WrestleFest 2025 with PaperclipMike

Wrestling conventions are amazing. You get to meet some of your favorite wrestlers of the past and present, score cool merch, meet other wrestling fans, and so much more. Well, this past weekend I got to attend my first wrestling convention, IWR Wrestlefest in Monroe, Michigan. And if this was any indication of how wrestling conventions go, they must all be a blast!

IWR, or Insane Wrestling Revolution, is an independent wrestling organization owned and operated by ECW original, “The Manbeast” Rhino, and is based out of Monroe, Michigan. I have been going to it for the better part of a year since the indie fed closest to me, sadly, shut down. IWR has a great, loyal fan base and brings in not only top indie wrestlers and up-and-comers, but there have been men and women who have been seen on NWA, ECW, TNA, AEW, and WWE. This was the first year of Wrestlefest, and I hope it goes many more years. 

First off, I want to talk about how well priced it was. For me to get in both Friday and Saturday, plus a second row seat to the actual wrestling show Saturday night was only $50! The building it was in was brand new, lots of ample parking and so much room, even with all the vendors, fans and wrestlers around, not to mention the ring.

Friday night seemed just as packed as Saturday. Myself, my best friend, and his wife walked around to see who was around and what the vendors had to offer. One of the people I was most excited to meet was none other than the founder of the NWO, Eric Bischoff. Eric could not have been nicer, taking the time to chat with everyone who came by his table, which had a line all weekend.

There were so many other activities to do other than merch tables and vendors. One of the fun things they had was a photo booth. And of course, me and my best friend had to get into the action.

One of the coolest things they had there was a display set up by Steve Morand, known as Mr. GWC. He has one of the largest private wrestling collections out there, nearly 100,000 items! He had a table the Wrestlefest with stuff like a gi from Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, tights from Jake “The Snake” Roberts, shears from “Brutus “The Barber Beefcake, among others. On top of that, everything was signed! I got the chance to have a great conversation with him. Also, we did chat about maybe doing some sort of content in the future, so stay tuned!

Most of the fun was on Saturday, so Friday night we went out to get food. For those who may not know, Eminem has a restaurant in Detroit called Mom’s Spaghetti that sells…well, spaghetti. And when you are a huge fan of him and are only about thirty matches away, you go.

We did not realize that every arena, stadium, and theatre in downtown Detroit had something going on, so it took us forever to find parking. When we did there, it was interesting to order. You order from a window on the side of the building. And if you did want to sit down to eat, there was a very small place in the front of the building to sit with about ten seats. So basically, you can get either spaghetti or a spaghetti sandwich. If you get just the spaghetti, you get it plain, with meatballs or vegan meatballs. I got the large with meatballs, and boy was it large (that’s what she said). I did enjoy the spaghetti very much, but the meatballs were not that good. I would go again, but just get it without the meatballs next time.

Saturday was where all the action for me happened. There were a couple of tables I needed to hit since they were not there all day. I got a signed 8x10 from one of my all-time favorite ECW originals, Rob Van Dam. Very cool guy as well and fun to talk to. In fact, after meeting RVD, I have met the fourth of the five of my top 5 ECW originals. On top of Rob, I have met Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, and Jerry Lynn. The one I have left to meet is Taz. RVD confirmed that Taz is not one to do conventions, so he is one of the holy grails of wrestlers to meet. 

However, the peak for me this weekend was to be able to meet WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist, Kurt Angle. Thanks to Mom, she fronted the money specifically to meet Kurt. And just like all the wrestlers I met this weekend, he was so kind and warm and took the time with everyone. And even better, the pic I got signed from Kurt was from the famed milk truck moment. 

One of my fave indie wrestlers is “Young Goat” Myron Reed. He is also an IWR regular, and he has a new shirt that is straight fire, and I have been trying to get it for a few months. I was able to get it finally, and also got the new shirt from his partner, Killer Kelly. I was also able to get a pic with them afterwards..

The last picture I was able to get was from a Midwest indie wrestler by the name of Matt Diesel. We were able to chat for a few minutes, and I added another autographed pic to my collection. 

On top of everything else was the main event. IWR had an amazing event Saturday night. I am going to give you some of the highlights. I am doing this from memory, so the matches might be out of order.

• The Canadian World Order came out with a “Representative of Quebec” who was gifted the town of Monroe. Out came Kurt Angle to a massive reaction who put the guy in an ankle lock.

• The NWA United States champions, The Country Gentlemen, defended their titles against Rhino and Heath in a fun opener

• Johnny Swinger won against a member of The Buckeye Brutes, a group of heels that come out dressed in Ohio State gear. They attacked him after the match, only for him to be saved by none other than Shark Boy!

• The finals of the Kangaroo Cup tag tournament (named after the Fabulous Kangaroos) took place. The other matches took part throughout the day, with the finals ending up with The Dub Club meeting Adam Wick and Aaron Orion of the Death Threat Army. After a hard-fought match, the Dub Club won the tournament and the trophy.

• Former TNA Women’s champions ODB and Jessicka Havok met in a fun match. For a good part of the match, there was a dueling chant with the crowd split, cheering for both women. It went on for so long, Jessika actually said “Stop, I have a job to do”, cracking the crowd up. ODB ended up winning the match

• In a fatal four-way for the vacant IWR United States title, Adam Wick defeated Rich Swann, Jake Christ, and Myron Reed in my favorite match of the night. Anyone who is familiar with these guys knows how insane this match was. Also, major props to Adam Wick. This was his fourth match he wrestled that day! He did three matches in the Kangaroo Cup, making it to the finals, then had this hellacious match.

• In a triple threat noDQ match for the IWR Tag Team Titles, CWO members “Amazing” N8 Mattson and Aren Daniel Norman defeated the teams of Alienated Youth and the duo of The Soultaker and PCO. All six men fought all over the hall, even PCO getting busted open at one point. 

• In a mixed tag, Kenny Urban and Kitty LeFluer defeated Sam Beale and Shelly Benson. Kenny rolled up Sam after a distraction by Jereimiah Goldsmith, the manager of Sam’s former partner, Ox.

• And in the main event, IWR champ Silas Young faced NWA World Heavyweight champion Thomas Lattimer in a title for title match. In a hard-fought match that was nearly won by both men many times, Lattimer was able to score the win and secure both titles.

Overall, I had an amazing time. I was able to meet some of my favorite wrestlers, chat with other fans, score plenty of autographs, and add to my growing collection of action figures, including a George “The Animal” Steele figure that had hair glued to it. No, seriously…

I was able to chat with Rhino to thank him and tell him how much I enjoyed the convention, and I hope he will do it again. He said the plan is to make this one of the biggest events of the year, along with the Christmas show. Their next IWR show is on June 19th. If you are in the area, you should take it upon yourself to take in an IWR show. I know I will.