ARWPRO held Black and Blue Wednesday at 8:00pm (sigh) at the American Legion Post 100 in Lake Station, Indiana on Wednesday (duh) November 22, 2017.

Why did I sigh?  Well, all year, ARW shows have started at 7:30pm.  This time, I decided to get there on the early end of things.  And so I rolled into the parking lot just after 6:30pm … only to realize the doors were not open.  I got on-line and checked the flyer on Facebook, to see that I was now half an hour early.  Ugh.  Fortunately, Wednesday is new comic day!  So, I sat in my car with my Starbucks coffee and read the first issue of Doomsday Clock from DC and a Batman book.  Coffee, comics, and wrestling – it doesn’t get better than that!

So anyway, the doors finally opened and I got in there.  At 8:00pm, the proper start time for those people who actually read the promotional material carefully (not me),  some loud rock and roll started playing as Diamond Steele came out tickling his frets.  He said words.  Then some old Johnny Cash started playing, and out came Humphrey Bogart!  No wait, it’s Gregory Glover!   He said something about farming and birds, but hell if I know what it meant.  I think the allegory went to deep for me.  He may also have said something about He Who Walks Behind the Rows, but I can’t be sure.  ARW is home for both of these guys, and both have been away for a while, so we have to find out who is the bigger homey.  It’s on for later!

The first match has Punisher 747 and The Gypsy King Ritchie Rothchild in tag team action against Santana Starks and Theo Storm.  This is Ritchie’s ARW debut, I believe, and he tries to wow the crowd by his silence.  Apart from one or two insults hurled at fans, or an affirmation of his gender, he was silent the whole time.  If you’re thinking this is an odd assortment of people in the match, it’s true, and I snuck backstage to get a picture of how the workers were selected for the match: 

At the start of the match, agent Chazz Moretti accompanied Punisher 747 to the ring, as 747 is half of Moretti’s tag team champions Aggravated Assault.  I think Moretti saw that this wasn’t a tag match, and went ho-hum, as he vanished to the back pretty quickly.  Ritche Rothchild must have alienated three people instead of just his two opponents with his oddness, because at one point, when he went to tag in Punisher 747, the big man hopped off the ring apron and walked away.  And so Starks & Storm took advantage and pinned Ritchie.  This picture shows the sad Ritchie looking for a friend, who is walking away.

The second match was Moxie Mollie vs. Vanessa Azure vs. Sierra for the brand new ARWPRO Women’s Championship!  Chazz Moretti came out with Sierra and this time he stayed for the whole match … although his first piece of advice to Sierra was to sit outside the ring for a while and let the other two women beat each other up.  This worked for a while, and Sierra tried to pick her moment by sneaking in for a quick pin, but that didn’t work out and Moxie Mollie ended up with the victory.  She is the new / first ARWPRO Women’s Championship!  Sorry, no picture 😦

Next, Nick Cutler, Kevin Storm, and Johnny Motley take on The Picture Show and Jake Andrews.  The action stays strong for a while.  At the end, Johnny Motley goes to pin Jake Andrews, but Nick Cutler throws Motley aside and takes the pin over Andrews himself.  Clearly he is not a team player.

It’s intermission time! I wanted to usee intermission to saw off that damn post that’s in every one of my pictures, but that would not go over well.  I could have changed seats, I guess, but I’m lazy.  Plus, I like small rows and being on the aisle.  Life’s all about choices, you know?

After intermission, we have our first “event” of the second half.  This event was set up at the last show, where Xcaliber defeated Dakota Prodigy for the Indiana State Championship – and ol’ X did it without any of The Family at his side.  Charlie Junior was not happy about that, and at the last show, he told Xcaliber that his payback would come at the next event (this one), but he did not say who from The Family would deal out the justice.  So now we’re ready for The Family; they came out as expected and pretty much just started doing Family things and beating up Xcaliber.  No opponent for Xcaliber was announced, the “match” never officially started, and then – having made their point – The Family made their way to the back.  So we have no idea who Xcaliber was supposed to face, if anyone, or if the contract just said “please arrive and get beat up”.  Maybe next time.  But we like Xcaliber now.

Thing Five is our semi main event – Gregory Glover vs. Diamond Steele.  To counter Howe’s guitar, Glover should have brought a tuba or something.   This was just a good old fashioned hard hitting wrestlin’ match with no shenanigans.  I am disappointed, though, that I did not get to see a Gregory Glover spear.  He attempted one, but Diamond Steele got out of the way … dammit.  Glover ended up getting the win with the tried and true strategy of playing possum then sneaking in a small package.  I liked the story being told here, of two returning vets fighting for validation of who was more “rooted” to home base in ARW PRO.  Glover also told the crowd his motivation is to shine light into the shadows of ARW, and it was not personal with Ryan Howe.

The main event was Max Holiday‘s rematch against Ruff Crossing for the ARW Heavyweight Championship that Crossing won from Holiday a month or two before.   Ruff Crossing attacked Holiday with a chair before the match started; it looked like Holiday might get taken to the back, but he was having none of that nonsense and told the ref to ring the bell.  A lot of the match was Holiday trying to get his wits about him while Crossing kept up the punishment.  Eventually Holiday recovered enough to introduce Ruff Crossing to #abootnamedsue, and Holiday won back the World Championship!  Ruff Crossing looked like he needed a hug after this one.

Above: Max Holiday shows how little air space there is. And I’ve got a post, a ref, and a little girl in my way!

So, we end the year at ARWPRO as follows:

• Max Holiday: World Heavyweight Champion
• Moxie Mollie: Women’s Champion
• Aggravated Assault: Tag Team Champions
• Xcaliber: Indiana State Champion

The first ARWPRO show of 2018 should be Saturday, January 13.

_________________________

If you’re so inclined, check out the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program (NWIWRAP) broadcast Sundays at 9:15pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8:00-9:15pm CST, 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.wvlp@gmail.com Google calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region.  Because WRESTLING!