With about three hours notice, I ended up going to the UCW (Ultimate
Championship Wrestling) matches held at the Salvation Army gym in St
Paul Minnesota tonight 13 January)

I met up with RSPW lurker Darin Peterson, who had saved me a front row
seat.

The building was perfect for wrestling:  nice high ceilings and plenty
of seating, unlike the old PWA matches in Georges/Ropers in Fridley
where the Lightning Kid would almost always be scraping his feet on
the ceiling when doing anything off the ropes.

Admission was $3 for adults and $1 for kids.  It was put on by Stan
"Killer" Kowalski (The Big K) who must be about 80 or so by now.

The scheduled matches were:

	The Mangler   -vs-   The Kamikaze Kid

	Dan Jesser   -vs- Lenny Lane

	Tony the Annihilator   -vs-   The Night Stalker

	The Punisher   -vs-   Menace to Society

	Tom "Z-man" Zenk &   -vs-   "Mean" Mike Enos
	Horace the Psychopath       Mr Dynamic

There couldn't have been more than 60 to 80 people there, and I think
part of the gate was going to charity or something, so I'm guessing
that everyone except Zenk and maybe Enos were working for free.

The event was supposed to start at 6:00, but of course it didn't.  At
about 6:10 or 6:20, they brought out the Youth Amateur Wrestlers (12
kids ranging from about 4 years old to 13 or so--I'm not very good
with ages but the youngest were smaller than my five-year-old nephew).

The youngest two kids were painted up like Sting/wearing Bret Hart
glasses.  The first five amateur matches were so-so... your basic
amateur graps with kids that don't have too much experience.  The last
was two gals (somewhere between 11 and 13 years old).  The workrate in
this match was actually pretty high.  There was some power in the
takedowns and the action came close to spilling out of the ring on
three occasions.  One gal could end up being the next Aja Kong or Bull
Nakano.  She took some big league bumps (and there was no give to the
mat, unlike the rings in the Big Two).  Her Opponent was a bit lighter
but ended up hitting the mat hard on her head a few times as well.

Anyway, at 6:40 the pre-show was over and The Big K said there would
be a ten minute intermission before the Pro Wrestlers came out at
7:00.  So SK wasn't a math major.

I grabbed some food from the concession stand, figuring that they were
getting building for free and the Salvation Army guys were only
getting $$$ from the food and drinks sold.

Some time after 7:00 they finally started the main show.  The Kamikaze
Kid fought a match against someone who was not the Mangler.  Fans (who
were only going by their programs and not by the ring intros or their
eyes) keep rooting for the Mangler against the KK.  The Kid was listed
as 205 or 215 pounds from California, but he couldn't have been more
than 110, since he's a good foot shorter than me and I just dropped
from 170 to 145 pounds.  The Kid is 6 months out of Brag Rhengin's
wrestling school, but wrestles like someone with about 1.5 to 2 years
experience.  He does a lot of the spinning back kick stuff that The
Lightning Kid/Hakushi/Owen Hart use a lot.  I heard the ref talking to
the ring announcer before the show asking if the Kid was well enough
to do the match, so he must have been working injured or sick.  With
another couple years under his belt he might get into a cruiserweight
division of the Big Two.  Must be embarrassing to be shorter than four
of the twelve amateur kids that were out before him, though. :-)

After the match, the Kid took a seat by the dressing room door between
what I assume was a guard and what I assume was the Kid's boyfriend
(he had his arm around him a lot, anyway)

The second match was actually what was advertised:  Dan Jesser vs
"Luscious" Lenny Lane.  This was a well-paced match with both guys
giving a good performance (and working the crowd a bit better than the
first match).

