Dirty Dutch Mantell Roasts Jim Cornette!

From KC's Ring Roasts 3: The Roast Of Jim Cornette - Dirty Dutch Mantell Roasts Jim Cornette! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HShnzZQ7AEc

Various Indy Wrestling Stuff (Results, Dates)

• Progress Wrestling runs this weekend with a Saturday night show at The Ritz in Manchester, UK which is sold out and a Sunday show in Sheffield at the O2 Academy which is virtually sold out. LAX vs. CCK headlines Saturday night with the winners facing Aussie Open for the tag team titles Sunday. Also on Sunday is Walter vs. Shigehiro Irie for the Progress title and Toni Storm vs. Jordynne Grace.
• Bar Wrestling results from last night at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles: Willie Mack won three-way over Ray Rosas and a third guy, Heather Monroe b Rebel Kel, Eli Everfly & Delilah Doom b Scorpio Sky & Eric Watts, PJ Black b Eli Drake, Brian Cage & Luchasaurus b Yuma & Kevin Martinsen, Peter Avalon b Joey Ryan in a thumb wrestling match (since both are injured), LAX b Brody King & Tyler Bateman
• AAW's last show in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus Hall (which no longer wants wrestling) will be Saturday night with Brody King vs. Eddie Kingston for the AAW title, Trevor Lee vs. DJZ for the Heritage title, Kylie Rae vs. Savanna Stone for the women's title, Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Jacobs in a street fight, ACH & Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega vs David Starr & Curt Stallion & Jake Something, Paco & Boz vs. Stephen Wolf & Connor Braxton, AR Fox & Myron Reed & Ace Romero vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel plus a Battle Royal.
• Bandit Wrestling on 12/26 in Knoxville, TN at D-1 Knoxville Sports headlined by OVE from Impact.
• Rescue Mania on 12/28 in Lyndhurst, NJ at the Lyndhust Rec Center at 862 Valley Brooke Ave.
• CWE on 1/4 in Winnipeg at Rookie' Sports Bar headlined by Tommy Dreamer. They also run 12/13 in Landmark Manitoba at the Kinsman Landmark Community Centre.
• Powerslam.TV has addled Appalachian Mountain Wrestling, Backbreaker Media and Empire State Wrestling shows this week.
• Robbie Eagles and Gino Gambino headline for Impact Pro on 12/15 in Auckland, New Zealand.
• Frankie Kazarian headlines for All Star Wrestling on Saturday night in Surrey, BC.
• New School Wrestling on 12/27 in Oshawa,ONT at 15 Harmony Rd at 7 p.m.
• USA Championship Wrestling on Saturday night in Jackson, TN at the Oman Arena with Doug Gilbert defending the USA title against Kevin Zion and Matt Riviera in a $5,000 bodyslam challenge with Big Gravy. They also tape TV at Studio A in the Oman Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m.
• NGW on 12/14 in Hull, UK at Hull City Hall with Justin Sysum defending the NGW title against Rampage Brown, plus Nathan Cruz vs. Adam Maxted
• Third week of 1Fall Entertainment's tapings in Melbourne were cancelled. They say they'll be back next year. Nick Bury and Kaz Jordan won their tag titles and Lochy Hendricks defended the belt against Adam Brooks. They had a lot of trouble with the ring. 

Obviously Either The Promoter OR, Local Promoter For This Show Doesn't Know Shit About "Promoting"

The MPWA show listed in Monday's update that was scheduled for Friday night in Royal Oak, MI has been canceled due to low ticket sales. The group instead will be running a how on 1/25 in Monroe, MI 

I can come out and say that because I.. Yes, HAVE locally promoted Wrestling Shows when I lived in NH. For WWA New England and, for Eastern Wrestling Alliance (when they were based in Maine). You can read about that here... http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling3/thenandnow/articles/promoter.html in an article I wrote about the experience of locally promoting the very first show for WWA New England, in a town called Rochester, NH which is known as a "Permit" town and is, the toughest town in the state to promote a wrestling show in. 

Maybe the said promoter for the cancelled show should take some fucking notes, or maybe go to promoter's school. 

