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| ©2009 MainStream Wrestling Entertainment. All character names, slogans, wrestler information, and all media including photographs, text, articles, audio, and video contained herein is copyrighted by and is the property of MainStream Wrestling Entertainment, Devin Chittick, and the wrestlers depicted in this medium. No information should be copied or used, either in part or in full, without express written consent by MainStream Wrestling Entertainment. All rights have been reserved. |
| WRESTLEMANIACS - SPRING 2003 Chuck Teed, The Coast Thousands of fans are paying to see the WWE’s Halifax shows, but Mainstream Wrestling is battling to build a local following. The date is March 22 and winter still has a grasp on the city. Despite this, hundreds of people line up overnight on Duke Street, waiting for the Halifax Metro Center box office to open up in the morning. Some are fighting the cold wrapped up in sleeping bags and blankets; others keep active by tossing footballs, playing impromptu games of road hockey and going on coffee runs. The crowd is lined up for tickets to WWE Raw and SmackDown! -popular wrestling television shows filmed live in arenas around North America -hitting Halifax May 5 and 6. It’s the first time World Wrestling Entertainment has visited Halifax since last November and the first time since 1997 that the producers are planning to tape Raw here. At 7:30 am the box office opens, and anxious fans rush the ticket counter in a flurry. Two hours later, most of the $60.00 ringside seats are sold out. By 11 am, only a handful of seats in the upper bowl of the arena are available for purchase. The WWE has scored another victory. Around the time the last good tickets are sold at the Metro Center, independent wrestling promoter Devin Chittick arrives at the Bella Muse, a rough looking arts facility on Agricola Street, to find that the fire code violations have shut the venue down for the weekend. Forced to pull the plug on his wrestling camp last minute, Chittick jots a quick note to the wrestlers, explaining circumstances are beyond his control, then heads back to his home in Dartmouth. Chittick, 25, is the owner of Mainstream Wrestling, a federation he founded in 1999. Tall and thin, with long brown hair and a black leather jacket, Chittick would initially appear to be more at home at a rock concert than a wrestling match. However, where one would expect to see band pins and patches, Chittick proudly wears salutes to his favorite wrestler, Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Chittick has been a fan of wrestling for as long as he can remember. “I studied it, watched it and collected everything that I could,” says Chittick over a cup of coffee. His first foray into the industry was publishing an underground wrestling sheet, On The Ring Apron, in high school. But Chittick also had in-ring ambitions, which led to a search for a trainer. “I got snowballed by a guy who I basically paid to use his ring,” says Chittick about his first wrestling experience. “But I eventually found a guy from Ontario who trained me for three months. He beat the crap out of me and taught me the fundamentals, and the rest I learned from having matches with experienced guys.” While Chittick improved as a technical wrestler, he knew his diminutive frame (six feet, 144 pounds) would be an issue. Instead of giving up on his dream, Chittick simply shifted his focus to promotion. He formed Mainstream Wrestling and started booking wrestling events in arenas and bars around Nova Scotia. “It’s a new venture for me,” says Chittick, “and it’s proving successful thus far.” Before the WWE became the multinational behemoth it is today, local promotions were the only way for wrestling fans to get their fix. The most popular federation in the Maritimes was Atlantic Grand Prix. Run by Emile Dupre, AGP had a huge following from the 60’s to the 80’s, regularly drawing thousands to the events. (More) |