CodySave

I considered putting this in the Indy Wrestling in Middle America thread, but quite frankly, we've been doing Dave Meltzer's dream cross-promoting this month here in Des Moines - roller derby and pro wrestling! First, there was this at our last 3XW event on May 7th: And then, last night, myself, Rory Fox and Hunter Matthews appeared at a roller derby bout, which of course led to a brawl - nothing like a piledriver being teased by a bad guy in a shimmery jacket in 2010!:

For anyone interested, here's an example of a typical non-headline match and DVD production from the indy I own/book/play poor man's Lance Russell for. If you want your indy wrestling to look something more akin to the territories of the 80s and not a bunch of flippy-floppy, this may be up your alley: Here's the new Free Match of the Month, displaying the enhanced production features on recent 3XW DVDs - 3XW Pure Wrestling championship match: "The Viking Warrior" Kraig Keesaman vs. Krotch - Spring Showdown - April 2, 2010 Fun 3XW action from Des Moines here as "The Viking Warrior" Kraig Keesaman puts the 3XW Pure Wrestling title and his 20-month undefeated streak on the line against fan favorite Krotch. This bout took place April 2, 2010 as part of 3XW "Spring Showdown" at the Des Moines Social Club, the most exciting venue for pro wrestling in the United States! This event also features a phenomenal must-see 3XW Heavyweight title match between "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt and Ring of Honor World champion Tyler Black - you can't rate the top indy matches in the U.S. in 2010 without watching this battle! You can purchase the full event DVD, as well as find more information about the top wrestlers and one of top promotion's in the Midwest, at http://www.3XWrestling.com. Commentary provided by Midnight Guthrie and Chad Mylan. Footage courtesy of SEP Video.

RF already has a teaser video out of the match. Unfortunately it only shows up to the first tie-up: Also - I have no idea what gimmick Borne is trying to work in thisnow. I think it's supposed to be a modern version of his old "Re-Borne" gimmick, but really he just looks like a country drunk that did just enough to pass as the Joker for the local bar's Halloween party.

I don't usually watch NXT, but I'm glad I caught it tonight. What a weird episode. I'll admit, I have no idea where they're going with the Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson thing, but the pseudo-shoot promo he cut where he pretty much admitted Daniel Bryan was booked to be a loser has me intrigued, and I usually hate "OK, this is actually REAL, but everything else on the show is fake" nonsense. To NXT's credit, in featuring only 8 different "stars" for the past few months, I actually grew to like most of the roster in limited viewing and would like to see most of them filling out the RAW/Smackdown rosters and guys like Gabriel and Slater as a tag team. And, man, Wade Barrett is a really excellent performer.

Apologies if this has been posted in the past, but a friend passed this link along to me. I give you the DAVE MELTZER TITANTRON VIDEO!!!! 23 seconds in made me laugh out loud.

Interesting that they weren't concerned about the "who gets cheered factor" at all when Triple H faced Cena and, in fact, embraced the apathy Cena was receiving from vocal male contigenet because of how the loud the reactions were and how much it got everyone talking. I mean, really, I would think WWE officials as much as anyone would realize that a loud "not by design" reaction draws more interest in your overall product and more money for your company than a mild-mannered reaction to the actual plans.

This is the one that has bugged me the most for years, aside from Big Show's awesome but far too short run as a total ass kicker good guy with a knockout punch during the final weeks of the Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. build and maybe three weeks after that: I've always thought WWE really dropped the ball on Christian vs. John Cena about four-five years back. The were on separate shows and Christian was coming out and cutting promos for a good two or three months ripping on Cena and his whole act. The crowd response was phenomenal, with one segment of fans as a result really getting behind Christian and everything he did, not just the Cena stuff, and the other feverishly cheering for Cena. Finally, the annual draft happens and they're drafted to the same show (at least for a few weeks, I believe) and they set up a highly-anticipated Christian vs. John Cena PPV title match, which is doubly great because Christian has been "officially" elevated to a main event PPV level and he's new and fresh to that scene. And then.....Chris Jericho is inexplicably added to the match making it a triple threat match. And we never, ever got Christian vs. John Cena as a PPV title match.

