#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.

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.

HOW Red Cliff, WI 8/23/2014

Promotion: Heavy On Wrestling
Date: Saturday August 23, 2014
City, State: Red Cliff, Wisconsin
Venue: Legendary Waters Resort & Casino

 

It was a beautiful night in northern Wisconsin for an outdoor event.

 The night started out with guest general manager Booker T coming out to the ring to welcome the HOW Universe. He was joined in the ring by HOW champion Ariya Daivari.

 "Miss Natural" Heather Patera pinned Josie (AKA Sojo Bolt) with her feet on the ropes. This was the first time these two have been in the ring together in 10 years.

 Darin Corbin defeated Scot Summers and Stevie Richards in a 3 way match to become the number 1 contender for the HOW championship.

 Roddy Piper had Jake "The Snake" Roberts as his guest for Pipers Pit. Mitch Paradise came out to claim that fans love his Paradise's Pit. The interview ended with Roberts giving Paradise the DDT.

Sean "X-Pac" Waltman & Craven Knyte defeated Benjamin Sailer & Arik Cannon.

Rick & Scott Stiener defeated John Johnson & Black Stallion.

 Luke Hawx defeated Hardcore Bob Holly in a no DQ falls count anywhere match.

 Lance Hoyt pinned Ariya Daivari in a 3 way championship match that included Trevor Murdock.

New Heavy On Wrestling champion Lance Hoyt.

Costumes from Halloween past

Today is Halloween so I decieded to look back into my archives for some photos from MIW and MPW where the wrestlers dressed up for the holiday.

First up is an MIW card that took place in Big Lake, MN on Halloween night 2003. Josie, MIW womans champ at the time, came to the ring dressed as a girl scout.

The main event for the MIW Halloween card was a battle royal. Ken Anderson wore some kind of mask, Undertaker maybe. Johnny Parks was dressed as an '80's rocker.

On November 2, 2003 MPW held it's annual Halloween show at their weekly Sunday event in Rogers, MN. These weekly shows were held at the MPW arena/training center. One of the funnist costomes that year was worn by The Punisher (Rob James). He was a fat stripper and his opponent here is El Viejo as Pretty Boooy Delgado. Or is it Pretty Boooy Delgado as El Viejo?
CJ Talon looked very good as Mick Foley for his match against Joessiah. Talon even used Mr Socko on ref Brian Wallenberg after the match.Lucha Libra is know for high flying, fast paced action, but it's also know for some crazy costumes. At the first ever lucha libra show I atteneded back on April 11, 2004 Frankenstein was envoled in a 6 man match.
The 2004 MPW Halloween show took place on Halloween night at the MPW arena in Rogers, MN. For most of the matches the wrestlers switched ring gear with their opponents. In the photo here V2(Ryan Cruz) & Lisa came to the ring dressed as Animal Sam and Valkrie. During the match both V2 and Sam went under the ring and switched into their regular ring gear.
Chris Jordan, Joey Envy and Pete Huge did and in ring promo dressed as Triple H, X-Pac and HBK. Jordan didn't have a fanny pack so he borrowed mine.

Darin Corbin and Sheriff Johnny Emerald did the gear switch and Emerald even went so far as to color his hair red.
Ref Rob Page got into the fun as he dressed like his favorite wrestler "Playboy" Pete Huge.
This photo didn't take place around Halloween but I just had to enclude it. Any guess's as to who this is and who they are dressed up as? You can guess by clicking on "comments" below.

8 Stupid Questions with Lacey

Name: Lacey

Years Pro: 8 1/2
Height: 5'6"

