FiredUp Network
Tuesday, July 30: Slammer From Show - Me State Wrestling
I'm Gerald Bentley. Welcome in to Wrestling Spotlight right here on True TV Plus. If you'd need to download the app, you can download it and see it on every TV you have, every App Store's available, Amazon Roku, Apple, Android, Google Chromecast. We're going to talk about and take a close-up look at Show Me State Wrestling. It's one of the new promotions that is available on the Wrestling Spotlight channel, and we're joined by a man who has just become part of the Show Me State Wrestling Roster Slammer. Thanks for joining us here. I know people are familiar with you from the area, from the Missouri area. Yeah, I try to keep myself out there, brother. Yeah, so what brought you to Show Me State Wrestling? It's a new territory to the channel. What should our viewers know about Show Me State Wrestling and what they're bringing to the Wrestling Spotlight and bringing to the Wrestling World period? Well, it's run by Gordon Atkins and Jeremy Harrison. The guys I got to know from new breed wrestling, I wrestle out there all the time for the last couple of years. Gordon was the referee and Jeremy worked the timekeeping table, and just they did all kinds of the inner workings and stuff. And I shoot, I knew, let's see, I guess, what is this? This is July, so I guess March is when they actually launch Show Me State Wrestling, and this is the first time, August 3, Saturday, August 3, they're in Jefferson City. I'll make my debut. Yeah, they asked me to come in, and I actually did a meet and greet with them at a kids fest in Jefferson City about five, six weeks ago, I guess. And me, Bert Candy and Tobias Storm, we stood out there for four hours and posed and took pictures with kids and fans for four hours, man, it was an awesome time getting the word out about Show Me State Wrestling. I know they've had a couple of good events so far and getting stuff on TV up there around the Jefferson City area, and man, I'm excited to be a part of it. Yeah, I mean, just getting ready, we got the Show Me State Heavyweight Championship coming up here, which is going to be a coveted title in this central state area, because there's a lot of room for growth, man, if you haven't seen that belt yet, man. They do, they got a really sweet looking belt, a lot of stuff on it representing Missouri, even like the state birds on it, the state flag. It's cool belt. I don't know if you've seen it or not, but you know, check that out. It's pretty cool. Yeah, and coming up with Astonishing Austin, Medallo and LD envelope. Yeah, go and add it. Tell me a little bit about those guys. What's your scouting report for when you get ready to go at the title. What's my scouting report? Buddy, I tell you what, I just, I come in, just full fledged full of energy, man. I always got the crowd behind me. I got everybody fired up and ready to go. I just go out there and give everybody, give that guy, but you know, a bunch of strikes here and there, man, body slams, suplexes, big atomic drop, and I always finish them off with a big boot in the lake drop, atomically, classic. So all the, all these guys show me state wrestling, man, they just, they better be ready. Yeah. Does it matter to you? Does it matter to you who the champion is? I know you've been a champion in multiple territories over the years. Does it matter to you who is the champion or are they just next? They're just, they're just next, man. It's whoever whoever's in my way. I'll come mow them down. Now, how do you feel just given this time in the pro wrestling world because it seems to be on fire and territories everywhere are showing some great, great crowds, great intensity and terrific action. What do you think it is that's made wrestling so huge right now at this time? Man, I tell you what, it's, it's in the last few years there's just so many promotions pop up everywhere. There's so many good wrestlers out there just trying to climb the way to the top. It's almost, I lost train of thought there got so excited to say that again. I was trying to question. What do you think has made this renaissance of pro wrestling happen? What do you think the factors are because it's just on fire. I just think, oh man, I don't know the exact reason why, but I think wrestling's just so much more mainstay than it was back in the day. Back in the day, I mean, like when I was a kid in school wrestling wasn't cool. I thought it was cool and I loved wrestling, but you know, you were, you liked that people would make fun of you or whatever. And now, you know, I see, I've got friends on Facebook and stuff now. They think it's cool that I wrestle and, oh man, you know who Hulk Hogan is and all this. It's like, and now all of a sudden, it's like the cool thing. It's like so many. Well, I tell you, when it got, when stone cold got