Jefferson Countians who enjoy professional wrestling may soon have the chance to attend regular shows close to home.
The Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance (MMWA) is scheduled to hold a show at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 18, in a venue at 1515 Miller Road in Imperial.
If the show is successful and a schedule can be worked out with the venue’s owners, MMWA may hold monthly shows at the same location.
“The hope is to be back,” said Anthony Castaldi, owner and promoter of MMWA. “If it is a good fit for everybody, I would love to be there every month.”
The MMWA holds a show on the second Saturday of every month at the South Broadway Athletic Club, 2301 S. Seventh St., in St. Louis.
One of the organization’s regular performers is Brian Johnson, a 45-year-old Arnold resident who wrestles under the persona, “Kahyman,” named after a character in Anne Rice’s vampire novel series.
Johnson said he is excited about performing in front of a hometown crowd.
“It is tremendous to expand out of the city (of St. Louis) and into Jefferson County,” Johnson said. “It is a completely clean market. No one is out there, especially in the Imperial, Arnold, Festus, Herculaneum area. It is a giant, untapped market.
“There is a lot of interest. People are excited that we are running out there. It seems a large number of people who come to see the show at South Broadway are from this area. There also are some people from the area who have been interested but just didn’t want to come into the city. This is kind of a win-win for everybody right now.”
Tickets for the show cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door for adults. Tickets for children ages 6 to 12 cost $5, and children 5 years and younger may attend for free. Tickets may be purchased at the venue or by contacting the promotion through its Facebook page, “MMWA Professional Wrestling.”
On the night of the show, doors will open at 6:30 p.m., with the first match set to start an hour after that.
“We are more than happy to meet up with people to run tickets out to them and do whatever we need to do to get it done,” Johnson said.
He said June 2 that the MMWA already had sold about 200 tickets, and the organization plans to sell up to 450 tickets for the event.
The seating is general admission, but customers may request a table or seat near the ring be reserved for them, Johnson said.
“We will try to accommodate everyone, but if you don’t make a request, we encourage people to come early to find a spot they want to watch the show at,” Johnson said.
The show
MMWA has announced four of the bouts for an expected seven-match card.
Johnson is set to square off against Jared Meyer, 30, of O’Fallon, who wrestles under the persona “Frodo the Ghost.” Johnson and Meyer have a history together because the two used to wrestle as a tag team called “Torment.”
“He is a great guy,” Johnson said. “We were pretty successful. We had a good run. Then injury forced him out for a while, and I went back out on my own. The storyline when he came back was, is the old tag team going to get back together and reunite or is it going to be horrible? It is going to be horrible.
“As much as I am a spectacle, so is he with his lime green mohawk.”
Johnson wears a white mask splattered with paint or a squid-like mask called an “evil German Skull” when he wrestles. He dresses in all black, and as part of the theatrics, his daughter, Shayla Johnson, walks him out to the ring under the persona “Abigail.”
“She is billed as being 180 years old, and the leader of the stable (also known as a group of wrestlers), the Coffin Club,” said Johnson, whose daughter turns 11 on June 15. “It is like we do her bidding.”
Enrique Cruz, 41, whose wrestling name is “The King of Chaos Ricky Cruz,” also lives in Arnold, and he is slated to take on a wrestler named Jayden Dominic Rose.
“He is a tremendous wrestler,” Johnson said of Cruz. “Just him being on a card attracts people.”
Keith Smith Jr., 26, of Soulard, who is billed as “the Godfather of the Mustache Mafia,” is scheduled to fight DeAngelo Hayden, 34, of north St. Louis County, whose wrestling persona is “The P.O.D. Damion Cortess.”
The other announced match features Bill Talley, 44, of Warrenton, whose wrestling name is “The Butcher Damian Blade,” and he will take on a wrestler named “The Bad Boy PT Beckham.”
Other wrestlers expected to perform at the show include Jason Patton, 46, of north St. Louis, whose wrestling name is “D Mon G,” and CJ Berry, 31, of St. Louis, who goes by the name “CJ Shine.”
Castaldi, 45, of Dupo, Ill., said he believes MMWA has put together a great show for Jefferson County, adding that audience members will enjoy watching Smith, Johnson, Cruz and Talley.
“Those four guys are a force to be reckoned with,” Castaldi said. “If you have those four on the card, you better believe it will be an amazing show.”
MMWA
Castaldi took over running MMWA following the death of his uncle, Tony Casta, on May 4, 2020.
Casta wrestled under the persona “Little Dynamite Tony Casta” for more than 40 years, Castaldi said.
“He groomed me into what I am as a wrestling promoter,” Castaldi said. “Everything I have learned I learned from him. My goal is to keep his legacy going all over this area with MMWA. That is my plan, and nothing is going to stop me.”
Johnson said MMWA has run its monthly shows in St. Louis since April, after having to shut them down for about a year because of COVID-19. He said the shows in April and May were well attended.
“The reception by the fans and demand for tickets has been tremendous,” Johnson said. “People are starving to get out and take in some cheap entertainment. We can supply that, which is fantastic.
“The best part is with a lot of restrictions being lifted (in St. Louis), we can up our capacity at (South Broadway Athletic Club) as well. June is the first time we will sell tickets at the door instead of doing everything presale. That is a huge step for us to get back to where we were.”
Johnson said MMWA leaders hope to run up to four shows a month with its regular show at the South Broadway Athletic Club, another show in north St. Louis and possibly a monthly show in Imperial, as well as potentially another one in a St. Louis location.
“Our organization is actually rapidly expanding,” Johnson said. “(Casta) groomed (Castaldi) to take over. It is helping us move in a good direction.
“Being able to bring something like this to Jefferson County is wonderful.”