Rockford’s pro wrestling scene defined by grit, heart
Aspiring wrestlers train, entertain at Premier Pro Wrestling in Rockford
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — It’s Saturday night, and Adam Rosencrans is about to take a thundering powerbomb from Mickey Sinn, a hulking man who’s built like a cross between a linebacker and a biker bar bouncer.
His back slams against the mat with a sound that clangs throughout the Premier Pro Wrestling building, a former NAPA Auto Parts on Broadway that’s been converted into the gritty home of Rockford’s professional wrestling scene.
Rosencrans may seem like an unlikely star of a sports entertainment promotion often associated with steroid-swollen supermen. The slim 37-year-old stands a generous 6 feet tall, and he spends his weekdays as a high school counselor in a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin.
But that’s not who he is on Saturdays.
That’s when he becomes Rockstar Rosey, a flashy baby face who comes to the ring with an outfit out of an ’80s glam rock band before tossing his shades to a fan.
“With my role as a school counselor, I carry a lot with me throughout the day. When I’m talking with my students and they’re going through a lot, I’m listening to that and I take it with me every day,” Rosencrans said. “Getting in here is a way for me to escape from that because we’re taking care of each other. It allows me to just focus on this one thing for 15-20 minutes, however long the match is.”
Rosencrans is part of a small and devoted group of wrestlers training in Rockford either for fun or the dream of reaching a bigger stage. Under the tutelage of Randy Ricci, who has spent 37 years working with promotions small and large including the WWE, they learn the craft and put on a weekly Saturday show from the training school and entertainment venue at 3839 Broadway.
“All of us start this with a dream of making it big. Just like with most sports, everyone playing football as a kid wants to be the star quarterback throwing the game-winning pass in the Super Bowl,” Rosencrans said. “I think we all start with that dream, but what it really comes down to is we love it.”
Ricci’s pro wrestling promotion moved from its home in Woodstock to Rockford a little more than a year ago. The 60-year-old former wrestling pro also now calls the city his home.
The show has a dedicated fan base, even when the weekly show has empty seats. Its YouTube page has more than 50,000 subscribers who watch recordings and promos from Rockford.
The live shows can range from just a handful of fans to a turnout so large it has Ricci scrambling for additional folding chairs to set out.
“I have fun every time I come here,” said Daniel Cuniff, who has become such a regular face in the crowd at Premier Pro Wrestling that the performers — even the heels — acknowledge him at ringside.
Photos: Behind the scenes and in the ring with Premier Pro Wrestling in Rockford
Cuniff parks his wheelchair in the front row to cheer on the likes of wrestlers such as Rockford’s Jesse Danger and Rockstar Rosey. He’s become a superfan thanks in part to the personal touch from performers like Rosey, who placed a pair of sunglasses on Cuniff’s head as a ringside gift in a past show.
“After the first time it’s like he knows everybody and they know him,” said Tom Chalmers, Cuniff’s step-father who brings him to the show. “He’s in his own element here.”
Ricci said fans like Cuniff are “who we work for.” They bring joy to an industry that can have its share of personality conflicts, tough financial grinds and bruising bumps.
“Then here comes that guy and you can’t wipe the smile off his face,” Ricci said. “Sometimes he shows up on nights when we have low attendance. Sometimes he shows up when we’re almost out of chairs and I’m panicking that I didn’t stop and buy more. But I can count on that little guy with that big smile on his face. … It makes everything worth it.”
‘The Science’ of storytelling
Chris Schick said the connections fans can make with the entertainers is part of the charm of a locally produced pro wrestling show.
He’s been to at least 20 shows and brought his granddaughters to meet some of the wrestlers. For a promotion that’s built around helping wrestlers learn the craft and the business, Schick said he enjoys seeing the progress wrestlers make from their debuts to main events.
“You get to know them right now personally and hopefully when they get bigger they might remember you, too,” Schick said.
Schick said he’s become a fan of Marcus “The Science” Smith, a bad guy or “heel” as they’re known in the wrestling business.
“No one ever cheers for the bad guy, but he’s pretty cool. I’ve talked to him outside of here and he’s pretty fun,” Schick said.
Smith, a Michigan native now living in Belvidere, specializes in agitating the crowd to turn against him. It’s all part of the storytelling that creates a connection with the audience.
“There’s something really special about the storytelling,” Smith told the Rock River Current backstage on Saturday. “For folks to be able to leave the world outside for a little bit and just experience that good vs. evil. There is something special about seeing the bad guy get his comeuppance.”
He said Rockford has plenty of wrestling fans, and in a small house such as Premier Pro Wrestling there’s not a bad seat no matter where you’re placed.
“There is a big contingent of wrestling fans in Rockford,” Smith said. “This population, this community loves wrestling and we’re trying to give it to them.”
‘Heart and love’
Ricci is the pulse behind Premier Pro Wrestling, where aspiring wrestlers look to draw on his decades-long experience in the industry.
He’s performed as Jerry Fox in what was then the WWF, now WWE, and as Rockin’ Randy in the ACW, among other work with promotions like the AWA, TNA Impact, NWA, WCCW, AAA in Mexico and IWA in Puerto Rico.
He will still step in the ring on occasion, as a referee or a wrestler, but his focus now is on helping younger wrestlers build the physical and mental skills needed for the profession.
