Time Waits for No One, but SCU readers had to wait over two weeks for our recap of all the action at the SLAM THEATER. Click below for the full report. Planes, Trains and Automobiles Report Vol. 8: Next Generation Wrestling 2/3/07
by Paul Newberry and Jay Doring
Hey all you swatch dogs and Diet Coke-heads out there in TV land, and welcome back to the “Planes, Trains and Automobiles Report”. This time we’ll be taking another look at up and coming promotion “Next Generation Wrestling” as they presented their sophomore effort entitled “Time Waits For No One”. Which I originally misread as “Tom Waits for no one” You can imagine how disappointed I was to learn of my mistake, thus bringing my life long dream of a combination wrestling show/Tom Waits concert to a crushing halt (at least until I hit the lottery)
Now if you remember, last time NGW had some trouble keeping their bell time (having advertised a 6 PM Bell, only to start at 8 PM). But this time would be different. We were assured that bell time would be promptly at 7 PM! Hey, they mean it this time! So I arrived around 6:30ish. Which seemed like a logical time, seeing as the belltime was listed as 7:00 and hey they meant it this time! But it turns out, they didn’t really mean it this time. As 7:00 passed with no bell. While time may wait for no one, waiting for NGW is fast becoming a tradition.
Finally after another long wait, we are let in. As generic rock music serenades us, we discover our seats. Jay uses this time to visit the Slam Theatre concussion stand and grab a Sausage sandwich, while I try to kill some time by playing a game of Cell Phone Madden 2007 (even less fun than it sounds)
After a decent stretch of tedium, the same ring announcer from last time enters the ring to start the show. Damn right! This announcer is great. We were worried they wouldn’t bring him back, but thankfully they did. This guy is worth the admission price alone. Which is why I was dumbfounded to hear him recieve a good deal of boos from the crowd. That’s it, the terrorists have officially won.
So at 7:53 our show finally begins. Note to NGW: Maybe it would be easier to change the bell time to 8 PM next time? Err never mind, if that happened the shows would probably end up starting at 10 pm.
Match One: Diablo Vs. Kid Karnage Vs. Chimaera
Paul: Let’s meet the players: Kid Karnage has been wrestling with EWF for several years and can also be seen in various other local feds (name one that isn’t popular, he’s probably in it). 2nd competitor is Diablo. Who comes to us from HRW. All you need to know is he had a TNA PPV PRE-SHOW MATCH! Hey, if you appeared on a TNA PPV PRE-SHOW, you’d be milking it too. 3rd entry is Chimaera. Chimaera is a cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes. They are related to the sharks and rays, and are sometimes called ghost sharks or rabbitfishes. This particular Chimaera came in 3rd in the 2006 SoCalUncensored Rookie of the year polling. That’s some fish.
Our referee is HRW’s “BFF” Steve. Who for some reason insists on refereeing wearing baggy jeans! Does the man does not own a pair of black pants?
Jay: I was pretty interested in seeing this match, if only to find out whether I was too hard on Chimaera based on his awkward match with Disco Machine at the first NGW show. He did look quite a bit better here, hitting all his spots smoothly and doing some impressive dives. The rest of the match was okay, a standard “one guy in, one guy out” three-way indy spotfest. The one part of the match that did look a little too choreographed was when Diablo had Chimaera pinned after a move, and both they and the referee waited forever for Karnage to come off the top with a frog splash and break it up. Diablo took advantage of the other two men being in rough shape and hit a Crucifix Bomb for the pin. (Get it? Diablo? Crucifix? Yeah.)
Paul: Fine for what it was. I thought it was awkward at times, like when Karnage attempted to break up a pin with a frog splash, but Diablo moves out of the way, and Karnage connects with the splash on Chimaera. But sells it if he’s been seriously hurt just by properly hitting his move. But for an opener, I guess you can forgive such things…right? Also I have to say that while Diablo did well, I think he was trying a bit too hard to get people to boo him. It didn’t come off as natural and just reeked of effort… man.
