Indy Wrap Up: Chief Attakullakulla Defends, Kevin Steen And DJ Hyde In CZW, AIWF, More
- Chief Attakullakulla defended his UIWA and IGWA heavyweight titles against Pretty Boy Floyd at Rumble for the Kids 3 in Princeton, Illinois on April 12. Over 1,000 fans packed the venue and proceeds from the show were donated to a local school for the purchase of new playground equipment. After a hard-hitting contest that spanned the better part of a quarter-hour, Floyd was poised to land a major upset when he put the champ down for the pinfall. Chief's manager Chazz Moretti abruptly involved himself in the fray by pulling the ref out of the ring and stopping the count. As the ref gathered his wits, Moretti attempted to pass an weighted foreign object to his client but Floyd intecerpted the item and cold-cocked Chief with it, laying him out for the cover. A second ref came in and made the count, awarding the match to Floyd but after Moretti pointed out that the challenger had employed an illegal item to secure the win, the decision was reversed and the belts stayed with Attakullakulla. Moretti defended his actions after the bell with his customary bravado: "I was proud to represent a champion of the caliber of Chief Attakullakulla to my client roster. With my guidance he will hold both of his titles for a very long time. You can bank on that." The match was filmed by IGWA and will air on local television in Puerto Rico in the near future.
- Cheerleader Melissa took on Mia Yim at SHIMMER's Volume 65 show in Berwyn, Illinois on April 13. Melissa retained the SHIMMER title, putting Yim out of commission with the Air Raid Crash. Kellie Skater and Tomoka Nakagawa, better known as The Global Green Gangsters, kept their tag titles, defeating Rhia O'Reilly and Saraya Knight. Volume 66 was taped the same night. In the show's main event, Skater and Nakagawa held on to their titles yet again, defeating Cheerleader Melissa and Mercedes Martinez in the main event.
- Fans at CZW's April 12 "Best of the Best XIII" show in Vorhees, New Jersey saw the ongoing rivalry between DJ Hyde and Kevin Steen reach critical mass as Steen attacked Hyde during the event's opening ceremonies. No doubt the men will eventually meet in the ring once again and knowing their respective histories, they will resort to extreme violence in the vetting their differences. Shane Strickland defeated Devon Moore in a ladder match to retain the CZW Wired title and Drake Younger won the Best of the Best elimination tournament.
- AIWF Mid-South Champion Charles West will defend his title in a fatal four-way in Mendenhall, Mississippi on April 26. Sugar Dunkerton, Raphael King, and Barry Wolf will compete for the Mid-South strap. West sees the challenge posed by the trio of indy stalwarts as an important stage in his rise to prominence in AIWF. "Big time players step up in big time moments," he said. "The competition I'll face on April 26 is another step towards the AIWF world title."
- Ring veteran "Gentleman" John Campbell recently announced he will open his own independent wrestling organization later this year. Independent Wrestling Entertainment will be based in central Michigan and is scheduled to launch in late summer. Speaking to WrestlingINC.com about the endeavor, he said: "I decided to move forward and found IWE so I can start having fun with wrestling again. Sadly, in this business there are a lot of politics that get in the way. I want to create a place where we can have fun doing the thing we love to do the most, while providing an entertaining and unique product to an area that doesn't have any professional wrestling promotions around." Campbell will be a guest on VOC Nation's "Compton After Dark" podcast on April 27 to discuss the creation and development of IWE in greater detail.
Photo courtesy of Chief Attakullakulla.
Mike Bessler is a Contributing Writer for Pro Wrestling Illustrated