Fire Pro Wrestling held Fire Pro 133 at Impact Christian Church in Merrillville, IN on Saturday April 22, 2017 at 6:30pm.

We had a big match right off the bat as Flawless Dave Allen took on Scotty Young.   The newly christened CK1 accompanied Dave Allen to ringside.  Scotty gave it his best with lots of high powered offence, but could not overcome the numbers advantage and Dave Allen got him with a roll up after a bit of interference from CK1.  I mean, just look at that!

Nicco Antonelli (any help on correct spelling is appreciated!) got a surprise and pretty quick win over Stone Hands Slater Wallace with a roll up & perhaps a pull of the tights?  I guess poling all those gondolas down the canals of Venice has paid off for Mr. Antonelli!

Team Blackout (Mustafa and Drex O’Dell) came out; their manager said that after they ran through all the other FPW tag teams, he needed to go out and get more competition for Team Blackout – and he introduced Fighting Irish and someone whose name I did not catch, but will forever be known to me as Mushface. That’s because after they were done toying with Fighting Irish (pictured, left) and this other gentleman, Team Blackout pulled out a finisher that involves Mustafa holding their opponent in a surfboard while Drex O’Dell stomps onto the opponent’s back with both feet, driving his head into the mat.  Now if you haven’t seen Drex before, he’s not a small individual.  And on this night, I think he was still angry about the night before at ACW, because that poor guys head and face got Mushed into the mat so hard,  I swear I saw a circle of cartoon stars swirling around his skull.  They are still pulling strands of his hair out of the fabric of the mat.  Poor guy, we hardly knew ye.

We had a very brief match of Adam Bueller vs. his entrance music.  His music started to play, and he came out.  But then his music turned heel and shut off, leaving him stranded, and then restarted again.  So Adam also restarted and came out again.

Adam Bueller and Austin Fury then carried on with a long match that was just spectacular. You know how when you watch a good TV show and everything around you just disappears as you get sucked into watching the screen?  That’s what this match was like for me.  It was a brutal match (in a good way!) with lots of intense and painful looking moves.  At one point, Bueller tossed Fury towards the corner as if for a “buckle bomb” but Fury came up just a bit short and to the side of the corner, landing into the ropes; I thought for sure he was knocked loopy, based on the glassy look in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling for a bit.  For a good portion of the match, it was kind of one sided as Austin Fury continued to show knee soreness from prior matches, and Bueller worked it over really good.  Eventually, Fury was knocked out of the ring to the floor, and Bueller came off a top turnbuckle to the outside to stomp on Fury.  Both men lay on the ground for the 10-count, and the match ended in a double count out.  Fury slowly recovered and went to the back, while Bueller had to call for assistance to get up and moving to the back due to a hurt knee.  When the match was done, I snapped a picture of Adam Bueller clutching his knee, and I started having visions of pasting it together with the famous Peter Griffin image.  But then when it began to look like a legit injury, I started to feel like a dick – here was Adam Bueller possibly seriously injuring himself for my entertainment, and I was taking pictures of it and starting to think of silly things to do with the picture.  But via the magic of Facebook, it seems like after it all, Bueller is dealing with soreness and maybe a bit of limited mobility, but hopefully nothing broken, shattered, or otherwise disassembled.  So even though I still feel a bit like a dick, I built the image anyway!  It’s at the end of this write up because I didn’t want to put it here and spoil the paragraph 🙂 But yeah, he and Austin Fury put on a great, great match.

“The Gypsy King” Richie Rothchild made surprisingly quick work of Kevin Graves.  I wonder if both Graves and Wallace need some retribution at the next FPW show for their unexpected losses tonight.

Johnny Motley beat Kenny Kage.  This was a fun match and both guys did a lot of good work with the crowd.

The final match was Jeremy Hadley defending his FPW Heavyweight Championship from CK1.  For symmetry with the opening match, Flawless Dave Allen accompanied CK1 to the ring.  Allen provided ample ref distraction and undetected interference to keep it interesting.  Eventually, though, he tried it one too many times, got caught red handed, and got CK1 disqualified.  So Jeremy Hadley remains FPW champ!