Winner: Diablo
Match Two: “Sexy” Sonny Samson Vs. Jerome “LTP” Robinson
Paul: Straight Outta Brokeback, crazy motherf****r named “Sexy” Sonny Samson. Who enters sucking on a water bottle in an impure manner. The NGW faithful direct several homosexual themed chants at him, which Samson proudly encourages. Samson grabs the mic and says that he asked NGW for a big match tonight but instead he gets this Webster looking guy (referring to the Tom Cruisian statured LTP) and that one way or another he was going to make an impact tonight.
As for LTP (which stands for “Less Than Perfect” I can only assume he named himself after the recently canceled Andy Dick sitcom), I had no clue who he was until he recently started appearing in AWS, EWF and the Dojo. But a quick search shows that he has been around for a few years and has also competed for HRW, FCW, HPW and others in the past.
Jay: No matter what you think about Sonny Samson as a wrestler, he has the best nickname in all of indy wrestling: “The King of Nakedness.” Jerome “LTP” Robinson has come out of nowhere to be a really enjoyable addition to SoCal cards. For a guy that Samson rightfully points out, “looks like Webster,” he’s got some great hops (including a standing phoenix splash) and a Kevin Steen-like quick wit. My favorite part of the match was when Robinson charge at Samson and got caught with a Sky High powerbomb, and LTP cried out “OH SNAP” on the way down. Another great moment was after his initial comeback, LTP yelled out “Get on up! I’m black and I’m proud!” in typical James Brown fashion to a solid reaction from the crowd. This was definitely the best Sonny Samson match I’ve ever seen, largely due to the effort of LTP, although Samson did bring a nice set of power offense (including a Roderick Strong-style half nelson backbreaker.)
Paul: Samson wins it after making LTP tap out to a cloverleaf. Fun match here. I’m not really sold on Samson as a wrestler (seeing that terrible match he had with Slymm in AWS will do that) but this was by far the best match I’ve seen from him. Which could be attributed to the efforts of LTP. Who I think came off very well, and was genuinely funny in this match. You really wanted to see the little guy (who is about 5’5) pull it off. I would definitely be interested in seeing more from LTP in the future.
Winner: Sexy Sonny Samson
Paul: Some music starts and we hear a loud pop. Then some lights go out. Oh boy. The Ring Announcer explains that they are having some technical difficulties, and tries to kill some time. He questions the crowd as to why they hate him. He assumes that it is because he is black, and brings up a few jokes inspired by his acute blackness. Then he challenges a fan who was taunting him to get in the ring and fight him! And for once the fan actually does! Fuck em’ up ring announcer! The fan (wearing a Dodgers t-shirt) just poses and postures. Nothing much really happens. Ring announcer asks the fan where he is from. Fan says that he is Andrew from Boyle Heights. Ring Announcer then heels it up and tells the crowd that he is from Orange County and loves the Anaheim Angels (That’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim jerk!) which gets a round of boos. Then he admits that he is actually from Compton and loves the Los Angeles Dodgers of Anaheim.
THEN some rap music hits and the large man who handed me an NGW flyer last week at AWS, makes his way to ringside in a noticeably dirty black suit. He identifies himself as Marvin Evans and is quickly interrupted by an audience member who asked “How many cows died to make your suit?” After a few yuks, he calls Phoenix Star to the ring. Star along with manager “New York Knockout” Nikki (say that five times fast) enter to the greatest song known to man, “No Easy Way Out” from Rocky 4. Evans asks Star to explain Zokre’s whereabouts. Star explains that Zokre hurt this knee and won’t be able to wrestle tonight. Evans then decides Zokre’s replacement would be Nikki (Who just happened to be wearing her wrestling gear… so it worked out!) and the match would start right now!
Cue the Young Bucks, who enter to the 14073rd greatest song known to man, “Mmm Bop” by Hanson. Then heel it up on the way to the ring. Some fans call them RVD (which makes no sense, as they are clearly the Hardy Boys) to which they respond: “No, we are the Hanson Brothers!” Hmm, I thought the Ballards were the Hanson brothers… anyway, hey our match is on!
