A few days ago I reported about a professional wrestling prom that is going down this weekend in Austin, and how proud I am to be going to the Men’s Wearhouse to buy a suit jacket that will probably end up caked in blood. Since then the word has spread (including a link on wrestling legend Austin Idol’s Twitter … pretty surreal to think a guy who held the PWF World Tag Team Championships even indirectly knows who I am) and I’ve gotten requests for more information, like “how is this going to work?” and “what the hell?”
Well, to find out what the hell, I got in touch with the woman pictured right. That’s Rachel Summerlyn, a 24-year old Austin resident who happens to be a veteran of Ring of Honor pro wrestling and Chicago’s SHIMMER Women Athletes. She’s one of the fine folks at Anarchy Championship Wrestling putting the prom together, and in the ten months I’ve spent in Texas, I’ve seen her dance to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and put somebody in a Texas Cloverleaf submission on a sh*tload of thumbtacks.
On Sunday she’s in the prom-themed (and first ever) “Anarchy Evening Gown Match,” where the winner is the woman who rips off her opponents’ clothes. In case you’re worried that sounds a little too much like the hacky T-and-A you see on WWE, keep in mind that the match also features arguably the best female wrestler in the world, Sara Del Rey, and that nothing in Anarchy is normal. I had a chance to talk to Rachel yesterday, and find out exactly how close to the Carrie prom this whole thing is gonna turn out.
(Pics courtesy of TexasAnarchy.com)
WL: So I guess the first question is, why a pro wrestling prom?
Rachel: So, we had announced that JT Lamotta [a male wrestler working an extreme chauvinism gimmick] had signed an “evening gown” match for all the joshis involved, for myself, Sara Del Rey, Portia Perez, Amanda Fox, Athena and Jessica James. Someone goes, “Oh, there should be a tuxedo match to counter the evening gown match,” and I was like, “why don’t you just make it a whole prom themed show?” It’s around prom season, why not?
I’m glad there’s not a tuxedo match, I haven’t seen too many of them, but they’ve been terrible.
Augh.
The only thing worse than a tuxedo match is a blindfold match. Blindfold matches are always awful.
Blindfold matches are TERRIBLE.
There’s never been a good one. You could put like, Jumbo Tsuruta and Ricky Steamboat in a blindfold match and it would just suck, so bad.
Yeah, I’d be like, “I don’t think so.”
(note: about here I realize I am blathering on about wrestling and try to get back on topic) How is the actual prom going to work, because I read that you guys were decorating the Mohawk, right?
Yeah, like everything’s going to be decorated. You’ll come into the Mohawk, you know, like every ACW show, and we’re going to have our professional photographer take prom pictures, like when you would enter the real prom. So you, and your date, or whoever you’re coming with or whoever’s around. There’s going to be a backdrop set up and everything. We’re gonna take the pictures, and he’s going to put them online [at TexasAnarchy.com]. So everyone will have a formal prom picture. We’ll be handing out stuff at the front door about what’s going to go on during the evening. There’ll be nice music being played during the matches and intermission, and we’re actually going to have a prom king and queen voting.
Oh!
Yes. So we’re going to hand out papers with the nominees’ names on it for you to circle, and then we’ll have a box to put your votes into. And then during intermission or a little bit later, we’ll name the prom king and queen for ACW.
So how is this show going to be different from the big show down the street? (note: An untelevised WWE Smackdown event is happening on the same night, just down the road at the Frank Erwin Events Center)
I genuinely forgot. I was like, “What’s the other big show down the street?” But yeah, I legit forgot that the WWE was in town.
The last WWE show I paid to see was Raw, and I hadn’t been in a while, so I was like, “Oh, this is gonna be great!” And it was the week after Randy Orton had kicked Vince McMahon in the head, and it was like, “Oh this is all exciting!” And THAT show was the one where Shane McMahon showed up and beat everyone up with phantom punches. It was terrible, it was two hours of me sitting and waiting for commercial breaks. It was probably the worst wrestling experience of my life. And to contrast that, the last San Antonio show you guys did was bad ass, so I don’t see any reason why anyone would pay forty dollars to live through that.
It’s earlier in the day, too. We’re really not competing with them time-wise, like maybe an hour or so? (note: Anarchy shows usually feature a dozen matches and go on well into the night) Fans like so many different styles of wrestling, we’re going to have people down there kind of spreading the word of Anarchy around the show, so maybe if they still want to get their fill of wrestling, they just head down the street. Plus, it’s going to be such a gala and spectacle anyway, people are gonna be interested. They’re gonna be like, “A wrestling prom?”
And you know? Even after talking to the people responsible directly, my brain keeps asking me “a wrestling prom?” Also, transcribing and editing this reminds me of what happens to my brain and mouth when I’m talking about wrestling with women. I’m suddenly a mental Shemp.
Anyway, if you live within driving distance of central Texas and like wrestling (or don’t, and like gatherings) you should try to be at this. The show starts at 6, at the Mohawk on Red River in downtown Austin. At the very least you could print out a page of With Leather and get me to autograph it. I’ll be the one in the Men’s Wearhouse formals, cheering my ass off while Richard Marx plays in the background. And yes, that will be the first time that has ever happened.
[ACW]
