eayragt Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 <p>If you having been writing this for months with years worth of shows already written you are doing an incredible job of churning out quality shows. Love that Logan has finally made it - and you workers are now big enough to be noticed by the big boys.</p><p> </p><p> Oh, and in honour of infinitywpi, push St Hubbins!</p> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="eayragt" data-cite="eayragt" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="53349" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>If you having been writing this for months with years worth of shows already written you are doing an incredible job of churning out quality shows. Love that Logan has finally made it - and you workers are now big enough to be noticed by the big boys.<p> </p><p> Oh, and in honour of infinitywpi, push St Hubbins!</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I signed him based purely on the surname. Turns out the kid has got skills. Worked out beautifully. And no I’m just churning through playing and writing as I go. But appreciate the comments. Always nice to hear someone is liking what I’m putting out. </p><p> </p><p> I’ve held off on Logan because normally that’s what prompts another raid, but he deserved it. Blaze was a mistake. Lol.</p> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 24, 2021 Author Share Posted July 24, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where injury is just an opportunity… I read the note handed to me by Whistler. And I cried. Then I slid it into my wallet and started planning for the future. We made some new video vignettes of some of the young stars who didn’t get one the first time around. The Satin Knights (Corey St.Hubbins & Drake Constantine) Music: by AC/DC They are Minnesota Smart. Minnesota Fast. And most importantly, they’re Minnesota Strong. The Satin Knights from Minneapolis and St. Paul are, everything which makes the Midwest great. They are the future. And the future is here. We changed the deal we had with WrestleWorld to make the TV recordings on a weekly basis instead of a block. The spoilers which were coming out online (which apparently is a thing) were lowering our attendance and viewership. So now we’d record every Wednesday and have it shown that very evening. It wouldn’t necessarily help attendance, but we’d start to implement our pre-show battle royal so that everyone got paid for the night’s work. It was going to give our finances a hit, but Chief had re-mortgaged his house to give us more disposable income. As the boys and I sat to watch Total Mayhem XXVI, as was tradition, we all agreed the match between Wolf Hawkins and Matt Hocking was near-perfect and we heralded as a match of the year candidate. With it done, I sat with Curt and Chief and we began to plan our upcoming Tribal Wars event. We’d run a MPW Championship match and the rest would be 3 vs 3. And for once we had plenty of matches to run. Amazing the difference a year makes. MPW POWER HOUR #13 Wednesday, Week 1, June, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 108 ANGLE: James Diaz welcomes the audience to the 13th Power Hour. He’s seen a lot of people talking about his cousin, and with good reason. But they seem to have forgotten about him. The Son of the Monster. So tonight, he’s going to find the biggest dog in the yard; and he’s going to pick a fight. Rating: 72 Woah, so turns out that James is a talker as well as a fighter. This was a standard bad ass promo, but he brought it to life. SINGLES MATCH: Charlie Corner vs. Kilikikopa Nani In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Charlie Corner defeated Kilikikopa Nani in 7:37 by pinfall with a Corner Cutter. Rating: 32 Good win by Charlie and a good showing by Kili. But the bigger story was Charlie being accompanied to the ring by Drake Constantine only. No sign of Corey St.Hubbins at all and the audience noticed too, and chanted for him. ANGLE: Logan Diaz is in the Power Zone, wearing his finest suit, with a furry overcoat and big shade. Instead of Whistler, he’s being interviewed by Curt Meritt. Logan asks where Whistler is and Curt tells him, he’s retired. “And you’re who they replaced him with?” Curt asks if there’s a problem with that and Logan fires back, “Little man, my shoes are worth more than your house.” Logan then goes on to ignore Curt entirely and asks who his challenger will be at Tribal Warfare, obviously he doesn’t care who it is, but the MPW Board of Directors shouldn’t keep their star in the dark. It’s just not good business. Rating: 68 Logan is still fantastic on the mic, but Curt struggled a bit and that is a potential problem going forward. We’d need to find someone to take his place eventually. MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Minnesota Awesome vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Masked Assassins defeated Minnesota Awesome in 9:38 when Masked Assassin #2 pinned Perry Longstaff with a Big Swing Neckbreaker. Masked Assassins make defence number five of the MPW Tag Team. Rating: 45 Nothing wrong with a Minnesota Awesome job job as the Assassins continue their destruction of the tag team division. We had plans for the Assassins long-term and we’d need to build towards it, but we had a few months yet. ANGLE: In a pre-recorded segment, in the backyard of an expensive house, the Satin Knights are relaxing by a pool. They’re delighted with how it’s been going. The Cross River Connection are good, they’re one of the premier teams in MPW. But, and this is a big but, they’re having trouble dealing with the pure, unadulterated passion of them; the Satin Knights. They’re here for the gold, and beating Prime Time and Pepper is just step one. Watch, this, space. Rating: 48 These guys are so good on the mic… what a shame… ANGLE: Masked Stranger is out with the Man Monster Dreadnought and they’re happy to accept his challenge to the biggest dog in the yard. And he’s about to learn, why you don’t let your mouth write checks your ass can’t cash. Rating: 64 Solid. MPW MIDWEST TITLE MATCH: James Diaz vs. Dreadnought © In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Dreadnought defeated James Diaz in 20:52 by pinfall with a Dread Bomb. Dreadnought makes defence number nineteen of the MPW Midwest Heavyweight. Rating: 50 It’s been almost a year since Dreadnought won the title and he’s got stronger and stronger. This match was slightly disappointing as it happens, but the right man won and frankly, we had bigger things to worry about. OVERALL RATING: 50 After the show, I jumped in my car with Drake Constantine and Charlie Corner and drove to the nearby Bemidji General Hospital. “What happened?” I asked. “We were doing a springboard dropkick and he slipped. He landed awkwardly,” said Drake quietly. “He looked so unnatural in the position….” “It’s not your fault brah,” Charlie added. Rushing in with Drake and Charlie we were pointed to the room and walked in to find Corey St.Hubbins with his arm in a sling, trying to eat a cup of jello. “What’s the damage?” I asked. “Torn rotator cuff,” he said with a half-shrug. “At least a year out.” The world seemed to slow down to a stop. A year. A whole year. This actually put a huge dent in a lot of plans we had for Corey and for a number of titles. We sat for a while to make sure he was ok, then Charlie and Drake stayed with him as I spoke to a specialist. Surgery could help reduce the time he was out, but it was expensive. I told him to do it, and I drove back to the Paul Bunyan Hall to get to work. The show had drawn a very healthy 29,218 viewers, but we had bigger fish to fry. I summoned Curt and asked Chief to join and we got to work rewriting all of our plans. *** MPW POWER HOUR #14 Wednesday, Week 2, June, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 107 ANGLE: The show opens and Corey St.Hubbins (arm in a sling) is out with Drake Constantine. He grabs the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am sad to announce that I am injured and will be unable to compete for at least eight months. It’s disappointing, but I definitely aren’t down. I’m happy to announce I’ll be replacing Whistler in the announce booth and the Power Zone, so you’re not rid of me yet. But more importantly is the future of the Satin Knights. I don’t want my boy Drake to have to wait eight months, so we have put our heads together and have found a suitable replacement. He’s just graduated for the House of Stone, he hails from Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is the protégé of Dan Stone Jr himself. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you, Edouard LeMieux.” A toned heavyweight struts out. He has the look of someone who would just as soon choke you out than they would introduce themselves. Stood next to the Satin Knights, he is obviously taller and he wrings his wrists and shakes his head side-to-side, before offering a hand to Drake, who shakes it and raises his new partners arm in the air. Rating: 42 LeMieux, being the actual protégé of Dan Stone Jr is an absolute beast of a performer and while he brings something different to Corey, the first part of our eighteen month-long story had begun. SINGLES MATCH: William Jetterson vs. ‘The Nebraska Stud’ Phil Anders In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Phil Anders defeated William Jetterson in 8:19 by pinfall, illegally using the ropes for leverage. Rating: 35 Another local rookie gets his shot and gets a tainted win against one of our few former Midwest Champions. Jetterson is good for raising the profile of new workers and he happily puts the young stud over. ANGLE: Danny Cassidy is in the Power Zone with new host Corey St.Hubbins. Danny is tired of Zip the Lip and his constant aggravating behaviour. This ain’t how we sort our business in Texas, because they’re men. Unlike in Kentucky apparently. So he challenges Zippy to pick a team for Tribal Warfare. And let’s get it sorted. Rating: 55 Good promo from Danny here as he’s comfortable on the mic, plus the addition of Corey helped raise the segment too, which was a great start for the injured star. SINGLES MATCH: Danny Cassidy vs. Pablo Vicente In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Danny Cassidy defeated Pablo Vicente in 7:46 by pinfall with a Southern Justice. Rating: 32 Simple squash match, but as we always say, ‘put over the loser, cos you never know when it’ll be you.’ Pablo has got some skills it should be noted. NO.1 CONTENDERS TAG TEAM MATCH: The LA Stars vs. Cross River Connection In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, The LA Stars defeated Cross River Connection in 23:32 when LA Star #1 pinned Prime Time Jack Pryde with a Star Destroyer following interference from Edouard LeMieux. Rating: 58 When in doubt, go with what you know. Actually a somewhat disappointing match between these two old hands, but good to get the new guy some exposure. Frustratingly, Pepper Pelton was the obvious weak link, which was surprising. ANGLE: The LA Stars are in the ring giving an interview. Masked Assassins come out and enter the ring. After some back-and-forth insults they attack, laying LA Star #1 and LA Star #2 out. New Satin Knights come out from the back, hit the ring, and clean house, making the save. Rating: 46 And the new boys immediately thrust themselves into tag team title contention. OVERALL RATING: 59 We got ourselves 29,713 viewers for that one, which was decent. We saw Curt the following day and he was carrying a title. The RIPW US Title. I asked him where he got it from and he told me he’d won it. I genuinely had no idea he wrestled for anyone else and he highlighted that he’d been with RIPW longer than with MPW. I felt stupid, but congratulated him. In my mind, I thought about how easy it would be for success in RIPW to translate to success in SWF. I then put that thought to the back of my mind, because it made me sad. Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… The final build to Tribal Warfare 2022… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 24, 2021 Author Share Posted July 24, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… where we had most matches fixed, but not our main event… MPW POWER HOUR #15 Wednesday, Week 3, June, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 108 ANGLE: Curt leads out the Main Street Hustlers and tells the live crowd that they’ve come from the East Coast to raise a little hell. And what better way to do that, than by beating the hometown boys; Minnesota Awesome. But first, they hear there’s a new team around, so bring on the New Satin Sheets… or whatever they’re called… Rating: 27 Somewhat underwhelming, but that was probably my fault for burying three quarters of the workers involved over the last two years. TAG TEAM MATCH: New Satin Knights vs. Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, New Satin Knights defeated Main Street Hustlers in 10:18 when Samson Gillis was counted out while fighting Edouard LeMieux. Rating: 33 I really enjoyed both teams work and felt like this could develop into a long-term feud and as such, I didn’t want there to be an obviously dominant team. ANGLE: Roger Monteiro, Billy Chase and Ace Youngblood cut a promo hyping their upcoming six man match with Dreadnought, Masked Assassin #1 and Masked Assassin #2 at Tribal Warfare. Billy especially cannot wait to get his hands around the throat of Dreadnought. Rating: 50 A lot of fire here from Billy as he’s starting to carve himself out a role as the tough-as-nails bad ass of the group. I’d likely drop Ace and Roger into the tag ranks while I tested Billy’s viability as a singles star. SINGLES MATCH: Roger Monteiro vs. The Masked Mauler In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Roger Monteiro defeated The Masked Mauler in 10:28 by pinfall with an Eagle Chop. Rating: 42 I needed to heat up the Lakota Warriors a bit. Billy I had plans for already, so Roger gets the win here over an ice cold momentum Mauler. ANGLE: In the Power Zone, Logan Diaz and Callum have an interview. Corey welcomes them and asks if they’re feeling confident about tonight’s main event. The two look at Corey, appraisingly. “You’re better than the last guy,” Logan says finally in grudging respect. Tonight they have a match against the diposed and disgraced former champion and his loudmouth, hillbilly friend. Of course they’re confident. They’re the best two workers in the business today. “So when am I getting a title shot?” Callum throws in. “Whenever you earn it!” Logan retorts. For a moment they stare at each other it looks like a fight is going to break out, but they both laugh at the same time. Then stop and stare again, and then laugh again. “We’re going to win tonight kid, take notes, it could be you in the main event one day. If your arm doesn’t fall off in the meantime.” Logan pats Corey heavily on the arm and he flinches. Rating: 63 Love these two. Love them. TAG TEAM MATCH: Logan Diaz & Nelson Callum vs. Bradley Blaze & Zippy Deverell In an exceptional match, Logan Diaz and Nelson Callum defeated Bradley Blaze and Zippy Deverell in 22:25 when Nelson Callum submitted Zippy Deverell with a Honey Trap after interference from Danny Cassidy. Rating: 58 Good way to elevate the Cassidy and Deverell feud, while keeping the champ and his ‘friend’ in winning form. OVERALL RATING: 59 We drew a tasty 30,286 viewers for that one, and with Tribal Wars just around the corner, we moved on to the next week with limited news. MPW POWER HOUR #16 Wednesday, Week 4, June, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 110 SINGLES MATCH: Alistair Shufflebottom vs. Curt Meritt In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Curt Meritt defeated Alistair Shufflebottom in 8:06 by pinfall with a DDT. Rating: 27 It’s time to elevate Curt a bit. The news that he’s been moonlighting, well with us as it happens had scared me. So he gets a push because frankly I can’t live without him. ANGLE: Dreadnought is in the Power Zone with Masked Stranger. He’s beaten Billy Chase before and he’ll do it again. There really is no one on the roster who can stop the Man Monster. Corey asks if Masked Stranger could beat him? Stranger replied that that’s not something they’ll ever have to find out. Rating: 63 These two are getting better in promos, which is awesome. SINGLES MATCH: Cameron Copeland vs. Ben Williams In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but terrible wrestling, Cameron Copeland defeated Ben Williams in 8:14 by submission with a Full Nelson. Rating: 27 Copeland is only 18 years old, so we’ve got time with him, but I’m a believer in giving guys wins early on to expose them to the fame they might have in the future. Like a test run before we find something to do with them. Worked with Zippy and Danny, should hopefully work with him too. SINGLES MATCH: Ace Youngblood vs. Rafe Sashay In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Rafe Sashay defeated Ace Youngblood in 10:27 by pinfall while using the ropes for leverage. Rating: 39 Speaking of young performers. Rafe gets a big win here against the superbly talented and no doubt under-used Ace. The fact he had to cheat fits the character, but we needed to get him more over heading into Tribal Warfare. ANGLE: Logan Diaz joins us at the announce table before the main event. He’s still not sure who to face for the title at Tribal Warfare, but is thinking perhaps its time to give Masked Stranger his shot. Logan finishes his little speech with “And that’s not just the truth, that’s not just a fact, it’s a Glorious Revelation.” The crowd chant “Re-ve-lation” throughout the main event. Rating: 78 And that’s a new catchphrase. Can’t say I liked it myself, but if it helps us sell tickets then I’d slap it on a t-shirt regardless. SINGLES MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Masked Stranger In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Billy Chase defeated Masked Stranger in 21:03 by pinfall with a Lakota Cutter following botched interference by Dreadnought. Rating: 49 Well, well, well. Big win for Billy here as we elevate him while somewhat protecting the Stranger. The fact these two don’t click is annoying and crushed the crowd’s interest. But this whole show has been a mess since the pre-show battle royal and we had to change results and move things around. OVERALL RATING: 41 It was a poor show which drew us 27,981 viewers. But the big news was Masked Assassin #2 spraining his ankle, which rules him out of Tribal Warfare. Typical. So we shuffled things around and changed the main event. MPW Tribal Warfare 2022 MPW Championship Title: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz © TW Match: James Diaz & The LA Stars vs. Brotherhood of the Hood (Stranger, Dreadnought & Assassin #1) TW Match: Charlie Corner & The New Satin Knights vs. Rafe Sashay & Cross River Connection TW Match: The Lakota Warriors vs. Bradley Blaze, Pablo Vicente & The Masked Mauler TW Match: William Jetterson & Minnesota Awesome vs. Curt Meritt & Main Street Hustlers TW Match: Danny Cassidy, Cameron Copeland & Shufflebottom vs. Zippy Deverell, Kilikikopa Nani & Phil Anders Next Time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… In Tribal Warfare, you’re only as good as your weakest member… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eayragt Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 I cursed St Hubbins, didn't I? Well, my last selections were totally off, but lets give this a try: MPW Tribal Warfare 2022 MPW Championship Title: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz © TW Match: James Diaz & The LA Stars vs. Brotherhood of the Hood (Stranger, Dreadnought & Assassin #1) TW Match: Charlie Corner & The New Satin Knights vs. Rafe Sashay & Cross River Connection TW Match: The Lakota Warriors vs. Bradley Blaze, Pablo Vicente & The Masked Mauler TW Match: William Jetterson & Minnesota Awesome vs. Curt Meritt & Main Street Hustlers TW Match: Danny Cassidy, Cameron Copeland & Shufflebottom vs. Zippy Deverell, Kilikikopa Nani & Phil Anders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DinoKea Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 MPW Championship Title: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz © TW Match: James Diaz & The LA Stars vs. Brotherhood of the Hood (Stranger, Dreadnought & Assassin #1) TW Match: Charlie Corner & The New Satin Knights vs. Rafe Sashay & Cross River Connection TW Match: The Lakota Warriors vs. Bradley Blaze, Pablo Vicente & The Masked Mauler TW Match: William Jetterson & Minnesota Awesome vs. Curt Meritt & Main Street Hustlers TW Match: Danny Cassidy, Cameron Copeland & Shufflebottom vs. Zippy Deverell, Kilikikopa Nani & Phil Anders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herrbear Posted July 25, 2021 Share Posted July 25, 2021 MPW Tribal Warfare 2022 MPW Championship Title: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz © TW Match: James Diaz & The LA Stars vs. Brotherhood of the Hood (Stranger, Dreadnought & Assassin #1) TW Match: Charlie Corner & The New Satin Knights vs. Rafe Sashay & Cross River Connection TW Match: The Lakota Warriors vs. Bradley Blaze, Pablo Vicente & The Masked Mauler TW Match: William Jetterson & Minnesota Awesome vs. Curt Meritt & Main Street Hustlers TW Match: Danny Cassidy, Cameron Copeland & Shufflebottom vs. Zippy Deverell, Kilikikopa Nani & Phil Anders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 25, 2021 Author Share Posted July 25, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where injuries are becoming common place… MPW Tribal Warfare 2022 Sunday, Week 4, June, 2022 Live from Pappajohn Sculpture Park [Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa] Attendance: 430 TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: Danny Cassidy, Cameron Copeland & Shufflebottom vs. Zippy Deverell, Kilikikopa Nani & Phil Anders In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Zippy Deverell, Kilikikopa Nani and Phil Anders defeated Danny Cassidy, Cameron Copeland and Alistair Shufflebottom in 9:54 when Phil Anders pinned Alistair Shufflebottom by using underhanded tactics. Rating: 35 The Nebraska Stud is becoming something of a bad ass in our promotion. Just quietly going about his business, doing whatever is necessary to win. He’s got a bright future I think and we’d try and nurture it as best we could. TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: William Jetterson & Minnesota Awesome vs. Curt Meritt & Main Street Hustlers In a decent match, Curt Meritt and Main Street Hustlers defeated William Jetterson and Minnesota Awesome in 10:22 when Samson Gillis pinned Clark Smallbone with an Ace In The Hole. Rating: 38 Definitely a much-needed win for the Main Street Hustlers, but more excitingly William Jetterson created a hot new comeback spot, which was exactly the kind of thing I needed my midcarders to do. Interestingly now that we’re on TV, when a lower popularity worker beats a higher one, they gain popularity all across the US and Canada. This means a lot of our younger workers are more well known than our older stars who rarely fight someone with more popularity than them in the Midwest. TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: The Lakota Warriors vs. Bradley Blaze, Pablo Vicente & The Masked Mauler In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Bradley Blaze, Pablo Vicente and The Masked Mauler defeated The Lakota Warriors (Roger Monteiro, Ace Youngblood and Billy Chase) in 10:06 when The Masked Mauler submitted Ace Youngblood with an Iron Claw. Rating: 41 Another loss for the Lakota Warriors, who are in danger of becoming a bonafide job squad. Fortunately with someone like Billy Chase on the team, I’ll always find work for them. But I’m wondering if their run with MPW might be getting close towards the end. But could I bring myself to let them go? TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: Charlie Corner & The New Satin Knights vs. Rafe Sashay & Cross River Connection In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, The Satin Knights (Charlie Corner, Edouard LeMieux and Drake Constantine) defeated Rafe Sashay and Cross River Connection in 10:20 when Edouard LeMieux submitted Rafe Sashay with a Stone Ankle Stretch after a bad miscommunication between Prime Time Jack Pryde and Pepper Pelton. Rating: 42 Great win for the superstars in the making right here. Sashay eats the loss personally, but only because Prime Time and the Perfect One were arguing about a mistimed clothesline earlier in the match. Dissention in the ranks of the Connection. TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: James Diaz & The LA Stars vs. Brotherhood of the Hood (Stranger, Dreadnought & Assassin #1) In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, James Diaz and The LA Stars defeated Brotherhood of the Hood (Masked Stranger, Dreadnought and Masked Assassin #2) in 22:28 when LA Star #1 pinned Masked Assassin #2 with a Double Stomp. Rating: 59 What a great match between some of the hottest workers outside of the main event. The LA Stars always bring it, and the Masked Assassins continue to climb in notoriety. But it was nice seeing James getting in on the action as I’d sort of run out of the story for him other than this. MPW CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz © In an exceptional match, Logan Diaz defeated Nelson Callum in 24:14 by submission with a Boston Crab after interference from Masked Stranger. Logan Diaz makes defence number two of the MPW Championship. Rating: 61 Stranger obviously upset about missing out on a title shot, ruins it for Nelson in a decent, if slightly underwhelming (by their standards) match-up. The Reign of Logan continues, as it should. OVERALL RATING: 59 Overall it was a decent show considering the injuries which conspired to ruin elements of it. We were happy we’re we were. Even the news of Freddy Huggins joining USPW did little to dampen our spirits. The feedback from the 32,495 viewers was overwhelmingly positive. And with Masked Assassin #1 back from injury, we could push on with our stories in earnest. Eayragt – 6/6 (amazing work) Herrbear – 5/6 DinoKea – 4/6 Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Things were about to go wrong, pretty badly… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 25, 2021 Author Share Posted July 25, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where when you’re travelling fast, you rarely see the edge of a cliff until you’re over it… MPW POWER HOUR #17 Wednesday, Week 1, July, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 129 TAG TEAM MATCH: Minnesota Awesome vs. Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Minnesota Awesome defeated Main Street Hustlers in 7:38 when Spike was disqualified while fighting Clark Smallbone. Rating: 27 Oh my word! A win, an actual win for Minnesota Awesome. Is this the beginning of their much-delayed rise up the card? No. My thinking was if I could give them some popularity I could transfer it onto other teams. Brutal way to treat one of our originals, but that’s wrestling. ANGLE: Bradley Blaze is in the Power Zone. He’s got a match tonight against some young punk whose trying to emulate his success. But there’s only room for one tough-talking cowboy around here. Corey highlights that Blaze has been a fake President for months, which Blaze skips over, desperate to move on from the haunting gimmick of the past. Rating: 67 Blaze’s slow transformation back into his real self is taking longer than expected, but was a necessity. You can’t maintain that level of toxic for long. SINGLES MATCH: Danny Cassidy vs. Bradley Blaze In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Bradley Blaze defeated Danny Cassidy in 21:12 by pinfall with a Dallas Drop following interference from Zippy Deverell. Rating: 45 Decent match for Danny, but obviously Blaze was going to get the win here. The Zippy/Danny feud continues to bubble away nicely though. ANGLE: Logan Diaz is in the Power Zone now. He’s getting pretty bored of the Masked Stranger and the Brotherhood of the Hood. They’ve been a plague on MPW for months, maybe years. They lie, cheat and steal, which he could respect in and of itself. But they seem to be so miserable doing it. They need to take a leaf out of The Glorious One’s book and like rather than survive. Rating: 84 Goodness me, it’s like watching a professional doing the job an amateur’s been doing. Logan absolutely knocks it out the park. MPW MIDWEST TITLE MATCH: James Diaz vs. Dreadnought © In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, James Diaz drew with Dreadnought in 10:09 when the referee lost control and stopped the match when Billy Chase interferred. Rating: 61 While technically a huge result for James here, the real story is the simmering feud between the Man Monster and Billy Chase. The two are on a collision course for another showdown and this just highlights how bad ass they both are. ANGLE: Dreadnought and Billy Chase are in the ring and are squaring off, unhappy about something. The argument soon turns physical, and they are joined by James Diaz, Logan Diaz, Masked Stranger and Masked Assassin #1 for a wild brawl, with the