“He doesn’t take — pardon my language — he doesn’t take bullshit,” said Etienne LeBlanc, a 21-year-old Beloit College student and football player who wrestles as “Risky Business” Maverick LeBlanc in the off-season. “There’s a lot of teachers out there that will sugar coat things or they’ll lie to you just to get money out of you. … Randy is very down to the science. He’s like, I want you to do this right so when you get to the top level nothing can stop you.”
Ricci said he tries to build wrestlers fundamentals first, avoiding high-risk maneuvers until they’ve proven through training that they’re ready. He said he’s seen independent promotions too often rush to dangerous stunts.
“It’s getting so common with all these goofy unqualified training facilities opening up. It’s all unsafe shit,” he said.
Laying solid fundamentals, Ricci said, is the key to a long career in the business.
“That’s the most important part. CM Punk, AJ Styles, Adam Pearce — they’re almost 50 and they’re making more money now than they ever made in their lives because they focus on the basics,” Ricci said.
His end goal is to build a promotion that lands a television deal. First he has to help grow the talent.
“When I see one of them get it right I get excited again like a kid,” Ricci said. “Not just getting right, but the look on their face that they knew they (expletive) got it right.”
Some of his trainees have dreams of making it to the highest levels of sports entertainment. Others, Ricci said, do it because they have “heart and love for this.”
Count Jesse Briggs of Rockford as a mix of both.
“We’re here because we love the business of pro wrestling. We love each other as a whole,” Briggs said. “Randy looks out for us so much. That’s what we’re looking for.”
‘Nothing matters but that match’
Briggs, who goes by Jesse Danger in the ring, said pro wrestling has helped him get life on track after a troublesome youth.
“I chose the wrong route and I was a troublemaker in high school,” the 27-year-old East High School alum said. “A lot of it was my own doing. … I got out of that life and started doing the right thing.”
Briggs discovered Premier Pro Wrestling about four years ago when the promotion was in Woodstock, but his upstart wrestling career was sidelined by a June 17, 2022, motorcycle crash that sent him to the ICU. The hit-and-run crash on June 17, 2022, left him with a multitude of internal and external injuries.
“I was told I was never going to wrestle again, I wasn’t going to be able to do a lot of things. I wasn’t going to walk for six months,” he said. “I was never supposed to wrestle again and I came back twice as hard.”
He brings that experience to his character in the ring. Although for Briggs, he said Jesse Danger is no character.
“It’s authentically, just me: an underdog,” Briggs said. “My whole life I’ve kind of had the odds stacked against me and I’ve always come out stronger on the other end.”
At Premier Pro Wrestling, he finds joy in showcasing his athletic ability and the camaraderie of the group working together for a good show.
“No matter what’s going on in your life, during that match whether it’s 5 minutes, 10 minutes, a half an hour, nothing matters at that moment,” Briggs said. “When you’re here, whether you’re a fan or wrestler, nothing matters but that match at that moment.”
It’s that feeling that draws many of Rockford’s pro wrestlers to perform, even if it never blossoms into more than a hobby.
“When I wrestle I feel almost empowered,” said LeBlanc, an outside linebacker for Beloit College’s football team who has aspirations to work in pro wrestling one day. “It’s a surreal experience. … Being able to be an athlete but also having that showmanship is a unique thing, I’ve just taken to it like a moth to light. I love it.”
‘They can hear you breathing’
LeBlanc was introduced to Premier Pro Wrestling by his Beloit College football teammate Quentin Schane.
Schane, like Rosencrans the high school counselor, is another example of wrestlers defying the meathead stereotype. The former high school valedictorian is a double major in sociology and media studies. His minor is political science, and he’s a McNair Scholar who is researching the social effects of wrestling.
“I’m interested in what social inequalities get reproduced, how are wrestlers are treated, what kind of agency they have over the creative decisions they make,” the 21-year-old incoming senior said.
He views the contrast between WWE, with its national tours in large arenas, and Premier Pro Wrestling as different genres of the same art form. In WWE, that form is created for an audience of millions, while in Rockford they work in a tight setting where the entirety of the audience is feet from the ring.
“With a crowd our size — on a good day 100-150 people — you have to work harder to get the audience,” Schane said. “They are 2 feet from the ring. They can literally hear you breathing.”
Schane, who is going to school to be a professor, said he would abandon that for a job in professional wrestling. It blends both his athletic ability — he’s Beloit’s starting free safety — and his knack for performing, such as taking on the role of the evil Dr. McFarland in Beloit’s spring showing of “Mrs. Packard” his freshman year.
Ricci has stressed to his group that a career in the business doesn’t have to be in the ring. There are key backstage jobs, or work as a referee or writer that they could pursue.
Rosencrans said wrestlers here share that dream, but at age 37 he knows he’s more likely to continue his job helping high school students work through their issues than stand in the center of the ring at Wrestlemania.
Whether for hobby or career pursuit, however, Rosencrans said local wrestlers share a common mindset.
“We’re all doing this because we love it.”
Watch | Premier Pro Wrestling
When: 7 p.m. every Saturday
Where: Premier Pro Wrestling, 3839 Broadway, Rockford
Admission: General admission $12 ($15 premier seating); $7 for children younger than 12
On YouTube: @PremierProWrestling
On Instagram: @premierprowrestling
On Facebook: @PremierProWrestling
Website: premierprowrestling.com
Photos: Behind the scenes and in the ring with Premier Pro Wrestling in Rockford
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas
