On March 22, students dropped their studies for a few hours and headed to the Roche Sports Complex to watch wrestlers drop their opponents.
The Student Activities Board hosted a National Wrestling Alliance Championship International Wrestling competition, an event that attracted more than 200 students, as well as many people from the town.
“Wrestlerama was basically the fulfillment of everyone’s childhood dreams. It was the most fun I have ever had here at Hillsdale,” freshman Ben Jiles said. “Honestly, the whole event was a blast. It was just so bizarre and out of the Hillsdale College norm that it was really fun.”
Combatants clothes-lined, punched, and body-slammed each other for two and a half hours on Saturday.
“Think of it as a violent play — a bunch of guys jumping around doing crazy acrobatics,” senior Derek Fields said. “Sometimes people get hurt, but that’s not the intention. They practice big moves, but the rest is improvised mostly.”
Jiles said the more you understood it was fake, the more you could get into it.
“It was like watching a play, except with chains,” Jiles said.
This was the first professional wrestling show that the college has hosted in recent memory. There are currently no plans to host a similar event next year. However, the Student Activities Board and the new Director of Student Activities senior Anthony Manno may choose to do so.
“Based on its success, I would think that there’s a good chance that we could have it next year. It was an incredible atmosphere — high energy and a lot of yelling,” current Student Activities Director Amanda Bigney said. “Everyone was fired up. I had never seen anything like it before, besides a basketball game.”
A college employee who is associated with the NWA approached Bigney about having the event on campus. The administration agreed, with the conditions that students get in for free and a $3 charge be applied to community members and faculty. According to Bigney, the college made a small amount of money from the event.
“Students from lots of different crowds went out to it,” Fields said. “It wasn’t the kind of event you would expect at Hillsdale, but it was a nice change of pace. It was just a really good time.”
