This ain’t your daddy’s ‘fake’ stuff

“Now remember, I just took you to see WWE last week at the arena. This is not WWE. This is fake. They don’t do a good show.”

That is how Brian Miller, who wrestles as “Marty Graw,” recalls one father’s comments to his wife and three kids about local independent professional wrestling promotions in January 2007. By the end the show, the man had a new tone.

“I just spent a $150 at the arena on WWE. I’ll never buy another ticket for them when they come to town,” he apparently said. “Ya’ll put on one hell of a show. I enjoyed it; my kids enjoyed it.”

Miller boasted, “They have bought ringside seat for every show since. The only show they missed was in June because they were on vacation.”

That’s the kind of fan loyalty Houma-based promotion Mid-South Wrestling Entertainment counts on to continue growing.

On the second Saturday of every month, MSWE brings its show to the Bayou Blue Recreation Center, 200 Mazerac St.

Along with brother promotions Old Skool Wrestling, promoted by Miller and based out of Bridge City, and New Iberia-based Bayou Classic Wrestling, MSWE is at the forefront of revitalizing independent wrestling in Louisiana.

So what can fans expect at one of their shows that they cannot get from national promotions like World Wrestling Entertainment, Extreme Championship Wrestling or Total Nonstop Action?

“Our shows are family-oriented,” said Houma native Joseph Malbrough, 49, wrestler-promoter of MSWE, who wrestles under the moniker Big Joe. “We don’t use all that profanity, vulgarity, sexual innuendo, the scantily clad women like the WWE.”

“There’s nothing adult about what we do,” said Miller. “It’s 1970s- and ’80s-style wrestling.”

The fans seem to appreciate the lack of debauchery to the shows. Ellison Calloway Jr., 54, immediately bought tickets for him and his visiting grandson, 9-year-old Richard Brown Jr., after overhearing another fan’s conversation about MSWE that morning.

“He’s a huge wrestling fan,” said Calloway of his grandson. “His father took him to a show at East Park [Recreation Center], and he prefers his son to watch this over that television wrestling he loves so much.”

The quality of athleticism and performance inside the ring is equally comparable to their television rivals. During intermissions, it is common for wrestlers to drift from backstage into the crowd to mingle with fans and sign autographs.

For the wrestlers, putting on a great show for the fans is what they love to do and is their highest priority, other than leaving the ring without injury.

“We’re about making people smile, having fun, and if that comes at our expense, energy, blood, sweat and tears, so be it,” said Miller. “As long as they walk out of any building we’re in and say, ‘Man, I had a good time tonight,’ and forget their troubles and stresses in life, even if just for three hours that night, then we did a good job.”

Doing a good job also means helping the community. MSWE and Old Skool put on a number of benefit shows such as a yearly Chackbay card for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life; Marine Corps “Toys for Tots;” the Magnolia School, which deals with physically and mentally handicapped children; the Louisiana Lions Camp, run by the Louisiana Lions League for Crippled Children; and the Louisiana Lions Eye Foundation.

Unlike their better known, better paid counterparts who are under contract with specific companies, independent wrestlers can perform with any outfit, in any territory.

“They (independent fighters) don’t wrestle two-to-three times a week on TV,” said Malbrough, “they wrestle two-to-three times a month in the independent leagues. Some of these guys wrestle every weekend between Texas and Florida.”

Every wrestler starts off in the independents and quite a few from MSWE have made it to the big-time. The legendary Junkyard Dog, who came up in the original Mid-South Wrestling in the early 1980s, became a WWE superstar.

Current independents like Kevin Northcutt, a Chalmette native, as well as “The Sex Bomb” Terry Bryant, Sassy Vegas, Roddy Mac and Jazz have had stints with WWE, ECW, TNA and wrestled internationally.

In a move that is unusual for the business, the three promotions work together to develop a common fan base within driving range of each other. None the promotions sets up a show in another’s territory, but the wrestlers move freely between them, which helps bond and expand the fan base.

“We have to work together to make it better and move forward,” said Malbrough. “I’ve work with Marty Graw with Old Skool Wrestling. They call me and say ‘Joe, we need you,’ I’m there. I call him, boom, he’s here. That’s the way this business is supposed to operate. We’re not supposed to be out here cutting other people’s throats or putting other people down.”

Malbrough began wrestling at age 31, late for this business. He fought in the original Mid-South Wrestling, which was run out of Alexandria and still exists in name only.

In his nearly 19 years, Malbrough has been in the ring with unknowns and wrestling greats alike. He battled Junkyard Dog for over a year in Houma and former WWE superstar Rikishi in Chicago.

His career nearly ended early. In 1991, he got in a serious car wreck that left him unable to wrestle for two years.

Malbrough started MSWE about four years ago, and has seen attendance grow from less than 50 to about 300 per show. He stresses two points above all else: respect for the business and doing things the right way.

“You have a lot of promoters who think they can make millions of dollars and cut corners with the [Louisiana Boxing and Wrestling] Commission,” he said. “Well, I’m here to tell them that’s not going to happen.”

Most of the wrestlers Malbrough hires have been in the independent leagues at least a decade.

Take Herman Matherne, better known to fans as heel (bad guy) A Pimp Named Slickback. He got into wrestling after watching a show in Morgan City 12 years ago.

“At the end of the show, I found one of the wrestlers and said, ‘Hey bro, I want to do this. Where do I have to go?'” he said.

After a six-month accelerated training program, Matherne paid his dues, especially early on.

“My first match, the guy I was wrestling played such a mind game with me, he actually had me taking off my boots to wrestle,” he said. “So I was in the middle of taking them off when he started beating me up.”

In the ring, the 34-year-old makes up half of “The Players Club,” along with partner-in-crime Terry Bryant. Outside the ring, he is a husband and father of four who works as a juvenile probation officer in Thibodaux.

Miller began wrestling at age 30, after serving as a police officer in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. He spent most his career in Indianapolis and the Midwest, where he trained under wrestling legends Dick “The Bruiser” Afflis and Bobo Brazil Jr.

The 40-year-old single Miller moved back in 2005 and established Old Skool Wrestling. As Marty Graw, he has become the most popular star among the local wrestling promotions with his humorous persona teamed with his purple, gold and green attire and habit of tossing long Mardi Gras beads into the crowd.

“Marty Graw’s my favorite,” said 19-year-old Houma diehard wrestling fan Jake Grabert. “He’s so outgoing and works the crowd inside and outside the ring.”

“He’s very funny; he’s cool, and he likes to put the crowd in its place,” echoed Golden Meadow resident Danny Charger, 21.

One wrestler, “Minotaur,” who asked not be identified to maintain his character, did not train at wrestling school. He got his start with a promoter in Marrero and had to learn the ropes through his matches.

“My first two years were rough,” he said. “My first match, I was nervous as hell. I shouldn’t have even gone out there. I didn’t have any gear on, just a T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes. They saw my size and decided to put me out there.”

The 35-year-old father of two girls has been married 15 years and works in a warehouse when he is not wrestling.

Without the television revenue national promotions enjoy, life as an independent wrestler is a low-paying grind. It means spending weekends traveling to shows four and five in a car, sharing food and gas expenses and sleeping in cheap motels (when they are not sleeping the car). And those are the short trips.

“What about getting in a car and traveling 12, 14, 16 hours?,” Miller asked. “You get there in enough time to get out, have the meeting with the promoter, sit in the locker room, struggle to keep your eyes open, walk out do your 10-15 minutes in front the crowd, walk to the back, wait two hour hours to get a paycheck, walk back to your car and drive 12 hours back home or to the next town.”

The action may be scripted, but the pain is real, and it takes a toll on the body.

“I wake up everyday and something hurts,” said Miller. “If it’s not my back, it’s my knee, it’s my elbows, my neck.”

While the wrestlers interviewed in this article were fortunate not to have suffered a life-threatening injury, others have not been as lucky.

“There’s a kid who’d been in the business two years, broke his neck, and now he’s been in a wheelchair 10, 15 years,” said Matherne matter-of-factly.

If anyone wants to get a career in professional wrestling, Malbrough is more than willing to help them find a wrestling school and contacts.

But he warns, do not expect fame, fortune or popularity quickly.

“You got to pay your dues if you want to stay in this business,” he insists. “That means putting up the ring before the show; that means tearing down the ring after the show and that means losing a lot matches until the guys understand you’re willing to do what it takes to be here.”

The next MSWE event, “Summer Jam,” is slated for Saturday, June 14, at 7 p.m. Anyone looking for a nice family night out may want to stop by the Bayou Blue Recreation Center. You won’t have to cover the kids ears and eyes to enjoy the show.

Retro Thibodaux knocks Sassy Vegas off balance from the top turnbuckle during their match May 10. * Photo courtesy of THE FIGHT GUYS LLC