I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into the Elberta Civic Center on June 19.

The event had been billed as the Combat Sport Pro Pro-Wrestling event, with local wrestlers from across the Gulf Coast region for a series of matches to the delight of the adoring audience.

I went through my own “Wrestling Fan” phase in my childhood, which manifested itself in a full-blown contraction of Hulkamania (though I am taken aback by his recent racial comments).

Even as a kid, I had a strong suspicion it wasn’t real, but I bought in to the theatricality of the event - believing is seeing and whatnot.

Than background didn’t fully prepare me for what I saw that night in Elberta, however.

There was already a good crowd when I arrived 30 minutes prior to the event beginning.

People chatted amiably in line as they waited to purchase tickets, while some were discussing who might be there.

“Y’all think that Rainbow Warrior fella is gonna be there? I love it when he wrassles.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but I was intrigued.

Before the event officially got under way, I counted at least four songs that somehow used the phrase “boot in you ass” as a lyric - clueing me in for what might be in store.

The bouts began with a wrestler named Psycho being led out with his sidekick, a dwarf of unknown ethnic origin named “Shorty.”

As I attempted to take photos of the match, I saw the crowd laughing and pointing to an event outside of the ring, where Marvin Williams, the mayor of Elberta, had attempted to pull Shorty’s pants down after Shorty had yelled an insult at Williams.

“Give him hell, Mayor,” some of them shouted.

The famous Rainbow Warrior was up soon, in a coed tag team match in which he proceeded to flounce around the ring, making butterfly kisses to his opponent.

I wondered how the Rainbow Warrior’s camped-up persona would play in a small, rigidly conservative town like Elberta, but when the masses started chanting “Sit on his face!” I didn’t quite know how to react.

There were heels and heroes, with one wrestler boasting to the mostly “Roll Tide” fan crowd that he was from Tuscaloosa and he knew Nick Saban, adding:

“Nick Saban looks up to me, so if Saban is your Jesus, then that makes me your god.”

As an Auburn fan, I was amused; the Bammers - eh, not so much.

There was the match that got cut short when one of the wrestlers got enraged about a previous bout, and proceeded to beat the offending athlete with a folding chair before the match even began.

The reluctance of the security team in intervening told me the stunt was obviously staged, but the kids in the audience bellowed their disapproval.

For the title fight, local heroes Ryan Fury and Ricky Rocket took on the uber-nasty Dirty Blondes, whose beer bellies stretched the limits of what man-made fibers can do.

That night, the virtuous pair of Fury and Rocket was felled by the terrible twosome, setting up a great grudge match revenge scenario for tonight’s star-studded event.

The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and bell time starts at 7:30.

If you don’t have anything to do this evening, head on out to Elberta and take part in some good, wholesome family-friendly entertainment.

Who knows - the mayor might even try to pants the dwarf again. We all could use that kind of a laugh.

Cliff McCollum is managing editor of Gulf Coast Media. He can be reached at cliff@gulfcoastmedia.com.