Author: Clint Dye

Top Independent Matches of 2021. Three years ago my family and I moved to central Iowa. Little did I know, we had just moved into an area of the midwest with a rich history of independent pro wrestling. Over the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to be ringside regularly taking pictures or in the audience for four promotions within a short drive. This year was easily the busiest year I’ve had attending events for Central Empire Wrestling, Impact Pro Wrestling, SCWPro, and Magnum Wrestling. I easily shot over 100 matches in 2021.  Those are just the promotions I’ve been able…

IPW Crowns New Tag Team and Women’s Champion. A little over a year ago, three up-and-coming wrestlers in Impact Pro Wrestling united behind a common goal. During one of IPW’s Facebook live shows from the Vault, Max Chill, Adam Love, and Brandon “The Shank” Eubanks formed the Max Chill Mafia. Their goal was to become the most dominant faction within the IPW locker room. Read about their story here. This past Saturday, during IPW’s final show of 2021, their prophecy of gold came true. The Max Chill Mafia defeated Justin Decent and Ethan Everheart to become the new IPW Tag Team…

This Saturday, Impact Pro Wrestling presents Fall Fight 2021 as the promotion returns to the Forte Center in Des Moines, Iowa, for their final show of 2021. IPW, like most wrestling promotions, has navigated its way through the COVID pandemic. They were avoiding shutting down completely and finding ways to entertain their fans. At the start of the year, IPW ran a handful of Facebook live shows from the Vault training center in Collins, Iowa. In front of just a handful of fans and their fellow wrestlers, the stars of IPW were able to build angles, rivalries, and storylines in…

WCW Sunday Night RetroView fans, it’s time for a deep into the vault for today’s RetroView. Today we are looking back at WCW Starrcade 1989. This edition of WCW’s biggest event of the year, is a unique one. It features Iron Man and Iron Team Tournaments. Meaning, each tournament featured four wrestlers or four teams and they have themselves a round robin tournament.  __________________ The show begins with a short 80’s centric video package showing each of the competitors. In the Iron Man Tournament is Sting, Ric Flair, Lex Luger and the Great Muta. Competing in the Iron Team tournament is The Road…

RetroView fans, it’s the scariest time of the year and with that in mind, we are reviewing something truly terrifying. Today we look at one of WCW’s final pay-per-view, WCW Halloween Havoc 2000. The show begins with the final version of the WCW logo displayed in all its hideous glory.  Tony Schiavone welcomes us as we some fans getting ready before the show. Halloween Havoc 2000 wastes no time getting started as we go right into the first match.  WCW Halloween Havoc 2000 WCW Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match The Natural Born Thrillers (Mark Jindrak & Sean O’Haire) © vs…

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, The Wrestling Revolver returns this Saturday, October 30th. Wrestling Revolver is putting on “Tales from the Ring IV” just in time for Halloween, and this show is stacked. Tales from the Ring IV Presented By Wrestling Revolver. “It really means everything,” said Phil Stamper, Wrestling Revolver Chief of Staff and Communications. “The wrestling landscape has jumped a year and a half into showing a different side of the same beast. But, it also means bringing our fans back together and bringing back our community to enjoy a good event with great talent.” The…

Ladder matches, especially modern-day ones, more often than not follow a similar formula, including one with Jah C. One that utilizes a plethora of high spots and death-defying leaps and falls from the top of the ladder. But sometimes, a ladder match comes along that plays by its own rules. Jah C captures SCWPro Iowa Championship. A match that chooses the path of hard-hitting violence over the acrobatics that have become a staple of the ladder match. The most famous instance of this rare form of ladder match is Triple H versus The Rock from SummerSlam 1998. However, two icons…

This Saturday SCWPro returns to Wildwood Saloon and boy do they have a main event on tap for Good Partners Better Enemies. In said main event, two of the most charismatic wrestlers on the independent scene will go toe-to-toe. It will be JT Energy defending his SCWPro Iowa Championship against Jah C in a Ladder Match.  Adding even more intrigue to this monumental ladder match is the amount of history between these two. Both men trained at the Black and Brave Academy and both have won titles everywhere they’ve gone. But, the personal grudge goes much deeper as these two…

With Halloween steadily approaching, I decided it’s the perfect time for my next WCW RetroView. So, with that in mind, today we are looking back at WCW Halloween Havoc 1998. This show is mainly remembered for two matches.  First, the long (not really awaited) WrestleMania VI rematch between Hollywood Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. Which turned out to be an absolute stinker, but more on that later. Secondly, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match between Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg. Arguably Goldberg’s greatest match, it was unfortunate at the time the pay-per-view feed cutoff right at the start of…

At certain points in their careers, professional wrestlers have moments or matches that change their career trajectory. Moments that can send them into the stratosphere as certifiable main event players. For Central Empire Wrestling Heavyweight Champion JT Energy, two of these moments came within a month of each other. Let’s go back to the December 23, 2019 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw. Emanating from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, this was to be a huge moment for JT Energy. Wrestling under the name Travis Horn, JT Energy was booked in a match vs former WWE Tag…