The Rap Sheet - by the Crimefighter
National Wrestling Federation
Springfield, IL, 9/17/99

I dug this one out of the Google Groups archives for the Rap Sheet dossier, at a time when New Midwest Wrestling was not even heard of. Looking back at these results, I did note the time of the matches, but rounded them up to the nearest five looking off the clocks around the arena.

The National Wrestling Federation Legends of Wrestling made a swing through my hometown, Springfield, IL at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. This is the first in-arena event that I have attended in 12 years--hey, there's so much on television these days so why pay to go? This was an indy event and there isn't any local stations carrying NWF wrestling. There was one cameraman taping it all, so it may be played somewhere. Oddball observation, they play WWF the Music Vol. 2 before the show starts.

1st bout, Nikolai Volkof vs. Ron Powers - Have not seen big Nikolai for a LONG time, I got to ask him later where he's been touring for the past couple of years and it has been in Europe. Ron Powers hails from St. Louis down I-55 from here, who made a few appearances with WCW as choke-slam bait for The Big Show--least he won a match with Bunkhouse Buck. Nikolai sings the Russian national anthem, then offers to shake Powers hand. Oops, bad move...kick to the belly then a good long while of trading punches and kicks which Nikolai gets the majority of, Powers tries the sunset flip on a back-bodydrop attempt and missed completely. Match drags along and Powers couldn't seem to get going at all and eventually got rolled up for the pin.

WINNER: Nikolai Volkof pin -> 10 mins. ½*

2nd bout, Malia Hosaka vs. "The Girl" w/ #1 fan "Purity" - "The Girl" is African-American and looked to be close to 200 pounds, hails from East St. Louis dressed in a white top with camaflouge gray pants. "Purity" is a blonde woman who says she's her number one fan. Hosaka plays to the crowd then gets attacked by "The Girl" and gets thrown across the ring. They trade some forearms and clotheslines for a while with some kicks by Hosaka. Another Irish whip to the corner by Girl and gets kicked in the face, Hosaka twists upside down up to the top rope but gets caught and gets hit with a superplex. Girl covers and gets two before Hosaka gets an arm up. Hosaka gets dumped outside to be kicked a couple times by Purity. Eventually, "The Girl" sets up Hosaka to be tripped on an Irish whip to the ropes but Purity obviously missed the reversal and trips "The Girl". They argue as Hosaka stands in a karate pose waiting...Frankensteiner! 1-2-3...Hosaka wins in about ten minutes. Apparently Hosaka didn't get enough of "The Girl" and ran up the aisle as she was leaving to beat on her some more and finished up by ramming her head into the back wall of the arena! Note that the WWF brought in Hosaka as fan bait for Nicole Bass but they passed on signing her for the women's roster because she was "too well known" despite being a decent wrestler. The WWF made a stupid mistake not signing her.

WINNER: Malia Hosaka pin -> 10 mins. **

3rd bout, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine vs. "The Searcher". "The Searcher" hails from "Skull Mountain" and is a large man about 300-350 pounds dressed in black, long dark hair, and goatee beard. I chatted with him at halftime, he said he was just hired by Harley Race so this was his first appearance. He got the name "The Searcher" by his grandfather at the age of three. Anyway, this guy may be one to watch for later. "The Hammer" got a lot of support from the crowd. Searcher starts off pounding away on Hammer and they trade blows for a while until Hammer tries to do the figure-four and gets kicked away. Searcher gets the arm twisted up, Searcher climbs to the top holding Hammer's arm and walks the ropes like the Undertaker used to do and hits a forearm shot to the back. Up to the top again, Searcher hits a clothesline from the top rope. Cover gets two, Searcher tries the atomic drop a couple times which messes up his own knee and Hammer grabs a leg on the last attempt and hooks the figure-four for the submission.

WINNER: Greg "The Hammer" Valentine submission -> 10 mins. **

4th bout, Honky Tonk Man vs. "The Ace" Cowboy Bob Orton. Orton I haven't seen around in years. Honky comes out first and refuses to slap hands with anyone. Then he cuts a promo and starts running down public education and telling people they live in double-wide white trailers. Then he finally gets around to singing "Honky Tonk Man" in its entirety which kills a lot of time. Finally Orton comes out and they start the match. Alas, Honky does way too much stalling throughout, we see why as he shows everyone the chain he has tucked in his trunks. This match was slow as there were a lot of punching...when Orton punched Honky ten times in the corner...about 10 seconds elapsed between each punch, course Honky was trying to slump to the floor in between. Honky used the chain a number of times to punch or choke with. The chain brings to hang out of Honky's trunks as flip each other around. Orton tries to do the Superplex but gets knocked away, Honky hits the Shake-Rattle-&-Roll and gets the pin. But...the referee sees the chain hanging out when he raises his hand, and DQ's Honky on the spot.

WINNER: "The Ace" Cowboy Bob Orton DQ -> 15 mins. *

5th bout, Bushwhackers vs. The Hollywood Studs (Marcus Mansfield and "The Stud"). Mansfield has short brown hair and wears red and white with red stars, "The Stud" is a blond-haired man in black and gold with a goofy inscription on the back that says "High Five This!". Butch cuts a long promo on Springfield being Bushwhacker country. Match starts, and I expect a squash, amazingly the Studs control a large part of the match. Some double-team action by the Studs which eventually gets all of them involved. Luke had to actually throw a man back into the ring so Butch could ram their heads together. This goes on for about ten minutes until the Bushwhackers hit the battering ram on "The Stud" for the three count.

WINNERS: The Bushwhackers pin -> 10 mins. **½

Final match, a battle-royal of six. Three men who didn't appear earlier, Triple-B--Big Beautiful Brett, the Super Destroyer, and "Blade", along with the Studs and the Searcher. This one goes hardcode fairly quickly as the masked Destroyer, a 350-400 man wearing silver and black with silver mask, Triple B who was a long black-haired man about 250-300 pounds in blue and black, Blade who wore all black and face paint around the eyes, and the other three used a chair to smack each other with. Mansfield goes on the outside to set up a table, which shortly thereafter Triple-B ends up making a big hole through the center. "The Stud" gets thrown out first. Mansfield gets clotheslined out later, and the four big men pile up on the what's left of the table. Triple-B leaves for the back, even though he didn't get eliminated. The three men remaining get back in the ring and beat each other with the chair, Searcher eventually takes out the Super Destroyer, Searcher and Blade are left, Searcher goes for his finisher, "The Groundzero" which looks like he is going to do a tombstone piledriver but it ends up into a powerslam, couple of reversals but Searcher hits its, then tosses Blade over for the win. Triple-B returns and cuts a promo that he's battered and bleeding but he's not done yet (and he's got a couple of cuts on the forehead). The match continues for a while but Searcher hits the Groundzero on Brett and throws him over for the (now) victory. Searcher cuts his promo, thanking the crowd and says he's gonna do what the other guys couldn't, and flips backward over the top rope.

WINNER: The Searcher -> 10 mins. ***

Verdict--well, except for the final two bouts and perhaps the women's bout the action was pretty slow and playing to the fans dominated more than anything. What probably made it worth going for me was to meet some of the wrestlers up close--the Bushwhackers, Hosaka, Volkov, Valentine, Searcher and Honky Tonk Man spend a good while doing pictures and autographs, fans were bringing large chunks of the table up for them to sign. But anyway, "The Searcher" stood out as someone to be watching for.