SouthernWorldwide.com – Awesome Championship Wrestling (ACW) is set to make its return to the MJN Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, for its highly anticipated “Reckoning” event this Saturday night. The show promises to be a star-studded affair, drawing in recognizable names from the professional wrestling world.
Fans can expect to see talents such as IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Andrade, NWA World Historic Middleweight Champion Flip Gordon, and ACW Women’s Champion Steph De Lander. Additionally, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) star Indi Hartwell and Major League Wrestling (MLW) competitor Lady Frost are slated to appear. The independent wrestling scene will also be represented by prominent figures like Richard Holliday and Ben Bishop, all of whom will be featured on the card.
A major highlight of the evening will be the ACW Tag Team Championship match. The current champions, Vik Dalishus and Hale Collins, collectively known as The Now, will defend their titles in a high-stakes steel cage match against their fierce rivals, Sent 2 Slaughter. This team consists of Danny Maff and Shawn Donovan.
Dalishus and Collins have expressed their strong desire to finally put an end to their prolonged feud with Sent 2 Slaughter. The rivalry has been intense and has even extended beyond the confines of ACW.
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“We’ve had to deal with these guys for the past year and a half, and our feud has actually spilled over into other promotions outside of ACW,” Dalishus commented. “We’ve been feuding in several different wrestling organizations all throughout the Northeast.”
Dalishus further elaborated on the personal nature of the feud, revealing that Maff and Donovan had even disrupted his wedding ceremony. This incident significantly escalated the animosity between the two tag teams.
“And they’re all bitter because we took, well, we won their tag titles at WrestlePro,” Collins added. He also shared that their opponents had gone as far as to crash his Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Johnny Rodz’s wrestling school, underscoring the deeply personal nature of their conflict.
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“It’s a very personal rivalry. They actually crashed my wedding,” Dalishus reiterated, emphasizing the lengths to which Sent 2 Slaughter had gone. “They showed up unannounced. They’ve made it incredibly personal, and we’ve responded in kind.”
He recalled their previous encounter in a steel cage match, where their manager, Josh Shernoff, was manipulated by Sent 2 Slaughter. “He actually turned on us,” Dalishus stated. “What this steel cage match is really all about is redemption, to right the wrongs that happened to us the last time we were in a cage. We’ve said this will be the final chapter – whoever wins, wins, and whoever loses, that’s it.”
Beyond their personal rivalry, Dalishus and Collins are also the promoters behind ACW. The promotion has garnered significant praise from wrestlers who have competed at their events. They highlighted the importance of having a venue like the MJN Center for the promotion’s ongoing success.
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Dalishus reminisced about attending WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” tapings in the 1990s at the same venue. He specifically recalled watching matches involving Sensational Sherry and Luna Vachon, as well as the early days of Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore. These experiences at the MJN Center hold a special place in his and Collins’ careers.
“That building and our careers and our lives have really intertwined in the craziest way, and we’re very fortunate that Awesome Championship Wrestling has become this thing that has kind of caught on in this area and truly represented the next wave of professional wrestling,” Dalishus explained. He noted the historical significance of major wrestling promotions like WWF and WWE visiting the area in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, followed by ECW, and then various local independent promotions that attempted to bring big stars to the region.
“There was a real big gap in the last few years with professional wrestling and bringing TV stars into this area. NXT had run the building, TNA had run the building a few times, and the crowds were a little bit underwhelming,” he continued. “We knew when we were going to start Awesome Championship Wrestling that we wanted to do something a little bit different but also cater to all of the wrestling fans – provide something for everyone.”
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ACW has been recognized for operating at a level above typical independent promotions, boasting impressive production quality in terms of lighting, camera work, and backstage professionalism. Collins and Dalishus emphasized the significant growth the company has experienced since its inaugural show in January 2025.
“The first show, we almost lost our butts, and then we had a great walk-up,” Collins shared with Fox News 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 walked up, and it was awesome. Ever since then, we’re going day-by-day, but we have goals in mind.”
Dalishus stated that they have been “really smart” in their strategic approach to increasing viewership for their shows. This includes a dedicated YouTube channel that features past matches and promotes upcoming events.
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“Who knows where it can really go? The idea for us is to ride this roller coaster for as long as we can and see what happens,” Dalishus expressed. “Does it become a brand that starts to tour around the country? We hope so. We hope that it’s something that we’re able to do and we’re able to take ACW to different markets.”
He elaborated on their current focus, stating, “Right now, the thing we’ve been able to leverage is that the building here, the MJN Center, is in partnership with us, and that we’ve been able to really grow with a partner that’s wanting to see us succeed just as much as they want to see success. So, it becomes a big risk to start traveling outside of this home area because of the things we’ve been able to leverage with our friends and our business connections and our partnerships that we have.”
“We spent a lot of time in the last year surrounding ourselves with some of the people that we’ve known throughout our time in wrestling that we trust, that are really great minds for pro wrestling, and that they’re guys who bring something to the table that will help us grow at a big rate. Being able to take this thing on the road would be something that I’d really like to see us do,” Dalishus added, expressing his ambition for ACW’s expansion.
Collins echoed this sentiment, confirming that taking the promotion on the road is “definitely a goal.”
“Everything we do, even if it’s something simple like getting the apron branded, that’s the goal. The branding is pretty good right now, so let’s go to the next goal. Now, we can take the show, put it in another building, but it’ll still look like ACW. We’re thinking of every aspect and being careful as we do. As of right now, I think we’re on to something really cool, and whatever we take, we put it back into the company,” Collins concluded, highlighting their strategic reinvestment in ACW’s growth.
The “Reckoning” event on Saturday night will also feature the inductions of “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Mike Bell into the MJN Center’s Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. This adds another layer of prestige to the already stacked card.
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The complete lineup for the event is as follows:
