Much like my HeroesCon adventure a couple of weeks back, I found out last week that there was a pro wrestling show in Charlotte last Friday night.
I ended up having the night off from work, so I figured I’d check it out. It wasn’t my first indy wrestling experience, but I haven’t gone to a show in a long time. See, I’ve been working at getting into World Wrestling Entertainment as a creative writer for the past few years.
I networked my butt off for the last four years. It kind of culminated with a backstage interview with a member of the production team at a show WWE had in Sioux City, Iowa. It was a live Raw and a taping of ECW as well, so things were a bit hectic. I had my interview early in the afternoon and went home before the show started.
Timing wasn’t right. They weren’t hiring. That’s what I was told anyway.
WWE has been to the Time Warner Arena twice since I moved to Charlotte, but I couldn’t bring myself to go. It would've been hard to enjoy the show, sitting there in the crowd – the entire time thinking about how I should be working backstage with the rest of the team.
This was an independent show though. No ties to WWE. Small venue. Sounded like it could be fun. The company is called Premiere Wrestling Xperience.
I actually ended up having a great time. There was no lame in-ring segment involving Claire Lynch and each match lasted a lot longer than 18 seconds.
Anyway, on the card was a mix of in-ring veterans, like Lodi and Amber O’Neal, some current ROH wrestlers, like Cedric Alexander and Grizzly Redwood, and some indy guys, like Chiva Kid.
For $15 bucks I got front row seating, was thoroughly entertained, and saw some incredibly innovative moves.
The night ended in a 3 way tag team match featuring Cedric Alexander, Caleb Konley, Grizzly Redwood, Jake Feuerbach, Corey Hollis, and Chip Day. Let me tell you, first hand, those six guys gave the crowd a shining example of how tag teams should be booked. It was nice to see some tag team wrestling alive and well, despite WWE and TNA wasting most of the potential sitting in their tag divisions.
PWX is holding another show in Charlotte on August 18. Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis are set to appear for that one. After this awesome “xperience” (lame joke, I know…) I’m definitely there.
For more pics of the event, check out my Flickr stream.
