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Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008

Slamming for Santa

Lexington wrestling event collects toys for needy children at Christmas

Some area wrestlers proved in Lexington Saturday night that, with Christmas approaching, it's OK to get drop-kicked for a good cause.

The event was Kentucky Championship Wrestling's annual Body Slam for Toys at the Kentucky National Guard Armory near Blue Grass Airport.

You needed no ticket to get into the event. The price of admission for each guest was one new, unopened toy.

All the toys, which will be wrapped in holiday style by students at Lexington's Martin Luther King Academy, will be distributed to needy youngsters next month through some day care centers in Lexington.

Chuck Bugg, the majority owner of Kentucky Championship Wrestling, says the idea is to help ensure that every child has at least one toy at Christmas.

"We did this for the first time last year, and collected something like 300 individual toys to be given away," Bugg said. "This year, we'd really like to top that."

Saturday night's card included five matches. And Bugg planned to get in the ring himself and soak up a few kicks for the cause before the evening was over.

He wrestles as "Chuck-E-Smooth," along with his tag-team partner "Big Al Steele," otherwise known as Michael Bruner. As a team, they're known as Steele Smooth.

"This Christmas, with the economy being so bad, it's going to be tough on a lot of families," Bruner said. "So, we feel like doing this is really important. And we'd like to make it a little bigger every year, so that in five or six years we really could be reaching a lot of kids."

The season of giving might seem like an odd time to be giving out bumps and bruises, but Bugg says wrestling actually is quite popular during the holidays.

Kentucky Championship Wrestling annually holds matches on Christmas night at the Lexington armory. According to Bugg, it's perhaps their biggest event of the year.