Weight: 130 lbs

Home Town: Minneapolis, MN

1. Was it hard to train for pro wrestling as a female? Extremely! I think it's hard to go through for anyone, but there are definitely extra challenges going through as a minority in this male-dominated environment. Women aren't exactly looked upon with the utmost respect in the wrestling industry, and there are definitely some women around that absolutely don't help our cause in gaining that respect. It's unfortunate! But, on the bright side, its really helped me to grow into a strong and independent person. ( Lacey Vs Pete Huge 4/11/2004 Promociones Renegado Lucha )
2. The battle lines have been drawn, you must pick a side. Are you with team Aniston or team Jolie?Eh, I'm neutral. Don't really know much or care about either, but Jolie does seem to do a ton of charity work and is a good will ambassador and all that so I suppose I'll pick her. ( Lacey Vs Josie 12/6/2003 FLWA)
3. Have you ever been injured in the ring? I've had a few concussions, been busted open a few times, black eyes, stuff like that. Also jacked up my knee pretty badly a few years ago by dislocating the knee cap and slightly tearing some tendons and ligaments. Luckily, surgery was not needed. ( Lacey with Jimmy Jacobs Vs Roderick Strong 6/24/2006 ROH)
4. What’s the weirdest thing you ever received from a fan? Customized booty shorts. WEIRD. (Lacey Vs Rain 4/11/2004 Promociones Renegado Lucha)

5. Who is the greatest female wrestler from Minnesota, Nora Greenwald or Madusa? I love them both!!! I really looked up to and admired both of them when I was younger. They both definitely played a role in my desire to start training. (Lacey Vs Allison Danger 4/27/2007)
6. So ah…what do you think about the war in Iraq? I think its pointless, horrible, awful, terrible, disgusting, a gigantic waste of money and resources, a gigantic waste of lives, an incomprehensible injustice to all of humanity...etc. etc. etc (Lacey at F1rst Wrestling 4/22/2007)
7. You were an announcer on Mtv’s very short lived Wrestling Society X. If you could get cast on another Mtv show what would it be?Absolutely NONE of them. Well, unless my role on the show was to fuck everybody up Grand Theft Auto style. I can't even comprehend the shows on Mtv (well, most tv) these days. It's sick these people exist to populate these reality shows and its sick there's such a market for it! ( Lacey with Arik Cannon 1/21/2004 Downtown Championship Wrestling)
8. So are you still wrestling or what? For now...I've got more important things to focus on. Also, really, no creepy wrestling fans deserve to see me in the ring! (The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew 4/27/2007 ROH)

Sojourner Bolt, AKA Josie, signs with TNA.

On Deceomber 3 TNA.com reported that TNA Wrestling signed Sojourner Bolt, AKA Josie to a contract. I had the pleasure of photographing/chatting with Josie before the NPW card last Saturday. I asked her about her new TNA name. Josie pointed out that Sojourner was also the first name of woman's rights activist Sojourner Truth.

NPW Hayward, WI 11/29/2008

Northwoods Pro Wrestling in conjunction with Minnesota Independent Wrestling, held their first card that the L.C.O. casino in Hayward, WI this past Saturday night. There was a pretty good turn out so it looks like NPW will be back at the L.C.O. some time in the near future. My luck at the casino was good as I walked out with $27 more then I came with.

Daryl Hall defeated 'Livewire'Johnny Parks in the opening contest with a roll up pin. Parks had been in retirement untill promoter Terry Fox gave him a call to get booked on this card.
'Playboy' Pete Huge defeated Cpl. Julio Julio. Once again Julio came out to a different name but this time I think it's for good as the fans really liked to cheer 'Julio Julio'. I think that Huge may have used the ropes to get the pin on Julio.
MIW Heavy weight champion Brody Hoofer defended his title against 'the Professional' Benjamin Sailer. There was a lot of back and forth action in this match but Hoofer came out still holding on to his belt in the end.
Zack Mercury pinned Mitch Paradise. It's not often you see a man as big as Mercury do a missile dropkick from the top rope. One of the referees on this card was former AWA referee Gary DeRusha as seen here in this photo.
The regiegning MIW ladies champion, Josie, returned but with a new name. Josie is now know as Sojourner Bolt in TNA and on this night she faced Reggie who wrestles for OVW. Bolt got the win after a DVD.
The main event of the night was a battle royal for the 'king fo the Northwoods' ax. All the male wrestlers from the card were in the battle royal plus 3 more. The final four in the ring were Huge, Hoofer, Mercury and Paradise. The winner of the axe was Paradise when he dumped Mercury over the top with help from Huge and Hoofer.