The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana

The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling Volume 38 hit newsstands this week. On pages 14 and 15 there is a story about Colt Cabana's pod cast "The Art of Wrestling". In the article there is a photo I took of Cabana with CM Punk and Ricky Steamboat from a ROH show in St. Paul, MN back in April 2004.
If you have not yet listened to Colt Cabana's pod cast I highly recommend that you do. Just click on the link above where it reads "Art of Wrestling". Every Thursday Cabana post a new podcast where he talks with one of his pro wrestling friends. Some of my favorite shows/guest are Shawn Daivari, CM Punk, Colin Delany, Somoa Joe (seen here getting his burn mark kicked off by Cabana), X-Pac and The Briscoe Brothers. As Cabana says on his podcast, he opens the door and lets fans into the lives of pro wrestlers.

PWI shoots on the AWA

The March 2011 Pro Wrestling Illustrated special year-end awards issue went on sale this week. It's always a fun time seeing who the fans voted for and their Unofficial/Official awards. Another one of my favorite sections is the year in review in photos. Most of the photos in this section take a humorous look at pro wrestling. In this issue a few of my photos were used to take a shot at the old AWA. The photos used were Buck "Rock N Roll" Zumhofe showing his ass to his opponent and Greg Gagne drop kicking Mitch Paradise. The caption read "Two reasons why no one is clamoring for an AWA reunion". Being from the Midwest the AWA was my introduction to pro wrestling and it holds a special place in my heart. So I was a little disappointed with the caption for my photos. Sure, no one really wants to see Zumhofe's back side but a Gagne drop kick is another story.

This image to the right was taken just a second before the one that was printed in PWI. Sure, Greg Gagne didn't get as high as he used to but he's around 60 years old now. Not only that but he was wearing dress shoes when he did the dropkick on 6' 5" Mitch Paradise. Even though Gagne has lost a little spring in his dropkick, it got a huge pop from the crowd at the Lakeville high school. Maybe even the biggest pop of the night. But the writers at PWI are right. As cool as it was to photograph a Gagne dropkick, I would not want to see him team up with Jim Brunzell to take on The Destruction Crew in a full match.

This past summer I was at an AWA reunion of sorts when I went down to Waterloo, Iowa for the George Tragos/ Lou Thesz Hall of Fame inductions. There I got to meet such AWA legends as Larry "The Ax" Hennig, Rene Goulet, and the Vachon Brothers, Butcher & Mad Dog. Another AWA great who was at the HoF weekend was Baron Von Raschke.

AWF Grantsburg, WI 1/15/2011

The American Wrestling Federation was at the Grantsburg, Wisconsin high school this past Saturday night. The AWF TV show Saturday Night Slam is now on Channel 45 at 11pm. You can also see the show on the AWF website which is linked above. I don't believe that these matches were tape for the show.

In the opening match Ryan Cruz defeated John Johnson.

Sammy Savard defeated Benjamin Sailer. Here's an interesting side note. Sailer really recommends the movie Black Swan. Not only because Natalie Portman is really hot but also because he is a big fan of ballet.

Mitch Paradise came to the ring and said that he had no opponent for the night because he's already defeated everyone that was in the locker room. So Paradise challenged a fan to get in the ring. One fan took Paradise up on that challenge and got the crap beat out of him.

The AWF heavy weight champion Arya Daivari defeated Craven Knyte. Daivari did not put his title on the line in this match as he thought that the fans in Grantsburg did not deserve to see a title match.

In the main event for the night Tony DeNucci defeated Arik Cannon. The special guest referee for the match was the high schools principal. I think this may have been the first time that DeNucci and Cannon have been in the ring against each other.

3XW Des Moines, IA 1/7/2011

This past Friday night I went south on I35 to Des Moines, Iowa for 3XW's Divide & Conquer at the Des Moines Social Club. While at the show I got to meet Brian Kelley from Missouri Wrestling Revival. Check out the MWR site for all the latest news on pro wrestling in the central states area.
Jimmy Rockwell & Sir Bradley Charles defeated 3XW Pure Wrestling Champion Ricky Kwong & The Mauler with Chad Mylan by DQ. The DQ came when Mylan interfeared in the match. After the match Rockwell challenged Kwong to defend his title on the next card.

Genisis-Benjamin Sailer, Gage Octane, Nate Bash, Tony Sly & AJ Smooth defeated Jon West, Aaron Masterson, "Big City" Securiy Gaurd, The River Monster & Ryan Slade when Bash pinned Masterson. Genisis is a group of wrestlers who have been with 3XW since the begining and they are out to destroy all those who were not.

3XW heavy weight champion Brain Ash with Todd Countryman retained his title against challenger Zach Thompson.

The Horndogs, Maddog McDowell & Krotch defeated Casanova & Devin Carter to become the new 3XW tag team champions.

The main event for the night was a 60 minute no DQ Iron Man match between Mark Sterling and Jeremy Wyatt. Sixty minutes was not enough time for these two wrestlers as they were tied at 4 wins a piece so 3XW commisioner Todd Countryman sent this match into over time so there would be a winner to this feud. After about 10 more minutes Sterling got the win after a tombstone piledriver on a chair.