HOW Duluth, MN 2.18.18

Promotion: Heavy On Wrestling
Time/Date: 5 p.m. Sunday February 18, 2018
City, State: Duluth, MN
Venue: Clyde Iron Works

No Love Lost

It was a snowy day in Minnesota. The drive up to Duluth from the Minneapolis area didn't see much snow but it did start close to event time.That snow would cause a change to one of the matches on this card.

In the opening match Wild Cat defeated Ryan Cruz. Wild Cat debuted his new mask in this match.

In a 3 way match King Leonidas defeated heavy Metal Lore and Chainsaw King. Fan fact, Leonidas is a town in northern MN.

Ken Anderson...Anderson defeated Mitch Paradise in a #1 contender match. This #1 contender match was pretty much like a "money in the bank" match as the winner could challenge for the HOW title when ever they wanted.

This next match was scheduled to be a 4 women match for the new HOW woman's championship title. Because of the snow Madison Rayne, Angelina Love and Laurel Van Ness were unable to make it to Duluth for this event. Leva Bates was able to make so she faced Kara Noia for the HOW woman's title.

For the first 2 matches Kara Noia was ring side doing video camera for HOW production. Noia is a student at The Academy of Professional Wrestling and she has only work in less then 10 matches. I last saw her as a referee at Showtime Championship Wrestling in St. Paul, MN. Noia had less then 10 minutes to prepare for this championship match against Bates. Good thing thing

Leva Bates pinned Kara Noia to win the first ever HOW Woman's championship title. Bates is known as the cosplay wrestler. For this match she cosplayed as Mikasa Ackerman from Attack On Titan, a popular anima series from Japan. The morning after the event I showed my wife photos of Bates as Mikasa as she has watched Attack On Titan. The first thing she said was "where are the leg straps?". Bates took those leg straps off mid way through the match.

Billy Gunn defeated Shawn Daivari. Usually I post a photo of the winner the match doing a move or hold but in this match I didn't have that. During this match I had to go to the bathroom. When I returned Gunn had just won the match with his fameasser move.

While he was in the area Billy Gunn did a seminar at The Academy of Processional Wrestling. He also did a pod cast with Ken Anderson and Michael Hunter for Lower The Mic.Click here to listen to that pod cast.

The main event was a 4 corners match for the HOW championship. HOW champion Darin Corbin took on Arik Canon, Kody Rice and Air Wolf.

Air Wolf pinned Kody Rice to win the HOW championship title.

Ken Anderson...Anderson and Shawn Daivari came out to congratulate Air Wolf as they are his trainers at The Academy of Professional Wrestling.Anderson told Air Wolf that he was going after his title, right now. After a belt to the head and a mic check Anderson got the pin on Air Wolf.

Ken Anderson...Anderson is the new HOW undisputed champion.

The next HOW event is a big one. It takes place on July 29, 2018 in Tower, MN at the Fortune Bay Casino. Already signed to appear at this event are Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff and Ricky Steamboat.

Crushed Glencoe, MN 2/17/18

Promotion: Crushed Pro Wrestling
Time/Date: 7 p.m. Saturday February 17, 2018
City, State: Glencoe, MN
Venue: Glencoe City Center

Crushed Pro Wrestling held their 4th event at the beautiful Glencoe City Center. This building was built back in 1932 and was originally the Glencoe high school. This was 2 nights in a row that I was at a wrestling event in a venue that was over 80 years old.

Glencoe is about 50 miles to the west of Minneapolis. Too bad it's so far away as it's a really nice venue. There is a large floor area and a balcony which is were I took this photo from. Pretty sure some wrestler is diving off that balcony.

In a pre-show match The Tomahawk Kid pinned James Tapia.

Air Wolf, Angel Dorado & Chris Cro defeated Brandon Gore, JDX & AJ Bond in a 6 man tag match.

"The Minnesota Wrecker" Josh Price pinned Leonard Literacy.

Kyle Pro won a 3 way match against Kal Creed and Rylie Jackson.

Arik Cannon pinned "6% Body Fat" Rob James for the 1,129th time. James came to the ring to new entrance music. It was Joey Envy's old entrance music.

"Downtown" Petey Brown & Darin Corbin defeated The Black Plauge (Joseph "Stonehenge" Wayne & "Heavy Metal" Lore) when Corbin pinned Lore.

Danny Duggan defeated Super Thunder Frog and King Leonidas in a 3 way match. With that win Duggan was granted a spot in a match for the Crushed Pro Wrestling championship at Crushed 5.

The main event was a 2 out of 3 falls match between Jacob Savage and Orin Veidt. Veidt won the first fall.

Jacob Savage won the second fall. Oh look, someone did dive off the balcony. This dive actually took place after Savage won the second fall.

Orin Veidt pinned Jacob Savage after a witch hunter on to a steel chair. After the match it was announced that these two would face each other at Crushed 5 in a last man standing match.

MAW Minneapolis, MN 2/16/18

Promotion: Midwest All-Star Wrestling
Time/Date: 8 p.m. Friday February 16, 2018
City, State: Minneapolis, MN
Venue: Parkway Theater

I believe this was the first time that pro wrestling was seen at this 80 year old theater in south Minneapolis. It has not been used as a regular theater in many years. I've been here to watch some Doctor Who episodes and most recently to watch a screening of 1980's Flash Gordon, which is when I found out about this event. It's been cold in the Parkway each time I've been there and this night was no different. I guess the heater has not worked in a while. This event was the last one in the Parkway until the new owners do a remodel. this was my first time at an MAW event as most of their events have been on Sundays.

