Fire Pro Wrestling held Fire Pro 132 at Impact Christian Church in Merrillville, IN at 6:30pm CDT on Saturday March 18, 2017.

The first match was for the #1 contender spot in the chase for Austin Fury’s Impact Championship.  The Violent Gentleman Adam Bueller faced Stone Hands Slater Wallace.  Adam Bueller did not wear his “God is a lie and mankind is a failure” shirt, which is probably good for an event taking place in a church!  I’m also sad to report that I was not on hand at whatever match in the recent past where his previous pair of tattered shorts must have finally given up.  After a lot of chops, slams, stomps, and all around pain, Adam Bueller came out the winner.  Look out Austin Fury! I’m happy for Adam, but because Slater Wallace comes out to Renegade Man by Styx, he automatically becomes my favorite in any match.

The second match had Dakota Prodigy and an unknown mystery partner (the ring announcer’s mic had never been turned on or up until after this match, so it was impossible to hear introductions) getting clobbered by the Tag Team Champs Team Blackout, Drex O’Dell and Mustafa.  The very large pair of O’Dell and Mustafa were kind enough to entertain the much slighter pair of Prodigy and his partner until they tired of the whole thing and squished poor Dakota.  It was good to see you for a few minutes! At one point in the match, a crew member approached Blackout’s manager and whispered something to him, the manager then whispered something to Mustafa, who whispered to O’Dell.  I’m guessing it was something like, “Don’t kill them too quickly, and don’t leave a big stain on the ring.”

A wrestler returning to FPW, The Jynx Davey Adict, took on Kyle Kaylor.  It’s good to see Kyle Kaylor getting around and getting experience, I’ve seen him at Smashmouth Pro Wrestling, ACME Championship Wrestling, and now FPW.  Unfortunately for poor Kyle, The Jynx must have had a lot of pent up anger at being gone from FPW for so long, because apart from a few offensive moves on Kaylor’s part, this match was basically an assault with several high impact moves from The Jynx.  I really want to see him again, he was impressively intense.  (I didn’t know that I had his name right, he was introduced as The Jynx Davey … something, and my new friend Facebook friend Kaylee sitting in front of me said his last name might be “Adict”.  Thanks Kaylee! But when I first tried to find a wrestler named Jynx on line, I came up with this – which definitely was not him, unless he has an alter ego – and when I searched for “Davey Adict Wrestler”, I came up with this.  But a refined search did lead me to The Jynx Davey Adict. Hooray!

The next match pitted The Product Christopher Kent against … Intermission?  Whoops, crossed signals between the ring announcer and the schedule.  I think next time, I want a no DQ match between Kent and Intermission.  I was surprised it was intermission already since the first 3 matches only took half an hour, but the nachos and cheese were tasty.  Also, Austin Fury, Kevin Graves, Jeremy Hadley, and Slater Wallace entertained the crowd with a display of flips and a mighty graceful cartwheel on the part of Wallace.  Well, OK, it wasn’t graceful at all, but it was still better than I could do.

After intermission, The Product Christopher Kent had his second match of the night, this time against Austin Fury for Fury’s Impact Championship.  They beat on each other for quite a while before Kent decided he had enough, and he just walked off to the back, drawing a countout.  I don’t know about this strategy, if you’re going to just walk out on a match, you should do it *before* you absorb a whole bunch of punishment, I’m just saying.

Next, Kevin Graves faced Roland Young and also a light pole.  Graves made both of them submit.  Young tapped out to a submission hold (it was rather abrupt, I hope he’s not really hurt), and the light pole submitted by going back to its proper place and refraining from trying to kill the ref or set the venue on fire again.  See, there is a long chain held up by stanchions around the ring, giving space between the ring and the crowd.  In two corners, tall light poles are standing, aimed at the ring.  In one corner, the base of the pole was outside the chain, but in one corner, it was just inside. At one point in the match, Young was out on the floor and Graves jumped off the apron onto him.   Their bodies hit the chain and made it pull a bit, so that the light pole on the inside of the chain got yanked and started to topple over.  Graves was alert enough to catch it on the way down, and if he hadn’t, the ref may have gotten bonked.  And / or, the hot light bulb could have hit the ring apron.  Good job saving us all, Kevin!  Superhero of the night!  After the match, Graves got on the mic and promised a push for title matches in the near future.

