Midwest All Star Wrestling Recap: April 21, 2018

Well, that was a fun night! Midwest All Star Wrestling (MAW) hosted a charity event to raise money for Women of Nations, a shelter for native American victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. It was held at the Minneapolis American Indean Center (MAIC), and I would have had no idea this was a thing unless Bin told me about it. Thanks, buddy!

Me with Jake Savage

The matches started out at 7:30 with a Best of Three match: Craven Knyte vs Ryan Cruz. The action was hot and heavy from the get go, with both players trading blows. I know there's a whole kayfabe thing, where the matches are more or less staged, but there were some legitimate boots hitting torsos and grown men in pain. These guys really get into it!

Ryan Cruz bringing the hurt on Craven Knyte

Ryan Cruz puts Craven Knyte in a headlock

Craven Knyte on the corner after his win

In the end, Craven Knyte won, 2 pins to 1. And that was just the first match! After this match ended, there was an announcement from Women of Nations, talking about the shelter. Austin Arrow, a wrestler with MAW and someone who's affiliated with MAIC, also spoke a little bit before being attacked by his title card opponent, Aaron Corbin. After the sudden attack, Bin turned to me and said, "I think we just witnessed a hate crime..."

Kidding, of course. We have a dark sense of humor like that. The next matchup was a 20 man battle royale. Last man in the ring wins! It was sheer, unadulterated madness. These guys had some crazy costumes, and larger than life personas.

I mean, seriously! They even had Michael Meyers. Like, the guy from Halloween. This one guy uses that as his stage name and schtick. It's hilarious!

Spider Baby may have bitten off more than he could chew in the match, trying to get the other wrestlers to fight each other. That backfired when two of them teamed up to take down the other two, and then turn on Spider Baby. He got knocked out of the ring pretty quick after that!

This guy has some serious crazy eyes, and I love it!

Moses Mayhem won the match with a double clothesline to launch the last two opponents over the rope and out of the ring. For surviving as long as he did, he won a blanket from the Women of Nations center, placed on his shoulder to be worn with honor. Congratulations, Moses!

I talked to Moses a little bit before the matches, he said he's been doing this for 17 years now. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after that one! He joked that his wife keeps asking him if each show is gonna be the last one. I think it's all part of the kayfabe. Regardless, he's a cool guy and I can't think of anyone better to receive this win.

Up next was a ladies match, with a belt on the line! These two were fantastic, both went at it like crazy. They did very, very good!

You might have noticed in the earlier photos that there was a clip board hanging above the ring. That, my friends, was set aside for the next match! It's a ladder match, featuring Jake Savage vs. Orin Veidt. That clipboard held a contract for a title match for an upcoming MAW championship. Apparently these two have had a rivalry for some time, and it showed!

Orin Veidt in the ring

Jake Savage put Orin Veidt in a headlock

This kick may or may not be real...

HE'S ANGRY!!!

Jake Savage and Orin Veidt both went through the ladder. In the foreground is the referee and Brian Sager, co-owner of MAW.

We wound up having to back up after that, and I got out of my seat to get a better angle. I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't have gotten that shot otherwise!

In the end, Orin Veidt won the contract, with a little help from his friends.

There was an intermission after this, because we had a cage match next on the docket. They needed a little time to set up, which a perfect time for me to meet Laszlo, the announcer. Turns out, he's been announcing wrestling entertainment events for 7 years now! He's a great guy, and I had a blast talking to him. Even got a few photos!

The next match was a cage match between two grown men who were over 300 lbs each. I thought I was big, these guys are huge! And it's not fat! LORE vs Chainsaw King turned out to be quite the match! We had a blast heckling Chainsaw King, though. He kept shouting, "I AM THE KING!"

It was too easy. We couldn't resist. "I AM GROOT!" was our reply.

King is a very expressive person, which made the photos of him very fun to take! Almost all of the photos I took turned out like this...

In the end, Chainsaw King defeated Lore for the win. And just when the staff were about to remove the cage, Austin Arrow comes in and asks that they keep the cage up for his match against Aaron Corbin. This was personal, and he wanted vengeance! The audience, of course, was happy to oblige his request.

Austin Corbin, thinking about entering the cage

Both fighters went at it, and it was an explosive start to the fight!. Lots of kicks, lots of punches, and quite a few throws along the way! Arrow missed a charge at Corbin, hitting the ref instead! This turned into a bit of a problem for Arrow, as he could have pinned and won if the ref wasn't out like a light! He had Corbin pinned for over 5 seconds! But of course, with no ref to make the call, they couldn't do anything about it. So they kept wailing on each other.

Eventually, Corbin tried to climb over the cage and get out. First person to escape wins. Arrow wasn't gonna let that happen.

So Arrow brought Corbin down with a body slam off the top of the cage. After that, the Minneapolis Police Officer assigned to the event for security was let into the cage to do the 3 count, and Austin Arrow won the match! All in all, it was a great night, tons of fun, and for a great cause. They do shows like this monthly in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, I highly recommend checking it out!