling and power moves. O'Reilly won the bout with a full nelson slam. Even though he's supposed to be a heel, O'Reilly was the overwhelming favorite even with his not shaking hands with any fans.

After a intermission, the next bout was "The Natural" Chase Stevens against "The Obsession" Caleb Konley. Stevens got the best heat of the event up to this point. He really had a "Franchise Shane Douglas" vibe. Konley, a good if vanilla wrestler, was able to get the crowd behind just based also solely on Stevens heel-work. Another in a string of good matches with Stevens winning with a hotshot on the top rope. The referee missed Konley's leg draped across the bottom rope and Steven knocked it off as he stood.

A personal favorite in Jake "the Man Scout" Manning was up next against last month's NWA title challenger, "the Queen City Killer" Zack Salvation. Both guys are extremely good bump-takers and made for an entertaining match. This match featured both the first top rope move of the night in a superplex and the first blown spot. Salvation went for a hurancanrana but came up short but Manning took the bump anyway. To their credit, they recovered quickly with Manning moving to cover Salvation. Salvation won by countering a piledriver attempt with a backdrop into a pin.

Next up was the main event, a three man elimination match for the NWA World title, featuring "Universal Soldier" Phil Shatter (also the NWA National champion), "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce, and defending champion Blue Demon Jr. The match also featured two referees: one inside and one out.Easily one of the best main events I've seen live in years from any company. The one complaint I have about Pearce is his ring attire. His nickname is "Scrap Iron", what's he doing with a sequined robe? The only complaint of the match was when wrestler's would break up pins. It's an elimination match, why would you stop a competitor from being beaten? This was the only match to feature a ring to floor high spot and it brought the audience to it's feet. Demon Jr. hit a suicide dive on Shatter and Pearce as they stood right in front of me, crashing into a photographer in the front row. Shockingly, Demon was the first wrestler eliminated as Pearce dropped him neck first on the top rope as Demon Jr. headscissored Shatter, allowing Pearce to gain a pinfall. This guaranteed that the NWA title would change hands for the first time ever in Charlotte. Shatter and Pearce went on to have a very entertaining, fast paced match showing remarkable athleticism for men of their size. At one point Pearce was knocked out of the ring. As he tried to climb back in, Shatter intercepted him. Pearce punched at him, Shatter ducked and back suplexed Pearce into the ring, bridging in an attempt to pin him. Both refs counted, with one counting as Pearce raised his shoulder and the other counting out Shatter, who had both shoulders down. After some confusion, "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce was declared the winner and new NWA World Champion.

Demon Jr. and Shatter cut promos about getting rematches and it was announced that the NWA title would be defended at the next show on April 11.

In attendance for this show was Jim Cornette for an autograph signing and to promote the ROH "Big Bang" show April 3. 80s legendary valet, Baby Doll was also in attendance. Just an all around great show with good wrestling and a hot crowd.