Alpha Epsilon Pi alum from the University of Central Florida bring their love of beat downs, intro music and rope dives to downtown Orlando professional wrestling fans every month, in a place where wearing tight spandex underpants breeds the norm and the sadomasochist parallel of hero verses heel brings heckles and cheers.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Downtown Recreation Center in Orlando, Florida, for a night of live professional wrestling," said owner Ari Goldstein, 27, UCF business management alumus, performing as announcer Jonathan Gold.
Goldstein shared pro wrestling as an interest with his father
"We just watched wrestling and just loved it," Goldstein said. "It's kind of like the one bonding thing between the two of us."
Growing up in Orlando, pro wrestling lacked a niche for enthused fans Goldstein, professional wrestler Chasyn Rance and Josh Rich, criminal justice alum.
"We had nothing in Orlando that was pure wrestling action that's a good traditional show for the fans," Goldstein said. "It's something I've been working on for a couple of years and we finally brought it for Orlando."
During his years at UCF, AEP held a wrestling fundraiser in Oct. 2002 featuring Rance and Montel Vontavious Porter "MVP."
A mix between a greater part of character acting and stunt work, and a lesser part of the type of wrestling you'd find in your local high school, wrestling is a discipline and a physical skill set blended with the bizarre costumes and cheesey smack talk.
Rich performed as the arrogantly wealthy Josh Rich, a member of the Frat Pack duo for the AEP show and the janitor during his time as a wrestler, and now he enjoys his work with promotions for the indie wrestling company.
"I hadn't watched wrestling in years since I was a little," Rich said. "I watched it, and when I went to college that was right when wrestling was kind of in the big-bomb period with The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldberg and the NWO. My roommates were watching it; I told them to turn it off because wrestling was stupid, and they said, 'No, no, no it's really cool. Watch it.' For whatever reason I went, 'Wow this is really awesome, I want to be a professional wrestler.'"
Demon Toro, from parts unknown, - half fiery chicken, half lizard - lurks toward the stage and the waiting fans searching for his prey, biting the ropes with the urge to fight.
With body slams, two counts, headlocks and flips off the tight ropes and across the plywood ring, two costumed personas pummel each other for dominance.
T.J. Mack, brother of co-headliner Kirby "Krazy K" Mack, walks out wearing Mario Bro. Mushroom pants with a look of determination and ridicule for his "cockanese" opponent, as he calls him. Locked in submission, Toro voices his protest in his native tongue, and T.J. wins the World Light-Weight title and the first of seven matches concludes.
The reason pro wrestling is "choreographed" is so the wrestlers don't kill each other in the compound fracture realm of injury. It's the quality that makes the world of pro wrestling seem inhabited by super humans, propelling their bodies to exaggerate the extent of the harm done.
It takes a sense of timing and coordination to get the punches and the kicks just right, as the point of wrestling is not violence, but implied violence for entertainment in the safest environment possible.
"Hey, when you girls are done playing patty cake, I'm ready to go," Daron Smith of the Lifeguards tag team says as he lounge on he ropes. Technically, tag teams matches mean opponents have to tap their teammates to switch places, but it never works out that way.
Eventually, chaos ensues and the whole team romps. The Lifeguards beat The Vandals to move on to the tag team championship against the flamboyant Heartbreak Express on August 9.
For the AWA World Heavyweight Championship event UCF alum Rance, 25, business management, lost due to the exploitation of a poorly healed ankle injury by Kirby Mack. Evenly matched in skill and determination, the pair, try as they might, could not force the other down for three counts. In the end, Rance tapped out and the bell rang.
"The night before Thanksgiving I was wrestling a match and I broke my ankle, causing me to take three to four months off," Rance said. "I had to get surgery with a plate and seven screws … I went for a risky move, then I hit my foot and I hit it again and one more time he grabbed it, locked it up. It hurt too much and I couldn't keep going."
Doors open at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Recreation Center at 649 W. Livingston St. Tickets are $10, and all UCF students buy one and get one free with their student ID. For more information, visit www.ibelieveinwrestling.com.
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