Parking lot pro wrestling in town

The latest Inter Species Wrestling (ISW) show in Kahnawake was on Saturday, near the Knights of Columbus building – in fact, it was outside, in the parking lot.

That was not the original plan, according to ISW promoter Michael Woods.

“We were informed on October 1 that we wouldn’t be able to run our show inside of the Knights of Columbus as originally planned,” said Woods.

General manager of Public Safety Robyn Montour told The Eastern Door that the building was closed last week for precautionary reasons after unusual cracks were found in the floor and unusual creaking sounds were heard.

Other events, like the Kateri Memorial Foundation’s Annual Harvest Fair were also moved or cancelled due to the building’s closure. The building has partially reopened, and the Knights are still awaiting the full results of the inspections at time of writing.

With less than a week before the show, Woods did not want to cancel, for the sake of the wrestlers.

“I had wrestlers coming from Ottawa, Montreal, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and across the ocean from Lisbon, Portugal. We couldn’t cancel this event,” said Woods.

“A lot of these guys do this for a living, and Saturdays are their biggest days. They agreed to do this show months ago, and on such short notice, they would not be able to fill the hole in their schedule or monetary loss left by a cancellation on our end.”

When Woods spoke to Kahnawa’kehró:non Kyle Zachary, one of the wrestlers on the show, about his issues, Zachary told him that they could hold it outside instead - although it would need to be a few hours earlier, due to visibility concerns.

“Kyle was the hero for us on this day,” said Woods.

“I’m just happy the show was able to still go,” said Zachary.

He said that wrestling outdoors is pretty common, especially for independent wrestling shows, and that Saturday ended up being an ideal day to do it.

“I loved the sense of community that I felt running the event outdoors,” said Woods. “We’d have people walking or driving by who would stop and hang out and check out the show for a bit. We were all having a great time. If the show was indoors, a lot of these people wouldn’t even know it was happening.”

Old Haunt BBQ was there to serve food, and the 40 or so people in attendance and the dozen more who dropped in and out of watching had a great time, according to Woods.

But, he and Zachary wish there had been more people.

“I think having to bump the show up affected our crowd size a little bit,” said Zachary. “But at least it wasn’t empty.”

Because it was outdoors, ISW could no longer charge for tickets.

“There are a lot of cases in independent wrestling where a promoter will bank on the attendance and money made through ticket sales being enough to cover their roster’s fees,” said Woods. “A lot of times, these promoters end up disappointed by a small draw and end up not being able to pay their wrestlers. That will never be me. My budget, before ever selling a ticket, includes the wrestlers’ pay and transportation fees. The only person paid by ticket sales is myself.”

Woods said that before calculating streaming revenue from the Internet Wresting TV video, he was down a few thousand dollars.

“It would have been worse, if not for the folks in attendance buying merchandise or leaving tips at the table,” said Woods.

“He gained a lot of notoriety with the talent, for having respected their asks and schedule and putting on the show. It was very appreciated,” said André Therrien, who has been involved in Quebec’s independent wrestling scene for over two decades and was in Kahnawake on Saturday as a fan.

ISW is known for being on the stranger and wackier side of professional wrestling, including costumes, elaborate entrances and gimmicks, and unusual match stipulations.

Saturday’s show did not disappoint in that regard, with entrances that took advantage of the outdoor setting, a “loser eats dirt” main event, and lots of crowd participation.

“I participated in a match a little bit, I had two chairs to myself,” said Therrien.” “One of the wrestlers asked for a chair, so I lifted my foot off the chair, and he said ‘oh, even better!’ and he rammed his head into my foot instead.”

Kids were also picked up in the crowd by wrestlers to use in some spots, including as “battering rams.”

It’s all part of the fun, though.

“Inter Species Wrestling always puts on a good show. I always call it wrestling for people who don’t like wrestling,” said Zachary.

“There are great wrestlers, but at the same time, there’s a little bit of comedy mixed in. There’s something for everyone at an ISW show.”

Woods and Zachary said that ISW will for sure be back in Kahnawake in the near future for another show.

“I just hope that we made some memories for the people in attendance, and that they’ll come out to hang with us again the next time we come to town,” said Woods.

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