Mat Memory- The Crusher, Baron Von Raschke, Larry Hennig vs The Fabulous Freebirds (AWA)

July 18, 1985. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Six man tag team match. The team of Larry "The Axe" Hennig, Baron Von Raschke, and Crusher Lisowski take on the team of The Fabulous Freebirds, Micheal Hayes, Buddy Roberts, and Terry Gordy. Pre-match interviews included. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpkhhzae2hc

Mar Memory- DR D DAVID SCHULTZ AND BRET HART VS. DYNAMITE KID AND DUKE MEYERS 1982

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAf7FVlcrqc

Mat Memory- Owen Hart vs Dynamite Kid 1989

Calgary Stampede Wrestling. Street Fight To A Finish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zakcFmzaxbU

Mat Memory- Buddy Rose v Dynamite Kid - PNW Title

"Playboy" Buddy Rose locks up with "Dynamite Kid" Tom Billington in this excellent Portland Wrestling championship match for the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title!! This rare video footage featuring Dynamite Kid's only videotaped title defense in Portland Wrestling comes from Sept. 24th, 1983 at the Portland Sports Arena!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5sL_TrwA38

Mat Memory- Jim Brunzell, Greg Gagne & Larry Hennig Shoot Video

Larry "The Axe" Hennig, "Jumpin'" Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne discuss the history of Minnesota wrestling and Verne Gagne's beloved AWA promotion in this incredible Q&A seminar shoot video from the Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion!! This epic kayfabe breaking video is hosted by Minnesota historian George Schire!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aziu0BBFRg8

Mat Memory- Arm Wrestling Challenge Larry Hennig vs Super Destroyer II (Sgt. Slaughter) AWA

September 9, 1978. AWA All Star Wrestling. Larry "The Axe" Hennig is challenged to an arm wrestling competition by Super Destroyer Mark 2 (the future Sgt. Slaughter) and his manager Lord Alfred Hayes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3nmAi99MPo

Queen of Insanity - Deathmatch Highlights (ICW UK)- Viper defends against Kay Lee Ray

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tol0q5GaDGs

House Of Bricks Pro Wrestling (Based in Mass.) HoB Turnbuckle TV Season 3 Episode 43

HoB Turnbuckle TV Season 3 Episode 43 On this week's episode of House Of Bricks Pro Wrestling #TurnbuckleTV, available on the #HouseOfBricks YouTube Channel, Youtube.com/HoBProWrestling, #HoB once again brings you action from the final two events of the #HoB2018 Season. First, it's singles competition from #FrightNight as "Powerful" Pat Garrett locks up with DAVIDX inside the squared circle. More members of the #HoB family spread their holiday cheer. And in this week's MAIN EVENT, from #VeteranSlam4, the HoB Tag Team Championships are on the line in the FIRST EVER Tag Team GAUNTLET MATCH! All this on this week's episode of #TurnbuckleTV! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkdXejc-GYk

Konnan Rips WWE's Booking Of Bobby Lashley, Says He Would Not Watch Any Show As Bad As WWE

Konnan divulged in a recent interview w/ WrestlingInc how he was brought back to ImpactWrestling after an acrimonious split from the promotion years before. Also, Konnan shared his thoughts on WWE creative.

According to Konnan, he was supposed to be WWE Superstar Bobby Lashley's manager in Impact. 'K-Dawg' suggested that WWE pairing Lashley with Lio Rush is puzzling because 'The Dominator' can cut a promo.

"When Jeff Jarrett came back [to Impact] two years ago, he wanted me to come in originally as Bobby Lashley's mouthpiece." Konnan explained, "and I was like, 'yo, Lashley knows how to talk.' That's why now when I see him with Lio Rush, like, I really don't understand that because Lashley can cut a promo. And, to me, he should be demolishing motherf--kers and they should be prepping him up for Brock Lesnar."

On the subject of WWE storylines, Konnan claimed that the needing to fill TV time is no excuse for weak writing.

"How can anybody ever decipher WWE?," Konnan asked. "[Hausman] [has] been watching it as long as I have and I know I've been watching it longer. It's like they've done so much s--t that doesn't make sense. For every great angle that you see, there [are] 10 other ones that f--king blow your mind. And I understand that most of the viewers are kids, so they're going to have kids s--t in there, but it's one thing having things for kinds and another thing to have stuff that's just totally awful."

Konnan continued, "there's no other show that I watch on TV that if it were as bad as [WWE] wrestling I'd still be watching it. Do you know what I'm saying? And so, they just put out a lot of bad content. And I just think one of the reasons is because they've got to fill up so much time that they don't have the luxury of an MLW that has got a one-hour show and they only have one show. I don't have to tell you how many shows those motherf--kers have from the [WWE] Network to everything that they've got going on. But to me, that's still no excuse for bad storylines. Get better writers or get more writers. It's just incredible to me."

