History of PWSA and The Real Voice of Australian Wrestling Paul Roberts.
History of PWSA (Snakepit Pro Wrestling) and The Real Voice of Australian Wrestling Paul Roberts.
By Paul Roberts. (Photo: Jaidyn Maidment Productions)
The wrestling bug bit me around the age of 10 and I’ve had a love of wrestling ever since, I’m not exactly sure what it was that got me so hooked but boy was I hooked. I could not get much in the way of local wrestling growing up but it probably had mainly to do with advertising (no internet to jump on and find it back then kids) I do remember going to a few shows at places like the Bridgeway Hotel Pooraka, The Old Lion Hotel and the Woodville Town Hall.
Fast forward to 2002 we discovered Maximum Power Wrestling and went to a show at the Octagon Theatre Elizabeth (the last wrestling event held at this venue before being demolished and replaced with Playford Civic Centre). Not long after I went along to another MPW show at the Dom Polski centre in Adelaide where the main event was the high flyer Jag who defeated The Real Deal Steve O’Neil for the MPW Championship.
Over the next few years I was only able to get to the odd show here and there as working and general life would avoid being able to follow the local scene very easily. It was probably around 2006-2007 I started being able to get along to all the regular shows from the various companies that were running in Adelaide.
I think it was around 2009 a company called Pro Wrestling Ignition started running shows in more regional towns around South Australia owned and run by The Smash Hit Joel Bateman at locations like Nuriootpa, Wallaroo, Renmark, Victor Harbor and Modbury in its last run before closing here in South Australia. I was at another local show in Adelaide one night and Joel was also there watching the event himself and I managed to get talking with Joel and was able to offer him my services to get a website up and running for PWI. From there I ended up filming the events and later editing the shows for YouTube and doing commentary with Michael Weaver (who later started wrestling himself and is known as Heavy set Violence Michael Weaver also a former Snakepit/PWSA Champion). Towards the end of 2010 start of 2011, Joel decided to close up PWI here in South Australia and relate back to his hometown Melbourne where he continued to run PWI from the Gippsland region of Victoria for a while.
Getting to be involved in the wrestling business with PWI was like a dream come true but it was coming to a close and now what was I going to do? Most of the people involved with PWI were either heading to Snakepit or were already working for both companies and most were in ring talent so a lot more beneficial to Snakepit. I proceeded to contact Snakepit management and it took a few times but I was finally able to get them to give me a shot as a cameraman which I started I think March of 2011 from memory.
After a short period of time I was able to approach Snakepit management who were at the time running a weekly TV show on local Adelaide TV channel 31 later became digital channel 44, I said that I could help out with a multi-camera video editing and commentary added to the weekly show PowerslamTV. They were very enthusiastic about this and we got everything into action as quickly as possible, this also then brought Michael Weaver and myself back together to do commentary live at the shows for recording to be added to the TV show and DVDs.
My first opportunity to ring announce and host a show came when wrestler “The Star of the Bar or International wrestling superstar” Wam Bam Bellows was running a Snakepit branded show in S.A country town Wallaroo (formerly PWI country) and he had no host for the show and asked if I could do it. Obviously, I had watched it plenty over the years but had never done it before myself and to go along with that I had a terrible fear of speaking publicly in front of people, but for some crazy reason, I said ok I’ll give it a shot. I have to credit a lot to Raneem Abbouchi known as wrestler manager Abdullah Rasheed for getting me through this show he was refereeing this particular night (the fun of local Australian wrestling at times) and was telling me what to say at the right times and I probably wouldn’t have been able to get through it without him.
From there at times when Luke Hazard was not able to make a Snakepit show I would then do the hosting/ring announcing on those particular nights and stand in as a temporary authority figure as Luke was the President/General manager as well. After a long time in the business, Luke Hazard had the opportunity to have a run as a heel with myself being around to host and ring announce shows, the timing around this was great as Snakepit happened to be running a show the same day (7th September 2013) as the federal election to vote for the Australian Prime Minister so Snakepit management took the opportunity to have an election of our own for the next Snakepit President of Luke Hazard vs Paul Roberts.
