AWF Anoka, MN 10/17/2009

This past Saturday night I got to go back to my old junior high school as the American Wrestling Federation held a fund raiser for the Anoka athletic department. This event was held at the Fred Moore middle school center for the arts. Back in my day it was just Fred Moore junior high.
In the first match of the night K-Train defeated Arya Daivari. During intermission kids came up to Daivari wanting him to autograph their programe. Most of the kids held out the progame turned to the page with Daivari's brother Shawn "Abdul Bashir" Daivari.

In the second match "The Contract Killer" defeated Zero Kincade. This was my first time seeing "The Contract Killer".

The AWF tag team titles were on the line as champions The O'Neill Twins battled The Misfits. In the match Aaron Corbin was joined by John Johnson who has been out of action for about one year. Cody & Cory O'Neill got the win and retained the belts.

Tony DeNucci defeated Chris Black. DeNucci got a cut above his eye from Black's manager Angel Armoni.

Thoruf Marius defeated Juice Robinson. I think it was during this match that the fire alarm went off in the building but no one moved an inch except to plug their ears. I remember doing many fire drills in that building and just like all those this one was a false alarm.

"Livewire" Johnny Parks defeated Lenny Lane in the main event. There was some outside interfance in this match as Lane had attacked the O'Neill Twins after their match because he is jelous of all the attention they get. The O'Neill's came out and attacked Lane when ref Jay Soltis was knocked down and the Misfits came out the even the sides. The tag teams left the ring area and Parks won the match after this leg drop shown here.

F1rst Wrestling Sweet Sixteen tournament

F1rst wrestling is holding a two night tournament at the West St. Paul armory on October 23rd & 24th, 2009. Scheduled first round matches are: "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon VS "The Popular" Nate Bash, "The King of Throwdown" Venom VS "Playboy" Pete Huge, Lince Dorado VS Yellow Dog, "6% Body fat" Rob James VS Hydra, Arya Daivari VS "The Professional" Benjamin Sailer, Amasis VS Ryan Cruz, Ohpidian VS "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush, Darin Corbin VS "Very European" Claudio Castagnoli.

MIW Chanhassen, MN 10/3/2009

Minnesota Independent Wrestling returned to the Chanhassen American Legion after taking the summer months off from that venue.
El Bano defeated Jerin Rose after a big splash. This was Rose's MIW debut.

MIW heavy weight champion Brody Hoofer defended his title against "Genuine Article" Chris Jordan. These two fan favorites battled it out in a back and forth match until Shimdog and Jean Marius came out and interrupted the match. Shimdog and Marius claimed that they deserved a shot at Hoofers title. Instead of a title shot they got a tag team match for later in the card against Hoofer and Jordan.

Black Stallion defeated MIW rookie of the year CPL. Julio Julio.

"Playboy" Pete Huge defeated Matt Fairlane. This was the MIW debut of Fairlane who is also the Steeltown Pro Wrestling champion. SPW is a promotion that runs out of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Brody Hoofer and Chris Jordan defeated Shimdog and Jean Marius.

Nate Bash defeated Mitch Paradise with some help from American Legion bar manager Rob Marrow.

MIW Mounds View, MN 9/26/2009

For the first time in a long I was able to make it to two wrestling events on Saturday night September 26. After the F1rst Wrestling card was over I headed north to Roberts sports bar in Mounds View, MN for Minnesota Independent Wrestling. I got to Roberts during the first match after intermission so I was only able to photograph the last 3 matches.
In the battle of the MIW rookies CPL Julio Julio defeated "The Law" Mark Barker.

The MIW heavy weight champion Brody Hoofer retained his title by beating Jeff Bennett. This was my first time seeing Bennett and his first time in an MIW ring.

In the main event AJ Sanchez defeated Dinn T Moore in a hard core match.

F1rst Wrestling Minneapolis, MN 9/26/2009

F1rst Wrestling returned to First Ave night club in Minneapolis, MN, this time for an early start Saturday event. Three wrestlers from Chikara made their way to F1rst Wrestling for this event. I spent some time back stage getting new posed photos so there were some matches that I didn't get many action photos of. One of those was the Benjamin Sailer VS Sammy Savard.
Nate Bash pinned Ophidian in the opening contest. Originally scheduled for this event was a tag team match between Midwest Ground & Air and The Osirian Portal but Amasis was unable to make it for some reason. Because of that one member from each team was placed in this singles match.

Rob Justice (formerly Known as Joessiah)& Mark Barker defeated Udo & Venom with the "Eddie". I hate this ending for a match.

"6% Body Fat" Rob James defeated cpl. Julio Julio. This match started out as a push-up competition but James just kicked Julio after the third push-up by Julio.

Lince Dorado defeated Arik Cannon, Frightmare and Ryan Cruz in a 4 man match. Dorado pinned Cruz after a shooting star press.

Brody Hoofer pinned Arya Daivari with a roll up as Daivari was arguing with ref Rob Page. After the match Daivari put the boots to Page and Horace the Psychopath made the save which went right into the main event.

"Playboy" Pete Huge with Allison Wonderland defeated Horace the Psychopath. Huge was able to get the pin after Daivari came to the ring and threw a fireball at Horace.

