(2) Will Owens beat Cory Hollis in 7:36. Owens destroyed the back of Hollis. Owens took way too much time climbing the ropes, slipped (a tease of last week’s finish) and missed a cannonball senton. Hollis made the comeback. Owens was eating all kinds of blows. Hollis got two big near falls before Owens used a chain to get the victory. Barry was outraged.
Barry approached Hollis for postmatch thoughts. Hollis said he could beat Owens if he got one more chance. Barry said he wasn’t the matchmaker, but he would see what he could do.
(3) Travis Sawyer (with Tony Lucassio) beat Lani Kealoha in 7:15. Sawyer dominated. Kealoha was making his comeback when Tender came out to distract the ref. Sawyer crotched Kealoha on the ropes, or at least that was supposed to happen, and Kealoha toppled to the mat. Just a horribly weak finish.
Barry brought Commissioner George Gulas out to ringside. Gulas announced that for the first time ever, cameras would be allowed into a Board of Directors meeting, specifically to witness their decision making on Shultz. Gulas said the meeting would take place in two or three days (don’t they schedule these things?). Gulas compared Shultz’s roughshod tactics to Tojo, Gypsy Joe, the Greene Brothers and the Bounty Hunters. Joe is still active in the area, but I wonder what percentage of the people watching knew who any of those other guys were.
(4) White Tiger beat Victor Kosmo in 3:30. “They inserted the “I’m Coming” graphic here. Three weeks and counting. Trent Van Drisse’s description of Kosmo as a green bargain basement Paul London works for me. Kosmo hit two northern lights suplexes, and Barry called them German suplexes both times. Tiger is over and he was really playing to the crowd. At one point, Tiger stood with his back turned to Kosmo, and time stood still as he waited to get hit. Fans don’t like dumb babyfaces even in Nashville. Tiger’s frogsplash finisher is looking way better these days.
(5) NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Champion Steve-O beat Mike Posey & Shawn Shultz (with Tony Lucassio) via DQ in 9:48. Story was O valiantly overcoming the odds. He had the advantage until Shultz cut him down with a sneaky southpaw lariat from the apron. O withstood the onslaught, refusing to be pinned no matter what. O was so goofy as to reach for an invisible partner. O had the crowd behind him for the one-on-two comeback. O was calling for the superkick when he was attacked by Sawyer. Sawyer hit the Buzzsaw on O and slugged the ref. Shultz crowned O with a chairshot, and Barry let out this great yell. O was busted open. A second ref got taken out with a chair. Barry said he was going in. Shultz left Barry laying with a DDT. The camera got a close up of O’s bloody forehead. Shultz showed the blood on his hands and signaled for the belt around his waist.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: The second “New Era” episode was a vast improvement on the first one almost across the board. The first one felt like two different shows. There was the good stuff featuring Shultz. And then there was the rest of the show. This outing was more cohesive. The beginnings of other storylines emerged but never diluted the focus on the main objectives – pushing the envelope of outrageousness with Shultz and getting Project Prominence over as a group. In the space of one hour, Prominence laid out both babyface champions, both announcers, and two referees – an impressive body count by any measure. This was a break out show for Lucassio. Until recently, he was just a guy in the background. Didn’t make much of an impression on me one way or the other, but he can be a major player going forward. Lucassio was pretty much awesome in every segment, and he was walking a fine line. He had some hilarious lines for the smarts. But he’s so obnoxious in a northern way that, well, Bert Prentice nailed it the following week – somebody needs to punch his face. Sawyer spoke well and makes a believable enforcer and has a great looking finisher. It would have been better if he had squashed somebody. …It worked fine to book the champion so strong in the main event. Nice sympathy factor going there. O’s work as a babyface is just OK. I liked him better as a heel. I have to agree with TVD (a dangerous trend) regarding O and the comparison to Arrick Andrews. It’s a type of babyface act that works fine for a Nashville promotion, but it probably wouldn’t translate well outside the local area…Tender’s match was right on target – the Bully personality was in full effect once the bell rang.. All things considered, Barry did a decent job with the difficult job of solo commentary…It’s clear that creative energy in abundance is being poured into NWA ME right now. After a period where the product was in the doldrums, they’ve gotten back to producing interesting TV wrestling with very limited resources. I hope they can keep it going. And I sure wish they would invest in a second camera.
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