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! 

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! 

Here is a year end wrap-up for our regional wrestling scene, courtesy of the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program!  There are more than half a dozen promotions regularly and predictably running shows in and near the Northwest Indiana region (I’m considering the 4 most northwest counties as “in NW Indiana”, and anything to the east that’s near or above Rt 30 as “near NW Indiana”).  This is what I can remember or dig up (without too much effort!) about their current title holders and first shows coming up in 2018:

ACW: ACME Championship Wrestling

This promotion runs in conjunction with the DeMotte Boxing Club and often has fundraiser events at regional elementary and high schools.  Current champions are:

• ACW Heavyweight Champion: Drex Odell
• ACW Intercontinental Champion:  Xavier Black
• ACW Tough Man Champion: Cliff Caviar

Their first event in 2018 will be on February 9th at the DeMotte Boxing Club.

ARWPRO: Adrenaline Ringside Wrestling

The “ARWPRO Arena” is the American Legion 100 in Lake Station, IN.  This promotion regularly runs shows there on the 2nd Saturday of each month, unless they are out doing a fundraiser or it is the holiday season.  Their current title holders are:

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

Their first show of 2018 will be Saturday, January 13 at 7:00pm at the American Legion 100 in Lake Station, IN.

Backbreaker Wrestling

This is a new promotion running at the Saint Mary – Hildebrandt Hall in Griffith, IN.  Their first show was in October 2017, and the next one is Saturday February 3 at 6:00 pm CST: “Winner Take All”, featuring The Crimson Dragons (Crimson Dynamo and Jared Kripke), Trog the Caveman, The Bromantics (Xavier Black and Dave Allen), Scott Powers and The Universal Bomber, The Beast, TK Zero, Johnny Motley, and The Masters vs Top Gunns to become the first Backbreaker Tag Team Champions

BLP: Black Label Pro

This is a new promotion running at the On the Square Sports Academy in Crown Point, Indiana.  There have been 3 shows so far, containing a tournament to crown the first Black Label Pro Heavyweight Championship.  And so, at the end of 2017, we have:

• BLP Heavyweight Champion:  Filthy Tom Lawler

The first show in 2018 will be Saturday January 13, at 7:00pm CST, at On the Square Sports Academy in Crown Point, IN:  “We’re Not The Mounties”, featuring Quebeccer Pierre vs All Ego Ethan Page, AJ Grey vs Sammy Guevara, and a Black Label Pro Rumble – the winner of which gets a title shot sometime in 2018.

EHF Wrestling

This relatively new promotion has been running strong in 2017 in southern Michigan and Northern Indiana, somtimes at the Century Center in South Bend, IN, and sometimes in Niles, MI.  Current champions are:

• EHF Heavyweight Champion:  Sadon
• EHF United States Champion: The Celtic Nightmare

Their first event in Indiana in 2018 is Saturday January 20 at 7:00pm EST at the Century Center: “New Year’s Revelations”.

FWF: Funkdafied Wrestling

This is starting to stretch the definition of “our area”, as this promotion frequently runs in Warsaw, IN.  However, many of the performers also perform for promotions in this area, and so are familiar to fans here.   Current champions are:

• FWF Heavyweight Champion: Officer Rod Street
• FWF Hardcore Champion:  Adam Bueller
• FWF Cruiserweight Champion: Roger Lanier
• FWF Tag Team Champions: Midwest Monsters

Their next show is Saturday June 20 at 7:00pm EST:  “New Year’s Funk 4”, at White Diamond Limousine Service, 2744 West Old Road 30, Warsaw, IN.  FWF Heavyweight Championship: Nick Cutler vs Rod Street (c), FWF Hardcore Championship Match: Fireball vs Adam Bueller (c), FWF Cruiserweight Title Match: Jacob Brawn vs Roger Lanier (c), FWF Tag Team Championship Match: The New School vs Midwest Monsters (c), Soul Shooters vs Anthony Toatele & Alexander S Kirk, Cletus Farmer vs Swat Member 145, Drax Obrien vs JC Bunyan, Maltese Tiger vs Steven Drochner.

