Flash Back Friday: DCW Minneapolis, MN 8/13/2003

Promotion: Downtown Championship Wrestling
Time/date: 8 p.m. Wednesday August 13, 2003
City, State: Minneapolis, MN
Venue: First Ave night club

For this Flash Back Friday we jump back to a time when First Ave events were on Wednesday nights and mostly free. I'm not sure who won or lost in these matches I didn't take notes or make sure that I photographed the ref raising the winners hand.

El Viejo VS John Johnson. James "Moose" Thomas was the jeans wearing ref for this match. Not sure if Thomas had started wrestling before this or if he was still training. When he started wrestling it was under the name Tommy Gunn.

 "The Genuine Article" Chris Jordan defeated Christian Moore. This was Moore's first pro match after training with Terry Fox and Eddie Sharkey. Others that trained that summer with Moore were DOS, Josie, Rob Page and Big Mac. Moore wrote about this match in chapter 9 of his autobiography "Being Moore: my life in professional wrestling". This same photo can be seen in that book. The most interesting thing about this photo is Jordan's gear.

 Mitch Paradise VS Dan Jesser.

 DCW womans champion Josie defeated Rain. Terry Fox was the referee.

 "Playboy" Pete Huge VS Kaos,AKA Cody O'Neill. Looks like Huge was wearing shorts but still not showing any part of his legs.

Big Daddy Hoofer, AKA Brody Hoofer VS Detroit Slim.

DCW champion Black Stallion defeated  Lenny Lane.

Chikara comes to Minneapolis

In just two weeks Chikara will make it's Minnesota debut. Thursday October 22, 2015 in Minneapolis, MN at Mill City Nights. All ready announced to appear at this event are The Colony, Chuck Taylor, Dasher Hatfield, Icarus, Eddie Kingston and Arik Cannon.This may be the first time that Chikara will promote an event here in MN but it's not the first time that a group of Chikara wrestlers have made the trip to MN for another wrestling promotion.

MPW Invitational

Back in September 2003 Midwest Pro Wrestling had a weekend training camp with Skayde ( who later on became the head trainer at the Chikara Wrestle Factory). Attending this training camp were 6 Chikara wrestlers. MPW had two events that weekend on Saturday and Sunday night and called them the MPW Invitational.

On Saturday night September 20th Chris Hero defeated Casanova.

 The Midwest Shockers (Cody O'Neill & Joey Envy) defeated Eddie Kingston & Sitoci and Icarus & Gran Akuma in 3 way tag team elimination match.

 Sumie Sakai  defeated Ran Maru and had her hand raised by Chikara referee Bryce Remsberg.

 On night two, Sunday September 21, Arik Cannon defeated Chis Hero.

The Midwest Shockers (Joey Envy & Cody O'Neill) defeated Gran Akuma & Shawn Daivari.

 The main event was American Gigolo & Ran Maru VS Skayde & Sumie Sakai with referee Bryce Remsburg. Skayde & Sakai won the match when Sakai pinned Gigolo. I love in ring posed photos.

My first published photo in Pro Wrestling Illustrated was from this match. It appeared on the last page of the February2004 issue of PWI.

World Series of Wrestling

In 2005 MPW was visited by 7 wrestlers and 1 referee from Chikara. This time the two promotions battled against each other in the World Series of Wrestling, a best of seven match series. The guys from Chikara were at MPW for two nights April 30 and May 1, 2005.

In the first match MPW cruiser weight champion The Prophet defeated Icarus. MPW 1 Chikara 0

 Emil Sitoci VS Joessiah ended in a draw when both men could not get to their feet before a 10 count.

 "Sweet and Sour" Larry Sweeney pinned The Punisher (Rob James). MPW 1 Chikara 1

 Claudio Castagnoli (WWE's Cesaro) defeated Casanova. MPW 1 Chikara 2

 Kid Krazy defeated Hallowicked. MPW 2 Chikara 2

MPW Universal champion Joey Envy defeated Chris Hero. MPW 3 Chikara 2

 "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush pinned Arik Cannon. MPW 3 Chikara 3.

