Ryse at Ringside 7

I've often wondered why professional wrestling has such a history of carny figures and a seedy side, but the more I thought about it, I'd say it was less an indication about sports entertainment and more about the entertainment business in general. The reasons for that are numerous, with slight variations depending on what field of entertainment you choose to examine, but if I had to guess, I think the main reason is anything that is a cash-based venture has the potential to draw some shady characters. Thankfully, Ryse Wrestling is the opposite of all of these things, which is why it's my favorite promotion that I've worked for in the time I've been involved in the industry.

However, the story for this edition of "Ryse At Ringside" goes back to almost the start of my journey into this crazy business, a tale that fits into the category of "only in pro wrestling." Historians of the business will cite that the grappling arts can be traced back to the carnival days, which makes sense because the conclusion of this story was definitely a circus.

In early 2009, I was in my second year of college at Penn State Greater Allegheny for the Communications degree that I completed a few years later. Since the field of study was based in media, one of the advisors, a very nice lady, Ms. Garwood that worked with some of the disabled students on schedules and other various resources, suggested that some portfolio material would be helpful to show diversity within different media platforms. I took her advice and arranged to be a photography for the now-defunct Pro Wrestling Express organization that held events just a few minutes from the university, which I've mentioned in this column before as how I got a start in wrestling. With a background in Communications and after a year of consistency as a photographer, it was mentioned that if a spot opened up at PWX for commentary, I should try to throw my name in the discussion. The problem was, I didn't have a sample of any of my work yet so it wasn't an automatic process.

However, back to 2009, I saw online that the "Extreme Wrestling Alliance" was set to run its debut show on March 7th in Butler, PA, the same location where Sterling James Kennan's family ran their Far North Wrestling shows regularly at the time. Around the same time I started taking photos at PWX shows, I was invited to FNW events and did what I could to help out because I appreciated that I was welcomed there. Sure, I didn't have the balance to hoist a ring post, but I took tickets at the door, sold merchandise, and generally tried to stay out of the way. A few years later I announced a few of the FNW shows and had the chance to work with the great Jon Burton, the notable sportscaster with a history in Pittsburgh before he relocated to work in television in Nashville, TN. But before that, as mentioned, I just did whatever I could to help out and saw that Far North established a solid fan base in the area.

Some local yokel noticed, too. By early 2009, this ham-and-egger assumed that if wrestling fans in his hometown went to FNW show then he could also get those same fans to buy tickets to his "professional" wrestling show. I'm sure you can see where this is going, but take this ride because it's definitely a trip. With the advice of portfolio material in mind, I sent an e mail to the organization and explained that I was in college for Communications and wanted to get as much broadcasting experience as I could so I wanted to inquire about being an announcer for the event. I received a reply that requested I send a mock sample of commentary so I found an ECW fan cam match, a segment filmed from a live event without any original commentary, and did voice over commentary of a Rhino vs. Kid Kash match from 2000. I'm aware these are oddly specific details and I'm not sure why I remember them, but prehaps my amateur call of the gore made this story possible.

I sent the sample along and didn't expect anything, but got a call from the "promoter" a few days later. As soon as I heard the guy, I knew he had to be on Neptune, and when I heard the amount of money he offered, which was way more than a new announcer should get, his brain might've been as far away as Pluto. Now, I won't to point out, I didn't try to exploit the guy for too much money, I never said a price, I just simply accepted the money he offered, was I supposed to counter with a lower number? That said, if he was willing to over pay me, what in the wide world of sports did he offer some of the known talent scheduled for this show? More on that later.

When the phone call with the now infamous Joe Rogers concluded, I immediately knew he was in way over his head and had no idea how the economics of independent wrestling worked. As you can tell by the name of his promotion, this guy was a big fan of ECW so of course, he wanted to play promoter and bring in talent known from the promotion for his own "extreme" project. The late Balls Mahoney and Justin Credible were scheduled for this show. Being the longtime veterans that they were, the pair saw an opportunity to hustle a naive fan that should've never tried to play Vince McMahon. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame either of the former ECW stars because Rogers was dumb enough to agree to it. Despite being from New Jersey, a distance that was drivable for Mahoney when he did shows in Pittsburgh prior to his stint in the failed ECW relaunch, both Mahoney and Credible wanted plane tickets for their EWA appearance. I found out later that the pair requested three times their usual booking fee, and because Joe Rogers was so star-struck, he had no idea that he was being hustled. He agreed to pay their fee because he assumed he would draw hundreds of fans.