Thanks for the positive feedback and I'm thrilled you both enjoy our events! And thanks for referring your friends who came to the last event! What's interesting about the "kick to the groin" finish is it actually has over 3 years of history in 3XW. It was actually the primary finishing move of the Northstar Express during a record 20-month reign as heel tag team champions, before they eventually lost the titles to the Mark Sterling and Gage Octane incarnation of the Gentlemen's Club. Sterling and Octane actually beat them for the titles when Sterling used the NSE's own patented "kick to the groin" on Ryan Cruz to pin him in a 2-on-1 situation after Corbin legitimately injured his knee earlier in the night. They also used it to beat the NSE in a 2-out-of-3 falls match to retain the titles. And, most recently as you saw, Devin Carter and Casanova used it to beat our current top face team the High Flyers to become the first two-time 3XW tag team champions. Our next event is May 7th - our May events are always some of our most fun of the year and the battle royal usually features lots of surprises and history: Here's the brand new May 2010 edition of Outside the Ring, featuring highlights of the Jeremy Wyatt vs. Tyler Black 30-minute draw that earned a standing ovation from the crowd and a number of great interviews! 3XWrestling - Over the Top Friday - May 7th, 2010 Des Moines Social Club 1408 Locust Street Des Moines, IA Featuring: 3XW Heavyweight championship 3XW Cruiserweight champion "The Rockstar" Jimmy Rockwell vs. "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt © 5th Annual "Gauntlet for the Gold" battle royal - winner receives a future 3XW Heavyweight title shot! A new wrestler enters the ring every 60 seconds! Confirmed entrants: Rory Fox Brian Ash Maddog McDowell "Delicious" Devin Carter - 2009 Gauntlet for the Gold Winner Gage Octane Mark Sterling "The Viking Warrior" Kraig Keesaman "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson "The Laotian Sensation" Ricky Kwong Krotch Sir Bradley Charles "The Canadian Sex Icon" Ryan Slade A.J. Smooth Hunter Matthews Brady A. Dezire "The American Fury" Jon West Mike Sydal or "The Unbreakable" Zach Thompson More to be named soon! See comments from all announced competitors on the May 2010 episode of Outside the Ring! Loser Leaves 3XWrestling "The Unbreakable" Zach Thompson - 2009 3XW "Most Popular Wrestler of the Year" vs. his High Flyers tag team partner, Mike Sydal - 2009 Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Rookie of the Year" Grudge match Mark Sterling vs. Gage Octane 3XW Pure Wrestling championship "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson vs. "The Viking Warrior" Kraig Keesaman Women's wrestling Claudia Del Solis vs. Malia Hosaka Also featuring an appearance by the Mid-Iowa Rollers women's roller derby team! Tickets on sale April 17th at: Jay's CD & Hobby 5921 SE 14th Des Moines, IA Or at http://www.3xwrestling.com, on the events page! **A special note about Over the Top ticket sales: Starting with the May 7th event we will be doing a advance ticket price of $12.00 per general admission ticket and a night of the show/walk up price of $15.00 per general admission ticket. Kids tickets remain $6.00. We want to make sure everyone is aware of this ahead of time and encourage everyone to pre-purchase tickets to retain the $12.00 ticket price. If you have an advance purchase ticket you will get in to the show to get your seat 10 minutes earlier! Advance tickets purchased through http://www.3XWrestling.com will be available to pick up at the event.** $12.00 General Admission advance purchase $6.00 Kids FREE 3 & under General admission tickets will be $15.00 the night of the event. ---------------------- **After party at Z's Bar - 1511 South Union St - Just south of Principal Park!** Food & drinks are available at Z's Bar. Meet, greet & eat with your favorite 3XW wrestlers & staff.

Here's the card for our next 3XW event in Des Moines: Also - I don't think I've posted the link before to two really great Mike Sydal promos: or this great tag team match between The High Flyers and Mark Sterling/Gage Octane: 3XWrestling - Spring Showdown Friday - April 2nd, 2010 Des Moines Social Club 1408 Locust St Des Moines, IA Featuring: 3XW Heavyweight championship Ring of Honor World champion Tyler Black vs. "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt © Six Man Tag Team Grudge match Mark Sterling & The High Flyers - 2009 Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Rookie of the Year" Mike Sydal & "The Unbreakable" Zach Thompson vs. The Gentlemen's Club - Gage Octane, "Delicious" Devin Carter & Casanova Trainer vs. Student Grudge match Brian Ash vs. Maddog McDowell Locust Street Brawl - No DQ Street Fight Rory Fox vs. "Torturous" Tony Sly Also in action: Also in action: 3XW Pure Wrestling Champion Kraig Keesaman, 3XW Cruiserweight champion "The Rockstar" Jimmy Rockwell, "The Laotian Sensation" Ricky Kwong with "The Laotian Liaison" Chad Mylan, Sexy & Smooth - "The Canadian Sex Icon" Ryan Slade & A.J. Smooth, Krotch, Brady A. Dezire, "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson, Buck Albright, Sir Bradley Charles and more! - Card update: Due to Shane Hollister's unfortunate leg injury, Jimmy Rockwell will be defending the 3XW Cruiserweight championship against an opponent to be announced. Everyone at 3XW wishes Hollister a speedy and healthy recovery. Tickets: General Admission $12.00 Kids 10 & Under $6.00 Kids 3 & Under FREE Admission Tickets go on sale March 19th at: Jay's CD & Hobby 5921 SE 14th Des Moines, IA Tickets also available right now at http://www.3XWrestling.com 3XW April 2nd after show party will take place at our sponsor: Z's Bar & Grill 1511 South Union St Des Moines, IA All fans are welcome to attend the after party to eat & drink with the 3XWrestling wrestlers & crew! We strongly encourage everyone planning to attend 3XW Spring Showdown to purchase advance tickets. Our event last month had a packed standing room only crowd and we expect an even larger crowd this month! Other shows of note around the Midwest: - AAW's big 6 Year Annivesary show is in Berwyn, IL on March 26 featuring The Phoenix Twins vs. The House of Truth (Josh Raymond and Christian Able) in a Loser Leaves Town No Rope Barbed Wire match. - Harley Race's WLW is running two shows this weekend featuring Trevor Murdoch (who nows owns and operates a bar and grill in Eldon, Missouri) and ran two shows this past weekend in Missouri featuring Terry Funk. WLW also has four shows scheduled in April - three in Missouri and one in Keokuk, Iowa. Bao Nguyen, a Harley trainee, was just signed to a WWE developmental deal. - Another indy that doesn't get much hype at all but is pretty successful is POWW, based out of Illinois. POWW runs at least 2-3 events a month and holds lots of shows in Illinois and also branches just across the border into far eastern Iowa and western Indiana on occasion. They run family-friendly wrestling shows, not your typical "smart" fan shows, but their roster wrestles each other so much that they're all pretty solid. You can check them out on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/qualityleap

Awesome, glad to hear it, you definitely won't be disappointed! Here's the stacked card for the next show: Full Announced and Updated Card: Tag Team Grudge Match! 3XW Legend Brian Ash & Maddog McDowell vs. 3XW Heavyweight champion "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt & Gage Octane w/Todd Countryman 3XW Tag Team Championship! The Gentlemen's Club - "Delicious" Devin Carter & Casanova w/Todd Countryman vs. The High Flyers - 2009 Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Rookie of the Year" Mike Sydal & "Unbreakable" Zach Thompson © Women's Wrestling! SHIMMER's Melanie Cruise vs. Mia Martinez The Return of Shane Hollister to 3XW! Shane Hollister vs. Sir Bradley Charles, a very impressive rookie trained by Lance Storm. Grudge Rematch! Rory Fox vs. "Torturous" Tony Sly The Return of Krotch to 3XW! Krotch vs. "The Laotian Sensation" Ricky Kwong w/ "The Laotian Liaison" Chad Mylan 3XW Cruiserweight Championship! Brady A. Dezire vs. "The Rockstar" Jimmy Rockwell © 3XW Pure Wrestling Championship! "The Viking Warrior" Kraig Keesaman © - who has not been pinned or submitted in 19 months - has challenged any former 3XW competitor. Also in action: "The American Fury" Jon West, Sexy & Smooth - Ryan Slade & A.J. Smooth & more! Tickets: $12 General Admission $6 Kids 10 & Under Kids 3 Years & Under FREE admission Tickets go on sale February 13th at: Jay's CD & Hobby 5921 SE 14th St Des Moines, IA Tickets also available and more information at http://www.3XWrestling.com Commercial: Here's the The Ash Has Risen TV commercial that is airing thisweek during WWE NXT and TNA Impact for those with Mediacom cable in Des Moines. It will also air throughout the week on Spike TV and Scy Fy. 3XW Outside the Ring: Here it is - the March 2010 edition of 3XW Outside the Ring! Featuring the highlights and aftermath of The Gentlemen's Club vs. The High Flyers and Jeremy Wyatt vs. Maddog McDowell at Reign of Terror! Lots of new insight into Devin Carter joining the Gentlemen's Club.

