Saturday, January 24, 2026

Canada Hockey plus Wrestling Adventure!

For the fourth time Canaan and I headed to the Province of Quebec for our Canada Hockey Adventure, for the 2nd time we added pro wrestling to the journey.  Our last adventure was in December 2024 and I wrote about it here: Quebec Wrestling Adventure. 

Friday the 9th we headed north to taking Route 201 through the Sandy Bay Township border crossing into Quebec.  In Jackman we had to stop for the train, I filmed a video for Wesley, didn't realize it was going to be over 4 minutes!!  


We stopped in Saint-Georges to get some cash from the ATM and have lunch at Harvey's.  It's a Canadian fast food burger chain, I ate at one before with Kate in Moncton, New Brunswick and we were not a fan.  I thought it was due for another try and I was wrong.  The onion rings were great, but the burgers remained subpar....but edible.


Our next stop was in Quebec City at the offices of Spira and independent movie distribution company so I could pick up a copy of the wrestling documentary Celles Qui Luttent about French Canadian woman wrestlers Lufisto, Loue O'Farrell and Azaelle.  I wanted to watch this for quite awhile, but I couldn't order it because with the tariffs shipping alone was $49.  I messaged them in advance and they said I could come to the office and pick up a copy.

We departed Quebec City for a 200km drive north to the village of Jonquiere in the Saguenay area.  We had to drive through the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve which had no exits for a very large chunk of it and only a rest stop in the middle with gas, store, and restaurant.  While we hit light snow in Quebec City it was snowing light crazy through the high point.


We checked into our inn, Auberge Des Deux Tours, which is located on the back side of a restaurant.  It was very basic, two full beds and a bathroom, which is all we need.  We went to the mall and had A & W for dinner and Canaan picked up some earbuds at Best Buy.


Our reason for going up here was to check out the LNAH team the Jonquiere Marquis they played National de Québec, one of two of the 2024 expansion teams.  We had seen the Marquis before, but this was the first time seeing National.

Another very cool old arena Palais des Sports de Saguenay, built on 1946, renovated in 2005.  It was a packed out with a very raucous crowd that is very typical of this league.  Nationals have a player with a great name! Marquis dominated winning 7 - 2.  They out played Nationals at every turn.  I has some subpar poutine at the game but it looked good.













The church across the street from the Inn was all lit up when we got back to the room.  It was very pretty.


Saturday morning we packed up and hit the road about 1030 for the journey south back to Quebec City.  The journey back through the Wildlife reserve it wasn't snowing, but the road quite slushy at times.  We stopped at that rest stop again where they specialize in selling bite size sausages wrapped in bacon, they were tremendous!  The van got filthy on the drive so far, so we hit a carwash, it was really bad.

We had some time to kill before we could check into the hotel, so we hit the mall, Galeries de la Capitale which features Mega Parc and indoor amusement park with ice rink.  I went here when I was a senior in high school during out French Club trip in February 1997, 29 years ago, so it was cool to see again. 




The indoor roller coaster track was still there, but it doesn't appear as though they use it anymore.  There used to be a hockey rink on the main floor as I recall a hockey tournament being played there when I was here in high school.  There is still and ice rink, but it goes all around in a like a street course racetrack.  

We has lunch at the mall, a smash burger place, are you seeing a pattern.  The mall was disappointing to us and it didn't have any stores that we really care about.  It was all clothing stores, mostly, a few kids stores, but it did have a physical media store, music and movies. 

We got into the hotel, a much nicer room than last night, and the beds were a lot more comfortable.  We relaxed in room and put the football game on.
 

We headed out to Old Quebec as I wanted to get a big bag of Quebec Blend popcorn from Mary's Popcorn Boutique.  It's a mix of maple and cheddar popcorn.  We headed over the Centre Horizon after to get parked, it's a small parking area and I wanted to make sure we got a spot.  We watch the majority of Slap Shot in the van before heading into the venue.  Doors opened at 7pm, with preshow at 730pm and live on IWTV at 8pm. 

