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NWA Anarchy’s Hardcore Hell 2010, the fourteenth rendition of the longest
running event in indie wrestling, most assuredly lived up to its name.
Attendance was 230. The NWA Arena in Cornelia hadn’t seen a crowd that size
since July 2008. Neither had the talent roster, who busted their butts up and
down the card in response. It had to be morale boost on all fronts. The heat was
amazing until crowd fatigue set in for the last 45 minutes of this 3 and ½ hour
show.
It presented the action-packed-to-the-max version of Anarchy, with moments of
spectacular athleticism, stretches of horrific violence, great stories and one
of the best angles ever in this building, it was had everything fans could
possibly hope for from a big show night in Cornelia. Will fans come back in
great numbers for Hostile Environment in July? Absofreakinglutely. The question
is if the stories, and there were plenty of them put out there, enough to
enticement to bring fans back to the shows in between, or were appetites
satisfied by the gluttony of so much in one night?
For me, it was a hard show to rate. I found many more things to like than
dislike, and parts of it were stellar. The atmosphere in the building was at its
best for the first 2/3 of the show, but it peaked early and flattened out
towards the end. It was way ahead of the most recent big shows, Season’s
Beatings and Fright Night.
NWA Anarchy owner Jerry Palmer opened calling Hardcore Hell as sick, twisted and
violent of a show as anything out there. Prophetic words.
(1) Andrew Pendleton III defeated Champion BJ Hancock and Bo Newsome and Slim J
and Stryknyn and Jacob Ashworth and Skirra Corvus (with Enoch Tsarion) in a
ladder match to win the NWA Anarchy Young Lion’s Championship in 12:44.
As expected, tons of nutty spots in this one. I’ll hit on a few of the high
points of the craziness. A variety of ladders were set up at ringside. Corvus
and Tsarion didn’t appear until the match was already underway. Ashworth took
ridiculous punishment. It started with an unprotected chairshot to the skull
from J. They did a sequence where guys took turns trying to quickly scale the
ladder while they were fresh – like the object was to win instead of just do
stunts. Corvus gave Ashworth a ladder shot to the head and then delivered a
ladder leapfrog guillotine leg drop on the poor guy. Pendleton cut off Strykyn’s
climb and had to stall a bit, before J launched from a 6 foot ladder to bring
Pendleton off a tall ladder with a huracanrana. They set up ringside contraption
consisting of four chairs and two ladders. J got to the top of the 10 foot
ladder, but was too far away to reach the medallion, so he dove over the top
rope crashing Stryknyn and Ashworth through the ladder sandwich. Stryknyn was
bleeding from the nose. Newsome hit a Spinal Tap from a ladder onto Hancock, who
was sprawled out on a bridged ladder. With everyone else down and destroyed,
Corvus appeared to have a clear path to victory, but Pendleton came from his
hiding place underneath the ring to pull Corvus down. There was a Swagger-like
delay as Pendleton had trouble unhooking the medallion to become the surprise
winner (having just lost the tag titles with JT Talent, he hadn’t been in the
Young Lion’s mix leading up to the match). The crowd responded with an extended
ovation for the collective effort of all the participants.
(2) The Entourage (Andrew Alexander & Mike Mosley & Mr. Black) beat Don
Matthews & New Wave (Steven Walters & Derrick Driver) in 14:16.
Matthews and Black were in each other’s faces before the match. Crowd started
chanting for Matthews as soon as Entourage got heat on Driver. The standout spot
was Black’s freight train corner splash. Matthews took the hot tag. He smoked
Alexander (via fallaway slam), Mosley (via BFK) and clotheslined Black over the
top. While Matthews and Black were going at it at ringside, New Wave hit Double
Vision on Alexander for a near fall. New Wave then for up for the Spanish Fly
but Mosley broke that up. They went for the Unskinny Bop, but Black busted that
up, and Alexander pinned Walters with a piledriver. Good action, good story and
the crowd was up for it.
“Hands of Steel†Seth Delay was introduced by Greg Hunter. Delay said he was
going to take care of the entire roster including “grand daddy†Brodie Chase and
issued an open challenge.
(3) Anthony Henry pinned Seth Delay at 7:34 after Brodie Chase stripped Delay
of his brass knucks. Delay took over and was acting like it was going
to be a cakewalk. Crowd broke into a “we want Brodie†chant. Henry rallied with
good fire but a messy spinkick took the edge of his comeback. They started
trading near falls. Henry used an electric chair german suplex. Good stuff but
the crowd wasn’t into it, so it felt like spots for the sake of spots. Delay
pulled the knucks out, but Chase came out and took them away. As Chase
threatened to hit Delay, Henry capitalized with an O’Connor Roll.
