Coming off a sellout event showcasing two former WWE superstars, Empire State Wrestling (ESW) will return to the St. Johnsburg Fire Hall, located at 7165 Ward Road, North Tonawanda, NY on Saturday, August 20 featuring extreme wrestling icon Raven. The bell time is set for 6 p.m. with doors opening at 5 p.m. Pre-sale tickets are $12 and can be purchased ahead of time online at eswwrestling.com. Tickets can also be bought at the door on the day of the event for $15.
Notorious for his extreme-style of wrestling and grunge rock looks, Raven wrestled for nearly every major professional wrestling promotion in the 1990s and 2000s, including World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Ring of Honor (ROH) and Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling. In honor of Raven’s appearance, newly named ESW commissioner Jimmy Olsen announced that there will be a “Raven’s Rules” match – a no disqualifications bout. Two longtime ESW mainstays will continue their bitter feud in this specialty match as Kevin Bennett takes on Chris Cooper.
There will be several matches featuring some of the premier independent wrestling talent in North America. Two of the fastest rising female stars on the independent wrestling scene will face off, as Heidi Lovelace will take on Maria Manic. Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s R.J. City is set to wrestle against Cleveland, Ohio’s Gregory Iron. Niagara Falls-native Vince Valor will also take on former ROH star Cloudy.
Many of Western New York’s top independent professional wrestlers will also be showcased at the event. Among them, Bill Collier will cash-in the Ilio DiPaolo Memorial Cup for a shot at regaining the ESW Heavyweight Title against Will Calrissian.
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ESW promotes eight shows a year, primarily held at the St. Johnsburg Fire Hall, boasting crowds of over 400 wrestling fans, who come to cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys of the sport. Twice a year, larger “super show” events are held at the Kenan Center in Lockport, drawing crowds of up to 1,000. Founded in 2002, ESW is an independent professional wrestling promotion run by Brett Stymus of Lockport. Over half of the performers involved in ESW reside in the Western New York area. For more information or to schedule an interview with anyone mentioned above, please reach out to [email protected].