Review – Riot City Wrestling: Megaslam
As a child of the 1980s, my youth coincided with the explosion of professional wrestling within popular culture spearheaded by Hulk Hogan. While the medium has waxed and waned since that time, it has remained a guilty pleasure of mine. My outing to Riot City Wrestling’s Mexican Megaslam was my first public acknowledgment of my squared circle obsession, albeit veiled by the guise of media credentials. From the friendly welcome at ticket stand to the end of the evening, I was supremely impressed with what I experienced.
Riot City Wrestling holds regular events throughout the year, but for the Fringe they adopted a special Mexican luchador theme. Mexican wrestling is distinguished by the colourful masks worn by the participants and a particularly high flying wrestling style. The majority of the RCW roster adopted unique personas for the evening (for example, brother tag team The Armstrongs became The Aztecs). The wrestling on display was slick and acrobatic, with very few noticeable botches. All of the clichés were on display; the knocked down referee, the steel chair shot to the cranium, the comebacks from nowhere, the open challenge and surprise return. The main event was a title match between local favourite GD Grimm (a big man in the style of Kevin Nash) and Chris Jericho-esque Melbourne villain Adam Brooks, where Grimm produced the victory to send the crowd home happy. While stars of the evening were the title match participants, young female sensation Demi Bennett, The Armstrongs and the tag team of Big Brodie Marshall and Mimic. All wrestlers performed at a high level, however.
While the wrestling was outstanding, the highlight of the evening was the evidently close-knit community that has formed around the promotion. A devout fan was treated to a birthday cake, presented by one of the masked luchadors. Audiences at combat events can sometimes veer towards testosterone fuelled hostility, but this was not the case here. Young children vigorously cheered and booed their heroes in a pleasant family environment. This was my first experience of local wrestling, but it won’t be my last.
