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| NAWF: Another new beginning. What is this, the third one? Both Chen and Masset join the NAWF as Anxiety Rising, accompanied as always by Bruce and Snow White. Their first match just days after they join is against the Barroom Heroes, Hall of Fame inductees. Passing with ease, they are put in number 1 contenders spot for the Tag Team championship against the 9-time champions, Bad Attitude. The week long war boils down to January 19th, with Chen scoring the pinfall and ladies and gentlemen, we have new tag team champions! After only 13 days in the federation, they are the champions. After only 13 days, they beat two HoF inductee teams and see no sign of slowing down this early. However, a new challenge then presents itself. And it ain't lookin' pretty... NAWF Bowl One of the big three PPVs in the NAWF, the NAWF pits the whole roster against the whole roster, winner gets a title shot for the world title at the February PPV. So what's the problem? Chen and Masset are among those participating, but like old times, they're against eachother. The new tag team champions are now fighting against eachother for a world title shot. After a long weeks worth of training, the January 26th event finally comes. Masset comes in at #5, Chen at #13. To the disappointment of everyone watching, Masset is eliminated right before #12 came out, and Chen is eliminated 4th to last. Yes, but they were 3-on-1'ed, so that explains it all. Then they end up losing their tag titles to Hells Fury only to get a rematch right after. Winning them back at Golden Rules, Hell's Fury gets a rematch right after. God, it seems like the 7th time they've fought them. So Anxiety Rising beats them, and continues on their journey, beating tag teams most every week. This continues on until March 30th, at WrestleFest. Anxiety Rising goes in against Draven and Diablo, defending the titles. On one of the more important PPV's in the NAWF, Masset hits a milestone as he grasps his 40th Pay-Per-View victory. NAWF vs. NEWF With NEWF talent interferring at NAWF events, the NAWF president gets a bit peeved and issues a challenge of an InterFed PPV for April 27, dubbed "Sibling Rivalry." Anxiety Rising get prepared to fight the NEWF tag team champions, Jackson Herrod and Alex Marsley. However, in sadness, Anxiety Rising lost, but did not lose the titles. But they continue to beat other teams until they are challenged by the World champion, Thriller, to a non-title tag match partnered with Slash, a Hall of Fame inductee. They accept. Also that night was a number-one contenders match for the tag titles, in which the reformed tag team of Bad Attitude earned a shot for the titles at Spring Fever. Spring Fever So Spring Fever rolls around, and Anxiety Rising begins training for this important matchup. But as luck would have it, early on, Jackson Herod said he can't do it, talked about how Anxiety Rising is the definitive future of the tag teams of the NAWF, and so on. In other words, we kick their ass again. This adds yet another tally of PPV wins for Masset, as well as one more week as tag champions. That was their 14th week (a little over three months), closing in on the NAWF record of five months. It is known as a Genocide reign, as the team to set the record was called Genocide. With Spring Fever behind them, they look ahead to the next PPV. A King of the Ring Tournament. Chen becomes pissed that Masset is in the tournament and he isn't, until he sees Chen is getting a World Title Shot against Thriller. That shuts him up. Masset takes on Answer in the KOTR Qualifying match. In that Destruction, the 15 week World title reign of Thriller is ended by Chen pulling the upset, as well as Masset advancing to the King of the Ring tournament. 'Twas an exciting night. They take it easy for the next two weeks as they defend their Tag team titles against Apostles of Pain and The Connection. King of the Ring Then came the big night. First, Masset fought Rich Lechler in the Quarterfinals, and after a fairly easy fight, Masset makes his way to the semi-finals. He faces The Answer, who has snuck back into the tournament, despite being beaten in the qualifying match my Masset himself. After a grueling eighteen minute match, Masset captures another win. Meanwhile, Chen fights Thriller in his first World Title defense. The match was tough, and Chen isn't 100% after being assaulted badly a week earlier, receiving a concussion. Nonetheless, he hangs in there, and after twenty-four minutes, defeats Thriller cleanly with his Bonecracker. Then, like old times, Masset found himself in the main event of the Pay-Per-View tournament finals. His opponent was Marty Howe. Masset finally debuts his Neuralgia and Highlife moves for the first time in the NAWF. He follows up the Highlife with is ever-popular Assassination to secure the 1, 2, 3. After a thirty minute war, Masset becomes NAWF King of the Ring. "I think tonight was a night of destiny for the tag team champions." But that just creates trouble. The winner of the tournament gets a shot at the World Title at the next Pay-Per-View, "Mayhem." Masset, being the tournament winner and Chen, being the World champion, means it'll be Anxiety Rising versus Anxiety Rising to headline the next Pay-Per-View. After this, Bruce had been hinting about a new member joining Anxiety Rising. Nobody