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LIVE REPORT: NWA ANARCHY TV TAPING IN CORNELIA, GEORGIA

NWA Anarchy was back in Cornelia for a television taping, a mere seven days removed from the annual Season’s Beatings.

It was an OK show. No compelling new directions were revealed. The in-ring was generally solid, but several matches went longer than they needed to be.

The product is somewhat lacking momentum right now. A lull was inevitable. To maintain the incredible pace of in-ring improvement and creative storylines this company demonstrated throughout 2007 would be asking too much.

It would help to bring some fresh talent into the mix, as regional promotions would do back in the day, and as Anarchy has done over the last year. But that’s much easier said than done. It’s not like hot talent is growing on trees at the local level. Especially when you consider the major league potential of the guys Anarchy has added – Mikal Judas, Kory Chavis, Truitt Fields and Shatter.

Attendance at the NWA Arena was 170, almost identical to what they drew last year after setting the company attendance record in Helen for Season’s Beatings ’06. The crowd was amped in spots, but the crazy sustained heat was missing, especially for the midcard stuff. The shriek factor provided by the adolescent girls is not what it used to be. It's taking more to get this crowd going.

NWA Anarchy owner Jerry Palmer opened the show with an update on the condition of Shadow Jackson. Palmer said the surgery to repair Jackson’s torn Achilles went well, and he pegged April or May for the return of “The People’s Champion.”

(1) New Wave (Derrik Driver & Steven Walters) beat Hollywood Brunettes (Andrew Alexander & Kyle Matthews) after the Brunettes f***** up majorly (9:31). New Wave punished Alexander with double teams early. Matthews kicked out of a rolling reverse cradle, sending Walters into a hotshot from Alexander. The Brunettes used combos on Walters. Their work was a lot crisper than last week. They set up a spot where the victim usually eats the turnbuckle, but Walters ended up underneath it and took a wicked looking bump to back of his neck. The crowd got behind Walters more than they ever have before. A Walters double DDT set up house cleaning by Driver. Brunettes saved a couple of finishers. They played off the finish at Season Beatings, as Alexander went for a groin kick on Driver and got Matthews instead.

The WrestleVision showed Devil’s Rejects backstage. Reverend Dan Wilson said he was disappointed in Patrick Bentley. Not for losing, but for tapping out. “You quit. REJECTS DON”T QUIT.” Wilson said Bentley was going to make other quit – “a man simply lays all his pride on the line and gives it up.” Wilson said he was going to introduce Bentley to the secret weapon he learned from Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy.

(2) Jesse Emerson beat Adam Roberts in 5:32. The fans pretty much tuned this match out. Babyface flurry by Emerson, but he got carried away and speared the post. Roberts gave him a single arm DDT. It was all out destruction on the shoulder, until Emerson scored the flash pin with an inside cradle.

Roberts said if losing to Emerson wasn't bad enough, the Alliance lost at Season’s Beatings, Brandon Phoenix had quit on them, and Don Matthews had fallen in love with a muscle bound freak. Out came Melissa Coates. The “she’s man” chant was in full effect. Roberts called her a skank. Coates slapped Roberts, and we had our first real heat of the night. Brodie Chase came out and told Melissa to hit the bricks. Chase said he could have better time by himself. Coates slapped Chase before leaving. The crowd popped huge for the music of Mikal Judas. Judas entered, and what a great entrance it is. In a move that only added to the mountain of problems within Anger Alliance, Roberts left Chase by his lonesome.

(3) Mikal Judas beat Brodie Ray Chase in 10:20. Dueling chants. Chase was flabbergasted by the power in Judas’ shoulderblock. Judas pounded Chase and twisted his arm like a pretzel. Judas was no selling until Chase stunned him with a double karate chop and followed with a knockdown shoulder block. Chase strutted. Judas did the cutthroat motion and stuck out his weirdly colored tongue. Judas hit a top rope clothesline, but Chase got a foot over the ropes. Chase escaped to the outside. Judas did a slingshot to a standing position on the floor. The guy is 6-7 and moves like a cat. They traded blows. Chase ran back inside and cut Judas off. Chase hit a stunner for a near fall. He kicked a field goal with Judas’ nuts. Chase hit his pumphandle neckbreaker and strutted. Judas sat up. Full-fledged comeback by Judas. Chokeslam but Chase used the ropes again. Judas finished him with an implant DDT.

