IPW Waterloo, IA 7/18/2014

Promotion: Impact Pro Wrestling
Date: Friday July 18, 2014
City, State: Waterloo, Iowa
Venue: Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.

Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame weekend

This was my third time going down to Waterloo for the annual George Tragos/Lou Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame at the Dan Gable International Wrestling Museum. The weekends events start on Friday afternoon with evaluation matches that were watched by Jerry Brisco and Jim Ross.

When the doors opened up for the evening event fans could meet and get autographs from all the legends in attendance such as Danny Hodge, Larry Hennig (Lou Thesz award winner) and Barron Von Raschke. Jim Ross was also selling his BBQ sauce and beef jerky. Later in the night Diamond Dallas Page (Frank Gotch award winner), Scott Steiner (hall of fame inductee) and Randy Couture (George Tragos award winner) were at the tables meeting the fans. This event is very fan friendly and I encourage all pro wrestling fans to make their way to Waterloo next year.

Latin Thunder with Miss Frankie Jay defeated Matty Star with Jason Michaels.

The Lou Thesz battle royal featured over 15 men.

 Michael Monsoon won the Lou Thesz cup after eliminating Jaysin Strife.

 Aryia Daivari defeated Sepio Saunders.

Ricky Love & Colt Cabana defeated Adam Pearce & Sparrow when Love pinned Sparrow. Listen to Cabana's podcast with Jim Ross (#209) to hear learn more about the Dan Gable museum.

 Matty Star came to the ring and claimed that none of the old timers in attendance would last 5 seconds in the ring against him. Diamond Dallas Page came out and gave Star two diamond cutters.

 Mark Sterling defeated Hannibal. Hannibal recently won a lawsuit against Abdullah the Butcher.

James Jefferies, Ugly & Justin Decent defeated Tony Sly, Nate Redwing & Nate Alsin when Jefferies pinned Sly.

 AJ Smooth defeated IPW champion Nicky Free.

 Referee Billy J raises the hand of new IPW champion AJ Smooth.

 Wes Brisco defeated The Big Picture by tap out in a legends lumberjack match.

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.
When 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.
NWA world champion Colt Cabana pinned Scott Marshall in the opening match.
Sparrow won the 20 man Lou Thesz battle royal.
Micas Silva pinned QT Marshall after a super kick.
Perry Saturn & Shawn Nautilus defeated Team Canada (Matty Starr, Ryan Slade & AJ Smooth).
Adam Fury pinned Mik Drake.
Tony Sly pinned Juan Fourneau after a low blow that the referee did not see.
James Jeffries & The Big Picture defeated Ugly & Justin Decent to become the new IPW tag team champions.
T.S. Aggressor defeated IPW champion Nicky Free in a legends lumberjack match to become the new IPW champion.
The Danny Hodge, Baron Von Raschke and Animal congratulated T.S. Aggressor after his win.

IPW Waterloo, IA 7/9/2010

This past weekend I drove down to Waterloo, Iowa for the George Tragos/Lou Thesz 2010 Hall of Fame inductions at the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum. On Friday night Impact Pro Wrestling presented a card at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center as part of the HoF weekend festivities. Before the card there was a Q & A with Mick Foley and Terry Funk and then a Fan Fest with many of the HoF members and award winners. This was my first time at an IPW event so there were many wrestlers who I had not seen before.
In the opening match James Jefferies defeated Sparrow w/Kiandra. Jefferies got the win while holding on to the ropes but ref Billy J was out of position to see the rule braking. Sparrow attacked Jefferies after the match.

IPW tag team champions Justin Decent & Ugly defeated Marshall Scott & Montoya X to retain their belts.

ROH champion Tyler Black defeated AJ Smooth.

Harley Jackson pinned Anthony Drake in less then 2 minutes. Drake looked a little like Beautiful Bobby from the Half Pint Brawlers TV show on Spike. Drake sure looked like a midget compared to the much larger Jackson.

IPW heavyweight champion Tony Sly defeated Matty Star to retain the belt.Sly got the pin after his manager hit Star with the title belt.

Nicky Free pinned former 2 time ROH champion Austin Aries.

The main event for the night was a 20 man over the top rope battle royal with the winner recieving $5,00 and a shot at the heavyweight title. Matty Star won the match when he eliminated Tony Sly.

AWA RUSH Mankato, MN 10/12/2007

AWA RUSH held their one year anniversary card this last Friday but unfortunatly it was their last card as well. RUSH owner/promoter Mike "Gator Magraw" Kinney retired from wrestling this summer and he now decided to retire from wrestling all together and close his promotion. Although during some of the times he got on the mic he did make it sound like RUSH might return next year.

