Midwest Indies

[ThomasFromIowa]

Discuss midwest indies here.

This is my main interest and I don't really have a place to talk about it, so I'm making this thread.

[ThomasFromIowa]

Yesterday I went to Funky Munky Wrestling's Champion's Choice at the Latin American Social Club in Sterling Illinois. The main gist of this show is that every year the champion gets to be the GM of the season finale. This year Matt Cage was holding the big yellow belt coming into the final show. This show was really good. A day after the show my mind keeps going back to the huge four way. It was Bobby Houston vs Waylon Beck vs Mason Beck vs Dixieland Destroyer. The match was nonstop action with each person in the match wanting to get a piece of Bobby with Bobby and his manager Zeke Zshe eventually getting the three into fighting each other instead. The match had an insane highspot as the 400 pound Dixieland Destroyer did a dixieland god damned destroyer from the second rope onto Waylon Beck. (Link to destroyer here: https://twitter.com/funkymunkyfun/status/726825200302575616) Another thing that made this match very cool was the post match promo by Waylon stating that the family is done and that it meant a lot to him and the fans. There were lots of meta references thrown in that referenced to this also being a turning point in the way Funky Munky would be doing business. Since Funky has been drawing bigger and only around half of their original roster is still there, this promo got an actually emotional reaction from the fans who had been going to these shows for years. This show also featured the Matt Cage vs Bucky Collins iron man match which resulted as a swerve when Bucky's enforcer Fat Stanley revealed himself to be the general manager and then destroyed Matt Cage so Bucky won the title in sudden death of the iron man. Also featured was Ruff Crossing's debut which got over very well and a good match between Swag Tag (JJ Garrett and Harvey Bower) vs Stephen Wolf and Moondog berard. Other notable events would be an awesome Zicky Dice corner cannonball and the latest class from Black and Brave working the preshow. Funky Munky is a company to watch in the future as they continue to draw well (200-300) and run the best angles in the midwest all while using only local talent.

[soup23]

Hey Thomas, have you seen the recent past two years of IWA-MS. I have caught some of the Kongo run and TPI from 2015 but with them running shows regularly, there is a good bit of talent centered there that I don't have a general vibe on one way or another.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

In June if I'm feeling good enough I'm going to check out F1RST Wrestling's Wrestlepalooza show. Never checked them out before and I've always wanted to see wrestling at First Ave. (a great concert venue that Prince owned for a while).

 

https://www.facebook.com/F1RST-Wrestling-240079265547/

 

I've also always meant to check out Steel Domain Wrestling in the Twin Cities, but life always gets in the way.

 

http://www.steeldomainwrestling.com/

[ThomasFromIowa]

No, I haven't watched any of their shows. I do follow via social media though as a lot of the guys I really like get booked there frequently. I really like what I've seen from John Wayne Murdoch as he shows so much heart in the ring. He had a match with Matt Cage this past Friday that I guess went twenty minutes so I'm probably going to try and catch it at some point. I'm also on the Kongo Kong bandwagon as I saw him live a couple times and he has a huge aura around him. His match with Justice Jones from AAW Vanguard is probably in my top five live matches I've seen in person. I'm also down for the Hooligans crazy brawls as they are something truly unique in wrestling. I don't really know a lot about the rest of the guys on the roster beyond Ian, Corp, Page. I see lots of good stuff said about Shane Mercer, but have yet to sit down and watch a match.

[ThomasFromIowa]

In June if I'm feeling good enough I'm going to check out F1RST Wrestling's Wrestlepalooza show. Never checked them out before and I've always wanted to see wrestling at First Ave. (a great concert venue that Prince owned for a while).

I was at the Wrestlepalooza show in Des Moines in January and it was a cool experience. I got pretty drunk and had a great time. I'm pumped to see the lineups roll out as there is a lot of cool talent for them to use. At the Des Moines show they had a four way hoss battle between Kody Rice, Chainsaw King, Redwing, and Venom that was pretty fun to watch in person. It also led to this great moment from Chainsaw King and burlesque dancer Sigourney Beaver on local television http://www.weareiowa.com/news/local-news/stars-of-wrestlepalooza-on-good-morning-iowa

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

 

In June if I'm feeling good enough I'm going to check out F1RST Wrestling's Wrestlepalooza show. Never checked them out before and I've always wanted to see wrestling at First Ave. (a great concert venue that Prince owned for a while).

