The crowd was captivated during the first night of a professional wrestling double-header at the Clarke County Fair last weekend.
“Take off his mask ... take off his mask,” onlookers hollered throughout the evening.
The blue ring was positioned at the center of a dirt track while men in various get-ups spared for prominence and notoriety. Although it was the first time the lively spectacle came to the fair, the audience that packed the grandstand was thrilled and knew how to behave.
“Get him out of the ring,” they cried.
“Get back in the ring,” they cried when the out-of-the-ring debates and drama among wrestlers unfolded.
The show was put on by Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling, which styles itself as an organization that goes “back to a time when professional wrestling was professional wrestling.” The company pulls wrestlers from around the mid-Atlantic region for its distinct brand of sports entertainment and performs across parts of the eastern U.S.
One of those wrestlers is Clarke County native Jordan Evans, 24, who made his debut with Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling on Friday night in front of a hometown crowd. Sporting a Clarke County High School letterman jacket, he wrestled alongside current heavyweight belt holder Ace Montana.
Evans began wrestling shortly after graduating from high school in 2017 and has since wrestled in 15 states. He said his favorite move is the elbow-drop off the top rope.
Others who took to the ring included a variety of heroes and heels, such as Shanghai Pierce and the Russian Assassin, who waved the flag of the old Soviet Union.
Some of those who entered the ring have had long, accomplished careers on the circuit. C.W. Anderson, 52, made numerous appearances on World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) in the early 2000s. But even with 30 years of experience, he was still nervous as he paced around the locker room wearing a black singlet before the show.
For Anderson, win or lose, it’s all about the fans and leaving it all out on the mat.
“Life sucks, and they get to come and spend two or three hours with us and forget,” he said. “I’ve had broken necks, broken backs, broken everything, but I still love to entertain these fans.”
Anderson eventually triumphed over Lee Valiant, who suffered good-natured jeers from the crowd as he began the long walk back to the locker room with his arms around an attendant. It’s commonplace in professional wrestling for certain participants to intentionally draw the ire of the crowd. Valiant had certainly been playing the heel.
Later in the show, the 6-foot-4 Shanghai Pierce strutted out in a sleeveless leather jacket over his wrestling singlet. He hails from Amarillo, Texas, taking his namesake from a legendary long-horn rancher.
When he began espousing the triumphs of Texas and make the “hook ‘em horns” hand gesture, audience members jeered and told him to go back to Texas if he liked it so much. Meanwhile, the crowd took an immediate liking to his opponent, The Patriot, as he passed out small American flags to children.
Voices could be heard screaming “one more ... one more ... two more” when The Patriot had Shanghai Pierce on the ropes. Upon claiming victory, The Patriot climbed the ropes and led the crowd in several emphatic “USA” chants.
Ron Kitchen, the owner of Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling, had a chair set up ringside. With a roster of about 100 wrestlers to call on, he said the company performs almost every weekend and covers ground from North Carolina to Maryland.
“It’s family-oriented,” Kitchen explained. “Some people say it’s fake, but I’d like to see some of them say it’s fake and get in there and work with some of my boys.”
0 Comments