A Night at the Indies: Featuring Kevin Thorn and Kip James

There's something inherently special about a local, independent wrestling show.

Sure, the glamour of the lights, pyro and superb sound systems are missing, but the atmosphere of the show more than shines through.

Last night, I attended my second indy show, also my fourth live wrestling experience. The show was also my first sponsored by All-American Pro Wrestling, a local promotion I've had my eye on for a while.

I can't even remember the name of the promotion that sponsored the other indy show I attended about three years ago, and my other live experiences were a WWE Raw house about five years ago and TNA's Bound for Glory IV last October.

While last night's show cannot compare to BFG, I almost have to give it an edge compared to my WWE house show experience.

Standing about four feet from the ring, surrounded by adorable youth falling right into the professional wrestling scheme, excitement abounded, despite the fact I only really know two wrestlers on the card, main eventers Kevin Thorn and TNA's Kip James.

I was joined by my friend Dylan and his two sons, Holden and Jonas, ages six and four. The kids had never seen wrestling, not even on television, but they were captivated by the events unfolding before their eyes.

Going against my wrestling norm, we all joined the rest of the crowd in cheering the faces and jaunting the heels.

During the main event, a young boy standing next to me in the crowd kept asking me what Kevin Thorn's name was so that he could keep yelling eight-year-old insults at him. It was hard not to be entertained by the crowd's youth who bought right into supporting the hero and antagonizing the villain.

Will any of the men we watched square off in the ring, with the exception of Thorn and James, ever step into a ring against Randy Orton, Kurt Angle, A.J. Styles or John Cena? Probably not.

But can you question the amount of heart and soul those same competitors showed for the business, the fans and the sport? Absolutely not.

Though they were only performing for a crowd of a couple hundred on the concourse of a minor league baseball stadium (it was Pro Wrestling Night at the Southern Illinois Miners game), each man who entered the squared circle gave all he had to entertain those in attendance.

And entertain they did.

Here's a run down of what happened during the show, with some commentary on interesting aspects of the wrestlers, their gimmicks, the crowd and the matches themselves.

Curly d. "Homicidal" Steven Davis

Davis, a heel, entered the ring to a loud chorus of boos, actually a surprising amount given the size of the audience and the nature of the promotion. This was the first sign I got of how dedicated and supportive the AAPW fans can be.

Curly, a man with 86 Three Stooges tattoos on his body, played the role of the babyface extremely well. He's apparently one of the promotion's newest faces, and it seems he could have a bright future with the company, as more fans were rocking Curly T-shirts than those supporting nationally known wrestlers.

Curly's gimmick is as simple as it is obvious. He plays a Three Stooges character, taunting his opponent in the ring with goofy moves and a light-hearted approach. He even uses the illegal eye poke as a move.

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