Come Sunday, many may be nursing a wrestling hangover from All Elite Wrestling (AEW)‘s debut PPV, Double or Nothing, but there’s no better follow-up that IndependentWrestling.tv’s joint event Midwest Mixtape this Sunday, airing live from Chicago on their streaming site starting at 3L00 pm EST in the afternoon. It features many Mid West (and some Southeastern) promotions working together and featuring some Mid West veterans combined with some of the territories brightest prospects and emerging stars. If Double or Nothing represents a new alternative future for major promotions in wrestling, Midwest Mixtape offers a buffet of options for the next waves of great indie stars coming up.
Midwest Mixtape (5/26/19) Preview
Bizarro Lucha presents
Fatal Four Way: Tripp Cassidy vs. Ace Perry vs. Nick Iggy vs. Calvin Tankman
Hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, Bizarro Lucha was founded just last year in 2018, with their debut event, Hatching the Egg, happening this past October. Bizarro Lucha presents a Fatal Four Way that includes the reigning Bizarro Lucha Luchaversal Champion Nick Iggy, he’s best known as one-third of The Carnies with Kerry Awful and Tripp Cassidy (the latter who is also in this four-way). The other two participants include “Indestructible” Calvin Tankman, a four-year pro and regular from IWA Mid South (where he’s a former Heavyweight Champion) who has become a force in Bizarro Lucha, defeating MJF in Bizarro Lucha’s first main event. Ace Perry is a 7-year pro from Indianapolis who has worked with Rockstar Pro, IWA Mid South, EVOLVE and others who is also working with Bizarro Lucha, his hometown promotion.
Pro Wrestling ZERO1 USA presents
Jake St. Patrick & Jake Lander vs. The Low Lifes (Christian Rose & Brubaker)
Formed in 2011 in Chicago, Pro Wrestling ZERO1 USA is the US affiliate for Japan’s Pro Wrestling ZERO1. ZERO1 has set up a tag team match-up for Sunday afternoon featuring two singles stars and one of their top tag teams. Jake St. Patrick is a 5-year pro from Champaign, Illinois, where he started out with ZERO1 USA. He’s also been recently increasing his presence in Florida with Coastal Championship Wrestling (CCW) as well as appearing at MLW War Games against Ricky Martinez. Another Illinois indie star who is seeing his stock rise quickly is Jake Lander. Another ZERO1 USA product, Lander has gone on to star with such indies as All American Wrestling (AAW), Glory Pro, Black Label Pro, and more, including recently taping a match for IMPACT Xplosion against Trey Miguel. The Low Lifes feature two Chicago area veterans in Christian Rose and Nick Brubaker, who had a long history as rivals in DREAMWAVE from 2013 to 2015. But in 2019, they united together in ZERO1 USA as tag team partners where they only recently lost the ZERO1 USA World Tag Team titles.
St. Louis Anarchy presents
Jeremy Wyatt vs. Mikey!
One of the Midwest’s longest-running indie promotions, St. Louis Anarchy was founded in 2003 and has become one of the great gatekeeper promotions between North and South. SLA Gateway Heritage Champion Jeremy Wyatt is an over 15-year veteran of multiple Midwest promotions, including Kansas City’s Metro Pro Wrestling, Indiana’s Black Label Pro, and Iowa’s 3XWrestling. The cagey veteran is now ruling the roost in SLA, but on Sunday he faces one of the biggest wildcards in the Midwest in Mikey McFinnegan. Mikey is a raving lunatic who has bumbled his way into chaos in SLA, as well as Freelance Wrestling where he runs with the Take It Homewreckers.
Freelance Wrestling presents
6-Way Scramble: GPA vs. Gringo Loco vs. Robert Anthony vs. Pat Monix vs. Laynie Luck vs. Darin Corbin
Speaking of Freelance Wrestling (FW), the heavy-hitting Chicago promotion got its start in 2014 and has emerged as one of the nation’s top indie promotions for combined athleticism and extreme, alongside Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), IWA Mid South and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). Freelance is throwing a 6-person scramble match, featuring six solid representatives of the Midwest territory in 2019. Geoffrey Percival Austere – better known simply as GPA – is a former FW Heavyweight Champion, who just got out of a lengthy feud with Kylie Rae and is eager to get back into the title hunt. Chicago’s Gringo Loco is a 19-year legend in the Midwest indies, having worked with GALLI Lucha, AAW, Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), but is only now getting national attention through his recent work with Major League Wrestling (MLW). Robert Anthony is a former CZW World Heavyweight Champion (then known as Egotistico Fantastico) and 18-year pro with CZW, FW, IWA Mid South, 3XW, and International Wrestling Cartel (IWC). Chicago’s Pat Monix is only 25 years old, but he’s an emerging star who has been cutting his teeth in IWA Mid South (where he’s the reigning IWA Mid South Junior Heavyweight Champion) as well as at home with FW, AAW and Warrior Wrestling. Laynie Luck is a 5-year pro from Kansas City who is another top emerging women’s star, who has been honing her skills with SHIMMER, RISE, AAW, and others, as well as a strong run in the Texas scene with Reality of Wrestling, Anarchy Championship Wrestling and Inspire Pro. Darin Corbin is one of the top stars of FW and a former FW Heavyweight Champion, but the Minnesota native is also a regular with Oregon’s West Coast Wrestling Connection (WCWC) and Minnesota indies F1RST Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Battleground.
