Wrestling Review // Northeast Championship Wrestling WrestleFest XVI 11/12/21 @ Dedham, MA

https://thencw.com/

This was our first show back to NCW in a few months but I had been following their results online so I knew what the stories were going into it at least.   This was also Part 1 of 2 of our wrestling weekend, so the Limitless Wrestling review after this will likely flow into here somehow.  We knew going in that WrestleFest XVI would be the last NCW show of 2021, but what we found out was that NCW will not return until March 4th of 2022.  This puts a few months between shows for us, which I'm sad about but since those months are typically when we get winter weather it evens out because I'd rather not miss a show due to snow.

Things were running on time for NCW and when we got in we found seats and just waited for the show to start, which didn't feel like it took too long.   Right away we went into the Ox Baker Memorial Season Cup in which the winner would receive a title shot of their choosing over the next year.   This was billed as a "battle royal" but in reality a new competitor entered every ninety seconds so it was really more like a rumble match.   This left me confused because when the first two entrants came out and then the match started I just wondered where everyone else was.  There was also pinfalls and submissions allowed, along with going over the top rope, so it felt like a lot of rules but it was still fun.

While this Ox Baker tribute was a fun match it also- I feel- represents NCW rather well.  The mix of talent you get on an NCW show is just unlike any other company out there.   We have wrestlers that feel like NCW is their home, some from other promotions and overall it's just a mix for me of wrestlers I'm familiar with such as Rip Byson, Perry Von Vicious, Randy Rivera and El Espartano and those I'm seeing for the first time such as Sirish, Derique and Blade Bandit.   I was particularly happy to see a brief reunion between Rip Byson and Perry Von Vicious (as M.A.D.) and I was even happier that PVV won because it came down to him and Ricky Medeiros and Medeiros spent a lot of time sleeping outside.

To show how big WrestleFest XVI was, during the next match The League Of Excellence came out to boast how Dylan Nix already had a win by making it so Alexander Lee could not compete at this show.  When NCW announced their last two shows of the year, there were matches listed right away for WrestleFest XVI and one of those matches was Dylan Nix vs Alexander Lee in a Dog Collar Match.  I had almost completely forgotten about that match and that just goes to show the power of NCW because my mindset wasn't "This show would be better if that match was still happening!"  Though I do feel now like that match will happen in 2022, so I'm ready for it.

The League Of Excellence took on the team of Robbie "The Giant" Araujo, Ike and Foxy Calvin Campbell and defeated them.   The League Of Excellence is a strange faction to me because Isana has recently teamed up with them and I also like Dylan Nix so I'm torn between booing them (which I feel like I'm supposed to do) because even Nick Diamond and Steven Lust aren't that unlikeable (Well, maybe Nick Diamond is)  The most insufferable part of The League Of Excellence has to be Dallas McCarthy, but I just think of it like when back in the 1990's in WWE Jim Cornette had this stable and I knew to boo Cornette but he had Vader on his side and I will always love Vader.  

In what felt like days leading up to this show I saw the graphic on Twitter for CPA vs Tim Lennox in a Body Bag Match (which has a lot of history behind it, if you head over to the NCW YouTube Channel) and I thought "Oh no! CPA is going to die!"  But CPA did not die.  CPA in fact won this match and put Tim Lennox into a body bag, even after Lennox tried to enlist the help of Dan Terry.    This was really just such a crazy match because even if you were here as a fan and didn't know the history between CPA and Tim Lennox and were just seeing this as a stand alone match, it was still a lot of fun and I don't feel like I've ever seen a Body Bag Match before so thank you to NCW, as now next time I see one I will go back and site this one for reference.

The first title match of the evening saw B3CCA defend the NCW Women's Championship against Little Mean Kathleen.   The interesting thing going into this match is that B3CCA was cheered almost everywhere until the most recent antics and pairing with Alec Price in Beyond Wrestling caused her some boos.   Before that though, B3CCA had been booed in NCW and that was largely because of the way she handled herself as Champion.   Back at Big City Rumble, LMK won a gauntlet match but B3CCA cashed in that title shot for her on the spot.  LMK defeated Isana to get this title shot and so when the match was finally one on one with the preparation and all, LMK came out victorious and became the new NCW Women's Champion.   LMK deserves it all and so much more.

Not be side tracked for a moment here but when I was younger I went to a lot of wrestling shows between WWE and ECW, even some independent ones and I don't remember a lot about them.   This is why I write about wrestling now- not only so that I remember this all ten years from now, but also so that when Quentin gets older he has this to look back on and remember as well.  I don't ever want to be on that side of writing about wrestling though which makes it feel like I'm "behind the curtain" because more than anything else, I want to remain a fan.