chaos spilling out all around ringside. Eventually a number of officials and other wrestlers have to hit the ring and pull them apart before they kill each other. Rating: 59 I do love a big brawl finish to a TV show. OVERALL RATING: 61 Good show right there as we start the long build to the next Sunday Night’s Main Event. We even pulled in 35,014 viewers, which is decent. MPW POWER HOUR #18 Wednesday, Week 2, July, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 127 SINGLES MATCH: William Jetterson vs. Phil Anders In a decent match, Phil Anders defeated William Jetterson in 9:39 by submission with a Nebraska Stretcher. Rating: 38 The rise of ‘Nebraska Stud’ Phil Anders continues in an under-the-radar kind of way. But he definitely needed an introductory vignette soon. His non-nonsense, slightly asshole heel schtick was absolutely perfect for both him and this company. Bright future if we played it right. ANGLE: Billy Chase is in the Power Zone in MMA gear and a Native American headdress. He is a man of few words (as Corey finds out), but the message is simply. Dreadnought doesn’t phase him. He’s not scared. And the next time they meet, he’s going to make the big man tap. Rating: 52 Decent little interview from the perennially underrated Chase. He’d get a sustained push if he didn’t keep disappearing for months at a time for his hobby. TAG TEAM MATCH: New Satin Knights vs. Cross River Connection In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, New Satin Knights defeated Cross River Connection in 10:02 when Edouard LeMieux submitted Prime Time Jack Pryde with a Stone Ankle Stretch after there'd been a bad miscommunication with Pepper Pelton. Rating: 50 Times are tough for the Cross River Connection. Once an almost unstoppable tag team, the two best friends were struggling to find their rhythm. ANGLE: Pepper Pelton is trying to apologise to his best friend Prime Time. Who eventually relents and raises Pepper’s hand and hugs him… then pushes him away and delivers an almighty super kick. Pepper is knocked out and Prime Time grabs a chair from outside and absolutely destroys his own partner’s ankle in rage. Rating: 51 And just like that, our former two time champs are done. There’s no coming back from a beating like that. This would force us to push Prime Time solo, which he deserves and give Pepper a break from the main show while we figured out what to do with him. MPW CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz © In an exceptional match, Nelson Callum drew with Logan Diaz in 22:22 following a double DQ after both men were attacked by two people charging in from the crowd.. Rating: 68 What. A. Match. These two are absolute stars on this promotion, but we finally had something to tide them over… ANGLE: The two attackers face the camera and one grabs a microphone. “You lucky, lucky dudes and dudettes. It is I, Danny Fonzarelli and his running mate Frederique. We’ve taken time out of being megastars for a real company to come here and win everything. Once we have all the gold, we’ll be taking it East to toss it in the bin. Consider MPW on life support.” Rating: 54 Boom! OVERALL RATING: 65 As I got to know the hugely popular Danny Fonzarelli and Frederique backstage, it occurred to me that some of the originals might be annoyed by having two wrestlers come in and straight into the main event. To my surprise, they all trusted me. I felt a sudden wave of appreciation for them all. *** The following week, as I rifled through curt’s pack and noticed we’d only got 36,859 viewers for the debut of the Big Stars. The phone in my office rang. It was unusual enough that I questioned how many people had that number. I looked at the photos of Ernest Youngman and Tennessee William pinned to the wall. They both definitely had the number. With butterflies suddenly in my stomach I picked up. “Mr. Patrick?” “Yes?” “This is Bemidji County Police Station. We have a man here whose using you as his one phone call. He’s just assaulted one of our officers in front of a crowd of people and he needs your help.” Oh come on!!!! Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… He fought the law… and the law won… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… where things always, always get worse, before they get better… Myself and the Chief jumped into his Chevvy Impala and drove all the way to the station, where an officious man pointed us to the room with plastic windows and attached phones. I say and waited for the accused to pick up the phone. “Hey boss,” he said. “What happened Nelson?” Nelson Callum explained that he’d been on a date with a woman, when he’d been stopped by the police. The officer had been, in his opinion, belittling of him and he’d lost his temper and punched the officer; who’d then fallen down and cracked his head. The officers partner had arrested Callum, and here we were. He’d already been sentenced and was going to prison for a year. A Goddamn year. After the initial shock had worn off, Nelson begged us to keep his spot open as the promise of work was the only thing he had left. We agreed and promised to stay in touch. Back at the Paul Bunyan Hall, we grabbed Curt and walked to my office; the chief tearing up our year’s plans. We had work to do. Again. MPW POWER HOUR #19 Wednesday, Week 3, July, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 133 SINGLES MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Rafe Sashay In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Billy Chase defeated Rafe Sashay in 6:24 by pinfall with a Lakota Cutter. Rating: 35 Rafe has been racking up wins recently, so it’s good to remind people that he’s not about to win the Championship or anything. There’s still a long way for him to go, especially as his performance here was sub-standard. ANGLE: Masked Assassins with Masked Stranger are in the Power Zone. They’re holding their titles and there’s a new confidence to them. Almost a swagger. Stranger speaks for them at first, running down their accomplishments and how they are the tag team of MPW. But then Assassin #1 grabs the mic and adds that no-one can stop them, they’re tougher, stronger and smarter than anyone else. They won’t back down from any fight and the rest of the tag division can bring their best, because they’ll need it. Rating: 45 Quite a solid interview segment as the Assassins are coming into their own. It’s the little character bits which help us subtly push our mini-stories within main storylines. MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Shufflebottom & Copeland vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Masked Assassins defeated Alistair Shufflebottom and Cameron Copeland in 7:47 when Masked Assassin #1 pinned Cameron Copeland with a Big Swing Neckbreaker. Masked Assassins make defence number six of the MPW Tag Team. Rating: 40 Copeland gets more experience in a losing effort to the champs. He was learning the ropes quickly, but we didn’t want his initial success going to his head. ANGLE: Masked Stranger is out before his match and he’s got some words for Logan Diaz. He better enjoy having that gold around his waist now. He better show it off to his girlfriend, or to his kids or his fans or whoever. Because very, very soon, it’ll be part of the Brotherhood. And then they’ll have all the gold. Rating: 75 Incredible fire and promo from Stranger here. He’s really upping his game in recent weeks, which is a Godsend considering we’d lost Callum. SINGLES MATCH: Roger Monteiro vs. Masked Stranger In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Masked Stranger defeated Roger Monteiro in 20:45 by submission with a Cobra Clutch. Rating: 55 Clean win against an old foe. Exactly the thing our soon-to-be-permanent main eventer needed. OVERALL RATING: 58 Still reeling from the Nelson Callum brush with the law, we’d managed to put on a decent show. 33,992 viewers was a decent number and helped calm my frayed nerves. If we could just see out July without anymore problems then I’d feel much better. MPW POWER HOUR #20 Wednesday, Week 4, July, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 134 SINGLES MATCH: Ace Youngblood vs. Curt Meritt In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Curt Meritt defeated Ace Youngblood in 7:52 by pinfall with a DDT. Rating: 38 Big win for our boy Curt. With him managing the Main Street Hustlers and becoming more involved in shows, we needed to raise his profile to the audience and Ace is exactly the man for these sort of occasions, especially with Billy branching out into singles competition. ANGLE: Curt Meritt grabs a microphone and has some choice words for Minnesota Awesome. He’s never in his life seen such a joke of a team. They bounce around, smiling and waving at the fans, but we all know, when all is said and done that there’s nothing they’re better at than laying down to superior teams. Rating: 41 A bit rich coming from Curt to be honest, but that’s the sign of a good heel. Someone who ignores objective truths to tell a story. TAG TEAM MATCH: The LA Stars vs. Williams & Mauler vs. Vicente & Nani In a decent match, The LA Stars defeated Ben Williams and The Masked Mauler and Pablo Vicente and Kilikikopa Nani in 7:50; the order of elimination was Pablo Vicente and Kilikikopa Nani first, and then Ben Williams and The Masked Mauler. Rating: 50 In a ‘get them some airtime’ match, The LA Stars casually work their way through some makeshift teams. I liked the long-term upside of Pablo and Kili, but we weren’t at the stage where we needed to push them up the card just yet. But it always helped to at least showcase them on TV. ANGLE: The LA Stars are next to grab the mic. They’re still hunting themselves the downright, no-good, cheating Assassins. The only thing they hate more than people who cheat, is people with the talent to win fair, but chose not to. They think the Assassins are scum and one day very soon, they’re going to take everything from them. Everything! Rating: 53 Decent promo although LA Star #1 is clearly the more comfortable on the mic. While LA Star #2 is the more popular of the two. Wrestling is funny sometimes. ANGLE: Corey St.Hubbins is joined in the Power Zone by Zippy Deverell. He’s got some choice words for the fake Texan; Danny Cassidy. He finds it amusing that the crowd love the gimmick of a man who was raised in relative wealth off the back of his father’s achievements. He’s no cowboy, he’s just another silver-spoon fed son of the elite. Rating: 71 Excellent promo by Zippy, who plays well off Corey and obviously uses the truth of a situation to create a compelling storyline. I can’t imagine the final blow-off of this feud matching the promos, but you never know. SINGLES MATCH: Charlie Corner vs. Zippy Deverell In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Charlie Corner defeated Zippy Deverell in 21:05 by pinfall with a Corner Cutter following interference from Danny Cassidy. Rating: 47 Despite his incredible chat, Zippy succumbs to Charlie thanks to interference from Danny. Good result all round, except the match, which was disappointing. OVERALL RATING: 53 Down viewership of 32,185 this week, but at least we made it to the end of the month. I was watching the Sam Keith Classic XII on catchup on WrestleWorld with Curt when Blaze entered my office. “Blaze my man,” I said. “We’re about to watch you and Cheetah Boy in the finals. No spoilers, but you’ve been great in the tournament.” I smiled at him and he sort of smiled back. It was the kind of smile which meant ‘bad news.’ “What’s up?” “Errr, TCW actually.” DAMMIT!! Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… At this rate we’ll have no main event left… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DinoKea Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 Man Nelson and Blaze out. Losing Nels sucks but I'm really conflicted by Blaze leaving. I loved him here and going back and reading your NYCW he was a worker I wished had got a title run so I'll miss him but am also happy to see him do well. Really enjoyed this so far, it's written in quite a nice style to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Man Nelson and Blaze out. Losing Nels sucks but I'm really conflicted by Blaze leaving. I loved him here and going back and reading your NYCW he was a worker I wished had got a title run so I'll miss him but am also happy to see him do well. Really enjoyed this so far, it's written in quite a nice style to read. I definitely have a stable of guys I like writing for. I was also determined to get Blaze more involved, so his loss means something too. Good news is, from here, things only get worse. Glad you're liking it though, that's always encouraging to hear. And if you have any thoughts or predictions to what is happening or what you'd like to see, please do comment. I'm always open to inspiration, especially in the midcard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… In the face of adversity, we knock it out the park and then get knocked out the park by more bad news… Yes the Blaze news was bad, but at this stage we should probably be used to it. Plus Blaze had left his mark on the promotion and was sort of spinning his wheels a bit. Not to mention we had Frederique and Danny Fonzarelli ready to go as main event stand-ins. The initial plan was to keep them for a short run of a few months, but plans very obviously had changed. So it was time to get them more involved to pick-up the slack. MPW POWER HOUR #21 Wednesday, Week 1, August, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 139 TAG TEAM MATCH: Minnesota Awesome vs. Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Main Street Hustlers defeated Minnesota Awesome in 8:27 when Samson Gillis pinned Clark Smallbone with a Roll of the Dice. Rating: 26 In our most low-key feud, the Main Street Hustlers get another win to add to the collection. I wasn’t necessarily ready to move them up and on to other things. But judging by recent, bitter experience, it was always good to have the next stars ready to be heated up at a moment’s notice. ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde is out and tonight he’s going to teach his former partner, or should that be coattail rider a lesson. There comes a time, even with best friends, where the dominant friend must shed the deadweight and remind the world why he’s been the best all along. It’s time, it’s time, it’s time for Prime Time. Rating: 64 Great promo from our burgeoning new singles star. Sky really is the limit for one of our homegrown talents. All we had to do was point him towards superstardom and let him get there. SINGLES MATCH: Pepper Pelton vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Prime Time Jack Pryde defeated Pepper Pelton in 9:44 by pinfall with a PrydeFall. Rating: 49 Decent match, if a touch underwhelming because of Pepper. But this was all about letting the crowd know that Prime Time is the star and he doesn’t need Pelton anymore. Job done. And just as a final full stop… ANGLE: Prime Time grabs a chair again and once again targets the heavily bandaged ankle of The Perfect One and brutalises it. This time Pelton is carried out on a stretcher. Rating: 48 Now that’s the behaviour of a top-level heel. ANGLE: Logan Diaz is in the Power Zone with Corey St.Hubbins. He did not appreciate the behaviour of Frederique and Fonzarelli (his friends from the East). But he’s a fighting champion, and a handsome one at that. So tonight he’ll deal with one of them, and at Sunday Night’s Main Event, he’ll deal with the other. Rating: 80 This guy is 100% our top star. Just fantastic and really the natural successor to Ernest and Tennessee. Long may he reign. MPW CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH: Frederique vs. Logan Diaz © In an exceptional match, Logan Diaz defeated Frederique in 21:06 by submission with a Boston Crab. Logan Diaz makes defence number four of the MPW Championship. Rating: 69 And that is one of, if not the, best match in company history. Frederique, despite his advancing years, can absolutely still go in the ring. This one lifted the low spirits we’d been experiencing recently. The future was brighter than we thought. OVERALL RATING: 69 38,038 viewers for one of the best shows we’d ever put on. That seemed a little unfair, but there was no doubt a lag in viewership. Therefore it was all about stringing together great shows. MPW POWER HOUR #22 Wednesday, Week 2, August, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 140 SINGLES MATCH: William Jetterson vs. Zippy Deverell In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Zippy Deverell defeated William Jetterson in 8:26 by pinfall with a Spinning Bulldog. Rating: 46 Zippy’s finishing move was garbage. There’s no two ways about it. A spinning bulldog is a transitional move. I’d have to talk to him afterwards and see about changing it. But his victories were starting to rack up and he was as popular as anyone in the midcard. Having a Great gimmick helped. SINGLES MATCH: James Diaz vs. Bradley Blaze In an exceptional match, James Diaz defeated Bradley Blaze in 10:12 by pinfall with an Asian Thumb Spike. Rating: 50 We begin the jobbing out of the former champ immediately. No point having him lose clean to low-down workers, but James needed some heat and some popularity. This was the perfect solution. ANGLE: Fresh off his victory, James Diaz grabs a mic and declares he’s ready to take out the Man Monster Dreadnought. The world wants it, he wants it and secretly Dreadnought wants it too. You can’t claim to be the man around here without going through him. Rating: 68 Good fire and great promo. ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde is in the Power Zone. Corey, who looks at Prime Time with disgust, asks him about his plans. Prime Time, dismissive of the Glass-armed Man (Corey looks like he wants to hit him for that) has his eyes set on the prize. He knows Dreadnought is undefeated and he knows Part-Time Billy and Poor-Man’s Diaz are both gunning for him, but Prime Time is the obvious successor to the Man Monster. He respects Dreadnought, but he knows, in his heart, that he’s better. And he’ll prove it. Rating: 66 Woof! Prime Time growing into his role of loudmouth singles asshole beautifully. MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Lakota Braves vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Lakota Braves defeated Masked Assassins in 21:11 when Masked Assassin #1 was counted out after being attacked by LA Star #1. Rating: 46 A surprise loss for the Assassins, but they keep the titles. This was more about keeping the LA Stars in the hunt and showing that these are two equally-matched teams. Disappointing match though as I was expecting much better. Perhaps it was too long? OVERALL RATING: 53 Having realised we got a disappointing 32,822 viewers, we decided to stop trying to understand the numbers and just accept them. Charlie Corner and Zippy both asked for a pay rise to $90, which we happily accepted, especially as we thought they were already on that amount. MPW POWER HOUR #23 Wednesday, Week 3, August, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 142 TAG TEAM MATCH: Sashay & Nani vs. Mauler & Williams In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Rafe Sashay and Kilikikopa Nani defeated The Masked Mauler and Ben Williams in 8:19 when Kilikikopa Nani submitted Ben Williams with a Tongan Nerve Pinch. Rating: 33 Good little opener and a good way to increase the name value of Sashay and Nani. Mauler and Williams had absolutely nothing to do and it showed. ANGLE: Zippy Deverell has an interview in which he taunts Danny Cassidy. It’s a standard ‘you’re a silver spoon fed elite, I’m a poor kid from Corbin Kentucky.’ It worked well. Rating: 65 SINGLES MATCH: Charlie Corner vs. Zippy Deverell In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Charlie Corner drew with Zippy Deverell in 7:46 following a double count out. Rating: 50 An improvement in results for Zippy as the mini-feud continues. The idea being that we’d raise Danny and Zippy alongside one another to build their profiles aiming for a showdown somewhere down the line. Possibly the Twin City Showdown. ANGLE: Dreadnought accompanied as always by Masked Stranger is in the ring. Apparently they’ve heard all the cries for a shot at the Man Monster. And frankly they don’t care who they face. They’ll happily beat the snot out of Prime Time, James Diaz or that wannabe cage fighter Billy Chase. Bring them all on. Nobody stops the unstoppable Dreadnought. Rating: 69 The combination of microphone ability, momentum and popularity is a dangerous thing. The chief teaching Dreadnought more mic skills helps too. MPW MIDWEST TITLE MATCH: Danny Cassidy vs. Dreadnought © In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Danny Cassidy drew with Dreadnought in 21:08 following a double DQ after Billy Chase charged the ring. He was followed by Zippy, who wanted a piece of Cassidy. Then James Diaz wanted to get in the action and finally Prime Time watched the carnage from the entrance ramp and laughed. Rating: 52 Fun ending to a fun match. OVERALL RATING: 56 34,626 viewers this week and with one show to go before Sunday Night’s Main Event, we had to build up Danny Fonzarelli who previously had been unavailable due to double-bookings. But we had high hopes for a best match in company history with him vs. Logan for the title. MPW POWER HOUR #24 Wednesday, Week 4, August, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 146 SINGLES MATCH: Cameron Copeland vs. Pablo Vicente In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but terrible wrestling, Cameron Copeland defeated Pablo Vicente in 5:42 by submission with an ankle lock. Rating: 25 Cameron is still finding his feet, but managed to put on a good show with Pablo. The problem with most of our young, rookie talents, was a lack of proper gimmick and direction. All the audience knew about these two was one was a white-meat babyface and the other was a slightly-mean heel. But that was work for another day. ANGLE: Danny Fonzarelli has returned to MPW and he wants his dudes and dudettes to know that he loves them. They’ve stuck with him through thick and have made his life better than they could ever know. As for Logan Diaz; he’s a hell of a competitor, with a bright future. Rating: 63 What the hell was that? I told him to go off-script and build to a match, not turn himself face and thank fans who’ve seen him precisely once in their lives. Sure it was ‘good,’ but it did not achieve anything. SINGLES MATCH: Roger Monteiro vs. Curt Meritt In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Curt Meritt defeated Roger Monteiro in 6:54 by pinfall with a DDT. Rating: 38 Curt gets another win over a star who we literally have no idea what to do with other than accompanying the far superior Billy to the ring. Poor match actually. ANGLE: Masked Stranger knows Logan Diaz has his hands full with Fonzarelli (or maybe not, maybe Fonzarelli will just hug him and tell him he’s a champ), but he wants him to know that he hasn’t forgotten about him. He owes him. And to prove it, at Sunday Night’s Main Event he’s going to teach his cousin a lesson. James Diaz, you’re going to pay for the sins of the Champion. Rating: 68 Good, intimidating promo and, unlike Fonzarelli, did what I asked him to do. SINGLES MATCH: Alistair Shufflebottom vs. Masked Stranger In a bout that had great heat and good wrestling, Masked Stranger defeated Alistair Shufflebottom in 10:27 by submission with a Cobra Clutch. Rating: 51 Shufflebottom lasts longer than he probably should, but Stranger gets the clean submission win heading into the big show. ANGLE: Billy Chase and Dreadnought are in the Power Zone. Corey is struggling to keep them apart, but is managing just. Neither man is saying much other than a few threats and attempts to get into a fight when Prime Time Jack Pryde appears. He knows the two of them have beef, and look like beef too. But he feels he’s missing out. So he wants in on the title shot. Unless they’re too scared to face him. For the first time, the two stop looking at each other and stare at Prime Time. Aware that he’s made a slightly misstep, he asks if that’s a yes and Billy and Dreadnought charge at him as he runs away. Rating: 60 Needed something for Prime Time to do, this works. TAG TEAM MATCH: The LA Stars vs. New Satin Knights In a bout that had great heat and good wrestling, New Satin Knights defeated The LA Stars in 9:14 when Edouard LeMieux submitted LA Star #1 with a Stone Ankle Stretch after interference from Masked Assassin #1. Rating: 56 BIG win for the New Satin Stars as they continue to prove they can hang with our best. It also progresses the Assassins vs. the Stars story, so it’s all good in my book. OVERALL RATING: 62 Great show that got 35,815 viewers. And the card was set for Sunday Night’s Main Event. *** On the night before the big show I had summoned the boys in to go over the plans. There was a friendly buzz as everyone was making Bradley feel like a star on one of his last night’s with the company. He deserved it too. He hadn’t put a foot wrong and had gone over and above what was asked all the time. The unsung hero of the last year or so. He always made me smile. I grabbed Fonzerelli to run him through the finish to his match and he looked at me, confused. “But I’m retiring,” he said. “You are?” “Yeah, I’m opening my own school.” “When?” “Tonight,” he replied. “That’s why I said goodbye to the fans on the last show.” “…” “I wanted to say thanks though, it was a really easy last month of my career. I thought you might use me a bit more, but each to their own I guess. Good luck with everything, you guys are crushing it.” And he left. What the Hell was that. I went to Curt to vent. Who retires the day before a show? Who sees the obviously planning and doesn’t tell the booker. Curt pointed out I had been told. But everyone thought you had it in hand. I had a problem. “Frederique,” I called across the locker room. “My office please.” The ultra-cool and charismatic Frederique joined me. “Good news, you’re in the main event tomorrow.” “I don’t think I am boss,” he replied. “Why not?” “I’m retiring today. Its… my last day. I thought you knew. Me and Fonzarelli wanted to wind down our careers together.” Balls! Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… We go to Bradley Blaze one last time… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where our booking is so bad that impromptu matches steal the show… MPW Sunday Night’s Main Event Sunday, Week 4, August, 2022 Live from Pappajohn Sculpture Park [Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa] Attendance: 510 TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: Corner & New Satin Knights vs. Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, The Satin Knights (Charlie Corner, Edouard LeMieux and Drake Constantine) defeated Curt Meritt and Main Street Hustlers in 10:30 when Edouard LeMieux submitted Spike with a Stone Ankle Stretch. Rating: 41 Solid opener to establish pecking order more than anything. Oddly Drake has now surpassed his fellow compatriots to become one of the most over workers in the entire promotion. That in and of itself was forcing my hand somewhat, but I wouldn’t complain especially in light of recent events. SINGLES MATCH: Ace Youngblood vs. Phil Anders In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Phil Anders defeated Ace Youngblood in 8:11 by submission with a Nebraska Stretcher. Rating: 37 The Nebraska Stud continues his rise through the ranks. I feel he’s almost ready for a proper midcard feud, but I’d have to be careful who I paired him with. His stone cold submission expert gimmick wouldn’t necessarily work with everyone at this stage and I didn’t want to stop his rise without good reason. MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The LA Stars vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, The LA Stars defeated Masked Assassins in 9:41 when Masked Assassin #2 was disqualified while fighting LA Star #1. Rating: 54 Another ‘win’ for the LA Stars, but the stubborn Masked Assassins still have the gold. A better match than last time, but I really felt there was more that both could give. But it would take time and planning. Still, they were worth it. SINGLES MATCH: Cameron Copeland vs. Rafe Sashay In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Cameron Copeland defeated Rafe Sashay in 7:57 by pinfall with an elbow drop. Rating: 29 OK, so Cameron was so green that he didn’t even have a finisher yet. That’s our mistake. Match suffered because both he and Sashay looked silly ending the match with such a simple move. SINGLES MATCH: Danny Cassidy vs. Zippy Deverell In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Zippy Deverell defeated Danny Cassidy in 9:41 by pinfall while using the ropes for leverage. Rating: 45 The blow-off ends with Zippy getting the win. But actually the match was underwhelming. Therefore I decree that this feud… MUST CONTINUE! We’re rolling with these two for the rest of the year. SINGLES MATCH: James Diaz vs. Masked Stranger In an exceptional match, Masked Stranger defeated James Diaz in 9:44 by submission with a Cobra Clutch. Rating: 52 Clean win for someone we’d look to elevate to the main event again. He wasn’t title-ready in our eyes, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t push him up there into contention. Decent match from these two too. MPW MIDWEST TITLE MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde vs. Dreadnought © The much-awaited showdown between Dreadnought and Billy is marred somewhat by the appearance of Prime Time. But he does, on the whole, avoid conflict. Nipping in to deal out some damage on one of the others, before running in the face of the other. Meanwhile Billy and Dreadnought batter lumps out of one another in a entertaining display of hoss v hoss action. At around the twenty minute mark, Dreadnought finally gets his hands on Prime Time and delivers a crushing Dread Bomb. Rolling up his knocked out foe, he doesn’t notice Billy climbing the top turnbuckle. At 2.9 in the referee’s count, Billy lands on Dreadnought with a top rope legdrop. Acting quickly the Native American scoops up Dreadnought and places him standing in the middle of the ring and with a crash he delivers a Lakota Cutter for the ages. Hooking the leg he gets a 1… 2… Prime Time breaks up the pin. All three men get to their feet. Billy, frustrated, charges Prime Time who hits him plum in the jaw with a super kick. This spins Billy around into Dreadnought who picks him up for a Dread Bomb. But, at the peak of the lift, Billy locks in a triangle choke. The Man Monster staggers and fights it, before falling to one knee. Billy uses the fact his back in the mat to yank harder and Dreadnought collapses completely. The referee starts to check his arm for consciousness. 1… the arm falls. 2… the arm falls. Prime Time clambers over the unconscious Dreadnought to press Billy’s shoulders to the mat. Before the ref can check the arm a third time, he quickly counts the 1… 2… 3! We have a new Midwest Heavyweight Champion. In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Prime Time Jack Pryde defeated Billy Chase and Dreadnought in 21:06 when Prime Time Jack Pryde pinned Billy Chase. Prime Time Jack Pryde wins the MPW Midwest Heavyweight. Rating: 42 We had to get the title off Dreadnought, but we weren’t ready to let him be pinned yet. His draw is because he can’t be beaten. And here, he wasn’t. I mean he definitely was, but the record shows he wasn’t. ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde is on his knees crying with joy and clutching the title while Billy and Dreadnought continue to be locked together. The crowd are pelting the ring with rubbish, when charging through them and into the ring; wearing stone-washed jeans and a white linen shirt, is ‘The Perfect One’ Pepper Pelton. He’s fired up and Prime Time has no idea he’s there. Once Prime Time is on his feet, Pelton spins him around and nails him with a double-arm DDT to the rapturous applause of the audience. Rating: 51 How could we resist an insta-feud like this? MPW CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH: Bradley Blaze vs. Logan Diaz © Tough to follow the emotional drama of the last match, but these two old competitors know each other inside and out. The action is fast-paced and Blaze works through all of his spots in a ‘best of’ kind of way. Just when it looks like he might get the most surprising of victories, Logan hooks both of his arms down and smashes him with a belly-to-belly suplex and pins him, to send him out of MPW and straight to TCW. In an exceptional match, Logan Diaz defeated Bradley Blaze in 24:31 by pinfall with a Belly To Belly Suplex. Logan Diaz makes defence number six of the MPW Championship. Rating: 71 Best. Match. Ever. OVERALL RATING: 68 The post-event party in the backstage area of the gardens was one of our best. Hot dogs, burgers, beer and chips are consumed as we wish Bradley all the best and praise him for his match tonight. Early viewing figures had us with 39,224 viewers. The evening ended, as is tradition for this time of year, with the random draw for the King of the Midwest tournament. With all the losses, recently it felt more chaotic than normal. But the Chief had already put in a call to bring in a special guest in one Frantic Ali. The COTT didn’t want anything to do with us broadly speaking after last year, which made sense. But when all was said and done we were lucky enough to have quite a well-balanced tournament bracket, which we put online (Curt did) immediately. Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… 2022 continues to live up to its chaotic nature… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where Logan Diaz does not like another universally beloved wrestler… Following the departure of Blaze, I held meetings with a series of talents about the direction of the company and their general happiness. Other than Minnesota Awesome who were (rightly) disappointed with their general win/loss record; the only gripe came from the champ. Much like he had with Danny Cassidy, he had some harsh words to say about Edouard LeMieux, who he considered sloppy with the added note that we should cut him loose. I looked at Chief, who smirked back at me, then I told Logan I’d take it on board. This left me and the Chief and I asked him about his happiness. He was, unsurprisingly for someone sorry irrepressible, delighted. Delighted with the direction, the wrestlers and the overall product. He always knew we’d do well, but he never dreamed we’d be doing so well, so quickly. “You should be proud Little Wolf, there aren’t many who could do what you’ve done. I’m proud of you.” *** We had the brackets sorted and so it was time for our annual adventure into the world of tournament wrestling. Previous winners of the King of the Midwest were the now-departed Tennessee William and Bradley Blaze, so whatever happened we’d have a new title holder this year. And we had a rough idea on who would be the perfect candidate. MPW POWER HOUR #25 Wednesday, Week 1, September, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 164 ANGLE: Chief Two Eagles is out in front the MPW faithful. He’s happy to be here for the third year in a row to announce the beginning of the King of the Midwest tournament where the winner will not only get their name engraved on this wonderful trophy, but will also get a title shot at the champion at MPW Twin City Showdown. This is the one competition where there is only one winner per year, so anyone vying for the Grand Slam of MPW titles needs to win this one. It’ll be an exciting year of competition, and may the best man win! Rating: 47 KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Alistair Shufflebottom vs. The Masked Mauler In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, The Masked Mauler defeated Alistair Shufflebottom in 7:31 by pinfall with a Piledriver!?! Rating: 30 Mauler wins, Mauler wins, Mauler wins. I mean, these two don’t click, the match was a drag and Shufflebottom isn’t exactly a household name. But you know what; a win is a win. ANGLE: Drake Constantine gives an interview in the Power Zone. He’s a tag team wrestler by trade, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make it as a singles star. This tournament is the perfect opportunity to prove to everyone that he is the future. Corey St.Hubbins cheers him on and pats him on the back throughout. That’s teamwork. Rating: 69 Wowza! Constantine can talk. That was a fantastic promo, made better by it being conducted by his previous partner. But with the combination gimmick, charisma, popularity and momentum Drake was a superstar in the making. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Drake Constantine vs. Pablo Vicente In a decent match, Drake Constantine defeated Pablo Vicente in 8:29 by pinfall with a Flame Fire Kick. Rating: 34 The Flame Fire Kick (a modified Shining Wizard) is such a brutally effective and impressive move to finish someone. It says ‘I’m flashy’ but also ‘I’m going to break your face in half.’ Pablo gave a good account of himself, but Constantine was too much. ANGLE: William Jetterson is out with Sir Hiss in his sack. He declares it the most wonderful time of the year, because the Snake King loves a coronation. Just like the King of Mardi Gras down in Louisiana. In the first round he’s facing the Nebraska Stud, but he’s got this because everyone knows nothing and no-one of any importance came out of Nebraska. Rating: 50 He’s got a point. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: William Jetterson vs. Phil Anders In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Phil Anders defeated William Jetterson in 10:15 by submission with a Nebraska Stretcher. Rating: 42 I believe the expression is; Chat sh*t, get banged! The no-nonsense Nebraskan systematically takes the Snake King apart before making him tap. Anders is definitely not someone to be taken lightly. ANGLE: The Lakota Warriors are with Corey before their match. They understand that it’s every man for himself in the tournament, and like their honourable forefathers, they’ll fight to a finish and may the better man win. Rating: 47 Don’t you just hate honourable fighters in situations like this? Where’s the pop? The infighting? The drama? KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Roger Monteiro In a bout that had fantastic heat and decent wrestling, Billy Chase defeated Roger Monteiro in 21:12 by pinfall with a Lakota Cutter. Rating: 44 Disappointing match, although having spent months jobbing Monteiro out I can hardly be surprised. Nice win to assert dominance in the tribe by Billy though. He’s basically de facto leader now. OVERALL RATING: 49 Disappointing show really with only 34,703 viewers, but it would do. And at least the tournament had begun. Who didn’t like a tournament? Before the next show, we had another sitdown with the talent. When it was over, I dazedly wandered into the Paul Bunyan Hall and ran into Curt. “Everything alright boss?” he asked. “What…? Oh, yeah. Sure. What’s up?” I half-replied. “Big news, USPW and TCW are no longer at war. It’s over. The Monday Night Wars are over.” “Oh… right. Cool.” “You sure everything is alright?” MPW POWER HOUR #26 Wednesday, Week 2, September, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 172 KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: LA Star #1 vs. Clark Smallbone In an extremely short match, LA Star #1 defeated Clark Smallbone in 5:22 by pinfall with a Double Stomp. Rating: 36 Did anyone really expect Clark Smallbone to beat LA Star #1? Like, really? KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Pepper Pelton vs. Rafe Sashay In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Pepper Pelton defeated Rafe Sashay in 5:54 by pinfall with a Fisherman's Suplex. Rating: 37 Pepper’s face turn continued ahead at full steam. Did I care? Not really. It was tough to care about anything right now. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Edouard LeMieux vs. Samson Gillis In a decent match, Edouard LeMieux defeated Samson Gillis in 6:05 by submission with a Stone Ankle Stretch. Rating: 32 Yup, makes sense… ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde has an interview in which he taunts Frantic Ali. Rating: 72 The kid brought a smile to my face. I didn’t think that was possible right now. Good job Prime Time. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Frantic Ali vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Prime Time Jack Pryde defeated Frantic Ali in 8:22 by pinfall with a PrydeFall. Rating: 52 Under no circumstances was Prime Time losing. We must protect him right now, no matter the cost. ANGLE: Masked Stranger is out with Dreadnought. He’s tired of Logan ducking him and ducking competition. They want a MPW Championship Title shot, and they want it now. No excuses. Time to be a man. Logan’s music hits and Dreadnought pushed Stranger out of the ring. Rating: 70 … MPW CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH: Dreadnought vs. Logan Diaz © In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Dreadnought defeated Logan Diaz in 1:24 by pinfall with a Dread Bomb. Dreadnought wins the MPW Championship. Rating: 51 After over a year undefeated Dreadnought ascends to the top of the mountain and does so in less than two minutes. That, is what we call a squash. OVERALL RATING: 55 48 Hours Earlier… “You’re leaving?” I said, pleading with him not to. “Afraid so,” Logan replied. “TCW have stopped their war with USPW and have more money available. And that money is coming to me. Once in a lifetime offer, couldn’t turn it down.” “But what about us?” “You’ll be fine. You always are. Now listen I’ve gotta go, but probably best to get the title off me on the next show I don’t know what my schedule is going to be like. I’ll lay down to anyone who isn’t Danny or Edouard. I’m sure you understand.” I walked around in a daze afterwards. After brushing off Curt, I bumped into Chief, who was training Dreadnought in basic promo skills. I explained and looked at the big man. “You got a title run in you big fella?” I asked. “He’s ready,” Chief replied as a big smile cracked over Dreadnought’s face. “But what about the King of the Midwest. If Dreadnought’s the champ, we need someone to fill in for him,” I said as the thought pierced my brain like a bullet. “I’ve got just the guy. He’s an old friend, he’s professional and he’ll fit in around here better than most. We can trust him.” I nodded. Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… the Logan Diaz goodbye tour and a veteran face joins the ranks… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where we don’t need a main event apparently… MPW POWER HOUR #27 Wednesday, Week 3, September, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 173 ANGLE: Chief Two Eagles is out, again. It’s rare to see the Commissioner of MPW for a second week on the spin, but strange times call for strange moments. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to take up more of your time than I normally would. But after last week’s shocking development in the MPW Championship picture, I have been compelled to act. As you know, the winner of the King of the Midwest tournament traditionally goes on to face the Champion at Twin City Showdown. Therefore because of Dreadnought’s victory, I have no choice but to remove him from the tournament.” The crowd cheers, which tells me we’ve booked Dreadnought correctly. “With the entirety of the roster already involved in the tournament, we’ve spared no expense to bring you a… suitable… replacement…” Chief turns and points to the screen. A video plays with stock footage from World War 2, then Vietnam, then the Gulf War. Fortunate Man by Creedence Clearwater Revival starts to play as the name Doc Hammond appear on the screen, like a helicopter blade it spins into the name Jeremy Finch. It spins some more and stops on Scout. The music crescendo’s and out steps the man himself. He steps to the announce booth and joins. Rating: 69 Wearing a leather jacket, jeans and aviators, Scout looks like just about the biggest star I have ever seen. And settles in nicely with me and Corey. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Danny Cassidy vs. Ben Williams In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Danny Cassidy defeated Ben Williams in 5:46 by pinfall with a Southern Justice. Rating: 43 Danny with the obvious win as Scout talks about how high he is on Danny. Kids got po-tential. Apparently it reminds him of his time in the Gulf, especially one of his favourite troopers. I quietly think of all the money we could make with a former military man, patriot and star in our roster. ANGLE: Charlie Corner and the New Satin Knights are out in the ring with a microphone. They’re excited about MPW’s new acquisition. But that doesn’t mean it’s all over. There’s plenty of talent who can beat him. Especially Cali Cool Charlie Corner, who is about to wipe the floor with Curt Meritt. Rating: 66 Scout spent the segment agreeing with Charlie and highlighting that anyone can beat anyone else on any given night. He then asks Corey what it’s like to be stuck on the sidelines. Corey bemoans his injury and Scout tells him to knuckle down and get through it. It’s what champions do and Corey is obviously a champion waiting to happen. Sweet Jesus, this guy is like the effing Messiah. Walking in; wise, humble, a superstar and generous with his knowledge. We have struck Gold! KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Charlie Corner vs. Curt Meritt In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Charlie Corner defeated Curt Meritt in 7:28 by pinfall while using the ropes for leverage. Rating: 43 Bit of a cheap win by Charlie, but Scout points out that this is all about winning, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. And I worry about the level of man-crush I have on him at this point. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Ace Youngblood vs. Masked Stranger In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Masked Stranger defeated Ace Youngblood in 8:56 by submission with a Cobra Clutch. Rating: 55 Masked Stranger, oddly quiet and not accompanied by Dreadnought books his place in the next round. He even stops by the announce both to hurl abuse at Scout, who takes it in his stride. Because… of course he does. Scout stands up, but walks casually past Stranger and into the ring. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Perry Longstaff vs. Scout In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Scout defeated Perry Longstaff in 2:39 by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf. Rating: 52 Poor Perry. But the draw was done before Scout joined. This is what we call a dominant debut as he hits his three moves of doom and finishes with the Texas Cloverleaf. ANGLE: Scout is in the ring celebrating, when out of nowhere, Dreadnought hits the ring and attacks. The assault is quick and brutal, and leaves Scout completely destroyed. Rating: 54 Awwwww Hell no!!!! OVERALL RATING: 55 I think it’s safe to say I’m happy with our replacement for… everyone we’ve lost. Tennessee, Bradley, Callum, Logan, Fonzarelli and Frederique. That was a lot to lose in a short space of time. Still the unexpected debut of Scout helped and we got an ok 38,310 viewers. Eslewhere, James Prudence was crowned the King of California. But really all we cared about was our tournament. We now had options, which was concerning. Initially there were two obvious winners, but now… well now we were Scout-ing for more… I can only apologise for that. MPW POWER HOUR #28 Wednesday, Week 4, September, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 172 KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Kilikikopa Nani vs. Spike In a bout that had a decent reaction from the crowd but sub-par wrestling, Spike defeated Kilikikopa Nani in 5:58 by pinfall with a Punk-N-Nasty. Rating: 26 Spike with the win as he overcomes Kili in a rather brutal brawl. Right result as Kili is not ready for a push just yet. Plus I was curious where we might go with the Main Street Hustlers. ANGLE: James Diaz is in the Power Zone. He knows about his cousin’s bad luck of late. And it feels like the end of an era. Tonight Logan is facing Scout one-on-one, but next week he wants to challenge Logan himself. He wants it done right. Because there’s nothing more important than family. Rating: 76 Excellent promo by James whose popularity has been soaring recently based purely on his in-ring work. If anyone got to send Logan on his way to new horizons, it was James. A passing of the Diaz family torch. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: James Diaz vs. Masked Assassin #2 In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, James Diaz defeated Masked Assassin #2 in 8:05 by pinfall with an Asian Thumb Spike. Rating: 50 Clean win progresses James into the next round and at this stage he has to be one of the absolute favourites to win the whole thing. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: Cameron Copeland vs. Zippy Deverell In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Zippy Deverell defeated Cameron Copeland in 5:51 by pinfall with a handful of tights. Rating: 41 Zippy was definitely not a favourite to win, but his rare combination of ability and charisma couldn’t be overlooked. A tourney win for him would be an upset, but not as much of one as some might think. KING OF MIDWEST MATCH: LA Star #2 vs. Masked Assassin #1 In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, LA Star #2 defeated Masked Assassin #1 in 9:46 by pinfall with a handful of tights. Rating: 51 LA Stars get one over on the tag team champions again, and it’s starting to feel a bit like the Masked Assassins are living on borrowed time. The question now was could they make it to Twin City Showdown as reigning champs? ANGLE: Scout comes to the ring with a microphone. Being a consummate professional, he’s done his homework. He knows all about Monsters of Mayhem, the split with James, the tag titles, the MPW Championship reign and everything in between. He’s not surprised Logan is a big name around here. And he respects him. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to go easy on him. If he wants to make a name for himself, he needs to find the biggest dog in the yard. And that seems to be Logan. Rating: 53 Decent on the mic, but not incredible like some of our others. It turns out Scout does have some weaknesses. Noted. SINGLES MATCH: Logan Diaz vs. Scout In an exceptional match, Scout defeated Logan Diaz in 10:22 by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf. Rating: 70 These two have great chemistry as I wonder what could’ve been with an extended feud. Still, we’ve now put over Scout twice in quick succession and established the Texas Cloverleaf as a monster-slaying finisher. This was the second best match in our history, which is fairly incredible for a newcomer. ANGLE: The match is over and Scout is celebrating. Logan Diaz walks over and offers his hand as a sign of respect, and the two competitors shake hands. Rating: 45 Classy. OVERALL RATING: 68 Hell of a show from us there as we pull in 42,486 viewers too. Things weren’t as bad as they could’ve been. But Scout was absolutely a great signing. We now had our Round of 16 sorted, and the view to the finals looked clearer than before. Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Diaz vs. Diaz… One last time… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eayragt Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 Looking forward to Scout retiring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where 16 become 8… We had four weeks until the big King of the Midwest show and for the first time ever we’d be having quarter-finals, semi-finals and final on the show. So the winners of the brackets in the TV show all book their place in the finals. MPW POWER HOUR #29 Wednesday, Week 1, October, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 172 KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Drake Constantine In a bout that had fantastic heat and decent wrestling, Billy Chase defeated Drake Constantine in 8:10 by pinfall with a Lakota Cutter. Rating: 40 Drake might be a megastar in-waiting, but Billy is the man who almost toppled the Man Monster. He deserves the push as we decide to test just how far he can go in this tournament. Whatever happens he’s on the main show. ANGLE: Phil Anders is in the Power Zone. He’s a man of actions, rather than words. But you know what, he’s happy to talk for now. He’s seen what Billy Chase can do in the ring and in the octagon. He’s impressed, and it takes a lot to impress the Nebraska Stud. But he’s happy to test his metal against one of the best MPW has to offer, once he’s finished dealing with the masked lunatic. Rating: 52 Actually quite a talented talker. His refusal to speak most of the time adds to his allure, but when he does talk, he doesn’t waste a single syllable. KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: Phil Anders vs. The Masked Mauler In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Phil Anders defeated The Masked Mauler in 10:29 by submission with a Nebraska Stretcher. Rating: 33 Another clean win for the Rookie Sensation. He goes to the big show to face Billy Chase. Surely we wouldn’t pull the trigger on a main event run for the Nebraska Stud would we? Would we? ANGLE: Logan Diaz is in the ring in his most glorious robe yet. White diamonds on a navy blue background. He’s been here since the beginning. He helped build this place from nothing, to the incredible place it is now. He did it with his cousin and he did it in spite of his cousin. But you cannot deny that James is as important to MPW and to him as anyone. Tonight, he’ll batter his cousin one last time for old times’ sake. Rating: 78 We really were going to miss him. All of the wonderful feuds he could’ve got involved in. What could’ve been. SINGLES MATCH: James Diaz vs. Logan Diaz In an exceptional match, James Diaz defeated Logan Diaz in 10:18 by pinfall with an Asian Thumb Spike. Rating: 60 Clean as a whistle. Match was fine, but really it was all about Logan putting over his cousin and establishing him as a top-level superstar in MPW. Mission accomplished. ANGLE: Logan Diaz celebrates in the ring to the rapture of the audience. Rating: 68 OVERALL RATING: 65 43,432 viewers tuned in to watch Logan’s final match as a member of our roster. A great result all round. Unlike previously, Logan insisted on no party for his leaving. And we respected him enough to follow his instructions. I shook his hand and told him that I looked forward to working with him again. He smirked and nodded as he departed for the last time. *** MPW POWER HOUR #30 Wednesday, Week 2, October, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 178 ANGLE: The LA Stars have an interview in the Power Zone. Tonight they welcome the COTT Tag Team Champions in. They want some real competition, which they’re not getting from the Masked Assassins. They then go on to taunt them for losing in the tournament, and for losing in general. Their thinking is, if you’re going to cheat, at least win while you do it. Otherwise you’re making yourself worthless for nothing. Rating: 45 Harsh words from the apparent moral arbiters of MPW. They’re not wrong though. COTT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The LA Stars vs. Dragon Americano & Pierrot © In a good match, The LA Stars defeated Dragón Americano and Pierrot in 11:53 when LA Star #1 pinned Dragón Americano with a Star Destroyer. The LA Stars win the COTT World Tag Team titles. Rating: 47 I had a plan for our tag team division and the first step was to get another set of belts on the LA Stars. The COTT is the only option we had beyond creating a secondary tag team title, and so we buried the Mexicans in order to progress the story. COTT and Sam Keith (who had been oddly quiet recently) could hardly complain. The LA Stars were probably the best tag team on the independent scene now. ANGLE: Masked Stranger is in the ring. He’s looking forward to taking out his frustrations on Cali Cool Charlie Corner. He missed his opportunity at Logan before he left, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to miss another chance to win the King of the Midwest title. Rating: 70 Great promo as Stranger is really finding his groove in this role. He’s absolutely on course to get to the finals, barring an upset… KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: Charlie Corner vs. Masked Stranger In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Masked Stranger defeated Charlie Corner in 9:39 by submission with a Cobra Clutch after interference from Dreadnought. Rating: 56 Which doesn’t come as Man Monster makes a rare appearance to help his partner get the win. They clearly haven’t talked about what would happen if Stranger won and had to face Dreadnought at the Twin City Showdown. And frankly, I don’t blame them. KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: Danny Cassidy vs. Scout In an exceptional match, Scout defeated Danny Cassidy in 20:58 by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf after interference from Zippy Deverell. Rating: 53 We didn’t need the interference from Zippy, but it all adds fuel to the fires of their feud. And if you thought we weren’t having Scout on at least the quarter-finals, then you’re out of your mind. Decent match. ANGLE: Danny Cassidy is in the ring getting up after his loss. Zippy Deverell comes back to the ring and attacks, laying Cassidy out. Scout, whose been watching this unfold, grabs Zippy, wrestles him down and transitions cleanly into a Texas Cloverleaf and the show ends with Zippy screaming and then passing out. Rating: 64 OVERALL RATING: 57 A downward tip of 39,092 viewers, but amazingly we discovered that Scout has taken one The Masked Mauler as a protégé, and we are HERE FOR IT. That could be an awesome pairing of mentor/student. Anything to give Mauler some purpose. MPW POWER HOUR #31 Wednesday, Week 3, October, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 180 KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: James Diaz vs. Zippy Deverell In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, James Diaz defeated Zippy