Glory Pro (Air Wolf, AJ Gray & Angel Dorado) vs. Southern Underground Pro (Violence is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) & Brett Ison)
Two young promotions go head to head in a 6-man tag team war, starting with Illinois’ Glory Pro, founded in 2017. Glory Pro is sending AJ Gray, a 4-year pro who has spent the past two with Glory Pro, but has been making a mark in GCW, Black Label Pro, IWA Mid South and Indiana’s Paradigm Pro Wrestling (PPW). The versatile grappler is being paired with two of the hottest young high flyers in the US indies. Air Wolf is only 19-years old, but the Minnesota star is exploding right now, having just signed with MLW, where he just scored an upset win over Fenix. Angel Dorado is equally young and from Minnesota, having worked regularly with Wisconsin’s Showtime Championship Wrestling (SCW) as well as joining Glory Pro last year. The opposing squad hails from Nashville’s Southern Underground Pro (SUP), also founded in 2017, lead by SUP Bonestorm Champion Brett Isom. A man of violent principles, Isom has dominated SUP in recent months, including a title defense in January against Nick Gage. He’s flanked by the tag team Violence is Forever, featuring Kevin Ku and Dominic Garrini. Formerly known as Sadkampf until just recently, ViF has become one of the teams to watch in 2019, entering tag divisions in Beyond Wrestling, Black Label Pro, and Indiana’s Pro Wrestling Freedoms (PWF), where they’re the reigning tag team champions.
Gary Jay vs. Craig Mitchell
This has been a feud building around the Midwest since early 2018, when Craig Mitchell defended his Freelance Underground Heavyweight Championship against Gary Jay at Baderbrawl 4 in March. The two Midwest veterans would meet in singles again this past September with SUP, with Mitchell once again getting the upper hand at Don’t Look In The Basement. Gary Jay would stave off going 0-for-3 when he defeated Mitchell at SLA’s Gateway to Anarchy event in January of this year and now looks to even the series in Chicago at Midwest Mixtape on Sunday.
Allie Kat vs. Jordynne Grace
The Texas indies are going through a boom period right now and only getting better, and on Sunday two of the recent success stories collide in singles competition. Jordynne Grace got her start with Metroplex and ACW in 2012 and 2013 before exploding into the Midwest with IWA Mid South and Black Label Pro, and on the East Coast with Beyond Wrestling and CZW, as well as Shine Wrestling. She’s gone on to become one of the top Knockouts in IMPACT Wrestling and works overseas where she’s the PROGRESS Women’s Champion in the UK. Allie Kat started out in the Chicago indies in 2013, but it was her formative years in Texas with ACW, Inspire Pro and WrestleCircus from 2016 on that created the emerging star we have today. Now Allie Kat can be found working SHIMMER, Black Label Pro, AAW, RISE, IWA Mid South, and more.
Ace Steel vs. Arik Cannon
Two absolute legends of the Midwest scene and in particular, hometown Chicago, Illinois. Ace Steel is a 28-year ring veteran who began with Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW) in 1991. During the indie boom of the early 2000s, he was an early star with IWA Mid South and the trainer/mentor for CM Punk and Colt Cabana. A 2x IWA Mid South Light Heavyweight Champion, Steel would head to Japan to work for Pro Wrestling NOAH from 2003 to 2006. In 2003, he would also make his debut with Ring of Honor, leading the Second City Saints stable that featured his proteges, Punk and Cabana. In 2007, he joined Punk and Cabana in the WWE developmental system but was released several months later. Since then, he’s remained a veteran presence on the US indies. His opponent is no slouch either. Chicago’s Arik Cannon has been wrestling since 2001 and spent the first years of the indie boom with IWA Mid South (he’s a former 2x IWA Mid South Heavyweight Champion) and AAW. He would relocate to Minnesota, and in 2007 founded F1RST Wrestling, while also appearing for multiple promotions including CHIKARA, FW, GCW, and more.
Independent Wrestling Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Kris Statlander
In the main event, the hottest man in the indies, Orange Cassidy, puts his Independent Wrestling Championship on the line. The CHIKARA and Beyond Wrestling mainstay has exploded in the past year, and since winning his title has become one of the most sought after personalities in the game. His opponent is another of 2019’s breakout stars in Kris Statlander, who choose Midwest Mixtape to cash in her prize of winning the Beyond Treasure Hunt Tournament by going for Cassidy’s title. The reigning Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) Spirit Champion has been in several high profile fights of late for Beyond, CZW, AAW, SHIMMER, GCW, and even ROH. The wild card will be Jordynne Grace at ringside with Cassidy, as Grace herself was unsuccessful in her title challenge a few weeks back on Beyond’s weekly program, Uncharted Territory.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
