lots and lots of props to all the indie wrestlers

last night i attended an ACE pro wrestling show. (for more info, click on this site- http://aceprowrestling.com/ )

i am blown away by these dudes doing their thing in what seems to be a hot warehouse with a wrestling ring in the middle of it. there must have been a crowd of 60-80 people, not even enough to have seats around the whole ring. just one side of the ring had fans. and here were these dudes coming out and giving it their all.

i'll watch WWE in a totally different manner after last night. WWE is the hollywood of pro wrestling. everyone wants in, but only a very select few will make the cut. if i had to guesstimate, i'd say WWE rotates a roster of the same 40-50 wrestlers at any given time.

that's 40-50 spots on the top of the mountain. below that peak is indie wrestling. i must have seen approximately 30 wrestlers last night alone in one indie show. 1 of them was from WWE wrestling of the past (savio vega).

the odds are so unlikely to ever reach that pinnacle. and i don't say that as a knock against the wrestlers i saw last night. most of them amazed me with their enthusiasm and in ring performance. how much must they love this sport? (that's right, i called it a sport)

i found myself comparing them to bands, actors, writers, and comedians. no matter how much effort anyone puts into any of these genres, they'll never sacrifice what wrestlers are sacrificing. these dudes really get hurt, really get injured, sometimes the blood is even real. they beat themselves up night after night in spandex just because they fucking love to put on a show.

that's fucking beautiful to me.

at first i found myself reluctant to boo anybody. how could i? if i go out to see some local bands, i never boo them, and i've seen some sucky bands. no way i'm gonna boo a dude who knows how to sell a suplex to a crowd.

but i eased in eventually. when a heel made a strong declaration to the crowd that they were a heel, you boo that motherfucker! why? cuz they want you to! heels get off on the jeering. booing is the ultimate way to let a bad guy know he's doing a great job being a bad dude.

i think heels actually play well to a crowd of about 60 people. it's almost like they can get into a direct conversation with the audience. so when a heel turns around and tells the whole crowd to shut up, someone from the crowd could shout something like, 'you suck!' and then that wrestler can actually go one on one verbally for a second with that dude and retort with something like, 'your mom sucks!' very intimate, very personal, and if you're gonna give someone shit, you better bring it cuz you're not an anonymous poster holder in a WWE crowd.

so a big 'fuck yea' for all the indie wrestlers out there. beating each other up in hot warehouses just so i have something to cheer and jeer about on a saturday night. helluva show.

and to anyone who wants to take anything away from wrestling, i leave you with this. pro wrestling (indie and the kind you see on tv) is a sport in my book. these dudes are athletes and their gig demands that they stay in great shape. they come out and run around, beat each other up, sweat, bleed, break stuff, and take injuries. the whole time they also act as entertainers, trying to make sure the crowd is enjoying themselves. it's a hybrid sport that borders on theatrics. and the outline of the plots is simple, but it never gets old. it's always good vs. evil, bad vs. good. sometimes it's david vs. goliath. it's the honorable vs. the not-so-honorable. it's the very core of all drama, a conflict that will never be settled. all the while all players are in quest for the same exact thing, that shiny championship belt.

and also the entrances kick ass. hit the music.