There were a thousand people in the old hall, whooping and hollering at the show on display. I got the feeling that the atmosphere in the building must have been the same in the 1920's when a traveling show came to a small town, pitched its tents and enticed the town to come to the fair.
Now, this event wasn't a carnival. It was an appearance by a pro wrestling promotion, Extreme Championship Wrestling. The people who went to the wrestling card would have been disappointed if they had seen costumed clowns and acrobats - but that circus spirit was there in the old armory.
And so was the spirit of the man who in many ways made that ECW appearance possible, the legendary Richard "Dick the Bruiser" Afflis. The Lafayette, Ind. native ruled Tyndall Armory for decades as the star wrestler and promoter of the Indiana wrestling territory. This author grew up with Championship Wrestling on black and white TV (along with the animated cartoons that led the author to enjoy anime and manga as an adult).
At the ECW card, I met a few people who remembered those shows and the experience of watching Bruiser, Wilbur Snyder, Bobo Brazil and Bobby Heenan (then known as "Pretty Boy") wrestle at the armory. Bruiser's memory was fresh to many in the building, and his name was invoked more than once. Before a six-man tag-team match, former NWA champion Tommy Rich bragged how he had beaten Bruiser in a six-man match in Evansville, Ind. a generation ago.
Like Afflis' promotion, the crowd at the ECW show was built on television. A low-power Indianapolis TV station with a cable system link has broadcast ECW's TV programs for the last two years, and that exposure primed people to get away from their sets and head downtown to see the show.
It was a solid crowd for the ECW show. The crowd snaked around the block before the doors opened and filled nearly every seat in the armory. They had a great time watching their TV heroes - Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Shane Douglas and more - perform in person for the first time.
As the arena rocked with the cheers of the crowd, it was like old times again. ECW's wrestling style is much like that seen in the old promotion - violence first and style second - with more music and lights. It was more of a show than a sports contest, but, after all, that's what pro wrestling is all about.
From what I understand, the roots of pro wrestling don't come from sport but from the old traditions of vaudeville and the traveling carnival, something that died out when TV took over this country in the years after World War II.
Pro wrestling is entertainment first and sport second. It's athletic entertainment, but still entertainment. Rasslin' evolved this way because the real thing - freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling - hasn't proven very entertaining to most audiences (with the important exception of the big crowds drawn to the Indiana high school wrestling championships). Attempts to sell amateur-style wrestling as a professional sport haven't worked.
The big success of pro wrestling is its ability to entertain a crowd. To this author, the most fascinating part of the ECW show was the reaction of audience. They were enthralled by every move in the ring, even by the lengthy pre-match taunting and strutting.
So, why is this pro wrestling review on an anime and manga fan page? Well, first, I like wrestling and anime. Second, the Japanese culture that produced anime is also a big supporter of pro wrestling, including most of the performers at the ECW show. That link was on display when the ECW TV program shown a few hours before the live performance featured ECW wrestlers in Japan, including Frontier Martial Arts' infamous "barbed wire electrified time bomb" matches.
