Northern Premier Wrestling came to Lake City, Minnesota on March 8, 1997.  This is my chronology of the events.

Unfortunately, I didn't type up this report in the RSPW-normal fashion (immediately after the card, while one still has a decent buzz) so I don't have complete match details (or even complete match results).

I left my home around 3:00 that afternoon, as NPW tends to have their cards in smaller towns in the five-state area, rather than having them near populated areas.  I didn't have any trouble finding the arena.  

I arrived around 5:15, having avoided no less than seven highway patrolmen along the 110-mile stretch of road.  I was planning on getting there closer to 5:00, but had miscalculated the traffic for a Saturday afternoon in the Twin Cities, as well as the lower speed limits when passing through the smaller towns.

The place looked like a good arena for wrestling.  It had a large open area for the ring with metal folding chairs on three sides, and a raised area for the broadcaster crew on the fourth.  I checked out the souvenier/merchandize table (mostly pictures of wrestlers).  They seemed to be doing good business at the table, as it was hard to get close enough to see what they had for sale.  In another corner of the room, there was a concession stand selling hot dogs, beer, and pop (or as they say out East "soda").

This is better than George's/Roper's in Fridley was.  They had low ceilings, making it hard for The Lightning Kid and Jerry Lynn to do much off the top rope without scraping their heels on the black ceiling in their old PWA matches.  Though I have to admit, George's had a good atmosphere.  But too much smoke.

The PWA also used to hold matches next door to Norma Jean's, in a bar whose name I can't for the life of me remember (even though a friend mentioned it on Friday, since his band plays there a lot).  That was a good place, as it was two stories high and had lots of chain link fencing keeping a lot of the fans away from ringside.  Almost had a good ECW/FMW/W*ING feel to it.

The UCW/UWF/whatever-they-are in St Paul have an interesting setup as well, as wrestlers could jump off the top of a railroad car onto an opponent in the ring.

Tonight's matches were more along the lines of the NPW card in Waconia or the NWA GrandSlam I at the Minneapolis Indian Center, as both of those were in large open-area surroundings.

The card was scheduled to start at 6:00 (which usually means 6:30 at the earliest) but I was still able to find a ringside seat near the entrance to the locker room.  I spent the next half hour or so "people watching" (which is always interesting at rural wrestling matches).

When I had had enough of that, I caught the cameraman/producer Al's attention as he was heading to the back area.  I asked him if he saw the promoters in the back, to let them know I was here (as they had wanted to meet with me in person, having corresponded only by email).  Al recognized my name and mentioned that he liked my web page, especially the Star Trek area.  What is it with the connection between wrestling and Star Trek?  During the last Diamond Doll Kimberly chat, she mentioned that she was taping Star Trek so that she could watch it after the Q&A session.  The announcement from the WCWwebmaster for the upcoming DDP chat on March 12th said that "Chat ends when ST:VOYAGER, begins".  I was wondering this afternoon which was more embarrassing: admitting that you are a wrestling fan or admitting you are a Trek fan.  Even with the fourth wave of popularity of pro-wrestling we are currently enjoying, you still get weird looks if you mention that you are a fan.  Of course, if you mention that you even *watch* Star Trek, people will silently imagine you with Spock ears in a StarFleet uniform at a convention full of geeks. :-)  But now I'm getting off on a rant.

I spoke briefly with Lenny Lane (fresh back from his matches with ECW).  He had nothing but good things to say about the promotion.  I was wondering if we were going to see him in any dark matches when Nitro comes to Duluth (as Lane resides in the Duluth/Superior area).  He said he was still waiting to hear.  I was really surprised to find out that Lane has less than two years of ring experience.  I gave a match report about a year ago where I said he was destined for greatness in the Big Two someday.  He's great on the mic (shades of Ric Flair) has the build (imagine a shorter Lex Luger).  He always put on a great show, both working the crowd and working in the ring.  He'll usually work a few Flair Flips and Flair Flops into the match, and you're almost guaranteed to see him go over the top rope onto his opponent on the outside.

Pretty soon, play-by-play man Mick Karch came backstage.  Mick is best known for his work with the AWA, AWF, as well as other indies (probably some Florida and Chicago work).  We talked briefly about wrestling from the 1970s and 1980s with the WWWF, AWA, GCW, WCW, etc.  He asked if he could cut an interview with me later that night.  He probably doesn't remember it, but he's asked me on several past occasions (dating back to when he had the old "Saturday Night at Ringside" show on channel 23 (before the fundies bought the station and deemed wrestling "too violent" for them to air)) for an on-air interview.  His play-by-play/color commentary man Christian Dady asked as recently as last autumn via email.  They finally met my price, so I agreed. ;-)

It was getting close to 6:00, so I went back to my seat.  I noticed a couple other RSPW denizens, and decided to relocate to their side of the ring.  The crowd was small enough that there were still good seats available, but there were a fair number of kids for the wrestler to get heat from, and it was a very vocal crowd.

Christian came to the ring and announced that there was no smoking in the building (the security guys quickly hid the nails they were smoking) and that anyone who came in contact with a wrestler would be ejected from the building.

The night started off with an interview (conducted by Mick Karch) with Lenny Lane, J.B. Trask, and their manager Mortimer Plumtree.  Lane worked the mic really well and Plumtree made some remark implying that J.B. better win the NPW title tonight or he suffer the consequences.

