Wrestling Title Tracker

WORDS BY ROSS PFUND

Whether matches are happening in a nightclub, a shopping mall, or beneath a Birdtown water tower, it can be tough to keep pace with the Twin Cities’ thriving professional wrestling scene. We’re here to help. Here’s a look at the championships of the state’s premier wrestling promotion, F1rst Wrestling, and the wrestlers who hold them:

The group’s most prestigious championship is the Wrestlepalooza Title, which made its first appearance in 2015 and is most often defended at the promotion’s biannual Wrestlepalooza event at First Avenue. The current champ is Darin Corbin, a Detroit Lakes native now residing in Minnesota’s wrestling capital: Robbinsdale. Known for his stellar microphone skills, tactics of questionable legality, and suspect fashion sense, Corbin won the title from Minnesota native and All Elite Wrestling star Ariya Daivari in June thanks to one of his signature maneuvers: a kick below the belt while the referee’s back was turned.

In the opening match at the instant classic Saturday Night Nitro event at the Mall of America in September, Corbin was beaten by longtime rival and F1rst Wrestling founder Arik Cannon, only to shock the crowd by revealing that he had secretly refused to put the title up for grabs, allowing him to walk out of Bloomington with the belt still in his possession. As the old saying goes: If you can’t beat ‘em, trick ‘em with a contractual technicality.

In mid-October, Corbin suffered a broken clavicle during a match in Fargo, throwing his ability to defend the belt at January’s Wrestlepalooza event in doubt. Will he be stripped of the title due to inactivity? If anybody can find a loophole in the rulebook, it’s this guy.

Speaking of Corbin, he was also one half of F1rst Wrestling’s tag team champions until—you guessed it—he turned on partner Ryan Cruz, breaking up the pride of DL, the North Star Express. The titles haven’t been seen since Cruz walked out of First Ave with them after beating Corbin in a grudge match in 2018. Consider this a dangling plot thread that, like all wrestling ephemera, could either disappear forever or rear its ugly head when you least expect it.

F1rst Wrestling’s remaining title is the Uptown VFW Championship, which, since its introduction in 2018, has been held by local standouts like Corbin and Cannon, as well as nationally known names like Orange Cassidy. It currently rests around the waist of Devon Monroe, who’s held the title for almost a year since defeating Cannon for it last November. With only four years of in-ring experience, Monroe is one of the fastest rising stars in the Midwest thanks to his smooth, acrobatic moves and popularity with Twin Cities crowds.