Whether it was when he got got hit in the face with a bell, a chair smashed over his back, was getting a fork jammed into his forehead, or had it sliced open with a razor blade, at some point Andrew “The Pride of Montreal” Ellison had to be asking himself…”is this worth it?” At least that’s what one might think.
Ellison, a 34-year-old Concordia graduate, got to fulfill a childhood dream (or maybe nightmare) when he battled 450-pound wrestling legend Abdullah the Butcher at Cavendish Mall last Saturday night. “It was definitely the wrestling event of the year for Montreal,” he says. The match sent Ellison to the emergency room where he had to have a lenghthy gash down the middle of his forehead patched up with 14 stitches.
“It’s a real accomplishment,” Ellison explained after a couple days of recovery from the altercation. “A lot of people have been maimed in the ring against Abdullah but I proved that I could stand up to him.”
Fortunately, it also helped send a little charity in the direction of the NDG YMCA, which benefitted from the event’s proceeds. As the founder of World All-Star Wrestling (WAW) Ellison was responsible for the organization of Saturday’s event. It drew a crowd of several hundred.
According to Ellison, the WAW represents the resurgence of traditional wrestling, which has been replaced by the more flashy, soap opera style of today’s industry. “We entertained the crowd and left people wanting more. It really proved that people are ready for classic wrestling to comeback.”
Although the show, which included five other matches, was billed as an event for the entire family, Ellison explained that sometimes what happens over the course of a match can’t be predicted ahead of time. “With the Butcher you never know what to expect. You just have to expect the worse,” he says.
While for many wrestlers out there the desire for fame and fortune might lure them into less traditional professional wrestling associations, Ellison’s motivation comes from a greater sense of pride. “Some people need to wear championship belts to prove who they are. Instead I wear scars from Abdullah the Butcher.”
Despite suffering a sound beating at the hands of the the Butcher, Ellison isn’t ruling out the possibility of a rematch. “Maybe we’ll have a cage match with no disqualification.”
