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. 

F1rst Wrestling West St. Paul, MN 10/24/2009

I missed the all of the second round matches of the F1rst Wrestling Sweet Sixteen tournament plus a few non tournament match as I was at the IWA-MN card on the other side of the Twin Cities for the MN debut of Amy Hennig.
The Orsirian Portal defeated Nate Bash & Darin Corbin in tag team action. I got to the arena just after all four wrestlers did the dance from Jackson's Beat It. Damn, wish I would have seen that.

Horace The Psychopath defeated STIGMA in a match where they brawled all over the place.

Benjamin Sailer defeated Pete Huge in the second round of the tourny but he was the first one eliminated from the 4 way finals match.

Arik Cannon defeated Ryan Cruz to advance to the finals but he was the second one eliminated.

Claudio Castingnol defeated Mike Quackenbush to move on in the tourny.

Lince Dorado won the big cup as he pinned Castignoli.

F1rst Wrestling West St. Paul, MN 10/23/2009

F1rst Wrestling held their first round of their Sweet Sixteen tournament last night at the West St. Paul armory. For this tournament some wrestlers from Chikara pro wrestling were brought in. All matches on this card were first round matches.
Ryan Cruz defeated Amasis in the first match of the night.

"Playboy" Pete Huge defeated Venom after a low blow and g spot.

Rob James defeated STIGMA. The origanal opponet for James was scheduled to be Hydra but Stigma took his place.

J"The Anarchist" Arik Cannon defeated "The Popular" Nate Bash.

"The Professional" Benjamin Sailer pinned Arya Daivari.

Claudio Castignoli defeated Darin Corbin.

"Lightning" Mike Quackenbush defeated Ophidian.

In the battle of cat vs dog it was the cat who won when Lince Dorado defeated the Yellow Dog. Lot's of comedy in this match.

ROH Chicago Ridge, IL6/23/2007

Ring of Honor returned to the Forntier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, Il last Saturday to tape their second ppv. The first have of the card was taped for the ppv but the whole card will be availible on DVD after the ppv airs. There was a womens tag team match after intermission but I was unable to get out to ring side to photograph it.

Davey Richards & Roderick Strong & Rocky Romero defeated Erick Stevens & Matt Cross & Delirious when Richards pinned Cross. After the match Austin Aries came to the ring from the crowd to attack Romero, Richards and Strong. Aries then signed an ROH conctract.
Claudio Castagnoli beat Matt Sydal. After the match Larry Sweeny came out to offer Sydal a contract.
Naomichi Marufuji beat BJ Whitmer.
Brent Albright defeats Pelle Primeau. Primeau may have the 'best in the class' trophy but he was no match for Albright in this match that lasted less then 2 minutes.
Takeshi Morishima defeated Jimmy Rave. This was a pretty short match.
Nigel McGuinness beat Chris Hero.
ROH tag team champions, the Briscoes, defeated Kevin Steen & El Generico to retain the belts.
'Scrapiron' Adam Pearce came out and challenged anyone to come out. ROH champion Takeshi Morishima came out to answer the challenge. Morishima pinned Pearce to retain the title.
KENTA defeated Bryan Danielson.

Congrats!

Recently 3 wrestlers from the midwest have been given developmental contracts from the WWE to work in either OVW or Deep South.

From Minneapolis, MN is Magnus Maximus. After an injury and some time off he return this year in hopes of getting to the WWE. He has wrestled mainly for MPW and Neo Pro/NPW.
Robert 'Egotistical Fantastical' Anthony comes from Chicago, IL. He wrestles with the mask in 3XW, M1W and AAW and he wrestles without the mask in other promotions.
The third man to get the conctract, Keith Walker, AKA Mike Venom, is also from Chicago. Promotions Walker has worked for in the recently are AAW, M1W and WLW. Walker has also recently wrestled in Japan for NOAH.
Another indy worker who recently got a contract from the WWE is Cluadio Castagnoli. He's not from the midwest or even the US. Claudio is from Schaffhausen, Switzerland but he has been wrestling in the United States for the past coulple of years and has made it to the midwest a number of time for IWA MS, MPW, ROH and others. The photo here is from the first World Series of Wrestling when Cluadio wrestled for Chikara against MPW's Casanova.

IWA MS TPI Midlothain, IL 9/30/2006

The second night of the IWA MS Ted Petty Invitational was a long night of wrestling as not only were there 10 tournament matches but there were 5 other matches as well. Not only were the fans treated to so much great wrestling but they got a few surprises as well as some wrestlers made their return to IWA MS.
El Genarico beat M-Dogg 20 to move on to the next round.
Claudio Castignoli beat Mike Quackenbush in one of the best matches of the night.
Low Ki beat Davey Richards in a very hard hitting match.
Chris Hero made Trik Davis submit.
Arik Cannon pinned Hallowicked.
Roderick Strong beat Delirious by tap out.
Eddie Kingston & Joker & Ricocet beat the Thomaselis.
The Northstar Express won some weird ruled match with 5 tag teams of wrestlers who lost in the first round the night before. In the photo here Rickey Reyes is pointing out to the fans that Ryan Cruz looks like Matt Hardy.
Arik Cannon beat Claudio Castignoli.
Roderick Strong beat Chris Hero with a back slide.
Low Ki beat El Generico.
Chuck Taylor beat Toby Klien to become the new IWA MS heavyweight champion.
In the TPI finals Low Ki beat Roderick Stong and Arik Cannon. First Low Ki pinned Strong then he knocked out Cannon for the win.