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.

F1RST Wrestling, Minneapolis, MN 6/17/2007

The third F1RST Wrestling card took place this last Sunday at the historic First Ave night club in downtown Minneapolis. This card was titled 'The Return' and many fans may have thought the return was that of Kid Krazy who had moved to California but the big return was that of a MN vetren wrestler who had been away from the ring for a while. More on that after the first match.

The first match of the night was scheduled to be Cody O'Neill VS '6% body fat' Rob James but James decided to take the night off and he got M-Dogg 20 Matt Cross to take his place. O'Neill was able to get the 3 count on Cross but he was attacked after the match by James and the returning Horace the Psycopath.

'Playboy' Pete Huge won a 4 way match against The Prophet, Bret O'Brian and Kleck Micheals.

Joey Envy beat John Johnson.

Jaysin Strife beat Arik Cannon. After the match Cannon got on the mic and put Strife over.

The Northstar Express beat Joey Ryan & Josh Abercrombie, 'That '70's Team' from MTV's Wrestling Society X. This was a fun match as the team of Ryan & Abercrombie made tags by switching off with a buddy band wrist braclet.

Kid Krazy made his return to MN and defeated Tyler Black.

AWA RUSH Faribault, MN6/15/2007

From Spikes bar in Faribault, MN AWA Pro WrestlingRUSH held their first card in a place that NPW used to run not to long ago. This was the second night of RUSH's first double shot weekend. I was unable to make it to the first night which was at their home venue of the Bandana Brewery in Mankato, MN. I hate smoky bars.

In the opening match 'The Professional' Benjamin Sailer defeated Matty Star.
In the second match '6% body fat' Rob James was the winner against Zac James by DQ. Ref Tad Taylor DQed Zac when he used a hand weight that Rob brings to the ring to hit Rob. These two wrestlers are not related.
Arik Cannon beat Jasyin Strife.
In a 6 man tag match the team of the New Junk Squad & Jake Taylor beat Shimdog, Venom & Donnie Peppercricket. This was my first time seeing Peppercricket.
The Northstar Express beat the O'Neill Twinz.

The AWA RUSH Youtube champion Devin Carter retained his title when the match against Arya Daivari went to a time limit draw. You can go to Youtube.com to watch this match.

AWA RUSH champion Joey Envy beat Aaron Corbin with his superkick in a no DQ match. In the move of the night the wrestlers took the match over to the pool tables and Envy used a cue stick to put Corbins ball in the corner pocket.

NIW Amery, WI 6/9/2007

Northern Impact Wrestling returned to the Tac in Amery, WI after a cancelled show last month. Scheduled was the return of the first NIW champion who had not been in an NIW ring for about 2 years and a first blood match. Neither of those things happened this night as all announced matches were thrown out except for one and that was the opening match. One match that I didn't get photos from was the NIW Impact champion The Prophet defending his title against Kleck Micheals. Prophet retained the title.
Cowbow Gator Magraw beat Ryan Stone. This was to be Magraw's second to last match before he retires.
In a tag team match Bobby Mafi & Venom beat Tommy 'Spiderbaby' Saturday & Big Bad Booty Daddy.
The main event this night was an impromptu match for full control of NIW. The C.E.O. challenged NIW owner Frosty to find 4 wrestler to take on his team of 'Playboy' Pete Huge, Trent Jones, Malikite & Rob James. Frosty went to the locker room and put together the team of Arik Cannon, Ben Sailer, Ryan Cruz & Darin Corbin. The match ended when Huge hit Sailer with a title belt and got the pin for the C.E.O. to take full control of NIW.

F1RST Wrestling Minneapolis, MN 5/20/2007

F1RST Wrestling returned to First Ave in downtown Minneapolis for their second card. I've been to this venue many times for pro wrestling and for concerts in the past and not once have any of them started on time, that is until last months F1RST Wrestling. I was great to see that they kept it up with once again start when they say they were going to start. One promotion I was at recently didn't start until over an hour after the posted bell time.
The opening match was scheduled to be Cody O'Neill VS Rob James in a battle of the two men who scored pins at the same time in a 4 corner match last month. Unfortunately James was unable to compete on this night so he got Aaron Corbin to take his place against O'Neill. These two have tagged together and fought against each other many times in the past and on this night O'Neill got the win.
Joey Envy beat Venom.
Arya Daivari won a 4 corners match against Gator Magraw, Casanova and Jasin Strife.
Jerry Lynn beat Arik Cannon. This is the second time these two have wrestled and both times Lynn got the 3 count on Cannon.

Nate Bash & Benjamin Sailer beat the Northstar Express. The NSE did not put there 3XW titles on the line in this match as they did last month here at F1rst Wrestling.