In the final match, Jeremy Hadley defended his FPW Heavyweight Title against Flawless Dave Allen (recent guest on NWIWRAP!).  And wow, these guys went to work.  Allen came to the ring hobbling so badly that Hadley felt bad for him and asked if he really wanted to go ahead with it.  While Hadley’s concern distracted him, Allen gave him a low blow and off we went!  Allen spent most of the match working on Hadley’s lower back, with suplexes, body slams, backdrops – including one on the hard floor, drops on the turnbuckle, etc. They traded many near falls, and a few attempted submissions.    Eventually Hadley got the win with a quick roll up.  This was a terrific match.   Overall, the event as a whole was a bit short (about 1 hr 40 minutes, including Kent vs. Intermission), but it was worth it if just for this last match alone.  After the match, Christopher Kent – having taken on Intermission and run away from Austin Fury – came out to join his pal Dave Allen in a beat down of champ Hadley.

The next Fire Pro Wrestling event is Fire Pro 132, on Saturday April 22.

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If you’re so inclined, check out the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program (NWIWrap) broadcast Sundays at 9:30pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8-9:30pm, on WVLP 103.1FM in Valparaiso, IN.  If you’re not in Valpo, catch it streaming on http://www.wvlp.org and the Tune In Radio app.  Rebroadcasts happen Wednesdays 10pm – midnight, and NWIWrap is archived on YouTube, just search for NWIWrap.  You can find @NWIWrap on Twitter.  And you can subscribe to the nwiwrap@gmail.com Google calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region.  Because WRESTLING! 

EDITL Revolution Championship Wresting (RCW) and Xtreme Sports Entertainment (XSE) teamed up for St. Patty’s Day Brawl at the Battell Center in Mishawaka, IN at 7:00pm EST on Friday March 17, 2017.

The Battell Center is a great place for a show; the crowd is up close and personal, there is airspace above the ring, and pretty good acoustics that help make the crowd sound loud.

A pre-show match featuring The Celtic Nightmare and (someone I had not seen before whose name starts with S – any help? EDIT: Ryan Anderson with the save:  it’s Sadon) opened the festivities at 6:45pm.   This was a good match and both guys were solid; I’d pay to see either one again!  Being St. Patty’s Day, it was appropriate that The Celtic Nightmare won.

In the first match on the main card, Ames defeated Myron Reed in a good opener that got the crowd into it.  Ames always entertains, and Myron Reed is smooooth when he comes off (or goes through) the ropes.

Next, Steven Drochner defeated The Maltese Tiger.  The Maltese Tiger is quite popular with the young kids especially, and I’m sure Steven Drochner enjoyed spoiling part of their night.  Side thought: should there be a match between Demon Spawn Steven Drochner and The Antichrist Adam Bueller to determine who is more evil?  Or maybe they they should team up as the MephistopheLeague or the Beelzebuddies?

At the previous RCW event, Kevin Storm took on both Theo Storm and Noah Walker in a handicap match for the RCW IC title, which Noah Walker ended up winning.  Kevin Storm is now out for retribution, and tonight took on Theo Storm.  This match spent some time outside of the ring, as each guy just wanted to pound on the other.  Eventually Kevin Storm took the victory.  After the match, he warned that Noah Walker was next.

Lightning Bolt Johnson and JC Bunyan do not like The Police Department, as this tag team match showed.  Bunyan and Officer Rod Street are particularly at odds.  After lots of brawling between the four, the Midwest Monsters made a quick appearance to distract Officer Rod Street and Deputy Dave long enough for “Lightning and Timber” to win. EDIT: Correction from Official Extraordinaire Ref Russ, the name of the team was “Lumber and Lightning”.  Either one would be good!  In fact, here are some other suggestions for collaboration between Bunyan and Johnson:  Trunks and Bolts: A Hardware Store; Boom and Bark:  A Pet Supply Store; LBJ and Chops: A Steakhouse.  My marketing skills are available for hire, gentlemen. 

After intermission, Amazing Maria and Samantha Heights had a fun match that involved lots of eye poking that would have made The Three Stooges proud.  Amazing Maria won with a roll up that included a pull of the tights.