hot, that's when the business really took off. I mean, wrestling popular in the 80s and beyond, but man, once stone cold took over, man, it's just like a whole different realm of people just started gravitating toward wrestling, which makes a whole lot more fans. And man, people, people just love wrestling now and I go and wrestle all over the place and I wrestle down in St. Louis band, the historic South Broadway athletic club man, we got that place packed with 600 plus people every month. And people, people love wrestling man and it's exciting. We just wrestled for at New breed up in Camden's in a few weeks, about a month ago, outdoor show with big softball tournament man for thousands of people and kids there, man, it was insane. Just people, people love wrestling. It's cool. Yeah, and you're getting so much activity. I mean, the St. Louis market. Now, Jefferson City with you guys, worldly, wrestling coming up of Eldon with the Harley race academy, got Central States, got Fountain City Pro up here in Kansas City. I mean, I think it's really, really picking up to where we're getting back to kind of want the old Central States was when the NWA had a territory here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you almost can't spit without hitting a wrestling organization around Missouri anymore. I mean, we, you know, it's pretty much covered everywhere in, you know, Illinois. I mean, just so much wrestling, Tennessee, Arkansas. Oh, I mean, it's crazy. I never get a chance to get out towards Kansas City and Oklahoma, but I know there's a lot of wrestling out there. I've been asked a few times. I have a time window on the weekends. I can only get out so far because my UPS job through the week. It gets, you know, Saturday comes along. It's like, man, about four hours is about my limit on how far I'm going to travel. So. But yeah, man, there's so much good wrestling all over the place right now. But I like the backdrop. You got some, some vintage WWF figures back there. Oh, yeah. This whole room. This is my wrestling collection. I've collected stuff since I was a little kid. I'm a big time action figure collector. That's my main. That's my main wall there. It's got all my oldest stuff on there from back in the day. I've got, I've got, and it's only wrestling stuff in here. There's nothing else. It's just straight up all wrestling stuff. I've got action figures. I've got magazines. I've got old magazines, posters. I've got all the slammers souvenirs. Man, I got everything in this place just wrestling. People, if anybody comes over to the house and they come in here, it's, it's one thing to see it on screen like it is now. But we know anybody steps in here, even if they're not a big wrestling fan, if we just have company over and they want to see what I have in here. Even if they don't know anything about wrestling, there is somebody on this wall that they'll say, I know who that is. But somebody come in here and just stand and just, they'll be ready to walk out and they'll just see something else. And it's like, just, I just sit here all the time. I just sit here and look at one action figure. It just takes me back to a time and a place and just, it's wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah. And that's, that's a great collection. I can tell you got a, I believe that's a WCW Ric Flair up over your shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's meant on card. I don't, I don't, I don't open stuff. I got some old loose stuff that I've just kind of acquired here and there. Everything mint on card. I always, I just like, like old, like the old Hasbro's and stuff and they're bringing that kind of stuff back like the Mattel retro figures. And that's, that's my thing, man. I love, I love the old stuff. I like 90s wrestling and just some really, really neat stuff. No, that's awesome. So you've been, you've been in it. You've been in it pretty much straight through, right? How long have you been, how long have you been wrestling in the ring now? I've been in the, I've been in the ring. I started working at UPS. It kind of took my life over. I've been at UPS for 21 years and right before that. That was 2003. I think 2002 would have been like the last time I worked in a ring with some people. And I've done a little bit of stuff here and there prior to that. But from 2003 to 2016, I did nothing. I own a gym for seven years on top of working at UPS. I shut the gym down and right, just a couple months after I shut the gym down, a guy showed up about 30 miles away from me that got a wrestling ring and opened a school up. Yeah, I knew there was a wrestling ring. I started showing up, you know, getting back in the ring. It was very unorganized wrestling. I guess it's what you would call an outlaw school or whatever, very unorganized, not structured it. There's only a chance to get in there, take some bumps, do some things. And so that was getting back into it. We did that for about a year and that guy. He just ended up going away. Who knows where he ended up at. And then I ended up a cape championship wrestling down in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They had just started up and been going too long. I did a seminar with Jerry Lynn down there. And I told the guys that run it. I was like, man, it'd be awesome if you guys had something going down here. I just need somewhere to train, you know. And it wasn't too long after that. They started a thing where you could just show up, set the ring up, train, do whatever needed to be done. Take the ring down. So my Saturdays were once a month were consumed with that for well over a year. And then I 2019 March 2019 I started getting on the card regularly there once a month. And then, of course, 2020 COVID happened. That's about the time I was gone. That's when I was going to start branching out and going to some different places. So 2021. That's when Newbreed came along and started wrestling there and I've wrested and placed in Arkansas and Illinois and then 2022 came along. I started wrestling up at MWA. So I'm pretty much a mainstay at MWA. Newbreed. I'm getting ready to start. Of course, it showed me state wrestling here in our next week of wrestling. American hostile championship. They won't be there next week down in the boot hill down in Crowthersville. So starting to branch out against more just some other places been asking me to come in. Thing is, Saturdays, a lot of places are booked on the same night that I'm booked. So sure. I try to get out as much as I can do all that I can trying to spread the gospel. Slammer made in and running wild, man. Yeah. No, I love it. And yeah, you got to be, you can only be in so many places at one time, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's like next Friday night, I'm going to wrestle in a tournament down in Crowthersville. Then I got to be in Jefferson City by 10 o'clock Saturday morning. So the Crowthersville is like three hours away from me. So by the time I get home, it's probably going to be midnight. Then I have to get up and probably be on the road by six a.m. because it's three hours of Jefferson City for me. So we got the television taping there. I'll probably be there until probably at least three o'clock. And I actually had another company ask me if I wanted to wrestle in Pacific Missouri, which is just outside of St. Louis. And I actually probably could have made it, but probably four or five matches. That probably would have been my fifth match or so in a 24 hour period. I just don't think I couldn't make his call time anyway. Tim, he needed me there by Ford. I'm like, I just don't think I can make it by four. But I think four matches probably going to be plenty in those two days. Yeah, well, you know, I love the passion because I think that's something that's something that's present in all of the territories that you can watch your wrestling spotlight. If it's Glory Pro, if it's Southern Illinois Championship, Fountain City Pro, Pro South, POW, UPW, I mean, they all bring that excitement, that love of the game to it. And you really exemplify it. I mean, from your background to your story. I mean, I think that's something that fans can really grab a hold of. Man, I've taken a hold of social media, man. This is me. I'm crazy. I'm just, this is me all the time, man. I'm just, I love to get out there. I love to be in front of the fans and get that energy back to me that I get out to them. And it's usually pretty crazy, man. I love getting out there and doing my thing. It's crazy. Well, if you haven't been to a local wrestling show since COVID, you need to make the effort to get out to one because you do have that energy and it's so relatable and you're so close. Man, I tell you what, COVID just really hurt a lot of places. I mean, I've seen the tendencies really drop right after that. And it's, I feel like it's starting to pick back up in some places where it had dropped off. And man, I'm looking forward to like, you know, next week will be up there in Jefferson City. Man, I'm looking forward to some familiar faces will be there to see me, hopefully some new faces, train some new slammer maniacs to come out and. Man, it's, it's going to be awesome. Get a good thing going up there. I'm really excited. They're excited. You just, the kids get so excited. You're right there. You're in the action. And nothing, this is nothing against WWE. It's nothing against AEW. They're great too. It's just, it's a different feel because then you're in a big arena or you're in a stadium. When you're in a local, you know, like South Broadway athletic club. That's tremendous. You're in that small atmosphere. Man, it just feels like it's meant to