The Game

Maine wrestlers run the show

by Tim O'Sullivan

The Eastern Wrestling Alliance, the only professional wrestling organization based in Maine, has changed ownership. Now, the inmates are running the asylum.

A group of three EWA employees, two wrestlers, and one ominously silent partner, succeeded in wrenching the alliance from the clutches of one James St. Jean of Jay. It is unclear if this alliterative name is or is not a pseudonym. Terms of the deal were also not disclosed.

Joshua Shea, one of the new owners/wrestlers, says that this type of takeover is a first. "As far as wrestlers owning a group, this is the first I've heard of it at this level." Having first-hand knowledge of the mat and turnbuckle will give Shea and his partners a decided advantage. "Our former owner didn't understand some of the subtleties of the business, and I think that's where we'll succeed. We really understand the product."

The EWA has been staging exhibitions in southern and central Maine since 1997 and has been featured on The Today Show, MSNBC's Time and Again and MTV. Yet the alliance's drawing power has waned during the past year due to limited activity. Steven Rand, a native Mainer and the other owner/wrestler, plans to change that. Lower ticket prices, potential television appearances, a consistent Portland venue and shows on a regular, monthly basis are all part of a strategy to pump up the fan base like a flexed pectoral muscle. "We want to present one or two shows a month," says Rand, who wrestles under the name Steve Ramsey, "and get people coming back so we can give them continuing stories and so they can get to know the characters."

Indeed, the EWA is frothing with characters and plots worthy of DC Comics. Shea has also been the EWA's "booker," the creative force behind the personalities and dramas that fuel pro wrestling, and this experience will come to the fore as the EWA moves in its new direction. "As for actual story lines, we're looking at bringing more drama to the story part of it," says Shea. "Our bigger stars will be getting more time on the microphone to develop their characters."

Some of these characters include "Delicious" Dave Viscous (nee David Webber, a mild-mannered lobsterman by day) the current heavyweight champion who has never lost a match in the EWA. "The Bouncer" Larry Huntley does not conceal his everyday identity like most wrestlers and superheroes, rather, he relishes it. Larry is, you guessed it, a bouncer at the Dirty Bird in the Old Port. He utilizes his bouncing skills as both a referee and a wrestler, and his signature finishing move is a bouncer choke hold Larry refers to as "Toughlove."

Currently, Larry is looking to lay a little tough love on The Damned, EWA's tag team champions. "I don't care if I am alone or not, I will get some revenge on them," writes Larry in the EWA forum, found on the alliance Website, www.ewawrestling.com.

Every fairy tale and every wrestling organization needs a villain, and the EWA is no exception. Dr. Everette Payne is the essence of pure evil as he leads his Hardcore Institute on a quest to destroy all in their path. Dr. Payne, who hails from parts unknown, does not limit his abuse to other wrestlers, but dishes it out to the fans around Maine as well, who he refers to as "the great unwashed inbred masses," and "the dumbest fans anywhere in the world." He describes Gorham, frequent site of EWA events, as a "Xanadu of incest, bestiality, and illiteracy," and also claims that "Windham is the pimple on the buttocks of Maine, and that would mean that Gorham, geographically and socially speaking, would be the actual bunghole of Maine." The rest of his compelling diatribe is also available on the EWA Website. Undoubtedly, the feud between Dr. Payne's Hardcore Institute and the rest of the EWA will continue to go Hatfield-McCoy under the new ownership.

The first show under the new EWA regime will be held Friday, September 22, at the Shaw School in Gorham. Shea, eager to get his new business to the top rope, lays down the bottom line. "I think the fact that so many of us are from Maine makes it special," he says. "We just like putting on these shows and hopefully can make a few bucks in the process."