I’m sitting here eating chicken biscuits and trying to figure out what to type about today. WWE’s had WrestleMania and its annual Draft. ROH is on HDNet. Blue Demon Jr. is still NWA World Heavyweight Champion and good for him. I haven’t watched TNA in about a year. And that Chili fella on YouTube finally completed his Top 250 Wrestlers list. So what’s there to talk about?
Well, the Indy leagues are always fun, though I don’t really have much to speak about there, either. There is one I can mention out of Cleveland, having had a chance to watch them on TV not long ago.
They’re called Pro Wrestling Ohio and they could very well be the Indy’s Indy. Appearing weekly on Sports Time Ohio (which itself is pretty snazzy since the initials are STO), I was able to catch a highlight show of theirs several weeks back and for one hour, I was reminded of the goofy shenanigans that exist in Indy Land. PWO seems to have a slight ECW influence to it, which is charming since the Cleveland area fans seem to take to the product on TV. They also have a sordid cast of characters one may find in a local product, but a few of them were able to leave something of a lasting impression.
There’s Johnny Gargano, who kinda has that Scotty The Body (before Raven was Raven, or even Johnny Polo or Scotty Flamingo for that matter) vibe going for him as the irritating heel you’d just love to see get hit by a truck. Yet it’s hard to deny his smile.
There’s also Hobo Joe, who strikes me as someone who was concocted by a wasted Paul Heyman. Just the thought of a wasted Paul Heyman saying, “Hey guys!!! What if we put a hobo in the ring, huh??? It’ll make dozens of dollars!” makes Hobo Joe an automatic winner to me. He also makes for really good bad comedy in much the same vein as the Blue Meanie and Nova.
After that, it comes down to cool sounding indy wrestler names. The type of names that work pretty good in an Armory, but wind up going the way of the dodo once the performer winds up working for World Wrestling Entertainment. Names like Ernie Ballz, Virus, Vincent Nothing and my personal favorite, “Mad Dog 20” Matt Cross. It’s also nice to know that Greg Valentine always has a place to work when he’s up that way.
The announcing and sound quality’s something left to be desired, but I suppose that’s expected and if nothing else, they all seem to be enjoying themselves. Who am I to argue against that?
In closing, I’m not going to go off on the usual, “support your local fed,” rant that most others might since ultimately it’s up to you if you’re interested in that to begin with. However, I will say that as PWO reminded me when watching them, there’s a nice, strange entertainment factor that comes with the local leagues and an odd charm they possess that can’t be found on Monday Nights in a big arena or in a studio lot in Orlando.
