Houston wrestling promotion has a unique flavor

Cruel Summer by Lions Pride Production is fueled by a hot sauce and the city's rich wrestling history.

HOUSTON — Houston and wrestling go way back. In the 1970s, it was Friday night at the Sam Houston Coliseum. And 50 years later, every "suplex" is still captivating and fascinating audiences.

"You can't replicate it," says Oday Bara (IG: @fatheroday), who goes by "Father Oday" in the ring.

Wrestling is more than a sport, according to Bara.

"It's live theatre, it's sports, it's physicality, it's entertainment, it's storytelling. It's all that rolled into one," he said.

His tag team partner, Timur Martac, who goes by Brother Tracey (IG: @traceymooreofficial), said it's one of the few forms of live entertainment where the audience can dictate which direction a show can go.

"We have to think about entertaining the crowd so we have to be creative and come up with storylines that sort of compel the audience and pull them into our performance," he said.

Bara and Martac are part of the promotion "Cruel Summer" by Lions Pride Production, laying the smackdown at Captiv Studios (captivecreative.com) in Houston.

One of the promotion's chief sponsors is wrestling fan Darren Tompkins and his hot sauce company.

"For a long time, it was just one major player, the WWE. Now we have AEW, we have Ring of Honor that's coming up. All of these other promotions that are really pushing the envelope to create a bigger audience," Tompkins said.

Tompkins' company is inspired by the sport. Headlock Hot Sauce (headlockhotsauce.com/IG: @headlockhotsauce) was born during the pandemic and Tompkins saw an opportunity with the sport.

"I just knew to get that flare out there it had to be with wrestling," Tompkins said.

Now, he's hoping it can help promote the sport he loves in a city where wrestling has such strong roots.

"You have a strong independent circuit here. In a lot of ways those feed into the majors," Tompkins said. "We can embrace it as an art form, and Houston is a very artistic, very sports-driven city and I think this is a great mesh."