NIW Amery, WI 01/07/07

The first pro wrestling card of 2007 that I photographed was at Norther Impact Wrestling in Amery, WI this last Sunday. Rob Page was the ref for all matches on this night.
Arik Cannon beat Aaron Corbin with the glimmering warlock. Durning this match both men went to the outside and Cannon hit one of the loudest chops on Aaron that I have ever heard. Starting next month you will be able to see Cannon on MTV's Wrestling Society X on Tuesday nights (and may more times in replays).
The Prophet retained his NIW Impact championship against Darin Corbin, Venom and Trent Jones. This was scheduled to be a singles match with just Prophet and Corbin but Venom came out and asked to be included in the match. That lead to Jones coming out and making it a 4 way.
Rob James beat Ryan Cruz. It was announced that the winner of this match would get a spot in the 2007 Impact Invitational so it looks like Rob James is the first man in the tournament. Before he gets in to that tourny he better make sure his shoes stay tied.
Chris Jordan beat Kid Krazy to win the NIW Universal title. I think this is Jordans first singles title since he held the ACW heavyweight belt a few years ago.

Other matches from this card were
Bret O'Brain beat Kamakazi Klecker
Malikite/Ryan Stone Vs Bobbi Mafi/Sean Slade ended in a no contest when Chris Jordan interupted the match.

NPW Faribault, MN 12/16/2006

Northstar Premier Wrestling had some wrestling matches at Spikes Bar and Grill in Faribault, MN. I think this was their first show in this venue. All I have to say is I hate bar shows because I hate cigarette smoke. But on the plus side the ceiling was high.
The Main Attraction James Thomas beat Thoruf Marius with his feet on the ropes.
NPW Lightheavy weight champion JB Trask defeated Arya Daivari to retain the belt. Talk about your 'vet VS rookie' match this one has JB with over 3,000 matches and Arya with under 10 I believe.
The O'Neill Twinz beat Aaron Corbin & Joey Envy.
Former WCW cruiserweight champion Lenny Lane beat Tony DeNucci. I think he may or may not have cheated to get the win.
The NPW tag team champions, The Black Stallion & John Johnson beat the Big Gunns to retain their titles.

3XW Waukee, IA 12/2/2006

From the Waukee middle school in Waukee, Iowa 3XW presented Holiday Havoc. The event was off to a late start as the truck hauling the ring broke down so the ring crew had to rush to get the ring up. 4 of the matches on this card were first round matches in an 8 man tourney to crown a new 3XW heavy weight champion as the former champion Egotistical Fantastico is on his way to the WWE's Deep South promotion.
The 3XW ring crew putting the ring together.
Hunter Matthews beat Zack Thompson. This was Matthews debut match.
In the first tournament match of the night Devin Carter beat Tyler Cook. This was my first time seeing Cook and he kind of reminded me of Larry Sweeney but less flamboyant.
Krotch (yep his name is Krotch) pinned Bryce Benjamin with a small package. Krotch is another wrestler on the card tonight that I had not seen before but he looked pretty familiar as he reminded me of MN wrestler Kid Krazy.
Machine beat Tristan Hayze. Here were two more wrestlers I had not seen or heard of before.
In the second tournament match of the night Gage Octane beat tag team champion Nate Bash. He did have a little help from his fellow Blue Chippers Brain Ash and Austin Bayless.
3XW womans champion Ann Brookstone beat Allison Wunderland. This was my first time seeing Wunderland in the ring.
Ann Brookstone complained that the very Green Wunderland was not enough competition so out came Bryce Benjamin to challenge Brookstone for her belt. Benjamin renamed the tittle the Wo Man championship as in Whoa Man.
In the third tournament match of the night former 3XW heavyweight champion Brain Ash defeated 3XW cruiser weight champion/3XW tag team champion Benjamin Sailer.
Team Northstar Express (Ryan Cruz, Darin Corbin, Casanova & Ryan Slade) beat Team Future (Dan Lawrence, Arya Daivari, Aaron Masterson & Ricky Kwong) in a survivor tag match. Three more wrestlers I photographed for the first time.
In the final match of the first round to crown the new 3XW heavyweight champion Tony Scarpone beat Jeremy Wyatt.

