Normally I write these little wrestling articles after seeing a show, so that folks who missed them can find out what happened, or so that folks who were there can revisit the event.  And normally I leave the previews of upcoming shows for the radio side of the media juggernaut that is the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program.   But over the next two weekends, we are going to see back to back shows from ACW (ACME Championship Wrestling), and there’s going to be a lot at stake – so I thought maybe a little overview ahead of time might be in order.

ACW has been, to me, the “friendly little wrestling promotion that could” – based in DeMotte, they often run fundraiser events at regional schools (and both of the upcoming shows are such events); when not doing philanthropy, ACW holds their shows at their home base, the DeMotte Boxing Club – which only holds a few dozen people, and so is a nice intimate venue.  The promotion is owned by the friendly Jimmy Holmes, and the wrestling operations are overseen by the fan friendly GM Michael Allen.  It just seems like a happy company of which to be a fan.  But the words of some of the workers and the return of a man known as Maverick Cage are starting to pull back the curtain a somewhat uncomfortable amount to show that all may not be as “friendly” as it seems.

The first event is very soon: on Friday May 11 (tomorrow, in fact, as I write this), ACW will hold Lake Village Rumble, at Lake Village Elementary School in Lake Village, IN – bell time is 7:00pm Central.  Then next week, on Friday May 18, ACW will hold their now-annual event School’s Out at Lincoln Elementary School in  Roselawn, IN.  As we approach these events, I’m starting to notice an undercurrent of toxicity that might very well boil over at one or both of the events.  Here’s a quick breakdown.

First, we all see General Manager Michael Allen come out and slap hands with the crowd at the start of every show.  He’s a crowd favorite.  Now, recently Allen has had a battle of wills with Drex Odell during Odell’s hunt for the ACW Heavyweight Championship.  Starting a year or more ago, Allen forced the massive Drex Odell to jump through many hoops before finally acceding to Odell’s wish for a title match.  Once Odell captured the ACW Heavyweight Championship, Allen has thrown surprise opponent after surprise opponent at Odell to try to get the title away from him.    All along, Odell has has been in Allen’s face and ear, complaining about the unfairness of it all.  And that’s fine, we all know to expect grumbling from Drex Odell.

But if you listen carefully, you’re going to hear other workers also remarking on the heavy hand of Michael Allen.  Cliff Caviar, who currently holds the ACW Tough Man Title, is often heard to complain about Allen’s hand in his matchmaking.  And in a promo released this week regarding his match against Arun this Friday, he does it again. Thomas Keith posted some words about his impending match with Jared Kripke, where he said:  “Jared kripke this Friday i not just going to beat you and take your title that would be to easy no I’m going to absolutely destroy you and leave you a broken man your nothing kripke your just some guy with a beard this Friday I will rip that Beard off your face and shove down your throat and show you, our GM Michael Allen, and everyone else why I’m the greatest thing going in ACW.”  While he doesn’t really call out Allen directly here, it’s clear Allen is on the mind of Keith, when Jarek Kripke should be his sole focus.  So I wonder … why is this?  Why are Allen’s workers getting more and more vocal about him?  Is it just Drex Odell’s bad influence spreading around?  Or is there something we don’t know about Allen and his management of ACW?

Some of this may come to a head this weekend.  But building over a looong period of time is something that will come to a head next weekend.  If cracks in the seams of Michael Allen’s management are a spark, what might be the whole powderkeg of ACW relates to the return of Maverick Cage.  Other than hearing his name tossed around here or there, I knew nothing of Maverick Cage until a recent ACW event in late 2017, at which Cage came out of the crowd and attacked ACW owner Jimmy  Holmes.  After doing so he announced to the crowd who he was and that he owed Holmes for some unfinished business – and a match was set between the two for School’s Out, which is now coming up very soon.

I was not around back at the origin of ACW, so I only know what I’ve seen of it lately.  And in an interview posted to Facebook just last night, Cage finally opens up about his motivation to return to action in ACW – and if what he says is true, then the “friendly little promotion that could” may have a darker past than we knew.  Cage portrays himself as the victim of Holmes’ manipulations: Holmes swooped in on the momentum of Cage’s own wrestling start-up, used Cage for a while to gain advantage, then kicked him to the curb.  And Cage has now picked his moment to come back and do something about it.  One reason this may go beyond a simple story of revenge to something more damaging to ACW is that some of the workers are already picking sides, and they’re not all going to back up their current “boss” Jimmy Holmes.  For example, Austin Fury has already voiced his support of what Cage has to say.  Will there be others?  Is  Cage’s return and genuine beef with the leadership of ACW going to drive a wedge right through the company?  Another reason that the timing of Cage’s return could be damaging is that we’re at the end of ACW’s main “season”.  They have been very active up until this month, but may wind down a bit after these two big final shows – when ACW returns, it could be a very different company … if it returns at all.

This story will keep developing.  I will try to get more information on Friday at ACW Lake Village Rumble, and see what I can report on Sunday night’s NWIWRAP, as we go forward into next weekend’s ACW “season finale” show.

ACW Lake Village Rumble includes:

(Edit: I had the Odell / Nigh match in the wrong place.)

• Jimmy Holmes vs. Brently Alexander Dawson (B.A.D.)
• Cliff Caviar (ACW Tough Man Champion) vs Arun
• Jared Kripke (ACW Intercontinental Champion) vs Thomas Keith
• The Bambino Family!

ACW School’s Out includes:

• Maverick Cage vs. Jimmy Holmes
• Drex Odell (c) vs Rockstar Jonny Nigh in a career – vs – title match

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If you’ve read this far, you might like wrestling?  So maybe, 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.

* or 9pm, or 9:30pm, or anytime before or after, depending on how much stuff there is to cover! 

There’s a “challenge” going around Facebook in which someone posts 10 most influential CDs, one per day, and if you do that, you can nominate someone else to have to do it as well.  Now, I was nominated to do this by John Frank, who used to be my friend.  I have chosen not to nominate anyone, figuring anyone who wants to do this can just do it without prompting.  But on Facebook, the idea is to keep it quick, and just reveal the album covers one each day with not much discussion.  Since so many people wonder about my thoughts (tap … tap… is this thing on?), I decided that I would put a few words about each album here.   These are no in any order of importance, just a blend of 10 albums that – when I look back on my development as a music fan – likely had the biggest impact on me.  Maybe I’ll even link to a representative song from each!