PWK: Pro Wrestling King

This is probably the most active promotion in the area, running a lot of shows in the north and central Indiana region, such as in Bourbon, IN.  In the wrestling high season of summertime, these guys might be having shows every other week.  At the end of 2017, we have:

• PWK Heavyweight Champion: Tank
• PWK Tag Team Champions: Spirit of Detroit
• PWK On-Line Champion: Adam Bueller

Their first show of 2018 will be Saturday, March 24 in South Bend, IN.

RCW: Revolution Championship Wrestling

Their home base is the South Bend / Mishawaka area, and most of their shows are at the Battell Center in Mishawaka, which is one of the best venues for smaller wrestling shows in this region (at least from the perspective of the audience, I have no idea what it’s like for the workers backstage!).  Current title holders are:

• RCW Heavyweight Champion: Anthony Toatele
• RCW Women’s Champion: Maria James
• RCW United States Champion: Kevin Storm
• RCW Tag Team Champions: Lumber and Lightning (JC Bunyan and Lightning Bolt Johnson)

Their first show is “Rise of the Revoluion” on Saturday March 10 at the Battell Center in Mishawaka, IN.  Announced matches so far: Nick Cutler vs. Sugar Dunkerton, Fatal Four Way w/ Justin Mane, Shane Mercer, Mojo McQueen, Owen Travers.

In Memoriam:  Fire Pro Wrestling, which ran monthly at Impact Christian Church in Merrillville, IN, suspended operations towards the end of 2017.  Whether we’ll see it resurrected is uncertain, but you know, if any promotion has a chance of resurrection, you’d think it would be one that had its shows in a church!  Smashmouth Pro Wrestling, which ran shows at Inman’s Recreation Center in Valparaiso had an up and down 2017, with a couple of shows being cancelled.  A show in 2018 seems to be in the works, and NWIWRAP will bring you updates as they come around.

I went on a horror movie bender in 2017.  The number of hours I’ve spent watching really bad movies this year is staggering.  But at least when a movie is bad, I can do something useful while it’s on – like checking Facebook, Reddit, or grading students’ work (oh wait, I shouldn’t have said that part).

Back in 2015, I decided to go through the entirety of the “classic” horror franchises and watch all of them, no matter how bad.  I even sat through Hellraiser: Revelations and Jason Goes to Hell.  In 2016, I didn’t watch many movies (that’s all relative, of course: I watched 118 in 2015 and only 57 in 2016 – lame!  I’m up to 143 here in 2017 with a couple of weeks left to go.  I don’t think I’ll make it to 150, but we’ll see).  Most of the movies I watched in 2016 were horror, but in no particular pattern.

In 2017, I got an itch to dive into another horror franchise and picked Final Destination.  And then I decided (apparently after some significant head injury that I don’t remember receiving, but there is no other explanation) to just go ahead and get through as many of the second rate horror franchises as I could stand.  And man, I could stand a lot.  I looked for sets of movies with at least 3 or 4 in the series, and that could include remakes, reboots, and so on.   For example, there are a bunch of Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, but they don’t really line up as “sequels”, rather, they just form some sort of mobius strip of a timeline of reboots, reimaginings, and rehashings.

Anyway, here are the movie sets I’ve watched in their entirety this year:

• Final Destination
• Blair Witch
• Wrong Turn
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Hayride (only 2 of them)
• The Hills Have Eyes
• Cube
• I Spit on Your Grave
• Prom Night
• Pumpkinhead
• Children of the Corn

I think that’s just a hair less than 50 movies altogether if you count them.

I’m also in the midst of some general themes, such as watching lots of old Wes Craven movies, and finding really awful found footage movies.   I have four Toxic Avenger movies still in my Netflix queue, but I have not been brave enough to seek out the Leprechaun films.

