For an entire year, from October 2016 to October 2017, WrestleCircus emerged from it’s home in Austin, Texas as one of the bright spots in the indie wrestling explosion of the past two years. They held cards with dream matches, featuring such emerging or established stars as Brian Cage, Jeff Cobb, Joey Ryan, Shane Strickland, Jervis Cottonbelly, and Penta El 0M, plus Impact stars like EC3, Moose, Sami Callihan, John Morrison and Trevor Lee and NJPW stars like Killer Elite Squad and Bullet Club‘s Cody Rhodes, Guerrillas of Destiny and Adam “Hangman” Page. They built a strong Women’s division around Tessa Blanchard, Rachael Ellering, Candice LeRae and more, frequently showcasing intergender match ups as well.
But following last October’s CircusMania, things went south (and not in the geographic sense). Just days before November’s event, Rise of the Machine, WrestleCircus announced that the show was being cancelled.
https://twitter.com/WrestleCircus/status/930470325359345664
At first the online community was irate that the card had been cancelled at such short notice, but it soon emerged that it had been for very just reasons. Co-owner Al Lenhart had been dealing with serious medical issues and he and his wife, co-owner Lexi Lenhart, needed time to pull back from the business to work on his health. A Twitter user AnAbidingDude shared an internal note that addressed the harsh realities that the Lenhart’s were going through prior to their announcement of cancellation.
WrestleCircus confirmed the health issues and provided an update on Al’s situation in early February.
https://twitter.com/WrestleCircus/status/960315255393083392
But now WrestleCircus is back in business, with Lexi Lenhart handling the business behind the scenes, alongside new Creative Director Ray Zombie, an independent filmmaker working on a new film on indie wrestling, Wrestling With Independence.
The company returns this Saturday February 17 with The Show Must Go On, and like past events, will air live on their Twitch TV channel. They broke huge ground for internet wrestling streaming when they became the first wrestling promotion to partner with Twitch in June of 2017. Since then, promotions like Impact Wrestling, AAA, House of Hardcore, Defiant Wrestling and many more are turning to Twitch as a new streaming alternative.
Here’s a quick glance at the card for this Saturday’s card.