There were a lot of reasons why Quentin, Jess and I went to Dedham to see WrestleFest XVI.  Not just the matches, but many of the wrestlers themselves are on my fan list.   And let's be quite honest, this show was also only $10 for tickets so really you could pick one match and feel like you were getting your money's worth.  But then, we went into this Entourage Open Challenge where Armani Kayos and Paris Van Dale were willing to let anyone face Gal Barkay who wanted to... and when the music hit I knew what it was but didn't think Anthony Greene was coming out until he actually did.

This is one of those reasons why you should go to shows and support promotions like NCW-- because you never know what's going to happen.   And in all fairness, this match turned into Armani Kayos and Paris Van Dale vs Ava Everett and Davienne, which was another nice surprise and another moment where I was wondering how we were getting all of this wrestling and star power for only ten bucks.   And it wasn't just "Oh, we got to see AG" but Anthony Greene had a very competitive match against Gal Barkay, who held his own and looked rather impressive.  I've seen Gal Barkay in Chaotic Wrestling before but not in singles competition so this seems like one of those matches where if you want to know what Gal Barkay is all about go and watch it.

After intermission, we went into what was supposed to be a tag team match but Shay Cash was injured and wasn't there so Frank Champion took on Da' Hoodz on his own and beat them!  This was supposed to lead to Frank Champion getting five minutes alone with Kevin Castro, but of course Da' Hoodz came and double teamed Frank Champion, which just goes to show that this feud is far from settled and that seemed inevitable anyway because it likely won't end until the return of Shay Cash.

What I considered to be the main event and in what was one of my favorite matches of the year, Isana defeated Jessie Nolan in a Good Housekeeping Match, which basically was a hardcore rules match full of various household items such as brooms, a mop, an ironing board, etc.  One of the things I really enjoyed about this match was that as much as it felt like a hardcore match where weapons were being used, there was just as much violence from both competitors in a wrestling way.   They were breaking weapons over each other's backs and sometimes the weapons were their fists.

At one point, Isana had a small object jammed into her forehead and at another point in the match Jessie Nolan also made Isana drink some Windex.    Isana had her own fair share of offense though, eventually suplexing Jessie Nolan onto an ironing board for the win.  This match will go up there as one of my all-time favorites and even if it doesn't have all these weapons, any future matches between Isana and Jessie Nolan are just looking so promising.

The last three matches were all very good and this just felt like the type of show where each match was a little bit better than the one before it- or it felt a little bit more important- rather than when promotions have smaller, almost comedy type matches in between the big title matches to give the crowd a break.  We first saw Channing Thomas defeat Vern Vicallo, who are Tag Team Champions together, and despite the fact that Channing Thomas is a heel almost everywhere that he goes he is still one of the best wrestlers out there today.

"RIOT" Kellan Thomas defeated Mike Montero to become the new NCW New England Champion.   This was a hard fought, back and forth match.  At one point, Kellan Thomas had Mike Montero up on his shoulders going for a move when Mike Montero somehow flipped it over into a Canadian Destroyer.  I have no idea how Kellan Thomas kicked out after that, but he deserves all the credit in the world and deserves that New England Championship because this was just such a solid wrestling match that technical purists must go out of their way to see.

The main event was a bit different as The Lumberjake had BRG defeated, after a hard fought match, but the referee- Rob Greer- refused to make the three count.  This brought out a mystery man, who turned out to be OSIRUS, and they all just kind of got together to screw The Lumberjake out of the title.  BRG also threw the title in the trash and created his own BRG Championship which is just a little bit sad.

Sometimes wrestling fans get upset but I think the biggest thing to remember about a show is that old motto of "Always leave them wanting more".   When NCW returns in 2022, you can expect that The Lumberjake will be looking for some sort of revenge against BRG.   However, don't forget that Perry Von Vicious is also out here with a title shot and he might just cash that in against BRG before The Lumberjake can get to him.   Isana's win over Jessie Nolan could put her in line for a title shot against LMK.   The unlikely team of Channing Thomas and Vern Vicallo seem to be on the same page, but who their first challengers will be remains to be seen.

To borrow another old cliché, NCW is certainly going out with a bang this year.  Through eleven matches, this show just flew by and there wasn't a dull moment where you really thought "Well, we could've done without that", which is one of the reasons why I enjoy going to see NCW live so much.   Hopefully in 2022 we will be able to make it out to more of their shows (if not all of them) as they really do have some of the best wrestlers out there right now and when you look at the matches on this show and the number of women in them they also go above and beyond there.   NCW is not the promotion to sleep on in 2022 and they're giving you time now to catch up on their YouTube Channel.