be there. Oh man, when you, when you get out there in the ring and you're just surrounded by fans everywhere, it's, it's unlike anything else that you could ever imagine. It just makes you work harder and just makes things so much better. I mean, you, you wrestle. I mean, if there's 25 people or 600 there, you give it everything that you got. But man, when there's a ton of people out there and they're yelling and screaming from Bell to Bell, man, there's just, there's just not a feeling like it in the world. Man, it's super cool. Well, and it's like Cody Road song, right? Do it all to get them off the feet. You know, you're, you're excited waiting for the bell to ring, curtain to go up. I come out there, man, I do everything and anything I can. I'm getting them fans on their feet and ready. I'm as excited to see them as they are as excited to see me or any wrestling and I want them to have a good time. And if you, if you're coming to see Slammer, you're going to be glad to see me. Going to be entertained. You're going to be, you're going to be entertained. And speaking of entertaining, I mean, if you've been watching show me state wrestling, Ace Hawkins being stalked, I guess you'd say, by superstar Steve, a guy who's well known in the Missouri area. I wasn't super star Steve, man. I, yeah, I was the TV champion up at New breed wrestling. And in the C 2022, this is 24. So I've been there over two years now. I've only suffered two losses at new breed wrestling. I lost my popcorn title the first time, which I'm the popcorn champion again now. I lost it once and my other match I lost. I lost the TV title, superstar or Steve. Probably, I look at that match all the time. Just one of the best matches I've had Steve's awesome. He, he can work, man. He's something. And Ace, I've, I've known Ace for a while too. I've never been in the ring with him, but I've been in the locker room with him and he got his hands full man with superstar Steve. So them two locking up be worth watching. Yeah, I mean, I think you're going to see a lot of, you're going to see a lot of development here. Show me state wrestling's getting going. They're getting rolling. And as you go, you're going to see these personalities coming out and everybody's, everybody kind of knows each other. So, yeah, there's going to be some tensions that'll be simmering. Yeah, I hope the fans are really getting involved with it watching. I hope they decide that, you know, come on, come down and, you know, be, be a part of the events and the TV tapings that they got taking place. Because there's nothing like, it's one thing to watch it on TV, man. There's, there's something special about being there live watching wrestling. It's a, it's a different beast, just like going to professional football game. You watch it on TV, man. You're, you get there live. It's like, whoa, this is, this is awesome. Yeah, the, the actual impact, the contacts, the moves. I mean, everything is louder. Everything feels harder. And like I said, you're so close. You really do kind of feel it. Yeah, definitely. Now, hey, you've mentioned the social media. Where can people get in touch with you? Where can they get a little hit of slammer mania? Man, I am literally everywhere. And if you get on, let's start with Facebook, Facebook, Chris Slammer is my just regular page. You can add me as a friend on there, follow whatever you want to do. I have a slammer fan page. Go follow that and like it. I do a show every Tuesday night. Me and a buddy of mine. We do the bro show on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. Central. We talk, we talk about my adventures in the world of independent wrestling. Just like the other night, we talked about a road trip to see Hulk Hogan. We do an hour show. Lots of fun stuff. We'll show what we may have picked up. Toy wise, action figure wise, anything wrestling. Sure. A lot of fun stuff, a lot of fun chitter chatter. So we do that. I am on Instagram, Chris underscore Slammer. Let me look at my thing here real quick. X Twitter @maxgim, M-A-C-S-G-Y-M. I am on YouTube. Slammer 4878. Get on there, man. You can see all the little videos I make. All of my wrestling matches are on there. So if there's some promoter out here thinking, I got to take a look at the slammer guy. I tell you what, man, I may not do all the flippy cool moves that a lot of people do, but my style is a whole lot different than everybody else's. It's that old late 80s, early 90s. I'm just going in there body slamming people and it's awesome. I am on TikTok @ SlammerMania. Get on there, man. I'm making some cool videos and stuff. If you go on pro wrestling tees, pro wrestling tees dot com slash slammer, that'll take you directly to my store and it will get you a slammer tee. You get a slammer tee shirt there. I'm going to have some more designs put on there. I've