Where do I start when talking about professional wrestling in Nashville? Well, let's start with the one and only Bert Prentice I suppose. And I do indeed mean the one and only. Bert more or less took up where the USWA left off when it went out of business. Bert is a throwback, and old time carney, who knows the wrestling business like the back of his hand, and relies on others not knowing it as well as him to keep going. When he's "on" he is far and away the best promoter in this area hands down. He's an excellent promoter when motivated. The problem is he's not "on" very often, and what it is that motivates him. It's money and matters of the flesh. When Bert has a money mark on the line, then he'll perk up and do something for a short while, but it never seems to last for long. Who he "likes" also very heavily dictates on who gets a push. Generally speaking Bert is bad at storylines and angles in his promotions, he's run under several different names over the years, but again, when truly motivated, he can come up with good stuff from time to time, But usually not. In recent years Prentice' has been way more off than on, though he's shown some signs of life recently, and he tends to repeat the same exact patterns over and over, only with a different cast around him. He generally speaking has the best talent in this area. Workers with the best bodies, best gear, generally just a cut above, though Bert really doesn't care about workrate at all. The list of guys who have wrestled for him over the years though is long and impressive. Batista, Randy Orton, James Storm, Chris Harris, Abyss, Hardy Boyz just to name a very few. I could go on and on mentioning names that have wrestled for Bert. He is excellent at intimidating people, and controlling people. He gets a lot out of people. He's highly intelligent. He can make otherwise intelligent people seemingly lose their common sense, while he dangles a dream under their nose. Bert is a master of this, making people think he can make them a star. He has little to no conscience. In recent years he's been fairly active dabbling in country music, no doubt using his same bag of tricks, dirty and otherwise, in that field as he does in wrestling. Bert in many ways is a one trick pony, but it's a Hell of a good trick. He reminds me of a joint that's in business for say 50 years, and is having a going out of business sale for 49 of those years. I'm trying to find words to really explain him, and it's difficult. He's a very interesting character for sure.
But since Prentice has more or less fallen off in recent years, I suppose the main thing here has been a promotion called the USWO, which is ran by long time wrestler Tony Falk, and a guy named Krull. Krull is excellent at tv production, and decent at running a lockeroom, but Falk is the face of this promotion. These guys have had TV in Nashville for over 5 years now, and have ran weekly, save for a few breaks when they had to find a new location, for close to 7 years now. Falk is somewhat of a rarity in when it comes to running a wrestling promotion in that he's truly an honest guy. I mean yeah he's a worker, but he does not lie to people. Nice guy. I don't consider him to be a good promoter, but he is steady and keeps chugging along doing his weekly shows. Falk, like Prentice, is very old school, ridiculously old school even in the way he thinks, but he's no dummy. Falk's weakness is he's out to make a buck. Now that in and itself is not a bad thing at all, but it's how he does it. His shows use a good deal of young "students" who pay to train on Sunday, then get to wrestle on Falk's shows on Fridays and Saturdays, and Falk relies on them bringing in friends and family to watch. It doesn't matter how you look, or how you wrestle, if you pay to train, and can bring a paying group of mommy and daddy in to watch you, you'll be on the show. Falk doesn't really care about having good shows, though the stuff on top is usually ok. Tony is only too willing to embrace the part of the business though, the letting anyone in who will pay and bring family.
The USWO currently runs in a banquet room in a close to downtown Nashville hotel called The Stadium Inn. The Stadium Inn is now sort of the "hub" for Nashville wrestling, and that is a good of an indicator as any of what poor shape it's really in. The Stadium Inn is a seedy joint, that could be a goldmine if it was fixed and cleaned up. It's right across the street from LP field, where the Tenneseee Titans play, so the location is spectacular, but the Inn itself is in a blight like condition. The room they run wrestling in is small, with a low cieling, 100 is a lot of people in there, and it's rarely full. There's no shortage of people who simply refuse to even go there, though I've never had any problem there, and there are many workers who don't like the place at all. Bill DeShields is yet another character on the scene, and a prominint one right now. He manages the Stadium Inn, and runs a promotion there as well called ATL. He's a guy who has no clue about the wrestling business, but likes to play big shot, and he has the same taste in wrestlers as Bert Prentice.....heh There is always 2 shows at week at the Stadium Inn, and sometimes 3 a week, and often the 2 shows use much of the same crew. It's nuts no doubt, but it's been that way for awhile now, so it's considered "normal" around here. The Friday night USWO shows though are the only ones that draw, if you consider averging 80 or so fans as "drawing". The other Stadium Inn shows in comparison draw generally between 20 and 40.
The thing in Nashville is anyone who tries to run has to totally have their ducks in a row before they start, because for sure someone will mysteriously be calling codes, the fire department, checking on insurance, anything that can be done to prevent someone from running can and has been done in Nashville. Prentice still considered it "his town", but he's hardly the only suspect in these mysterious phone calls that always seen to happen when someone wants to run Nashville. It's pathetic and comical at the same time, rats fighting over crumbs, always trying to cut the legs out from each other.
A guy named T.J Weatherby, who ran in Nashville years ago, recently has had some success running a promotion called SAW in Millersville, just outside of Nashville, and just outside where the phone calls seem to happen or be effective. Also in this same building, Reno Riggins and Krull are running a promotion that at this time is a TV taping group only, trying to use only the best talent in the area to run Sunday television tapings every few weeks, and they use Michael St. John on commentary. This is a group to keep your eye on.
Down in Columbia Tennessee, south of Nashville promoter Mike Porter has been in business for a very long time now. He has ran in Nashville several times over the years, and has had television in Nashville on the WB, and UPN in Nashville at different times over the years. But more than anything else he has ran in Columbia. He's another well known character on the local scene. He's a guy that simply won't ever quit, no matter what. In fact, some say he runs out of spite, but he's hung in there and deserves credit for it He was a long time wrestler himself. He started out in Nashville promoting by taking over for Bert Prentice, during one of Bert's numerous little "breaks" he tends to take. Porter was just supposed to be a short term guy while Bert recharged and found yet another money mark, but Porter had different ideas, he didn't want to go away, and to this day he still hasn't. Porter is a full fledged member of the NWA. His crew tends to be weak, young guys, most not wearing gear, but he keeps chugging along and running his shows, and is often in the middle of different controversies. He and Prentice have a real on again off again type of business relationship.
There are so many more I could mention. I could sit here and probably name close to 30 groups that run within say 60 miles of Nashville on some sort of a regular basis. Many of these are a promoter/wrestler pushing themselves, and draw mainly friends and family, along with some locals. One interesting one to mention is a guy who runs in southern Tennessee named Devin Domain. He's interesting because he actually has several wrestlers signed to contracts. Quite a novel idea for a small indy to do, he runs a few towns, and is known as a guy who pays no matter what the crowd is.
I guess in the end Nashville is like many places, only more burned out. It's down to just drawing the diehard fans here, along with friends and family of the little kids in the ring, and it's been that way for a long time now. Many of the diehard fans tend to have a lot of children, and this sounds bad I know, but guys like Falk and Prentice actually rely on that to keep regenerating new diehard style fans. lol
I don't really see any good prospects on the horizon here right now is a big issue. Just a bunch of little kids playing wrestler is what's been coming into it lately it what it seems like. There is still some good talent in the area, but it's the same few guys on top in too many places. A lack of veterens is hurting though, and this will be even more of a problem as years go by. But couldn't the exact same thing be said about the WWE?
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