The Awakening

Monster Pro Wrestling - September 5th - The Awakening

The event started with a reminder that we are all still applying Covid 19 safety measures, with masks being required inside the facility and social distancing still in place. Due to the Covid

19 safety measures the Women’s Championship match was postponed to another date as one of the wrestlers was feeling unwell.

Danny Danger vs The Dark Horse

The first match of the event had crowd favourite Danny Danger in his flaming wrestling shorts take on the masked Dark Horse in his all-black padded suit. A few flying drops, a suplex, a flying wig, and some headlocks later, it appeared as though this match was going to go to the padded mysterious dark horse. With Danny running out of stamina and the Dark Horse managing a few partial pins the crowd began to boo this padded mysterio. But, Danny Danger rallied his spirits and overtook his opponent, and much to the happiness of the crowd successfully pinned his opponent.

Dad Bod vs. Propayne

At the start of this match, two large imposing figures stepped out clutching MPW championship belts, both looking intense and ready to fight. Propayne, tall and bulky, held his belt high to remind the crowd who was the current champion, while his tag team member, equally bulky and wearing a silver mask sauntered into place on the other side of the ring.

Expecting another be-muscled, fear-inducing opponent, I was quickly surprised to see Rick Jules of the Dad Bod Squad sporting an every-dad body. Rick came equipped with a Saturday afternoon drinking hat and a rolled-up newspaper to catch up on sports stats when he can finally get a gosh-danged minute alone. The Zebra leotards and bright yellow tank top juxtaposed happily with the dark black leather and furious looking face of Propayne.

Quickly the match started off with the crowd-pleaser Rick Jules taking control, putting Propayne in a headlock, feeding him several blows, and finally giving him a well-timed spanking from dad. A few more chest hits and a clothes line and Propayne was ejected from the Ring. The action continued outside of the ring much to the enjoyment of the crowd but led to the destruction of Rick’s Coors Light straw weave hat, which caused the crowd to demand retribution for the beloved gift with purchase. It seemed at this point that Rick would be the winner, but Propayne turned things around, delivering some forceful kicks to Rick’s Ribs, administering an intense headlock and nearly pinning him. The match continued with the outcome seemingly switching back and forth, until finally Rick was able to pin Propayne, proving that once again, there’s no strength quite like Dad strength.

At the end of this match Propayne quickly became enraged and took a run at Massive Damage, MPW founder and ring official, nearly hitting pinning him to the ropes. Massive Damaged dodged the blow but not without the atmosphere becoming thick with tension.

Tag Team Event - Blake Kannon Experience Vs. The Gen Z Express

Next match up was the tag team event, with the Blake Kannon Experience, made up of Blake Kannon - a large and imposing young man with shiny shoulder length locks, and The Sultan - a hilarious one liner producing slender framed wrestler sporting a pretty hefty unibrow, against the Gen Z Express. The Gen Z Express tag team, much to my Canadian teacher's chagrin, was announced as “Generation Zee'' instead of the correct formal English “Generation Zed”. Although all good reporters take an impartial stance, I quickly picked sides as I was disapproving of the Americanised sloppy pronunciation. The Gen Z tag team is made up of Bobby Brake and M.K.Singh, sporting basketball jerseys and an “Ok Boomer” attitude.

The tag team event was filled with high flying acrobatic drops, pile drivers, chokeslams, and some serious body blows. An evenly matched tag team event, the outcome of which could not be predicted in the first minutes of action. There were some blind tags that the referee did not catch allowing for each tag team to double their efforts and surprising squabbles between teammates. The mouthy, and somewhat scatterbrained, Sultan had no qualms disparaging the wrestling style of his partner - could this be a potential future fracture in the Blake Kannon Experience?

Alas, in the end the badly pronounced Gen Z experience won and were ready to celebrate their victory. But wait! The bad intentioned Team Savage rushed back on scene, entering the square ring and taking on the exhausted tag teamers. Coming to remove the Savages from the ring, both Massive Damage and MPW announcer Nino, along with the aid of the referee, wrangled Team Savage, but only after a painful blow was dealt to Massive Damage.