I would like to present a special but valueless Endurance Award to the FPW referee (Jeremy?) who worked every. single. match.  Your efforts did not go unnoticed, sir!  Even Dave Allen gave him a little indirect praise, telling him – after what Allen thought was too much time to get into position to start counting a pin for CK1 – “Look, I know you’ve been working all night and are tired, but come on!”

The next Fire Pro event will be on Saturday May 20.  I’m not sure if Adam Bueller will be on that card, but if you see him between now and then or follow him on social media (such as @adambueller on Twitter) send him good cheer and healing thoughts!

__________________________

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! 

… also known as, “TK Zero beats more people up and gets paid, best night ever!”

… more accurately known as, “TK Zero gets beats up, but at least he got paid!”

ACME Championship Wrestling held Franklin Fight Night at 7:00pm on Friday April 21, 2017 at Clark High School in Whiting, Indiana (Hammond? I’ll let them fight about where one ends and the other begins).  This was a fundraiser for Franklin Elementary School.  Wrestlers:  they’ll punch you in the face, but they’ll also help raise money for your kids!

The show started with Drex O’Dell out to complain about GM Michael Allen making him jump through hoop after hoop before being granted a title match against ACME World Champ Austin Fury.  Michael Allen says title shots have to be earned, and O’Dell isn’t done earning his.  Allen has brought in a new competitor to try out Drex O’Dell – Excalibur!  Drex O’Dell eventually overpowers Excalibur for the win.  Is Drex any closer to a title shot now?  We’ll see!  Now the very next night on April 22, there was a Pro Wrestling King show a couple of counties east.  That PWK show was called Camelot.  Was Excalibur on that card?  If Excalibur did not appear at Camelot, that would be disappointing.

The second match shows The Executioner against Mountain Man in a hardcore match.  My ears are still ringing from a couple of the chair shots delivered to the back of The Executioner by Mountain Man.  The Executioner grabbed a chair first, but – perhaps a bit leery of the age difference between himself and Mountain Man – didn’t put his all into the delivery.  Mountain Man, though, seemed to say, “Son, stand here and let me show you what a chair shot is supposed to look like.”  And WHAMMO!  Mountain Man gets the win.

Next up was an entertaining 6-man tag match:  TK Zero, CK1, and Cliff Caviar vs. Jared Kripke, Kyle Kaylor, and Crimson Dynamo.  (Cliff Caviar should change his nickname to CC2, so his team would be TK Zero, CK1, and CC2.  Think of the possibilities!)  After some good action and bodies flying through and off ropes, the good guys take the victory when Jarek Kripke pins Cliff Caviar.  TK Zero did get in some good beatings as he promised, but ended up on the losing side.  Sorry TK!

Dakota Prodigy challenged ACW Intercontinental Champ Xavier Black for that title. Dakota may have been getting the edge in this back-and-forth match until the ref got bumped and Black took the opportunity to deliver a low blow.  Dakota could not recover from that, got pinned, and now has to get different sheet music in his church choir.

With issues unresolved from their match in March, Flawless Dave Allen and Rockstar Jonny Nigh got set to battle again.  Once more, Allen came to the ring carrying a bass guitar.  As he looked about to start into another song specially written for Nigh, Jonny suggested that he should have a chance to sing instead.  Now normally I would be cheering for the Rockstar, but we were robbed of another Dave Allen Opus!  Shame! Allen was bothered, too, because he clobbered Nigh before Nigh got a chance to shine.  Late in the match while the ref was distracted, Allen picked up the bass, tossed it so that Johnny Nigh caught it, then fell to the mat acting as if Nigh had struck him.  When the ref turned back and saw Allen on the mat with Nigh holding the murder weapon, he DQ’d Nigh.  Dave Allen is a genius! Nigh had enough, and challenged  Allen to a “Rockstar Rumble” at the next event on May 5.

