To: wres TWC Chris Newman Subject: [RESULTS] NPW card in Red Wing, MN on March 15, 1997 From: heuer004@gold.tc.umn.edu (Otto "Hack-Man" Heuer) Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 00:22:06 -0600 Chris, Here is the "publishable" version. Feel free to send it off to Charles. I have sent a copy to Brenda and J.B. at NPW. -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- Northern Premier Wrestling came to Red Wing, Minnesota on March 15, 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 (but this time I do believe I have the complete match results). I actually remembered to bring along a pad of paper to scribble down details of the matches, but didn't bring anything to write with. This turned out to be a theme throughout the evening. :-) I left my home around 3:20 that afternoon, since this card was a bit closer than last week's. Some time around 4:00 I realized that I didn't remember to bring directions. I knew I'd be able to find Red Wing, but I didn't know where in Red Wing to go, or even the name of the arena it was being held in. For some reason "Armory" stuck in my head, which was a Good Thing (since there wouldn't be enough time to go home and then come back). I stopped for directions to the Armory, and was told that it was next to the Day's Inn (and that I wouldn't be able to miss it). I found the Day's Inn and headed toward the only building I saw that was near it. It turned out to be some sort of correctional institution. After a bit more driving, I found the Armory tucked around behind the Day's Inn, and (lucky for me) found out that yes, it was the location for tonight's festivities. I hadn't been able to talk anyone else into attending the matches this evening, but they still had a decent crowd on hand (I'd estimate between 120 and 150 people there) despite the fact that there was a competing card in St Paul the same evening. I'm guessing that a lot of the Twin Cities crowd went to that card instead, even though when there are two competing wrestling cards in the area, NPW always has the best talent locked in for their show. I'd make some comment about convenience vs quality, but that would no doubt lead into a long tirade about why the US doesn't have HDTV yet. :-P I found a shortcut, which cut off a few miles compared to last week's journey, and brought the total miles to a bit under 100 each way. Since I got off to a later start than anticipated, I mad up for it by following close behind someone who was going warp five. All the highway patrolmen must have already been at the matches, as I didn't see a one. :) I arrived around 5:20, barely able to keep my eyes open. I had forgot to bring along a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew this time and was doing everything I could to keep myself awake. Luckily, the recent snow storm didn't make the driving any more difficult. I know that upstate Minnesota has already broken their record for snowfall in a single season and has topped 100 inches. My Dad sent me a photo of an igloo he and his grandkids built. It's about 9 feet high and 15 feet in diameter. Hope I have that much energy when I'm 68 years old... I was too late to get front row seats, but settled for an aisle seat in a second row. As usual, they had metal folding chairs set up on three sides of the ring, with the announcers on the fourth side. There were about six annoying kids sitting behind (and later beside) me, who kept trying to kick my camera on the floor, but I didn't really want to relocate and settle for a less desirable location, so I just endured it. Three people had brought signs with them tonight. One (who appeared to be about 16 or so) was sitting ringside along the main aisle to the dressing room. He kept getting in the wrestlers faces, but didn't get involved enough to get thrown out or anything. I could tell it was his first NPW card, as he was getting quite irate around 6:05 when the matches hadn't started. ;-) The first thing I did when I arrived was loaded up on Mountain Dew, which was reasonably priced for an event purchase. I then headed for the souvenir table to see if they had any NPW shirts for sale. As was the case last week, the only shirts appears to be wrestler-specifi t-shirts (such as the Kenny Jay" shirts). I decided to pass :) and headed back to my seat for some "people-watching" before the card. It was a good arena for a wrestling card. Nice high ceilings for the top-rope moves and a large open area. The only bad thing about it was the acoustics. Whenever someone was talking over the house mic, it was nearly impossible to hear what was being said. Around 6:00 or so, they had to start adding more rows because there were so many people arriving. I caught them unpacking a bunch of black shirts at the souvenir table and quickly made my way over there. Someone was already purchasing one of the cool black "NPW--Feel The Power" t-shirts and I got the next one. A good deal at $15, considering the