There’s some exciting news for George Romero fans this month. Cryptic Pictures Distribution along with Image 987 Productions are providing us with a long lost project from the legendary director: a professional wrestling pilot titled Iron City Asskickers.
The horror genre and professional wrestling are similar in a number of ways. There’s a stigma surrounding both art forms that usually end up with the viewers being labeled as outcasts, weird, or having bad taste. So, when I found out that horror icon George Romero once directed a pilot for a wrestling show, I was not all that surprised. Romero is known for an “in your face” and “don’t hold anything back” approach in film making. Those are pretty much the key ingredients that make up quality professional wrestling. The bummer about Iron City Asskickers is that the project never got off the ground, and all that remains is one 20 minute episode.
The pilot starts out by hyping up a match between JB Destiny and Big Poppa Gator for the heavyweight championship. Outside of this project, both Destiny and Gator spent time working independent wrestling circuits in the Pittsburgh area through the 90s and early 2000s while holding a number of titles.
As the episode goes on, there’s some great scenes of fans watching the show from inside a Pittsburgh bar. After a few interviews with the wrestlers and check-ins from the announcers table, the big match is finally underway. There’s moonsaults, weapons, dives, classic crowd chants, and it then it sort of lands on a cliff hanger. It’s a shame we will never know the big pay off between Big Poppa Gator and JB Destiny.
If Iron City Asskickers would have been green-lit, I can’t help but think the Pittsburgh locals would have played a huge part in it’s success. We all know how passionate Steelers and Penguins fans can be, so I can only imagine the energy the fans would have brought to this Romero project.
If this pilot is all you’re missing to complete your George Romero collection, head over to the Crypitc Pictures website and pre-order a VHS or DVD of Iron City Asskickers.
Also be sure to follow Cryptic Pictures and Image 987 on Twitter for more news about this release!
Brittany Fernandez is a Lifestyle Writer for SoBros Network. She’s a Nashville native covering events on the local scene, B-movie horror reviews, and everything in between. Her go to karaoke song is “No Diggity.” Follow on Twitter: @brittbutspooky
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