Mitch O'Connell: Support Your Local Wrestler! Good Times at the Minor Leagues of Professional Wrestling!

Weekends are among the Father/Son adventure times, so I had the thought to take Aiden to enjoy some local wrestling. Where they’re going on is a little hard to track down (no advertising budget might be part of the reason) but through chicagopowerwrestling.com I found that ‘Fusion Wrestling’ was going on at the '5 Star Swap Meet’ in Villa Park. It’s on!
It took an additional bit of effort to find the ring as the manager of the Swap Meet building insisted that there was nothing scheduled, and the ‘way to get there’ I was directed too by another guy was locked and gated off. We drove behind the building to see no hints of anything going on, but circled back and spied a dad and 2 peewees walking around. Yes, they were looking for it too and found a door with the lettering ‘Lucha Wrestling’ stenciled in red. Victory! 5 minutes later we were the first to be let in.
I’ve always liked stumbling upon the minor leagues of professional wrestling. It seems more ‘real’ and relatable. When a well paid 6’ 8” 280lb guy in the WWE jumps off the 3rd rope to crush an opponent it’s all fine, but when the average Joe wannabe my size, who’s doing this for a profit of maybe gas money, is just about to take the big jump, I can really feel the potential pain! And that was the case with Fusion. The paying crowd ($10, kids are free) might have outnumbered the wrestlers, so if you do the math, each guy was in the hole at least $30 for dragging their ass out of bed to entertain us!
Aiden didn’t quite get the concept. He was beside himself that someone was actually getting hurt (“No wrestling Daddy, No!”), but there were two 8 year old boys beside us who were getting into it, so Aiden, like any other 3 year old, followed the lead of the older fellers, and got in the spirit of things. He high-fived the good guys as they made the rounds and learned to be wary of the bad guys (they weren’t as polite). The tyke trouper made it through all 8 matches of fun and the efforts and skills of all the Fusion folks was much enjoyed. The emcee/host of the show had set up his camcorder to film the whole event (Youtube handle ArticulatorSK). and would run on stage to rev up the crowd introducing the match, then back to the camera to record the play by play. Lot’s of fun with the nonPC personas, one guy had a tutu and purse and tried to kiss his opponent, another claimed to be from Africa and suffer from prejudice because he was light skinned (he was white). They all had some great moves, but the main tag-team match had some amazing theatrics going on which deserved a big hat’s off for the must be years of blood sweat devotion to their craft that preceded the show. But they hadn’t forgotten good sportsmanship in the heat of battle. After the heel threw the babyface out of the ring over the top rope right in front of us then leapt 8’ in the air to land his knee in the hero’s groin, he quickly leaned over and whispered “Are you ok?”
We’ll be back 7pm Saturday the 15th at the Edison Park Inn (6715 N. Olmsted Ave, Chicago). Won’t you join us?!