Pro Wrestling Symphony‘s mission is to make professional wrestling accessible to everyone in the heart of Music City. The company officially ran their first show back in June, and their next event is this Sunday (August 3) at Brooklyn Bowl, featuring wrestling and live music from Nashville band Year of October.
Owners Rory Miller, Connor Casey and Pat Dooley met at a wrestling training school. Wanting to go to wrestling shows consistently and feeling like no one was running them properly in Nashville, the three thought, “Why not us?” Miller says they put a lot of care, time and attention into this, wanting to see pro wrestling succeed at the independent level, especially with its history in Middle Tennessee.
“Nashville does have one of the richest histories of pro wrestling,” Miller said. “We’re part of the much lauded Memphis wrestling territory. In fact, my grandfather was a ring announcer for a promotion that ran through Middle Tennessee. Name anybody that’s ever been a star in wrestling, they’ve come through Nashville and in a lot of cases they sold out buildings well before any of us were born. There’s been a bit of a gap from about the mid 2010s or so until today. There’ve been other promotions that have cropped up and tried to reinvigorate that wrestling history here in the city. We are thrilled to be able to continue that legacy of wrestling in the Nashville area.”
“Pro Wrestling Symphony, [with] Symphony referring to Music City,” he said. “We are a music hub and we didn’t want to stray away from that. Symphony is a collection of different musicians with different skillsets and abilities coming together to make something magical altogether. We think that’s when pro wrestling is at its best, when you have people of various skill sets and different types of abilities coming in to put on an incredible show. That’s where Pro Wrestling Symphony comes from and that’s the ethos we try to hold on to. We have a values list with our company and our number one value is that pro wrestling is for everyone. That’s why our shows are all ages. That’s why it happens at matinee hours so that everybody has an opportunity to be there and not hold kids up past their bedtime. But that also means that we have people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities and identities that are gonna be performing in front of folks in Music City.”
Miller says any art form is better experienced in person. He compared it to going to a magic show in Las Vegas. Even if you’ve never seen a magic show before or you don’t know who the magician is, you enjoy the experience regardless—wrestling is the same.
“I’m not much of a sports fan, but I love going to see the Nashville Sounds play in person,” he said. “I love go into a Preds game because of that energy, that feeling that everybody has of coming together and rooting for your team and everything and you get that exact same experience in live pro wrestling. I think that’s one of the things we’re trying to. Present to fans as well or soon to be fans is you can come to Pro Wrestling Symphony have an amazing time and that’s it and you don’t have to invest yourself in the wrestling community, you don’t have to know all the backstory, we’re going to give you enough of it up front and you’re gonna know who to root for and who to boo and you’re going to have a good time.”
If you want more wrestling for the weekend, Classic City Wrestling is at The Basement East on Saturday night (August 2). Additional event opportunities include Emily Hines’ album release show at The Blue Room on Friday (August 1), the Poetry vs Hip Hop 10-year anniversary celebration at City Winery on Saturday, and on Monday (August 4), the podcast Ear Hustle will be live at the Basement East.