10th Anniversary post

Today marks the 10th anniversary of my Midwest indy wrestling photo blog. Wow, that's a long time! Before this blog I was posting photos on Live Journal for about a year or two. I can't remember why but I switched to Bloger.com as a place to post my photos.  I started off with a photo of the MPW "This one, is for the fans" DVD cover that featured my photos from that event.

Since that time this blog has served as a history of all the matches that I have photographed in the Midwest states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and North Dakota. I've photographed at ringside at promotions such as F1RST Wrestling, TNA, ROH, Chikara, HOW, 3XW, MIW, AAW, Dragon Gate USA, NIW, RUSH, SDW, IWA-MS, AWF, BCW, IPW PTW and BCW. I've also photographed ringside at WWE events but those photos have not been posted here as PWI has the copyright.

I changed the header image that you see above to feature an photo from every year of this blog. 2006-Arik Cannon/Roderick Strong from IWA-MS, 2007- Sara Del Rey from ROH, 2008 Thoruf Marius (WWE's Erick Rowen)/Dakota Darsow from AWF, 2009- Petey Williams from ECHO Pro, 2010- Tyler Black (WWE's Seth Rollins)/AJ Smooth from IPW, 2011-Johnny Gargano from F1RST, 2012- Casanova from 3XW, 2013- UDO from PTW, 2014- Bob Holly/Luke Hawx from HOW and 2015- Chuck Taylor from Chikara.

I wish I had stats of how many matches I've photographed in the past 10 years and posted here. That would take way too much time. One stat I can give you is the top 10 countries that have that have visited this blog. 10. Australia 9. Ukraine 8. Poland 7. Russia 6. Japan 5. Canada 4. United Kingdom 3. Germany 2. France 1. United States of America

I stated taking photos ringside back in 1993 thanks to Mark Peterson, the man pictured next to me on the left. Peterson was the main photographer here in the Minneapolis area back in the early '90's. I met him at the PWA events at Ropers/Georges in Fridley, MN. He allowed be to shot at ringside with him at these PWA events and instructed me in the ways of wrestling photography. Had I never met Mark I don't think I would have ever photographed pro wrestling events at ringside, taken posed photos of wrestlers that were used for 8x10's and posters or seen my photos in print in Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Inside Wrestling and The Wrestler. Thank you Mark Peterson!
 Mark Peterson and I at a Prime Time Wrestling event at Calhoun Square in the summer of 2015.

PTW Bloomington, MN 12/18/2015

Promotion: Prime Time Wrestling
Time/Date: 7pm Friday December 18, 2015
City, State: Bloomington, MN
Venue: Knights of Columbus

I missed the first half of this event as I was at my daughter's basketball game.


Craven Knyte with Dan Jesser and Ms. America pinned Scott Story.

Body Beautiful (Billy Blaze & Mitch Paradise) defeated Tommy Lee Curtis & Travis Cole.

John Johnson pinned "Playboy" Pete Huge. Because it was close to Christmas Huge came out dressed as Santa Claus.

After the main event match the locker room emptied out as Wildcat, Kody Rice, Black Stallion, Danny Duggan, Craven Knyte and Dan Jesser came to the ring.

MIW Chanhassen, MN 12/5/2015

Promotion: Minnesota Independent Wrestling
Time/Date: 8pm Saturday December 5, 2015
City, State: Chanhassen, MN
Venue: American Legion

Rock Solid Ross pinned the Red Pirate.

Aiden Wake & Joseph Wayne defeated MIW tag team  champions Scott Story & JD Bandit. Story spent most of the match sitting at ring side. When he entered the ring it was to hit his tag team partner with the title belts and roll Wake on top of Bandit for the pin. Bandit and Story will face off in a steel cage at the next MIW event in Chanhassen.

New MIW tag team champions Aiden Wake & Joseph Wayne.

"Playboy" Pete Huge pinned Officer Rob Justice.

Chris Jordan pinned Ariya Daivari.

Mitch Paradise defeated Dr. Darrin Davis by tap out.

MIW champion James Dawson pinned El Bano. Dawson had a little help from Mitch Paradise who power bombed El Bano by accident.

#FBF MPWj Maple Grove, MN 12/21/2003

Promotion: Midwest Pro Wrestling
Time/Date: 7pm Sunday December 21, 2003
City, State: Maple Grove, MN
Venue: MPW training center

MPW had events every Sunday in their training center in Maple Grove,MN.

Joessiah VS Super Steve. I'm not sure if his name was Super Steve or something else but he acted like he was a superhero. Joessiah now goes by the name Officer Rob Justice.

The Smoking Section ( Chris Jordan & Mason Quinn) defeated Schoolboy & Gator Magraw.

Aaron Corbin VS Benjamin Sailer.

Kaos Cody O'Neill VS The Punisher Rob James.

Josie defeated Ms. Natural.

Casanova put Arik Cannon to sleep with a sleeper hold.

#FBF PWA 5/22/2004

Promotion: Pro Wrestling America
Time/Date: 6pm Saturday May 22, 2004
City, State: New Prague (I think), MN
Venue: Middle of Main street.

Sheriff Johnny Emerald & V2 (Ryan Cruz) defeated Aaron Corbin & Darin Corbin.