1. Iron Maiden: Piece of Mind (1983).  Back in high school, we had Van Halen, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and then these Iron Maiden guys came on my radar.  My friend John Zanniker and I got tickets, on a whim, to the Maiden concert at Riverfront Coliseum (maybe Cincinnati Gardens, RIP?) in Cincinnati.  We ended up on the floor.  I was sort of scared at being that close, would I go deaf from the loudness?  Get poked in the eye by a metal stud flying off leather pants?  At this point, my image of metal bands was stereotypical (I liked the music, but had a narrow interpretation of it).  Iron Maiden rushed out on stage to hit their first song, which I didn’t know since I really didn’t know any of their music well yet, and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing.  A lead man wearing a white lace shirt?  Bright blue clothing on a guitarist, rather than black leather?  Smiles?  Non ear-bleeding volume?  What the hell was this?  And then came the part when Bruce Dickenson introduced a song called To Tame a Land, by saying it was all about the book Dune.  And suddenly my mind was blown.  Here was a combination of what was growing to be my favorite form of music and also science fiction books?  Considering that this was about the same time as I was thinking, “That record Off The Wall sounded pretty good and I like Thriller, maybe I need to check out more Michael Jackson”, I think this single Iron Maiden concert and record (which I bought after the concert) changed my life.
2. Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell (1980).  I honestly don’t remember if I finally got this record before or after the one above.  But this was my first Black Sabbath album ever, and I was blown away by the combination of heaviness, mood, delicacy, and Ronnie James Dio’s amazing vocals.  If you’re not a metal fan and don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the song Children of the Sea, and pay attention to how Dio switches from angel to demon at the 40-second mark; this is everything great about him, and if you don’t get it, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you!  I think I was previously aware of Sabbath because of Never Say Die, and wasn’t really expecting the different vocalist here.  When I then went backwards to check out the early years, my next purchase was Black Sabbath IV, and my first reaction was “WTF”?  It took a long time to adjust to the older Ozzy sound, but as a good soldier, I figured it out.
3. Dream Theater: Images and Words (1992).  A few years before this, CDs had become a thing, and I was working on building my collection – I kept going with the big name metal and rock bands, as well as some new age stuff.  The whole glam / hair metal scene wasn’t doing if for me, and I wasn’t yet really digging below the surface to find alternatives.  But it was getting easier to keep an ear to the ground, and I started hearing some names of more underground metal bands popping up.  Not yet ready to commit CD dollars to them, I went to a store and bought two cassette tapes:  Dream Theater’s Images and Words, and Fates Warning’s Parallels.  Fates Warning was great, and I continue to follow them to this day, but Dream Theater … ho.lee.shit, I had no idea that this sort of sound was out there.  I almost thought it was a practical joke – I mean, how could there be a band out there that so perfectly blended my interests, taking the intricacies of Kansas, Rush, &  Yes and blending them with the in-your-face heaviness of metal?  The song out there on the radio ended up being s shortened Pull Me Under, but some others – like Under A Glass Moon – spoke to me more strongly.  And so here was punctuated equilibrium step number 2 in my musical life, and I was lost down the next rabbit hole of finding out just what else was out there.   (Believe it or not, though, one of my next cassette purchases was Slayer’s Seasons in the Abyss, talk about whiplash!)  In conjunction with this discovery of Dream Theater, I also came around to find that there was a good internet (“Usenet” at the time) based heavy metal community filled with really cool people, and I made my first “internet meet up” with a group of people for a concert – Dream Theater, at Hammerjacks in Baltimore.  That spending of $50 for a night out has now evolved to having spent thousands of dollars attending ProgPower USA.
4. Rush: Moving Pictures (1981). I don’t know if I knew much about Rush before this, except for maybe some radio hits off Permanent Waves? But Tom Sawyer was out there now, and this one came up as a feature in the Columbia House Record Club (I was starting to become a pro at signing up to get “6 records for a penny” with the obligation to buy one more in a year … or was that BMG?).  So I ordered this based on marketing, and was really glad I did!  It was another good example of how what you heard on the radio was very often not the best song on the record (that belongs to Red Barchetta here).  When it’s all said and done, I think I like Signals a bit more (I mean, it does have The Analog Kid on it), but in terms of “influential” I have to go with Moving Pictures, because if this record hadn’t stoked my fire for progressive hard rock and its cousins, I likely may never have bought Signals afterwards.
5. Styx: Cornerstone (1979).  This album was in the bullseye of my musical tastes at the time.  When I look back over it all, it’s not the best Styx album by any means, but it was my first one, and we’re talking about influential here, not best.  I think this was one of the first times buying a single 45rpm led me to purchase the full record.  Of all the records I ever owned, this is one I remember the most of putting on the turntable over and over, playing with the cover (it opened up in a tri-fold), and reading along with the lyrics.  Oddly, what would have been my favorite songs back then are now replaced as favorites by ones that were likely in my least favorite – like Boat on the River.  Back then:  ugh, skip, no wonder it’s a B-side!  Now: Tommy Shaw, you are one of my favorite songwriters ever!
6. Little River Band: First Under the Wire (1979).  Along with Cornerstone, this was one of my early favorites when starting to collect albums (well, at the time, I don’t think I knew I was turning into a collector, I was just starting to take up more space with LPs).  LRB was the first real concert I ever went to (second, if you count Shaun  Cassidy).  It was all because of Lonesome Loser, and I found lots of other songs on the record to love as well.  I mean, who doesn’t love Cool Change.   I think my favorite is The Rumor.  This album taught me that it was OK to love vocal melodies and light rock.  And to this day, the bands that incorporate layered melodic vocals go right to the top of my favorites.
7. Tangerine Dream: Force Majeure (1979).  Hmmm, I had to look up the year of release for this one, and it’s actually a later release than I thought.  Anyway, this is the oddball compared to the rest, since it’s all ambient / electronic new age.  I was introduced to Tangerine Dream by my friend Alan in church youth group (yeah, it was a thing) in 1983 or so.  I learned that this is GREAT music to read fantasy novels to, and now I have several mental associations with books and music.  Whenever I listen to this album (ex: Cloudburst Flight) , I start remembering scenes from Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson.  I followed up my initial exposure to Force Majeure and Rubycon by eventually owning about 40 Tangerine Dream CDs.    TD led me to many other spectacular new age artists, like Vangelis and David Arkenstone.
8. Alan Parsons Project: Turn of a Friendly Card (1980).  Hey, are you noticing like I am that a lot of my most influential albums came out when I was in high school and finally had money to spend on stuff like this?  Turn of a Friendly Card was probably my first foray outside the more mainstream radio hits.  Sure, Games People Play was on the radio, but this was a case of radio drifting over to Alan Parsons, not Alan Parsons drifting over to radio.  When I found that this album had a song that by itself almost took up and entire album side, I thought that was pretty cool.  Yeah, this one brought me over to the side of progressive rock more than others, I think.  I probably would never have tried Tangerine Dream if I wasn’t already softened up for stranger music by Alan Parsons.
9. The Rippingtons: Curves Ahead (1991).  This is what I was listening to before Dream Theater blew my mind.  I was living in the DC area, and had access to some good jazz stations.  I started really liking the more modern poppy jazz that probably was considered vile stuff by jazz purists. The Rippingtons were the first jazz band I really dove into, and this was the album that started it all.  They were my gateway to Spyro Gyra, Larry Carlton, David Benoit, and so on.  I have a lot of excellent concert memories from that part of my musical life, such as seeing The Rippingtons as part of the “Jazz on the Roof” series in Indianapolis at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, which was the most magical venue at which I’ve ever seen a show.  Maybe Center Stage in Atlanta is in competition for that, though.  I don’t really follow jazz bands anymore, but if someone has tickets to a good show, let me know.
10. Seventh Wonder: Mercy Falls (2008).  This could very well be my favorite album of all time.  It’s certainly in my Top 3.  Apart from a quick mishap with some awful voice acting that spoils the best part of a ballad, this is, to me, a perfect album.  It is the “youngest” album in this whole list, so its influence is not the same as the others – it did not set me on a musical path, but rather it has confirmed that every musical choice I ever made was the right one, because each choice led me to this album – which has on it everything I love about heavy metal; it’s heavy, it’s soft, and it all comes with great melodies and awesome vocals.  The song Unbreakable is a microcosm of all that – it sweeps through everything I love about music.  This concept album also has an emotional punch.  I defy anyone to listen to this short song – which is from the point of view of a little boy whose father lies in a coma – and concentrate on the lyrics, and not have to tell people around you that you got something in your eye.  See?  All of this in just one album.  Whammo. 

