PWE 250
Bok
1901 S 9th St.
Philadelphia
June 20 2026
As I entered the gymnasium of the Bok building, guitarist Sean Danger was about halfway through singing the national anthem — something that I’m not used to seeing at most independent wrestling shows. But this was Pro Wrestling Entertainment’s 250, one of many events we’ll see across the city in the upcoming weeks celebrating the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, so some nationalism was to be expected.
Before the first match could begin, Mike Zee, draped in Canadian Flag attire, came out to berate the crowd and demand the performance of the “superior national anthem” of Canada. Zee was then interrupted by PWE’s commissioner and pro wrestling legend, The Sandman, sporting American flag pants and wielding his iconic kendo stick. Instead of getting into a sparring of words with Zee, The Sandman simply cracked him in the head with his aforementioned kendo stick, which sent the crowd into rapturous applause. The United States of America could never be a babyface in my eyes, so I was actually relieved that they got this out of the way early in the show and that there weren't many more nationalist bits moving forward. I was here for the wrestling, and it didn't disappoint.
The first official match of the evening was a triple threat between Julezee, Shaun Smith, and Cheeseburger. I’m a big fan of all three of these performers and they each understand the importance of having a banger entrance song. Shaun Smith came out to Lil Uzi’s “I Just Wanna Rock," Cheeseburger entered to “Rhythm Is A Dancer," and Julezee made his way to the ring with Magdalena Bay’s “Top Dog." As far as in-ring action, this was probably my favorite match of the night, with a perfect mix of comedy and action that successfully got the crowd hyped for the night to come. Julezee’s connection to the crowd was firmly established as he gave away stickers to members of the crowd rocking his merch (as well as to his two opponents). Ultimately he came out on the losing end as Shaun Smith scored the win in this match, but Julezee’s story for the night wasn't over just yet.
There was a tag team match scheduled next, but one of the members of Post Game couldn’t make it to the event, leaving Vinny Talotta unpartnered and scrambling to find a replacement against The Rep. Still recovering from the previous match, Julezee rose to the occasion with the entire crowd behind him. Vinny took charge inside the ring and allowed his temporary partner some time to rest, but eventually Julezee got back in on the action, only to become overwhelmed by The Rep. They took turns battering Julezee, and Nate Wallace reminded the crowd that actions have consequences by repeatedly shouting, “He asked for this!” Eventually Vinny was able to sneak a tag in and claim a victory for their side before The Rep could even process what happened.
Next up was a gauntlet match with Ty Reno kicking things off. Reno was accompanied to the ring by local sports and culture vloggers, The BTA. One of them chimed in with live commentary from time to time, but the PA system wasn’t doing him any favors, so a lot it just came out crunchy and mumbled. After the first opponent in the gauntlet, Deathcolt, was eliminated, he did the crowd a favor and rid the area of one of the entourage members. The next participant in the Gauntlet, Mr. Grim, put up more of a fight as he and Reno were similar in size. The two bosses went at it, and the crowd seemed to be becoming more and more invested in Mr. Grim winning. Unfortunately, he too fell victim to Ty Reno and it was up to our last participant to set things right. Ben The Bean stepped up to the plate, and although he managed to get the crowd’s hopes up, he still was not enough to conquer Ty Reno. The Bean did have my favorite spot in the match though: when Reno removed the straps of his singlet only to have an exhausted Bean pull them back up. For those unfamiliar with the trope of a wrestler taking the straps of their singlets off their shoulders, I’d say it’s the equivalent to a power-up, like when someone takes their earrings out before a fight. It means shit’s about to get real, and Ben having already suffered enough was not trying to get into that.
There was a brief intermission and Sean Danger returned for a musical performance. Sadly, the sound system they were using for the show was not built for an acoustic guitar performance. Danger started a “USA” chant and after that I kinda checked out for the rest of his performance, which was abounding with other technical difficulties, anyway. He did pull out a pretty decent cover of Britney Spears’ "Lucky" towards the end of intermission that I will say that I enjoyed.
Before the latter half of matches were set to begin, the show was interrupted by a group of loud-mouthed Knicks fans taking to the ring and boasting about their team’s recent victory. This celebration was cut short by the arrival of Wallace West, or as the internet has dubbed him, Spurs Thanos. Although a Philadelphian himself, West went viral recently after a video surfaced of him single-handedly fighting off several Knicks fans at Penn Station after the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Championship Finals. This segment was a recreation of that chaotic scene and once again, Spurs Thanos, armored with his Rodman jersey, was able to beat the odds.
The penultimate match of the evening was Tiara James vs Vita Vonstarr. James’ cocky persona shined from the very start of the match as she flicked a small child’s hat in the audience during her entrance and bragged about being from New York despite getting chants of "SHE'S FROM JERSEY!" from the crowd. She spent much of the early parts of the match avoiding her opponent as much as possible until Vostarr eventually got her hands on her.
Finally, the main event of PWE 250: a title match between challenger Steve Maclin and PWE Champion Griffin McCoy. McCoy also had some beef with that same child audience member and flicked their hat, but shortly after, Maclin put the hat on himself and proceeded to chop McCoy so loud I think they heard it on the rooftop bar. There was a lot of outside brawling in this and at one point, a hot dog was even used as a weapon. After a chaotic, hard hitting back-and-forth, McCoy would retain his title in impressive fashion. Maclin got the last laugh though, attacking McCoy after the match and ending the show by sharing beers with The Sandman and Spurs Thanos.
Despite being billed as a celebration of the 250 years of The United States, this night was truly a celebration of wrestling and the limitless amount of stories it can tell. Sometimes you're an underdog looking for a second chance at glory; sometimes you're a dedicated fan defending your team (and yourself) from rival forces; and sometimes you're just a challenger looking to become a champion. These stories aren't restricted to just America — everyone has a story to be told, and sometimes there's no better medium to tell it than two people hitting and slamming each other as hard as they can.