All of this fracas lead to Team Savage being officially banned from the rest of the event. Fans were in absolute uproar over the chaos.

Three Way Alberta Monster Pro Championship Tournament

The next match was a three way wrestling match that would see one winner come out with a provincial championship. Four Time MPW Provincial Champion Chris Perish, sporting a jaunty pair of purple Fleur-de-lis tights, hailing from St. Albert, took on 2 opponents: Edmonton’s own “Lumberjack” Larry Woods sporting tight plaid shorts and a matching plaid vest and lumberjack hat complete with ear flaps; and relative newcomer hailing fromToronto, a gold chain and gold sleeve wearing T.Y. Jackson.

The match started with a three way head and arm lock that lasted nearly a full minute, showing that this would not be a match easily won. Soon the hold was broken and arm pins, suplexes, chest blows and drop kicks broke out. A high flying, action packed fight that was difficult to predict, delighted and surprised the crowd and at one point Larry pulled out his best lumberjack moves with hack sawing down on his opponents chests and sawing the tree trunk of his opponents bodies back and forth. Chris Perish often stepped out of the fray to use some lysol wipes on his body, no doubt in the hopes of preventing the spread of Covid. At one point I truly believe Perish had bested them all, but the Lumberjack delivered a hefty blow landing Perish down on the mat and lining up the fight so that TY Jackson could quickly clean house and upset both the seasoned wrestlers and carrying off the championship belt.

Gold accessories really do suit TY Jackson, including the Championship belt.

Final Match - MPW Heavy Weight Championship - Magnificent Mitch Clarke vs Rugged Rich King

The final match of the event was the Heavyweight Championship between the Champion Magnificent Mitch Clarke versus the Rugged Rich King, hailing from the Yukon. The crowd was riled up and ready for serious action, attendees pointing to their Mitch Clarke shirts, and some adorable kiddos sporting a hand made “Go Mitch” sign. This event highlight showed the profound athletic skills of these two wrestlers, with jumps, leaps, flips, dodges, blows, holds and hits constantly raining down. There were some unusual wrestling moves used by Mitch including a foot bite and nose pull that led to some loud assertions by Mitch that they can’t be illegal if they aren’t in the rule book.

This was an intense match - at one point both the wrestlers and the referee were knocked down and it was unclear who would get up first. Rich King roused himself first and pinned the nearly unconscious Mitch and pounded on the mat a loud three count hold. Due to the Referee being temporarily out of action, this pin did not count and Mitch regained his strength while the referee roused himself and the match continued. Mitch seemed to overtake Rich, but from the sidelines Lumberjack Larry ran into the ring, coming to the aid of his buddy Rich King, and used Mitch’s own championship belt to deliver some hefty blows before retreating back into the hall and away from the officials. Too bad for Rich though, as this did not prevent the Magnificently tasselled Mitch from pinning Rich once the referee was fully conscious and able to do a proper countdown.

Post Match

The event was an absolute success, having sold 120 tickets and drawing in dozens of neighbourhood watchers to the fence. The fans left happy and the wrestlers showed incredible athleticism and dynamism.

After the match a near-brawl broke out behind stage as Rugged Rich King took aim at the run-in to the ring by Lumberjack Larry Woods, believing it cost Rich the MPW Heavyweight Championship.

At the end of it all MPW founder Sean Dunster - Massive Damage issuing a warning to Team Savage’s Wrath and Propayne, “I am going to make a come back, they haven’t seen Massive Damage have his last come back...I have wrestled many bigger, stronger guys...so don’t think you intimidate me. You just caught me with my pants down. Next time, I will have my singlet.”

You know that that means? DRAMA! See you at the next match event on October 7th at Alberta Avenue hall.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 in advance. Seating will be arranged so that social distancing and Covid 19 safety measures can be maintained.

Event Info can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/MonsterProWrestling/

Alberta Avenue Community League Webpage: http://www.albertaave.org/