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Pringle sets out to fulfill dreams of aspiring grapplers

Posted: Aug 30th 2006 By: mikeiles

Macho soap opera. These three words are probably what best describe the world of professional wrestling. Beyond the show of tight spandex, body slams and bravado, there is much more that goes into the presentation of faux violence that is popular across the country. The nationally broadcasted shows aside, there are local professional wrestling scenes where people can pursue there dreams of becoming professional grapplers.

One Mobilian who has fulfilled that dream and brought it back home is Bill Moody. Wrestling fans across the country probably know the man as Paul Bearer, manager for the dark WWE wrestler "The Undertaker." By day, Moody works as a mortician in the Mobile area, but to local wrestling fans he is known as Percy Pringle III, promoter for Gulf South Wrestling.

Gulf South Wrestling has been going strong for over a year, celebrating its one-year anniversary at their monthly event at The Whiskey on Government Boulevard Sunday Aug. 20, 2006.

"It was always a dream since I was a kid to be a wrestling promoter," Moody said. "When I got off the road after 14 years? I saw what local promoters were doing in the area and I was disgusted, so I did my own thing."

As the show starts, ringside announcer Curt Diamond introduces Percy to the waiting fans. Loud music blares throughout the bar as Percy dances along the ringside. The audience cheers for the local hero, who, from the look on his face, seems to be enjoying every minute of it.

He takes time to thank the owners of The Whiskey for hosting the event and the audience for coming out. "Who would have ever thought that here we would be in our home town promoting wrestling the way wrestling should be promoted," he says.

Over the past year, Moody has put together a wrestling organization rooted in the local wrestling shows he watched as a Mobile kid in the ?70s.

"We are proud to present the product we do, where you can bring your children, you can bring grandma and grandpa, and you ain?t gotta be scared that we are going to do something that is going to embarrass you," he said.

Of course, that doesn?t mean the wrestlers themselves have any problem being embarrassed, but it?s all a part of the show. There are both good guys and bad guys in the performance.

Some of the good guys are entertaining. Kornbred, at over 6-feet-tall, comes off as "slow" and carries around his trusted buddy "Plank," a 2?4 with a smiley face drawn on it with magic marker. The real fun of the show, though, is seeing the bad guys at work.

The Dog River Boys revel in the role of "bad guys." Comprised of wrestlers Aeon Flexx, Ricky Roberts and manager "Marvelous" Marcel Pringle, the evil trio is booed ib their trek around the ring. At the microphone, they do whatever it takes to anger the audience, or as the Dog River Boys call them, the "Mobilies."

"We come from the good part of town, which we call ?Dog River,?" Aeon Flexx proclaims to the audience. "You people come from all different parts, but you?re all doing one thing! You?re junking up this beautiful city! You?re making it nothing but a trashy dump! And to be honest you?ve got Dog River, and you?ve got what you people have made ? one large city called Prichard!"

While the Dog River Boys are amusing, the best of the heavies is John Saxon. He didn?t start the evening that way, though.

Somewhere near the halfway mark of the two-hour event, Saxon took the ring and the microphone for what seemed like a sincere apology to Moody, in his role as Percy Pringle. According to hearsay, Saxon "lost it" during last month?s match and struck Percy. After some talk about the tough life on the road, Saxon puts his hand out to Percy to receive a hang shake and as Percy puts his out ? BAM! Saxon takes him out.

Pringle hits the floor, blood running down his face.

After hitting Pringle as he was down, taunting him by calling him "boy," Saxon screams at him so loudly that he doesn?t need the PA for the crowd to hear.

"Are you out of your mind?! Apologize to you I don?t think so! I don?t think so Pringle! I will never apologize to you, you scumbag! You?re the reason I can?t get anywhere in this game! You?ve been keeping me down! Just like all you worthless damn people!"

At this point, the audience starts to cheer, but not for Saxon. Security runs in one by one to try and take Saxon out, but each man is knocked down by the raging wrestler. Even Pringle?s son, working the sound booth, jumps in the ring to help save his father. Saxon takes care of him too.

"Try to save him boy!" he yells as he hits the younger Pringle crawling on the ground. Percy, handcuffed to the ring, calls out for his son. The blood is still on his face from earlier. The audience is yelling and screaming.

A woman yells to the announcer to let her get in the ring so she can "knock his [Saxon?s] ass out!"

After the surprisingly convincing drama, though you know it?s not real, it?s easy to see why Saxon is becoming one of the big bad guys in the Gulf South Wrestling scene.

"I?ve been primarily a bad guy most of my career," Saxon said in an interview several days later. "We seemed to be lacking somebody with a bad guy image. Personally, I only know how to be a bad guy one way, and that?s to go all out."

But that?s not really John Saxon talking, it?s Mark Thompson. Thompson lives in Biloxi and will soon be the owner of the Body Shop Gym. Like Pringle, Thompson is living his childhood dream of being involved in professional wrestling.

"Growing up I was a huge fan of wrestling. I was an athlete, a baseball player. I also played football for many years. When the football career ended, I had to find something else to do and wrestling seemed like the natural thing to do," Thompson said.

Thompson has been involved in wrestling for 14 years, and it hasn?t always been an easy road to walk.

"Nothing about being a professional wrestler is easy," Thompson said. "Depending on what level a guy is at, the money is not always great. The travel is horrendous. There are a lot of times you miss out on family functions, kids? birthdays. The damage to your body. You try to stay in shape year round. Every aspect of it is hard."

Despite all one has to go through to stay in professional wrestling, it?s all worth it for Thompson because of his performance in the ring. "I like to put on an athletic match," he explained. "That?s something I still believe in. I think people in the South especially may not go for the theatrics as much, but still appreciate wrestling for the guys that are still athletic and good going and just really put on a good wrestling match. In a good, professional, wrestling show you are going to see a little bit of everything. You?re going to see athletics. You?re going to see acting. You?re going to see drama. You are going to be surprised. I think professional wrestling has all the elements that make up entertainment."

Back in the ring, the moment was filled plenty of drama and entertainment for the audience. Of course, most of it is scripted before the show.

"Every show is an installment. I have help, but I am basically the head writer," Moody says the day after the match. "It just comes out of my head. I just tell stories, I?m a storyteller."

Moody is having fun with the John Saxon story. "We?ve turned him into the ultimate heel," Pringle says. "I can get back at him as my character though."

After Saxon exits the ring, Percy is still lying on the floor, yelling for someone to take the handcuffs off. Some members of the audience are cheering while others are laughing at the drama that has occurred in the center of the ring. But the promoter has yet to get his last words in.

"This is my son!" Percy screams at the top of his lungs. "John Saxon, you don?t mess with my flesh and blood brother!" The audience starts to clap. Some even yell for the firing of John Saxon. "No I?m not going to fire him! That would be the easy way out! I?ve worked for Vince McMann for 14 years. You don?t fire him. Payback is hell!" Pringle yells.

The audience claps and cheers for him, but Pringle already knows how it is going to turn out.

"The good guy always wins," he says later. The Gulf South Wrestling employees collect themselves and the matches (and the story) go on. Beneath the testosterone-filled soap opera antics, Percy Pringle remembers why he loves what he does.

"I?m getting to entertain people and see the looks and there faces," he says.

For him, an entertainer who has performed for people in arena-sized venues across the world, there is nothing better for him than "standing in front of 300 in Mobile."