By By Matthew Nascone
The Escambia Academy gym was bursting with wrestling excitement Friday night as the All-American Pro Wrestling group from Pensacola took hold of Canoe.
Jerry "Mr. Electricity" Reiner defended his All-American title and many other matches went off without a hitch. The night was a success, according to Doug "Seymore Cash" Chandler.
"We were pleased with the turnout Friday night," Chandler said. "Usually when this group does this for the first time in an area the turnout is not good, but we had well over 100 people and that is great."
Chandler said Johnny Angel, the group's promoter, wants to come back to the Academy. The group has an event once a month at the National Guard Armory in Brewton and they are working on an event in Milton, Fla. to make what Chandler calls a "circle of entertainment."
All-Pro came to EA to help raise money for the school and the night saw more than $500 raised, according to Chandler.
"It was great to see the community come out and support the Academy like they did," Chandler said.
Chandler spent many hours putting the event together and bringing it to the Academy. His efforts were not overlooked.
"I am very appreciative of Doug Chandler heading up the operation," EA headmaster Betty Warren said. "I know Doug put a lot of work into making it work and we thank him for that. And I am glad everything went well Friday."
The matches seemed to make the crowd happy.
"Everybody was pleased with the matches," Chandler said. "I got positive feedback about all the excitement. People who had never seen live professional wrestling were amazed at how exciting it really is."
Chandler also had a few surprises up his sleeve for the audience.
"A lot of people who know me were surprised to see me up there acting as Seymore," he said. "They didn't envision me being able to talk like I did as Seymore. It was fun because it has been five years since I have done this. I was a little nervous, because I basically act out the character and I have a script. But I feed off the audience and get them stirred up and go from there. I enjoyed doing it again."
Chandler said the wrestling group should be back sometime soon and he wanted to thank all the community members who came out to support the fundraiser.