Saturday, August 31 at 1 p.m. marked the first wrestling event ever held at the Kenosee Super Slides. Jan Armstrong is proud of his time spent in professional wrestling under his moniker JS McStrongArm #worldfamous, #thevoiceofchoice, #moretalentthanyoucanswingafistat, and he wanted to offer family time to his former wrestling mates and their families, while offering his customers a look at the talent he was surrounded with during his time with Gold Dragon Wrestling, to mention just one.
The first match of the day featured Jacked Jesus aka Tommy Lee Curtis, a 232 lb. wrestler from Reston, MB who has wrestled coast to coast for 12 years and is now focusing on the USA, mainly in Minnesota and North Dakota. His opponent Mitch “Lightening” Smith hails from Moose Jaw, SK and has been wrestling since he was four-years-old. Smith went to Japan in 2005 during his high school wrestling days and turned professional in 2012. At 18-years-old, he started training and had his first match in March 2012 at Pure Power Wrestling in Lethbridge, AB against Armstrong. Lightening has an interesting background, not one most would expect from the wrestling stereotype. He is an avid dancer, with 12 years of tap, jazz, hiphop, lyrical theatre and even ballet at the Denee School of Dance. A wrestling coach at Thom Collegiate in Regina, he strongly believes that dance teaches balance, discipling and expands whatever you can do in life. He says you don’t have to fit into a mould, whatever you perceive wrestling to be, it can be. It’s not right, not wrong - like politics – it is a personal thing. In his third year of Arts Education, he looks forward to completing his degree and working in the school system as a teacher.
The second match-up featured Ella Blake from Fort Qu’Appelle. She has been wrestling for four years in Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. She wrestles to show people what strong women can do. She is the only woman ever to wrestle at the Kenosee Super Slides and looks up to “Lita” of the WWE. Her main interest in wrestling is to travel as much as possible while learning as much as possible.
Her opponent, Leo “London” has spent nine years wrestling with Premier Championship Wrestling out of Winnipeg. His style of wrestling is known as technical wrestling – meaning he is skilled at taking limbs and bending them in ways they shouldn’t in order to escape holds. He is also a university student and was drawn to wrestling as a child. Growing up with hyperthyroidism, he was an under-sized person and he quickly realized that leverage can nullify the advantage of size. He also wrestles with his brother and they are five-time Professional Canadian Wrestling Tag Team Champions. Once he completes his degree in psychology, “London” has hopes to work as a first responder in an Emergency Crisis Unit for psychological emergencies, as part of Winnipeg’s Emergency Response team.
“Agent Red” Ian Martin is originally from Brandon, MB but started wrestling training in Winnipeg during 2000. Life got in his way and he didn’t complete that training, moving to Moose Jaw. There he met Jan Armstrong, while working at a gym and driving cab. As they chatted one day Armstrong talked about his dream of opening a Mixed Martial Arts show, lamenting the many road blocks he was encountering, Red suggested he consider wrestling instead. Red shares that he became hooked on wrestling as a kid, watching it on Saturday mornings with his grandfather and that interest had never really waned. He became the first wrestler to earn a belt at Gold Dragon Wrestling in 2008 and the last one to win a belt in the company as well. Feeling his age, Red now works as a tattoo artist in Brandon and wrestles for fun at events like this.
The event at the Super Slides ended with a grudge match, as Red’s scheduled opponent, Big “Mo” Dangerous failed to appear, and Mitch Lightening stepped up. When he beat “Red”, Armstrong, who had been serving as referee suddenly became enraged and attacked him. It was too much for Big “Mo” and after a skirmish inside the ring between JS and Big Mo, in which Mo was deemed the winner, the entertainment suddenly shifted to outside the ring, as the spectators alternately cheered and booed while Lightening manhandled JS McStrongArm into the pool near the kiddie slides.
While the weather put a quick end to the wrestling, it is certain that there will be more in the future of the Kenosee Super Slides.
