James Young, Zach Zabadal, and David Amitrano have been wrestling fans for as long as they can remember. Young states, “We all grew up with wrestling being a place where good fights evil, where there is a clear hero (or heroine) and a clear villain or villainess,” So much so, that these three men have decided to include wrestling as part of their daily lives.
Young is a doctor and is currently training to be a wrestling manager. Zabadal is a physician’s assistant and is looking to start his wrestling training soon, and Amitrano is currently a promoter. Their love for wrestling is so immense that they came up with the idea to start their own promotion called “Kickstart My Heart Wrestling”.
According to Young, the idea to start this promotion came about during a casual outing between the three friends. “We started talking about how cool it would be to put on our own show and I think I suggested maybe we could do one in October for Breast Cancer, donate the gate to the American Cancer Society. No one said “that’s a stupid idea” so we moved forward.” He continued, “We started reaching out to talent from across the US and Canada. A lot of wrestlers said yes, a few were busy or had prior engagements but loved the concept, idea, and want to be a part of subsequent shows. We started to reach out to sponsors. Pretty quickly we realized we had a ring, wrestlers, and a venue (donated by an amazing sponsor by the name of Mollie Bower at C4 Fitness in Apple Valley, MN – she’s also the toughest damn trainer I’ve ever met).”
Due to all of this hard-work that these three men had done, they decided to create the promotion: Kickstart My Heart Wrestling. The name of the promotion was Zach’s idea and it has a charitable focus with the intentions to tell stories and leave people wanting more.
Young also shared that his mother passed away from the terrible disease in 2007 and he has it out for the disease.
Photo Credit By James Young
But what is this promotion’s mission and what do they set to accomplish? According to Young, their mission has changed and evolved as they moved through the process. They also have three goals in mind;
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To absolutely give 100% of the proceeds of our shows to the charity we partner with and for this show, it’s the American Cancer Society, we’re planning a show for February/March and we’re looking for a partnership there.
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To 100% do right by the men and women who work with us – whether they are sponsors, wrestlers, particularly the wrestlers who are risking their bodies and health to put on this show and get us to our goals. We’ve all heard stories about how a wrestler was promised a booking for coming out to a charity show only to have the promoter say “whoops” we ain’t got it. That’s not us. We’ve had to make some hard decisions about story vs budget. We turned away some phenomenal wrestlers and had to pare back some of our expectations because of our commitment to budget and donor dollar stewardship. I’m happy and very proud to say that as of today, our show is 100% funded for booking fees. Every wrestler, ring announcer, etc working with us will get paid the fee they negotiated with us.
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Finally – we want to tell great stories. We want to tell stories that will absolutely have you hating the heels, loving the faces, rooting for underdogs and cheering for the faces. This card, which is an all-women’s card, will have some amazing heroines and villains, will have some twists and turns, and will tear the roof off of the place when we’re done. We want to entertain the folks who come to see our show
On Saturday, October 19th, 2019, Kickstart My Heart Wrestling will hold “Body Slamming Breast Cancer”, in Apple Valley Minnesota at 5708 Upper 147th St W Suite 103. Purchase your tickets now. General Admission is $20 and $15 for children 12 years old and under but you can First match starts at 7pm. Get there early and support a great cause!
Also, don’t forget to check them out and follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Don’t forget to support this promotion for a good cause.
