Steel Domain Wrestling presents LETHAL LOTTERY // American Legion – Richfield
Thanks to Razzlin’ Rick who continues to review shows over on his Facebook page. Check out this preview then head over for the rest!
Matt Berdahl looked extra sharp tonight wearing tails with his purple shirt, an orange bowtie, hankie and cumberbun. Even MC Laszlo (in the crowd with his lady) was impressed. Matt introduced Pistol Pete Wagner and he introduced Promoter Ed Hellier. They talked about the April 8th show where Travis Cole and an unnamed partner would challenge “3 Under Par” (Chadwick Wentworth III & Brick McCarthy) for their SDW Tag Team Championship. That match started and “3 Under Par” pounded Cole from ringpost to ringpost before his partner could even be named. After a couple minutes out ran Danny Duggan, who cleaned house. It was utter chaos and Cole pinned Wentworth to win the belts. Or so we thought…
Read more of the Lethal Lottery results by Razzlin’ Rick by clicking here
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IWI Presents MOTHER’S DAY MADNESS // Historic Mounds Theater – St. Paul, MN
Thanks to Ryan Franson aka The Ultimate Worrier on Twitter @TheRyanFranson
This was my first trip to the Historic Mounds Theater, and my beer had an Erick Rowan on it, a good omen for the show to come.
+ Venom def. LW3 and Damien Graves to become #1 Contender for the IWI United States Title
IWI is an enchanted land where all the guys I’m used to seeing wrestle heel magically become babyfaces. The King of Throwdown Venom, to his credit, seemed to be as surprised about his newfound good-natured attitude as I was. I hadn’t seen Graves or LW3 in action before, but the crowd responded well to both. An “Erick Rowan” chant broke out early, which was a super nice thing for them to do for my beer, although I’ll admit there’s an outside chance it was aimed at Graves’ Wyatt Family-esque jumpsuit.
Graves was eliminated first after a Bella Buster from LW3, and I’m sure that’s not what he calls it, but that’s what I call it and if you don’t like it you can cut a floating head promo on me while sipping a glass of chardonnay. Not too long after, Venom connected with the Discus Punch to pick up the win. That’s right, folks, on June 10th it’s Venom vs. Spider Baby. Will there some sort of mutual immunity to each other’s various titular or assumed-because-of-the-spider-thing poisons? Get your bets in now.
+ YOLO Bros (c) def. Air Wolf & Angel Caido to retain the IWI Tag Team Titles
On one hand, The YOLO Bros are frat guys who put on tights to wrestle instead of simply enjoying the luxurious constriction on their thighs in the comfort of their giant frat house. One of them wears two polo shirts AT THE SAME TIME. They’re monsters. On the other hand, Angel Caido and Air Wolf are, as noted thespian The Miz would say, awesome. From the music and graphics for their entrances, to their in-ring work, there’s an attention to detail they have, a more fully put-together feeling, that I’d love to see a lot more local guys pick up.
The YOLO Bros did some very good heel work, and Angel Caido has improved quite a bit since the last time I saw him at Pro Wrestling Battleground. The star of the match without question, was Air Wolf. He never fails to impress and viscerally feels like he’s wrestling at a level above – there’s no doubt he is putting in the work and it’s paying off. He even signed a guy’s boob at intermission. Hero. The YOLO Bros squeaked out a victory when one of the Bros distracted the referee with his frat paddle and the other whacked Air Wolf with the title for the cheap victory.
+ Spider Baby(c) def. The Prophet to retain the IWI United States Title
Spider Baby came to the ring with a couple of roses, one of which he threw to a little girl who was without question the best fan at the show, and the other he offered to IWI audience regular Crazy Lenny, with a caveat. To get the rose, Lenny would have to recite The Pledge of Malfeasance:
I pledge allegiance to the gold
Of the United States Champion
And to the reputation for which it stands
One notion
Underhanded
Unbreakable
With libertine and just desserts for all
The malfeasance, I’m guessing, mostly comes from the grossly irregular capitalization throughout the pledge. A pledge to questionable grammar. Unconscionable. Lenny got his rose, though. Good job, Lenny.
The Prophet, also a victim of the strange babyface-making magic of the Historic Mounds Theater, was OVER. My god. Children throughout the theater chanting “PROPHET! PROPHET!” That is, unless they were chanting “PROFIT” and are overly eager to be our next generation of venture capitalists. Either way, the crowd was INTO IT.
Spider Baby matches are weird because there is this one guy who yells, “SPIDER WEINER” every 30 seconds, which creates its own hypnotic cadence. In the end, however, Spider Baby grabbed a chain from outside the ring, which Venom rushed out to take away. With a nod to Eddie Guerrero, Spider Baby pretended to have been hit by Venom’s chain and stole a DQ victory. Tensions rose between The Prophet and Venom post-match, but friendship ultimately prevailed.
Solid match, but if IWI wants to rake in the big bucks, they’ll book the United States Champion against the Snyder’s lady. Spider Baby vs. Pretzels, baby. Book it.
At intermission, they raffled off an Air Wolf Complete Series DVD autographed by Air Wolf, which may be the best raffle prize of all time.
+ Kal Creed def. Maru
I’ve only ever seen Kal Creed wrestle babyface, so it’s only fair to assume that his heel persona here is a direct result of whatever reality-warping magic inhabits the Historic Mounds Theater. Maru has a sweet Mega Man-style pixel art shirt, and I WANT IT. Plenty of great action here, including a spot where Maru dragged Creed around the outside, forcing him to high-five kids. In the end though, Kal Creed pulled out the victory with a move that looked a lot like the Rack Attack 2.0 but probably wasn’t and maybe I watch too much Total Divas.
+ 6% Body Fat Rob James & Heavy Metal Lore def. IWI World Champion Ryan Cruz & Ian Xavier
Rob James and Lore are babyfaces and Ryan Cruz is a heel and SERIOUSLY WHAT IS GOING ON? Also, Lore has shorts! It’s a good look! Great comedy and loads of personality from Cruz and James in particular in a fun match that saw Ryan Cruz abandon his partner, allowing Lore to chokeslam James onto Xavier to pick up the victory. But it didn’t end there, folks! MAJOR REVELATIONS were afoot.
Ian Xavier has been in the business for 23 years, and announced that he will be retiring in two years on his 25th anniversary, but THAT’S NOT ALL! It turns out that the man running the show isn’t GM Sean Monahan, nay, The Face That Runs The Place is actually… IAN XAVIER.
Someone in the audience fainted, but I have it on good authority that he’s okay.
Xavier wasted no time in flexing his newly revealed muscle and booked 6% Body Fat Rob James vs. Ryan Cruz for the IWI World Title with a No DQ stipulation on June 10th, as well as LW3 vs. Lore that same night. Add to that Venom vs. Spider Baby for the IWI United States Title and June 10th is already shaping up to be a dynamite show.
WRESTLING 