Ok, so I have been slacking on my Minnesota wrestling. There is one television show but two YouTube shows.. That being the case let’s see if we can review all three shows. First up is Steel Domain Wrestling it’s Minnesota’s second longest running wrestling promotion next to the AWA. SDW started in 1998 and has had many a stars walk through their doors. They film in Richfield, Minnesota. Second we will do Pro Wrestling Battleground which is a promotion based in St. Paul Minnesota and has been around for 9 years. Last but not least is American Wrestling Federation which we have been reviewing for quite some time now.
With out further ado..
Pro Wrestling Battleground Episode 84 is here
This is Steel Domains ‘Championship Wrestling from the Twin .Cities
Steel Domain Opens
Mick Karch and SDW owner Ed Hellier bring us to the show. They say that there is a battle royal tonight for #1 contender for Ryan Slade’s SDW Northern States Championship.
Three guys come out, not sure who they are.. I recognize Aaron Corbin. The other two guys are Canadians, and one is wearing a fanny pack and Golds Gym shirt like this was the 80’s.
I checked over at MinnesotaProWrestling.com and it helps with getting to know who we are watching. Apparently the manager is Golden Idol and the stable is called Temple of Terror. It consists of Aaron Corbin, Tommy Lee Curtis, and Danny Duggan. Curtis and Duggan are the Canadians.
Duggan grabs the mic and talks to Ed Hellier. He says because he is back in SDW the arena is full again. He tells Ed that the reason Hellier’s wife cuddles up to him at night is because she is thinking of Danny Duggan. “I am Steel Domain Wrestling and it’s no coincidence that I am back, and your champion Ryan Slade is nowhere to be found.” Mick says the battle royal is over the top rope and the winner is the top contender, he asks Idol what happens if the Temple of Terror end up with each other in the ring, will they fight each other?
Tommy Lee Curtis is interviewed and I really can’t understand him, the audio quality on this show is weak. Aaron points at Ed and says if he sticks his nose in Corbins business he will knock Hellier’s ass out.
Golden Idol wears a Minnesota Vikings shirt and the Temple of Terror are going to reenact something that strikes a nerve with Minnesotans . Duggan says when they take a dump in Canada it blows into Minnesota.
The Temple pulls a Ric Flair and beats up the Vikings shirt… They then have a match with the shirt??!? Aaron Corbin counts the pin as Curtis and Duggan cover for the pin. Someone in the crowd screams “get off the stage!!”
There is a commercial for the Wounded Warrior Project
The Battle Royal for the Northern States Championship
Brick McCarthy vs. The Professional Benjamin Sailor vs. Everyman Josh Calisto vs. Chadwick Wentworth III vs. Aaron Corbin vs. Travis Cole vs. Cooter Bocephus vs. Tommy Lee Curtis vs. Danny Duggan vs. Big Mitch Paradise
This looks chaotic, especially when I don’t know who is who. I gotta rely on the announcers to know what is going on. The announcers say who ever is thrown out in order, determines who they face. First thrown out faces second, third faces forth, and so on and so forth.
Brick McCarthy got eliminated as Golden Idol sang Brickhouse. Ben Sailor gets eliminated second as this match is moving very quickly.
Temple of Terror did a Doomsday Device. They did a second one too. The team decides to take down the competition one combatant a time. These announcers are off putting, they seem good but one is Vince McMahonly and over excites everything.
Josh Calisto is thrown out also. I keep hearing “wait a moment” and “wait a second”. Golden Idol asked us if we know what a “cooter” is. The color commentator isn’t that good at all.
Big Mitch Paradise eliminated Chadwick Wentworth by looking at him. Wentworth eliminated himself so he wouldn’t have to face Mitch. Aaron Corbin is eliminated too. We are down to 5 guys with two being from the Temple of Terror.
Travis Cole is eliminated by Danny Duggan. Cooter and Tommy Curtis eliminated each other, they continue fighting so the fans are following those two. Duggan gets thrown over the top by Mitch Paradise but the refs didn’t see it so he slid back in and threw Mitch Paradise over.
We then get a video package of Danny Duggan beating people up with Ricky Love.
And I’m Like… That half hour flew by. I was introduced to many wrestlers I am unfamiliar with. This show seems like it won’t be so hard to get used to. From one episode it looks to be very promising for the future. I hope the next episode follows continuity and not just throwing random matches at the viewer.
Pro Wrestling Battleground
The show starts off with two guys in the ring and introductions. 6% Body Fat Rob James is in the corner of Venom.
Venom vs. Harvey Bower
Venom yells at the crowd that he should be champion. Rob James grabs the mic and Venom gets out of the ring as James talks. James says the match isn’t supposed to happen tonight because Venom wasn’t cleared by the doctor to wrestle. Ryan Cruz is out without being cleared. Venom calls Cruz a pussy. Venom says “to prove a point I am going to kick this guys ass” Rob James just says “pussy” and the match starts.
The announcer doesn’t tell us who he is. He just calls Harvey “Tower of Power Harvey Bower” Venom slams Bower on the apron and the announcer is very monotone and unenthused telling us how hard the apron is on the outside of the ring.
Rob James starts choking Bower. The announcer is upset that James said he wouldn’t get involved but couldn’t last 2 minutes without interfering.
Venom is dominating this match. It must be a showcase for Venom. The announcers keep saying that tonight was supposed to have a title match but the champion couldn’t make it because he injured his knee in a match and his ribs hurt today.