The Teacher Royal Rumble happened next.  In this event, a bunch of teachers, aides, and safety officers from Lincoln Elementary (and Clark High?) got into the ring.  You have not lived until you hear a gymnasium full of elementary school kids screaming while their teachers beat each other up.  This match was a lot more fun than it should have been, and the three final competitors made a good showing for themselves!

Rod Street defeated the Maltese Tiger after spraying him in the eyes with mace, while the ref was distracted by Lt. Eva Lonis.   Rod Street matches are always fun, but you know how they go…

Jeremy Hadley challenged Austin Fury for Fury’s ACW World Championship.  This match contained some serious old school build-up, as Hadley worked on Fury’s leg and knee very consistently through the match.  Fury battled through it, though, and ended up retaining his title.  Great match!  However, after the match, Drex O’Dell snuck out to ringside and battered the champ, threatening to do even more damage unless granted his title match.  GM Michael Allen had no choice but to acquiesce.  And so Drex O’Dell will take on Austin Fury for the title at the next ACW event, which is Friday May 5, 2017, at Lake Village Elementary School in Lake Village, IN.

__________________________

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! 

Pro Wrestling King had a celebration of their 10th anniversary at the Bourbon Park Pavilion in Bourbon, IN on Saturday April 15, 2017 at 7:30pm.

I have to say that this was the most comfortable I’ve ever been at a wrestling show recently.  The weather was perfect, and the pavilion is set to be nearly wide open, with large doors open on all sides.  (For those in Valpo, imagine what the Butterfield Pavilion would be like if it was open to the evening breeze on 3 sides.)  And, the plastic folding chairs were slightly more comfortable than the metal folding chairs present at a lot of other shows.  I also love that wrestling gets me out to nice little towns like Bourbon, which I might never otherwise visit.  I hope the chamber of commerce knows this!

Anyway, this was a long night (a little too long, but what the heck, it was a birthday party) with 10 matches.  The first match featured two well known stars, in Nick Cutler vs. Flawless Dave Allen.  Of course I was pulling for Dave Allen because he has been a guest on NWIWRAP, but Nick Cutler got the win by pulling on the tights.

The next match pitted Idol Heinze vs. Jorge Bravo vs. Shady Chris Xion in the battle of inappropriate wrestling footwear.  Idol Heinze confirmed his shoes were the best non-boots by choking out Jorge Bravo.  (OK, Shady’s might have been OK since they looked boot-sih but were hard to see under his long pants.  But if his footwear was really the best, he should have won, right?)

In a tag team match, Kip Michaels and Cletus Farmer took on newcomers DW Kelley and Jason Storm.  (I think he was announced as Storm, I didn’t hear it clearly.) I had never experienced Kip Michaels before this show, and now I’m sad I have not seen him more.  He was a riot. The match ended when Kip and Cletus each pinned one of the others simultaneously.

Theo Storm, probably mad that yet another Storm showed up in PWK, came out and made an open challenge for his PWK On-Line Championship.  (I hope I didn’t use too much cellular data viewing this match.)  Accepting the challenge was … Adam Bueller! After a nice match involving action in and out of the ring, and shenanigans involving chairs, Adam Bueller came out on top.

Next up, Jayden Quick, Kenny Kage, Cam, and Sadon had a 4-way elimination match to determine who was the #1 contender for the On-Line Championship just won by Bueller. Kenny Kage spent a good part of the early match beating up Jayden Quick outside the ring, with the help of his mean cane-wielding manager. Cam was accompanied to the ring by Spirit of Detroit, who also entertained outside the ring via live streaming on Cassidy’s phone.  Cam and Saleh remembered this was a wrestling match and stayed in the ring for a while.  Saleh and Cam eventually were eliminated, leaving Kage and Quick, and Quick got the final pinfall.  Chants of “Bueller’s gonna kill you!” followed him to the back.