I used to have a big record collection.  Used to.  And the resurgence of vinyl makes me miss it.  Since high school, I collected vinyl records, and had built up a collection of 600-700 samples of the finest in rock, jazz, and heavy metal … and even a few items that would be embarrassing now.  I most absolutely did NOT have any Barry Manilow records anywhere near my Iron Maiden records.  Nope.  In the meantime, since the early 1990s, I had migrated to CD for most newer purchases, particularly in the new age (Tangerine Dream!) and heavy metal realms.  But I kept the vinyl around for the older stuff.  I dragged five or six of the old wooden record crates from Ohio to Delaware to Washington DC to Bloomington IN and then to Valparaiso.  And then it happened – the great Luther Basement Flood of 2003.  Or whatever the hell year it was, I don’t remember now.  The whole collection went bye bye.  I saved some of the actual vinyl discs, but all the covers were ruined.  And those vinyl discs weren’t really playable, I just kept them out of stubbornness.  Eventually, I upgraded my most favorite artists to CD (Blue Oyster Cult, Yes, Triumph, Journey, etc)  but left a lot of bands by the wayside.  Today I have no more vinyl, and I certainly will not jump back into the new vinyl fad, where I could pay $35 for a record that cost me $8 – $10 back in the day!

During Fall semester 2016, I started getting nostalgic for bands like Foghat, the Outlaws, and even Wang Chung – bands I used to listen to all the time on vinyl and via my song selections transferred to cassettes for car rides.  And I figured since I’ve been paying for Spotify Premium for a while, it was time to put it to use and make lots of playlists.  And so here are some random thoughts I’ve had while assembling these playlists since then.

• I used to have all the Foghat albums from the first through (the red one).  If anyone had asked me a decade or two ago which was my favorite, I may have said Boogie Motel since it has a couple of my favorite Foghat songs: the title track and Don’t Run Me Down.  But Night Shift is the most consistent one all the way through.  I don’t think there’s a weak song on that record.
• Wang Chung: Dammit, Points on the Curve is a great album!   The soundtrack for To Live and Die in L.A. is good, and you should watch the movie.  Other Wang Chung albums aren’t that great all the way through, but some songs are just spectacular – like Tall Trees in a Blue Sky off The Warmer Side of Cool, or even Driving You off their newer one Tazer Up!
• David Gates:  remember Bread?  Oh, don’t want to admit you liked them?  Gates was their singer and had solo albums.  And Goodbye Girl is a good album, I don’t care what you say.
• Molly Hatchet: I just love the long double and triple guitar trading in the extended songs, like Fall of the Peacemakers,
• I had no idea Steve Miller’s discography went so far back into the late 60s and early 70s.  Interestingly, one of his very early songs contains the same guitar riff he later incorporated into Fly Like and Eagle: it’s called My Dark Hour, on the 1969 album Brave New World.
• Modern Times and Freedom at Point Zero by Jefferson Starship are fantastic rock and roll albums, and make up one of the best one-two punches of consecutive albums I knew of.  Winds of Change sort of spoiled that streak though.
• Is there a better live version that jacked up a good studio song into the stratosphere of awesome more than Astronomy by Blue Oyster Cult, off Some Enchanted Evening?
• OK, I’ll say it.  My sister Helen is going to hate me.  But I prefer most of the Tommy Shaw written Styx songs over the Dennis DeYoung songs.
• I wish I had explored the three pre-Steve Perry Journey albums more back in the day.
• A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering are my favorite Genesis albums.  In my younger years it would have been Abacab, my first Genesis album, but now having spent years with the rest things are different.  These two are the best mix in between the too-weird early Genesis and the too-poppy later Genesis.
• Eric Carmen is the best Billy Joel that isn’t Billy Joel himself.  Try out Haven’t We Come a Long Way, off his best album Change of Heart.  And then listen to the title track from Boats Against the Current to get the feels.
• I wrote off Ted Nugent’s output from the 80’s onward, and I wrote off his political views, too.  But damn, Penetrator is a great album.  Too bad he’s such a douchenozzle and I can’t separate the musician from the vile human being anymore.
• The Outlaws are the best southern rock band that really wanted to be a heavy metal band – particularly Freddy Salem, who wrote lots of their heavier songs.  Just try Long Gone or Freedom Walk.  They also have great guitar work, although they did not crank it up and out like Molly Hatchet …
• If you are trying to get someone to want to play guitar, Molly Hatchet is the strategy.  The extended triple guitar trade-offs that break out at the end of songs like Dreams I’ll Never See, Gator Country, Fall of the Peacemakers are inspiring.
• Albums from which I’ve put every song into a playlist for the artist:  Images and Words, by Dream Theater.
• I stopped following Kiss after the Dynasty years, although I did nab the album (Hot in the Shade) with the Michael Bolton-written song (Forever) on it.  Meh.  But now going through the more “recent output, Carnival of Souls is a really strong album.  I like the raw sound.
• Fleetwood Mac: I owned Rumors at one point.  And it turns out that Fleetwood Mac only had two albums I like to hear overall, their self-titled album and Rumors … although, some of the older records had some highlights on them, mostly because I was always a fan of Bob Welch, and it was good to hear his voice from an unexpected source.