Match Three: The Young Bucks Vs. Nikki and Phoenix Star
Jay: Since Victorville is way too far of a drive for me to make, I’ve only seen the Young Bucks in three settings – NWA Pro, AWS and NGW. I’ve gotta say, the arrogant pretty-boy heel Bucks are about a 10-ton upgrade over the flippy babyfaces they portray in NWA-land, and may in fact be one of my favorite tag teams to watch right now. After getting surprised by a couple quick rollups by Nikki, the Bucks got their heads on straight and display some RUTHLESS AGGRESSION with her, breaking Nikki down with strikes and their wide variety of doubleteams. Despite making the hot tag to Phoenix, the cocky Bucks were able to isolate him and stay on offense for the majority of the match. However, the Bucks ended up victims of circumstance and caught a flash rollip from Nikki for the embarrassing loss.
The large dirty-jacketed Marvin Evans chastised the Bucks for losing to a chick, and strangely sent the babyface Nemesis and Guerrero de Sangre out to attack them! However, the Bucks promised they’d be back next show and give the NGW fans more BANG for their…well you get it. Then, they proceeded to dance and pose to mmmMMBOP as female fans gave them dollar bills! I seriously thought ONE set of Backseat Boyz was enough, but I guess not.
Paul: Yikes, I’d say that even one set of Backseat Boyz is far too much. Anyway, good work from all involved in this one. The Bucks are far more effective in their cocky NGW personas than in their bouncy babyface roles in other promotions such as AWS. I must say after seeing them a few times recently The Bucks have impressed me. Which surprised me, since I had heard some negative things about their work in the past (let’s just say the name RIC BLADE was used). But honestly, I can see them becoming some of the SoCal regions bigger stars in the future, should they continue to improve at this rate. Time will tell…
Winners: Phoenix Star and Nikki
Paul: As the Bucks get have an Mmm Bop sing-along and collect dollar bills from little boys in the crowd (creepy I know) The ring announcer informs us that it is INTERMISSION TIME! Hey, we have a star sighting! There is Scott Lost and Top Gun Talwar! Unfortunately not singing along to “Mmm Bop” 🙁
Match Four: Bino Gambino Vs. Joey Harder
Paul: A modern day warrior mean mean stride. Today’s Tom Sawyer, mean mean pride. It’s JOEY HARDER! After 2 years, I finally get to see another Joey Harder match live. Since I’m feeling a little nostalgic, I thought I’d take this time to reflect on the first time I saw Joey wrestle and present to you…
A brief history of Harder:
The date: October 2004. Revolution Pro was in a bind, their showcase Revolution J participant Jack Evans canceled off what was to be his SoCal debut due to one of those pesky ROH shows. This disappointed a great many fans, but their disappointment soon turned to pure euphoria, when it was announced that Evans’ replacement was the one and only Rockero Del Diablo! Ok, actually no one cared about Rockero either way. Shortly after that, it was announced that Rockero couldn’t make the show either (the devil needed him to rock somewhere I believe). With limited selections left (you see RevPro had wasted all other worthy local replacements in Rev J qualifying matches the month before), RevPro made an interesting decision and went with a PWI student by the name of Joey Harder to fill the vacant spot 3 days before the event. To the universal reaction of “LOL, they said harder.”
With only 7 matches under his belt going to the show, to the surprise of everyone, Harder the story of the tournament. In the first round he handedly defeated NorCal’s Hijo de Chupacabra. But that was simply luck right? There was no way Harder would get past RevPro Heavyweight Champion Chris Bosh in the 2nd round. But he did! As before the match started Bosh announced as was too injured to compete and forfeited his spot. Giving Harder a bye into Semi-Finals. Which was supposed to be against Quicksilver. But Frank And Son’s time restraints forced RevPro to skip right to a 4-way final.