After intermission, Shawna Reed faced Hayley Shadows and Heather Owens.  For a while, this seemed like a 2-on-1 match as Shadows and Owens worked together to take out Reed.  But, eventually, Shadows and Owens started bickering with each other and Shawna Reed got the win.

With Brutus Dylan injured, Tank picked up partner Lightning Bolt Johnson and they challenged Spirit of Detroit for SOD’s PWK Tag Team Titles.  Late in the match, LBJ had Jon’tae Kieth tied up in a corner, while at the same time Cassidy Kieth had grabbed a chair to try to whallop Tank in the opposite corner.  Tank moved, and Cassidy’s attempted chair shot bounced off the corner turnbuckle and back into his own head.  As he spun around, dazed, Jon’tae was coming out the corner with a superkick intended for LBJ or Tank, but it missed and hit Cassidy.  Even the imposing Cassidy Kieth can’t stand up after both an inadvertent chair and a kick; down he went.  Your new PWK Tag Team champs are Tank and LBJ, known as Electric Warfare. The Spirit of Detroit immediately call for their rematch, which is set for this coming weekend (same time, same place) in a Detroit Street Fight … which probably means the winners are determined by the first team to drop their opponents into a pothole.

Hardcore Harry comes out for his match with Dick the Bruiser Jr, to the tune of Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.  That’s an odd song to come out to for a heel, I’m just saying.  I prefer to keep believing Harry will keep his shirt on, but no such luck!  During the match, Samson White comes out to ringside to get involved on behalf of Harry, and Fireball comes out to even the odds.  In grand WWE fashion, as we return from commercial, this has turned into a tag team match, which Dick the Bruiser Jr and Fireball win.  A funny & adorable scene played out during the chaotic part of the match, as Bruiser Jr was outside the ring.  He picked up an empty chair to try to take into the ring, and was immediately followed by a young kid yelling, “Hey, that’s my dad’s chair!!”

In the final match, Steven Drochner successfully defended his PWK Kingdom Championship against Ames in a Street Fight.

The next PWK event is already this weekend; PWK Camelot is Saturday April 22 at 7:00pm Eastern at this very same Bourbon Park Pavilion in Bourbon Park, IN.

__________________________

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! 

This past weekend was an epic weekend for Northern Indiana wrestling fans, as there were 3 events in 3 days across the top of the state.  They were not organized east to west, but oh well.  On Friday night, there was RCW (Revolution Championship Wrestling) Seven, at the O’Brien Recreation Center in South Bend.  On Saturday night, there was Smashfest, at Inman’s Bowling and Recreation Center in Valparaiso.  And on Sunday night was Heroes of Might and Magic – wait, that’s for gaming nerds –  Heroes and Legends VIII at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne.  I did not go to the third event, but did see the first two, and here’s what happened at them.

RCW Seven

RCW Seven was aptly titled, for being on April 7th and a celebration of the company’s seventh anniversary.  They messed up the theme by moving the start time from 7pm to 8pm, but I’m sure there were good reasons.  Also, tickets weren’t seven dollars, which was disappointing, but on the other hand hot dogs were also not seven dollars, so fair is fair.

(Note I’m writing these notes a couple of days after the fact, and I’m 50, so if you trust my memory, you’re ridiculous.)

To open the show, Dru Skillz came out before his match with Sugar Dunkerton and tried to get serious, telling a sad story about meeting a kid outside a gas station nearby, and the kid having been abandoned by his dad.  Further, his dad beat him regularly.  When Dru asked him if there was someone he wanted to be taken to, the kid answered Sugar Dunkerton – because Sugar Dunkerton couldn’t beat anyone!  Oh, swerve!  And it was on.  Sugar came out and entertained the crowd, and went on to get the better of Dru Skillz with a bit of trickery – playing possum and then getting the roll up.

