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Where liberals and conservatives debate the issues with pile drivers and body slams
Express
Where liberals and conservatives debate the issues with pile drivers and body slams
By Sadie Dingfelder November 22
A foreboding bass line ripples across the Annandale Volunteer Fire Department social hall, temporarily silencing the rowdy crowd. The beat drops, and a shirtless man bursts through black curtains. An announcer calls out: “Introducing. From a gated community, inside a gated community. In Great Falls, Virginia. Your champion of the 1 percent: Logan. Easton. LaRoux!”
The Gated Community, led by “Teflon Don,” bring their own velvet rope and red carpet to matches.
LaRoux circles the ring with an index finger held high. A few dozen spectators in suits leap out of their folding chairs and start chanting, “1 Percent, 1 Percent!” They are answered by a larger group of casually dressed fans shouting, “Sucks!” after each “1 percent!”
This scene, or something like it, plays out once a month under the auspices of NOVA Pro Wrestling — a local, DIY answer to the WWE that’s been staging events just outside D.C. since 2015. Over the past few months, however, something strange has happened: Politics have crept into the ring, and it’s really resonating with fans, says NOVA Pro co-founder Mike E. King III.
....
Before LaRoux’s match on this late-October night, fans from both sides of the aisle are riled up by another partisan pairing: Daniel “The Progressive Liberal” Richards vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe, a wrestler from North Carolina who sports a Monopoly-guy mustache and a smoking jacket emblazoned with dollar signs. ... While Sharpe is clearly cartoonish, Richards, 37, actually is a progressive liberal. His real name is Daniel Harnsberger, and he works as a real estate agent in Richmond. ... “I brought my political beliefs in the ring because I predominantly wrestle in the Bible Belt, and I knew it would generate a reaction over there,” he says. He’s wearing his usual uniform: a shirt covered in Hillary Clinton faces and underwear emblazoned with Democratic donkeys. “Northern Virginia is the only place I get cheered.”
....
Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, 8900 Little River Turnpike, Fairfax; Fri., doors 7:15 p.m., first bell 8 p.m.; $20-$25.
Sadie Dingfelder will write about anything, but she especially loves art, science, wildlife and quirky people.
Follow @SadieDing
Where liberals and conservatives debate the issues with pile drivers and body slams
By Sadie Dingfelder November 22
A foreboding bass line ripples across the Annandale Volunteer Fire Department social hall, temporarily silencing the rowdy crowd. The beat drops, and a shirtless man bursts through black curtains. An announcer calls out: “Introducing. From a gated community, inside a gated community. In Great Falls, Virginia. Your champion of the 1 percent: Logan. Easton. LaRoux!”
The Gated Community, led by “Teflon Don,” bring their own velvet rope and red carpet to matches.
LaRoux circles the ring with an index finger held high. A few dozen spectators in suits leap out of their folding chairs and start chanting, “1 Percent, 1 Percent!” They are answered by a larger group of casually dressed fans shouting, “Sucks!” after each “1 percent!”
This scene, or something like it, plays out once a month under the auspices of NOVA Pro Wrestling — a local, DIY answer to the WWE that’s been staging events just outside D.C. since 2015. Over the past few months, however, something strange has happened: Politics have crept into the ring, and it’s really resonating with fans, says NOVA Pro co-founder Mike E. King III.
....
Before LaRoux’s match on this late-October night, fans from both sides of the aisle are riled up by another partisan pairing: Daniel “The Progressive Liberal” Richards vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe, a wrestler from North Carolina who sports a Monopoly-guy mustache and a smoking jacket emblazoned with dollar signs. ... While Sharpe is clearly cartoonish, Richards, 37, actually is a progressive liberal. His real name is Daniel Harnsberger, and he works as a real estate agent in Richmond. ... “I brought my political beliefs in the ring because I predominantly wrestle in the Bible Belt, and I knew it would generate a reaction over there,” he says. He’s wearing his usual uniform: a shirt covered in Hillary Clinton faces and underwear emblazoned with Democratic donkeys. “Northern Virginia is the only place I get cheered.”
....
Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, 8900 Little River Turnpike, Fairfax; Fri., doors 7:15 p.m., first bell 8 p.m.; $20-$25.
Sadie Dingfelder will write about anything, but she especially loves art, science, wildlife and quirky people.
Follow @SadieDing
