Channing Decker and Trent Gibson aren’t just travelling, professional wrestlers from east Toronto; they’re entertainers, entrepreneurs, and most importantly, an active part of the Greek community.
The duo, known in the ring as the tag team, The Fraternity, also own a wrestling company, Greektown Wrestling, which is holding its seventh live event Sunday, Dec. 17 on Pape Avenue.
Through these events, held every three or four months, Decker and Gibson are giving wrestling fans in East York a chance to experience wrestling in person, getting up close with the pros, and now the community is giving back their support, eager to be entertained.
“It certainly feels like we are the children of the village if you will,” said Decker. “Everybody will see us in the street, ask us about the event, talk about the event. They’re so supportive, coming out in droves and it’s all the more fun for us.”
Sunday’s event will feature no less than eight matches and around 24 wrestlers, and much like all six previous shows, this seventh instalment has been carefully curated to include wrestlers selected based on qualities like presence, poise, ability, and status. Decker says there’s no feature match because every match should offer something different for the audience.
“We just try to find the absolute best talent from all over North America to bring to our own backyard to really provide the best possible entertainment,” says Decker. “You know, loud characters with lots of ability who are not unfamiliar with entertaining a wide spectrum of individuals.”
Gibson, who describes himself as the calmer of the pair, admits he didn’t ever expect to become a pro wrestler, but after seeing the audience grow to over 250 people, is embracing the outpouring of local support.
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“It’s something different. There are people of all ages, booing and cheering, finding wrestlers they like. You may not know what you’re getting into at the start, but by the end of it, these people love it. We have people who have never watched wrestling come back to the next shows, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Chris Antaras, event sponsor for Greektown Wrestling and owner of Detroit Eatery on the Danforth, has lived in the neighbourhood for over 40 years and says after seeing Decker in a show downtown, helped bring the event closer to home.
“It brings a lot of people together. I mean, wrestling and Greeks go hand in hand, since the dawn of time, so it’s a perfect event,” Antaras said. “People really enjoy it and get right into it, they love it.
“Just come out, you will leave wanting more,” he said.
Stacy Samaras is a local business owner and has taken her five sons to two Greektown Wrestling shows. After the first event, going back was an easy decision.
“My kids loved it. Everybody was so excited to see Channing and they’re just entertained, it was awesome. It’s so nice to see everyone roll with it and have a good time.”
Like most kids who grew up in the 1990s, The Fraternity were fans of wrestling, they used to play fight in the basement. Gibson cites The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan as his childhood heroes while Decker says, as an adult, he’s found ways to emulate some of the pros he admired.
“Guys like Scott Steiner, Big Poppa Pump kissing his bicep, maybe Diamond Dallas Page, the everyman, the blue-collar hero,” says Decker. “If I can be half the entertainers they were, I think I’ll be doing alright.”
Wrestling is sometimes looked down upon as fake or lowbrow, but as Decker points out, it isn’t just about wrestling, it’s about how you entertain.
“This is not about fake fighting, it’s about real entertainment, interacting with people and offering an experience they won’t get anywhere else.”
“Somebody told me last week that wrestling was fixed and I told him, I didn’t know it was broken,” says Gibson. “The point of it is the performance, the fun, is getting to boo and cheer the good guys and bad guys and just enjoying it for everything it is.”
Miracle on Greektown is Sunday, Dec. 17 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., at 864 Pape Ave. with an after-party at Detroit Eatery at 389 Danforth Ave. You can purchase tickets and find out more about the show here.