ACME Championship Wrestling held March Meltdown at 7:00pm Friday March 09, 2018 at the Demotte Boxing Club in Demotte, IN.  First, I have to say that the name of the card was a lie, since I got home afterwards and there was still snow on the lawn in between my house and my neighbor’s.

I think the third time will be the charm in terms of my finding the driveway for the Boxing Club in the dark.  The approach is tricky if you haven’t been there before. On my first trip there last month, I simply went right past the turn into the place off of Rt 10.  (And spots to turn around are few and far between on Rt 10, apparently.) Last night, I was alert, my phone told me “your destination is on the right”, and so when I saw the driveway in the dark, I hit the brakes and turned in.  Unfortunately it was the driveway to someone’s house. Sorry, folks. The drive I wanted was the next one, which I saw had a red serial killer van on the roadside with a large sign proclaiming Pro Wrestling Tonight. Next time, I’m going to nail it on the first try!

This was one of the best ACW shows I’ve seen in terms of overall match quality.  The lights were bright and colorful, the sound was clear, and the ropes were tight.  It was a good night for wrestling!

The first match had Crimson Dynamo trying to regain the Tough Man Title from The Luxurious One, Cliff Caviar.  Caviar came out by himself, with his silver spoon, and spoke to the crowd (well, insulted the crowd and his opponent).  He looks so lonely without his usual valet TK Zero on hand, below left. The Tough Man Title comes with no DQ rules and eventually Caviar tried to get a chair involved, but smacked the ringpost rather than Dynamo.  The match ended when TZ Zero eventually came out, interfered, and Caviar was able to hit Dynamo with a chain during the distraction. So Cliff Caviar remains the ACW Tough Man Champion. I’m sure we will not hear the end of it on-line.  

In the second match, Rockstar Jonny Nigh took on Joe Jitsu, who might now be called Jujitso Joe, who knows.  At one point in the match, Rockstar pulled Joe’s mask off – only to reveal a second mask underneath! Joe also knows jujitso of the mind.  Rockstar eventually won the match, and afterwards told the crowd this was only the first step in his new strategy, and we’d see the second step soon.  Hmmmm.

TZ Zero returned to the ring next, for his own match against Arun.  Before concentrating on Arun, TK Zero made sure to argue with people in the front row.  Arun got in some good offense, but TZ Zero controlled most of the match and got the win.  You know, TZ Zero supports Cliff Caviar, but Caviar is nowhere to be seen during TK’s matches.  This is a one sided relationship, and I hope TK Zero thinks about that.

The last match before intermission had Billy the Kid against Dave Allen.  It went back and forth for a while, but Allen got the upper hand and started punishing Billy the Kid with several kicks to the face in the corner (such as the one pictured) and other blows.  Ultimately, the ref stopped the match as Billy was unable to continue. Allen tried to get in a few more blows anyway, but refs got Billy out of the ring. I think the ACW crew needs some proper first aid training, though, for how to get an injured person away from the scene without making things worse!

After intermission, X-Calibur and Jared Kripke took on Austin Fury and Xavier Black in a tag team match with Lucha Libre rules, which Fury and Black won.  After the match, General Manager Michael Allen told the crowd and the guys in the ring that at the next show on April 13, there would be a Fatal Four Way match for Xavier Black’s Intercontinental championship between these four individuals.  Not one to let teamwork get in the way of making a statement, Black attacked Fury from behind and left him laying in the ring.

Next, Kujo took on Bradley Alexander Dawson, who practiced his stroke a couple of times before the match.  In wrestling history, there have been contests marked by the skillful targeting of a body part of one wrestler (such as an arm or leg) by the other.  In this match, Kujo strategically targeted BAD’s nose for exceptional punishment. He slammed BAD’s face into the mat several times, punched it, hit turnbuckles with it, and overall delivered targeted punishment to the schnozz.  This clearly led to Kujo’s victory.

In the main event, Drex Odell successfully defended his ACW Heavyweight Championship (again) from ACW newcomer Superbad Santana Starks.  Starks is well known in other NW Indiana wrestling circles, but I think this was his first appearance at ACW. At one point, Odell missed a moonsault (pictured), but Starks was unable to capitalize.  Later, Odell finished off Starks with a clothesline.

ACW’s next event will be Hebron Havoc 3, at Hebron Middle School, Friday, April 13 at 7:00pm. 

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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!