I was at the Wrestlepalooza show in Des Moines in January and it was a cool experience. I got pretty drunk and had a great time. I'm pumped to see the lineups roll out as there is a lot of cool talent for them to use. At the Des Moines show they had a four way hoss battle between Kody Rice, Chainsaw King, Redwing, and Venom that was pretty fun to watch in person. It also led to this great moment from Chainsaw King and burlesque dancer Sigourney Beaver on local television http://www.weareiowa.com/news/local-news/stars-of-wrestlepalooza-on-good-morning-iowa

 

 

I think they have Scott Hall lined up for both Wrestlepalooza stops in Iowa and MN for June.

[grapplin' apple]

I can't say enough good things about AAW out of Chicago. I've been to two of their shows the last two years, and I certainly wish I could go to more, but work/family commitments keep from it. The two shows I've been to were two of the best shows I've been to in going to shows for almost 30 years. If you get a chance, please go. Ciampa, Kong, Callihan, etc. are all regulars.

[ThomasFromIowa]

Funky Munky just tossed the match I was championing in my first post onto Youtube. This one builds to the closing spots, but boy does it pick up. Also, I'm on tape marking for the dixieland destroyer's destroyer for a solid 30 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6z1R92lfOg&feature=youtu.be

[soup23]

wearing a red hoodie?

[Quentin Skinner]

Freelance Wrestling is streaming live this Friday. Freelance has quickly rose to being one of the most interesting indies in the Midwest and always have entertaining shows. The February show they did was killer.

[ThomasFromIowa]

wearing a red hoodie?

 

Yes, that is me.

[Dylan Waco]

Soup, Exposer went to the TPI last year and largely had positive things to say about it. What I've seen of IWA-MS in the last two years has generally ranged from interestingly bad to really great, so I think it's probably worth the risk to buy one of their shows.

 

I am biased because of friendships, regional loyalties, and stylistic preferences and will always prefer Southern Indies at least in the abstract. That said I actually think the Midwest has the most vibrant and interesting scene top to bottom right now. Feds of note include:

 

Proving Ground Pro - Based out of a Illinois. Not as "name heavy" as most of the other Illinois feds of note, but they stream a lot of their stuff on Periscope, and they have booked people from all over the place in the last few months including Jeff Cobb from out west, Tyson Dux from Canada, and Adrian Armour from down South, on top of their local stars like Craig Mitchell (good big man), Jake Dirden (who is awesome, and probably one of the best guys no one talks about though I might say that a lot in this post), Kenny Sutra, Devin Thomas, and others.

 

IPW - Iowa promotion, called by my buddies Midnight Guthrie and occasionally Hollinger. Lots of stuff up on YouTube. What I love about this fed is that the crowd seems really invested in the face/heel dynamics on each show, and when they are behind someone they are really behind them. Really good workers like Christian Rose and Matt Cage work there at least some of the time, but my favorite thing about the promotion is getting to watch younger guys develop by working vets in front of rabid hometown crowds. One of my fav. lesser known promotions in the country.

 

Metro Pro - Rarely run anymore if I'm not mistaken, but for a time was arguably the best indie in the country if you are factoring in announcing, production, and quality. Still release shows occasionally on their YouTube, and they usually feature a Jeremy Wyatt match so they are always worth watching (Wyatt is probably the best wrestler of the last ten years that is unknown outside of his region other than maybe Shaun Tempers or Kyle Matthews).

 

St. Louis Anarchy - Technically another Illinois company. I don't think I've ever watched a full show from them from beginning to end, but almost all of their shows get rave reviews in real time from live attendees. They book guys from all over including Texas guys like Andy Dalton and Ricky Starks, Southern guys like Team IOU, and regional stalwarts (Hooligans, Cage, Trik Davis, et). One to watch for going forward.

