Rock Solid Wrestling returns to Sudbury on July 6 for Vendetta 8.
The event is being held in conjunction with the 2017 Sudbury Italian Festival, and falling right in line with the theme, one of the night's headliners will be a tag team matchup of Italy versus Ireland.
The Italian tag team will feature Sudbury's very own Mark "Tornado" Bartolucci, teaming up with Primo Scardino to take on the Irish duo of Jake O'Reilly and Travis McCabe.
Bartolucci was coy when speaking about the upcoming match, but hinted that the Irishmen wouldn't exactly be the fan favourites.
"In honour of the Italian Festival I'd think the crowd will be in our corner," said Bartolucci. "It's fun though, we all get a turn at being the fan favourite or the heel."
The variety and almost improvisational format that Rock Solid Wrestling uses is one that Bartolucci says he's really fond of, and that it pushes the wrestlers to not only be athletes, but quick-witted entertainers.
"Our shows aren't televised so there aren't any running story lines or feuds, every event is different," he said. "It's more of a classic way of how wrestling used to be. We have to play off the crowd and see what they're getting into and play to that."
This is evident in the fact that there will be a Canadian Heavyweight title bout on July 6 between Cody Deaner and Andrew "Daddy" Davis.
"We're up here in Sudbury twice a year and a lot of the fans that come out know who these guys are, but we still have to set up the fights the night of," said Bartlucci.
"So both Cody and Andrew will come out to the ring at different points throughout the event and pump up the fight and that will be the main event."
A host of other wrestlers will be in town for the event as well, including "Playboy" John Atlas, Channing Decker, Notorious T.I.D., Big Ben Ortmanns, and Jen Blake aka Girl Dynamite.
The event kicks off at 7 p.m. and will feature five matches.
"We always aim to keep the shows pretty tight and so people are out of there in about two hours," said Bartlucci. "There will be meet and greets with the wrestlers as well."
Tickets for Rock Solid Wrestling are $15 each and can be purchased at www.tickit.ca.
Proceeds from the evening will go to the Sudbury Playground Hockey League (SPHL).