(4) New Jack beat Radical Jack in 3:14. Crowd was silent. They
brawled with Jack using his trademark weapons. Radical bled a little. Neither
one bumped. Jack pinned Radical with a belly to belly suplex, the only wrestling
move of the match. A hardcore match with no issue is beyond passé at this point.
Low point of the show.
Jack said he could win with or without weapons. Fans didn’t care about the
former and saw little evidence of the latter. Jack said he quit the business,
the business didn’t quit him, so we better get used to seeing his face. “Guess
who’s comin’ to dinner, mom? New Jack.†Sadly, this segment was devoid of the
electrifying quality of Jack’s previous appearances in Cornelia.
(5) Tank beat Shaun Tempers (with The Reverend) in a Compound Death Match in 15
minutes. The fans supplied the weapons. Incredibly heated. This was
the hardcore match fans came to see – the final showdown for Devil’s Rejects.
Tank came down the ramp talking on his cell phone. Tempers ambushed him. He
gouged the edge of a broken yardstick into Tank’s head. Tank juiced right away
with blood flowing heavily from above the right eye. A shopping cart filled with
all kinds of **** came rolling down the ramp. Tempers took a home run swing with
a baseball bat (his father is the minor league hitting coordinator for the
Philadelphia Phillies) and hit the post. Tank used the bat on Tempers. Tank won
a tug of war with The Rev over Tempers (not much of a battle) resulting in the
Rev being pulled inside the ring. After a double bionic elbow, Tank sliced their
foreheads with a pizza cutter. Both of them bled. Tank set a cinder block on top
of Tempers groinular region and hit it with a shovel. Crowd badly wanted to see
it again, so he did the same to Rev, and the cinder block cracked in two.
Tempers headbutted Tank wearing a baseball helmet. They each kicked out of the
other guy’s big finishing move. The coagulated blood on Tank’s forehead looked
black. Tank gave Tempers and Wilson a double Samoan Drop. The lights went out
and when they came back on, Azrael was in the ring. He nailed Tank with the
superman punch. Lights off and on again, and Iceberg was back. He wasted no time
taking care of Azrael. Tank used a stop sign to block Tempers’ hangman
neckbreaker, and pinned him with Go To Sleep. The crowd popped huge when Iceberg
and Tank hugged in the ring. Tempers looked to be in total agony after the
match. A grand finale. Gruesome, gory, vile but every bit of it was justified by
the dark nature (even by pro wrestling standards) of the story, one that spanned
almost five years.
(6) Ace Rockwell beat Truitt Fields via DQ in 19:25. This also killer
heat. Fields was using a hair band to keep that wild mane out of his eyes. An
enraged Rockwell went on the attack and pulled off the hairband. Rockwell was
running wild, until Fields bashed him into the rail and went back to posing.
Fields then pulled a second hair band out of his boot. Heel blood flows through
those veins. Fields dominated with the crowd dying for him to get pay back for
his dickish antics. Rockwell no sold shots into the buckle and launched a
comeback. He hit a neat combo – catapulting Fields face first into the buckles
followed by a monkey flip. But Fields countered the airplane spin with a discus
elbow for a near fall. Rockwell escaped from the torture rack to gain a near
fall with a missile dropkick. Fields countered Aces High with Killing Fields,
but Rockwell kicked out of it. Crowd was huge behind Ace now. Rockwell got the
airplane spin and both men stayed down. Fields blocked Aces High again. Rockwell
came off the top and was met by a Polish hammer. Crowd chanted “you suck†at
Fields and it was great. Rockwell managed to block the torture rack. At this
point, Fields clocked a security guy and took away his handcuffs Didn’t know
Anarchy security carried handcuffs. Maybe a leftover from the Death Match. Be
that at as it may, Fields cuffed Rockwell and put him in the torture rack for
the DQ.
The postmatch was one of the best angles I’ve ever seen in Cornelia. Total
chaos. Security hit the ring and finally got the handcuffs off of Rockwell.
Rockwell’s girlfriend entered to check on her man. As security was removing
Rockwell from the ring, Fields put Rockwell’s girlfriend in the torture rack.
Heat off the chain. All hell broke loose. Palmer went after Fields. He let the
girl go. Security got involved and Palmer never could quite reach Fields, who
was enjoying every second of it. Rockwell was starting to recover when he saw
his girilfriend being carried out. He went completely nuts trying to get to
Fields, but security kept them separated. At this juncture, Hardcore Hell 2010
was looking like one of Anarchy’s best shows ever.
(7) Wild Bunch (Billy Buck & Chris King) beat Jeremy Vain & Orion Bishop to
retain the NWA Anarchy Tag Team Championship in 13:57. Wild Bunch are
way over with the crowd. Bishop and Vain were having issues. Vain was bumping
like mad. I write that about every Vain match, but he’s peerless in that regard.
