MIW Chanhassen, MN 12/3/2011

Minnesota Independent Wrestling returned to the Chanhassen American Legion this past Saturday night. The second snow fall of the year started earlier in the day so I thought there would not be many in the crowd this night.  The snow wasn’t enough to stop anyone who wanted to go to see some great MIW pro wrestling as the room was packed.
A Paradise’s Pit started off the night. Mitch Paradise had some uninvited guest for his pit as the Masked Jungle Fighter and his “army” came out and put boots to ass. MJF’s army now consist of Gunner Clash, PJ Thornbranch, The Rainmaker, Paul Brewski, Nick Colucci, Sean Priest and Matt Winchester. After MJFA tossed Paradise out of the ring they called out MIW champion Pete Huge to ask him to join their army. Huge and Chris Jordan came to the ring and said no to the MJFA’s offer.
“Playboy” Pete Huge defended his MIW title against rookie Dorrian.  Huge hit the ‘super G spot and covered Dorrian when MJFA came out to stop the 3 count so the match ended in a no contest. El Bano, Rob Ivy, Horace the psychopath and Mitch Paradise came out to attack the MJFA.  Paradise then challenged MJF to a series of matches for control of MIW.
PJ Thornbrach, in his debut match, defeated Rob Ivy and his moustache. Thornbrach had some help from MJF in order to get the win. MJFA 1   MIW 0
Gunner Clash w/ Masked Jungle Fighter pinned El Bano. Clashed used a taser on El Bano to get the win. MJFA 2 MIW 0
Horace the psychopath pinned Sean Saint. This was my first time seeing Saint. He did a religious gimmick with some holy water. MJFA 2 MIW 1
Dorrian VS The Rainmaker w/ The Masked Jungle Fighter ended in a double count out. MJFA 2 MIW 1
“The All Star” Paul Brewski & Nick Colucci proclaimed themselves the MJFA tag team champions. They defended their belts against The Junk Squad, Chris Jordan & Pete Huge. The Junk Squad got the win and the belts after Huge hit the G spot on Colucci. MJFA 2 MIW 2
Mitch Paradise defeated Matt Winchester after a power bomb. With that win MIW won the series to stop MJF from gaining control of MIW. After the match Rob Ivy turned on his friend Paradise and joined the MJFA.

BCW Crystal, MN 11/18/2011

This past Friday night Born Champion Wrestling returned to the Crystal Community Center for an action packed night of indy pro wrestling.
In the opening match The Patriot 3 pinned The Cougar after a frog splash.
Bret O’Brian defeated Udo and Savage in a 3 way dance. O’Brian pinned Savage to get the 3 count. This was my first time seeing Savage in action as this was his BCW debut.
Horace The Psychopath defeated Cpl. Julio Julio.
Judd Jennrich pinned Kamikaze Klecker. Jennrich needed outside help and some brass knuckles to get the win.
BCW Twin Cities champion Ryan Cruz retained the title when he beat Craven Knyte. This championship title was originally called the ‘rivals championship’ but I guess BCW realized that sounded dumb so it was changed. Be sure to check out the current issue of The Wrestler for an ‘Introducing’ feature on Knyte. If you can’t find it on on news stands you can order it from the PWI web site for $4 off the cover price. Also in that issue you can see photos I took of Mat Fitchett and John Morrison.
The Prophet defeated Venom. After ref Rob Page was knocked down Bret O’Brian hit Venom with a chair and put The Prophet on top of Venom for the pin.
“The Anarchist” Arik Cannon pinned “6% Body Fat” Rob James after a brain buster.
BCW heavy weight champion Darin Corbin defeated The Black Stallion to retain the belt. Corbin had some help from The Entourage to get the win. After the match Dirty Ernie came out to challenge Corbin to a no DQ match at the next BCW event. I hope this photo doesn’t make Corbin look fat.