Here are some random thoughts from the experience this year:

• The set that was the most fun overall was probably Final Destination.
• The set that was the least fun was I Spit on Your Grave.  I should not be surprised by that.
• The award for “yeah, they were bad, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought” goes to Children of the Corn.  (The last one, CotC: Genesis is on the way to me right now, so I may change my mind about that one.)
• Based on reviews and internet screeching I’d seen, I expected to hate Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch.  It turns out, I liked it.  A lot!  And, that movie improves the experience of the very first Blair Witch Project, too, based on what we learn.
• The first Prom Night movie is excellent!  Jamie Lee Curtis was in 3 horror movies in the space of about a year when she burst on the scene:  Halloween, Prom Night, and Terror Train.  I listed them in order of how much I enjoyed them.
• I just watched Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud last week.  I don’t know what to think about it.  It’s either one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, or a work of high level genius.  Take some Americana, a bit of Romeo and Juliet, and a monster, then mix it up, and you have this movie.  The movie centers around the feud (duh) between the Hatfields and McCoys – seriously, folks – who in this movie are alive in the early 21st century, I guess, but still living and talking like it’s 1870.   The Pumpkinhead monster gets involved with the feud and things get so hairy that the families call off their feud because of all the carnage.  But to get rid of the monster for good, the person who called it up has to die … will the McCoys sacrifice their own kin to help save the Hatfields?  I mean, if you strip the names Hatfield and McCoy out of it and just take a high level look at the “flowchart” of events between two feuding groups of people and what it takes to calm the feud, there’s actually a really interesting moral quandry hiding in there.  But on the other hand, we have the Hatfields, McCoys, and Pumpkinhead.   So I don’t know what the hell I just watched.
• My favorite horror movies this year (whether part of a franchise or not, and whether released this year or not – I just need to have seen it for the first time this year) have been Split, Get Out, Train to Busan, The Girl With All the Gifts, It, Prom Night, and Blair Witch.

In 2018, I might ease up on movie watching and try to play some video games.  I’ve only finished about 6 hours of The Last of Us!

ACW held Winter Warfare 5 at Lincoln Elementary School in Roselawn, IN on Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:00pm CST.

Because math is hard, this was the 4th anniversary show for ACW, since it would have been Winter Warfare 2 that made the 1st anniversary.  It’s like the argument about whether the new millennium started in 2000 or 2001.  Now, I’m typing this 6 days later, after an entire week of having a cold, so I am relying more then usual on the skimpy notes I tapped into my cell phone.  Any errors are the fault of T K Zero.

I do remember I considered not going to the show at all, because Cliff Caviar stressed on social media that he was vacationing on his yacht this weekend and would not be on the show.  If Cliff Caviar isn’t performing, is there a point to making the drive?  I dunno.

To start things off, some familiar faces from Fire Pro Wrestling come out to take their seats at a ringside table: announcers Jim and the masked guy.  They were never introduced to the audience at any FPW show I went to, and that trend continues here.  I almost wonder if I’m seeing ghosts, and no one else knows they are there.  But I’m pretty sure that’s not true, as I think it’s their voices on this video of the opening segment of the show.  Either that, or a couple of loud drunk guys in the front row got captured in the audio.  But since that video is there, now there’s no point with me continuing with a recap, so goodnight!

Nah, I’ll keep going.  I didn’t take all these high quality pictures for nothing.  General Manager Michael Allen comes out greet the crowd.  He is interrupted almost immediately by Drex Odell, who is out to complain (again) that he has defeated everyone in ACW and is out of competition.  Michael Allen grudgingly agrees with him, and says that’s why he’s brought in someone to take on Odell; Odell will meet Gideon for the ACW Heavyweight Championship later in the show.  Gideon comes out to give a sneak preview, which leaves Odell lying in the ring.

The opening match is Austin Fury against Rockstar Jonny Nigh.  The special guest referee is Mr. Shepherd, from Lincoln Elementary, I guess.  Fury and Nigh are each accompanied by teachers.  (The match does not devolve into a Lunchroom No DQ Falls Only Count in the Biscuits & Gravy Brawl, sadly.)  You can watch this video for the part of the match where Nigh makes Fury bounce like a beach ball off a DDT.  I’ll just say this once then leave it alone, but … man, those saggy ropes really seem to hinder things.   Rockstar Jonny Nigh wins.

