AWF Elk River, MN 1/30/16

Promotion: American Wrestling Federation
Time/Date: 7pm Saturday January 30, 2016
City, State: Elk River, MN
Venue: Elk River High School


The AWF 10th anniversary Elk River event started out with a 5 man battle royal. In the battle royal was Oren Veit, Jacob Savage, John Lane, Richard Lansing and Luke X.  I believe that these 5 guys were all trained at the AWF training camp.

Jacob Savage won the battle royal when he eliminated Oren Veit.

Arik Cannon pinned Ryan Cruz.

Apostle 13 defeated Antonio Marquez.

AWF heavy weight champion Ariya Daivari pinned "Big Sepp" Sepio Saunders to retain the title.

The O'Neill Twins (Cody & Cory) defeated The Misfits (Aaron Corbin & John Johnson).

Cody & Cory O'Neill returned to the AWF for one last match with John Johnson & Aaron Corbin.

KOTA defeated Jeff Jennings with manager Benjamin Stacks.

Tony DeNucci defeated Josh Price in a no DQ match.

#FBF MPWj Maple Grove, MN 12/21/2003

Promotion: Midwest Pro Wrestling
Time/Date: 7pm Sunday December 21, 2003
City, State: Maple Grove, MN
Venue: MPW training center

MPW had events every Sunday in their training center in Maple Grove,MN.

Joessiah VS Super Steve. I'm not sure if his name was Super Steve or something else but he acted like he was a superhero. Joessiah now goes by the name Officer Rob Justice.

The Smoking Section ( Chris Jordan & Mason Quinn) defeated Schoolboy & Gator Magraw.

Aaron Corbin VS Benjamin Sailer.

Kaos Cody O'Neill VS The Punisher Rob James.

Josie defeated Ms. Natural.

Casanova put Arik Cannon to sleep with a sleeper hold.

#FBF MPW Maple Grove, MN 1/17/2004

Promotion: Midwest Pro Wrestling
Time/Date: Saturday 7:300pm January 17, 2004
City, State: Maple Grove, MN
Venue: MPW training camp

With these flashbacks I can't always tell you who won the match as I was not taking notes at the time. I try to take a photo of the ref raising the hand of the winning wrestler but that doesn't always happen.  That's one reason why I really like to do this blog as it's a record of all the matches that I've photographed. There used to be message boards where fans would post results/reviews of the matches. Too bad those message boards are no longer around. Message boards are a thing of the past.

This event was one of MPW's big Saturday shows. They had events every Sunday but once a month they had a bigger Sunday event. This one was a big deal as they brought in AJ Style and Christopher Daniels. Both of those guys were at an event in Wisconsin the night before.

MPW cruiser weight champ Kid Krazy defeated Casanova, El Viejo and Kaos (Cody O'Neill) in a 4 man elimination match to retain the title.

The Schoolboy VS Sheriff Johnny Emerald.

Cowboy Gator Magraw VS Aaron Corbin.

"The Fallen Angle" Christopher Daniels pinned Arik Cannon.

AJ Styles pinned Shifty. I think that Shifty only wrestled in one more match after this one. Styles came back to MPW to win the Universal championship.

While going through these photos I saw this one of a fan holding up a sign. That fan can now be seen wrestling on NXT on the WWE network. Oh yeah, there is a young fat Venom in that photo as well.

Flash Back Friday: DCW Minneapolis, MN 8/13/2003

Promotion: Downtown Championship Wrestling
Time/date: 8 p.m. Wednesday August 13, 2003
City, State: Minneapolis, MN
Venue: First Ave night club

For this Flash Back Friday we jump back to a time when First Ave events were on Wednesday nights and mostly free. I'm not sure who won or lost in these matches I didn't take notes or make sure that I photographed the ref raising the winners hand.

El Viejo VS John Johnson. James "Moose" Thomas was the jeans wearing ref for this match. Not sure if Thomas had started wrestling before this or if he was still training. When he started wrestling it was under the name Tommy Gunn.

 "The Genuine Article" Chris Jordan defeated Christian Moore. This was Moore's first pro match after training with Terry Fox and Eddie Sharkey. Others that trained that summer with Moore were DOS, Josie, Rob Page and Big Mac. Moore wrote about this match in chapter 9 of his autobiography "Being Moore: my life in professional wrestling". This same photo can be seen in that book. The most interesting thing about this photo is Jordan's gear.

 Mitch Paradise VS Dan Jesser.

