Wrestling returning to Middle Georgia on Sunday with COVID-19 precautions in place

In February, Robert Vien and Michael Ely stepped inside the ring for the one year anniversary of the Macon-based Georgia Independent Professional Wrestling promotion. It would be the last show for more than 20 weeks due to COVID-19. This Sunday, GIPW returns to the ring at the Thirsty Turtle on Cherry Street at 5 p.m.

“I am super excited to put on a wrestling show. GIPW is a team effort. We all work really hard to make those shows happen,” Ely said. “I think we are all excited to get the show back together and we are also taking a lot of precautions to keep everybody safe.”

The promotion is making masks mandatory for the first show back and are restricting the crowd to 50 people in order to enforce social distancing. Tickets to the show are $8 if you bring your own mask, $10 if you need a mask. The Thirsty Turtle will also be sanitized before and after the crowd arrives, Ely said.

“I think we are doing the best that we can to keep everybody safe and still give them the opportunity to have fun,” he said. “It is a chance to get back to a little bit of normal with a wrestling show.”

A welcome distraction from COVID

One of the things that helped Ely get through quarantine was that major promotions like WWE and AEW continued to put on shows. He said it gave him hope that they would soon be able to get back in the ring too. Ely also said this isn’t the first time that wrestling has taken certain stage in the midst of uncertain time. The WWE’s Smackdown was the first public assembly of its size to air after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“It’s definitely inspirational to see, you know, that companies are losing a lot of money, but they’re still rolling on TV,” Ely said. “Wrestling has a long, long history even before this of entertaining people and the show must go on.”

For Vien, this isn’t his first hiatus from Wrestling. The California native debuted in 1997 before taking nearly a decade and half off when he joined the active-duty Army in 2005. Vien joined GIPW in 2019 as he saw it as an opportunity to get back to doing something that he has always loved.

“We are still a relatively young promotion. We have only been open for a year,” Vien said. “But in that year I think we have established ourselves.”

The 21-week layoff has been tough for Vien who has missed getting to do shows not only in Macon but around the southeast.

Unlike workers for the larger promotions like WWE and AEW, the indie wrestling circuit typically doesn’t offer contracts so the wrestlers depend on their shows to pick up extra money. Vien said that the hardest part of being away from the ring was just not knowing when they might get back to doing shows

“It’s been really kind of nerve-wracking, honestly,” Vien said. “Getting back to not just making money, but doing what we love to do that was the uneasy, unsettling part primarily.”

Putting on a good show

As a wrestler from California living in the South, Vien works as a heel, or as a bad guy in the ring. He is one of the few wrestlers that goes by their birth name. It is part of his nonsense, smash-mouth attitude in the ring.

He enjoys the side of wrestling that allows him to interact with the fans and getting them to boo him. He hopes that people will come to the show on Sunday so that he can show them what a role model looks like. Vien will be competing in a historic match for the promotion on Sunday.

“It’s been 21 weeks since you’ve been blessed enough to come and see your role model, your children’s idol, Robert Vien,” he said. “We are going to be crowning the very first-ever GIPW tag team champions.”

Ely said that if you have never come to GIPW show before then you can expect to be entertained and hopes that people can get away and enjoy themselves in a safe environment for a few hours.

“The only indie promotion in Middle Georgia is back. We’re coming back with all the hard hits and the big slams,” Ely said. “Whether you come to cheer your favorite wrestler. Or you can boo your least favorite wrestler. Either way, it’s something to do on a Sunday and we hope that you will be there.”