sold enough that I can have all the designs that I want on there. I need to get some more stuff on there. Sure. I think that covers all of my all of my stuff there. So, well, hey, let's let's go to the champions around. We got the wrestling spotlight title here. I just want to ask you a few quick questions as we wind down the show here on wrestling spotlight. We're talking to slammer. He's debuting in show state wrestling. You can watch show me state wrestling right here on the channel on the wrestling spotlight. So definitely download that true TV plus app. So you can see it. You can also see it on sports.tv and carbon TV. So slammer, let me ask you. I think I have an idea. What wrestler influenced you the most? Let's say that's pretty tough for me to figure out. Of course, it was Hulk Hogan. Hulk always been my favorite wrestler since I was a little kid. I look and I got to tell him this too. I told him this shit. I was down his hangout back in October. Yeah. And we do. I've actually been to a shop several times. I've got to spend some time with him several different times now over the years. And I just, you know, I tell him I'm like, you know, man, I'm just your local little indie wrestler. I train same affairs, eat my vitamins. You told me do that when I was a little kid and I'm running with that. I'm preaching the gospel training prayers and vitamins. And he thinks that he told me he's like, man, that's really because I tell him, I'm like, you think nobody ever took your advice and did it. Just remember this crazy whole commande act did it. And he said, man, that is so cool. And I really appreciate you, brother. And that was just cool to get to tell him that. I'm a disciple of the training prayers and vitamins. So, you know, Hulk Hogan, my favorite. And he's awesome. Good enough. That's a good one. What? What pro wrestling do you watch now? What do I watch? I mean, I'm a W.W.W.W. That's what I've watched my whole life. I'll always be a W.W.F. person. I still call it W.W.F. That's what it will always be. It's getting better. It went through its time where it wasn't very good. I like A.W. I like it just fine. I look, I want all wrestling to succeed. I don't think A.W. is the greatest thing in the world. I still watch it. And it'll get better. They can, you know, get in there and fix the stuff that needs to be fixed. The B.N.A. wrestling is really hot and strong right now. And, of course, there's all the local, any wrestling. I'm out there all the time. If people want to come out and watch me, I'm all over the place. Get on my social media. As you can see, I promote everywhere I'm going to be at and every promotion. And just like show me state wrestling next week, man, August 3rd. It's going to be awesome. Come out there and watch me get some of my big boot and leg drop. And you'll go home happy. Send them home happy. Slammer sends them home happy. There we go. And I was going to ask you, what's the biggest goal you have coming up as we head into the fall? Head into the fall. Man, I want to wrestle everywhere I want to do as much as I can. Still holding out that dream, man. I need to get on Monday Night Raw one time. It's just bucket list dream, man. I just said. Somehow I got to get on Monday Night Raw and be in some sort of match. It'd be cool to be like, you know, if you get on there to be security or something, but it would be cool to just get to be on TV and just get that two seconds of getting creamed or whatever. And just say, man, I wrestled on Monday Night Raw. That's the ultimate dream. It would be awesome. We need to get you hooked up with the outrunners. I see. You know what? That's funny. I seen though. I heard of them, but I seen them on. I think they was on AEW. Was it last week? They were. My gosh, these guys are right up my alley, man. Well, they've been wrestling in Glory Pro. You can see them on the channel. So we're getting plugged. Literally in the same building, South Broadway Athletic Club. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Well, I've seen those guys. I'm like, yeah, I see a lot from here flexing tans. It's like, man, these are my brothers from another, apparently. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you guys are made for each other. Thanks a lot for joining us here on wrestling spotlight. Man, appreciate having you on. And best of luck. Keep saying those prayers, taking the vitamins, working out. Always man, train, save your prayers, each vitamins, believe in slammer. Come watch me wrestling. Come watch show me state wrestling. Watch all the wrestling on your station. It's awesome, man. It's a good time to be a wrestling fan. It's a good time to be a wrestler. Absolutely. Awesome. Thanks for joining us here. And we're pushing for slammer mania to go running wild and show me state wrestling. Run wild, brother. It's awesome.