(to be continued / expanded?  Maybe I’ll go back and include more YouTube links, diving into the YouTube vortex is always fun…)

New Generation Wrestling held their 10th Anniversary Show at 6:30pm EST at the National Guard Armory in Crawfordsville, IN on Saturday April 28, 2018.

For this show, I brought recording gear and have an audio recap captured as the show was taking place.  It will be broadcast during Mostly Metal & NWIWRAP, which runs 8:00 – 10:00pm Sunday night April 29 on WVLP, 103.1FM in Valparaiso (streaming on http://www.wvlp.org).  It will be rebroadcast at 10pm on Wednesday, April 25.  And at some point soon (i.e. when I get around to it), it will be made available on the NWIWRAP YouTube channel, and I’ll hopefully remember to put the link here!  But in the meantime, here is a very brief recap and some photos:

1. (Preshow match) El Muchacho defeated Thomas Keith.
2. Jared Kripke defeated Johnathan Wolf.
3. Gideon defeated Brently Alexander Dawson, retaining his Hoosier State Championship
4. Pinnacle Fight Club (Drex Odell and TK Zero) defeated Louis Rojas and Jason Levi for the NGW Tag Team Championships
5. Jared Kripke won the $1000 Open Invitational Battle Royal
6. Flawless Dave Allen defeated Kenny Kage and Kenneth James in a triple threat match.
7. Justin Myers defeated Jeremy Hadley, and is the new NGW World Champion
8. The Rock and Roll Express defeated the Bambino Family.

El Muchacho going up on Thomas Keith, and Jared Kripke flying out at Johnathan Wolf:

Kenny Kage attacking Gideon while Brently Alexander Dawson distracts the ref; Louis Rojas dropping an elbow on TK Zero:

Pinnacle F.C. and Louis Rojas / Jason Levi:

Poffo spearing both El Muchacho and Jared Kripke while Kripke was about to backdrop El Muchacho during the Battle Royal; Kenneth James stands by while Dave Allen holds Kenny Kage upside down:

Hey, now it’s Dave Allen’s turn to stand by while Kenneth James holds Kenny Kage upside down:

Jeremy Hadley with a high elbow drop on Justin Myers:

The Bambino Family is in disbelief that they lost to the Rock and Roll Express:

Backbreaker Wrestling held On the Ropes at St. Mary’s Hildebrandt Hall in Griffith, IN on Saturday April 21, 2017, 6:00pm CST.

Note to self: Right down the road from this venue is Twincade, a pub filled with arcade games.  I need to go there the next time Backbreaker has a show in Griffith.  But they are not helping me out, as their next show is in Hobart, not Griffith, argh!  (See below.)

For this show, I brought recording gear and have an audio recap captured as the show was taking place.  It will be broadcast during Mostly Metal & NWIWRAP, which runs 8:00 – 10:00pm Sunday night April 22 on WVLP, 103.1FM in Valparaiso (streaming on http://www.wvlp.org).  It will be rebroadcast at 10pm on Wednesday, April 25.  And at some point soon (i.e. when I get around to it), it will be made available on the NWIWRAP YouTube channel, and I’ll hopefully remember to put the link here!  But in the meantime, here is a very brief recap and some photos:

1. Johnny Motley defeated Perfect Silence Kevin Crowley by DQ upon interference from Dick Davis.
2. Dave Allen and Louis Rojas (w/ Jeremy Hadley) defeated The Bambino Family.
3. Dick Davis defeated Angus McDuff
4. Vince Capri defeated (and gave an atomic wedgie to) Brently Alexander Dawson
5. Shooter McGavin (6,winner) became the first BBW Heavyweight Champion in an 8-man Over the Top Rope Gauntlet Match, featuring Ryu Shinzake (F4,1), Ace (F4,2), Kurt Joseph (F4,3) , Trog the Caveman (F4,7), TK Zero (5,4), Gabe the Brave Juarez (7,5), Universal Bomber (8,6).   (The numbers next to each are their order of entry, and order of elimination – the first four, F4, began the match in the ring together.) 

Kevin Crowley is up on Johnny Motley.  Davis stands on Motley after his interference:

The Bambino brothers chopping Dave Allen.  Dave Allen saying, “Look, I’m a wacky waving inflatable tube-man!!”  Or, Allen and Rojas leaping out of the corner just as Dom Bambino goes in for a spear.

Ref Z cheks on Angus McDuff as Dick Davis chokes him:

The Ice Pick Vic Capri about to give Brently Alexander Dawson a rude landing:

TK Zero gives Trog the Caveman “thumbs up” for how he was biting his opponent.  Shooter McGavin has gone around the ring and shown off his chest hair to each direction of the crowd.  Lucky us!

The next Backbreaker Wrestling show is “Famfest”.  It’s at 3:00pm June 16 2018 at Cornerstone Community Church in Hobart, IN. The event also has live bands, concession stands, and activities for the kids like a bounce house and obstacle course.

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If you’ve read this far, you might like wrestling?  So maybe, 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. 

ACW held Franklin Fight Night 2 at Clark High School in Hammond, IN.  Or Whiting, IN.  Whatever.  If the name / location mix is confusing, it was a fundraiser for Franklin Elementary School.  But Clark HS has the big gym.  Or they’re better at cleaning out the bloodstains.