In a 3-way tag team match, Team Legend-Dairy (Matt O’Hare and Alexander S Kirk) faced Guns and Aggression (Mance Warner and Luke Lawson) and the Midwest Monsters (Tank and Brutus Dylan).  Team Legend-Dairy wore their black “moustache mafia” trunks, which is sort of false advertising at this point.  There was a lot of brawling outside the ring for this one.  Mance Warner popped Tank with the Ric-Flair-Whoo chop of the night that sounded like a large firecracker.  The sound is probably still echoing off the walls of the Battell Center.  Are you OK now Tank? After the Midwest Monsters got the double pin on Guns & Aggression, The Police Deparment snuck out and whacked the Monsters with stop signs as a reminder they were still around.  Brutus Dylan warned them of bad things to come at their steel cage match for the Tag Team titles on April 7th at RCW Seven.

The seventh match was announced by Ring Announcer extraordinaire Ryan Anderson as the main event:  Adam Bueller vs. Anthony Toatele.  (I thought this was odd, since there are usually 8 matches.  But that was explained a bit later on.)  Notably absent from the fun were Jason Saint and Kenzi.  Bueller offered to put his Strong Style Wrestling #1 contender spot on the line if Toatele did the same with his RCW #1 contender spot.  After lots of action in and out of the ring, and lots of near falls, Bueller accidentally kicked the ref, who was behind Toatele in the corner when Toatele leapt out of the way of a kick.  While the ref was down, Bueller got out a steel chain, but Toatele blocked the attempted clobbering.  The chain fell, Toatele picked it up and used his own fist to introduce the chain to Bueller’s head, and the groggy ref started counting Toatele’s pinfall on Bueller only to see the chain and declare Bueller the winner by DQ.  Toatele’s pleas of “he did it first!” went unheeded.

After this conclusion, Ryan Anderson announced he had received a message from RCW owner JB Blackwell, stating that due to the results of the last match, the #1 contendership was now vacated – but, the new holder of that spot would be determined by an over-the-top battle royal!  All the RCW and XSE stars headed for the ring and the fun began.  The Storm brothers took each other out early and battled on the floor and to the back.  (I don’t know if Theo even got into the actual match at all.)   JC Bunyan was eliminated early, and hung around to pull down the ropes and help eliminate Rod Street later on.  Even Samantha Heights was an entrant, and she showed some clever elimination avoidance strategy before finally being sent to the floor by Adam Bueller, how rude.  Even though they had not had a match earlier, Fireball and Jorge Bravo made appearances.  After being eliminated, Bravo had to be helped to the back by two security guys due to a bad leg, hope he’s OK!  Eventually it came down to Anthony Toatele and Adam Bueller.  Bueller, thinking he had eliminated Toatele, started celebrating in a corner – but Toatele had not actually hit the floor, and he came back to toss out Bueller – securing his #1 contendership for the RCW title after all.

And that’s all!  The next RCW event is RCW: Seven, celebrating the 7th anniversary of RCW, on Saturday April 7 at 7:00pm EDT at the Roosevelt Center in Elkhart, IN.  You’d think tickets would be $7, but I don’t blame them for not wanting to deal with all those singles in change.  A nice round $10 for general admission is perfect as usual. Special guests Kelly Klein, Matt Striker, and Colt Cabana will be on hand.  And don’t forget the cage match for the Tag Team titles between the Midwest Monsters and The Police Department!

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If you’re so inclined, check out the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program (NWIWrap) broadcast Sundays at 9:30pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8-9:30pm, on WVLP 103.1FM in Valparaiso, IN.  If you’re not in Valpo, catch it streaming on http://www.wvlp.org and the Tune In Radio app.  Rebroadcasts happen Wednesdays 10pm – midnight, and NWIWrap is archived on YouTube, just search for NWIWrap.  You can find @NWIWrap on Twitter.  And you can subscribe to the nwiwrap@gmail.com Google calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region.  Because WRESTLING! 

ACME Championship Wrestling (ACW) held Friday Night Fights at the Lincoln Elementary School in Roselawn, IN at 7:00pm CST on Friday March 10, 2017.  This event was a fundraiser for the 6th grade trip to Camp Tecumseh.

