My first thought writing this out today is, “Oh crap! It’s late!†but then I thought to myself.. ‘eh.. you slathering horde of wrestling zombies will wait a bit for your indie news. It’s all good though because this has been a good week with CHIKARA and ROH doing great things.. but then further sad news coming from, surprisingly, CZW (will it NEVER end?).
Condolences to the Lowry family as they will soon be burying their son Matt (known as Matt Riot) as he died during a CZW training session. He was 21 years old having worked in IWA Mid South, American Luchadore, Absolute Intense Wrestling, and others. He moved to this area (Philly) in hopes of his career getting that push. Now he will never see that and it is VERY sad. This is what I was talking about in my last article about the indies and the love of the competition. If you pray to God, Allah, the Muffin Man, or whatever – include his family.
We will head up to the great white north (no, not Canada) to New Hampshire and Massachusetts as CHIKARA pulled double duty on the 13th and 14th bringing it’s awesome brand of Japanese/Mexican style wrestling to the masses. Other writers cover CHIKARA so I will just give a quick shout to some of the matches.. Hallowicked and Frightmare over Icarus and Chuck Taylor, Sara Del Rey over Ariel, Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw over Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson. Now, to the 14th show we got to see even MORE.. Fire Ant and Green Ant took a tough loss by the Badd Bros., Hydra lost to Tim Donst via the Tazmission in a whopping 16 seconds, Claudio Castagnoli over Hallowicked in a 20-minute match for the main event. Read the other articles on Pulse for the full coverage.
WWA4 put on a steaming pile of.. awesomeness.. in Hotlanta, GA! As what I am seeing is a trend the guys from WWA4 specialize in half-card shows. ‘Eh – as long as noone complains, right? On to the matches.. Jimmy the Kid along with his partner of the moment Eric Mayne went over El Pagano and Miguel Rivera, Bill the Butcher (obviously taken off guard by a nice rump roast) got an upset LOSS delivered by Amy Morgane. A R Fox got a win over Gorilla Mac, Navy Blue (NAVY – not periwinkle) won over Jaebo and Jake Diamond in a 3-Threat and the main event was a 20-man beat down with Montessa the Ref being the last fool carried out.
I just spent a weekend in Kentucky covering Scarefest for the magazine I’m editor for so let’s stay with the south and head to Seymour (it really IS an oxymoron), TN for the UWA (United Wrestling Association). Chris Dalton pulled out a win via DQ over The Assassin (no, not the dead one though that’d be kinda cool), “Big Gun†Robbie Race walked over The Samoa, and in a WTF match of the evening we had Shockwave the Robot (ummm.. I think the Transformers may contact them for gimmick infringement) defeating Sigmon (ummm.. Sid and Marty Kroft know you’re doing this?) with his manager Nicholas Belvedere Crisp (FYI – product trivia.. that creepy character on the Pringles can.. yeop.. Nicholas Belvedere Crisp) by pinfall. The main event featured ROH heavyweight contender Jerry Lynn as he fought Shawn Shultz to a pinfall victory.
Southeatern Xtreme Wrestling had a decent showing in Dotham, AL (I thought I was going to escape the deep south..) as it the SXW presented “Sudden Impactâ€. I guess one could argue it was more of an NWA-style TV taping with a few matches including Mayhem over The Mexican Kid (in pro-wrestling he’s most likely a Jewish Swede), Street Bandit losing to Shane Stevens, The Cherokee Warrior (probably Italian) kept his US title as he beat Nemesis (I thought the guy from Resident Evil looked bigger..), Loverboy Buddy Condrey and The Confederate Kid went to a no contest in their lumberjack strap match, and in the main event Big Daddy kept his heavyweight strap as he beat Chain in a barbwire match (go ahead – chuckle at the irony..).
The Honky Tonk Man rolled into town by way of Big Time Wrestling to capture some gold-looking plastic. Of course he defeated Ryan Von Kool who subbed for the champion Jason Styles who came to the ring in a sling at the beginning of the show. So wrestling fans – can you tell me where THIS angle will go? I’m predicting the “BTW Committee†ruling that HTM didn’t defeat the REAL champion so now it’s held up. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, sells cars like the Honky Tonk Man (that’s for you Aaron). In other matches Mother Truckin’ Otis beat Dustin Ardine, Davina Rose won her match against Christina Von Eerie, Kimo challenged Shannon Ballard for the cruiser strap and sailed on to victory to claim it. In other BTW news, Ronnie Washington, long time BTW ref was wished well as he gets a shot to work in WWE. With any luck he won’t be futured endeavored.
