Tank and Iceberg won the 4th annual Mysterious Benefactor Memorial tag team tournament at last night’s NWA Anarchy show. In so doing, they became the first two-time winners in the tournament history.

It was well booked tournament without major surprises. They worked in some things to advance storylines and avoided the pitfall of having too many matches laid out with the standard tag team format. They gave the crowd enough content to satisfy without taking anything away from the tournament.

The event, named for Georgia wrestler and manager “Mysterious Benefactor” Mike Krango, originated in 2003 at Dillard’s Music Park under the auspices of the NAWA. By 2005, the NAWA was history and the tournament found a new home in NWA Anarchy.

NWA Anarchy television commentator John Johnson called out D. L. Norris, a wrestler who was a close friend of Mysterious Benefactor. Norris said Benefactor would want them to celebrate with action and turned it over to ring announcer Eddie Rich.

(1) Justice Served (Jason Justice & Miki Free) versus Urban Assault Squad (Nemesis & Shadow Jackson) was ruled as a double DQ at 3:33. Nemesis was yelling “Booyah,” which happens to be the tag line of Deep South’s Urban Assault, a team he accused of ripping off the UAS name. It broke down to a dogfight between Wrenn and Nemesis. Free and Jackson came tried to break it up. A four-way brawl ensued and ref Harold James called for the bell, thus eliminated last year’s winners (UAS) from the tournament. The combined efforts of the ref crew and the crack Anarchy security force were unable to separate the combatants. With the crowd chanting “Jerry,” the owner of NWA Anarchy, Jerry Palmer rushed to the scene.

Dan Wilson appeared on the WrestleVision screen. That vile little troll was laughing his ass off at the sad state of affairs within Team Anarchy.

Palmer was stressing. He called Team Anarchy a disgrace. “Team Nothing, that’s what I got.”

(2) Devil’s Rejects (Tank & Iceberg with Dan Wilson) beat Alabama Attitude (T. C. Carnage & Adam Roberts) in 3:04. Based on their recent history, Carnage was reluctant to accept Roberts as his partner. Roberts was relentless in his efforts to light a fire under Carnage. Personality-wise, this was the most entertaining Roberts has ever been. Carnage got fed up and decked him. That popped the crowd. As Devil’s Rejects entered the ringside area, Roberts departed with a satisfied smirk on his face. Carnage went 1 on 2 against the monsters. They gave him a beating. Carnage managed to hit a middle rope superplex in Tank, but Iceberg crushed any hopes of an upset with a Ground Zero splash for the 1-2-3. The winners of the inaugural tournament advanced. All the refs were out there tending to T. C.

Rich directed the crowd’s attention to the WrestleVision screen. Jeff G. Bailey was backstage with Jeff Lewis and Chad Parham. Bailey said Onyx wasn’t there to team with Lewis and told Parham it was a great opportunity for him. Continuing his ornery ways, Parham reminded them that he was a three-time tag team champion and agreed to take the spot.

(3) Seth Delay & Patrick Bentley beat Texas Hitmen (Skitzo & Big Dogg) in 3:20. The Texans didn’t wait for the bell to attack. It was all out heat on Delay. Hitmen gave Delay a double vertical suplex, but while the ref was chasing Dogg out, Bentley sneaked in with a chestcracker on Skitzo. Delay pinned Skitzo.

(4) Jeff Lewis (with Jeff G. Bailey) & Chad Parham beat Austin Creed & Hayden Young in 7:30. Bailey’s team used Mikal Adryan’s entrance music. Parham unleashed his loathsome Mr. Wrestling schtick on Young. Young decked Parham with a standing dropkick, used Parham’s back as a launching pad to paste Lewis with a flying forearm, and connected on a second dropkick that drove Parham out of the ring. Young did a wacky dive onto the both of them. Back inside, the heels took advantage of Creed’s inexperience and isolated him in their half of the ring. Parham scored near falls with a 15 count stalling suplex and a senton backsplash. Creed mustered up a flying lariat that set up a hot tag. Young cleaned house on Lewis. Creed did the splits like he was going to pop up with a haymaker. Instead, Creed exploded with a flying forearm that Lewis sold it like a drooling idiot. But there was no water in the pool for Young’s frogsplash. Lewis pinned Young with the Final Curtain. Young and Creed received a round of applause for their efforts.

They ran a WrestleVision ad for Fright Night ’06 on 11/4 at the Remember When Theater in Helen, Georgia.

(5) Jeremy V & Jason Blackman beat Brett Thunder & Adrian Hawkins in 9:21. Hawkins and Thunder got the best pop thus far. V and Blackman got the most heat. The heels sold bigtime. Finally, Blackman hung Hawkins in the tree of woe. But Hawkins escaped Blackman’s charge and gave V a drop toehold. V ended up in the ass rape position behind Blackman. I guess that’s how they roll. V and Blackman had a heated conversation. Stereo dropkicks resulted in a meeting of heel minds. V and Blackman clotheslined each other when the babyfaces ducked. Great stuff and the crowd was loving it. Blackman tried for Whirlybird, but Hawkins was too slippery and was able to make the tag. Thunder cleaned house. The faces sent Blackman over the top with a double lariat. Hawkins went for a poetry-in-motion elbow. It sucked bad and the crowd went flat. V gave Hawkins a hotshot and pinned him with his feet over the TOP ROPE for extra leverage.

(6) Ace Rockwell & Slim J beat Devil’s Rejects (Azrael & Shaun Tempers with Dan Wilson) in 7:21. The crowd was on their feet for the Rockwell and J’s entrance. The babyface teams all got strong pops, but the one these guys got was at an entirely different decibel level. They got off to a hot start with the winners of the 2004 tournament, Rockwell and Tempers, trading stiff shots. Tempers was the first to go down. Rockwell and J hit Tempers with a barrage of moves. J then flew from the top into a reverse DDT for a near fall. Tempers resorted to an eye rake and dumped Rockwell out. Wilson tried his usual sneak attack, but Rockwell was wise to it and the miserable little coward begged for mercy. At 3 minutes in, Tempers planted Rockwell with a spinebuster. Wilson let out a blood curdling scream of approval. Reject got heat on Rockwell. Azrael threw an awesome series of punches, finishing with a dropdown uppercut. Rockwell escaped from severe peril at the hand of Tempers to make the hot tag. J jumped on Tempers’ back with a rear naked choke. Tempers went down like a ton of brick, and J slapped on the STF. Azrael saved with an elbow drop. Azrael hit a DDT but J kicked out. Meanwhile, Rockwell and Tempers were going at it full tilt at ringside. J ducked a kick and rolled Azrael up for the three count. Nothing fancy but it sure popped the crowd.

Intermission.

(7) Parham & Lewis (with Bailey) beat Delay & Bentley in 12 minutes to advance to the finals. Early on, Bentley caught Parham with this amazing aerial armbar. Lewis took over on Bentley and started talking to Parham. But it wasn’t long before Lewis taking punishment and falling flat on his face. With Parham provided the distraction, Lewis posted Bentley’s shoulder and hit a Russian legsweep for a two count. Bentley took heat. Parham worked the shoulder with a hammerlock slam. Bentley hit an even more amazing wheelbarrow powerbomb. Bentley hot-tagged Delay, who hit the Overnite Sensation (cradle DDT) on Parham and a flying forearm on Lewis for a near fall. Bentley put Lewis in a full nelson. Bailey distracted ref Brent Wiley, allowing Parham to nail Bentley with a top rope double stomp. Lewis pinned Bentley.

Rich said Tank and Iceberg were getting a bye to the finals.

(8) Rockwell & J beat V & Blackman in 14:17 to advance to the finals. This was my favorite match of the evening. You had the most over babyface team against the best heat-generating heels in the company, so the heat was off the chain. V rules as a heel. He channels all kinds of old school tactics like he’s from another generation. Blackman has improved dramatically, and he’s developed an unexpected flair for comedy. Together, they will stop at nothing to make the babyfaces shine. V kept ducking under the ropes on the break. He did it in the babyface corner, so Rockwell whacked him in the head. J hit a flying armbar on V. V’s wailing was so pitiful that the crowd chanted “V’s a b#tch.” Blackman took a double atomic drop and went over the top rope like he was shot out of a cannon. The faces backdropped V over the top onto Blackman. V tore up a fan’s sign in frustration. It was total babyface domination until V caught Rockwell with a chokebreaker at the 8 minute mark. Rockwell took heat. V and Blackman were complete bastards about it. They switched without tagging. They bamboozled ref Jacob Ashworth on a legit tag by Rockwell. Out of the blue, Rockwell summoned up a spinebuster on V. Hot tag. J was a house of fire, the highlight being a running koppo kick on Blackman. But Blackman was able to dump Rockwell, leaving J at the mercy of the heels. V hit the VKO on J, and Blackman followed with the Kick of Death. J rolled out of the ring half dead. On the sly, Rockwell was waiting for V with the Aces High. The 1-2-3 got the longest and loudest pop of the night. Blackman had to carry V out on his back.

Salvatore Rinauro was introduced for premiere edition of “The Show That Totally Rules.” The video clip (by Kevin Marx) for this segment was hilarious. The “set” consisted of a table with a masked luchadore head on it and two chairs. Rinauro started with a joke. What did it cost the pirate for an earring? Answer: a buccaneer. Rinauro introduced Todd Sexton as his guest. Rinauro asked Sexton about his run-ins with Parham. “No comment,” said Sexton. Rinauro said Ron Burgundy had taught him to go for the jugular, so he asked Sexton about problems with reluctant champions. Enter NWA Anarchy Television Champion Brandon Phoenix accompanied by Brodie Chase. Chase was mad because the best tag team in the building wasn’t in the tournament. Sexton said he was referring to the TV title. “Trainer of champions” Chase said they welcomed the competition. Chase said Phoenix would make his opponent tap out and beg. Sexton said he would find a worthy challenger to face Phoenix for the title next week. Now who could that be? Rinauro developed a bad cough that sounded like the words “Sal Rinauro.” Sexton made the match. That insufferable pr#ck Parham showed up. Parham said he was there to thank booker Sexton for putting him in a main event title match (just as he had demanded at the last TV taping). Parham vowed to become a four time champion and to have Sexton jumping on his coattails. Chase slapped the luchadore head off the table and stalked to the back wearing his permanent scowl.

(9) Tank & Iceberg (with Wilson) beat Parham & Lewis and Rockwell & J in a three-way dance to win the Mysterious Benefactor Cup and retain the NWA Anarchy tag titles (12:26). Match was announced as Texas Tornado rules until the first team was eliminated. Rockwell and J entered first and got another incredible pop. They took advantage of having the high ground to thwart the bad guys efforts to enter the ring. That could only last so long. It turned into four-on-two decimation. The heels were functioning like a mutual admiration society. That could only last so long. Lewis kicked Tank in the groin and Parham jumped on Iceberg’s back with a sleeper. Rockwell hit the Aces High (RKO) on Parham while he still had the sleeper applied, and J came from nowhere to pin Lewis with a DDT at 4:55. The babyface team went after Iceberg with double teams. Iceberg’s ability to sell believably for smaller guys is a sight to behold. Iceberg even went up for a double vertical suplex. Tank brought a table to ringside, and you just knew that was bad news for somebody. Iceberg managed to spinebuster Rockwell, but as he staggered toward his corner, J popped him with a back elbow. Rockwell kept the heat on Iceberg by biting his fat head. Iceberg hit a powerslam and made the tag. Rockwell and Tank got into a slapfest. Rockwell ducked a spinning back fist (the move that knocked Nemesis silly at the last show) and hit the Aces High but Iceberg saved. Tank shoved J off the top rope, and J took a sick flip bump through the table. He appeared to land on his head. Tank hit the Go 2 Sleep on Rockwell and pulled him up at the count of two to give him another one. Iceberg ended the massacre with a middle rope Ground Zero splash.

The show ended in turmoil when a fan spit a juicy lugee right into Tank’s eye, and Tank chased the guy out of the building.
NOTES: Last night’s attendance was 150…NWA Anarchy returns to the NWA Arena on 10/7 with Phoenix (with Chase) vs. Rinauro for the TV title, Parham vs. J, Creed & Young vs. Hawkins & Thunder, Lewis & Onyx (with Bailey) vs. Bentley & Delay, Roberts vs. Chrisjen Hayme, Tempers (with Wilson and Co.) vs. Windwalker, V & Blackman vs. Justice Served and UAS vs. Texas Hitmen…The Fright Night show in Helen marks the company’s first attempt to run a show outside the confines of the NWA Arena. The Remember When Theater holds 700 people, more than double the capacity of their building in Cornelia. NWA Anarchy stars will be in town on 11/3 and 11/4 doing promotional work. It’s the final weekend of the annual Octoberfest celebration in Helen. Alcohol beverages will be available at the event.