 

AIW - Run out of Cleveland. For a time they felt like they were the hottest indie promotion on Earth, but the consensus seems to be that they've gone too far down the comedy road for the last six months or so. That said I actually think they have done something pretty novel for themselves as they are the only place where you can see Bunkhouse Buck work on the same show as Flip Kendrick. At best a fun amalgamation of highspot heavy stuff, comedy, and Johnny Gargano matches (this is not an insult). The lineup for their annual JLIT Tournament this year will give you a good look at how fun, absurd, and entertaining this company can be.

 

IWA-MS - Touched on them earlier. They have kind of been launching pads for people like Tripp Cassidy, Kongo Kong, and Heidi Lovelace over the last few years so for that reason alone I consider the relaunch a big success. Last year's TPI was said to be really good, the Kong title reign led to a lot of fun matches, they will bring in a guy like Chris Hero to tear the place down when they need, but they will also build quality guys like a John Wayne Murdoch. I should probably start buying random full shows.

 

Dreamwave - Kind of the below the radar indie of note from the Midwest in that they book a lot of "name" indie guys but don't seem to get talked about as much as AAW or AIW for whatever reason. I actually think they do a great job being a place where the top regional guys feel like the absolute equals of the top names they bring in. In that sense if you want a feel for what a Heidi Lovelace, or Matt Cage, or Christian Rose, or Arik Canon can do I MIGHT point you to DW first. Also they just put their belt on Prince Mustafa Ali who is one of the most underrated legitimately great wrestlers on Earth. Watch them.

 

Freelance - Chicago fed. One of my five favorite promotions on Earth. They stream all of their shows live on YouTube, though they do have late start times which makes it tough for East Coast folks to get through them. Still, a couple of those shows have been absolutely excellent, and the presentation of their product (bar atmosphere, hot crowd, over the top enthusiasm from announcers and workers) makes what they do extremely exciting to the point where I planned a trip around seeing them live in June. They have some of the best and most underrated wrestlers on Earth working for them including their douchebag heel champ Isaias Velazquez, Prince Mustafa Ali, Robert Anthony, Suger Dunkerton (yes he's actually REALLY good now), and Matt Knicks. Their Feb. show "The Scene Is Dead, Long Live The Scene" is one of the best shows of 2016. They also have brought in a bunch of people from other places this year and used them in very effective and interesting ways (Jimmy Rave, Chip Day, Ethan Page, B Boy), and on top of that Sally Stitches (who looks curiously like Heidi Lovelace in a mask) is pretty much the only consistently great intergender worker on Earth. They have another live YouTube stream tomorrow night. Everyone should check it out.

 

AAW - Another Chicago fed. Aside from PWG maybe THE indie of note at this point. While I am not sure I think they have had a show as good as the Feb. Freelance show this year, they have gotten to the point where their shows are must buy for me when they hit Smart Mark because I know I am guaranteed a quality top-to-bottom card, with a wide variety of styles and wrestlers. Things like the slow building push of Kongo Kong, the way they have played Davey Vega and Mat Fitchett off of each other people to their tag win, and the use of The Hooligans, among other things has really rewarded people who have invested in watching the shows month-to-month. They seem to pretty much have their pick of top indie names to bring in and have used Lucha Underground guys, Trevor Lee, Chris Hero, Timothy Thatcher, Tommaso Ciampa (who is a regular to be fair), Drew Gulak and others a bunch recently. Probably the most improved wrestling promotion in the World from my perspective over the last five years or so, which isn't to say I ever hated them, but they went from being okay to can't miss in my eyes. Like Freelance they would be a top 5 promotion on Earth for me at this point.

 

I may do a similar post on my favorite Midwest Indie workers later.

[Quentin Skinner]

Glad Dylan mentioned how great Mustafa Ali is. He is absolutely fantastic. He's had a killer year having awesome matches with guys like Isaias Velazquez, Brubaker, Christian Rose, and even Ethan Page who I'm not the biggest fan of to put it mildly.

[grapplin' apple]

I think the reason that Dreamwave doesn't get the attention it deserves is its location. It's about 2 hours (at least) outside of Chicagoland.