 On Sunday May 1, 2005 the main event was a 6 man tag to determine  the winner of the World Series of Wrestling. Quackenbush, Hero & Castagnoli defeated Cannon, Krazy & Version 2 (Ryan Cruz) to win the MPW/Chikara World Series of Wrestling. That's right, the visiting promotion won.

Be sure to check out Chikara on Thursday October 22 at Mill City Nights. Then mark your calendar for the next F1rst Wrestling event at First Ave, Friday January 8, 2016. 

New training camp opens in Minneapolis

This past week Prime Time Wrestling opened up a new pro wrestling training camp in Minneapolis, MN. I visited the camp last Friday night when they had open training. PTW owner Greg McDonald was there along with Billy Blaze, Darin Corbin, ref Willy Mack, Craven Knyte and Ariya Daivari. There was also a new trainee there who just started training earlier in the week. If you are looking for a place to train to be a pro wrestler or you are a trained pro wrestler looking for a ring to work out in then contact Greg McDonald at the PTW Facebook page or website (linked above).

New trainee Pete working on arm drags.

 Wrestlers making use of the crash pad.

Craven Knyte getting ready to return to the ring. He's giving a missile dropkick to the training dummy. 

Eleven years ago I visited the Midwest Pro Wrestling training camp. There I photographed Darin Corbin getting ready for his debut. Points for anyone who can name the guy in the far right corner wearing a green shirt.

PTW Minneapolis, MN 9/26/2015

Promotion: Prime Time Wrestling
Time/Date: 6:00pm Saturday September 26, 2015
City, State: Minneapolis, MN
Venue: Empty lot next to Calhoun Square

To open the last event at Calhoun Square PTW owner Greg McDonald greeted the fans. I found this photo interesting as in the crowd you can see a shirts featuring the Randy "Macho Man" Savage, John Cena and Finn Balor. 

Chainsaw defeated Tommy Lee Curtis in the opening contest.

The Misfits (Aaron Corbin & John Johnson) defeated Road House Ross & Scott Story in tag team action.

Big Sepp defeated PTW champion Darin Corbin in a non title match.

 Ariya Daivari pinned Travis Cole after a magic carpet ride.

Black Stallion pinned PTW Calhoun champion Danny Duggan.

 Black Stallion is the new PTW Calhoun champion.

 PTW tag team champions Body Beautiful (Mitch Paradise & Billy Blaze) defended their title in a 3 triple threat match against Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya & CJ Esparza) and the Estonian Farmer Frog & Kody Rice. The match ended in a double pin as Paradise pinned Gakiya and Frog pinned Esparza.

The fate of the PTW tag team titles will be announced at the next PTW event on October 30, 2015.

PTW Bloomington, MN 9/25.2015

Promotion: Prime Time Wrestling
Time/Date: 7:00 p.m. Friday September 25, 2015
City, State: Bloomington, MN
Venue: Knights of Columbus

Season 5 opener.

 PTW Calhoun Wrestling champion Danny Duggan defeated Big Sepp.

 Chainsaw defeated Adrian Alexander. First time seeing both of these wrestlers.

 PTW Darin Corbin retain the title against Black Stallion when Stallion was DQed. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Worst finish ever. Ref DQed Stallion for something he didn't see Stallion do.

Travis Cole pinned Tommy Lee Curtis. My first time seeing Curtis. I really dig his gear. Nice throw back to the late '80's.

Ariya Daivari pinned John Johnson. This was Johnson's first match back after he injured his arm.

 Wildcat & Estonian Farmer Frog defeated PTW tag team champions Body Beautiful (Billy Blaze & Mitch Paradise).

 Farmer Frog & Wildcat did not win the tag team titles. Billy Blaze pointed out after the match that the bell was never rung to start the match.

Go to the Prime Time Wrestling web site, linked above, for a list of their up coming dates.