{"id":2334627,"date":"2026-03-18T10:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2334627"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:04:14","slug":"smack-talk-takes-center-stage-at-this-open-mic-for-amateur-wrestlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/smack-talk-takes-center-stage-at-this-open-mic-for-amateur-wrestlers\/","title":{"rendered":"Smack talk takes center stage at this open mic for amateur wrestlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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The Gaslighter makes his way to the stage of \u201cNAW or Never: Smack Talk Open Mic\u201d during a December show. Wearing a black hood over his fedora and sunglasses to complete his persona, he begins to boast about winning the NAW championship at the last show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am now the NAW, Intercontinental, Breakfast, Continental, World Heavyweight, European, North American, Intergender, X Division, Y Division, Z Division \u2026 champion and not a single one of you is ever going to take it from me,\u201d he proclaims.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven this turtle,\u201d the Gaslighter says, pointing to the show\u2019s security guard dressed as a velociraptor.<\/p>\n

No, that wasn\u2019t an acid dream, that was a night with Shane Hartline and his ensemble of wrestling enthusiasts of \u201cNAW,\u201d a wrestling open mic. The stage puts a spotlight on smack-talk skills, functioning like a gym where wrestlers work out their character muscles, polish their submission holds and perfect their trash-talking chops in front of a panel of judges. The practice allows them to build a presence in the ring that crushes their opponents harder than a suplex.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/picture>\n
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Host Shane Hartline holds a conversation with a life-size dinosaur puppet during the \u201cNAW or Never\u201d live comedy wrestling show on Dec.12, 2025, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Ian Zandi)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

The structure is the same during their monthly shows. Performers put their name into a bucket, Hartline draws from it and the performers have 60 seconds to perform their promo. After the performance, his revolving panel of judges gets into a verbal exchange where they share feedback and refine their character.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the format, Hartline leaves room for unpredictability by unleashing his company\u2019s cast like the Head of Marketing Department or the Department of Grappling Education (DOGE). Even if the promo is rough around the edges, Hartline creates a space that encourages creativity. He wants performers to create a fantastical world that helps grow the universe within NAW, or Nearly Average Wrestling.<\/p>\n

Hartline, the creator of the show, described the concoction as a mixture of theater, performance arts and character development. The former professional wrestler who took the ring in the Florida independent wrestling scene, actor and comedian lives by the old clich\u00e9: Once you\u2019re in wrestling, you never really leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited about it because it truly combines every one of my passions and my interests in the perfect package for the first time in a live show setting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s wrestling and it\u2019s like aggression and all that kind of energy, I do want to lay the foundation of a welcoming positive energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On stage, if he sees potential or room for improvement, Hartline plays the role of a manager. He directs the talent, he seeks help from his deck of characters and he wants to continue the workout.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The <\/picture>\n
\n

The Gaslighter (comedian Matt Raub) battles the clock during the \u201cNAW or Never\u201d live comedy wrestling show on Oct. 17, 2025, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Ian Zandi)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be dumb of me to get you off stage as [quickly] as possible,\u201d Hartline added. \u201cI want to find more bits with you. I want you to not only play with the judges, but play with our \u2018NAW\u2019 recurring cast members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMic work plays such an important role in wrestling,\u201d said Jenn Sterger, an ex-wrestler, now comedian who\u2019s been a part of the judging panel. \u201cThe audience needs to know who to root for, it needs to buy into the story, staying in character is super important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sterger said she\u2019s seen a lot of character work fall flat, even in the \u201cbig leagues\u201d when it comes to wrestling, just because they didn\u2019t know how to be a convincing storyteller. \u201c[NAW] is a nice little building block for that, but it\u2019s also a nice place where people can kind of come and try out fun bits as characters,\u201d she said, adding that character is everything in the ring. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have attitude,\u201d Peter Avalon, one-half of DOGE, said. \u201c… you got to bring a larger-than-life personality, you have to have an attitude that takes no prisoners and doesn\u2019t give a s\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Shane <\/picture>\n
\n

Shane Hartline dons a fur coat during a dramatic entrance in the \u201cNAW or Never\u201d live comedy wrestling show on Oct. 17, 2025, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Ian Zandi)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

NAW has created an intersection between the world of wrestling and comedy. A lot of wrestlers want to be comedians and vice versa, Sterger said. At the end of each show, the judges pick two characters to face off in a battle of wits. The winner receives a company contract that doesn\u2019t pay in cash \u2014 it pays in clout, Hartline joked.<\/p>\n

The winners are added to the cast of characters that can be used in other shows. They can interrupt any of their monthly shows, including its one-year anniversary show in May. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that\u2019s off the table,\u201d Hartline said.<\/p>\n

\u201c… It\u2019s a blank canvas and I can do anything with it as well as the people that come and participate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gaslighter makes his way to the stage of \u201cNAW or Never: Smack Talk Open Mic\u201d during a December show. Wearing a black hood over his fedora and sunglasses to complete his persona, he begins to boast about winning the NAW championship at the last show. \u201cI am now the NAW, Intercontinental, Breakfast, Continental, World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2334628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2334627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Smack-talk-takes-center-stage-at-this-open-mic-for.com2F782Fd52F5f2fb5864255a0a523b7fb65.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2334627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2334629,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334627\/revisions\/2334629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2334628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2334627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2334627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2334627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}