AWF Inver Grove Heights, MN 9/19/2009

The American Wrestling Federation was at the Simley high school in Inver Grove Heights, MN for a fund raiser event on a Saturday night September 19, 2009. The gym was really hot on this night.
Aaron Corbin defeated Benjamin Sailer. This was Sailers first match in the AWF.

Thoruf Marius defeated Johnny Parks.

Juice Robinson battled Lenny Lane but I can't remember who won.

Tony DeNucci defeated Chris Black.

Cody & Cory O'Neill defeated Arya & Shawn (aka Abdul Bashir from TNA) Daivari.

AWF Zimmerman, MN 9/12/2009

The American Wrestling Federation held their second annual fund raiser event for the Zimmerman high school quarterback club on September 12, 2009, a Saturday night.
In the opening match Arya Daivari defeated Johnny Parks with the magic carpet ride.

Haystacks defeated Angel Armoni by count out when Armoni left the ring and didn't come back. This was my first time ever seeing Haystacks.

Cody O'Neill defeated Aaron Corbin.

Chris Black beat K-Train.

Tony DeNucci beat Thoruf Marius by DQ. At least that's how I think it ended. Angel Armoni was Marius's manager for this match and he hit DeNucci with a chair.

In the last match of the night Juice Robinson defeated Lenny Lane.

Dragon Gate USA Chicago, IL 9/6/2009

On Sunday September 6th Dragon Gate USA presented "Open the Untouchable Gate" at the Congress theatre in Chicago, IL. This was their second event and it was taped for PPV that will be available in November.
The fans in the first few rows were treated to a special match called 'The Fray'. The Fray started with two wrestlers then another one entered the Fray after a set amount of time. Wrestlers were eliminated by pin fall or submission. The 8 wrestlers in the Fray were Johnny Gargano, Hallowicked, Louis London, Shiima Xion, Arik Cannon, Mustafa Ali, Great Malaki and Flip Kendrick. Grangano won the match when he pinned Hallowicked.
Dragon Kid defeated Masato Yoshino.Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw defeated Gran Akuma & Yamato.

Dragon Gate Open the Dream Gate champion Naruki Doi retained his title when he beat "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. For the fist time I actually saw an announcer say "And now for a man who needs no introduction..." and then no introduction was give. Danielson just walk out of the entrance with no music.

Cima defeated Brian Kindrick.

Davey Richards defeated Shingo by submission.

Open the Twin Gates champions Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito defeated the Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)to retain the belts.

AAW Berwin, IL 9/5/2009

After two years I once again made my way down to the Chicago area for an All American Wrestling event. There were two preshow matches, one tag team and one singles. I photographed those but they will not be part of this blog. With those two preshow matches there were a total of 11 matches, that's a lot of pro wrestling so fans at the Berwyn Eagles club. This event was called "Defining Moment- Us VS Them" The "Us VS Them" is the AAW VS Dragon Gate as 3 of the matches featured American wrestlers who would be on the Dragon Gate event the following night in Chicago.
Faith in Nothing (Vincent Nothing & Christian Faith) defeated Flip Kendrick & Louis Lyndon. This was the AAW debut for Lyndon & Kendrick and my first time seeing these guys.

Shane Hollister defeated Nick Brubaker.

Knight Wagner & Jordan McEntyre (the air)defeated Krotch & Juice Robinson when Wagner pinned Robinson.

Jimmy Jacobs pinned Jay Bradley to become the new AAW heavy weight champion. In AAW there are no count outs or disqualifications, just professional wrestling. That was very true in this championship match at both men spent time outside the ring and used chairs and tables. Jacobs was a bloody mess after this match.

Arik Cannon, Ryan Cruz & Darin Corbin defeated Jigsaw, Hallowicked & Gran Akuma in a 6 man tag match. This was one of the "Us VS Them" matches as the Chikara wrestlers were featured on the first Dragon Gate USA event.

Shiima Xion pinned Johnny Gargano.

Danny Daniels & Ryan Boz defeated Zero Gravity.

"American Dragon" Bryan Danielson defeated Silas Young in another "Us VS Them" match. This was one of Danielson's last match in the indys as he has signed with the WWE. Congrats to Danielson for getting that contract. He is one of those wrestlers who's work I really like.

In the main event the AAW tag team champions The House of Truth defeated The Young Bucks to retain the belts. This was another "Us VS them" match.

MIW Mounds View, MN 8/22/2009

A couple of Saturdays ago I left the wrestling art show because there was an Minnesota Independent Wrestling event at Robert's Sports bar in Mounds View, MN. I had missed the last few MIW cards so it was nice to make it to this one. A few of the referee's on this card will soon be making their pro wrestling debuts.
In the opening contest "Playboy" Pete Huge w/Allison Wonderland defeated Super Caboose w/K-Train. Huge was scheduled to take on K-Train but K-Train was injured in a match the week before so Super Caboose took his place.
Tommy "Spiderbaby" Saturday pinned El Bano.

Daryl Hall defeated Mark Barker.

Cpl. Julio Julio defeated "The Rising Star" Shimdog.

The MIW heavy weight champion Brody Hoofer defeated The Black Stallion to retain the belt. It was nice to see Hoofer used an old school move like the airplane spin.

In the main event Chris Jordan & Horace the Psychopath defeated Rob Ivy & Mitch Paradise when Jordan pinned Paradise.