Like any self-respecting champion and challenger, Mastiff and Chris Cooper have a beef heading into this weekend's title showdown.
"We argue over who is the best technical wrestler around -- he claims to be 'wrestling personified,'" says Mastiff, who will defend the Empire State Wrestling Heavyweight Title belt during the main event of Saturday's card at St. Johnsburg Hall on Ward Road in North Tonawanda. "And he attacked me during the last show."
Such is life in ESW, the only regularly scheduled local wrestling promotion sanctioned by the New York State Athletic commission.
It's not World Wrestling Entertainment, the glitzy, multi-million dollar nationally televised corporation run by Vince McMahon and formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation. But that's a selling point. The WWE relies on increasingly bizarre and adult storylines, ranging from crucifixions to borderline incest, all with a heavy dose of cleavage. The ESW, though, puts the emphasis on what happens in the ring between good guys and bad guys who don't like each other, well, because they're good guys and bad guys.
"One thing that drew me in was that these guys put on a family-friendly promotion," says Dan Murphy, a North Tonawanda native who has written for prominent national wrestling publications and who doubles as the ESW's "Commissioner," albeit one of questionable ethics. "It's clean -- guys don't grab the mike and start cursing, like you see at most independent shows."
Not that the shows aren't colorful. One of ESW's founders, Jonny Puma, delights in perpetrating villainy on the "white hats."
"Everything you ever wanted to say in life, you get to say as Jonny Puma," he says during a break from character. "It's an absolute blast."
A rather narcissistic heel who incessantly showcases his physique, Puma's catch-phrase is "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful -- hate yourself for being ugly."
While the shows feature several wrestlers 6-foot-5 or taller and pushing 300 pounds, the majority of the two dozen regulars are in excellent shape, but not especially huge. What they may lack in size, though, the ESW cast makes up for in technique, demonstrating proficiency in all the standard moves, whether on the canvas or flying off the ropes.
The dedication and enthusiasm of the performers has drawn steadily increasing crowds since ESW launched in August 2002. The last show, March's "Full Throttle," drew a gathering that filled all the available seats at the Eldredge Bicycle Club in North Tonawanda, with latecomers willingly paying to stand.
As with WWE events, each show carries its own moniker. Saturday's card promises "Anarchy," featuring the aforementioned main event, along with bouts for the ESW Interstate Title, Hardcore Title and Tag-Team Title, as well as several other individual and tag-team matches. The full card, along with bios and photos of the wrestlers and video clips of interviews and past shows, can be found online at www.empirestatewrestling.com.
The last show of 2003, two weeks before Christmas, was "Season's Beatings." The July 2003 card was billed as "Red, White and Bruised."
Not only have fans returned for show after show, some have gotten involved either as wrestlers or behind the scenes.
Retired elementary school teacher Ray Erway, a lifelong wrestling fan, attended several shows before joining up with the ESW, helping make business arrangements.
"It's a great bunch of people," Erway says of the cast and crew. "Everyone helps each other -- even the more accomplished wrestlers with the bigger names don't have any ego outside the ring. Everybody works together."
Sanctioning by the state athletic commission adds to ESW's credibility with both fans and wrestlers. The commission has accelerated its investigations of non-sanctioned promotions, known as "hot shows," which can't legally advertise and spread news of upcoming shows via word of mouth and the Internet.
"A lot of guys who have wrestled in 'hot shows' want to work for ESW," Murphy said. "They don't have to worry about the shows getting shut down after coming all the way from Ohio or northern Ontario."
Johnny Adams, who also wrestles as Inferno, is a 1999 LaSalle High School graduate who has wrestled in shows throughout Ontario.
"It does make it easier when it's in your hometown," he says of the chance to wrestle in Niagara County venues. "But it doesn't matter if it's in my hometown or eight hours away -- I always try to put on the best show I possibly can. That's what it's all about."
By keeping prices for tickets, refreshments and merchandise such as T-shirts and posters reasonable, ESW officials hope to offer a low-cost entertainment alternative for parents.
"You can bring your kids to this, and there aren't many independent shows you can bring your kids to," says Jonny Puma. "You can't even let your kids watch a lot of the wrestling on television anymore."
A portion of each show's take, after expenses, goes to charity -- a portion of the proceeds from February's card were donated to a fund for Priscilla Penque, a 14-year-old Niagara Falls girl fighting cancer.
The owners, cast and crew then divvy up what's left.
Though they're not getting rich, ESW's members are dedicated to their monthly product.
"In most promotions, each wrestler only cares about how he's going over with the crowd," Murphy said. "Here, everyone is concerned about how everyone else is going over." Much of the work is done during weekly workouts at the ESW's new digs in the Niagara Business Park in Wheatfield.
"The whole show has to flow like one big match," says Puma, who under an assumed identity also works as a popular stand-up comic in the area.
For the ESW members who live and work in Niagara County -- one of Saturday's main-event combatants stocks shelves and runs the register at a store where almost everything can be purchased for $1, while the other works at one of the region's more prominent department stores -- the chance to make like the wrestlers they grew up idolizing is a tremendous opportunity.
"It's hard to describe in words," Cooper says of wrestling professionally. "To have it in my backyard is a lifelong dream."
The people who started ESW, like Puma and co-owner Dan Dobson, as well as the wrestlers and supporters like Bob Heisner -- the owner of Project Future who let the organization hold its workouts in his martial-arts studio during its early days -- are trying to not only keep the dream alive, but make it grow.
"If somebody told me when we started that I'd be sitting in an office in our own training facility, I'd have thought they were dreaming," says Puma. "It's a labor of love. We hope, down the road, to just keep getting better and getting bigger."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 13 2004 |