Crossroads residents head out to Riverside Multiplex to see wrestling show
Print- •
-
Share
- Share this item
-
Grab the link
Copy and paste the link:
- Blog about it
- Close
- •
-
Post a Comment
- •
Favorite
Jeers, body slams and neon lights brought Victoria's Riverside Multiplex center to life Sunday evening as wrestlers and fans battled in the debut show of Next Revolution, a local wrestling company.
Victoria performers Quinten Allen and Marc Polo sparred in the first two matches as the crowd chanted their names and hometown.
Allen opened in a fight against "Ego Killer," a pimp personality escorted by a female counterpart with a live boa constrictor hanging loosely around her neck.
The facility was not at capacity, but the crowd was animated, cheering and laughing as one performer threw tortillas from the ring and another crawled on the stage in a pink bear costume.
Marc Polo entered the stage thrashing his long hair to a rock song and flashing neon lights.
The spectacle was a mix of showmanship and sport as performers were kicked, slapped and tossed around the ring.
"You have to have both," said former WWE competitor and San Antonio native Lance Cade. "Once the music hits and you walk through that curtain it's the transformation of you as a person, of you as a character. It all comes from inside."
Cade marked his 10-year career anniversary with the Next Revolution debut and hopes bringing his experience to venues like this will help further the sport.
"This is where it all starts," he said.
Children lined the edges of the ring, jeering at the competitors' antics.
Corbin Karl, a 12-year-old Victoria wrestling enthusiast, said the performance was better than he'd expected.
"It's mostly fake, but the body slams are real," he said nibbling on a slice of pizza with his family. "They're new so it's always something different."
The show was a dream come true for co-owner John Machelski, who's spent more than eight years in the business.
"If it flops today and I'm in the hole until I'm penniless it's not going to matter. You can't put a price on a dream," he said as he sipped on a Monster energy drink and puffed on a cigarette outside Riverside Multiplex. "Welcome to my home."
The center has been a launch pad for wrestlers such as The Undertaker from the World Wrestling Entertainment and a handful of others since the 1980s.
Machelski considers this event historic and by sharing his love of the sport, hopes to offer entertainment for local families.
"I wanted to give people an alternative and I wanted to give something else with their time," Machelski said. "I just want to give the kids something else to direct their attention to and something else to do."
Corey Yeomans, a Victoria native on leave from Afghanistan, spent the evening watching the show with family members and was impressed.
"It's fun," he said. "But it can get out of control."
Machelski, who spent six months preparing for the show, hopes to host the company's next match before the end of the summer.
