While Dragon*Con celebrates its 25th anniversary as Atlanta’s gathering of all things pop culture this weekend, Dragon*Con Wrestling celebrates its 10th year of in-ring absurdity. While this year’s card features many faces that will be familiar to fans of DCW (and in the National Wrestling Alliance’s southeastern territories), it’s the sacriligi0usly adorned Reverend Dan Wilson and his brood of wretched wrestlers that has always been a perfect fit at an event with such a strong horror contingent. Though his Devil’s Rejects faction has disbanded, the Rev. will still be offering his services in two of the biggest matches on the card this year. As he prepares his Hate Junkies for their Dragons Cup Tag Team Title bout and the sadistic Azrael for his main event match against Slim J, Wilson talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his history with DCW and beyond.

They’re no longer around in Georgia, or at least at NWA Anarchy, per a stipulation where when we finally imploded in late 2009 the Devil’s Rejects had come down to just me and Shaun Tempers, who is now the NWA North American Champion. We had the Rejects in one corner and “The Strong Style Psycho” Tank in the other and we had to fight over the rights to the Rejects. Tank ended up walking away the victor of that battle, so we’re not allowed to be the Devil’s Rejects at NWA Anarchy until that stipulation expires. I’m not sure when that is. I’d have to check with my attorney.

Only in the sense that dany only is one of my clients. I advise him and he takes up ventures that he thinks might benefit him. And certainly one with a man of wealth and stature like Andrew Pendleton III cannot be a bad relationship. He’s getting plenty of financing in that relationship.

They’re crowning new champions, so it will be the former NWA World Tag Team Champions the Usual Suspects taking on the former NWA Anarchy Tag Team Champions, who have also held titles in many other promotions around the Southeast. So it’s really a dream match for a lot of fans. The Hate Junkies, for the last couple of years, have dominated in the northern part of the state. And even though it was a very brief run, the Usual Suspects winning the World Tag Titles in the southern part of the state has to be respected. So it really is a clash of the titans, so to speak.

Yes, he was a founding member of the Devil’s Rejects. He’s a longtime star in the State of Georgia and probably one of the most underrated talents you’ve ever seen. Azrael has been around since the late ’90s in the NWA and started out at the bottom of the barrel like anyone else and he worked his way up. Over the years he was saddled with a couple of silly personas that degraded him. But he came into his own and found out who he was, first in a tag team with a man by the name of Chad Parham, also known as Gabriel, called the Lost Boys, where they achieved national success and traveled the country, competing in Combat Zone Wrestling and many other promotions around the United States. From there he went on to team with current NWA World Tag Team Champion Kory Chavis [aka Rainman] as the NWA Elite and had success there. Then he joined my Devil’s Rejects and we tore a run of terror through the Southeast that may never be equalled.

Azrael was a huge part of that. He has a style that’s really unique and unorthodox, and very based in the martial arts and also kamikaze as he’ll just destroy himself to destroy his opponents if that’s what it takes. He’s going to be taking on Slim J in the main event of Dragon*Con. This is a world class rivalry that goes back many, many years. They’ve probably faced each other well over 100 times and I’d say the outcome’s been about 50/50. It’s going to literally be like watching a martial arts movie, and very far removed from a wrestling match because it’s almost futuristic, the level that these two know each other.

I previously managed Shaun Tempers, but he has just done so well for himself with this “Temptation” persona that he’s created. He’s got his own line of cologne, he’s the NWA North American Champion and he doesn’t need dear old dad, the Rev., anymore. That’s OK because I still manage a lot of his business affairs and things. But he’s gone into his own thing that’s not really what we’re about here in my camp. I wish him the best of luck, but I will not be appearing in his corner this year at Dragon*Con.

NWA Anarchy’s still running strong the second and fourth Saturday of each month in Cordelia, Georgia. NWA Chattanooga runs once a month and those are my main two ventures now, along with WrestleHemia, which is a night club wrestling attraction in Chattanooga. I will also be part of the Empire Pro Wrestling show in Rossville, Georgia this Saturday night. That might become a regular thing, but we’re going to see how it goes.

I also have a weekly podcast called The Midnight Black Mass that you can hear at www.blogtalkradio.com\dragonsrejects every Thursday night at 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. We cover comic books, wrestling, horror movies and music, and we try to have guests on from all of those venues.