The second match of the evening stars Crimson Dynamo.  He, like Drex Odell, does not have any competition lined up already for his Tough Man Title (this could be a short evening if too many people don’t have matches planned!) and he issues an open challenge.  The challenge is answered by …. Blue Dynamo?  He is in Dynamo gear that’s, you guessed it, blue.  And he’s really skinny.  (See picture.  He’s the one that’s getting handled.  And he’s masked.  Hey, wait a minute ….) Soon, T K Zero comes out to talk smack at Crimson Dynamo.  While he is distracting everyone, Blue Dynamo pulls out some brass knuckles, gives Crimson Dynamo a low blow, and gets the pin.   Then Blue Dynamo unmasks, and it’s Cliff Caviar!  Oh no!

Off the heels of his involvement in the previous match, T K Zero takes on Jared Kripke in the third match.  Kripke’s original opponent was supposed to be CK1, who was not on hand, and Kripke states (1) that his moustache does more curls than CK1, and (2) that he’ll take on anyone (another open challenge!).  That’s when T K Zero came out.  And man, do the kids here at Lincoln Elementary hate T K Zero!  (Pic 1 below shows him reminding the children at the rail to stay in school, eat their vegetables at lunch, and respect their teachers.) Kripke gets the win, after which Austin Fury comes out and attacks him (Pic 2).

The fourth match has Rick Raid taking on Macho Del Silver in a ladder match; an ACW contract is hanging above the ring – the first person to retrieve it gets the contract, the loser must leave ACW for good.  This match was simply amazing, with some big moves like a suplex up and over the top of the ladder, a tipped ladder where both workers ended up on the ropes, slams from the top, and so on.

Rick Raid ends up winning the match, signs the contract and slaps it into the chest of GM Michael Allen, then sings “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye” to Del Silver.  (He’s got a pretty good voice, if this wrestling thing doesn’t work out, he has options!)  Macho Del Silver gives a farewell speech.  And hey look, it’s Mr. Moxie Mollie out to console him, he must be an old friend.

After the short break, the next match is Kyle Kaylor vs ACW Intercontinental Champion Xavier Black.  Black wins this, and then pulls a fast one on Kaylor by feigning the “I respect you now and will shake your hand” move before attacking him.  While Black is attacking Kaylor, a mystery man runs out from the back and pretends to buddy up to Black before he clobbers Black himself, then feeds Black over to Kaylor to get his licks in.  I don’t know who he was and his name was never announced.  But if you can identify him from this photo, please contact the authorities.  And no, Kyle Kaylor is not playing “I’ve got your nose” there, it just looks like it.

Next up, we have Flawless Dave Allen (without his branded Dave Allen shorts!) against X-caliber (Pic 1, below), who wins with (if I am learning my wrestling moves well) a Death Valley Driver.  Afterwards, Austin Fury runs out and attacks him, too!  Jeez, what’s up with this guy?

The second to last match is the one set up at the beginning of the show, Drex Odell vs. Gideon for the ACW Heavyweight Championship.  Pic 2 above shows Drex trying and missing a moonsault.  Between Gideon, Drex, and the ref, there were three large homo sapiens in the ring for this match.  Odell wins, rather suddenly, and keeps his title.  Someone has to step up!  I wonder what Kongo Kong is doing in 2018…  Please note that Austin Fury does NOT come out and attack either of these guys after the match.

In the main event of the evening, the Fighting Schoolteacher Jimmy Holmes takes on Bradley Alexander Dawson in a match coming out of the John Hendle Cancer Benefit Show.  This is a street fight!  Picture 1 below shows Holmes going into a piece of plywood. At one point, BAD leaves the ring to go backstage and runs back in with a weapon – Kyle Kaylor!  BAD slams Kaylor on top of Holmes, that’s funny.  But Kaylor cannot be called a foreign object, since he’s from Indiana.  (Hey, don’t look at me like that, you’re the one still reading this crap.) Soon, BAD KO’s the ref and exposes a turnbuckle, preparing to send Holmes’ head into it.  But Holmes has other ideas, and hits BAD with BAD’s own golf club.  While the original ref is still out of it, Super-Ref Zoran dives effortlessly into the ring (seriously, I’d give that dive / slide into the ring a 9.7) to count the pinfall for Holmes.  And then, during the celebration, Mr. Moxie Mollie comes back to the ring and attacks Holmes!  This causes a brawl and lots of folks from backstage have to come out to separate these two (Pic 2 below).  They don’t like each other!  Mr. Mollie introduces himself to those who have not been with ACW since the beginning, he is Maverick Cage, he and Holmes have quite a history, and now it’s time for the third match between the two.  This will take place at ACW School’s Out, which I’m guessing is in May or June of 2018.  Jeez, that’s a long time away.