The third match was yet another unexplained substitution.  The Night
Stalker (not the one from WCW) battled against the King of the
Mountain.  This was the first match where the wrestlers weighed more
than the ref.  There weren't as many rest holds as I would have
expected with two big guys in the ring, and even though the Night
Stalker told us and the guy next to us that he was about to throw KotM
out in front of us, the action didn't spill out of the ring all that
much, and never over the top rope.  I was shouting for a tope, a
plancha, a Frankensteiner, and a moonsault, but was ignored.  After
the match (I think KotM won), The Night Stalker ran after KotM with
the ring bell (which was being manned by an elderly fan at ringside).
The NightStalker said he wanted a new ref.  I volunteered, but was
again ignored. :-)

There was a break when Tom Zenk came out to sign autographs before the
final two matches.  He was signing posters of himself (the picture
must have been taken about the time he was cut from WCW, since he now
has short hair, chest hair, and weighs about 60 pounds less) for $1.
The ring rats that were sitting to my right weren't convinced that it
was really the Z-Man.

In the fourth match, Menace to Society (a guy who looked like your
average biker-turned-wrestler (I kept referring to him as Dennis the
Menace throughout the match)) put on a decent match with the Punisher.
Nice to see the Punisher can still work a crowd.  He jawed with the
old lady who was working the ring bell, rubbed the bald head of the
guy next to us, and basically kept the fans into the match the whole
time.  Either in this match or one of the two preceding it, Mr Dynamic
came out to ringside and didn't interfere.  After the match, he jumped
in the ring and beat up on the face.  Now that I think of it, it was
probably Lenny Lane that he was beating up on, which would make it
match#2 that this happened after (I left my Kunzeboard and stopwatch
at home, so I didn't even record who won each match). :-)  In any
case, after the match, Stan K announced that Mr Dynamic would be fined
(I think), was suspended for the night, and said he was going to
change next week's card to be Lenny Lane vs Mr Dynamic.

In the Main Event, since Mr Dynamic was suspended (more likely "Horace
the Psychopath didn't show"), "Mean" Mike Enos fought Z-Man in singles
competition.  It was announced as being for the UCW belt, and sure
enough, Tom was wearing a shiny new gold belt (looked nicer than any
of the WwF belts and better than all the WCW belts save Flair's)
mounted on a cheap leather strap.  Since no one had heard of the UCW
before yesterday, we're guessing that Tom Zenk didn't beat anyone for
it, and that he was awarded it this morning or something.  The belt
was put in the corner of the ring (which usually means it will get
used later in the match) and the two locked up.  I shouted a few
things about steroids to Tom, gave Mike a few suggestions for excuses
to tell the ref that Tom was doing (which he then used), told Mike to
hit Tom with the belt (at this point he noticed the belt and decided
to walk out of the arena with it until the ref stopped him), etc.  I
told him to do a moonsault, but he didn't bite.

Enos threw Zenk out of the ring and grabbed one of the amateur
wrestler's chair to hit Tom with.  I yelled for Z-Man to blade, but he
probably figured he wasn't getting paid enough to blade.  In face the
entire night was blood-free and this was the only chairshot.  There
were about 8 or 9 Flair-flips over the top turnbuckle over the course
of the night.  Enos chased some kids that were getting too close to
ringside, then threw Zenk into the group of amateur wrestlers.  They
got a kick out of it.  Zenk won, of course, but after Enos had walked
most of the way to his dressing room (which he apparently shared with
everyone except Zenk) Tom yelled at him that he (Enos) was a loser and
he (tom) still had the belt.  Enos ran after him, but apparently
tripped over a trash can, spilling trash over the floor.

Not the best night of wrestling, but it's about par for the course for
the indies now that Jerry Lynn and Sean Waltman are gone.  Definitely
got my three bucks worth out of it, though.

Next UCW card is January 20th at the Sports Garden in St Paul.  If
you're going, let me know.  More info at (612) 489-8466 (Sports
Garden) or (612) 649-4924 (Slick Mick's free wrestling hotline).

There's also an IWA card on 14 January with Blacktop Bully/Nailz vs
Charlie "Thunderblood" Norris/Mike Enos (even though Mike Enos was a
heel tonight, he will apparently turn face before tomorrow afternoon.
;-)