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(Family) Fight Night

11/5/2014

“The Natural” Nate Alsin giving Latin Thunder a Camel Clutch at The River City Rumble in Mason City.

“The Natural” Nate Alsin giving Latin Thunder a Camel Clutch at The River City Rumble in Mason City.

After 13 long years of lingering like an elephant in the corner, Impact Pro Wrestling (IPW), a family-owned wrestling company, is making its debut in the Capital City.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself that if I ever ran in Des Moines, I wanted the situation to be perfect,” said IPW promoter Troy Peterson.

The event looks to be particularly exciting for a couple of the athletes residing in the Des Moines area. “Intellectual Punk” Tony Sly, who received his master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa, has been on a roll lately with victories against all challengers.

“I have been wrestling in Des Moines for more than nine years, but this is one of IPW’s first forays into the community and will hopefully be the beginning of regular and successful shows in Des Moines, which is a very exciting proposition and opportunity,” Sly said. “I am also looking forward to wrestling on my birthday in my community for friends and family.”

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This weekend he’ll enter the ring against fellow native The 80’s Man — a Lincoln High School alumnus. This will be Sly’s first match in his hometown, and he’ll need all the help he can get against the crafty veteran.

In addition to the local brawl, several other matchups are scheduled.

AJ Smooth will defend his Impact Pro Wrestling Heavyweight title against the returning Nicky Free. The last time they entered the ring in July, Smooth took the title from Free.

Other brawls include a tag team match featuring Pretty Ugly-James Jeffries and Ugly (managed by Miss Frankie Jay) versus The Legend Killers consisting of Matty Star and Sparrow (managed by Kiandra), “The Natural” Nate Alsin vs. Latin Thunder, and Arthur Haug vs. Justin Decent.

Peterson’s love of the sport is almost cinematic. After witnessing a late-night (11 p.m. on a Sunday in 1983) AWA wrestling match, he was hooked.

“My mother was the school librarian and would go in every Sunday evening and set the VCR in the library to record AWA All Star Wrestling,” said Peterson. “I would watch it 10-15 times before I got next week’s episode.”

For Peterson, it was never about being a wrestler; it was always about the show and the spectacle.

“I would spend years filling notebooks with fantasy booking ideas for various promotions. Shockingly I didn’t date a lot,” he said.

He hopes it pays off in dividends this weekend.

“Expect a good representation of a lot of different wrestling matches,” Peterson said. “A match with a some comedy, a couple matches with some hard-hitting, strong-style wrestling, a couple matches with bigger, ‘WWE-look’-type guys and a couple of matches with strong technical wrestling.”

“If you are a fan of exclusively mainstream wrestling or have never seen live independent pro wrestling, then you owe it to yourself to at least come experience IPW, because it’s the most entertaining and family friendly pro wrestling in Iowa,” Sky said. CV

David Rowley is an Iowa native with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa and a master’s in film journalism from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Baratta’s at Forte.
Adult tickets in advance are $12 with children 10 and under $5. Adult tickets at the door are $15.
Tickets are available through Ipwtickets@yahoo.com or through Facebook.
Belltime is 7 p.m. with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.
All matches will be officiated by Billy J, and the ring announcer will be Midnight Guthrie.

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