Indiana’s Paradigm Pro Wrestling (PPW) returns to live action on Friday, July 24 with Heavy Hitters 2, a heavy-hitting card featuring some of pro wrestling’s toughest grapplers, many of which are competing under UWFI rules (based on the shoot-style rules of the former Japanese company, Union of Wrestling Forces International). PPW has been a major force in the resurgence and dominance of indie wrestling in Indiana, founded in 2017 (originally as Prodigy Pro Wrestling, before rebranding to Paradigm Pro in 2018), and has become part of the vanguard of top indie promotions from the Hoosier state that also features Black Label Pro, Bizarro Lucha, IWA Mid South, Wild Championship Wrestling Outlaws (WCWO), EMERGE Wrestling and others. Their last PPW show was this past February before COVID hit, Southern Indiana Cadillac Combat, although they presented a co-production with MidwestTerritory.com in PAWCADE last week. A huge showcase of national and regional stars, Heavy Hitters 2 will air live on IndependentWrestling.tv (IWTV) on Friday at 7:30pm EST.
Midwestterritory.com Championship: Chase Holliday (c) Open Challenge
Two weeks ago, Chase Holliday outlasted six other men in a ladder match at PAWCADE to become the inaugural Midwestterritory.com Champion and on Friday he’s putting the title on the line in an open challenge! Holliday, a student from Seth Rollins‘ The Black & The Brave Academy, is a rising star in the Midwest, as a regular with IWA Mid South, as well as competing for the likes of Indiana’s Wildcat Championship Wrestling Outlaws (WCWO), Bizarro Lucha, and New Wave Pro Wrestling, plus Glory Pro and Rockstar Pro amongst others.
UWFI Rules Super Fight: Gary Jay vs. Dominic Garrini
16-year veteran Gary Jay has been a staple with St. Louis Anarchy and Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW) in Texas for years, but he’s finally getting his due appearing in big matches for the likes of Black Label Pro, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), IWA Mid South, and ACTION Wrestling. He also made his debut with Beyond Wrestling this past fall, winning the Discovery Gauntlet in his first match. Dominic Garrini was part of Catch Point briefly in EVOLVE Wrestling, but he’s been a regular with Ohio’s Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) for some time. While he’s made a name for himself the past year as well alongside Kevin Ku in Violence is Forever (formerly Sadkampf), he’s a technical machine and is signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW) as part of Tom Lawlor’s team
Street Fight: Nolan Edward vs. Kevin Ku
Nolan Edwards is a rising star in the Midwest, where he’s been performing for AIW, IWA Mid South, Black Label Pro, PPW, and Detroit’s Detroit Style Wrestling (DSW). Kevin Ku hails from the Nashville area and is a frequent regular with Nashville’s Southern Underground Pro (SUP), where Violence is Forever (his tandem with Dominic Garrini) is the tag team champions. Originally starting as Sadkampf, Violence is Forever has become one of the East’s top tag teams, also holding the Pro Wrestling Freedoms (PWF) Tag Team titles in Indiana. The duo has also appeared for the likes of Beyond Wrestling, Blac k Label Pro, ACTION Wrestling, and Canada’s Capital City Championship Combat (C4). The duo also made their European debut in Germany with Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) in 2019’s wXw World Tag Team Festival.
UWFI Rules: Devantes vs. “The Hoodfoot” Mo Atlas
Devantes has been a rising star in the US indies for the past couple of years, where he competed in CHIKARA as part of Ophidian‘s Crucible stable. “The Hoodfoot” Mo Atlas has been a regular with IWA Mid-South the past year, well adept at the hard-hitting rules that will be enforced in this one. Two faces to keep an eye on, these two will be giving their all to make an impression on a pretty stacked card.
Hardcore Rules Street Fight: Brett Ison vs. Bradley Prescott IV
Kentucky’s “Pitbull”, Brett Ison is a dominant force in SUP, where he held the SUP Bonestorm Championship for 336-days, and has also branched into St. Louis Anarchy, Paradigm Pro Wrestling, GCW, and ACTION Wrestling amongst others. Ison is a set of fists worth paying attention to. Indiana’s own Bradley Prescott IV is another rising star in the Midwest, who has been a staple of Paradigm Pro for a couple of years now, as well as with Wild Championship Wrestling Outlaws (WCWO). He also recently made debuts with GCW and CZW.
UWFI Rules: Erick Stevens vs. Reed Bentley
Erick Stevens is a former Ring of Honor star who retired from the sport over a decade ago before making his return last spring. Since then he’s become a man on a mission in the US indies, even capturing the IWTV Championship briefly last year. He’s facing one of the most violent men in the US in Reed Bentley, one-half of The Rejects (with Johny Wayne Murdoch), a former 3x IWA Mid South Heavyweight Champion and 3x Tag Team Champion with The Rejects (IWA-MS, Paradigm Pro Wrestling, Game Changer Wrestling).
Hardcore Rules Street Fight: Ron Mathis vs. Bobby Beverly
Ohio’s Ron Mathis is a 12-year veteran of the Midwest, beginning in Les Thatcher‘s Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) before becoming a regular with Rockstar Pro, where he’s a former Rockstar Pro Champion. He’s also up for the rough stuff, having competed in the ultraviolent Hardcore Hustle Organization (H2O), where he’s a former 2x H2O Heavyweight Champion. Earlier this year he won the PPW Tag Team Championship alongside Bruce Grey in DD Trash, but on Friday he’s going solo in a hardcore street fight against Bobby Beverly. Another Ohio and Midwest veteran, Beverly is a longtime regular with AIW (where he’s a 2x AIW Tag Team Champion with Eric Ryan in the Young Studs and former AIW Intense Champion) as well as in Pennsylvania’s Fight Society (formerly Pro Wrestling eXpress), where he’s a 2x Television Champion. Alongside Matthew Justice in The Lifers, he’s a former PPW Tag Team Champion as well, but like Mathis, this one will come down to two dudes in a singles street fight where anything goes.