Arya Daivari pinned Casanova after a magic carpet ride.

Cory O'Neill pinned Gage Octane after a standing spanish fly.

Arik Cannon pinned Brody Hoofer after the glimmering warlock.

Devin Carter pinned Aaron Corbin with help from the ropes to retain the AWA RUSH YouTube title.

Professionaly Dangerous (Jaysin Strife & Benjamin Sailer) beat the Junk Squad (Peter Huge & Kleck Michaels) to win the AWA RUSH tag team titles.
AWA light heavy weight champion "Krazy K" Kirby Mack retained his title against Matty Star as they were both counted out of the ring. Every promotion that is a member of the AWA must have an AWA title defense in their promotion at least once a year. Because of that RUSH brought in Mack to defend his title against the winner of the Grapple Cup tournament that was held last month. Promoter Gator Magarw announced that this was the first time an AWA title was defended in Minnesota since 1991 when the old AWA shut down.
The Black Stallion retained his AWA RUSH heavyweight championship against Shimdog.

AWA RUSH Mankato, MN 9/22/2007

AWA RUSH presented 'Grapple Cup', an 8 man tournament to decide who would face the AWA light heavyweight champion on the first anniversary card in October 2007. This card took place at the Eagles Club on a Saturday night. My camera was now fixed and this was the first card I was able to make it to in over a month. Before the first bell Gator Magraw got on the mic and announced that all AWA RUSH DVD's and t-shirts were on sale for $5. I guessed that it was a 'going out of business' sale and just today I learned that that was a correct guess. RUSH owner/promoter Gator Magraw announced today that AWA RUSH would run one more card then it will be done.
The opening match was between Kleck Micheals and Arya Daivari. Micheals tag team partner Pete Huge was at ring side and he got involved in the match. Arya won by DQ.
Jaysin Strife ran in to save Daivari from the two on one beat down by the Junk Squad. That lead to the frist round match between Stryfe and Pete Huge. Stryfe got the win with a roll up after Huge bumped into his partner.
Shimdog beat Casanova to move onto the second round. Casanova is now without the mullet that he has that broke my camera.
Mike Rollins made his RUSH debut but lost to Matty Star. Before that match Magraw stated that if Starr lost then he would have to buy a beer/soda for everyone in the crowd.
Brody Hoofer beat Cory O'Neill in the last first round match.
Matty Starr defeated Brody Hoofer with a little help from Casanova to move on to the Grapple Cup final and once again get out of buying everyone beer/soda.
Shimdog moved on to the finals as his opponent Jaysin Strife was DQed when the Junk Squad attacked Shimdog.
Devin Carter retained his RUSH YouTube championship against Benjamin Sailer.
Black Stallion beat Aaron Corbin to win the AWA RUSH heavyweight title. This was Stallions first match in RUSH.
Matty Starr pinned Shimdog to win the AWA RUSH Grapple Cup. Referee Rick Reed was hurting a little too much to notice that Starr was using the ropes to get the pin. Starr will now face AWA light heavyweight champion Kirby Mack on October 12, 2007 on the AWA RUSH's last card.

AWA RUSH Mankato, MN 4/5/2007

Last Thursday night I made my way down to Mankato, MN to photograph AWA Pro Wrestling RUSH at the Bandanna Brewery for the first time. Cowboy Gator Magraw started RUSH back in October 2006 and has been running monthly cards from the same place. I was going to go to last months card but it was cancelled because of a blizzard. I was taking posed shots so I was not able to photograph all the matches on this night.
The first match of the night was a triple threat match between Arik Cannon, Casanova and Rob James. The match started with a Casanova special challenge which was a joke telling contest. Cannon won the challenge with a dirty joke and got the pin on Rob James after a brain buster.
Shimdog beat Matty Star.
Joessiah, "Hollywood" Brian Sager, & The Prophet beat Zak James, Benjamin Sailer, & Jake Taylor.
Gator Magraw was suppose to wrestle the team of Pete Huge & Kleck Micheals with a 'mystery partner' but no one showed up to the ring with Gator. With the help of a Joey Envy super kick Pete Huge got the pin on Magraw.
AWA RUSH Youtube champion Devin Carter retained his title against Jaysin Strife.
In a special Ladies match Rain beat Mystik.
AWA RUSH champion Chris Jordan beat El Viejo to retain his belt.