It was a great night of professional wrestling! North Shore Pro Wrestling has been running shows at the Centre Horizon as fat back as 2010, last time we had GA but this time I bought front row in advance.  Once again the place was PACKED with fans with the seats sold out and standing room shoulder to shoulder.  Let's get to the results:


January 10, 2026

Lutte NSPW: North Shore Pro Wrestling

Centre Horizon, Quebec City, QC


Pre-Show

Killshot: Bryan Colt & Elrick defeated The Gentlemen: McCreezy & Steel Jr.

Golden Greg pinned William DaVinci


Travis Toxic with Nox pinned Dreya Mitchell

Red Kingdom: Azaelle & Damian Wild defeated South Shore Wrecking Crew: Giovanni & Jack Saunders when they pinned Saunders

Yann Pike pinned Tyler Nox with Travis Toxic

Dylan Donovan pinned Stu Grayson

Audrey Moreau interviewing Stu Grayson was attacked by Alex Silva and Dani Leo

MDMA: Mitch Thompson & DGenerate with Midianne defeated NSPW Champion: Miche; Plante & Matt Falco with Maloon when Falco was pinned.  This was advertised as a title match for Falco, MDMA ran in and it became a tag match, after Falco attacked Plante

Jason Gray pinned Heavy Rox, who was substituting for an injured Loue O’Farrell, who cut a promo on Gray after the match

Fans Bring The Weapons Match: Tabarnak de Team: Mathieu St. Jacques & Thomas Dubois defeated NSPW Tag Team Champions: Diamand Du Monde: Marko Estrada & Zak Patterson to win the championships



It was a great night of wrestling so many good matches, everyone played their roles well and really kept the pace of the show going.  I've said it before, they have something very special in Quebec City with NSPW, a rabid fanbase, great production, consistency.  Love it!

I was happy to see Dreya Mitchell live for the first time, she's excellent and is going to be huge someday.  Travis Toxic is also VERY good and there's a reason he's so popular with the fanbase. 

The tag team match with of Red Kingdom vs. South Shore Wrecking Crew told a great story where both teams seemed to be at odds within themselves and Red Kingdom was able to get it together to get the win.  At intermission I had a great chat with them about this.  


I got Azaelle to sign her card as well as my Celles Qui Luttent dvd.  I was hoping to Loue to sign it as well, but she did not come out during intermission or after the show.


I a huge fan of Tabarnak de Team, seeing them win the fans bring the weapons match and capture the tag team titles was awesome!


After the show we headed back to the hotel  Sunday morning we got ready but stuck around the hotel until the noon check out time, it was snowed a few inches overnight, and really didn't have anything to do until the hockey game.

Sunday's LNAH game was matinee with a 2pm start time watching the Nationals play the Sorel-Tracy Eperviers, a team we have seen before.  Nationals play in a fairly new venue, it's very nice, but it doesn't have the same atmosphere as the other arenas.  Either they don't have the fanbase as the other teams, or perhaps because of the time of the game attendance was quite low.  Our seats were great, right at center ice in between both benches.







There was a lot of tension during warm ups and teams even nearly came to fisticuffs. Nationals played much better today beating the Eperviers 6 - 3.  Some good aggressive hockey.  We only have two teams left to see in their home arenas.

We headed home, it was about a 4.5 drive, and we managed to get home about 845pm.  Out of Quebec City you take Autoroute 73 south which ends in Saint-Georges from there you side road and main route it for 134 miles to Interstate 95 in Fairfield.  That 134 miles is a VERY long stretch of desolate road.  It was after sunset when we crossed the border back into Maine.  I told Canaan we had to scan for Moose as they are big and hide out in the dark.

About 3 miles north of the West Forks on the right side of the road we spotted the biggest moose I've ever seen!  It looked like he had a billboard on his head the rack was so big when he turned his head.  We stopped in Skowhegan to fuel up Vanatu and get yet another burger this time at Burger King.

It was an awesome weekend of wrestling and hockey.   

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Hiroshi Tanahashi Live!

