Monthly Mayhem
By Dan Mader
As my closest friends and I strolled into the West Newton Gymnasium on a briskly cold Saturday in November, the smell of cigarettes and feel of excitement filled the air. We all donned t-shirts of our favorite wrestlers because this was a night of professional wrestling action.
A local wrestling promotion, the Renegade Wrestling Alliance (RWA), has live professional wrestling once a month on a Saturday. This was my second live RWA event I’ve gone to and I was looking forward to seeing if they could leave a lasting impression on me as they did the first time I watched them live.
I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling ever since I was three years old. I remember sitting at home with my dad watching "WCW Monday Nitro" every Monday night. As I grew older, I loved it more and more and now as a college student, I can still honestly say that professional wrestling is my favorite hobby/obsession/love. It’s been well-documented that pro wrestling is scripted with no true competition involved. I look at it as a sports-oriented movie every night it’s on TV or if I’m attending a show live. The athletics, spectacle, and the fans’ passion is what drives me to watch and consume as much pro wrestling as I can. I wouldn’t say my friends are at the level of fandom I am, but I’d consider them pretty high up there with myself at the super-fan end of the spectrum.
As we paid our $12 to enter the gymnasium, we immediately found the bleacher seats that are synonymous with our group of fans we bring every month. They are close to the entrance where the wrestlers walk out when they have their match. The bleachers also are located behind the regular chairs that make up the rest of the seating. The height of the bleachers gives us a better view of the in-ring action. As we sat down, the ring announcer, Burt LeGrande, began calling out the first two wrestlers who were going to have a match.
It was a one-on-one match and was over in less than 10 minutes. The crowd did not seem to be invested in the match and it almost seemed as if they were happy that it was over. It was definitely not a way to get the crowd going but that's the beauty of pro wrestling. Even after a match is over, there is always another one to follow. This is the format until the main event, which is designed to get the crowd fully invested in the match emotionally and mentally and send them home happy.
The next match with three wrestlers, dubbed a "triple threat" match, occurred. It was for the RWA Cruiserweight Championship. The Cruiserweight title is for wrestlers who are smaller than the average wrestler and compete with a faster pace than the others and perform high-risk maneuvers. This type of belt and division, in general, is set in place for wrestlers who may not have had a spot on a wrestling card 20 years ago. The Cruiserweight Champion, Jay Ice, along with his valet, Alexa, walked to the ring as he prepared to face two other wrestlers, Scott Sarin and Joseph Allen Blackwell. The match featured a plethora of moves that are high risk, and for which the wrestler easily could get injured. The fact that the match was fast-paced and featured many moves that could end any of the three wrestlers' careers showed how much passion all three men have for professional wrestling.
It also brought my friends and me to our feet. Our excitement level was almost at its peak during this match.
“Can you believe that Jay Ice won that match?” asked Josh, a fellow wrestling fan friend.
All of the matches before the main event were a roller coaster of emotions to not only me but the 150-plus fans in attendance.
However, the coaster had reached its peak of emotions and the audience members were ready to let everything they had out for the main event of the evening, which featured Ashton Amherst, an independent wrestler who calls himself, “The Best in Pittsburgh,” and fan favorite G-Raver, who dazzles the fans with his acrobatic and dangerous moves. This was a no-holds-barred match, which meant that any weapon could be used without a wrestler getting disqualified. My friends and I were more excited for this match than any other one that night. We knew that something special was going to happen and our excitement grew faster than a beanstalk.
After about 15 minutes of hard-hitting action, G-Raver walked over to the side of the West Newton Gymnasium and picked up a 10-foot ladder. To protect their safety, the crowd began to stand up and move away from the action. G-Raver struck Amherst with the ladder and then looked underneath the ring and found a wooden table. All of my friends began chanting, “Table! Table! Table!” I knew something insane was going to happen, so I moved from my bleacher seat all the way across the gymnasium to get a better view of the action. G-Raver grabbed a metal folding chair which was used in an earlier move that injured him and smashed Amherst over the skull with it. A loud thud drew a roar from the crowd as Amherst hunched over the table. G-Raver set up the ladder directly near the steel post and began to climb into the ring.
As the raucous wrestling fans anxiously watched G-Raver climb the turnbuckle with his opponent lying on the wooden table below, I wondered, “There is no backing out of this for him. He is going to leap over that ladder and either way, he is going to land on that wooden table without any cushion for his fall.”
The crowd’s anticipation for G-Raver's leap of faith over the ladder climbed to an extraordinary height. G-Raver raised his arm in the air to signal that he was going to jump and he hurdled the ladder. As soon as G-Raver jumped over the ladder, Amherst gained his bearings and moved out of the way, sending G-Raver's already bruised and battered body through the table and to the gym floor beneath it. I watched in awe as he landed through the table and chills went up my spine. It was an awe-inspiring event that I'll never forget.
However, the chills in my spine were nothing compared to what G-Raver was dealing with on his back. Blood was leaking out of the wound on his back like a faucet. The crowd members finally began to catch their breaths from the move and began to chant, “Holy Shit! Holy Shit! Holy Shit!”
As the match ended, my friends and I had our mouths agape. We had never seen anything like the event we just had witnessed. The outpouring of crowd chants, dramatic moments, and camaraderie among us made this night one I’ll never forget. The lasting impression of this night was reminiscent of the first wrestling shows I’d watched on TV when I was younger. The night encapsulated years of excitement and fandom that I have acquired for pro wrestling, and the best part is, there’s going to be a show next month and without a doubt, my friends and I will be in the bleachers, waiting to be captivated.
Dan Mader is a junior English major with a concentration in journalism at California University of Pennsylvania. Read more on Dan's personal blog here.
