Locals Only: Phoenix Pro Wrestling

Sometimes, we get lost in the big picture. We sit, and we watch, and then we gripe. Whether it’s one of WWE’s shows, or TNA’s impact, or Ring of Honor, or New Japan, or Lucha Libre… we can only sit and digest what is given to us. There’s no way around it, and there’s no way to have your own type of fun with what’s going on. You can like it or hate it, sure, but we’re still at the whim of the television program.

And sometimes, when you find yourself no longer enjoying the program(s) you watch, this can create a feeling of being trapped. A feeling of wanting to like what you have, but with the reality that you really just don’t. That’s been me with WWE for a little over a year now, and I’ve mentioned this before. I don’t consider it among the very worst wrestling I’ve watched, but there’s very little for me to really get excited about on any Raw or SmackDown, and that, for lack of a better term, really blows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJtBZyYcdY

So, sometimes, when you can’t trust those you love the most to give you what you need, you just have to provide for yourself. To that end, I went out last week and attended a local indy show in Northern California, and I had a blast.

Run by Jim Agius and Josh Drake, Phoenix Pro Wrestling (available here) runs shows roughly every two to three months out of The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California. The Phoenix itself is known for having hosted some big names in the music industry through the years, as well as being a place for the young people of the area to go and hang out, as it also allows for skateboarding inside, and hosts all sorts of other events through the year.

Roughly ten years ago, The Phoenix hosted its first batch of wrestling shows, known as “PunkSlam,” when it worked with Sacramento independent league Supreme Pro Wrestling. Featuring some well-known talent (as well as not so well-known), the PunkSlam shows were fun, but after a little over a year, they stopped coming to town.

As I would find out when talking to Josh Drake about an hour before showtime, he and Jim were also the promoters behind the PunkSlam shows. They had enjoyed attempting to fuse punk music with wrestling, but when the project had started to lose steam, they had decided to take a break from it all, but always hoped to return to wrestling with a better plan.

That led to Phoenix Pro Wrestling, which actually started running shows last year. Returning with less of a focus on music, and simply giving fans two solid hours of wrestling each show, Jim and Josh have returned with a fury. The shows themselves are simple, wrestling fun, safe for the whole family to attend.

Like I mentioned, I was lucky enough to get to talk with PPW Co-Owner Josh Drake for about twenty minutes around an hour before the show started. With most of the talent in the ring preparing for the upcoming card, I didn’t want to bother anyone, and Drake was kind enough to give me some of his time. He would explain to me the very basic philosophy behind PPW: Emphasis on the sport aspect over the show aspect. If that seems simple, it’s because it is.

Drake called out how, often, one can attend an indy show and see someone wrestle in the first match, only to come back out later working as a referee, or a manager, or some other crew. In PPW, Drake pointed out that whatever role an individual has, that will be the only role they have. If you wrestle, you’re only a wrestler. If you ref, you’re only a referee. With the kids attending, Drake wanted to make sure there is very little “winking at the camera” when it comes to how their shows are presented. It seems like a minor point to worry about, but it’s that kind of attention to detail that allows for the entire PPW show to be a good time.

Clocking in at around two hours long, there are no intermissions during the shows. Fans will enter the Theater, and walk right by the merch stand (usually being worked by a few of the wrestlers), before finally entering the main viewing area. Here, they are greeted by the MC, and the action gets started right away. With no breaks, the time flies by, and before you know it, it’s about 9:30 and the main event is getting started.

Bringing in talent from California’s greater Bay Area, fans are well aware of the wrestlers they see, and all of them- heel or face- do a great job of interacting with the crowd.

The card itself last week featured two wrestlers currently working for Lucha Underground, albeit under different names. We saw Thunder Rosa – better known on Lucha Underground as “Kobra Moon” – teaming up with Samara to take on Kikyo and Shotzi Blackheart in a tag team match that was put together following an attack by Kikyo and Shotzi on Rosa at the last PPW show. Shotzi has a huge following herself, and is clearly a favorite, even though she is clearly one of the heels. I count myself as a huge fan of Shotzi, that’s for sure. She’s also somewhat known for an ill-fated attempt to get on Tough Enough only to be removed when a heart condition (that ended up being nothing) was discovered prior to the show.

The ladies put on a fantastic tag match, one that broke down into a brawl in two different areas of the crowd as the fury of the ladies just could not be contained. Two of my friends were actually run through by Rosa as she went to the aid of Samara during the chaos. It was an incredibly fun tag team match.

We also got to see PPW Champion “The Force of Nature” Drake Frost defend the belt against “Mr. Athletic” Jeff Cobb. Cobb is an Olympic wrestler (representing Guam), and has quite the physical presence. He also happens to be Lucha Underground’s Matanza, which is such a drastic change from the guy we saw wrestling.

As it happened, Cobb was working the merchandise booth when we arrived. When we approached, us super hilarious guys started with the “Uh oh, I hope we’re not gonna get eaten!” jokes, to which Cobb responded with a nervous face and a “Uh, that’s uh, that’s my brother!” Now that we knew we didn’t have to worry about any cannibalism, we were free to enjoy the show.

And like I said, sometimes you just need to provide for yourself. Phoenix Pro Wrestling is so anti- everything else I watch, that it can only keep me interested the whole show. It’s not as hokey as WWE can be. It’s not as tedious as TNA can be. It’s not as rooted in the absurd as Lucha Underground. And yet, it’s still a blast.

Local acts that I’ve watched for years, guys like Sir Samurai and Frost (who also wrestled at the old PunkSlam shows) know the crowd well and know how to play us like fools.

Those of us who remember them from the old shows cheer them loudly, and they, the heels that they are, immediately call us out for being so stupid. The kids, of course, love to talk trash to the guys they hate, and the wrestlers are so good at playing back. You can see the anger in the eyes of the kids, and I feel so happy to see that, despite what’s been said elsewhere, kayfabe isn’t dead.

And yeah, I can hear some (most?) of you. You don’t live in Northern California. You will probably never attend a Phoenix Pro Wrestling event. Why am I wasting your time? Fair enough.

I’m wasting your time to get you to realize, if you haven’t already, that there is most likely some sort of independent wrestling where you do live. And no, I don’t mean “indy” like Ring of Honor. I mean “indy” like there’s under 200 people crammed into a small spot, all to share in the joy of their favorite show.

And you’ll get to see guys on their way up, guys on their way down, and bigger stars moonlighting, all on the same card. And you won’t have to watch ridiculous skits. You won’t have to listen to horrible commentary. You’ll simply be allowed to sit (or stand), watch, and smile. It’s still wrestling. It’s still the same fun stuff you’ll watch on TV, just in a smaller arena.

Thank you to Josh Drake for the time and the talk, and Phoenix Pro Wrestling for giving us wrestling fans a simple slice of the pie we love so much. If you don’t get out to many local indy shows, I’d give my highest recommendation in doing so. You never know what kind of fun you’re going to have.

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