So 2017 is all done in ACW, and the year ends with:

• Heavyweight Champion:  Drex Odell
• Intercontinental Champion: Xavier Black
• Tough Man Champion:  Cliff Caviar (due to events hereafter to be called the Roselawn Screwjob!)
• No tag team or women’s titles are around, but maybe that can be taken care of in 2018, eh ACW?

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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 8:00-9:30pm 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 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.

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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! 

ACW (Acme Championship Wrestling) held the John Hendle Benefit Show at Kankakee Valley High School on Sunday November 12, 207, at 2:00pm CST.  This show was special for the ACW family, as it helped out some people close to the organization.

The show opened with a chorale from KVHS singing the national anthem.  They sounded awesome, good job, kids!  Once they were done, they managed to leave the ring without incident, which was kind of disappointing.  I expected at least one attempted DDT.

Match 1: Crimson Dynamo and Justin Myers lose to El Muchacho and Rockstar Jonny Nigh.  I’m pretty sure El Muchacho is not Mexican.  But that’s OK, I don’t think Crimson Dynamo is really colored red either.  Below left: Jonny giving Crimson Dynamo a clothesline.

Match 2: Jared Kripke defeats Adam Bueller.  Bueller threatens to bore the crowd to death with a five minute headlock on Kripke.  Fortunately Kripke was having none of it.  Below right:  Bueller kicks Kripke.

Match 3: Bradley Alexander Dawson, fresh off the golf course, defeats Billy the Kid by cheating!  After the match, Jimmy Holmes is ready to take a picture with a raffle-winning fan in the ring, but Dawson claims it is HIS ring, and if Holmes wants it, he has to fight for it.  Holmes pretty quickly proceeds to turn Dawson’s lights out with a punch, and the fan gets an extra special pose!  Below left:  Billy the Kid getting a hole in one.  Below right: a KO’d BAD poses with Jimmy Holmes, Billy the Kid, and a lucky fan.

Match 4:  Dave Allen defeats Johnny Motley.  This match went on for quite a while before Allen gets the win.  (That’s a good thing!  The match was a lot of fun, so it was good that it was a long one.)

Match 5: Austin Fury v. Quinn Whittock v. Joey Dalton v. Xavier Black.  This fatal four way was fast paced, very exciting, and ended pretty quickly.  They packed a lot of action in, though!  By the time I started thinking, man I should get a picture, Xavier Black was getting the pin!

Both before the show and during intermission, you could tell people were in the wrestling spirit, as chants of “WHAT?!?!” could be heard everywhere.  Now, this was likely because the house music was set to ear splitting levels making it near impossible to carry on a conversation, but still….

Match 6: TK Zero and Cliff Caviar vs. Top Gunns.  Now let’s do some math – TK Zero and Cliff Caviar were announced as weighing in at 400 pounds.  Caviar is thin as a rail and can’t account for much of that, so TK Zero must be one hefty dude!  The Top Gunns were announced as 500 pounds, so with Ref Zoran Trpeski in there as well, we had over half a ton in the ring.  Not bad!  I suppose TK Zero and Cliff Caviar got in some offense before they lost, but the only pictures I have show Ace from Top Gunns taking each of them out.

Match 7: Triple threat:  Rick Raid vs. Macho del Silver vs. Drex O’Dell.  Now wait a minute, wasn’t …. oh, nevermind.  Macho del Silver wins this one, and he will be the supreme ruler of ACW’s lucha stars until Macho del Gold makes his arrival.  Here, Rick Raid and Macho argue over who gets to try to pin Drex O’Dell.  I wonder why Drex looks so tired?

