By Sam Robinson, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@altaine)
Relevant personal background – I was a big fan of ICP when I was a teenager into my early twenties. I fell off, but still consider myself a fan years later now that I’m 40.
Independent music artists, and former wrestlers and managers the Insane Clown Posse have been running an independent wrestling promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling on and off for the last 20-plus years. They have featured aging legends from many old promotions, and indy standouts from the mid aughts (00’s). Mostly these cards have been staples of ICP’s annual festival, the Gathering of the Juggalos that happens every summer in the midwest.
Recently, at the start of September 2024 JCW has been putting up episodes of their new “TV show” JCW Lunacy. So far, gone are the aging legends, but the indy standouts from the mid aughts are still here, though they are now the veterans. JCW’s Lunacy comes to us from night club venues with crowds full of Juggalos (ICP fans) clad in clown face paint who are pretty into what they’re seeing. The darkness of the nightclubs are filled with spot and strobe lights, colorful banners and even a ring apron and skirt full of color too. It’s all very much in theme for the colorful clowns who promote these shows.
The first four episodes did a really good job of showcasing the talent the promotion will be built around with backstage interviews, hype video packages every episode set to ICP songs and some decent to good in ring action. The announce team consists of “The Straight Laced Juggalo” Joe Galli from the NWA and former wrestler and ICP homie Mannie Fresh, not the semi famous rapper. Galli is a very good commentator calling the action and trying to help the viewer understand what they are seeing. Fresh isn’t a great commentator but his enthusiasm can be contagious at times and overbearing at others. Galli is also the backstage interviewer and he’s a fun affable character who understands he’s in the middle of a clown show and has some fun playing along, while still maintaining his credibility.
JCW offers nothing new, fresh or innovative, but rather gives you a show much more akin to the studio shows of old, and there’s nothing wrong with that because it’s executed well.
The run of shows on YouTube are ramping up towards a live pay-per-view card “Devil’s Night” on 10/30/24. That PPV will have some stars we haven’t seen on Lunacy yet, as the shows were taped back in the spring and early summer. Advertised so far are Nic Nemeth, Matt Riddle, “Officer” Colt Cabana, Nick Gage, and James Storm.
Storm has been a pretty central figure to the first few episodes of Lunacy. The NWA stable The Southern Six (Kerry Morton, Alex Taylor, Silas Mason) were the main heels of these early episodes and Storm’s eventual turn to side with The Six was the biggest story told so far. If you’ve not seen The Six yet, just imagine The Fabulous Freebirds, sort of aged up for the modern day, but still very much holding those southern roots.
This turn was the culmination of a tag team feud that ended up leading to the stable of The Southern Six and Storm capturing the tag team titles from the former two year champions The Brothers of Funstruction, quite literally a pair of clowns, Ruffo and Yabo.
While the tag team championships had a pretty central focus in the initial episodes, quite a bit of attention paid to the JCW Championship too. There were a pair of matches between Willie Mack and Matt Cross for the title. I’d love to tell you they were stellar matches, but sadly they are fine at best.
Around all of this decent storytelling and good promotional work at the top of the card, JCW is quite literally a carnival sideshow. Giants managed by little people, an African “Savage”, literal clowns, the Micheal Jackson impersonator Santana Jackson doing his werewolf transformation and more. It’s colorful if uncreative, but it is very much pro wrestling at its very roots.
None of the wrestling here is going to set the world on fire, get the match junkies excited. I guess after the last year of covering wrestling for Dot Net, I’ve come to realize and understand that I’m not a match junkie. I love a good sizzle reel, and am always trawling Reddit for awesome clips of shows that just happened. But what keeps me coming is good storytelling. JCW has that, even if it’s a good bit cliche and so old school it’s literally back in the circus.
Check out Juggalo Championship Wrestling “Lunacy” at Youtube.com/@Psychopathic_Records/videos.
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