Universal All Pro Wrestling Warms Up The Ice House.

UAPW held its first card away from its training school, Glass City Wrestling Academy, on Saturday, June 18, and proved itself to be a "work in progress."

The evening opened with an on-air personality from WIOT, coming to the ring and calling out Dick Nasty (AKA, the "Homeless Avenger"). Allegedly, Nasty had been responsible for some serious injuries to the radio jock, a few years earlier and, in the spirit of letting bygones be bygones, the radio personality wanted to show there were no lingering negative feelings. Now if you have watched any wrestling in the past, you probably realize that this was likely to end badly!

And so it did. As a number of wrestlers joined in a beatdown of Mr. Nasty. Another group of wrestlers made the save before any serious damage was done.

The show officially began with a Battle Royal, featuring most of the roster. There were the usual number of shifting alliances, betrayals, etc. When the number of combatants was reduced to a manageable number, Falon Chase, a woman wrestler, entered the ring and cleaned house. She made quick work of the opposition to gain the victory.

Next up: Rampage vs. Ryan. This bout featured the "crooked ref" gimmick. The ref clearly favored Rampage, counting slowly when Rampage was pinned, and fast when Ryan was in a similar predicament. Of course this was all to no avail, as Ryan picked up the nod.

Third match was a three-way, as Scotty Fraytown took on Carnage and Trey Miguel. This was a hard fought affair that saw the aptly named Carnage pick up the win.

Last up before intermission was Dick Nasty taking on Donner ("party of one"). Lots of punching, and brawling ending up in a double count out.

After the break it was time for "Mr. Main Event" to take on Grady this was total comedy, including whipped cream filled pie plates, and, the old Harlem Globetrotter bit with the water buckets! After way too much comedy for my taste, Grady rolled up his foe for the victory.

Next on tap was "Ice Trey" taking on Criss Chambers . This was a good match, that told a story, and allowed both men a chance to look good. Chambers used a pile driver, and moonsault for the well earned win.

Now it was time for a nod to another era, as "Kamala Jr., looking like a clone of the original faced the challenge of Mr. Fitness. Words fail me as I struggle to describe Mr. Fitness's attire: if I say that it included a bikini top, and 'a too small singlet--well you get the general idea.

Kamala was very powerful, but Mister Fitness had a respectable outing before falling victim to a "splash" from the second rope. This was a very enjoyable match. Kamala could quickly, with the right booking (lots of squashes) be built into a main eventer to build a program around.

Match number eight was a tag bout, featuring Dick Nasty, and Criss Chambers taking on a heel team whose names I missed in all the noise! This was a lengthy match won by Chambers and Nasty.

Time for the main event: a "Lumber Jack" match Pitting the popular Brandon Edwards against bad boy Joe Rodriguez. The two adversaries had a high flying battle. The "Lumberjacks," did what lumberjacks do in these situations: gang up on the good guy! At times; however, the lumberjacks seemed a little confused about what was expected of them. In the end Edwards gained the win over Rodriguez, sending the 150 to 200 fans home happy.

The positives of the show were an enthuisiastic crowd, and a spirited roster of performers.

The negatives: sound quality was poor, booking was loose: the 3 and 1/2 hour show could have been tightened to 2 and 3/4 hours, if the matches had been a little shorter, and tighter.

All -in-all, a successful show for a promotion worth watching!

Three Title Matches and Bloody Brawl At POG 7th Anniversary Showa

Price Of Glory, the" little promotion that could," held it's celebration at Michigan sports camp in Coldwater, Michigan on June 12. The opening tag bout set a high standard for the night, as "Pretty Nifty,"( Jack Verville and Mr. Nifty) took on Ryan Epic and Scott Young.

This was a hotly contested bout as Verville, and Nifty resorted to a number of questionable tactics to offset their high flying opponents. The issue was in doubt until Epic got nailed with a sick looking piledriver that had me wincing! Pretty Nifty established themselves as a team to be reckoned with, with this win.

Next up a three-way match: Uncle Funky vs NinJoe vs "Dynamite" Brian McFeters. This one was interrupted by a mysterious interloper who made quick work of all three. Result: No Contest I guess.

Third bout saw the rough and rugged Sue Jackson take on Bam (this was not an intergender match--Mr. Jackson was apparently the lad Johnny Cash wrote the song about!) In any event Bam scored the win.

The next bout was another tag team match: Mitch Johnson and Tony X taking on Mitchell Taylor and Zach Champ. I was unfamiliar with these two teams. Taylor and Champ were the heels.

Rounding out the first half of the show was a "street fight" match between Mike Musso and Roderick Street. The ring could not contain the enmity between these two men battled their way out of the ring and into the back. They brawled from one room to another, using every thing they could find to inflict damage on each other, including exercise equipment, a leather strap, and every wall or floor within reach!

Eventually they fought their way to the parking lot. Here the bed of a Dodge pick-up served as aring as the battle continued! By this time Street was bleeding profusely. The combatants fought their way back into the building and into a second ring! Here Street proved to be" bloody--but unbowed," as he ultimately rolled up Musso for a hard fought win.

After the intermission, the second half of the card began with a tag title bout between champions Jimmy "The Hype" Shalwin, and Max "Game Boy" Morrison taking on the "Wild Stallyins," Johnny Dynamo and C.J. Otis. The four men held a clinic on how to conduct a tag match. This was wild and wooly. The heelish champions made full use of their arsenal of devious tricks to seem on the verge of winning, but it was the challengers winning the titles as Otis forced Morrison to tap out.

Next up, a "Ladder Match" for the scheduled-to-be -retired POG Chaotic title. Noah Lott was the challenger, taking on his friend (and the Chaotic Champion) Dollar. These two know each other so well that at times we seemed to be watching a chess match as these two anticipated one another's tactics. In the end Lott eked out the win. He then place the retred title belt on Dan Severn's trophy shelf and shoo hands with Dollar.

Time for another tag match! First up, the team of Osiris and "The SI," began to walk to the ring when their foes, Idol Heinze and Magnum Conroy, attacked the much smaller SI with chairs. They targeted his knee, left him in a heap, and attacked Osiris in the ring! Eventually, SI made it to the ring and took a desperation tag from his partner.

SI was at least a hundred pounds smaller than both Heinze and Conroy, and was quickly forced to submit as they punished his already injured knee. Osiris demanded a rematch, thus setting up a story line for next season.

Now it was time for the main event as POG champion, Keith Creme, took on the challenge of Sean Tyler. Creme taunted both Tyler and the audience with his customary insults. The two men waged a heated battle. In the end Tyler won the match, and the title. The new champion celebrated with the audience as the beaten champion fled to the back with a bloody nose!

Price Of Glory will be idle during July, but returns on August 7th to begin season eight!

Clash Wrestling Scores Big with "Back To The Future"

It was a warm Saturday night in Taylor, Michigan. The action in, and around the ring was even hotter, as Clash Pro Wrestling scored big with an imaginative, and innovative night of wrestling.

The event was built around a time machine theme (complete with an unseen Delorean, ala the film, "Back To The Future) complete with a Mad Scientist Ring Announcer.

First bout of the night saw White Ranger draw an opponent from the the time machine, R2TD2. R2DT2 had a robot persona, which he maintained throughout the match, and all the way to the back. White Ranger gave it his best, but fell victim to an old fashioned kick to the face and was pinned.

Next up was Dave Manzo, his foe from the past was "Kamikaze" Keith Calhoun, who emerged in a 1986 edition complete with fanny pack! The crowd was really taunting Calhoun, calling him "Biff," which really incensed him. Manzo, and calhoun put on a solid bout with Manzo scoring the pin after what looked to be a variation of the "attitude adjustment" (slam from a fireman's carry position).

Next was a trip back into more distant eras, as "Caveman" Tyler Elkins (obviously from the dawn of time) saw Matt Cross emerge from the time machine (circa 490 BC) in Spartan warrior garb. Spartan skills proved no match for primitive power as the Caveman overpowered the Greek Warrior with a "Neanderclaw" applied to the mandible, for the victory.

Next up was a "Mosh Pit Battle Royal." With headbanger musical accompaniment by The family. This one was won by N8 Mattson, and included, among others, one of the "Bumpin' Uglies" tag team. It was loud, it was wild, it was a wonder no one got hurt!

Thefirst half of the show concluded with an interview segment featuring Jenny from VH1;s "Rock Of Love" show . Jenny's guest was Simon Dean, former WWE star. When Jenny attempted to ask a question, Dean called her a "dumb blonde," much to the crowd's displeasure. Then Dean called out Clash Champion, Gavin "GQ" Quinn, who credited Simon's system for his success After verbally jousting with the fans, the heels turned their attention to Jenny.

Things looked bad for the reality show star, until, like chivalrous knights of old, tag team partners "Too Sweet" came to the rescue of the damsel in distress! This set up the main event: Dean and Quinn against" Too Sweet." It also led into an intermission and more music from "The Family."

After the break, "H3RD," Tommy Treznick, and Ded Vaughn, took on the challenge of Danny Danger and Josh Thor. But not before mad scientist Treznick presented his "monster" of a partner, with a female monster as a gift! Treznick, et al, took home the win after Ded delivered a pile driver to one of their foes.

Next up was "Ace High" Cameron Skyy, taking on fast rising star, Mena Libra, in an intergender match. This was one of the few miscues of the night. Libra, came to the ring in a walking cast from a fractued foot suffered three weeks ago in Lakewood, Ohio. The "hook" was that Skyy did not really want to wrestle Mena, but she insisted and was eventually flattened! In my humble opinion, she had no business in a wrestling ring with her injury.

Yes, I know there is a long tradition of wrestlers "working hurt." But not all traditions are worth preserving. Working with broken bones can delay healing, and shorten a career! Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now because it is eime for the main event!

The main event was a classic. Simon Dean played "old school heel" to perfection. Gavin Quinn complemented Dean as his partner, as the duo took on the high flying, if smaller tam "Too Sweet."

This was an exciting and satisfying tag battle, as both teams played their roles to perfection, After a back and forth battle, "Too Sweet" gained a well earned win, and Dean and Quinn teased turning against each other, before harmony was restored.

The real winners of the night were the fans, who went home happy after an exciting night of professional wrestling! Kudos to Clash Pro Wrestling for a very successful show!