At first it looked like just another Grindhouse crowd. When the doors opened at 2:15, it was mostly the regulars who poured into the Knights of Columbus on Main Street in New Albany for a rare show away from the Jeffersonville Arena.
Then the students started to show up. And alumni. And even faculty. The athletic director from New Albany High School arrived just after bell time.
It’s a safe bet at leas half the crowd at Chokeslam Childhood Cancer had never seen professional wrestling live before, but everyone got in the spirit once the opening battle royal kicked off.
For a $10 show, Grindhouse gave the regulars and the newbies more than their money’s worth: and they weren’t even pocketing the money. The proceeds from Sunday’s event went to Camp Quality of Kentuckiana, a non-profit that provides positive summer camp experiences for kids fighting cancer.
The show was the brainchild of Lydia Cosper, a member of Camp Quality’s youth board, and executive director Eddie Bobbitt, who also serves as the secondary education counselor at New Albany High School. Bobbitt and Cosper are the reason so many New Albany students, staff, and alumni turned out. Cosper brought a full crew of staff members from the high schools radio/TV station WNAS to cover the event. And Bobbitt? He spent the last two weeks fulfilling a childhood dream, training with Mitchell Huff and Ethan Heyre to wrestle on the show.
The opening battle royal featured a number of Grindhouse regulars – OG Ugly, Cyrus Riley, The Ghostmaker, Leo Grymm, Robert Ketcham, Kash Jackson, and Dimitri Staley, who skinned the cat not once but twice during the match – but there were two surprise entrants who came to support the cause. One was Omega De, the face of Louisville’s Derby City Wrestling. The other? Plaid Jackie Thad, the pride of Larry D’s Generation Next Wrestling.
Thad was looking for a third show to complete a weekend sweep through Indiana. When he learned about the show, and the opportunity to debut for Grindhouse, he jumped at the chance. He wasted very little time letting fans know who the biggest chicken heel in the match was, sitting in the corner and clinging to the ropes.
The battle royal came down to Kash Jackson and Jackie Thad. By that point, Thad had even the new fans whipped into a frenzy, giving the students in the front row free rein to talk smack with him. Jackson came out on top in the end, starting the show on a high note.
If Kash and Thad gave the fans their money’s worth – and they did – 2 Tuff Tony should have passed the hat before the 3-on-3 contest that highlighted the first half of the show. The Deaf World Order teamed up with Berto and Hippo to face Devlin Deville, Louis Bourdeaux, and Ty Vance. The new fans were fully engaged by this point, jawing with all three members of Black Diamond and cheering on the antics of Berto.
In retrospect, it’s hard to say how much wrestling actually happened in the 3-on-3. True, Berto was a sweaty mess by the end, but that’s Berto. The match was pure entertainment, start to finish, and the crowd was red hot by the end.
If anyone enjoyed the crowd the most, outside Eddie Bobbitt, it was Eli Cruze. The Dot Com Champion defended his title against Kevo Thrives in a stellar singles contest while responding to a barrage of insults from the New Albany students. Cruze took everything they had and dished it right back on his way to victory – an ill-gotten win that mimicked the beloved Eddie Guerrero chair shot moment from decades before.
Sure, the Grindhouse fans knew what they were watching, but most of the new kids in the crowd have never even heard of Eddie Guerrero. Cruze tossed the title belt to Kevo Thrives and pretended to be knocked out, forcing referee Aknubix Kaax to call the match in Cruze’s favor. The fans were incensed. Which was exactly the point.
Shout out to Aknubix Kaax, by the way, who refereed every match except the main event. He took a lot of crap from the fans and endured a number of “We want Dallas!” chants from the Grindhouse faithful missing referee Dallas Edwards, but he did an exceptional job.
When Eddie Bobbitt finally came to the ring with ‘The Chosen One” Mitchell Huff, everyone came to their feet. Long-time fans were thrilled to see Huff dressed up to wrestle again, while everyone was excited to see how Bobbitt would do. Their opponents for the match, whom announcer Ben Shearin declared to be “proud graduates of Floyd Central High School,” were the masked Grindhouse Goons.
I won’t betray kayfabe and reveal who was under the masks, but I assure you, every Grindhouse fan in the building knows who they were. Suffice to say, they were two men who could make me look like I knew what I was doing. They certainly made Eddie Bobbitt look like a star.
Here’s where the magic of Chokeslam Childhood Cancer really happened. Bobbitt didn’t just get in to hit a few quick spots. He worked most of the match. He ran the ropes. He delivered arm drags. He took a lot of heat from both of the Goons, who were equally busy talking trash with the fans.
The Grindhouse staff truly deserves credit for preparing Eddie Bobbitt for his big moment. He looked like he belonged, and he came out as the hero. Bobbitt and Huff defeated the Goons, sending the fans home happy.
Chokeslam Childhood Cancer was more than a big moment a for Camp Quality of Kentuckiana. It’s a moment 2 Tuff Tony and Ronnie Roberts wanted . The vision for Grindhouse is to be a part of the community. They want to be a trusted partner for other non-profits who need a creative avenue to raise money. They want to be a good partner for venues like the Knights of Columbus, who proved to be phenomenal hosts.
And of course, they want to make more fans.
It’ll be exciting to see if some of the students who came to watch Eddie Bobbitt come back on Sunday to see Grindhouse at The Arena. But it’ll be even more exciting to see some of those students get involved and become volunteers for Camp Quality of Kentuckiana.
For more on Grindhouse visit the Grindhouse website or read the book We Are Grindhouse.
For more on Camp Quality, visit their Facebook page.