General Manager Michael Allen came out first, as always.  He called Arun to the ring, and explained that Arun deserves more chances in ACW, and if he is able to beat TK Zero in the next match, Arun will get a match against Cliff Caviar for the ACW Tough Man Championship next time.  (Apparently Hammond / Whiting is not luxurious enough a location for Caviar to make an appearance.)  TK Zero came out for the match, heckled children in the audience, and eventually lost to Arun by a move much like Chris Jericho’s Codebreaker.  Here, TK Zero wonders what he got himself into.

Next, Brently Alexander Dawson (BAD), Thomas Keith, and Kujo went at it in a three way match to become number one contender for Jared Kripke’s Intercontinental Championship.  This match was mostly 2-on-1, with BAD and Keith teaming up against Kujo, but of course when the moment of truth would come and one of them would attempt a pin on Kujo, the other would break it up.  The 2-on-1 scene allowed for quite a lot of blindside attacks on Kujo.  Poor guy.  Eventually Thomas Keith won with what I’ll call (until I learn better) and Underhanded Sister Abigail: he sets up his opponent like Bray Wyatt does for Sister Abilgail, but then hooks his arm underneath his opponents shoulders for extra oomph on the move.  I was so worried about Kujo, I forgot to take a picture during this match!  To make up for that, I’ll post extra pictures of the next couple of matches.

Match three had the Prince of the Raveyard Kyle Kaylor take on the Intercontinental Champion Jared Kripke.  To show he’s edgy and ravey, Kaylor came to the ring with a small flask, from which he took sips several times during the match.  I think Ref Zoran should have carded him.  Jared Kripke’s entrance music makes me irrationally angry, and I need to work on that.  In this match, Kripke and Kaylor traded submission moves (such as the one below right), going through the ropes to the outside (like below left), coming off the ropes (like pic 3), Ric Flair Whooo knife edge chop-slaps, and they almost knocked over one of the light poles.  When Jared Kripke finally won the match, Thomas Keith came out to remind him who his new #1 contender is, and gave him the “I’ll see you soon!” gestures.

Dave Allen and Billy the Kid have the pre-intermission slot locked down.  They came out for their Last Man Standing Match.  The action started in the ring, but soon went out of the ring, and even out of the ring area – they dragged each other around the perimeter of the chairs and along the bleachers, around 3 sides of the room.  Although you can’t see either competitor, below right shows a crowd of kids (and adults) with phone cameras blazing, following the two around the outside of the gym and to the bleachers.  They didn’t come over to my side, though, not wanting to disturb this journalist at work.  Knowing they were in a school, Billy the Kid helped the kids learn to count by having them count to 10 while he punched Dave Allen (below left).  A chain-wrapped baseball bat was involved (Billy the Kid brings it to the ring with him) when Dave Allen went outside the ring, picked up the bat and brought it in.  According to the Rules of Wrestling, then, you know that he eventually became the victim of the bat. Pictures 3 and 4 below here show Kid slamming Allen to the mat, and also showing off the bat he’s about to use. The match ended when Billy the Kid dragged Allen feet first to a corner, pulled his legs out past the ring post, then duct taped Allen’s legs around the ringpost, preventing him from being able to stand and answer the 10 count.  Clever!

After intermission, we had Phantasmo (perhaps making his first appearance) vs. Crimson Dynamo.  This match was pretty one sided, with Phantasmo dominating.  During this match I got a notification it was time to play Cash Show Trivia.  I could do this and watch the match at the same time, but I only got one picture (of Phantasmo) .  I know this is totally disrespectful to the performers, but I did win $0.02 in the trivia game, bringing my grand total winnings so far to $2.44, so get off my case.

Being a school event, ACW had the “teacher special” match – a Teacher Battle Royal.  A few of the regular workers participated to make sure things didn’t get too crazy, but the match came down to the same two teachers who fought last year as well (shown here posing before they got to it), and Mr. J took the win.  A good number of the kids then cleared out, and missed the main event:

Rockstar Jonny Nigh took on Drex Odell for the ACW Heavyweight Championship, which Odell has held for quite a while, much to the chagrin of General Manager Michael Allen.  Eventually this one went to a No Contest, as the ref could not get the men to separate from each other when battling in a corner.  Rockstar was desperate to get his hands on Odell again, so he offered a “career vs title” match at an upcoming ACW event, School’s Out  – if Rockstar wins, he becomes champ.  If he loses, he will retire from ACW completely.

The next ACW event is on May 11 at Lake Village Elementary School in Lake Village, IN.  Then the big annual event “Schools Out” is at Lincoln Elementary School at Roselawn, IN on May 18.

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If you’ve read this far, you might like wrestling?  So maybe, 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. 

ARWPRO held a fundraiser for Morton High School at that location at 7:00pm CST, Saturday April 14.

You know, sometimes you just want to sit and enjoy a show rather than taking notes and worrying about getting too many pictures.  So this recap is a bit spotty, but here we go:

Match 1: X-Calibur defeated Christopher St. Michaels with a nice 450 splash, retaining his Indiana State Title.

Match 2: Anthony Toatele defeated Dave Allen in a fun back & forth match.  This is Dave Allen making all the blood rush to Toatele’s head:

Match 3: Originally scheduled as the Mexecutioners vs Aggravated Assault for the ARW Tag Team championship, this match was rearranged due to some travel difficulties or what not, to become Machine and Johnny Showtime (rather than Santana Starks, thus not the actual Mexecutioners) vs Punisher 747 and Maverick Cage (rather than B.O.W., thus not the actual Aggravated Assault).  I guess you could say we got “close enough”, i.e. maybe the Texecutioners vs Slightly Irritated Assault?  Anyway, Machine and Johnny Showtime got the win, and Joey Boom Boom awards them the Tag Team Titles, until Chazz Moretti points out that the contract for the match said that the Moretti Agency would be facing “The Mexecutioners”, and so since they did not actually face that team, this should have been a non-title match.  ARW owner King Bishop reluctantly agrees.  But it’s on for sure at the next ARW show on May 12.  This is Maverick Cage getting kicked in the face by Johnny Showtime:

Stacey Shadows is snowed in, and so Moxie Mollie instead takes on Dementia DeRose (I think?) for Mollie’s ARW Women’s Championship.  DeRose eventually just gives up trying to win fairly and begins a long choke-hold on Moxie Mollie, with a couple of shoves of the ref thrown in for good measure – so she gets DQd.

