Schriever senior group told to stop confusing identity
October 25, 2011
Joseph Herbert Naquin
October 27, 2011
“Mustang” Mike Beadle and his friends want to help out the Morgan City Junior High School football team.
They’ll do so the only way they know how, through body slams, drop kicks, suplexes and moonsaults.
Co-owned by Beadle, the GCW will roll through Morgan City Saturday with its “Brawl in the Fall” show.
The wrestling card will take place at the junior high and concession proceeds will go directly to the school’s football team to help buy equipment for the 2012 season.
“Junior highs, as you know, probably don’t get a whole lot of funding for sports,” Beadle said. “So we decided we’d do this show here to help them raise money to get them some new things, to give them something to start on for next year.”
The GCW, standing for Gulf Coast Wrestling, has been in business since 1996.
Ever since its earliest days, the group has had philanthropic roots.
Beadle said the organization has performed shows to help raise money for multiple schools, youth league organizations and charities.
The group chose Morgan City Junior High School for this particular show because the organization’s other co-founder is a teacher at the school and recognized the need for help within the football program.
“We’ll do a show for anyone with a worthy cause that needs help,” Beadle said. “We’ve done them for baseball, the Amelia Dixie leagues. We’ve done shows for non-profit groups, the Boy Scouts, for girl’s softball. We like to do a large variety to help out within the community because they are the ones who support us when we put on our shows.”
Some fundraisers gather money through rubber chicken dinners.
Others do so through a series of phone calls pleading for help.
Beadle and his buddies gather funds in a much different way, by getting beat up.
The veteran wrestler said he wakes up the day following a show “sore” and “barely able to lift my head off the pillow.”
Sure, some have been known to question whether that stuff going on is actually “real.”
That’s not for this writer to decide.
Beadle recollects a couple of sores he’s collected in the line of community aid.
“This is my 17th year and I’ve had my share of stingers, tears, sprains and also a lot of bumps and bruises,” he said. “I’ve had the cuts and the stitches and all of that.”
With the risk of injury in mind, is it worth it?
That’s the easiest question Beadle’s been asked all day.
“I enjoy seeing the smiles on the kids faces and going out and entertaining them,” he said. “I just enjoy giving the local community something, not just making our people have to go out to the big towns and everything for fun. … We bring this to the small towns, to the people who might not be able to travel and go out to New Orleans or all over the place. You go to a big show and it’s hard to be able to meet the big-time wrestlers, the John Cena’s the Triple H’s and the guys like that. … Here, you can put your hands on us and make contact with us by taking pictures and getting autographs and all of that stuff.
“When I look at the video tape of the match the next day and I see the response from the crowd and the satisfaction of the people there … to me, that makes it all worth it.”
Saturday’s show should be worth it for both the wrestler and crowd alike, it’s jammed packed with wrestling action.
Beadle said the card would feature three title matches.
Appearing in the show will be Mustang Mike (Beadle’s wrestling persona), Psycho Mike (Beadle’s partner) and other local favorites like Marty Graw, Stan Sweet Tan, Stoneman and the 2010 Rookie of the Year, Wild Thing.
The card will begin at 7 p.m. with doors opening an hour earlier at 6.
Tickets for the show are $12 for ringside seats and $10 for general admission.
Beadle believes it’s a steal for anyone looking to have fun on a Saturday night.
What else is there to do?
LSU and Nicholls State football teams are both on bye weeks.
“There’s plenty of hot dogs, hamburgers and all of that,” Beadle laughed. “People can come hungry and will still be able to enjoy themselves. … Kids will have the opportunity to get autographs and pictures with the wrestlers at intermissions and everything like that. … It’ll just be a good time. It always is.”
To order tickets, Beadle said those interested should call (985) 518-0433.
Tickets may also be bought at the door if they are still available the day of the show.
“Mustang” Mike Beadle and his fellow competitors will take the ring in Morgan City Saturday for GCW’s “Brawl in the Fall,” which will raise money for Morgan City Junior High School’s football team. CASEY GISCLAIR
