Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Imagine if you will…a secret society of relatively unknown, but extremely talented young wrestlers. They would compete in an underground lair where their abilities could finally be seen by the world. Add to the mix…a variety of up and coming bands that would perform during intermissions. Would you watch? MTV thought so. This was Wrestling Society X…an upstart wrestling promotion that gave mainstream exposure to several young wrestlers.
Formed in 2006, it was the brainchild of producer/businessman Kevin Kleinrock who has been considered by many as a true visionary in wrestling/MMA circles. This was a passion project for Kleinrock, who had conceptualized mixing punk rock music and professional wrestling since the late 1980’s. To bring his vision to life, Kleinrock enlisted the help of Houston Curtis (A former MTV employee and entrepreneur) and good friend and pro wrestler Ian Hodgkinson (Vampiro) as his head booker.
Houston Curtis, through his connections with MTV was able to sell the network on an extremely innovative wrestling product that would appeal to the much sought after 18 to 24 year old demographic. A pilot episode was filmed and accepted by MTV brass. The green light was given to Kleinrock to film an entire season of Wrestling Society X (WSX)in Los Angeles, California. The caveat to getting a full season from MTV was to film the entire season in 1 week’s time.
The roster was made up of several top independent talents like Jack Evans, Colt Cabana, Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black (Seth Rollins in WWE) and Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne in WWE) with a mixture of some proven veterans like New Jack, Justin Credible and Sean Waltman (X-Pac and Syxx). The up and coming musical acts that performed were Three 6 Mafia, Black Label Society, Good Charlotte and Pitbull….yes that Pitbull.
It seemed to be a well thought out, extremely different brand of professional wrestling that was a true alternative to the WWE. So what happened? This is where things get a bit murky. Why did MTV cancel the show after just four episodes into season one? Were the ratings that bad? Word is the initial ratings were dismal. Vampiro doesn’t seem to know, but has his theories.
There is the belief that Vince McMahon had a hand in talking MTV into cancelling the show…but I doubt that simply because the WSX wasn’t really any kind of threat yet. There was also an incident in the hotel that numerous WSX wrestlers were being housed in during the tapings. According to Vampiro, wrestlers including himself were smoking a large amount of dope in the hotel…some took their smoking into the hotel hallways which set of fire alarms. This angered the hotel staff which took their complaints to MTV directly.
There was also the now infamous “fireball incident” involving Vampiro and Ricky Banderas. Instead of using a small piece of flash paper…Banderas used a huge piece and when he lit the flash paper…a huge fire ball went directly into the face of Vampiro legitimately injuring him. MTV executives found the incident to be too violent and pulled the show from its time slot.
Listening to other fans, some absolutely loved the WSX product…while others absolutely detested it. Some say the production values were bush league…while others loved the wrestling product. Either way, Wrestling Society X folded before gaining any true traction from casual fans. Could it have eventually competed with the WWE? Probably not. Could it have made it to TNA levels? Probably so. Perhaps the product was too advanced for its time? Maybe it wasn’t as good as some made it out to be? Regardless, WSX is now just a memory in the lore of pro wrestling.