words cannot describe what i have been through tonight. but i will try anyway. if i were to just tell you, you probably would not believe me, so i'm including many pictures. on one of my rare friday nights at home i found myself heading to a shady motel called the Stadium Inn near the interstate with a few friends. the excitement is bubbling over amongst us as we reflect on the stories and legends we have heard about this magical place.
as we walk in the doors we're greeted by a colorful crowd in the hotel lobby that is filtering its way into the main conference room. as we follow them in we are prompted to pay $8 and are seated amongst a scene that took me a while to process. how the heck did i find myself in the middle of a SEMI-PRO WRESTLING EVENT???
no, she is not one of the wrestlers. yes, beyond the ring you can see that there is enough room for 3 rows of chairs. the room is packed with about 100 people. i start to wonder how the wrestlers are going to jump from the top ropes if their head is hitting the drop ceiling. there are signs posted for their sponsor, a check advancing loan shark business. there's a man running the muffled sound system who is dancing in place and has a cowboy hat with the american flag printed all over it. the event starts and we're all prompted to sing the national anthem.
no sooner had the stereo started pumping some mindless grinder of a song that it all started. this was the real dog and pony show. we all watched WWF and WCW and WWE growing up. you know how it goes. song plays. wrestler comes out. people boo or cheer depending on his status as good or bad guy. but what's crazy is that since we were all packed into a room, how could we help but not to get into it and hurl insults, jeers and praise with everybody else?? best line of the night goes to nate lampa for yelling "attitude is everything" and later on "be optimistic."
all i can say is that my voice is kinda hoarse right now. when Kliff Hanger, a.k.a. The Black Diamond pompously prances around the stage, how am i supposed to just let that go without booing and showing my disapproval?? i mean, they had it all - tag teams, cheaters, a bad guy manager and even the middle of the ring drama of people talking smack over a microphone as if this practiced piece of theater were spontaneous. we LOVED it. the toothless old ladies on the front row loved it - although i'm not sure if they thought it was a real fight.
and in the title bout, one of the wrestlers who is a bad guy that goes by the name of The Crippler had what must be his girlfriend or wife as his ring girl, prancing around the stage, antagonizing the other wrestler and of course, wearing bad-girl black lipstick. you could tell they were a little older. now i'm not bashing this - it was actually kinda cool. they both got really into it and i hope when me and trish are in our late 40's we could do something this crazy.
as the two titans jostled about, we lurched out of our chairs, screaming and whipping ourselves into a frenzy. as the night progressed, i could tell that the "performers" were even starting to play to our side of the ring. in classic wrestling fashion, the fight spilled out on the seats as you can see here.
it appears the Crippler has just taken a bad hit from Boogie and his girlfriend/wife/ring girl is arguing with the ref over the validity of such a hit. the older ladies in the top right hand corner are definitely not happy about this.
the only sad part of the night is when the title bout abruptly ended when one of the guys got hurt - for real. the announcer got on the mic and said something about it being a draw and coming back next week. as people started filing out it became clear the dude was really hurt.
as we left the building, i noticed a bulletin board that was dedicated to some of their champions, past and present.
all i can say is that the experience was incredible. if you want, you can check out their website where they have videos posted at http://www.atlwrestling.net/. i had no idea anything like this existed outside of WWE. it's kinda like only seeing concerts in huge stadiums and one day realizing that bands played smaller shows too. i couldn't think of a better way to spend a friday night. and the best part?? i got my picture with the Psycho Medic!!
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