I invited a friend of mine, who had never been to an indie
wrestling show before, to see WrestleRex on the South Side in Pittsburgh. He was a little late coming to the show, so
he was just walking in after The Mane Event’s match. The Mane Event always seemed to open their shows,
probably because they knew that TME would get the crowd hyped. My friend came into the building while TME
was celebrating their victory and said that he didn’t know who they were, but
he thought that they were freaking awesome and just seeing them celebrating got
him hyped for the show. The stature and
energy of TME just attracts people to them, whether they are little kids
looking up to these 2 giant men with big smiles on their faces or just someone
looking to drink some beers and have a fun night.
This weekend TME will take on another team that is also named The Mane Event at Pizza Party Pro’s Cakeover event. They will battle to see who is the best Mane Event in independent wrestling. This may be the highest profile match that TME (Pittsburgh version) has had, as it will be broadcast on IWTV. However, they have faced many of the top tag teams while wrestling in the Pittsburgh area. TME has held most of the tag team championships in Western Pennsylvania. They have held the IWC Tag Team Championships on 3 different occasions. TME defeated The Fraternity in their debut match in IWC to win the IWC Tag championship for the first time. Their 2nd reign started with a win over The Regulators, Chris LeRusso & Jock Samson and included a victory over The Lethal Enforcers, Anthony Henry & JD Drake. They defeated The Regulators again to obtain the championship for the 3rd time, but lost it in their first defense, against possibly one of the best tag teams in The North. TME did get that win back eventually from The North in an amazing match that was on one of the last shows before everything shut down for the pandemic. TME have also held titles in Ryse, QCW, Premier, Pro Wrestling Express and are the current holders of the Blackcraft Tag Team Championship, which they won at the infamous No Apologies show on WM weekend.
While this version of The Mane Event may not be as well
known in independent wrestling as the other version, they have been having
outstanding matches as a team and as singles wrestlers for years. As a tag team they have been in the ring with
some of the best. Most recently they had
a great match with The Tate Twins, at OWA’s Good Trouble show, which is available
on IWTV. Along with their tremendous
feuds with The North and The Fraternity, they have also had matches against the
likes of The Cogar Brothers, Crummels & Defarge, The Butcher and the Blade,
Private Party and the Philly Marino Experience.
Both members of TME were trained at the PWX school, Ganon Jones JR by Chris LeRusso and Duke Davis by Brandon K. Ganon started his career a little bit earlier than Duke Davis. Before they started teaming together in 2017, Ganon had already had a couple of years as a successful singles wrestler. Ganon held the VOW and PWX Heavyweight titles. During this part of his career, Ganon was already showing off some of his athletic skills that will make TME the top team in the area. It is always amazing to see someone Ganon’s size come off the top for a swanton or hit a perfect dropkick. Duke Davis made his debut in 2016 and within a year pulled off an upset victory to win the PWX Heavyweight title, against one of the top wrestlers in Pittsburgh, Jack Pollock. Shortly after that title reign ended in early 2017 TME, formerly named Locked and Loaded, were formed. Duke was an intimidating person in the ring by himself, but when he and Ganon decided to team up they almost immediately started collecting championships and turning heads.
TME looks to turn some more heads and gain fans across the
country whenever they face the other Mane Event, Ringleader Midas and Jay
Lyon. Midas and Jay have been attracting
a lot of attention at Pizza Party, Camp Leapfrog and other promotions, so this
should be a very exciting and important match for both teams. Pizza Party Pro’s CakeOver will premiere on
IWTV at 9 pm on April 4th. This show
will also feature Boomer Hatfield against Erica Leigh, Kennedi Copeland against
Edith Surreal and much more fun and surprises that we have come to expect from
Pizza Party.