Which was SUPER DRAGON Vs. SCORPIO SKY Vs. QUICKSILVER Vs.. Joey Harder? You can imagine how the crowd would be feeling about a 3rd string replacement, with less than 10 career matches reaching the finals of SoCal’s premiere tournament after only one victory? If you guessed “ecstatic” you would be correct. Joey entered the match to a rather large chant of “Harder Harder Harder” (which in retrospect, must have sounded really queer) This crowd was fully behind the unlikely finalist with the funny name. Although it was 4-way elimination match up, for a while it had morphed into The AXP Vs. Super Dragon and Joey Harder. Crowd was delighted as Super Dragon took this newcomer under his wing, and Harder further won over the crowd by emulating Dragon’s trademark Violence Party and Curb Stomp. It was a quite the memorable moment. However the clock soon struck 12 on Joey Harder’s Cinderella Story, as Super Dragon pearl Harbored Harder with the Supernatural Driver and scored the pinfall. Joey had lost the tournament, but forever won our hearts.
Afterward, Joey Harder was the most talked about wrestler on SoCalUncensored for several weeks following the Rev J. Overshadowing even the tournament winner, Scorpio Sky. But this auspicious debut was only the beginning of Harder’s blossoming young career. In the year following, he continued to work throughout California and improve every step of way. In 2005, SoCalUncensored named Joey Harder as the SoCal Rookie Of The Year. Harder’s reach also extended outside of California with appearances in major indies such as IWA:MS and ROH. To date, Harder has found his greatest success in EWF. Where he held their Crusierweight title for a record 260 days. Following that up by winning the EWF tag titles with partner Hook Bomberry. Most recently winning the EWF title from his opponent tonight, Bino Gambino. As SoCal has learned, It’s hard to keep a good man down, but even harder to keep a guy named Joey down!
I’d look for big things in the future for Harder… like this next match up!
Jay: Bino, an unadvertised addition to this card, was a great surprise and a much better fit as an opponent for Harder than Chimaera, due to their similar styles and recent blood feud in EWF. While the crowd didn’t seem to appreciate the much slower style of this match compared to the rest of the show, it was a very well-worked mat-based match, and Harder seems to have grown into his “Silent Assassin” character very well. The ending was basically the same as Bino’s encounter with Joey Ryan at the last NGW show. Bino hits his finisher, doesn’t see his opponent’s foot on the ropes, thinks he’s won and then is waylaid by CHEATING and takes defeat. Harder wins with the northern lights bomb.
Paul: Good showing for both. A much different match from anything else on the card, very EWF styled with more focus on working the crowd than you would normally see in SoCal (where matches often seem like a contest to see who could pull off the most off da heezy-foe-sheezy moves. Just watch a Markus Riot match) After the match, as Bino was pouting over his loss. A fan yelled out something like “Too bad you didn’t show that much fire in your match!” Bino freaks out and says to the (I’m guessing) large fan, “Like how you get fired up by eating? I bet you get real fired up by eating” Honestly, Bino’s taunting was more entertaining than anything he did in the match. Crazy loudmouth Bino = A+ entertainment
Winner: Joey Harder
Match Five: Midnight Dynamite (Charles Mercury & Johnny Paradise) Vs. Nemesis & Guerrero de Sangre
Jay: Nemesis and GDS attacking the heel Young Bucks on behalf of the heel authority figure earlier on the night is made even more baffling, as they’re matched up against perennial heels Midnight Dynamite. I like 3 out of the 4 guys in this match and they’re capable of putting on top-quality matches, but this was just a total styles clash in every possible way – lucha libre vs. classic old-school heel tactics – and it didn’t really work at all. I was totally zoned out during the whole match, and as the longest contest of the night I was just waiting for it to be over. The best thing you could say about this match is GDS got to do his fat guy senton off the stage again. He also hit his awesome chokelift stunner on Charles Mercury after the match, something I didn’t think he’d be able to do.