In the opening match, Kyle Kaylor was unable to win the ACW Intercontinental title from Xavier Black.

The second match featured tag team action, with Macho El Silver (?) and Billy the Kid vs. Cliff Caviar and T K Zero.  (I don’t know if I got those names exactly right, I was not familiar with them and could not hear the intros clearly. EDIT: The name TJ Zero was corrected to T K Zero by the man himself!  As repayment for getting a letter wrong, here is a link to his Facebook page!)  The crowd was definitely behind the odd pairing of the lucha-masked Macho and the cowboy Billy the Kid.  I wonder if Billy the Kid got suspended for making gun motions and bang-bang noises in a zero-tolerance school zone!  The good guys won this one.

Next, Jared Kripke and Crimson Dynamo fought over Dynamo’s Tough Man Title.  In this match, anything goes, but pinfalls and submissions must take place in the ring.  Kripke got his hands on a steel chair and prepared to clobber Dynamo, who was on the ropes.  But, Dynamo moved out of the way, and Kripke’s swinging chair bounced off the top rope and back into his own head.  Dynamo got the pin after that.  Oops!

Drex O’Dell has been overcoming obstacles in his way towards a shot at Austin Fury’s ACW Heavyweight Title.  Tonight’s obstacle put in the way by GM Michael Allen is a best-of-three-falls against Rick Raid.  This was a high impact match, and I swear the entire ring bounced off the floor a couple of times after bodyslams by Raid on O’Dell.  But, in a violation of every wrestling law in the known universe, O’Dell picked up both of the first two falls!

At the start of the match between Rockstar Jonny Nigh and Flawless Dave Allen, Allen came to the ring wearing a Spinal Tap blonde wig and carrying a bass guitar, to show us he was the *true* Rockstar; he even sang us a song which managed to insult his opponent, the crowd, and the school hosting the venue.  A true artist at work.   Later in the match when he had the chance due to a ref bump (I think?) Allen hit Nigh in the midsection with the bass guitar and got the pin.

In a match pitting the apparent fan favorite of the night (judging by the sound of screaming kids) against the most hated man of the night, Austin Fury successfully defended his ACW Heavyweight Title against The Product Christopher Kent.

The main event of the night had The Fighting Teacher Jimmy Holmes against Sadistic Slade in a hardcore match.  You see, Mr. Holmes did not want to go on the 6th grade camping trip and be away from air conditioning and microwave ovens, especially when surrounded by 6th graders he sees all the time anyway.  So the stipulation was that if he won this match, he did not have to go on the camping trip.  Well, after a shocking display of violence and brutality best not put into words, Holmes eventually pinned Slade amongst the remains of the wanton destruction in the ring.  So he did not have to go camping, and he got on the mic to gloat about it.  But wait!  Out came a cluster of other teachers from the school, who challenged Holmes to a second fall, and if he lost, he would not only have to go to camp, he would have to do all the dishes!  To his folly, Holmes allowed the second fall to commence, and after unspeakable deeds done to Holmes with a garbage can and a badminton racquet that will go down in the annals of Lincoln Elementary lore, Holmes was pinned and now has to go to camp.  Much loud screaming on the part of the school kids followed, as they rejoiced in his misfortune.

The next ACW show will be a school fundraiser at Franklin Elementary School in Hammond, IN on Friday April 21.

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If you’re so inclined, check out the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program (NWIWrap) broadcast Sundays at 9:30pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8-9:30pm, on WVLP 103.1FM in Valparaiso, IN.  If you’re not in Valpo, catch it streaming on http://www.wvlp.org and the Tune In Radio app.  Rebroadcasts happen Wednesdays 10pm – midnight, and NWIWrap is archived on YouTube, just search for NWIWrap.  You can find @NWIWrap on Twitter.  And you can subscribe to the nwiwrap@gmail.com Google calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region.  Because WRESTLING! 

