True love of wrestling evident at local shows
Some of the best wrestling you will can doesn’t happen at Monday night on the USA Network or even Thursday on Spike. It happens in the armories and auction houses across the country as up and comers bust their hump for $50 a night to entertain a live audience of maybe 50 or 60 people, many their own friends and relatives.
For many, the money has nothing to do with it as their nightly earnings won’t even get close to covering the hospital bills for various injuries you will receive inside the squared circle no matter how tough you are. Try getting your insurance carrier to cover an in-ring injury.
When it comes to smaller wrestling federations, it all boils down to doing it for the sheer enjoyment of performing for a live audience. I would almost compare it to watching major league and minor league baseball. Sure, a major leaguer may be a little more skilled, but the minor leaguer is going to give you a 110 percent every night, making pennies on the dollar what the major leaguer earns. Why? Because the minor leaguer still has something to prove and is still doing it for the love of the game, not the money.
I was brought up going to the small local shows here. I can vividly recall my father taking me to Southside for Saturday night wrestling where I’d see folks like Bearcat Brown, Tojo Yamamoto, and Jackie Fargo. This was before WWE and WCW were even thought of, where regional promotions were the backbone of the wrestling industry.
Over the years we’ve had various local shows, not counting the visits here by WWF and WCW in years past. By the way, McMinnville was the next to last house show for WCW back in 2001 as they were bought out by the McMahons and shutdown the Monday following our show here.
The best thing about the smaller shows is the interaction between the fans and wrestlers. When me and my group attended RAW a while back, we were just faces in the crowd. However, when you attend the show of a smaller federation you are practically in the front row. When you yell something at the wrestler, he hears it. Just ask my son Jack. We were at a Fusion Tradition Wrestling show a while back in Cookeville and Jack was riding their champ, Mike Promo as he was climbing back in the ring. Without a hitch, he turns to Jack, points his finger and says ‘shut up kid’. The look on my son’s face was priceless as he couldn’t decide to fight or shut up. You just don’t get this in the bigger shows. The fans are really part of the show when it comes local house shows.
Unfortunately, we haven’t had a lot of local wrestling since Jake’s Auction closed down. Jake’s was the ultimate in the small town wrestling as fans were crammed in to the back room of the auction house as wrestlers were have to hold to a roof beam if they decided to take to the top rope due to the low ceiling. However, it was a fun show as the performers would put it on the line whether there were 30 or 300 in the building.
The problem the midstate promotions are running into in McMinnville is getting a venue to put on their shows here. After Jake retired, the automatic venue was gone so folks are bypassing McMinnville for other areas even though we have wrestlers who live right here in Warren County who have to travel on the weekends to put on shows. That’s unfortunate since McMinnville has historically drawn greater numbers than most other areas of the midstate when it comes to wrestling shows. Hey, if anyone has a decent venue lead, let me know and maybe we can get a show in here once in a while. It’d be nice to be able to take my son to wrestling here just like my dad took me, so they can see wrestling done just for the enjoyment of the performance.