[TimKilgore]

In speaking with JC Marxxx a fellow Rhode Islander who grew up watching NEWA and waxing nostalgic for either rushing home from school to catch the Thursday show at 3:30 or staying up late for the Saturday show at 11 pm. Or maybe if you were REALLY hardcore catching the wrap-up show on Wednesdays at 3 pm on the other Public Access Channel I was wondering how many other folks admit they were NEWA fans back in the day.

I mean how can your call yourself a Rhode Island Wrestling fan and not admit you watched NEWA on Public Access?

For those who don't know much about NEWA, it was the pre-cursor to Primal Conflict, RIWA and in a round-abouts way Mayhem. Alot of current New England Talent passed through NEWA like Mad Dog Matt Storm (known then as Kid Liberty of whom I was a HUGE fan), Kyle Storm (who was Ironfist), Draven (who was Dream Lord of the Nightmares), Gorgeous Gino Giovanni, Jose Perez (I think was El Diablo), LiveWire Dave Padula (who was Iraqian for a while), Bad Boy Billy Black, Thrash, "Studly" Steve Stallion, DragonFly, Kevin Karizma (Who was known by Antonio Adams), Bad News, Reverend Chaine Linc, Wolverine, "Danger Boy" Alfredo, I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch and purposely forgetting a bunch so I don't look like a total dork for remembering the names.

So the point of this post is for other wrestlers who grew up watching NEWA to come out of hiding and admit they jumped up and down when Kid Liberty and Ironfist won the tag titles and they played "We are the Champions", laughed when Chaine Linc and Gino Giovanni had a ladder match and the title kept falling down causing the title to continuously be raised again, cried when Bob "the Padre" Kleese and Rock Joseph would hype up that "Double A" was coming up next and you found out they were talking about Atonio Adams and not Arn Anderson, and even tuned in the next week to see just what Dambula was going to do with the Voodo Doll he had of Steve Stallion.

A side point as well would be for any former NEWA workers to step up and maybe tell some funny stories about their time in NEWA. It's time for the board to wax nostalgic....

[maddogms]

My personal favorite was when we pretaped an "Off the Ropes" show. Because nothing ever went as planned, the episode to be aired did not reflect ANYTHING that happened on the live event. Instead of retaping "Off the Ropes", it starts with Bob Klees saying "This is what happened at the event, NOT what these guys said" and then played the old episode... exposing that it was indeed pretaped and guys were talking about finishes that alas, never happened.

[NCW]

TimKilgore wrote:

Draven (who was Dream Lord of the Nightmares)

Are we sure he was Dream Lord? I could never tell them apart.

TimKilgore wrote:

Jose Perez (I think was El Diablo)

KAYFABE! Although I'm pretty sure they already did an angle in PWF in regards to El Diablo... So moving on.

Growing up in RI it was a rite of passage to watch NEWA on the Interconnect. One of my first "indy" shows was going to NEWA at Davies High School, although I was depressed to find out most of the talent had moved on by that point and I had been watching 2 year old reruns lol.

Some questions for the NEWA alumni...

Now that we know who was under the Rex Havoc mask. Who was under the Bob "The Padre" Cleese mask?

Coming from an original KID himself, Kid Liberty, what is the age limit of wrestling as a "kid" in this business?

Why didn't BAMBOOLA and Marvin The Maniac ever have a match?

Were Dragonfly & Studly Steve ever MORE than friends?

How many Championships were there in NEWA? lol.

[TimKilgore]

I'm still waiting for that much promoted re-match between "Bad Boy" Billy Black and Stargazer that was mentioned on "Off The Ropes"

[ridave]

Someone do a reunion show!

[Davepadula]

NCW wrote:

Why didn't BAMBOOLA and Marvin The Maniac ever have a match? Were Dragonfly & Studly Steve ever MORE than friends? How many Championships were there in NEWA? lol.

Damboola did wrestle Marvin the Maniac and Live Wire Dave Padula wrestled Sir Reaper and El Diablo wrestled Commando etc,,, lol

Rock would get so excited about writing the card for a night's event that he would put guys in against themselves as their alternative gimmicks. We would check the sheet and see we were wrestling ourselves lol (BTW the card would be changed 1500 times on the day of the show and sometimes matches were improvised like when Piere the Mountie was in the ring waiting for Gino Giovani to come out and Gino last second said "screw this" and didn't go to the ring, so I went out there and wrestled Piere. His facial expression when I came out was priceless....actually he was doing the FD Back Draft firefighter gimmick that night lol we actually had a decent match too)

NEWA had too many belts. Rock liked to make everyone happy, so he would make up titles as we went along. Heavey weight, world, continental, TV, tag etc,,,, Our first belts were some plastic straps with gold astrays attached to them with stickers saying which title they were. (I can't believe I'm even admitting to that!!!!!!) For the record, my favorite belt were the Mayhem Belts!!!!!! Except if you bumped with them on....they'd cut into your stomach. (For those who don't remember...Mayhem titles had skill saw blades for the main plate and they looked sweet)

Despite what some people believe, Steve Stallion and Dragon Fly weren't as close at many times as some thought.

As far as stories....Myself, Matt, Kyle, Jose, Don Vega, Kevin Karisma, Gino Giovani, Anthony Rufo and many others can provide you with hours of the funniest stories.

Some of the other talents that I enjoyed being around were Louie Delbovie (Orca) RIP!!!, Keith Mancini (Dr. Pain) RIP, Keith was also a part of a tag team called the Torture Squad (Mr. Meaner, Thrash and their manager Cappy) I had the privileage of wrestling a tag match along with Matt and Kyle against the Torture Squad and it was one of the best times I've ever had in the ring. As a matter of fact, theres a story I tell abot Keith from that match, just hard to write cause I get choked up thinking about him. For those who don't know, Keith was also a tremendous musician. His band opened up for Great White at the Station Night Club on the night it caught fire and Keith was one of the 100 people who didn't make it out.

And how can anyone not remember one of the most talked about names who came from the NEWA??? Eric Kulas (Mass Transit) RIP!!!! Regardless of what anyone has to say, Eric was a friend of mine. He was a great kid who loved having fun and had a tremendous heart. I was at his house many times for dinner and to hang out and play guitar and watch wrestling tapes. I don't agree with what his father put him through, but don't take that out on the memory of Eric.

About a month ago or so, I went on a roadtrip to a show with ref Zac, Johnny Angel and Gino Giovani. For almost 12 hours, we couldn't stop talking about the ol days. How much fun it was. We didn't care about titles, who was going over, heck, we were all thrilled just to be able to get in a ring and do what we dreamed as kids doing.

Yes, Draven was Dream Lord. Dream Keeper was shorter and a lil heavier. Both great guys.

Off the Ropes tapings were basicly a get together at Rock's office, having fun, ordering pizza, and doing random promos that never made sense.
As Matt was mentioning, I can't tell you how many times, we'd do promos with someone saying they just won the title etc,,,,and when the show took place, they didn't even wrestle and Rock would air the promo with the wrestler saying he won the belt etc,,,,

You want hilarious stories??? Anyone tape Rock and everyone putting up the ring, especially with his son??? "Rock, this board won' fit". Rock's response..."God damn it,drill a hole in it and bolt it down". All our boards looked like swiss cheese. Did I mention we wrestled in a boxing ring, where the middle beam was dead stiff and weighed 500 lbs????? Can't tell you how many times Kid Liberty belly to back suplexed me from the top rope and when I hit the middle of the ring, I lost my breath.

Another name is Tiger Shark!! He was a real life Shock Master in the ring!!! We were great friends outside of wrestling, hanging out at clubs etc,,,,but once in the ring,punches went flying hard. Kicks to the balls from Tiger Shark were all a normal part of wrestling him. Plus when the bell sounded, he would go nuts and had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Thats a shoot!!! Ah, the good ol NEWA!!!!

Dave, I would love a reunion show, but it would have to be with the guys I started with, and that means, there are only a few I would get in the ring with. lol Is there anyone that hasn't heard the story of when I wrestled Danny Boy O'Calahan and he blew the match so I shot on him and ended up stabing him in the process then throwing him down a flight of stairs airborne top to bottem??? ok ok, it wasn't as bad as it sounds....Gino would disagree lol but seriously, Danny was ok, I hit him with a piece of wood that had a nail in it, and it stuck in him a little bit, so people started saying I stabbed him during the match. The part of me throwing him down the stairs is kinda true.....but... he got back in the ring, realised what he was doing and we finished the match.

