Girl at the Rock Shows

I had so much fun on Friday night at First Avenue for F1rst Wrestling’s WREMIX that I had to go back on Saturday for a second round. I’ll be honest, I was nervous about doing back-to-back nights at this event, if only because I don’t know what I could say about the second night that I didn’t already say about the first night, but blog be damned, I was not going to miss this absolute party of an event.

It was honestly more of the same on Saturday night. More wrestling, burlesque, live music, and more of that feeling of living in the greatest city in the world. I know that sounds dramatic, but I mean it with all of my heart. I truly do not know if there’s another place that offers an event like this. An event based around wrestling, but where you can be comfortable in the space, even if you know nothing about wrestling, and we have Arik Cannon to thank for that.

Arik is more than just a professional wrestler; he’s the owner and operator of F1rst Wrestling and a true visionary. That sounds a bit over the top, I know but, truly, he has created an empire that gets people into wrestling who maybe wouldn’t typically be into the sport. I am one of those people. I didn’t grow up watching wrestling and knew from a young age that it was fake. I didn’t want to keep up with storylines, and my imagination never quite let me get past the fact that nearly everything in the wrestling world is fake and scripted, but the first time I ever went to a F1rst Wrestling event, I fell in love. It was campy, cheesy, and a bit over the top, but it was fun and light-hearted, meaning someone like me could quickly fall into the world. At the same time, as mentioned yesterday, there’s no shortage of talent, so if you are someone super deep into the wrestling world, you could fall just as deep into this world as someone who is not. Long story short, Arik Cannon and the entire F1rst Wrestling camp made me fall in love with wrestling, and although I’m a fairweather fan at best, nights spent at events like WREMIX are ones that I truly look forward to.

As always, I’m not going to spend this blog telling you who won what match because that’s not the point of this event. What I will tell you about is how insane it was to watch the wrestlers showcase their talent and athleticism. I talked about this in yesterday’s blog, but it goes a step further in this one because some of the wrestlers that took the ring on Saturday had just been in there the night before. Much like people don’t understand how I do shows every single night of my life, I don’t understand how some of these wrestlers were able to put their bodies through this kind of stress and pain for a second night in a row. Even with that being said, there wasn’t a single wrestler who took the ring on Saturday night who seemed to be tired or sore. I’m sure they were, but they didn’t let that get to them, which really stood out to me and gave me an insane amount of motivation and energy.

On Friday night, one of my favorite moments of the wrestling was when Effy got waterboarded by Shane Black (feel free to read my review of last night to learn more about this and other moments and things I’m referencing in this post). I wondered how that moment of hilarity could be topped on Saturday night. Leave it to Effy to figure out how. At one point during a match between Effy and Ryan Cruz, Effy let it all hang out and pulled his bottoms down just enough so everyone could see his butt. This led to a chant spreading through the audience: “Show That Ass!” Childish? Absolutely. Did you need to be there to really understand the hilarity of it all? Yup! But, yet again, it was a memorable slice of cheese from the night that will definitely have people talking for quite some time.

Again, this event isn’t just wrestling. Burlesque is another aspect of the event. I wasn’t able to get a lot of usable shots of the burlesque that happened on Friday night, just because it’s a different way of shooting, and I didn’t feel comfortable posting some of the photos I got, but I got some on Saturday night that I’m willing to share to show the creativity that these ladies put into their act. The burlesque dancers featured on Saturday night were Emerald Eve and Phoenix De La Rosa. Both ladies were absolutely stunning, but it was Phoenix De La Rosa’s way of turning Dexter’s Laboratory into a burlesque act that made me smile from ear to ear. Unfortunately, Phoenix De La Rosa is leaving the Twin Cities, and this was her final performance in town. What a shame for the Twin Cities to lose such a talent, but I know that she will absolutely kill it wherever she ends up.

The musical act on Saturday night was Gully Boys. Much like Cheap Bouquet on Friday, Gully Boys were such a perfect fit for this event. Their punk energy radiated throughout First Avenue with ease. I forgot how much I love this band. I don’t know why I don’t see them more often or why I was an idiot and skipped their recent show at The Varsity Theater, but seeing them perform, hearing the flawlessness of their sound, and feeling their endless energy on Saturday night definitely reminded me that this is not a band that should be missed when given the opportunity to see them live.

There’s a lot more than could be said about Saturday night. I could tell you about the sobering moment that Arik Cannon reminded us all that some of these wrestlers won’t be here forever (directly calling out Devon Monroe who is clearly going places and will surely be on the national stage in no time) or when the crowd cheered as Gringo Loco promised a five year F1rst Wrestling contract of sorts (my wording is probably off there but Gringo Loco and Arik shook on five more years of something like that). There was the moment that Atmoic Super ThunderFrog used his magical hammer to defeat all of his opponents while Big O. Possum clung to the ropes so he wasn’t affected and then there were all of the high flying stunts but, per usual, this is the kind of event that you have to just see for yourself, not read about so I urge you to go to the next F1rst Wrestling event. They have a bunch coming up, so keep your eyes open and make it happen.

Line Up:

F1rst Wrestling

Gully Boys

Venue: First Avenue

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 38

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- Do Wrestlers Leaping From The Top Rope Count?

Mosh-ability- 0 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- $0

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Wrestlers!

Fights- None

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

Idiots Taken Out By Security – 0

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

Gully Boys – 5

Show on Deck — Southside Aces

Shameless Self Promotion:

Join My Patreon Here!

Buy Me a Coffee (Seriously!)

Check out my playlist HERE!