SAN ANTONIO – A mall, a backyard or a business park are just some of the places you’ll find it: a growing passion for professional wrestling in San Antonio, both among pros and fans.
“The wrestling scene in San Antonio — that heartbeat is bumping so loud, so hard, so fast. It’s alive and well,” David Campos, Jr., who is also known as the wrestler StudStache, said.
The Yard
Campos runs The Yard, a wrestling venue in the backyard of his family’s home on McCauley Street.
While “backyard wrestling” often carries an amateur connotation, that is not the case here.
“There’s almost something you actually cannot replicate at the top with the biggest TV companies,” said Alexx Arsenal, pro wrestler. “It’s, just, it’s sweaty, gritty, angry, and it’s in your face.”
Arsenal, who moved to San Antonio for its professional wrestling scene, is one of several wrestlers on the independent circuit who perform at The Yard.
Kalientitaa is another.
“San Antonio has such a strong and passionate fan base, and they hate me here,” Kalientitaa said with a smile. “But I know they love me. OK, they love to hate me.”
StudStache and his team, including his father who is aptly known as PapaStache, put on shows and run their own wrestling promotion called United210.
On weekdays, Campos is a special education teacher at the Harlandale Alternative Center.
He began wrestling in late 2018, years after serving as a combat medic in Iraq.
“I came back to total darkness,” Campos said. “Wrestling has given me my life back.”
“There’s David Campos the person, which, you know, he’s been through everything and the strength he has in him is almost nonexistent,” said Campos. “But then there’s StudStache the wrestler (to) where I could channel everything into that guy and just become so animated, become so alive. And that keeps me going, and I actually feed off that guy.”
Once a month on Fridays, hundreds of people pack The Yard for matches.
Campos said he has food truck operators competing for a place to park and serve the crowd. Security personnel are present, as well.
“I hope to go on and do bigger and better things, but this will, I think, always be one of the most special places I ever got to wrestle,” said Alexx Arsenal.
Dogg Pound Dojo
Some wrestlers on the independent circuit hope to move on to bigger and better things are learning from pros who’ve been there, such as Jazz the Female Fighting Phenom and Redd Dogg Rodney Mack.
The couple runs Dogg Pound Dojo out of a business park in the 9700 block of Culebra Road.
“I’m 54 years old, and I’ve been wrestling about 45 years,” said Mack, who still enters the ring today.
Jazz now produces shows for NWA, but she and Mack have wrestled for some of the biggest promotions in the sport.
“I’ve wrestled in ECW, WWF, WWE, TNA, AEW,” said Jazz. “For Wrestlemania 18, I went in as the WWF Women’s Champion, and I retained my title.”
That made her the first Black woman to do so.
Both Mack and Jazz are training the next generation of pros at Dogg Pound Dojo, from those who want to wrestle in the ring, to working in production or even on “glam teams.”
“They come through us for polishing,” said Mack. “Guys who do have that potential and talent but just haven’t been polished for TV, for pay-per-views.”
“That’s our main goal right now, just to help this younger talent to reach their goals, you know, because it’s possible,” said Jazz.
“If I made it, anybody can make it,” Mack said.
Two of their students are Santiago Medina, who’s known as Loverboy, and Nathaniel Grayson, known as The King of Darkness.
“This city is probably one of the hottest spots for wrestling for sure,” said Loverboy.
Several wrestlers KSAT spoke to compare pro wrestling in San Antonio to ice cream. There are a variety of flavors.
“There’s lucha. There’s just old school hardcore wrestling, like ourselves, and, you know, something for everyone,” said Mack.
“San Antonio is a very vast wrestling scene,” said the King of Darkness.
The Wrestling Shop
That vastness also spreads into Rolling Oaks Mall.
“Expect the unexpected, and be prepared to be entertained,” said Oscar Samarron, owner and promoter of The Wrestling Shop Trademark and Collectibles.
On the second floor of the mall, across from Hot Topic, the shop is full of wall-to-wall wrestling memorabilia with a wrestling ring smack dab in the middle.
It’s a place to shop and watch wrestling matches among aspiring pros, like Redd Davis and King Cobra.
“With one strike, that’s all it takes for me to beat someone,” King Cobra said. “No matter the size, no matter anything (sic).”
Redd Davis, whose character name is a nod to his grandfathers, said his ultimate goal is to wrestle for WWE.
“I want to prove people wrong that anything you told me I couldn’t do at a younger age, here I am,” Davis said.
“This is the independent. This is the indies,” Samarron said. “This (is) where it all starts.”
Creating The Wrestling Shop has been one of Samarron’s lifelong dreams. He fell in love with professional wrestling at a young age, like many of the promoters and performers KSAT met.
“There’s just something about it,” Samarron said. “It’s the stories, just that (sic) larger-than-life characters.”
The Hybrid School of Wrestling
Refining the characters of aspiring pros is what Casey Blackrose is all about.
“That’s my character. I’m the Modern Day Back Breaker,” he said.
Blackrose is a graduate of the Hybrid School of Wrestling, where he is now a trainer himself as he pursues his own professional wrestling career.
“I take pride in being probably the No. 1 guy here,” Blackrose said.
Meanwhile, Hybrid is largely considered the No. 1 wrestling school in San Antonio.
“We have champions all over Texas, all over (the) United States,” said Blackrose. “We work with the top promotions in San Antonio.”
River City Wrestling, known as RCW, is the top promoter in town.
“I’ve been running it for 23 years,” said Brandon Oliver, founder and creator of RCW.
Oliver said he has poured decades into his passion project that he does in addition to a full-time career.
Oliver’s love for professional wrestling dates back to his childhood.
“I would write out, you know, three-hour, pay-per-view shows with my action figures, and portray it all out,” Oliver said.
The vibe, if you will, among local wrestling promotions has changed, according to Oliver.
“Ten years ago, the promotions did not work together at all in San Antonio. I mean, it was all-out war, basically,” Oliver said. “There’s more camaraderie than there was in the past.”
RCW has worked with big names that have gone on to sign with bigger promotions.
The Von Erich brothers are among them.
Yes, those Von Erichs of generational pro wrestling fame.
The family was featured in the 2023 film The Iron Claw.
Ross and Marshall Von Erich, son of Kevin Von Erich, have both worked with RCW.
“You know, dad always spoke so highly of San Antonio,” said Ross.
“Because it’s families. It’s huge families,” said Marshall. “They bring their kids, their mom, their dad. It’s a family event. And that’s what Von Erichs are all about. We’re about the families, and so, once we experienced ourselves, it was like, ‘OK, there’s something different here.’”
When Ross and Marshall Von Erich aren’t traveling for shows working with the AEW promotion, they sometimes pop in for training at Hybrid.
Both are carving their own path in the professional wrestling world as they carry the legacy of their family name with them.
“We kind of feel like it’s probably the last form of Shakespeare in a way. Just because it’s live, and there’s one take,” said Ross. “You’re the actor and the stunt double.”
Today, the Von Erich family resides in Boerne.
“I feel like pro wrestling is becoming cool again,” said Marshall. “We really do. We feel like that.”
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