Next Jorge Bravo and Johnny Cyanide came out to begin a 2-on-1 handicap match against … Kongo Kong!  Kong was accompanied by his manager Jason Saint. (Check out Kong’s debut on Impact Wrestling this week, 4/13/17!) I don’t know what they were thinking.  Jorge Bravo got out of there relatively unscathed, but poor Johnny Cyanide … may he rest in peace.  Kong was not pleased that Cyanide kicked out of his big  splash, and tore into him in and out of the ring.  RIP Johnny Cyanide, who hasn’t been seen since.

Guns and Aggression (Luke Lawson and Mance Warner) took the #1 Contender spot for the RCW tag team titles with a win over The Newer School (Theo Storm and Noah Walker) and the team of The Maltese Tiger and the American Eagle.

Ruff Crossing defeated Caleb Stills.  This match was really fun.  I will say this, though: Ruff Crossing needs more Blue Oyster Cult.  (I hope some people get that, it’s really damn funny!) I think he may be my new favorite wrestler, because anyone who wrestles as a cowboy but then comes to the merch tables afterwards wearing an Obituary shirt is awesome.

Kevin Storm came out to no opponent since Matt Striker was unable to make the event.  Or the one the next night.  Or the next.  However, Noah Walker came out to offer his services.  GM Jon Blackwell said this impromptu match would be for Storm’s US Title, and Theo Storm was barred from ringside.  Of course, this means that Kevin Storm eventually won the match by DQ when Theo Storm came to ringside and interfered.  Being rightly pissed that his instructions were ignored, Blackwell said that on May 20, Kevin Storm and Walker would meet again, and Theo would be handcuffed to a ring post.

After intermission, The Police Department (Rod Street, Deputy Dave, and Eva Lonis) took on the team of Lightning Bolt Johnson, JC Bunyan, and Tank.  And the stipulation was that if either of LBJ or LC Bunyan pinned on of them, that duo would get the RCW Tag Team titles.   You knew it was serious because Eva Lonis took off her sunglasses.  Eventually, TPD got up to their shenanigans and maced JC Bunyan in the eyes when the ref was distracted, and he was pinned.  Tank tried to help JC by pouring some water on his eyes, but I’m pretty sure that’s not recommended first aid procedure for that kind of injury.  Tank then promised retribution on the Police Department at a later date, when his partner Brutus Dylan was also ready for action again.

Next up, Adam Bueller (w/ Jason Saint) took on The Iron Demon Shane Mercer for the Strong Style Championship in a no DQ match; this one went into the bleachers, onto a merch table, used a garbage can, and eventually came to the ring.  It ended badly for Bueller when Mercer took advantage of the bag of thumbtacks (!!) supplied by Jason Saint, and originally intended for Bueller to use on Mercer.  Mercer carried Bueller to the corner and up the ropes, and Mercer used his amazing finisher to land Bueller on the tacks (I still don’t know what that finisher is called, but it’s like a fall-away slam from the second rope in which Mercer flips around 270 degrees and lands belly down on his victim).  Afterwards, Jason Saint got dumped on the tacks, too, for good measure.

Did I mention that somewhere in South Bend there’s a hotel owner sitting in his office wondering why he’s getting no business, when Friday is usually such a good night? It’s because the little silver ding-a-ling bell next to the “Ring Bell for Service” sign was stolen for use at RCW Seven as a ring bell!  Even the injured Brutus Dylan couldn’t get any authoritative ring bell sounds out of that sucker no matter how hard he pounded on it.

Anyway, the next match was a triple threat for the brand new Revolution Strong Women’s Title!  Here it was Maria James (with Jason Saint, who managed to hobble out to the ring after the last match), Kelly Klein, and Madi Maxx in the mix.  Maxx was the bubbly crowd favorite, but Maria James ended up with the win, and she is our first ever Revolution Strong Women’s Champ!  (In the process Jason Saint got beat on / slapped a bit more … poor guy.)    Remember this if you’re still reading below about Smashfest.

The finale of the night was Nick Cutler against Colt Cabana.  Confession time, I’ve heard Cabana’s name many times, but I’ve never seen wrestle before.  And now I’m sad that I’d been missing out all this time.  Cabana and Cutler were absolutely hilarious and put on a great crowd pleasing show.  We learned way too much about Cutler’s chest hair in the process.  Cabana got the win, and this match alone was worth my one hour drive and $10.

