Wednesday, July 25, 2012

George Tragos/Lou Thesz 2012 Hall of Fame

IMG_6496On Saturday July 14th the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute & Museum held their annual George Tragos/Lou Thesz  Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame induction. If you are a pro wrestling fan I highly recommend that you make a trip to Waterloo, Iowa to visit this great museum. Of course, the best time to visit is during the Hall of Fame inductions.
IMG_1538The first event of the day was an MMA demonstration with former UFC champion Dan “The Beast” Severn.
IMG_1575Next up was a tribute to Danny Hodge and a Q & A hosted by Bill Apter. On the panel were Dan Severn, Jim Ross, John Layfield, Larry Hennig, Danny Hodge, Jerry Brisco, Joe Laurinaites, Jim Raschke, and Bob Roop. Apter started off by asking everyone on the panel to talk about the legacy of Hodge’s career. After everyone told their stories about Hodge Apter opened it up to questions from the crowd. Best question was from Layfield who asked Raschke how he got away with doing the goose step for years and Layfield did it once and got fired.
IMG_1710The HoF ceremony took place at 7pm in the 5 Sullivan Brothers Convention Center. This years award winners were: “Road Warrior Animial” Joe Laurinaitis (Frank Gotch award), John Bradshaw Layfield (Lou Thesz award), Don Curtis (Hall of Fame) accepted by his wife Dotty, Bill Apter (Jim Melby award), Dan Severn (George Tragos award), and Kurt Angle, who was not able to be there to accept the award (Hall of Fame).

Sunday, July 22, 2012

IPW Waterloo, IA 7/13/2012

On Friday the 13th in Waterloo, Iowa Impact Pro Wrestling was in action at the 5 Sullivan Brothers Convention Center. This card was part of the Dan Gable International Wrestling Museum George Tragos/Lou Thesz Hall of Fame induction weekend.
IMG_0664When the doors opened for the event at 5:30 there was an autograph signing session with all the wrestlers who were in town for the hall of fame. One of the men there to get an award from the hall of fame was former PWI senior editor Bill Apter. I was excited to finally meet the man who inspired me to be a ring side photographer.
IMG_0758NWA world champion Colt Cabana pinned Scott Marshall in the opening match.
IMG_0834Sparrow won the 20 man Lou Thesz battle royal.
IMG_0919Micas Silva pinned QT Marshall after a super kick.
IMG_1099Perry Saturn & Shawn Nautilus defeated Team Canada (Matty Starr, Ryan Slade & AJ Smooth).
IMG_1161Adam Fury pinned Mik Drake.
IMG_1204Tony Sly pinned Juan Fourneau after a low blow that the referee did not see.
IMG_1275James Jeffries & The Big Picture defeated Ugly & Justin Decent to become the new IPW tag team champions.
IMG_1463T.S. Aggressor defeated IPW champion Nicky Free in a legends lumberjack match to become the new IPW champion.
IMG_1520The Danny Hodge, Baron Von Raschke and Animal congratulated T.S. Aggressor after his win.

Friday, July 13, 2012

SDW Hopkins, MN 7/7/2012

Steel Domain Wrestling is back. After many years of not running regular shows SDW has now had two events this year. I missed their first on which took place back in April. This event took place last Saturday night at the Hopkins Pavilion. The Pavilion is an ice arena and this event was a fund raiser for the Hopkins hockey program. This event was filmed live for an ippv and is still available for viewing on the SDW web site.
IMG_9339The show started with announcer Mick Karch and SDW promoter Ed Hellier greeting the live crowd and ippv viewing audience. They then brought out Honky Tonk Man for an interview. HTM was interrupted by his opponent for the night, Mitch Paradise. Lucky for Karch and Hellier, the two wrestlers did not get into a fight right then and there.
IMG_9420In the opening match “Bulldog” Sammy Savard pinned Matt Classic. Lot’s of old school wrestling in this match. These two were so old school they didn’t even have entrance music.
IMG_9525Heather Halberg with her husband Jeremy Halberg defeated Miss Natural. This was a rematch from the SDW event back in April.
IMG_9646Benjamin Sailer & Renny D defeated Mikey Wipeout & Robbie Thunder. Renny pinned Wipeout after this top rope/on the shoulders cross body block.
IMG_9713Arya Daivari pinned Ryan Cruz after a super kick. This was another rematch from the last event. The fans gave this match a “this is awesome” and “Yes! Yes! Yes!” chants.
IMG_9814After intermission Mick Karsh interviewed AWA legend Baron Von Raschke at ring side. Dan Jesser came out and claimed that it was his interview time. The Baron had enough of Jesser so he gave Jesser the claw.
IMG_9870Craven Knyte defeated Rob James.
IMG_0043Honky Tonk Man pinned Mitch Paradise. HTM got the pin with a fast 3 count from referee Jay Soltis. Paradise had the fast count coming to him as he was roughing up Soltis.
IMG_0547NWA heavy weight champion Colt Cabana retained the title against challenger “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce in an “I Quit” match.This was match three in a best of seven series called “Seven Levels of hate”. Pearce undid one of the top turn buckles and used it to choke out Cabana. Referee Jay Soltis call the match but Cabana did not say ‘I Quit”. Cabana woke up and demanded that Pearce get back in the ring and finish the match. Pearce said “I Quit” while Cabana had him in the move pictured here. Cabana now leads the series 3-0. (I just checked out Cabana’s wikipedia entry and read that he started his pro wrestling career in ROH. Well, a few years before ROH was even around Cabana was wrestling in SDW along with Adam Pearce, current TNA champ Austin Aries, Ken Anderson, and CM Punk. Can’t believe anything on the wiki.)

