ACME Championship Wrestling (ACW) held St. Valentine’s Day Bash at 7:00pm on Friday February 16, 2018, at the DeMotte Boxing Club in DeMotte, IN.

This show was rescheduled from the previous Friday Feb 09 because the weather had pulled a heel turn and blindsided the region with repeated heapings of snow, one on top of the other.  My 40 minute drive to DeMotte was much more pleasant for the new night!  The DeMotte Boxing Club is what you’d call an “intimate venue” for a wrestling show, with seats around all sides of the ring in very close proximity.  The action was up close and personal.

The first match was Kujo vs. Intercontinental Champion Xavier Black.  Kujo gave Black a lot of taunting, but Black is the strong silent type and let his actions speak.  He must like to talk with his feet, because you can see Black’s foot is saying hi to Kujo’s midsection, and later on his head.  Black eventually won with shenanigans, a roll up with a pull of the tights.

Before the next match started, we were introduced to the debut edition of the Caviar Casino!  Cliff Caviar and his lackey TK Zero came out with two stools, personalized pillows, and a small rug to set up the ring.  Caviar began by introducing his guest – his Tough Man Championship Belt!  Soon, Crimson Dynamo (who used to hold the belt and must think it is due more respect than this)  came out and attacked.  A brawl ensued, and GM Michael Allen proclaimed the start of a 6-man tag match featuring Cliff Caviar, TK Zero, and Dave Allen vs. Crimson Dynamo, Billy the Kid, and Arun (?).  This match had a couple of nice sequences where each person got to come in and hit a move of some sort, before getting clobbered by the next guy.  (Below left, Caviar drops a luxurious elbow on Arun while TK Zero does his best Bigfoot impression.  Aaarrrrrr!  Below right, TK Zero attacks!)

Next up, Mr. 3% Jon Hudson made his ACW debut by taking on Bradley Alexander Dawson, B.A.D. Dawson spent a lot of time hiding, I mean, strategically placing himself outside the ring.  He did get in a bit of offence, as you can see (below left), but he was only able to delay the inevitable for a short time, and Dawson was eventually was pinned by Hudson.

After intermission, Thomas Keith took on Rockstar Jonny Nigh.  In the picture above / right, Nigh is the one who’s sideways.  Rockstar got the win with his sit-out Pedigree type thing that I don’t know the name of!

Match number five was a triple threat match between Jared Kripke, Austin Fury, and X-calibur for the spot of Number One Contender to the IC Title held by Xavier Black.  I believe the pre-match planning went something like this: “Oh, you thought the ladder match between Rick Raid and Nacho Del Silver had painful looking spots?  Hold our beers!”  There was some serious smacking, bumping, and flying going on in this match.  Even Fury had to stop for a breather: below, left.  While Fury was out of the way, Kripke and X-calibur kept going at it.  Below, right, Kripke is about to land on X-calibur.

The “ouch!” moment of the night came when Kripke went for a suicide dive between the ropes out onto Fury and X-calibur, while both simply stepped aside.  Kripke made quite a loud THUNK on the hard floor.  My viewing partner, Ref Extraordinaire Jeremy Tillema, and I could not see the landing from the opposite side of the ring, but we definitely heard it.  (I also heard in my mind Mauro Ranallo calling, “What a tope suicida, mama mia!!”) There were also other dives to the outside, and a triple powerbomb.  Later on, Kripke wrote,

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjared.kripke.9%2Fposts%2F396075074172077&width=500

Yeah, no kidding!

The match ended with a pull apart brawl involving wrestlers from backstage.  Credit to Jeremy Tillema (see, that’s why he’s a ref, because he pays more attention to the details!) who helped me remember that the outcome of this is a four-way match with these three and Xavier Black at the next ACW show.  I am not sure what Xavier Black thinks of this development.

And the main event of the evening featured World Champ Drex O’Dell vs. challenger Johnny Motley.  O’Dell overcame not only Motley but the vicious taunts of “marshmallow!” from kids in the audience to retain his title.  Who is left to unseat O’Dell???

The next ACW show will be Friday March 09, 2018 at (probably?) 7:00pm at the DeMotte Boxing Club.

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If you’re desperate for something to do, 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! 

 

 

Backbreaker Wrestling held Winner Takes All in Griffith, Indiana at 6:00pm on Saturday February 03, 2018.

This was the second card in the young promotion’s life, and we saw the introduction of the Backbreaker Tag Team Championship belts.  The venue, Hildelbrant Hall of St. Mary’s Catholic church of Griffith, IN is a spacious room with lots of seating space and air space.  (Cheap plug alert!  You can catch Episode 41 of NWIWRAP on which owner Shaun Spinks talks about Backbreaker Wrestling and the venue.)