And those darn midgets!!! Tiny the Terrible and Half Nelson!!! They were a blast to wrestle in handicap matches, even though Half once busted my bottom jaw with an elbow pushing it up and back, putting me in stitches and eating nothing but jello for weeks lol They were also great to travel with. The stories of me and Tiny at 2am in PA after a bar we were at closed and went with a bunch of college kids to a party, we couldn't remember how to get back to our hotel the next morning lol but it all worked out well. For the record, although I enjoyed working with Half and Tiny, the best "little guy" I ever got in the ring with was Short Sleeve Samson!! The match I had with Short Sleeve in March 2002 for XWA was one of the most entertaining matches I ever wrestled..as was the match I had against, Ariel....but that's another story for another time.
I could keep going.......
You know, Tim and JC, you guys bring back alot of great memories to this old man. Thank you!!

Peace,
Dave

[Big Time Wrestling]

Is there anyone on the board who remembers (or was even born yet) when the original NEWA was around in Massachusetts, N.H., Maine, etc.? The organization was the link between Tony Santos' Big Time Wrestling and Killer Kowalski's All Star Wrestling. It was run by the late Jack Viles from Lynn, MA.
This poster is from March 20, 1976 for a Chelsea, MA show. Plowboy Frazier was later known as "Uncle Elmer" in the WWF. Other performers for the NEWA were Boston Patriot's great Jim Nance, Gene Dundee, Tito Torres, Hobo Brazil, Ricky Sexton and many others.
Other than the WWWF, there really was no other wrestling in the area at the time.

[GrayGhost]

I love looking at old wrestling posters. Thanks for the picture Mister TA.

[indymark666]

TOO BAD ITS NOT THE SAME NEWA THAT THE REST OF US ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!!

[TimKilgore]

I remember on a few road trips with Gino he would tell me about some of the old NEWA stories. I remember when I was 16 trying to get into NEWA to be told I was too young LOL. My first indy show, which I had no idea what an indy promotion was when I was 13 or 14 I went to see NEWA at Warwick Vets featuring my favorite wrestler of all time Rick Martel. I got there early and the ring wasn't set up yet, there wasn't a spring on the ring at all but the metal beams were somewhat concave. My father and I were so thrilled to see the ring get put together, we thought the air between the boards and the metal gave the ring enough give. Oh yeah and we saw the beam in the middle, we had no idea it was a bad thing until Virgil who was walking around the ring spouted off more obsenities in 10 seconds than I had heard up to that point in my life combined. Knowing what I know now about rings and how they're built that ring must've been HELL to work in.

If memory is serving right here (which honestly is probably a little foggy due to all the concussions I've had LOL) some of the matches on the card were as follows:
Orca vs. Tiny and Half Nelson
Kid Liberty and Sgt. Stone vs. Nightmares
Gino Giovanni vs. Wolverine
Rick Martel vs. Tito Santana
Virgil vs. Greg Valentine
Steve Stallion vs. Dragonfly

There was also a three-way in there which featured Thrash who I became a huge fan of after that. Kid Liberty his Dream Lord with a wicked clothesline which made him do the inside-out bump which was the first time I saw it. So hence I became a huge Kid Liberty fan, of course thinking his clothesline was the best in wrestling history. I was super annoyed that Martel didn't sign any autographs, and worst of all was that we were in Warwick Vets gym which didn't allow food in the gym. So no one could eat in the gym at all. Some other stuff that I remember is the midgets bloodying up Orca on the outside of the ring. Playing "Slam" by Onyx during intermission and Dambula (told you JC!) coming out with a small voodoo doll of Steve Stallion during his match. The funniest was when the time limits were annouced everyone would sigh and groan in disbelief. "This next match has a scheduled time limit of one hour" *groan* "how long?" "One Hour Time Limit" *Louder groaning*

I know Matt gave me a rundown of more stuff from that show, but I'd love to hear more. Also there was a show I believe in 97 which was at my alma matter (not Roger Williams University LOL) West Warwick High School. I'd love to hear more on that show, that one featured Pierre the Mountie doing a dive over the top rope and knocking himself out in the process. I believe Dave was the opponent in that match right? But you were Shiek something or other then. I know Tiny and Half Nelson were in a match, I think Gino Giovanni faced Antonio Adams, Rick Fuller as the Lumberjack faced Candyman I believe. Which honestly for a babyface, he got THE WORST reaction. I hope he changed gimmicks sometime later.