 DCW womans champion Josie defeated Rain. Terry Fox was the referee.

 "Playboy" Pete Huge VS Kaos,AKA Cody O'Neill. Looks like Huge was wearing shorts but still not showing any part of his legs.

Big Daddy Hoofer, AKA Brody Hoofer VS Detroit Slim.

DCW champion Black Stallion defeated  Lenny Lane.

R.I.P. Alex Whybrow AKA "Sweet & Sour" Larry Sweeney

Various pro wrestling news sites reported today that Alex Whybrow, AKA "Sweet & Sour" Larry Sweeney died today at the age of 29. Sweeney trained at the Chikara Wrestle Factory and went on to wrestle and manage for Ring of Honor.

I first saw Larry Sweeney back in April of 2005 when he came to Midwest Pro Wrestling.  He was there with other members of Chikara to take on MPW in the "World Series of Wrestling". This was a best of seven match series pitting wrestlers from MPW against wrestlers from Chikara. Sweeney won his match against The Punisher (now known as Rob James).

Sweeney retuned to Minnesota in June 2006, this time for Northern Impact Wrestling's Impact Invitational. In the first round of the tournament Sweeney lost his ICW-ICWA Texarkana TV title to Darin Corbin. Corbin then lost the title to Cody O'Neill at intermission as the ICW-ICWA Texarkana TV title is defended under 24/7 rules. O'Neill then lost the belt to referee Bryce Rumsberg seconds later. The title changed hands a few more times that weekend but Sweeney won the belt back before leaving the Midwest. Sweeney was a very entertaining performer.

AWF Annandale, MN 11/21/2009

The American Wrestling Federation hit the Annandale High School for a big fund raiser event. There were 5 big matches on this card and a new AWF heavyweight champion was crowned.
Arya Daivari defeated Sammy Savard in the opening match.

Mitch Paradise pinned Juice Robinson.

The AWF tag team champions retained their titles when they beat the Misfits (Aaron Corbin and John Johnson). During the match Johnson sprained his ankle when did an elbow drop on Cody O'Neill. Johnson left the match after he tagged out to Corbin right after the elbow drop.

Thoruf Marius defeated K-Train with a choke slam.

Tony DeNucci became the AWF heavy weight champion when he defeated Chris Black. Black had a lot of help from his manager Angel Armoni but he still was not able to beat DeNucci.

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.

F1rst Wrestling Minneapolis, MN 6/19/2009

This past Friday night at First Ave night club F1rst Wrestling presented "The Return:09". The last 3 years F1rst Wrestling has presented a returning wrestler and this year the returning wrestler was Sean "Xpac" Waltman who last appeared in a wrestling ring in Minneapolis back in '99 for WWE's Summerslam at the Target Center which is across the street from First Ave. Waltman contacted F1rst Wrestling and asked for a match on this card against Jerry Lynn, a man who Waltman wrestled against back in the early '90's here in the Minneapolis area and around the world. The two also tag together before Waltman went to the WWF.
I had some tecnical diffaculties with my camera so I was unable to photograph all the matches on this card. Big thanks to Dave Webber who let me use his camera.
In mixed tag team action "Playboy" Pete Huge and Allison Wonderland defeated Yellowdog & Sharkgirl. This was my fist time seeing both Yellowdog and Sharkgirl in action and I think this is the first time these two tagged together.

The match that was advertised as Cody O'Neill's last match was changed to a 6 man match. O'Neill teamed with Aaron Corbin and his twin Cory O'Neill while Arik Cannon had Darin Corbin & Ryan Cruz as his partners. After the suplex to the outside as shown in the photo, Aaron, Cory, Ryan and Darin fought each other to the locker room and that left just Cannon and O'neill to finish the match. Cannon got the pin on O'Neill after a glimmering warlock. The crowd gave O'Neill a standing ovation.

"6% Body Fat" Rob James defeated CZW Ultraviolent Underground Champion Danny Havok in a Minneapolis death match. This match was very bloody as Havok had a huge cut above his right eye. James got the win after a falcons arrow on to a pile of thumb tacks.

Ann Brookstone pinned Daffney in a falls count anywhere match. This match even went into the mens room where Daffney put Brookstones head in the urinal troft. YUCK!

In the main event Sean "Xpac" Waltman pinned Jerry Lynn. Before the match even started fans were chanting "This is Awesome!" And it was. Go to F1rst Wrestling's MySpace to order this DVD which should be ready in about a week or so. It will be a 2 disk set with exta interviews with Waltman and Lynn.