On Friday, April 11, the Ohio-based “Olde Wrestling Extravaganza” will make its Yellow Springs debut at the Foundry Theater at Antioch College. The performance wrestling match will feature a sizeable roster of 1920s-inspired characters — each vying for the title of world champion. Shown above is Matthew Cross in the vice grip of “The Columbus Cruncher” luchador. (Photo by Joe Ritorto)
‘Olde Wrestling’ heads to Foundry Theater at Antioch College
- Published: April 9, 2025
Friday! Friday! Friday! Be there! Be there! Be there!
It’s the 1920s: The Great War is finally over and the Jazz Age is in full swing. So, don’t let prohibition get you down — strap into your best seersucker and head to the Foundry Theater at Antioch College next week for an anachronistic evening of bodyslams, leglocks and chokeholds.
On Friday, April 11, the “Olde Wrestling Extravaganza” will debut for Yellow Springs a motley lineup of period-specific wrestlers — mustachioed pugilists, crooked politicians, masked luchadores, strongmen, moonshiners, sad clowns and others — all duking it out for the title of world champion.
Doors open for the all-ages “Olde Wrestling Extravaganza” at 7:15 p.m., and the ringside bell dings at 7:45 p.m. General admission for the all-ages show is $18; for children ten and younger, as well as Antioch students, $5. Tickets can be purchased at the door day-of, or online at antiochcollege.edu/event/olde-wrestling-at-the-foundry-theater.
“Think ‘Three Stooges’ but with body slams,” Olde Wrestling founder and Yellow Springs resident Justin Nottke said in an interview with the News last week.
“Yes, it’s wrestling, but really it’s performance art,” Nottke said. “It’s drama, it’s comedy, it’s action!”
On Friday, April 11, the Foundry Theater at Antioch College will host Olde Wrestling. (Photo by Zia Hiltey)
Since forming the troupe in northern Ohio in 2013, Nottke’s old-timey gang of grapplers — currently averaging a roster of 16 per match — has stopped in dozens of towns throughout Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
“I never thought this kind of art project would be going for this long,” he said with a laugh. “But we’re always trying new things — playing with history in different ways, showing folks who aren’t necessarily wrestling fans something they’ve never seen before. In many ways, Olde Wrestling is my love letter for something that I’ve been a part of for so long.”
Since middle school, to be exact. When they weren’t watching WWF — specifically the “Attitude Era,” which featured the intimidating likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker and others — Nottke and his pals spent their halcyon days body-slamming one another in backyards.
Many years later, after he had donned the likes of a 1920s, bare-knuckled, pugilist-esque character in the ring, Nottke said “the lightbulb finally went off.”
“Sure, professional wrestling is niche, but I wondered, what if I made it even more niche? What if I did a show of my own and framed everything — the vintage characters, the setting, the music — in the 1920s?”
It didn’t take long for his backyard buddies and other actors-turned-wrestlers to answer that call. The first Olde Wrestling match took place in an old barn at the Huron County Fairgrounds in Norwalk, Ohio — the place Nottke first saw an independent wrestling match as a child. Ever since then, the production has grown wilder and whackier — still steeped in the milieu of the early 20th century.
“One year,” Nottke said, “we did a cage match between a team of moonshiners versus teetotalling politicians. If the moonshiners won, Prohibition would end.”
“A classic battle, right?” Nottke added. “Good versus evil. The stakes were high.”
Over the years, a number of recurring wrestlers have returned to ye olde ring. There’s Scurvy Whiplash (a take on the dastardly Snidely Whiplash of “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), Honky Dory (a classic, bedraggled sad clown), former U.S. President William Howard Taft (known within the ropes as the “U.S. Secretary of Slams” following the end of his presidency in 1913) and many, many others.
“And who could forget the true World Champion of Professional Wrestling, Matthew Cross,” Nottke said — noting that popular, choreographed wrestling began in the 1920s, so the pool of potential champions was quite small then.
With immersion in mind, Olde Wrestling’s schtick of performing tropes from the ’20s isn’t limited to those in the 16-by-16 ring. A live ragtime band will play wrestlers on and off, adding to the period-specific slapstick hilarity.
An on-hand “hype man” will prompt attendees not to just cheer or “boo” the wrestlers, but to shout out “huzzah” in moments of triumph; “hogwash,” “horsefeathers” or “bologna” in lieu of more modern jeers.
Nottke also encourages attendees to dress the part — to show up in threads from the time, he said. Fashionable bobbed and slicked-back hairdos, flapper skirts, hiked up trousers, seersucker suits and other garb of the day are all welcome.
“So, go the lengths without actually getting in the ring with us,” Nottke said. “If it’s going to be at all immersive, then we all should suspend disbelief. We’re really in the ’20s, after all… but for that night, the 1920s.”
The Olde Wrestling Extravaganza will take place on Friday, April 11, at Antioch College’s Foundry Theater with doors opening at 7:15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door day-of, or online at http://www.antiochcollege.edu/event/olde-wrestling-at-the-foundry-theater. For more information, go to oldewrestling.com.
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