Des Moines-based 3XWrestling proudly congratulates always-exhilarating aerial specialist Mike Sydal on being selected the 2009 Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Rookie of the Year." Sydal, who is currently one-half of the 3XW Tag Team champions The High Flyers (with "Unbreakable" Zach Thompson), won with 24% of the total vote, beating out TNA Wrestling rookie sensation Jesse Neal. Widely known around the Midwest wrestling scene for his breathtaking high-flying maneuvers and unbelievable speed in the ring, Sydal is the brother of current WWE superstar Evan "Matt Sydal" Bourne. He's recently branched out to competing on the east coast in states such as Florida and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's famous ECW Arena. Sydal joins an illustrious group of previous award winners that includes luminaries such as Larry Zbyszko, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, Bob Backlund, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, "Wildfire" Tommy Rich, Terry Taylor, Nord the Barbarian, "Total Package" Lex Luger, Owen Hart, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright, The Giant, Goldberg, Kurt Angle, Randy Orton and fellow former 3XW competitor Zach Gowen. Sydal's next wrestling appearance is on Feb. 5 in Des Moines, Iowa as part of 3XW's Reign of Terror event at the Des Moines Social Club. Sydal teams up with Thompson to defend the 3XW Tag Team titles against The Gentlemen's Club - Mark Sterling and Gage Octane with Todd Countryman. This is a rematch of the spectacular August battle between these teams at the King of Des Moines Tournament event. For more information about Mike Sydal, 3XWrestling and the Reign of Terror card, please visit http://www.3XWrestling.com Also available right now at http://www.3xwrestling.com/sydalvshollister.htm is a great match from June 2009 featuring Sydal battling fellow Midwest standout Shane Hollister. Be sure to watch the other "Matches of the Month" at the site to catch a glimpse of 3XW at The Des Moines Social Club, the most exciting venue for pro wrestling in the United States today! Here's the match: http://www.3xwrestling.com/sydalvshollister.htm

Oh man, that was something else! "Judo" Joe Black's performance had me legitimately questioning whether he was actually trained in wrestling at all.

Here's the excellent 3XW November Knockout commercial. That's Mike Sydal - Evan Bourne's real-life brother and 2009 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year nominee - doing the moonsault to the floor: Feel free to post a link to this on any other wrestling websites/message boards you frequent.

Fun 3XWrestling tag team action here as evil and charismatic Canadian duo Sexy and Smooth ("The Canadian Sex Icon" Ryan Slade and A.J. Smooth) battle the team of the ever-popular "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson and tag team specialist "The Asian Sensation" Ricky Kwong. This bout was held on September 18, 2009 as part of 3XW's "Clobberpalooza Classic II" event at the Des Moines Social Club, 3XW's central Iowa home arena. This event also featured former WWE and ECW star Al Snow challenging "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt for the 3XW Heayweight title and TNA Wrestling star Sheik Abdul Bashir teaming with his brother Arya Daivari to challenge The High Flyers (Mike Sydal and "Unbreakable" Zach Thompson) for the 3XW Tag Team titles. You can purchase the full event DVD at http://www.3XWrestling.com . Commentary provided by Midnight Guthrie and Chad Mylan. Footage courtesy of SEP Video. You can watch all previous 3XW Matches of the Month at http://www.3xwrestling.com/videos2.htm and http://www.youtube.com/3XWrestling - Sexy and Smooth vs. Masterson and Kwong

