Presented by Lucky Bunny Tattoo, Off The Rope, Ameripolitan Showcase and Dingbats Design Cave, Olde Wrestling celebrates the theatrics of professional wrestling during the Roaring Twenties. An all-ages show, the event brings a blend of body slams and belly laughs to a wide audience, so the whole family can enjoy its slam-bang western style of wrestling.
Through the blurry lens of the 1920s that expands into the 1940s, Olde Wrestling brings classic elements of drama, action, and hilarity back to the ring. The promotion will be making its Yellow Springs debut April 11 at the Foundry Theater.
The greatest wrestlers from across the country are set to participate in the action-packed exhibitions, with strongmen, high flyers, dirty cheats, world champions, wisecracking clowns, dangerous daredevils, masked maniacs and grizzled grapplers making appearances in the Vaudeville-esque troupe.
Wrestlers scheduled to appear include EFFY, Matt Cross, Marti Belle, Gregory Iron, Buster Buckaroo, Erica Leigh, The Cruncher, Bruce Grey, Lord Crewe, Aaron Williams, Dustin Rayz, Benjamin Kimera, Vincent Nothing and more.
Attendees are encouraged to dress in the finest Roaring Twenties attire: fedoras, suspenders, flapper dresses and bow ties are all welcome.
Ragtime Rick, a well-known musician and radio host in Toledo, will be bringing his ragtime band to play the wrestlers into the ring.
American wrestler and promoter Justin Nottke founded Olde Wrestling in 2013. Making his professional wrestling debut in 2005, he’s competed in Absolute Intense Wrestling, Mega Championship Wrestling, and several other promotions, primarily in the Midwest. He is a two-time MCW (Mega) Light Heavyweight Champion, a former MCW United States Heavyweight Champion, with other in-ring achievements under his belt.
When he started Olde Wrestling in 2013, he needed a hook. Nottke’s wrestling alter ego, Marion Fontaine, aka the “Handlebar Haberdasher,” is an old-timey pastiche of a bare-knuckle boxer. So it got him thinking: what if there was a show with all vintage characters?
Taking a few liberties with the time period, incorporating historical context from the 20s to the 40s, as well as adding in modern wrestling elements, Olde Wrestling takes a tongue-in-cheek theatrical approach to the vintage wrestling revue. They may not use raw meat slabs as cold compresses, or treat cuts with mercurochrome, but Old Wrestling is a throwback to the dawn of the sport.
If you look at the history of wrestling in the 20s, it was primarily featured in the sideshows of carnivals and circuses. Around that time, viewers didn’t know matches were fixed because it was so new and fresh. Olde Wrestling takes an à la carte approach to those performances.
“The characters, the presentation, the language we use… we try to keep that very closely tied to the past,” Nottke said. “We are doing something that is still a throwback style of wrestling. The pace is a lot more modern, and what you would expect as a fan that watched wrestling in the 70s or 80s.”
Nottke creates era-appropriate storylines for each show, including concepts that get paid off in the finale, much like a three-act play.
A previous show, for instance, dealt with the future of Prohibition with teetotaling politicians and their opposition duking it out. Another, the first Ponzi scheme. At another, an homage to the vintage sport itself, a recreation of the first ever cage match, constructed with wooden stakes and chicken wire.
“I try to make this show for general people, general fans who want to experience wrestling as performance art,” Nottke said. “Nothing’s ever too intense or too violent. And I’ve done that by design, because I just feel it’s about having more people we can appeal to, and to have a good time.”
Wrestlers will fly off the top rope, power slam, and slip on banana peels. And former President William Howard Taft might deliver piledrivers.
“It’s like a traveling circus with spandex. ‘The Three Stooges’ with body slams.”
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Olde Wrestling
When: Doors 7:15 p.m., bell 7:45 p.m., April 11
Where: Foundry Theater, 920 Corry St., Yellow Springs
Cost: $18 general admission, $5 for ages 10 and under
Tickets: antiochcollege.edu/event/olde-wrestling-at-the-foundry-theater
About the Author