The show started with Top Gunns bringing Old Glory to the ring for the national anthem.  After that was over, the Masters came to the mic to talk smack to Top Gunns.  The mic is stationed on a stage at one end of the room, and so is positioned behind a fourth of the seating area; you can see heads turning backwards in the picture below.  Top Gunns are eager to get things started, but the Masters are in no hurry and will wait for later in the show.  As the Masters walk towards the ring before bailing, one of them is carrying a Starbucks cup to establish his classiness.  Suddenly, I felt dirty for having my own Starbucks cup, because I was still enjoying my iced coffee I grabbed for the drive from Valpo to Griffith.  Dang.

 

The first match has Trog the Caveman vs Louis Rojas.  Trog’s entrance music is a bit more poppy than I’d associate with a Caveman; I would have expected something a bit more primal and drum heavy – but you do you, Trog.  Louis Rojas tries to communicate early on, asking if Trog speaks English or Spanish, but only gets a grunt in return.  Then he tosses Trog’s leg bone outside the ring to see if he’ll play fetch, but again, no luck.  Say, where do Cavemen go to get their tattoos, anyway?  Eventually the prehistoric powers of Trog overwhelmed Louis Rojas; Rojas tried a splash and missed, and Trog rolled him up.   Yabba dabba doo!

 

The second match has the Bromantics (Dave Allen and Xavier Black) vs The Crimson Dragons (Crimson Dynamo and Jared Kripke).  The ring ropes are pretty saggy, bro. The Bromantics are in control most of the match, bro.  But when the Crimson Dragons start getting some momentum (the picture below / left shows Kripke dropping an elbow on Allen),  the Bromantics head for the locker room and get counted out.  I guess they didn’t … Bro-lieve!

 

Match three has the fabulous TK Zero taking on the Universal Bomber.  Actually, he’s taking on both Universal Bombers, since there are some serious ref distraction / double team efforts going on there.  The Universal Bombers even pull the ol’ switcheroo as the one not involved in the match switches places with the one in the match while the ref’s back is turned.  Come on, Ref Oscar Rios, you can do better than that!  After that switcheroo, the fresh Bomber gets the pin on TK Zero.  I’m not sure what’s going on in the picture I have from this match (above, right), but hey, it’s the one picture I have of this match!

After intermission, the fourth match is Johnny Motley against Dick Davis.  I know I’m supposed to hate Davis, but the dude uses Jefferson Starship’s Jane as his entrance music, so he can’t be all bad.  It turns out that Davis’s sidekick Kevin Graves is at ringside with his new Pepe Le Pew hair coloring, and Kevin wants to take on most of the audience while Davis takes on Motley in the ring.  Davis uses lots of dirty tricks on Motley (such as the eye gouge shown below / left), but none of them give him the ultimate advantage, so he gets frustrated, shoves ref Oscar, and gets himself DQd.  (So Oscar will DQ Davis for just a little shove, but lets my main man TK Zero get railroaded by the Universal Bombers?!?!  What’s up with that!)

 

The second to last match brings out all 400 pounds of Wildman Beast to take on Hardcore Harry.  Sadly, yhis is not a “body hair vs body hair” match since Beast has none.  While Harry is coming to the ring and the ref is checking Beast’s boots, Beast tricks Ref Zoran into checking the same boot twice, with the “check the boot on my right side, then let me spin around so you can check the boot on my left side … ha, you checked the same boot twice!” gag.  And believe it or not, this actually matters!  Because later in the match, Beast reaches into his unchecked left boot to pull out a taped spike (shades of Abdullah the Butcher or the Iron Sheik) and uses it to jab Harry’s throat.  The kids at ringside are going nuts yelling at Ref Zoran to “check his boot!”, but Zoran doesn’t listen to pesky kids.  In the pic to the left, Beast pauses for a snack before later dropping two backdrops onto Hardcore Harry … who is now Pancake Harry … Beast gets the pinfall before the ref has to peel Harry off the mat.

The final match of the night is for the brand new Backbreaker Wrestling Tag Team Championship, and one more time, out come Top Gunns and the Masters.   This was a back and forth match, marred only by the shenanigans of the Masters.  I mean, come on, you know what’s happening in the picture below and left.  The Top Gunns end up with the win and the new BBW Tag Team title belts.

 

The next Backbreaker show is On the Ropes: Saturday April 21, 2018 at 6:00pm, at Hildebrant Hall of St Mary of Griffith.

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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!