Adam Wilde wasn’t expecting his attendance at a Cleveland-area pro wrestling event to turn into a full-blown documentary about the one true sport.
WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard recently spoke with Wilde and AIW owner John Thorne about Slowburn Shoot: An Indie Wrestling Story. The documentary, which had its world premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival in April, shares the journey of an independent wrestling promotion and the talent who work there along the way.
AIW has welcomed many names over the years. This includes Ethan Page, Eddie Kingston and Johnny Gargano, who Wilde says inspired him to pursue a more artistic connection to the pro wrestling world.
“One of my buddies dragged me out of the house. At this point, it was like eight or nine years ago, and he took me to a wrestling show in Cleveland, Ohio. So I’m from Cleveland, it’s my neighborhood. He ended up taking me to this gym. It’s called Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” he explained. “It was this gymnasium of a church with the house lights on, classic indie wrestling environment. The crowd was just oversold, raucous. Everyone was in metal T-shirts. It was one of those things where I walked in and I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’
“It turned out that it was actually Johnny Gargano’s last night in Cleveland at AIW before he went up to NXT,” he continued. “So he put on the performance of a lifetime. And afterwards he gave this speech where he was in tears. The crowd was in tears, and I was like, ‘What is this subculture that’s like 10 minutes from my house that I didn’t even know existed?’”
Wilde wanted to capture the intensity outside of the ring
Wilde says a friend put him in contact with Thorne. They initially agreed on him shooting still photography at shows. Wilde pitched doing character portraits instead of ringside photography, and the relationship blossomed from there.
“I was like, ‘I actually don’t care about the in-ring action. I want to do character portraits backstage. [Let’s] get these guys and the intensity before they go out, after they come back, all that kind of stuff.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, no one’s ever done that, so come on.’ So I followed them for a year and went to every single show,” Wilde said. “They probably did 15 or 16 shows that year. They went to New Jersey for WrestleMania weekend, the whole thing, and I just followed them for everything. Through that, I started learning who these people were, some of the storylines, and I thought, ‘You know what? This is a bigger story than these photos are doing justice to.’”
Thorne says that like many others can probably attest to, he’s been approached by people who want to film their shows. Those are usually just a 20-minute YouTube feature or something on a smaller scale. However, Wilde surprised him when he saw the massive amount of equipment he brought. Thorne quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be “some college kid’s extra credit project.”
“I see all this camera equipment and all these people in front of the venue. There must have been, maybe I’m exaggerating, but it felt like 20 staff members walking around. People are unloading this truck, they’re setting up a craft services area and all this other stuff,” Thorne explained. “I really didn’t know what to expect leading into it. When I saw all of that equipment, I thought, ‘This is far bigger than I ever even thought was possible.’ It did get me a little worried once I saw how legitimate it was and people were shoving paperwork and all this stuff in front of me. Little did I know from that point on they would follow us for about seven years.”
Slowburn Shoot is a love letter to indie wrestling
Slowburn Shoot is the culmination of years of work. There were some tough decisions to be made, as everything had to fit into a feature-length project. Wilde estimated that he had two hours of names like Eddie Kingston speaking. Thorne also noted how things like Josh Prohibition’s retirement became a bigger focal point later on in the production schedule.
Despite coming up against deadlines for festival submissions, the pair knew they had created a very strong film. Since its debut at CIFF this year, Slowburn has continued to screen in more cities across the country, with more potential dates to be announced.
Thorne and Wilde hope their film not only puts a larger spotlight on indie wrestling, but also highlights why the industry is a grassroots-like movement that puts fans first.
“There’s an independent wrestling company within driving distance of pretty much everybody in this country,” Thorne said. “We just hope it encourages more people to go out and support these companies. You can kind of plug and play a lot of these stories that play out in this film in any independent wrestling locker room across the country.
“It’s meant to be a love letter to indie wrestling. And I think it’s coming across that way,” Wilde said, adding that they are working on more plans to get the film in front of people on the road and potentially streaming options. “The main thing is, the more people we have talking about it, the more fans who really connect with it, the better position it’s going to be in to reach a wider audience. And that’s what we really want.”
The final screening (for now) on the initial roadshow tour will take place at New York City’s Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg on June 15. Tickets for the event, featuring a filmmaker Q&A with special guests including Joey Janela and ‘Hot Sauce’ Tracy Williams, are available now.
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