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Several signs that professional wrestling is doing great on a grass roots level this past Saturday night:
In Philadelphia, Rob Feinstein's Battleground Wrestling sold out its debut at the 2300 Arena and turned fans away at the door. The line to get in was so long it trailed around the corner and the live show's belltime was pushed back an hour to get everyone in. They held a convention in the afternoon before the show which was said to have been the best attended convention in the venue's history.
The show was to be headlined by Sabu and Rob Van Dam, managed by Bill Alfonso taking on Matt Hardy and a mystery partner. It would have been the first time Sabu & RVD reunited in the ring in that building in decades, but Sabu wasn't there. The story making the rounds was he lost his ID and couldn't fly in from Las Vegas, where he now lives. Bully Ray stepped out of retirement to team with Van Dam and Matt Hardy teased his brother Jeff was going to appear, but it turned out to be Private Party's Marq Quen impersonating Jeff. Private Party then wrestled Bully and RVD, which was said to have been entertaining. After the WWE Hall of Famers won, Sandman came out for a beer bash, as you can see below.
This was Bully's first match since departing Ring of Honor. He last wrestled in February 2020. Ray's been working full-time on SiriusXM's Busted Open since that time.
The best match on the show was said to have been the former Buddy Matthews, former WWE star Buddy Murphy, making his first post-WWE appearance, defeating KC Navarro in what was said to have been great. The only downside to it was it opened the show and it was hard for anyone to follow we are told, plus there were still fans trying to get in who ended up missing the bout. Bobby Fish made his first post-WWE appearance, beating Ray Jaz. Ricky Morton defeated NZO (Amore) on the undercard while Little Guido defeated Maryland-based talent Alec Odin, managed by Raven. Raven was said to be portraying the ECW era version of the character with no comedy at all. AEW regulars The Gunn Club defeated Bear Country. We were told Colten Gunn's facial expressions were awesome during the bout. Katie Forbes defeated Steff MK, who attempted to do a switcheroo with her twin sister Ashley MK. Wrecking Ball Legursky defeated Steve Gibki. There are plans for a December return.
Meanwhile, nostalgia reigned supreme for Jerry Lawler's Wrestling Reunion, drawing a sellout 800 plus standing room at the Fitzgeralds Casino Event Center in Robbinsville, MS (about 40 minutes from Memphis) with a Memphis reunion themed meet and greet followed by a live event that evening headlined by Lawler, managed by Jimmy Hart vs. Scott Steiner, who wrestled his first match in ten months after a health issue last year. Of course, the King reigned supreme, scoring the pinfall.
As part of the event, Kurt Angle, Tony Falk, Reggie B. Fine, Downtown Bruno Lauer, Tommy Rich and Steiner were all officially inducted into the Memphis Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Others appearing over the course of the day included Bill Dundee, Dave Brown, Randy Hales, Doug Gilbert, Koko B. Ware, Sgt. Slaughter, longtime Memphis referee Jerry Calhoun, Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Thunder Rosa, Miranda Gordy and more. Kevin Lawler, Jerry's son who was Freddy Gilbert a lifetime ago in the early days of ECW, ran the backstage aspect of the show.
We are told the casino was thrilled, both live and in terms of selling hotel rooms, and is already talking about a return event in 2022. If there was one event I could have attended this past weekend, that would have been the one. There were a lot of great names responsible for Memphis' greatness all in the same place and there's no chance of knowing if and when that will happen again.
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