Big Daddy Hoofer VS DOS.

Mason Quinn VS Matt Burns. I don't know how this match ended but it involved Mitch Paradise and JB Trask. That set up the main event tag team match.

Rain pinned Lacey.

"Playboy" Pete Huge defeated Black Stallion. "Slim Shady" Rob Page was the referee.

Mitch Paradise & Matt Burns defeated JB Trask & Mason Quinn.

PWB St. Paul, MN 11/28/2015

Promotion: Pro Wrestling Battleground
Time/Date: 6pm Saturday November 28, 2015
City, State: St. Paul, MN
Venue: Wilbeski;s ?Blues Saloon



Venom pinned Arik Cannon.

Craven Knight pinned Scott Story.

Darin Corbin defeated Malliki Mathews.

PWB champion Ryan Cruz pinned Kody Rice to retain the title.

The main event was the Rice Street Rumble with the winner becoming the number one contender for the PWB championship. The Rumble featured Rock Solid Ross, Adian Alexander, Joseph "Stonehenge" Wayne and PJ Torn.

Others in the Rumble encluded Dirty Ernie, Venom, Angry Dragon, Robbie Thunder, Luther Wilson III, Malliki Mathews, The Prophet, Scotty Story, Darin Corbin and Craven Knyte.

Referee Willy Mack raised the hand of the Rice Street Rumble winner Craven Knyte.

#FBF MPW Maple Grove, MN 1/17/2004

Promotion: Midwest Pro Wrestling
Time/Date: Saturday 7:300pm January 17, 2004
City, State: Maple Grove, MN
Venue: MPW training camp

With these flashbacks I can't always tell you who won the match as I was not taking notes at the time. I try to take a photo of the ref raising the hand of the winning wrestler but that doesn't always happen.  That's one reason why I really like to do this blog as it's a record of all the matches that I've photographed. There used to be message boards where fans would post results/reviews of the matches. Too bad those message boards are no longer around. Message boards are a thing of the past.

This event was one of MPW's big Saturday shows. They had events every Sunday but once a month they had a bigger Sunday event. This one was a big deal as they brought in AJ Style and Christopher Daniels. Both of those guys were at an event in Wisconsin the night before.

MPW cruiser weight champ Kid Krazy defeated Casanova, El Viejo and Kaos (Cody O'Neill) in a 4 man elimination match to retain the title.

The Schoolboy VS Sheriff Johnny Emerald.

Cowboy Gator Magraw VS Aaron Corbin.

"The Fallen Angle" Christopher Daniels pinned Arik Cannon.

AJ Styles pinned Shifty. I think that Shifty only wrestled in one more match after this one. Styles came back to MPW to win the Universal championship.

While going through these photos I saw this one of a fan holding up a sign. That fan can now be seen wrestling on NXT on the WWE network. Oh yeah, there is a young fat Venom in that photo as well.

PTW Bloomington, MN 10/30/2015

Promotion: Prime Time Wrestling
Time/Date: Friday 7:00pm October 30, 2015
City, State: Bloomington, MN
Venue: Knights of Columbus



Big Sepp pinned Craven Knight.

DOUG pinned PTW champion Darin Corbin.

Referee Jimmy raises DOUG's hand as the new PTW champion. DOUG's title reign was short lived as he lost the title the next month to Kody Rice. I was out of town when that event took place.

In a first round tournament match for the PTW tag team titles the Junk Squad (Chris Jordan & Pete Huge) defeated the Estonian Farmer Frog & Wild Cat.

In the other first round tournament match Body Beautiful (Mitch Paradise & Billy Blaze) defeated Scott Story & Rock Solid Ross.

The main event was a triple threat match for the PTW Calhoun title. Champion Black Stallion VS John Johnson VS Ariya Daivari. I'm not sure what the official ruling was as Darin Corbin got involved at the end. All I know is Stallion is still the champ. Maybe someone could comment here and let me know what the finish was as my memory is really bad.

Chikara Minneapolis, MN 10/22/2015

Promotion: Chikara Pro
Time/Date: Thursday 7:30pm October 22, 2015
City, State: Minneapolis, MN
Venue: Mill City Nights

Season 15 "Making A Stand"



Chuck Taylor pinned Frightmare.

Darin Corbin & The Punk Rock All Stars (Shaun Cannon & Drake Cater) defeated The Estonian Farmer Frog &N_R_G! (Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell).


Arik Cannon pinned Oleg the Usurper.

Princess Kimberlee & Los Ice Creams defeated Young Lions Cup Champion Heidi Lovelace, Icarus & Mr. Touchdown.

F1RST Wrestling Wreslepalooza champion Ariya Daivari defeated Venom, Kody Rice and Wildcat in a fatal 4 way match to retain the title.


The Grand champion of Chikara  Hallowicked defeated Jakob Hammermeier.

In the main event Ophidian, Shynron & Eddie Kingston defeated The United Nations (Juan Francisco DeCoronado, Prakash Sabar & Proletariat Boar).

Soldier Ant pinned Blaster McMassive in the encore match. I had no idea this is a thing in Chikara. The fans chanted for one more match and they got it.


On a side note, I'm just now getting back on track as I've been without a computer for over a month. The old mother board went out on me.