knew what he was talking about, until about a week later, that new member was introduced as Livewire, the newly crowned Cruiserweight champion. So now Anxiety Rising grew to six total people (Oh yeah, Amy also joined) and held four out of the five NAWF championship belts. This is a lesser form of COP from Masset's previous history, as every member held a belt, only not every belt was held by an Anxiety Rising member. The week after King of the Ring, Masset continued the four-year-old Curse of the King by losing the week after winning the tournament. This time it was to Thriller. But now, President Lou and all realizes Chen and Masset are closing in on the tag team record and are only a few weeks away from breaking it. To give them a challenge to prove they're good, they book them in a tag title match against Thriller and REDRUM. This is a big match. Lou knows Anxiety Rising is only about three short weeks of breaking the tag team title record, and he wants to be damn sure we earn it. So into a match they go, against two of the top NAWF stars. However, a ref bump occurs, and out comes Lou himself to officiate. Slash comes down to help Thiller and REDRUM, but Livewire comes out to stop him. Lou is too occupied with that brawl outside to see Masset get thrown out of the ring and Chen get a Thrillseeker. So even Lou isn't there to make the cover. REDRUM goes over to Lou to protest, and Masset grabs a chair and nails Thriller, and the real ref is awake to make the 1, 2, 3 after a thirty-six minute, five-star match. But then, the World Innovators show that they have set up a trap and Lou holds back Bruce and Snow while WI beat down Anxiety Rising. Lou reveals that he is now a member of WI: Brutality and joins in the insulting of Anxiety Rising. This stables war is getting ugly. So Anxiety Rising, now realizing they're going up against the boss as well, start taking drastic measures. The Week After The next Destruction, after being surprised at the President's actions, make a surprise themselves. But first, they fight singles matches. Masset is in a nice easy match against Josh Payne. But this easy victory turns out to be not-so-easy as in the end, Thriller and Lou come out and nail Masset with a chair and the Thrillseeker and Josh picks up the assisted victory. Then Chen fights a non-title match against The Answer. Sticking to the old tradition, Chen beats The Connection member, now raising the battle of Anxiety Rising vs. The Connection to a 5-0 lead. It's a good thing nobody cared to interfere in THAT match, or it might've ended differently. No, everybody waits till AFTER the match to attack. And that's just what both The Connection and WI do. But to the surprise of everybody outside Anxiety Rising, out comes Shane "Never Surrender" Wausau. This evens the numbers and Anxiety Rising get the upperhand. Shane makes a note that if they want to take down Anxiety Rising, they're gonna have to take him down too, because he is now a part of it. Already, Anxiety Rising picks up a seventh member to aid them in the stables war that's brewing. NAWF Midsummer Night's Mayhem At last, the battle of Anxiety Rising versus Anxiety Rising takes place. Chen, the world champion and Masset, the King of the Ring, battle it out. "Tonight, I have the biggest opportunity of my NAWF career, but like you said, I have to go through my best friend to redeem it." Masset's final words before going into the match against Chen. "Rest assured, after tonight, Masset and I will come out of this stronger. It doesn't matter who takes home the belt, because in the end, Anxiety Rising wins again." Spoke Chen just minutes before the match. And finally, the match all the fans have been waiting for happens. Masset debuts his new theme music, "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd to commemorate this significant match. To insure no funny business takes place such as cheap interference, Lou DiPeitro leads out a group of riot cops to circle the ring to protect them from outside interference. They quickly go into a stalemate, and it's a back and forth match. Finally, after 25 minutes, Masset finishes off Chen with a Northern Lights Bomb for some reason, and gets the 1, 2, 3. They embrace in friendship, and Chen hands Masset the belt he wore for roughly two months. But as the rest of Anxiety Rising come to celebrate, the riot cops stop them and assault them. And soon, a few of the riot cops come in and attack the worn down Chen and Masset. They take their masks off revealing Josh Payne and the rest of the WI; Richard Braddock, Thriller, Slash, Scanlan, and REDRUM. It was all a setup to allow Lou to announce Josh Payne is part of their group. Even bigger challenge Masset's world title match at Mayhem might've been his biggest opportunity in the NAWF thusfar, but even that is overshadowed by the next match, only one week away. Anxiety Rising has held the tag team titles for five months and one week. They have tied the all-time record set many years ago by Genocide. And now, they seek to break it. But to say Lou has a grudge against them is an understatement after looking at this match. This match is a tag team championship match, but not any regular match. It's a four corners match. "NAWF Tag Team Champions Anxiety Rising face three tough challengers in The Connection (Rick Deuce and Alex Rydell), The Featured Attraction (Antonio