January 4, 2026 marked the end to the career of one of the greatest Japanese professional wrestlers, Hiroshi Tanahashi.  He debuted in October 1999 along with fellow young boys Katsuyori Shibata and Shinsuke Nakamura, dubbed the "New Three Musketeers" by the Japanese wrestling media.  Named after the original Three Musketeers consisting of Keiji Muto, Masahiro Chono, and Shinya Hashimoto.

It's hard to believe Tanahashi was the first of the 3 the retire, Nakamura is in the WWE and Shibata, after a 4 year hiatus to recover from injury, is active in AEW.  He has a fantastic career capturing numerous championships including becoming an 8 time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

I was lucky enough to see Tanahashi wrestle live 3 time, ironically all in 2019.  The first two times were during WrestleMania weekend in New York City.  The first at the RevPro show pro held at the WrestleCon convention, before the show they did a meet and greet with several New Japan Pro Wrestlers, I met Tanahashi, Shibata, and Ishii.  It was only $30 for a Combo and I got my card signed.



April 5, 2019

Revolution Pro Wrestling Hilton Grand Ballroom Manhattan, NY

British Tag Team Champions: Suzuki-Gun: Minoru Suzuki & British Heavyweight Champion:

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay when Sabre pinned Ospreay


Jay, Mikey, and I had front row for the show, and during Tanahashi's entrance he stopped right in front of us and we all played air guitar together, it was a bad ass moment. I have the video clip somewhere and when I find it I will upload it here.





Talk about and all star tag team match!


April 6, 2019

New Japan Pro Wrestling / ROH Madison Square Garden Manhattan, NY

G1 Supercard

British Heavyweight Champion: Zack Sabre Jr with Taka Michinoku defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi by submission

The three of us attended the first non WWF/WWE promoted wrestling event at Madison Square Garden in 60 years.  We had front row balcony and pictures did come out great.  This is one of the most historic wrestling events I have ever been to.


September 27, 2019

NJPW: New Japan Pro Wrestling Memorial Auditorium Lowell, MA

Fighting Spirit Unleashed

IWGP Heavyweight Champion: Kazuchiki Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Kota Ibushi defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon: Tetsuya Naito, Evil & Sanada when Tanahashi pinned Naito with cobra twist

Mikey, Jay, and I also attended this event together. This tour of shows was the first time that New Japan ran shows in the US that were not co-promoted with Ring of Honor.  Okada was the IWGP Heavyweight champion, but it was Tanahashi who stayed in the ring after the main event to thank the audience and play his air guitar for us. 







I feel very fortunate to have seen Tanahashi wrestle live these three times and to have had the opportunity to meet him in person.  It's important to take advantage of the opportunities when you can. 

Incidentally, his last match was on January 4th against Okada, checking cagematch they have faced each other 249 times in singles and tag team matches. 

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time!

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

2025 My Year In Wrestling

Here we go with my live wrestling recap for 2025!

2025 by the Numbers

23 wrestling events

8 different promotions, 1 first time attending

3 States
Maine, Massachusetts, & Maryland

I checked off a new state this year with my first ever wrestling show in Maryland.  I attended my second NXT show, which was also my first NXT PPV or PLE, I also went to my first TNA event since December 4, 2009.  

379 Lifetime events

January saw two show, both Limitless events.  The first on the 12th in Herman that saw Matt Cardona making his Limitless debut challenging Dezmond Cole for the World Title.  Also John Walters made his Limitless debut defeating Anthony Greene.  Six days later on the 18th Limitless was back in Yarmouth and saw Channing Thomas defeat Cole to win the Limitless World Championship.

February I went to 1 show, Limitless Wrestling back in Yarmouth on the 22nd with a heavyweight main event of Donovan Dijak vs. Calvin Tankman in a hard hitting match.

March I attended two shows, on the 14th RINGWARS in Palmyra and on the 21st Limitless making their debut at Brick South in Portland.  Brick South packed in a huge crowd with several debuts on the show from Deadlock Pro Wrestling.  This show we finally got the one one one match up between Becca and Gabby Forza, but it ended in DQ.

