Seth Rollins surprised fans at an independent promotion’s show to mark the end of pro wrestling at a historic venue.
All American Wrestling (AAW) held the Crush & Destroy event on Friday to close out Berwyn Eagles Club’s chapter in wrestling before a All Star Lucha Libre show on Saturday. The Illinois venue has hosted wrestling for more than two decades, but the club’s operator recently announced it would no longer be in the wrestling business.
The announcement followed an incident last month at Berwyn
Eagles Club that garnered nationwide headlines: After the main event of Ruthless Pro Wrestling’s OMEGA show, the wrestler Krule was reportedly involved in a scuffle with a fan.
A couple of other wrestlers on the card told Cultaholic that the fan stabbed Krule. However, the Berwyn Police Department have since determined that while an altercation took place between Krule and a fan, a stabbing did not occur at the event.
The venue had not indicated why it will no longer host wrestling, but the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Berwyn’s city attorney and chief of police said the club’s entertainment license, which is needed for wrestling shows, had not been revoked due to the incident involving Krule.
Rollins, meanwhile, has history with AAW. He wrestled for the company under the name “Tyler Black” from 2005 until he signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2010. Along the way, Rollins held the AAW Heavyweight Championship twice as well as the AAW Tag Team Championship on two occasions.
Fans at Friday’s show gave Rollins a warm welcome after his WWE music briefly hit, and they began chanting “Tyler Black.” Once in the ring, Rollins took the mic and noted that some students from his wrestling school, Black and Brave Wrestling Academy, were on the card that night.
Speaking about feeling compelled to be at the Berwyn Eagles Club on the weekend of its final wrestling shows, Rollins said, “I love professional wrestling,” and he put over the fans in attendance for allowing him to live out his “childhood dream.”
“And my childhood dream wasn’t just to main event WrestleMania, it was to wrestling in rings like this, in places like the Berwyn Eagles Club,” Rollins said.
After thanking AAW promoter Danny Daniels, Rollins kissed the center of the ring before making his exit as Crush & Destroy kicked off.
Okay, Cagesiders, what do you think about the Berwyn Eagles Club’s cessation of wrestling events? Also, what do you think about WWE (presumably) giving permission for a star to appear at an indie event? Let us know in the comments.