Venom seems to be aware of where the camera is because he looks at it and most of his moves are on the camera side. Harvey Bower kicks out of an STO after a smallB flurry of offense gets reversed. Venom’s nickname is “The King Of Throwdown”
Harvey got some punches in and ran into the ropes, goes for a crossbody but gets punched in the face for a one count. Venom is not selling anything, he seems so dominate in this match. Rob James gots the fanny pack and Zubas on, must be a Minnesota thing.
Bower hits a kick to the stomach then the head, does a Double Arm DDT for two. Venom hits a half nelson back breaker and a splash for another near fall. This match doesn’t feel exciting, it is well wrestled but it’s just not exciting.
Bower goes for a moonsault but James grabs his foot. After Harvey is able to kick Rob off he goes for his top rope move. Venom hits him in the head with a fanny pack for the win.
And I’m Like… The presentation was nice, and the aesthetics of the bar was cool for a wrestling show. The match didn’t tell much of a story outside SQUASH. The announcers were low energy. I was surprised that the episode was only 12 minutes. Oh well, until they upload another match/episode.
AWF Sunday Shockwave
Dj Draper and Tony Denucci tell bus that this Saturday the biggest show in AWF history will happen. Tony Denucci will face Josh Price. “The clocks been ticking, the calander is a changing day by day. The time is drawn near Josh Price, against me, and my own game. I am not holding back, I am coming at 100%.”
Then they say The O’Neil Twins are coming out of retirement in 2016 and they are gonna wrestle The Misfits. I don’t know who the O’Neil Twins are but The Minnesota Wrestling scene seems fond of them. On the 24th of January they wrestled Demolition and lost.
Tony DeNucci tells us Ariya Daivari and Big Sep are battling it out for the AWF Heavyweight Championship.
And I’m Like… Good way to hype the future show. That show should be very fun. My daughter is two months old, but my wife still doesn’t want to take her out and about for long periods of time. I might have to miss out on this event which will be a shame.
Ariya Daivari vs. Danny Duggan for Vacant Heavyweight Championship
We are in Lakeville North and are joined mid match. The crowd isn’t really into it and there aren’t too many people there.
Steel Domain has the loudest fans of the three shows. I am not sure when this match happened. I am not aware of how many titles there are in this promotion either.
Danny Duggan takes the hockey shirt off Daivari and wipes his butt with it. Daivari fights back but Duggan threw Ariya over the top rope. Tony Denucci tells us that Danny Duggan is from ROH and TNA “he has been everywhere.”
This is only one camera angle and the lighting is dim, they fight on the side of the screen and I can only see one person……..
After a nearfall we go to commercial break… I am still not sure what this match is, if it is NoDQ or what. Not sure what the story is either.
We come back from break and Duggan has a headlock on Daivari. The commentators are telling us how Lakeville had one high school but now they have two because it’s a large community of 75,000 people.
As I watch the back of Duggan’s back while he is headlocking Ariya, two kids in the audience are running around and playing tag. I think this match is recent because DJ is naming all the members of the roster and he drops the names of Orin Veidt, Jacob Savage, Big Sep and such. He also says Big Sep gets the winner. Even though earlier in the show Tony Denucci and DJ Draper told us Big Sep faces Daivari for the title. So they ruined the end to the match before the match even started… I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away The Ending , ah shit. I think you just gave away the ending.
We are at the yay/boo spots but no one is making a reaction really outside of a few kids.
Daivari is picking up the pace and gesturing to the crowd. One of the dads in the audience just woke up. He jolted his body and then kinda stood up and walked with his daughter out of the arena. Ariya claps his hands to get the crowd into it. They clap with him surprisingly. Daivari hits a top rope cross body and DJ Draper believed that was it. After the kick out you could hear Draper going “noooo” so I think he is pulling for Ariya. From my knowledge Daivari is the heel in the title program with Big Sep, but he is wrestling like a face in this match.
Holy Shit Duggan went to suplex Daivari in the corner but they landed hard in a brain buster looking move after the turnbuckle stopped Daivari’s motion. Duggan does not put the exclamation point on his sentence by not pinning after the move.
We already have Daivari fighting back and hitting Duggan with a superkick for the win… we have a New Champion! Tony Denucci says “we got a new champ and a new personality in Ariya Daivari.
And I’m Like… That happened… the suplex spot looked like it hurt… Wrestling without facial expressions and big body language is weird. I did not enjoy that match as much as I thought I would after seeing Danny Duggan wrestle for SDW.
Tony Denucci vs. Wilmoa
This match happened nearly two years ago and is considered an AWF Classic. Dj Draper says “the biggest ovation ever for Tony Denucci, I don’t understand what they see in this guy.”
I hear Draper and the Australian guy… UGH Can’t stand him. Aussie asks Draper if he “ate a dead guy.”
Draper says Wilmoa throws Denucci to the ground like a sack of brown rice. DJ also points out that Denucci has had AWF based out of Elk River for 8 years.
The match just cuts to later in the match… The drama that the crowd feels, I don not feel because I am missing all the parts of the match that make the ending moments big. WE see Tony trying to knock Wilmoa down and once he finally does the crowd acts like it is a big deal, when as a viewer we only saw like 10 moves before Tony took him down.
Wilmoa looks like Umaga and they even call him the Savage Bulldozer. Tony Denucci wins after a DDT in a very, very quick match. Like, this was Mid-South wrestling or something. Then some manager Big Al yells at Wilmoa who hits Big Al with a samoan drop.
And I’m Like… After a few good episodes this show has halted very quickly. I don’t know what they are doing with the show. The advertising of live shows is great, but the one camera angle, the fast matches that just skip through most parts of the match. I feel like they can do so much better and just are not. Hopefully that 10th anniversary show is gonna be great.
Thanks for reading
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Have a good one
-Jake
