World Professional Wrestling (WPW) brought wrestling back to the Hamburg Field House on May 4 for a charity pro-wrestling event to benefit Autism Awareness.
‘Wrestling is definitely back in Hamburg, permanently,’ said WPW owner Shannon Hunter. ‘We love Hamburg and we’re very happy to be here.’
Fan began to arrive before the doors even opened, many with shirts displaying their favorite wrestlers and a few with replica championship belts. One of the biggest highlights for the children seemed to be having the ring so close and it drew quite the interest from them throughout the afternoon.
The loudest reaction from the crowd was for Hamburg’s own Ed House when he entered for his first match of the night. Fans cheered the hometown favorite and were quite vocal toward his opponent Vince Bono as they were for other ‘villains’ during other matches.
After his win, House challenged the newly named WPW Heavyweight Campion, Eric Corvis, to a title match for the main event. Corvis accepted and the fans were eager to see House again for the main event.
Every hit and slam echoed throughout the building much to the delight of the fans. There were many near falls for both House and Corvis throughout the match. Just as it seemed that House would defeat Corvis, wrestler Cory Kastle came out and delivered a superkick to Corvis which disqualified House from the match.
Though fans were disappointed that House did not walk away with the championship, they cheered as House finished off Corvis after the match was declared over.
Prior to the start of the event, House mentioned how special it was to be able to perform in a building with the history the Hamburg Field House has with wrestling. World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) used to perform shows in the same building with legendary wrestlers such as Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan having matches in that very space.
Fans and wrestlers interacted with each other throughout the afternoon and many of the younger fans enjoyed shouting out to the wrestlers and having a chance to get their autographs and pictures with their favorites during downtimes.
It was during a tag team match between AC Roc and South Philly’s Finest that the children were given the chance to be a part of the show. Toward the end of the match, the tag team Distinguished Gentlemen took a trophy that belonged to AC Roc. Both of the competing teams turned their attention from the match to retrieve the stolen trophy.
They ended up with one of the members of Distinguished Gentlemen in the dunk tank. At that time intermission was called and the children all rushed over for the chance to dunk the wrestler.
Other matches were CM Serenyi defeating Twisted Tate, Cory Kastle defeating Eddie Valentine, Ed House defeating Vince Bono, Zac ‘the Ripper’ Connor defeating Tommy Maclin, and Drew Blood defeating Mike Spanos.
All involved put on a great show and got the crowd more involved as the event went on. The wrestlers were excited to be there and many have the ultimate goal of being able to be a part of World Wrestling Entertainment.
Cory Kastle, who came back from a year off after having major surgery, simply put, ‘I wanna keep doing this and keep having fun.’
WPW has the Hamburg Field House booked every month for the next year bringing profession wrestling back to Hamburg on a regular basis. The next show is the last Saturday of June.