[ThomasFromIowa]

I attend Dreamwave somewhat regularly and always enjoy the show, but I feel like they don't get attention because they just aren't that exciting. Like, they are exciting for this part of the country, but on a nationwide perspective, booking AR Fox vs other superindie guys just isn't breaking ground stuff anymore. It feels like they are always about a year and half behind the hot indie wrestling trend. I think Ali doing the cruiserweight series is going to be a good bump for them though, as they just made him their new champion/main attraction.

[soup23]

Watched the Legend Killers vs. Sterlen Reigel/James Jeffries match. Really good stuff that had a southern feel. I want to see more of Reigel but I feel he will be in a much bigger spot probably along with his twin brother in a fairly short amount of time. His dropkicks in this match looked slightly awkward but everything else was hit really well given his experience level. Jeffries was a good FIP in this match and the Legend Killers had a 2005 Josh Abercrombie vibe that worked for me in this environment. Look forward to watching more in the future.

[ThomasFromIowa]

There's a really interesting company opening up in Omaha called Now This is Wrestling and Vince Russo involved in at least an onscreen level. He did this promo that is either great or awful saying he is the matchmaker of the company. While this group feels like it could be a wreck, they have won me back over with their first match announcement, The Reigels vs Zero Gravity.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Just got home from a Steel Domain Wrestling show at the American Legion in Richfield, Minn. It was my 2-year-old's first wrestling show and my first independent wrestling show since seeing Ken Patera's All-Star Wrestling in small-town Minnesota in the late 1990s.

 

Both of us had a good time and thumbs up to Steel Domain for putting on a fun show. My 2 year old picked out an Ultimate Warrior action figure to buy from a vendor and daddy found a picture of Buddy Rose pointing at Jesse Ventura's biceps, signed by Rose, for $10.

 

This weekend is a chemo weekend, and it's the first Saturday I've felt good on a chemo weekend in a while. Decided I needed to do something since I was feeling well, so why not check out some wrestling with the kid? If anyone reads this from Steel Domain, thanks for a fun night!

[ThomasFromIowa]

Chicken Wing, I just saw Pro Wrestling Battleground has a show this weekend in the twin cities area. They were really hot about six months ago (to make it short, they were bringing in guys from throughout the midwest and had a really hot angle where they retired Horace the Psychopath to a cowardly heel), and though I haven't heard much about them lately they have a show this weekend in the twin cities and are known to always have good shows and a lively crowd.

I'm stuck in a position where there isn't a live show within three hours from my house until June 10th and it has me freaking out and considering stupid road trips. The show on the 10th is the Pro Wrestling Revolver show which has Billy Gunn vs John Morrison, Jack Evans vs Scotty 2 Hotty, Hardcore Holly vs Sami Callihan and a ton of other unfortunate pairings. After that, I thankfully get Wrestlepalooza on the 17th which I am super pumped for. At the first Des Moines show I didn't necessarily care for the wrestling, but I was trashed and had the best time and I'm hoping to live that again. God bless Arik Cannon for Wrestlepalooza.

[vikingsfan73]

ThomasFromIowa, I think "unfortunate pairings" correctly sums up the lineup for that Pro Wrestling Revolver show. That will be a game time decision for me.

 

Are you going to the IPW show on July 23 in conjunction with the Thesz/Tragos HOF weekend? That's usually a pretty fun time, although in full disclosure, I've been friends with the promoter since I was five, so I might be biased.

[ThomasFromIowa]

Yes, I will be. I missed the show last year as I was moving that weekend, but the card seems like a must for anybody who lives in around these parts with the usual IPW roster plus Ricochet and Dirden and an indie cage. I'm really pumped to see Dirden live for the first time.

[vikingsfan73]

Last year's match with Dirden and Redwing teaming up was a hard hitting affair.

[ThomasFromIowa]

My god, JJ Garrett (Gareaux!) is doing Prince of the Deathmatches. He posted this promo for it that had me chuckling pretty heavily.