Deverell in 8:24 by pinfall with an Asian Thumb Spike. Rating: 54 Clean win for James Diaz whose momentum is now white-hot following a series of big wins. He’s peaking at the exactly the right time. Zip can stomach a loss here as it allows him to follow his obsession with Danny a bit more. ANGLE: Masked Assassins have an interview in which they taunt The LA Stars. I’d recap what they said, but it so nonsensical and disappointing that it hardly seems worth it. Rating: 38 KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: LA Star #2 vs. Spike In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Spike defeated LA Star #2 in 9:54 by pinfall with a Punk-N-Nasty. Rating: 48 Unbelievably Spike gets the shock (and clean) win over one half of the COTT World Tag Team Champions. He also books his place in the finals for the first time ever. This is something of a Cinderella story. KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: Pepper Pelton vs. LA Star #1 In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Pepper Pelton defeated LA Star #1 in 9:56 by pinfall with a Fisherman's Suplex. Rating: 48 The elimination of the LA Stars is complete as The Perfect One continues his own streak heading into the tournament finals… ANGLE: Pepper Pelton has a post-interview. Prime Time used to be his brother. He was his BEST FRIEND. But when we was no longer useful, Prime Time threw him away, like day old potato salad. But now he’s back and he will stop at nothing to inflict his revenge on Prime Time. Rating: 63 Pepper is fired up and DANGEROUS. Probably the least favourite to win the tournament (other than Spike), but could play spoiler in the final results. KING OF MIDWEST ROUND 16 MATCH: Prime Time Jack Pryde vs. Edouard LeMieux In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Prime Time Jack Pryde defeated Edouard LeMieux in 9:57 by pinfall by using underhanded tactics. Rating: 34 Massively disappointing main event as Eduord LeMieux completely botched a simple irish whip and ended up giving himself whiplash neck strain. Not the smartest move from the man who was trained by Dan Stone Jr and apparently has the world at his feet. Prime Time meanwhile, is off to the finals. OVERALL RATING: 43 Huge disappointment with poor viewership of 33,688. But with one show to go before the big event, we’d keep our heads down and push through. MPW POWER HOUR #32 Wednesday, Week 4, October, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 180 ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde opens the show in the arena itself. He’s going to test his metal against Billy Chase before the big show, because he fancies the two of them to meet in the finals and he wants to make doubley-sure that he can beat him. I mean, he knows he can beat him, but it’s important to him that everyone else knows it. He’s also thankful to have such an easy route though (throwing indirect shade at Pepper there). Rating: 71 My goodness, he is without doubt one of the top 5 talkers we have and every week he gets better and better at it. Truly a future superstar. MPW MIDWEST TITLE MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde © In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Prime Time Jack Pryde defeated Billy Chase in 10:07 by pinfall, illegally using the ropes for leverage. Prime Time Jack Pryde makes defence number four of the MPW Midwest Heavyweight. Rating: 55 Prime Time says what he’s going to do and then does it. You cannot say he’s not a man of his word. And by his own logic, he just effectively proved he’s the winner of the tournament. Almost no need to fight the thing… ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde is celebrating his victory in the ring. Pepper Pelton runs in and attacks, beating Prime Time down into the mat. Rating: 61 It might not be as easy as Prime Time thinks. Pepper has looked great since returning from his brutalisation at the hands of his former tag team partner. TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: Corner and the Knights vs. Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, The Satin Knights (Charlie Corner, Edouard LeMieux and Drake Constantine) drew with Curt Meritt and Main Street Hustlers in 10:00 following time expiring. Rating: 45 That’s right, we go full old school be instigating a lime limit on all non-event, non-title matches. The number of draws was about to go up! ANGLE: Scout is being interviewed in the Power Zone by Corey St.Hubbins. He’s enjoyed his time so far, but he senses that Masked Stranger might just be a tougher opponent than he’s faced yet. Win or lose, he’s happy with his performance. Rating: 57 He’s just so bloody honourable. I really do like him, which probably means TCW would steal him shortly. Or am I just embittered? EIGHT-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH: Scout, James Diaz & The LA Stars vs. The Brotherhood of the Hood In an exceptional match, Scout, James Diaz and The LA Stars drew with Brotherhood of the Hood (Masked Stranger, Dreadnought, Masked Assassin #1 and Masked Assassin #2) in 20:00 when the referee lost control and stopped the match at the point that time exprired. Rating: 63 It’s an old fashioned donnybrook as we’re now ready for the big show. OVERALL RATING: 64 We received news that we’d got 42,828 viewers, which was brilliant and we prepared for the travel to Iowa for the King of the Midwest tournament. This was going to be one for the ages. I could feel it. MPW King of the Midwest 2022 KOTW FINAL: A vs. B KOTW SEMI A: 1 vs. 2 KOTW SEMI B: 3 vs. 4 KOTW Quarter 1: Billy Chase vs. Phil Anders KOTW Quarter 2: Masked Stranger vs. Scout KOTW Quarter 3: Spike vs. James Logan KOTW Quarter 4: Prime Time Jack Pryde vs. Pepper Pelton MPW Championship Title: Charlie Corner vs. Dreadnought © COTT & MPW Tag Team Title Match: The LA Stars © vs. Masked Assassins © Tag Match: New Satin Knights vs. Deverell & Cassidy Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… The King is wearing new clothes… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herrbear Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 MPW King of the Midwest 2022 KOTW FINAL: Scout vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde KOTW SEMI A: Phil Anders vs. Scout KOTW SEMI B: Spike vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde KOTW Quarter 1: Billy Chase vs. Phil Anders KOTW Quarter 2: Masked Stranger vs. Scout KOTW Quarter 3: Spike vs. James Logan KOTW Quarter 4: Prime Time Jack Pryde vs. Pepper Pelton MPW Championship Title: Charlie Corner vs. Dreadnought © COTT & MPW Tag Team Title Match: The LA Stars © vs. Masked Assassins © Tag Match: New Satin Knights vs. Deverell & Cassidy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eayragt Posted July 27, 2021 Share Posted July 27, 2021 MPW King of the Midwest 2022 KOTW FINAL: James Logsn KOTW SEMI A: Scout KOTW SEMI B: James Logan KOTW Quarter 1: Billy Chase vs. Phil Anders KOTW Quarter 2: Masked Stranger vs. Scout KOTW Quarter 3: Spike vs. James Logan KOTW Quarter 4: Prime Time Jack Pryde vs. Pepper Pelton MPW Championship Title: Charlie Corner vs. Dreadnought © COTT & MPW Tag Team Title Match: The LA Stars © vs. Masked Assassins ©, but not cleanlyy Tag Match: New Satin Knights vs. Deverell & Cassidy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 27, 2021 Author Share Posted July 27, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… where too many Kings can ruin an army… MPW King of the Midwest 2022 Sunday, Week 4, October, 2022 Live from Pappajohn Sculpture Park [Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa] Attendance: 587 TAG TEAM MATCH: New Satin Knights vs. Deverell & Cassidy In a bout that had fantastic heat and decent wrestling, New Satin Knights defeated Zippy Deverell and Danny Cassidy in 10:05 when Edouard LeMieux submitted Zippy Deverell with a Stone Ankle Stretch after Zippy Deverell and Danny Cassidy miscommunicated. Rating: 44 In the wacky mismatched tag team partners match, the tag partners in question could not co-exist at all, which allowed our hottest rising team to get another win in the bank. It wouldn’t be long before we’d progress them to full time challengers to the titles. KING OF MIDWEST QUARTER FINAL MATCH: Spike vs. James Logan In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, James Diaz defeated Spike in 5:35 by pinfall with a Thunderous Powerbomb. Rating: 49 On special occasions James brings out the Thunderous Powerbomb, and this was one of them. Spike was far more dominant than he had any right to be. It’s amazing how motivated one could be when given an opportunity. But even the king of the upset couldn’t get passed Diaz whose momentum is out of this world. KING OF MIDWEST QUARTER FINAL MATCH: Prime Time Jack Pryde vs. Pepper Pelton In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Prime Time Jack Pryde defeated Pepper Pelton in 9:46 by pinfall after using a foreign object. Rating: 56 A better match than we’ve had before from these two. Pepper again is the dominant performer, but Prime Time is far too canny for him and having blasted his former partner with brass knucks, he rolls him up to progress to the semi-finals. KING OF MIDWEST QUARTER FINAL MATCH: Phil Anders vs. Billy Chase In a bout that had fantastic heat and decent wrestling, Phil Anders defeated Billy Chase in 8:01 by submission with a Nebraska Stretcher. Rating: 42 A surprise to be sure. Billy was 100% on course for victory here, but clearly got distracted; as we’d discovered via MMA Now! Magazine that he was re-entering the octagon in the New Year. Armed with such knowledge, the Nebraska Stud gets one of the biggest wins of his career. Match was so-so. KING OF MIDWEST QUARTER FINAL MATCH: Masked Stranger vs. Scout In an exceptional match, Scout defeated Masked Stranger in 7:59 by count out. Rating: 59 First things first, these two have great chemistry, which really helped. Secondly the match ending was somewhat unusual as Scout threw Masked Stranger over the top rope and into Dreadnought and the two became intertwined with one another and couldn’t beat the count. Sort of feels like that ending was a mistake and interrupted the flow of the match. MPW CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH: Charlie Corner vs. Dreadnought © In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Dreadnought defeated Charlie Corner in 9:37 by pinfall with a Dread Bomb. Dreadnought makes defence number two of the MPW Championship. Rating: 57 Charlie gave it his best shot, but no one is stopping the Man Monster in a match like this. Dominant performance by the new champion. COTT WORLD & MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The LA Stars © vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, The LA Stars drew with Masked Assassins in 10:14 following a double disqualification. Rating: 59 People had predicted this would end with some slight-of-hand and they were right. We weren’t ready for a unified tag team champions just yet. Especially as this played perfectly into our hands with regards the long-term story-telling. KING OF MIDWEST SEMI FINAL MATCH: Scout vs. Phil Anders In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Scout defeated Phil Anders in 6:10 by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf. Rating: 54 Phil Anders, who had achieved a huge amount getting to this stage finally succumbs to the ultra-bad ass face Scout. Match was good between these two and Anders more than held his own for the majority of the match. KING OF MIDWEST SEMI FINAL MATCH: James Diaz vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde In an exceptional match, James Diaz defeated Prime Time Jack Pryde in 8:10 by disqualification. Rating: 54 Poor Prime Time; having fought so hard to reach this point, he goes to the well of cheating one too many times and the referee catches him knocking Diaz out with brass knuckles. As we leaves, he looks genuinely devastated. KING OF MIDWEST FINAL MATCH: Scout vs. James Diaz In an exceptional match, Scout defeated James Diaz in 21:47 by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf. Scout wins the MPW King of the Midwest. Rating: 63 Could’ve gone anyway, but Scout’s arrival on the scene has caused such a stir that it would be madness not to ride the lightning of his momentum. James could easily recover from this loss as he continues to raise his game in the absence of his cousin. ANGLE: Scout is in the ring. Out of nowhere, Dreadnought hits the ring and attacks. The assault is quick and brutal, and leaves Scout completely destroyed. Rating: 56 And the main event is set. OVERALL RATING: 61 Eayragt – 8/10 Herrbear – 6/10 As mentioned Billy is heading back into the cage, which is something we’d follow with interest. King of the Midwest got itself 42,867 viewers, which is great and the show was decent too. Even better, we already had a series of matches made for the show and a month left to fill out the rest. Scout was on his way to face the undefeated Dreadnought. Prime Time would be facing his former tag team partner; The Perfect One Pepper Pelton. The LA Stars would be facing off against the Masked Assassins and finally Danny Cassidy and Zippy Deverell would blow off their feud. Question was, what other stories could we have? Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… the COTT comes calling… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 27, 2021 Author Share Posted July 27, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… Where we’ve bitten the hand that doesn’t feed us… The journey to Charlotte, North Carolina was long and dull. Curt was driving with Chief in the passenger’s seat and me in the back. Sam Keith had apparently noticed our use of the COTT World Tag Team titles and summoned us to discuss our re-emergence on the alliance scene. We pulled into the MAW Training Facility for the first time in a while. It looked a little shabbier than I remembered it. Time it seems, erodes all things. It was quiet inside, with a small group of non-descript wrestlers training in the ring. Nothing of any note whatsoever, which gave me a swell of pride at the talent we’d managed to assemble. Keith’s boardroom was upstairs with a glass wall on one side which allowed him to inspect the work being done in the ring below. A stale smell of tobacco filled the air and plumes of smoke billowed up from the executive chair which had its back to us when we entered. “So you’re back then?” said the voice of Sam Keith. He did not turn around. “We’re members of the COTT just as much as anyone else,” replied the Chief. “We never left.” The chair turned slowly. Keith looked old. The stress of running a business and an alliance of other business’ had obviously taken its toll. “I’ve looked over the tag team title situation and to be honest, I wasn’t sure at first. But, The LA Stars are a talented team, and seeing as they began in and are still employed by NYCW, I don’t see a big problem with them holding the titles.” “How very gracious of you,” the Chief said with more than a hint of sarcasm. “It is, actually!” Keith fired back. “I’m not sure if you realise how angry the other owners are about your behaviour in the past. It’s not easy to hold an alliance like this together. I had to go to bat for you. A lot.” “I never asked for you to do that.” “No,” spat Keith. “You never ask, you just leave it up to others to pick up the pieces. Some of us believe in this cause Chief. Some of us work hard to hold things together.” “I notice everyone is making money hand over fist,” the Chief said. “These aren’t a bunch of small time promoters anymore. With WrestleWorld, everyone knows everything about everyone. Won’t be long before we get into a full-blown war.” “It won’t come to that,” said Keith and he rubbed his black-ringed eyes. “You know it will Samuel. It always does, in the end. Eventually everybody succumbs to the ‘other wolf.’ The one filled with rage, and greed and self-obsession.” Silence filled the room momentarily. “I’ll deal with that when it happens,” Keith said finally. “As for you two; you’ve got the LA Stars, you’ve got the World Tag Team Titles. Don’t abuse them and watch out, I know Larry has designs on them himself.” “I’ll deal with Larry,” said Chief. “I thought that too…” *** The following week, back in Minnesota, we sat down with our heavily edited notebooks. On one of the first pages was the header Twin City Showdown III: Nelson Callum vs. Logan Diaz. God did that plan feel like a million years ago. So much had changed, but here we were, still working away, not letting anything derail our plans of growth. MPW POWER HOUR #33 Wednesday, Week 1, November, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 189 ANGLE: Cameron Copeland is out and has a microphone. He’s new around here, but that doesn’t mean he’s inexperienced. He’s known people like Phil Anders all his life. Phil Andes is the school bully. He’s the one who thinks he’s better than anyone else. But tonight, he’s going to show that bully’s never prosper. Rating: 34 Jesus that was the most cringey, white-meat babyface promo I’ve ever seen. Copeland definitely has something about him, but being so green, it just is not currently translating. SINGLES MATCH: Cameron Copeland vs. Phil Anders In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Cameron Copeland defeated Phil Anders in 8:28 by pinfall with a roll-up. Rating: 36 It’s a fluke win and Copeland doesn’t even have a finisher yet. Sometimes a heel has to get some form of comeuppance and here Anders gets to help create a future star. Match was underwhelming. ANGLE: The LA Stars are in the Power Zone with Corey St.Hubbins. They may not have wrestled the MPW Tag Team Titles off of the Masked Assassins, but they will. At Twin City Showdown, they have an offer. They’ll put it all on the line. Titles, honour and even.. their masks. On the provido that the Assassins do the same. The question therefore it; are the Masked Assassins man enough to accept. Rating: 50 Who doesn’t love title vs. title, masks vs. masks. This is going to be amazing. MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: New Satin Knights vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Masked Assassins defeated New Satin Knights in 9:39 when Masked Assassin #1 pinned Edouard LeMieux with a Big Swing Neckbreaker after Masked Stranger interfered. Masked Assassins make defence number ten of the MPW Tag Team. Rating: 45 Masked Stranger keeping the Brotherhood of the Hood together by any means necessary. As a stable, they’re heading towards a fork in the road. They currently have two of the three regularly defended titles on them and are frankly an almost unstoppable group. But really they get by on Stranger’s popularity and Dreadnought’s meance. ANGLE: Scout is next to be interviewed by St.Hubbins in the Power Zone. He overcame the odds in the King of the Midwest tournament, just like he overcame the odds in the military. He’s proud of himself, but that pride does not stop here. He won’t be truly happy until he defeats Dreadnought and claims the MPW Championship. Rating: 60 A solid, babyface promo by our American Hero. The ties to the military are great as they are, but he also looks like a much bigger and more popular superstar than almost anyone else in the company. MPW CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Dreadnought © In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Dreadnought defeated Billy Chase in 9:43 by pinfall with a Dread Bomb. Dreadnought makes defence number three of the MPW Championship. Rating: 55 It’s time for a classic ‘job Billy out to the MMA fight.’ There were times when Billy and Dreadnought feud almost reached legendary status, but I wasn’t going to waste the big guy’s first loss on someone who can, and has, up and leave for months at a time. OVERALL RATING: 62 A good show as we careen towards Twin City Showdown II. 45,656 viewers good in fact. We decided to through caution to the wind and increased our production values again to make sure that we were the most impressive-looking independent promotion in the US. Sure it would cost more, but we were on the verge of making money, so the timing was right. Gotta help make Dreadnought and Scout look his absolute best ready for their main event. Not to mention the contract for Power Hour was due to finish at the end of this month. So we’d allow ourselves a break over Christmas as normal and negotiate in the New Year. MPW POWER HOUR #34 Wednesday, Week 2, November, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 193 ANGLE: Masked Assassins kick us off in the ring. They’re going to hang around and watch the LA Pukes in action. As for their open challenge, the Masked Assassins fear no man. They accept! At Twin City Showdown the two will face each other for the MPW Tag Team, the COTT World Tag Team and their respective masks. Rating: 47 And it’s on people. An actual Mask vs. Mask match. TAG TEAM MATCH: The LA Stars vs. Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, The LA Stars defeated Main Street Hustlers in 10:02 when LA Star #1 defeated Spike with a Star Destroyer. Rating: 59 What a fantastic match as our pushing of the Main Street Hustlers makes this win even more impressive for the COTT World Tag Team Champions. Great stuff all round. ANGLE: Dreadnought is out with the MPW Championship over his shoulder and Masked Stranger by his side. The Man Monster has never lost in one-on-one combat and he’s not about to do so against a broken-down tag team wrestler and failed military ‘hero.’ At Twin City Showdown, the people of MPW are going to learn to kneel before the true king of the Midwest. Rating: 76 Fantastic promo by Masked Stranger right here. It helps to have a gigantic masked man alongside him of course, but still, great work as he might just finally, finally be comfortable in the main event. MPW CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: James Diaz vs. Dreadnought © In an exceptional match, Dreadnought defeated James Diaz in 10:12 by pinfall with a Dread Bomb after Masked Stranger interfered. Dreadnought makes defence number four of the MPW Championship. Rating: 50 Some protection for James Diaz here as it wasn’t the standard Dreadnought dominant victory. But it was still a win for the champ who is undoubtedly the hottest act we have. His great gimmick combined with his white-hot momentum makes him a near unstoppable create in MPW. OVERALL RATING: 60 42,486 viewers and two shows to go till Twin City Showdown III. Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… The final climb… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP1 Posted July 27, 2021 Author Share Posted July 27, 2021 Welcome to Minnesota Pro Wrestling… rounding out the card for the big show… MPW POWER HOUR #35 Wednesday, Week 3, November, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 197 SINGLES MATCH: Billy Chase vs. Phil Anders In a bout that had fantastic heat and decent wrestling, Phil Anders defeated Billy Chase in 8:20 by submission with a Nebraska Stretcher. Rating: 45 Job him out. Job him out. In many ways it’s a blessing the way Billy’s career goes. HE comes in hot and rises quickly up the card until he’s ready he leave again and we job him out. The subtle Anders rise continues. ANGLE: Pepper Pelton is in the Power Zone. Corey asks him about his upcoming match with Prime Time. He’s waited months to get his revenge against that snivelling coward he used to call a best friend. And at Twin City Showdown he’ll finally get to do it, on the grandest stage of them all. Corey asks if he’s worried about taking on Prime Time alone, seeing as his opponent has a way of cheating to win and recruiting others to his cause. Pepper clearly hadn’t given it thought… Rating: 65 The Perfect One is sneaky good at promos and while not up to Prime Time’s level, gets underrated by the comparison. MPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Lakota Warriors vs. Masked Assassins © In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, Masked Assassins defeated Ace Youngblood and Roger Monteiro in 8:13 when Masked Assassin #1 pinned Ace Youngblood with a Big Swing Neckbreaker. Masked Assassins make defence number eleven of the MPW Tag Team. Rating: 51 Roger and Ace are slowly slipping into absolute obscurity. There are probably times with regional promotions like us where we should cut them loose, let them get forgotten and bring them back somewhere down the line. Like what happens with Billy, but way harsher. ANGLE: Scout is out in the ring. They’re two weeks away from the biggest event MPW has ever put on. And he’s going to win the title. He’s going to win it for right, for goodness, for our troops all around the world and for America dammit. Rating: 70 Our fans, unsurprisingly, are lapping up this pro-military, pro-America gibberish. But as long as they are happy. TRIBAL WARFARE MATCH: Scout, Pepper and James Diaz vs. Dreadnought, Masked Stranger & Prime Time Jack Pryde In an exceptional match, Scout, Pepper Pelton and James Diaz drew with Dreadnought, Prime Time Jack Pryde and Masked Stranger in 22:15 following a double count out. Rating: 66 What a great schmozz match. OVERALL RATING: 66 Sneakily one of our top ten events of all time there, as we always peak at exactly the right time. 46,098 viewers too, now let’s ride this momentum to the go home show. MPW POWER HOUR #36 Wednesday, Week 4, November, 2022 Live from The Paul Bunyan Hall [bemidji, Beltrami County, Minnesota] Attendance: 196 SINGLES MATCH: Cameron Copeland vs. Billy Chase In a bout that had great heat and decent wrestling, Cameron Copeland defeated Billy Chase in 10:08 by submission with a leg lock. Rating: 34 Yes these two have great chemistry, and also yes; Copeland wins with a leg lock. His selection of moves are about as compelling at The Masked Mauler’s, but we were still impressed with the kid and he most certainly had a bright future. ANGLE: Prime Time Jack Pryde is in the Power Zone. Corey asks him about his upcoming title defense against Pepper Pelton and Prime Time is in good spirits. He knows The Perfect One better than he knows himself. Not many people know that he taught Pepper everything he knows about wrestling, but he didn’t tell Pepper everything *he* knows about wrestling. It’s key to keep a little back in case your partner lets you down. Prime Time imagines Charlie Corner and his bunch of dweebs feel the same about ‘The Glass Man’ Corey St.Whatever. Ain’t that right my little injured failure? Corey looks angry, but Prime Time tells him to calm down or he’ll strain too hard and break his other collarbone. Rating: 69 (noice!) He’s such an obnoxious asshole. And I love him. TEN-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH: James Diaz, LA Stars & New Satin Knights vs. Masked Stranger, Masked Assassins & Main Street Hustlers In a bout that had fantastic heat and good wrestling, James Diaz, The LA Stars and New Satin Knights drew with Masked Stranger, Masked Assassins and Main Street Hustlers in 10:27 following a double disqualification. Rating: 59 That’s right, no one here is losing a few weeks out from the show. Good match as we protect absolutely everyone. SINGLES MATCH: Scout vs. Phil Anders In a bout that had fantastic heat and great wrestling, Scout defeated Phil Anders in 21:48 by submission with a Texas Cloverleaf. Rating: 62 Phil doesn’t have an obvious match-up and it’s always good to test chemistry between workers in throwaway matches years before it might become relevant. ANGLE: Scout is celebrating his victory in the ring. Dreadnought runs in and attacks, beating Scout down into the mat. Rating: 63 And those are the final images the audience have before the big show. OVERALL RATING: 63 Solid end to our first TV show run. And a healthy 45,627 viewers. I immediately give a talk to everyone to help fire them up for the upcoming end of season show. With that done, I send them for a break with strict instructions not to do anything stupid between now and the big show. *** The night of the big show arrives in the blink of an eye. To my surprise the boys have followed instructions perfectly and no one had down something stupid, like signed with TCW or beaten up a police officer. In preparation, I leaf through Curt’s Pack and notice that Greg Gauge has won the TCW King of Kings. Poor Ernest continues to curtain-jerk for them in the most outrageous waste of talent I’ve ever seen. Over in Europe, Aleksi Olsen has opened a promotion called ELPF. Good for him, whoever he is. I then have a coffee and run down the card: MPW Twin City Showdown III MPW Championship: Scout vs. Dreadnought © MPW & COTT Tag Title and MASK Match: The LA Stars © vs. Masked Assassins © Singles Match: James Diaz vs. Masked Stranger MPW Midwest Heavyweight: Pepper Pelton vs. Prime Time Jack Pryde Singles Match: Danny Cassidy vs. Zippy Deverell Tag Team Match: Lakota Braves vs. New Satin Knights Singles Match: Charlie Corner vs. Phil Anders Tag Team Match: Minnesota Awesome vs. Main Street Hustlers Singles Match: Roger Monteiro vs. Rafe Sashay Big Shot 10-Man Battle Royal Next time on Minnesota Pro Wrestling… It’s time for the Grandaddy of them all… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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