Editor’s Note: The writer of this article is an employee at the location of this event.
Boylan Heights residents took to the Rebus Works parking lot on Saturday to blow off post-election steam and engage in wholesome family fun by watching some grown men throw each other around.
GOUGE stands for Gimmicks Only Underground Grappling Entertainment. The league was founded in 2006 by wrestling promoter Greg Mosorjak, also known as Count Grog.
“We don’t cater to the normal, traditional wrestling fan — your basic redneck crowd,” Mosorjak said. “We do all our shows, mostly at breweries or places like Rebus or different bars, and all our shows are free, so we draw kind of a hipster crowd, college crowd.”
Boylan Heights is nestled in the corner of Southwest Raleigh on the other side of the train tracks from downtown. It’s a bustling arts community and home to some of the most beautiful architecture in Raleigh due to its origins as one of the first planned communities in the city.
GOUGE wrestling is unique in the comedic performance aspect of the event. The wrestlers are waging truly physical fights, but that won’t stop them from taking a moment to indulge the crowd with some grotesque bromance.
Outrage and chaos did, in fact, ensue once the pin was erected and the performers started hopping in the ring.
I refer to them as performers not to alleviate their strength but to emphasize their creativity. What’s special about GOUGE Wrestling is that it’s essentially a multi-faceted performance art exhibition. A wondrous display of high-low entertainment grappling outside of an art gallery, GOUGE appeals to the most basic and primitive human intuitions.
“We’re not real serious,” Mosorjak said. “There’s a lot of fun in our show. It’s a lot of wrestling mixed with comedy and outrageous gimmicks.”
We all love to watch a brawl, but the children seemed to have an especially vested interest in the matter. Still attached to their gloriously naive moral codes and seething with anger at the idea of an unfair fight, the kids in the crowd were the most engaged participants. I even heard a young girl drop the L word — “loser.”
“They’re probably my best audience,” said Seymour Snott, the ‘geek with the physique and world’s strongest mathlete.’ “They have a lot of fun with my character and getting sprayed with the silly string.”
The crowd went berserk when Snott won his match after spinning his opponent “Sawdust” around in a nose pinch, eventually pinning him to the mat in a stunning triumph.
But love and hate, as they say, are two sides of the same coin. I saw a beautifully beaming newlywed couple leaving the Heights House Hotel, floating across the Boylan Bridge on a rickshaw to catch a glimpse of the fight.
Shonna Greenwell, the organizer of the event, played an integral role in increasing GOUGE’s success in Boylan Heights.
“Shonna brought in all these food trucks and breweries to sell beer, and it just took off,” Mosorjak said. “For a while, we were the hottest thing here in the neighborhood.”
The line was out the door for most of the event. It was a truly picturesque fall afternoon, capturing a moment of unity and joy in what was ultimately two hours of reprieve from the frenzy of everyday life.