R.I.P. Bison Smith

On November 22, 2011 Bison Smith died in Puerto Rico at the age of 38. A few months ago Colt Cabana did an interview with Smith his Art of Wrestling podcast. To hear that podcast click here.
Though from the U.S.A. Smith wrestled mostly in Japan. On October 9th, 2004 I was at Korakuen Hall to see Smith tag with Mike Awesome & Trevor Rhodes (AKA Trevor Murdock) to wrestle against Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Takashi Sugiura for Pro Wrestling Noah.

Introducing Craven Knyte in The Wrestler

Craven Knyte has been wrestling in the Minneapolis area for the last 5 years. He’s worked for just about every promotion in the area. This month he will be introduced to the rest of the nation in the pages of The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling. Knyte was interviewed by editor-in-chief Frank Krewda for this two page feature. The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling Volume 44 with John Cena on the cover should be on sale very soon. After you read the story on Knyte then flip the mag over to the Inside Wrestling side and turn to page 66. There you will see one of my photos from a recent F1RST Wrestling show.

Introducing Craven Knyte in The Wrestler

Craven Knyte has been wrestling in the Minneapolis area for the last 5 years. He’s worked for just about every promotion in the area. This month he will be introduced to the rest of the nation in the pages of The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling. Knyte was interviewed by editor-in-chief Frank Krewda for this two page feature. The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling Volume 44 with John Cena on the cover should be on sale very soon. After you read the story on Knyte then flip the mag over to the Inside Wrestling side and turn to page 66. There you will see one of my photos from a recent F1RST Wrestling show.

Wishing many years of happiness to Hoofer and Wonderland

This past weekend former pro wrestlers Big Brody Hoofer and Allison Wonderland got hitched. Both wrestlers left the biz last spring after Hoofer lost a loser leaves MIW match against “Playboy” Pete Huge. Wonderland was with Huge at the time but left with Hoofer after the match.

PTW Bloomington, MN 10/28/2011

Prime Time Wrestling had their second event this past Friday night at the Bloomington Knights of Columbus. There was a new ring announcer for this event.
Apostle 13 defeated “6% Body Fat” Rob James in the opening match. Apostle 13 was suppose to have a rematch against Mikey Wipeout as part of the championship tournament but Wipeout was recently injured.
Udo defeated Arya Daivari.
Chiropractor DC pinned Gunner Clash.
Dennis “The Menace” Michaels and Tiger Lilly came out to talk to DC after the match. I’m not sure what they were trying to say to DC as no one got on a mic. Michaels did ask to shake DC’s hand and then he kick DC in gut. Lilly hit DC in the jimmy and then she left the ring with Michaels.
Magic Man pinned The Black Stallion. In my post about last months PTW event I wrote that Magic Man had fewer matches then the Rainmaker. I was wrong, Magic Man has had a few more matches then the Rainmaker.
In the first few minutes of the match The Black Stallion had Magic Man in a headlock. Stallion then gave Magic Man a noggie that messed up his hair. Magic Man didn’t like his hair messed up so he called Charise, his hair stylist, out for a touch up. Not only did Charise fix Magic Man’s hair, she helped him win the match when she shot the hair spray in The Black Stallions eyes.
In the main event Lenny Lane defeated Mitch Paradise by DQ. Lane did the old “hey ref, he hit me with that chair that he is holding’ bit. The referee then DQ’ed Paradise even though he didn’t see Paradise hit Lane with the chair, because he didn’t hit Lane with the chair.
Paradise was pissed so he he was going to stomp a mud hole in Lane’s face. But before Paradise could get his boots dirty he was attacked by 7’ masked man. A few moments later another 7’ masked man came into the ring to pound on Paradise. The Rainmaker came to the ring to help Paradise but there was not much he could do against the much larger men.