Match 8: A match years in the making!  Dueling Facebook promos boiling over and broadcast by the media juggernaut of WVLP!  It’s Jeremy Hadley vs. Tristin Hayze.  The intensity of this did not take long to ramp up to 11, as the two combatants tore into each other outside the ring before the bell rang.  They went at it around the ring, in the chairs, up the bleachers, over towards the concession stand, and into the cinderblock wall.  Ref Jeremy Tillema called for extra muscle from the back to help get them separated; the extra muscle hustled out and stood watching, like “yeah, those two are really going at it, huh?”  You were a big help, thanks, guys!  Once they got in the ring, they battled back and forth until Hayze finally came out on top after a kick to Hadley’s noggin.  Below left: It’s a bird!  It’s a plane! It’s Warfare Jeremy Hadley!  Below right:  Ref Tillema gets help from the timekeeper, as the timekeeper drags the prone Hadley out of the ring by grabbing his wrist and sliding him slowly towards the edge.  I’m pretty sure that’s not proper Red Cross First Aid procedure for handling an unconscious person with a possible head or neck injury, but I guess that’s why they all sign waivers.

My inside sources (hey, Jeremy!) report that attendance was likely a bit over 200.  Good work for charity!

I think the next ACW show is Winter Warfare 5, and it should be coming up on or around December 9.  I’ll edit this when I come across more specific info.  I know I’ve seen something about it, but I wasn’t smart enough to save it on Facebook.

Also, the Demotte Boxing Club – sort of home base for ACW training – is having a fundraiser sparring night on Saturday November 18 at 6pm, at Lincoln Elementary School in Roselawn, IN.

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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 8:00-9:30pm 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! 

Swooping in for an athletics fundraiser, ARWPRO took over the gymnasium of Gavit High School in Hammond, IN on Saturday November 4, 2017 at 7:30pm.  I almost didn’t make it to the show because right on the corner by the school is The Wheel restaurant.  This is one of those Greek owned diners that have 25 page menus and breakfast all day.  I had flashbacks to when my wife (then girlfriend) lived right up the road from here, good Lord it was a bit more than 20 years ago, and we’d eat breakfast there almost every weekend I visited.  Damn, it was good.  Double damn, was I eating breakfast at The Wheel with my wife before Rancid Joey Rak was even born?

Anyway, this particular show was important to a few alumni of Gavit who are on the ARWPRO roster.  This included our first two contestants, Kevin Graves and Marcus Portrait.  Graves comes out with a Gavit letter jacket, which he immediately takes off to reveal a Whiting Oilmen shirt – athletic rivals,  I guess.  Then he gets on the mic to run down Gavit and its students and athletes.  Marcus Portrait (normally part of The Picture Show, but they’re both in singles competition tonight) comes out to fight for the honor of Gavit.  And he wins, to shut up Kevin Graves.

The next match features Gavit alumna Moxie Mollie.  This is her rematch against Renee Van Peebles, with the added stipulation that Van Peebles’ manager Chazz Moretti was banned from the building due to his shenanigans at the previous ARW show (which you can read about right here …. on this web page!).  Without Moretti to cheat on her behalf   offer strategic advice, RVP is not able to overcome Moxie Mollie’s moxie, and Mollie gets the win by making RVP tap to a submission hold.  The Mollie does a victory lap around the audience and gives kisses to the cheeks of young boys.   This picture shows Moxie Mollie in the middle of a cannonball while the chump in the grey hoodie ignores the action and plays on his phone.  I’ll bet Mollie didn’t kiss him after the match!

The third match has Dakota Prodigy defending his Indiana State Championship from X-Caliber.  Now X-Caliber is usually with The Family, but he came out alone this time.  He offers a quick handshake to Prodigy.  Something is up.  Eventually X-Caliber pins Prodigy after a spectacular 450-splash.  Then he gives Prodigy a little sportsmanship afterwards.  Something is definitely up!  King Bishop notices this, and comes out to congratulate him on the win, since he did it by standing up on his own and not using The Family.  King Bishop assures X-Caliber that he, and also the ARW fans, are proud of him for doing it with class.  Well, the Family patriarch Charlie Junior is pretty pissed about this development and tells X-Caliber that he’ll get what’s coming to him at the next show on November 22 (Black and Blue Wednesday).