The first two matches were pre-show 'young lions' matches. They involved 4 of the recent graduates from The Academy of Professional Wrestling.
Rylie Jackson VS Kyle Pro ended in a 10 minute time limit draw.

Brandon Gore pinned JDX.

Tomahawk Kid pinned Officer Rob Justice.

The Maulers (Joseph "Stonehenge" Wayne & Damien Graves) defeated El Tigre & El Angel Dorado.

"Downtown" Petey Brown defeated "Mr Entertainment" Ty Cooper. After the match they were both attacked by JDX and Rylie Jackson. Brown and Cooper got their revenge after intermission.

Aiden Wake pinned Leonard Literacy after some outside help from Sneaky Pete.

Orin Veidt pinned Air Wolf. Veidt had some help from the Maulers. This was the first of 3 events I would shoot at on this weekend.There was one wrestler who was also at all three of those events and that was Air Wolf.

In the main event Garrison Creed defeated Duke Cornell

SCW St. Paul, MN 2/9/18

Promotion: Showtime Championship Wrestling
Time/Date: 7 p.m. Friday February 9, 2018
City, State: St.Paul, MN
Venue: Eagles Club

The first match was a 4 man elimination match for the SCW Future Clash Championship held by Brandon Gore.
JDX eliminated Koda Jacobs.

Brandon Gore eliminated Joey Keys.

SCW Future Clash champion Brandon Gore pinned JDX to retain the title.

The next match was to determine the #1 contender for the SCW Future Clash championship. Former champion Ricky Noren VS Kyle Pro ended in a double count out.

Tomahawk Kid pinned Shinigami. Message to fans who figure out who is under the mask. Keep it to yourself.

Heavy Metal Lore pinned James Tapia. Lore actually tapped out to a Tapia submission hold but the ref was knocked out.

El Angel Dorado & Giant Griffin won by DQ over ESQ III & Rylie Jackson.

This match must have been contested under lucha rules as the DQ came when Rylie Jackson took off El Angel Dorado's mask.

Zuka King pinned DeAndre Jackson after outside help from JDX. These two men and Movie Myk (who was in the main event) came all the way from the east coast for 2 SCW events. It's always nice to see two guys come to an area where no one in the crowd knows who they are.Both these guys connected with the SCW crowd.

Air Wolf won a 4 man match against Kal Creed, Movie Myk and Jeff Cobb. Air Wolf got the 3 count on Myk.

SCW returns to the Eagles Club on Friday March 30, 2018.

AWF Nothfield, MN 1/27/18

Promotion: American Wrestling Federation
Time/Date: 8 p.m. Saturday January 27, 2018
City, State: Northfield, MN
Venue: Northfield Ballroom

Nick Nelson defeated "Downtown" Petey Brown in the opening match.

Patient X defeated Kamikaze Klecker. At least I think that's who won this match. Man, It's been a while since I've seen Klecker.

Wild Cat & Super Thunder Frog defeated JDX & Serling Bond.

leonard Literacy defeated Randy Rains. I haven't seeen Rains in a long time either.

AWF champion Jacob Savage defeated Darin Corbin to retain the title.

This was the last of 6 events I went to in the month of January. That's 6 different promotions, all in Minnesota. Over 60 different wrestlers. 6 of those wrestlers were on 4 of the events I was at. 47 wrestlers were only on one of the 6 promotion events I was at. The majority of the wrestlers were MN based as only 13 were from out of state.

PTW Bloomington, MN 1/26/18

Promotion: Prime Time Wrestling
Time/Date: 7 p.m. Friday January 26, 2018
City, State: Bloomington, MN
Venue: Bloomington Event Center

This was PTW's annual Big Show and the last PTW event by promoter Greg McDonald AKA Magic Man. It was announced that Steel Domain Wrestling bought PTW and they will now run shows at the Bloomington Event Center under the PTW banner.

Lenny Lane returned to PTW to be commissioner for the night.

In the opening match The Tomahawk Kid defeated Magic Man. 

In a trainer VS student match Air Wolf pinned Shawn Daivari. Ken Anderson was scheduled to be in this match but he was unable to make it so Daivari took his place.

Next up was a match for the PTW Uptown championship. It was to be a 4 way match but Black Stallion was taken out of action by champion Darin Corbin before the other two wrestlers made it to the ring.

The other two wrestlers in the now 3 way match were Craven Knyte and Danny Duggan. As Darin Corbin was attacking Stallion before the bell Renny D came to the ring. Renny D was then made the referee for this match. The match ended when Corbin hit Knyte,  Duggan and Renny D with the title belt. Corbin lost by DQ and was stripped of the title because he hit an official. 

At intermission two more former PTW members, Tiger Lilly and Robbie Thunder,  came out for the raffle drawing. 

Big Sepp pinned Ricky Love.

Matt "The Beer City Bruiser" Winchester defeated Heavy Metal Lore in a hard core match.

The main event was a 3 tag team elimination match for all the titles in PTW. The DOUGs VS Body Beautiful (Billy Blaze & PTW champion Mitch Paradise) VS PTW tag team champions Wild Cat & Super Thunder Frog. The DOUGs were eliminated after Black Stallion unmasked one of the DOUGs to reveal it was Darin Corbin. The match ended in a double pin. Referee Jay Soltis said Body Beautiful won and referee Willy Mac said Cat & Frog won. So it looks like all the PTW titles are vacated until the next event at the Bloomington Event Center on March 30, 2018.