Event to draw wrestlers over past 50 years set for May 8, 9 in Fairview Heights
by Randy Pierce
[email protected] • Legendary competitors from all over the world who have participated in professional wrestling during the past 50 years will be the featured guests at a special event held in Fairview Heights this Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9.
Hosted by Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling, a group led by Herb Simmons, director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency and mayor of East Carondelet which is north of Cahokia, this “fanfest” had been held on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area for the past few years and is relocating for the first time to Fairview Heights in 2026.
The roster of more than 50 guests at the fanfest in Fairview Heights with history in this sport/industry includes many wrestlers who performed in other areas that the trade defines as “territories” in the United States with several becoming known through cable television broadcasts but those more familiar locally for their appearances in St. Louis include (Baron) Von Raschke, known for his “iron claw” match-ending maneuver along with Bob Orton Jr. and Spike Huber, who was primarily based in Indianapolis.
Also to be featured at the fanfest in Fairview Heights are Tommy Rich, who gained fame on WTBS broadcasts via cable television out of Atlanta and competed in some matches held in St. Louis and the family of former National Wrestling Alliance champion Harley Race, who headlined many cards at Kiel Auditorium and on local television.
Among others who will be appearing at the fanfest and who established varying degrees of wrestling fame, mostly outside of St. Louis, are Doink (the Clown), Austin Idol, Haku, “Iceman” Parsons, Kerry and Ricky Morton, Big Nasty, Mick Foley, Bobby Fulton and the Koloff family.
Subtitled as being held in honor of three individuals, all deceased, the late Bruiser Brody, Larry Matysik and Tony Casta, and called the “Wrestling at the Chase Memorial,” this event is being orchestrated as a tribute to the local St. Louis television program which began in 1959 and continued into the mid-1980s with weekend hour-long broadcasts of matches from an upscale hotel featuring some of the individuals who will be appearing in Fairview Heights in May.
Brody, who died under questionable circumstances in Puerto Rico at the height of his career in the 1980s, was a featured performer on “Wrestling at the Chase” on St. Louis station KPLR-TV and Matysik, who spent part of his later years living at Parkway Gardens Assisted Living and Senior Care in Fairview Heights, was its announcer for better than two decades.
Brody’s widow, Barbara Goodish (his real name was Frank Goodish), will be a fanfest guest.
Brody was called “King Kong” when wrestling in St. Louis because of the existence of a performer already using the name “Bruiser” as part of his title (“Dick The…) in a starring role there. The aforementioned Spike Huber is a son-in-law of the late Dick “The Bruiser” Afflis.
The local fanfest will be held at the Radisson Hotel at 319 Fountains Parkway in Fairview Heights. Tickets are required for admission with further information about them available at www.sicw.org.
