Man brings wrestling back to Dothan

It may not seem like the right time to start a professional wrestling promotion.

After all, the nation is facing an economic recession and wrestling is far from its peak of popularity in the late 1990s.

But longtime Dothan promoter Will Pritchard says the time is now to restart his Southeastern Extreme Wrestling.

“This is a hotbed for wrestling, and regardless of how bad the economy gets, people are always going to come watch wrestling,” said Pritchard, 50, a 30-year wrestling veteran who founded SXW 12 years ago.

He claims to be the longest-running independent wrestling promoter in the state, but a year and a half ago, he had to close up shop.

“I was out of pocket for about a year and a half. Everybody asked when I was starting back up,” Pritchard said. “That was one of the points where I was questioning if I wanted to stay (in the business), but once it’s in your blood, you always pull out on the yes side of it.”

He began surveying buildings throughout Dothan, looking for the perfect location to house his baby, SXW.

That’s when he came across an old flea market building, located at 1369 Headland Ave.

“I ran across this building right here. When I wrestled out in Texas for Kerry and Fritz Von Erich, they wrestled in the Dallas Sportatorium, and it looked identical to this building right here,” Pritchard said. “No heat, no air, just wrestling fans that love to come see it. They’ll burn in the summer time and freeze in the winter just to watch wrestling. It brings back a lot of character and a lot of memories.”

Pritchard has already set up a wrestling ring inside the building, and he begins the first step of his rebuilding project on Saturday, when he begins training sessions.

He charges $800 to train, which he says is a much lower rate than many qualified trainers charge.

And he does have qualifications, having completed four tours of Japan and worked for Extreme (then Eastern) Championship Wrestling for four years in addition to his years traveling on the independent wrestling circuit. His trainer was Boris Malenko, whose other students include former World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment stars Dean Malenko and Sean “X-Pac” Waltman.

Pritchard says he hopes to start a youth program alongside SXW to help troubled young people.

“I go through the streets going home at nighttime, and I see all these kids walking up and down the streets, knowing they’ve got nowhere to go and they shouldn’t be there,” he said. “Why not bring them in here and give them something to do to stay out of trouble?”

He plans to run the first new SXW show on Saturday, Feb. 28, then run some charity shows after that.

“I jumped into (promoting) headfirst and did some shows for the food bank. We were getting real popular with the food bank before I went on haitus,” Pritchard said. “I would rather do a fundraiser than anything else, because if I can help just one child, then I think I’ve done my job.”