A group of local pro wrestlers took part in an all-Kauai tag team match during a show on Oahu last weekend.
Brothers Ross and Marshall Adkisson teamed up against Noah Gusman and Isaac Worth in Action Zone Wrestling event “Reckless Abandon” at the Waianae Boys at the Waianae Boys and Girls Club on Saturday.
In the ring, however, the Adkissons — natives of Texas who now reside in Kapahi — take on the Von Erich moniker. The brothers are the sons of World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer Kevin Von Erich.
Gusman goes by the ring name “The Kauai Kid” Noa Kaho’mana, and Worth is called Chris Wilde.
“We’ve done a couple of shows in the past for (AZW). He reached out to us a while back,” Ross said on Thursday. “Just offered us if we wanted to wrestle. Noah was already invited to the card, and we mentioned Isaac. A couple of guys weren’t able to show up, so it was a perfect opening.”
On Kauai, the four train together. In fact, it was the Adkissons who showed Gusman and Worth the ropes.
Gusman, of Puhi, has been training with the Von Erich brothers for about two years, and Worth has been training for about one year.
Originally, they weren’t supposed to wrestle each other in Waianae.
“Ross and I, we heard a week in advance that we’d be wrestling each other,” Marshall said. “We were skeptical at first because these guys, they’re like our brothers. We’ve trained so many times. But then, we just thought about it. It’s really nothing out of the ordinary. It’s just like another training session because every training session, we give it all we got. It’s just, ‘OK, guys. Let’s do our thing.’ We really felt like we were more representing Kauai all together.”
While the Adkisson brothers have been wrestling for years, Gusman and Worth each just have a handful of matches under their belts.
This was Gusman’s fifth match, while this was just Worth’s second.
“I finally got a chance to beat them up,” Gusman said jokingly of taking on the teachers. “It was different. You kind of want to hold back, but then you’re having fun because you know they’re alright with it. So, we just go at it and gave it all we got.”
This was Gusman’s third match with AZW.
“I’ve gained a lot of experience. Everyone I’ve worked with so far, they gave me a lot of feedback,” Gusman said. “I’ve been improving. And also, I’ve had a big confidence boost since last time. Last match, they said I was good. Just had a little tweaking to do. I put a little spice on everything, you know? I couldn’t wait to get back in the ring. Little did I know it was against these guys.”
For Worth, of Lihue, it’s a recent career change after competing in amateur mixed martial arts for about 10 years.
While the door isn’t completely shut on MMA, Worth said he’s fully focused on pro wrestling at the moment.
“Getting into it and going over the different motions, I realized because I spent 10 years fighting, a lot of the moves, I already know. And also, I’ve been watching it since I was 5 and I fell in love with it,” Worth said. “Visually, I’ve already imprinted a lot of the different motions and movements from wrestling. … There’s still little things I need to get right and get smoother about, but it’s all good.”
Marshall said wrestling against them in a show was like “watching your kids grow up.”
“I look at them, of course, as brothers because we train with them,” Marshall said. “It’s a surreal moment when the song is on and we’re in the ring looking at each other competitively. It’s not so much a friendship anymore because we all have the same thing in mind — give it everything we have.”
At the AZW show in Waianae, the Von Erichs defeated Kaho’omana and Wilde in a 20-minute match in front of a crowd of about 100 people.
Ross did the honors for the win with the Von Erich signature move “The Claw.”
“I caught Isaac. He jumped off the top rope with a Superman punch. I caught him in a triangle (choke),” Ross said. “He picked me up for a power bomb. I squirmed behind him and put him an a rear-naked choke, a sleeper hold. And from there, I applied the Von Erich Claw.”
Though pro wrestling is a new undertaking for Worth, the Adkisson brothers say he’s already shown natural ability.
Worth had his first career match in Texas, where the Adkissons also were part of the show. There, he did an interview with well-known announcer and interviewer “Mean” Gene Okerlund.
“He told our guy that he (Worth) was one of the best guys on the microphone naturally,” Marshall said. “He couldn’t believe it was one of his first times. People were already saying he’s Kurt Angle because he’s picked up wrestling so fast.”
The four Kauai wrestlers will head to Dallas, Texas in April and wrestle for promotion Imperial Wresting Revolution, for which the Von Erichs are the tag team champions.
Then, the Von Erichs will take part in shows abroad. They’ll be in Australia in May, and then Israel and the England in November.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