AWF Hayward, WI 10/08/2011

The American Wrestling Federation had a TV taping at the Hayward Sports Center this past Saturday night. The AWF Saturday Night Slam TV show can be seen on channel 45 in the Minneapolis/St Paul area.
AWF COO Tony DeNucci came out before the matches started to address the fans. He was interrupted by El Muerte who said he wanted a match. DeNucci said he would wrestle El Muerte later in the night.
Gunner Clash defeated Apostle 13 after a kick to the jimmy.
“The All Star” Paul Brewski pinned John Johnson. After the match Johnson attacked Brewski because he is a sore looser.
Tony DeNucci defeated El Muerte in a no DQ match. El Muerte means The Death in Spanish.
“Live Wire” Johnny Parks pinned Armageddon after a top rope leg drop. This was my first time seeing Armageddon and he is a really big guy.
Wild Cat defeated “6% body fat” Rob James after a moon sault. This was my first time seeing Wild Cat in action after hearing a lot about him.
AWF champion Arya Daivari pinned Craven Knyte to retain the title.
Wild Cat won the Hayward Rumble to become the new number one contender for the AWF championship. All the wrestler from the night were in this match.

PTW Bloomington, MN 9/30/2011

A new pro wrestling promotion has started up in the MSP area.This past Friday night Prime Time Wrestling held their first ever pro wrestling event at the Bloomington Knights of Columbus.
The card started with PTW commissioner Dave Tobin telling the fans that there would be a tournament taking place over the next 6 months to crown the PTW champion. Lenny Lane came out to say that he should be champion now. The rest of the wrestler came out one by one all to say that they are just as good as Lane. It was a nice way to introduce all the wrestlers on the card to the fans.
Chiropractor DC defeated Denis the Menace Micheals. After the match a women named Tiger Lilly came to the ring and dragged Micheals by his ear to the locker room. I have never seen Lilly before.
Mikey Wipeout vs Apostle 13 ended in a double count out.
Former WCW Cruiser Weight champion Lenny Lane defeated The Rain Maker by submission. This was my first time seeing The Rain Maker. In the promo at the beginning of the card he said that he’s only had two matches so far in his pro wrestling career.
The Magic Man defeated Udo by pin fall. The Magic man has had fewer matches then The Rain Maker.
In the main event Mitch Paradise pinned John Johnson after choke power bomb. In all the years that I’ve been photographing Paradise’s matches this was the first time I saw him bleed. Paradise got a bloody nose when Johnson hit Paradise with his elbow.
After Paradise beat Johnson the lights went out. When the lights came back on a 7’ masked man was in the ring attacking Paradise. I have no idea who that masked man was. PTW has a second event scheduled for October 28th at the Bloomington Knights of Columbus so maybe more will be revealed about Tiger Lilly and the masked man.

BCW Crystal, MN 9/16/2011

Born Champions Wrestling returned to the Crystal Community Center for a Friday night of wrestling action. This nights main event was a cage match.
BCW champion Darin Corbin and the Entourage came out at the start of the card. Corbin got on the mic and talked about how bad Minnesota wrestling is and how it’s now his time to step to the top and knock off all the vets. “Playboy” Pete Huge came out to answer Corbin’s challenge. Huge has been wrestling in Minnesota for over 12 years.
In the first match Udo defeated Cameron Cross.
Arya Daivari & Judd Jennrich retained the BCW tag team title in a match against 3 other teams.
Craven Knyte pinned Arik Cannon (#200 in the 2011 PWI 500) in a #1 contender match. Fans at ring side were telling ref Rob Page that Knyte had his feet on the rope during the pin but Page didn’t have his glasses on so he didn’t see it.
Horace the Psychopath defeated Kamikaze Klecker.
Venom got revenge on his former 101 Proof partner Bret O’Brian with a 3 count. But it was a short revenge as O’Brian and a couple of thugs beat up Venom after the match.
BCW champion Darin Corbin (#294 in the 2011 PWI 500) defeated “Playboy” Pete Huge to retain his title. Corbin had some help from those same two thugs that helped O’Brian. Looks like Corbin’s stranglehold on the BCW belt continues.
In the main event Ryan Cruz defeated “6% body fat” Rob James in a cage to become the first BCW Rivals champion. Cruz gave James a top rope ‘boom shakalaka’ through a table to get the 3 count. I hate taking photos through a cage.
BCW is scheduled to return to the Crystal Community Center on November 18th.