Event Report: WrestleForce presents AGGRESSION

I feel like I give WrestleForce a lot of coverage, to the point where I - as someone who wants to be able to put the spotlight on independent wrestling in the Carolinas as a whole - almost feel like I need to apologize for not spreading the love (for lack of a better phrase) more than I do. The fact of the matter is that promotions in this part of the world are so spread to the wind that traveling around to shows takes such an investment, financial and otherwise, that it's just not something I can do each and every month. WrestleForce is a local promotion that runs in a venue less than 45 minutes from my home, which makes it convenient. The fact that they're the best promotion in the state of South Carolina makes it ideal.

WF made their debut at a new venue for AGGRESSION, their first event of 2015. Gone are the days of them running out of a bar named for airplane storage - they've moved up to a genuine sports-oriented complex as they're now calling the Spires Recreation Center in Cayce, SC their home. It's a great move for them as I always felt having shows at a bar, while not a horrible option, does create some limitations in terms of being able to attract kids and families to events (not to mention potential sponsors or advertisers). You're not going to get little Bobby's Mom & Dad to take him to a show held in a bar when they were in church a few hours prior. You will, however, get them into a gymnasium in a decent neighborhood just outside of downtown Columbia and that was proven with this show as attendance was fantastic.

The opening match on the card was a real barn burner between the likes of Corey Hollis and former WF heavyweight champion Cedric Alexander. If you're thinking what I'm thinking it's that this match could have been much later on the card as these two are the kind of talents that could justifiably compete for a title anywhere they go. These two didn't seem to mind, though, because they put on a show that set the bar incredibly high for the rest of the night. Truth be told, this is the kind of match I could watch all day long and not get tired of it.



The unenviable task of following that went to a group of wrestlers aligned in teams for a 6-man tag team match where "The Party Man-imal" Zane Riley would join together with the Fortunate Sons (Jesse Windham & Billy Brash) to face the Equal Nation Demonstration (Avgerinos the Great, Jett Black & Kevin Phoenix) who were lead to the ring by their manager "The" Tommy Thomas. Any match involving Zane Riley has at least a chance to be entertaining, and that's exactly what this match was - entertaining!



WF shows don't always feature female competitors, which is a criticism I've seen some fans levy at them. Whether it be for the sake of diversifying a card or simply for providing some eye candy, I can't justifiably argue against the idea that having a consistent women's "division" is a good thing. Regardless, anyone wanting to see the women of WF in action were in luck as AGGRESSION featured the debut of two talented ladies - Lilly Mae and none other than Tessa Blanchard, the daughter of Tully Blanchard.



[SIDE NOTE: Before Lilly Mae and Tessa Blanchard's match, WF social media specialist and ring announcer Brett Wolverton had some issues with his microphone. The problems cropped up during Blanchard's introduction, and she was upset to the point of forcing Wolverton to shout her intro at the top of his lungs. WF's owner "The Fabulous Playboy" Bob Keller emerged from behind the scenes to seemingly save the day with a functional mic, but of course he couldn't let an opportunity to rib Wolverton go to waste...



Poor Brett...]

Next was a match for the WF tag team championship between defending champs The Flock (LODI & Sick Boy) vs. The Bravado Brothers (Harlem & Lancelot). Originally this match was to have been between The Flock and Worst Case Scenario (Ethan Case & Elijah Evans IV) but apparently there was some issue with WCS not having the proper licenses that are required for wrestlers per the South Carolina Athletic Commission. [SIDE NOTE: Ugh...] The Bravado Brothers held the WF tag team straps previously but were never granted a rematch after they lost the titles, which is why they were given the opportunity to replace WCS here. They would have to contend with the bout being contested under FLOCK RULZ, meaning there would be no rules!



After the tag team championship match and intermission there was supposed to have been a match between "The Twisted Metal Rebel" Hexx and "The Inspiration" Brady Pierce, a continuation of a feud stemming from their relationship with "The Midnight Son" Caleb Konley (Hexx was Konley's bodyguard, a role Pierce now commands). Unfortunately it seems as though Pierce had the same licensing issue as WCS as he was not allowed to compete at AGGRESSION per an official ruling by the SCAC. [SIDE NOTE: Double-ugh...] As such, the match ended in a forfeit and the win was awarded to Hexx. The state of their rivalry now sits in limbo as it's anyone's guess where things between the two will go from here.

I'm not sure how many casual fans of World Wrestling Entertainment realize the fact that Ricardo Rodriguez, who was the personal ring announcer for Alberto Del Rio for a number of years, also competed as a wrestler while he was in WWE's employ. He was seen mostly in appearances on NXT programming as the masked luchadore El Local. Rodriguez would make his debut for WF at AGGRESSION, and in an appropriate turn of events he would have his own personal ring announcer for his match against "The Modern Classic" BJ Hancock - none other than "The Party Man-imal" Zane Riley.



I know that labeling a match as a "match of the year" candidate isn't something to be taken lightly which is why I am genuine in doing so for the main event of AGGRESSION. Defending WF heavyweight champion "The Southern Savior" John Skyler would find himself locked inside a 15 foot high steel cage with "The Salem Sinner" Sixx and "The Thoroughbred" Jaxson James, two men who had each won the right to challenge the WF champion. (In order to give credit where credit is due, I applaud the crew WF had in place to install the cage; I've seen that process take an insane amount of time on independent events but they managed to get the thing assembled very quickly and securely.) I don't feel the match needs any more set up than that which is why I'm going to stop talking and let the action speak for itself.



The 2015 edition of AGGRESSION was a great event from top to bottom. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this show and am very much looking forward to seeing what else WF has in store this year.

WrestleForce's next event will be UNLEASHED, which will feature the debut of former WWE Superstar Eugene, and it is apparently going to involve some level of fan interaction regarding how some (or possibly all) of the matches will be configured. Details and specifics on that are said to be forthcoming. I would imagine there will be a Control Center video released via YouTube in the near future that will spell out exactly what that aspect of the event will entail. UNLEASHED set to take place April 26 from the Spires Recreation Center. Check out the poster for that event and links to their social media sites below!

Facebook.com/WrestleForce
Twitter.com/WrestleForce

The Sudden Proliferation of Bad Wrestling Posters - Part 5

It has been more than three months since I've made a contribution to this running series of blogs dedicated to shining a big, bright, shiny light on what are more often than not dull, dark, and usually depressing documents meant to serve as professional wrestling posters. Why the gap in coverage of this all-important topic in this day and age? I would like to say it's because the promotions responsible for such drivel have dried up and withered away but I don't think I could ever be so lucky as to have that happen. Crap-can indie wrestling federations are like the mythical hydra in that regard - cut off one head and two more appear. There's an old saying that the only critters left on this planet after World War 3 or some other type of global holocaust occurs will be cockroaches. I'm fairly certain that somewhere, even after the bulk of humanity has been annihilated, there will still be a middle school gymnasium with a ring made out of old car parts, railroad ties, and garden hoses set up inside of it where half a dozen or so "professional wrestlers" shall gather to entertain their fans, the cockroaches.