I don't recall who was in the first match (which started promptly around 6:35).  It was either "The Bear" Grizzly or Chi Town Thug (I have trouble telling them apart at times).  I'd guess the latter if I had to guess which it was.  There were a few skinheads seated behind us who were giving the wrestlers crap about their workrate.  The heel held open the ropes and said "if you think you're so hot why don't you get in here?"  The thinnest of the skin heads charged the ring and was shoved out by the heel and the ref.  About seven security guys came over and asked him to leave.  I think all his friends left with him.  I still haven't figured out why people enjoy storming the ring.  Hell, at least wait for the main event; why bother with the undercard? ;-)

I think the next match was Kenny "Sodbuster" Jay against another face.  I've never been one of Kenny's biggest fans (though I often wished he and Jake "The Milkman" Milliman(sp?) would have got an upset win for the AWA titles for a week) but I *do* have to admit--I hope I have half that workrate when I get to be that age.  Kenny eventually won with a submission (boston crab, probably, I wasn't taking notes) to the delight of the younger members of the audience.

The third match was Lenny Lane against some face (possibly Scotty Z).  Lane was wearing an ECW t-shirt to the ring.  This was probably the best match of the night, with the title match being a very close second.  Lane worked the crowd like a veteran.  He did at least 2 or 3 Flair Flips over the top turnbuckle.  When the face was walking around ringside (on the side we were sitting) Lane ran across the ring and flipped over the top rope onto the face.  Lane then had everyone clear out of the section so he could throw the face into the chairs.  The face reversed it and I believe hip-tossed Lane into the 4th or 5th row of chairs.  A most excellent bump.  The brawl went all around the arena, back to the souvenir stand, into some more chairs.  Some trash cans got used, and then they took it back into the ring.  I'm having a mental pause on the ending of the match, but it *was* a hell of a match.

There was most likely one more match before the title match (Dan Jesser or "The Bear" Grizzly probably wrestled in it, but it wasn't enough for me to remember anything about it; it was more of a bridge between the excellent Lane match and the title match.

During one of the breaks, they filmed the opening sequence for the local TV shows the NPW matches will air on.  They then conducted the interview with Mick Karch and me.  I thought it went pretty well and I wasn't nervous in the least.  Who knows though.  Maybe it'll come across as bad as Miss Jacqueline's first few WCW interviews.  Seems she had some butterflies when she went from the indies to doing interviews live for 5,000,000 viewers nationwide.  Anyway, I talked briefly about the wrestlers I enjoyed in my youth, the great action that can be found in the indies, and plugged my website and The Wrestling Channel.

Just as when the Executive Producer of "Good Company" wanted to interview me in my home about my webpage, my first thought was "You know what would be cool?  An MPEG on my home page of me being interviewed about my webpage." :-)

Anyway, on to the title match.  J.B. Trask came out with his manager Morty Plumtree.  
The current title holder Horace "The Psychopath" then stormed the ring, much to the delight of the kids at ringside.  
Plumtree worked the crowd (especially the kids) very well.  
He's stepped it up a notch since the last time I made it to an NPW card.  
This was an excellent brawling match that went all over the arena.  
I believe Horace hiptossed Trask into a bunch of folding chairs (much like the bump Lane took earlier).  
The trash cans got used again.  
One of their heads got rammed into the cashbox at the front door.  
Trask's forehead got opened up when the two were by the play-by-play platform (where there was no seating).  
You gotta respect someone who will work their ass off in a bloody match for a crowd of 75 to 100 people.  
Trask, Horace, and Lane are all good company men.  
Kamikaze Kid fits that description, too, but he wasn't there that night.  
The end of the match finally came when Plumtree had some kind of foreign object, went to hit Horace, but clocked Trask instead.  During the match, the ref took a great bump to the outside.  Plumtree also took a decent bump in this match.  This answered my question (when the match started) as to why Eddie Sharkey (trainer of champions) wasn't reffing this match.  Horace won the match and retained his title.

After the match, Mick Karch interviewed Trask and Plumtree.  Plumtree blamed Trask for the loss, even though it was Plumtree's own antics that cost them the win.  Trask put his hands on Plumtree, when Lane came out and clocked Trask (turning Trask face again).  Scotty Z came out to make the save for Trask, which I think set up some future match (probably Scotty Z & J.B. Trask vs Lenny Lane & someone).

The final match was an eight-man over-the-top-rope battle royal.  The participants were: J.B. Trask, Horace The Psychopath, "Bear" Grizzly, Scotty Z, Lenny Lane, Chi-Town Thug, Dan Jesser, and Morty Plumtree.  As far as I know, this was Plumtree's first match on the inside of the ring.  The guy can't weigh more than 120 pounds.  He spent a good part of the match trying to hide under the ring and running away from people (and in fact, had to be chased out via a second locker room door just to get to the ring) but he worked as hard as any of the boys that match.  Kenny Jay wasn't in the match, but I *think* everyone else who worked a match that night was in the battle royal.  Most of the action revolved around Plumtree.  It eventually came down to a face and two heels (don't they all?) with the face winning.  I believe it was Scotty Z for the $2500 <cough> prize.

After the card, everyone headed over to a local bar, where the promoters were nice enough to buy steak dinners and beer for all the boys (plus the security crew, the TV crew, and the ring crew).  Oh, and me too (thanks, guys!)  It was great listening to all the stories of the road, the off-color jokes, and basically just shooting the bull.

We shut the bar down around 1:00 and after avoiding another 5 highway patrolmen, I made it home around 3:00.  Luckily, everyone was kind enough to let me sleep in this morning. :-)

I'm looking forward to catching the NPW card next weekend in Red Wing, MN.  I think the Kamikaze Kid is scheduled for that one.  Outside of maybe a Chris Benoit, you're not going to find any guys in the Big Two that work harder than the NPW folks.