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Before the show, all the wrestlers on the show did a meet and greet autograph signing in a large room adjacent to the school’s gym. Pre-paid packages were sold for Bret Hart and Matt Hardy. The line for that was very long, so most fans who bought tickets attended the meet and greet.
• Cedric Alexander defeated “The Man Scout†Jake Manning. Shawn Hanson was the referee for this match and was booed by the crowd since he was the ref for the promotion’s show in Poughkeepsie in January and cost local native Hale Collins the NEW title. This match was a good back-and-forth, athletic, 9 or 10 minutes. Alexander had a near fall on Manning with a flip off the ropes into a stunner. Manning had a near fall with a jawbreaker and backbreaker. Alexander won after a t-bone suplex followed by a split-legged moonsault.
• Brian Anthony defeated Caleb Konley. After Anthony hit a spinebuster and beat Konley down a bit, Konley hit a 619, of all things on Anthony. Anthony pinned Konley after a superplex. The match was about seven minutes.
• Bret Hart came out to address the crowd. He put over the region for professional wrestling and said shows like this are what wrestling is all about. A small town, family show where you can see the stars of tomorrow. He predicted that many of the wrestlers on this show would one day be WWE superstars. He referenced that Newburgh has had some bad luck this week and hoped that wrestling could bring a little happiness to the area. (there was a murder-suicide in the city earlier in the week where a mother drove a van with her children into the Hudson River. One child survived.) He called out Poughkeepsie’s Hale Collins and said he wasn’t too different from Collins earlier in his career, but noted he had less muscles and no tan. He asked Collins to promise to him and the fans that he would win the NEW belt from Matt Taven. He promised.
• Jeff Starr (with Sunny) defeated Robbie E (with Cookie). Before the match, Starr introduced Sunny as his secret weapon to neutralize Cookie. Before the match, Sunny (who wore her WWE Hall of Fame ring to NEW) said she had seen Cookie on that other program and she knew what she was about. She also said she should be called “Cookie Cutter†since she was just like the rest and she, Sunny, was the original. Sunny and Cookie outside the ring during this match were just as good as the match. At one point, both women were banging on the apron with all their might. Each time the ref would have his back turned, Cookie would interfere. When Cookie ended up in the ring, Sunny chased her down and they did a catfight. Starr ultimately won the match by hitting a swanton bomb. Segment was longer, but the match was about 5 minutes.
• NEW President Michael O’Brien came out and thanked the NFA wrestling coach (show is a benefit for the school’s wrestling program and has been for the last six years). He announced that NEW is sponsoring a $1,000 scholarship each year for a graduating NFA senior wrestler. He also announced that NEW would be returning to Poughkeepsie later this year and that there would be an autograph signing in the area, and I quote, “with a recently retired WWE superstar.†Wonder who that is.
• Ring of Honor champion Eddie Edwards defeated Adam Cole in about 16 minutes with a power bomb into a half crab with the knee on the neck. This was a very good match, but I got the impression that the Newburgh crowd didn’t know these guys as well as some of the NEW regulars. Neither local cable company (Time Warner Cable or Cablevision) carries HDNet. Verizon Fios does though. Anyway, the action in this match was way too much for me to write down. Edwards missed a double stomp off the top at one point. Cole hit a splash. Edwards hit what I believe was a Die Hard fisherman’s buster for a near fall at one point.
• Sabu defeated Vik Dalishus, Ron Zombie and Ryan McBride in a four-way, elimination tables match. Lots of crazy shots in this one with chairs and tables everywhere. Sabu hit everyone in the match with a chair at one point or another. Sabu hit the Arabian facebuster on McBride. Zombie powerbombed McBride and Sabu legdropped McBride through a table for the elimination.
Dalishus spinebustered Zombie through a table in the corner for an elimination. After running out of intact tables, Sabu improvised. After DDTing Dalishus, he placed either end of a broken table on two chairs and hit the Arabian Facebuster on Dalishus for the elimination. After Sabu left, Dalishus (another local wrestler) received a nice hand from the crowd and started a “Let’s Go Hale†chant for his buddy who was competing in the title match.
• Matt Taven defeated Hale Collins to retain the NEW championship in a no-disqualification match when Collins’ partner in The NOW, Vik Dalishus turned on him and laid him out with a steel chair. The referee for this match was Kevin Keenan and not Shawn Hanson after the January incident in Poughkeepsie. Taven attacked Collins while he was making his ring entrance. Taven went for a frog splash and hit knees. Collins hit three rolling vertical suplexes and hit a somersault plancha and a DDT on the ring apron, as well as a rocker dropper. Taven hit a corkscrew DDT at one point and hit the frog splash for a near fall. After Taven bumped into Keenan, Collins hit the superkick and a flying elbow off the top rope with no ref present and counted his own fall. Taven hit a low blow and was about to go for the pin when Dalishus made his run-in and turn to cost Collins the belt.
After the match, Dalishus cut a promo on Collins (they have legitimately been best friends since high school), that he was the real captain of the team and that Collins’ head was getting big. He spoke of a radio interview that the two were scheduled to do on WPDH-FM that Collins did not show up for. He spoke of MY article in Friday’s Poughkeepsie Journal (fantastic, haha) that had Collins in the headline and not Dalishus. He said he wasn’t jealous, but was better. After Collins talked to him briefly, Dalishus spit in Collins’ face and a brawl ensued. Wrestlers and security broke it up. It should be noted that Dalishus was sporting a heelish shaved head at the show.
• In the final match of the evening, Matt Hardy defeated “The Prodigy†Mike Bennett. Hardy was accompanied by Reby Sky. Bennett started beating on Hardy, who made a comeback. Hardy hit a side effect. Bennett hit a nice spinebuster at pne point and actually hit the side effect on Hardy. While Bennett tied Hardy up in the ropes, Reby Sky ended up in the ring. Hardy kicked Bennett while in the ropes, he stumbled into Reby, who hit Gail Kim’s eat defeat move on him right into a Hardy Twist of Hate. Hardy worked the whole match as a babyface and thanked the promotion and all the fans for coming out. He took photos in the ring with fans afterwards, while Sunny and Cookie signed at the NEW merchandise table.
