Juggalo Championship Wrestling

I can’t remember the year, but it was the late 90s, and I was riding the school bus home. A kid on the bus had a portable CD player and he handed me his headphones.

“You got to hear this. It’s amazing.”

I reluctantly put the headphones on, trying not to be grossed out over sharing sweaty foam headphones with the kid, but once he hit play I forgot all about that as my senses were assaulted by what I could only describe as strange, angry, rap music.

“What the fuck is that?

“It’s Insane Clown Posse. Aren’t they great?”

“Uh… no” I muttered as I handed him back his headphones.

That was my introduction to the Insane Clown Posse, also known as ICP. That was around 1997 when a reasonable size group of kids at my school become big fans of the group and took their JCNO game up a notch. I passed judgment on them, something I was quite good at, but I never gave ICP’s music another thought.

Maybe two years later, I’m watching WWF and out came ICP with a group called The Oddities. They didn’t really do much, and I was surprised they were still around. Over the next few years, I’d run across them in various pro wrestling promotions and video games, and around 2005 or so I picked up a DVD of their own wrestling organization, Juggalo Champion shit Wrestling. Cringe with a capital C.

I was amazed at the stars that were listed on the card, but the DVD looked extremely low-budget, and the production value was about the same. Sadly, the entire wrestling card was almost a parody. It seemed to both homage wrestling and also make fun of it. I didn’t know what to think of it, and over the years, anytime I saw any JCW stuff, it was always more of the same. Here’s a dream match of some over the hill wrestlers, but it’s all a joke with some strange gimmick or no actual wrestling occurring.

While I never went out of my way to insult ICP fans (lovingly referred to as Juggalos), I kept my same judgment outlook on their fandom and I assumed their relevancy died out sometime in the mid 2000s.

About six weeks ago, I read a rumor that former WWE/WCW/TNA writer Vince Russo, one of the most controversial wrestling figures ever, was coming into Juggalo Championship Wrestling to write some TV for their weekly YouTube series Lunacy. I had no idea JCW was still around, let alone had a weekly YouTube series that had been airing for over a year.

I decided to give it a quick watch, mostly to make fun of how ridiculous I expected it to be. It looked stupid in 2007, I knew it had to look stupid in 2025.

But it didn’t.

Sure, the ring and stage was a bit absurd, but I’d rather see that setup than the current WWE/AEW rings with digital advertisements and the ring apron covered in corporations.

Usually the weakest part of indie wrestling is the commentary, but I found the team of Joe Dombrowski and Veda Scott to be very good.

Once I got a look at the roster, there were a lot of familiar names. Folks like Kerry Morton, Willie Mack, and Caleb Konley. Wrestlers that I not only have met, but actually really like. The roster also includes folks like HollyHood Haley J (from Netflix’s The Wrestlers), Ninja Mack, Matt Cardona, Matt Cross, and The Outbreak, which are slowly becoming my favorite tag team.

The run time was less than two hours (which I appreciate) and what started as a something to flip on for ten minutes, ended with me watching the entire show and excited to see the next. It wasn’t the most brilliant wrestling show I’d ever seen, but in a way, it felt like early ECW TV. The storylines were light, the characters memorable, the wrestling solid, and overall things felt a bit out of control, which is always a good thing in wrestling.

For the past six weeks, I’ve watched JCW every Thursday, and that’s the most wrestling I’ve watched in a few years. I found myself invested in their characters and storylines, and I appreciate that I’m not bombarded with promotions, advertisements, and four hour long pay per views.

Vince Russo finally showed up on Thanksgiving, and so far he’s been great. Wrestling needs an edge to make it interesting, and Russo, when at his best, knows how to do that. At his worst, you end up with some really stupid gimmick matches which are more entertaining than your average WWE match in 2025.

I also need to credit Russo with my new favorite wrestling quote:

“This show will not have a commissioner anymore because this is not Gotham City. This is a television show.”

🤣🤣🤣

Oddly enough, the biggest surprise to come out of this new-found respect for Juggalo Championship Wrestling is a respect for ICP and their fans. While their music is still not my style, I respect their staying power and their fan’s devotion. I went down several rabbit holes learning about The Gathering of the Juggalos, their fascinating with Faygo, and the respect they have for their fans. They seem like a very cool bunch for the most part. They are kinda like modern hippies in clown makeup.

I found it interesting that Lunacy is taped before their concerts. It’s like an opening-opening act for an ICP show, so the crowd always has non-wrestling fans in it, and at times can be smaller, but it makes for a more organic experience than the same rich assholes sitting in the first five rows at AEW and WWE. It’s fun to see their fans get worked up by the heels, and of course, attacking the Juggalos (or their face paint) is some easy cheap heat.

In a strange way, JCW is more pro wrestling than WWE or AEW these days. It’s less about sports-entertainment and catering to corporate overlords and more about just telling fun stories. It’s not embarrassed that it’s pro-wrestling, and I can appreciate that. Since they aren’t on TV, they are able to push the envelope a bit, but I haven’t seen anything that I would say is in bad taste. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on your definition of taste.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I was wrong about ICP. Sure, their music isn’t for me, but their fandom is actually pretty neat, and I think they have a shot at making JCW a serious indie wrestling organization while staying true to their roots. Who knows, next time they’re back in North Carolina, maybe I’ll paint my face and go watching some live wrestling. Then again, probably not.