ARWPRO held a fundraiser event at Edison Junior- Senior High School in Lake Station, IN at 7:30pm CST on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

In the opening match, Dante DVS took on “The Masked Cubbie“.  In previous events, the team of Los Supervillianos (Dante DVS and Superbad Santana Starks) imploded, leading to a “loser leaves ARWPRO” match between the two – which Dante DVS won.  He complained that clearly The Masked Cubbie was Starks in disguise; new ARWPRO owner King Bishop told Dante is was up to him to prove it.  He could not, though, as The Masked Cubbie came away with the victory.

In their second meeting, this time with Prodidy’s Indiana State Championship on the line, Rockstar Jonny Nigh faced Dakota Prodigy.  Prodigy was accompanied to the ring by Moxie Molly, and Nigh was accompanied by his manager Michael Allen.  Allen made it known that he did not like being in the building and near the ARWPRO crowd; Nigh took the higher road by greeting audience members.  Allen was not happy with Nigh catering to the audience like that.  Late in the match, Allen slipped Nigh a steel chain to use on Prodigy, but after considering it for a moment, Nigh declined and threw the chain back to Allen, who then left in disgust.  Then the match ended in a 10 minute time limit draw, much like the previous match between Nigh and Prodigy.

The third match pitted Punisher 747 and BOW against The Family: Mike Anthony & Ivan Manson.  Of course, Charlie, Joey Rak, and Old School Manson (OSM) accompanied them at ringside.  The Family handled Punisher 747 for quite a while in the ring; as the match degenerated into the usual Family chaos, OSM got into the ring to interfere, but was knocked down and covered by BOW; the ref counted the pinfall, not seeing (or seeing, but being tired of The Family’s shenanigans) that someone not in the match was being pinned.

Fresh off being pinned in the previous match and still knocked silly, Old School Manson fell to Willie Richardson. He’s 0 for 2 on the night!

Next up was a 6-man tag match between the team of Theo Storm & Kevin Storm & Spike Davis (ex-Dashing Dick Davis, I guess) and the team of The Picture Show & Kevin Graves.  As the match went on, Chazz Moretti approached the ring area and walked around observing the participants, as if scouting someone.  But who?   Things started going downhill for the Storm Brothers, and so Theo stomped off to get their tag team belts, so they could just get out of there and abandon their teammate Spike Davis.  Moretti took advantage of the break to hop up on the ring apron, where Graves and The Picture Show had Davis cornered.  Moretti displayed a Roman Emperor-like thumbs up into thumbs down signal – and Kevin Graves low blowed both his partners and joined Davis in a beat down of The Picture Show!  The Storm brothers joined back in on the fun, too.  After everything calmed down, Moretti introduced his newest acquisition,the tag team Fatal Attraction – Kevin Graves and Spike Davis!

Max Holiday took on Ruff Crossing in my favorite match of the night.  Max Holiday made sure to get on Ruff’s nerves with his grunts of “Hoo!  Hoo!” For the first couple of minutes, it was fun to watch Ruff Crossing get aggravated by this.  After a few more minutes, I almost started rooting for Ruff Crossing to make him stop. Heh. After a nice match full of high impact moves and several teases of finishing moves (Crossing’s lariat and Holiday’s boot to the face), Officer Rod Street and Lt. Eva Lonis approached ringside, probably to discuss a recent traffic ticket or something with Holiday.  While Lonis, who must have received her regular ring attire back from the cleaners after last week’s RCW show, discussed law enforcement with the ref, Street gave an assist to Ruff Crossing on Max Holiday, leading to Crossing clobbering Holiday with his cowbell (what good cowboy wrestler doesn’t have a cowbell, after all), and Holiday got pinned.  Street would soon regret this move, though!

In the last “full” match of the night, Officer Rod Street faced Mr. 3% Jon Hudson for Hudson’s ARWPRO Title.  Street was again accompanied by Lonis, but no other SWAT members.  Eventually, Lonis distracted the ref while Street maced Hudson in the eyes, allowing Street to get the surprise roll up pin, ending Hudson’s reign as champion at a record 499 days!  As Street celebrated, though, Max Holiday came out.  He was sporting a head bandage from his encounter with a cowbell, but more importantly, he was sporting his ARWPRO Golden Ticket, allowing him to challenge for any title at any time.  And so Max Holiday got his revenge on Street for interfering in the previous match by winning the ARWPRO Title and ending Street’s quite short reign as champion.  For the record books, Hudson’s tenure as champ lasted 499 days.  Street’s – 499 seconds?  Actually less!

