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Awesome Championship Wrestling (ACW) will return to the MJN Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, for its Reckoning event on Saturday night in what is expected to be a star-studded affair.
Recognizable names in professional wrestling like IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Andrade, historic NWA World Middleweight Champion Flip Gordon, ACW Women’s Champion Steph De Lander, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) star Indi Hartwell, Major League Wrestling (MLW) Lady Frost as well as big names from the independent scene like Richard Holliday and Ben Bishop will all feature on the card.
The ACW Tag Team Champions will also be among those participating in the event. Vik Dalishus and Hale Collins, the duo known as The Now, will defend the titles in a steel cage match against Sent 2 Slaughter – the team of Danny Maff and Shawn Donovan.
Vik Dalishus and Hale Collins come down the ramp for a great Championship Wrestling match. (Photography by Jay Adam)
Dalishus and Collins hope to end their feud with Sent 2 Slaughter.
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“Guys that we’ve had to deal with over the last 18 months and our feud has actually extended outside of ACW,” Dalishus said. “We competed in several different promotions throughout the Northeast.”
Dalishus added that Maff and Donovan crashed his marriage, raising the temperature in the feud.
“And they’re all bitter because we stole, well, we won their titles at WrestlePro,” Collins said, adding that their tag team opponents even crashed his Hall of Fame ceremony at Johnny Rodz’s wrestling school.
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“It’s a very personal rivalry. They basically ruined my marriage,” Dalishus continued. “They showed up out of the blue. They made it very personal and we reacted accordingly. The very first time we were in a steel cage with them, they had our manager (Josh Shernoff) in their back pocket.
“Actually, he turned on us… The purpose of this steel cage is redemption to right the wrong that happened to us the last time we were in a cage. We said this was going to be the final chapter – whoever wins, wins and whoever loses, that’s it.”
Hale Collins, left, and Vik Dalishus walk with the Awesome Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship. (Smoothlenz Photography)
Dalishus and Collins are promoters of ACW, which has garnered praise from wrestlers who have participated in their events. They highlighted why having a place like the MJN Center is a vital part of the promotion’s success.
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Dalishus remembers attending tapings of WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” in the 1990s and seeing Sensational Sherry and Luna Vachon face off as well as Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore starting in the building.
“This building and our careers and our lives are really intertwined in the craziest way and we’re very fortunate that Awesome Championship Wrestling was this thing that made its way to this area and was really the next wave of professional wrestling. The WWF and WWE came here in the 70s, 80s and 90s and then ECW and then there was local independent wrestling that ran the building trying to do a good job of supplying big stars to the area but it There has been a very big gap in recent years with professional wrestling and the arrival of television stars in this field.
Hale Collins, left, and Vik Dalishus pose for a photo. (Lifelumens – Edward-Daniel Simons Jr.)
“NXT had run the building, TNA had run the building a few times and the crowds were a little disappointing and we knew when we were going to launch Awesome Championship Wrestling we wanted to do something a little different but also cater to all the wrestling fans – offer something for everyone.”
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As ACW has been credited with being just above a regular independent promotion with its lighting, camera work and behind-the-scenes professionalism, Collins and Dalishus highlighted the impressive growth they have achieved since their first show in January 2025.
“On the first show, we almost lost our butts, and then we had a nice climb,” Collins told PK Press Club Digital. “It was almost like the movie ‘Field of Dreams’: ‘If you build it, it will come’. All of a sudden, 2, 3, 400 people came and it was awesome. Since then, we’ve been working day by day, but we have goals in mind.”
Dalishus said they’ve been “very smart” in how they’ve taken the necessary steps to bring more attention to their shows, including with a YouTube show that features his past matches and highlights upcoming events.
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The Now brings the pain in Awesome Championship Wrestling. (Smoothlenz Photography)
“Who knows where this can really take us? The idea for us is to ride this roller coaster as long as possible and see what happens,” Dalishus said. “Does this become a brand that starts touring across the country? We hope so. We hope that this is something that we can do and that we can take ACW to different markets. Right now, what we’ve been able to leverage is that the building here, the MJN Center, is in partnership with us and we’ve been able to really grow with a partner that wants to see us succeed just as much as they want to see success. So it becomes a big risk to start traveling. outside of our home region because of the things we’ve been able to leverage with our friends, our business connections and our partnerships that we have.
“We spent a lot of time last year surrounding ourselves with some of the people that we’ve known throughout our wrestling career that we trust, that are really great minds for professional wrestling and that these are guys that bring something to the table that will help us grow at a high rate. Being able to take that thing on the road would be something that I would really like to see us do.”
Collins added that hitting the road was “definitely a goal.”
“Everything we do, even if it’s something simple like branding the apron, that’s the goal. The branding is pretty good right now, so let’s move on to the next goal. Now we can take the show, put it in another building, but it’s still going to look like ACW. We’re thinking about every aspect and being careful. Right now, I think we’re on to something really cool and whatever we take, we’re bringing back into the business.”
Reckoning takes place Saturday night and will feature the inductions of “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Mike Bell into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame at the MJN Center.
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The final map looks like this:
Brian Cage vs. Hammerstone vs. Flip Gordon vs. Mance Warner vs. mystery opponent, former world champion in a five-way survival match to become #1 contender for the ACW National Championship.
Zack Clayton (c) vs. Dante “El Jaguar” Casanova for the AEW National Championship.
“Big Trouble” Ben Bishop vs. “Firework” Foxx Vinyer.
Leo Sparrow (c) vs. Phoenix GKM vs. Liamo in a triple threat match for the AEW Cruiserweight Championship.
Steph De Lander and Indi Hartwell vs. Vicious Vicki and Lady Frost.
Vincent and Dutch (The Righteous) against Yoscifer (with Shir’rak) and Wrecking Ball Legursky.
Andrade vs. Richard Holliday.