3 years ago today> IWA-MS TPI

The twelve first round matches of the 2003 IWA-MidSouth Ted Petty Invitaional took place this night 3 years ago in Salem, IN (Northwest of Louisville, KY)

Jimmy Jacobs w/Becky Bayless beat Sal Rinauro.
Nigel McGuinness beat Brad Bradley.
Ian Rotton beat Mickie Knuckles.
AJ Styles pinned Todd Sexton.
Jonny Storm defeated M-Dogg 20.
Sonjay Dutt beat Nate Webb.
Chris Hero beat Arik Cannon w/Alison Danger.
Alex Shelly defeated Chris Sabin.
B-Boy beat JC Bailey.
Jimmy Rave pinned Colt Cabana.
Danny Daniels beat Ken Anderson.
Jerry Lynn beat Michael Shane.

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.

NPW VS NIW world series of wrestling West St. Pual, MN 11/4/2006

From the National Guard Armory in West St. Paul, Mn two fueding promotions faced off in a best of 7 'World Series of Wrestling'. This was the second of such events to be held in MN as the first one was held in April of 2005 when Midwest Pro Wrestling lost to Chikara of PA. That WSoW was in the name of good sportsmanship but his one between Northstar Premeir Wrestling and Norhtern Impact Wrestling was to settle a fued that started earlier this summer when NPW head John Johnson invaded NIW. For this WSoW both promtions picked 5 singles and two tag teams (one being a 4 man tag team) for the seven matches.
Darin Corbin(NIW) beat his brother Aaron Corbin (NPW) to make the score NIW 1 NPW 0.
Tony DeNucci (NPW) beat Kamikazi Klecker (NPW) and Venom (NIW) to even up the score at 1 each. This match started out as Klecker VS Venom but DeNucci didn't like the idea that Klecker was representing NPW so he put himself in the match.
Mitch Paradise (NPW) pinned Nate Bash (NIW) to make put NPW head 2 to 1.
The Junk Squad (NIW) and The Big Guns (NPW) battled to a double DQ as both teams used chairs. The score was still NPW 2 NIW 1.
NPW cruiserweight champion JB Trask retained his title against NIW's Rob James. NPW 3 NIW 1.
NIW Universal champion Kid Krazy beat Joey Envy (NPW) to make the score NPW 3 NIW 2.
The final match was a 8 man survivior match with team NIW (The Prophet, Ryan Cruz, Horace the Psycopath and Arik Cannon) VS team NPW (Black Stallion, Cody O'Neill, Magnus Maximus and John Johnson). Team NIW won when Arik Cannon pinned John Johnson after two refs were knocked out and powder and fire was used and Nora 'Molly Holly' Greenwald made the 3 count. The WSoW ended in a 3/3 tie.
After making the 3 count in the final match Nora gave the C.E.O. a stone cold stunner.

NPW Lonsdale, MN 10/28/2006

From the South 40 Pub in Lonsdale, MN Northstar Premier Wrestling put on a 6 match card.
The night started out with John Johnson VS Venom from NIW. This was a warm up for the NPW VS NIW world series of wrestling that takes place on 11/4/2006. Johnson got the 3 count in this match.
In a NPW try out match Malikite wrestled Ryan Stone. The match ended when NPW heavyweight champion Magnus Maximus came to the ring and beat both men. Magnus got on the mic and talked about how he was taking the NPW belt with him when he leaves for the WWE developmental territories.
In his third pro match Arya Daivari beat Aaron Corbin. He finished off Corbin with his brothers old move, the magic carpet ride.
Joey Envy beat Prime Time even thougth Prime Time had a cast on his left hand.
Cody O'Neill beat Craven Knyte.
The main event was scheduled to be Magnus Maximus defending his NPW heavy weight title against Black Stallion but it turned into a 4 man tag match. John Johnson and Big Daddy Hoofer were added to the match. Magnus had Stallion in a boston crab when Venom came in the ring and hit Magnus witht he title belt. This lead to Big Daddy Hoofer and James Thomas teaming up on Stallion to get the pin. The new NPW heavy weight champ- Big Daddy Hoofer.