By Jonathan Williams

This Saturday, Mid Georgia Championship Wrestling hosts its biggest show of the year thus far with Bash at the Bridge. And while the card features appearances by the New Age Outlaws Jesse James and Billy Gunn, “Wildfire” Tommy Rich and the induction of Curtis Hughes into the MGCW Hall of Fame, there are a few other matches that are likely to have a lasting effect within MGCW. The biggest of those matches is the WarGames main event, where Team Anderson (Andy Anderson, Axil Anderson and two mystery partners) looks to settle its score against Team Exotic (the Exotic Ones Simon Sermon and Rick Michaels, “Vicious” Vic Roze and Vordell Walker). Like the old World Championship Wrestling event of the same name, WarGames will feature two rings inside the same steal cage, with participants from each team entering in two-minute inervals until all eight men are in the cage. As he prepares for one of the biggest matches of his career, MGCW Heavyweight Champion Andy Anderson takes a moment to talk about his career leading up to the WarGames match.

This Saturday you’re involved in the WarGames match, which is something we haven’t seen since the WCW days.

Yeah, it’s the same format and same style as the WCW one. It’s me, my brother Axil and two mystery partners we’ll announce Saturday night. We’re taking on Rick Michaels, Simon Sermon, Vordell Walker and Vic Roze. The two team captains start the match, which will be me and Simon, and every two minutes we’ll do a coin toss to see who the next participant will be. Once everyone is in the ring, WarGames will start and the only way to win is by surrender or submission.

How do you prepare for a match like the WarGames match?

It’s probably going to be at least a 45-minute match. So you’ve got to do a lot of cardio because it’s going to be a long match and there’s going to be a lot going on.

You’re title is not on the line in this match. When will you be defending your belt again?

I defend the title again on July 9 in McDonough, Ga. against a guy named Tokyo Monster Kahagas from Florida.

My first time seeing MGCW was when you guys invaded Platinum Championship Wrestling a few months ago. When did MGCW start and how long have you been part of it?

I got my start in Deep South Wrestling, the former WWE developmental school, in ’06. I got my feet wet there then took about a year off. I came back in ’07 and trained here and there with people like Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton. I went out to Texas this past April to train and I’ve done various other training. Then I started MGCW back in ’09 with Jackie Marler, my [business] partner.

 

I won the title in October of 2010. Shane Marx took it from me in January, but I got it back in February.

MGCW is doing a lot of big shows, monthly TV tapings and other things that a lot of other indie promotions aren’t doing. What is your goal with MGCW?

Our goal is to get as big as possible while trying to keep a little bit of that old school tradition. We want to keep it a wrestling promotion and not a production type of thing. We’ve got a few guys in our promotion that try to do the whole WWE mainstream-type work, but most of us shoot more towards the old school style of wrestling.

Is that one of the reasons you bring back things like WarGames?

Yeah. It’s something people haven’t seen since WCW did it in the ’90s. It’s something different for the fans. Before we were all workers, we were all fans, too. So it’s something I’ve always wanted to see and it’s something different. It’s an old concept, but at this day and time it’s kind of new. Other promotions have announced WarGames, but it ends up being only one cage and one ring. We’re trying to go back to the traditional two rings in two cages. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully it will go well. All of our fans are excited about it and I think it will turn out pretty well.

How often do you wrestle for other promotions? Is that something you’d like to do more of?

I’m actually doing a show in Panama City for the Fourth of July, so I’m definitely trying to venture out more. I’d still like to get my name out more. I’m going to try to go to Puerto Rico in July or August and maybe do a few runs out there. There’s a lot of independent promotions out that way and that’s my next step is trying to really get my name out there.

Ever since the MGCW invasion of PCW, I’ve noticed more and more PCW guys wrestling at MGCW shows. Do you think you’ll ever return to PCW and try to take their title again?

Oh, yeah. I loved working with Steve [Platinum] and Shane was great and I had a great time. We kind of had different ideas and went separate ways, but you might just see Platinum at our show on Saturday night. You never know. The invasion thing honestly never really ended. We’ve got plans for that still and that will all unravel as things play out.

 Bash at the Bridge. $7-$15. 7:30 p.m. June 11. Stockbridge Middle School Gymnasium, 533 Old Conyers Road, Stockbridge, Ga. 678-699-8206, www.mgcwnow.com.