Sports are competitive by their very nature and wrestling is no exception. And although there’s a first and second place, when done properly, everybody wins.
As Tim Gallwey, Inner Game of Tennis author turned professional excellence coach says, “Competition is the sincerest form of cooperation.” From that perspective, where the participants force each other to stretch and sweat, demanding higher performance, the first annual Corbett Cup would have to be dubbed a success on many levels.
The Venue
Brainstormed by Senior Fit4Life Manager Scott Mathews, who is a pro wrestler himself, the Corbett Cup was billed as a wrestling entertainment event to support and increase awareness for stem cell research. The recipient of this particular charitable event is the patriarch of the Corbett family to help defray some of the cost of his stem cell treatments.
Toward that end, Scott and his crew invited the pro competitors, had the ring built outside the Fit4Life Health Club Fort Bragg Road location, found the sponsors, sold the tickets and generally handled all the details associated with hosting a large event. One important component of this is the upbeat music that serves from beginning to end as part of the background energy. This element was ably handled by DJ Captn Krunch, a popular local professional music provider. Complementing his energy was a local Polynesian dance group called Alo o pasefika.
When asked about the undertaking, Mathews says, “Ever since I was a kid, while all my friends wanted to be cops, firemen or astronauts, I wanted to become a pro wrestler. I just had a passion for it. I pursued the training, started the journey through competing and now its become a viable part of the community, helping those who need it.”
The Competitors
The Zero Gravity division winner was Rob Killjoy from the Ugly Ducklings out of South Carolina. In the Open Challenge match, second place came with a nasty twist where that participant had to drink a shaker cup full of a sour brew forgotten and left in a car trunk for an undetermined amount of days. Thankfully Mitch Hurley, the “So Cal Knockout”, avoided that by prevailing over his unfortunate foe, Baron Bullard.
In the Heavyweight(really BIG guys) Match between former WWE Superstar Michael Tarver and Joshua Cutshall, Tarver was victorious in a close contest.
The Tag-Team Match featured four fierce, intense competitors when Team Fearless faced down the Airtime Rockers, led by Ryan Mills, Fitness Manager at the Goldsboro Fit4Life. Scott Mathews and former WCW Superstar ‘Lodi’ comprised the victorious Team Fearless. Goldsboro Fit4Life General Manager, Eric Vaudreuil, was the special referee of the hard-fought match.
The Corbett Cup Rumble was composed of 7 competitors when every 2 minutes a competitor entered the ring. The only way to win this match was through elimination by ejection over the top rope or by pin fall.
Champion of the event, the first Rumble King and Corbett Cup winner is a local wrestler known as D-Mack. Born and raised in Fayetteville, the Champion is an athlete who developed an intense passion for wrestling and now has 20 years of experience under his championship belt.
The Fans
Over 100 enthusiastic, vocal fans cheered wildly for the ‘good’ guys and ‘booed’ the bad guys all the while listening to trash talk among the wrestlers and responding when directed toward the seats. There was quite a range among the ticket holders as exemplified by Jayla, an FTCC intern working at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship close to the venue, who attended with her grandfather.
Jayla summarized the evening this way, “The matches were hard to predict a champion because of the athleticism of these amazing athletes. It was great how there was this banter between the competitors, but also how the wrestlers were energetically interactive with the crowd. My grandfather thought the competitor banter was amusing and he was sure to yell his own suggestions back to the wrestlers. This was a fun, memorable experience for a great cause.”
The Results
Mathews told us that he was happy to use his wrestling platform to reach people, let them take a break from the challenges and issues of daily life and contribute to a worthy charitable event. He said proceeds were still being tallied, but he was confident that the figure they’ll be presenting to the Corbett family will be four figures. He gave a shout-out to the sponsors: Fit4Life Health Clubs, Mid-South Lighting, On Point Realty, Redtro Habitat Sneaker Boutique, ABC Fitness Products, A&D Lawn Mower Repair, Fairway Motors, Steere’s Nutrition, Total Clean, VIP Kitchen, PDQ and Gotcha Back School Kickoff.
The success of the event has already led an interested party to approach Mathews about future events and he is ready to go. He suggests staying tuned to their Wrestling4Life Facebook Page and in the near future many more people will be hearing that very familiar announcement, “In this cornerrr……….”