As my closest friends and I strolled into the West Newton Gymnasium on a briskly cold Saturday in November, the smell of cigarettes and feel of excitement filled the air. We all donned t-shirts of our favorite wrestlers because this was a night of professional wrestling action.
A local wrestling promotion, the Renegade Wrestling Alliance (RWA), has live professional wrestling once a month on a Saturday. This was my second live RWA event I’ve gone to and I was looking forward to seeing if they could leave a lasting impression on me as they did the first time I watched them live.
I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling ever since I was three years old. I remember sitting at home with my dad watching "WCW Monday Nitro" every Monday night. As I grew older, I loved it more and more and now as a college student, I can still honestly say that professional wrestling is my favorite hobby/obsession/love. It’s been well-documented that pro wrestling is scripted with no true competition involved. I look at it as a sports-oriented movie every night it’s on TV or if I’m attending a show live. The athletics, spectacle, and the fans’ passion is what drives me to watch and consume as much pro wrestling as I can. I wouldn’t say my friends are at the level of fandom I am, but I’d consider them pretty high up there with myself at the super-fan end of the spectrum.
As we paid our $12 to enter the gymnasium, we immediately found the bleacher seats that are synonymous with our group of fans we bring every month. They are close to the entrance where the wrestlers walk out when they have their match. The bleachers also are located behind the regular chairs that make up the rest of the seating. The height of the bleachers gives us a better view of the in-ring action. As we sat down, the ring announcer, Burt LeGrande, began calling out the first two wrestlers who were going to have a match.
It was a one-on-one match and was over in less than 10 minutes. The crowd did not seem to be invested in the match and it almost seemed as if they were happy that it was over. It was definitely not a way to get the crowd going but that's the beauty of pro wrestling. Even after a match is over, there is always another one to follow. This is the format until the main event, which is designed to get the crowd fully invested in the match emotionally and mentally and send them home happy.
The next match with three wrestlers, dubbed a "triple threat" match, occurred. It was for the RWA Cruiserweight Championship. The Cruiserweight title is for wrestlers who are smaller than the average wrestler and compete with a faster pace than the others and perform high-risk maneuvers. This type of belt and division, in general, is set in place for wrestlers who may not have had a spot on a wrestling card 20 years ago. The Cruiserweight Champion, Jay Ice, along with his valet, Alexa, walked to the ring as he prepared to face two other wrestlers, Scott Sarin and Joseph Allen Blackwell. The match featured a plethora of moves that are high risk, and for which the wrestler easily could get injured. The fact that the match was fast-paced and featured many moves that could end any of the three wrestlers' careers showed how much passion all three men have for professional wrestling.
It also brought my friends and me to our feet. Our excitement level was almost at its peak during this match.
“Can you believe that Jay Ice won that match?” asked Josh, a fellow wrestling fan friend.
All of the matches before the main event were a roller coaster of emotions to not only me but the 150-plus fans in attendance.
However, the coaster had reached its peak of emotions and the audience members were ready to let everything they had out for the main event of the evening, which featured Ashton Amherst, an independent wrestler who calls himself, “The Best in Pittsburgh,” and fan favorite G-Raver, who dazzles the fans with his acrobatic and dangerous moves. This was a no-holds-barred match, which meant that any weapon could be used without a wrestler getting disqualified. My friends and I were more excited for this match than any other one that night. We knew that something special was going to happen and our excitement grew faster than a beanstalk.
After about 15 minutes of hard-hitting action, G-Raver walked over to the side of the West Newton Gymnasium and picked up a 10-foot ladder. To protect their safety, the crowd began to stand up and move away from the action. G-Raver struck Amherst with the ladder and then looked underneath the ring and found a wooden table. All of my friends began chanting, “Table! Table! Table!” I knew something insane was going to happen, so I moved from my bleacher seat all the way across the gymnasium to get a better view of the action. G-Raver grabbed a metal folding chair which was used in an earlier move that injured him and smashed Amherst over the skull with it. A loud thud drew a roar from the crowd as Amherst hunched over the table. G-Raver set up the ladder directly near the steel post and began to climb into the ring.
As the raucous wrestling fans anxiously watched G-Raver climb the turnbuckle with his opponent lying on the wooden table below, I wondered, “There is no backing out of this for him. He is going to leap over that ladder and either way, he is going to land on that wooden table without any cushion for his fall.”
The crowd’s anticipation for G-Raver's leap of faith over the ladder climbed to an extraordinary height. G-Raver raised his arm in the air to signal that he was going to jump and he hurdled the ladder. As soon as G-Raver jumped over the ladder, Amherst gained his bearings and moved out of the way, sending G-Raver's already bruised and battered body through the table and to the gym floor beneath it. I watched in awe as he landed through the table and chills went up my spine. It was an awe-inspiring event that I'll never forget.
However, the chills in my spine were nothing compared to what G-Raver was dealing with on his back. Blood was leaking out of the wound on his back like a faucet. The crowd members finally began to catch their breaths from the move and began to chant, “Holy Shit! Holy Shit! Holy Shit!”
As the match ended, my friends and I had our mouths agape. We had never seen anything like the event we just had witnessed. The outpouring of crowd chants, dramatic moments, and camaraderie among us made this night one I’ll never forget. The lasting impression of this night was reminiscent of the first wrestling shows I’d watched on TV when I was younger. The night encapsulated years of excitement and fandom that I have acquired for pro wrestling, and the best part is, there’s going to be a show next month and without a doubt, my friends and I will be in the bleachers, waiting to be captivated.
Dan Mader is a junior English major with a concentration in journalism at California University of Pennsylvania. Read more on Dan's personal blog here.