nWo shirts are $20 plus $6 S&H (and rumors are that WCW will be raising the prices on the shirts because they're selling so fast). After I paid for the shirt, another guy was buying one and his buddy asked him to buy two so he could have one too. :) Sign-Guy (who was wearing a black shirt which appeared to have a picture of Lex Luger on it) saw that I was covering up my "Legion of Doom--Internet World Tour" t-shirt (which I wore to the great NWA GrandSlam I card) with the cool black NPW shirt and immediately went over to get one for himself. He also bought several pictures of the wrestlers (and some of manager Morty Plumtree to rip up in his face). I think over the course of the evening he got every wrestler's, announcer's, etc autograph at least two or three times. :-) It's great to see such enthusiasm in the patrons. It was another great crowd, and they seemed even more vocal than last week. The newly turned fan-favorite J.B. Trask was able to get a lot of support from the fans after dumping Morty Plumtree last week. The concession stand was selling nachos, hot dogs, and candy. The Mirage! That's the name of the bar next to Norma Jean's that I couldn't think of last week! Okay, enough of this "stream of consciousness" crap; I'll get on to the matches now. :-P The card was scheduled to start at 6:00. Around 6:30 Christian Dady entered the ring to tell us that there was a change in the scheduled lineup for the night. The card as listed in the programs was: - Scotty Z vs The Chi-Town Thug - Kamikaze Kid vs J.B. Trask - Dynamite Dan Jesser vs The Professor - Horace the Psychopath vs Luscious Lenny Lane - 4 corner tag match (with the 8 men from the previous 4 matches?) Before Christian could tell us what the changes were, The music for Plumtree Enterprises started up and out came Morty and Lenny Lane. After an interview that I couldn't catch much of, the change was apparently the removal of Jesser vs Professor to be replaced by Trask vs manager Plumtree. This met to the wild approval of the crowd, who wanted to Plumtree get what's coming to him from former Plumtree Enterprises member Trask. Morty claimed to be too injured to fight and Lenny Lane had to carry him back to the dressing room. Both Trask and Horace got a big crowd reaction when they mentioned the Red Wings winning the state championship. There were a lot of photographers at ringside snapping pictures during the Scotty Z vs Chi-Town Thug matchup. CTT (three years pro) is the Wrestler of the Month for March and Scotty is improving with every match. Scotty did pretty well for a guy who was giving up 25 pounds in this match, and the crowd loved him. Scotty did one of Cactus Jack's old moved where he'd jump off the apron and do a front flip onto his opponent. He earned more respect from me with that one move than all his matches in the past year. I believe it was at this point that Plumtree and his associates came back out. Morty called out the Kamikaze Kid. I hadn't seen Kid for a few months. He now sports a totally shaved head ad has a goatee. He looks a lot like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Morty told Kid that if he took out Trask in the undercard match (so he wouldn't be able to fight in the match with Morty later on the card) he'd make it worth his while. Kid asked how much and Morty whispered a dollar figure in his ear. Kid seemed to accept this. This led into the second match of the night: Kamikaze Kid (a 190 pound high-flier) vs J.B. Trask, the Brentwood Badboy (230 pounds). Many fans were heckling The Kid with chants of "Mr Clean" and "Stone Kold Kid". I'm not sure if Kid was injured or what, but we didn't see any of the high-flying and top-rope moves that he is famous for. He *did* have a few good back leg round kicks, though. The fans were elated that Trask made it through the match unscathed and was able to battle Plumtree later in the evening. The fans across the aisle were mentioning how good the card was turning out to be, and said they were glad to see that Kenny Jay wasn't on the card. I looked over the list of wrestlers on the card and I think this may be the first time in my life (with the exception of some of the old matches at George's) that the average age of the wrestlers was under 30. The NWA Grandslam I had Terry Funk, etc bringing the average up. The old AWA matches were filled with 40-year-olds. Most of the WCW matches have had enough old-timers to bring their average up. There was then an intermission, so a lot of people headed to the concession stands, the souvenir stand, or headed outside to smoke. It was now 8:00. After the intermission, J.B. Trask came to the ring (to the cheers of the crowd). After two introductions, Morty Plumtree still hadn't come out, but luckily, announcer Slick Mick chased Morty out from the dressing room and into the ring (much like Dady did the week before). This match started out with Plumtree avoiding any contact whatsoever for about 5 