The event ended with a brand new ARWPRO World Title holder – Max Holiday.  At the next ARWPRO event, Saturday April 8 at the American Legion in Lake Station, wrestlers Grin and The Machine make their returns!

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If you’re so inclined, check out the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program (NWIWrap) broadcast Sundays at 9:30pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8-9:30pm, on WVLP 103.1FM in Valparaiso, IN.  If you’re not in Valpo, catch it streaming on http://www.wvlp.org and the Tune In Radio app.  Rebroadcasts happen Wednesdays 10pm – midnight, and NWIWrap is archived on YouTube, just search for NWIWrap.  You can find @NWIWrap on Twitter.  And you can subscribe to the nwiwrap@gmail.com Google calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region.  Because WRESTLING! 

Revolution Championship Wrestling (RCW) held Born to Rise at the O’Brien Recreation Center in South Bend, IN at 7:00pm EST on Saturday, March 04, 2017.

I had planned to tweet results as they happened on the @nwiwrap Twitter account (hint hint) but I could not get cell reception in the venue (which was a nice gym, but in the basement of the main building).  What I lost in cell phone reception was made up for by the wonderful smell of hot dogs being cooked at the concession stand.  Yum yum.  (Not to be confused with Cutler Yum.)

The fun began with a pre-show match featuring The Slobberknockers (Hardcore Harry & BD Smooth) vs Jayden Quick and Jymmy W.  I’d like to report the winners, but apparently my recall has been affected by my defense mechanisms kicking in to block any memory of seeing The Slobberknockers without shirts on.  To the crowd’s good fortune, their ring entrance for this match did not involve body oil, like the last one I saw at FWF Rampage.  I think the Slobberknockers won, but who knows.  [update: Editor in Chief Ryan Anderson corrected me that Jayden and Jymmy won.  See what the powers of the Slobberknockers do??] I mean, look at this, it’s just wrong on so many levels!

The opening bout of the main show was Tank vs Officer Rod Street.  The winner of this match will get to pick the stipulation added to the match for the tag team titles between The Police Department (champs) and the Midwest Monsters on April 7 at RCW Seven at The Roosevelt Center in Elkhart, IN.  Rod Street was accompanied by SWAT member number 40-whatever and Lt Eva Lonis, whose ring attire clearly shrunk a lot in the wash.  Tank came out the winner, but was attacked afterwards by Street’s cohort; Brutus Dylan, Tank’s partner, came out to chase them away.  He and Tank conferred and decided the tag team title match at RCW Seven will be a cage match, to even the numbers game.

In a triple threat match, Mance Warner defeated JC Bunyan and Keith (Kef?) Sweat (at first, I did not catch that third name; I asked Tiffany Tilli – who knows everyone! – and she said it sounded like his name was announced as Keith Sweat.  The only Keith Sweat I can find on Google is the R&B singer, but Ring Announcer Ryan Anderson came to the rescue on Facebook, saying that he was introduced as “Keith Sweat”, but also goes as “Kef” pronounced “Keef” so “Keef Sweat / Keith Sweat”).  Whatever he goes by, he had a few sweet moves, and I definitely want to see him again.  But the power of Lariats and Lite Beer overcame the power of Timber and whatever phrase Kef has!

Shady Chris Xion had an open challenge for anyone in the back.  Out came Roger Lanier!  Chris Xion started regretting his decision and tried to claim that Lanier wasn’t cleared to wrestle, but no luck.  The match started and it didn’t take very long for Lanier to dispense with Chris Xion.

Kevin Storm took on Noah Walker and Theo Storm in a handicap match for Kevin Storm’s RCW US Title.  This match started before it even got to the ring as Walker and T-Storm jumped Kevin Storm as he approached.  This was the first match to have an edge of serious intensity to it.  The numbers were too much for Kevin Storm, and Noah Walker got the pin.  He is now your RCW US Champion.

