Joel Gertner was more than a little insulted.
Gertner has been a star in the professional wrestling world for nearly three decades.
When he was in the original Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the promotion would run monthly shows at the 2300 Arena is South Philadelphia, Gertner was one of the best talkers in the industry.
He started out as a ring announcer, but later became the personal announcer and manager for the Dudley Boys, one of the best bad guy teams in the history of the game.
When you’re representing bad guys, fans tend to hate you, but that didn’t mean Gertner hated the Philly crowd.
Just the opposite, in fact.
“Philly is great,” said Gertner, who lives in New York. “I lived in suburban Philly when I was with ECW. I’m a fan of the area, I’m a fan of the food, I’m a fan of the culture, and I’m a fan of the fans. I love the wrestling and fans in Philadelphia.
“New Orleans has always been a favorite spot for me, but that’s further away. Philadelphia is a place very close to travel to. We said from Brooklyn to Philly is 99 miles. I love Philly.”
Gertner might love Philly, but for the most part, we don’t love him back.
It’s not his fault, he just happens to be one of the best bad guys in ECW history. He became known for making dirty nursery rhymes about our girlfriends, he hung around bad guys and he’s rarely nice about our fine city.
And don’t expect that to change when he comes back on July 6.
Gertner will lead his faction into a match against ECW Originals led by Bill Alfonso in one of the featured bouts for Battleground Championship Wrestling’s return to the 2300 Arena.
Battleground’s United We Stand starts at 8 pm. on July 6 in the nightcap of a tripleheader of events at the 2300 Arena in South Philadelphia.
At 1 p.m. the promotion will hold a women’s-only card, Who Runs the World? Following that, from 4 until 6, there will be a BBQ Bash Meet and Greet with all of the stars of Battleground Championship Wrestling. The featured guest will be WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross. The nightcap will be when Gertner leads his men to battle. Gertner’s team, dubbed the Sex with Your Next Ex Express will battle 2 Cold Scorpio, Pitbull No. 1 and Kid Kash, led by Alfonso.
Other matches on the card include James Storm vs. Jack Swaggar, BCT champion Brian Kendrick will defend his title against Lance Anoai, Facade and Crowbar will meet the Pitbull Revolution, and Fuego Del Sol will tangle with KC Navarro.
The promotion runs in the same building the original ECW held its shows every few weeks, and shows, here about four times a year, have been giving Philadelphia something to cheer about.
But Gertner is one of the few people not happy with the promotion. He thinks the promotion, including owner Timothy Embler, has left him hanging out to dry by not having Gertner be the centerpiece of the promotion.
So he’s making sure he’s in the center of everything.
“I despise Battleground,” Gertner said. “I don’t like being around Timothy Embler, I feel like giving the baton of ECW to Timothy Embler, which Tod Gordon, who owned the original ECW recently, did, is like putting lipstick and a handbag and prom dress on a pig. I think he’s way out of his league and element. He wants to be a hipster that owns a business, there’s plenty he can run, maybe a lemonade stand, maybe a pizza spot, something like that.
“Listen, when I first showed up at Battleground a year and a half, time flies when you’re having fun and Battleground is a chore. What struck me is how long it took me to be there and force my way in the door and execute and seize and slowly be almost an enemy within.”
That’s why Gertner is bringing his men to battle. He doesn’t want to steal the show, he wants to ruin it.
And his men have been instructed to do whatever it takes to make sure Battleground, and especially his ECW original opponents, don’t have a night to celebrate.
“To have a resource like me 100 miles away that can be there in an hour 45, I felt disrespected, said Gertner, who has been causing havoc at every Battleground show recently. “He never once called. Maybe he was intimidated by greatness, I can philosophically wrap my head around this, I’ve never been in that position, but I can understand it.”
When he’s not doing his best to destroy his employer, Gertner continues to blast out content with his gift of gab.
He hosts the 69 Minute Eargasm podcast, which runs a little over an hour and breaks down some of the most interesting topics with great guests.
“Each one is a precious gem that I really love and think it’s worth putting the time to do them,” Gertner said. “Such a great look into each one is a deep dive into DDP was a little shorter, but we had Sharmel, Johnny Rodz, Bill Apter. They’re all great.
“They’re not just question, answer, question, answer, but deep dives like TED talks where people get into the nuts and bolts.”
While Gertner will come into the 2300 Arena with an army, his family is also there for him. That family includes his wife Susan Engel-Gertner and Little Kitty CHAOS.
“The Studmuffin Squad is of course me, the wife, the cat and we’re advocating for ourselves,” Gertner said.
And entertaining the masses.
He’s still young, at 48, and he still has one of the most entertaining voices in the game.
You never know where he could pop up, but first he has to deal with Battleground.
“I was a Paul Heyman, not just a Paul Heyman guy, but a legit, valid Paul Heyman protege. I was being the Paul E. Dangerously of ECW, what he was in WCW, being that for Paul within the product makes me so much more than a Paul Heyman guy.”
Right now in the industry, he’s still the Paul Heyman. He’s not retired, he’s very much active, he’s making his presence felt and an influence.
“I use my mind, my voice, my brain as a talker, a non-wrestler wrestling personality. I haven’t hit my peak or my prime yet. Even in my late 40s, I still haven’t aged into what I can be.”
For tickets, visit battlegroundchampionwrestling.net.
For more on Gertner, follow his TikTok and Instagram pages where he is @quintessentialstudmuffin.