I'm going to make an effort to post much more information here while also staying as unbiased as possible in regardless to posting news about all Midwest promotions that are doing cool things. I say that because I'm actually now part of the ownership group of 3XWrestling (3XW), the company here in Des Moines I've posted about before. At the same time, I absolutely don't want to turn this post into a shill for just my company because wrestling in the Midwest as a whole is pretty fantastic and I have friends that regularly work other promotions doing great things. Still, I'll post items about my own company because our whole production is very well done on a very limited budget in my opinion and I think many of you would like our approach - a modern take on certain 80s territories, where we use promos on our webshow to build to matches each month. F1RST Wrestling - Minneapolis/St. Paul This past weekend, F1RST Wrestling held a two-day "Sweet 16" tournament at the West St. Paul Armory (which I believe is a different St. Paul Armory than ROH ran two shows in 2004 and 2006), featuring quite a few CHIKARA/DG USA/ROH stars like Quack, Lince Dorado, The Osirian Portal, Claudio Castagnoli and STIGMA alongside many of the the regular F1RST crew like Arik Cannon, The Northstar Express (Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz), Ben Sailer, Nate Bash (who is pretty awesome and needs to be booked more places), "6% Body Fat" Rob James, Arya Daivari, among others. Here's a great write-up on both nights of the tournament, with quick results below. http://www.examiner.com/x-1734-Pro-Wrestli...e-Sweet-Sixteen Night One: - Throughout the night, The Yellow Dog chased his tournament opponent Lince Dorado (i.e. dog vs. cat (in this case a lynx)) around the arena prior to their bout. First Round Tournament Matches: 1. Ryan Cruz (primarily works tags, but is a really great singles wrestler) beat Amasis 2. "Playboy" Pete Huge beat Venom (who is a huge, round dude) with his G-Spot facebuster and interference by Allison Wonderland 3. "6% Body Fat" Rob James beat STIGMA with a pump-handle package piledriver 4. "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon beat "The Popular" Nate Bash with a brainbuster 5. "The Professional" Ben Sailer beat Arya Daivari by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf 6. Claudio Castagnoli beat Darin Corbin with the Alpamare Waterslide - crowd gave them a standing ovation after the match 7. "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush beat Ophidian with either Quakendriver II or III - another standing ovation 8. Lince Dorado beat The Yellow Dog with a shooting star press Night Two Second Round 1. Arik Cannon beat Ryan Cruz with a brainbuster 2. Ben Sailer beat Pete Huge with the Chaos Theory rolling suplex 3. Lince Dorado beat Rob James with a Shooting Str Press - crowd loved this match and apparently James looked great 4. Non-Tournament match - The Yellow Dog beat Rob Justice with a top rope frog splash in a comedic match 5. Second Round Tournament Match - Claudio Casatagnoli beat Mike Quakenbush with a Ricola Bomb. Quack gets a standing ovation and "Please Come Back" chants 6. The Osirian Portal beat the unusual pairing of Darin Corbin and Nate Bash after pinning Bash following their top rope legdrop/splash combo in a fun match. During the match, all four men busted out a choreographed dance to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" 7. Horace the Psychopath beat STIGMA by submission with some type of chokehold 8. Sweet 16 Tournament Finals: Lince Dorado beat Ben Sailer, Arik Cannon and Claudio Castagnoli - Eliminations: -- Ben Sailer eliminated by Dorado following a SSP onto Sailer, who was holding Cannon in a German Suplex Hold and bridge. -- Arik Cannon eliminated by Claudio Casatagnoli by a Ricola Bomb -- Lince Dorado wins the tournament after pinning Claudio with a sunset flip out of a Ricola Bomb All reports I've seen have said the tournament was a total success. 3XWrestling - Des Moines Here locally, we just released the most recent episode of 3XW Outside the Ring. Production wise, I'm pretty proud of how much the show is improving on a very limited budget. I'd love it if any of you would give it a watch and I'd appreciate any criticism you might have, as it's a constantly improving process. By the way, that's me as Midnight Guthrie, the pro-babyface host of the show and poor man's Lance Russell/Gen Okerlund figure doing backstage interviews. It's done very much in a hybrid "Use lots of promos to build to the next show" and "late 80s-early 90s WWF Event Center" format, with the majority of the show being promos and footage from matches with studio segments tying everything together. Very few indy companies here in the Midwest air any promos online, whereas we build to most of our matches through the use of promos shown on our online TV show. It took a couple years, but our crowd is finally to the point where the majority clearly follow our web show and watch it before coming to the events. We compliment Outside the Ring with individual matches posted online featuring play-by-play by me and heel color commentary by Chad Mylan. The November 2009 edition of Outside the Ring, featuring the end of an awesome Rory Fox vs. Jeremy Wyatt match: This link is to an excellent six-man tag team match featuring three of the most solid hands in the Midwest - Jeremy Wyatt, Mark Sterling and Gage Octane. The first five minutes are definitely worth a watch just to get a feel for the great atmosphere at the Des Moines Social Club:

Because the match featuring "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson vs. Kraig Keesaman received such a positive response in many places, here's another match from 3XW featuring then 3XW Tag Team champions The Gentlemen's Club (notable Midwest indy wrestler Mark Sterling and the vastly underrated Gage Octane) vs. Kwongercricket ("The Asian Sensation" Ricky Kwong and "The 80s Pop Icon" Donnie Peppercricket). Sterling is becoming very well known around this part of the country as a really solid professional and an excellent heel. Octane is a really excellent wrestler and gets an awesome response anywhere he goes, but he is largely unknown because he only wrestles in Iowa due to factors outside of wrestling. To be completely honest, he is the best wrestler I've ever seen that the fewest people know about. Kwong is a fun, smaller indy version of Ricky Steamboat - a modern day Vic Steamboat if you will. Peppercricket is also a pretty solid babyface that lost a ton of weight in recent months. He's sadly most well-known for spending some time working deathmatches in IWA Mid South, despite being a much better comedy/basic tag formula wrestler. Let me know your thoughts on the match or even the commentary. This is actually me doing the play-by-play and I think I have a long ways to go, but I've heard worse. There's some really big shows coming up in Chicago in two weekends, so I'll post some more info when I get a chance.

I assume if he can work all his ROH dates, he can also work his already promoted matches in Dragon Gate USA and AAW in two weeks.

"Rapid Delivery" Rory Fox worked consistently for years in the Ohio/Indiana/possibly Illinois area following his appearance on MTV's "True Life: I'm a Pro Wrestler." He wrestled for HWA for a long time and was heavily featured on their show on America One Television for years. We received this channel for about a year here in central Iowa to supplement the other MyNetwork TV affiliate programming in its infancy. It was always odd to be able to DVR a wrestling show in 2007 featuring Tracy Smothers. I believe he very briefly retired, but in an ironic twist, I'm told he recently moved to central Iowa and may soon begin wrestling for 3XW, the Des Moines-based promotion I do play-by-play commentary, backstage interviews and web show hosting for (as Midnight Guthrie). If he makes his way to 3XW and I do a promo with him, I'll post it here.

Regarding John Cena and The Miz on RAW tonight: How in the hell can the Smackdown writing be SOOOO much better than the RAW writing right now? It's shockingly ridiculous how much better one program is right now than the other program presented by the same company. I watched both last week's Superstars and Smackdown today and I was floored by how great those three hours of WWE programming were. So much fun to watch! EDIT:

So I mentioned previously in this thread that as soon as I uploaded a recent Kraig Keesaman match online, I would post the link here. Well, here it is - the modern day viking warrior Kraig Keesaman, complete with awesome viking-themed offensive moves. His opponent is "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson, who is the only wrestler I've ever seen that uses a "Price is Right" contestant gimmick. If anything, just watch this to see Masterson's awesome entrance.