Gambino and Isaac Conners), and WI (Thriller, REDRUM, and Slash), as they attempt to claim the record for NAWF Tag Title reign length!" But they didn't spend the last five months as champions only to lose the titles during the record setting match. With that taken into consideration, along with the fact that The Connection never spoke once, WI spoke three times, but didn't even mention the match, and Featured Attraction never proved a significant threat, is it a surprise that after the twenty-nine minute match, Anxiety Rising leaves victorious? Go ahead and read the match here. "Anxiety Rising just beat 3 worthy contenders, and has proven tonight that they may be the best tag team in NAWF history, and we're gonna have a new record on our hands!" And now, Chen gets an easy week against Phoenix, while Masset begins his training of the X-Matches tournament. If I may inflate his ego a bit more, some quotes overheard were, "Why do you think Lou put him in the tournament. Even though he might not admit it, of course he knows Masset is going to win." and, "I also bet 500 bucks, that Masset would win. Don't ask why, I just think he has the best show to pull out the victory." Texas Three Step There seems to be a stables war going on between Anxiety Rising, The Connection, and World Innovators. To settle this, a match is signed between all three for the next Pay-Per-View. In a match that everyone agrees that the winner is pretty much the strongest group in the NAWF, Anxiety Rising does it again as they pull another win out of their hats with WI admitting defeat before the match even began. The match was long, and very hard-fought. Rick and Alex turned on Answer near the end, and Masset, Chen, and Livewire together forces Lou to tap. With the Pay-Per-View behind them, Masset looks ahead to his World Title match against Marty Howe. During Destruction, it was announced that the match would be a Hell in a Cell match. It was a very tough fight, and to the dismay of us all, Howe defeated Masset and became a Grand Slammer with his world title win. Masset, while initially disappointed, soon forgets that as their next match is for the Tag Titles against RADAR. Not only that, but on August 31, 2003, Anxiety Rising was inducted into the NAWF Hall of Fame. Anyway, their match with Radar is a simple one where they destroyed them. Later, it was revealed that the mastermind behind Radar was a clever ploy made in the mind of Scott Sulivan, the X-Match CEO. He soon left upon realizing nobody cared. For the September 14th edition of Destruction, they go against quite the opponents. The returning New Attitude. It is a rematch of Sibling Rivalry, in which NA managed to defeat Anxiety Rising. However, this week, Jackson Herod didn't put up much effort, so it was up to Alex Marsley to carry them to a loss. And he did. And what a glorious loss it was. So AR's anger over their Sibling Rivalry loss, the loss everybody refers to as, "Anxiety Rising's only setback" has finally been redeemed. It is now official, that NO team has beaten Anxiety Rising that Anxiety Rising didn't beat back. No more of that, "Except New Attitude" spiel. Full Speed Ahead "But this 2 on 1 attack, it should be good training. Because next week at Full Speed Ahead, your opponent will be 2 men. 3 Way Dance, you vs Anxiety Rising, the battle of the last 3 NAWF champions. Enjoy your last week as champ Marty, because even though I hate Chen and Masset, I know I hate you more." - Lou DePietro speaking to Marty Howe, the current World Champ. Lou punishes Howe's lack of effort by putting him in the ring with two people he knows can beat him...Of course, that is Masset and Chen. Masset and Chen had to have fought eachother a record number of times, for most matches against your tag team partner. Marty Howe vs. Masset vs. Chen for the NAWF World Title. Their only rematch for the title since either of them lost it, is earned at the same time. Unfortunately, both Chen and Masset has hells of a week, and in the end, they didn't have the fight in them to beat Howe. The End of an Era The next week, Lou gave Anxiety Rising a run for their money as he put them in another four-team match against New Attitude, WI: New Breed, and the reformed Threat consisting of Shaun White and Aremis Simeria. Anxiety Rising fought hard, Threat fought hard, WI didn't fight at all, and New Attitude split once again. So it remained an Anxiety Rising vs. Threat battle from the very beginning. They went neck and neck, but in the end, Herod "shocked the world" as he joined forces with The Threat. So now it was everybody against Chen and Masset, and with Chen stuck at ringside, unable to get in the ring for the save, Masset gets triple-teamed, and Anxiety Rising's reign as champion...has ended. "After 7 months, the era of Anxiety Rising has FINALLY been stopped, but it took a little trickery and some extra help to get the job done." The next week, Anxiety Rising fell to The Threat for the second week in a row in a 6-man tag match. This week was important in that it introduced the newest member to Anxiety Rising; David Braddock. Far different from his early-2003 persona, David fits surprisingly well amidst Anxiety Rising. Almost...too well. The Return of an Era The following week, on October 12, 2003, Anxiety Rising fought The Threat for the third week in a row. Quite similar to February when fighting