8 Stupid Questions with "6% Body Fat" Rob James

I'm starting a new feature here on Midwest Indy Wrestling Photos by Wayne McCarty called '8 stupid questions with...'. Every so often I will try to get a wrestler to answer 8 questions and post them with some of my photos. Most of the photos that will be posted will be seen for the first time on the net. The first Wrestler I picked to answer 8 stupid questions is Rob James.

Name: Rob James

Height: 5' 5"

Weight: 6% boby Fat

Home Town: Muscle Beach, CA

Years Pro: 5

Web Site: www.myspace.com/midwestpun

1) Were you a hulkamaniac? If yes then are you still a hulkamania? To tell you the truth with the new American Gladiator and his daughter growing up to be a hot POA, I am more of a hulkamaniac now! ( Rob James Vs Benjamin Sailer NIW 4/23/2006)

2)You used to go by the name “the Punisher”, was that because you were a big fan of the movie by the same name that stared Dolph Lundgren? I came up with that name was I was young, I used to make pro wrestling comic books in middle school, I would include my favorite WWF (at the time) stars with me and some friends of mine, I was The Punisher. Then I did back yard wrestling, and was The Punisher. A former Yarder trained with MPW, and got me into training and He always would call me Punisher, it caught on with the boys and thats how I started my wrestling career, with that name. (The Punisher Vs Renny D MIW 5/15/2004)

3)who do you think would win in a fight between Superman and Mighty Mouse? Superman no questions asked! (Rob James Vs Delerious NIW 7/01/2006)
4)Do you have a favorite opponent and if so can you name your favorite match with that wrestler? Prophet, Last MPW Arena show in a three way with Prophet and Kamikaze Klecker was fun, but even better that that was in NIW when I took the Impact Title from him in a Ladder Match.. Used to Enjoy beating up Joey Envy, but I think he is too affraid to face me anymore. (Rob James Vs The Prophet MCW BG 1/26/2008)
5)Who trained you? Sheriff, Shifty, and Cannon at MPW. (The Punisher Vs Shifty MPW 6/22/2003)

6)Don’t you hate it when you set your DVR/Tivo/VCR to record a show and it misses the end of the show because some stupid football game went into over time and all the other shows after it are shown later? Hell yes, and what I hate even more is that my new place has no cable connection for my tivo and I am paying for a box that records a black screen. (Rob James Vs Arik Cannon NIW 4/08/2006)7)Do you like the sight of your own blood? Yes, when I bleed in a match in brings out a whole new Rob James, more intense! I lke seeing my oppenent bleed even more! (Rob James Vs Arik Cannon NIW 4/08/2006)

8)What three Rob James matches would go on a best of DVD?
Rob James Vs. Prophet (ladder match)
Rob James Vs. Ben Sailer (One of the Many great matches we had at Pro Wrestling Battle Ground)
Rob James Vs. Cody (Anarchy Rules)(Rob James Vs Cody O'Neill F1rst Wrestling 1/25/2008)

Cabana/Goldman and Nora Greenwald.

Recently another native Midwesterner made it to the big leagues. Colt Cabana debuted on WWE's ECW using the name Scotty Goldman. He seems to have kept the same goofball gimmick that he was known for on the indy level. Back in November of 2003 I had my first chance to photograph Colt at the IWA-MidSouth Ted Petty Invitational. In his first round match Cabana lost to future TNA star Jimmy Rave.
On the second night of the TPI Cabana was in a six man elimination match that also featured future WWE star Ken Anderson/Kennedy. Cabana won this match by pinning Michael Shane. Head on over to Dr Darin Davis's blog to read an old interview with Cabana. The interview was part of the Upper Midwest Wrestling Newsletter done by Tim Larson. Davis also has the whole UMWN archived linked on his blog. You can read interviews from 1999 to 2002 by the likes of Ed Sharkey, Dave Prazak, Lenny Lane, CM Punk, Adrian Lynch, Hellraiser Gutt(aka Bam Neely) and Shawn Daivari.
If you like previously owned clothing and Molly Holly then here is your chance to own some of Molly Holly's swim suits and other clothing she wore for WWE photo shoots. Head on over to Nora Greenwalds Ebay store to purchase this bikini or other autographed items. I've added some links to the right side of this blog to some online albums of my photo work. Right now there are three different albums: action, posed/8x10's and printed work. I'll be adding to those albums as time permits.

F1rst wrestling West St. Paul, MN 10/03/2008

This past Saturday night F1rst Wrestling held it's first card outside of it's home arena as they presented 'In the Armory Now' at the West St. Paul Armory. The Fall is a big time for concerts at First Ave so it was hard for F1rst Wrestling to get a Friday night spot there. For this card three wrestles/luchadors from Chikara made their MN debut.
The first match of the night was a dark/pre show match. In this match Corporal Julio Gonzales made his pro debut as he took on Bret O'Brian. Gonzales was trained by Terry Fox and Austin Aries. He looked good in his first match but went down for the 3 count to O'Brian.
The card officially started with a match between Arya Daivari and Venom. Daivari got the win with his feet on the ropes.
Making his F1rst Wrestling debut was Udo, the mysterious masked man. Udo had no problem defeating Kamikaze Klecker.
Lince Dorado defeated Arik Cannon. Dorado is one of 3 luchadors from the Chikara promotion to appear on this card. After the match many fans in the crowd gave these two a standing ovation for their efforts.
Horace the Psychopath defeated "Playboy" Pete Huge w/Allison Wonderland. This match went all over the Armory as is usual with a Horace match. Horace won the match with a roll up.
Midwest Ground & Air defeated the Osirian Portal. This was my first time seeing Amasis and Ophidian who come from the Chikara wrestling factory.
Matt "M-Dogg 20" Cross made his return to F1rst Wrestling. Cross was on the third F1rst Wrestling card when "6% Body Fat"Rob James brought him out to face Cody O'Neill. This time around Cross faced James in the ring. Cross won the match with a shooting star press.
The main event was scheduled to be the New Generation vs the Northstar Express but Darin Corbin was injured recently so he was replaced by Arik Cannon. Aaron Corbin got the pin on Cannon to get the win for his team.

PWB Cottage Grove, MN 9/13/2008

Pro Wrestling Battleground, formerly know as MCW Battleground, returned to the Cottage Grove armory this last Saturday night.

Arik Cannon defeated Renny D.

The Prophet beat Danny Duggan. This was my first time seeing Duggan as he is from Canada and was just passing through on his way out East.

Arya Daivari defeated Ryan Cruz. I think Daivari might have cheated to win as he didn't put Cruz out with this awesome sleeper hold. Daivari was scheduled to wrestle Cruz's tag team partner Darin Corbin but Corbin was injured the night before at a 3XW card. I hope that his injury doesn't keep Corbin out of action for too long.

In a battle for the #1 contender spot Benjamin Sailer pinned Thoruf Marius.

The Battleground champion "6% Bodyfat" Rob James retained his title against challenger Nate Bash. James had help from Marius, help in being DQ'ed that is.

Josie on TNA

On the August 28th 2008 edtion of TNA Impact former MN wrestler Josie made her Impact debut as she wrestled the Amazing Kong. This was actually her second match with TNA and Kong but that was on a PPV and she used the name Josie Robinson then. With Josie's debut on Impact TNA gave her a new name but it was so hard to remember I couldn't tell you what it is.

Josie started training with Terry Fox and Eddie Sharkey back in 2002 and begain wrestling in 2003. Here she is in a match against Rain in St. Paul, MN on December 6th, 2003. She wrestled twice that day as this match was in the afternoon and then she wrestled in Annandale, MN against Lacey.
In a match from June 23, 2004 Josie teamed with fellow TNA knockout O.D.B. to defeat Angel Williams and Ms Natural.

RWF Prior Lake, MN8/23/2008

From Daughters bar & Grill in Prior Lake, MN Renegade Wrestling Federation held an an outside card on a beautiful Saturday night.
Doink the clown (not the original or even close to the original) beat Nate Bash by pin fall.
Jesse Chan beat the Brauler by DQ. Allison Wonder came out with the Brauler and gave him a club to use on Chan. Wonderland didn't do a good job of hiding the club so the ref saw it and DQ'ed the Brauler.
Arya Daivari w/Sheik Adnan defeated Benjamin Sailer. Daivari will have to send his magic carpet to the cleaners as some fan used it to blow his nose.
Darrel Hall beat The Black Stallion when the ref reversed his original decision when he found that Stallion had a metal chain on him.
The main event saw two AWA legends in the corners of Brody Hoofer and Thoruf Marius. For the second week in a row Hoofer had Baron Von Raschke in his corner. Sheik Adnan has been managing Marius for a few promotions. The match ended when Baron put the claw on Thoruf and Hoofer then hit him with a knee to the head for the pin.

HOW Proctor, MN 8/15/2008

Heavy On Wrestling held a card under a tent at the Hoghead festival in Proctor, MN this last Friday. For this show they brought in some talent from TNA, AWA and WCW.
In the opening contest Venom defeated the Prophet.

The second match of the night was a battle royal. All the wrestlers on the card were in the battle royal plus The Barking Spiders and Josh Colisto who were not in any other matches. The winner of the battle royal was Bad Boy Brian.

Tommy "Spiderbaby" Saturday defeated Bad Boy Brian in the third match of the night. This is the second time I've seen Spiderbaby pick on someone much smaller then himself.
The team of O.D.B. & Daphne defeated Ann Brookstone & Arik Cannon. There were 3 more matches after intermission but I was unable to photograph those. Referree Rob Page had his hands full in this match.