Smashfest

On Saturday, we had Smashfest, at Inman’s Bowling and Recreation Center in Valparaiso.  I’m not much of an autograph & picture guy and did not take part in the meet & greet stuff, but here’s what happened in the matches.  I’ll keep some descriptions shorter, since there were so many!

A good part of the crowd was already in the seating area at 4pm, so by 5pm or so, they were getting restless.  Fortunately Ryan Anderson began the proceedings with two pre-show matches.  Sugar Dunkerton defeated Jorge Bravo, and Tank defeated Officer Rod Street.

By 6pm, the place was packed and the poor Inman’s folks had to go get extra chairs from their grandmother’s houses, the local church, and wherever else they could scrounge them up.  The main show started with Legion (Malice and Nitro) taking on Abyss and Rosemary – Decay.  Rosemary wasted no time spraying mist into Nitro’s eyes, taking him out of the action.  He eventually recovered; Malice had retrieved a table from under the ring, and eventually, Abyss put him through that table, leading to a win for Decay.  (Best of luck to Nitro as he gets his ankle worked on!)

Next was a Battle Royal, the winner of which receives a shot at any SPW title they want.  This was where some of the guests came out for their ringtime – Hornswoggle was in it, Zach Gowan, Rob Conway, and … Kikutaro, the guy with the mask that freaks me the F out every time I see it, I mean really, this is like Stephen King’s IT levels of freaky, and it doesn’t even look scary.  Why am I so bothered by it?  Fresh off his victory the night before, Shane Mercer won this thing.  He had to take out Stephan Bonnar to do it, which was no small feat.  Anthony Toatele held on to his SPW US Title over Craig Mitchell.  Kevin Storm and Noah Walker (who are cool with each other in the SPW universe, but not the RCW universe) lost to JC Bunyan and Cody Deaner.  I’m glad JC Bunyan recovered from the mace attack the night before.  Rick Baker, Ryan Howe, and Brent Myers had a three-way match, and Ryan Howe got Rick Baker to tap out.

At this point, there was an impromptu match between the SPW staff and the web cam shooting the action for iPPV on the Fite network.  The camera was stationed on a small speaker platform high on a wall overlooking the ring, and it fell off.  After a few SPW staff tagged in and out, they eventually got the web cam to submit and stay where it was damn well supposed to, but I’m pretty sure they cheated and used a foreign object: duct tape.

Adam Rose came out with local Rosebuds and without his hair, and defeated Mr. 3% Jon Hudson, who I believe is now officially a lemon.  Then, having just had an intermission because of the web cam, we got another (planned) one.  During intermission, I interviewed 5 kids in the crowd about their favorite wrestlers, you can hear them at about the 22 minute mark of this week’s episode of NWIWRAP.

After intermission, Mordecai prayed for the power from above to defeat Lightning Bolt Johnson.  And what do you know, prayer works!  Because Mordecai got the win.  I was disappointed in LBJ because Mordecai ran down Valparaiso pretty bad, and LBJ didn’t stand up for us enough.  Well, gosh, the next time someone talks smack about Warsaw, I’m going to let them!

In a battle to determine the first SPW Hardcore Champion, it was Fireball, BD Smooth, Cletus Farmer, Elijah Mcfly, and Shannon Moore (did I forget anyone?) in a hardcore match.  They really couldn’t do much truly hardcore because of space constraints, so the extent of the hardcoreness was use of a garbage can, a traffic cone, and some aluminum cookie sheets (that make a nice noise against a skull, it turns out) in and very close to the ring.  BD Smooth got body slammed onto the garbage can courtesy of Shannon Moore, which was pretty cool.  I’m not sure who will get the bill from Inman’s.  Your new SPW Hardcore Champion is Fireball!  I can’t believe no one used a bowling pin or bowling ball in this match.  Now that I think about it, why has there never been a professional bowler gimmick?  Someone could be “Mr. 300” and come out with those bowling wrist braces that conceal hidden weapons.  Why do I have to think of all this stuff, come on, people!