Friday, July 06, 2012

BCW Crystal, MN 6/29/2012

On a beautiful Friday night at the Crystal Community Center Born Championship Wrestling held a card titled “Shock Wave”.
IMG_8612In the opening match Kamikaze Klecker defeated Darius Dreams and Blake Broadway in a 3 way match. Klecker got the pin on Dreams after his “throw the switch” move. This was Dreams first match in many years as he used to wrestle for the old Northern Impact Wrestling. Broadway made his BCW debut in this match.
IMG_8701Savage pinned Benny Blades after a spear.
IMG_8757. Udo defeated The Prophet to become the new BCW Twin Cities champion.
IMG_8854Craven Knyte became the newest member of the Entourage but he didn’t need their help to defeat Ryan Cruz. Actually he couldn’t get any help from the Entourage because referee Rob Page made them leave the ring side area.
IMG_8955Bret O’Brian defeated Venom. O’Brian did need the help of Entourage member Adam Diesel to beat Venom. After the match Venom challenged O’Brian to a ‘fans bring the weapons’ match to take place on August 3rd at the Mirage Bar & Grill in New Brighton, MN.
IMG_9017BCW owner Judd Jennrich challenged Dirty Ernie to a boxing match. After a few minutes of boxing action Jennrich decided to change the match and make it a wrestling match. Then he changed it again to make it a two on one match by adding Adam Diesel to the match. Then Jennrich changed it one last time to make it three on one match by adding Bret O’Brian. Jennrich then used brass knuckles to knock out Ernie to get the three count.
IMG_9211The BCW tag team champions In Shape & Insane (Rob James & Horace the Psychopath) defeated the Junk Squad (Chris Jordan & Pete Huge)  to retain the titles.
BCW’s next event is Friday, July 20 at Elks Lodge #44 in Brooklyn Park, MN. Bell time is 7:00pm.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

PWA South Saint Paul, MN 6/23/2012

This past Saturday afternoon Pro Wrestling America returned to the South Saint Paul VFW for the annual Kaposia days show.
IMG_8000John Johnson defeated Black Stallion to become the #1 contender for the PWA championship. Johnson will get that title shot in September at Drkula’s bowling ally as part of Inver Grove Heights days.
IMG_8096“Mexico’s Greatest Import” El Bano pinned The Brauler with a little help from the referee. After the match PWA commissioner Eddie Sharkey declared that El Bano would team up with the referee to take on The Brauler.
IMG_8151“The Illustrious” Rob Ivy did not like what he saw in the last match so he challenged El Bano to a match. El Bano was once again victorious.
IMG_8320Tommy “Spiderbaby” Saturday & Mystik defeated Magicman & Ann Brookstone in an intergender match.
IMG_8404Mitch Paradise & Billy Blaze defeated Buck “Rock N Roll” Zumhofe & Arya Daivari. Paradise hit Daivari over the head with Zumhofe’s boom box.
IMG_8547PWA champion Udo retained his title against some clown. The match ended when Mitch Paradise and Billy Blaze came to the ring and attacked both masked wrestlers. Buck Zumhofe came out to to help the masked wrestlers. PWA commissioner Eddie Sharkey made a tag team match for the Drkula show. Paradise & Blaze will take on the clown & Zumhofe.