Prior to the event, I knew this fiasco would be a one-and-done, but hey, it would be fun to actually do commentary for a show, right? Keep in mind, I had only been a photographer up until March of 2009 so this extreme debacle would be my first show as an announcer. Thankfully, BC Steele, the current leader of Golden Chic International, was going to be at the show to do commentary. I had known Ben the previous year through being a photographer at PWX so I was looking forward to working with him, even for this one-off show.

I can't recall the name of the venue where the show was held, but it was a really cool building with a small balcony where the commentary set up was located.  A few days earlier, Rogers called me and asked if I could bring some friends to help staff the event, and since I was fairly sure this was a one-time venture, I invited my wrestling pals, Joe Folino and Johanson along with the thought that at least it would be a fun night to hang out. When we arrived, my suspicions of shadiness were confirmed, as nothing seemed to be organized, and Joe Rogers looked like he was more concerned with standing next to ECW guys he saw on TV than actually running the show. All respect intended to the deceased, but Mahoney looked to be in rough shape, as this was around the time that his appearance drastically changed. He looked gaunt and sickly, which I'm guessing was from a combination of his risks inside and outside of the ring.

In retrospect, the visual of nearly 500 chairs set up in several rows was almost comical because the vast majority of them looked as empty before the doors opened as they did during the show. I knew things were going off the rails when twenty minutes before bell time, I didn't have a run sheet of the matches and when I asked Ben where it was, he told me that it was still being written. Eventually, the show got started and we called four matches before intermission, including Mahoney's match that involved a table.

During intermission, the ECW stars were in the ring to take polaroids with the dozens of fans that had bought tickets to this extravaganza. That finished up rather quickly and then the ring were awkwardly empty for almost 15 minutes. I knew something was up so I went down to the main level of the building and saw Balls Mahoney, still bleeding from the prior match, leaving a voice mail with a myriad of vulgar threats. Not shockingly, when Joe Rogers didn't draw enough fans to pay the inflated fees, he took the money from the gate and ran, leaving the roster, the staff, and the building unpaid. Somehow, some of the remaining wrestlers organized a few matches for the rest of the event so that the fans didn't get ripped off, but since the DVD release was never going to see the light of day, I didn't stay for the second half of the event. Instead, Johanson and I were to the nearest Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the UFC pay-per-view that night. So, yes, on my first official booking where I would get paid to be an announcer, nobody got paid.

Not only had Rogers skipped out on paying anyone, he left Mahoney and Credible stranded at the venue since he picked them up from the airport earlier in the day. Joe Folino, being the nice guy that he is, didn't want to see anyone stuck so he offered to drive the extreme duo to the airport. Mahoney, as goofy as he might've been, still insisted on covering fuel expenses for Joe as a way to say thank you. The former ECW stars got to the airport and made their flight the next day, but had to spend the night in the terminal, as the hotel accommodations they had been promised by Rogers weren't booked.

I was surprised when the story made headlines on the internet because  I didn't think anyone would notice a random one-off indy show that went wrong. There was a now-deleted Youtube video that was posted online of most of the incident and that sparked discussion of the story. After Mahoney's raging voice mail, I didn't think it was necessary to try to contact the knucklehead promoter so I didn't expect to hear from him again. Amazingly, a few days later, I got an AIM message from him online, and even more amazingly, roughly six months later he sent me a money order of all things to pay me for the show.

Lesson learned, right? Of course not, as Rogers has tried to promote and failed with shows under several different company names during the past decade. Instead of running a show and then running away if not enough tickets are sold, he simply cancelled shows that didn't sell enough advanced tickets. When he burned too many bridges, he would use a new company name with a new roster and repeat the process. At this point, Joe Rogers has promoted almost half a dozen "companies" since the infamous EWA debacle. And yes, Rogers still attempts to promote events in West Virginia today. This business really is a circus.