Pete Huge beat his former Junk Squad partner to gain full use of the Junk Squad name. Another stipulation of the match was the loser would have to retire so this is the last that will be seen of Jordan, for now any ways. Very few wrestlers stay retired.

Lucha Libre St. Paul, MN 5/19/2007

From the St. Paul National Guard Armory De la Riva presented Mejoada Y Recargada La Mejor Lucha Libre. To be honest I have no idea what that all means but this was the second card that De La Riva promoted at the St. Paul armory. This is the same building that ROH has used the 3 times they were in St. Paul. This promotion had a very nice entrance way as they had a long ramp and a light system. They also had ring ladies just like the bigger promotions in Mexico use to walk the luchadors to the ring. All the ring announcing was done in Spanish and they did some commentating during the matches as well. I don't speak Spanish so I had no idea what was going on most of the time.
The opening contest saw Lover Kid lose to Rojo Guerrero.
In tag team action (actually the rest of the matches were tag team.)Black Boy & Black Panter beat La Maquina Infernal & Lorenzo Conners.
I guess this next match was an inter gender match as two of the luchadors were men dressed as women. The team of Cinthia Moreno & Casandro beat Rosy Moreno & Rubi Gardenia. One of the males, Rubi who is in the black and red on the mat, would go out to the crowd to kiss the male fans, that's if he could catch them.
Next up was the minis match as La Parkita & Mascarita Sagrada beat Mini Abismo Negro & Espectrito. Both Sagrada and Negro were unmasked in this match but they did a good job of covering up their face.
Super Astro & Solar beat El Arcangel & Pantera.
The main event of the night was former WWE superstar Super Porky & Rey Mysterio Sr & Universo 2000 VS Apost0l 13 & Renegado & Mano Negra. Apostol 13 and Renegado are local guys. Super Porky got the win as he did a splash on all three members of the other team.

AWA RUSH Mankato, MN 5/3/2007

AWA Pro Wrestling RUSH held their monthly card at the Bandanna Brewery in Mankato, MN this past Thursday night.

Arya Daivari won a 3 way elimination match against Matty Star and Jaysin Strife.
Benjamin Sailer beat Arik Cannon with a roll up.
The Junk Squad beat Aaron Corbin & Zac James. This Junk Squad tandem tried out their new version of the junk sandwich.

Jake Taylor beat Shimdog with a little help from the ropes.

The Northstar Express beat Twisted Steal-N-Sex Appeal. Before the match Casanova had another one of his challenges as he and his tag team partner Rob James took on Ryan Cruz & Darin Corbin in a 3 legged race around the ring. NSE won that challenge.

Devin Carter retained the AWA RUSH Youtube TV title by beating El Viejo.

Joey Envy became the new AWA RUSH champion in a 3 way elimination Bunkhouse match with former champion Chris Jordan and Brody Hoofer. Gator Magraw was suppose to be in this match but he announced his retirement from wrestling and picked Hoofer as his replacement in this match. Magraw will wrestle 3 more matches before he retires because of shoulder problems.

ROH St. Paul, MN 4/27/2007

Ring of Honor returned to St. Paul, MN at the National Guard Armory. It has been 8 months since ROH ran at this building and it might be even longer till they return. The crowd was about 500 but not enough for ROH to make the long trip.

In a dark match the team of Bobby Dempsy, Alex Payne and Ernie Osiris beat the team of Ash, Billy Roc and Dingo(announced as Dingo Warrior but we all know there was only one Dingo Warrior.)
In a Shimmer tag team match the MN Home Wrecking Crew (Lacey & Rain) beat Dangerous Angels (Sara Del Rey & Alison Danger). The MN HWC got more cheers from their hometown crowd then they wanted.
A Do or Die match between Micheal Elgin and Rhett Titus was interrupted by the returning Jimmy Rave. Rave made Titus tap out to an ankle lock. Rave then beat Elgin with the same hold.
In a special challenge match Shingo beat BJ Whitmer.

The ROH tag team champions retained their titles in a ultimate endurance match. Other tag teams in the match were Mitch Franklin & Pelle, Gran Akuma & Hallowicked and Jigsaw & Mike Quackenbush.

Brent Albright & Adam Pearce defeat Colt Cabana & Homicide. This was a 'anything goes' match so after a few minutes in the ring it went out into the crowd and I headed for the back.
Rocky Romero won a 4 corner survival match that also included Delirious, Jack Evans and Eric Stevens.
FIP heavyweight champion Roderick Strong beat Christopher Daniels w/Alison Danger by count out.
ROH World champion Takeshi Morishima beat Austin Aries to retain the title.