Hell's Fury many times. And history repeats itself as they beat them this week to become three-time tag champions. Some similarities with February include the following: Losing the titles to them the first time fighting them; losing one week later in a 6-man match (Against Hell's Fury, it was a triple threat tag team match, against the Threat, it was a 6-man tag match...still six people); beating them the third time fighting them to regain the titles. Next on the list: Break the reign record again. Yeah, sure. Anywho, Shaun White let everybody down. He let Aremis down because he didn't speak once. But he never let Anxiety Rising down, because Anxiety Rising beat the living crap out of Shaun White. And thus, Anxiety Rising becomes three-time champions. The week before the big All Mixed Up pay-per-view, we see a miniature "All Mixed Up" style tag match, pitting Chen, Answer, Shaun White, and Brian Cardinal against Masset, Sean Black, Synn, and Marty Howe. In this humble reporter's opinion, that isn't quite fair. But it didn't really matter. None of the eight really tried. But for the record, team one won. All Mixed Up Now comes the biggie. The main event. The ender of all enders. Masset is teamed up with Josh Payne; Chen, with Aremis. Masset is looking to be the first person ever to win (a) Two of the three big PPV's, (b) win two of the big PPV's in one year, and (c) win two of the big PPV's in a row. All would be accomplished with this victory. Masset, for the first time in his NAWF career, reaches the 13 promo a week maximum. In the end, it came down to the 2002 All Mixed Up runner-up against the 2003 King of the Ring champion. After only 20 minutes, Masset becomes 2003 All Mixed Up...runner-up. Aremis Simeria chokeslams Masset to the outside. A Small Farewell The week after, Anxiety Rising defends their somewhat newly won tag titles against The Brothers, Ryan and Rob. Anxiety Rising finally is burnt out after nearly 11 months of solid fighting and winning. But instead of taking a loss, they come out in street clothes, don't give much for a speech, but hand the titles over, because both Chen and Masset received injuries at All Mixed Up that needs at least two months to recover. The Return Screw waiting two months. Masset makes a grand return to an OVERWHELMING ovation on December 7th, saying he has plans to win the unified TV/IC belt, and also will help Josh Payne out in Josh's 10-man tag against Lou's team. Masset's first match back is a 6-man tag pitting he, Slash, and Josh Payne against Dr. Kovorkian, Brett Ferguson, and Pete Thomas. However, throughout the week, Slash and Josh were nowhere to be found. And wouldn't you know it, when the match came, they were found backstage, unconscious. So Masset is left in the ring for a 3-on-1 match. Needless to say, Masset lost, but not after fighting for a solid 13 minutes before finally getting beat down for the pin. Masset gave an incredibly angry speech to Josh and Slash, as well as others, and Josh finally showed his face and said to never question his desire to wrestle, but also apologized for his absence. The next week, Masset was given a match against Dr. Kovorkian as a bit of revenge from the 3-on-1 match. Masset enjoyed that match, because Dr. K was very cocky going in, and ended up being thrown around like a rag doll. Masset gets the nice victory, then finishes up the year in a big way... Season's Beatings So Lou and Josh Payne are in the middle of a feud or whatever, right? Yeah, not talking sure got Josh in a bunch of good matches, actually. Anyway, Lou signs a five-on-five match at Season's Beatings, pitting Lou and four partners against Josh and for partners. Well, Masset, out of the goodness of his heart, decides to help Josh out. Because to him, Josh could use all the help he can get. In the end, the team turns out to be a team from hell (And not even in the good way) as it's Masset, along with Josh Payne, Slash, Marty Howe, and Cage taking on Lou's team, consisting of himself, Jonas Nightengale, Ravage, and the Workrate Kings. Sure enough, NOBODY on Masset's team bothers to talk that week. Not one, not even the "leader." Masset vents in disgust, but still shows up for the match. Why? Because Masset had nothing else to do that night. But rest assured, Masset was pissed at his team. How could you tell he was pissed? Because when Masset's pissed, his intensity triples. Jonas DQ'ed himself to eliminate him first from their team, and Masset's members dropped like flies till it was 4 on 2. But as it was said before, Masset was pissed at his team, so he didn't let them have any of the fun, he took it all himself. Masset hits a top rope Massetology to eliminate Brian Von Braun of the Workrate Kings, followed by a roll-up on Ravage to eliminate him. Payne is finally eliminated, but one superkick later and Stevie Scott is eliminated thanks to Masset. So it's down to Masset and Lou. Lou put Masset in that team from hell, so Masset makes Lou suffer with the Omega Deathlock to make Lou tap to Masset for the second time in six months. So after 52 minutes of complete dominance of a major PPV main event by Masset, Masset becomes the sole survivor of this year's Season's Beatings elimination match. And so wraps up Masset's rookie year in the NAWF. But Masset isn't done with the NAWF yet, not in the least. 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