— Producer/Director John Philapavage recently spoke about the reaction that Barbed Wire City received at the Southside Film Festival in Bethlehem PA over the weekend. Here what he had to say…
“The film festival was a great experience. It was what I hoped for, and I’m hopeful there are more. Right now we’re submitted to six others, waiting for responses, with more to be submitted to in the next few months. But as for the Southside Film Festival, my favorite moment was a very charismatic sixty-year-old woman named Natalie in the audience who knew nothing about wrestling. During the screening she sat towards the back, so I could hear her audible reactions. She was shocked and fascinated by all this. All of her impressions and the logical progression of how she tried to take this all in was what I knew was out there, but was waiting to fully see. It’s one thing when non-fans who know you personally see this and talk to you about it, it’s another when someone you don’t know (and a female) stands up at the Q&A afterwards and gushes, “I never knew this world existed. I can’t believe this was real. I was wondering why they did this or that, and how they weren’t millionaires, and I had these preconceived notions, and then you see these guys talk, and they are charming, and in many cases articulate, and you are rooting for them, and yet you still don’t fully understand their mindset until they tell you why they did it and you really think about it from their perspective.” Natalie stayed after to ask me a bunch of other questions, as did a local couple who had only heard of WWE.
The other cool thing was wrestling fans that did come, or festival staff members coming up, talking about how they have the DVD and their wife watched it with them, and that she stayed through the whole thing and was fascinated by the whole subculture and the ups and downs of the story. The story always start with, “hey, I gotta tell you, my wife hates wrestling, but…” You got some wrestling-centric questions at the Q&A, but several questions were about self-mutilation and blading, because most people still think everything must be “fake,” or asking how Michael Manna (Stevie Richards) got caught up with these people. (laughs). People still love New Jack. People still are fascinated by the scene with Balls and Axl at Extreme Reunion. Some things are consistent, and others are more in line with how you think someone outside of the wrestling bubble would react. Great experience, like I said.”
— Here is the updated card for the June 29th Wrestling Cares Association event. The show takes at the VFW Post 3261 in Gardena, CA…
Adam Pearce vs. Adam Page
Johnny Gargano vs. Chase Stevens
Brandon Gatson vs. Willie Mack
DJ Hyde vs. Drake Younger
Antonio Thomas vs. Alex Reynolds
BJ Whitmer vs. Shaun Tempers
Timothy Thatcher vs. Oliver John to determine alternate position in tournament
EWF’s Fallen Empire vs. Millennium Pro Wrestling’s Logan X & JJ Steele for the first time ever
Maria Kanellis will host the evening
— Family Wrestling Entertainment returns to iPPV on June 21st with the following card…
FWE Heavyweight Championship Match: Carlito defends vs. John Morrison
No Disqualification Match: Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer
FWE Tri-Borough Championship Match: Paul London defends vs. Akio Yang
Maria Kanellis & Ivelisse vs. Angelina Love & Katarina
Brian Kendrick vs. Petey Williams
The Young Bucks vs. Anthony Nese & Jigsaw
30 Man Rumble – Rumble winner gets a future shot at any FWE title! Rumble Participants:
-The Patriot
-Jorge Santi
-Paul London
-Mike Bennett
-VSK/Ej Risk (Adrenaline Express)
-Sam Shields
-Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks)
-Joey Ace/Jason Gotti (Diamond Inc.)
-Bandido Jr.
-Alex Reynolds
-Chris Mordetzky (fka Chris Masters)
-Damien Darling
-StoneCold ET
-Wesley Draven Turner
-Akio Yang
-JKO
-Plus MORE!
You can order the show at this link.