More stories NEWA alumni I don't know if Gino reads the board but you have to at least tell about the time you faced "Good Ol' Boy" (before he was the Reverend) Chaine Linc in a ladder match and the belts kept falling down. Considering the Ultimate X match from TNA, it's official NEWA was WAY ahead of their time

[Davepadula]

TimKilgore wrote:

Virgil vs. Greg Valentine

LOL My memory of this match was when Virgil tried to shoot with Greg in the ring and Greg tied him up and Virgil couldn't move. If you watch the tape, you'll see Virgil laughing as to say, "Ok Greg, you got me".

Also, Greg was dating Alundra Blaze at this time and she came down with him to hang out and was absolutley amazing!!

I thought it was funny even a Dragon Fly vs "Mr X" match would have a 1 hour time limit. lol

I remember when I first met Candyman in Salisbury, Ma in 1995. The match he wrestled Fuller was 1996. The funny thing about Candyman was they were having problems setting up the sound equipment and he panicked saying, "If they can't get the sound to work, I can't go out there without my music playing, that's my whole gimmick". I kid you not, those were his exact words.

I actually refused to work Piere the Mountie when I was first asked a bunch of times because no matter who he wrestled, they'd come out wrinkled in some way. As I learned how to protect myself and shoot etc,,I said sure why not. After that first match with Piere, anytime I had a chance to get in the ring with him, I would. Yeah, he may have been a lil clumbsy, but he was alot of fun to work with. We worked so much, it got to the point where I stated before, when he was in the ring waiting for Gino, gino decided not to go out to the ring, so I stepped in and worked the match. We had a good match and didn't need to be told anything. I liked working like that and I think all workers should work like that sometimes to get to learn how to think on the spot and get a good match out of it.

Dave

[NEWAtribute]

I created an NEWA tribute myspace page for the workers and fans. http://www.myspace.com/newawrestling

[Davepadula]

NEWAtribute wrote:

I created an NEWA tribute myspace page for the workers and fans. http://www.myspace.com/newawrestling

Information on that page is incorrect.
David Jackson, aka Chain Link had the vision and started the NEWA as we know in 1992. Rock booked the NEWA to do a show in November 1992 and later bought out Dave Jackson. The first NEWA show under Rock's ownership took place in March 1993.
Peace,
Dave

[NEWAtribute]

The information on the page was from the old NEWA website, but thanks for the info Dave, I'll change it.

[Kevin Karizma]

I just like to go out and say that for what its worth I have always said that the best time I had in this wrestling career of mine was working for the old NEWA as far as my stories go i have 2 that i would like to mention one didn't even take part in a ring.
first one: i was at a party at my sisters house (Claudia) Jose's wife (yes Jose is my brother in law not my brother for those that don't know) and attending this party was Gino Giovanni, now mind you this was in the late 90's to early 2000's and Gino and I were drunk as hell to the point that Gino was talking to fish and expecting a response an was mad when he didn't get one. As far as I go I couldn't tell you what i did cause i was so drunk that every thing is a blur till this day but all I know is that at one point I was in the bathroom and Gino was at the outside of the door and when I opened the door I hit him with the door and it bounced back an hit me and knocked us both out for about 5 to 7 min. for those of you that were there It was Hilarious or at-least i was told. sorry Gino

2nd one: I had the privilege to work my 1st match for NEWA at one of their bigger shows at the time it was right on federal hill. Me an Gino at the time looked very much alike and the gimmick was that i was his brother Antonio Giovanni but the crowd did not know because we pulled the old Killer Bees spot were Gino wrestled to open the match and then he powdered under the ring and i would come out and it was a great idea except that the crowd didn't noticed till the end of the match when Gino and myself were in the ring and i was finally introduced. Thats the NEWA i remember.

The reason why i put these 2 is because I finally ran into Gino after 6 yrs at the ACW show and we sat down to talk and reminisce. So its ironic that i found this post today and to Tim Killgore yes I know "AA" Antonio Adams was a good gimmick and should probably try a come back LOL.

Well i will be sure to continue to look into this post as it updates as I was part of this wonderful fed and i can use to relive some of those memories. And as for all the NEWA guys that post on this subject everything aside THANK YOU for all the wonderful memories that you all gave me and welcoming this small kid into the business so long ago, as hard as it was then. I TRULY thank all of you no matter who you are and what heat or good times we have had in the past. I can (I guess) now call my self a veteran in this business and not feel that I'm lying to myself and for that I TRULY THANK YOU.