Big Time Wrestling returns to Toledo, Aug. 9
By Federico Martínez, Special to La Prensa

For the first time in almost 40 years the family that once brought professional wrestling legends like the Sheik, Bobo Brazil, Luis Martínez, and “Killer” Tim Brooks to Toledo every two weeks is returning with a new generation of up-and-coming superstars.

AWWL Pro Big Time Wrestling will arrive at 7:45 p.m., Saturday, August 9, 2014 at Toledo’s Japan Karate Academy, 444 Laskey Road. Tickets, which can be purchased at the door, will cost $12 for adults and $6 for children under ten.

The show’s line-up will include world champion Rastakhan defending his belt against Super Loverman, former Intercontinental Champion “Tongo” Torres verses Lou Crank and Dick the Bruiser Jr. in action. Hometown anti-hero Big Ryan Cool Jacobs is also returning to the ring with a new faction of the CIA –the Chronic Invasion Association.

“We are returning with a new generation and we’re very strict about what and how we do things,” said AWWL promoter Eddie Farhat Jr., the son of the original Sheik. “We treat the business like you used to; my father believed in giving the people their money’s worth and so do we.”

During the 1960s and 1970s Big Time Wrestling was owned by the Sheik, whose real name was Edward Farhat. The wrestling promotion, which was televised, was popular in the Midwest, especially in Detroit and Toledo, where shows were held on alternate weeks. Edward Farhat died in 2003 at the age of 78 due to heart failure.

His sons, Eddie Jr. and Thomas, began helping their father promote the wrestling company in the late1960s and early 1970s.The family decided to shut-down the company in the mid-‘90s, but decided to begin anew in 2003, said Eddie Farhat Jr. For the past decade the Farhat’s have been making a slow, quiet comeback, hosting small shows primarily in the Lansing and Kalamazoo Michigan area.
 

“It was still a work in progress,” said Farhat. “We wanted to make sure the talent was ready before we returned to Detroit.”

Toledo will always have a fond place in his heart, because it was in the Glass City where his father permitted him to promote his first show, said Farhat.

“Toledo was always our home away from home,” said Farhat, who lives in the Lansing area.

The Farhat brothers decided to bring the company back to the “big time” earlier this year when it signed a TV contract that airs their program weekly in Detroit. Farhat said similar negotiations are ongoing in the Toledo area.

“The problem you have today is that there are too many Independent wrestling companies out there that shouldn’t be in business,” said Farhat. “Their wrestlers put on tights and go out and do somersault’s and other moves, but wrestlers today don’t know the difference between a wristlock and a wristwatch.

“If you don’t know how to wrestle, we don’t want you in the ring.”

In addition to veteran Big Ryan Cool Jacobs, Toledo area resident Shane Thomas is making his in-ring wrestling debut on Saturday.  Thomas will face the always dangerous Crusher Beggs.

Jacobs, 33, has been wrestling professionally since he was 19, and is helping to promote the show in Toledo. Jacobs, a Karate instructor, trains at the Japan Karate Academy.
 

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Revised: 08/05/14 21:30:46 -0700.