Lets begin this entry with a flyer for an upcoming WrestleForce event entitled AGGRESSION.

I have to applaud WrestleForce because they've truly stepped up their game in terms of flyers over the course of the past year. They've gone from having what were decent posters at best to work like this that is eye-grabbing, colorful, and well designed in terms of the overall layout. I know that there are those who will look at this and say "Oh, someone's playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto, huh?" because of the similarities between this poster and artwork produced by Rockstar Games for use on the GTA series of video games. Imitation in this arena isn't a bad idea seeing as how that beloved 18-35 year old male demographic is going to see this and immediately recognize the design as something potentially interesting. Besides, gaming and wrestling are two forms of entertainment with overlapping fanbases, so it's an organic method of drawing in potential consumers.

Next we have the poster for the debut event from AML Wrestling - "AML" meaning America's Most Liked. Not to sound too snarky here but I will say what others are probably thinking by stating that it might be a bit early for them to proclaim themselves as "America's Most Liked" wrestling when they haven't even had their first show yet.

I like this poster as it has an American Gladiators feel to it, which is fitting seeing as how AMLW has clearly put a significant amount of money into this production since they're bringing in names like Sean Waltman, Matt Hardy, and others. I'll add that the logo is fantastic; I'm a big fan of symmetry in design and there's plenty of it to be had in this piece.

Now we'll take a look at a poster from Premiere Wrestling Federation, a company owned and promoted by Steve Corino. This was for their January event, entitled SOUL SURVIVOR.

This is a fine example of a clear, concise poster that isn't overloaded with graphics but still accomplishes everything that a good poster should in serving as an advertising mechanism. I appreciate PWF's effort towards having an event title pair up with a featured match. So often it seems as though promoters just pick a word to go along with their show as a title or tag line because it looks cool when you spell it out in a certain font style without ever thinking of how it should influence the card.

Ultra Wrestle is a relatively new company that launched in 2014 but looks to make strides in 2015, starting with AWAKENS, which will be their first event of the year.

I can't say that I dislike this poster but I'm not 100% sold on it either. I get what they're doing here in trying to get a bit of a rub from Star Wars' momentum. (In case you've been under a rock for the past 3 months, it was announced last year that the next Star Wars film will be called "The Force Awakens".) Even so, there's a lot of text and I feel as though images of the talent from more than just two matches could have been involved. As I mentioned, UW is a young promotion - hopefully once they have a greater library of stock photos to work with they'll be able to incorporate more of their roster onto posters.

We've been on an uphill climb thus far but the path is about to take a very abrupt and misguided left hand turn into the inane! Here's the poster for HARDCORE HOMECOMING, Milestone Wrestling's next event.

This is pretty mild as far as Milestone Wrestling's posters go in terms of being a random mish-mash of imagery and text. As much as I want to make fun of this poster, there's a certain artistry to it that is keeping me from being too derogatory in addressing it. The background looks like an Andy Warhol painting, but then you've got Mike Levy and the Burke County Boyz (it's spelled with a "Z" because of course it is - kind of like putting an "X" where it doesn't belong in a word, purely for the visual) and that's the end of anything beautiful about it. If you'll notice there's only one match announced on the flyer - someone asked them about this on their Facebook page, and a representative from MW replied along the lines of "Whatever we decide to bring it will be a blood bath", so if the flyer doesn't entice you hopefully the promise of potential exposure to blood-born pathogens will.

Following that is a recent poster from Southeastern Pro Wrestling for an event they dubbed NEW YEARS RESOLUTION. Regarding that event title, I will say that in the past two months I have seen more shows with some variation on the phrase "New Year's Resolution/Revolution" than I thought conceivably possible - some that were and were not grammatically correct (there's supposed to be an apostrophe in "year's" that some seemed to leave out for whatever reason - I'm guessing ignorance and stupidity), and some that went so far as to incorporate backwards letters or numbers into the spellings.

I harp constantly about the fact that wrestling posters should highlight a handful of the talent scheduled to appear on the card - young, good looking, physically fit athletes who appear to be ready to pop off the printed page - via clear, posed stock images. Why? Because you can't promote shows only to the people who know the wrestlers by their names, you have to promote shows to everyone and that includes the potential audience that (despite the assumed popularity of a given talent) might never have heard of or seen them before. That and the fact that there are those "fans" out there who will come to shows because they aren't actually wrestling fans, if you catch my drift (judging by some of the comments that get left on the matches I upload to YouTube there are a LOT of people watching wrestling who don't know an arm bar from a suplex; I'll stop there and leave that information for you to digest).

The images of the wrestlers on this poster are so small that they look like thumbnails, totally devoid of any detail whatsoever. I'm not just talking about how they appear when you look at this poster on your monitor/tablet/phone/etc. Imagine a printed version of this poster and bear in mind the fact that most documents of this type would be, at most, 16" x 20" in size. You wouldn't get a clear view of them even if it was 3' x 2.5'!

I grew up in Lancaster, South Carolina which isn't too far from Monroe, North Carolina. I don't ever recall there being wrestling around Monroe when I was a kid, but if New Life Wrestling (the company for which this flyer corresponds) was around back then I'm glad I never saw one of their posters because it likely would have damaged my point of view on indie promotions.

Here is an example of a poster loaded with images that were culled, for the most part, from action shots and cropped down so as to be suitable for use on a flyer. (I have no idea what is going on with the "wrestler" I'm assuming is in black & white face paint for the NLW championship match; by the look of things dude could be an alien, is all I'm saying.) This is one of the most carnal sins wrestling promotions make these days because there's no reason you shouldn't have stock photos of all your talent. Buy a bed sheet that's an odd solid color, download GIMP or some other free image editor, get yourself a decent camera, and have them pose for 4-5 photos once they're dressed to compete on your show - guess what, by the next time you run an event you've got a whole bunch of material to work with in making your posters!

I do have respect for whoever made this poster because it genuinely appears as though the effort was there. Someone went through the trouble to chop images of NLW's roster out of other photos so they could be used on the flyer, and trust me when I say that can be a painstaking process. Pardon my French but to make use of an phrase quite popular amongst wrestling critics, they tried to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

I want to briefly point out the title for that NLW show, REVOLUTION IV: A NEW BEGINNING. If you follow that logic, one can assume that there have been three "revolutions" prior to this one, and none of them were apparently effective seeing as how there's now going to be a fourth revolution. Whoever is leading that revolt should probably rethink their strategy, unless their strategy is to go around in circles in which case the title really is ironic (because sometimes words have double meanings).

We're getting towards the bottom of the proverbial barrel here now, and Southern Fried Championship Wrestling has the honor of being the upper crust of the worst this time around as they've published not one but TWO posters as of late that have drawn my ire.

The first event was called HALLOSCREAM and the second NEW YEARS NIGHTMARE (there's no apostrophe in the flyer so I didn't use one either). I am going to go out on a limb here and take a guess that SFCW utilizes the tried and true method of naming their events with the most clever thing they could think of based on what time of year it is. As such I expect their February event to be called VALENTINES VINDICATION, their March event to be FIGURE FOUR LEAFED CLOVER, and their April event to be EASTER EVISCERATION. See, it's not that hard - you just take something the month in question is known for then combine it with either a violent act or a wrestling-related term and, presto, you have your gimmick!

I'm not going to bother with going into more of a rant about the backgrounds, color choices, or the stock imagery being awful because I would be beating a dead horse, however I will add on a more serious note the fact that Anarchy Wrestling out of Cornelia, Georgia was recently purchased by SFCW's ownership. Anarchy has a rich history behind it as having been where a number of well known talents cut their teeth in the business (men like AJ Styles, Abyss, Xavier Woods, and others) and hopefully the new owners will be able to maintain that legacy rather than muck it up.

All Pro Classic Wrestling is (or possibly was; more on that in a moment) a promotion based out of Mullins, SC that, if memory serves, seemed to pop up onto my radar about half way through 2014. They never drew too much of my attention because they seemed to exclusively use a crop of performers from a region of South Carolina known for turning out competitors that are only slightly beyond backyarders in terms of their actual wrestling ability. Here's the poster for REDEMPTION, their November 2014 event.

I took an art class in high school and I remember one of the projects we had that semester was to make a collage using images we found in newspapers and magazines. I made this really creepy and rather dismal scene that had a passenger jet crashing into the letters "FAA" with background elements that were all either on fire or looked like they were part of a cave. (Don't ask me what my inspiration was, I think I just wanted to make something that looked mildly offensive for the sake of making something mildly offensive.) I tell that story because this poster reminds me of that collage in that it's a jumbled mess of logos, text, and stock photos that don't at all work well with one another. I can't stress enough how important having a clear idea in mind is when designing a flyer. It's like Steve Martin once said, "Here's an idea, have a point!", otherwise you wind up with something like this.

APCW had been promoting their January 3 event up until a few days before it was scheduled to happen, then without much notice at all it was cancelled. It was later made public that the reason for the cancellation was that they had issues getting the ring to the venue. I found that particularly silly seeing as how in the realm of professional wrestling the ring is arguably the most essential piece of equipment there is (although George South has proven that otherwise seeing as how he and his students once held a show for a community event in a grassy field after there were issues with the ring they were supposed to have used that day). Ironically enough, images of the ring APCW had used in the past were posted in a for sale ad on Facebook.

So was the show cancelled because they couldn't get the ring to the venue or was it cancelled because the ring had been sold? Only in indie wrestling, folks!

Last and certainly least I bring you another pair of flyers, this time from New Millennium Championship Wrestling hailing from Kings Mountain, North Carolina. These posters were for events called DEADLY GAMES and ROYAL BASH, titles that immediately reek of gimmick infringement seeing as how they're rather similar to WAR GAMES (the classic event that began back in the heyday of the National Wrestling Alliance and continued on into the World Championship Wrestling era) and the ROYAL RUMBLE (World Wrestling Entertainment's annual January pay-per-view) but that's where the similarities to anything awesome end.

I don't know where to begin with this, quite frankly. They chose to use Comic Sans as the font for the poster, which says a lot about the person responsible for it (i.e., childish, immature, and completely lacking good taste - I didn't come up with those character traits myself, mind you, I'm just citing the BBC). I am hoping I'm wrong here but the image of the wrestler (I assume he's a wrestler, anyway) on the right looks like it could have been a prison booking photo. I don't know if it's the jumpsuit or the forearm tattoos that make me think that. By contrast, the guy on the left has a double chin and no discernible muscle tone whatsoever yet he's trying to puff himself up by crossing his arms, a pose that everyone knows only real tough guys use. He's wearing sun glasses and he's got a super-cool replica of the "winged eagle" WWE championship belt (arguably one of the most identifiable belts ever yet one that gets made over by indie feds all the time as their "world" championship belt), so he's clearly not someone you should mess with if you know what's good for you!

NMCW took a different approach with the flyer for ROYAL BASH, their January 2015 event.

I would call it minimalist but I think lazy might be more fitting. To answer a few burning questions right up front:

- No, the date of the event isn't on the poster.
- Yes, this show was held on January 17.
- Yes, I had to spend more time than I'd like to think about verifying what the date of the event actually was.

No announced matches, no images of talent scheduled to appear, just a whole lot of tildes (~). When you're running a wrestling promotion and your posters look like this, it's time to rethink the decisions you've made that have brought you to where you are in life.

The Sudden Proliferation of Bad Wrestling Posters - Part 3

I may have developed a personal problem via this series of blogs. (If you'd like to get caught up, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.) I find myself browsing random wrestling-related Facebook groups and pages specifically looking for horrible posters promoting independent professional wrestling events. Trust me when I say that there are plenty of examples out there. So many in fact that in gathering material for this post I had to create a directory on my hard drive especially for bad wrestling posters, going so far as to then create sub-folders. (Make fun of me for my organizational skills all you want, at least I know where my stuff is.) I'm doing my best to not acknowledge those actions as being detrimental to myself or my well-being; instead I persist in the notion that I'm doing a good deed here by alerting the rest of the world to the fact that not all posters are created equal. The goal here, after all, is to make the world a better place filled with high-quality posters that do justice in representing the men, women, and companies with which they are associated.

Our first poster this go-round is from Premiere Wrestling Xperience. Unfortunately this event wound up being cancelled (from what I saw there were concerns about the venue and its location), but despite that the poster is certainly top notch. I love the color scheme, the graphics are beautiful, and the stock photos of the talent featured make them all look like superstars. Since I started this series, PWX posters have been the precedent for which all others have been compared and so long as they're publishing material as good as this they will continue to be.

Up next is an offering from Champions With Attitude Pro Wrestling, a company that will celebrate a decade of running shows at the event promoted on the poster below. Not many indie wrestling promotions make it past year 2 much less year 10, so the fact that CWA has been around for as long as it has is a real testament to the folks working behind the scenes there.

Champions With Attitude has long been known for production value as their events feature staging, lights, custom entrance videos, and other elements that you just don't see on the independents. Their posters fall into that category as well as they are always vivid pieces that deliver information while being eye-catching. The only problem I have with CWA's posters is that they could be described as repetitive. The layout you see here is what they seem to use month to month, the only variation being the talent featured. Even so, theirs are still better than 98% of what's out there.

If you've been following this blog series and some of the other content I produce (Rasslin' with Redbeard, specifically), you'll know that I frequent WrestleForce shows because I enjoy them very much. I would go so far as to say that if they're not the best promotion in South Carolina they're at least in the top 2. With that in mind, this poster for their "FULL THROTTLE" event coming up in September is by far the best they've produced in quite some time. It would be gosh-darn near perfect if not for two things.

1) Lack of any discernible logo - no, "WrestleForce presents" is not a logo. This goes along with what I've preached before about branding, marketing, and how it's important to establish an identity.

2) The stock photos look great, but I take umbrage with the fact that Cedric Alexander (middle-right) isn't at the forefront of the featured wrestlers. Why? He's the current WrestleForce champion, that's why - John Skyler's talented, don't get me wrong, but if he's not the champ he shouldn't get top billing over the man who is.

Speaking of brand identity issues, I hate to say this but I have no idea what company the following poster is for - all I know is that there was apparently an event called Summer Smackdown 2. It bothers me that a group could put together a poster with graphics like those but then not try and establish themselves with a logo or even a name. That's just odd, quite frankly. There's a guy with a belt (albeit a replica belt): What belt is that? What division does he command? Or did he just wander in with it when photos were being taken and insist he be able to hold it?

Also, there are 16 members of the roster featured on this poster, 17 if you count the fellow with a question mark where his face should be. That's about 10 too many in my opinion as they could have certainly gotten by in making the event appear desirable by way of presenting a core group of attractive athletes.

Anarchy Wrestling in Cornelia, GA has seen more than a few stars come through the confines of their arena over the years. (If you didn't know, Anarchy Wrestling began as NWA Wildside and later transformed into NWA Anarchy before eventually settling as Anarchy Wrestling.) They are one of the most successful promotions in the southeast and yet their posters have consistently gotten on my nerves because of the fact that they are usually overcrowded with talent. Such is the case with this poster for their "HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT" event. For the life of me, I do not see the point in trying to get your entire roster on the poster. Draw people in with 6-8 of your best looking talent, men and women that will sell people on your event and make them want to pay money to be there.

Of course I say that then I have no choice but to refer back to my comment about the success of Anarchy Wrestling over the years. A great poster helps but it's icing on the cake if people already know they're going to have a great time at a show because of past experiences.

Ultimate Combat Wrestling in Union City, TN isn't a promotion that I've ever had the chance to see in person. Be that as it may, judging by this recent poster, I'm going to hazard a guess that they are a company with means and ideas but that may need a little bit of a boost to get them onto the next rung. This poster is of the sort that screams to me "I want to make something more interesting, I just don't have the tools to get what's in my brain onto paper". The stock photos look good. The information fans need is all there. The fonts and letter spacing could be better but I would much sooner look at a poster like this that's clean and minimal in what it's doing than something that's bloated with unnecessary material.

As the final example of a "tweener" for this entry, I present to you a recent poster published by Southern Wrestling Association operating out of Forest City, NC. For starters, I have no idea what's going on in the background. I'm guessing here but I think it's a trio of images from horror films (the top third looks like it could be from Let the Right One In/Let Me In, and the bottom third might be something from The Ring, and the middle could be anything). The title of the event is "HALLOWED GROUNDS", but even so the horror film imagery doesn't make sense - all it does is create a muddy palette. The talent stock photos are mostly suspect and they're much too small to be effective at selling the athletes as being the reason why a fan would want to come to the show. (Again, when making a poster you have to sell the talent; graphics and fonts are great but people aren't paying to see your juiced up copy of Photoshop, they're paying to see wrestling.) This isn't a good poster by any means but it's not awful either. With some edits it could actually be a solid piece of work but as it is it's mostly displeasing to look at and, to me, it doesn't do a good job of making me want to come to the event.

You may have noticed that this image is actually a photo someone took of the poster. For the record, I don't think I've never seen a pure digital copy of an SWA poster. Needless to say, that is rather odd.

Have you ever encountered something that you want to dislike but can't for whatever reason? Pickled ginger comes to mind; it tastes like Pine-Sol smells yet I enjoy it immensely! As another example of that, I give you the following item from Milestone Wrestling's July 2014 event. A poster that has so much patriotism and American pride going on that it's a Ronald Regan reference away from being perfect - perfectly insane, that is. The artist must be a fan of westerns because he stuck John Wayne in there. Was John Wayne a fan of professional wrestling? Could you imagine John Wayne in a wrestling match, especially in one against any of the guys on this poster? He'd probably whip the lot of them all at once then say something like "You boys rassle about as well as a one-legged horse trots...How 'bout you do yourselves a favor and learn from that critter by staying on the ground."

I know I harp a lot about stock photos and the importance of having good ones. I persist that if you're going to be in this line of work you've got to do your best to make the talent look desirable, and you can't do that with stock photos of your roster that look like images printed from a cell phone photo on an inkjet printer then scanned on low resolution settings. Even as a stylistic choice where filters could be used to create certain looks it's still a bad idea to me to do something to make your talent - who are hopefully guys & girls who look like athletes - come off poorly. In that regard, take a look at what South Carolina Wrestling has done for their "STILL STANDING" event. The graphics aren't bad but here again they're there for the purpose of accentuating the talent. Do any of those guys look like wrestlers you would pay money to see perform? If the answer is no, then I'm afraid I've got some bad news (get well soon, Wade)!

The poster below from Southeastern Pro Wrestling in Double Springs, AL is an awful wrestling poster because it, like seemingly so many others I've torn to shreds in this entry, has way more text on it than it does vivid imagery of professional wrestlers. I don't know how many more different ways I'll be able to say the same thing - it makes no sense to me that the folks who design these things don't consider the fact that WRESTLERS are the reason why fans come to pro WRESTLING events. As a fan, I don't really care about "special challenge" matches. And for that matter, I don't think I've ever in my life seen a promotion point out what the "opening match" will be. It's as if to say, "Yes, the show starts at 8 PM but Douche Haven and Chris McCantwrestle are on first so you've got til 8:20!"

Perhaps more offensive than the poster itself is the fact that SEPW is using a replica of the World Wrestling Entertainment intercontinental title as their intercontinental title as well as replicas of the World Championship Wrestling tag team titles as their tag team titles. Nevermind the fact that an indie company having an intercontinental title is silly to begin with. Does no one know the etymology of the word "intercontinental"? Does anyone know what etymology is, for that matter?

I must preface my comments about this next poster with the fact that I did, in fact, attend the event it promotes. It was a fun show with some great talent from the region featured on the card. (It was a bit bizarre in the fact that Gangrel - a vampire - and Dr. Creo - a voodoo practitioner - who work together as the tag team "The Sons of Midnight" were fan favorites. Seriously, children were cheering for a guy with fangs & blood dripping from his mouth and a guy who brings a smoking skull to the ring.) Plus, any reason to go to Charleston, SC is a good reason because Charleston is awesome regardless. Niceties out of the way, Old School Championship Wrestling needs a lot of help when it comes to their posters. I've followed them for years and I can tell you that this is more or less what you get with their promotional materials - weird, solid colors for the background and stock photos that often make the wrestlers look dumpy and somewhat misshapen. OSCW has been around for a long time and they've never gotten better than this. It makes me think the hamster is asleep in the wheel, as in someone cares enough to keep it alive but doesn't care so much that they want it to be more than it is.

Southern Fried Championship Wrestling. Do I really need to say anything else? The guy in the upper-right looks like he doesn't eat anything unless it's dipped in batter and deep fried. And is it me or does has he have bits of processed cheese slices wrapped around his fist? As for the guy in the top-left, I can't decide if that's an obscene hand-gesture he's making or not. I'm leaning towards it is because his presentation of being half Jeff Hardy mark/half Juggalo is an obscenity in and of itself.

Operating out of the upstate of South Carolina in Gaffney, 3CW - which is short for Carolina Christian Championship Wrestling (that name is something of a mouthful) - has drawn my ire previously and I'm sad to say that matters have not improved since the last time I saw one of their posters. This looks like it was put together by an infant, or possibly a grown-up with an infantile sense of what a wrestling poster should look like. If it had been put together by an infant, I'd probably compliment the child on the fact that they could make this because their skills will hopefully continue to develop. Since that more than likely wasn't the case I'm just going to sit here and shake my head for a moment because I don't know how else to react to a wrestling promotion that bothers to add its referees to their posters.

Before I get into commentary on this next poster, I feel as though I should shed light on two acronyms that are present here. First, AIWF, which stands for Allied Independent Wrestling Federations. It's something of a facsimile of the National Wrestling Alliance in that member promotions share talent and there are championships sanctioned by the AIWF that may be defended at events falling under the AIWF banner. Second, EDGE Wrestling, short for Extremely Dangerous Grappling Entertainment. Sounds kind of like someone might have borrowed from GOUGE (Gimmicks Only Underground Grappling Entertainment) or even OMEGA (Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts) on the name, but I digress.

As for the poster itself, your guess is as good as mine as to what's going on here. The talent featured on the poster appear to be guys who take their craft seriously as from their builds they do look like athletes. Even so, the photos are too small and so poor quality that I can't make out much about them. There appears to be a planetoid in the upper third of the poster, which may or may not be the moon, and to its immediate right there's a tiny graphic of the continents of planet Earth. There could be some message of world domination in there but you'd have a hard time convincing me of it. But hey, at least they have a logo!

I have to point out that I'm fairly depressed right now. Having written this post in mostly one sitting and thereby having forced myself to dwell on the subject matter herein for a fairly lengthy amount of time, I will tell you that my mind is in a place where I feel as though I could benefit from certain types of pharmacology. And grain alcohol. Do they make whiskey flavored anti-depressants? No? Darn.

In wrapping up this entry to my Sudden Proliferation of Bad Wrestling Posters series, I bring you this poster from C4W Xplosive Wrestling from Myrtle Beach, SC. From my perspective, this is an example of how to do everything wrong in regards to a pro wrestling poster.

The text at the top of the poster states that C4W is "Myrtle Beach's #1 professional wrestling attraction". I'm somewhat offended that they chose to refer to their product as an "attraction" because the term plays into the tourist vibe of that area and in so doing cheapens the product. Also, to my knowledge, they are the ONLY pro wrestling company operating in Myrtle Beach. Is there a point to telling people you're number one when there isn't a number two, three, four, five, etc.? The text goes on to tout their having been voted the "Best New Promotion in the Carolinas" in 2011. That's cute, but that was three years ago. What have you done since then?

I've preached about the importance of logos in terms of an emblem being a great way to market a brand. In contrast, I never thought I would have to preach moderation in regard to logos but here I am about to do exactly that. There are 5 logos on this poster - three that have to do with C4W, one for AIWF, and I'm counting "The Civil War" graphic as one as well. The asinine nature of the name "C4W Xplosive Wrestling" aside (I can only imagine the creative process in picking that name had something to do with the fact that it would allow for the usage of words like "xplosion" and "xplosive", because of course any word that starts with an X is edgy), why use three of your own logos? Did whoever designed this think people were going to get lost while viewing it and forget they were looking at a C4W poster? "What, where am I? OH, C4W...I like potatoes!"

Let me take a moment to criticize "The Civil War" logo. I don't want to come off as a person who's easily offended by this sort of thing but I feel like using the phrase "the civil war" in relation to something like promoting a wrestling event is absolutely classless and in horribly poor taste. As if we don't have enough reminders of that bloody, tragic era of American history still being flamboyantly displayed here in South Carolina, I can't think of any good reasoning why a company would choose that as the title for one of their events. Use some other reference to warfare if you really have to, but not that - especially not here.

If you look closely at the ribbon running behind "The Civil War" logo you can see that the dates 1992 and 2010 are on either side of it. Refer back to the text at the top of the poster; "2011's Best New Promotion in the Carolinas". Either that logo is a piece of stock clip art someone at C4W found and decided to use without thorough inspection or an attempt at modification, or someone's timeline doesn't make sense. Could be a little of both in this scenario, but I digress.

Finally, I cannot leave out from my criticism the most inane aspect of this entire poster. The text beginning with "Battle Lines" and down from there is printed in a font called Comic Sans. Comic Sans is a font that was originally created for use in speech bubbles for help assistants in programs like Microsoft Office. (Remember Clippy the paperclip? Comic Sans is his native tongue.) Because of its cartoony, somewhat goofy nature, these days it is widely regarded as a font that should be reserved for use only by people who are 10 years old and under. People who don't know any better, in other words. The reason for that is because it looks silly and unprofessional, "silly" and "unprofessional" being two things one should try to avoid at all costs in the realm of professional wrestling.

I'm tapping out from this entry - I've had enough for now, but trust me when I say there will be more to come in the future.

Video Killed the Radio (Blog?) Star

If you're a frequent visitor to my part of the blogosphere (just for reference, that is the first and more than likely the last time you'll ever see me use that word) you may recall that earlier this year I made a post wherein I set a goal for myself to make at least 3 blog entries per month. I've held pretty close to true on that, although I will say that there are only two entries for the month of April even though at one point in time there were 3.

"What happened to the third one?", you ask. Well, a while ago I purchased a keyboard dock for my Asus Transformer tablet which essentially turns the tablet into a handy-dandy Android-based netbook. It's great because it's portable, has awesome battery life, and because it's Android it runs just about every app you could think of, including one that's meant for users of Blogger such as myself. I sometimes will start a blog in the app then work on it again when I'm in front of a PC or vice versa. The missing blog from April (which was an event report from a recent WrestleForce show I attended) is an apparent victim to the fact that I published that piece through the web after having started it in the app. Evidently when I went back to the app my Blogger entries were updated based on the data that was (for some reason) still queued in the app, meaning that published entry reverted to an unfinished draft state.

Suffice to say I was pissed when I realized what had happened. I guess whoever Google has working on this particular product skipped over the importance of checking date stamps on database entries; that, and they also offer no ability to recover material in situations like this. Once it's gone, it's gone. Such is life, eh?

Be that as it may, I haven't soured on the prospect of keeping up my blog but I have gotten quite into the realm of video here lately. I'm not going so far as to label myself a vlogger (there's another word you may or may not ever get from me again), however I can tell you that I genuinely enjoy the experience of working with video! Perhaps it's the newness of it or the excitement may be from my merely getting with the times - whatever the case, I've taken to YouTube and have some actual content to share. That said, what follows are a handful of my most recent videos and a bit of commentary on each. If you'd like to see my full YouTube channel, you can do so via this link.

CLIP #1) Rasslin' with Redbeard - Episode 4

I'm particularly proud of this edition of RWR mainly because I think it's the best example to date of what RWR is all about, that being an honest depiction of the fan experience at professional wrestling events. In this instance, the video follows my wife & I as we made our way to Cameron, North Carolina for an event promoted by OMEGA Championship Wrestling headlined by the Hardy Boyz as they faced off against the Briscoe Brothers.



CLIP #2) Random Clips & Match Highlights from CHAOS IN CAMERON

Also recorded during our trip to Cameron were these clips from the show we attended. I'm a little gun shy of promoting this simply for the fact that I had another highlight package I'd put together of nothing but footage from the main event (which was one of the best tag team matches I've ever seen, quite frankly), but I was asked to remove it by someone in OMEGA's "front office" after having published it. Hopefully if they see this they'll understand the point is to make people interested in their product.



CLIP #3) Team Alexander vs. Team Konley (WrestleForce; 5-4-2014)

At almost 45 minutes in length, this match is more than a little beefy. There's a story to be told here, though, and if nothing else I would hope that should you watch the entire thing you'd come away from it impressed by the skills of those involved. It takes a ton of cardiovascular conditioning to gut out a match of this length, which is why competitors like Cedric Alexander and Vordell Walker are in a very small group of elite athletes out there on the independent pro wrestling scene today. Should you not have 45 minutes to invest in it, at least watch the last 15 minutes - TRUST ME.



That's a sampling of what I'm doing with my YouTube channel. I have a few other videos I've amassed but haven't done anything with, primarily because I'm not 100% certain they're worth putting out there. I may add them someday to round out the kind of material I publish because I'll be the first to admit that my channel is very wrestling-heavy. Then again, it's my channel and I'm a big fan of wrestling, so it's only fitting. Regardless, if you've been a fan or follower of mine here on Blogger I would hope you'd take the time to see what else I've been working on. I'm still working on learning the ins and outs of this but I like where it's going.

Introducing RASSLIN' WITH REDBEARD

I watch a lot of random stuff on YouTube. If you want verification of this, you need ask no one other than my lovely wife. She oftentimes shakes her head at me when she sees me with my tablet or smart phone in hand, my head drooping downward in the "don't bother me, I'm watching something online" position (don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about), and my mind so consumed by whatever content I happen to be watching that I'm totally oblivious to the rest of the world. It's a state that's closely related to the video game stare, perhaps the only difference being that there's no input required with this version.

I have a few video genres, if you can call them that, which I prefer. Fail videos are always great - if you don't know what that is, think something that would be suitable for America's Funniest Home Videos but with less editing requirements for things like vulgarity. I enjoy movie trailers, of course, and there's usually a tremendous amount of fresh material along those lines being published this time of year. Believe it or not, there's a wealth of educational information on YouTube as you can find tutorials on anything from how to make toast to how to configure a VPN on a Cisco network security appliance. Vlogs are essentially video diaries (they're like a blog but in video format, hence the term "vlog") and I follow a handful of YouTube channels maintained by folks who do a great job of documenting their lives, although how certain of them have so much free time as to shoot, edit, and consistently publish so many videos is beyond me quite frankly.

All that having been said, I've had a YouTube account for a while (I think the hip thing is to refer to your account as a "channel", because the line that separates how we consume content needs to be blurred even more so than it is) but I never tried to do much with it. I wasn't sure if the clips I'd assemble would be interesting enough for anyone to actually want to watch. Most of what I've uploaded, ironically enough, are videos of or relating to professional wrestling (there's some in there from our trips to Medieval Times and Walt Disney World as well).

It goes without saying that there's tons of wrestling videos online as is but not necessarily that much from around the Carolinas. Additionally, I've noticed that it seems like when it comes to material online you get either matches or behind-the-scenes commentary but no real focus on the experience of attending shows. I'm not talking about the jaded ramblings of some fan who feels like he knows better than Vince McMahon when it comes to how World Wrestling Entertainment should do business (Pot, meet Kettle!) - gosh knows there are plenty of armchair bookers out there. Rather, what I'm talking about is the experience of traveling to an event, getting around in the town hosting the card, thoughts on venues, perhaps reflections on restaurants and hotels, and that sort of thing.

If anyone else is doing videos along those lines, I haven't seen it. That being the case, let me introduce you to a brand new YouTube series dedicated to the life and times of wrestling fans - RASSLIN' WITH REDBEARD!

I do love alliteration, if you couldn't tell - Redbeard's Rambling, Rasslin' with Redbeard, you get the idea.

At any rate, if you would be so inclined, please partake in the debut episode, posted below for your convenience, which was recorded around UNLEASHED, the March event for WrestleForce that took place at The Hangar in Cayce, South Carolina.

I don't have a timetable for how frequently Rasslin' with Redbeard will be updated but I hope to add at least one video per month, possibly more if I'm fortunate enough to make it to as many shows. I hope you enjoy it because I enjoyed putting it together. We'll see you down the road!

An Update on My Life & Times - March 2014 Edition

I mentioned in a recent entry (this one, about my trip to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for an evening of professional wrestling action with Premiere Wrestling Xperience) about how I'd set a goal for myself this year to publish at least three blog entries a month. It was a do-able quota in my mind, seeing as how it wouldn't require me to be burdened with an arbitrary obligation to churn something out every week but it would also serve as a reminder to use this tool to document the major points of interest from my life (or at least those that I perceive to be as much). That's what an online presence is about for me nowadays, the usage of sites like Blogger, Facebook, etc. towards the purpose of creating a personal repository of memories and experiences. Call it a museum or whatever else you please, I think services like this are a dandy mechanism for recording the brief length of time we're given from the moment we first open our eyes to when they're closed forever that is our lives.

There's no ego in this statement whatsoever but who's to say that (hopefully) years from now (knock-on-wood) after I've long been buried that someone won't find entertainment, solace, or knowledge in my contributions? I'd hope that I've done a worthy job of leaving a lasting impression thus far and to continue doing as much.

Life In General

Things are going pretty well right now, although we're at what comes off as a dull point in the year as far as personal events are concerned. The Holiday Season is behind us, Spring and Summer are still on the horizon, and we're sitting here in the middle. It's not such a bad thing seeing as how it allows for a moment of respite before activities ramp up again once the weather improves.

One thing I can always count on this time of year is a dose of change-of-season crud, which is attributable to my lifelong battle with seasonal allergies. I took injections to treat them throughout my childhood but I get by these days with over-the-counter medication. I'm good for 2 or 3 sinus infections a year and right on schedule I came down with one last week, immediately after we had our first warm day in gosh knows when. I took advantage of the weather that day to start on a woodworking project for which I've had the materials for several months but haven't had the free time, opportunity, or gumption to finish. (I still haven't finished it, to be honest; getting a late start and a few equipment issues set me back, however I'm probably 75% of the way done.) I don't know if I got lambasted with the first dusting of pollen of 2014 or what, but the past week has been filled with sinus pressure, headaches, coughing, and apparently snoring more violent than my usual nightly output.

I don't know that it's ever been proven that people may have a genetic predisposition to snore but if it hasn't I think my family might add some credence to the idea. My Grandpa was a prolific snorer; I can remember seeing him many times napping in his recliner, still wearing his glasses, his mouth agape and the sound of the roaring snore that came from it. Likewise, my Mom is known to saw logs while she sleeps and I do as well.