Brawl For All Rules Super Fight: John Wayne Murdoch vs. Flash Thompson
John Wayne Murdoch is one tough hombre, both as a singles wrestler and in tag team action with The Rejects alongside Reed Bentley. Murdoch is a 5x IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion and has held tag team gold with The Rejects in GCW, IWA Mid South, and PPW, and won the IWA-MS 2016 King of the Deathmatches Tournament. On Friday, he’s going up against an up-and-comer in Flash Thompson, but with this fight under Brawl For All Rules (per Wikipedia: “Each match consisted of three one-minute rounds. Whichever wrestler connected with the most punches per round scored 5 points. In addition, a clean takedown scored 5 points and a knockdown was worth 10. If a wrestler was knocked out (decided by an eight-count rather than a ten-count), the match ended.”), Thompson’s background in MMA fighting may give him the edge.
UWFI Rules: AJ Gray vs. Aaron Williams
AJ Gray emerged out of 2019 as one of the top new stars in the US indies, dethroning Nick Gage for the GCW World Championship after Gage’s record-setting 722-day reign. Gray has continued to impress with the likes of Beyond Wrestling, Glory Pro (where he’s the reigning Crown of Glory Champion), AIW, and IWA Mid-South. He’s no stranger to Indiana’s scene either, being a former PPW Champion and Black Label Pro Midwest Champion. He’s heading into a UWFI rules fight against another tough competitor from the Midwest scene in 16-year veteran Aaron Williams, who has cruised the rings with the likes of IWA Mid South, Rockstar Pro, St. Louis Anarchy and many more throughout his career. Williams is also a former 6x IWA Mid South Heavyweight Champion and one of the new trainers at Zachary Wentz‘ new Believe Wrestling Academy.
Hardcore Rules Street Fight: Matthew Justice vs. Stephan Bonnar
This card is stacked with so many great match-ups, with heavy hitters (as the name suggests) that are known as being some of the toughest brawlers in the US indie circuit. Matthew Justice has made a huge name for himself over the past two years after an impressive 14-year career. He’s the reigning AIW Absolute and AIW Intense Champion and continues to reak havoc in the likes of GCW, Beyond Wrestling, ICW No Holds Barred, and more, including PPW, where he’s a former PPW Tag Team Champion. Justice is known for being fearless and that will be an asset as he faces a legit UFC legend in Stephan Bonnar. Bonnar, who also competed for Bellator, retired in 2014 with a 15-9 pro MMA record, and his 2013 fight against Forrest Griffin was entered into the fight wing of the UFC Hall of Fame. He made his pro wrestling debut in 2017 with House of Glory and went on to a run with IMPACT Wrestling in late 2019 against Moose.
UWFI Rules: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Calvin Tankman
Another former UFC fighter who transitioned gracefully into pro wrestling, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor has been one of the faces of Major League Wrestling (MLW) since its reboot a few years ago, and is a former MLW World Heavyweight Champion. He also recently made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Lawlor will be getting a sneak preview of a hoss that recently signed to MLW in Calvin Tankman. A mainstay with IWA Mid South since 2016, and a former IWA Mid South Heavyweight Champion, Tankman has been a wrecking crew throughout the US indies, with the likes of GCW, AIW, EMERGE Wrestling, and Indiana’s PPW and Bizarro Lucha, where he’s the current reigning BL Luchaversal Champion.
UWFI Rules: Chris Dickinson vs. Lee Moriarty
Chris Dickinson was arguably one of the US indies’ MVPs of 2019 with an outstanding resume of big fights in Beyond Wrestling, GCW, ICW-NHB, Black Label Pro, and more. He’s returned to the circuit following the pandemic shut down and continues to prove why he’s one of the absolute best in the world today. It’s a case of the present versus the future on Friday, as the “Dirty Daddy” gets set to face one of the fastest rising young stars in the US indie scene in “The Apex of Combat” Lee Moriarty. A 5-year pro, Moriarty has been making waves with Pennsylvania’s RYSE Wrestling, as well as GCW, AIW, CHIKARA, Bizarro Lucha, Paradigm Pro Wrestling, and many more.
UWFI Rules Super Fight for Paradigm Pro Championship: Cole Radrick (c) vs. Freddie Hudson
PPW Champion Cole Radrick has had an impressive rise in the Indiana indie scene since 2015, but the past year for the Spencer, Indiana native has been explosive. He defeated AJ Gray for the PPW Championship last November and is now over 230 days into his reign, with defenses against the likes of Gary Jay and Dominic Garrini. He made a huge splash recently in GCW when he went toe to toe with Nick Gage, and on Friday he heads into a UWFI Rules Superfight as he defends his title against Freddie Hudson. Hudson is a rising star in PPW, debuting in 2015, and getting more impressive every year. A strong showing against the PPW Champion will only increase Hudson’s stock, but Radrick has vowed to make 2020 his year, so he’ll be a tough man to upset.
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. Paradigm Pro Wrestling ‘Heavy Hitters Vol. 2″ will be airing at 7:30pm EST live on IndieWrestling.tv.