[ThomasFromIowa]

Lots of big things happening right now in midwest wrestling.
- Freelance had another great show and keeps building steam. I didn't see the show as I was at a show in Des Moines, but all reports say the show was excellent.
- Pro Wrestling Revolver was actually good. I was very skeptical about a supercard without storylines being ran in Des Moines, but the show was awesome. A dude did a 20 foot balcony dive during the 8 man scramble that was just so crazy. Hardcore Holly vs Sami Callihan was actually really good and I think how good Holly is at his age is really understated. I've seen him 4 times post WWE and his intensity is unmatched by anybody I've ever seen live. Also, Arik Cannon vs Tommy Dreamer had an unexpectedly great match. Dreamer cut an A+ promo after the match about how Cannon told him that before the match that Dreamer was the only person to ever call him back from a big company and say something good when he first started wrestling and put Cannon over as somebody who would be a household name if the people in power appreciated talent. It was really odd how much this promo had me, but it was really powerful.This is the second in a row of absurdly good wrestling from Cannon in Des Moines. A couple weeks ago he had a really good match with Redwing. Also, John Morrison messed up what state he was in during the go home promo. There's debate amongst those of us who were there live as to if it was intentional or not, but I"m pretty sure he actually thought he was in Ohio, because we then had Sami Callihan running to the ring and giving an actual go home promo. Also notable was how well Billy Gunn moves for his age and Trevor Lee admitting that TNA sucks, but saying he's the biggest star there.

- Scott County Wrestling out of Walcott announced Seth Rollins was going into the SCW hall of fame. There's no word if he'll actually be there or not. I'm leaning not as they didn't push that, but there's always a chance as it is the promotion in association with Black and Brave. This also kicked off a good angle where Shane Hollister was upset that he wasn't one of the first two members of the HOF with Tyler Black and Marek Brave. Hollister then proceeded to say he wanted to wrestle right now to take out his frustrations. Out came 120 lb comedy gimmick B&B graduate Rip Studwell. Hollister destoyed him. The Brainbuster looked lethal. Hollister got on the mic and said he had it with Black and Brave and asked for another opponent. Out came Dantay Leone (am definitely spelling that wrong). Dantay is probably the guy to watch out of the last group of B&B graduates as he sells incredibly for a guy who's had under a 25 matches. Hollister beat the hell out of him too and said he would be back later tonight and he was as he ruined the main event by costing B&B standout Connor Braxton his title shot. Braxton is EXTREMELY over in Walcott (without the hoverboard btw. He's three times the wrestler without the damn thing.) so the angle went over hot and I just had to talk about it here, because its great to see good wrestling. Also, Matt Cage returned to this company and was set up as the third main heel behind Hollister and champ Mason Beck. The highlight outside of Hollister was Cage getting into a screaming contest with an 8 year old girl. They were both standing on top of chairs and yelling at each other.
- NOW This is Wrestling, which is the new company out of Omaha that has Vince Russo as their storyline GM, put up a video this afternoon with Vince Russo announcing that Bobby Lashley will be on their debut event. This company's Youtube videos are so bad its good gold and I'd encourage everybody to watch them.
- There is an Omaha indie wrestling war going on social media between PWP Live and Magnum Pro owner Jaysin Strife. Strife pulled his champion from the PWP Live show and PWP put out a Facebook rant in a press release styled document talking down about Magnum. Strife fired back with "fuck PWP" and also a "fuck NOW" on a Facebook post. This is a lot of fun to watch as a midwest indie fan as NOW is Vince JRing both companies anyway, but they decide to fight amongst each other instead of working together. Both companies have strong upcoming shows as Magnum is probably the better company by a slim margin and have Shelton Benjamin and Damien Sandow on their next show and PWP is delivering a strong main event on their next show with Hype Gotti's return vs Sonjay Dutt. I'd advise watching Hype Gotti's Twitter for all upcoming developments in this story.
- This weekend is going to be awesome as I'll be getting very drunk at Wrestlepalooza Friday and can't wait for it to come and then hit IPW Saturday where they are having a "20 man falls count anywhere ladder royal". I don't know what the hell that means, but the Riegels are on the card, so that means we'll be getting crazy ladder spots. Also, Proving Grounds Pro is having a hell of a show in central Illinois next weekend, but the drive is near 4 hours for me and I can't justify making it when I'll be hungover and IPW is right around the corner.
- EDIT: Magnum Pro just put a video on Youtube of Redwing doing Omaha Dancing with the Stars. The indie wrestling Gods just keep delivering today.