INNISFAIL – During the preliminary bouts at CanAm Wrestling’s show last weekend a group of young grappling fans were already loud and excitedly jumping up and down to support their favourite grappler.
None had even become a teenager yet, but they knew all the grapplers and their moves. They proudly and rabidly waved homemade posters to show their loyal support.
Wrestling has proven increasingly popular in town since returning in 2022 after a 38-year break.
Last year the crowds in the auditorium at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion Branch #104 shot up as high as 180 devoted fans. This year the shows are attracting close to 300.
And all of them are even bringing in wrestling fans from outside the community.
“I love professional wrestling. When I was growing up as a kid in Ontario, my grandfather and I used to watch Maple Leaf Wrestling,” said Brentt Williams, a Bowden resident who came to Innisfail’s CanAm Wrestling night on Nov. 17 with his wife Lori. “People are passionate and they're hungry to have an opportunity, and at the same time the fans just love it.
“You can't have a better night whether it's a date night or whether it's a night out with the boys,” added Williams. “There's lots of kids here today, so it's awesome.”
The Nov. 17 wrestling night was extra special for fans as CanAm chief executive officer Otto Gentile upped the ante by staging the first ever steel cage match.
It was billed as the “Rage in the Cage”; a special grappling dual set up to settle a longstanding feud between top ranked wrestlers, “Prospector” Wes Barker, a first-year grappler and CanAm’s current world junior heavyweight champ, and 30-year ring veteran “Mr. Beefy Goodness” Vance Nevada who has more than 1,600 wrestling matches under his belt.
“We had a major fight that broke out here last month. It was an eruption with tables and security guards getting thrown around like Raggedy Ann dolls,” said Ed Anderson, CanAm’s chief financial officer. “Otto stepped in and said, ‘enough is enough. Ok, I am going to make your final match a cage match.
“If you look now we are sold out here.”
Ever the confident veteran, Nevada was predicting an early exit for Barker.
“You have a lot of young guys that are coming up, and they want to make a stepping stone of beating that veteran guy,” said Nevada. “He’s still in his first year in the business, and I predict he's going to be humbled this evening.”
Nevada also has plenty of praise for Innisfail, and its long history with wrestling.
“Innisfail was part of the Stampede Wrestling circuit. The first professional wrestling match in Innisfail took place in 1957,” said Nevada. “In all that time and all the wrestlers that have come through Innisfail they have never seen a cage match.
“I think you can tell by the capacity crowd here in the room tonight,” he added. “People are very excited to see that in person.”
And so was Logan James, an Olds car salesman for Hildebrand Motors who has been promoting CanAm Wrestling at the town’s Bulldog’s Saloon. He wanted a first hand look at steel cage grappling.
“It’s the first one ever and I had to come and see it and because my guy, the Prospector, is in the match I had to be a part of it,” said James, a big supporter of steel cage bouts. “I would love to see it everywhere.”
James was not disappointed. His man, the Prospector, retained his title by winning his bout against Nevada before a capacity crowd of enthusiastic grappling fans, which was music to the ears of CanAm’s top man.
“Not since 1957, when wrestling first came to Innisfail with the late great Stu Hart has there been one of these matches here. This is a first,” said Gentile “This is what you see here tonight; the amount of people that came here to support it.
“We are making history tonight.”