Paul: Yeah, it was an unfortunate match, that never clicked and just went on for AGES. Which is a shame because Chuck Mercury is a favorite of mine. Oh well, at least it didn’t have Los Chivos in it (I’m always thankful for that); And I must agree with you Jay, GDS’ choke-stunner thing is a real sight to be seen…
Winners: Nemesis & Guerrero de Sangre
Match Six: Ronin Vs. Hook Bomberry
Paul: Ronin along with surprise manager Dino Winwood, enters to a loud reaction. Dino is is holding up a sign that says “Good Guys”. Which is a much better way to declare Ronin’s disposition than the whole flipping off little kids thing he did last time. Although that did look like fun, so you really can’t hold that against him.
His opposition tonight is Hook Bomberry, who has been around SoCal for over four years now. These two aren’t strangers either, having previously met one on one back on 11/06/04 for RevPro with Hook Bomberry getting the victory. Now 2 years later, Ronin wants blood! Oh who am I kidding, like he even remembers that.
And as if we already didn’t have enough reason to like this ring announcer, for some reason he announces Bomberry as “The Baked Potato” Hook Bomberry. Which draws a “WTF are you talking about?” look from Hook. Some guy in the crowd also calls Hook “Lou Diamond Phillips” which I thought was pretty spot on.
Jay: I don’t know what happens to Ronin when he hits NGW, but he suddenly becomes Superman when he steps into the Slam Theater. As an interesting surprise, he was accompanied to the ring by Dino Winwood, who brought a sign proclaiming he and Ronin were “Good Guys” and Hook Bomberry was a “Doosh Bag.” The crowd loved that – sometimes it’s the simplest stuff that creates heat for a match. This match was even better than Ronin’s match with Charles Mercury at the previous NGW show, and surprisingly a lot of that had to do with Hook Bomberry. I never cared for Bomberry in his PWG run, but here he not only showed a great deal of personality…mixing Ric Flair heel gyrations (“This is for you fat girl!”) with a focused and vicious attack on Ronin’s arm. Despite a couple of close calls where it seemed like Ronin was close to tapping out, he made the valiant comeback with a couple of bigtime suplexes and counters another armbar attempt by powering Hook up for the mofuckin’ Death Valley Driver. Which naturally gets the pin. Honestly, this is a candidate for SoCal Match of the Month.
Paul: Another memorable moment was when Hook was charging Ronin on the outside, and Ronin just throws a water bottle right at him! First chairs, now water bottles. Ronin is very creative with his choice of projectile weaponry. Afterward, Ronin is jumped from behind by Sonny Samson (not like that! sickos). Then Sonny gets on the stage and says he told everyone he would make an impact tonight, and he just did! Samson looks like he is going to challenge Ronin to a match at the next show, then mentions he’s in a tag match next show. The enraged Ronin launches more water bottles at Samson! Then Dino starts a “Doosh Bag” chant.
Great great stuff, that was easily the match of the night for me. NGW is really getting the most out of Ronin by having him play the babyface (So much so that the following week, PWG followed this same formula to a good deal of success) Ronin didn’t do it alone though, Hook also left a good impression here and gave one of the best overall performances I’ve ever seen from him.
Winner: Ronin
Paul: The still unnamed after two shows, Ring Announcer asks the fans to come up with a name for him. Someone shouts out “Midnight Dynamite” which of course is already being used, so he can’t go with that. But someone else shouts out “Midnight Thunder”. So now the ring announcer without a name, finally has one! Midnight Thunder. You know, if I ever have a child (or if I am ever given a Tamagotchi), I’m going to name it by petitioning an NGW crowd. They have to be able to come up with something better than Genesis Rose, Warren Moon or whatever lame names people give their kids these days.
Main Event: That 70’s Team (Joey Ryan and Disco Machine) Vs. Blazing Riot (Markus Riot and Leo Blaze)
Paul: Now it’s time for our main event. As MTV Superstar’s “That 70’s Team” enter to an impressive light show. Both wearing Disco’s trademark mask. Once in the ring, Disco and Joey boogey down in tandem (with Joey’s dance technique being SLIGHTLY more spastic than Disco’s).
