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.

While his gimmick may seem as silly and pointless as Nick Dinsmore's Eugene persona, I can attest it's a much more enjoyable character to see in the ring.

The referee of this match, who also reffed some of the other matches, received a massive amount of heel heat, and I could not figure out why.

He didn't display any heel characteristics, and he didn't really help out the heels in their matches.

But then, I thought about it more, and I realized they announced him as being a former TNA official, and it all made sense.

NWA Central States Champion Mark Sterling d. "Dynamo" Evan Gelistico

Dynamo, one of AAPW's resident high flyers, put up a fight against Sterling, who was originally scheduled to face 450-lb. Mississippi Madman, who bears a resemble to men like Mark Henry and Viscera. 

Fans were really behind Gelistico, who kept his high flying routine to a limited move-set, given the relatively small ring and the close proximity of the crowd on the outside.

A pretty entertaining match ends when Sterling trips Gelistico up on the top rope, causing a between-the-legs drop onto the turnbuckle followed up with a Death Valley Driver for the pin.

Old School Thunder d. Rage to Retain the AAPW Tag Team Championship

Outside of the main event, this was my personal favorite match of the night.

Old School Thunder, comprised of Ax Allwardt and "Thunderbolt" Brandon Walker with manager Gaylord Stevens, took on the team of Rage, who came out in Southern Illinois Miners baseball jerseys with their faces painted black and white.

One of the men in Rage was Mike Masters, whose mug I recall seeing on many AAPW posters in the past, but I'm not sure of his teammate or manager's names.

Rage put up a fight, and had the titles won on several occasions but the ref was distracted by the heel champions.

The match ended when Stevens put a chair in the ring and Allwardt used it on Masters behind the ref's back. I saw the chair after the match and can guarantee it was not a prop chair, and judging from the cracking noise coming off Masters' head, that shot had to hurt.

Anyone that wants to say pro wrestling is all fake can contact Masters here and ask him for yourself how that chair shot felt.

After the match, Rage's manager challenged Old School Thunder to a rematch in September in which the titles will be defended under Horsemen rules: any two members of Rage against any two members of Old School Thunder.

This match and the hype for the upcoming rematch alone was enough to motivate me to go to the Herrin show on Sept. 12.

Edmund "Livewire" McGuire d. Carnage

This was a pretty straightforward match, but the crowd was really behind hometown hero Livewire.

One thing I could have done without was the introduction of Carnage, a masked wrestler, being from "Parts Unknown."

That gimmick is totally overplayed, especially being that it would also be used 10 minutes later to introduce Thorn, a character where it's more appropriate.

Guys like Thorn, Kane and the Undertaker have long-established gimmicks and fancier wardrobes that fit the bill. Carnage wore a silk mask or something over his face and did not have the vibe of being a mysterious beast from beyond this realm.

The end of the match came when Livewire tried to unmask Carnage, who got distracted trying to fix his mask. This allowed Livewire to get some quick offense and a school boy pin for the victory.

Main Event: Kip James d. Kevin Thorn

It was this match that drew my desire to attend the show, and I'm glad it did.

The rest of the show was great and gave me a new outlet of local professional wrestling to seriously consider following, and this match gave the audience what they came to see.

Thorn came to the ring first, portraying his heel persona. He cut a heel promo bashing the people of Southern Illinois and said "just like the Grizzlies would do to the Miners," he was going to destroy Kip James.

The crowd really got into booing Thorn, and it was highly interesting to hear the 80-year-old man in front of me throwing out homosexual references and other slurs at Thorn. Guess you can never be too old for the pro wrestling spirit. 

After Thorn ended his promo, everyone awaited the arrival of Kip James. I tried to start a "T-N-A" chant, but all I seemed to get were weird looks and moms laughing at me. Damn moms.

I was curious what entrance music James would use: if it would be the Beautiful People entrance, the VKM entrance or something else altogether.

What I got was: "Are you ready? You think you can tell us what to do? You think you can tell us what to wear? You think you're better? While you'd better get ready..."

I was kind of surprised at first and then became even more shocked and curious when they introduced him not as Kip James but as Billy Gunn, the character he played in his WWE days.

Can he use that persona? Is it copyrighted by WWE? Does Dixie Carter know?

Of course, Billy Gunn was part of one of the most over stables in history while Kip James has been the Beautiful People's fashionista and lost a match with Awesome Kong...who can blame him?

Anyway, the match started as a comedy routine with James mocking Thorn. At one point, someone even said, "This is a wrestling match," and James replied, "Really? I thought it was a comedy act."

Anyway, they lock it up a little and James got in a great clock on Thorn's face sending him out of the ring. Thorn retreats to the back, saying he's giving up after only taking one hit.

As James and the ref begin the count-out, Thorn re-emerged in a catcher's mask and pads. I really liked the way they incorporated baseball into the whole show since it was, you know, at a baseball game.

This guy in the crowd yelled, "We always knew you were a catcher," and not even Thorn could resist smiling in response. It was possibly the line of the night from the crowd.

Anyway, the two put on a really good match, which came to a finishing sequence that saw James tune up and hit Sweet Chin Music on Thorn, who responded by giving James a Pedigree.

In the end, James hit Thorn with a Fame-Ass-Er for the victory. He then headed to the back, leaving Thorn in the ring.

Thorn got up, still acting dazed and cut a face promo to send the fans home happy. He got on the mic and said, "Just like the Grizzlies are going to, I just got my butt kicked."

He then called James back out, and they attempted to do the D-X entrance theme, you know the, "For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching at home on TV..."

Thorn blew it, which James called him out on, and they shared some laughs in the ring. James then led the audience in a chant of, "If you're not down with that, I've got two words for ya..."

With a loud chant of "Suck It!" and crossed arms in the air, the show came to an end. Both men stayed around taking photos and signing autographs for the crowd.

Coming out of that match, I made two observations: James needs to be completely repackaged with a babyface gimmick and put back on TV, and someone, anyone with a television program, needs to sign Thorn to a deal. That man is beast.

Well, with that, the story of my indy wrestling experience comes to a close. In the end, it started downpouring and the baseball game got delayed. My friend, his kids and I left before the first pitch, but we still have no regrets in going.

I spent $16 to have a good time, see quality wrestling and introduce two new youngsters to the world of sports entertainment. It was $16 well spent, even without the baseball.

I'd like to take this opportunity to send a special thank you and a shout-out to the staff and owners of All-American Pro Wrestling for a remarkable experience. Here's hoping I'll see in you September when Rage will hopefully capture the tag titles and "Serial Thriller" Shane Rich attempts to regain the AAPW Heavyweight title from Shawn Schultz.

For anyone reading this article, I hope this inspires you to explore the world of wrestling outside the WWE, TNA and ROH, and to share your experiences with us. There's a wide world of wrestling out there, and we'd all love to learn more about your local promotions.

Photo Credit: The photo on this story is Dynamo Evan Gelistico and Mark Sterling. It was taken by a friend and co-worker, Alan Rogers of The Southern Illinoisan newspaper.