My wife has dealt with my snoring to this point but apparently while I was sick it was so bad that she couldn't sleep in the same room as me. (She makes her share of noises at night but not always snoring; my wife's known to talk in her sleep, as in she'll carry on full conversations with whoever while she's unconscious. It's woken me up quite a few times as I can't always tell if she's trying to legitimately get my attention.) Similarly, there were nights in that stretch where she'd wake me up and I would go sleep in our guest bedroom. All I can say is I guess it's good that we have that room, otherwise one or the other of us would've wound up on the couch or in the bathtub (yes, believe it or not I've slept in a bathtub before). As a result it's been a frustrating week as neither of us have gotten what we should be getting in terms of rest. I'm finally coming around from the infection, though, so with any luck we'll be back to where we were before in relatively short order.

The Adoption Process - Where Do We Stand?

Plenty of friends and co-workers ask me for updates on a regular basis about how things are going with our adoption proceedings, and I appreciate their concerned interest in these matters. The answer to those questions here lately has been to say that we're playing the waiting game.

Jill & I had our home study conducted a few weeks back. It was handled by an investigator contracted through the Department of Social Services who came to our home; it was an invasive conversation but on a cordial level, which was exactly what I expected it would be. The kind of questions you get asked during the interview deal with everything from your childhood to your personal career goals, but the interviewer isn't just listening to your responses - they're watching your reactions and body language at the same time. It's a very interesting process, if you're into psychoanalysis at all. (Trust me when I say it's more fun to be the one doing the analysis than the one being analyzed.) The session lasted in the area of 3 hours and by the end of it my wife & I were both relieved to be done with what was the last piece of the paperwork/pre-approval end of becoming adoptive parents.

The investigator went outside of protocol in telling us that she was going to approve us to adopt up to 3 children. Normally when this interview is done you have to wait to receive an official letter back from DSS before you'll know whether or not your home study went well. I gather that that can take quite some time in certain instances seeing as how the investigator has (believe it or not) several months from the point of time they've made contact to when their report must be turned in.

Our investigator said that she usually submits reports no later than 10 days after the interview. I don't know if she was blowing smoke up our rear ends or not but we've not received any notification of our home study having been accepted and our caseworker has been on vacation here lately, meaning our requests for status updates haven't gotten a response.

All that said, we are where we are. "Hurry up and wait" couldn't be a more appropriate sentiment at this point. We're confident, regardless, because we knew going in that this is a process that can take some time. Now we have to be patient - we've done all we can to prove that we want this to happen, it's up to other people to allow it to happen.

My First Gamecock Baseball Games of the 2014 Season

I have the good fortune of knowing and working with a family who has access to tickets for University of South Carolina Gamecock baseball games, and they're generous enough to offer them to me on occasion. My wife & I went to quite a few games last season and we hope to make it to a few this year as well. I have a lead on my wife at this point in time seeing as how I took in a double-header last weekend while she did her duty to the ladies of Girl Scout Troop 471 by assisting them in selling cookies at a booth set up in front of one of our local grocery stores.

For this pair of games, the Yardcocks (as we affectionately call our baseball team) took on the Bears of Brown University. Brown is an Ivy League school out of Providence, Rhode Island. They're not an untalented team but they're not exactly up to the level of play USC encounters from some of our in-state and regional schools, and certainly not what we have to contend with in the South Eastern Conference or other Division 1 schools from around the country. That's my nice way of leading into saying that the Gamecocks defeated Brown handily in the two games I saw as well as the third game of the series which was held the following day, but what's more is the fact that Carolina didn't allow a single run to score during the trilogy. For that matter, USC has held its opponent to zero runs in 9 of the 16 games they've played thus far, and the Gamecocks are a perfect 16-0 on the 2014 season as of this writing.

What else can you say to that other than HOW 'BOUT THOSE GAMECOCKS?

Impressions on the Opening of Columbia's Destination XL

For as long as I can remember, I've been getting my clothing from a chain called Casual Male that specializes in big & tall styles for men. What can I say, I've always been big and tall? It's been a long time since I've had the luxury of being able to walk into a Walmart or any other store and grab something off a rack, unfortunately.

Casual Male has gone through a number of permutations over the years as it was originally called Casual Male Big & Tall. Later on it transitioned to being known as Casual Male XL as the company seemed to want to modernize its image; suddenly there was Shoes XL and Living XL, two offshoots that existed mostly as catalog operations that were specialized in what they offered (footwear & gadgetry, respectively). At some point all the various XLs were collected under one banner, that being Destination XL, and over a period of time the Casual Male XL stores were converted to Destination XL.

This conversion has been good in that the variety of clothing styles and labels offered has grown substantially, but it's had more than a few drawbacks as well. It's been bad in that the number of stores in this region has dwindled to merely a handful. To my knowledge, there are only two XL stores in the entire state of South Carolina, those being in Columbia and Charleston (there may be one in the upstate but if there is I've never shopped there). To make matters worse, when the local Casual Male XL became Destination XL it seemed as though all the existing staff were let go. The new folks who've been installed are decidedly more "uppity" in their presence and tactics, which is a far cry from how laid back the previous staff had been. The icing on the cake is that they now have personal stylists.

I mentioned the additions to the stock in terms of more styles and well-known labels, but what I didn't mention were the price points of these wares. The XL stores have never been cheap, however the kind of prices they're charging now are mildly insane - $50 for a shirt, $80 for a pair of pants, and what have you. Suffice to say that there's more than one reason why I don't go shopping for clothes all that frequently.

It's not that I'm resistant to change, rather it's that the DXL store hasn't grown on me yet. I'm very unaccustomed to walking into a store that looks flashy and modern like an Abercrombie or Aeropostale. I'm used to my store being dark and uninviting, the staff being the same people I've shopped with for 10 years, and the experience being comfortable instead of pushy. Most of all, I don't think I have it in me to admit that I've ever been associated with a personal stylist. That's one of those things where you have to turn in your man-card immediately and forfeit the right to all your beer & chicken wings.

I'm going to keep shopping there, though, mainly because I don't have a choice. It's either go there or use catalogs and I dislike catalogs seeing as how I prefer to try on clothes before I buy them.

Upcoming Events 

Free promotion for the following - you're welcome!

On March 30, WrestleForce returns to The Hangar in Cayce, SC for UNLEASHED. I attended their February event and was pleased with it overall. The big draw this month is that this will more than likely be Steven "The Fever" Walters final appearance in WF for the foreseeable future as he has gone and gotten himself a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. (Great to hear of a local talent getting to live out their dream!) Seeing as how he and his tag team partner in The Love/Hate Machine "The Southern Savior" John Skyler are the current WF tag team champions, I would expect something to go down leading to them losing the titles but who knows.

If you're not in the know when it comes to independent professional wrestling, you probably have no idea what Omega Championship Wrestling is OR what it was. Omega is actually an acronym for "Organization for Modern Extreme Grappling Arts", and it's the company that was founded by Matt & Jeff Hardy way back when they were both still in their teens. Omega was the genesis of their careers as well as those of talent like Shane "Hurricane" Helms, Shannon Moore, Christian York, Caprice Coleman, Joey Matthews, and others. I don't know that Omega ever truly died but it has certainly made a comeback as Shane Helms has resurrected the company and begun holding events regularly. CHAOS IN CAMERON will be happening on April 26 and I'll be there - the allure of seeing the Hardy Boyz take on the Briscoe Brothers (best known for their work in Ring of Honor) in what may be a once in forever match is too much for me to pass up.