F1rst Wrestling Minneapolis, MN 8/8/2008

F1rst Wrestling presented 'This ain't Beijing' this last Friday night at First Ave night club. This card featured the return of TNA knockout O.D.B. and a tag team match between the Junk Squad and Arik Cannon/Cody O'Neill.

In the opening match Midwest Ground & Air defeated the Northstar Express when Benjamin Sailer pinned Ryan Cruz.
Shane Hollister defeated Kamikazie Klecker in the second match of the card.

Thoruf Marius pinned Brody Hoofer. After the match Hoofer offered to shake Marius's hand. Marius shook Hoofers hand but then attacked him.

In a mixed tag team match O.D.B. & Horace the Psycopath defeated Arya Daivari & Ann Brookstone. O.D.B. pinned Daivari after she used his carpet for her own magic carpet ride. I believe that a few years ago O.D.B. beat Arya's brother Shawn for the MPW cruiser weight title.

"The King of Throw Down"Venom defeated "6% Body Fat" Rob James. These two have wrestled against each other many times.
ROH tag team champion Tyler Black defeated Joey Envy.
The Junk Squad beat Arik Cannon & Cody O'Neill when Pete Huge pinned Cannon. After the match O'Neill attacked Cannon and called out his old partner Aaron Corbin.

No date set yet for the next F1rst Wrestling card.

F1rst Wrestling Shakopee, MN 8/3/2008

F1rst Wrestling held their first matches outside of First Ave as they took their ring to the Van's Warped tour at the Canterbury Race track in Shakopee, MN this last Sunday. The ring was set up in front of the two main stages and a 6 foot high chain link fence surrounded the ring. The matches presented at Warped tour were mainly to help promote F1rst Wrestling and the up coming card. There were many matches though out the day but I'm only posting photos from a few of the ones that I did photograph. Wrestlers who were in matches were Arik Cannon, Darin Corbin, Ryan Cruz, Arya Daivari, Nate Bash, Benjamin Sailer, Zero Kincade, Mike Stanley, Allison Wonderland, Venom, Ryan Slade, Rob James, Jimmy Rockwell, Zach Thompson,
Nate Bash defeated Arya Daivari in a singles match. They went outside the cage area and fought amongst the all the emo kids. Bash went back into the ring to do a jump off the top rope and over the cage onto Daivari.

Darin Corbin beat Arik Cannon in a dog collar match. Both wrestlers got very bloody during this match.

A few of the F1rst Wrestling regulars were unable to make it to on Sunday so Cannon called up a few wrestlers from 3XW. One of those wrestlers was Ryan Slade who on this day thought it would be a good idea to wrestle in a thong. I'm not sure if he really did know what a great idea it was when he decided to do it but wrestling in a thong made him some extra money that day. It turns out that a lot of young ladies at the rock n roll show like to have their photo taken with guys wearing thongs.

MIW Chanhassen, MN 8/2/2008

Minnesota Independent Wrestling returned to the Chanhassen American Legion this last Saturday night.

Before the official first match two of terry Fox and Austin Aries' trainee's wrestled each other to a no contest when Mitch Paradise came out and tossed both men from the ring.

The first match of the night was a battle royal rumble to determine the number one contender for the MIW heavy weight title held by Brody Hoofer. Pete Huge was the winner of this match when he eliminated Zach Mercury.

The team of The Black Stallion & Jared Jackal beat Benjamin Sailer & Chris Black by DQ. I'm not sure how this was ruled a DQ. Black turned on his partner when he finally tagged in. See his Midwest Ground & Air partner getting beat down Nate Bash ran in to make the save.

The Preacher (formerly known as The Alter boy) defeated Jean Marius after a super kick.

The trainer of champions Terry Fox defeated Beautiful Bobby Jay. This was Fox's first match in about 3 years.
Mitch Paradise defeated Zack Mercury by DQ. Mercury had a score to settle with Paradise as it was Paradise who helped Pete Huge eliminate him from the battle royal rumble. The ref DQ'ed Mercury when he saw that American Legion bar manager Rob with a chain in his had and Paradise 'knocked out' on the mat. I hope I never see that finish again.
Pete Huge got his shot at the MIW title in the main event against Brody Hoofer. Before the match started Hoofer asked for the match to be a no DQ match. Ring announcer Tim Larson then made it a no DQ match for the MIW heavy weight title. This match didn't' stay in the ring long as they fought through the crowd then they took it outside. Eventully both wrestlers made it back to the ring where Hoofer hit Huge with a brain buster on a chair for the pin. It was announced that MIW would return to the Chanhassen American Legion on November 8th.