minutes. Eventually, Trask decided to lie down on the top turnbuckle. Plumtree tried to come in on the opposite corner and tripped over the ropes a bit. I think he tried to lay on that turnbuckle until Trask shook the ropes, dumping Morty to the ground. After another five minutes or so of Morty being afraid to lock up, Trask decided to lie down in the middle of the ring, as if to give Morty a free chance to pin him. Morty entered the ring vert cautiously, not knowing what to make of it. As he got close enough, Trask scared the crap out of him (the gals next to me thought Morty's white pants (he wasn't geared up for wrestling) might have a yellow stain). A short while later, there actually got to be some wrestling holds going on in the ring, but the action eventually went all over the arena. Morty got in a cheap shot on Trask. Trask then chased Plumtree around the ring. Morty then ducked into the kitchen area where they were cooking hotdogs. Trask followed him in and Morty jumped out through the service window(!) throwing hotdogs, mustard, and candy at Trask as he egressed. Eventually, Trask chased Plumtree back into (and then out of) the ring. He then requested a copy of one of Morty's color pictures from the souvenir table, which he proceeded to use to wipe off the mustard from his wrestling attire. The crowd roared their approval. The action was too much to call, but the highlight was Trask getting Morty in a piledriver. It was a hell of a match, and I don't think anyone thought they were gypped out of a Jesser/Professor match at the end of the night. Come to think of it, the Trask/Plumtree match might have been after the title match. I'm a bit unsure of the order of the final three matches (but at least I didn't mess up who reffed each match this week, since Sharkey wasn't there). ;-) The title match was the main reason I came to the card (though the Kamikaze Kid/Trask match on the undercard probably would have been enough to make it worth the drive). Horace the Psychopath (230 lbs) from St Peter's Asylum (NPW champ) vs "Luscious" Lenny Lane (232 lbs) from the Virgin Islands These are two wrestler who work their asses off. Lane did a "Flair Flop" during the match (but we didn't a single "Flair Flip"). The high spot of the match was probably when Lane threw Horace outside the ring (unfortunately on the opposite side from where I was) and then (after a running start) flipped over the top rope onto Horace. Not sure if I got a picture of that or not, but if I did, it probably won't turn out very well, since I was kinda far away. If any of the photos turn out good, I'll try to get them scanned in and put up on my web page (if I get permission fro the promoters). Oh the end of the match saw the title change hands. My mind may be a bit fuzzy on the finisher, but I *think* Lane got Horace in a PerfectPlex. Lane was awarded the title and headed back to the dressing room. Horace looked confused in the ring for a while and then started asking everyone where his belt was. He started going ballistic in the ring, biting the turnbuckles, etc. He went over to the announcers' area (where the belts are usually kept during matches) and shoved down a security/stagehand trying to find out what happened to his belt. The main event got changed to a tag match between J.B. Trask/Scotty Z and Lenny Lane/Chi-Town Thug (I might have the combatants wrong on this one, as it wasn't the match that was listed in the program and I didn't have a pen with me to take down notes). This one turned into an all-out brawl. Plumtree got whacked several times and eventually had to crawl (very slowly) to his men's corner. It was a blood-less evening, and I was a bit disappointed that Kid and Lane didn't get to show off all their high spots, but it was well worth it with the title change and the added match of J.B. Trask vs manager Morty Plumtree. The post-card party was a blast. It started in Minnesota and ended up in Wisconsin. On the drive home, I was greeted by enough snow that it was difficult to see more than a few feet in front of the car. It was the kind of snow storm where if you use your brights you can actually see LESS than if you use your normal headlights (all you see is the snow--not the road). The snow had let up by the time I got about an hour out of Red Wing, and I made it home around 4:00am. And for those keeping track of the highway patrol count: there was only one, and he was about a mile from my house (and luckily it was after I had slowed down, cuz he had "instant-on" radar). :-) I think the boys have three weeks off now, and the next card is at the Kato Ballroom. I don't THINK I'll be able to make this one, but it'll be worth the trip if anyone's thinking about going. Bring a friend--it's more fun. The next NPW card I'll be attending is at the Del-Win Ballroom in St Joseph, Minnesota on Friday, April 25th. Anyone that wants to carpool, send me email at heuer004@gold.tc.umn.edu and we'll work something out.