It’s one thing to watch a sport on TV or from your phone.
It’s another to see the sport live.
In my case, over the past two years, I’ve attended pro wrestling shows such as NXT, WWE’s development brand, AEW’s All Out 2024 pay-per-view, 4th Rope’s Heels Have Eyes, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), and New Japan’s Pro-Wrestling’s “Windy City Riot.”
New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s “Windy City Riot” (Photo Credit: Evan Moore).
The chants are hilarious and, at times, brutally honest.
Being in Chicago, a longtime wrestling hub, Chicago has access to all types of wrestling promotions that have set up shop here, such as Chicago Style Wrestling and Freelance Wrestling.
Every promotion offers something different. In one instance, during the GCW show, as I sat in the front row, a wrestler landed on my lap. And in another, a Japanese wrestling icon performed stateside for the last time.
Meanwhile, as a measure of caution, I’ve largely stayed away from the tribalism aspect within wrestling’s Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) filled with trolls who disparage wrestlers and claim whatever promotion they favor is superior to others (it might be true, but I don’t care).
This weekend, Wrestlemania 41 takes place in Las Vegas.
If you’re lucky to be in the area, lots of independent promotions are taking advantage of being in close proximity to the sport’s most recognizable event. Some of them are curating spaces surrounding Wrestlemania weekend.
Griselda rapper Westside Gunn’s Fourth Rope promotion is hosting an event featuring many wrestlers known to their fan base who’ve wrestled for the aforementioned organizations.
Asé Wrestling, a Black-owned Charlotte, North Carolina-based promotion, also hosted a Thursday card featuring Black wrestlers ahead of Wrestlemania.
For me, every Thursday night, Asé tugs on the heartstrings — and, perhaps most importantly, they were raised right.
One of the wrestlers has the theme to the 1985 film “The Last Dragon” as their entrance theme, while another enters the ring to Kriss Kross’s “Jump.”
Their programming during Black History Month was highly exceptional in giving flowers to past and present Black wrestlers from multiple promotions. Admittedly, I was a bit embarrassed not knowing some of the names they mentioned. Also, they threw in renditions of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Now I know.
Whether it’s with family, friends, or fellow wrestling fans, go see a wrestling show.
Trust me.
It’s fun.
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