Sept 19 2012
Why I love independent wrestling.
On May
19, 2012 I attended my very first independent wrestling show in Porterdale, GA.
My mother knew that my husband, son and I were all huge WWE fans, and she
thought this was something we’d enjoy. That night I fell in love with the
Atlanta based promotion Platinum Championship Wrestling. I decided that I would
stop spending the $50 monthly fee for WWE PPV’s and instead spend it on tickets
to PCW shows on the first and third Saturday of every month.
A
friend of mine recently said that he’d prefer to watch WWE on television for
free than spend $10 in order to attempt to get into something he wasn’t certain
he’d like. I love WWE and TNA. I still
watch them weekly. I occasionally scream at my tv. Ian, Justin, and I have
definite favorites in both. I don’t know that if I attended a WWE or TNA live
show that I’d feel like I was part of their community. I’m certain I would
enjoy myself, but it wouldn’t be the same. I’d be in a cheap balcony seat
watching the action on a screen with no hope of meeting my favorite superstars.
I like going to PCW shows because I
like being right there in the mix, in the action. I like it when the heels come
up and say stuff right in your face. I like the high fiving faces and the photo
sessions, autographing, and semi-organized merch booths they try and put
together. It makes me feel like I'm really part of it rather than just being a
passive observer. If it weren’t important for wrestling fans to feel involved
in the action, then WWE wouldn’t be pushing their social media so heavily, and
they wouldn’t be calling fans the “WWE universe”.
I like knowing who will be first in
line as we line up outside our “arena”. I use “arena” loosely as the Porterdale
performance space was once a restaurant that now has a small area for a ring
and wooden benches lining the walls. I like listening to the middle school kids
right in front of us prepare their best smack talk for the heels. My four year
old son and the other kids stage pretend matches as they wait for the doors to
open. It is getting to a point where the crowd mostly knows each other and
everyone engages in conversation outside about who their favorites are and what
they expect from tonight’s card.
I’ve attended every Porterdale show
since May 19th including the giant July 4th spectacular.
I’ve only attended 2 of PCW’s shows in Avondale Estates, and though those are
ending soon, I feel the same sense of community there as I do in Porterdale.
Probably every independent
wrestling show in the country has the same sense of community among its regular
patrons. I attended a show by Anarchy Wrestling in Cornelia GA in July, and the crowd felt
much the same as Porterdale. Whole families came out for an evening’s worth of
entertainment, and as I listened to a grandmother talk about her favorite
wrestlers to her grandkids in the parking lot. Their studio appears to be an
old church building which they call “the church of Southern Wrestling.”
Old Time Wrestling Federation did a
show in August at Cowboys in Rutledge. The show took place on the patio of the
restaurant/nightclub. The wrestling itself was not as good as PCW or Anarchy,
however, I enjoyed the crowd. I sat next to two middle school aged girls and
their brother who’d never attended a
live wrestling show. It was fun watching
them get into it and try and smack talk at the heels. I am not great at smack
talk, but I enjoyed getting into the spirit of it as a good “smark” would. One
young fan was celebrating his 11th birthday, and they gave him a
steel chair they’d used in a match with all of their signatures on it.
I’m not certain that my experiences
are true of all independent wrestling fans or if there is a sense of community
at all events held by all promotions. If wrestling fans want to be part of
something, they should go check out a local independent show. It truly is the
best entertainment value I’ve encountered.
No comments:
Post a Comment