3XW 4th Anniversary Event Results - This show featured one of the craziest ladder matches I've ever seen due to one wrestler performing most of the match with legit injuries after a botched dive attempt and probably the most believable finish I've ever seen in a ladder match, as detailed below. The biggest crowd ever for a 3XWrestling event at the Des Moines Social Club witnessed what has to be considered the greatest night of action in 3XW history. Over 200 fans packed into the Des Moines Social Club for the following: 1. Six Man Scramble Match for the 3XW Cruiserweight title - Elimination Rules "The Rockstar" Jimmy Rockwell successfully defended the 3XW Cruiserweight title defeating (in order of elimination) "The Right Price" Aaron Masterson, "The Canadian Sex Icon" Ryan Slade, "The Unbreakable" Zach Thompson, "Torturous" Tony Sly and Arya Daivari Different from the traditional Six Man Scramble match, this match featured two men in the ring at one time while the other four competitors stood at the corners of the ring apron waiting for a tag. The winner was declared after the other five wrestlers were eliminated. Tony Sly took the mic before the match, upset that he, a heavyweight, was out in a Cruiserweight match. 3XW President Skylar Pierce explained that even though he's a heavyweight, Sly hasn't been beating the cruiserweights. Pierce told Sly that if could win this bout, he would earn a Heavyweight title shot in the near future. Eliminations - - Aaron Masterson was eliminated following a superkick by Tony Sly. Toward the start of the match, Masterson and Thompson briefly re-comprised their Welfare Check Connection tag team by doing a series of excellent double team moves, including the classic Food Stamp, on joint longtime rival Ryan Slade. - Ryan Slade was eliminated by Arya Daivari with a schoolboy rollup. Before the elimination, Slade took the mic and claimed that like Daivari, the fans hate of him because they don't appreciate diversity. He appeared to make an agreement with Daivari to team together the rest of the match and have a nice, clean match when it came down to just the two of them. Immediate following Slade's announcment, Daivari quickly rolled Slade up for the pin. - Zach Thompson was eliminated following Sly's patented double underhook-into-neckbreaker. Thompson displayed incredible aerial moves in his time in the ring and was cheered more than any other athlete in the contest. - Tony Sly was eliminated by Rockwell following a sitout gourdbuster - Arya Daivari was the final elimination following Rockwell's incredible senton bomb off the top turnbuckle. These two men battled back-and-forth, move-for-move for a number of minutes at the end of this great match. 2. Brian Ash defeated "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon following a screwplex in a great hard-hitting encounter. The match started as a friendly contest between two fan favorites, but after Cannon started to have a little too much fun at Ash's expense, it quickly turned in a very tough back-and-forth battle. Ash busted out his old top rival Gage Octane's patented screwplex to finish Cannon after surving a brutal t-bone suplex by Cannon. 3. In the most brutal match in 3XW history, Tyler Cook regained the 3XW Pure Wrestling title over Jeremy Wyatt in a ladder match. Incredibly gutsy performance by both athletes. In the early moments of the match, Wyatt took an awful spill after catching his foot on the middle rope trying to five out of the ring between the middle and top rope. He quickly fell to the concrete floor, landing head first after also hitting the side of his head on the metal ring frame behind the apron. This opened up a large gash on the side of his head and possibly gave him a concussion, but he shockingly was back to his feet within minutes of the fall. The rest of the bout featured an incredible series of innovative and reckless moves with the ladder, chairs and the ringside table and steps. The crowd was solidly behind both competitors and Wyatt certainly gained some fans as the match lasted due to his incredible toughness. The final moments of the match saw Tyler Cook climb to the top of the ladder and grab the title while an exhausted, disoriented, and beaten Jeremy Wyatt began throwing up at the edge of the mat. You can see more comments about this match from 3XW fans at this thread: http://3xwrestling.proboards.com/index.cgi...2168&page=1 4. The Gentleman's Club (Gage Octane and Mark Sterling w/ Todd Countryman) retained the 3XW Tag Team titles over the Northstar Express (Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz), 2 falls to 1, in a 2 out of 3 falls in an unbelievably great match. One of the best tag team matches in 3XW history featured awesome teamwork by both teams and unfortunately multiple moments of interference by Todd Countryman, who had a hand in both of the Gentleman's Club's winning falls. After getting tossed from ringside by 3XW president Skylar Pierce after helping his men win the first fall, Countryman returned much later in the match dressed as a masked fan, pulling Ryan Cruz's foot out of the referee's view to break up what was surely the winning pinfall. Further interference allowed Mark Sterling to nail the NSE's own patented groin kick on Corbin to win the match. The final five minutes of this battle were phenomenal to watch. 5. Kraig Keesaman defeated Maddog McDowell after faking that he seriously re-injured his recently sprained ankle and taking advantage of the sportsmanship displayed by McDowell, who was giving him some time and space to recover, by quickly popping up to his feet and nailing McDowell with a devastating Nordic Spike. Keesaman has now been undefeated for 11 months and hasn't directly been pinned or submitted since June 2008. With the win, Keesaman now gets a long-awaited title shot and will face new Pure Wrestling champion Tyler Cook at our August event on Aug. 21 6. "Delicious" Devin Carter became the first three-time 3XW Heavyweight champion defeating Casanova in an extraordinary Dog Collar match. A completely awesome brawl that had the crowd on their feet. Many very unique moves involving the chain were used, including Carter wrapping Casanova around the ring post with the chain and delivering a series of brutal chops. The final minutes of the bout saw Casanova use a sleeperhold with the chain, Carter come flying off the top of a ladder with an awesome legdrop and the finish - Carter wrapped Casanova with the chain around a table and came off the top rope with an incredible splash, sending Casanova crashing though the table to an electric reaction from the crowd. If you've never seen 3XW before, THIS is the event to pick up on DVD when it's released by SEP Video. Please visit www.3xwrestling.com to watch the next episode of "Outside the Ring" as well as to watch other videos. Also visit the 3XW store to browse all the DVDs available to own. There's lots of exciting happenings in 3XW the next two months. Please join us at the Des Moines Social Club on Aug. 21 for our next event, featuring the first ever "King of Des Moines" tournament as well as defenses of the 3XW Heavyweight and Pure Wrestling titles. Also - our September 18 event at the Des Moines Social Club will feature the 3XW debut of former WWE and ECW star Al Snow. By the way, here's video of two past 3XW matches. First is a really fun tag team match between the Northstar Express and Ben Sailer & Nate Bash from June 2006, and the second is "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt dismantling Ricky Kwong and Johnny "The Revenue" Price in a triple threat match from June 2008. - The Northstar Express in action - Jeremy Wyatt in action I'll try to post some more recent matches from our awesome new venue in Des Moines in the future.

I would definitely check the show out if you have an opportunity. AAW is for sure one of the most solid wrestling promotions in the Midwest, which actually covers more ground than you would think. Illinois, Missouri and Iowa combined have at least 30-35 or more companies running, not to mention the random Minnesota indies. Wisconsin has a few as well, but I'm not sure if they have many promotions of note right now, besides the stacked Heavy On Wrestling cards three times a year. Cannon and Hollister have really great chemistry with one another and I believe this is the first time they'll meet in a gimmick match. Jay Bradley is a former WWE developmental wrestler who spent time on Smackdown as Ryan Braddock. The House of Truth stable is full of solid hands. Danny Daniels has always been a pretty underrated wrestler in my opinion and it will be interesting to see how intense a feud-based match between him and Jimmy Jacobs will be. The Phienix Twins are a really good team that I'm shocked haven't been appearing in some of the more nationally known indies - I would almost chalk it up to simply geography or day jobs. Plus, I believe the show starts at 5 p.m., so as not to force fans to choose between AAW and the epic UFC 100 card later that night. You could go to the show and still do something with your wife Saturday night.

Recent midwest happenings: "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon, who is the owner/promoter/booker of his own indy in Minnesota, F1RST Wrestling, recently drew just under 500 fans to a F1RST show featuring the first match between Jerry Lynn and Sean Waltman in years. Here's the full results, as written by sphinx on the DVDVR board: Mortimer Plumtree has done a lot of the commentary on the F1RST discs that I've seen. Yellow Dog is almost always Jaysin Strife under a mask, unless he's now outsourcing his gimmick to other Midwest indy workers - sorry if this revelation ruins anything for IWA Mid-South fans, where he's supposedly been forced to leave town for a year. As for Allison and Shark Girl being on different pages - Allison is usually on a different page with every opponent she faces. Malia Hosaka of all people had a hell of a time with her here in Des Moines last October. I'd love to see the O'Neill Brothers & Aaron Corbin vs. Northstar Express & Arik Cannon match because on paper alone, this match encompasses a lot of history. Regarding Sailer, him and Bash make a really exciting team. Sailer is definitely one of the best guys in the Midwest as far as using a "ROH"-type style - the funny thing is that F1RST is probably the only promotion he wrestles in in where you can see more than a match or two of that style on the card. Bash has actually heavily improved in his singles matches in the past couple years and is a blast to watch. It's hilarious to me that "6% Body Fat" Rob James wrestles in so many "deathmatches" considering he is actually an amateur bodybuilder and doesn't look at all like someone who would bump into tacks. Funny thing is, his gimmick was ironic when he staring using the moniker because he actually was kind of flabby and now he's legitimately worked himself into being muscular to the point where the nickname fits. Glad to hear Cannon and Co. had such a large attendance. First Avenue must have been totally packed. Cannon also does a hell of a nice job on indy wrestling video production. Here are two videos he's quickly put together since the event: From all accounts, this show went much smoother then when The Sandman was brought to Minneapolis a few months back - there's clips on YouTube of fans giving the very drunken Sandman vs. Horace the Psychopath match "boring" chants.

Between occassionally listening to a free edition of the Bryan and Vinny show and reading Todd Martin's RAW Report on the Observer site, I sometimes wonder if Alvarez and Martin are having a secret contest to see who can hate RAW the most each week. There are weeks that I wonder if I've even watched the same show that they're discussing. And this is coming from a guy who doesn't even care enough watch RAW live as it happens just so I can fast forward through the parts I don't care about. Even worse is Martin clearly is so focused typing his notes that he misses one or two key moments on the show each week. The more I listen to Alvarez or see something he writes (it should be noted, I'm not even a subscriber), the more it seems he totally hates pro wrestling beyond repair right now. He seems so burnt out.

I was just going to post a similar thread about this. I'm not quite sure what's gotten into Dave today - hell, quite frankly, it almost comes across like he's drunk at times, which I strongly bet isn't the case - but today's update is awesome. I'm very glad I sent Dave the 3XW info last night because most other days he just puts "3XW in PLACE in CITY," but to crack wise on the name of the building made my day.