The last match before intermission has Angel Armani and Johnny Swashbuckle teaming up against Mr. 3% Jon Hudson.  I don’t know why this was originally set to be a handicap match.  This is Hudson’s final ARW match before he moves out west for the gold rush.  Joey Boom Boom comes out to tell Hudson that he’ll be joined by an old friend of his, Johnny Showtime (the other member of The Picture Show).   In the left picture below, Armani shows Hudson what he thinks of his last match.  Eventually during the match Showtime and Swashbuckle end up brawling outside the ring, and the brawl moves backstage – leaving Hudson and Armani to get some time in the spotlight for a while.  But before too long, they come brawling back out and Showtime throws Swashbuckle into the chairs right in front of me (below, right).

Hudson ends up getting the pin, and afterwards he bids a tearful farewell to the ARW roster and fans.  He says the promotion he’s going to in California (not named) will allow him to continue to work the indies, and so he’ll be back sometime.

It’s intermission time!  And then we resume with The Family (Old School Manson and Rancid Joey Rak, with Charlie Junior and whatshername) vs The Mexecutioners.  Here (below left) we see Charlie Junior getting ready for some shenanigans on Santana Starks while the ref is not looking.   The Mexecutioners win this one.

Next, Anthony Toatele (without Kenzi) makes his ARW debut by going against Nick Cutler.  Don’t worry, Anthony, all your opponents from here on out will have less body hair.  I didn’t get any interesting pictures of this one, just the one above taken while Cutler was having words with some people in the front row.  This match ended oddly, as Cutler basically headbutted Toatele in the naughty bits in full view of the ref, and told the ref to do his job …. and so the ref DQ’d him, and Cutler stomped off to the back.

Finally in the main event, we have Ruff Crossing and Max Holiday teaming up against tag team champs Aggravated Assault (B.O.W. and Punisher 747), who are also without the services of Chazz Moretti.  It’s a non-title match, though.  To start the match, the two teams do the “see who gets more cheers” bit, during which one team actually gets boos.  When it was Ruff Crossing and Max Holiday’s turn, they raised their arms to the crowd, and about  two seconds after this picture was taken, they got clobbered by their opponents.  This was definitely a heavyweight match, with the big men doing big men things and making the ring bounce and shake.  Crossing and Holiday lose after a mishap in which Holiday ends up accidentally giving Crossing a face full of boot (or something like that, it was three days ago, and I’m tired).  After the match, Crossing makes nice with Holiday and says he will not get his revenge the way everyone thinks he will, but rather he’ll do it like a man and offer Holiday the rematch he is due for Crossing’s World Title (which he’d won from Holiday in the first place).  Crossing adds, though, “Just one more thing … never trust a cowboy!” and clobbers Holiday.  Ruff Crossing ends the show standing tall.

The next ARWPRO show is on Wednesday November 22, 2017 at 7:30pm at the “ARW Arena”, a.k.a. the American Legion 100 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 9:30pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8:00-9:30pm 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 Nightmare on Grand Ave at Morton High School in Hammond, IN on Saturday Oct 14, 2017 at 7:30pm CST.  This was a fundraiser for high school band uniforms.  This is appropriate since most wrestlers are frustrated band nerds who found it was easier to beat each other over the head with chairs than master the clarinet.  I kid, I kid!  Don’t hurt me.

There are pictures in this recap that aren’t great.  My pics are usually not great anyway, but this time, while the ring was at Morton High School in Hammond, the bleachers where I sat were apparently in Crown Point.  So there was quite a distance.

Props to the ARW ring announcer (you think I’d know his name by now, I only know that Charlie Jr calls him Ginger) for giving a recap of the big events at previous shows that led to the main event matches we’d see on this card.   That was a nice touch.

The first match was Dakota Prodigy (accompanied by Moxie Mollie) defending his Indiana State Championship from Christopher St. Michael.  Once I woke up from St. Michael’s entrance music (*), I neglected to get a picture from this match.  It ended rather abruptly after Prodigy ducked out of the corner when St. Michael was going into it, so that St. Michael went between the turnbuckles and struck the corner post like Braun Strowman always does now; Prodigy rolled him up for the pin.   (*) This sounds like me just being a jerk, but the music fits the lackadaisical “I just don’t care” slow stroll and methodical ring action that St. Michael pulls off.  So it’s good for what he’s doing, it’s just … dull.  OK, maybe I am being a jerk.