I was lucky to be handed the reigns of Snakepit as new President with some more great timing, Snakepit in early 2014 were establishing their own warehouse to make into a permanent venue located at Pooraka S.A. With our own venue, this opened the opportunity for weekly shows and not only did we do that but we ended up doing Friday Night Fights and Sunday Slam one week and Saturday Night Showdown the following week, so 6 shows a month along with any private birthday parties that we did as well. We made our home at Pooraka for the next 5 years. So with our stint at Pooraka along with the years before and that followed I have hosted/ring announced and commentated probably more shows than anyone else doing this in this country.
I have been very lucky and grateful for the storylines and the small handful of matches that PWSA has given me over my time involved with the wrestling industry. One of the best and maybe the biggest crowd reactions that I remember was the Snakepit Vs HRPW (High Risk Pro Wrestling) storyline. I can’t remember the circumstances but at the time we did not have a General manager/President and we were going to hold a king’s crown tournament the winner of that tournament would become the King of wrestling and also name who would be the next General Manager/President for Snakepit. John E Radic was there saying he would win the tournament and then make me General manager again, Radic did indeed go on to win the tournament and be crowned the King of wrestling but then decided that he wanted to have a go just a short run as being the General Manager himself. Radic went on making the wrestlers pay all these fines for many various and sometimes downright ridiculous reasons, I then started to question Radic as to why he was fining all the wrestlers constantly and where all the money was going as Snakepit Management had not seen any of it.
The power Radic was experiencing was starting to go to his head so he started to put his master plan into action and which was to take over Snakepit he then revealed that he had purchased with all the fine money HRPW (High Risk Pro Wrestling) from Blake The Man Mitchell and was going to destroy Snakepit by convincing all the old HRPW wrestlers to jump ship from Snakepit back to HRPW and he even went to the extent of bringing back the original owner Blake Mitchell who had always wanted to destroy Snakepit Pro Wrestling. We were battling each week in Snakepit Vs HRPW matches on the weekly show most of all the original HRPW wrestlers had jumped back to HRPW and it came down to one of the key players in Cannonball Kris Taylor and who he was going to side with in the battle.
Cannonball in the end decided to return to his old company of HRPW and by the side of his good friend Blake Mitchell as they destroyed Snakepit wrestlers week after week, it was decided we would hold an event the best of 7 series of Snakepit Vs HRPW and the winner of the most matches in the event would take control over the other company and it would cease to exist. It came down to the main event the last match of the evening to see who would take control. It was going to be Blake The Man Mitchell with Cannonball Kris Taylor in his corner vs a mystery opponent chosen by myself. The time came and Blake was introduced and then it was time for my mystery opponent to be announced and as Blake posed to the crowd in the corner of the ring Cannonball removed his HRPW shirt to reveal a Snakepit shirt and as I announced Cannonball Blake’s face changed he turned around and was speared by Cannonball the 3 count happened and the place erupted. It was so loud in the arena as I tried to announce Cannonball and Snakepit the victors you could not even hear ourselves over the PA system and this will always be one of my favourite moments in wrestling.
Some of the other matches I have been in was myself tagging with John E Radic Vs Max Profit & Mike Boomer (which we won) after Profit and Boomer had tried to sue me because I had punched Mike Boomer and they were going to take everything and close Snakepit down. We had a wrestler turned host & commentator The Luch who I worked with for some time doing Snakepit/PWSA shows that had unfortunately passed away and I was lucky enough to win The Luch Memorial Battle Royale by eliminating Matt Hayter at the end. Myself and John E Radic Vs Matt Hayter in a handicap cage match (which we won). Survivor Series tag team match of my son (Bradey Roberts) and his team Vs me and my team for the PWSA General Manager position (which I lost). Tag team match of myself and Acid Haze Vs Bradey Roberts & Twisted J the rematch for the PWSA General Manager position which we won.
PWSA is still going strong after all these years and putting on its monthly shows at the Greenwith Community Centre in Adelaide South Australia if you ever get the chance to come along and check us out, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram for all the latest information on our shows.
I have been lucky enough to be a ring announcer for many former WWE, Lucha Underground and ECW legends and many current stars before they headed over to the United States or Japan to become the big stars they are today, I have been flown to Melbourne to ring announce a show and have worked with many different wrestling companies in my time, I have also worked and met so many wonderful people and of course at times the not so wonderful but they seem to be a very minor group in this big business we call our wrestling family. I feel very privileged to have been involved in this business that I have loved since 10 years old and hope that this old dog still has a few tricks left in the bag before I hang up the microphone.
