Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PAThere was a time in my life that I tried to attend as many independent wrestling events in the tri-state area that I possibly could; particularly
Ring Of Honor and
Chikara. I still enjoy professional wrestling, but I have too many hobbies and there aren't enough hours in the day to keep up with them all.
The in-ring portion of last year's Reel Rumble event was rained out, so the last indy wrestling event I attended was
Reel Rumble III. This year's Reel Rumble V event included five matches with several wrestlers that we got to see at the
Mahoning in
2002, and some familiar faces from the indy wrestling scene that I followed more closely in the years before I went back to college.
Most of the photos that you're going to see on this post were taken by the very talented
Sergio Valentino (aka:
pixematize) who kindly allowed me to share them here. A small handful of them are mine. Those will be the ones that don't look nearly as good as Sergio's.
Results:- Athan Promise defeated Ultimo Ant
- The Lost Boys (Miles Penn and Ryan Ryzz) defeated Club Soda (Jeff Cannonball and Puf)
- Erica Leigh defeated Vita Von Starr
- "Honey Mustard" Drew Gulak defeated "Hot Sauce" Tracy Williams
- Trios Match
Cheeseburger, Big Dan Champion, and La Chica Carreras defeated Hallowicked, Kodama, and Lucky 13
Many of the wrestlers hung out at the merch tables after the show to meet fans, sign autographs, and take pictures. Ben, Avery and I all wanted to get a picture with the dude who we all became fans of at the 2002 Reel Rumble, the one and only Big Dan Champion.
I didn't want to bug the whole roster for a photo, especially since my spending money is a little slim after
VHS Fest, but I had to get a picture with
Hallowicked. The photo on the left was taken on
May 26th, 2007 at
Chikara Anniversario in Hellertown, PA. A lot of things have changed over the seventeen years between these two photos, but two things that have not are the fact that he's still wrestling in some of the most fun matches I've ever seen, and I'm still a fan of independent wrestling.
And that's a wrap on another fun wrestling event under the big screen at the
Mahoning Drive-In Theater. That alone would have been worth the price of admission, but we also got to see the greatest movie ever to star a professional wrestling legend once the sun went down. More on that tomorrow.
