by George Hassett

World class wrestling returns to Somerville June 17 when New England Championship Wrestling presents an eight-bout Fan Appreciation Night card at Good Time Emporium in Assembly Square.

“This will kick off our strongest season yet. The card will be half-price as a special thank-you to our fans, but there will be more matches than ever. In fact, we will be having a triple main event including a match for the NECW heavyweight championship,” said NECW president Sheldon Goldberg.

In the first part of the triple main event, the NECW heavyweight champion, Michael Sain, has been ordered to face “The Golden Greek,” Alex Arion, in a return match for the title.

“In the first meeting between the two, ‘The Golden Greek’ held his own against the monstrous Sain until Sain’s advisor, Alex Crowley, interfered and pushed ‘The Golden Greek’ off the top rope of the ring, allowing Sain to pounce on the fallen Greek.

“Sain may be just too much for ‘The Golden Greek,’ but, then again, ‘The Greek’ wrestled brilliantly in the last match and may find a way to neutralize Crowley this time around. But, we won’t know anything for sure until the final bell rings,” said Goldberg.

Former tag-team champions Adrenaline (Chris Venom & Brian Fury) and Pride (Dan Freitas & Brian Nunes) will march inside the ropes to settle an long-running dispute.

“Pride have targeted Adrenaline since they burst onto the NECW scene last month. They even cost Adrenaline the title when they interfered in Adrenaline’s last match. Venom and Fury tried to retaliate against Pride by interfering in their match later that night. I have signed a tag-team grudge match because I want these guys to settle their beef face-to-face in the ring. This match will be an explosive battle for revenge,” said Goldberg.

In the third part of the triple main event, said Goldberg, Antonio “The Promise” Thomas returns to NECW action in a special double jeopardy challenge match against “Big Guns” Frankie Arion. Last month, the 160-pound Arion nearly defeated the 240-pound “Promise” in what would have been a huge upset victory.

“After, it was ‘The Promise’ shooting off his mouth, claiming that ‘the little man got lucky but not lucky enough,’” said Goldberg.

A challenge was made and the contract has been signed for Thomas to face Arion again under double jeopardy rules, Goldberg said, meaning that Frankie only needs to pin Thomas once to win, but Thomas must pin Arion twice to win the match. The winner of this bout will be deemed the number one contender for the NECW Heavyweight Championship.

Japanese star Sumie Sakai is scheduled to return to NECW action alongside Tanya Lee as they lock horns with the popular Mercedes Martinez and Sarah Sullivan.

Advance tickets for NECW’s Fan Appreciation Night are now on sale at Good Time Emporium or at www.NECWwrestling.com.