Guest star Marshe Rockett defeated Nick Cutler in my favorite match of the night.  Both men were really good at getting the crowd involved.   Yes, Mr. Cutler, it is too late to get out of the way of Marshe Rockett’s boot that is about to introduce itself to you.

Ivan Manson and Max Holiday were set to face The Family, with Charlie Junior assembling the team of Old School Manson and a mystery partner … who turns out to be Drex Odell!  There was a lot of mass in the ring for this match, and the ring ropes tapped out for their own safety … at least the second one did: a bump into a corner resulted in one of the turnbuckles.  But all four gentlemen carried on valiantly, and Drex Odell even managed to get up to the top rope for a moonsault … which missed, ha!  That’ll teach him to join The Family.   Here is his missed moonsault, along with the suicidal ring rope: 

After getting tossed out of the ring like refuse (look, I used a British term!), Drex Odell re-enacts a scene from The Wizard of Oz:

The next ARWPRO show is Saturday May 12 at Edison Junior-Senior High School in Lake Station, IN.

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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.comGoogle calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region. Because WRESTLING!

ACW held their third annual “Hebron Havoc” fundraiser for Hebron Middle School, on Friday April 13, 2018 at 7:00pm CST.

Just before the show, Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” began to play as house music, but it was stopped after just a few seconds.  I am not sure whether this was for keeping the show PG, or if it was in recognition that Nugent has gone from being a rock and roll icon to being a total whacko douchnozzle, and ACW did not want to be associated with him.  But either way, good is good.

The first match had Rockstar Jonny Nigh vs Justin Myers.  If Rockstar wins, he gets a title shot against Drex Odell at next week’s “Franklin Fight Night  2” show at Clark High School in Whiting.  And Jonny did pull out the victory, so watch out Drex!  Shown below, Myers poses to the crowd, and then later on gets planted face first into the mat by Nigh.

The next match featured “The Varsity” from Hebron High School.  They came out proclaiming that since their victory last year, no one is willing to take them on.  Cue the team from the middle school who comes out … and eventually loses, allowing The Varsity to take home another trophy.  Ref Zoran went above and beyond the call of duty directing traffic and making sure there were no catastrophic injuries.

Dave Allen and Billy the Kid lit up the place next, with lots of two counts, a ref bump, and a chair!  Allen clobbered Billy the Kid to get the win.  General Manager Michael Allen was appalled at (the other) Allen’s behavior and set another match between these two next week.  It will be a Last Man Standing match.  The kids in the audience are also appalled, chanting “Cheater!” at Allen.  Allen went up into the stands to debate them and explain his rationale for his actions, but they had none of it.  Good for you, kids! Below, Allen introduces Billy the Kid to a ringpost and then starts practicing for their wheelbarrow race, but Allen’s position is all wrong for that.

Ref Zoran got to upgrade to a Fatal Four Way match next, featuring Austin Fury, X-Calibur, Jared Kripke, and Xavier Black – for Black’s Intercontinental Championship.  This was a really good match, which was eventually won by Kripke, making him the new ACW Intercontinental Champion.  Below, you see all four men waiting to square off, and a picture of X-Calibur handling Xavier Black.  It’s not that exciting of a picture, but since I finally got a picture of X-Calibur when he’s not upside down in the middle of his standing moonsault, I wanted to show it off.

Whoops, nevermind, I did find a picture of X-Calibur upside down, except for a different reason (left, below).  Also is a picture of the group of kids huddling around Jared Kripke to get the new champ’s autograph during intermission.

During intermission, the crowd tapped out the concession stand, which was out of almost everything but popcorn and pickles.  Someone should alert the ring announcer before he announces at the end of intermission all the stuff that’s (not) available!

After intermission, things got started again in a six-man tag match with Brently Alexander Dawson, TK Zero, and Cliff Caviar vs Arun, Kujo, and Crimson Dynamo.  The bad guys had a funny bit where they stood on the floor psyching themselves up to all leap into the ring together, but when they signalled go, TK Zero and Cliff Caviar held back, and Dawson went all by himself into the midst of the other team in the ring.  Later in the match, Caviar accidentally hits TK Zero with Dawson’s golf club, then after more mayhem, Arun gets to pin Caviar.  Below, Kujo is about to do the 10-count of doom on Dawson, and TK Zero is seen wondering why all his strategizing went down the toilet.

The (real) main event was Drex Odell defending his ACW Heavyweight Championship from Kenji Brea, making his ACW debut.  GM Michael Allen has run out of most of his internal options for getting the title away from Odell, so he’s inviting people from the outside.  Kenji Brea controlled a good portion of this match and we all thought maybe the ACW nightmare was over, but no, Drex Odell attacked with a “clothesline out of nowhere!” and people usually don’t get up from a Drex Odell clothesline – Kenji included.  And so, Drex Odell remains the ACW Heavyweight Champion.  After the match, when Odell moves to inflict more punishment on Brea, Jonny Nigh runs out from the back to intervene.  And remember, as a result of the first match tonight, it will be Nigh vs Odell for Odell’s title next week at Franklin Fight Night 2.  Below you see two eventually futile attempts of Kenji Brea to keep Drex Odell down, to no avail.

The final match of the night had Principal Brooks of Hebron Middle School vs Mr. Adamczyk, and if Mr. Adamczyk wins, he becomes principal of HMS. The kids in the crowd definitely wanted Mr. Brooks to win, since Mr. Adamczyk promised more homework and more standardized testing!   This was a hardcore match.  Mr. Brooks had a friend in the crowd who was on crutches; late in the match the friend got in the ring looking to aid Mr. Brooks, but instead hit Mr. Brooks with a crutch, allowing Mr. Adamczyk to get the win!  Man, those kids were pissed.  I wonder what life will be like for them Monday?

ACWs next show is coming up fast, Friday April 20: Franklin Fight Night 2, a fundraiser at for Franklin Elementary school, held at Clark High School in Whiting, IN.

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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.comGoogle calendar, where I try to keep up to date calendar postings of shows in and around the NWI region. Because WRESTLING!

FWF held Crossfire at the Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw, IN at 7:00pm EST on Saturday March 24, 2018.