Judas got up from Chase’s finisher and pinned him clean, but came out of this match looking more like a mortal than a superhuman monster. The saving grace is that Judas is gold as a character and a wrestler, so probably no residual damage done.

The lights went off and on – The disfigured freak Dominous was in the ring. He gave Judas a bigtime chokeslam, way more impressive than the one Judas had just given Chase. Lights off and on and the twisted monster was gone. A rare thing about Judas is that his exit is as dramatic as his entrance, and it always gets a great pop.

(4) Todd Sexton & Jimmy Rave beat Truitt Fields & Wes Grissom in 14:02. Fields and Grissom got the best babyface pop of the night. Mostly for Fields. Fields showed his stuff. Rave was being his usual jerk self. Grissom did the A. J. Styles dropkick spot and Rave sold his mouth. Rave dropped Grissom with a great right hand. Rave gave Fields an STO on the apron and Grissom following with a tope on Rave. The beatdown on Grissom was ferocious. He took a wicked short arm lariat from Sexton and high angle back suplex from Rave. Grissom escaped from a double hiptoss and made the diving tag. It was roller coaster back and forth finish. Great stuff. Finish saw Grissom try for a top rope huracanrana on Sexton, but Rave blocked it by grabbing Grissom’s leg. Grissom took the bump and Sexton pinned him with stiff flying kick to the face.

Devil’s Rejects attacked Grissom and Fields. Iceberg squashed Grissom with a belly to belly suplex. Made him disappear. Azrael and Tempers wasted Fields the Hellhammer. Bentley unleashed the Oriental Spike on Grissom. “Violent Passion” was a man possessed. Bill Behrens and Palmer came to ringside. Finally, Awesome Attraction and World’s Prettiest Tag Team hit the ring.

Austin Creed challenged Rejects to a four-on-four match later in the evening.

(5) Talent & Money (J. T. Talent & Andrew Pendleton III) beat Regular Guys (Tyler Smith & Bobby Hill) in 6:17. Smith got off to a fast start and also ended up taking the heat. Hill cleaned house and scored a trio of near falls. The finish was lame. Hill was supposed to do a rolling reverse cradle on Pendleton and become a sitting duck for the kill shot from Talent. But Hill blew the move, and Talent improvised with a lame kick to the face. So Hill ended up being pinned after taking something my mother could have kicked out of.

On the big screen, we saw Salvatore Rinauro backstage with John Johnson. Rinauro cut an underdog babyface promo for his title match against Shatter. He talked about having a dream to be the best as a 14 year old kid on the streets. “Tonight, I prove that dreams can come true.”

(6) Nemesis beat the living hell out of Chip Day in 2:51. Ain’t nothin’ but a Gangsta party. Nemesis set a record time for tearing a small white boy a new asshole. He was calling Shadow’s name as he laid into Day with stinging back chops. The chops to Day’s chest left it a bruised and bloody mess. The crossface forearms were vicious. Nemesis took Day’s head off with a lariat. He hit a senton backsplash and refused to make the pin. Fans were chanting “Shadowmania,” as Nemesis hit his finisher.

“There’s some weak emotions in here.” Nemesis said that with Jackson gone for three months, “Anarchy is my jungle, and all of you are my victims.” Blazing heat for the entire segment. Nemesis/Jackson was the company’s hottest program, so having Nemesis abuse his opponents like they were as nothing more than stand-ins is the next best thing.