LARRY 'THE AXE' HENNIG PASSES AWAY

Larry Hennig, the former AWA World Tag Team Champion and patriarch to the Hennig wrestling family, passed away today at the age of 82. 

Best known to fans today as the father of the late “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig and grandfather to current WWE star Curtis Axel (Joe Hennig), became the Minnesota State High School Heavyweight Champion from Robbinsdale, Minnesota in 1954.  He was awarded a scholarship from the University of Minnesota to wrestle and play football, but eventually withdrew from the school due to family responsibilities.

Trained by Verne Gage, Hennig entered professional wrestling in the early 1960s, seeing it as a conduit to making money for his family.  He held the AWA World Tag Team Championship most famously with Harley Race, who would go on to become one of the definitive NWA World Heavyweight Champions.  At the time, the pair were pushed as the youngest Tag Team Champions ever.  Hennig would also hold the belts, much earlier, with Duke Hoffman.

The team with Race, with the two billed as Handsome Harley and Pretty Boy Larry, presented them as young, cocky heels who could work.  The two famously feuded with the Crusher and The Bruiser for the belts, winning them three times over the course of the program.  Race and Hennig, at the time, were often opponents for Verne Gagne, who was, obviously, the top babyface for the promotion.  Alongside Ray Stevens and Nick Bockwinkel, Race and Hennig were in the top of the mix as heels for the promotion.

``We were very different, especially when it came to the styles we used,'' Hennig told The Orlando Sentinel in 2000. ``But we clicked. We had good chemistry, and we got better with every match. At the beginning, some people questioned our teaming up, but it worked very, very well.''

The team with Race also took off internationally as well with the pair working overseas in Japan and Australia regularly.  The pair became WCW World Tag Team Champions for the 1960s Australian promotion as well.

Hennig was renowned for his personal toughness.  In 1967, he suffered a knee injury when he was picking up Johnny Powers for a bodyslam when in an accident, another wrestler knocked into his legs.  Hennig dropped Powers and as it turned out, had severe tendon and cartilage tears.  He finished the bout and refused to go to the hospital despite realizing something was truly wrong with his knee.  Instead, he and Race drove hundreds of miles back to Minneapolis instead before he would go see a doctor.

Outside of the AWA, Hennig had a run in the WWWF, challenging then-champion Bruno Sammartino and challenged Jack Brisco for the NWA World title while working in Florida.  He toured New Japan in 1976, teaming with Pat Patterson.

After the team with Race ran its course and Race went on to singles acclaim elsewhere, Hennig teamed with Lars Anderson in the AWA before hitting the road and working other territories.  In Championship Wrestling from Florida, he teamed with a heel Dusty Rhodes, who was just starting out in his career.

Hennig would later return to the AWA, this time as a babyface, billed as “The Axe” doing an angle where he rescued Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne during a TV taping from Bobby Heenan’s team of Bockwinkel and Stevens.   

Now entrenched as a babyface, Hennig would also team quite a bit with his son Curt, the future AWA World Champion now immortalized as “Mr. Perfect” for his run in WWE.    The pair worked for Don Owen in the Pacific Northwest, winning that territory’s tag team title and even have a short feud with The Road Warriors in the AWA.

After officially retiring in 1985, Hennig owned a real estate company in Minnesota as he had been working in that world since the late 1950s and for years, for well known locally in Minneapolis as an auctioneer. 

Hennig had been honored by every professional wrestling Hall of Fame imaginable, given the Cauliflower Alley Club’s Iron Mike Mazurki Award in 2015, having been inducted into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006 and given its Lou Thesz Award in 2013, and having been inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2017 for his tag team with Race.  The Robbinsdale Historical Society inducted Hennig into their first annual Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2015:

As noted, Henning’s grandson Joe has worked for WWE for years as Curtis Axel.  His granddaughter Amy also performed on the independent scene in the Mid-West for a time.

Hennig had still been making appearances at conventions and events in recent years.  He was signing last year at Wrestlecon in New Orleans and was on my first flight back, sitting in the first row, a row ahead of me, with his wife.  As every wrestling fan got on the plane, they all said hello to Hennig and with Hennig needing a wheelchair to exit the plane, he was one of the last off, so every fan on the place said goodbye to him as they exited.