April featured another pair of shows, on the 17th we traveled to the MGM Music Hall in Boston for AEW Collision.  This was my first Collision taping but we also got some Ring of Honor Matches.  Big match of the night for me was seeing Nick Wayne defeated Kommander to win the ROH World Television Championship.  On the 26th Limitless Wrestling in Yarmouth that saw Bear Bronson pin Anthony Greene and Channing Thomas defend the Championship against Aaron Rourke.

May was another pair of shows, on the 17th I was back in Westbrook at the Armory for Limitless Wrestling for the first time since May 10, 2019.  What was VERY cool was seeing "Big" Rick Fuller at a show for the first time since April 25, 2009, he was there to visit Scotty 2 Hotty whose son Keagan was making his Limitless debut.  We also got a two team single cage WarZone match!!  The 30th was RINGWARS at the Fairfield Community Center for my 66th show at the venue featuring the 2 ring Joey Gleitz rumble match.

June was a single show, Limitless Wrestling back in Yarmouth on the 28th that had several VLC qualifying matches and Gabby Forza unsuccessfully challenged Channing Thomas for the world championship.

July 20th Limitless was back in Herman for the final VLC Qualifying matches that saw Anthony Greene win the qualifying battle royal even though he eliminated no one from the match.  I attended my first ever show in Maryland on the 27th at MCW Pro Wrestling, you can click the link to read all about my Maryland Wrestling Adventure.

August was two of the biggest events of the year, on the 9th the 2025 Limitless Wrestling Vacationland Cup.  Over 2500 people packed into the Colisee in Lewiston for an amazing night of Pro Wrestling featuring TNA Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boys, Dezmond Cole defeating Channing Thomas for the Limitless World Championship, Joey Eastman's needs to be seen to believe entrance and Aaron Rourke winning the 2025 Vacationland Cup.  The 24th I was back at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium for my first ever NXT PLE: Heatwave!  It was a solid show that saw two titles change hands, Blake Monroe in singles action and Obi Femi retain against Je'Von Evans.

September was one show, Limitless back in Westbrook on the 20th that saw Dijak turn after another loss, the Bakabella Family splinter, Gabby Forza defeated Maggie Lee, and a returning Jody Threat fall to Becca.

October had 3 shows two in Lowell on the 12th with a matinee Beyond Wrestling show that featured a mat wrestling tournament with Drew Gulak, Timothy Thatcher, Ryan Clancy, and others as well as Will Kroos in non-tournament action.  That evening at the Tsongas Center I attended my first TNA show in almost 16 years, and my first TNA PPV in Bound For Glory, their biggest show of the year.  A big show it was with the final match of the Dudley Boyz, the largest North American attendance for a TNA show and more, you can read bout it here: TNA Bound For Glory 2025.  The 17th Limitless was in Biddeford for Fresh Blood featuring the Limitless debuts of Will Kroos, Lena Cross, and more.  It was a very fun intimate crowd standing room only Limitless show, which is not their typical presentation.  That is what is so great about Limitless Wrestling, their ability to put on a variety of different style shows at various venues and succeed.

November featured my final 3 shows of 2025.  The first two on the 14th were a Limitless double shot at the Queen City Expo Con in Bangor.  This was actually the last weekend of shows for Limitless for the year with 1 on Friday, 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, I only went to Saturday.  On show 1 we got The Savage Gnomes vs. Los Toxicos and AG & Dijak vs. Cole & Alec Price.  Show 2 opened with the actors from The Adventures of Pete & Pete doing a bit with Anthony Greene & Sidney Bakabella.  For matches we got Dijak vs. Aaron Rourke and for the Limitless title Cole vs. Price vs. Bear Bronson.
My last live event of the year was AEW Dynamite and Collision in Boston, back at the Agganis Arena, the go home show before the Full Gear PPV.  We got matched from the women's tag title tournament, Hangman Page vs Shibata, Okada vs Dorada, and Mercedes Mone defeat Red Velvet to unify the ROH Women's World Television Championship.

I'm very pleased with my wrestling journey this year.

2026 is starting out big with 2 definite shows and a potential 3rd show in January

January 10th - NSPW Quebec City

January 16th - Limitless Wrestling, The Colisse for the Limitless Rumble

January 23rd - RINGWARS Fairfield Community Center

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time!