(7) Billy Buck & Chris King beat Jeremy Vain & Rob Adonis. Buck pinned Vain after Palmer made his presence felt (8:47). Buck and King stymied the brawling tactics of Vain and Adonis with wrestling skill. Well, for a few minutes anyway. King was on the receiving end of the major punishment, like Vain’s wheelbarrow suplex and a massive Adonis spinebuster. Adonis busted out the Baron Von Raschke claw. King’s satellite Russian legsweep set up some hot house cleaning by Buck. A Samoan drop on Vain was followed by a double dropkick on Adonis. But Adonis pulled King out and was fixing to chuck him into the post when Palmer cracked him across the back with the ax handle. Referee Harold James got distracted. So did Vain. Buck superkicked Vain for the 1-2-3. The finish sequence was right on the money.

(8) Shatter (with Attorney/Agent Jeff G. Bailey) beat Salvatore Rinauro to retain the NWA Anarchy Heavyweight Title in 8:42. Shatter looked invincible. The crowd never gave up on Sal in their hearts, but by the same token, their heads told them he couldn’t win. Rinauro tried to knot up the massive thighs (31 inches) of the mighty Shatter. It was back to the drawing board, as Shatter leveled him with a Stan Hansen lariat. Shatter unleashed his power game full force. Tons of near falls but there was no quit in Rinauro. Shatter withstood a barrage of comeback blows from without going down. Rinauro countered a stalling suplex with a stunner, but still no knockdown. Shatter bumped only once – on a tornado DDT. Rinauro was looking for Pass the Courvoisier, but Shatter had it scouted. Shatter speared Rinauro out of the ring and said he was done. Rinauro got a last gasp small package before Shatter put him away with a crushing PTSD powerbomb.

Bailey cut a promo gloating about Shatter’s win at Season’s Beatings. He put Shatter over like a deity. Bailey said Judas and Iceberg were despicable, vile vermin, but they were also two of the greatest wrestlers in the world, great enough to defeat 99% of their opponents, but Shatter was in that 1% they couldn’t beat. Shatter was presented with a gorgeous new heavyweight title belt.

Bailey said Shatter was the greatest heavyweight champion the NWA Arena had ever seen, and that made him the man to retire the old belt. Bailey said Shatter would take on all comers.

Former NWA Anarchy Heavyweight Champion, Jeff Lewis came to ringside. Lewis said Shatter had something that was promised to him and he wanted it now. Slim J came out and said he was the guy that beat Lewis for the title, so he deserved a shot. Bailey told them to work it out amongst themselves, because Shatter would destroy either one of them. That was pretty much calling a spade a spade, because it’s a stretch to believe that either one has a chance after seeing what Shatter did to Rinauro.

(9) Devil’s Rejects (Iceberg & Shawn Tempers & Azrael & Patrick Bentley with Reverend Wilson) beat Awesome Attraction (Austin Creed & Hayden Young) & World’s Prettiest Tag Team (Seth Delay & Adrian Hawkins) in 13:36. The faces used quick to tags to work on Azrael. Delay was the standout. His execution of basic wrestling was ROH level. The shine built to a four-way dropkick on Iceberg, who took a great delayed bump. Bentley wanted Delay. More amateur style from Delay, but he got blasted by Iceberg and clubbed from behind by Bentley. Delay took sick heat. He sold it like he was being beaten to within an inch of his life. Bentley got a close near fall and the crowd chanted “Patrick sucks.” Delay got Bentley on his back piggy-back style and drove his head into the turnbuckle. Young hit the Flying Squirrel. Iceberg took matters into his own hands and destroyed all four of the babyfaces. Bentley gave Young the Oriental Spike. Then Azrael and Tempers stretched him out like hammock. Iceberg delivered a devastating elevated Ground Zero splash.

NOTES: This week’s Where Are They Now? update involves White Trash, one-time holder of the Wildside Tag Team Championships (with Tank). Trash has graduated to becoming an on air personality with ESPN radio 106.7 FM in Nashville, 2-6 pm weekdays. He’s know as Crazy Charlie, an extension of the character he developed for his match with Traci Brooks at TNA’s Slammiversary …Austin Creed, Adrian Hawkins and Kyle Matthews are all booked for the 1/12 Visionaries of Wrestling show in Millersville, Tn at the SAW Arena.