King was babyface-in-peril. V accidentally superkicked Bishop to set up the
house cleaning by Buck. They gave Bishop the necktie double Russian legsweep and
played ping pong with Vain. Everything was fine until it came time to do the
finish, which turned into a dragged out mess. Buck finally superkicked Vain for
the 1-2-3.
Afterwards, Entourage laid out Wild Bunch and dropped the belts on top of their
lifeless bodies. Wild Bunch recovered enough to leave under their own power and
got the big pop on their way out.
Vain said farewell to the Cornelia fans. If there was ever a time for breaking
character, this was it. He said all his wrestling dreams had come true during
his 9 years in that ring. He put Anarchy over as having the best locker room and
best show in the Southeast. There was a funny moment when a fan yelled something
nasty at him and Vain responded “damn, I must be good.†Vain thanked a number of
members of the roster and said without them he wasn’t a damn thing. Vain hugged
Hunter before heading up the ramp one last time.
(8) NWA Anarchy TV Champion Caprice Coleman beat NWA National Champion Phil
Shatter (with Jeff G. Bailey) via DQ when Delay attacked Coleman at 17:35.
Shatter attacked before the bell. As they fought outside the ring, Coleman
slammed Shatter’s knee into the rail. The knee became the focal point of
Coleman’s attack. Shatter stayed on Coleman with power moves. Crowd fatigue set
in early in the match, and the heat just wasn’t the same for the remainder of
the night. Coleman hit a great slingshot move to apron, landing across Shatter’s
ankle. Shatter bludgeoned Coleman to get him off the ankle. There was cool
sequence where Coleman tried a slingshot sunset flip and Shatter goozled him,
only to have Coleman escape into a springboard sunset flip. They traded near
falls. Shatter blocked That’s Life and went for the PTSD, and Coleman reversed
into an ankle lock. Crowd was chanting for Shatter to tap, but he managed to
break the hold. As Shatter went a spear, Coleman sprawled and caught him in a
front facelock. Delay ran out and nailed Coleman with a knuck shot for the DQ. A
very good match. I don’t think Shatter and Coleman can have any other kind. It
just didn’t have the benefit of great heat. The timing on the finish wasn’t
ideal, but it wasn’t a finish that fans were going to like in any case.
(9) Shadow Jackson defeated Mikal Judas to retain the NWA Anarchy Heavyweight
Championship in 11:13. Jackson got a great pop despite the crowd
fatigue. Judas refused to shake Jackson’s hand. Jackson was making Judas miss
his big moves early, and it was Jackson scoring with shoulder block knockdowns,
and winning a test of strength to gain a reversal. Judas kicked Jackson low to
take over. Judas methodically dismantled the champion. He gave Jackson a
chokeslam and didn’t bother with a cover. Jackson was quivering on the mat. Even
the “Shadowmania†chant couldn’t rouse the champion for a comeback. Judas was
taunting Jackson, who was unable to stand. Judas had Jackson up for El Crucifijo,
when Jackson countered with a roll up out of the blue.
Judas raised Jackson’s hand then blinded him with the red mist. It was great
point to end the show, but that’s not what happened. Instead, Judas gave Jackson
a beatdown that went on forever and day. Judas blasted one security guy with a
chair, and rest of the Anarchy personnel were afraid to get near him. Couldn’t
blame them. Jackson bled. The bell kept ringing like crazy, but nobody came out
to save Jackson. What the hell were they doing back there? It was silly. Judas
gave Jackson two belt shots and started in with chairshots to the back.
Wrestlers finally came to ringside to find Judas standing over Jackson holding a
chair. Before Judas could deliver a third chairshot, they swarmed into the ring
to cover Jackson’s body. Crowd seemed more stunned than heated, partly because
they were sapped of energy by the time this all took place.
NOTES: Kevin Marx and Amanda Starr were back doing production. They got the
works – intro by Greg Hunter complete with ramp entrance. They’re presence has
been missed. The Hardcore Hell video package was well done. It definitely got
the crowd amped…Rockwell’s girlfriend sustained an ankle injury during the pull
apart and was taking to the ER to get checked out…Aaron Lee and Chris Mayne sat
in the bleachers wearing suits…A nostalgic reference in the Compound Death Match
was the “El Kabong†stop sign, which dates back to 2001 NWA Wildside and Tank’s
brief tag team title run with White Trash as Project Mayhem…Vain will be
appearing for Rampage Pro Wrestling on the Saturdays he formerly had reserved
for NWA Anarchy… There’s an excellent interview with Shatter up at [url=www.myvirtualbc.com]The
Wrestling Hotseat[/url].
