Southern Discomfort: Wrestling on the Indie Circuit

I was the Ref in this movie and had a great time doing it, it will always take me back to the days when I was helping rick Montana haul this heavy ring in and out of high schools and National guard armory's all over Alabama. I met some great guys and some not so great guys, I met famous and infamous all in the same night. Some made it but more were left at ringside broken and bloody made to work for $20.00 and a hot dog per night.

I live in the same town as David F. Friedman and use to go see him often but have not in a while, Great man with hundreds of stories and plenty of things in his personal collection to share with you if you stop in.

Watch this movie if you want to see a real "outlaw" show and how it was put together.

I enjoyed this documentary immensely, it shows the life of wrestlers on the indie circuit, men (and women) who slog it out in small gyms and halls all across the south.



By following a few wrestlers it gives you a spectrum of who is out there wrestling, from the once big name wrestler to the guy who was always an indie but happy at that level to the restaurant manager who wrestles in his spare time. They discuss why they do it, what they get out of it (and don't) and what their life is like.

A side note... early on in the film you see a man putting up wrestling posters on poles and barn walls, he is later seen at a match, selling tickets and promoting. It isn't mentioned in the movie at all, but this man is known as a legendary classic exploitation film promoter, David F. Friedman. It was a pleasant surprise to see him in this film and to see that he is still on the road promoting, promoting, promoting!

Highly recommended, especially if you live in the South and/or have seen those cheap indie wrestling posters around and wondered what was behind all that. As a small mini-film festival, I'd recommend Henry Winkler's old movie "The One And Only" and the recent expose documentary that came out on the WWF.