First, especially if you have kids, I recommend the Wyndham Garden Hotel on Center Street. We stayed there so I could see this show before we finished our not-quite-direct drive from Valparaiso to Cincinnati. (You know you have the wrestling sickness when you’re willing to spring for a hotel room to see a show.) In particular, the pool area at this hotel is really nice. The down side is they don’t have free breakfast. But Bob Evans is right across the street, and once you decide the wait at Bob Evans is too damn long, you can go down the street to Maria’s, which is better to support since it’s a local establishment anyway.

The FWF venue is super. There’s easy parking and a nice view of the lake as you walk

in. Look carefully at the lake in this picture (the venue is the building on the left). Do you see Kevin Storm’s head bobbing up and down in the water? No? Well, that’s because this picture was taken about 2 hours before he got thrown in the lake. More on that later! But for now, I’ll just note that Center Lake Pavilion is one of the better spots for wrestling I’ve seen in the northern Indiana territory. And Bell Ringer Ryan Anderson told me the burgers were really good, so I tried one, and he was right! I opened my burger and saw only a burger in a bun, no extras like lettuce or tomato. So I was sad. But I loaded that sucker up with ketchup, mayo, and mustard (yes, all three, stop with your judgments) and it turned out that damn, it was indeed a tasty burger.

In the first match, Unchained Brandon Day took out Jorge Bravo with a powerslam. I’m old and my memory is starting to fade, but I think it was a slam where Day had Bravo hoisted face down over one of this shoulders like a sack of potatoes, then slammed him forward and down such that Day’s weight landed on top of Bravo (as opposed to Day remaining standing and releasing Bravo for the slam). I can’t remember what this particular slam is called. I looked up the Wikipedia page that describes dozens of wrestling throws, but didn’t find this one. I’m sure it’s something simple. Someone please educate me. Edit: ’tis simply the front powerslam? I was seriously overthinking it. The match ended pretty quickly and I didn’t get a picture until the end, so we get to see Day standing victorious over Bravo (below, left).

In the second match, Fireball defeated Drax O’Brien with a roll up. The picture above & right is from this match and you may think Fireball is not in it, but look closely in front of the near ring post for the top of his head! I’m sorry, this is the only picture I took of the match.

Next up, Jacob Brawn, Mark Vandy, and JC Bunyan scrapped. I think this was supposed

to be a triple threat, but with Brawn and Vandy both representing “The Gingerverse” it was pretty much a two-on-one. Or maybe it was intended to be two-on-one, who knows. To the left we see Vandy holding Bunyan while Brawn leaps down to chop him. Apologies for the bright ring lights reflecting off the pale Gingerverse skins. At one point, Brawn and Vandy took turns giving headbutts to Bunyan and going loopy afterwards, so we’ve learned that JC Bunyan is part Samoan. Mark Vandy ended up getting the win, and afterwards, Vandy and Brawn stood together and implied they’re going after tag team gold!

After the match, Officer Rod Street led out several of his minions and took them to task for failing to do anything about Cletus Farmer even though he’d been tasking SWAT Team members to do just that. (By the way, does the “T” in SWAT stand for Team or Tactical? If the former, then “SWAT Team” becomes one of those redundant phrases like “ATM Machine”. ) Cletus came out and offered to be the “1” in a 2-on-1 match with members of Street’s SWAT team. Street sent in a couple of the goons, and Cletus defeated them. Rod Street looks pissed.

During many matches and this one in particular, a man who wins “Best Dad of the Night” gave his little girl the best seat in the house (below, left), and then afterwards she got to run around the ring with Cletus. Good work, Dad!

Then, JD Smooth defeated the Celtic Nightmare with a sneaky roll up, but not before getting tossed around a bit (above, right).

As hockey announcers like to say, “These two teams don’t like each other!” This is the case between the Midwest Monsters (Tank and Brutus Dylan) and The New School (Noah Walker and Kevin Storm). Their feud came to a head here in a No DQ Warsaw Street Fight. Below, we see Kevin Storm under the can, and Tank going through a door.

During this match, Brutus Dylan grabbed Kevin Storm and asked if the crowd wanted to see him throw Storm into the lake. You know what the answer was, and they went outside; a good portion of the crowd went out through the doors with them. Fortunately, Tank and Walker stayed behind and kept some action going in the ring for those of us who didn’t exit the building. I did not see it, but rumor has it Storm did end up in the lake, and he was not seen again during the night. The Midwest Monsters got the win.

After intermission and clean up time, Rogier Lanier defended his FWF Cruiserweight

Championship from Ames. Ames started the match on the mic saying he was going to do two things, (1) take Lanier’s title, and (2) kiss him on the lips. He also claimed to be thinking about that BBC, by which I think he meant he was worried about world events and would go watch the news from England after the match. Ames got the win when he pinned Lanier, aided by his feet on the ropes – which the ref did not see. So Ames is now the FWF Cruiserweight Champion, but he only accomplished one of the two things he set out to do.

In tag team action, the Soul Shooters took on Anthony Toatele and Alexander S. Kirk. I don’t know if there’s a story here, but this seems to be a tentative partnership; Kirk tried to make nice with Toatele, but Toatele looked at him like he was selling Amway. During this match, I got to see Ref Russ be more indignant at the Soul Shooters’ shenanigans than he usually gets. Also, Dru Skillz practiced his social skillz and got a group of older ladies to yell at him. The match ended when Kirk was holding one of the Soul Shooters so that Toatele could deliver a flying knee, but you know what happens here: the victim dodged out of the way and Toatele’s knee ended up taking out Kirk instead, and the Soul Shooters got the pin. In the picture below, left, Skillz just took a swift kick from Kirk and is about to flop forwards onto his face. Below right, Remi Wilkins comes off the turnbuckle to give an assist to the powerslam Skillz is giving to Kirk. That spotlight is in a terrible position for the picture. Or rather, I selected a stupid seat if I was going to be taking pictures. (But I like sitting on the aisle!) After the match, the Soul Shooters proclaimed they want a shot at the FWF Tag Team Titles.

In the second to last match, Matt O’Hare took on Lightning Bolt Johnson. FWF

management decided that it was necessary to have a second ref on hand for this one, outside the ring. In the picture to the left, you know what’s happening, right? LBJ was about to give a big boot to O’Hare. The ref was behind O’Hare, and when O’Hare leaped out of the way, the ref got clobbered instead. Or, that’s usually what happens, but not here! LBJ pulled up on the boot, and saved the ref. But the look of terror on the ref’s face is still perfect. LBJ got the victory in this match.