The second match was The Mexecutioners (Santana Starks and The Machine) against Nick Calucci and Fitzsimmons.  (Thanks to the ARWPRO Live Facebook page for the proper spelling of those names.)  The Mexecutioners got the win.

 
Up next was Moxie Mollie (accompanied by Dakota Prodigy) against Renee Van Peebles (with her agent Chazz Moretti).  Moxie Mollie busted out a cannonball on Van Peebles, but it did not help in the long run.  At one point, Chazz Moretti shoved Dakota Prodigy on the outside of the ring; the distraction allowed him to slip Van Peebles a foreign object (taped brass knuckles?) that she used to conk Moxie Mollie and get the pin. Mollie has already declared via Facebook that she will be taking video evidence to the powers at ARWPRO and asking for a rematch.  You know, I said this on the air this past Sunday and it bears repeating.  Chazz Moretti and Dakota Prodigy have both been guests on the Northwest Indiana Wrestling Action Program (cheap plug!) and I do not approve of guest-on-guest violence.  It could really spoil the WVLP picnic.

In match 4, The Picture Show joined up with (Horn)Swoggle to take on The Family: OSM (Old School Manson), Ivan Manson, and Rancid Joey Rak, all accompanied, of course, by Charlie Junior.  Charlie made sure to tell Rak that he needs to step up his game.  To start the match, Swoggle decided to size up the competition and check the stomach of OSM (below, right).  I’m not sure why!  But after many tag team shenanigans, Swoggle managed to pin Joey Rak.  Of course OSM and Charlie Junior were not happy about this, and Rak got a few whacks on the way to the back.

Nick Cutler took on Theo Storm after intermission.  You can’t really tell, but above left shows Cutler putting a hurtin’ on Storm.  Cutler was the victor.

Finally, we had a two semi main events.  The first was a no DQ match between Jon Hudson and Joey Boom Boom – Hudson venting all his recent frustrations with employment in ARWPRO and Joey standing up for the promotion and the boys in the back.  Boom Boom is the one who wanted the match to be no DQ.  This went on for a long time, with lots and lots of near falls.  But eventually Joey Boom Boom came out on top, and Hudson recognized who was the better man on this night, and there were hugs and bro moments all around.  This seems to be Joey Boom Boom’s management style, which also paid off with Ivan Manson earlier in the year:  get someone pissed off enough they challenge him to a match, then gain their respect by really bringing it in the match.  I don’t know, it seems like maybe just offering a couple of extra vacation days would be less painful.

Our second main event featured Aggravated Assault (Punisher 747 and BOW, tag team champs -accompanied by Chazz Moretti) versus Ruff Crossing (ARW World Champ) and Max Holiday – accompanied by Ratt J Flywheel.  Chazz Moretti is so confident that his team will win that he’s brought a briefcase with $25,000 inside to award the winning team (he must not have noticed that the tag team titles are not on the line, because that tends to tip things in favor of the challengers).  This is an interesting set up, because Ruff Crossing just recently defeated Holiday for the ARW World Championship, but then saved Holiday from a beating at the hands of Aggravated Assault afterwards.  Ruff does not like Max, but they’re in the “an enemy of my enemy” situation.  They do have complementary styles and looks, though, and so make a really good tag team together.

When Crossing and Holiday win the match (see?), Ruff Crossing quickly grabs the briefcase and starts to celebrate.  But Ratt takes it in hand and says he has a better idea; he trades it in to Moretti in exchange for an actual title shot for his new tag team, freshly dubbed “Ruff Holiday”.  Ruff and Max see the wisdom in this set up.

You can see the follow up to these events at the next ARWPRO show at Gavit Middle / High School in Hammond, IN on Saturday, November 4th at 7:30pm, and then at ARWPRO Black & Blue Wednesday, Wednesday Nov 22 at 7:30pm at the ARWPRO Arena, i.e. American Legion 100 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 9:30pm, right after Mostly Metal, which runs Sundays from 8:00-9:30pm 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!