I have always been a huge fan of independant pro wrestling — or, what we fans like to call “the indies”. It’s where it all starts, where wrestlers are born. I recommend to any fan of WWE or TNA to attend an Indy event. Recently, on September 8th I attended my first New Era Pro Wrestling (NEPW) event — entitled NEPW Showdown — with my brother Falcon. He is just a youngling so it was his first live event ever. The card took place, as most small independants do, far removed from 20,000 arena. This one was called the Hide-Out Roller Rink, better known as NEPW’s Madison Square Garden. A Northern-based promotion, NEPW runs cards regularly from October through May at the Rink, located in Painesville, OH — and pain was indeed the main course being served on this evening, indie-pro-wrestling-style. Of all the events I have been to this was the best by far. I was in the front row so I could not have had better seats. The intensity and heart these men and women have cannot be measured.

NEPW action from the Northern Ohio indy league’s recent Showdown card as, pictured, Zac Vincent clamps a headscissors on ”Omega” Aaron Draven

Arriving at the venue you could see the excitement on the faces of people standing outside. The nice thing about a indy event is that you can get up close and personal with the stars. Every time a car pulled in everyone looked to see if it was a wrestler or not. An example of how close you get — during an intermission The Eagle and Falcon stepped outside for some air and were greeted by Zac Vincent and “Rightous” Tony Lee.

There were two matches that caught my Eagle eye: the first, a Fatal Four-Way match for the Crusierweight title featuring “Omega” Aaron Draven vs T.J. Dynamite vs Zac Vincent vs Eric Ryan. This match had a lot of high-flying action and speed. Omega pulled off an impressive victory to become the new NEPW Cruiserweight Champion. The other great bout was a singles competition that turned into a tag with J Rocc and Ray Rowe (pictured, left) vs Micheal Facade and Micky Gambino. Facade and Rowe began, but Gambino decided to put his nose where it don’t belong. Because of that J Rocc, who had been sitting with the crowd, came to the aid of his long time friend, resulting in the tag. He paid the price, however, courtesy of “Notorious” Shane Taylor. Taylor made his presence known earlier in the night but wanted to send a message to all of NEPW by attacking one of their biggest stars. This set up a huge match for the December 1st show “Hostile Holidays” between J Rocc and Shane Taylor.

Eric Ryan and Vincent double-team Omega in the corner

Finally, for all of you WWE fans out there — here’s a name to mark down in your books for later — Chris Cronus (pictured, at left). He is the NEPW Triple Crown Champion. He was very impressive against Jabari. Hopefully one day we will see him back in the WWE or even TNA. He certainly has what it takes .

NEPW results from Sept 8th show:

Fatal Four Way Match: “Omega” Aaron Draven def. Tj Dynamite, Zac Vincent, & Eric Ryan to win the Vacant NEPW Cruiserweight Title

“Jiggy” Jeff Jevic def. Nemesis
The Team of Lethal Impact (Jesse Burke & Ryan Miller) def. The Odd Squad (Screwy Louie, Don Roid) to become the NEW NEPW US Tagteam champions

Sassy Stephanie won the NEPW Ladies Title when she outlasted 7 other ladies in the first ever NEPW ladies Battle Royale

Jason Bane & Killer Kumpf battled all over the Roller Rink to a double disqualification. It took half the locker room to pull these Two monsters apart

J-Rocc & Rowe defeated Gambino & Façade

MAIN Event: “The Spartan Warrior” Chris Cronus def Jabari to retain his NEPW Triple Crown Title

As I stated in the beginning this was the best Indy show I have ever had the privilege of attending. For anyone that lives in Northeast Ohio, I urge you to attend the next event on Nov 3rd. Please check out the NEPW website for more details and the 2008 schedule is already posted. Thank you to all of the stars of NEPW for a putting on a great show. A special thank you to Ed Edwards for his patience and information.

Note from the author: The Eagle will be attending the next NEPW event and will have the results and highlights the day after the event. Due to other obligations I wasn’t able to do it this time.

- The Eagle

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