In what could have been the match of the night, Ames and Cody Jones lost to Marshe Rockett and Acid Jazz.   Da Soul Touchaz showed off some great moves, Ames was fun as usual, and Cody Jones was really intense.  The end of the match was really clever, Acid Jaz spit powder (hot chocolate?) into Cody Jones face; being blind, Jones clobbered and attempted to pin his own partner Ames.  Rockett and Jaz indicated the audience should play along, they counted 3 themselves and had the audience cheer for Jones as if he had actually won.  Still blinded, he stood up to celebrate and was greeted by a clobbering from Da Soul Touchaz who pinned him for real and retained the SPW Smashmouth Titles.  Fun stuff!

Now I said this could have been the match of the night, and the reason it was not was because to achieve perfection, Rockett and Jaz should have had a guest manager!  SPW had sold off guest manager spots, and lots of other wrestlers and teams, both before and after this match, were accompanied to the ring by their guest managers.  Maybe their guest manager pulled a no show.  Or maybe their idiot guest manager was sitting off to the side at his little “radio station station” recording stuff from the show, and missed whatever clue bus he was supposed to get on in order to be ready at the right time.  Can you guess who the guest manager was supposed to be?  I heard Ryan Anderson paging the guest managers for matches before intermission, and other matches after intermission had managers who apparently actually paid attention to whatever I didn’t.  Oh, well, screw it, I guess I didn’t need that fifty bucks anyway.   I’m just worried that Marshe Rockett and Acid Jaz went home thinking their guest manager didn’t care enough to show up.  I’m sure they were really worried about it.  And also, those WWE scouts in the audience missed out on that next big thing.  Sorry guys!  😦

Anyhoooo, Maria James next went 2-for-2 in capturing brand new regional women’s titles by winning a 4-way elimination match for the first SPW Women’s Championship.  She outlasted Paloma Starr, Shawna Reed, and Laura Van Ness (wrestling under a different name , I think, I didn’t catch it, I was still pouting about the whole guest manager business).  Maria James is now both the Revolution Strong and SPW Women’s Champion.  Jason Saint is manager of the year so far!

And finally, Dru Skillz outlasted GPA, Will Huckaby, Troy Miller, Sugar Dunkerton, and Bushwhacker Luke in a 6-way elimination match for his SPW Heavyweight Title.

And that did it!  I did not go to Heroes and Legends in Ft. Wayne on Sunday like a lot of the more dedicated die hards, I had a WVLP fundraiser to attend in Valpo.  And plus, 3 days in a row of being away for wrestling may have resulted in locks being changed on our house doors.  My three big take-aways from the weekend were: Sugar Dunkerton is amazingly fun.  Shane Mercer is amazingly powerful and intense.  (I can watch either of those guys for hours.)  And hats off to Maria James for taking both of the brand new women’s titles that were up for grabs.

To wrap up, I will channel the spirit of Mordecai to address something that I’ve noticed as a widespread issue at many of the events held by regional wrestling companies: Oh Heavenly Father, as you look down on these Indiana wrestling promotions struggling to make it in a crowded and competitive business, please grant them the resources to not only have proper ring bells in place, but also select proper angelic warriors who can wield a mighty hammered weapon to strike those ring bells with Heavenly Fire at thoust appointed times!  Lo, let us not anymore hear light little ding dings as those which announce the arrival of dinner in the monkey house at the zoo,  nor have distracted bell attendants so caught up in their own prayers to your Holiness that they don’t even notice the referee calling for a bell to start a match.  Yea, oh Lord, let us hear the loud and thunderous peals of the bell, as to rival the trumpets surrounding the walls of Jericho.  In short, O Lord, cause them to smite the hell out of thy bell such that all are aware of its greatness.  Amen.