Quick Results & Match Videos from WrestleForce presents AGGRESSION

The allure of a professional wrestling event being held less than an hour's drive from my home was enough to get me out of the house on a Sunday evening for WrestleForce's February 2014 show, a card that was dubbed AGGRESSION.

[SIDE NOTE: I am a stickler about certain things when it comes to professional wrestling. If you know me in real life or have been reading this blog for any length of time, that should come as no surprise. One of the biggest problems I have with how small-time wrestling federations like WrestleForce do business is prominently displayed in the poster above. I'll give you a hint - it's not the excessive graphics and color choices that make it difficult to read. What else could it be? The championship belt. That belt should be the single biggest reason why every man on your shows is there, because they want to wear gold around their waist. The belt should be an iconic, unique trophy for which competitors have an insatiable lust. How then can you legitimately put that over to your fan base as being a valued piece of hardware when it is nothing more than a nondescript, mass-produced replica belt available online for less than $200? Yes, a custom made belt is expensive, but it's a worthwhile investment that I wish more indie companies would see as such. It adds a tremendous amount of production value to the presentation and it makes me, as an onlooker, respect the company that much more because I know they're taking what they're doing seriously.]

I'm not sure why promoters of independent pro wrestling feel the need to put a label on their shows like "AGGRESSION", "HOSTILE TAKEOVER", or "ASSAULT BY INVASION ". (For that matter, why is it always that you hear of a wrestling-based event as being invasive in nature? Do wrestlers never politely knock? If you've never noticed, pay attention to TV ads for wrestling in particular; you'll hear the word "invade" or a derivative thereof used to an offensive degree.) I guess it helps somewhat in getting the attention of fans because it looks good on a poster (<sarcasm> especially when the artist who made said poster has no fonts on their PC but those designed to resemble the text in nu-metal band logos </sarcasm>). It's also a knockoff of what bigger companies do with their pay-per-view events, like World Wrestling Entertainment's Elimination Chamber or Royal Rumble. Fans know what to expect from those shows because the title implies a theme or a style of match. In the case of this WrestleForce, the title was surprisingly applicable as there were a number of developments to progress their angles that involved aggressive maneuvers by the parties involved.

Match #1 - The Fortunate Sons (Jesse Windham & Billy Brash) vs. "cK1" Caleb Konley & Hexx

After the match, Konley became irate at his bodyguard Hexx. The two exchanged words in a heated confrontation but did not come to blows. Interim WrestleForce general manager Brett Wolverton took to the ring to ask Konley about the fact that he'd been sitting on a WrestleForce championship match opportunity for more than 8 months as "cK1" had earned the contract during an event held in 2013. Caleb assertively shook off the pries of Wolverton, saying only that he would use the chance when he saw fit.

Match #2 - 2-on-1 Handicap Match: Brady Pierce vs. Kevin Phoenix & Joey Rhymer

I knew when Kevin Phoenix (an African-American competitor who wears tights that resemble the paint scheme of the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazard - I point that out because, irony) and Joey Rhymer came out that the match wasn't going to be anything other than a squash (wrestling vernacular for a match where one combatant will get in almost no offense whatsoever, often ending with them losing in the most brutal way possible; it's an old tactic, which you don't see much anymore, that's meant to make the winner look like a monster), I just wasn't certain to whom they were being fed. Brady Pierce is a young guy with height and a physique that truly makes him resemble a young Randy Orton. Problem is, Pierce's body shows all the signs of that physique having been obtained mostly through the usage of a syringe. Some people have a problem with that, some don't - I could care less but I will say that all the pustules take away from his look. Brady won after forcing Phoenix to submit to a torture wrack.

Match #3 - 5-Star-5-Minute Challenge: "Mr. Match of the Night" Anthony Henry vs. Jaxson James

Match #4 - "Big League" Eric Bradford w/"Double-D" D'Arcy Dixon vs. "The Party Man-imal" Zane Riley

Is that a superlative wrestling match? No, but if you didn't laugh you're the real loser here. Bradford, Dixon, and Riley did a great job here and their ability to play off the reactions of the audience was great.

Match #5 - No Disqualifications Match: "The Fabulous Playboy" Bob Keller vs. BJ Hancock

There was a point in the not-too-distant past where BJ Hancock and another wrestler by the name of Michael Frehley were a tag team calling themselves The House of Style and being managed by Bob Keller. Those days are gone and now Keller is at odds with one of his former charges, that being Hancock, as the two have developed a feud here lately (despite the fact that Keller was forced into retirement a while back by another WrestleForce competitor, "The Southern Savior" John Skyler). This match was simply a good, old fashioned barroom brawl that saw Hancock and Keller go all over the building, including inside the mens restroom where BJ was the unfortunate recipient of a swirlie! Keller held his own for the most part but couldn't overcome the odds when Eric Bradford & D'Arcy Dixon interfered, allowing Hancock to get the win.

Match #6 - WrestleForce Tag Team Championship Match: The Love/Hate Machine (Steven Walters & John Skyler) (C) vs. The Bravado Brothers (Harlem & Lancelot)

Match #7 - WrestleForce Championship Match: Cedric Alexander (C) vs. Anthony Henry vs. "The Juggernaut" Jon Malus

The original main event of Cedric Alexander defending the WrestleForce championship against "The Natural" Chase Stevens had to be scrapped as a result of Stevens having difficulty getting to the show because of weather-related travel issues. Earlier in the evening, Alexander was called to the ring by Brett Wolverton for an interview alongside fellow contender "Juggernaut" Jon Malus only for the segment to be interrupted by "Mr. Match of the Night" Anthony Henry. Wolverton made the best move he could have in arranging for a replacement main event that would be a 3-way-dance pitting Alexander against Malus and Henry with the winner being crowned champion.

This was the best all-around match on the card and quite possibly the best match I've ever seen at a WrestleForce event. Cedric Alexander is money any way you look at him. Jon Malus is a capable hand and Anthony Henry continues to draw attention to himself, but they aren't in the same league as Alexander. Cedric won the match after hitting a brain-buster on Henry.

Match #8 - WrestleForce Championship Match: Cedric Alexander (C) vs. "cK1" Caleb Konley w/Hexx

Immediately after the 3-way-dance main event, Hexx attacked Cedric Alexander which prompted Caleb Konley to storm the ring and cash in the championship match contract. Try as he might to defend his title, Alexander was too beaten up from the combined assaults he'd faced during the previous match, eventually succumbing to a super-kick administered by Konley. With that, "cK1" is your new WrestleForce champion.

WrestleForce will be back in action in Cayce, SC on Sunday, March 30 as they present UNLEASHED.

For more information on WrestleForce, visit them on the web via Facebook and Twitter!

Facebook.com/WrestleForce
Twitter.com/WrestleForce