Beers, tunes and wrestling join forces
Rock music, craft beer, and wrestling. Seems like a winning combination, right? Like peanut butter, jam, and white bread, the three things, while strong apart, can come together to create something altogether new.
Porirua Rocks is definitely a winning combination. The event – the first of its kind in Porirua – mixes rock music, craft beer, and wrestling to create a festival where attendees can eat, drink, and watch wrestling pros from around the country compete for the invitational crown.
During each match, the victor must win through pinning their opponent or the other submitting, with no disqualifications – meaning “anything can happen,” the event’s website said. Wrestlers taking part in the invite-only event yesterday included “The Duke of Death” Horus, “The Antidote” JK Moody, Cool Guy Sky, “The Big Man” Jamie Tagataese, “The Dirty Dog of the South” K9, Rowan Davis, and an unknown contender.
Fifteen more wrestlers were invited to an over-the-top-rope Battle Royale with a $5000 prize. Bands included popular heavy metal band Shepherds Reign; and the craft beer breweries at the event included The Beer Engine, Abandoned Brewery and Panhead.
At 2.30pm, the event had only just started, but Te Rauparaha Arena was already seeing a pretty sizeable crowd. The opening match was between wrestlers Cool Guy Sky and “The Big Man” Jamie Tagataese.
Tagataese was greeted by whoops and cheers from the crowd when he entered first.
Sky got some laughs as he played up his entrance, pretending to have some trouble getting into the ring. With bright blue flares, he was looking pretty cool. The wrestler called for the crowd to cheer when he took off his shirt, revealing he would fight in tight chequered pants and trimmings.
After the match started, it was soon apparent Sky was no match for Tagataese’s superior weight and strength.
They danced around each other, and Sky managed to get some decent slaps in. There was a lot of screaming, and Sky got slammed to the ground multiple times.
The wrestler managed to retaliate with some elbows to the face, but they didn’t seem particularly convincing.
Tagataese pinned Sky to the mat multiple times, but the other wrestler managed to always break free before the final strike.
Somebody shouted “rip his head off,” when Sky escaped from Tagataese’s hold a final time. Sky managed to retaliate with a massive jump, flying at Tagataese from the corner of the ring.
Despite everything, “The Big Man” was found the winner, progressing on to the main event, where he and three others were set to face off – with the winner getting the first-ever Porirua Rocks Invitational crown.