And here comes the seizures! As the strobe lights hit and Blazing Riot enter. To be honest, I am a little light sensitive so this entrance was difficult to endure. After I got done choking on my tongue, it was time for action!
Fun Fact: Markus Riot was once billed as Joey Ryan’s brother. I must say that I would enjoy his matches more if he did parade around as Joey Ryancito.
Jay: I don’t really want to see Markus Riot rubbing oil on himself, no. The main event is where the NGW honchos decided to make full use of the SLAM THEATER, creating a disco atmosphere for Joey and Machine to do an amusing, over-the-top dance-off. This was more or less pure character work, which is something I could watch Joey Ryan do all day. He’s such a fully formed, unique character on the independents today, that he’s become my favorite wrestler to watch in Southern California and one of the top 5 in the United States, period. Disco and Joey worked over Markus until Leo Blaze made the hot tag. After hitting a couple of highspots (one of which, a standing moonsault by Blaze, busted open Joey’s nose hardway), Joey knocked Markus for a loop with the (say it with me) SUPER ’70’S SUPER KICK to score the pinfall. Joey and Disco then danced the night away in a ring to close out the show
Paul: Yeah, the match was filled to the literal brim with Joey Ryan character work. Myself being a fan of Joey Ryan character work, I really enjoyed it. Joey has perfected the art of sleazy, shown here as he delayed the match quite a while just to rub lotion on himself. Also we saw the now standard “Joey shows his ass” spot, done in tandem with the Disco Machine also providing a full moon (and I thought the strobe lights hurt my eyes!) Lots to like about this match up, as Disco and Joey hammed it up to perfection (they even weighted in at a combined weight of 1970!). A highly entertaining match and a fitting way to close out the show.
Winners: Disco Machine and Joey Ryan
Paul: After Disco and Joey’s dance routine concludes, our beloved ring announcer Midnight Thunder thanks us for coming and orders us off the premises. No return date was announced, however NGW’s MySpace page did have March 17th listed, but now that appears to be gone. I recall NGW mentioning something about a tag team tournament in a message board post. If that ever comes to pass, all I suggest is that they book Arrogance. I’d pay good money for a Chris Bosh-Midnight Thunder debate.
So until then, we will have to wait to a little longer to revisit all our NGW favorites like Midnight Thunder, The guy in the dirty suit, LTP, shockingly great Ronin matches, that ref in blue jeans, and Guerrero de Sangre’s choke stunner.
Overall Thoughts:
Jay: I’ve lived on the West Coast for nearly a year, and outside of PWG this has been the most fun I’ve had at an indy wrestling show. NGW dramatically improved their presentation for the second show, adding light effects, and using stage lights for ambiance. As stated in the first review, NGW has also made sure to select the best possible local talent for these shows…there is not a single wrestler of questionable skill level like you’d see in AWS or Battleground. What’s also key if NGW has already established their own identity when presenting their events…between spontaneous outbursts of dancing and MIDNIGHT THUNDER (who it can’t be overstated enough fucking rules) Next Generation Wrestling is the ultra-laid back “party” promotion of Southern California. If NGW could actually start within a country mile of their advertised start time and built up to a regular schedule of shows, they’d become the #2 promotion in SoCal in no time.
Paul: I am fast becoming a big fan of this promotion. In two shows NGW has already developed a very fun atmosphere. Pretty much everything from the matches, to the crowd interactions, to even the ring announcer (who to me represents the essence of NGW) is a lot of fun. I believe that with a little more experience under their belts, NGW could easily become one of the top two or three promotions in SoCal. But as it stands right now, if you aren’t worried about ***** MOTYCs and just want to have a great time at a wrestling show, NGW is definitely worth checking out.
Thank you so much for reading. For more information on NGW please check out http://myspace.com/nextgenwrestling and keep watching (or more accurately: keep reading) SoCalUncensored for all the latest news and views on the Southern California Independent scene.
