ARW PRO held Black & Blue Wednesday at the American Legion in Lake Station, IN on Wed November 23, 2016.  This was a fundraiser for the Daniel Chavez Memorial Fund, which helps provide assistance to a selected student for college expenses.

Dakota Prodigy defeated Kevin Storm, Theo Storm, and Rancid Joey Rak, in a four-way dance that was the Lionheart Division Finals.  Prodigy was a late entrant; he did not win his qualifying round match, but Joey Boom Boom and Slick were so impressed with a previous win of his they added him to the match anyway.  After many near falls, last second saves,  and flying through the ropes among all four, Dakota Prodigy came out the winner.  Kevin Storm complained about the injustice of Prodigy not even qualifying, and he may have a point!  But Mr. White came out and told both Kevin and Theo Storm not to worry about Lionheart Division business, because he has big plans for them in the tag team division in 2017.

Diamond Steel (Ryan Howe) defeated Dashing Dick Davis.  Davis appeared sporting a magnificent new Tom Selleck-worthy moustache, and Steel appeared sporting an electric guitar.  At some point, Davis got a bloody nose, and that soiled his perfect ‘stache; he was rightly upset by that.   Clearly his distress hampered his ability to focus, and Steel got the win.

Colin Cambridge defeated Officer Rod Street and Kevin Graves to retain the ARW Indiana State Championship.   Lt. Eva Lonis tried to interfere on behalf of Rod Street, but it backfired.  Injustice!

Madd Maxx was the survivor in a 6-man tag team elimination match, pitting Maxx, Willie Richardson, and The Beast against Los Supervillianos (Superbad Santana Starks and Dante DVS, with King Bishop) and Mojo McQueen.  After about three hours of introductions, pre-match banter, and the room clearing from McQueen’s smelly green voodoo smoke, the action began.  During the match, some leftover animosity between Starks and Dante DVS spilled over, and the two of them were tagging each other in an out violently.  The Beast was eliminated first after he got tossed outside the ring.  Then Willie Richardson was next to go, leaving Maxx alone on his team.  But meanwhile, Santana Starks decided he’d had enough of Dante DVS and his tomfoolery, and he stepped away and was counted out.  (Prior to stepping out, he had tagged in Dante DVS one more time with a slap, so Starks was no longer the legal man and I’m not sure why the ref  needed to count him out, but oh well, it served the story.)  During all the distractions, Maxx got the upper hand on Dante DVS and Dante was eliminated.  That left Mojo McQueen with Maxx and eventually Maxx got the win.  I had not seen Mojo McQueen  before; I enjoyed his intensity and movement in the ring and hope to see him again!

After intermission, The Picture Show (Marcus Portrait and Johnny Showtime) retained the ARW Tag Team titles via DQ over Old School Manson and Dylan Manson.  During the match, Showtime got slammed onto a pair of steel chairs set up facing each other, hard enough for one of the chairs to get bent.  The DQ happened when the Family knocked down the ref twice in a row.  Once you can forgive, but twice? … DQ!  After the DQ, the Family dished out an old school beat down involving more chairs and a chain.

Mr 3% Jon Hudson defeated Greg Glover in a Chicago Street Fight for the ARW Championship.  Nick Cutler served as special referee.  Hats are off to these gentlemen, who totally brought it to this match.  The action went in and out of the ring and involved chairs.  It also involved some thin, floppy aluminum foil pans that were not exactly … well, the less said about those things, the better!  Some of the spots showed how thin a line there is between success and injury.  One spot had Hudson use a chair set up in the middle of the ring as a springboard for a flying elbow to Glover in the corner, twice in a row.  On the third try, Glover caught Hudson with one of his awesome spears right after Hudson leapt off / over the chair; the chair tipped sideways and landed with its thin edge facing up, and during the spear, Hudson’s head hit the edge of the chair.  Yowch!  Eventually Cutler gave up being impartial and could no longer see his friend put in jeopardy, so he gave Hudson a low blow.  Diamond Steel (Ryan Howe) came out to try to even things up; he never really got involved, his mere rock star presence served to get the match back on track long enough for Hudson to get the win.

Joey Boom Boom defeated Ivan Manson in the main event grudge match.  Trouble had been brewing between the Family and Joey Boom Boom for quite a while.  During the match, action spilled to the outside and Joey managed to shove Manson into the ring post.  When Manson finally got up and returned to the ring, he was bleeding from the forehead.  He was dazed enough that even though he got in a bit of offence, Joey Boom Boom was able to get the pinfall after delivering a stunner to Manson.  Post match, there was a show of respect both ways between Manson and Boom Boom.  Is their hostility finally put to rest for good?  Show up for the next ARW PRO show at the American Legion on January 14, 2017 to find out!