Local Wrestling Promotion Strives For Excellence With Upcoming Event

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Fresh off a heatwave, Windsor’s wrestling promotion is set to give fans a lesson in physicality.

Taking place at St. Clair College’s main campus on Saturday, November 5th, Border City Wrestling (BCW) will host their biggest event of 2016. Following August’s Heatwave, the show (called Excellence) will deal with the fallout and continue to push things forward.

“Before Heatwave’s Main Event of Cody Deaner & Tyson Dux vs. Johnny Devine & Jon Bolen, Scott D’Amore announced that the winning team would be able to make both teams matches for Excellence,” said BCW partner, James Trepanier. “Devine & Bolen were victorious after outside interference and D’Amore announced three matches for Excellence. Devine and Bolen will challenge for the Can-Am Tag-Team Championships, Deaner will defend the BCW Can-Am Championship against a mystery opponent of D’Amore’s choosing and Tyson Dux will face Kongo Kong and Scott D’Amore in a Handicap Match.”

Having been with the company since 2004, Trepanier has an eye for wrestling. When it comes to Excellence, he says Dux has a lot to prove following his appearance on World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Cruiserweight Classic. At 7′, Kong and his mentor D’Amore already have a big advantage — no pun intended.

Due to some major announcements from BCW management however, Dux will now have some help.

No longer a handicap match, TNA Impact founder, multiple-time World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and WWE champion “Double J” Jeff Jarrett will pair-up with Dux for a tag-team main event. Also representing Impact wrestling on the show, Knockouts champion and Hall Of Famer Gail Kim will be a guest referee. She’ll officiate CMLL-Reina International Champion Heidi Katrina’s title defense against Rosemary. Johnny Swinger is also hoping to get revenge in a rematch from last year’s event as he takes on TNA’s Moose — a Can-Am Wrestling School graduate along with Kim and Rosemary respectively.

BCW management has also created a level playing field for the night’s Can-Am Championship match. After revealing Impact wrestling’s Aron Rex (formerly WWE’s Damien Sandow) as Deaner’s opponent, they announced that Anthony Carelli (formerly WWE’s Santino Morella) would be in the champion’s corner. The decision was made to counter any involvement from D’Amore.

Looking at the promotion’s current talent, Excellence is a stacked card. Psycho Mike Rollins will fight Jake O’Reilly, while the annual Doug Chevalier Memorial Gauntlet features Toro Acero, Benjamin Boone, The Mysterious Movado, Amazing N8 Mattson, Mr. Adventure Stone Rockwell, Playboy Johnny, Randy Reign, Sebastian Suave, Muscles Marinara, John E. Bravo, and the Genetic Jackpot Joe Coleman in a possible high-flying match of the night.

A triple-threat match is also scheduled between Idris Abraham, Tarik and Aiden Prince. On the tag-team front, Bolen and Devine will get a Can-Am Tag-Team Title shot against Brent Banks and Phil Atlas, who will also defend their championship against The Fraternity along with A1 and Bobby Sharp in a four-way match.

This year’s event marks the sixth at St. Clair College since 2012. In addition to entertaining wrestling fans, it’s a partnership that’s been beneficial for everyone involved behind the scenes as well.

“What is so special about these shows is that they are full scale live television productions that are a big part of the curriculum for St. Clair College’s Entertainment Technology students,” said Trepanier. “So students work for weeks on every aspect of the production from rigging and lighting, staging, sound, pyrotechnics, filming, etc. It’s a great partnership because it gives St. Clair’s students a very unique and valuable experience as they head into the field of Entertainment Technology, and at the same time it allows BCW to provide much greater production values to our audience than we would without the partnership.”

This has translated to many memorable moments for BCW. At their first event in October 2012, Dux fought Atlas in a steel cage. From there, they welcomed New Japan Pro Wrestling talent like Shinsuke Nakamura in May 2014 and adopted the Excellence name from their guest Bret “The Hitman” Hart later that year. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Booker T, Rhino, Scott Steiner, Carlito, Rikishi, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, Hurricane Helms, Victoria, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada, are some of the names who have appeared at St. Clair College over the years as well.

Further showcasing past talent, BCW’s new website presents their history in one place. Although plans are to feature exclusive content in the future, for now it’s a great way to see how far they’ve come.

“So far the reaction has been very positive,” said Trepanier. “I think the coolest part of the site right now is our Roster section. In addition to our current roster, we highlight over 120 of the huge names that have been in a BCW ring since 1993 as well as our BCW Hall of Fame and Graduates of the Can-Am Wrestling School. It’s a pretty amazing and humbling visual and it really paints a cool picture of BCW’s place in history.”

Speaking of their Can-Am Wrestling School, BCW’s training facility was recently revamped and relaunched in September. Now running for 12 weeks, the new schedule and curriculum has been a success for everyone involved. Another 12 week program will start on January 16th  and anyone who is interested can find more information at the Can-Am page on BCW’s website.

Those hoping to get closer to some wrestlers can also do so this Sunday: Spreading the word about Excellence, a few will be at Retrorama Classic Collectibles Con.

“[Retrorama organizer] Michael Michalski reached out to us before our Heatwave event this summer and with similar audiences we were more than happy to work with him in cross-promoting our events,” said Trepanier. “With Johnny Devine, Scott D’Amore, and Phil Atlas appearing at Retrorama this year we will hopefully help bring more fans to his event and his event will do the same for us.”

Fans looking to buy tickets to BCW Excellence can do so at their website. The nearly sold-out show has both general admission and reserved seating, the latter a part of a VIP meet and greet package. GA tickets are $15 while VIP seats are between $35-$45, depending on location.

With so much action planned, BCW is set to make the weekend a smash hit.