The main event was a triple threat match for Officer Rod Street‘s FWF Heavyweight Championship; Nick Cutler and Cosmo were the other competitors. Since this was a No-DQ match, Street quickly capitalized and sent in his efficient SWAT Team to attack Cutler and Cosmo. But having recently spent time in the hospital for the birth of his daughter, Cutler picked up some medical tips and attempted to give colonoscopies with one of Street’s little plastic orange cones to almost everyone. Cutler was so absorbed in this process he accidentally gave one to Ref Russ, thinking he was another SWAT member. Having had one of these done recently (the real kind, not the plastic cone kind), I feel for you, Russ.

The match ended in Rod Street’s favor when Sheriff Eva Lonis comes in with a can of Raid and sprayed just about everyone, allowing Street to get a pinfall. And so he retained his title.

The end of the show broke down when two teams of five (one backing new owner Jayson Maples and one backing previous owner JD Smooth, with these teams headed for a showdown soon) converged on the ring for punching and shouting. The Soul Shooters are on JD Smooth’s team and they got some fans so worked up that a few others had to come out from the back to make sure peace was maintained.

I’ll edit this when I get more details, but the next FWF shows, or at least shows that will have an impact on FWF, are coming up in two weeks (April 7) and at Jayson Maples’ Heroes and Legends X, on Saturday April 21 at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne, IN.

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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!

ARWPRO held a show at American Legion Post 100 in Lake Station, Indiana on Saturday March 10, 2018 at 7:00pm.

Please forgive any errors and lapses in memory, as I’m writing this five days after the show.  My schedule right after the show ended at about 9:30pm Saturday was to go home, get to sleep by 11pm, wake up at 4:15am (and note that clocks changed overnight, so I lost an hour of sleep!  … I know, poor me), and head for the airport for a three day work trip.

Because March 10 was as close as we’d get to St. Patrick’s Day at ARWPRO, ring announcer Greg Hansen took the opportunity to let his Irish loose for a while while King Bishop trailed along hoping get a few of the candies that Greg was handing out.

The show opened with Jack Moody taking on X-Calibur for X-Calibur’s Indiana State Championship.  My advice for Jack Moody is to stop pointing that thing at the audience!  I seem to get pictures quite often of X-Calibur being upside down, and tonight is no different.  Above right you can see him in the middle of a standing moonsault.  This put away Moody and X-Calibur retained his title.

Next we had a few minutes of “King Bishop‘s Corner”,  during which he followed up events from a previous show, where Heavyweight Champ Max Holiday defeated Ivan Manson in a title match, and there seemed to be a bit of respect shown between the two afterwards.  Max Holiday came out with his manager Rat J. Flywheel, and Ivan Manson came out with Family patriarch Charlie Junior.  The discussion turned to some barking against Chazz Moretti and how he had pulled the current tag champs Aggravated Assault away from Rat’s group the Scumbag Army.  The tag champs came out, and the end result of it all was that tonight’s main event would be Max Holiday and Ivan Manson teaming against Aggravated Assault for the tag titles; but, if Max gets pinned, whichever member of Aggravated Assault pinned him would get his Heavyweight Championship, and if Ivan Manson got pinned, he would have to give up his membership in the Family.

Just as we thought KB’s Corner was winding dowm, someone else’s music started, and out came … Flawless Dave Allen!  KB noted that Allen was not under contract to ARWPRO, and what the heck did he want?  Allen talked about how he was one of the originals of ARW, and it was time to come back and make his mark.  King Bishop offered a match between Allen and Johnny Showtime (of the Picture Show), and if Allen won, he would get a new contract with ARWPRO.

And, Dave Allen did win, so we can expect to see him around a lot more!

Charlie Junior came back out with Rancid Joey Rak and Old School Manson in tow, as the Family was about to take on The Mexecutioners; however, apparently Charlie has the power to change the terms of a match on the spot, since he announced it would now be a 3 on 2 match because “The Masked Prospect” needed to audition for membership in the Family.  The picture to the right shows the usual story, where OSM is distracting the ref so that Charlie can get in his licks.  But as familiar as that is, you can also guess how this turned out: the Mexecutioners pinned The Masked Prospect.  Charlie, Rak, and OSM were not impressed, and left ol’ Maskie behind after the match.

During intermission, the ring tried to eat a few people, and here you can see one brave soul trying to rescue two people who had already been pulled under. (There was ring repair going on, and it was funny to watch one person crawl under the ring and disappear, then a second, then almost a third.)

The opening match of the second half of the show had The Derby Doll Lane Rosario (with Chazz Moretti) trying to unseat Moxie Mollie as the ARWPRO Women’s Champion.  The picture above shows the Derby Doll waiting to pounce on Moxie Mollie.  However, Moxie retained her title after getting the Derby Doll to tap to an STF-looking thing.

The Dark Horse Nick Cutler and Gregory Glover came out and promised each other good sportsmanship and a nice clean match. (You know how well that’s going to go, right?)  There was a lot of banter, stalling, and chants of “Hairy Idiot” directed at Cutler.  Once things finally broke down as predicted, Cutler got himself disqualified with a low blow to Glover.  Then Cutler left the ring to grab the ring bell, and returned to set up a blow to Glover.  Before he got his chance, some familiar music hit and out came the second surprise of the night.  I could hear ol’ JR yelling, “Bah gawd, it’s Drex Odell!”  Drex appeared like he was going to urge on Cutler in attacking Glover, but instead he clobbered Cutler, then went over to assist Glover. It looks like 2018 will be an interesting year for ARWPRO!

The main event had, as advertised earlier, Max Holiday and Ivan Manson against Aggravated Assault in a match that came with a flowchart full of stipulations.  This picture shows how things went to start, with Aggravated Assault sending the ref over to check on Manson while they teamed up on Max Holiday.  Chazz Moretti is surely standing by saying, “Gentlemen, tsk tsk, this is not good sportsmanship.”

At the end of the cheating and melees, Ivan Manson was pinned – and so due to the stipluations, he must give up his membership in the Family.  And as the Family likes to do, they grieved the loss of one of its members by beating the crap out of him.

The next ARWPRO event is on Saturday March 14, 2018, at Morton High School in Hammond, IN.

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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!