On October 13th, Galaxy Wrestling presented it’s first show in Clarksville, Tennessee. “First Contact” had only a few matches announced beforehand, but the names that had been announced to be there were enough to make me travel the three hours south to see it live. Although I highly enjoyed the show and several of the matches, the small attendance made me wonder if there will be a second show. I hope so, as good wrestling in my area is hard to come by.
Results:
Kaden Sade pinned Mallaki Matthews
Nick Iggy & Kerry Awful (Team IOU) defeated Kenny Sutra & Alex Ohlson
Reed Bentley beat Caleb Courageous
Matt Knicks pinned Gary Jay
Matt Revel & Brad Rush (O.G. Screw Crew) defeated Chris Castro & “Big Cat” Scott Henson (Team CatCastrophe), and Mark Andrews & Pete Dunne (Team Defend UK) in a three way tag team match
Davey Vega makes Drew Sarian tap out to a Sharpshooter
Main event: Alexandre Barnabus Castle & Matthias Cage (The Daywalkers) beat Pierre Abernathy & Evan Gelistico with Angelus Layne (The Submission Squad)
The pros of the show first. There were some names that stood out that I hadn’t seen before who definitely impressed me. Kaden Sade for one. He had been at Evolution Pro the week before Galaxy (EPW being held in Clarksville, Indiana), and I’d noticed him but up against Mallaki here he did very well. Some research shows he’s been wrestling for a few years now, which made him the veteran in the match, and it was highly entertaining. Sade has potential to become a bigger name. Mallaki does as well, he showed a lot of personality and went out of his way to engage the crowd. He had quick quips aplenty which went over well. Both men are ones to watch as they grow and break out of the Midwest.
The tag teams Team IOU, Ohlson & Sutra and the O.G. Screw Crew were all entertaining and fun to watch. Iggy and Awful have a gimmick that is kooky enough to work, but I’ll be darned if I can properly describe it. I’m not sure if Kenny and Alex have teamed together before, but both have been wrestling for a few years and did great as a unit. Revel and Rush are quick high flyers and meshed very well with Andrews and Dunne, but both teams benefited from the addition of Castro and Henson as the ground based power team. I wasn’t sure what to make of “Big Cat” but anyone who sports cat paws and a tail is good in my book. And if you still haven’t seen any of the various videos or shows that Dunne and Andrews have been on, by all means seek them out. Two incredibly talented wrestlers from the United Kingdom that won’t be in America much longer. If you have any sort of chance to see them in person while they are still here, go out of your way to do so!
The only match that wasn’t on par with the others was Reed Bentley versus Caleb Courageous. This wasn’t any fault of Bentley’s, as he went out determined to create as much chaos as he could – throwing chairs, scaring children, grabbing this author’s purse and proceeding to do an elbow drop and senton on it. Finding virtually no information on Caleb, I have no idea how long he has been wrestling, who his trainer was, anything. Reed held the match together and was tied with Davey Vega as being the most hated person that night. If anything, this proves that Bentley can work with anyone from veterans to newcomers and manage to entertain the fans with his personality as well as his in-ring work.
Davey Vega faced off another person I hadn’t heard of before, Drew Sarian, in a match that was more about the clash of personalities than the in-ring work. Vega garnered mega heat from the crowd by pissing off virtually everyone and making a little girl cry (seriously). Having only seen him as a face before, I was delighted at how good of a heel he was. The match was good, Vega continually taunting and baiting Sarian time and again. In the end, his experience was too much for Drew to overcome and he was forced to tap out to the Sharpshooter.
Until the main event, I had my match of the night as being Gary Jay versus Matt Knicks. Gary is sometimes under-rated, being part of the Submission Squad and a part time barn owl, but without a doubt he’s one of the most talented guys out there today. His chops are some of the most hard hitting, vicious strikes in the world. I had never seen Matt in a singles match (usually I’d seen him in matches where he teamed with either Chris Castro or Tyler Priegel), so this match was very intriguing to me. It didn’t disappoint, both men gave their all in an intense, hard hitting, fast paced bout. Knicks only received about 3-4 chops but those lit up his chest like fire. In return he pulled out all the stops with several high flying maneuvers that made my jaw drop. It was a superb match that ended with what some would call an upset, Knicks getting the pin on Jay. Both men need and deserve to be booked more places than just in the Midwest. They’re that good.
However, the match of the night went to the main event: the Daywalkers against the Submission Squad. It was a good match but even moreso it was just plain fun! There was a lot of silliness (at one point, Castle had Gelistico, I believe, in a figure four in the middle of the ring. Cage chased Pierre and Angelus around the ring, into the back, back out to the ring – and they were followed by the entire roster that followed the three into the ring, hopping over a prone Castle and Gelistico who looked bewildered), a lot of insanity and it made me laugh several times. Which is one of the best things about a wrestling show, when it can make you laugh and entertain you. I’ve noted before that Castle is much more into his vampire persona than Cage, but even he was getting into and having fun with it. Meanwhile, Angelus Layne, made for a great addition to Abernathy and Gelistico, be it shrieking in terror at the vampires, screaming at the crowd or doing her best to help her team get the win. Pierre and Evan have some of the best characters in wrestling, making the Submission Squad always entertaining to watch. Overall, I loved it.
The con of this show, however, may be enough to prevent it from running again. It was held in an armory and could have easily seated up to 50-60 people by my estimates. Instead, there were 16 people including myself in attendance. Later, I counted twenty but they may have been extras from behind the merchant tables to help fill the seats. There’s no way around it: that bad of an attendance doesn’t bode well for Galaxy’s future. I, along with several others, had done what we could to promote the show online, but I later found out that one person there lived in Clarksville and only knew about the show due to a tweet that one of the wrestlers on the card had sent out. If someone in the town itself didn’t know about the show, then that doesn’t reflect well.
A promoter’s number one job is to promote their show. When Wrestling is Intense held their first show back in May in Robinson, Illinois, I know of a few roster members that went on a local radio station and plugged the event. Flyers were distributed in the area. This was all in addition to the online promotion. When I attended, it was in a community center, and almost every seat was filled. Yet, in a town that is close to Nashville, in a state that has been and still is a hotbed for wrestling, Galaxy had sixteen people show up. True, being held on a Sunday night, you had competition from Sunday Night Football, so some allowance could be made for that. But nothing beats local promotion in the end.
Due to the lack of people to soak up the sound, I had a hard time understanding the names of the people that were announced, and so was unable to tweet them out properly. This was the only problem with the show itself, as the set up and other audio was fine. However, I do apologize for anyone who was following me on that day to get results.
In the end, while I and the other fans who attended really liked the show, I doubt it will have a second showing. This is one instance where I would like to be proven wrong, however. There are many local names as well as new talent that deserve to be given opportunities, and having another place to wrestle and learn is a good thing. I would highly advise staying in Clarksville and trying to grow the promotion there through local advertisement. Too many companies hop from town to town in the same general area which makes it confusing for fans to form a loyalty or attachment. That said, everyone on the show gave their all, despite the low attendance. That says a lot about the heart and work ethic of the wrestlers, and I thank them for putting on a fantastic show.
It looks like Galaxy is starting to release teaser videos on their YouTube channel. Check them out here and keep an eye out for the matches if/when they are released. I encourage fans to watch them all! http://www.youtube.com/user/galaxyprowrestling/videos
Follow Galaxy Pro Wrestling on twitter: http://twitter.com/GalaxyWrestling
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