During intermission I said Hi to Eric King, who [cheap plug alert!  skip past the italics if you don’t care] will be my guest on the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program on WVLP at 9:30pm CST Sunday March 5. You can listen at 103.1FM in Valparaiso, or streaming on http://www.wvlp.org and the Tune In Radio app.  This half hour segment is part of the 2 hour show Mostly Metal 8-10pm.  If you miss the broadcast, it repeats on Wednesday night at 10pm, and will also be archived on the NWIWrap  Youtube channel. [end cheap plug] I also bought 4 wrestling action figures from Ox Baker, Jr, who was having way too much fun playing with his inventory while I was browsing :-).  Did you know that you can buy a battery operated vibrating Kevin Nash doll from him?  Ladies, check it out at the next show.

By the way, while I’m typing this, I’m watching the DVD set “Greatest Cage Matches of All Time” by WWE, which my dad bought me (thanks Dad!)  A WCW cage match between Lex Luger and Ric Flair is on, and Flair is wearing the proverbial “crimson mask”.  This is interesting timing because of the next match listed here…

The Iron Demon Shane Mercer defeated Luke Lawson.  This was my favorite match of the night.  Mercer and Lawson took the fight into the bleachers, and Mercer hit Lawson with two of the loudest Flair-whooo chest chops that I think I’ve ever heard.  Mercer’s finisher is great.  I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s like a fallaway slam from the second rope in the corner; but instead of both men landing on their backs, Mercer flips around 180-degrees during the fall so that he lands belly down on top of his opponent.   Just before the end of the match, Jason Saint from Horrorshow came out to try to distract Mercer.  And then Adam Bueller snuck out to attack Mercer.  Mercer tossed Saint over the top rope into Bueller, and they crashed into chairs in the first row.  Adam Bueller wins the “Most Efficient Use Of a Wound Award” as he got more blood out of a horrible looking forehead would he suffered the night before in a death match in West Virginia (he went from WV on Friday to NWI on Saturday, dude’s a road warrior).  I think we’ll be seeing more of Horrorshow vs Shane Mercer.

Team Legend-Dairy (Matt O’Hare and Alexander S Kirk, with Synnamon) defeated The Maltese Tiger and The Great Akuma.  This was the first time I’d seen the Great Akuma.  He has a, well, a Great look but he didn’t get to do a whole lot here.  I’m curious to see what he can do if he’s really let loose.  BTW, my spelling of “Synnamon” is just a guess, Matt O’Hare made a point to yell at the crowd that it was with a capital S!

In the RCW Heavyweight Title match between champ Jack Thriller, Nick Cutler, and Anthony Toatele, Thriller got help from Toatele in retaining the title.  No, don’t worry, it wasn’t intentional! Rather, Toatele had the upper hand and gave Cutler what should have been a finishing move for the win, but Thriller took advantage and tossed Toatele out of the ring right after Toatele had put Cutler down; this allowed Thriller to get the pin on Cutler.  During the match, Thriller dared to put his hands on Kenzi, hopefully Anthony Toatele will not let that stand!

In the final match, Super Diva wrestled for his last time, against Brutus Dylan.  Three Divas in training came out first to dance around the crowd (Chet Urblanski, Hardcore Harry, and a third I don’t know).  Then the real Super Diva came out and spent a lot of time going through the crowd on his way to the ring, so much so that Eric King, at the sound table, had to repeat his full intro song at least 2 or 3 times.  But it was all good fun!  This was a no DQ match and some of the action came out to the crowd – most notably, when Diva put Dylan in a chair and then took a running body press at him, which took both of them violently to the floor.  Back in the ring, Brutus Dylan’s sympathy for Diva almost cost him; he “owed” Diva a chair shot from a previous match, but as he raised the chair twice, each time his gentle conscience got the better of him.  Diva and his back up force (can we call them The Pinkertons?)  took advantage with a DDT of Dylan on the chair.  But as all of them tried to pin Dylan together, he tossed them off (phrasing!) and eventually went on to get the pin.  After the match was a nice tribute to Super Diva with lots of the performers representing outside around the ring.

The next RCW-related events are

• XSE / RCW Saint Patrick’s Day Brawl, Friday March 17 2017 at 7:00pm EST at the Battell Center in Mishawaka, IN
• RCW Seven: Friday April 7 2017 at 7:00pm EST at the Roosevelt Center in Elkhart, IN, featuring Kelly Klein, Matt Striker, and Colt Cabana.