Now – to properly segway that – my thoughts on Linda McMahon. As many of you know Linda stepped down as CEO of WWE Entertainment to pursue aspirations in politics. She is running for Senate in Connecticut. Personally I think it’s a great idea. You know she’ll be a good politician as Pro-Wrestling is nothing but. Big Show and Khali fighting like trained chimps, Montreal screw-job, Chris Benoit omissions, and many more “issues†over the years make her PERFECT for handling senate BS. I’m tired of politicians looking down on wrestling. They didn’t mock Arnold when he ran for Governor in Cali. They sure as hell didn’t turn their nose up at Reagan.. Jesse Ventura surprised them and Lawler, if they ever take him seriously, may surprise them in Memphis (tip Jerry – stop being a douche chasing 18 yr. old puppies and you may get a shot). I hope she wins because I believe she’d be great at the job.
Now – more ‘rasslin news..
And we head to West Virginia (I drove through the state coming back from Kentucky and let me tell you.. it is SCARY) to probably THE most creatively named indie in wrestling: Championship Wrestling (pssst.. sarcasm). Braeden Wolfe loses to Chris Andrews, Rip Manson pins Jeff Jeckyl (where the hell was Hyde?), Dr Roger Hamm interfered in the match between Danny Ray and War Machine (no, not Rhino) costing WM the win, C.o.R defeated the US tag champs Modern Profile in a non-title bout.
On to Fayetteville, NC and if you have NEVER been here.. go! They got some of the best chocolate chip pancakes in the whole friggin world! As far as wrestling.. it’s more like hominy (er.. grits for you southerners). Ring Wars Carolina (RWC) played to a good crowd at the Cumberland County Fair. Remix got pinned by Andrea the Giant (kudos for originality..), PoPo da Klown over Kan “Mama’s Boy†Shirt (ok – so Keenan Ivory Wayans worked the match against a shirt? Interesting..), The Scandinavian Sweetheart beat Fruity Joose (yes, it is OK to laugh..) and Caprice got the win over Tre G. If you’re in the area and get Time Warner Cable you can check out their “Battlegrounds†show that is aired Thursdays at 7:30PM.
Since we are already in North Carolina we may as well finish here as Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling comes to Rutherford, NC with Buff Bagwell (yea, I didn’t know he still wrestled either), Bobby Eaton, and Ricky Morton in tow. With over 1,000 fans this show was gonna be hotter than the sticky, disgusting weather that North Carolina produces. As with many “sponsored†or “charity†events the matches tend to be few to keep costs down. Many shows consist of 9 matches and, unfortunately, MACW produced just 5 but they were 5 good ones! Chris Hamrick beat Donnie Dollar$, Woman’s Champion Jayme Jamison lost her strap to Krissy Vaine, Andru Bane took the beating from Ricky Morton, Richie Steamboat challenged Rikki Nelson (no – not the dead singer.. though, again, that’s be cool) for the Jr. Heavyweight title but came up short. The main event featured MACW Heavyweight Champion Buff Bagwell taking on Bobby Eaton and retaining his title!
As always.. if you own, promote, go to, or suck up to ANY indies then drop me results in my mail: bobganome@gmail.com and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter because I know you want to KNOW when I’m buying bread so head on to http://www.twitter.com/darkersidemag and if you don’t follow pulse then start: http://www.twitter.com/pulsewrestling. If any of you folks are going to be in Orlando, FL next month October 9th-11th feel free to come say HELLO at my table as I invade the Spooky Empire horror convention to hock copies of the magazine I’m editor of (http://www.thedarkersidemag.com – featuring “Battered and Bruised: Tales From the Indies†article with an interview with ROH’s MsChif plus a ton load of other cool crap). FYI – Jake Roberts, Greg Valentine, and Brutus Beefcake will be on hand at the show! Why? I don’t know..
With that shameless plugs out of the way keep in mind what I said last time about the indie scene! Stay safe and say thanks.. respect IS important and love even more so, so give some!
